Ha ha. And it's posts like mine that make me wonder sometimes why I'm even on an AL forum sometimes. I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around how asynchronous these kids can be (when thinking about algebra and number theory come more easily than handwriting, for example...) I just pulled out our lists that we did in September: - My 8 yo wanted to read a long reading list and make it into the advanced Taekwondo class. - My 6 yo wanted to do more reading and get a black belt (I wasn't going to argue too much with her over that one). - My 4 yo wanted to learn to be a dog and take more gymnastics (she graduated the 4/5 class at just over 3, and we weren't really comfortable putting a 3 yo into the elem age class, so she's been getting a bit bored in the prek class). I'd have to think harder about what my goals for the kids actually are. With my oldest being 8 and three younger sisters, I feel like most of my days are either doing the next thing or trying to maintain some semblance of composure and grace without yelling at them (too often...) But I see value in having goals and will have to reflect on this a bit more. I love reading everyone's posts!

Ha ha. Touché. :) My kids are all single digit ages, yet.

I'm curious how you come up with these goals? Are they whatever you think of when you sit down to type, or do you actually spend time reflecting on these? I'm just curious because a lot of things on my mind lately have been stuff like: Get 4 and 2 yos to use words instead of screaming and hitting, get 8 yo back in speech therapy and hopefully get his handwriting legible, get 6 yo to sit still for longer than 3.5 minutes, figure out how to juggle what everybody needs when everybody thinks they need *ME* RIGHT AWAY. I feel like the hardest part of all this is mainly character/habit training that I know has to be done (maybe regular handwashing, too...) but that I'm a loss as to how to get done (so that it sticks).

Honestly, we got to the point where we don't even use the textbook - we use the workbook only. I know we could go deeper with the IP, but we also do BA and I feel like they get plenty of depth from that. Doing the textbook problems would've been overkill for my kiddos, but they like the WB. It's "fun" in a different way than Beast because they feel it's just straight-forward and doesn't require a ton of deep thinking. It's their "relaxed" math, for lack of a better word - when they want to just go calculate some stuff without having to think too hard, they pull out their Singapore WBs. :)

Yes, I'd think it would be fine in that case.

I feel like there's enough stuff out there for learning arduino that a motivated 11 yo could certainly do it themselves, so long as he has some basic experience with simpler things. Has he done any lego technic/power function stuff? Any snap circuits? Any diy robotics projects or design squad stuff? Any computer programming? If yes, then I'd say go for the arduino set. If not, I'd suggest perhaps start with an electronics kit that might lay a bit more out for him in conjunction with a coding class (code.org has simple, free ones that are popular in my home). The 750 experiment kit from snap circuits (https://www.amazon.com/Circuits-Extreme-SC-750-Electronics-Discovery/dp/B0002AHQWS) starts deceptively simple, but provides a lot of information IF you actually read the guide on what the experiment is doing.

Depends on how motivated he is, honestly. We have friends with this one: https://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Starter-Kit-English-Official/dp/B009UKZV0A/ref=cm_sw_em_r_dp_dc_94EwybHA2XEAY_tt It's "pretty technical" they said, so the dad was helping the kid. But the kid was only 9.

This is interesting for me to think about, because I do teach at a large university, and we run a lot of calculus courses... Like, there were 20 Calc I large section courses offered this fall (so around 100 students per section). But I think the failure rate is around 50% each term...

Ah, I never even thought to ask on here. We're going early January and booked ourselves an Airbnb (but there are 8 of us - 4 adults and 4 kids, since I somehow convinced my parents to go for a little holiday with us as well). I can let you know how it goes, but chances are you'll want to make other arrangements before then anyway! :)

No specific recommendations, but I agree that it's doable. I had a child even younger speaking a minority language (not nearly as well as most hispanic heritage kids I know, since we speak all English when DH is home and when around friends), and - once he could read well in English - picked up the phonetic sounds in the other language quickly and easily and is currently on-grade-level materials in said language.

My 6 yo is really enjoying the pre-reader express course on code.org. She can learn coding, and it reads the instructions to her (if she presses the "play" button on the instructions instead of just trying to guess what they are...). She's been doing it for a month and is almost finished, so maybe I let her do it too much... lol.

My 6 yo is really enjoying the pre-reader express course on code.org. She can learn coding, and it reads the instructions to her (if she presses the "play" button on the instructions instead of just trying to guess what they are...). She's been doing it for a month and is almost finished, so maybe I let her do it too much... lol.

We have DragonBox on all of our devices. Yes, it means that I actually paid for it twice, since you can't "transfer" it between iPads and Kindles. But it's worth every penny (even when you pay twice, like us), IMO, and I'm usually a bit of a scrooge over paid apps (if a free one does the job just fine, why bother?) I wish code.org had an app, but we do that on our kindles sometimes just using the web browser interface. It's small, but do-able.

I agree that the placement test is really good, if you can somehow keep yourself away from the room while they're struggling with it. In my case, I pulled it out and read through it at least two separate times I *thought* my kid was ready, only to realize that he definitely was not. In particular, my kiddo was almost completely *finished* with Sinagpore grade 3 before he could pass the Beast 3A entrance test... lol.

I'm curious why she shuts down when she learns the "why", and I would pursue this more. Is it really that she just doesn't ever care why things are that way, and so it annoys her? Is it because she doesn't understand the explanation and gets frustrated? Has she heard folks close to her talk about how math just isn't their thing, or how they were just never good at math, etc? Is it just habit, at this point? I would hate to see you "just give her how to do math computations and leave it at that" when she's so young, still. I would see if there's anything you could do to actually make math interesting to her. Could you drop the formal curriculum for a while and just let her read some interesting math books? Maybe you get some of the Beast guide books and just let her read them, without requiring anything else from her. Maybe you find some fun math videos on youtube and watch them together and try some related activities. Maybe you start reading The Code Book together and practice writing each other messages in the various codes discussed in the book? My thought is that if you can get HER to ask the question "Why?" then she probably won't shut down when you try to answer the question. But getting her to ask why means giving her math that will actually appeal to her. If you can get her to invest herself in math, you can make up an awful lot of ground after a short "fun" holiday from "normal" curriculum. As with many things in our home, I just think addressing the attitude/feeling here is at least as important as addressing the nuts-and-bolts of what curriculum to use moving forward.

I'd not seen this before, but it's nice!

What? Has a post already been deleted, or am I missing how this thread is anybody advertising?

We just borrowed this from a friend to have a look at it! :)

Thanks, guys! My kids loved the little travelers show! :)

Yes, we live in an area with COL index 91 (national norm is 100, so we're on the low side of average) and here you can hire an excellent tutor for with a PhD, 10 years teaching experience, and 20 years tutoring experience for $35/hr or under.

Just wondering if anyone has some fun videos for kids about these countries: history, famous places/people, etc. Interesting for age range 4-10ish. TIA!

How do you use streaming video content in your educational efforts? Do you watch videos about homeschooling, parenting, skill development, or education? We only watch videos as supplementary, currently, with the exception of piano instruction. Do you use videos with your children as part of your lessons (not counting full online classes such as Well-Trained Mind Academy)? Not as the main lesson, but to reinforce some things, yes. What are your favorite programs/channels/presenters for this type of content? Why? Lots of discovery channel and history channel videos. How long, on average, are these videos? 1 hr, but we often break it up over several days. For this content, do you use paid services (Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, other [please describe]) or primarily free ones (YouTube, etc)? Primarily free ones, but occasionally paid ones.

Great point, thanks. They are just leisure reading. I've generally been cautious about their reading, but I just find myself deluged recently with things they want to read, but still want to beware of things to look out for.

As for why I don't just read them myself - I have four kids and just don't have the time to pre-read as much as I'd like to. I thought this forum might just be a quick way for me to get a feel for what's in these books. :) Good to know. That's exactly what I was wondering. Thank you! :)

Someone gave us a few of these (1st - 6th), and my 8 yo has been reading through them. I know there are definitely times when kids are taught inaccurate history (e.g., Thanksgiving, Colombus Day) and I'm just curious how history is presented in these books (accuracy, level of violence, etc.)