DS was in 2nd grade last year at a very strong ps. They answered comprehension questions just like WWE but had to write the answers on their own of course. It was a big deal to get the kids to answer correctly and in complete details. Of course they seemed to only cover 1 short story every 2-3 weeks. They also seemed to write a couple of creative stories in imitation of other lit over the course of the year and every week they wrote a short letter to the student of the week. One other teacher focussed more on creative writing than our teacher. DS9 (3rd grade) is doing WWE3 for me with writing strands as a supplement. We will move on to IEW next year. Brownie

My older 2 both tested gifted at ps before I pulled them out. The oldest has some learning issues and so I'm learning to slow down and work with him mostly at grade level with more in depth science and computer programming thrown in. His understanding is high but his speed is slow. DS7 is much easier but we don't use 'gifted curriculum'. We do use Singapore for math which leans more in that direction, but we just work at whatever speed he needs. He is supposed to be in 1st grade and doing Singapore 3A, WWE2, WW2, Spelling Power level C and reading vorcaiously anywhere from a 3rd to 5th grade level. Mostly I leave him alone bc he needs so little effort from me to accomplish alot. He still writes like a 7 year old boy (handwriting and composition). We call him whatever grade suits our purpose at the time. Brownie

I just wanted to point out that I am amazed how much my little guy (almost 5) learns by just being around us during school. It may not be 2+2 or how to read most days, but he can now sing the 1st 28 prepositions and the helping verbs along with his brothers and the other day when we did a science experiment, he was the one to recount it to daddy at dinner! Brownie

I have ds9 and ds7 at home. With all the snow recently, ds4 who attends preschool has been home ALOT! We just started homeschooling this year and it has been rough recently with 3 in the house. I'm getting worried about next year! When I am organized I have been known to schedule everyone's subjects so that they all get me when they will need me. I will have to do this daily for next year. DS7 does help out a lot on Mondays with ds4 bc his load is lighter and ds4 is home on Mondays. Otherwise for next year I realize I am going to have to cut back on the mom-intensive curriculums. We will be dropping Spelling Power and switching to SOS Science (computer based curriculum). We will continue to do history together. The boys are also just going to have to become more independent. It is an issue with ds9 who has some learning issues and needs me constantly. I'm practicing working toward that for the remainder of the year. The biggest issue for me is what ds4 will so while we're all doing school and he's done! He plays well independently but not necessarily on demand :) Brownie

I like WWE because it has them write 'orally'. We also use spelling power which allows them to do most of their work orally or pretend to write the word in the air, etc... DS1st/2nd is writing phobic and I finally gave up and told him to write whatever he wants to fill 5 pages in his journal. I don't correct it, critique it, or even necessarily look at it. He still groans but does it, is very silly about it, but at least he's feeling more positive about writing than previously. Brownie

I have a ds in 3rd grade (and ds7 who should be 1st but is doing a 1st/2nd combo). DS in 3rd does WWE3 and Writing strands 3, Spelling Power, Easy Grammar 3, a blend of WW4 and vocabulary vine (only doing 1/2 of each this year) and we are doing 4 progeny press lit studies. We only do about 16 hours a week at home and this includes science, history and math. So I don't know about your exact curriculum time requirements, but for us it's working. With an advanced reader I found it impossible to find a LA curriculum all in one package that worked for me. DS7 does much less (no formal grammar yet and for vocab we'll finish WW2 over the course of a year). He does WWE2 and Spelling Power as well as the 4 lit studies with ds9. He writes in his journal 3x a week. Printing practice happens as needed. Most of it was accomplished the 1st 6 weeks of school. Honestly this only takes about 10 hrs a week including math, sci and history but ds7 is efficient. Brownie Brownie

My ds5 screams when we try to put it on in the car :) DS7 and DS9 enjoy it though...esp ds 9 who voluntarily listens to it. Then again ds5 screams whenever we put any long chapter books on in the car! Brownie

We do WWE 2 which only requires 2 sentences dictation and 1 sentence copywork a week. We also do some reading comprehension questions here and there and I have him write about 5 lines in his journal 3x a week. Writing is torture for many 7 year old boys, mine included. Brownie

IMO if the child can't copy a word spelled right on the page you have to consider that it is more than a spelling issue. DS9 does that and he is spelling on a 6th grade level! If you try to get the child to realize that it is easier on them to get it right the 1st time and this doesn't help, it may be that they can't do it for some reason...visual motor delays can be one of them, working memory and/or attention. In 1st grade ds could not copy a word from a box at the top of the page and spell it correctly where needed below. On vocab quizzes in 2nd grade he would lose points bc he misspelled the word written at the top of the page. I would say he had a better chance of spelling it correctly if the word was not there at all! I had to train him to transfer the word correctly by looking at the 1st 3 letters and then repeating them to himself until he got them written down, repeat, until the word was spelled! The closer the word is to where it is needed, the easier it is if it is a visual motor issue. They say working at a large wipe board is good for this. Brownie

Just wanted to say that I logged on desparate to find some new information bc ds9 has a similar IQ and below average processing speed and working memory. He has shown minor issues in OT, vision and speech. He does well academically, until we have a frustrating day :) He is starting to struggle in math and was always brilliant in math which conerns and frustrates me. I began thinking we must be missing something...there must be something we can do and a better diagnosis. All these minor issues can't be contributing to so much trouble with a gifted child, but reading this has at least comforted me that it may indeed be the case and maybe we're not missing anything we could be doing much differently. A dev ped recommended biofeedback to us which costs $1500 and is not covered by insurance. It is supposed to increase bloodflow to the frontal lobe? We have tried The Journey to Wild Divine which is a computer program with finger sensors used to promote calm and focus. We need to get back to trying that before we plunk down $1500. We try a cup of tea in the morning rather than going to 'meds' so far. It seems to help. Brownie

Whatever it is...it does seem strangely easy. My kids were in ps last year and we use Singapore. The first chapter of 3rd grade wasn't that easy either way, but this did looked more like a review/assessment? It covered a number of topics. Brownie

Somewhat similarly, I will give my kids incentive to read books with a movie by promising the movie after the book is completed...Harry Potter, the Lightning Thief, most classics, etc... I will also assign books to be completed by a certain date but I will often offer a choice of 3 books for the assignment. Other weeks I assign nothing, and still other weeks I will "assign" whatever they are already reading if it is adequately challenging. I walk the line of knowing when and what to push on them, knowing they will end up enjoying it most often and increase their love of reading rather than making it a chore. Finally we listen to MANY books on tape, allowing them to enjoy many books they would never read themselves and I wouldn't have the time to read aloud. Brownie

We are wrapping up Chem 1 and I am very tempted by the Chem Kogs. Doing logic, art and history from a chemistry perspective (on top of SOTW) sounds wonderful and I just realized the e-books are $10 from their website rather than $20-$25 to buy the books. Has anyone tried these? What do you think of the quality? What grade level do you think can handle them and are they mom intensive? Thanks! Brownie

The boys need to be seated by 8:15, ready and morning chores done, or they get an early bedtime. I make a week's checklist in excel for each kid. We try to get done by noon, but if we don't, we do the remaining important things in the afternoon. Also I leave Friday very light so if we're getting behind, it bumps to Friday. Until the boys are done with their work for the day (and chores) they don't earn their 15 minutes of video/computer play time. Brownie

We used the same one as hsmom and then we bought Disney's program for about $10. It uses Timon and Pumba. I think he is enjoying it and has more practice than the free online one. Brownie

They have answers for the wkbk and text. Not sure if they have the IP answers? That is another bonus. At least it saves some time correcting long division and mult :) Brownie

I am getting ready to pick up 4A for my oldest and I am wondering if I need both the HIG and the textbook. For 3B we hardly touched the text, though for 3A we did many of the problems for my oldest. My middle ds hasn't touched the 3A text. I wouldn't buy the Wkbk only for homeschooling math (although I did it for afterschooling) for fear of missing something. For example if I only had the wkbk I don't think I could adequately explain bar diagrams which we have found necessary for solving many of the "challenging" challenging word problems. Of course you could use algebra...but ds doesn't know algebra yet. Brownie

DS uses Vocab Vine. I wouldn't recommend for someone who doesn't like flashcards. DS9 writes each root and sample words and definitions onto an index card. I create my own tests to confirm he is learning something. He learns the roots very well but honestly can't see why :) Brownie

If using it as a supplement I wouldn't bother. I buy it for 3rd grade and up (well so far just 3rd grade:) ) for the standards edition. But it's our main curriculum and a few things it is difficult to understand from the text how they are trying to teach it. I'm afraid I'll miss something and defeat the purpose of Singapore. Then again I've considered not getting the texts for level 4...I use it less and less when I used the HIG. I use the HIG for scheduling guidelines too. Overall, it's alot of money to spend on a supplementary teacher guide. Brownie

I do my own thing. I have a spreadsheet in excel that lists all of our subjects down the side and mon through fri across the top for each boy. I copy and paste it each weekend and edit it. For example, we do: Singapore: I look at the material and the HIG, decide how fast we will progress and assign pages or lessons for each day Other Math: review sheets and speed quizzes every day Writing with Ease: Generally 1 'week' per week Science and History: We alternate these a few weeks at a time. It is either 3 SOTW chapters or a chapter of Chemistry each week. Grammar, vocab and spelling: Usually for 3 days a week I assign the next lesson in each I add in extras like piano practice and typing. I print them off and have a check box for each item as we go. At the end of the week I tape it into my lesson plan book. Brownie

We don't use the tests. When I need I test I just use one of the end of chapter reviews from the text. At the end of the semester I use the free placement test online. Brownie

I like Wordly Wise for vocab because it incorporates some nice selections for reading comprehension. Quite a while back (during the fall) I was asking for other options here and I recall I got another nice recommendation that I'm sure I have deeply filed away somewhere, but I don't recall what it was. I'm sure if you do a search with my name it will turn up. Brownie

note that they have standards edition tests and US edition. Standards covers a larger variety of topics. Brownie

I would like to discuss current events with my 9 and 7 year olds, at the dinner table perhaps. But I have little time to keep up with the news as is, let alone filter and present it to them. Is there any appropriate source of news for this age that could be a starting point for discussion? Brownie

We're using Singapore. I spend 10-20 minutes with each kid teaching a new concept. I didn't use the HIG until grade 3. They do most of their work the rest of the week "independently" but I check the work, go over errors, get interrupted with q's, etc... I need more independence next year with a 3rd child coming up in K and this is NOT one of the things I am changing to achieve that. I am looking at science and spelling. I do need to sit down with them and teach them to take themselves through the textbook so that they need me less as the material gets harder and to prepare them for self-teaching when they get older. Brownie