ElizabethB. I think I'll try that. I was actually looking to give him another test that I could administer at home, but giving a Math placement test would work out better, I think. Thanks for the idea! Oh, and I agree about the results info not being helpful without being able to see the test. I wish I could see the actual test and his answers. I never even thought of looking on that board. I think I'll go take a peek. ;) You're right. I guess I just need to cool down. He took the test somewhere else. Last year he did so poorly in the Listening section, and when I asked him, he said that the person giving the test had a wierd accent and he couldn't understand them. He did well at Listening this year. His problems could've been any number of things this year. If only I could see the test. I think that I'll be doing at-home tests that I can look at afterward in the years to come. It's frustrating not being able to see the actual test. :( Thank you for helping me cool down. ;)

I agree, the whole debt thing doesn't work out well in my brain, and I understand negative numbers. LOL The way I've always looked at it is this: a minus sign is just the same as adding a number that is multiplied by a negative 1. So to me, 10 - -10 would be 10 + -1(-10). If you do the multiplication first, which you should do with the order of operations, you get 10 + 10, which is 20. Does she understand how a negatvie times a negative turns out positive? If so, then this way may help her see how 10 - -10 is 20. Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. ;)

Okay, I'm not even sure where to begin. DS9 has always been a challenge, since the day he was born. He's not a bad or disobedient child, but he's...different. He went to a private school for Kindergarten, and it was then that I realized he's not like the other kids his age. He's brilliant in some ways, but then behind in others, and it's so hard to guage how he'll deal with certain things. Anyway, I started homeschooling him with 1st grade (he's finishing 3rd grade right now). Things went smoothly, but we were doing the curriculum that his private school had used, and he was used to it. I didn't like it. So in second grade we switched things up. The one area I'm really concerned with is math. Last year we used Math Mammoth. He freaked out about how many problems were on a page, that it was a struggle every single day. He took the Stanford 10 last year for 2nd grade and got proficient scores in math. This year, I thought I'd keep him on Math Mammoth, but supplement with Beast Academy. We started out that way, but he loathed MM, and loved BA. He begged me to only use Math Mammoth. He said it was harder, but he enjoyed doing it more. We rarely fight about math anymore, and he gets it. He sits and does his work. He can even do most of the single starred problems on his own, and a few of the double starred problems, though he does ask for help at times with them. He has been doing so well with BA, and has gone back to do a few pages of MM, but always laughs at MM and says it's too easy. I thought we were doing great. He started enjoying math, he's getting it, doing it well, on his own, without complaints. He took the Stanford 10 again this year for the 3rd grade, and BAM! He's dropped to a basic score in math. I just don't get it. He actually has four areas of math that are below average: Geometry and measurement, Comm. and Representation, Estimation, and Number Facts. The estimation I can get as he hasn't gotten to that part of BA yet. But the others--especially Geometry--bother me. He did fantastic in the Geometry section of BA. He loved it. He says that Geometry was his favorite thing this year in math. I have no idea what Comm. and Representation are for, and for Number Facts, I'm just confused because he knows his times facts and his addition/subtraction facts. I had wondered if there was a lot of division on the test as he also hadn't learned that before taking the test, but he said there was only one division problem on the test. he told me that it was 15/5. He said he put the answer as 5, which is incorrect, but I figure that is only one problem. So it's not division, which I was hoping it was. I guess I'm just questioning everything we've done. Questioning what is right for this kid. He can be brilliant at times in his thinking. I remember when he was in pre-school, being amazed at the things he knew or could do compared to my DD, who rocks her Stanford 10 each year. I know I shouldn't compare them, but there is a difference in their thinking. His mind works amazingly compared to hers, yet she gets the great test results and he doesn't. I guess I just see his potential inside him, it just doesn't come out of him, and it's frustrating. LOL I am open for any suggestions on what to do, or how to help my DS out. I want to give him everything he needs to thrive, and I feel as if I'm failing. :(

I have 5th, 3rd, and 1st graders this year. I agree with the above poster, that combining them in history and science really helps out a lot. Actually, I have my 5th and 3rd graders combined in LA. They both do MCT's Town level--for one it's a year behind, the other is a year ahead. I would say that the hardest part of our year this past year has been working on getting the oldest two more independent. My oldest is pretty much independent, but too much so, in that she won't ask for help if she doesn't understand something. She'll just go about her work, doing it all wrong, until I check her work. Ugh. My 3rd grader tries to be independent, but he still needs quite a bit of hand holding. My youngest, obviously needs a lot more help. Anyway, what you have looks good. I just wanted to chime in on the "combining" thing. If you're able to combine on science and history, that would help you out a lot. ;)

When we decided to homeschool it was the summer before our kids started 3rd, 1st, and Pre-K4. All three went to a private school for 2nd, K, and Pre-K3, but we couldn't afford the costs with all three of them at the school any longer. It was more than our mortgage each month. Ugh! Our Public School doesn't take Pre-Kers unless they have learning disabilities, so I decided I'd homeschool just our Pre-Ker and send the other two to Public School. Well, I got excited about homeschooling, as did my youngest, since he was the one who would get to stay home with mom, and do all sorts of fun things. The other two started getting jealous. It wasn't until I heard that our Public School had some big race issues (a lot of racial fighting) that I started thinking of homeschooling the other two. My kids have never been around racist people--well, maybe they have, but not openly blatant racists. I'm sure we know some closet racists, sadly. Anyway, I didn't want them to be in that environment at such a young age, so influenced by people around them. So, it was easy for us to make the break because they were changing no matter what, and I was so excited about homeschooling my youngest, that the other two jumped on board right away. Now, that's not to say that they didn't miss friends, but they met new friends. The Homeschool community has given my kids so many new experiences and people to meet. I wouldn't change it for anything. It was the perfect decision for us. Oh, and my DD, my oldest, is the kind of kid that would thrive in any academic environment. She's a self-motivated learner, and loves to do school work. She would have thrived in our Public School--no doubt in my mind. But the environment wouldn't have been the best. When I think of peer pressure and the negative surroundings that I encountered in Public School, I'm just glad that my kids can grow up in an environment where they don't have to be afraid to be themselves. Some kids can do that on their own, sure, but not all can, and I think it's very common for young children to be impressed upon by others in the type of group settings found in our Public (and private) Schools. Anyway, every family and situation is different. If you have decided to homeschool, I would talk it up, be excited about it, let your DD see what you are planning. Ask her opinion on things, let her have somewhat of a say in what you do (study) next year. Your enthusiasm will rub off on her. I wish you the best. Oh, and my DD, who had the hardest time transitioning to homeschool (she is the oldest, and had been in private school for three years), still has moments. She wants to go to Prom. She's only 11, mind you, but that's the one thing she's sad about. I am constantly remidning her that there will be other dances, and she may even get to go to the Prom with someone. We know a lot of kids who go to public schools. It's not as if we stopped associating with people who don't homeschool. LOL

Jumping in here with a question... I was planning to start using BJU Science at 7th grade. Would I be missing out on the 6th grade curriculum if I did so? I guess I thought the 6th grade Science Curriculum was like the lower elementary grades, but that things changed in 7th. Let me know if I'm wrong. I'll have to make some changes -- especially in finances, as I've already got things slated out perfectly for next year, but if it would be better to do 6th grade BJU Science than to jump in at 7th grade, I'd prefer that. Thanks!

I agree with Roadrunner. Be careful if you try to use Beast Academy as a supplement. I tried that at the beginning of this year, to supplement MM. My DS decided he no longer wanted to do "boring" MM, and only wanted to do BA. We made the switch and he's only looked back a couple of times. Each time he tried to do some MM, he started laughing, saying how "easy" MM is, and going right back to BA, which he claims is harder, but also much more fun. I can see why some people don't think there's enough review in BA, but at the same time, my son hasn't needed extra review. I thought for sure that we'd have to go back to MM at some point to do "more" problems to cement the concepts, but we haven't as of yet. Of course, we school year-round, so DS doesn't get much of a break when it comes to math--maybe a couple of weeks over the summer.

I second MCTLA. When I started HSing my DD11 back in 3rd grade, we used ViE. I loved it, but it was all I knew--traditional school book grammar. My DD hated it and retained nothing. The next year, I gave MCTLA a try, and I LOVE it so much more than I thought I would. My kids also loved it. My DS9, who was 7 at the time liked it as well, and though he was a year behind the recommended grade level, I let him try it because he begged to do it. Retention for both of my kids is great. LA is fun, engaging, and getting done without moans of protestation. We're a happy MCTLA family here. ;)

This put a smile on my face--a much needed smile. Thanks!

We love LoE here too. My DD11, who doesn't need any more phonics work, sits in on my youngest's lessons. She loves it. LOL

I feel the same way. My DS9 struggles with Beast at times, and he gets so frustrated. So one day I told him to do some work in his MM book instead of Beast. He sat, laughing at his MM, and then brought it to me, showing how he finished four pages, and telling me how easy it was. We then had the long talk about the differences between the two, and he hasn't looked back at MM since. He LOVES Beast. His countenance after finishing starred problems on his own is worth all the money Beast costs and so much more. My DD11 is jealous because my DS9 is learning things she just learned, or hasn't learned yet. So, of course, I had to get her some Beast. She has to finish up her MM5B before she can play with Beast, but I got her BA 4A for the summer. She's so excited to start! LOL We love Beast Academy in our house.

Just my 2 cents... I have somehow gotten myself into tutoring CC Essentials next year. I've been looking through the book that my director has let me borrow from her before I can buy my own. Anyway, I'm not impressed. I think what we currently use is a lot better than Essentials, and will be continuing with it in my own home. My kids will go to the Essentials class, but I only wish for them to learn diagraming through it. We will continue to use Michael Clay Thompson's curriculum at home. Both my older kids will be doing the Voyage level.

I knew what it was before Phineas and Ferb, but P&F made it stick in my kids' heads, and we sing the song all the time--especially when tying our shoes. ;) I learned about the word aglet in school, I'd assume. I can't remember not knowing what it is.

Oh, man! This looks like something my boys would absolutely enjoy, and everything's included. Of course, I do have 12 Magic School Bus science kits sitting in my cabinet, never opened, but they didn't include EVERYTHING we would need. I can see these getting done, unlike our Magic School Bus ones. What to do, what to do...I just know that my boys would get so much out of these. I feel a 12-month subscription coming on...

I'm not as frustrated as you because my son is still working through level 3, but I've been watching for it (actually logged in here just to see if anyone had posted about it) as I need them to keep to their schedule or we'll eventually have to fill in time with other math while we wait... I keep telling myself it'll all work out.

My complete set arrived. I was lucky to find a set with all the books in good condition. I've been reading the guide, and am just so excited to start, as is my DD, my oldest. My boys rolled their eyes when I showed them the books. In a way, I'm scared they won't treat the books with respect. I was going to wait until next fall to start using them, but I think we'll start next week. The guide is very interesting.

I have one of those. We have good days and bad days. Telling him to start his writing assignment ends in a torrential downpour. For my 9yo DS, he doesn't have much self confidence and requires a lot of back rubbing and compliments. When he's confident, he does amazing work, but when he feels overwhelmed, he turns into a wet mess (from tears, not peeing himself). When he's unsure of something, instead of talking to me about it, he has a meltdown. I have to calm him down and give him the words to use. I tell him to tell me, "Mom, I need help." By the time he says those words coherently, he's calmed down enough to work with him. It's such a struggle. Some days I just want to :banghead: . Other days I just love spending time with him, watching him learn. When he gets something, it's amazing. But when he doesn't, watch out!

We started with doing both BA and MM3 at the beginning of this year for my DS, who's in 3rd grade. After about a month he wanted nothing to do with MM anymore. He told me that BA is harder, but he likes it more, so that is all we do. I sometimes worry about all the stuff in MM3 that isn't in BA3, but watching my DS enjoy math and get it exhilerates me. We even do the starred problems. He gets so pumped when he finishes a double-starred problem, it's as if he has conquered the world. We aren't going very fast (we're almost done with 3B), but we also took the entire month of December off and a lot of November due to illness and my work schedule. We school year-round though, so we plan on him being in 4A in the fall. I'm nervous that he'll out-pace the release schedule, but as someone else posted before (In June, maybe?) we'll cross that bridge when/if we get there. Right now I'm just trusting BA, and allowing my DS to enjoy math. My DD, who is two years older than my DS who is doing BA, wishes she could do BA. I think she'll do some during the summer. I think she's jealous becuase DS is doing perfect squares in 3B, and she hasn't gotten to that in MM5 yet...I'm not even sure it's in MM5 (again, we're a bit behind due to illness and work stuff from over the holidays--she just started MM5B last week). I'm going to have her skip the geometry section in MM5B and do the geometry section in BA3A. We really enjoyed that with DS.

I looked at this last fall and wasn't sure. Of course I'm looking at it again. I can't stop! I think one of my hesitations from the fall was how often the new books will be released. Then someone compared their excitement of this program to the excitement they have over Beast Academy (Sorry, can't remember who or in which thread), and that got my attention again. Beast Academy has been an amazing thing in our house this year, and I need something for this same child when it comes to writing. Needless to say, I think I'm going to go through with W&R. I think I need counseling.

Thank you for this. I'm so torn as to what to do. I purchased Dolciani's 1985 edition and plan on getting JA. The thing is that my DD is bored with MM. It's too easy for her. She gets so excited when something new is taught, but she learns it quickly and wants to move on--doesn't need all the problems to cement ideas. She sees one of my DSs doing Beast Academy and is enthralled by it. She wishes she had it when she was in third grade, so I think she'll enjoy AoPS Pre-Algebra, but I'm scared from things I've read on here. I have a feeling I'll end up buying both JA and AoPS Pre-A. I appreciate your sharing what you're doing. We own all of Danica McKeller's books and Zaccaro's Challenge Math. I think we're going to do what you've done. I hope you don't mind me copying off you, but when I read your threads, they hit home with me. I think our DDs are very similar in their learning styles. Thank you!

We haven't done Word Within the Word yet, but we're doing Caesar's English 1. Next year we'll do CE2, and then move onto WWW. Maybe start we CE1? I'm not sure if you have to do CE1 to move onto CE2, but in the beginning of CE1 it mentions that CE1 and CE2 are a part of the WWW curriculum. I hope that someone with more experience with the CE and WWW books will come over here and let you know where a good place to start your DD would be. As for what we think of CE1, we love it. My DD is retaining so much. My DS is a bit behind her in LA (We do the full kit-and-caboodle of MCT LA, but my DS goes at a slower pace), so he just started CE1. He just took the Lesson 1 quiz and did real well. We get silly with the roots and make up words like "subwear". That's what my DS has called his underwear since he started Building Language last year. ;) I wish I was more help.

I love this thread. Seriously, I wanted to join CC. I've looked into it three years in a row, and each time I've been put off for different reasons. There's something not right about all of this, and many have expressed the exact conclusions I have come to. I guess my situation is unique though because I work full time from home for set hours and would not be able to attend with my kids. I've been told to send a grandparent with them or a friend, or a baby sitter. LOL It was these comments that got me wondering why the parent would need to be there at all if I could substitute myself with a baby sitter. The amount of money is atrocious for a "co-op". I expect a co-op to be cheaper on the account that we join together and all share in the education of the group. That is what a co-op is. Co-operative. But the bizarre idea of paying a lot of money for a "tutor" to "teach" (yes, a tutor is a teacher, even if you tutors refuse to admit it) my kids that I also have to be present for, is too much to swallow. Especially since I've been told that the tutor is supposed to help teach the parent to teach the kids, yet I'm encouraged to hire a baby sitter to be with my kids since I can't be present. It's maddening to think of the logic. If it's so important -- thousands of dollars important since I have three kids -- for me to be there, why would it be okay for a babysitter, whom I'd also have to pay, to stand in my place. I have talked to many people about CC because I was originally interested, but it started getting weird. People were trying to get me to join one group further away, bad mouthing the one that was closer to me. The people from the one that was closer to me scared me away because I went to them for testing last year and they suffocated me with information, making me feel horribly uncomfortable, as if I was a number, not a person. The also told me that there's nothing to buy other than the Foundations guide, but others gave me a list of things I'd have to buy in addition to the high cost of me sitting around while a non-teacher doesn't teach my kids. One of my friends recently joined CC and so I've talked to her about it. She sounds like she just joined a cult. I know that's going to sound offensive, but man, she really does sound strange. It's scary. Her entire attitude has changed. She's turned into a elitist almost over night. The more and more I learn, the more and more CC baffles me. I cannot get over the cost to have my kids not taught by a non-teacher. Seriously. If I need a social outlet for my kids, I'd find something much cheaper. Oh wait, I already pay a lot less for activities that provide a social outlet. ;) Thank you to the original poster for this. How horrible that you were reported and have been receiving hate mail. I found your list of reasons quite interesting and on-the-money for what I've learned about CC on my own. In the end, someone is getting rich off of CC, and I'm not going to shell out those horrible costs to sit and watch my child not be taught by someone just like me.

Here is a link to a set being sold on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Journeys-Bookland-Complete-Including-Literature/dp/B000VGJ2K2/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392983531&sr=1-2&keywords=journeys+through+bookland+set The one I bought is from 1922. I'm not sure of differences between the publication dates. There's a thread on here discussing this set with links to the online version of the set. Angie

My DD will be in 6th next year. I still have a lot that I'm contemplating, but for now, I think this is what we'll go with: Grammar: MCT Voyage and IEW Fix-It Writing: IEW (Finish Medievel History Writing Lessons -- Just started it in January -- and then move to US History Writing Lessons) Math: AoPS Pre-Algebra or Jousting Armadillos with MM6 (old version) -- I really am having a hard time deciding on this one. Now that she's doing more challenging stuff, she's loving math so much more. I know she has the ability to do AoPs, I'm just not sure if the approach is what she'll like History: History Revealed WWW along with SCM stuff and SOTW Audio CDs. We pull from everywhere for History, so I'm sure there will be more things that we use. Science: Apologia's Human Anatomy (We'll be doing Astronomy over the summer) Latin: Finish Latina Christiana 1 and then maybe move to First Form Latin -- I'm not sure of the progression for this. Art: I'm not sure...We're doing Artelier lever 4 right now. It's okay, but for the money, I'd just assume try something cheaper...Maybe the Home Art Studio? I'm not sure yet... Music: She takes Piano lessons, but I have also been looking at IEW's singing curriculum. I may get her that...I also want to look into our public school to see if they have a choir. I believe they are supposed to let homeschoolers join clubs and groups in the schools... Literature: I just bought the Journeys to Bookland 10-volume set. I think I'll start her in volume 4 or so...DD is drawn to classics. She reads anything that's around, so I have no trouble getting her to read great books, and I'm not exactly thrilled with literature guides. They always sucked the fun out of reading for me as a kid, and I don't want to kill DD's love of reading right now either. Also, she reads a lot of literature for History as well, and we'll continue to do that. Logic: Contemplating either Art of Argument or Fallacy Detective. I like them both...I'm thinking I should do one this year and then the other one next year...Maybe Fallacy Detective first? Or would doing both be overkill? Spelling: We've been getting our spelling lists from the McGuffey Speller, and we'll continue to do so. PE: Dance, Basketball, swim lessons, etc. I'm sure I'm leaving something out, and I'm sure that this list will change drastically before the next year begins. We also do school over the summer, so some of this stuff we may start early...

We do both MCT and IEW. My two oldest are both in the Town level. We do writing through IEW (Doing Medieval right now), but just this morning I was thinking of having my kids do some of the assignments at the back of Paragraph Town too, but I probably won't have them do them until the summer, once we take a short break from IEW.