I feel more comfortable now to just let them progress at the rate they want to. I'll worry when we hit a snag rather than anticipating it. Amy

Hi all, I am having some issues with maths here at the moment. My "issue" is that my children seem to be progressing very quickly. My 7yo wants to play maths for fun in his leisure time! In Australia, our school year has just finished so DS7 has just finished grade 1 and DD6 has just finished K. At the moment we are just going faster, but at this rate I think we will be in algebra by grade 4 or 5. DS7 spent just one month in MUS beta, and now after a month and a half of gamma he is 2/3s of the way through the book. DD6 is equally strong. I'm not really looking to go "faster" with them, but I'm not really so sure how to go deeper or broader. My ps when I was little decided they would go "deeply" broad with me - which resulted in an agonizingly boring two year study of fibonachii and pi. So, does anyone know how to go broad with maths? I have added in RS as well as math u see as dual spines, and mathletics as a supplement, so that we can go deeper into the material. Do I just continue on like this? Do I change to something else? Can I go broad, or is this just not possible in maths? If the kids hit algebra at 9, 10 or 11, are their minds developed enough to deal with the abstract concepts? By the way, DS7 has verbal dyspraxia so did poorly on the verbal component when tested so is not eligible for something like EPYG. Thanks, Amy

We have been using MUS. It is working well in the sense that DC seem to enjoy maths and do well with the order in which things are taught. However, it just seems to be endless worksheets and drill while we are working to maths facts. I like the theory of mastering maths facts before moving on, so we work hard at this and its paying off - DD6 is just moving onto memorizing subtraction in the second half of alpha. DS7 is nearly finished gamma. DS7 loves maths and begs to do mathletics as 'play' time, and DD6 often does too. I make DC do four worksheets each a day (using MUS workbook, test book or online worksheet generator or math cafe), which takes them about 10 minutes. 10 minutes doesn't seem long enough for maths at this level, but they seem to memorize facts at a reasonable pace and seem to like it. But ... (there's always a but) ... I am so bored of the repetition of worksheets and drills with nothing else until one lesson is mastered and then the next. I want to continue with MUS, but I am planning on adding in RS too and speed maths. I was thinking that this might extend them a bit more. I just am not sure how I will work it in to have MUS and RS as dual spines, and speed maths and mathletics as supplements. I want the different approaches, and I need to go sideways and cement things. Even though we are using mus with the blocks, the kids prefer to do mental arithmetic and fight the use of the blocks. I'm hoping they will cooperate more with the RS manipulatives and games to make it become more concrete rather than abstract. Has anyone else had any experience with this? How do other people work having two curriculums? Do you do both on the same day or seperate days?

I figure that at this age I care more that they learn to love reading than I care what they read. I believe CM refered to some of the books my kids are enjoying to read at first grade as 'twaddle'. In Australia, the school year coincides with the calender year. DS7 has just finished grade 1, and DS6 will be grade 1 in 2009. DS7 has been reading Little House in the Big Wood as his read-aloud 'reader', and DD6 just started this today. DD6 loves to read any of the Bairenstein Bears, Dr Seuss and Franklin books. DS7 loves Rhold Dahl, Paul Jennings and Captain Underpants (I know...but he loves reading, and that's the goal for me at this age) as these three all appeal to his sense of humour. We've enjoyed reading books such as Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, Botternsnikes and Gumbles, Faraway Tree and Wishing Tree together this year. At what age/stage do people think I should start caring more about what

As a previous poster said, using SWR or Spalding will teach you the five reasons for a silent final E. In addition to this, I remind my children of HOW you get that vowel to say its name. There are three ways to make a single vowel to say its name: a silent final E I and O followed by two consonents A, E, O and U usually say their name at the end of a syllable. I find it helps to repeatedly ask the kids why or how the vowel says its name. DS7 gets it regularly, DD6 can self correct when asked this question.

I know that it is common for children to reverse letters, it is just that she does it SO much. What is writing 8? I'm really not clear on this. We are using SWR, which I believe is a modified version of Spalding's WRTR. She does not know left and right. Nor when given her left, can she identify left on someone next to her or facing her. I'm not too stressed at this stage, I just was wanting to know if there is something I can do to help her grow out of this.

I agree with Heather. We are not religious, but I find most of the SWR sentences are compatible or tweak-able to be secular. With DS7 we are going to add in Megawords, too, as I think this would make a big difference.

We are focusing on literacy and numeracy. English We use SWR, Shurley English and SSL as curriculums for English. We also do handwriting (10 minutes, timed) and dictation. The kids have to summarize a story book that I read, and they have to read to me. Maths MUS at their own pace. Going to add in RS because they have a tendancy to get bogged down and bored waiting for mastery. The kids love mathletics so we supplement with that (DS just finishing up grade 1 this week keeps trying to get mastery of each topic so he can move to the next grade level - he just went to grade 4 this week). History and Science (these unfortunately often get skipped)SOTW. RS4K and Noeo Art Grandma's every Friday morning for art lessons as she is artistic, and works from home as a machine quilter. The kids love art lessons! Outside activities DS and DD together: swimming, gymnastics, pottery, drama DS: tennis DD: dance

At the moment we are studying Latin. The kids absolutely love Latin and we are all keen to add another language. Articulation is difficult here (due to verbal dyspraxia) so as well as all of the other benefits of Latin, we get a language other than English without having to worry about pronunciation. However, we are thinking of adding another language. I was contemplating the idea of adding Ancient Greek. However, I am unsure of the advantages/reasons why I would add Greek over and above Latin. Can anyone help me out? What would I use? How long after starting Latin would I wait before introducing it? My other thought is French. At one point I spoke French well as I did an exchange there for a year. However, that was in 98/99 and as I haven't spoken it since I have lost my language skills. This would be my modern language of choice because of my own confidence. What resource would I use? How long after starting Latin would I wait to start it, because of the similarity of the Romance languages to Latin would it be confusing at this stage? Thanks, Amy

I have my folder that has a tab for each child in it. The children have a folder each for English (Latin also goes in here), maths and history. Each folder has dividers for Mondah - Friday. They know for maths the sheets they need to do each day are under the tab for that day. English folder has the master copy of what they need to do each day, as does my folder so that they and I can independantly tick off each thing as they go. This works well for us because: - they know everything they need to do - it keeps me accountable instead of saying "I've had enough, finished now" - seeing that a lot has been ticked off motivates them The sheet looks like this: English SQUIRT · Summarize a book that Mummy reads (Jeremy first) o Phonics – Jeremy and Kalina say letters o Grammar – with Mummy and Kalina o Song school Latin – with Mummy and Kalina o Vocabulary – Wordly Wise 3000 o Read to Mummy o Spelling · Copybook · Reading comprehension · Dictation Speech Therapy · 15 minute corrected conversation · 5 minutes – timed ‘r’ History · Read 1 chapter of SOTW (Jeremy and Kalina to summarize) · Choose to make a: model of the Nile overflowing OR Shepherd’s crook that the pharaoh carried OR The red and white crown of the pharoah Maths Sheets in your folder

We have been using MUS and I really like the mastery approach. The idea of presenting one skill at a time and staying with it appeals to me. However, DS7 is champing at the bit. His thirst for knowledge and ability to understand concepts does not keep pace with his ability to memorize the facts. We are supplementing with mathletics. We have just ordered RS to use with DS7 and DD6. DD6 is plodding through MUS alpha but with the mastery approach is uncomfortable progressing to subtraction so MUS seems to have been reduced to a repetition of addition worksheets each day for her. I will continue her in MUS, but also use RS. I'm not sure how it'll go having two spines, but at the moment MUS is only taking her about 10 minutes a day and she enjoys it. Amy

My DD6 recently had a behavioural optometry assessment. I was concerned that when she writes letters and numbers she seems to reverse individual letters and numbers. In other words d becomes b, p becomes q. This happens with any letter or number that could possibly be reversed. The optometrist confirmed that she does indeed do this more than expected. In fact, she was assessed at being on the 10th percentile for her age for reversing letters. He wanted her assessed again in 6 months to see if there has been any change before commencing vision therapy. So, my question is ... is there anything you have done or heard of that can help a child with this other than daily handwriting practice? have you heard of vision therapy and in your experience (or what you have heard) is it useful?

I was wondering until what age/stage you have your DC read aloud to you. DS7 is reading quite well (tests in McCalls at about a grade 4 level, usually) and I'm wondering if I should still insist he reads aloud as well as silent reading time and reading comprehension exercises each day. Should I still be insisting he read aloud to me each day? At what point do you stop doing this? Is it at a certain age or is it once they hit a certain level? When you stop making them read aloud to you each day, do you replace this with a different activity, or do you just drop it? Thanks, Amy

I am trying to work out how to organize our day and want some suggestions. I have a DS7 and DD6 that I work with, and a DD3 and baby that are underfoot. DS7 and DD6 work best when I'm working with them. I need to have some time that they work independantly so that I can do an individual activity with just one of them, or to see to the 3yo or baby. There are some subjects I combine: Shurley Grammar, flashcard SWR phonograms, SSL, WW3000. The kids listen to each other read aloud. We've ordered Plaid Dad's new memory book and that will be done together. They each summarize a story book daily that we snuggle on the couch to read. We do RS4K or Noeo (alternating) for science, and SOTW together. We have been using MUS as our spine for maths which works very well for my DS but not so well for DD so I think we'll add in RightStart (B and C respectively) but I hear this is very teacher intensive. I feel that the MUS is over and done in under 15 minutes each day, and that due to the level we are working at that its reduced to drilling facts before we can move on to achieve mastery. They do SWR seperately and I can't combine b/c they are on different lists. They do 10 minutes copybook work for handwriting, and write a dictated sentence or two. They do a reading comprehension exercise such as Mc-Calls or one of the EPS books such as Making Connections. These are partly independant and partly done with me, depending on the difficulty and the book. At the moment it maths and English takes around 2 hours depending on how well they concentrate, but I'm expecting that to increase with adding in memory work and changing to adding in RightStart. I don't count history and science in our school work time as they love doing those and see it as a fun activity. We like to do a lot of our reading out loud stuff in bed before we get up. I still haven't worked out if we're better off doing the together stuff first or last. Sorry for the long post.

I bought level 1 and 2 of the phonics road. I started using it and liked the idea of it. The teacher's manual was entirely on DVD, which moved at a slow pace for me. There was no support for it when I had questions. I found it to be very frustrating that it was a complete English program because the kids progressed at different rates with different skills. So, we changed to seperate programs with more support but along similar lines and with proper TM. We are using SWR, Shurley English and SSL. Feel free to ask more questions if you have them.

Are the syllables memorized in the same way SWR has children memorize the phonograms? Or are the children familiarized to the syllables after learning the phonograms? I do not have a sound card so I cant listen to the files on the links given? Also, are the words in the tables taught and dictated as spelling words? Does it matter if you go down the row or across the columns? Sorry for th dumb questions but I'm interested in using this and want to understand it better first

MUS - used alpha, beta and gamma and we love these. http://www.mathletics.com.au - brilliant brilliant brilliant SWR Shurley Grammar - dd6 sings the jingles while playing! Song School Latin - love it, kids beg to listen to the CD McGuffy readers Reading Connections 1 & 2 - by EPS books FABULOUS Real Science 4 Kids - love it, but doesn't last long enough Noeo Science Art lessons with Grandma Pottery, tennis, gymnastics and swimming as after school activities. We use Writing Strands, but I'm luke warm about this. Tried Phonics Road to Reading and Writing, but left it because the absence of a comprehensive written teacher's manual irritated me. We tried Singapore Maths, but the kids hated it. We are thinking about adding Wordly Wise 300. Does anyone have any experience with this? I have Galloping the Globe and STOW, but we just don't seem to get there. DS7 is reading and spelling at about a grade 3/4 level and DD6 is at about a grade 1/2 level. We are very focused on English and maths for the moment.

Someone posted something about this in a previous thread with a hyperlink to another site. I have looked at that site, and downloaded Webster Syllabary pdf. It looks interesting and I can see the value in teaching this. However, I'm really not sure how it would be implemented and how to teach it. Is anyone able to elaborate further how to use this method? For what it's worth, we currently use SWR and I am very happy with this method. My children are both working well above grade level with it and I plan to continue using this method. I thought the syllabary was something I might look at doing with SWR rather than instead of it. Is this possible? Thanks, Amy

We use Math U See. We only started in August when I pulled my grade 1 DS and kinder dd out of ps. We started in alpha and dd is now half-way through. DS is now 1/3 through gamma. I am very happy with not only their progress, but also their understanding and confidence. We have recently discovered a website called http://www.mathletics.com.au . This website has had my kids begging for more. It works well for those kids who are very competitive with themselves. My ds in particular constantly wants to play to improve his record and to score over 90% in every topic and sub-section so that he can be placed into the next grade level.