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My son is 10, 5th grade and is finishing Singapore 6A. We supplement with Singapore Challenging words problems, level 5 and we were using ALEKS but recently quit. I'm not confident that his knowledge of fractions, decimals and percents is strong enough for him to move on to pre-algebra when the time comes. I used Keys to ... fractions, decimals and percents with my daughter, so I am familiar with this program I'm concerned that it might be too much repetition. Would Math Mammoth be a better choice? Thanks for any help! Karla

Thank you both for your responses. I tried Twiddla, it would be perfect except that I can't get the audio to work well. Thanks again for taking the time to respond. Karla

I coach a First Lego League team. The kids need to meet "online" to discuss their science project. Is there anyway we can do this easily?? I've considered Skype and Openmeetings from Google. My kids take an online class, so I've seen a "Moodle" type class. Anyway, there just seems like there must be some easy way for six kids to talk, IM and maybe share documents or a white board. I wish Yahoo groups provided something. Is there a better "groups" out there? Does Facebook do this - I'm not on Facebook. Should they meet in Second Life :001_smile: ? It just seems there must be some easy way to make this happen. Thanks for any ideas!!

I empathize with what you are going through. My daughter has a September birthday. In some states she would be entering 4th grade next year, but in our district the cut off is Sept. 1. For many reasons, I decided to dub her a kindergartner a year early. I regretted this decision for a long time. Last year we repeated 2nd grade. I can hardly express what a HUGE relief this has been for me. She now excels at her math and she works ahead in science and language arts. Her standardized test score was fabulous. Really one of the best decisions I’ve made. She feels successful and is happy. I was able to explain to her that I had made a mistake in calling her X grade and I was merely correcting my error. I realize this simple explanation probably won’t work with your son. It was mostly math that she was struggling with at the time I made the decision, but making this simple change has made everything easier, I feel far less stress, the weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Good luck with your decision.

eSpindle.com has worked wonderfully for us. eSpindle does have a free trial.

http://www.espindle.org eSpindle has been a wonderful find for my spelling challenged daughter. She is 11 and we started her at the 3rd grade level. She is tested on 25 words per day. She also uploads her own geography words and is tested on those. I can upload any words I would like her to work on. I am thrilled with her progress from using eSpindle.

Yes, I am fascinated by education in general. If I won the big lottery, I would fund education research. The most recent books I have read on education are: "Liberating Learning" by Terry Moe and "Disrupting Class" by Clayton M. Christensen. Both very interesting, books and actually optimistic about the future of education - but distinctly un-classical. :) Karla

She fits great in size 8 boys pants, but the girls jeans are just too tight and the size 10 are way too long. I recently bought two plus size pairs of pants from Lands' End. One pair works if I take up a ton of slack in the elastic waste band. The other pair are just way too big. So I wouldn't try ordering online from Lands' End, the plus size is really huge. At our Old Navy store, plus size doesn't start until size 10. I actually did end up buying some pants there and will probably cut six inches off and hem them, but it seem like such a waste. Size 8 boys Levi's work fairly well and look kind of cute.

eSpindle.org Great thread :bigear:

Well the co-op I referred to, I quit last winter before the flu outbreak. My kids have allergies and I feel kids with allergies should be allowed to attend a co-op. And can't we all give each other a little grace? Hasn't everyone sent their kid to some event and then the next day realized that the kid has a cold? We can't always know what is going on inside our children's bodies. And aren't lots of people carriers without having any symptoms? It seems like eventually this hysteria will lead to no one ever leaving their homes.

That makes no sense to me. How about having the immunocompromised child not participate in co-op? Doesn't that make a lot more sense? The rest of the world needs to keep moving. And don't normal healthy children need to experience a certain amount of colds and flus to build up their immune system? I quit a co-op because they had such a silly sickness policy.

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Thank you all so very much for taking the time to reply. I always amazed by how WTM forum members give their time to help others. I'll think about your posts and probably come up with more questions. Leanna you mentioned that in your co-op you practice note taking for the first 9 weeks. When does your co-op begin to require quizzes? Do you wait until they have some mastery of note taking and recognizing the main point?

Here's the background: Four girls are participating in a medieval history co-op together once a week. The girls are 11-12 years old. Four moms alternate each week teaching the material. All of these girls are very bright and successful in their studies. All of the girls have been taught in a relatively traditional/classical fashion. All of the girls take annual assessments as well as at least some tests done with their regular curriculum - so they aren't entirely unfamiliar with taking tests. Here's the story: The girls were given a quiz last week which brought two to tears, one of which was my daughter. The three other moms contend that learning to take quizzes is necessary. I can see some validity to some of their points, but it's hard for me to see the benefits when I see my daughter humiliated. Question One, (in ps) if at least half a class fails, wouldn't that clearly be a reflection on the teacher? I see this as (my) the teacher's failure in not adequately preparing the girls for the quiz. If you want 11-12 year olds to succeed on a quiz, don't you have to teach to the test? Question two, if we don't "teach to the test" how do we set them up for success rather than failure? Other thoughts??????? What kind of history quizzing is appropriate at this age???? Thanks so much ladies for any help with this situation which weighs so heavily on me. Karla

NM

I just signed up for Discovery Education again today. I have previously used DE and had no trouble finding the Elementary Spanish lessons. Now, I can find no Spanish instruction, only videos presented in Spanish for Spanish speakers. Has this happened to anyone else. Are the Elementary Spanish lessons now only available if you buy DE PLUS? Maybe the website is just not functioning properly today? Thanks for any help.

Bump :)

I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion about Switched-on-Schoolhouse Elementary Spanish? My children are 7, 9 and 11. The 11 year old has had some Spanish instruction. Thank you for any response! Karla

I'd like to learn more about investing in stocks/bonds etc. I'm ready to consider investing in something other than total stock market index funds. I'm starting to question the concept of buy and hold forever kwim? Any ideas? Thanks so much for any advice! Karla

My son loves the Crazy Machines game, we only have the first game. The Evolver game was quite an experience. We downloaded Evolver from Dimensionm.com. Go there for much more information about this game. Be aware that the game from Amazon you have shown is only missions 1-5. The download version has 20 missions. There has never been a game or anything else that has gotten my son so excited. While he is good at math, I haven't accelerated him much, he is doing a third grade curriculum. He ended up learning a tremendous amount of pre-algebra concepts in a very short time. We went on and also got the algebra version of the game, which doesn't have many missions, but he also enjoyed. I hope this helps. Karla

My coop is trying to decide which Spanish curriculum to use. I so want to use this curriculum, but our instructor will be teaching the children with a Latin American accent. The audio cd has a Castilian (sp?) accent. Do you think it is possible to overcome this minor flaw? Thanks for any help! Karla

Has anyone used this product? My coop is hiring a Spanish instructor and we are looking for a good curriculum. The children have all had several years of Spanish instruction. Thank you for any help! Karla in Oregon