I don't know if this will help, but it did help my kid who kept subtracting backwards, is I talked to him about how we "read" math left to right, top to bottom, just like we read words. This really clicked with him, especially because we had spent a significant amount of time teaching him to read left to right as he would try to sound out words backwards often. So when doing 33-19, I would just remind him that even in the ones place, you read it left to right as 3 - 9. Another approach is to go ahead and teach negatives, and teach that 33 - 19 is really 33 + (-19). That worked for my other kid who would subtract incorrectly. So he would do the problem as 30 + (-10) to get 20, and 3 + (-9) to get (-6). Then 20 + (-6) = 14.

I don't know about Mel and Gerdy, but the Amoeba Sisters was a huge hit when we were studying cells. They have some great videos, and I believe they sell lesson plans. https://www.youtube.com/c/AmoebaSisters

Unfortunately that is out of print.

Does anyone know if solutions are available anywhere for these books? That is the main thing preventing us from switching to Foersters, as I love the book but need a solutions manual. I can't find one anywhere.

We had a similar struggle with Latin a few years ago, and dropped it after deciding it ranked lower for our family than science and history content. At 11, my oldest wanted to start Latin back up, and as I wasn't going to require starting Spanish until 12, I told him he could for the year, but I wasn't going to be doing it with him, as I didn't have the time, and it wasn't my priority. So he does DuoLingo, which he loves, every single day including on weekends and while we took a vacation. He gaming aspect to DuoLingo makes it fun. He also does GSWL, the book and the audio recordings, 2-3 times a week, and that takes anywhere from 15 to 30 mins, including checking his own work. He has surprisingly learned a significant amount over the last year, and understands the idea of conjugating verbs. As my goal was just for him to enjoy it at this age, and inspire a desire to learn more Latin and Spanish in middle and high school, this was a perfect solution that didn't require my attention and time and is a fun diversion for him.

If you are converting to vegetarianism/veganism for health reasons, it can really help to include some animal products that are a big help to flavor, but have minimal to no negative health consequences. Top of the list here would be chicken stock, but also very small amounts of cream or butter to pull a sauce together. These can make a huge difference. The best way we had to introduce more whole fruits and vegetables into our diet was to subscribe to a CSA. We got the biggest box possible, and had to learn to cook vegetables I never even knew existed. Just trying to eat through our CSA box was a huge help in creating new healthy meals and letting go of meat centered meals. My kids also like to cook a lot, so meals that are vegetarian (not necessarily vegan depending on additions) that they can prepare/cook include oatmeal, rice bowls, sauteed or steamed (in microwave) vegetables, and I've spent considerable time teaching them the knife skills to be able to prepare any fruit we have available. One thing that really helped us convert to vegetarian meals was loosing the idea of protein/grain/veg at each meal. Being more flexible with the structure of the meal, being okay with three large servings of vegetables constituting dinner, really helped. We also love to explore the huge variety of grains available that I never knew about previously (I'm not sure which are gluten-free, but many are): barley, quinoa, oats, all types of rice (black rice being a favorite treat), farro, etc.

This is so helpful thank you! I am not looking to align topic by topic, I was just looking for a general sense of what level would cover similar material as PreAlgebra. We have always run multiple math programs at the same supposed grade level but not lined up the topic as a way of reviewing material and getting extra explanations. Unfortunately, my oldest finished our favorites of Right Start, Miquon, Beast, and Math Mammoth so I was hoping MEP would help as we did like it in the early years. We are also using Alcumus alongside AoPS PreAlgebra, but I limit him to just 30 minutes a week as I don't like schoolwork to be on the computer. I've given him a few of the tests in Year 8, and honestly that looks perfect. Some units we haven't covered at all (like the Pythagorean theorem), but about half he got perfect scores on the tests, so we are just doing the units he needs work from. I am really excited about the integrated Geometry, as I think that is such a better approach for learning both Geometry and Algebra to work them simultaneously.

We are doing PreAlgebra over about two years so we have time. Plus for my kid AOPS is lacking in more basic problems needed for...umm...is fluency the right term in math? He also did 3-4 math programs at a time before PreAlgebra, the different approaches always helped.

Has anyone worked MEP math alongside AOPS PreAlegra - Algebra? I'm curious how the levels line up. We are halfway through AOPS and I'm looking to add MEP but have no clue on what Year, as the UK doesn't seem to follow the same math sequence as the US. Also I'd love to hear from anyone who used Years 7+ in MEP, how it worked, etc. Is it still possible to get the password for the answers? I emailed as a home educator but never got a response.

For output ideas, I don't know if your kid is a fan of Harry Potter, but if so he might like what we did last year. My oldest made a Fantastic Beasts book of his own, with a 2-4 page fully illustrated spread for each animal. He figured out how to group them on his own, and then bound with a leather stamped cover. It was a really fun, and very effective, way to have output for our homemade Zoology course. For a younger target age, but you mentioned him liking it: My second oldest next year is doing Zoology with output in WildKratts style. He will design reports with creature powers, and how to find the creatures. I haven't figured it all out, but it won't be essay format but more list of facts/features.

We have done this for the last two years, and its been a great challenge for us. I never realized it was an official thing with a website and everything. We used a paper tracker, with colored blocks for each 1/2 hour. During spring/fall we aimed for 5 hours a day. Winter an hour minimum, and summer 2 hours. We made up extra time with camping for 4 day weekends, which felt a little like cheating but still, outside is outside! Especially as half of my family camps in hammocks, it really does feel like outside. The first year we came in at just over 1000 hours, but for 2020 we fell a little short at 912 hours, due mainly to pregnancy and a new baby keeping me inside more often.

I've planned some fun middle school classes around my kids (and my own) interests. The main interests are learning to make video games, including game design, programming, and storytelling, historical cooking, and handicrafts. So far we have started: Programming - Python for Everyone, and Pygame using Tech w/ Tim on Youtube. Game Design - Basics using Extra Credits on Youtube Historical Cooking - There is a Great Courses we are watching and following. We also have a book on Sourdough through history we are cooking from and reading. Lots of extras here pulled from whatever history we are studying as well. Handicrafts - Currently learning embroidery. Once COVID isolation is over, we will move onto spinning wool with a local group. By the end of middle school the goal is to have DS able to work with the Unity Game engine, and able to use wiki's to pick up the basics on any programming language. One the design front he is working on storytelling, and how to adapt it for gaming specifically, as well as learning about game balance and design in combat. Cooking has no specific goal, just continued progress and keeping the love alive here. For handicrafts the goal, similar to programming, is to reach an understanding of the basics such that he can pick up any craft with a basic lesson. He also wants to see some projects all the way through from "sheep to blanket" as he calls it.

Nope. I do not think unnecessary body modifications are okay to preform on children without consent. I also really dislike the gender norms that require this. I'd be just as likely to get my boys ears pierced as my girls. It would just depend on what the child wanted, and if they were old enough to understand. I don't really understand why people prefer getting it done as a baby? Aside from ethical issues, it just seems like more work for both parents and child, for many more years, with no real benefit? I think even cultural things can change and hope this one does, but I'm also not gonna get real upset about other people doing it. I don't agree, but it's not a "big" deal.

So do you say it with 3 syllables? Floor - ih - dah? This is so crazy to me, but maybe it's my Southern accents proclivity for losing syllables. Living in both GA and southern MS (near Biloxi) and I've only ever heard two syllables with no i sound. Learn something new every day I guess.

Do you all say the "i" in Florida? I grew up in Georgia, and we say FLOOR-DUH, with no 'i' sound in between. I'm baffled at the Laura discussion. I've always said and heard Lor-uh, and I've lived all over the east coast.

We are a few chapters into AoPS for PreAlgebra, but we do not do the discovery method as in the book. I will read over the lesson first, then provide a lesson using my own examples to the kid, and we will derive all the rules together - I will prompt him to see if he can come up with the right solution, but if not I just help. Then he quickly reads over the problems/discovery section, which is easy and quick since we did a lesson on that info already. Then he will do the problems, and we do the challenge problems together. IMO the value in AoPS is in understanding all the rules, and how to derive new rules, not necessarily in the discovery method. I figure if the online classes provide instruction, there is no reason I can't also provide direct instruction. It is more work, but not a ton.

I used to just be lazy and get them sporadically. Mainly if I or the kids were already at the doctors. Two years ago a relative died from the flu. He was immunocompromised, middle aged - however, no one but his parents and brother knew he was immunocompromised. He caught the flu from family who didn't bother with the vaccine, again due to laziness not being anti-vax. They were also of the opinion that flu just wasn't that bad, and for them it wasn't. However, now our relative is dead, and they bear so much guilt over it. Even at 50% effectiveness, the vaccine halves your chance of catching it, decreases symptoms significantly, and significantly shortens the period of time when you are contagious. The last is the most important to me. I will never miss it again, and neither will my kids while I have a say. It's too important to protect the people who are vulnerable, and my family taught me you may never know who those people are until it is too late.

I also switched to white Corelle. I absolutely love it, lightweight, durable, doesn't take up space. In over 5 years, many toddlers, and me being so clumsy I probably drop at least 1 plate a day, we have only ever had 1 plate break.

I could never keep up with the reading I assign for my oldest, let alone all his reading. He is a prolific reader, for both school and pleasure, and I am unable to read when little kids are awake (I need quiet to focus) and I spend my nights reading for my own schooling. Instead I skim assigned books, and we focus most of our discussion on the literature books we read together. For history/science I expect he will know more about a topic from reading then I do, and I simply have him share - mostly by informal narration. I have a solid enough science background to understand if he is misunderstanding some fundamental idea, and if so I will have him show me where he read that and we will go over it together.

I've gotten a lot better over the last few years. Kids getting bigger and eating more has really helped! We waste almost nothing, but we do underutilize a lot of food. Meaning, it goes to the dog, the chickens, or the rabbit once people won't eat it. Or composted if I completely missed it going moldy, but that is rare. Sometimes I "plan" for waste to go to the animals, but more often it's just when produce gets wilty. We eat dinner leftovers for lunch so that almost never goes to waste. The biggest waste we have is bananas. Sometimes we go through 6+ a day, and other times no one touches them for a week. I somehow always miss them going bad before they can be frozen, and the animals won't touch them. I would rather waste food then not have fresh produce in the house every day though. Health is more important than money/waste for me in that regard.

Never? We empty old food weekly at trash night. But really more often because I only own so many leftover containers and tbh food doesn't last long in my house. I wash each shelf and drawer probably monthly, but never all at the same time. I don't have enough room in the kitchen to let them all dry at the same time, and where would all the cold food go during that time? I do clean the sides of the fridge, on the inside, once a year really well. I have a french door fridge so I just move everything to one side and clean the other. It never occurred to me that people would clean the be whole fridge at once.

To me the first letter is fairly clearly a b. In isolation I'd say the second letter was an e, but given the question I would guess l. So 'bl' for black? But I do not know if that is how it would be recorded in the 20s.

Whenever I think of hard work leading to success, I try to always keep it on a personal level. Any individual person will most likely be more successful if they work hard then if they don't. But that has no bearing on how their success compares to others, and it is extremely likely that someone who doesn't work hard at all but has all the luck (connections, innate intelligence, etc) will do better than them. But that doesn't negate the fact that an individual will do better working hard then not working hard. I don't really think hard work correlates to success overall in society. It improves an individuals position most likely, but I would argue that most hard working people are probably not the most successful, at least if we are talking economically and in terms of happiness/stability. In the people I know, the most traditionally successful are the most intelligent people, but I would not necessarily consider them hard working. The most hard working people I know work that hard because they have to to *survive,* and success seems far away for them.

You are looking at programs which really cover very different aspects of LA. I would first look at what your goals are for first grade LA, then pick a program. Is your child reading? If not, you will need a phonics program. I would group the curriculums you are looking at into what subset of LA they teach. Phonics/Learning to Read: LOE and OPGTR. Grammar: MCT and FLL Writing: WWE Handwriting/Spelling: LOE Depending on your child's reading level, you may or may not need something from each category. Until they can read simple readers, I wouldn't start anything in Grammar or Writing. MCT I wouldn't start at all unless they can read well. If you go for MCT, you might want something additional for spelling or writing/handwriting. If you go with WWE/FLL, and are also doing SOTW, that can end up being a lot of narration, so I wouldn't feel like you had to all of it from each curriculum. But really I think it's important to focus first on learning to read, and once that is down then move into grammar/writing/spelling curriculums.

We only use sponges when absolutely necessary, and most often not in the kitchen. If they aren't an immediate toss after use, we will out in the dishwasher. Most get used 2-3 times max before being tossed. I hate the waste so we try to avoid using them. A scrubber brush (we really like the IKEA ones) serves almost all our needs for dishes. In fact the only thing we use besides them are chainmail for cast iron. The sponge is more for the sink itself, shower, or needing to really scrub parts of the bathroom.