Thanks for the suggestion.

It's nice to know that he can get better with time ...:). Yes, it's hard not to compare when you're surrounded by above-average kids and early learners.

He learned to read when he's 6 and he's fine in that department. Not early, but still within the range, I think. He's strong and solid in math; we use Horizons 5 and MM 5 for 5th grade. Science and histories - he reads and watches science programs. So he's fine with that. His main weaknesses are: memorization, skills, and it takes a long time for him to understand something. Certainly not sharp. His strength: his personality and his imagination.

Kai, he's able to do all those things now ... but it takes a while to teach him.

Yes, I think he's normal, but a bit slower. As long as I teach him diligently, he will understand and be able to do things. But everything has to be explicit and reviewed continuously. I hope that I kind give him everything he needs for college and beyond. I'm still afraid though, that because he's not "bright" that he will have difficulties in the workplace. He's v. outgoing , funny, and imaginative though, so he should think carefully on how to capitalize on his strength. His aunt is not strong academically, but she's a good sales rep and gets good money. His grand uncles - all 3 of them- despised school, but all of them are successful entrepreneurs.

I have a 10 yo son who needs to be taught everything explicitly and whatever taught has to be taught incrementally and reviewed endlessly. Also, it takes more time for him to understand something. E.g. - how to write ... as in penmanship. Even now sometimes he writes his t and i from the bottom. - how to write a sentence. - how to use a ruler, including how to make a table, how to divide a paper into columns, etc. - how to write a title and the fact that he should skip a line or two after the title , and that a title should be centered. - the right side of the paper. - and many things which I thought should not take that long to learn. If you have experience with this kind of child, please tell me that there's a hope ...:). I'm tired. He's always kind of 'end of the spectrum' child within the normal range. So instead of walking at 12 months, he walked at 15 months. Instead of flipping over at 4-5 months, it took just over 6 months to flip over. And instead of crawling at 8 months, he crawled when he just turned 10 months. He couldn't write anything till 6.5 yo at which point I had to start him with HWT (preK level). It took 2 months to teach him blending when he's 6, but fortunately, by the time he's 6.5 he could read (well, he finished the primer). So eventually things work out. Last IOWA which he took at the end of 4th grade shows that he's working at 5.1 grade, which makes him just on target (and provides me with a great relief). Now, is there a hope for this kind of boy ? Other than these, he's a kind and sweet boy. Very helpful. Unfortunately, my circle of friends consists mostly immigrants w/ engg.and comp-based occupations (high earners) and their kids are mostly above average (you know, full of honors, G/T kiddos, this and that certificates of achievement, this and that scholars, valedictorian, etc). So my view of what constitutes average can be skewed, but my heart aches for my son. How can he survive as an adult in a competitive world ? Pls, if you have this kind of child, share your experience and what you've done to make this child thrive in outside world. Thanks.

Jazakillah khair Kate. You're right though. It's slow moving and a bit verbose/preachy ? Plus, Umar doesn't look like what I envisioned him to be. He's also pretty meek there - I always thought that he's a bit brash. Nevertheless, it's pretty good.

Protopic is an immune modulator drug I think, not steroid. It's also used for eczema.

Ramadan Mubarak to everyone too ... My 8 and 10 yo intend to fast full time this year, and alhamdulillah, 6 days on and they're still going strong. Kiddos are excited with all the activities and special dishes/drink I make them for iftar. Our community has this Ramadan school every Saturday evening to coincide with the adult's weekly circle. The last Saturday in Ramadan (before Eid) there'll be a performance night by the children followed by gift giving ceremonies - the organizer calls parents one by one to the stage to give their children presents while the organizer gives the children certificates, goodie bags, small present, and then gets the whole family photographed. We've been doing this since 2009 and this really makes the whole thing more exciting. They're very easy to wake up for early morning meal as well -in our place, we wake up at 4.30 am, eat, and do the Fajr/dawn prayer at around 5.30. They don't feel hungry at all, but in the evening, the mouth feels dry. They've been v. obedient with Quran reading and memorization as well. I told them that ALlah said ramadan is about Quran first and foremost, and tmentioned fasting only after the Quran emphasis. Hope you all have a blessed Ramadan, may Allah forgive our sins, and accept our worship.

Do you mean Before FIAR or Beyond FIAR ? (I assume Beyond ..) I just use the Bare Books w/ spiral for notebooking. THe first two kids are a bit older now that they can decorate their notebook themselves. Sometimes they just write something on the book. SOmetimes they make flap book/minit book from colored paper which they cut themselves. FYI, I'm also kinda winging it in terms of notebooking, but I plan the lesson and assignment, e.g. summarizing, making diagram, drawing a table, compare-contrast - all those things. The lesson planning (the info) itself is easy - I mainly use SOTW and whatever children encyclopedias we have at home. Internet is also used - mainly for videos and weird topics like history of tomato in US. I throw in special-topic books if we have those. But I don't depend on the library for this - too much headache. For the language art portion of Beyond - we have one for writing techniques and creative writing assignment (their Writing Strands assignments go here too), and another for vocab. I haven't assigned any non-fiction yet (like science report, bio sketch), but in the future, those kind of assignments and research will go to their subject notebooks.

I always use my own LA when doing FIAR. I thought it's meant to be like that :001_huh:. So for me, FIAR is for social studies, science, and art AND a supplement to an already existing math and LA curricula. When used like this, I think it's not light for the grade intended. As for jumping around ...:), I just recently found the beauty on it. For us, it provides reviews and each time we revisit, we dig deeper . I separate our notebook according to the subject, not by title, so you can actually see that 'eventually' a good amount of topics are taught. E.g. Japan - first time, it's just a basic JApan social study. Next time, some early history of JApan with reviews of Japan as a country. By the time you get to bBeyond, you introduce topics like the politics of isolation, Meiji Restoration, and its involvement in the WW. And we can also introduce more aspects on JApanese cultures if there's interest. Sure it's not neat and chronological, but as long as you have something to help synthesizing the knowledge (notebook by subject, timeline), then you'll see growth and more importantly, the retention is there for the most part ..:)

I read the translation starting 8 (end of second grade). I started with the famous five and secret seven series. They're v. easy to understand because they contain pure adventure. THird grade I started with the find outer series which is of whodunit/mystery genre so it's a bit like Agatha Christie for the younger audience (no murders and affairs of course). I love the Find Outer series the most though - The Pantomime Cat Mystery is the one I love the most. I would not suggest the Find Outer series for a 6 yo though. My son read the Mystery of Burning Cottage by himself when he's fourth grade and understood the plot, but he was stumped with the motive (i.e. burning the cottage to get money from the insurance). Enid Blyton also has a couple of series about girl boarding schools. I love Mallory Towers series the most.

We're not really a bread eater. But we do mostly eat bread for breakfast. In order to limit the amount of processed food, I'd like to learn cooking bread - the easy way (no hours of kneading, KWIM) Please share your favorite whole grain bread recipe and your favorite equipment to make bread a snap ! Thanks

Have you looked at the samples ? I own a few of the first steps and CTT (the upper level). I'm planning to incorporate some of the upper level CTT during the logic stage. I've used some of the first steps (the civilization and leader bit, and also geology). First step: Pros: - it gives a good overview of the topic - it incorporates different modalities to respond to a topic, e.g. via drawing, hands on, experiential field trips/activities, etc. - there are links to movies, music and pictures. Cons: - sometimes the narrative is a bit boring. - some concepts remain too abstract. - sometimes children are asked to respond to something/asked for opinion on topics which they don't have experience of. But sometimes the questions are good questions. Just pick and choose. CTT: as first step, but by this stage, children would have more experience and in general have been exposed to more ideas and knowledge. So, the critical thinking part (asking for opinion) is spot on. I'm planning to use bits and pieces of CTT during logic stage - at least the question parts.

I know PS highschoolers can do AP and get college credits while at highschool. But is it common to enroll and get credits from community college ? Or is it possible to do CLEP as well ? Or high schools usually have college-level courses which students can take but not AP ? Thanks

For both 4th and 5th grader: - Reading: Vintage Readers and Reading Comprehension book from Steck Vaughan to get them used to test format and questions. Other than these, they read freely. - Spelling: Apples and Pears - Vocab: Vocab. Vine (half speed) and discussing difficult words from the vintage readers. - General (usage, poetry, some prose, writing, outlining): Serl's ILL and Writing Strands 3 (half speed, to be finished mid 2013). - Grammar: Evan Moore Daily Paragraph Editing (2 paragr. per week) and KISS Grammar. OTher: - Once a week fairy/folk tales read aloud. - Lit. terms, vocab, etc : cross curricula (FIAR and Beyond FIAR)

Fourth and fifth grade: Language art and math block: 1 h 45 min - 2 hr/day Foreign language: 25-30 min daily (rotated between French and Arabic) Religious instruction (Quranic recitation, Quran memorization, and rotate between Quran read aloud, prophet/good muslim stories/biography, and other aspect of Islamic study) : 1 hr - 1 hr 15 min daily. Content subject block (FIAR or Beyond FIAR or other delight-based study): 1 hr-1 hr 15 min. Total: - w/o religious instruction: 3 hr 45 min. - w/ religious instruction: 5 hr. Independent reading: daily 30 min (no report required, just put in a log). Weekend: typing, while they're on computer.

thanks wapiti ...:)

thanks, nice to know it is possible to do foerster's w/ LoF as a transition.

YOu have house of littles, so pick your battle and focus on your eldest. Forget about your 5 and 3 yo (apart from occasional read aloud). I don't have an ADD child but I teach a couple of ADD children in weekend school. I imagine your child is bouncy/full of energy and won't focus. What seems to work is to focus only for a short time intensively, and quickly change the subject (a la CM). Second, exhaust his energy, so he's less bouncy. If he can't stand writing, act as a scribe and increase his writing load incrementally. I suggest to focus on 3R's and then do FIAR conversationally, i.e. don't try to incorporate any projects/lapbooks/notebooks. Just read and talk (and relax), and sometimes, demonstrate. Yes, you won't have any written record that way, but it is still effective. Go to FIAR board for more info how to do it this way. NOTE: my son is a late bloomer, and won't respond to any academic instruction before 6. I tried and it failed. At 6, I started him w/ Handwriting w/o Tears pre-K level (tried K level, but didn't work, so we had to backtrack to pre-K level). He also started to learn to read and recognized letters (slow going at first) around 6. MAth-wise, he could only count to 10 at 6, but pretty much caught up at the end of his first grade (7.5). At 10, he looks more and more 'normal' and is on target.So, even if you didn't do anything w/ your 5 yo boy, it's OKAY. Just focus on your eldest.

May I suggest Math Mammoth ? I taught my oldest using Right Start, which is heavy on manipulative and v. light on workbook. He sort of understood, but I felt that he wasn't really understanding. So I bought Math Mammoth (back when almost nobody used it ...:)) and it worked wonder. Instead of using manipulative, MM uses pictorial approach, and I think, the acts of writing and seeing are what cemented the concepts to his brain. So basically here's the pros: - very easy to use (no teacher's guide) - incremental. - very explicit - conceptual - enough repetition for conceptual development and skill mastery, e.g., before being taught multiplication algorithm, MM gets the students to understand how to multiply two digit numbers conceptually and practice it repeatedly. Only after that, MM teaches the algorithm (and connect it w/ the 'why') and then drill the skill. - mastery-based --> students will be able to see development of a concept and at the same time it's possible for students/teachers to skip around unrelated concepts (important if your dc ever hit a 'wall'). - challenging/in-depth problems. - mental math. Cons: - workbook-based. - not spiral (if you prefer spiral, don't pick math mammoth). Starting 4th grade, I pair MM with Horizons 4 for spiral reviews because by 4th grade there's too many concepts for me to make my own review. I've been v. pleased with this combination.

Can you describe more on your dd who loves DM but not AOPS ? I'm trying to 'contrast' your dd with Wapiti's dd who is an AOPS lover. Thanks

I'll have a look at this.

My son is also a visual learner. Not sure about spatial though ...:) But he doesn't like to reflect on hard problems. My daughter is more persistent with CWP and the like, trying to find solutions. Can you describe more on your AOPS-prealgebra lover ? Thanks

It's more about 'fit' , right ? How do you know that one child would thrive using AOPS, and the other would thrive using Discovering MAth or other traditional prealgebra, etc ? I don't know how my children think. They need instruction, but sometimes they do discover things and find patterns on their own. I myself is more linear thinker. I need to be taught in parts. Then when I know enough, I need to be taught the big picture so that I can assimilate the parts into a big picture. If teaching stops at 'parts', chances are I would never be able to come up with the big picture.