how are you explaining it? Just curious. I can't really think of too many ways to explain that. What do you want to know? 4x+12? 4x? No, you want to know what x is which translates to x=. If I say 1/4 of 12 is that translates to 1/4x12=. So if I want to know what x is that translates to x=, not 4x or 4x+12 but x. I'm reading AoPS so I'll have to see how he explains it. I also have Foester's and will check to see how it is explained in that text as well.

Yes, I was going to say I think it was around Christmas time.

Today, my DS10 edited a paragraph for K12 Human Odyssey teacher/student pages. He was guided in writing an outline to answer the question on how Sumer fulfilled the requirements for a civilization. Then he was to use that outline to write a paragraph. Darn it, I just realized we no longer have the first draft. :001_huh: here is the final. Sumer meets all three requirements for being a civilization. The first requirement is a surplus of food. The Sumerians had good soil in which to grow crops, canals to transport water, and livestock to plow their fields. Another requirement is a division of labor. This leads to the ability to have specialists because not every one has to farm. Sumerian specialties included potters, carpenters, and weavers. Then cities, the third requirement, can be built. People can live closer together to share their specialities. This allowed Sumerians to complete large construction projects like large walls to keep out invaders, granaries to store food and temples to worship gods. The Sumerians were the first civilization because they met all three requirements for being a civilization. He typed this in so was able to use spell check. Here is some of our dialogue. Mom: Ok, let's read your topic sentence. What key word do you think needs to be repeated to give cohesion to your paragraph? Son: requirement. Mom: In the surplus of food requirement, you state how Sumer fulfilled that requirement. Should you do the same for the others to maintain parallelism? He felt his closing was boring b/c it merely repeated his topic sentence but he was ready to be done with it and wanted to leave it as it is. I was fine with that as I don't feel the need to make every writing piece perfect but would rather move on to fresh material. We discussed how this could easily be expanded and turned into an essay with each requirement being it's own paragraph. I can see that writing is going to take up time and that it really is a process involving lots of discussion. I also I think the way to go for me has been to gather writing resources so that I'm able to guide him on the fly using content areas rather than a separate writing program. I'm posting this just as an example but if someone wants to comment, I'm all :bigear:. I would use the comments to address future paragraphs as we won't be editing this one any further. Capt Uhura

I've never used IEW. I know there is a couple of posters who use both. One poster mentioned that her DS writes the IEW way, then he edits it using MCT methods ie taking out all the un-needed dress-ups and leaving the ones that have impact. I think the issue for some of us is that there isn't enough direct instruction on how to teach writing. MCT gives examples of writing, what should be in a good paragraph but nothing about how to get this out of your DC, how to coax them along the way. For example, we love Paragraph town but when we got to the lessons where my son had to write a paragraph, I felt he wasn't ready. So I stopped and did some paragraph fundamentals w/ Paragraph Writing Made Easy and pattern Based writing. Now I think he is poised to get more out of Paragraph Town writing assignments. So for me, Paragraph Town and Essay Voyage are more for making rudimentary writing better - not as baseline instruction.

bump :)

DS7, WWE3 w13d3 narration The children went to play in the snow with sleds and two large dishpans. After that, they made ice cream with snow, milk, and sugar. Then they all went inside but Rush and Isaac went for a walk. Rush and Isaac soon longed for warmth, light and noise so they went back home. I liked his use of time sequence words.

We have a lot more dust right now in my new home. In my old home w/ forced air heating, the air constantly went through the ventilation system and was filtered. In my new home, the heating is baseboard heating (water) so air is not being circulated through the ventilation system to be filtered. When we're leaving the house for a couple of hours, sometimes I turn the fan on so that the air is filtered through the ventilation system. I notice less dust after I've done that.

Yes wonderful job!

There is no deadline but only 200 people are allowed due to the size of the conference hall. It's not close to being full yet so you have some time.

Here's a copy of SWB's post from the General forum. Here's the plan: Friday: The Well-Prepared Student (High School): How to Get Ready for College In this session, learn what and how to teach your child in grades 9-12--before they fill out those applications and head off for the freshman year. What expections should you have for high school? How can you teach those subjects that stump you? How should you personalize the high school curriculum for your student, while still making sure that the basics are covered? What skills will your student need to develop in order to thrive in college? As a college instructor, Susan Wise Bauer has taught scores of college freshmen and knows what they should have learned before the freshman year; as a home educating parent, she has graduated one high school student (now at UVA) and is in the thicket of high school with two more. Also covers transcript preparation and other important steps in getting ready for the admissions process. A Plan for Teaching Writing: Focus on the High School Years This seminar covers all of the types of writing that high school students should learn before entering the freshman year of college: response papers, summaries, and critical essays across the curriculum. Students in grades 8-12 are encouraged to attend. How to Read a Book (With Apologies to Adler) Offers specific training in the three levels of reading, explaining how they are applied in different genres and how they lead to the development of skills in literary criticism. Includes suggestions for writing about each genre. For high school students and self-educators. Saturday: Homeschooling the Real (Distractable, Impatient, Argumentative, Unenthusiastic, Non-Book-Loving, Inattentive, Poky, Vague) Child High academic achievement (and particular the book-centered kind of achievement recommended by classical educators) often seems designed for one kind of student: the mature, self-directed, disciplined child who loves to read. In this workshop, learn how to deal with the other 90% of students. Includes practical strategies for dealing with roadblocks in the way of academic achievement, as well as time-tested advice for teaching to your child’s strengths while still addressing weaknesses. Susan Wise Bauer, classical educator, college instructor, and author, was home schooled herself and has homeschooled her own four real children, now aged 10-19 (the oldest is now at university). What is Literary Analysis? When, Why, and How Should I Teach It? You know that your children should read—but what else should you be doing to teach them skills in literature? After teaching literature at the college level for over a decade, Susan has seen the results of many different methods. This seminar will guide you towards the most effective way to teach literature. Offers a foundational explanation of what literary analysis is, a list of skills that need to be covered, guidance in how to teach them, and resource recommendations. A Plan for Teaching Writing: Focus on the Elementary and Middle School Years This workshop explains how to guide your student through a simple progression (copying, dictation, narration, summarizing, outlining, short critical essay) that will develop both writing and thinking skills in a systematic, stepwise manner. Also offers very specific guidance in how to teach the skills of constructing an argument, outlining and writing from an outline. Includes training in outlining, writing from an outline, basic Socratic dialogue, and evaluation and grading.

Here is a copy of SWB's post here at the general forum. Here's the plan: Friday: The Well-Prepared Student (High School): How to Get Ready for College In this session, learn what and how to teach your child in grades 9-12--before they fill out those applications and head off for the freshman year. What expections should you have for high school? How can you teach those subjects that stump you? How should you personalize the high school curriculum for your student, while still making sure that the basics are covered? What skills will your student need to develop in order to thrive in college? As a college instructor, Susan Wise Bauer has taught scores of college freshmen and knows what they should have learned before the freshman year; as a home educating parent, she has graduated one high school student (now at UVA) and is in the thicket of high school with two more. Also covers transcript preparation and other important steps in getting ready for the admissions process. A Plan for Teaching Writing: Focus on the High School Years This seminar covers all of the types of writing that high school students should learn before entering the freshman year of college: response papers, summaries, and critical essays across the curriculum. Students in grades 8-12 are encouraged to attend. How to Read a Book (With Apologies to Adler) Offers specific training in the three levels of reading, explaining how they are applied in different genres and how they lead to the development of skills in literary criticism. Includes suggestions for writing about each genre. For high school students and self-educators. Saturday: Homeschooling the Real (Distractable, Impatient, Argumentative, Unenthusiastic, Non-Book-Loving, Inattentive, Poky, Vague) Child High academic achievement (and particular the book-centered kind of achievement recommended by classical educators) often seems designed for one kind of student: the mature, self-directed, disciplined child who loves to read. In this workshop, learn how to deal with the other 90% of students. Includes practical strategies for dealing with roadblocks in the way of academic achievement, as well as time-tested advice for teaching to your child’s strengths while still addressing weaknesses. Susan Wise Bauer, classical educator, college instructor, and author, was home schooled herself and has homeschooled her own four real children, now aged 10-19 (the oldest is now at university). What is Literary Analysis? When, Why, and How Should I Teach It? You know that your children should read—but what else should you be doing to teach them skills in literature? After teaching literature at the college level for over a decade, Susan has seen the results of many different methods. This seminar will guide you towards the most effective way to teach literature. Offers a foundational explanation of what literary analysis is, a list of skills that need to be covered, guidance in how to teach them, and resource recommendations. A Plan for Teaching Writing: Focus on the Elementary and Middle School Years This workshop explains how to guide your student through a simple progression (copying, dictation, narration, summarizing, outlining, short critical essay) that will develop both writing and thinking skills in a systematic, stepwise manner. Also offers very specific guidance in how to teach the skills of constructing an argument, outlining and writing from an outline. Includes training in outlining, writing from an outline, basic Socratic dialogue, and evaluation and grading.

Hello All, While most know about this, there are a few who may be coming late to the conversation so I'll post this email which was sent out by RFWP today. If you have a local homeschool group, feel free to post this email there. Unlike many homeschool conferences, this one will be focused on academics. Susan Wise Bauer will be giving four talks on writing for elementary, middle school and high school as well as a wonderful talk on homeschooling the "real" child. Michael Clay Thompson will be talking about writing, grammar, poetry. In addition, given that the missing component is the ability to look at curriculum, many of the attendees are bringing their fav curriculum for a curriculum sharing/discussion evening. I think this will prove to be an informative two days. If successful, this type of venue will be repeated through out the country - more smaller, more intimate meetings where you can really get your questions answered! Capt Uhura The email follows: MICHAEL CLAY THOMPSON AND SUSAN WISE BAUER A special get-together to enable home-educators to meet these amazing speakers and writers in a relaxed friendly and intimate ambience. Friday 24 and Saturday 25 June 2011 at Valley Forge Christian College, 1401 Charlestown Road, Phoenixville, PA When the North-East Great Homeschool Convention in Valley Forge, Philadelphia this June was canceled, a homeschooler posted a message on our Support Forum asking whether Michael Clay Thompson, with Susan Wise Bauer, would consider a “mini-convention†if it could be organized. Both Susan and Michael were agreeable and finding a venue at short notice was solved thanks to the Valley Forge Christian College who is freeing up a presentation space for us and providing dormitory accommodation and meals. The result is an exciting opportunity to meet and hear these popular presenters, discuss curriculum, and meet with others. Other curriculum people will be there. We expect Laurel Dodge, who is developing a nature studies curriculum, and Shelagh Gallagher who will talk about problem-based learning and other curriculum approaches for homeschoolers. If we have enough presentation rooms, one or two other popular speakers are interested in attending. We are pleased that the college could offer us a venue this weekend; most of their facilities have been booked already by other groups, so the space is limited. The nice thing about the venue is that the air-conditioned dorm rooms and meals are inexpensive. One downside is that we may not be able to take walk-ins as the maximum number of places is 200. We will have more information about the program soon which will be posted on the Support Forum and on the Royal Fireworks Press website. Meanwhile, you can follow discussions on the Well Trained Mind Forum and on our Facebook page. To register, go to the Royal Fireworks Press website: http://rfwp.com/valley-forge-convention.php

Hello All, While most know about this, there are a few who may be coming late to the conversation so I'll post this email which was sent out by RFWP today. If you have a local homeschool group, feel free to post this email there. Unlike many homeschool conferences, this one will be focused on academics. Susan Wise Bauer will be giving four talks on writing for elementary, middle school and high school as well as a wonderful talk on homeschooling the "real" child. Michael Clay Thompson will be talking about writing, grammar, poetry. In addition, given that the missing component is the ability to look at curriculum, many of the attendees are bringing their fav curriculum for a curriculum sharing/discussion evening. I think this will prove to be an informative two days. If successful, this type of venue will be repeated through out the country - more smaller, more intimate meetings where you can really get your questions answered! Capt Uhura The email follows: MICHAEL CLAY THOMPSON AND SUSAN WISE BAUER A special get-together to enable home-educators to meet these amazing speakers and writers in a relaxed friendly and intimate ambience. Friday 24 and Saturday 25 June 2011 at Valley Forge Christian College, 1401 Charlestown Road, Phoenixville, PA When the North-East Great Homeschool Convention in Valley Forge, Philadelphia this June was canceled, a homeschooler posted a message on our Support Forum asking whether Michael Clay Thompson, with Susan Wise Bauer, would consider a “mini-convention†if it could be organized. Both Susan and Michael were agreeable and finding a venue at short notice was solved thanks to the Valley Forge Christian College who is freeing up a presentation space for us and providing dormitory accommodation and meals. The result is an exciting opportunity to meet and hear these popular presenters, discuss curriculum, and meet with others. Other curriculum people will be there. We expect Laurel Dodge, who is developing a nature studies curriculum, and Shelagh Gallagher who will talk about problem-based learning and other curriculum approaches for homeschoolers. If we have enough presentation rooms, one or two other popular speakers are interested in attending. We are pleased that the college could offer us a venue this weekend; most of their facilities have been booked already by other groups, so the space is limited. The nice thing about the venue is that the air-conditioned dorm rooms and meals are inexpensive. One downside is that we may not be able to take walk-ins as the maximum number of places is 200. We will have more information about the program soon which will be posted on the Support Forum and on the Royal Fireworks Press website. Meanwhile, you can follow discussions on the Well Trained Mind Forum and on our Facebook page. To register, go to the Royal Fireworks Press website: http://rfwp.com/valley-forge-convention.php

I. can't. even. imagine........ :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

hth, Capt Uhura

The issue w/ starting Island early, in 2nd or 3rd grade is that then you don't have a book each year. Most 3rd/4th graders are not ready for Town level writing. And most 4th/5th graders are not ready for Voyage level writing. Heck, many have bought Voyage level for their 7th graders and had to drop down to Town level for the writing. My then 1st grader did all of Island level only b/c his older brother, then 4th grade was doing it. He had no issues what so ever. The only grammar he had had was about a fourth of FLL1/2. He is advanced. This year, as a 2nd grader, he did all of the Town level materials including 4level analysis mostly on his own, except Paragraph Town. He sat in on the discussion/reading of Paragraph Town and had no issue w/ the concepts, I just didn't require him to do that level of writing. He's writing very simple paragraphs right now - topic sentence, 3 supporting details, and a closing sentence as well as finishing up WWE3. So next year for 3rd grade, I'm not sure what he will do. Likely, he will go into Growing with Grammar - perhaps GWG5 given what he knows about grammar from MCT. The other option is Advanced Language Lessons once it's available and I can see what is covered in it. Probably as a 4th grader, this DS will do Paragraph Town again, reading through it and doing the writing assignments. As far as Killgallon, my 5th grader is finishing up Sentence Composing for Elementary School this year. Next year, we'll do Story Grammar for Elementary School. I wouldn't do Sent Composing before Town level so that SC isn't the first time DC is learning about participials, appositives, adj and adv phrases.

I"m so happy it has worked out well for her. :001_smile: I love reading success stories, especially about girls and math.

They want to spend their own money on it so I guess I shouldn't complain. Hopefully it will my 7yr old cement his multiplication tables. Thanks everyone!

Thanks HSDCY!

My boys would like to purchase the Deluxe addition of Timez Attack. What did you think of it? Capt Uhura

:iagree: back!:lol:

Larger print and higher quality paper!

Excellent! It is very difficult to find nice, conservative dresses for toddlers. Just nice, classy dresses.

I'll be driving in Thursday so I'll need dinner Thursday night as well.

YEs I saw that! You definitely sound energized and excited. Please let us know how it goes on the Logic forum. :001_smile: I'm excited for you! :D