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buddhabelly

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  1. But Singapore does not finish with these subjects with Singapore 4. Not by any means. If you look at Singapore 5 and 6 (which, by the way, are pretty darn advanced to be considered a "5th grade" and "6th grade), they continue to teach fractions. Some of the things that come up in LOF Fractions are not taught until Singapore 6. Long division is, in my mind, thoroughly covered in RS E. It is also taught in Singapore 5A (with higher numbers), and by the end of Singapore 5A, the child is learning to divide fractions. Hope that helps a little. I apologize in advance if I'm wrong about RS E -- it is put away somewhere. But I seem to recall lots of practice with long division, and different kinds of remainders. Julie
  2. Well, if it is at all reassuring to you, my son went from finishing RS Level E straight into Singapore 5 seamlessly. It was quite lovely how well they fit together. The only hiccup we've had is that while we LOVE the "Right Start Math" way of subtracting, it is difficult to use that method when you have a situation like 3,000,000 minus 37,843. Or, for that matter, 5.000004 minus 1.8765. When we began LOF Fractions, this little gap in skill became evident and we stopped to work on it. It comes up again in LOF Decimals, obviously. I don't really know how Singapore teaches subtraction with regrouping -- I mean once the child gets the concept with manipulatives, that is. The only slightly frustrating part of RS E is that they really spend a long time on the whole concept of multiplying fractions. Because face it, we have no IDEA what it means to multiply 7/8 by 3/5. But the RS student does (eventually). It just really takes a long time to solidify, and not many parents have the patience for that. I admit that I taught my son the algorithm way before Dr. Cotter laid it out in the curriculum! But I think it is valuable that the child learns it conceptually first. And then it comes in handy with those Singapore word problems because the whole idea that the multiplication symbol means "of" is very solid. So if John had 7/8 as much money as Fred, then spent 3/5 of that on a new book......the student has the understanding to change that into mathematical symbols and figure it out. (I don't believe RS ever does teach the algorithm. She obviously planned to write one more book on Fractions and Decimals that just didn't happen. I just tried to write out the RS way of multiplying fractions -- with the cross-hatching -- and couldn't remember it exactly.) Best wishes, Julie
  3. Those post-it strips that you use to keep your place in books. At least that's what WE use them for! We have magenta, bright green, lots of colors. Love 'em! Julie
  4. MCT, Growing with Grammar, FLL. In reverse chronological order!
  5. With my son, I am reading "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson. Much better than Treasure Island, in case you wrote him off because of that one. Birchbark House, Game of Silence, and Porcupine Year (Erdrich). I love her writing, and I had never heard of these books before planning ds' unit on native american studies. Um, not remembering the others. They get buried and I stop reading them! Julie
  6. I would recommend Minimus for second grade. Don't worry about the TM, just buy the regular book on amazon.com, with the CD. Search specifically for the CD; for some reason it doesn't come up if you just search "minimus latin." It is very fun to hear the stories "acted out" on the CD. Vibrissa the cat hisses, "Vibrissssssa sum. Felix sum." (or whichever word they use for cat in Minimus) The children on the CD have excellent pronunciation. If you do finish Minimus early, then I would start LFC A and go slowly. The DVD's are fun -- don't miss them. And be sure to get the most current versions of the products. They are always making them better. For example, I believe they don't chant quite as quickly anymore on the DVD, because folks were getting frustrated by the pace. We do Latin Prep now, but we still use the "songs" from LFC to remember things, like the "ablative case preposition flow." Julie exits, humming Latin prepositions.... Julie
  7. Latin for Children A, with the DVD's. Don't worry about knowing all the "why's" at first. But I will tell you that when you learn the vocabulary (nouns), you are not chanting the singular and then the plural. You are chanting the nominative and the genitive. But they don't tell you that, because you haven't learned the genitive yet. :) So as long as you're not too curious about finding out the "why" behind all the chants right in the beginning, and can trust that it will all be useful eventually, I like LFC. We did switch to Latin Prep after LFC A, B, and C, but I think LFC is perfect for third grade. And the DVD's are the most amusing part of the program. Julie
  8. I don't know if they still sell this, but we saved a bit of money by buying the teacher books all combined in one big book. It was all Level I - Biology, Chemistry, Physics. Even if you don't want to buy that new, it gives you something to look for on the used curriculum sites. As I recall, you can't really do the labs without the teacher books. But I'm too tired to get out my old materials and check ---. You might be able to copy the student lab pages from the teacher manual, though, if that helps. ETA: Looking at the RS4K website, I see that you can get EVERYTHING for all Level I courses for $216. That also includes three "Connects" workbooks (one for each subject). Those are the word root books -- I have seen them and they look great. So the biology one deals with Greek and Latin roots of biology vocabulary, and so on. The bundle also includes lab sheets for the student, all the TM's, a periodic table, and of course the texts themselves. But it sounds like that might be too much for you to spend right now. Perhaps you can share with another homeschooling family, and you could teach biology while she teaches chemistry, and then switch off? Good luck!
  9. My son is doing Carbon Chemistry, but I'm not sure whether you want our review because technically he is in 5th grade and so not middle school. He did Elements as well, and you should find a review of that in old posts. Both are very meaty, and Carbon Chemistry is very challenging. I've rarelyhears those words out of my son's mouth, but today he said, "My, this is tricky stuff.". Well yrah, organic chemistry is one of the toughest subjects out there, after all. McHenry makes it understandable, though.
  10. Since she is 10, I would also get the workbooks (1A and 1B, plus separate answer key). That will not only slow her down (essential because there are only something like 10 chapters) but also provide much more practice with concepts as they are introduced. Sometimes the workbook is overkill, but sometimes it's not. My 10-yo is doing Latin Prep but has completed LFC A, B & C so it's not new to him. It is fun to see how Latin Prep, used well, has made him much more fluent in Latin than all those years of LFC. HOWEVER (big however), he still remembers 90 percent of all the vocabulary he learned in LFC. That is a huge help! The audio is nice, but can be purchased online when you get the money together. Or not! Oh, and someone mentioned a "Teachers Book" for Latin Prep Book One. I'm pretty sure there is no such animal. Just one book -- doesn't say student or teacher on it. Julie
  11. I spelled it that way because it will be easier to find the website. (http://www.rightstartmath.com). Although this isn't mentioned often, I have found Right Start to be a program well-suited for gifted students. I often wonder how frustrating it must be for students with an average ability in math to do some of the lessons that really ask the student to reach and THINK. Anyway, if she has some grounding in math already, you could probably start with Right Start B. However, after a bit it accellerates quite abruptly, so "A" might also work. Either book begins in a similar fashion, with the child learning to recognize groups of two or three so she doesn't have to count. This is done in a variety of ways: finger taps, holding up fingers, cards with dots, etc. There are a lot of games that are scheduled into the program, and besides the abacus itself is a hoot for most kids. Way after my son needed the abacus, he would grin and go running to get it just because it's so fun to slide those beads and hear them rattle. :) Your younger one is a little young to play the games with dd now, of course, but that day will come before you know it! Have fun with your math, Julie
  12. We are also doing Town level, and seem to have done it just like Korin did. Minus the Legos and the posters, that is. Perhaps it is because Caesar's English gets a little old after a while and we wanted to mix it up? That was my reasoning, anyway. I LOVE PARAGRAPH TOWN. "Call me Fishmeal." That is the first sentence. Then later he meets a merganser named Queequack. I know it sounds silly when I say it, but MCT makes it hilarious. My son can't wait to get on with the duck story and doesn't even realize how much he is learning about paragraphs! I love how MCT uses the techniques he is teaching as he is teaching them. If he's talking about using crunchy words, he uses crunchy words to teach that! Julie P.S. We haven't started Building Poems either, but I can't wait!
  13. I wanted to add that RS4K Pre-Level 1 and Level 1 correlate exactly in the topics and even in the experiments, for the most part. So I'd like to suggest that your fourth grader do Level 1 and your younger student do Pre-Level 1. I know someone who is doing that with a K-er and a 5th grader and it is working perfectly. You need the same materials for either book. There is writing in Pre-Level 1, but you could transcribe what your younger student tells you, while the 4th grader (using Level 1) would do his/her own writing. Does that make any sense at all? I just wanted you to know that they cover the same material, but Level 1 goes deeper and also involves a bit more vocabulary study. Now, Level 2 does not work this way of course....it is designed to follow Level 1. Julie
  14. I would call it an adjective because it tells "which one," whereas a pronoun substitutes for a noun (subject or object, like "he" or "him). I believe these are called possessive adjectives, but I'm too tired to look it up. Anyone else?
  15. I'm not a Christian, but at a Healing Yoga (Desikachar) yoga training in San Francisco, I met an ordained minister who has been called to teach yoga. She believes that it helps people heal and become whole, and the exciting thing is that her bishop has now appointed her to bring this healing yoga to the community. She is an amazing ray of light, and here's her website: http://www.healingflowyoga.com/Classes.html Desikachar is very respectful of all faiths, and we chanted in Grace Cathedral, including a special chant honoring Jesus. He has many Christian students (and yoga teachers), as well as others from all faiths. Julie
  16. Boy, if MariannNOVA is always this fun, I wanna be in her homeschool. Julie
  17. You can download the first chapter of Carbon Chemistry (or "The Elements") from McHenry's site (you linked). It even includes the activities and the comprehension questions that go along with the first chapter.
  18. We are doing "Elements" (finished) and "Carbon Chemistry" (in progress) and they are both wonderful. I suggest that you play the games more often than suggested. By the end of this past semester, my son could fill in a large portion of the periodic table by memory. But more importantly, he could guess which element could bond with which other element(s) by their structure. Way cool. And as for Carbon Chemistry, he keeps reading way ahead in the book because it is so interesting....:001_smile: Julie
  19. Maybe I knew that it is not correct to split the infinitive, but MCT explained why. It is because "to ride" or "to resist" or "to buy" is considered one word: the English form of the infinitive. It is not an issue in most other languages, because the infinitive form is one word. Now don't get us started on the English forms like "I have walked" or "He has seen." My son just cannot wrap his brain around the fact that "have" and "has" in those constructions are in the present tense, but those verbs help form the past tense. (I'm not even sure what exactly this tense is called in English.) Julie
  20. It would help me if we knew exactly what she wasn't getting. If she isn't retaining any of the fractions/decimals/percents at all, perhaps it is the curriculum. We found great success by combining Singapore 5 with LOF Fractions. (We will do LOF Decimals and Percents sometime this spring.) If he couldn't remember something from one, he could usually pull it out from the other. I really liked the way LOF explained why we need to have the denominators the same to compare fractions (and also to add and subtract them). I also like the humor ("when my daughter was a baby, her denominator was wet sometimes"). Both programs develop a really solid conceptual understanding of PARTS of things (fractions) and how this math enables us to work with them. Liquids, linear measurement, discrete objects (books, sandwiches, people), etc. Hoo-boy, I'm tired now and not making sense. I wish your dd could at least look at the first three chapters of LOF and see if she can follow it. It is a really fun teaching method. Can you ask around your homeschooling community? ETA: Oh, and we did find that some of the LOF stuff will not be taught in Singapore until Singapore 6. Too tired to remember what that was. Julie
  21. Avatar was not the best movie EVER, but it was a pretty good one. Trying to think whether it was better than Star Trek. I can't remember Star Trek; it was so LOUD..... Well, all movies these days are loud, aren't they? Julie
  22. Billy Elliot, but more for the dancing and the story than for the music. Our "Billy" (there are five or six of them right now doing the show) was a good dancer, but his singing voice was just average. Or perhaps he was going through puberty? I had heard Elton John singing the ballad from the show "I'm Free," and it was kind of a let-down to hear this kid more or less talk his way through it. But his dad and his grandma were worth the price of the ticket. The language will make you blush, though. :eek: And why, oh why, did they have to bring up the matter of Billy's sexuality (whether he prefers boys or girls) when he is only 10? I guess because Elton John wrote the music and his husband was the executive producer, but still....he's 10 (and then 11) in the story. Let it go! Gee, you all will flock to this musical now, won't you? :tongue_smilie: I did like it. I've wanted to see it ever since I saw those boys win the Tony award for best actor in a musical.
  23. I agree with Tutor: "If I don't look at homeschooling as a job, I don't give it the type of focus it requires." I do have other responsibilities besides homeschooling, but I put homeschooling first. That means not window shopping or stopping to buy a latte on the way home from teaching yoga (I walk to the yoga studio), and making sure that before I go there, my son knows exactly what lesson he is supposed to be doing and has already received some guidance in that area. If your child attended a private school (or public for that matter), how would you feel if you overheard his teacher telling someone at a social event that she didn't work, she was "just" a teacher to your ds? How would you feel if she felt comfortable answering the phone during school hours, and chatting with her friends or relatives instead of keeping the schoolchildren on track? Many of us experience guilt in relation to homeschooling: am I doing enough? Would my children be better off in school? While I can never completely quash those thoughts, at least I can give homeschooling 100 percent of my best efforts. I also teach yoga (for pay, but I break even when expenses are tallied) and am the president and treasurer of a nonprofit organization. I don't get paid for my work at the nonprofit, but I spend many hours each week on it and definitely consider it to be a "job." As is homeschooling. Thanks for starting this thread...I would have done it if others hadn't. ETA: Progress reports and work samples are due today, so it's more of a "job" than usual! Julie
  24. The problem with your "option 7" is.... who will plan all those fun and relevant craft and project ideas? The SOTW Activity Guide has them all laid out for you, as well as fun picture books and 1/2 grade level fiction and non-fiction books that go along with each section. There are a lot of really fun suggestions in there. I remember my son making a real clay tablet with a message in hieroglyphics. Whether you begin in second grade or the second half of first, please don't miss Story of the World (with Activity Guide). It is one of the highlights of our entire homeschooling career, one of those things that makes us feel really lucky to be on this path. Plus, did you know that the reading level of the Story of the World volumes correspond to the age level? So Volume 1 is written for ages 6-7, 2 is written for 7-8, etc. So if you don't read it now, it will eventually lose its value to your child for the most part. Good luck! Julie (who is sad that her son wants to go to PS next year)
  25. Hope I'm not hijacking, but I have Paragraph Town which is an appropriate level for my ds. I am wondering, though, whether we would benefit from looking at Sentence Island? He has done CW Aesop and a good chunk of Homer A. His sentences are good, but I suspect that Sentence Island teaches how to make them interesting and flow well. At least that's what Paragraph Town does with Paragraphs. Any thoughts?
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