We went from Singapore 5 to AOPS Prealgebra and then to Foerster. AOPS was a challenge, but we got through it in a regular school year. We started Foerster a couple of weeks ago and it's all way too easy after AOPS Pre-A. Based on our experience, I tend to agree with those who say going to Foerster's after Singapore 6 wouldn't be too big of a leap.

Try it and see how it goes? You're probably going to use it anyway so if the timing isn't right, you can just shelve it for later.

My son is half way through 6th and will be starting Algebra 1 this month after finishing AOPS Pre-Algebra. My plan is: middle of 6th grade - Foerster's Algebra 1 - I expect him to fly through this and probably finish before the start of 7th. 7th grade - geometry and possibly AOPS Intro to Algebra online, 8th grade - Algebra 2/Trig, 9th grade - Precalculus, 10th grade - Calculus 11th & 12th grade - community college math (Running Start in WA state) This is just a general outline. I will do as I have done from the beginning and continually evaluate where we are and go with what's working for us as each progression comes before us.

I use picasa. I read that they were discontinuing the program though so I'm not sure if it's still available.

These are the books from 4th grade. The link shows the books for 3rd grade and explains the process. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/519041-books-my-3rd-grader-read-this-year/?do=findComment&comment=5738182

I just look in the front of the Teacher's Guide where it lists the units and the selections. Count those up, and then decide how many you need to do each week to finish in the number of weeks that you school for the year. It lists the workbook pages that correspond to each selection there as well. You could just decide that you'll do X number of workbook pages per selection and choose the ones that resonate with you the most when the time comes. There's most likely no way to do it all. Pick and choose what works best for you. I see 6th grade has 76 selections compared to 39 in 5th. The workbook has more workbook pages per selection than 5th had. It looks like we'll be working double time, but there will obviously be many workbook pages we won't do. Personally, I'd rather leave out workbook pages in favor of the discussion from the side panels and analytical questions from the teacher's guide.

We did 5th grade Coral and this was our schedule: Day 1 - Lesson in Literature & vocabulary 1 & 2 Day 2 - Background Bytes & Read the Selection - verbally answer questions at the end of the selection Day 3 - Close Reading 1/2 of the selection & 1 workbook page - This is when we go over the information in the side panels of the teacher's guide. I also focus a lot on the analytical questions. We do this verbally, and usually have a very lively discussion. After our discussion, he did the 1st workbook page (comprehension questions) typed in google docs so that he could give adequate answers because there usually weren't enough lines in the workbook itself, and he could do it faster. Day 4 - Close Reading 2nd 1/2 of the selection & 2nd workbook page which was usually some kind of graphic organizer. Day 5 - Writing assignment - He could choose from one of the writing suggestions from the focus, or creating and writing section in the book at the end of the selection, or the One Step Further question in the workbook. After going over everything closely throughout the week, he's usually quite prepared to write something intelligent at this point. ;) He also liked having the choice to pick the writing assignment that interested him most. I found most of our learning really took place on day 2 and day 3 when I would point out things from the side panels of the teacher's guide and really analyze what we read with the analytical questions. I didn't really bother with the literal questions. This would take us through one section per week, and there were 39 selections I'm about to start planning for 6th grade. I have the books, and the workbook is THICK (it has 500 pages!!). I'm not sure how my 5th grade schedule will translate.

My son is 11 and still getting up anywhere between 5:30 - 6:00. I'd really like to get up at about 7:30. He has a grace digital wi-fi music player set up in his room connected to my computer which contains many audio book recordings. He also has a well stocked book case in his room. We tell him he can read, write, listen, draw or think. ;) On Saturdays and Sundays if he's finished all of his lessons for the week, he can get the ipad as long as it's AFTER 6:30am. At one point we realized he was getting up at 4:30 or 5:00 on Saturday and Sunday mornings to play the ipad so we had to place a time restriction on it. I'm not sure if he will ever sleep in?

We are using a mix of CPO Life Science and Real Science Odyssey Life. RSO would be good enough on it's own, and seems to have taken the best parts of the CPO book and made it more homeschool friendly, and quite doable.

My son flew through Singapore and we skipped 6 with no regrets in AOPS PreAlgebra.

We are using Writing with Skill. It's not a fast approach, but little by little I am seeing progress.

We have the same issue. I also have the same rule about if you get it wrong, you need to write it out. The problem is that when I say it's not correct, he will say, "Oooh yea, it's actually .... X = correct answer." There's some excellent advice from Lewelma in this thread on the topic. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/579528-need-to-get-dd-to-slow-down-and-write-neatly-inst-of-mental-math/

We don't use AOPS online, but we have always continued with math through the summer. We might not be as intense as during the "regular" school year, but I have found that it's best for us to just keep on going. I have heard that the AOPS online classes are intense though so I guess it will depend on your plans for the summer? While we do math all throughout the summer, we do enjoy taking a week off for vacation or a summer camp, etc., and I personally wouldn't want to be tied to an online time schedule during that time.

My son learned around 5 or 6 using read, write and type. I'm so glad we did it early before bad hunt and peck habits formed. He learned quickly and has enjoyed the freedom of being able to quickly type emails, do internet searches and communicate with friends online. I didn't let him start typing his writing assignments until this year in 5th grade. Right now we're about half and half with writing assignments. I can honestly say there wasn't one downside that came out of him learning to type early.

We finished Singapore 5b and went right into AOPS pre-algebra with no problems. I would plan ahead of time which program you plan to use for algebra, and start with their pre-algebra right after 5b.

I'm not sure if they are phasing them out. The online lessons just go over (almost word for word) the printed lessons. They definitely aren't needed. We don't use any of the games (we use Quizlet). We do use the pronunciation recordings.

We didn't really use the Right Start math games very much. It may have been because they were just so visually unappealing?

We are using Lively Latin A & B and then will move on to Visual Latin. We started Lively Latin A in 4th, and finished half way through 5th. I'm guessing we will finish B by the end of 6th so should start Visual Latin in 7th. My son has always enjoyed it and it seemed smack on for the grade levels we have used it with. Also, once you buy the online/pdf version you can use it over and over for your up and comers.

We have both books and just started last month. I agree that they are very different. We did Singapore K - 5b before starting Pre-algebra. If you ask him, my son says Lial's is "baby math", and AOPS is "Monster Math". If I assign him anything in Lial's it takes very little thought on his part. It doesn't seem to help him with the AOPS concepts at all. They are that different. AOPS is pushing him and causing him to think deeply about the concepts. I originally bought Lial's so that if he got stuck on something in AOPS, I could give him something from Lial's for reinforcement, but it's been almost impossible for me to find anything in Lial's that compares to what's going on in AOPS. To me, Lial's feels like surface, and AOPS is depth.

We finished FLL in 4th. This year for 5th we are doing Fix it Grammar and enjoying it. We do it double time (2 days' of lessons each day instead of 1), and it's going great. For 6th grade we will start Analytical Grammar.

My husband just got a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime at MetroPCS for $29. The rebates were instant if purchased in the store. He got $50 off for porting his existing number. Unlimited talk and text and 1gb of data is $30/month. The Galaxy Prime is almost exactly like my son's Galaxy S4.

I haven't tried this myself but I had this bookmarked. http://fotofinch.com/composition-for-elementary-students/

Thank you for putting into words EXACTLY where we are. We are days from beginning prealgebra with AOPS, and my son doesn't write anything down. It's obvious to me that the mental math has become so automatic that he doesn't really know how he got from one place to the answer. Now that we're here, how do we fix this? I try things like 4blessingmom suggested with, "Let's show how you did that on paper," or "jot that down before you forget," but he resists and doesn't do it. I think it's because we're back to the fact that he may not know how he got there. Do we go back to the simplest letting him know that the whole purpose of the exercise is to write them out and work quickly from there? I'm not a math person myself so it's difficult for me to work away from curriculum. I can follow along and figure things out, but he is like lightning compared to me (which frustrates him because I have to go step by step and he's *snap* done).

Thank you! I can't wait to see the AoPS course listings back on the site as well. :)

I have looked at the courses offered on the AOPS site as well. I was really hoping to be able to compare how quickly they are working through the material. I hope WTM Academy hasn't stopped offering it. I suppose I could email them through the site to find out.