We are using Math in Focus Course 1-3, but that is a 6th-8th grade series. It is similar to Singapore Primary Math series (the syllabus) and the format is very, very easy on students, which is why we like it so much. My son is ESOL and he is able to be largely independent with the series. MIF has many additional supplement books that you can buy, or you can use just the textbook. Like Primary Mathematics, Math in Focus Courses 1-3 has the parts such as A-B textbook, A-B workbook, (1 vol) extra practice and (1 vol) enrichment so that you can level it up or down for your student. There is also a (1 vol) Activity Guide that we use but is not needed.

We tried Hard Math for Elementary when my son was doing Saxon Math 54 and Math 65, in my opinion, it was not that great of a book, I would have been disappointed if I'd bought it.

I think the need to praise something is cultural/social. It is difficult to know how someone arrived where they are at and our past-actions are invisible to those who aren't around while we are taking them. If you witness a performance of beautiful music, you will be distracted by the beautiful music and probably not think about how the musician got to that level. You can be eager to "thank" the musician by complimenting them and you may not have the mind to think about how they really got there. Maybe you knew people who were just naturally talented at a thing, and so you assume anyone who performs in a way that reminds you of them is also naturally good. You can teach your kids reply to compliments constructively. "Wow, you are so good at math!" "Thank you sir, I am so proud that my work has paid off" "You play that song so well." "Thank you ma'am. My dad helped me practice for weeks." "You are so good at this game! You run so fast!" "Thank you sir, I love playing this so much, that the daily practice feels like play!"

I can not see where I buy it. I think I am too late :(

After Math in Focus Course 3, what did you use?

I'm looking for some course that gradually teaches how to draw in a variety of styles and to a variety of degrees. It is important to me that my children learn skill of drawing well. I do not think that any one book/course will teach all of the styles but if anyone can recommend resources for a variety of styles I would really appreciate it. I do not want to buy a book of silliness like animal faces on paper plates. I want my children to progressively learn to draw.

We used Saxon Math 54 and Math 65 with great success with our son when he was in 1st grade. You can find the books online as PDFs for free and see if you can use it. Your son might do better with an accelerated approach to Saxon Math (we used the books in the prescribed way of doing every problem.) Or just starting in Math 65. Or not at all. I encourage you to take a look through the books for yourself. You can find my early impressions of Saxon Math 54 here. When we finished Math 54, I wrote a review of Saxon Math 54 here. After Math 65, we found the PDF of Saxon Course 1-3 and we did not like them, Math 65 worked really well for us and my son had a very strong foundation already. We found a very cheap and old copy of Saxon Algebra 1 and took it with us when we traveled. My son LOVED that book. We used it very differently than we did Math 54 and Math 65. My son raced through much of the book in the summer. Saxon is not a fast moving curriculum at the beginning levels. You may want to give the placement test and then consider picking the book that is just above your sons placement, since he moves very fast and learns quickly. Or, you may find that Saxon just is not for you.

I like to have PDF textbooks and print pages as I need them to make personal syllabus/ scope and sequence for each child. So I guess the most important thing for me when I am using a digital source is a way to print. Our children do not use the internet for school. They study from books. We simply buy the books that we need/want. I suppose that you could download videos to CD/DVD in advance if you need online videos. Reading: We use the library for almost all reading resources. I am ESOL and could not teach my kids to read in English well, so we got the kids a reading tutor--we use the books that she gives us and the library for practice. Maths, I work directly with them one at a time or in groups and we use manipulatives, white boards and math books. Character training is done real time through out the day as we live, and we read special books and tell fables to talk about character traits and virtues. For languages, you can use DVDs and CDs, no need to be on the internet. Our library has many textbooks, DVDs and CDs on a lot of educational subjects. There are many items one can purchase from sites like Rainbow Resource for pretty much any topic, all the way up to grade 12.

Saxon Math 5/4 -- Spiral 100% Saxon Math 6/5 -- Spiral 100% Saxon Algebra 1 - Spiral ~80% (1st edition) Hard Math for Elementary -- Mastery (supplement) Math in Focus: Course 1 -- Mastery (in progress) We used Saxon Math 5/4 and 6/5 completely and loved them. We had to adapt the books to my sons level with home made worksheets, but they were wonderful for our boy and created a firm foundation, he fully mastered just about every thing in the books. We got Saxon Math 5/4 and Math 6/5 for free, but would happily buy them. Hard Math for Elementary, we used along side Math 6/5 for our boy and thought that it was okay--not good and not bad, just okay. We really liked some of the topics, but there was much in this book that was poorly taught, the format was not friendly to my student. We got it from the library and would not buy it. During the summer, we used an old version of Saxon Algebra 1 (the 1st edition I think), and we did a lot of the book, not all but all of it. My son liked this book best because he thought that the problems were fun and we went over the lessons at the marker board and did more than 80% of the problems orally. Almost no writing required from my son. He enjoyed not writing and his mental math skills got really, really good. We did not complete this whole book but we got through a lot of it. We own this book, so I bought it. Math in Focus: Course 1. We are currently using Math in Focus Course 1. The content of this book is mostly review after Math 65 and Algebra 1, but it is not too easy and not too hard. Its a good level of challenge for my boy and does a good job teaching the material to the student. The format of this book is excellent. There is much white space, steps are shown clearly, the illustrations are not over-whelming and the teaching in the student text is very, very good. Math in Focus is mastery based. There is minimal reviewing in this text, but this has not been a huge problem for us because we use the program in our own unique way and add in spiral review each day. My son needs spiral review format found in Saxon, it helps him to master the material, but MiF: Course 1 is a very sound and sturdy text.

If these books were not a good fit for your AL students, then please tell me why? Please say what books and levels you used at what age so that it is clear. Thank you.

For your 6th and 7th grader, I suggest that you look over the table of contents and rank each topic based on how familiar it is too your 6th and 7th grader now. Then use these rankings to make your own syllabus/schedule for them and then use the MiF textbook and teach your 6th and 7th grader based on what they need if they come to MiF from TT. You can consider making the 6th and 7th grader be together as a "class" For the topics that your sons is familiar with, start those chapters with the chapter review/test, then focus on individual lessons based on the test result. So far, this has allowed us to go very quickly through low-rank topics that my son is familiar with. If it is a section that your sons needs, then go through the lesson together at the marker boards, walk with them for ALL of the guided-practice problems in the student text book, and use the practice problems from the student text. I like Math in Focus, it may not be best fit for your son after the other curriculum, but it is a good math text. The biggest problem so far is that it does not include the spiraled review that we like for our son, we have all of the workbooks: Extra Practice, Reteach, Enrichment, Activity Book and Assessments. We use the activity and enrichment book a lot because my son likes the activities and the enrichment is a good level for him. I create spiral review from the Extra Practice, Reteach and Enrichment problem sets. It is a lot of work since I am making a more Saxon-like program out of the problem sets, but it is a good text, very solid math program.

This question is from Math in Focus Course 1 (grade 6) , YET I prepared the lesson in advance by some weeks and I made a mistake when I copied it out and did not know. I did not realize it until now. Thank you. The question truly reads: The area of one face of a rectangular box is 120 square centimeters. The area of another face of the box is 72 square centimeters. The area of the top of the box is 60 square centimeters. What is the volume of the box? Sorry to trouble all, I'm just to tired these days. My son became very frustrated with this problem and we kept working it. My son will be so wroth with me when I tell him. Oopsie.

This is kind of shy to admit to, but I can't figure out what this problem is to mean. The area of one of a rectangular box is 120 square centimeters. The area of another face of the box is 72 square centimeters. The area of the top of the box is 160 square centimeters. What is the volume of the box? Been a very long day, anyone want to help my tired mama-brain...

Can a single family buy the MiF Course 2 series as PDFs?, or do you have to be a school to get the books in PDF format?

What are some favorite resources for logic, puzzles, and riddles for the 0-2 or K-2 grade range?

Why do you think that you might need a guide to teach 2nd grade math? That is not a challenge, it is meant to help you evaluate why you may or may not need the manual. Do you have several students that need your help? Do you know math well? Are *you* a good teacher? Have you seen the MiF Grade 2 textbook? Are you going to be using the workbooks along with the texts? If so, which of the MiF workbooks will you be using with your 2nd grade student? The extra books for 2nd grade are workbook, extra practice, reteach and enrichment. Have you searched online for supplements or teach lesson plans--do you feel like you need those resources or is the text enough for you? Are there any topics you feel like you might not be able to teach well--can you just look up a lesson plan for that topic or do you feel that having a whole guide book is a better investment?

Is Beast Academy worth buying and using for a child who knows (most of) the material? We are on a budget and with our limits these books would be costly but we could afford them. Please give me examples of why you feel that Beast Academy is worth it for a child who has already mastered (most of) the topics that it teaches? I read muchly on these boards looking for more options in maths for my son and many people talk about the teaching of BA is really wonderful, but from the website, there is only 1 topics from the whole Beast Academy grade 3 and 4 that my son has not covered well already and the problems in the samples were not that good except for the ones with stars. My son could do most of the problems in the samples easily. This is a list of everything covered in Beast Academy 3A - 4D according to the website: shape classification, skip-counting, perimeter and area, multiplication, perfect squares, distributive property, variables, division, units and measure, fractions, estimation, area, shapes, multiplication, exponents, counting, division, logic, factors, fractions, integers, fractions decimals, probability The logic chapter is the only thing my son does not have much experience with. These books are not too expensive, but not cheap either. I don't want to buy it, but if it is truly worth it...

To me, Math 65 and Math 54 felt like two parts of a whole--but not equally halves. I feel like Math 54 was 2/3 and Math 65 was 1/3 of a single text and that if you did well in Math 54 then going directly into Course 1 from Math 54 is going to be realistic. I agree with the below

After reading this comparing of 3rd and 4th edition of Saxon Algebra 1, I decided against the 4th edition of the text. Right now we are using the 1st edition of Saxon Algebra 1 because I found it very cheaply without notice and clammored for the bargain. I do miss the lesson reference numbers and would buy used copies of the the 3rd edition of Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 just for the extra convenience.

We did Math 54, Math 65 and Hard Math for Elementary School in 1st grade, but I don't like the next Saxon books--they stretch the material too thin in my opinion and the format isn't the best for him. He is working in Saxon Algebra 1 now and he is doing just fine with the math. But I pre-read and explain the lessons, teach the example and talk about the concepts with him. Then he solves the lesson problems on a hand-made worksheet. He is doing pretty good with it, he understands the maths well, but does still make mistakes with more complex expressions or problems that use many concepts. He likes Saxon Algebra 1 the best so far... BUT the adapting it to a good format is requiring a lot of time from me and the level of sophistication in the vocabulary for word problems is clunky to me (ie from Lesson 94-5: Fustian phrases obscured .62 of the points the speaker tried to make. If he tried to make 50 points, how many was the audience able to comprehend?) we are an ESOL family and this is tiresome to read, understand, translate, simplify etc... We need something that is more advanced in content than Math 65, has a flexible format, engaging level of challenge, worksheets or a workbook would be great. He likes to do "a lot" of math problems, and finds solving problems fun. He does not like to be stressed out by his work. Dull designs work for him, he finds a lot of color/pictures/designs/clutter distracting. He says that he likes the variety in Saxon exercises. My son is 2nd grade and he loves maths a lot, but he does not have the organization skills, reading ability OR desire to self-teach. Maths is a parent-child event here and he will miss me if I am not teaching it. I have 2 more children who are starting home school lessons this year and I know he will be resentful if I am teaching the youngers but not him. We want to cut back on the time we are spending on math-prep this year as its is creeping up higher and higher. Does anyone here have some suggestions for me?

Soroban (abacus) Face clock Money

I try and stay very close by while my son works and we work math in two daily sessions and I grade the math papers between the sessions. An error I don't catch during Morning session, I point out at the start of evening session and we talk about and correct errors that same day.

Can someone list for me and recommend reading DVDs? Are there and reading DVDs that are not-recommended?

Thank you very much for this advanced notice! I didn't know this yet because we are only working in the first 1/3 of the Saxon Algebra text and so far it has been a very manageable text. Can you please tell me around which lesson (or which topics, since with Saxon it can be hard to pin down) that you notice the problems become lower quality? I have not had as much time to prepare long in advance due to traveling and sickness and I would like to look ahead and plan for this.

I think this is a matter of editions. I have looked over the 930+ pages of the 4th edition of Saxon Algebra as a PDF and...I did not like it. Now, the 1st edition of Saxon Algebra is just at 406 pages and that is including the enrichment lessons and problem sets from the back of the book. The 1st edition has a much cleaner format and lot of white space. There does not seem to be a significant amount of geometry in the 1st edition Algebra 1 text. There is not a single mention of a calculator in the 1st edition of Algebra 1 that I have seen. But in the 4th edition of Saxons High school texts geometry is a separate text so I'm not sure what is in that extra 524 pages of text, but I wasn't about to waste much time trying to find out either. I do recall seeing calculator mentioned a couple dozen times though. We have been very happy with the 1st edition of Algebra 1, and will probably use older editions of Saxon math books from this point on.