Knowing And Teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma is an excellent resource for anyone teaching math. I agree with the others, pull out the manipulatives. Also ditch the terms carry and borrow, compose and decompose are more descriptive. If the student is thinking in terms of place value math is easier. Example 24 is 2 tens and 4 units. Read Ma or check out the Education Unboxed videos for a better idea.

I thought I read somewhere that it's in the works. Following to see if anyone finds the answer.

I've used MUS Primer and Miquon. Miquon is my preference for a group setting. It's more affordable, easy to implement and C-rods are easier to come by and more durable than MUS manipulatives. MUS is very narrow in scope, Miquon will touch on a variety of topics and provide a solid conceptual understanding.

Chickens are like a gateway drug! We now have 11 ducks! The kids plan to sell the duck eggs. I also bought an incubator. I'm going to be the crazy bird lady...

My 7 yr old son took over meal planning, he uses Build A Menu. Best thing to ever happen to our family, meal planning is my least favorite chore. My other 7 yr old helps with FlyLady Zone and daily routine checklists. My menu kid has also taken over laundry, he's not great at putting away but he stays on top of getting it clean and dry! My 4 yr old takes her care of our chickens and ducks, she's really good about saying "mom, I want to do it, teach me!" Hopefully they'll be more independent some day but right now I'm happy they contributing. I can't keep up anymore without their help!

It may have been the heat. We've been hot the last few days. I give my girls ice water and ooen the top doors of our coop. On really hot days I put a mister out and they seem to enjoy the mist. Sry for your loss.

Here's our 2nd grade lineup History: SOTW 2 with AG Math: MM 3, Beast Academy 3 and various supplements LA: WWE1/2, FLL1/2, AAR3, AAS1/2 Song School Greek (per request, we did SSL last year and they begged for the Greek Beak) Science: BFSU1 Art: Artistic Pursuits and Draw Squad

I have it. It's a booklist. It's convenient reference. The entire book is laid out like the sample pages. I like the pdf format, i can print one for every child and mark off when we/they read a book listed. I have not seen All Through the Ages to compare.

That makes perfect sense and seems more sudtle than the black sharpie route.

First year submitting test scores... I have TeraNova results in hand. The law only requires I submit proof of a composite score in or above the 4th stanine. I'm looking at the letter I was sent in response to my NOI "approving" my request to homeschool. (insert annoyed emoticon) Do I black out all of the results except the composite score? Or is that needlessly poking the bear?

Table Saw works for me! The key is clamping the book TIGHT and fine tooth blade.

We used it last year for first grade. My boys aren't great readers and hate to write. We just used the student book and skipped all the handwriting. I printed the coloring pages for them to color while they listened to the songs or I read from the student book. It worked well and my 3/4 yr old happily followed right along! We reviewed vocabulary everyday, it didn't take long and all 3 had great retention.

We've had chicks for 4 weeks now. I built the Ana White A-frame coop, the design needed a fair amount of modification to improve strength and to make it weather tight. I love Ana but I can,t recommend her A-frame plans :-(

We just finished the TerraNova for 1st Grade. My kids laughed at the science and social studies sections. There was a question referencing a part of American History we haven't covered (we did SOTW 1) The 3 answer choices included something from France, another thing from Egypt and a 3rd thing from the US my kids didn't recognize. By elimination they got the answer right and I had a good chuckle. I do have struggling readers, the reading portions of the test brought my boys to the verge of tears, it was just too much reading for them. We are in VA also, I plan to black out the test scores for sections the state doesn't require. There is no need to even take the sections not required.

I bought WWS for me and some history study guides to increase my depth. I've got a year of grad school under my belt but I'm not smarter than a 5th grader :-)