I'm probably using it all wrong and only learned of the HIG after I started using SM5a. We started with 4a and only used the workbook and CWP. We had the text, but never used it. I don't know if I am teaching the Singapore way, I don't feel like I need to do much teaching because DS just gets it. He even just gets how to do the CWP. Occasionally there are CWPs that are solved in the Singapore way and when we look at the solution because we are stuck, I admit, I don't really get or like how they are doing it. I guess it is because I gravitate to simple algebra to solve the problem. But they expect their bar graphs to substitute for algebra. DS also get basic linear algebra set ups, so he leans to those usually too. But there are some problems that really throw us because of the Singapore way. I guess I am just using the Singapore scope and sequence and the heavy use of applied and mental math as opposed to doing it the Singapore way. We also use other curriculums though to fill it out. I would actually love for someone to describe in detail what the Singapore way or philosophy is. After using the program for level 4 and part of level 5, I guess I ought to seek for a better understanding of it:). I was going on the assumption that the Singapore way was just more applied/story problems than other programs. That and more mental math which DS gravitated to on his own and naturally did without teaching. So would someone help clarify for me what the Singapore way means? I'd be forever grateful!

For us it was the first read-aloud chapter book we did and DS was 4.5. We finished the series in about six months. I was surprised at how much he got it and even told me that Aslan was God and understood that symbology without me saying anything about it and without us being religious. It just depends on the child. I'm sure he'd get it even more now.. But it was a good start to read alouds for us.

Me too. I agree that CWP has some really awkward wording. But we still like them. But JA is on the way just so that we have something higher on tap for the teaching level, even if we are still working through a lower working level. I think BA has enough fun, challenging, out of the normal box topics that even most 8-9th graders could get something from it. I know I never learned binary until college, nor did I learn about counting or probability. I actually had a terrible high school math experience. Anyway, I actually considered getting the entire Aops book set for me to work through for fun after seeing how much algebra I have forgotten while looking over the Aops post test.

I have Spelling Power on the bookshelf, but I can't even seem to find the motivation to look through it, let alone start it. It seems so daunting. I guess I should have known that I needed an open and go type of thing. And, I just don't know that I even want to cover spelling. My first big mistake, and rather costly.

It's not the number if apps--it's the quality compared to apple apps. Everything that I love from my iPod is not available on my nexus. There are lots of games for the Nexus-- but as for now, they're just arnt anywhere the number of good educational apps. I'd happily give it up. In fact it is out of batteries now and it is hidden away not getting recharged because DS will only play video type games on it, where he gravitates to educational games on the iPod, even though it is tiny, old, and runs out of batteries fast.

BA is very rigorous and very complete. They cover the basics and so much more-- stuff like binary, logic puzzles-- really cool stuff that I've never seen in other curriculums. I've never seen MM, so I can't compare. I think most people who use it would use it as the solid/only curriculum right now if it were all finished. I would. But the speed at which it is being released just doesn't keep up with its users. I don't have a link to a good thread on it-- but just wanted to answer that it is very complete. The only thing that might need supplementation is practice for math fact fluency- but that is easy enough to drill.

Same here. Using JA because I can't imagine that Aops will appeal to such a young one style wise. Just the book layout I think will be a turn-off. Wish that they made a pre-a Beast style book. Or even just a book that wasn't written in the traditional college style dense text format.

People have asked what I am worried about-- simply not knowing if he is on track. I never get to see other 6yo writing. So I'm happy to hear he looks like he is doing okay. I have only worried that he seems slow and complains. But again, I don't know what normal speed for writing for a six year old is. I also sometimes have a skewed perspective of what he ought to be able to do in handwriting because he is so advanced in other subjects. So maybe I think he is behind just because I think of him as a fifth grader elsewhere. I guess we will just keep plugging along and work on increasing stamina and good habits. And someone else asked about Spanish. Yes, you can get HWT in Spanish, French, and I think one other language. We just use it to repeat books because we ran out of books and are learning spanish.

Now that we are about finished with it, my opinion has changed slightly. I still find the chapters to be rather devoid of explaining or teaching much, but I don't find the problem sets too terrible. They do a okay job of reviewing concepts. Some of them are kind of fun. At any rate DS seems to really like them-- which means they are not challenging him at all as he hates being challenged. But at least he loves doing math and does all the problems. He is begging for the entire LoF set-- even the early elementary ones. Not going to do that but might get a few more of the prealgebra ones as long as he loves them. We will see.

Normally I don't want to compare my DS to other kids, but in this subject I'm just not sure of where we should be. Honestly, my DS had better writing than me right now. Mine is terrible. I feel inadequate to correct him because he sees my handwriting all the time-- and it's sloppy. So I don't correct his posture, grip, or letter patterns much. He balks if I do, and since he dislikes handwriting anyway I hate to make it worse for him by nitpicking his grip, posture, or the way he does his letters. I don't know if I am doing him a disservice. I'm sure if he were in school they would work on those things more. Also he seems to be a lefty for everything but handwriting. At an early age he started writing left but I thought he was just confused so gently led him to be a righty. He didn't seem to be put off by it.. So maybe he is just ambidextrous. But I always wondered if he would be happier writing left handed. And I just don't know if we should start cursive now, or wait till his handwriting is much better. Why does this subject give me such pain?

I really have no idea where DS is in terms of handwriting. He has made great progress, but I have no idea if he is behind, or slightly ahead, or right on target. Technically he would be a K'er right now, at 6.25. I'd love to see pictures, including pictures of what dysgraphic writing looks like. I don't think he is dysgraphic, though he does hate writing. He spells well and only has minor b and d reversals that he notices as soon as he does them. He seems to have pretty good automaticity with writing, though he is still slow. But how fast should a 6yr old be anyway? I have no idea. Pictures would be so helpful! Maybe I should see if I can attach a sample of where he is in his Spanish HWT.

I hate my Nexus. Have had two break on me also. But beyond that there are few good apps for it. Doing it a second time, I'd get an iPad or iPod.

I personally wouldn't add another spine. SM and BA are more than enough-- trust me we have so many books lying around right now we could spend years on them all-- just to go through them even though there isn't alot of new material. If she wants new math material but isn't ready to do the deeper mental thinking required to really bring anything new to the table, then personally I'd just move into a different subject like others suggested. Languages are great for mathy kids or an instrument. But yet another set of books I don't think is going to give you what you really need-- which just seems to be time to mature into deeper thinking skills.

I also vote for MCT.

I just looked at it and it looks like something you download and print, unless I missed a book option. I am really after a workbook option like HWT because loose papers just don't get the same respect, if you know what I mean. If ds doesn't want to do it, he would crunch the paper up and throw it while having a fit...but if it is a nice book with good quality paper, he is going to respect his book. And unfortunately, handwriting is one of those subjects that ds has a lot of fits about doing. I am not sure why, because he is at the point now that when he writes stuff for himself for fun, he is getting much more smooth and making great improvements, but he just hates the idea of making letters in some sort or prescribed way. He has his own method and it is really hard to try to get him to break the bad habits. So long story short, I need a nice workbook like HWT, but not HWT. BTW, what do most people do when they run out of HWT...it seems like we go through one book in about 3-4 months. Do most people go slower, or do they just keep repeating the books over and over?

Deer forest- we are on the same track. I also just ordered Jousting Armadillos. I feel like we have more math books sitting around than anything right now. I had no idea there were two more volumes of JA though. Do all three volumes make one pre-a book? We are going to finish 5a SM, and LOF fract and decimals then do BA 4b. LoF goes really fast-- I figure a little over a week for each book. And we don't skip anything in SM, even after the harder geometry units of BA. It just makes DS feel more confident to be able to breeze through geometry in SM after doing BAs. And geometry has been the hardest subject he has hit in math yet. Still struggles to make his own angles and use the protractor. So after doing BA4a, he had so much more confidence with SMs geometry. That was good for him. Speak of the beast-- it just came in the mail! Lucky day.

DS still needs a lot of practice on handwriting. We do it daily and having a book where he has to complete two pages a day works really well as opposed to just having him write a couple of sentences in a notebook. We have been through all the HWT books up through 2nd grade, but are not ready for cursive. We even did the second grade book twice-- once in English, once in Spanish. So I'd like something like HWT second grade level or slightly more advanced in terms of longer words and sentences. Any good workbook suggestions? I don't want to go through another HWT book, but I do like the method.

I'm still waiting for mine in the mail. I am not really in a hurry to start it, as I want to finish up some other stuff first in SM5 and LoF that we just started...but I know that DS will want to read the guide in his spare time, and I am really excited for the logic sections. That said, I am also really excited to do the binary section in BA4a and we skipped that part and just never got back to it. So we have plenty to do, but I am still anxious to get it. I suppose some of that is the high of getting new books in the mail.

Once my brother got bumped in the throat. After about six hours of rest, his voice started to sound slightly higher pitched, and when you gently squeezed his throat/neck, there were tiny sounds that sounded like bubble wrap popping or little crackling sounds. He had to spend a couple nights in the hospital because it can be dangerous, although it healed on its own within a couple of days. There was no obvious swelling, just the odd noise when you pulsated his neck. Thank goodness my sister at the time was interested in studying medicine and told him to go to the hospital to get checked out because she knew that that sound meant that air was leaking out of his windpipe.

I haven't read the majority of posts in this thread. I'll add in my two cents anyway. Some kids just naturally without any coercion are academically advanced and at three think like five year olds or beyond. I had one of those. He could have aced K at two years old, besides shoe tying and scissor usage. His natural instincts were to be studious. He didn't go to preschool. But he is an outlier. I think that 3 became the new 5 when pre-k became a given. And I think preschool became a given when more and more moms decided to step into the workforce early on in their kids lives. When/where I grew up no one went to preschool. Where I lived when DS was a toddler-- every single kid I knew was in pre-k. We lived in a very affluent area, and most moms were Sahm. But every kid at three had to be in preschool. If you went to the local ps for k and your kid hasn't been exposed to two full years of the pre-k curriculum, they would be way behind. So what are they supposed to teach a bunch of kids that have already been doing the k curriculum for a full two years? They have to make K more academic. Either that or grade skip everyone. At which point it just makes more sense to increase the output for each grade level and make K more like first grade.

As we anticipate moving we will have packing and cleaning 101. Hopefully we will not get too far off track and lose momentum like we did last summer. I'd like to read and do handwriting daily and we will probably keep moving with math, but at a slower pace. Piano might have to get put on hold while we move and find a new class. Hiking 410 is a mandatory class in this house.

We just barely listened to Jim Weiss Shakespeare for Children audio recording and really enjoyed it.

Okay, so we've never really used Fred. I bought Fractions last year and DS read some of it, but it got set aside. Just recently returned to it as I wanted a prealgebra before Aops and went with Fred Physics. At the same time I got decimals to round off the set. So I decided we would go through fractions/decimals/prealgebra for fun. So far in two days DS has done half the book with me. I'm kind if astounded at how easy the book is. I feel a little cheated. Not only that, but it really bothers me that a chapter title might be "Add and Reduce" while not saying a single thing about reduction in the chapter. Then it may have a reduction problem-- super easy--in the Your turn to play. But the chapters themselves are so devoid of what the chapter is supposed to be talking about. Does it get better? He has already done two bridges and not learned anything new. It is a lot lighter on math than I ever expected. I was hoping that an entire book on fractions would go muh deeper into the subject then other curriculums-- but I'm starting to think there is just a lot more fluff. Yet another math curriculum.... The good news is that BA is in the mail!

Timez Attack Video game for learning multiplication tables. Very effective and there is a free version.

I think if you just vote for at least one book, then it will always show up In your goodreads side bar. I'm not sure if there is another way to follow it though. And to the poster who asked about reading level-- there is no way to list it. I just view it as a list that any well read child should read through, at any age, and even to read through the classics if they are below reading level at the time. I mean, I still enjoy reading some of this stuff and I'm well beyond a 6th grade reading level:)