Hey, I'd like some recommendations for a really good Christian perspective Dinosaur book. I know there are several books for kids on this topic. I'm not exactly sure what I believe on this topic, so it will be educational for me too! :+) My primary audience is in third grade. The book can be more advanced, as I will be reading it aloud. Color photos are a plus! thanks so much Angela

Hi all, Does anyone know if the series of books called "What's their story" (Gailieo by Jacqueline Mitton, Alexander the Great by Andrew Langley, etc.) is the same as the series called "True Lives" (same topics/authors)? Apparently "What's their story" is out of print, but you can still get True Lives on Amazon. If anyone has the "True Lives" series with either Alexander the Great or Galileo could you contact me? I've got those two from "What's their story" from the library and we could compare to see if they are the same. thanks so much Angela

These are all awesome suggestions! Angela

I'm working on our history for next year. I have the word "Homer" written on one my pages ... could you please tell me some books to write under it? (LOL) My littles are in 3rd and K. Looking for some great retellings that I could read to them now, but they could read later. thanks Angela

That looks like a good one.

These are some great books! Anyone else have any favorites??? Thanks Angela

:lurk5:

I'm trying to put together a list of history books (biography, era, classic stories, wars, civilizations, etc, etc, etc) that are SOOOO good that we will want to read them over and over again (no particular historical timeframe). Are there books on your shelves that are worn out b/c the kids keep pulling them out again? I want to know what they are! I'm looking for books that my kids can read or that I can read to them (8yo and 5 yo). Any books that you would group into a "history" catagory, but only the ones that you simply love! thanks Angela

Is there a sample of the dvd on their page that I'm missing? thanks Angela

I emailed them and asked for a sample. It took them a few days to get back with me, but they did email me a sample lesson. Looks GREAT! Angela

Is there a website out there that you can select the meals you want, print off recipes and a grocery list for those meals for free? Looking for something to make my life easier and cheaper! thanks Angela

Would you share why you like the standard edition more? thank you Angela

Instead of buying a set of geometric solids, I thought I could find things around the house to use. Well, so far I've got a ball and a block! Anyone have suggestions for other things? Thanks Angela

I have read lots of things about the Singapore editions, but I still don't know which to get. I wanted to make a poll, but have no idea how to do it. So, I thought maybe people could just post which one they use (US or Standard). That way I could get an idea what the majority of people use. Thanks Angela

Well, it's 6:15 in the morning and I just had time to read the link pages. It's scary. She has absolutely perfect handwriting, but other than that ..... I've got tears in my eyes. I've reserved the book from the library. But now what? Who does the testing? Who do I call? What are the first steps? Thank you so much Angela p.s. Please pray that we get this all figured out and that this is just a small speed bump in our journey.

:lurk5:

That is so sweet of you. I don't know why I never think of youtube for educational stuff. thanks Angela

You know I have tried every way I can think of to teach place value. She can take the decimal street and teach place value to you. She knows where everybody lives and has no trouble writing it in that context. We have done this excercise many, many times over the last two years. When it comes to applying it in other context, well that's a different story. I am VERY open to suggestions on this one. This week we had, what I thought was a break through, but she does still reverse her numbers (not when adding them, just when writing them random - like "write the number twelve", etc kwim). The thing is she knows what she is talking about when talking about the number. Clear as mud, I know. She can count something. She will know that it is twelve (seems to be the one that she has the most trouble with), but she will write 20 and argue that it is twelve. I agree with the theory of renaming the numbers, but it just didn't work for us. She thought that it didn't make any sense and it was hard for me to get into it too. HELP!!!! Angela p.s. Do you know of a place value video? or other fun math videos?

Well, another piece of the puzzle that I somehow forgot to mention (my brain is fuzzy today) ... she does have convergence insufficiency. It was "moderate." Her doctor has been very much "let's wait and see" about this. She is the only ped ophthalmologist around here. We have done prescribed computer exercises and now I hardly notice it. Her reading did improve after completing the exercises (about 6 months ago). It is time now for her yearly check-up though. I know more confusion! Thank you all so much for taking you time to have adult conversations with me about this. Angela

To complicate matters more, we just did the reading test for Sonlight. According to that she test at 3rd grade. Angela

I don't even know where to begin. There are so many things with my dd8. We have homeschooled since halfway through K5. I started hsing b/c she wasn't getting anywhere in school, even in K. I will admit that I had no idea how to teach in the beginning. We have learned together. So, I guess part of this is my insecurity/insanity. Anyway, in random order: We went through HOP K-2, Bob books and ETC (on book 5 now) for phonics. We just found AAS and are halfway through book 1. She still has such trouble reading. Sometimes I think it's just the material/interest. I have trouble reading some Dr. Suess books, so when she reads them just like they are a string of words with no story, I get it. I don't like them either. She can read Little Bear and books like that with a gentle story very well. But just then she was reading a book about the planets and she read the word Venus with no problem. She got to the next page and could not read the word Venus. She does this often, read it on this page, but can't on another. She just read "from" for the word "for". I pointed to the word (universal sign for you missed it) and she reread it "from" again. I pointed again. She read "from" again. I said something like read that word again. This time she got it. I realize that she sees small "f" word = from. How normal is this at her age? Sometimes when she is sounding out the word, she will miss the first sound of the word (like that letter wasn't even there). Not as much as it once was, but one of the things I say when she reads is "first sound first". She will then add that sound to the beginning and voila --- it makes a word that actually makes sense! Another thing is with numbers, not all numbers. We've stalled out half way through MUS Beta. (me, b/c I felt that I wasn't getting enough instruction - her, b/c a felt like she was just going through the motions and not really getting it) She is very good with addition and subtraction facts. (We don't do timed drills.) I was thinking of changing to Singapore, so yesterday we did the placement test. I was expecting her to be lacking on some things b/c MUS follows a different sequence. She was having trouble with a lot of basic things. The same things we have worked on over and over again. Things like writing 12 for 20 and vice versa. She does that a lot. (I wish there were no teens in the number system). When she skip counts by 10, she starts off strong " 10, 20, 30,40,50,60,17,18,19,100 --- everytime! The bright point of my day yesterday was reading in the Miquon Annotations p13. "Gary is a good thinker. It was not his fault that our language and our numerals do not match!" (If you are reading Spycar - thanks for suggesting it.) She is such a smart, loving, caring girl. She will sit all day and talk to you about Jesus if you want to. She loves to be read to. She loves art. She is a good thinker. It just seems like there are some stumbling blocks to the basics. I just don't know how to get over them. I realize that this has been a very long and very rambling, poor written post. I just don't know how to put it into words. I know there is something wrong, but I don't know what it could be, or what to do if I figured it out. Am I using the wrong things to teach her with? We did a short quiz this morning regarding learning styles. According to that she is mainly a visual learner. ????? Point me in a direction Angela

If you live in the Midsouth, I had a great Peds to send you to! Angela

Thanks everyone!

Well, I go through this time to time with my dd8. I always say that she "quits" on me. In her case, we do just take a break. I find that if I keep pushing her, we both get stressed out. Most times after the break (maybe a few hours, or a few days -- or a couple of weeks) she's back and ready to work. Most of the time, she has absorbed what we were trying to learn during the meltdown and is ready to move on. Even if she is not "doing school" she's still learning, just maybe not the things that I had scheduled. But as others have already stated, if you are concerned that something else might be wrong, let that Mama's instinct take over. Much better to be safe than .... :grouphug: Angela

Well, somehow I've become a math junkie ... but not in a good way. I haven't found a math that I like yet. I know many people love Singapore. Could someone point me to a website that has lots of sample pages? I would really appreciated it. thanks Angela