I had so much fun teaching at those ages! I should add that I am a little more laid back then some & these are religious/Christian. Check out: Galloping the Globe Konos Volume 1 Oak Meadow 2nd grade (not a real unit study but wonderfully sweet, folk tales & nature stories) Heart of Dakota's stuff Units from Hewitt Homeschooling (A Bee Sees, Across America, Tell Me a Story) Fun, fun! :D

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When the kids were little I had 2 rules: Obey cheerfully & quickly. Come when you're called. Now that they are older we use: Treat others the way you want to be treated. Do not make more work for others. Keep it simple. HTH

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Hi Aubry, I know how it is! Take care & keep ur chin up. Big hugs, Christy

Those videos are awesome! I used to have the Leapfrog stuff but its not available to me till at least May. And honestly, the kids need drill more then anything else but that is just not much fun, ugh! Thank you!

Thank you all so much for your encouragement! I'm happy to be back and have the hive to ask for wisdom again!

So, did you miss me? My house burned down & my DH left. :banghead: Yep, it all happened 2 weeks before Christmas. Its ok now, life is settling back down. But I stopped doing school with the kids back in December! Now that I have my head on my shoulders again I am panicking. What should I be looking at for this spring/summer? The kids have been doing a few math worksheets a week. My oldest reads for fun so Im not too worried about him but my younger two only read when forced. And honestly my youngest needs more phonics. A lot more phonics. She isn't reading well enough to be heading to 2nd grade. Oh, and the good news is that the kids don't have to go to school. Soon-to-be-ex said he supported hsing so as not to upset the kids. The kids will have to take some of thier work to thier dads house so I will need to stay with basic workbooks for language arts & math stuff. Made it this far? Any thoughts? I'm leaning towards CLE or R&S just for the sake of simplicity.

Hi, I just wanted to add my 2 cents real quick. We have been doing binders for 2 weeks and I LOVE them. What used to take 2 hrs now gets done in one and all my kids get all the stuff done. The problem I had been having was like this: Nick would do reading, math but not latin because I was working with X on his phonics but then I stopped to help Nick start latin and X wandered off so I forgot to have X read! What happened to Marie? Oh yeah, she didn't accomplish anything because I couldn't keep track of 3 kids! It was crazy. :willy_nilly: Now it isn't. The rule is simple. You are not finished until the binder is done. Period. I am happy and I am seeing great progress with the kids from being more consistent. Did I mention it's soooo much faster? This definitely works. And I did the same thing with the math pages. The weeks worth of math is kept in the front all together. :cheers2: I am so happy to have started the binders! Blessings, Christy

I'm not going to kill the boy. I promise. But if I don't figure out what's going on here I might go crazy!! :banghead: He is making dumb mistakes. 18 X 2 + 1 = 36? 37 X 20 = 640? He is one or two numbers off everywhere. So in multi-step problems his answers are way off. Is this just a maturity issue or is it a facts problem? Does he need to go back & redo all the math facts? I just don't know what to do. He can do basic facts without making mistakes when they are on a page of all the same thing. But he doesn't do well when you actually have to use those facts all mixed up to actually SOLVE something. ARGH! Just in case, here is what we have used: 1st - R&S 1 2nd - R&S 2 3rd - Singapore 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B 4th - Sing 4A (I crashed & burned. I couldn't solve the factoring. He didn't do well because I couldn't explain it.) Moved back to R&S 4 (better TM). He HATED it. I let him off easy & filled in the rest of the year with Keys to workbooks & basic drill pages. 5th - started with Life of Fred Fractions. Went well until lesson 25 of 31. Today was L28 and I am ready to quit. Someone help me! Please! Thanks, Christy

Please take some time to rest and reflect. That had to be hard. You made the best call you could with the facts in front of you. I am sure you did your best for them. :grouphug: Blessings & prayers from me! -Christy

:spam: :smash: :cursing: I've always wanted to use those! :D -Christy

BWahahahahaha. I'm gonna die, that was hysterical. :lol::lol::lol: :iagree: You have come to the wrong place. I halved my curriculum stuff and my DH still says I have too much. Man, that was funny. Thanks! :smilielol5:

I feel the same way here. My dh has had to remind me (countless times!) these are not my friends, they are my family and it is NOT the same thing. It sounds bad, I know. But really, I was trying to get something from the relationship that was not possible. I love my sister but she is not my best friend. Our lives are too different. It was tearing me up to try and live like that. Our relationship is 100X's better since I realized that I had to take her where she was at and nothing more. Just as an example, she stayed with us for a month then moved into her new house (@ 3 wks ago). I still haven't seen it and most likely I won't get an invite any time soon. She just won't think about having us over. :confused: I recommend books about emotional abuse and healthy boundaries. I think it was called Toxic Families. It helped a lot! Hope you get a healthy spot and can deal with your realitives sanely! Blessings, Christy

Yep, that is good stuff. I have been using it for migraines. I'm allergic to the migraine specific meds. I can take ty3 and feel human again. I'm not too spacey on it. But DH says I'm fun! Hope your better soon! Blessings, Christy

I just saw in my mind how you do that! That is brilliant! I love t-shirt dresses and my daughter has a few but the gathers are annoying to make. This will be a huge help to me! Thank you!! I learned something new today! :D Blessings, Christy

I just know, before this is over, I'm gonna need a whole lot of serious therapy. Look at my eye twitchin'. - Donkey :grouphug: Glad you're back! Blessings, Christy

If you end up with a food allergy, do the elimination diet. Even if you only do it for a week. You will learn so much about the way you & the kids respond to food. Its wild! Blessings, Christy

Yep, I had the same tests done here, on me. My kids only had the scratch tests. They really don't hurt. They are just a little scary to look at. But they do itch like the dickens! :eek: At my kids' apt. it took a long time because they asked soooo many questions, then did the tests, then waited for results, then came back in and told me new things to do to help with the allergies. It was easily 2 hrs! But I left with lots of new information. The only good thing I can tell you about those nasty forearm shots was that they aren't like regular shots. They put them in at a severe angle and they bubble up. Did you ever stick a needle or straight pin under your skin when you were a kid? It was kinda like that, but it did hurt a little bit. I'm sorry, not much help here, I almost passed out from it...:svengo: I don't think they do them on kids very often. Take care! I will be thinking of you guys tomorrow! Christy

Time goes by so fast! Happy Birthday Theo! :D Blessings, Christy

Here's the thing. R&S drills those facts down better then any math program I have ever seen. I can't count the number of kids I know that enter 3rd grade without knowing the additions table (I give leniency on the subtraction:tongue_smilie:), and then the instructors try to dump multiplication on top of that. It's no wonder why kids can't do the work. I see this in hs & ps, it doesn't seem to matter. Here is what I am doing: Work through R&S 1st - 3rd. That gives a strong foundation of add, sub, & multiply. Take your time and get the facts down. Then start over with Singapore and work from 2A till Mom's head will explode, for me that was around 4B. :D After that I moved them to Life of Fred because the problem sets reminded me of Singapore. I admit I'm rather passionate about the math drill. I didn't learn my math facts in school and I always felt foolish because of it. Now when I see kids struggling with the same old problem it makes me angry. You'll have to take me with a grain of salt! Best wishes for finding the right fit for your family! -Christy

I have read a few other posts about it but I haven't seen the actual thread. Thanks in advance!! Christy

Sorry, let me try that again. It's 101 that rolls me over. Yeah, I need to get a life. Have fun guys, I have to go to the pool with the kids! -Christy

I made it to 100 posts! Sorry but I just saw it! :D -Christy