:bigear: Christine in al

and refusing to fund his children's education. at all. What's that say to his children? Not only about his value of education, but of THEM. They asked for bread and he's giving them stones. okay, I'm done. ~christine in al

:001_smile: Christine in al

I use RS and wander away and wander back.. That nomatic tendancy has put us " behind" a year in Right Start with my oldest. ds is finishing D here at the end of 4th. To keep up with what peers are doing we are supplimenting with Key To series,.. BUT dd, who has never strayed is painlessly getting her multiplication facts in C ( she 7 in second grade) I'd really suggest not skipping a level. It's mastery approach and they can't master what ehy haven't seen. And I don't think you need many ( if any) additional manipulatives for c. So, you just need a used TM and a student workbook. OH, I did buy a set of wooden base ten blocks and use them with RS. That's just if you decide to keep on with RS, you can always skip individual lessons in C if they are too redundant, but I like C better than B. ~Christine in AL

Alabama here, So, Helen Keller, Civil Rights, Original Nations and removal, but other than that,,, I am more interested in a knowlege of world history. We aren't going to study state history in isolation unless we need to prep for a standardized test ( to qualify for something inportant) later on. ~c.

Or does anyone else think it's a bit unfair when a husband tells his wife to do her job without spending money? I'd like to see these husbands do THEIR job without spending any money. Maybe it's just me, but it seems mean. I am posting this because the OP said it was her friend , not herself who was doing this, so I am not meaning to attack the OP in any way, ,,, or any moms, however, husbands who think it's easy to do the magic their wives do,.,, well, I would challenge THEM. Meanwhile. women are amazing and mothers are awesome and creative and inventive. go creative moms!!! ( and supportive dads too) ~Christine in al

I really really wouldn't buy directly from Manic Monkey. FOR Petit Pont: they over charged for shipping, emails were answered, but never acted on. When teachers manual arrived it was FULL of highlighted markings and pen marks where they had used that teachers manual to draft a parents manual. CALLED UK , fixed over charge fro shipping, didn't send replacement teacher's manual. emailed again,,, FINALLY sent new teachers manual. this purchase took 6 months, from Sept, to March. I never intend to deal with Manic Monkey again. Book Depository is the way to go IMHO. Now.... back to the regularly scheduled thread...good luck with the German.

Cons: ( IMHO) The dictation sentences are extrememly politically and Christian conservative in my opinion. She has an agenda. If it matches yours you;ll love it because religious and political opinions are in the dictation so you can talk about world view during spelling.. Or like me you can change the dictation sentences, or even talk about world view that is different from yours. SWR is cumbersome to learn to teach but once you have it, and there are web sites and other sources to help you, it's open and go. And it goes from pre-reader to college. The pages are numbered incorrectly in the guide for the reference pages your child will create. That's making us crazy because things didn't sync up correctly. This is an easy fix. or maybe not even a concern to most folks, but the odd pages should be on the right and the even on the left. SO... I'm looking at How to Teach Spelling along with the workbook for my dc. (True confessions, I think I'm just bored with using the same program. Why teach when I can research new programs? ) It looks good so far. We are going to use workbook 3 Megawords is popular and I have that too so I can check it out. I have a strong speller, ( hmmm, SWR ?) I'm wanting something more independent. Megawords is supposed to be that. I think SWR is very thorough ( don't let any mis-spellings by me throw you off.) And you start each year with a diagnostic test to put your young'un right where they need to be in the wise guide. (the spelling list) If you are religiously conservative you will probably love it. It's a good program I think. Be prepared to put some serious time in learning how it all works, but again, once you do that , you are set until college level words. HTH ~Christine in al

along with MCT. I love the workbook format. I am in love with Michael Clay Thomas materials. , but I really like the nuts and bolts of FLL. We are behind a year. FLL 1/2 didn't work for ds. he resented all the repetiion, so I lost a year messing around looking at and trying other things, before coming back to FLL 3 ( he's in 4th) The workbook format works for him. We will finish 3 this year and I do plan to use 4 next year as a suppliment to MCT. I like the memorization aspect, and the concrete definitions. For us, it rounds out MCT's style nicely. ~christine in al

I didnt' know to wait until his motor skills were better, We had Handwriting WITH tears at our house. I liked curisve first because I was teaching SWR for Spelling, if you were to use How to Teach Spelling, or All About Spelling, or Spell to Write and Read, then Cursive First has practice sheets for the phonograms that those programs use, I liked the reinforcement of spelling. I found that a plus, I just did it too early for MY child. ~christine in al ( I don't know if I spelled reinforcement correctly.)

I too, am moving away from SWR, but it has worked and we all know Those rules and Phonograms. I don't want to change jargon. I understand that How to Teach Spelling uses the same phonograms. I'm not sure, but that's the next place I am going to look. And I might just end up using the SWR phonogram and rule cards with spelling lists from other sources. ( along with the tiles from AAS) happy hunting. ~Christine in al

Have you looked at Key to series. specialized, and independent, and pretty durn cheap. And don't take any flack from your husband, he should be supporting not blaming. He's stressed at work? well, ....so are you. Oh and sometimes smart kids can get thier self image wrapped up in what they know. So, if they don't know something it gets all confusing about their value and self worth. failure is improtant ( but not fun) and steering them toward bein a hard worker rather than super smart is sometimes helpful. Just learing this with mine. ds was pretty angry that he had to start Key to Fractions at the beginning, he said he knew the stuff, " Well, you shouldn't have missed 4 things on the diagnostic. " ds" Those were careless mistakes". Me:" Well, be more careful, Page 1, begin" ~good luck. ~christine

I use the organizer created by Rose Drake. The kids have some say in what they memorize. I think we ( ALL) learn best when we are in control. And are studying what we either WANT to learn or at least see the point in learning. We have some Latin vocab to memorize that comes from their Latin curricula. ( yes we use more than one, I can't commit to anything) And poetry. Planet order. DS just memorized the prep list from FLL 3 and parts of speach definitions, but mostly poetry. oh and dabbling with US Presidents. ( I"m not sure about the point of this one.. in isolation that is. If we don't have the years and context,, it's just a list of names. ) memory work is something we do some together, but mostly it's on thier own. Christine in Al.

( She's 11, not 30, you have time to do so much :001_smile: ) Where are you trying to " get"? In other words: When she is " educated," what will that look like? I personally think we all need to be able to take in ideas and information and communicate ideas and information. and Math, some science, and some history. ( imho) You list might look like this: ( OR NOT ) She will be able to 1. read ( mechanics and comprehension of facts and of literary aspects) 2.write ( manuscript? cursive? type? ; spell? composition? of a paragraph, and essay? a creative work? you get to choose what's important ) 3. Do arithmetic ( addition, sub, mult, div, measurement ) 4. higher maths. 5. history ( what's important to you here ? And you can use her love for History for your language arts practice) 6. Science If you don't know where she would be if she were in public school, I think you can check online for State Standards for your state. Once you have YOUR list of priorities, find curricula that will help get you there. Then take diagnostic tests for the curricula if possible, then start. Start where you are. ( Flylady wisdom) Just Do it. And once you get rolling it will probably be fun. That horrible feeling of being out of control will go away and it can be fun. Blessings ~c.

It's nice and slow. And read to her classics so she is getting the language in her head and easy readers from your library for her to read. If her eye hand coordination is way up there, you may take a look at Cursive First. It uses phonograms used in All About Spelling. But I wouldn't push the writing, only if she thinks it's cool and fun. ~christine in al

called ( something like) Living our UU principles. I'd check your phone book or local churches for Unitarian Universalists. What I think you are looking for is : Humanist values.. how to be a good HUMAN. You know, decent, fair, just , loving... a good person. Maybe that tag will help you find something useful. Peace. Christine in al

We've used RS since B and dabbled in Singapore STandards Edition. I find the Standards edition to just cover too much too quickly, By second grade they are doing addtion, sub, mulit, and division. RS does addition then moves into mulitiplication ( as repeated counting) and subtraction . we are along way from division. RS lots and lots of drawing shapes and measuring, Both have mental math, but I never got the stategies that singapore taught. This was probably completely my fault. I like Singapore's workbook (s) I like RS's pacing ( mostly) I was just , this AM thinking my dd who LOVES to fill in workbooks, might really thrive with Singapore. So, I am using the workbook to add follow-up work with which eve topic we are covering with RS. RS has a bit too much drawing for me to use it only. I suppliment with Key to series, and Galore Park Junior Maths. I almost always START a topic in RS, though, so I like the way Dr. Cotter presents things. rambling. good luck

Good luck to us eh, Florida Mama, and 1 Michele, thanks for your feed back, the shared experience is helpful. I'm feeling a little curriculum junkie -ish here, but SWR, is just done for us. we've learned alot, but I'm glad burnout isn't just necessarily boredom. That it happens to others as well. ~c.

take ten of your craft sticks, and mark them with a sharpie to denote 10 squares joined in 1 rod. ohohoh.... Pennies and DIMES ~c.

in WWE 3, I leave in the selections to be read and only use the writing paper. I can replace peper much more easily than I can replicate classic selection choices. Next child will have the reading selections intact, but will be writing on notebook paper. I'm planning to sell my " text book" but keep the workbook. just an idea. ~Christine in al

My ds can read and spell very well. ( 9 years old) We're tired of SWR. He and I both want him to have more independence. I have Megawords 1, coming in the mail. I hope it's as independent as I think it is. He needs more work with syllables so I think that will be good. I've switched to AAS for dd 7, but having done 1.5 years of SWR, her word list is way beyond AAS, I've seen folks talk about How to Teach Spelling for more advanced word list. Would the work book for HTTS work for ds 9? I want something that uses the same rules and phongrams he has learned. We could really use something more straightforward ( and secular) Any ideas? ~christine in al

I would ( and did) buy a set BASE TEN BLOCKS. It is a set of centimeter cube units, and tens rods, and 100s flats and 1000s cubes. I bought a set made of wood and they have been the missing manipulative for Right Start. just google Base ten blocks , If you can't find anything, PM me. Christine in al

:lurk5:

Diagramming is covered very thoroughly ( lots of lovely hand-holding) in FLL 3. That is also where we found the prep list that ds memorized. I will probably finish FLL 3 but not do FLL 4 and only MCT next year. Only because one grammar program really should be enough. Anyway, you may want to take a look at FLL 3 as it coveres lots of topics and has a good intro to diagramming. ~c.

Science kept falling off the schedule so I used Read and Understand so they would at least get SOMETHING in science. WE now have tutor so have put aside the Read and Understand. You may also take a look at Galore Park. WE were going there next if I hadn't found the mom who is our tutor. Galore Park is secular. and you can order from Rays Horrible Books, ( and maybe Book Depository) ~christine in al.