- Small groups working together to read poems and writing down phrases that grab their attention, engage their senses - Short explanation of various poetic devices, ask if people can give examples of each that they found in their poetry - Create found poetry http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/found-poems-parallel-poems-33.html - Opportunity for a few kids to share theirs at the end, others next week if they'd like to work on them more

We had neighbors over tonight, and when they asked about school, she actually told them we'd started a math program she loved :). I think the steady build of easy to boost her confidence and then clearly marked levels so it doesn't surprise her that it's trickier, that's working for her with Zaccaro.

Well, after a few days of stopping Miquon and focusing on Beast instead, she had a crying meltdown over Beast! And it occurred to me that she's having unusual trouble in spelling, too - something going on creating unusual mental fog? I dunno... Anyway, we're shifting once again to Zaccaro primarily for a while, and that she asked for today, even though she had the option not to do any math other than xtramath facts review for Fun Friday... Hopefully this will be happy math for longer than a couple days!!

Do you have to buy the activity pack to get the CD-ROM with ideas? I couldn't tell from the website...

Education Unboxed has lots of review games...

Not an expert, but I have a writing resistant child, too! My approach has been to keep writing output requirements from me to a progressive, slightly but not too challenging level (sometimes we trade off her writing and me scribing), not to nitpick spelling or grammar where it doesn't matter (esp. fun or free writing), to find little everyday ways to encourage writing (letters, lists, notes to the tooth fairy, etc.), use of whiteboards at times because it's just easier, physically and psychically, and willingness to take dictation when she really just wants to be creative and not limited by the complexity of writing. We're also slowly working on typing. From year to year, I'm seeing progress. I celebrate each spontaneous note written, however many mistakes there are!

There are lots of ways to understand a given problem, not just one right way, and it sounds to me like your son's way reflects understanding rather than just rote memorization of a method or algorithm. Some ways might be more prone to error, it's true... So you can watch for that, you can appreciate with him different ways of solving and explore which one leads to better accuracy versus introducing errors. Working left to right and then regrouping from there actually pretty common, I think, and that underlying math is why the traditional algorithm works...

My DS is 3, and I'm doing some simple letter of the week stuff, too. Numbers, colors, all sorts of great concepts come up naturally just in picking great library books that go along with the letter of the week. Next year I might use Peak with Books instead as a "spine" guiding book selection. Scholastic has some more in-depth, pre-reading letter of the week printable booklets I might use later, too - got them for $1! There are little Montessori tactile tracing books you can get, for letters, numbers and shapes. I have some Handwriting without Tears supplies, and can imagine starting to play with them a little next year. This year math activities are coming up naturally along with reading (e.g., playing with a ruler after reading Inch by Inch), some MathStart books thrown in, too... Next year I might start adding in some more (free) games and activities from Education Unboxed and CSMP. I spend 30 intentional minutes with him in the morning, reading, singing, a game or craft. Beyond that, he has lots of time to play, art supplies, play dough, coloring books, etc.

Thank you! Really appreciate the encouragement :)

Thanks, that's helpful to have in my head to gauge relative difficulty! I'm not sure exactly where we'll shift after Miquon.. That's part of why we were adding in some Beast, so that maybe we could shift to that eventually. I thought I had another year left with Miquon to figure it out... I think I'll take at least a month to do some backtracking, review, consolidating understanding, enjoying some rabbit trails... Then see where we are after that. Maybe if I see Math Mammoth for a great deal, I'll get it just to see... Or peruse some old Singapore v. math Mammoth threads :) I'm working up quite a collection of supplements (all awesome!) if I switch to a new spine :)

Yes, I love that Miquon makes her really think... Somehow this just got too deep for her too fast. I don't want to ditch it, but don't want her dreading math. I probably should just get playful for a while, maybe take a month completely or partially off Miquon in favor of BA, Education Unboxed, maybe some Zaccarro. I did that one month last year, and it was crazy how fast she went when we finally came back to it.

We moved into Miquon Yellow this year, and suddenly it's one of my daughter's least favorite things to do, after several years of both of us really enjoying the program. We are also dabbling in Beast Academy, in the skip counting section of 3a now, just working on it for 20-30m 2-3x per week, and that she's loving. I adjusted at first by only asking DD to do half a page of Miquon a day, slowing the pace so she wouldn't feel rushed, maybe things could sink in more, we could play with the concepts more... But this week we were just working on this multiplication page that was crazy hard unless we did every problem with rods and hundred flats (e.g., 70 + 21 = 7 x __ = 7 x 10 + 7 x 3 = 7 x 13), and now I'm really wondering if somehow the program made a huge jump up in this book, and we just need to take a break? It was the last page in a thread, so maybe it was one of those sneaky Miquon "let's throw in some real mind stretchers before we get back to the main program" things? So I guess my question is whether anyone else has experienced something like this with Miquon and what they did? If you've also used BA, how do you think they compare at those levels in difficulty?

I started the year with too much, and we were both miserable briefly until I realized it really was a problem with my expectations, not her attitude. Is she a perfect angel since I reduced the load? No, but it's nowhere near miserable now - lots more fun moments possible! Hopefully you'll experience something similar!

Forgot, I was going to ask - how did they test him as early 5th? Just curious. I think you'll know when you hit the right level of challenge. Both BA and Miquon have a lot of depth to them.

We're doing Miquon Yellow and Beast Academy, with a little Zaccarro Challenge Math (the elementary one) thrown in occasionally... If you think he can accelerate in Miquon, go for it. I skip pages occasionally or pick half of the problems on one, the ones that look the most interesting. Other times, I make our own lab sheets to play with a concept more, or grab a game from Education Unboxed...

Fairy and folk tales around the world! Usborne has a good book along that theme, you can find Cinderella stories in so many cultures, paired with Children Just Like Me, exploring new foods... If that gets boring, you could switch to American history and folk tales, using D'Aulaire, other great picture books.

Oh, and all the growth mindset stuff - making a big deal about determination, problem-solving, etc., not intrinsic "talent" or steady state qualities like "smart."

^^^ the above. Which also means giving time and helping to acquire needed resources, without crossing the line into making it parent-led. She needs to stay more motivated than me, and I need to let the interest die when she's ready. Another aspect for me is making sure I save the extrinsic rewards for where they are really needed. We don't need extrinsic rewards for reading, so sure, she can do the library summer reading program if she wants... But I'm not going to make a big deal about it. Finishing the work that's more mom-led leads to the carrot of a little screen time, but not the math program she thinks is super fun - she doesn't need a carrot for that.

I think my mom encouraged me to do something similar in the 2nd grade, so the family story goes that I marched up to the teacher to let her know that I would be bringing in cupcakes for my birthday AND that she needed to test me for the highest reading group because I was bored. In reality my mom must also have been working behind the scenes with the teacher, too, because that started a big process of testing, re-placement and library passes as bribes to train me to complete my "boring" work and show what I could do :) Perhaps you could connect with her teacher to talk about this new interest your daughter is showing?

I work 20ish hours/week, some in house, some out, with 10 hrs of babysitting total on 2 afternoons, and the rest of the time in the evenings, weekends, little chunks while kids watch a video or take quiet time. So far it's working well! (4 years in.) I've added one online class at a time for myself, and that is straining the limits a bit... But so far, it's doable, and I think it's worth it.

Family field trips, esp. on free or discount days - museums of all kinds, aquariums, beach, desert, zoo, county fair... Or just biking to the nature park, or feeding ducks at a local park Plenty of free time, art supplies and craft kits, outside toys likes bikes and roller skates, kid yoga and dance DVDs, dress-up clothes, etc. DD7 - community center karate 2x/week*, weekly homeschool PE/park day*^, weekly library trips*, art class 2x/month^, weekly play group & Sunday school*, weekly group music class^, swimming with family 2-3x/month* & the occasional swim class*, occasional children's choir at church* * free or inexpensive, ^ covered by charter - we probably couldn't/wouldn't do some of this otherwise - choosing to make art 2x/month instead of weekly helped create space, financially and time-wise, to add music this year. We might do less if DD were less extroverted as well. (In regards to specializing, one thing I love about karate is that I feel like it's providing a base of comfort and control over her own body, overall fitness, for my not-so-athletically inclined daughter that should serve her well when she wants to explore other things.) DS3 - besides tagging along or playing at the park while DD is at an activity, he's in one group music class (same time and place as sister's PE) and just for kicks, I'm going to take him for one round of weekly gymnastics at the community center during DD's play group. I don't think these are necessary for a 3yo, but they're convenient and fun :)

I appreciate both of those thoughts!

I think I'm less concerned with the verbal and more with the demonstration. Like in being able to evaluate which of two numbers, 38 and 53 are closer to 45... She's picturing jumping from 45 to the other numbers on a number line in her head, I'd like her to be able to show that on paper, that she's finding and comparing the length of the jumps. ETA: I realize I said verbally in my initial question :) So this is more where I've moved to over the course of the conversation!

Thanks so much for the input. So let's say she has 20 Miquon problems to do... I do the first one or two with her, usually, to model their method. I could write, show, talk through some alternative methods on a white board. Usually, then, I let her loose, and she works fairly independently with me nearby (writing as little down as possible, by choice). Maybe it would work at the end to ask her to explain two problems to me, with numbers, words, pictures, or rods - one she picks, one I pick? I would probably pick one she'd made a mistake on, see if she could catch and correct it...

How important do you think it is that a child be able to verbally explain or break down how they solved a math problem? How might that skill be worked on, esp. in a more visual-spatial, whole to parts learner? Context behind the question: DD, 7yo, has been working through Miquon for several years now, now adding in some Beast Academy, sometimes Zaccarro... I think she's a reasonably mathy kid, mildly accelerated. Since we're with a charter, they assess language arts and math periodically, and she has not tested nearly as well in math as I would expect. Like head scratching results. So I am trying a simple paper assessment with her, http://ccss.lausd.net/assessments/elementary-mathematics-periodic-assessments, and so far I can tell while she gets the answers quickly and intuitively, she has troubling explaining them. I think this may connect to another issue we have, getting her to be willing to write down and show her work. She always wants to do it mentally, which makes it easier to make mistakes. (She's somewhat writing resistant in general, though it's improved a lot over the last year.) I think she's not always crystal clear on her own problem solving process... So whether or not the testing results were "accurate," I do think there is an underlying weakness I'm not sure how to address or even name... Thoughts?