I love that book, it's been on my wishlist for a while!! Have you looked at TruthQuest History? It's a *very* flexible curriculum, more of a framework really, that gives lists of many resources, and breaks down by time period. Other Guerber/Miller guides are some of the main suggested resources. I'm considering it for a year or two down the road. www.truthquesthistory.com

It depends on your educational goals. If you are doing a 4 year history cycle, it might not match up exactly. On the other hand, if you're not really taking the classical route it may seem outside the box for you. If I am remembering correctly, Classical Studies is the one with Christian Studies, Greek Myths, and Famous Men of Rome. Depending on the age of your son and your goals, it might or might not be a good fit. I do think it's a good class though for a Classical family that perhaps doesn't follow a specific schedule... we're not lucky enough to be near Highlands but have looked at doing the course at home.

I remember that discussion Bill... and I knew we'd move through quickly. I just didn't expect him to read the whole thing in 3 days, LOL!! We're going to take a look at the rest. Like I said, I do think there's a lot of good information in it... we'll see how it goes. :)

Oh, wow... how awful!! I have returned quite a few things... great, another thing to worry about. Not sure what the materials are, but can you get them from a different source?? Sorry. :(

MCT Island Level recently arrived at our home. After looking at it for a while, I do have some thoughts... My son loves it. But he just wants to read through the stories because he finds them quirky and interesting. He "gets" the information in Grammar Island, but then, he's never had trouble with parts of speech. (Thank you, Schoolhouse Rock, LOL.) So, he already finished Grammar Island on his own. He's not really interested in going back to discuss it. Moving on to Sentence Island, I think he wants to read that the same way. I do think ALL the books have a lot of great information and they're interesting. But truly, I'm having trouble actually shaping this into a curriculum. I see this more as something you'd do above and beyond a basic grammar and writing program, just for enrichment... and it's awfully expensive as an enrichment package. I don't know what we're going to do, but I'm just not seeing us being able to stick with it as our base program. It's not so much that it needs supplementing... more that MCT, itself, IS the supplement... or at least that's how it seems to me after reviewing it.

Yes, I was also wondering what Tasha thought!! :) There's not a dog I don't love, but I really wish I could have a German Shepherd. My allergies have unfortunately gotten worse over the years and I ended up having trouble even with my beagle and lab. Once they both passed, we got a Standard Poodle who is the current love of our lives, and I can even breathe!! ;)

That's an excellent link... the newsletters are full of good info. We don't currently use Saxon Math, but are trying to decide how to proceed with our curriculum. I can tell it would be a good resource!! Thanks...

What age/ability level is a good cutoff between Challenge Math and Primary?? I have a 9 year old DS who is ahead in math. Is there a website for all these, or are they just on Amazon?? Thanks!!

I have this one, and I *love* it!! http://www.target.com/p/OXO-SoftWorks-Smooth-Edge-Can-Opener/-/A-13567823 It's the only one I've ever had that hasn't immediately broken. I may go buy a couple more to keep in reserve for future years, LOL!! It opens smoothly and you don't have to crank until your arm hurts. I can't use an electric can opener to save my life, so this is perfect for us.

Thank you everyone, for your feedback. I've been mulling this over all afternoon. I don't want to be too hasty, and I have considered whether it's too easy of a level for him... perhaps we didn't get the placement quite right. We did do placement testing, and he was right between 3A/3B. Even with the placement, I'm surprised at how much of this is review for him. I'm still not entirely sure it meshes with his learning style though. Danielle, that's one other thing I've been considering... I don't know that I'll want to use Singapore for the upper grades, so do I really want to get him used to this "style" for just a couple years?? I don't know. These are great ideas, and I do feel better after hearing from all of you. Especially on the enrichment pieces... we use LOF now and he loves them, and I might try some of your other suggestions. I could definitely see supplementing with Zaccaro or Beast Academy. My DS would be thrilled to learn math from comic books. ;) I may do this: Just work through the 3A Textbook, since I already have it sitting here. Read it together at an accelerated pace, have him do the exercises at the end of each chapter to check that he does know the material. Skip the workbook altogether at this point, and just stop if we hit something he needs to review or learn. I might also review the placement tests... depending on what that tells me, I may do the same with 3B, just work through the textbook together quickly and stop when we get to a point of new content. Thoughts?? I'm a little afraid of missing something, or moving on too quickly. But I think going through at least 3A like that will tell us whether the program is a good fit but just not the right level, or whether it's really not going to work out.

If it's anything like DS's old school, it was a lot of extras... they talked about minor holidays, had assemblies, and waited in line for recess quite frequently... the more major things, not so much!! Yeah... one thing we used to hear was how DS could socialize a bit less. Go figure. P.S. - I figured out how to multiquote... yay, me!! ;)

Nicole, for what age do you think this program would be a good fit? My DS is nine... like I said, we just covered the very basic pieces recently, but will need more in the coming months, I'm sure.

These are great ideas, and I do feel better after hearing from all of you. I may do this: Just work through the 3A Textbook, since I already have it sitting here. Read it together at an accelerated pace, have him do the exercises at the end of each chapter to check that he does know the material. Skip the workbook altogether at this point, and just stop if we hit something he needs to review or learn. I might also review the placement tests for 3B, and do the same thing, depending on whether the errors were in one or two major areas only, like Wapiti said. Thoughts?? I think going through at least 3A like that will tell us whether the program is a good fit but just too easy, or whether it's really not going to work out.

We're finding the same thing here. We have a neighbor boy who is a 4th grader. He goes to after school care as both parents work, but it used to be that when they got home at 5:00 or 5:30, DS and the neighbor boy would play outside, weather permitting. Now when they get home, they're rushing inside to get dinner and do a ton of homework. And that's not counting the four days per week (!) he has commitments for his soccer team. Needless to say, we rarely see him anymore. Meanwhile, my DS got together with kids several times this week, and was able to socialize and visit with his friends, and we snuck some learning in too. Ironic indeed...

It was, that's what's surprising. He was sort of on the bubble... got *just* enough wrong to choose 3A rather than 3B... we chose the lower of the two thinking it would make an easier transition. But even with the placement, I'm surprised at how much of 3A is review for him. I appreciate everyone's thoughts. I don't want to give up on SM too quickly, but if their style of mental math and pictorial teaching just doesn't mesh with DS, I don't want to stick with something that's not right. I may look at it a bit more this week. On the cross post on the other board, Beast Academy was recommended. I don't think he's quite ready for pre-algebra, so he's not ready for AOPS, and BA is not quite ready for him yet, LOL. We do have the LOF elementary books, and although he's beyond the math in the early ones, he still enjoys them and finds them delightfully quirky. :) Any additional thoughts greatly appreciated!!

I can answer some of this. We're using Prima Latina right now and I've looked at the next programs as well. 1. Obviously there are a couple schools of thought... one says start Latin young and it'll be helpful with their vocabulary, plus make it easier to pick up other languages. One says wait a little while, and they'll get more out of it and be able to handle declension and conjugation better. Another, of course, says skip Latin altogether and focus on learning Latin and Greek roots and word origin. Just depends what your priorities are! 2. Personally, I would chunk your two oldest and your next oldest. MP says you can start right into Latina Christiana, so there's no true need to do Prima Latina unless you want to... you could easily do LC with your oldest two. Then do it again a few years later with your next two, then the next two. 3. PL has 30 lessons including review. You could easily do 1 or 2 per week and have them review or listen to the CD on a different day. I'm not sure about LC. 4. - Kind of goes back to #1 5. There are plenty out there, that's a topic in itself!! I know lots of people like Latin for Children, or Getting Started with Latin, and others, but I don't know anything about those. I don't know any Latin either, so even PL is also a learning experience for me. Hope that gives you some food for thought, at least!!

Cheryl, I did wonder if it's just too easy... he just doesn't seem to mesh with the style though. I really thought he'd like the pictorial concepts... but who knows, maybe he would in a different topic area. He did seem to enjoy sample problems with patterns and "logic" type exercises. I don't know, maybe before we buy anything else, we can try another chapter and skip over some of the mental math. I guess I was concerned that if he doesn't buy into "their style" of mental math, the whole program may be rough for him?? Bill, I do like the look of Beast Academy... I wonder if it would work better as a supplement than a whole program though? I just can't tell from the few sample pages they have. Also, does anyone know exactly when the program will be out and what the cost may be? And when they expect to have the next levels ready? Thanks... please keep any thoughts coming!!

I would love your help figuring out which math to use for my son. I'll apologize in advance for the length of this!! This is our first year HSing DS9, who is technically a 3rd grader. He is a very mathy kid... his 2nd grade teacher told us she can't remember meeting a kid who thinks so easily in such mathematical terms. When we first started, we got 3rd grade LifePac math. I now realize LP isn't that strong of a math program, and he worked through it at about double speed... we finished it up the first week of February. I looked at some options, and went with Abeka for the next level... we just weren't crazy about it. It's a good program, but for DS, the pages were far too busy, the print too small, and far too much jumping around (some instruction, a row of problems, a couple word problems, some addition facts, a couple more word problems... and so on). So we looked around a little more, and kept hearing wonderful things about how good Singapore is for "mathy" or gifted kids. So we did the placement test, started back with 3A to hit more mental math, and ordered it. Believe it or not, it's a total flop here. DS is a very conceptual thinker... he instinctively "gets" place value, regrouping and things like that, very little explanation needed. I think the problem is that Singapore is trying to teach in a way contrary to what he instinctively does. (Example: adding 16 to another two digit number, you add the 10, then the 6. And show it in a row of boxes. DS told me he doesn't need the boxes, he gets what they're trying to do, but he can do it faster without taking all those steps so what's the point?!?) I'm not saying SM's methods might not be better than his... just that it goes against his natural thought process and I'd rather work with it than against it. Does that make sense at all?? A poster here the other day was talking about how by the time you explain all the pictorials, break everything down into place value, get out your manipulatives... your kid has already solved the problem and moved on. It's just like that. So... I'm back at square one. Now what?!? We'd like something that isn't heavily scripted... I of course work with him on new concepts, but neither of us wants a program where I have to present an entire lesson using manipulatives and a whiteboard every day. We're looking at CLE... it's supposed to be a strong math program, where we can do drill each day but then DS can work fairly independently, and at his pace. (It appeals to us because even though we didn't like the content of LP's, we liked the selfpaced worktext with instructions included right on the pages.) I'm also wondering if I should just go with Saxon, since that seems to be the gold standard, LOL... but I keep hearing how "drill and kill" that one is and I think we'd both want to throw it out the window too. Thoughts? What are some things we can look at? Would CLE be worth a try for us? Am I totally off my rocker and far too picky, LOL? My thought is that I'd rather go through several rounds of this *now* to find something that will work for DS for several years, and we'll just be able to stick to it. Would appreciate some feedback... thanks so much!! :grouphug:

I have asked lots of questions about math on the K-8 board, and I'm still having trouble deciding... although I keep *thinking* we have it settled, LOL! So I'm posting this on the main board, but here as well, and I'm hoping you all can give me some perspective. This is our first year HSing DS9, who is technically a 3rd grader. He is a very mathy kid... his 2nd grade teacher told us she can't remember meeting a kid who thinks so easily in such mathematical terms. When we first started, we got 3rd grade LifePac math. I now realize LP isn't that strong of a math program, and he worked through it at about double speed... we finished it up the first week of February. I looked at some options, and went with Abeka for the next level... we just weren't crazy about it. It's a good program, but for DS, the pages were far too busy, the print too small, and far too much jumping around (some instruction, a row of problems, a couple word problems, some addition facts, a couple more word problems... and so on). So we looked around a little more, and kept hearing wonderful things about how good Singapore is for "mathy" or gifted kids. So we did the placement test, started back with 3A to hit more mental math, and ordered it. Believe it or not, it's a total flop here. DS is a very conceptual thinker... he instinctively "gets" place value, regrouping and things like that, very little explanation needed. I think the problem is that Singapore is trying to teach in a way contrary to what he instinctively does. (Example: adding 16 to another two digit number, you add the 10, then the 6. And show it in a row of boxes. DS told me he doesn't need the boxes, he gets what they're trying to do, but he can do it faster without taking all those steps so what's the point?!?) I'm not saying SM's methods might not be better than his... just that it goes against his natural thought process and I'd rather work with it than against it. Does that make sense at all?? A poster on the K-8 board the other day was talking about how by the time you explain all the pictorials, break everything down into place value, get out your manipulatives... your kid has already solved the problem and moved on. It's just like that. So... I'm back at square one. Now what?!? We'd like something that isn't heavily scripted... I of course work with him on new concepts, but neither of us wants a program where I have to present an entire lesson using manipulatives and a whiteboard every day. We're looking at CLE... it's supposed to be a strong math program, where we can do drill each day but then DS can work fairly independently, and at his pace. (It appeals to us because even though we didn't like the content of LP's, we liked the selfpaced worktext with instructions included right on the pages.) I'm also wondering if I should just go with Saxon, since that seems to be the gold standard, LOL... but I keep hearing how "drill and kill" that one is and I think we'd both want to throw it out the window too. Thoughts? What are some things we can look at? Would CLE be worth a try for us? Am I totally off my rocker and far too picky, LOL? My thought is that I'd rather go through several rounds of this *now* to find something that will work for DS for several years, and we'll just be able to stick to it. Would appreciate some feedback... thanks so much!!

I just wanted to say this post is helpful for me as well. My son fits this TO A TEE!! We're still experimenting, but some of the things mentioned help us as well. The routines are very important here too... if he goes to bed not tired, without a "wind down" or "talk about our day" time... it's not pretty. :)

Oh, I do hope your child feels better quickly. But I confess when stomach bugs are involved, I have the same reaction to my poor son or husband. (There, there, I hope you feel better... across the room.) And *fight* the urge to Lysol everything? I'd be embracing that particular feeling and go buy a few cans, LOL...

I know we're the parent and they're the kids, but if they're miserable, so are we. If your daughter is already frustrated with math, I don't know that the drill of Saxon would help that any. Someone alluded to this in a previous post... have you considered setting aside formal math for a bit, and just doing drill on facts?? You could try timezattack, or a bookstore workbook, or flashcards, or whatever method helps the most. Just a thought. It's not easy!! ((Hugs))

I wouldn't give it up just for not finding PL interesting either. In fact, we do find it interesting. I'm just wondering if our time would be better spent on other things, I guess. Like Spanish, additional math, vocabulary roots... you see what I mean. I can't specifically speak to whether those are OP's thoughts.

Tammi, we're kind of in the same boat... I feel like the Goldilocks of Math, LOL, looking for something that's just right. :D Here, DS is not behind, and in fact he's quite mathy, but I don't want it to get to that point... I need to find something and stick with it. I was just curious about something... you said you tried CLE and it didn't take. Why was that? On paper, it sounds like what you need... spiral program, builds in drill and fact review, and it's reasonably independent. So I was wondering why that didn't work? I admit I've heard mixed reviews on TT, but I do think it works well for a lot of kids. It sounds like this may be a good option for your daughter to get going and stick with it. Good luck!!

Slightly off topic here, but curious... For three days I've been online trying to order CLE math. The last two, the website just seems to have not been working... I put things in my cart but it tells me the cart is empty, and won't let me create an account. (Today it says the website doesn't operate on Sunday. I completely respect that they're observing the Lord's day, it just surprised me, as I've never run across a company that even shuts down the website on Sunday!!) Has anyone else had trouble the past few days, or is it just me? Is their website normally pretty reliable?