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LEK

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Posts posted by LEK

  1. I selected other. It really depends on the book; the amount of detail, the length of the book, if the individual sections are written so that they may stand alone or if the book really reads better in order with sections flowing on from each other etc.

    Some such books we read only the relevant sections each year as they fit in with our studies. Other books we read the entire book each time a single section is relevant to our studies. Sometimes we do not use them with our studies at all but I leave them out when we are finished hoping the kids will read them on their own for review. Probably the most typical use around here is that I will use the most relevant pages to our current studies as an intro and then leave the book out for the next few weeks so that they are free to read further on (or back to previous periods) as they like.

  2. My kids get fun school stuff for christmas every year; art supplies, craft items, board games, science kits, engineering toys, logic puzzles, lego/educational creating kits (snap circuits, mechano...), stationary, and a lot of fun school related books like madlibs, crosswords, bananagrams books, sudoku etc. They also get some quality reading books and any clothing items they are needing. To be perfectly honest, that is pretty much all they are getting this year, we have too much in the way of toys and there is nothing they actually really want or need. I would not give them curriculum for their gifts but they do end up getting half their school supplies as christmas gifts, just the fun half :001_smile: 

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  3. My girls are using Khan as a supplement, they work for a set length of time on khan each day they use it, I set a timer and they work until the timer goes off. I started them on a "mission" one grade level below their current math level in their text books as review and to learn how to use the site and the way khan likes the answers to be done, some of the graphing questions etc are quite a bit different in presentation to what they have been used to. I do not play with the way the mission progresses, when they load up their account they do any available mastery challenge and then they continue to next task automatically assigned to them. They just continue with the next task as determined by the mission until their time is up for the day. They progressed very quickly through the first mission I assigned them and once they were done with that mission they started on the mission equivalent to the grade level on their text books.

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  4. My oldest two kiddos are 1st and 3rd this year. I aim for about half their language arts time each morning to be independent so I have time to work with one while the other is doing independent work and then swap. They can do explode the code independently (2 pages per day, 3rd grader will finish the last book next week though, oh no!), handwriting page or scholastic workbooks (I am using vocab, grammar, reading comprehension etc that I buy on dollar sales), generally 1-2 pages of assorted scholastic books depending on how hard/long they are, and also a nice long reading time. This gives me time to do FLL, AAS, OPGTR (1st grade only), Writing strands (3rd only), listen to them read a chapter to me aloud etc with one kid while the other is busy and then swap. We were doing WWE but I gave that up, it was just too mummy intense and I did not have the time or mental power to do that twice a day at different levels, additionally from 4th grade writing strands is meant to be independent so it is really only the first year of using writing strands that is mummy intense which will make the LA times easier longterm. I also have a 1yo and a 3yo which take a lot of time but this LA schedule is flexible enough to be able to sort out the little ones while also working with the school kiddos. My 3yo often sits at the table and "works" with her older sisters, drawing, puzzles, pattern blocks, teddy counter worksheets etc which keeps her out of mischief and stops her distracting everyone. This morning she spent an hour "designing a watering system" (ie drawing picture that looks like random squiggles to me) lol, she is a funny kid!!!

     

    My 1st grader is almost completely independent with math (MM) and just needs me to check things or help her understand some concepts once she has read the info. My 3rd grader was always completely independent with math right up until 2 weeks ago when we started BA, now she needs a little assistance but they are both independent enough that they can work on math at the same time and I can help each one as needed with time to spare.

     

    We also do SOTW together and R.E.A.L science together but these are both done 1-2 times a week and I do them while the baby is napping as it just takes less time with less interruptions and distractions.

  5. My 8yo is just finishing up 3rd grade (end of this calendar year). We are about to start at 3A so technically she will be nearly a year "behind". She easily placed into 4A (maybe higher, I did not test her) but I decided to start from the start at 3A anyway for a couple of reasons; firstly beast does do some things in a slightly different manner so i thought it would be beneficial to start from the start, and secondly I want all of level 5 to be out when we get there and not have to wait for the next book. I have looked through 3A in great detail (it arrived 2 days ago, huge excitement!!!) and I am expecting her to fly through that one, sigh, but hopefully the rest of level 3 will take a little longer...

  6. Somewhere between $250 and $500, some years it is on the lower end or that range and other years on the upper end but generally about $350, that is roughly $200 for child #1 (as I need to buy new teacher manuals for her as she reaches new levels) in addition to student books and activity books, $100 for child #2 to replace student books etc as needed and $50 on stationary which I only buy on super sales. Printing is free as hubby does that for me at his work.

     

    I also spend another $100 to $200 on good quality games each year for the kids which is not a homeschool expense as such but they are used in our schooling at times.

  7. I made a reading tac-tac-toe for my 3rd grader this year. It is a 5 by 5 grid with one book in each square of my choice. She gets to chose which book to read from the chart (giving her a choice rather than saying here is your book, read it) and when she finishes an entire row/column she gets a small treat as incentive. There is no requirement to read every book on the chart however if she does she will get a bigger treat for completing them all. This has been a massive success and I am already planning the books we will put on the next chart.

    • Like 1
  8. I have just ordered beast academy 3 for my DD who is finishing up 3rd grade at the end of this year. The plan very roughly is to finish 3A this year and then 3B-D in the 1st half (ish) of her 4th grade year, starting 4A half way through 4th grade so we will always be about half a year "behind" if looking at the numbers on the books.

     

    Now to the actual point of my question, most people here seem to agree that beast alone is not enough drill and practice of basic skills. So how do you use it while making up for this lack of basic drill practice? Do you have a second curriculum to supplement? Are you using beast as a supplement? Are you using something else to practice these skills? If so what? I would love to hear how you tackle this issue. I am toying with the idea of one day a week spent on math fact practice (using what???) and 4 days a week on beast, or maybe adding in something daily like evan moor daily math practice (which we already own), would that be enough?

     

     

    I also own math mammoth which I could pick pages from to supplement. We are currently supplementing with khan however that is also not a lot of drill etc although the kids like it a lot.

    Argh, I am probably overthinking it but I like to have a plan in mind before starting something, I don't mind having to change the plan but I need some form of plan.

    Thanks :)

  9. My 3rd grader does anything up to 1 paragraph a day. Some days there is no real composition or serious writing but other days I do require a paragraph. I would say on average about 3 paragraphs a week here as writing assignments across all subjects at a rough guess; one to record some of what we have learned from our weekly history chapter, one paragraph weekly for our writing curricula, and one additional paragraph or composition depending on what we are doing that week, it might be a field trip report, a letter to a grandparent, a creative story, a summary from any other subject...

  10. I will finally be getting around to starting latin with dd at the start of her 5th grade year. I do not have any latin at all (nor does dh).

     

    I am in the beginning stages of researching curricula and after recommendations. If money was not an issue what latin program would you recommend for a 10yo with no latin experience at all?

     

    Also, any recommendations for myself? I am sure it will be easier for me to teach her if I am not completely clueless lol

    TIA

  11. I picked "other" for elementary as we devote an entire afternoon to intentional science studies one day a week. That one afternoon is anywhere from 2-5 hours of science depending on the topic, rabbit holes, length of experiments etc and is easily more that 2 school lessons however only happens once a week.

     

    For middle school and highschool there is much more science instruction, way more than twice a week and more like 4 times a week or daily.

  12. For us personally I devote a lot more formal school time to history for a variety of reasons; for us it is easier to approach history as a formal subject than informally, there are many great history curricula aimed at the early years, but lastly (and possibly most importantly in this household) we have chosen to approach "history" as a series of interconnected, chronological unit studies covering not only history but also a great deal of science, art, writing, drama, reading, crafts, cooking and so much more. History is the starting point but our "history" lessons cover so much more.

     

    Conversely, "science" as a formal study is done 1-2 times a week maximum and is a very minor focus of our formal school time yet we are in no way prioritizing history over science. Science has taken on a life of it's own, it is intertwined throughout our days. It is covered in history, if given free reign my kids will always pick to read a science book in reading time followed of course by discussions on what they have learned, we cover it while playing in the garden, playground or at the beach, while cooking, while building with lego or blocks, we love science documentaries, we are always making structures of some description and testing their design for strength/functionality etc. Our science focus in terms of curriculum and formal school time is minimal however science and STEM learning are covered daily (often for hours!) through more of an unschooling approach in addition to a formal once a week science curricula.

    • Like 1
  13. We don't start until January but I am mostly set on my choices as I am ordering soon, curriculum takes forever to arrive here!

     

    LA

    Finish FLL3, start FLL4

    Writing strands 3

    AAS4

    Literature - I will be choosing 1 book per term for her from the mensa list. Other than that she has free choice

    Various games and other activities such as crosswords, madlibs etc.

     

    Math

    Beast academy 3B-4A

    Khan academy

    Supplement with MM5 if needed and life of fred

     

    Geography

    Daily geography practice 4

     

    Science

    Real Science Odyssey Chemistry

    Her own science studies (self directed by request from her) using science kits and the Usborne "what's science all about" book

     

    History

    SOTW3 with activity guide

     

    Logic

    Various logic games

    Mind benders 3

    Primarily logic (if not finished this year)

    Balance benders

    Sudoku

     

    Typing

    I have a pinboard of free online typing games, I will let her pick the one she likes best

     

    Spanish

    Rosetta stone

     

    I think that's all. Looks like we will be busy.

  14. I finally had enough of the kids losing everything and leaving stuff out to be broken or destroyed by younger siblings and I have now basically taken everything away from them and they have to "borrow" it from me to use then it is put back immediately. All their games and puzzles are in hubby's study. The sharpener is now kept in MY desk drawer and they are permitted to use it as long as it does not leave my desk. Good pencils and pens etc I have kept in my study and I only bring them out when needed, they have their own pencil/pen sets (most of which they have lost of course although they were new sets 6 months ago) that I have color coded to each child that they may use any time but they are missing so many colors they are having a hard time doing anything with them. Hopefully they will be able to get some things back soon but for now I would rather they have to ask to borrow things and I know those things are safe than have to fork out more money for essential items all the time

  15. For dd8 writing. It is always one aspect of language arts with her. I think we are mostly on top of the other areas now but writing is causing all sorts of headaches around here. We have just changed curriculum and so far so good but we shall see how that goes long term and if it translates into actual improvements in other writing tasks.

     

    With dd6 my biggest worry is that she will finally overtake her older sister in terms of curriculum/working level. How do you deal with a kid 2 years younger who is just better at everything, sigh, we will sort it out somehow.

  16. Thanks guys :) You have all confirmed exactly what I was thinking all along but then I just started worrying about the number on the front of the books and got myself all confused and worried. She is currently working 1 grade level ahead in math and would be doing MM5 next year, to go from a book with a 5 to a book with a 3 seemed scary somehow and illogical but I am pretty sure this is the right move for her, she loved all the sample pages and her and a friend actually sat down and worked through some of them one afternoon together for fun, they were disappointed when i ran out of sample pages for them!

  17. After debating, eyeing off and admiring beast academy since the first book was released I have finally decided to take the plunge, yay! I am excited, dd8 is excited! The only niggling doubt is that I have had to wait so long for her reading ability to catch up with her math ability, mathematically she could have tackled level 3 a year ago but she would not have been able to adequately read the text and questions back then. Now I am worried that I am holding her back mathematically by starting with books nearly an entire year behind her "grade level", I know I am being silly but I just cannot shake that doubt.

     

    SO, my dd is 8 and finishing up 3rd grade in November this year (our school year is a calendar year), she is a very young 3rd grade and could place into either 3rd or 4th in our local school as her birthday is right at the cutoff. I am planning on starting her on BA 3A as soon as I have ordered and it arrives, probably in a month. I am expecting she will most likely complete 3A this year and start 3B when she starts 4th grade in January working through 3B-4A during her 4th grade year. That will be fine right? I am just worried that I am holding her back by starting behind her grade level but on the other hand I want her to do all of level 3 as there are some parts in each book that I feel she could use a little more practice with (even though she easily places into book 3D on the assessments).

     

    Argh, I am over thinking this I know. Just reassure me that beast 3B-4A is a perfectly fine plan for 4th grade math (with Khan and some MM5 thrown in there if needed). Please!

  18. I had a similar issue with my dd. For pleasure reading I don't mind what she reads and she is entirely free to choose whatever, whenever. My struggle was that I had some books I wanted her to read for her schoolwork. The solution was so simple and works so amazingly well here that even I can't believe it I made a "reading tic-tac-toe", that is it! :) Ours is a simple 5 by 5 grid and I have written one book in each square that I want her to read this school year for her schoolwork (note not all are REQUIRED but I would like if she read all 25). This tic-tac-toe is pinned up on our white board and everytime she reads a book on the list she crosses that square out. For each completed line she gets a small treat and if/when she completes the entire grid she gets a bigger treat (probably a new board game). We went from "I only want to read the books I want" to "mummy I finished a second line!" in a week!!! :hurray:

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