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look at the 1...100 number chart. It's arranged as 10 rows of 10. They're hoping you'll see the some of the regular patterns that show up in arithmetic. Look at pg V-1 (the first 'arrow games' page). they give you a number, and a direction to 'walk'. For each problem, you find the starting number in the 1-100 chart, and then 'walk' the indicated direction. The first is '10 <down>'...put your pencil on the 10 in the big chart, then go 'down' one row. Going down 1 row is like adding ten, and SHAZAM...you're on the 20! (I find the use of large and exciting expletives, like 'SHAZAM' helps in explaining this sort of thing to my kids. They roll their eyes, but giggle, and it keeps then listening). In general...going 'down' is adding 10 each time. Going up subtracts 10. Going right adds 1, going left subtracts 1. It's a big number line, all folded up so operations on the 10s place are clear. I hope that helps. Feel free to ask again if not and I'l try a different explanation.

Hi- DS9 finished Miquon this summer. To date, that's all we've done - along with math-facts practice and some arithmetic pages I made on excel. His integer arithmetic is fast and accurate...fractions and word problems not so much. We decided he'd start with SM 3B and run with SM till we switch for algebra. The SM books arrived here on Friday and I've been looking through them preparing for starting on Tuesday. My first impression.....my, but there are A LOT of problems to work and the new stuff comes pretty incrementally. Does anyone actually do all of this? There's the teaching/discussion part which has some problems we work together, daily. Then every day has 2ish pages of examples/discussion in the 'textbook'. Then a page of exercises in the 'workbook'. All together that just seems like soul-crushing repetition...no? I'd like to add the 'challenging word problems', but it already sounds like a lot. We'll start by doing exactly what they suggest for the first week and see how it goes. Maybe I'm over-reacting. If you've got any suggestions for streamlining the program (or warnings not to), I'm listening.

wait. OTHER PEOPLE did that, too! I laughed out loud when I read this. I spent most of grade school pretending to listen while having a book buried in my lap under the desk. I'm sure, now, that my teachers knew this and just ignored it...but at the time I think I thought was being sneaky. as for skills equaling out by 3rd grade...for some skills I suppose that's true. Early walkers don't seem to walk any better than their peers who took 50% longer to figure it out. Some kids also surely just benefit from exposure. For the most part, however, I think that's nonsense.

well...you're on a homeschooling board, so I know what my family would do...but, well...yeah. re: your DD. Before setting off on a plan that assumes this is just for the next two years and then she can get into the GT program, you might check that the school expects it to exist in 2 years and that it's worthwhile. With all the school budget problems going on that's the kind of program that's getting cut left and right. 'No child left behind' did not exactly help the accelerated student, either. I haven't read anything that sounds out of typical for your son yet...5yo boys who do not sit quietly in their seats and listen to directions sounds like many 5yo boys I have known (and one I have been!) I assume option 4 - homeschool them both - is out of the question? Then I might suggest sticking out the year in the current school, and planning to work with both of them at home. It sounds like DS would benefit from the 1:1 work (and teaching phonics-based reading is not difficult), and you could ensure DD is getting the enrichment she's looking for.

'molecules' are, by definition, the smallest 'bits' of matter that have the properties of larger hunks of that kind of material. By properties I mean chemical properties..density, ability to react with other kids of materials, conduct electricity, etc. Molecules are made up of atoms. Molecules get created/destroyed/changed all the time. The atoms themselves are pretty stable...an atom of carbon is going to stay an atom of carbon unless something extreme happens (like, it finds itself in the middle of a sun going supernova or it's radioactive and decays). That carbon atom will combine with a pair of oxygen atoms and TA-DA! It's carbon dioxide. Later, it'll find itself as part of a sugar molecule inside a plant. But the carbon atom is really stable. I guess that's the sense in which it's the 'building block' of matter. It's like a 2x3 red lego...you can build rockets or boats or hammers to hit your sister with...then take them apart and use that red lego someplace else....and it never becomes a blue 1x8 lego. There's a really beautiful sense of everything being connected in the cycles of matter that go on. We're just all reusing the same atoms over and over again. (google 'Nitrogen cycle' there are nice pictures.). But - atoms are NOT the smallest identifiable bits of things that exist. Atoms are made up of various stuff. In HS chemistry, they tell you it's electrons, protons and neutrons. But...even THOSE are made up of even smaller bits of stuff. And now we get to the 'Standard Model', which includes quarks. Quarks are, in this model, the things that protons, neutrons and electrons are made of. Without going into detail...let's just say they have weird properties. To be fair, I should also mention that at this level there does exist some amount of disagreement. Are quarks as described actually 'correct'? They fit much of the data we can observe but maybe not all...is that enough? (google 'string theory' or even 'digital physics'). -andy ------------------- a general caveat on this sort of question...that is, science in general. There is not 'the one true answer for all time'. Science is, on purpose, an ongoing process of investigation. So - even if you come to understand what a bleading-edge-phicisist understands...in 30 years it may be known to be wrong. Further, if you push him hard enough eventually he'll admit that 'we just don't know'. IMO, that's a feature. Some people think of it as a flaw. But it is how science works.

We actually used the HOP program to teach our kids to read <shrug>...we were new homeschoolers, it was cheap and phonics-based. I think we got a complete K->Master Reader set at Costco for like 120$ and it worked great. SO - I am looking at the master reader materials right now and can answer some of your questions... There are 4 levels of the master reader program. For each, there's 10-15 levels. For each level there's a card the kid reads (out loud, to you. We had them read it 2x so they could read the words they struggled with a second time. The kids found the stories in the cards interesting (they're generally true, often about historical figures or events). Then there's a computer part. The computer works on various 'advanced' reading skills. For example - it presents a multi-sylabul word and asks you to identify the syllable breaks. Some work on compound words. Then there's a chapter book that's an appropriate difficult to the level they'd just worked on. There ARE some sight words - mostly, short common words. The program assumes that by this point you've covered all the phonics and are a reasonably fluent reader. As for age...DS did master reader at 6, DD at 5. As I recall, the material was appropriate.

Hi- We live in California, but my DW grew up in Wisconsin (outside of Milwaukee). We've had a family dream for years about me quitting my Si-Valley engineering job, buying a few dozen acres in Wisconsin and 'retiring' to live the mostly-self-sufficient agrarian life we'd actually like to have. We're pretty crunchy - make out own soap, garden seriously in our stupidly-small-northern-california-backyard, can food, build our own furniture, etc etc. Hobby farming sounds like fun to us <shrug>. Anyway - there's a growing possibility of actually doing this 1-2 years from now...so we're starting to plan. The first question is where. One serious consideration is homeschool friendly communities. SO....anyone know if there are within, say, 50 miles of Milwaukee.... - an school districts that allows homeschool kids to play on their sports teams? - any cities/towns with a high density of homeschoolers? - any of the smaller cities around Milwaukee have particularly great community programs (especially theater, dance, art)? - any areas that are likely to be socially hostile to homeschooling?

looks like a lot of stuff for 2nd grade for me - especially since they'll all be new programs to her and you. My suggestion...introduce them a few at a time. re: math...lots of people like MathUSee, and there are certainly some things to like about it. Keep in mind that it introduces the topics in a somewhat non-standard sequnce/timeline. IMO, it's a more sane sequence than many programs - but it's still different. The point is, if you jump ship half way through it you may find she's ahead on some topics compared to whatever program the PS is doing, and behind on others. That's not the end of the world - but you should know. as a new homeschooling family, one thing to look at is discovering how YOUR FAMILY does school. Are you super structured? Do you basically replicate a public school classroom in your den? Or are you more free-form and 'organic'. Or something in between. Give yourself the opportunity to find out. Finally - if DD has JUST come out of ps it may take her a bit to adapt.

firstly....breath. breath in...breath out. <sigh> better. secondly...if at the end of 2nd grade he's doing multi-digit addition with regrouping, it doesn't sound like he's especially behind. Even if he is, it's early in the game. There's plenty of time for catching up. I suggest... -> take your time picking a math curriculum. Several of the usual suspects have been suggested - there are abundant online samples of most of those. check them out. There's no rush to start THE math program THIS week. If it takes you 4 weeks to find one you like - that's OK. You're homeschooling so you have that flexibility. If you feel the need to make it up by extending math 'school' through July you can. FWIW, we school year round and the kids don't hate us for it and most of their friends cannot even tell. You've got plenty of time to make a choice, and change it again if necessary. -> meanwhile...how about some practical household math? measurement units? Have a fun day figuring out how many cups are in a pint..pints in a quart. quart in a gallon. gallons in your tub. Have him estimate it first...giggle at how wildly off he'll be. Teaspoons in a tablespoon? Inches in a yard. Practice telling time. Or, how about some good old fashion math facts practice? A set of home-made flash cards is all you need. It's never wasted effort at this age.

a few quick comments...from experience. My wife is hypothyroid (low) and has taken synthroid for almost 10 years now. I have had 3 (yes 3) bouts of thyroiditis (first, WAY WAY WAY too much thyroid, followed by the 1-3 month long crash..it's icky). -> get a young Dr. Lots has changed in this area in the past 10 years. For instance, it is now well accepted among the research comunity that the 'typical' range is off. The issue is that such a large fraction of the population (in particular, middle-aged or older women) are low thyroid that the 'normal' range is very skewed. -> this is a complex system with long feedback loops. For example...VitD is also related (D is not really a vitimin, it's a hormone) and a HUGE fraction of the populaton is now D3 deficient -> final note...losing hair and weight can be either hypo or hyper thyroid.

does she have trouble transitioning? That is...switching from one activity to another - especially if the transition is unexpected? DS did and it caused him all kinds of anxiety and concern that he would have to make a transition in the future was enough to make him not want to do things he knows he enjoys doing. If transitions are the issue...that's something you can work with her on. Talk about how you will get ready for dance class, talk about setting out what she'll need before you go. Make a calendar and notice that there's plenty of time during the day, also plenty of time before the class so there won't be rushing, etc.

sounds good to me. You might suggest he do it lying flat on his tummy, or sit with a book/board in his lap to make the writing easier...but I never cared where my kids choose to do their work.

you might get her checked out for an audio-processing disorder. My DD struggles with this. Her hearing (mechanical) is fine - it's the brain processing of sound that she struggles with. Simulous processing in the brain is a really complex process, and as with any such thing some people are better at it than others. There are ways to practice and strength this.

memorization, especially at his age, can be very context sensitive.... We noticed, for example, that out kids at one point did pretty well with their math-facts flash cards when read by me but give them a paper and pencil and they had trouble recalling the facts. <shrug> I suggest a variety of practice methods...cards, paper and pencil, showing them the cards vs reading it to them, games, etc. It takes longer than you'd think to achieve consistent rapid recall.

:iagree: I'd be tempted to introduce it as 'math games' or 'math puzzles' or something...the Orange book, in particular, has that kind of feel (at least to me).

Series of Unfortunate Events, #10 (it was a random gift to DS9). The kids are LOVING the sarcasm and word play. They find it hi-lar-i-ous!! :lol:

animals, vehicles, vegetables, rocks...DD was pretending to be 'sadness' the other day...it was a kind of interpretative dance sort of thing <shrug>. FWIW, homeschool kids seem to do this sort of thing till they're much older than ps kids. I choose to believe that's a good thing.

we used Hooked on Phonics and LetterFactory DVDs <shrug> to teach the kids to read. There's a great box set they carry at Costco. That and Bob books. Both kids are fantastic readers and picked it up pretty quickly...letter sounds to chapter books in easily under a year (DS at 5, DD at 3-4). Reading is just not that difficult, to do or teach if you do it systematically (phonically). We started gently...just Mom spending 10-15 minutes a day with each of them working through the HOP program. Our primary (really, only) goal that first year was to get them to read as well as we could. That and the usual counting, colors shapes and stuff that just happens normally was plenty.

A quick google came up with a Scientific American article that discusses the original study I'd seen. The first sentence has a good explanation of the difference...but essentially, it's counting by ratios (e.g. each number in the sequence is 2x as large as the previous) rather than in an addative manner (each number is 1 larger than the sequence) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-natural-log ahh...SciAm...I had a subscription from the time I was maybe 12 till I went to college. :001_wub:

<gush> oohh. fun. non-verbal-girl could 'explain' all with numbers.... (8 * 125) ^ 2 == (8 * 125) * (8 * 125) //that's what ^2 means (8 * 125) * (8 * 125) == 8 * 125 * 8 * 125 8 * 125 * 8 * 125 == 8 * 8 * 125 * 125 //mult is comutative 8^2 * 125^2 // that's what ^2 means (which, incidentally, makes it clear why (8 + 125)^2 != 8^2 + 125^2....but I digress. this is a helpful thread..I looked at the pre-algebra test and an fairly sure DS9 could pass it, but I don't think he's ready for questions like the above.

yes, though by that time they've seen quite a bit of math. You will need to add some kind of math-facts practice to it (though, I think I'd add that to any program). DS is going form Miquon to SM 3B, though except for unit conversion (which he struggles with) and practice with fractions he could just as easily have gone from Miquon to 4b. Actually, I looked at the AoPS pre-algebra test...and I think he could probably pass that, too. Both my kids used it and it's left then with a good sense of math as a coherent system.

I don't know if this was suggested....but he might find Miquon fun. It's an exploritory/discovery kind of program. You might get the orange book and just let him play with it - it's pretty cheap...especially if you've already got the rods. Lots of parents seem to get frustrated with it because THEY can't 'figure out what you're supposed to do'. Especially if you've already got another math curicum you might just plop it on the floor next to the rods and let HIM figure out what he'd like to do with it. re: knowing/not-knowing math facts at this age... funny thing about people brains. There's some research to suggest they're naturally wired to do lograthmic math, not the kind of linear math we usually do. The world settled on the math we all know (and love!!) for mostly good reasons, but it takes the brain a bit to switch over to it. Give him time. Also - the brain 'files away' facts by a variety of markers...sometimes even 'where it was learned' or 'how I felt at the time'. Try practicing the math facts in a large variety of situations, settings, locations, methods, etc. It'll get better.

I do like these, and we are using them - but let me recomend you not do ONLY this. Or really, ONLY any one program. The brain memorizes the answers and associates it with the presentation method. We mix it a lot and it helps. SO - we do flash cards...I made two sets... 2 + 4 = 6 and also 2 +4 --- 6 Sometimes they look at the cards, sometimes I read it outloud to them. Sometimes we do it on paper w/ pencils. sometimes it's on the computer so they're typing the answer. the more different settings/methods you can practice in, the more solidly it gets cemented. The goal is instant recall of math facts, effort free (e.g. no thinking). That frees the brain up to think about the larger math concepts, and not just the arithmetic.