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kateingr

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Everything posted by kateingr

  1. kateingr
    I wasn't a big fan of "Come Look with Me" either, but I've loved A Child's Introduction to Art. They're generally significant works by significant artists, and each spread provides a short bio of the artist and a few pointers for enjoying the piece. (I cover these up with sticky notes for when we're first looking at the piece Charlotte-Mason style, and then my kids take them off one-by-one. They love it when they've already noticed something that the book calls out!)
  2. kateingr
    I hadn't either until a couple of years ago. (And I still haven't made it through Paradisio. I got stuck after Purgatory the first time through, and now I'm lucky enough to have a friend to read it with. We're almost through Purgatory together, so Paradise, here we come!) I second the recommendation to read it a bit yourself before giving it to your kids. The punishments in hell could definitely disturb a sensitive middle schooler, and the whole thing is complex, challenging poetry with lots of arcane references.
  3. kateingr
    Rod Dreher's book helped me "get" Dante so much better! I'll have to take a look at the lecture. I liked the notes to the Musa translation a lot for my first time through The Divine Comedy, especially because he offers a synopsis of each canto before you read it. This was very helpful for getting oriented to what was going on in. My second time through I've been reading Anthony Esolen's version. His commentary is less scholarly and more focused on the theological and spiritual meaning of the text. Depending on how deep you want to go with the book, you might also look at Memoria Press' study guide set. They use Ciardi.
  4. kateingr
    Exactly what I was going to say! (And you are too kind, Pamela. :) ) The pages are definitely a little busy, but they provide a well-thought-out progression of exercises. You could even use the Blue series (which is by topic, not grade) and download one topic at a time for only about $5. If you like the feel of Math Mammoth, another possibility would be to use their free worksheet generator. You can choose what you want very specifically, and it creates lovely clean worksheets with lots of white space. There's no instruction provided (as opposed to Math Mammoth, which has instruction in the text), but it's a great resource for creating practice pages.
  5. kateingr
    What topics and grade level are you looking for?
  6. kateingr
    The activities in the book are all playful and hands-on, without any worksheets or writing, so no concerns there. If she's already enjoying numbers to that degree, she'd probably love the activities in the book a lot and be ready to benefit from them. Of course, she'll likely move through them at a slower pace than a 4-year-old would...but that's fine, since she has plenty of time! :)
  7. kateingr
    Where do you buy the Stanford 10? I'd like my third grader to do a test this year, and I like the idea of doing the first one at home.
  8. kateingr
    One great place to start is Ron Aharoni's Arithmetic for Parents. It's written by an Israeli math professor who turned his attention to elementary mathematics and discovered a renewed appreciation for it. Reading it feels like a kindly and enthusiastic uncle is walking you through all of elementary math, step by step. It will help you understand why all those standard algorithms (for things like multi-digit multiplication or division) work and better understand how to teach the basic operations. And you might also be encouraged by the book Mindset. It's not specifically about math, but it's been such an encouragement to me to know that it's okay to be a learner and that it's okay to struggle through the learning process. (I wrote a review and post about my own struggles with cultivating a growth mindset here.) It's really okay to learn along with your kids, and RightStart is a great tool for that.
  9. kateingr
    I have several free games on my site that would work great for a K4 and 1st grader playing together.
  10. kateingr
    Agreed! There's just something about "til" that is hard for young brains. (And fortunately, it's not a crucial stepping-stone concept, so it's okay if it takes a while to sink in.) You might also work on the related concept of "how many more" in the mean time to help his brain lay the conceptual groundwork. "If I have 8 acorns, how many more do I need to have 10?" "If I have 97 cents, how many more cents do I need to have a dollar?"
  11. kateingr
    I agree. They are also essential for the dictation exercises.
  12. kateingr
    Memoria Press Jr. K and K have an assortment of seasonal and literature-themed crafts.
  13. kateingr
    Make sure you read their FAQ, too. (Beast academy.com/faq) It has a ton of tips on pacing the program and teaching problem-solving.
  14. kateingr
    It sounds like your daughter will have the computation skills needed to start Beast next year, but building her problem-solving stamina now is a good idea. Balance Benders and Primary Grade Challenge Math are two possibilities for giving her some practice with puzzle-y problems that can't be solved with straightforward computation. Also, looking ahead, be warned that the first chapter of Beast Academy 3A is extremely difficult. You may want to skip it and start with chapter 2, which will build your daughter's problem-solving skills a bit more gently.
  15. kateingr
    Seconding the suggestion for Do-A-Dot markers. Watercolor paint is also much, much less messy than finger paint, if you're looking for a painting option. For sensory play, my favorite is the kitchen sink and a bunch of cups, strainers, spoons, etc. My daughter would stand on a chair and play in the sink for an hour when she was three and four. There would still be a lot to sop up, but at least it was just water.
  16. kateingr
    The new edition amplifies and rearranges a lot of the material from the first edition, but it also adds a gentle introduction to addition and subtraction in Chapter 7. Finishing up the old edition will probably be plenty for preparing him for RS A. But, if he struggles at all with RightStart's introduction to addition and subtraction, you can always go back to Chapter 7 of the new edition and use that to build his understanding of the operations before moving forward.
  17. kateingr
    Yes, "preschool" can mean quite a range of ages. And even kids of the same age can vary so much in their interest and readiness! I recommend starting with the book whenever your child begins to become curious about numbers and counting. For many children, that is often right around when they turn 4. But the activities are also simple and playful enough for an interested 3-year-old.
  18. kateingr
    I have it, but I hardly use it. It's mostly just an answer key, with a few very basic teaching suggestions. I usually just correct the work without needing the manual. But if you're pressed for time, you might like to have the answer key handy.
  19. kateingr
    We homeschool moms can all use a bit of simple! I hope it proves to work out as well for your son as it has for mine. :)
  20. kateingr
    I started my son in it last year, so he did the 200 level last year and is working through the 300 level this year. (One thing to keep in mind besides the diagnostic tests is that the 200 level series begins with manuscript and then gradually teaches the cursive letters. So if you want to teach cursive, you'd probably want to start no later than the middle of 200.) It's Mennonite, so that's another factor to consider depending upon your religious background. There are quite a few references to farming and Bible verses, along with women wearing head coverings in the illustrations.
  21. kateingr
    It sounds like you need a simple open-and-go program that you can feel confident you'll be able to get done regularly. For me, CLE's language arts has met the bill for that beautifully. The lessons aren't exciting, but they're extremely thorough and provide lots of review. And, they include spelling, handwriting, grammar, capitalization, and reference skills all in the one workbook. CLE's been really helpful at building my son's schoolwork stamina and teaching him that sometimes you have to sit down and just. do. the. assignment.
  22. kateingr
    I'm with your son on that one--I love logic puzzles, but I hate liars and truth-tellers. I always feel like I'm going round and round in the logic unless I write everything down. Glad he found at least something redeeming in the chapter!
  23. kateingr
    My son loved that chapter, but that's just totally his personality. The nice thing about that chapter is that it develops kids' reasoning skills, but it's not an essential building block for future chapters: none of the other content (as far as I can tell) relies on kids' mastery of it. So, if you decide not to do the whole chapter, no harm done. Or, you could go ahead and start the next chapter and dip back into the logic chapter as you have time and if your child gets more interested. (We actually did the opposite. My son was bored with long division, so I let him alternate with logic puzzles while he worked his way through the division.)
  24. kateingr
    Glad you found the videos helpful--I'll PM you! :)
  25. kateingr
    See if Multiflow is available--it's a great multiplication app that goes up to higher numbers, but we have it on an ipad.
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