Fantastic job, mom. I hope that your son gets in, but regardless of the results, this year will be an unimaginable benefit to him. I think that he spent a decent amount of time on each problem. Yes, the "behind the scene" thinking on a proof is often under rated. It isn't unheard of to have as few as 15 problems assigned in some math courses/seminar because each one can easily take a weeks worth of work. Would you mind sharing what you used for his math education throughout? I love reading about math education and kids.

What else could you tip in? Why just The Cracker Barrel?

Almond milk? I know it isn't meant as a baby formula, but it can be drank by young children.

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Your post made me smile! I agree, down with censorship!!!

deleted. thanks to all for their replies.

I dont know what your trigger is but I do have some suggestions. 1) Prepared everything needed for the lessons before hand and ahead of time. 2) But on some nature sounds or other relaxing background noise. 3) Feel free to take a quick stretch break every 20 minutes

Never would I do such a thing and I rather like the Singapore Primary Mathematics curriculum.

As an intensive planner and box-checker, I try not to place to many expectations on Jr during his infancy--I'm doing my best to create the best environment for him to actually develop the sort of skills I want him to have. However, ASL is just one of his languages. I expect it to develop naturally just like English will eventually. We know that it will be easier for Jr. to learn any language while he is young and then just use it all throughout his childhood and life, than it will be to give him lessons throughout childhood and hope that he has enough to communicate for the rest of his life, so that is our hope for Jr.--That he learn ASL and English early on and just use them throughout his life. We also would like to include another spoken language down the road, but for now, our goals for him are that by 3.5 he be bilingual in ASL and English. I do suspect that his first words will be signed, just by manual nature of the language (babies can begin signing back as young as 3mos but its usually between 4-9 months that they begin signing) and I expect him to begin communicating via sign at anytime between 4 and 10 months. Since Jr. will be around native and fluent Signers, I expect his signing to be a good bit more advanced and developed than many of the kids you see getting the language from just DVD's, games and parents whose knowledge of the language is limited to the DVDs they use. Jr. won't be going to a day care or nanny during the day when I return to work, he'll be watched by my in-laws, his grandparents. Because Jr. has Deaf grandparents, speaking to them verbally just isn't an option--signing or writing is the only way and since Jr. can't write, we hope that he'll become quite fluent in signing pretty early on. Jr. will have 3 primary care givers using ASL (Hubby, and both Deaf grandparents) in his life. When he is with his Grandparents (it'll be anywhere from 3-5 days a week for 4-10 hrs depending on the day) he also has access to a whole host of cousins (ages 1m to 24yo--all of whom use some ASL, some of whom use only ASL), children from the Deaf community and his own uncles and aunts--all of whom are fluent Signers. So, Jr. will have an outlet and an environment where signing is prominent (and perhaps dominant) in his early years. Honestly though, we're going to play most of his language development by ear. As Jr learns signs, we'll encourage their use and later require that he make the sign to get whatever it is that he's requesting. When he is with me he gets 99% English--I sign with him, but I always speak to him and sometimes I sign and speak. When Hubby and I are together, we Speak and sometimes sign, when Hubby is with Jr. he signs and uses speech as well, but Hubby always signs everything. Hubby is even doing a baby development program with Jr and each book and activity is done in ASL (except the music, which we mostly skip in favor of either silence or jazz!) Some people don't agree with our plan that Jr. be baby sat by Deaf grandparents but we just ignore them for the most part. Hubby is adamant that his children be able to communicate with and speak with his parents, fluently. I respect that sentiment entirely, if I'd been raised by parents who spoke only Luthenian (or any other language--no matter how obscure) I'd teach my child to speak that language also--even if it meant allowing my parents to provide daily child care in the early years. So for now Hubby and I are sticking to our guns and will only change our plans if something just doesn't work out. Once he starts school English will dominate pretty rapidly so I have no problem letting ASL (or any language) get a strong head start. My main concern or goal is to just be sure that he is getting adequate English language audio input daily. He has a number of audio books and radio plays being amassed for when he starts staying with his grandparents that can be put on for him from time to time, when he is older he'll watch TV and play with electronic toys that will talk to him. Of course at home I talk to him all the time, and I read to him daily just to help him get used to the cadence and rythym of English--that wont change when I go back to work, the time we have together will just be reduced is all. One of the reasons that I, as a non-native signer, feel so confident is that many of Jrs cousins have been watched or kept by their Deaf grandparents during their early years and the kids who got the most time in with their Grandparents are the ones who had the strongest speech early on and they also have the strongest ASL skills now. Including the Hearing Children of Hubbys Deaf sibilings. One of our neices didn't speak verbally until she was 2.5 and she was "behind" other kids verbally for another year and a half. When she was nearly 4yos and still not speaking much--after having her hearing, IQ, vision, and physical abilities tested a few times, the pediatrician convinced her parents to stop letting her visit with the Deaf caretakers and stop responding to sign language. About 3 days later you know what our niece who began to cry at random intervals finally said: "I really wish that we could go and visit Mom-mom and Pop-pop again, I miss them very, very, much mommy." Turns out her English skills and spoken language was just fine. She was just painfully shy at school so rarely spoke there and her parents had been spooked into going against their instincts for nothing.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Hubby and I are going to begin studying one spoken language intensively soon (its been on our list of things to do for a few years now) Hubby said he'll feel comfortable learning anything new--he dabbles in and out of languages, I had some Spanish during undergrad but I dropped it to have more time for Math Club :). I'm pretty immersed in ASL right now, and I would like to get my skills a little stronger before wandering off. But I'd like to start slowly acquiring now so that when the time comes, we're ready. I think that Michael Thomas would be a perfect fit at this time as a tool that is non-intrusive, not too involved and easy to implement, thus very likely to get done. I'm leaning toward Spanish simply because its the most available 2nd language in my area. We wont need a nanny at all at least until after New Year, and by then Hubby and I should be ready to throw ourselves into the "deep-end" so to speak and we'll begin attending Spanish Chat Nights. Or German, or French, or Italian or Russian or... :)

Why would an elementary math program be independent? It's not a workbook just of exercises for practice, is it? I though that Beast Academy (BA? Right?) was a complete Nth grade math curriculum? It makes sense for a middle school text to be geared towards fostering independence and for high-school texts to be independent--at least in design. Not for elementary aged kids to be expected to read, learn and study something all on their own as a rule.

I wouldn't maintain a lifestyle that was running me ragged, but I would go the extra for my child to be involved in things that they are interested in and passionate about. You may want to recruit a nanny to deal with some of the driving and transporting, since it seems you only have one child if you can afford a nanny then it might be worth it--even if just 2 days a week. Personally I feel that 4 weekly/regular activities is the utter maximum that I could deal with and I have a very flexible schedule and plenty of doting adults in Jrs life to help with transport if I needed them to. So long as all homework was being managed effortlessly by the child (and completed at the school) I don't see how you could manage to after school using--is that FOUR math programs? And Grammar, History, Latin and what is BFSU, some sort of science?--do homework and test prep/review and extra curricular fun. It would seem that something from your AS schedule could be dropped, no? You are going to have to become extremely efficient (and probably still clone yourself) to maintain the pace needed to take your kid to 4 lessons/clubs, do homework, 4 math programs, science, history, grammar and Latin. Personally, I'll be taking my infant to his first round of swim lessons in the next several weeks, because I think that swimming is an extremely important and vital skill to have and I would love to keep my child in swimming until highschool. So, I'd be loath to drop it. How much longer are the terms for these various clubs and lessons? I'd probably let the kid finish up his current term--assuming that they were ending by mid-Nov and then re-evaluate seriously. I'd probably step down to just 3 lessons/clubs and see how I felt and how my child were handling it. If I were still tired--then down to 2 clubs or hire a day-nanny.

Are there any programs/books out there for a family (or a homeschooler) that is aimed at immersing the family in a language? I know that ultimately we will need someone with fluent skills and social interactions to cement the deal, but I'd like something that could seriously get us on the way to speaking and using a language in day-to-day situations. I will find the outside interactions and language for my own area as needed, but I'd really love something to 'get the ball rolling'. Any ideas?

I don't know that you need a curriculum or a work text or program at this point. This is the time to relax, math is logical, arithmetic is simple and all of elementary math that is needed stems from counting. Counting is a seemingly simple thing, but it truly is the basis of arithmetic and many forms of higher math. If he can count, then he'll learn to add, subtract, multiply and divide without much ado. I would back up from formal work in extraneous topics (time, measurement, distance, geometry etc..) and focus all my formal math efforts strictly on arithmetic for a nice long moment. Perhaps until Christmas if that is what is necessary. This isn't to say don't do those other things, but time, measurement, distance, money and geometry crop up a lot more organically in the lay-persons life than arithmetic sometimes so I'd do other things to build his skills in those areas. 1st Detox away the Distress and Despair associated with Math. Sit down with him and let him know that you are looking for another approach to help him with math, in the mean time he doesn't have to do book math but he'll occasionally have some math experiments just to help you understand what he can and can't do easily just so that you know where to start him so that he can have the success when you resume formal math work. He will also do some simple exercises daily---no harder than reciting the alphabet, to help build up some 'super simple basics'. I would put away all books, DVDs, flashcards, software, etc for 2 weeks. If math is stressing him and you out--take a math holiday. Kids will not die from not having a daily math session nor will a "Math Holiday" harm them if it is done right. It can be quite helpful. You said that he struggles with place value and math facts, so start there and stay there until he is doing it easily. Review those things often at least 3x a week after he gets over the initial 'hump'. During his math holiday, I would start over with gentle but purposeful counting exercises. --Counting forward and backward a set amount of numbers, from any starting point with fluency should be established. Use a 100chart and/or number line if needed in the beginning, you should be able to stop him at any point and have him tell you what the current number means by powers of 10 (ie. if you stop him on '978' he should be able to tell you that it is 9-hundreds 7-tens and 8-ones.) --Skip counting forward and backward by 2s-10s with fluency should be worked on daily. (use a chart if you need too, he doesn't need to have these memorized/automatic, he just needs to do them twice daily) --Counting on and Counting Back, from any number, by 2s, 5s or 10s should be worked on daily until he can do it with ease. (again, use a chart if needed) --Numbers in base 10 should be covered each morning and reviewed daily so that he gets comfortable reading them and knows what they mean. Use those paper printable math props if you need to. All of that should take no longer than ~35 minutes and doesn't all have to be done in one sitting. You can do counting exercises in such a way that you prepare for addition and multiplication (and their inverses, of course), if you're mindful of that end. After his Math Holiday, Emphasize place value, and purposefully counting for up to a month if you have to and work on math facts slowly. I would actively resume working on place value and addition and subtraction but before you resume trying to memorize math facts, get him very, very, very cozy with 2 ideas: commutativity and inverses. Commutativity is the rule that says in addition and multiplication, the order of your addends or factors doesn't matter (so 3 + 5 = 5 +3 and 5*6 = 6*5), thus cutting math facts to be learned in half. Subtraction and division are NOT commutative. Make sure that you point this out each and every time and have him say it each and every time. You can cut your work in half again by introducing the idea of inverses (opposite operations) at the same time. If you are paying attention, you realized that you have now reduced the original work load down to fourths! Isn't that exciting!!! (Plus doing addition and subtraction at the same time, is just so much more natural rather than the ole "addition now, subtraction later" approach.) Go online and find one of those sites that lets you make your own math fact pages. Create your own math fact pages. Each day, review commutativity and inverses before letting him start his math fact pages. Start with the facts that make 10 and 5. Put about 10 (or however many he feels most comfortable with) exercises per page and have him say and write the answer aloud to himself each time in the beginning. (TEN = 10+0, 9 + 1, 8 + 2, 7 + 3, 6+ 4, 5+5) the idea is that he'll also be learning 10 - 0, 10 -1, 10-2, 10 -3, 10-4, 10-5, 10-6, 10-7, 10-8, 10-9 and 10-10. (FIVE = 5 +0, 4 + 1, 3 + 2) and he'll be learning 5-0, 5-1, 5-2, 5-3, 5-4, and 5-5 by using the idea of inverses and you can demonstrate commutativity by switching the order of the addends. You can have discussions about this, he can use math props while he's doing this if it helps. There is no bonus for doing it all mentally before the roots are firmly established. Once he's mastered one of those families, do the numbers 6, 4, 8, then 7 and 9 the same way. 2, 1 and 0 can be done at any time so do them last. They are a lot more common sense and he probably knows them or will get them very quickly. While he is working on his math facts and place value, you can use whatever you want that seems to help in those areas. Always review, review, review!!! Use math props if you need to during your daily reviews and go at the pace that he can keep up with. Take advantage of that advantage of homeschooling (going at your students pace). After you begin working on your 3rd fact family for addition, start each day of school off and end each day with math fact practice that is independent of your other math work just for reviews sake--weekends included. It can be as few as 10 problems per page. Do the same learning process with multiplication after doing a through review of the concept and lots and lots of skip counting forwards and backwards multiplication (and division) should be a lot easier. Use commutativity and inverses to reduce his workload and talk about those concepts every single day. Do those oral reminders, concept reviews, drill sheets, play games, get active and be creative--every day until it sinks in. Teach him and your younger child the addition math facts at the same time so that they can play math fact games together. Include Math Catch in your recess time (when they are throwing the football back and forth the thrower says the math fact, the catcher says the answer.) All Of My Advice Assumes There Are No Learning Disabilities Involved. That you are merely looking to help your normal little boy who is having normal struggles learn. So take or leave all of the above advise with a grain of salt. You can PM me if you have any further questions. Happy to help and good luck to you both.

I never attended Kindergarten, and even if I had, I'd have probably had an utterly different experience than your son. The only time I work with Kers now is as enrichment to the K-2 scope in my area and since my goal is to stretch them a bit, we don't abide by whatever the state is calling kindergarten. Even if you don't want to disrupt what he's doing in class, I'd recommend advancing one or two aspects of his math education to keep his interest piqued and prevent him from shutting down. Geometry could be a great place to start since most K-6 treatments of geometry are pretty pathetic/underdeveloped. He did some geometry in kindergarten--has he learned about 2d and 3d shapes? If not, there are dozens, so introduce them. Learn the names of them and the categories so that you two can work on how to classify shapes. You may feel more comfortable going further into Geometry than you would arithmetic for the purposes of not disrupting your sons class room experience, fine. Geometry may be a nice diving-in spot--some place that you can go deep and wide for a while without bothering anything else. I would also include something like graphs/graphing or sets, because those are topics usually covered much later or very little if at all in 1st grade. Learn 2d and 3d shapes, count how many sides there are, talk about edges and vertices, find the shapes in real life, observe them in drawings and try to draw them, learn the names of each shape and how to read and spell those words. Talk about lines, rays, and points. Introduce the XY coordinate plane and show him how to define points You can play Go Fish, Memory match and old maid with the home made cards You can explore the perimeter and area of 2d shapes with him and talk about how 3d shapes have volume. I would play lots of math fact games and probably introduce the modern day equivalent of The Sock Game because he will probably enjoy it and its very easy to let the game grow with his math skills. Does he know how to check his work by using the inverse? (6-4 = 2 --> 2 + 4 =6) Does he know how to count? (forward, backward, by 2s, 3s, 4s, etc...) Does he truly understand place value? Does he know complements? Does he have an idea about integers? (signed numbers: -5 and 5) Equivalent Equations (3+5 = 4+4 =7+1 = 6+2, but not mentioning 8) Do you have any of those base-ten paper cut outs or blocks? Get some and explore larger numbers (restraining kids to 10 is a little sad) into the thousands. They make expanded form/place value very clear and easy to get. Can he count hours? Does he like math puzzles? I made most the math props that I use when working with elementary level kids because I just teach to the kid and use the games that mama made up and taught us when we were little.

Nope, you're not alone. I, too, was fairly pleased with my PS education. I didn't learn math there, but we only learned math at home, so I learned other stuff at PS, I had friends and experiences through school that my family couldn't have afforded otherwise.

There isn't anything strange or weird about doing math before bed. I know a lot of people (not all math-inclined or strong math students) who do math before bed. Many years ago, I had one student recommend to the entire class that they review one kind of each problem that they struggle with right before bed. After TV, bath, etc...do some math. There was a peculiar spike in grades after that, I remember the class average went up 13pnts.

Thank you, I guess I am only curious about what is considered a "great" presentation of this topic. I feel confident that I could teach math with just a chalkboard and some chalk, if I really had to, but reading/writing/grammar and I'm like this: @_@... If I'm left to my own devices, Jr would grow up most likely illiterate--yikes! I'm totally dead in the head, have no idea where to start about almost any-non Math subject but especially English/Reading/Writing. I'm thinking of giving myself a bit of a re-education while Jr. is so young in English Grammar and Mechanics, Literature and Compositions. I'd probably start around the 4th grade level. I'd have to do a spelling course from the beginning though Because I either 'know' the spelling of a word, or I don't. I can't 'figure it out' though I have found out that there are rules to help you spell unfamiliar words.

I have gathered from my time here, please correct me if this is wrong but I gather that many of you think highly of a) AoPS Math Courses b) Singapores Primary Mathematics c) Math Mammoth Those seem to be the "Master Courses" that I see mentioned and praised constantly, though there are -many, many, many others. Well, what would be the "Master Courses" for Reading and Writing for the K-6 level? Please for for the love of Education NO-Abbreviations!!! --------------

I want to: learn to use my breast pump get out of the house 2x a week with Jr. finish grading Tests for my students so I can send them back. Meet with each of my grad students 6x this month.

Wow, I think I might hate that teacher, wherever they are, whoever they are. That is a horrible thing to say to a student of any kind! I won't even get started on how much I loath apathetic, incompetent teachers in the primary grades because I can't quite stop myself once I do, but lets just say I tend to not play nice with those types of teachers!

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