My kids are improving in math, but it doesn't come naturally to them. We have used Math-U-See up to this point. They ended up making a high B in Pre-algebra and have made A's in first four lessons of MUS Algebra 1. I have read so many places that it is weak, but my kids are not breezing through so I am reluctant to get a more rigorous program. I really want them to have a strong foundation in math. I am wondering which math would have the best examples of the kind of word problems that would be on future standardized tests. I have seen that several people recommend Lial's, Foester, Dolciani or AoPS for Algebra. I am trying to figure out which book would be best to slowly work through along side MUS. My daughter really likes MUS and would not want to drop completely.

I was so sick with my twins that I also decided what to eat by what it tasted like when it came back up. I threw up with both my pregnacies during the entire pregnancy not just in the morning.

Congratulations. I would want to confirm with ultrasound as others have suggested. I had twins 13 years ago, and sometimes it was hard for the medical persons to distinguish which baby was which even on ultrasound. (they moved frequently).

nm

deleted orginal post

Following. I want to be able to find this thread when I need it.

Thank you for your response. I actually have Fix-it but haven't ever started using it.

My kids are using Winston Grammar and understanding grammar. Since it only covers parts of speech, I am thinking of adding something else to cover usage, mechanics and punctuation. What is a good inexpensive thing to add to cover these?

Thank you for the response. I am so torn on which program to use at our house. My kids our not willing to use something rigorous. I have to admit my kids our average students that are into a extremely rigorous workload. We use SL and already have a heavy load. IMO

I am wanting my 8th grade students to study latin for the first time next year. I think I have narrowed down the choices to Latin Alive or Visual Latin. I would like opinions on the pros and cons of each. My goals are to learn latin to help them in their English skills , to help them in learning another language and to fulfill required language in High school. I would like something they will actually like and retain. I have looked at First Form and am certain they will find this absolutely boring. I have to have a program that will engage my son or it will be a complete disaster. He does not like school and doesn't want put forth a great deal of effort. I also need a lot of hand holding in the teaching aspect. Thank you for any advise you can give in helping me to decide.

Did you ever decide? I am kinda of in the same boat. I am trying to decide which Latin program to use with my kids. I am concerned about First Form since I have read several places that it is boring.

I am contemplating using WWE next year but don't know what level to start with him. I know logically I should start him in level 1 but I don't think I want to do that. He will be 10 and in the 5th grade next year. We have used SL LA in the past and used IEW SWI-A with the first seven week of All things Fun and Fascinating last year. I really like the looks of CAP Fables also. He really hates the physical act of writing. I think he could benefit from more practice of writing so that is why I am also looking at WWE. I am just wondering what I might use with him next year. I don't think I will continue with All Things Fun and Fascinating because it seems to be simply review of what we have done in SWI-A.

I don't know that I have a lot of great advise or would be considered a seasoned Sonlighter. We have used SL for 3 years and will continue to use it again next year. The first year I started I talked at length with a long time user of SL and suggested just buying one Core and using for it for all my kids, but after taking advise from several people on the forums I chose to use two cores. I enjoyed the first two years while using two separate cores for my 3 kids (13, 13, and 9), but was overwhelmed with the amount of reading I was having to do. My kids often listened in on the others school books anyway. I decided to combine this year and have had great success, and plan on combining again next year. The year after that my older ones will be in Coree 100 and will do it independantly. Looking back, I wish I would have taken the first advise given to me and combined from the start. We of course do their own grade level work in every other subject except bible, history and science. I expect different amount of work for each child but we are covering the same material. Like the other ladies have stated, we now use SL a little differently than we started. I somtimes skip books here and there and substitute/add books as I find appropriate. I still use the IG as a GUIDE not a mandatory schedule.

I was homeschooled for a few years back in the early 80's when homeschooling wasn't heard of much My mother used textbooks (boring) for our education. She actually bought the exact materials being used in the school system at that time.

Is the teachers' manual necessary for Vocabulary from Classical Roots or can you get by with answer key only?

My son loves LOF and is beginning to hate MUS. I haven't thought LoF has enough questions for a stand alone program. I am wondering is there more problems/review in the high school levels of LOF?

I looked at the new Delta student books at a homeschool convention. The books are the same pages A-F with an added page G. The added pages have more word problems, bar graphs, angles, and shapes. I went ahead and purchased the new student books even though I had an older copy. I think it will help my son with some topics he might see on his state mandated yearly standardized testing. If I didn't have the money I would have been ok to just use what we had. The MUS representative said the Alpha and BEta weren't really changed much, but simply added the enrichment pages into the student book instead of separate as they have been. As a side note I sold my Delta student set the same day I advertised them.

I used Core D in 2011 and don't remember seeing this chart. If it was there we didn't use it. I looked at the current IG sample and this is used in week 2. If you were to use Sonlight, you don't have to use everything in the IG. I think this is not a major portion of the Core. I loved SL Core D. It has been one of our favorite Cores.

When I pulled my twins out of PS, I started them with Gamma in 5th grade. They really just needed a review. We did MUS at an accelerated pace. We did Gamma, Delta, and a portion of Epsilon in 5th grade. Then we finished Epsilon and Zeta this year in 6th grade.

Sonlight's cores are now letters instead of numbers since they can be used over several different ages. My twins are doing Core E which in the the current catalog states it is for ages 9-12 and grades 4-7th. My twins are 12 y/o in the 6th grade. I personally like the kids being on the older age range for the Cores. My younger son is in the middle range for the cores and does well. Last year Sonlight did a lot of change to Core A-G, and this year they changed Core H,W and some high school Cores. I like the changes to the IG's but not some of the book additions.

We used Lof Fractions last year with MUS Epsilon and there was a time we had to close the LOF book until we went over that material in MUS. We are using LOF as supplement and not our main math. This year we did well over half of MUS Zeta before starting LOF decimals and percents that way we will not have the same issue as last year. We just the LOF book so I don't know how this will be this time.

Thank you for your replies. I did forget to mention we use Wordly wise for vocabulary already and will just continue with the next level.

We have used SL LA loosely the last two years. We diligently worked through the assignments until half-way and then I just dropped most of the writing assignments. I do not think I am going to purchase SL LA again this for my younger son (8 turning 9 in summer). I will possibly use Winston Grammar with him since I already own this and have used it with my other two children. We are working our way through IEW SWI- B as family right now with the supplemental SWI-A work for my 8 y/o son but he isn't doing great with this. I plan on using Phonetic Zoo for spelling since we already own. He will use readers from Sonlight. If I use Essentials in writing for him next year with the grammar and spelling we already have will this be all we need to do to cover the broad heading of LA? I have only been homeschooling a couple of years and always wonder are we doing enough or the right things?

Shetland Sheepdogs aka Shelties are one our favorite dogs. They are very smart loyal dogs. They are however very barky and do not like to be alone. We currently have a 4 1/2 month old sheltie and she is wonderful with our kids. They are very energetic dogs.

As I understood from what I read on the facebook page, is that you can use old books/dvds but will not have answers for the added page.