I am feeling the need to scale back our plans for this coming year... I have Singapore as our math spine and was planning on supplementing with Miquon and c-rods, but now (for several reasons) I am thinking of returning Miquon. I'd like to keep the c-rods and just use them for play/exploration this year (my girls will be 4 and 6 soon and have never used rods before, nor had any formal math instruction...). I have the Intro to c-rods PDF that has been posted here and a few games to use with them. So I guess I'm just wondering: who uses c-rods consistently, but without a formal program (like Miquon)?

Right now we are just doing AAR1 (with BOB books & ETC to review/stretch it out until AAR2 is released). In August, we'll start: Singapore 1A/1B WTM science recs (animals, plants, human body) Evan-Moor Beginning Geography E-M How to Teach Art to Children 6 Trait Daily Writing (Evan Moor) Then, probably around Jan., we'll start: AAS1 FLL1

I don't think you need the manual if you're buying the student pages. You will probably want to get the CD and Beginner time line, though, since they're scheduled into the lessons (and I thought the Beg. TL was really neat!) That said, I didn't care for BSGFAA. Felt like it was more geared toward a class or group and I just had my nearly 4 and 6 yr. olds. We're using Karyn Henley's Beginner's Bible/Begin-to-Read Bible (1 story a day) + one of her devos + We Choose Virtures (1 virtue a week). We may come back to BSGFAA when they are older, but I didn't like it for this age. ETA: We are actually planning on using Sword Fighting (maybe next year, this year I think we'll do Growing With Jesus devo :D)... but Sword Fighting was super-expensive on Amazon. Don't forget to check places like thriftbooks.com or alibris.com for used Bibles and devos. We just bought the Day by Day Kid's Bible and Sword Fighting for dirt cheap (under $5).

Elemental History's Adventures in America is a brief American History + State study for the lower grammar level.

Yeah, at this point I'm looking into getting my own Proclick. I already have a laminator.... might as well go all the way and do it all myself. So at this point, I am less mad and just perplexed at the incompetence.

I was just having the spine removed (making them loose pages). It was only $1 so I figured I'd let them do it and save my time. :glare: But they cut the pages almost into the work area...and then they spiral-bound them (which we didn't request.)

Well, that's terrible! I guess I should be grateful that my manual mistake is purely aesthetic, but still....! Why should we accept shoddy, substandard work? I'm sorry they did that to your manual. Unacceptable!

I'm so ticked off right now and want to vent (and get some opinions)... Until now, I have had nothing but positive experiences having Office Max remove bindings and spiral-binding my homeschool materials. Well....today they not only messed up 1 item...but 3. :confused1: :crying: :cursing: My (*sniff*sniff*) AAR1 manual and 2 ETC workbooks. Has anyone had this experience and what did you do? What is my recourse? Lucky me :glare:, they "won't charge" me for 2 of THEIR mistakes (they cut my ETC spines too far and then proceeded to bind them, when I didn't ask for them bound...I wanted them loose). And my AAR manual isn't beyond use...but I'm not happy with what they did (I had the spine removed/spiral bound and the covers laminated....but they laminated a stupid Post-it note onto the front of my cover). I'll admit to being pretty particular...but AAR was a very expensive purchase for me! So, I plan on going back and talking to the manager. DH picked these items up for me and he paid for the job. For one, I'm asking for that refunded; I don't think I should pay for any of their mistakes. I also think I should be getting compensation for the ruined items so I can purchase replacements...but I doubt the local store can do that. Probably have to contact corporate... Thoughts? Am I overreacting?

So, I'm going back to my earlier post and making this amendment.... I spent a good part of yesterday going through the Student Activity Book and pulling pages out, getting them ready ahead of time (cutting things out, storing them in a page protector). IMO, unless you particularly want to cover a skill that is focused on in the Ziggy game supplement, I don't think you need it just to have some games. The pages in the Activity Book are plenty "game-like." Not a single page is writing or requiring a pencil, it's all moving words, matching, sorting, reading. (And there are several pages that can be used over and over for game-like practice.) So.....if I could go back, I'd save that $20 and skip the game supplement; however, we have it and DD loves it so I'm not annoyed or anything, at all. (And according to DD, you can never have too many games... ;))

Mine came today, too. And -- funny thing is -- I have no plans on ordering anything from them this year, yet I cannot wait for the girls to go to bed so I can lay down and browse the catalog. :D

Thanks for sharing the cheaper disc link! :) I'm definitely adding these to my next Amazon purchase. I think it'll help DD.

For my next Kindergartner, I'm using CLE's new Kindergarten program (already have it purchased, LOL, and we're still a year away from K). For not much more $$ than the generic workbooks you can buy in a store, it's a solid & complete program with beginning reading and math instruction. I think it was around $30 total; I've previewed it and I think it looks really good. I'm also doing a Letter of the Week program beforehand (fun, crafty activities, stories). I think something like that + some fun art activities, science read-alouds, and plenty of playtime makes a great Kinder year. :)

I have a very wiggly little girl. She is rarely still. I was thinking about getting one of these for writing time... Might be helpful?

Yes. See my post above.

Well, that might explain the price difference then... Thank you. Haha, you have a valid point.

My 5 yr old (nearly 6) really enjoys it. We don't have the puppet Ziggy, but the game comes with a picture of Ziggy that you can glue to the front of a file folder and prop up to "play" games with. I thought DD was "above it" but she begs for them. So far we've done the 1st 2 games and she asks for them all the time. It took me FOREVER to put it all together, though. I wish the game pieces were printed on card stock b/c they're already getting bent (and I refuse to laminate them :p b/c that's just MORE cutting out I have to do). But overall, glad I bought it. The games really are simple and you could find similar ones online for free... But they've made my DD happy (as has AAR1 in general) so I'll not complain (too loudly). :) ETA: We also don't cut/paste/color the things in the activity book. I store each activity page in a page protector. If it's a matching page (that we should paste) we just don't; we cut it out, match it and then store it to review another day. There's one page right near the beginning of a monster that eats bones; my daughters have "played" with that page multiple times already. The fluency pages also go in a page protector to do a few lines at a time. (I'm saving it all for my youngest, who is just a couple years behind in age, but closer in reading level.) So these pages, for us, almost feel game-like.

I'd like to buy some base ten 100s flats to use with our cuis. rods. Looking around, it looks like I can get blue, yellow and then transparent yellow (for an overhead projector). Does anyone know why the regular blue and yellow ones are priced differently? The yellow always seems to be cheaper... are they sized differently or something?

I'm thankful the OP posted her situation b/c I'm finding all of the replies helpful.

I've heard on another forum that these astronomically high Amazon prices are due to certain business/sellers using software to keep their wares competitively, yet profitably priced. Things inch up and up, pricewise, and if they don't keep a close look-out, sometimes items end up ridiculously priced.

:iagree: with everything you said there. (Even the dirty little fact....)

I asked a few months ago and was told there were no plans at the moment.

We're pretty unscheduled. To be honest, right now we're just do reading instruction, about 30 minutes Mon-Thurs. The only other consistent thing is story time at the library on Friday mornings. We've also been going to the zoo on Fridays. Other than that, we play outside a lot, go to the playground in the afternoons, work in the garden. After a few more weeks of doing just reading, I will be adding in a more consistent Bible study time. After that, maybe math. :)

That's pretty much what we do (though my kiddos are young). We also have a few kid exercise videos we pull out on rainy days (one of which has discussion on healthy foods, different muscles, warming up and cooling down.) We also use our Fit Deck Jr. occasionally for games. I think as they get older, a "health" program might be nice to add in. I've also been tempted by The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book, but don't know how good it'd be for just 1-2 kids...

I don't have a set time because have a pretty flexible schedule, but if I had to estimate, I'd say we're doing about 30 minutes, 4x a week. DD will be 6 in June. Depending on the amount of reading she's asked to do, this may be split into 2 sessions because my DD is still easily frustrated and fatigued by too much reading (she is just at blending CVC words and it is still laborious.) We use AAR 1 (+ ETC to review on days that I don't feel we're ready to move on to the next lesson), so the time above includes reviewing phonogram/word cards, direct instruction with letter tiles/whiteboard writing, fluency list reading, file folder games played together, reading in BOB book or the AAR reader. So, my 30 min. session is really a bunch of 5-10 min shorter sessions combined. :)

At this age, you could just get one of those sectioned piggy banks (spend/save/donate/invest) and a chore chart. Give her some things she's expected to do as a member of the family (i.e. tidy up toys she brings out) but give her some jobs that you'll pay her to do (bring bathroom trash cans to you when you're gathering for trash day, wipe off baseboards, etc). If you want to go further, show her how to keep record of her accounts. You could do this for her in a cute little notebook. Fun math lessons, too. (Now, if I could only take my own advice and do this... I've been meaning to get started with my oldest, but keep putting it off...)