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Spring Flower

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Posts posted by Spring Flower

  1. We are moving and are interested in purchasing a house in a certain neighborhood. Right now there are zero houses for sale in that neighborhood and I'm feeling a little discouraged. A friend of mine said that she once passed out flyers in a neighborhood they wanted to buy and was able to successfully find a house this way. I'm getting a little desperate and I'm thinking of doing this. Has anyone ever done this? Would I list my phone number? Email? Would I knock on doors and just talk to people? The neighborhood isn't particularly large and it is in a relatively small town with friendly and neighborly people. Any advice? Is this totally weird? 

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  2. Just a perspective from a person hunting for a house right now.... I've noticed that some people have done recent updates but I just don't like them. The color is wrong, the tile is weird, the cabinets are ugly, the granite counter tops color/pattern is wrong, etc. Even reading through this thread there are several opinions about what needs to be replaced and what doesn't. I say give it a good cleaning and declutter and then let it go! I wouldn't waste money on it. Those pictures look good enough to me. 

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  3. My DD8 just finished SM5 and is almost finished with Beast 4. I'm going to continue through Beast 5 and start her in AOPS PreA some time this fall. I already purchased the AOPS book and looking at it I feel that we will be fine to start right away. I'm like dmmetler in that I feel nervous about starting too early. In reality probably the only thing holding DD back is me! This thread is helping me to feel more confident in moving along. The main reason I want to move along is that DD is getting tired of doing basic arithmetic. She is anxious to start into algebra. I did buy the exponent Key to Algebra book and she is loving it. I think we will be fine to move on. Good luck in your choice.

  4. We've been doing the Beast + Singapore combo and love it. I plan to skip Singapore 6. We may get lucky and finish the Beast grade 5 books. If 5C and D aren't out in time, I plan to start in on AOPS PreAlgebra. I'm not too worried about the transition for my particular kids. 

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  5. Thanks for the replies. I tried starting a free chess club this year for kids to meet up and play chess twice a month at our local library. There was a lot of initial excitement but things died down rather quickly. I imagine this would be the same. I hoped that if parents had made a financial commitment that they would feel more obligated to participate but we'll see. Thanks for your experience dmmetler.

  6. I would love to sign my DD up for MOEMS next year but there are no homeschool teams in our area. I wouldn't mind starting a group myself I just don't know how to deal with the financial part of it. I would be responsible for the initial fee which is $99-$109 dollars per team as well as providing copies of all the practice tests and any other supplies. It will also take time and preparation for me to put together activities for a weekly math meeting as well as host the meetings. It seems like a lot of work for a volunteer coach. When I taught math many years ago, I coached the MATHCOUNTS team at our school but I was paid for my extra hour of work a week. 

     

    For those who have joined a MOEMS team, did you have to pay to participate? Would it be unreasonable for me to charge above what would be required to cover the basic team entry fee? Has anyone ever hosted a team themselves? Any other advice for me as I consider this idea? 

  7. We are on our 4th year of the cycle and we did OT, NT, BoM, D&C. I just read 1 chapter a day from the reader maybe 3 times a week. We usually get through it twice in a year. For the Book of Mormon last year, my DD was old enough and ready to read the full book independently so I had her on a schedule to finish it by the end of the year. I read the BoM reader with DS. I haven't found it to be too much work to plan at this point.  I'm not doing intensive study, though, and my kids are still young. I also choose memory work scriptures from the book we are studying that year and I get most of them from scripture mastery. I usually choose about 5-8 scriptures per year. We do family scripture study separately.  

  8. Hi,  my family did Beast Academy 3A, 3B, 3C and then my son took an AoPS Pre-Algebra 1 class.  :)    It was a bit tough doing the AoPS online class, we had to fill in holes, but after pre-algebra 1 he was caught up.  :-)

     

    We would have gone through the other Beast Academy books, but they weren't released yet.  :-)

     

    Wow! We are lucky that 5D will be released close to when we will need it so I think we will be able to finish the series before moving on to AOPS PreAlgebra. (Assuming they are published on schedule.) 

  9. Thank you dmmetler and Gil for you thoughts and input. 

     

    I know that DD is ready to move on from SM. I think Key to Algebra will be a good fit, especially after reading dmmetler's comments. Her experience describes my daughter exactly. DS is another question. He doesn't have the "burnout" that DD has with SM. I think I would strongly consider putting him in SM6 but it is really hard to do that when his big sister has an algebra book. Still not sure what to do with him. 

     

     

     

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  10. DD8 is doing SM 5B standards edition. She is also in book 4A of Beast Academy. I expect to finish up SM around May. Beast I'm not so sure how fast it will go. The plan is to continue on with Beast 5. I know I want to finish Beast before starting with AOPS Pre-Algebra. I'm beginning to think that I would like to do a little something more before AOPS. Key to Algebra seems like a basic and simple algebra course that DD would love. She would work on it along with BA5. Has anyone used this program with a younger child? Would this work as a pre-pre-algebra course? Any other pre AOPS PreAlgebra recommendations?

     

    DD has all the basic concepts of arithmetic down so I'm not sure I want to do SM6. I used to teach pre-algebra and algebra and I think a student at her level would have done just fine in my pre-algebra class. I'm a little nervous about the jump to AOPS pre-algebra, though. Any words of advice?

     

    I know it sounds nuts but DS6 is only 50 pages or so behind DD8 in both SM and BA. He works completely independently and usually gets about 90% (or more) of the problems correct. In many ways his math understanding is deeper than hers. I'm even more nervous about jumping to AOPS with him because he is so immature but I know it is inevitable. He needs a rigorous course. No clue what to do with this kid. Again, any advice would be great. 

     

    By the way, we have tons of other math supplements: CWP, Life of Fred, Zaccarro, etc. I'm actually ready to start paring down and just focus on AOPS in the next year or two if possible. 

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  11. Yes, the numbers can be used more than once on the magic square. It is the easiest section of the test IMO. On the mental math section, they can look at the problem on the page but can't make any mark of any kind anywhere on the paper except the final answer on the answer line. 

  12. Thank you Spring Flower. I've never heard of this before. Can you tell me if it's real competitive? Or just for fun?

     

    Are there a lot of questions?

     

    Thanks for any input.

     

    Our center had about 10 kids in each grade and DD won a medal. The atmosphere was fun and lighthearted and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. The practice tests on the website are exactly like the real exam. 

     

    http://www.mathnasiumtrimathlon.com/practice-tests

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  13. I received an email from Scripps today with more details for anyone who is interested:

     

     

     

    Thank you for your interest. Although (your city) does not currently have an official Bee-authorized sponsor, you may still enroll your home school in the Bee at www.spellingbee.com.   

     

    ·         If you enroll a home school association/group/co-op on or before October 15, 2015, the cost is $136 per association/group/co-op.

    ·         If you enroll an individual home school family on or before October 15, 2015, the cost is $94 per individual home school family.

     

    A Bee-authorized sponsor is a business, community organization, college or university that signs a contract with our office agreeing to coordinate and pay for a spelling bee program for all schools within an area (a city, county or group of counties). The responsibilities of an official sponsor include:

     

    • Organizing a final local spelling bee for the entire sponsored area
    • Serving as the principal spelling bee contact for schools within the sponsored area
    • Recruiting a pronouncer, judges, officials and other volunteers for the final local spelling bee
    • Securing a venue for the final local spelling bee
    • Paying for (and making the arrangements for) the local champion’s trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland
    • Paying an annual sponsorship fee

     

    If no Scripps National Spelling Bee-authorized sponsor’s program is in place in your community by December 4, 2015, and your home school is enrolled, our office will email you details regarding the application process for sponsoring your home school champion’s participation in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland. The cost of school self-sponsorship for 2016 is $3,450.

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  14. Hmm. Yes sponsors do change over time. If you don't have one I think you are stuck.

     

    I know CA has separate spelling bees that aren't related to the Scripps one. Maybe MI does too if your child really wants to do spelling bees.

     

    Spellbound came out right before my son got into spelling bees and it really fueled the fire. Samir Patel, the boy who was really young, was at his bee.

     

    Thanks for your help!

  15. My oldest went to the National Spelling Bee in 2005. It was the first year our regional bee allowed homeschoolers and he won it which was really cool. I became good friends with the person who organized the Homeschool bee that we started with and have helped her run it almost every year since.

     

    What state are you in? It may be simpler to figure out who sponsors your area's regional bee. Some states have a bunch of them, some only have one. Then contact the regional bee people to find out how to get into that. The only way to get to the national bee is through a regional bee.

     

    I found this link:

    https://secure.spellingbee.com/local_bee_data

     

    Put in your zip code and it will give you your regional spelling bee info.

     

    We are in Michigan. According to the website we don't have a sponsor. I know we have had a sponsor in the past because one of the children in the documentary "Spellbound" was from our county. 

  16. Yes, definitely check with Scripps for 2 things - (a) if there is already a home school bee in your region, and (b) if there is a regional in your area as well (they do everything by strict geographical boundaries, it seems, though our entire state was included in the regional bee for our area).

     

    In our case, the home school group that our family belongs to is not in our state, so we could not participate through that venue either.

     

    I asked the Scripps representative about the level of connection required to be a "group," and she told me the only requirement was geographical; most of the families who participated in our bee did not know each other (or me) prior to the day of the bee.

     

    I, too, found Scripps extremely difficult to work with as a homeschooler; that said, I kept on asking & clarifying until I found out what I needed to know, and we had a very successful and enjoyably challenging day. So - it's worth the work!

     

    I have hunted the website and I don't see a phone number. I emailed them with the questions I have but I would much rather talk to a person on the phone. Can anyone help me find it?

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