I don't understand the question. Do you mean a history that kids can do independtly? For what age range? What level of readers/writers?

Depends on what you mean by a book report. *TECHNICALLY* a written narration could be considered a "book report". Right? I mean, if a child reads something and then writes a few short sentences summarizing the content, that might pass for what modern school teachers call a book report. Classical educators just call it a "written narration". ;) (The whole, "you say potato...I say po-tat-to" argument.) If that is your question, Charlotte Mason suggest that kids start doing thier own written narrations at 10 (I think.) And some other classical educators start SLOWLY switching over from oral dictation of "reports" (aka narrations) to the child writing parts of their own narrations as early as 8 or so. Before that time, kids can give "book report" (aka narrations) orally by dictating them to the parent and the parent writing them down.

I download the audiobook to my computer from audible. I open it up in itunes. Then I create a playlist of the book. Then I right click and say, "burn playlist to disc." then I get a message which says something like, "You are using 1 of the 3 remaining burns of this book. You may burn this book to disc 2 more times." (I can't remember the exact wording, but it is something along those lines.) THEN, I have to HOPE and PRAY that my computer doesn't lose power or something like that. Because if the burn isn't sucessful, it *still* thinks I burned the audiobook to disc and takes away one of my remaining burns.

Yeah, EmilyK--- itunes is far (very far!) from being perfect! Don't misunderstand me. I'm just saying that they aren't quite as restrictive as audible. I have yet to find an audiobook service that I really like to be honest with you. The thing is....I'm not trying to do anything illegal with these books! I am simply just trying to LISTEN to the books I have paid money to buy within my own family/house. However, their security settings make that really hard. Especially if you have kids. MOST houses with kids have lots of different devices. (Typically way more devices than they "allow" you to use the book that you PURCHASED on.) And most houses with kids can easily go through more than CD burns. I mean, 3 CD burns? That is crazy. Especially when you live with a toddler in the house. ;) I know I *COULD* make some master CD and store it in a safe somewhere. But there is no guarantee that is going to stay perfect either. I guess I just feel they are a little ridiculous with their security settings. I understand trying to protect the material...but seriously. --------------------- Another thing I do before buying a book on audible is to look for it on CD used through amazon first. If I buy the CD used, I can then upload it to my computer. Then I can actually put it on as many devices as I need to in order to listen to the thing. And I can burn copies as I need to if I need to if the disc gets scratched. The thing is, mostly older books can be found on CD anymore. -------- On a side note..... I really, really, really, really wish that someone would invent an AFFORDABLE audiobook service that resembled the netflix model. That would be great. Something that is affordable and inexpensive, but alllows people to simply rent (or even stream) a book for as long as they want, delete it off their device, and get another. There are some books that I am fine with listening to once or twice...and I don't really need to shell out $15 to BUY...you know? (Actually most of them.) I think overdrive has potential, but they don't have a very good selection. Most of the books I want to listen to aren't on there. And the few audiobok rental sights that DO exist seem VERY expensive to me. It is almost as expensive as buying the book. (Sometimes even more expensive.) It just sort of stinks that audible is well on their way to dominating the audiobook market---and so they can pretty much treat their customers any way they want and get away with it. ETA: Sorry about all of the typos. I'm typing one handed with a toddler on my lap. ;)

That's the thing about audible that stinks. You are BUYING the book (not renting), but audible takes away a lot of your rights to actually listen to the book with their excessive security settings. For example, my kids only have a CD player in their room. Audible only allows you to burn the book to cd 3 times and then you can't do that anymore. Do you know how many times our CDs are listened to in this house? And despite care--they get scratched from time to time. So I think the 3 burn rule is a bit excessive too. iTunes (and other sources) charge nearly the same price to buy an audiobook as audible. But they are a lot less restrictive with their security settings. I ONLY buy it from audible is it is significantly cheaper because of this reason.

We used RSO Earth and Space this year. It has been our best year of science yet! We used many of the books in their recomended book list which can be seen in their free sample online. We schedule 2-3 days of "Science Reading" per week. (A book or chapter per day.) Here are some of the books we have used to cover a 36 week school year with that many readings: Weather / Seasons / Water Cycle: 1) The Cloud Book by Tomi de Paola (Fun book about clouds) 2) Did a Dinosaur Drink this Water by Robert E. Wells 3) Water Dance by Thomas Locker (A beautifully illustrated picture book which makes a nice tie in to your water cycle unit.) 4) Let's Read and Find out Level 2 Weather and Seasons Package on Rainbow Resources 5) One Well: The story of water on earth Earth Science / Geology: 1) What's So Special About Planet Earth by Robert E. Wells 2) Let's Read and Find out Level 2 Earth Package on RR (Best price I have seen to add all of these books to your library.) 3) The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth by Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen 4) How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World by Faith McNulty 5) Earth in 30 Seconds by Anita Ganeri (GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS that make these concepts easy to understand! This can be bought very cheaply in Barnes and Nobels Bargain section USUALLY. So check that if you have one near you. Plus homeschoolers get a 20% discount at that store.) 6) National Geographic Everything Rocks and Minerals by Steve Tomecek 7) The Big Rock by Bruce Hiscock (Just for fun reading/picture book to tie in with your geology unit) 8) Rocks in his Head by James Stevenson (for fun reading/picture book to tie in with your geology unit) 9) Jump into science DIRT 10 Jump into science SAND Space: 1) Let's Read and Find Out Level 2 Space Package on RR 2) Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System by Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen 3) The Complete Guide to Space (Sandy Creek)- I found this in the Barnes and Nobel bargain section. They also give homeschoolers an extra 20% off..so this was a great deal. And it is the BEST grammar age spine for space that I could find! I was so surprised. This is a HUGE, BEAUTIFUL hardcover book with great illustrations and age appropriate explanations. 4) The National Geographic Space Encyclopedia - A slightly higher-level spine than the one listed above. My science-loving-little-professor son really likes this book--but may be a better logic stage level spine for space. 5) Space in 30 Seconds (Again, if you have a B&N store near you, check that first! This is also often in the bargain section with HS discount!) 6) A decent star guide for your location (Will vary!) Just For Fun "Extras" & Memory Makers: 1) Astronaunt Ice Cream (Very cheap and just fun to eat as a snack when reading about space voyages) 2) Take the kids gem mining -OR- gem mining exacavation kit (just another fun memory maker...plus you can add minerals to rock collection) 3) Field trip to cave, cavern, or other cool geological location near you 4) Make a model of a volcano, label parts, and make it 'let it blow' with baking soda & vinegar 5) Get a decent pair of binoculars--then camp out and look at the stars, drink hot cocoa, etc. 6) Nature journal type things (tracking weather, phases of the moon, etc.) 7) Find a pet rock 8) Jewelry makers storage boxes (work great for labeling and storing rocks for a rock collection) 9) Play Rock On! Board Game 10) Break your own geodes one day

YES! That is what I wonder too. It seems like way too many pages of math per day!

Hi Everyone, We have used the US version of singapore up until now. (We are about to finish 2A.) I am thinking about switching to Singapore standards version for the next half of the year. I just like the layout of the HIG in the standards version better I think. (I have already looked at the scope and sequence document and think we will be fine with this change.) ANYWAY-- :) MY question has to do the HIG: In the US version, answers to the textbook and workbook are in the HIG. Is this the case with the standards version?? I saw an answer key for sale on rainbow resource, and I am wondering if I need it.

In our house, we use all three of those books each day. So there is no day that is completely independent. And there is no day which is overly teacher dependent. This feels really good to me, and I feel like it works well. PLUS--if you teach 3 lessons at once, that is a lot of information to throw at a child. Teaching a little bit each day sort of spreads it out and provides lots of constant review / help. I am one of those weirdos who believes that math is one of those subjects that is impossible to OVER practice. You can nearly always obtain a deeper understanding of new math concepts. And having just a little bit of teacher interaction everyday helps to really solidify those topics. (Even if they appear to have been fully understood the first time.) This is our routine: (NOTE: I don't even allow them to have their textbook or workbook out initially. That just distracts them.) 1) We start out with some quick warm up and review of previous topics. You could use mental math for this. We have been focusing more on getting our math facts down. 2) Teach the lesson on a white board using the HIG as a guide. This is often when we will pull out the manipulatives and work at things on a more abstract level. 3) Pull out the text book and read through the recommended pages for the lesson together. Then, we work these problems together on the white board. They are our examples. This makes things LESS abstract, and the child is shown some models of how to work through these types of problems. 4) Next, we pull out the wb. The child works through these problems independently. (Asking for help if they need it.) This allows me to see how well they understood the material. 5) We finish the lesson by checking all of the answers together. Any problems missed are re-worked together to make sure the child understands any mistakes.

As far as grades, we don't do the typical "A, B-, C+" type of grades. That is because we don't' use any type of curricula that issues tests or things like that. Also, because I don't think that those types of grades make sense in the elementary years at least. In our home, we work at everything until there is 100% mastery. So 'grades' don't really make sense for us. You either have completely mastered (100% A+) the topic....or we don't move on. And I think that this is one of the true benefits of homeschooling. In other words, in a typical brick and mortar school setting, if a child can answer 75% of their math problems correctly, they move on to the next topic. BUT--that still shows that they struggled with 1/4 of the material! That is a lot of material! And in a school setting, the entire class would then move on to the next topic in math. The next topic would rely upon the foundation established in the previous topic. SO-- if the child had a weak understanding of that material, they would soon find themselves totally lost. In our home, we are only working with one child at a time. So we don't move past an assignment until it is completely mastered. Until they are able to answer all problems easily and correctly--or show a true mastery/understanding of the material. Its all or nothing. Pass or fail. (And we don't have to fail at anything. We just work at it from a different angle until it is understood!)

Do you use any type of software to plan your homeschool year? One easy thing to do is to use one of the many homeschool lesson planning / tracking software. Many of them will then print out attendance records, grades, transcripts....you name it! And you don't have to *do* anything extra if you use these software packages. As long as you 'check off' what you do each day, it will generate all sorts of neat reports. This way you will always have records of what your kids did each year. Plus, it is sort of nice to have everything entered digitally. It allows you to quickly see your whole year at a glance. You can see what will happen if you decide to take this day (or week!) off for example. (When will you finish your math or science book if you continue on at this current pace.) Things like that. There are many, many different types of software available. I won't list them all here because it would take forever. But my personal favorite free software is Homeschool Skedtrack. My favorite paid software is either Homeschool Planet or the one on SCM. NOW-- don't know if these software programs are good for things like highschool transcripts. Honestly I need to research that more. But for elementary school---they are GREAT! I like that they are all accessed online because I can get to our plan from any device or location. (smart phone, library computer, home computer, ipad, etc.)

Yes! I guess routine is another thing that is bothering me. I would love it if they had a certain number of problems listed every day....instead of just some large chunk of stuff assigned over multiple days. I thrive on routine (as a homeschool parent/ teacher). SO--I was attempting to set up my own little routine for the year. (Take the mental math problems and divide them over the year so they are easily printed.) But, that is a lot of work. Then I have to print them or copy them all on the whiteboard everyday?! I guess I am just saying that they don't make it easy to actually do these problems. The other thought that crossed my mind is this: If you look at the mental math pages, they *aren't* just problems that work on math fact memorization. The mental math problems are so much more than math fact practice. And that is what partly bothers me about not working these problems into our day. I really see the value in them! We *do* math fact practice everyday.....it is easy to find other products to supplement this part of math. (And other products that are easier to use.) But I haven't find an easy way to do these mental math problems.

From reading all of these replies, it seems that the vast majority of people (who are actually doing MM) are printing these pages out somehow. I guess I was sitting here asking myself, "Why are these problems just listed in the back of the HIG?? How are they intended to be used? Are we suppose to give these problems orally? Are we suppose to take the time to scan all of these pages in and print them ourselves??" I mean, how was the author of these texts intending for us to use these problems with our children? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE singapore math. I am a huge fan, and will probably never switch to anything else. BUT, their website stinks. Their product line is so confusing. They don't seem to listen to the homeschool market. They have like 50 million optional books you can buy....BUT they don't have a way of easily printing these mental math problems?! Am I the only one who sees the irony in this? Any other homeschool publishing company would provide a PDF or something with these pages in. But not singapore. Sigh. I *really* wish that the signapore math people would make that easier for us! I love this idea. I may "borrow" it.

I would consider using some of the Math Mammoth skill specific workbooks. I say this because: 1) they are very affordable, 2) you don't have to buy a YEARS worth of curriculum to tutor a child in a specific skills, 3) all of the teaching is built into the workbook. (It is still meant that the parent teaches a child this age. You would just use the workbook to walk you through the teaching.) Personally, I would do the place value set with her. (I'm not sure if you think she would need place value 1 or 2? You would have to test her on the skills covered in each.) She is showing a weak understanding in place value. You may also want to go over the addition and subtraction sets with her too to teach her some mental math strategies when adding money. (My point is...she probably isn't have a hard time identifying a dime vs. a quarter. It sounds more like the number part is throwing her. In other words, she would probably have a hard time mentally adding 48 +10 when we weren't talking about money.) Also, as added, lots of work on the hundreds chart is helpful in teaching this concept. Quickly finding the number 38...then adding 10 more to it and noticing the patterns. Also, work with base 10 blocks. Build the number 38 and add 10. She can visually see that the ones pile doesn't change, the only thing that changes is the amount of 10. Then, once she understands that, make things more abstract. Allow a dime to represent the 10's blocks, and pennies to represent the 1's blocks.

Do you consistenly use the Mental Math exercizises scheduled in the Singapore HIG? If so, do you make photocopies of these? Do you do them orally? How much time do they add on to your lessons? BTW... I am teaching two kids at once.

We have used both. I love, love, love AAS. I am not as in love with AAR. SO, (personally) I would recomend AAS. Then, I would add in some reading to practice reading skills. :)

Hi There, We are considering purchasing a kindle fire for our kids. I am trying to research the device now. We have a lot of audiobooks stored on my laptop that I purchased through itunes. Does anyone know if I can transfer these to the kid's kindle fire? Also, does the kindle fire for kids work with the Overdrive library app?? And finally----Are there any decent books available with the freetime subscription? Or is it mostly just twaddle? My kids are beginner readers (frog and toad level). Thanks so much in advance for any help!

Great post! I'm following this for sure!

I was going to suggest teaching reading, by "reading" as others suggested. I am a big (recent) convert to the "I See Sam" readers. Instead of a reading lesson every day, you just open up one of those readers and read it together. When a child gets to a sound that they don't know, you simply teach them the sound in the context of the story: "These letters say /make sound/ in this word." Then, move on. The alphabetic code is VERY slowly drip fed through the stories and then repeated over and over again until the child becomes fluent. At first glance these readers LOOK like any other reader...but they are really much, much more. I would have your child take the placement test here: http://www.3rsplus.com/reading_free_resources.htm (See performance indicator test also getting started guide). Then order the books through here since the 3rs site is no longer selling them: https://www.iseesam.com/ (Ignore all of the teaching stuff in the beginning of those books. Follow the 3rs instructions instead.) There is also a very helpful yahoo group here: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Beginning-Reading-Instruction/info The creator of the original books is on there, and he is VERY helpful with answering questions and giving advice.

Here are my picks: http://theattachedmama.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas

I didn't CD my first two children. But I am CDing my third. (He is 1 now.) I am amazed at how easy it is. I was always intimidated by it before, but CD are so much better than disposable. I am a convert. :)

Oh man! There are so many! My local library had several that were available to check out. I got several versions just to "try before I buy"... I ended up picking "Inspired By: The Bible Experience" as my favorite. It had REALLY good acting in the dramatization. (I can't say that about the rest of the versions I tried out.) You can hear some samples here: http://www.christianbook.com/bible-experience-tniv-testament-cds-and/9780310926313/pd/26316?event=AFF&p=1029995 After my last baby was born, it was really hard to find any time in my day for bible study. I was so tired, I would often times just fall asleep if I sat down to read. :) So sometimes I would just put this on in the car or while I was cleaning--and it was great. My kids love it too and often times get swept up in the story. ETA: "The Word of Promise" sounds very good too! I've only listened to samples. I know you were just asking about the NIV version, but if you are open to other translations that might be a good option too.

I was just going to say the same thing. :)

I always find a way to bring it back to their level. Then praise their effort. Like this.... (After it becomes evident that the child doesn't get stairs.....) You: "Show me some other designs you can make on your abacus. You can do anything you want with it." (Give abacus to child and allow them to play freely.) You: "Great job! That is really neat looking. Can I have a try? Here is one idea. I can put all the beads up one one line, then all the beads down on the next line and up on the next line, then down." (or other simple pattern.) "Another fun thing I like to do is count on my abacus. I put one bead on the first line, then two, then three..." (Model stairs.) Then, I can take my fingers and walk them up the stairs like this..." You: "Do you want to make any more designs on the abacus today? " (Allow some free exploration of the abacus without any goal in mind. Praise effort. End lesson and go back topic at a later date.)