alisha
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Posts posted by alisha
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I think during MM4 is when my son used it a couple years ago. I really liked it. We did it in addition to MM, but you could stop MM for a week or so while you do HOE-kind of like a unit study.
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My kids loved the BA textbook part, so for your son who just wants some math stories, they will probably work well (just skip the workbook books). Another thing I've had recommended to me is Penrose the Mathematical Cat books (but have never looked further into them). If you have library access, you could search math stories and see what comes up, my library has quite a few fun books in that category.
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How about a slightly different route and begin by having her do a report without writing. Maybe give her a topic, say Brazil, and she has to do the research to come up with ways to present to others things she learned about Brazil-make a dish to eat, show places on a map, make a diorama, whatever (look up "alternatives to book report" for more ideas), Then, maybe move on to a powerpoint presentation where there's a little writing-bullet points and pictures (and visual aids like food or whatnot). Not sure what would be the next progression, but that would be a ways down the road anyway.
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I have one like that. He's 8 now, and I think when he was 6 is when he got more dominant and is now a right handed writer and a left handed thrower and other sports things. Give it another year (maybe 2) letting her do whatever feels right and she'll probably get it figured out on her own.
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23 minutes ago, Janeway said:
I want to share with you that I have 3 favorite algebra programs. BUT, I will say I generally have my children get a head start by doing the first few Keys to Algebra books. My 3 favorites are as follows....with a small description so you can choose. I think they are all equal in quality but different in presentation.
1) Dolciani...loved this. I just get the edition that Wilson Hill Academy used to use and Derek Owen's uses. I love the clean look of the pages. Every single problem is well explained with good examples. This one is my favorite obviously. But the others are just as good and some people will definitely prefer the others. You can see samples online of the pages.
2) Jacob's Algebra ...each lesson starts out with a small one picture comic basically. It is a little bit wordy in that it explains a real life situation and then gets in to the problem solving. The explanations on how to solve the problems are wonderful. I felt I learned division of polynomials in a much clearer way from this book. The exercises are broken down in a way that is is very easy to figure out what to assign. The teacher's guide, which is more of an answer key, gives just enough explanation as to what to do. It has a little bit of a discovery component. This program might be the best pick for someone who liked BA.
3) My least favorite of these three (but still in my top 3 of all programs I have reviewed) but stays on here just because it is still an excellent book so I still own it. I felt it went on too long giving too may explanations to everything. It is very thorough in explaining stuff. Some people think it is "the best" but it really is no more complete than the first two books I listed. It is still an excellent choice.
Hope that helps!
Thanks so much for this. I have a couple questions, though. First, which is #3 about? And, the TG that you reference in Jacob's Algebra-is it the newer one for the blue book that Masterbooks puts out? Or is it the older one with the lizzards? Thanks!
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Thanks, Sarah000! That's a great idea-we tried that once, when we went and did the graphing chapter, then we went back to the multi-digit multiplication and it was "too hard" because he felt like he was starting in the middle of the section and therefore hadn't had the work up from simple to harder. But the workup starting at simple, was rather long-hence thee need to take a break.
HomeAgain: He says: "There would be only 1 or 2 problems of each type with lots of space to write. There would be a section for you'/the teacher to read. It would start simple and get harder (from start of the year to end-he clarified)." Ha, Ha, that last one pretty much describes any math program, but....
I'm looking at Math Lessons for a Living Education and Horizons, but it's so hard to get an idea from the small amount of sample pages online. Others I should consider? Thanks!
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My 3rd grade son is doing Math Mammoth 4a. He's always been about 1/2 to 1 year ahead, as we started MM 1 in Kindergarten. We try to go his pace, only do a page or two a day, (usually less than an entire "lesson"), and never do all the problems, most of the time we don't even do half the problems, just what's needed for him to show me he understands.
However, lately, math has become a battle. And I'm thinking he needs a little more spiral program. As most of his issues begin when he realizes he has to do the "same type of problem again".
So, I've been looking at samples and trying to decide what would be best for him to move into soon. What are your thoughts and opinions of curriculum that might work for us? I don't really want a seperate teacher manual, I'd rather have the workbook teach. Don't know what other information to give you so ask your questions and throw out some ideas. Thanks!
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I have a 3rd grade boy this year. I split language Arts out into all it's subgroups so I can make sure he's being challenged, but not overwhelmed. Here's what we do:
Handwriting: each day, we get whiteboards with lines (the type with the dotted middle line), and practice 1 letter of the alphabet making sure we know how to write upper and lower case in the correct spot on the line-I write it and he copies it on his and practices about 5 times on his own. Then (depending on how long that has taken) I might choose a couple of words using the letters we've worked on so far for him to write also.
Grammar: We are going very slowly through Winston Grammar. (I believe it's for 4th and up, but he wanted to do it because his older brother did it last year-hence the reason we're going slowly.) We like it because it's very hands on. I write the sentences out on a whiteboard, and he labels the parts of speech either with the card or marks them with a marker. We only do about 5 sentences a day. We only do this once or twice a week.
Reading/Literature: I usually read a chapter or two from our read aloud, and then he has a binder of poems, short stories and things like that that he reads each day. He only spends about 10 minutes a day. Many, but not all, days he'll also do some fun reading that is slightly below his level. Right now, he's reading Encyclopedia Brown Books. I'd say he's right about at grade level for reading. (I got most of this from the "What your 3rd grader needs to know" book and a few from the easy peasy website.)
Spelling: I have had the HARDEST time finding a spelling that works. Finally, I had to make my own. So, basically, I'll give him a quote or sentence from a favorite book with words I think he should be knowing how to spell. I've printed them out in large font. And he'll "analyze" it. Basically, circle the silent e's in red, underline the suffixes (-ed, -ness, etc) in red, arrow at all the vowels, things like that so he's looking at how the words are spelled. Then, he writes it out. The next day, he studies it again and I dictate it to him and he writes it, then corrects it after he's done. (kind of like dictation day by day, but nothing so planned out.) We only do this twice a week. Another day, he does a page in word ladders workbook-which is fun, but he's also learning some spelling.
Writing: We're flunking this again this year. We tried Classical Academic Presses Writing and Rhetoric book 1, but it's just not working well for us. So, I think we're going to move to "The paragraph book 1" next.
Vocabulary: Totally not necessary, we do it together with his big brother using 10 cards of Marie's words that we look at and read.. We only do this once a week, but use the same 10 cards for a couple weeks before we switch to a new 10.
I think that's all the parts we do.
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I had to make one up for World History. I just went through the SOTW table of contents and made a list of major events in ordrer. Then, because I like to be thorough/have it all/ and then cross out what I don't want to do, I found a few other world history books online that I could see their Table of contents and add anything SOTW was missing.
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I believe so. We've used MM for quite a few years and I like that they teach the why behind things before the actual "formulaic" part. For instance in multiplication, you add sets first, then it says "Hey, that thing that you're doing--it's actually multiplication and you can do it like this instead". (can you tell we're on the beginning multiplication part? :) ) It also teaches and encourages mental math and has certain sections that the directions are "do these mentally" (or some such wording).
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I've seen great reviews for both of these, and have seen the few pages of samples, but I'm still having a difficult time deciding. Has anyone done both who could give a summary of the similarities and differences? They both seem to be for the same age range (late elem-HS). If they're different enough to do both, which would you recommend doing first or at which age?
Thanks!
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Some options we've used are: Evan Moore's daily word problems -we do a week in a day. Or Zacarro's Primary Grade challenge math which is a lot like word problems, but after an intro story/explanation that's really fun and a little silly, there are 3-4 levels of problems-we usually start at the beginning and go until they get too difficult.
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26 minutes ago, librarymama said:
That story was the worst and the assignment really frustrated my son because it was so long and full of unnecessary details to weed through. He wrote at the end of his summary "This does not make sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". ?
I would just skip that day, or pick a different passage from a book you have to replace it. A few of the passages in the book are awful to be honest, but the program itself is working great for my 6th grader. Like others we are taking it very slowly and ignoring the breakdown of weeks/days and just doing 30-45 min at a time.
Thank you!! That's a great suggestion-I don't know why I didn't think of it. Probably in the midst of so much other curriculum stuff I didn't take the time to think it fully through.
Good to hear, thanks!
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I got WWS1 for my 6th grader this year. But when I started looking through it, I got to day 2 and read the portion from "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase" and there's no way my son would be able to read that without having nightmares (it's the part where a girl on a train by herself gets offered candy from a stranger, then wolves attack the train and one gets into her compartment and the stranger kills it). So, I put it away, and will get it out again when I'm planning next year to see it would work then.
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My 8 year old can't seem to remember how to spell many words. Recently, I discovered it for the word "what". One day, he spelled it incorrectly in spelling dictation, so, he wrote it 5 times. We talked about it, then I asked him to spell it again and he spelled it "wht" then erased that and spelled it "whet" and decided that was it. I was done for the day (too frustrated and confused to do anything else about it). The next day, I asked him to spell it again, and he spelled it incorrectly, so I had him write it correctly a few more times, along with other words, like who, where, etc. The next day, he still couldn't remember how to spell it. I first noticed this when he continually was asking me to spell him "lego" to type into the library card catalog. I think I've spelled it for him 1000 times over the past year.
He shows no other noticeable memory issues, and it doesn't seem to be any learning disabilities. I would say his memory is average for other things like people, math, etc.
So, my question is, apparently, writing words over and over is not helping him remember. What are other ways I could try? Maybe for the other ways of learning-like audio, kinesthetic? Other suggestions? Thanks!
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I 2nd Hands on Equations! Youtube has the videos of people teaching it that you can watch for the learning of it (there are 22 lessons, so you can search by "Hands On Equations Lesson 1" etc. if the general search doesn't get you anywhere).
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Plaid Phonics I found was pretty independent. But I've heard great things about Explode the Code and that seems to be independent also.
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I'm getting ready to try "The Paragraph Book" 1 (there are 4 and focus on different types of paragraphs/essays) with my 11 year old who is behind in writing. I liked that it starts out simple, but seems to still teach the fundamentals of writing-meaning when they finish a book, they should be able to write at least a decent paragraph. However, like I said, I haven't started it yet, to know for sure how it works, but I did A LOT of research on here and other places trying to find something that starts toward the beginning. Here's the publisher website: http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/literacy/grammar-writing/the-paragraph-book/about-the-program and there are some pretty decent samples down the right side of books 1 & 2. Also can find a few samples at rainbow resource and CBD. Hope this helps somewhat.
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Cursive logic groups by stroke.....
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We're doing Notgrass' Uncle Sam and You this year with my 6th grader. We only school 4 days a week to begin with (the book is set in units of 5 days a week). But he is taking a LONG time to read the section, and the Extra Literature each day. (we aren't doing many of the other parts). He reads about at grade level, I would guess, but it takes him a while because he reads very deliberately, understanding everything, enjoying all the picture captions, side bars, and thinking things through. I have no problem with that, but doing that every day for school is eating up school time for other things. As well, as he has other reading for other subjects, and overall, it's just too much reading for him for 1 day. We've done 2 weeks of school and we're only through 1 unit (5 days worth of material), and he's starting to protest when it comes to history each day.
So, I need to figure out how to cut some reading. I really want this course done this year, so we can move on to another Notgrass middle school book next school year. I figure I'll just go through ahead of time and cut certain things, but before I do that, was wondering if anyone on here has any creative ways to make this work? Thanks!
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It sounds like your daughter is doing fine. Keep doing what's working. Rules are great, but that's only 1 way to learn to spell.
Also, is your daughter able to spell the words a month later with no review or preview or anything? If so, then she's getting it down and I wouldn't worry at all.
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I've heard some homeschool moms (on here maybe?) say bestvaluecopy.com worked well, though don't know about shipping.
There's also this website where she suggests another option-but I haven't even tried it-it's just bookmarked to look into: https://www.homeschoolcreations.net/inexpensive-homeschool-printing-at-great-prices/
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1 hour ago, Earthmerlin said:
Is it an AmScope? If so, we have the same one and also enjoy it quite a bit.
Not sure, can't find that on it or on its description at amazon. But sounds like they're the same idea, and very easy to use.
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We got "My First Lab duo scope microscope" a year ago. Even though it's titled "my first", it isn't childish or preschoolish or anything. It's a normal microscope and fairly easy to use. I really like the fact that it can light your specimen from the bottom (if it's a thin thing), or the top. The top is great because kids want to put all sorts of things on there to look at and they aren't often very thin and see-through. Not sure if I said that well, but it really is a great microscope for kids.
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Ideas for a co-op class on gardening
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
For that age, I took the format, talk a little about the topic, read a short library book, do a craft or other hands on activity. One day was worms, so I brought in worms in dirt and we held them, and watched them for our activity, got a non-fiction book to help me talk about them and read that to them and we learned that worms aerate the garden, how worms move, why they come up when it rains, whatever was in the book. Other topics might be soil/dirt, seeds (seed in paper towel and next week, after it has split open, look at the insides), flowers, stems, how the sun helps, and the end big activity could be planting a garden-either in a spot outside if it's allowed, or just in a seed in a cup.