Cindyz
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Posts posted by Cindyz
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Thank you for your post Threedogfarm. It was very informative and helpful.
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We're planning to use CPO Life Science.
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To my understanding the AoPS pre-test is notoriously easy and is not necessarily representative of the actual skills needed.
It seemed awfully easy to me. That's why I wasn't in a hurry to skip the rest of Singapore 5.
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My son is in 4th this year. He will finish Singapore 5b this summer and will start PreA in the fall of 5th grade. We are skipping Singapore 6. Out of curiosity I had him take the placement for AOPS PreA (you can find it on their website) and he passed it. I'm still going to have him finish Singapore 5 though.
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We are interested too!
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For what it's worth, we have used Singapore since K. We use the textbook and the workbook. We do the textbook first, then workbook (except for reviews, then it's reversed) then any mental math if there is any for the day. We do Challenging Word Problems one year behind (so we are using CWP 4 right now along with Singapore 5A), and I think the CWP helps to keep things fresh in his mind too. We also sporadically use Beast Academy as a fun supplement, and that has been helpful as well. He likes it, and considers it fun time work. I like how it is similar but maybe looks at things a little bit differently than Singapore.
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We do all of the practices in the textbook and the workbook and I consider them as a sort of spiral review. Since the reviews have one in the textbook and the workbook, I have him do the workbook first so I can see if there's anything that I need to go over again. Then the next day he does the one in the textbook, and can usually do fine since we just reviewed from the workbook the day before. The reviews go back several units and we'll see things show up that we haven't seen in awhile to keep it fresh in his mind. I wouldn't skip them.
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We recently started using MOSDOS and love it. I like how it has a lot of information for the teacher, an activity book, and a beautiful "text book" for the student. Is there anything like this for history for the later elementary, middle school grades? I'd like something interesting, and colorful, and insightful and analytical. I'm not really interested in history through memorization or fill in the blank type work sheets. I want something that spurs conversation and really makes him think. I like how MOSDOS includes many analytical questions for each page of the reading and several different writing prompts to choose from. Also, I need a good teacher's manual with conversation starters for me, and the analysis already worked out as examples to get us going. Lastly, I would prefer that it be secular or at least not overly affiliated one way or another so that I could easily make it secular.
Thanks in advance!
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Our group needs a place to meet multiple times per week. How did your coop or group find a space?
Thanks for any and all suggestions!
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Good info, for buying now! A few years ago, you couldn't do as much by the internet as today. So this is helpful. The tactics will still be tried upon the unsuspecting or more compliant types, though, so I thought they were worth mentioning, even though rather "old-school".
I liked your information and method too. :)
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We just bought a new (used) car yesterday. My advice is to do all of the negotiating from home. Start with email, and you can move to phone when it's time to give financing info if necessary, but seriously, do all of your negotiating from the comfort of your couch or computer chair. My husband went for a test drive, but didn't spend more than 5 minutes talking to the sales person. He just drove it, said thanks, and asked for his card. He then came home and we started with emails for negotiating. First, I made the salesman tell me his price (I didn't say what I wanted to pay ...EVER even though my husband and I knew exactly what we wanted to pay based on research). We then made a rebuttal about why we thought it should be less (again not giving numbers, just saying "less"), and kept asking if that was the best he could do? After he told us his "best deal" (which was *really* close to what we wanted to pay), we thanked him for his time and said we would get back to him. Now he's sweating, and wondering what we're going to do (instead of YOU sweating and wondering what they are doing when they walk away to talk to whomever is making the decisions). We then shopped around other dealerships (via email) that had slightly better cars (we were buying used). We told them the deal we had waiting for us, and said we were ready to buy today and asked if they could beat the deal. The key is to say you are buying TODAY so they will move quickly on pricing for you. Don't beat around the bush, tell them the price you're getting the other one for, and ask them to beat it (you probably aren't going to buy this one anyway because it's not really the color, model, location you want - but on paper it's "better"). One said they would beat the deal. We then went back to the first guy (who had the car we knew we wanted) with the offer from the competition, and he beat that deal, and went lower because we pointed out that the offer we had was actually for a BETTER car (newer, less miles driven per year). Even though he INSISTED earlier that they could not ever possibly go lower, he had been there for 8 years and he knew when the sales manager was a low as he would go, and that was that - uh huh, BAM, they went lower. It was surprising that we paid lower than we imagined we would. We could hardly stop smiling at each other and since we were at home and they couldn't see us, we were happy dancing too. Doing it from home allows you to collect offers and then contact other deals and pit them against each other. They will try and do everything they can to get you sitting in their office to make the deal. Just say that you will come into the office when you have both agreed on a price (don't give reasons why you won't come in, they will have rebuttals for that), and when they know you are serious, they will just get down to business via email. Otherwise, if they think they can convince you to come in, that's where they want you.
1) Research prices and know your budget.
2) Negotiate from home.
3) Don't ever give them any kind of clue of what you're willing to pay - don't give them any numbers ever - just say "less", "lower", "is that the best you can do?", "is that your best offer then?", etc.
4) Get competing offers for at least one car that's better on paper than the one you are trying to buy.
5) Share new offer with first salesman and ask if he will beat it.
6) Accept the deal and ask them when the paperwork will be ready and what documentation you need to bring with you (that way you don't have to deal with digging out various docs they may need another day if you are financing at the dealership). Make sure you bring the email with the final offer with you so they can't change things on you once you get there.
6) Waltz in and spend 30 minutes signing paperwork and drive away in your new car!
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We had a runt. She turned out to be the biggest cat I've ever had. She wasn't a cuddler or a snuggler, but we loved her anyway. :) She lived to be 17.
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I bought How to Write a Paragraph and it downloaded as Algebra - Task & Drill Sheets for grades PK - 2. There is a whole lot of :confused1: .
ETA: I got Master Writing - Big Book and it had the How to Write a Paragraph book as part of a bundle along with How to Write a Book Report, How to Write an Essay, etc. :)
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Saddlemomma, that sounds perfect! Do you happen to have any pictures of how it turned out?
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Btw, I made the collage using Picasa (which is free to download and use). It will auto arrange the images for you in the collage maker.
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I don't mind at all! Putting it all together into something where he can visually see all the work he did in a year is very rewarding to him (and to me). If it's like the one I made last year, he'll flip through it several times over the next year reminding himself of what he read.
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These are most of the books that he read on his own this year. This will be the cover of a little book that I'll have bound with all the short summaries that he wrote for each one. I will probably make another one that includes all the read alouds and audio books that we did as well. I didn't keep track of all the reference books and picture books that we read. I thought it might be helpful for those of you looking for books for your rising 3rd grader to read.
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I feel the exact same way. It's the reason I haven't bought Teaching the Classics even though I've been tempted for years. It's too open ended for me. I understand what they are talking about, but when it's just me and my child alone, I feel like we're missing out without some guide posts to point us in the right direction.
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Kahn Academy has a wonderful art history resource. Click each section to see all of the lessons. Many of them are videos, but not all of them are. I especially like the portions where they have experts talk about a particular piece of art. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history
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In preparation for reading The Princess and the Goblin to my 9 year old, I checked out 4 different versions from the library intending to choose the one with the best illustrations. Ha! They are all special in their own way. I guess we'll be keeping them all throughout the read and look at the illustrations in each of the books as we go along.
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I've started making one, but it's a LOT of work. There are several typos and some authors names that I need to go back and fix (authors with two last names), and some links that I need to add. It's mostly for elementary grades. I couldn't find level information for some of them (I'm still looking). However, as it stands, each column is sortable so you can sort by various reading difficulties. You can scroll up and down (there are 165 entries) and side to side. Basically, it's a work in progress. Let me know if you have any helpful suggestions to make it better. :) It was VERY helpful for me in figuring out our reading list for next year, especially since I included not only the reading levels but also the "interest level".
http://www.homeschoolingzen.com/childrens-classic-literature-reading-list/
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My son will be using MCT literature program which includes Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Wind in the Willows. Thompson suggests that when they have finished reading each book, they write two essays in response to questions which are provided in the parent manual. My son hasn't written an essay yet, but I think he has the ability to do so if provided the proper instruction. We use IEW and W&R, but haven't learned essay structure or how to cite references and quotations and such. Is the obvious choice of Essay Voyage the best choice for me to use to teach him to write an essay of the type described in his literature parent manual? Ideally, I think I'd prefer something that just teaches the structure and allows us to use the essay questions we already have as the actual writing topic that we will be using. I don't really need another entire writing curriculum. We would probably start out doing them orally and then as a partnership, but I want to make sure I'm teaching it correctly. He's one of those kids who once he learns something, likes to stick with it that way. So if I teach something wrong, it wouldn't be good. Thompson states that the essay should be a true essay with introduction, body, and conclusion. It should be in standard English with no first person, contractions, etc. It should contain long and short quotes to prove the case. It should resemble a handwritten MLA paper.
So what's the best, simplest resource that I can use to teach this? Thanks! -
She has been here, she was hiding under a rock then, I think!!
Now, now, be nice. :) This is a thread about being overwhelmed by all of the information on this forum, remember? While this forum is absolutely an incredible resource, it definitely can be quite overwhelming. I come mostly during planning time and when I need to research a topic. Outside of that I don't have as much time to participate on the forums as I would like. I'm busy with lessons with my son, activities, family and friends. I wish I did have time to read all of the wonderful threads here every day, but I just don't. Thank you for the links to the answers to my questions. It's more information than I could have possibly hoped for!
Favorite textbook for middle school life science?
in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges
Posted
We haven't started it yet, but there are a lot of threads about it by people who use it on the boards. Going through the book and the investigations and planning it is making me giddy though! :D