Oh man I have not seen much discussion on that one...too bad wonder if kids are able to internalize the soroban after working through it...really looks like they give it a go....sample pages show students visualizing the tasks on top of physically sliding beads around. Another thing if we think about it, that soraban(abacus) helps thinking actions by aiding specific to general or part to whole. The beads do not vary in shape or size, yet just by sliding them on a wire they can go from a unit to five units or other value. It is also a great physical tool to help with the mental tool that is place value. Anyway look forward to reading about future discussions if you decide to check out the abacus program of your thread.

http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Israel-M-Gelfand/dp/0817636773/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1297905208&sr=1-1

I would guess about 45 minutes plus or minus a few minutes .

Surprisingly the kids seemed to deal with the clutter of reading the 'helpers' just fine. Tried the program with two, none finished the whole thing before boredom, DD went far enough to start books, while DS rebelled and required different program (Dancing Bears). I am sure I could have pushed RocketPhonics further with both children, but at that stage we were striving for positive feelings linked to reading training.

Human Japanese is an app we like and I think its also in software format for desktop computers. We are not far along with it so no long term experience to relate. http://www.humanjapanese.com/home.html

Living or non-living, what is the deal? Tia.

Do you have a ruler or tape measure around. http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/58167.html And how about the kitchen those Pyrex Measuring cups lay out a 'number line'vertical style. Naulgene canteens also have useful measurement marking + fun of interactive watery mess making. The fractional puzzle that crimson mom linked is another form of 'number line', just with more parts than marks. A number line is a powerful tool for internalizing and making sense of things like 3/5 > 3/19.

Equivalent fractions, cross product, and number line. All take time, the first two are computational methods with the third being good for developing number sense.

1900's era Arithmetic texts are plentiful on Google book's in electronic format. Strayor Upton however is not available though I think the flavor of math education in this time period can be tasted from the free books there.

The hundred dresses http://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Dresses-Eleanor-Estes/dp/0152052607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296485141&sr=8-1 Harriet the spy http://www.amazon.com/Harriet-Spy-Louise-Fitzhugh/dp/0440416795/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296485338&sr=1-1 Bedtime for frances http://www.amazon.com/Bedtime-Frances-Trophy-Picture-Books/dp/0064434516/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296485416&sr=1-1

<sniped>I have sat down with her and did the steps over and over and over again (6 1/2 pages worth)<sniped> FWIW, maybe consider shortening the sessions and spreading the study sessions out over a longer period of time. Think of it like putting butter on toast, an even thin layer tastes better than a single clump in the middle:D

Like the discussion you all have here, and tagging in late to bump it up for one more pass plus to throw in a couple links. http://www.soundfoundationsbooks.co.uk/ http://www.dianefrankenstein.com/reading-together/

http://historyatourhouse.com/ We started with lower elementary Ancient course, and then went on to upper elementary European, and currently in upper elementary American course. We have not done the live courses only the recordings.

History at our house, just the recording's plus some of the suggested reads,yet mostly just listen-take notes- talk about it. http://historyatourhouse.com/

Go here http://www.dianefrankenstein.com/curiosities/ if you like the tips then try Frankenstein's book, Reading Together. I bought the e-version on iBooks, and after reading a bit of it got a few of the suggested titles, who knew ds would like a book about a girl raccoon (Francis) :001_huh: Anyway it's a good read twelve bucks well spent;)

I think it might be this http://www.amazon.com/Basic-College-Mathematics-Margaret-Lial/dp/0321064577

Fractions And More, is a traditional style of math instruction requiring only a knowledge of multiplication and division to begin. http://www.quaternionpress.com/

A couple more quick suggestions to add to and bump this thread back up; Immediate need: 1) sacrifice the word problems from your current math source, aka show her the book answer then work as a team to arrive at the book answer. 2) do not make her do most of the mental lifting, that will come later, your job is to model a good attack for her. 3) find a source of quality story/word problems I think there is a place for problems like the ice cream example, but it seems more a method to practice computation vs. problem solving. More later out of time; oh yeah when you are done working a problem or two, talk about it...reflect

We're three years into it, so I'm not sure what I really want to do as far as maybe looking for---maybe a supplement or maybe a new way to try? I don't know.... :confused: Boy howdy, I have a wall full of math that if I am honest will not get through everything to come up with that math program without peer.:D Governments spend obscene amounts of other peoples money on similar goals, with dubious results. I don't think my efforts will yield the most awesome-est math program either, still it's fun to try:D Here is one more needle in the virtual Math haystack for you, and it is UK based, it looks like a great source of supplemental math. http://nrich.maths.org/public/

:iagree: I started Mathematics 6 with dd, but have had to back-pedal because we do not know multiplication / division operations with decimals yet. We started early with it because she already knew all the other fraction/maths prerequisites to start, except decimals. But I did learn that the Nurk text was where we need to be because DD said " it takes me 15 to 20 minutes to do one problem in that book (RM6), I can do a whole page of Singapore" (SM4/JM4). It was not the words it was how she said the words...with pride.

(Of course, I'd also like to know why you're not doing Japanese math with your son!) We started it too young (4-5), I stopped it when minimal reading skills met word problems… I was just doing too much of the work to make the task clear-thus robbing him of learning. The other thing is I am not taking math that seriously yet, so I just go with the flow, we tried the Russian grade 1 book on a whim and he grabs it every time we do math. I have seen him trying to read the Japanese math grade 4 books on the sly though. I also think there might be something to the notion that some kids prefer black and white vs. color texts. He is doing well with the no color Dancing Bears phonics program vs. full color Rocket Phonics. The Russian Grade 1 book is also plain jane Black and white. But because I really don’t believe the whole learning style paradigm I also know he finds the stories in Dancing Bears interesting even funny, and if the kids interested the battle is won. That is what I believe.

No no, Mep looks like a comprehensive program to me, and Russian Math 6 is just a few topics in a single book. These threads seem to get lively if someone puts up a fairly strong negatory opinion. :D I do mean what I said, but not in an unfriendly way- MEP's format seems machine-like. Everything I had read said MEP was creative problem solving, but the practice pages seemed to direct the problem solving, "join up, look at , put the",and the like prefacing every question. I think giving the student a little rope to hang themselves is a good thing, take for example this riddle; " A Man goes to a tub of water with two jars, one holding 3 pt and the other 5 pt. How can he bring back exactly 4 pt? How can he? I think the Russian Math encourages this sort of problem solving, and this is the sort I am after- why? Pavlov. I want an positive association (conditioning) imprinted in my kids brain and I think the "AHA!" does that for mathematical thinking.

Mep and Russian math... no. Mep is Meh. If Mep was a sweetener it would be saccharine and Russian math sugar:D Mep seems to go like; "fill in, write down, join up, there are, color in, look at, put the, and on it goes- math for automotrons. Sure Russian math wants to know some of those same questions, but they are asked like questions; Mep does it like instructions to assemble some gawd awful toy you wish the kids never got for christmas. Soy-burger vs Hamburger. :auto:

One thing I liked was the early introduction of <> =, the kids allready have this initial math concept peg to begin hanging ideas off of; just bring out something they find tasty like ice-cream, see how keen their awareness of greater than less than relationship is. From what I gather the ucsmp translation series were just one of several math texts that were studied to see what made math texts from high achieving countries tick. If you dig through the PDF book at this link you will find more in-depth information that may help; http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229689&highlight=Free+math+milgram

Do you know where these can be purchased, please? I have access to the RM6 that Perpendicular Press publishes, but have not been able to find any other levels of the books.... Regena, I edited my first thread to include a link to materials- Now RM6 is actually a Estonian book and not a part of this series so far as I can tell. Note the Russian Math 6 by Nurk is fully excellent! The UCSMP materials only have the 1-3 grades available to joe q public, but I have seen references to others in the series but no full translated texts:glare: Anyway the grade 1-3 series is still an interesting take on Arithmetic. sniped quote>< are you in America? Would kg and liters and cm confuse you guys a bit? Trying my best, Yes, we are in the USA- Northern Nevada. And yes having to learn Imperial measurements plus Metric units is cumbersome. Another bother is the english language itself, for example thirteen instead of something like 'one-ten three' Side note; Once upon a time there was a man Thomas Jefferson, who helped America to be the first country on the planet to us a monetary system based on the decimal system... no such luck with the metric system though... too bad we might be driving flying cars if he had:D [ I am not 100% on the Jefferson decimal thing, just something I read somewhere]