Mystie Winckler at simplyconvivial.com has a routine she calls EHAP, which stands for "everything has a place." Basically, she and her kids go around at the end of the afternoon and get everything put back where it belongs. (Take a look at her site for her full routine.) I do this at my house, and the rest of our evening goes much smoother when the daily stuff has all been put away and all that's left are the dinner dishes to clearn up. I take that end-of-the-day time to make sure any last laundry is put away, too. We tackle the dinner clean-up as a family, so it only takes ten minutes or so, and then we're able to enjoy the evening in peace.

I love this, Alessandra! I may have to adopt it as my writing mission statement. Thanks! :)

One book is all I can think about at a time, but I'm definitely hoping to write more. :) Anything in particular you'd like to see?

Just wanted to let you all know about a free resource I'm offering on my blog: a six-week mini-course on how to teach the addition facts. If you're tackling the addition facts with your kids (or will at some point in the future), you're welcome to join in. J All the details about the course are here, and more explanation of the general approach is here. Let me know if you have any questions--I think it will be fun!

I have a few videos on my site: How to Use the AL Abacus with Any Curriculum

A prominent mathematician just announced a solution to a famous puzzle involving....skip-counting! The math in the article is very deep, but the original problem is relatively straightforward if you want to share it with your kids. A Magical Answer to an 80-Year-Old Puzzle I love it when there are these breakthroughs that show how profound even deceptively simple math topics can be. It reminded me of the skip-counting chapter in Beast 3A--we've had quite a few threads talking about how the skip-counting chapter looks so simple at first glance, but it turns out to have really rich, interesting, and challenging problems. (Thanks to Denise Gaskins for originally sharing the link on FB. :)

Neat! I've never seen those before.

It's truly okay if you have to experiment a bit and figure out what works best for your child. Glad you feel encouraged. :)

I'm glad you feel like you've gotten to the crux of the problem, Emily. It's amazing how just deciding not to feel guilty can improve a situation. I've just started allowing school to go past lunch this year as well, and it's definitely taken a few weeks to get used to this new rhythm. For me, I realized that my quest to get everything done before lunch was causing me to rush us through everything in the morning. That kind of impatient hustling is not how I want to spend my days! Much better to have some things spill over to the afternoon (even if it means finishing up history at the dentist, as it did yesterday) than to spend the whole morning with the eye on the clock. Like your kids, mine have been fine with the transition--but it takes a lot more energy from me.

I've written reviews and buying guides for Singapore and RightStart if you'd like my two cents on them. All three math programs you mention are terrific, so go with whatever feels like it will be most do-able and fun for you and your child. You can't really go wrong with any of them. Singapore Math Review RightStart Math Review

Emily, I think I know where you're coming from. I too was feeling overwhelmed with the history and language arts part of my curriculum last year--and I only had a second grader and preschooler! For me, CLE language arts has been a tremendous help in providing a simple but rigorous language arts program that gets done every day and takes care of grammar, spelling, handwriting, and basic composition. I add a sentence of copywork or dictation each day, but that's it for now. For reading and history, I switched to Ambleside last year and have been thrilled with the results. I love their book list, but what I love even more is how I've been able to take their lists and break them into manageable pieces that don't require constant planning and thinking. (Meaning that I think you could use some of the same strategies even if their book lists aren't a good fit for your family--they're certainly not for everyone.) I do a simple rotation of read-alouds at our morning meeting time, and then a simple rotation of independent reading followed by narration. (I'd be happy to elaborate if you want to hear more about it, but I won't bore you with the gory details unnecessarily! I've been helped a great deal in this by the blogs by Brandy Vencel and Mystie Winckler. ) The CM approach to reading and digesting small chunks of books at a time and then waiting a few days (or even a week) before reading more has really helped my son enjoy and process some complex, meaty books.

Thanks for posting this! Mindset was literally a life-changing book for me--it completely transformed my attitude towards risking failure and mistakes--and it was a treat to read Carol Dweck's reflections.

I totally agree with Kiana about starting with subitizing before moving on to anything else. This blog has some great ideas on how to teach subitizing with just homemade flash cards. http://wilhiteslivinglife.blogspot.com/2015/08/rays-arithmetic-materials-manipulatives.html

I use it as my main program, too. I added a box of flash cards and the Kumon 3rd grade multiplication book to the grade three program to add in multiplication facts reinforcement, but I didn't find a need for anything else in that level. (He did them for five minutes a day for a while.) My son is just starting 4A--looking ahead, I expect I'll add some drill on division facts, multi-digit multiplication, and long division, but that's about it. You're probably right that you don't need to worry about it too far ahead of time. (I know, it doesn't stop me from overplanning either!) But once you start Beast, you'll quickly figure out how it's working for your daughter and whether there's anything you need to add.

Yes, Singapore Math or Math Mammoth might be better conceptual options for her if she loves to know the "why" behind her math. (I wrote a review of Singapore and a review of Math Mammoth in the spring if you'd like more info about either.) You might also consider Beast Academy. In the mean time, you might want to get a resource that helps you explain the concepts behind the procedures. One good option is Van de Walle's Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally. Don't buy the current edition, which costs $160! Instead, you can get an older edition for just a dollar or two, like the one I linked. It's geared towards college students studying to be teachers, so the first few chapters aren't applicable to homeschoolers, but the chapters that explain the concepts are a gold mine.

I completely agree with lewelma that tutoring is both about helping the student sharpen their skills but also helping them look at math in a more productive and positive way. Key to Fractions, Decimals, and Percents might fit the bill well for a thorough review of those concepts, and it would allow you to easily assign work to complete between sessions. I also highly recommend the book "How to Homeschool Math" by Robin Padron. It has a great advice on teaching math in general, but there's also a very useful chapter about tutoring--how to set expectations, how to make the most of tutoring, etc.

Agreeing with Milne, and Fujikawa's "A Child Book of Poems" and "A Child's Garden of Verses." I also love "Here's a Little Poem" for younger children. It's perfect for toddlers through first grade or so, with great illustrations and a wonderful mix of poems. We've read it so many times that my kids and I have memorized many of them without even trying. For older kids, I'm looking forward to using "A Child's Introduction to Poetry." My kids aren't quite old enough for it, but it's a wonderful selection of classic poems, with some information about types of poetry and poetic language.

I totally hear you. Last year, we took a break for a snack and some outside time from 10 to 10:30, and we always dragged getting back to work (and occasionally never did.) I've shortened it up and made outside time a time for walking around the block, but the biggest change is that I moved snack to after being outside. It's so much easier it is to get them back to work from a snack than it is from free play--and they're much more likely to rush inside for a snack than for grammar.

I used RS halfway through level C (first edition) for my son, then switched to Singapore. RightStart B gave him such a good foundation in math that C felt too easy for him. Even though there was new material, he grasped it quickly and then was itching for more challenge. At that point, I wasn't looking to necessarily go faster through the math, but the spiral format made it hard to make the material more difficult or in-depth for him. So, I switched him to Singapore 2A. He used the textbook along with Intensive Practice and the Challenging Word Problems. This provided a better level of challenge and also allowed him to transition to working a little more independently than he did with RightStart. He did 2A and 2B and then went into Beast Academy 3A (which he was well-prepared for). So, no regrets here on switching. :) Jackie's plan on finishing C and then going to Beast makes a lot of sense, too.

My son regularly reversed numbers and letters until he was eight...and still does occasionally. I actually just wrote a post about it (see my sig), but my general feeling is that reversals and phonetic spelling for a new seven year old are pretty typical. My only concern for my son was that the longer he did it, the harder it might be for him to get out of the habit, so I did AAS and watched him like a hawk to remind him to fix his letters if he started to reverse them. It also helped a lot for him to have an alphabet and number chart on the wall in front of his desk so he could easily check...not that he always did! Your daughter's spelling sample also seems very age-appropriate. She's got all the phonemes in there, which is a great sign for a new seven year old. It sounds like she's perhaps just not a very strong visual learner (in that her brain isn't using her visual memory to learn spelling but using logic instead)? I think you're probably fine if you want to delay spelling a bit yet, but you might want to take that into account when you choose a spelling program for her. She might thrive with something very rule-based, like AAS.

I do this, too. Often there's just one starred problem at the end of a page that's giving my son trouble, and I've learned it's not worth the potential tears and frustration if I force him to finish the page just so we can move on. It usually goes much better if we come back to it the next day when he's fresh. Some of us discussed Richard Rusczyk's (of AOPS) presentation from the WTM Online Conference in the spring, but if you haven't watched it, I'd highly recommend it. It really helped me understand the philosophy behind AOPS and Beast, and it helped me relax about my son's mistakes and the amount of help he sometimes needs. Check out the Beast FAQ, too, for some more thoughts on problem-solving.

Every square is a rhombus, but not every rhombus is a square. That's why the picture is included as an example of a rhombus. But you can't complete the statement: "Every rhombus is a..." with "square," so it's not circled as an answer. There's a nice diagram that explains this on page 31 of the Guide for 3A, if you have it.

If you felt like your son was shaky throughout RightStart B, it's probably time for a change. On the other hand, if he's struggling with the addition facts, but you feel like he generally understood what he was doing in RightStart B, it might be a little too soon to tell. I'd suggest experimenting with using the addition fact sections of Math Mammoth Grade 1 and 2 for a while. He may just need some focused time on the addition facts, or a different presentation for them. I'd especially recommend you incorporate as many real objects and situations as possible as you go through those sections. Both RightStart and Math Mammoth keep math pretty theoretical in their addition sections--you're always adding beads on the abacus, or pictures of objects, but never actual things--so it might help your son grasp addition better if it got brought back to earth a bit. You can add groups of crayons, books, or marshmallows, but some concreteness may help a lot. (But do try to keep your the real stuff organized in groups of "five and some more" or "ten and some more" to help your son connect it to the strategies he already knows.) After you've tried out some sections of MM, you'll have a better sense of whether it's a good fit for him (and for you). I agree with Susan that is definitely not a self-teaching program. But, you've clearly worked hard to equip yourself to teach math well, and you'd be able to put your skills to good use with MM. :)

Target sells simple notebook-size weekly planners that I love. One big block for each day, where I jot down the main things for the day. They come in cute colors, too. :)

Thank you!