Could someone explain or share how you use Strayer Upton Math books? My in- laws are cleaning out their library and my father-in-law has a bunch of old school books, several Strayer Upton books including 1-3 and tests and workbooks for grades 6,7,8. I've seen the set of books 1-3 before, but I have never seen workbooks before. I think they are supposed to be used for extra practice, but I wasn't sure. Thanks!

I looked at both. I would do reading comprehension and the later if time and money are available I would do the thinking skills. Or maybe next year switch and do thinking skills instead of reading comp.

I love Little Women. I really do, but I think if boys are reading classics for fun they want to be able to relate to the characters. My boys would have a hard time understanding the significance of a ruined dress or Amy's nose clip.If you can get through Little Women then you can move on to Little Men and or Eight Cousins. Eight Cousins is about a little girl who is orphaned and goes to live with relatives and discovers she has lots of cousins who are boys. Little Men is the sequel to Little Women. You could probably get away with reading it without reading Little Women first. As for other classics boys might be interested in Check out Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Washington Irving, Arthur Conan Doyle. Jules Verne King Arthur stories are great. Oliver Twist, David Copperfield.Robin Hood, Ivanhoe The Black Arrow, Master on Ballantrae Depending upon how old your boys are there are Poe stories, Nathaniel Hawthorne stories that I would let older boys read, not all of them, but there are some that are okay. If you are looking for books more like Anne of Green Gables, I would read Tales from Avonlea. A bunch of cousins and their adventures . The Great Brain Books are fantastic. I read them years ago.

It would depend I think on what you want your child to work on. I used both when I was homeschooled. For me both had value. The thinking skills book helped with test taking skills, reading comprehension book helped with being able to analyze literature and other books. If I remember correctly, reading comprehension is a year long course and thinking skills is roughly a semester long. Is the comprehension book printed by Seton and the thinking skills book the one with shapes on it? If I had to choose between the two I would stick with reading comprehension. The skills taught in the thinking skills book could be taught over the summer. So, I guess it depends upon what you want your child to focus on or if you are specifically trying to work on a weakness or help your child gain confidence in n area.

We like animaniacs state song, also found on youtube and another one on youtube is the state song found on the channel kidtv123. The same channel also has a countries of the world song by continent, times tables and counting from 1-10in different languages including Japanese and German and measurements.

where's Toto there is a few places in nh with trains. Weirs beach has a train ride, but it is a regular size train. There is NH heritage museum that has a train ride of sorts. There is a train ride at the theme park in Salem, NH. There is also the Hobo Railroad. Santa's Village and Storyland also have rides for kids, but it is a park ride, not a real train. Can you tell me more about the picture?

Which one is closer to the resort? And how about using storyland for motivation? If they do a good job on the cog the next day they can go to storyland? For me the Weather Station is optional. Great if you make it, but not necessary if you only have two days. It sounds like Storyland and the cog would be a perfect balance between fun and educational.

If you are up for doing two outings than do two. Maybe you could have the second outing be closer to where you are staying? Just one other unit study you could do would be authors Rudyard Kipling in VT, Nathaniel Hawthorne in NH and MA and the authors who lived in Concord, MA, like Louisa May Alcott. All of them wrote children's books.

If you are going to be in the white mountains also go to the Flume. You have to pay to get in, but it is stunning. The basin is a nice free hike too. The weather observatory was fun. There is so much to do in that area. The Polar Caves are up near Plymouth.Storyland, Santa's Village, The Trading Post all lots of fun. You might consider making it into a weather/water and geology focus. The Flume and the Basin are both results of water coming down from the mountains wearing away at the rocks. You might also see mini waterfalls along the way to Mt. Washington. Water comes down the sides of the mountain forming news paths. Discuss what kinds of rocks/minerals are found in the NH mountains. Granite and mica are everywhere. I would also discuss weather. Do a compare and contrast between Mt. Washington and where you live, coldest day, hottest day, how high above sea level, how much rain, how much snow. You could have your kids write a paragraph or make a graph. I would also bring a sketchbook and pencils too. Let them journal their trip. You will also see the impact weather has on the landscape. Many of the trees have bare branches up to roughly 2-4 feet sometimes. This is a result from ice storms, heavy snow and animals searching for food. You could also add in local wildlife studies such as moose, large cats, loons, whitetail deer, raccoons. The leaves should also be changing soon, if they haven't already started. You could collect different types of leaves and discuss why there are so many colors, why the leaves change, and what makes New England leaves so unique. Growing up in NH there was an article in the newspaper that China was the only other place with that many colors. It would also be interesting if you collect leaves from different places in New England and compare them. Sorry for the tangent, but I love NH!

My son turned 5 in March and began Kindergarten. It didn't go as planned. He quickly went through his math book and moved on to the first grade one. We added in LOF, Miquon and educationunboxed. We used Hooked on Phonics K last year. It was an old version and fantastic, so we bought the first grade one and hate it. So we are using MCP phonics workbook and readers from Seton. I did get him a Map skills workbook. I used them when I was homeschooled and I loved them. We do science and history through library books, mostly at night before bed. Geography sort of exploded in our house. My in-laws gave us old National Geographics with maps, which led to Geopuzzles, making our own maps, treasure maps, geography songs, making up stories set in different countries, maps on my wall and learning about explorers and adventurers. Seriously, they(K5 and preschool) packed their bags to climb Mt. Everest(our stairs). We are using Zaner-Bloser for handwriting, but plan on using Abeka to teach him cursive The only subjects I keep formal are handwriting,reading/phonics and math. We sit down and do those together for maybe 30minutes. Everything else happens on its own. It sounds to me like you have great ideas to work with your son.I don't think K5 has to be that formal, but I did find that being a little formal helped a lot. For us being a little formulas helped our whole family. I designated 10a.m. as lesson time. Now we get our choresdone before lessons. It also gives my boys a chance to play in the morning and no more complaints about not knowing what to ply with. Instead they try to make the most of playtime. Having formal lesson time also meant that my 3 year old and 2 year old would have an opportunity to play together. For me this is big since normally they just like to bother each other.It also gives my three year old a chance to play leader and get to play toddlerpreschool stuff my K boy doesn't really do anymore. I also noticed that the descent into wackiness would be avoided or at least decreased on days when we set aside time for formal schooling. Seriously, on days without lessons my boys would start getting goofy and silly by mid afternoon. Suddenly, everything would become funny. Then they would run around, slip and slide on the floor, run into things. Most of the time I don't mind, a little goofing around is fine, but it would escalate and would struggle to com down. Anyway, 30 minutes of formal lessons helped.

We have been doing dinosaur stuff off and on for a few months now. We ended up buy a package of small dinosaurs for my two year old and the HD to get more so there were enough for all the boys. We built homes for them inside with materials from around the house and outside in the dirt. We watched The Land Before Time and Dinosaur Train, Little Einstein Dinosaur episode, Diego's Dinosaur episode and listened to the dinosaur song on YouTube. We made fossils with salt dough and used the small dinosaurs we had purchased. You just press the side of the dinosaur into the dough and the make footprints on it. The next day I let the kids paint them. We made dinosaur eggs from old cereal boxes. Just cut out the shape of an egg, cut zigzag across it like it had cracked, put a brad in the corner to make it open and shut. I had the kids color a baby dinosaur so we could glue it to the egg, that way when it opened there was a baby dinosaur. We also printed and cut out a little dinosaur book. Each page had a dinosaur for the kids to color. We started using the little dinosaurs as counters for math. We called it dinomath with adding, subtracting,first and , categories, I'm sure they could be used for other stuff too. My little kids fell in love with the book Dinosaur Roar and started memorizing it. And now I have dinosaurs everywhere... oh and did black paper,a white dinosaur outline and glue and qtips! Lots of fun! Also, we found dinosaur flashcards at Target for $1. They are actually really nice. One more thing, we made an ice volcano. That was a big hit. They sat on the floor and used droppers of vinegar on a green water and baking soda volcano. We found it on pinterest.

Thanks for all the suggestions! Your posts have certainly made me realize I need to look at math differently and not just follow the next workbook. I guess I need to get over thinking he is too little to be doing something. I guess focus less on age and more on interest and ability.

Jackie thanks for the suggestions. They look fantastic and he loves cats! Sunnyday. I think making math more available to him is what I'm trying to do without it just being worksheets. It's not even that I think the book we are using is bad, but he doesn't need 300 pages and lots of review or at least he doesn't right now. I do think availability is a big thing. I have shelves of books about history and literature and I can't help but wonder if having more math books around for him would let him move along in math the same way kids start reading more difficult books. They pick up a book out of curiosity or at least that's how I started reading more literature.

That is exactly what I wanted to know! Thank you! If you have any suggestions about how to do this I would love to hear them or books for me to read.

What are the benefits of slowing down or I think the term is going deeper compared to letting a young child advance, specifically in math? Or is it better to just let a child move at their own pace?

It does not do a daily review of past letters by themselves. It does include words at the bottom of each letter page. They do start with the letter being practiced, but it includes other letters to trace. So for E the first row would be tracing E. The second row would be writing E with a dot for a starting point. The third row has three words like Egg, Elephant and Eye. These words include letters that have already been taught and some letters that haven't been taught yet. So yes there is some review, but not necessarily of the letters from two pages before. It just depends upon the letter of the lesson and the words at the bottom. There are review pages every 6-8 pages it looks like. I have my son do two pages a day and his handwriting has drastically improved. So maybe it is supposed to be practice a new letter all week and review for the end of the week. Good luck!

We use Zaner-Bloser for manuscript handwriting. For Kindergarten it begins with strokes and then letters. When you get to the letter pages it includes a line of tracing the letters, then a line for writing the letters independently and then a third line for tracing words beginning the letter. After a few pages like that they review the letters. For review they have the alphabet on one page with blank spaces for the letters the child has learned to be filled in. On the other review page are four letters each written twice and with space below them so the child can copy them. The first grade book seems to follow a similar format, but less tracing and more copying. I hope this helps!

Owl Moon Miss Rumphius When We Were Young in the Mountains Wee Gillis Mike Mulligan The Little Island Anything by Graeme Base The House at Night

Just a thought, but if you want to home school and are using the private school as a daycare why not pay a home daycare to take care of her during the day and home school in the afternoon or evening? My guess is that a home daycare would be more flexible and your daughter could have more say in what she does., like more time reading books that she wants to read, playing with kids and doing arts and crafts. The focus wouldn't be on the academics she already knows. However, if you want to send her to a school that would fulfill her academic needs instead of homeschooling her than public school might be a better way to go. The only other thoughts I have are these, watch and see how your daughter does at the private school. Is she acting out because she is bored or is she gaining confidence because she knows the material? If she is gaining confidence and is happy than I wouldn't worry and if you want just do stuff at home. If , however, she isn't happy at the private school because of the teacher and boredom and a home daycare isn't an option than try public school. I hope you find a solution.

TyraTooters educationunboxed.com has a bunch of videos demonstrating different ways to teach using rods. It's great and my kids love it. For math facts with rods: For example, take 3+4=7 so get out your 3 block, 4 block and 7 block, put the 7 on top and the 3 and 4 underneath. 4 block plus 3block is the same as a 7 block Now underneath that put the 4 block first and see if your child can figure out what goes in the empty space 3+4=7 Then do subtraction take the 3 away say seven take away three equals what? 4. Repeat just take away the four block instead. Then you can also use the blocks to find all the facts that equal a specific number. For example find all the number pairs that equal ten and line them up one under the other. You can even use a flashcards and have your child use the blocks to demonstrate the problem. The videos do a much better job explaining it. When I use them with Abeka I have my son do the math problems on whatever page he's supposed to do.nAbeka has pages that all of the problems equal a specific number so we make a wall of number combinations. Sometimes their are subtraction and addition on a page so we playa fill in the whole or find the missing number. Definitely look at educationunboxed.com I cannot thank this forum enough for recommending it.

We use Abeka too and like you, I liked the book, but wanted to make things a little more hands on and fun. There are a couple of things you can do. We use c-rods for math problems and fact families. We build walls like the ones on educationunboxed. We use plastic measuring cups I bought for a dollar at Walmart. If the page says find the item that is in third place we line up toy cars and do it. If the pages says how long is the picture of a whale, we get a ruler out and then measure the whale and then my little ones start measuring everything their hands, their feet, bookshelves, plates, books toy cars. So if you want to use manipulative everyday you can or you can choose once a week, twice a day.We have the Melissa and Doug wooden clock and use that for telling time, you can make a clock using a paper plate or find a foam one at the dollar store. We make paper pizza's when working with fractions. For counting by twos get out pairs of socks, counting by five's trace your child's hand and cut them out write the numbers on the hands. You candy do the same with counting by tens, use both feet instead of a hand staple them together and write the numbers on them.If you come across counting by fives or tens in the book again just have your child play a game with the hands or feet. Put them in order but flipped over so you can't see the number and see if she can get the number and then check by flipping over the hand. Or have them all mixed up and face up and see if she can put them in order.You could even let her paint the "nails" for fun. For me the workbook is more of a guide. Each page let's me know what concepts to go over. Use household items to practice counting. In the book it has counting in groups of a hundred, so take a bunch of marbles, seashells, beads and just count up so if the book says start at 200 count up from 200 to 300 You only need one hundred counting items. So you can use manipulative with your Abeka workbook as often as you want or maybe have once a week be a hands on math day. Once a week you could use an idea from pinterest or the forums here and keep a math journal or take a page from Abeka and use that for your hands on day just add in manipulative. You end up spending roughly $20-$40 for manipulative but my younger kids use them too. C-rods, toy clock, coins, 100 beads, shells, army men counters, marbles or tiny erasers, construction paper and markers to make hands, feet and pizzas oh and a ruler. We use these over and over again. Seriously, I was shocked when I put a bucket of c-rods on the floor to do math with my oldest and my three year old joined in and began building walls and my two year started sorting the rods by color. He wanted all of the blue rods so his brothers couldn't have them. I just sat and watched. My oldest finished his math problems and began making up some of his own and then started playing a game with his brother taking turns to see which block would fit in the puzzle. I love that I can have my son do his math pages and know that they got done and that I can add in manipulative or hands on math days when ever I want. Sorry if any of this sounds jumbled, I have a two year old on my lap. I hope this helps.

You could add foods and spices. You could even try noodles from each continent or bread. For Asia, chopsticks, origami and other paper crafts, maybe paper lanterns? Oh and tea! Learning about different types of tea and how each is made is kind of interesting. You could make flashcards of quotes/sayings from each continent or frame a single quote. Maybe find items that are considered lucky on each continent. Pennies, ladybugs, crickets, rabbit's foot

Uncle Wiggley

We use Abeka, but we don't use a TM. My son does two pages a day and that is it. So he can "see" math we use Cuisenaire rods, measuring cups, rulers, thermometers and a toy clock. These make it fun for my son, but are not necessary. I have seen the two pages a day without a teacher's manual work until about 4th grade. I do not know if it is possible to keep it up after 4th grade. I do not think the actual workbook has a drill style. It does have review. Abeka's drill and test book you can use if you want to, or you can make up your own drills and tests. I kind of see Saxon as the same way, more review not so much drill. I can only say this for 54 and up. I have never used Saxon for lower levels or to teach math. However, I was taught math using Saxon when I was homeschooled. Just for a clear idea of what I mean by drill, my third grade teacher would give us a sheet of paper with 60 multiplication and division problems on it and give us a minute or two to finish it. It does sound like you like the Abeka workbook, but want a better teacher's manual. If you need a teacher's manual and Abeka isn't working for you I would consider switching and just ask the group which math program is most like Abeka but with a better teacher's manual. My guess would be Horizon. Like you I have also read that TT is light, but you could have your kids take a placement test and see what level they are placed in. I don't think the program is actually light as much as it is considered behind. So your kids might place a grade ahead. I have no experience with TT, this is just what I have heard by reading threads here. I cannot help you with Singapore. I do not know enough about it and have never tried it. I would also recommend reading up on threads about other programs like Rod & Staff and CLE. They seem to be highly recommended on the boards. I hope this helps, and that you find the right program for your family.

Pretty much anything by Jim Arnosky. Hook, Line and Seeker Crinkleroots The Brook Book Thunderbirds Tooth&Claw Slither & Crawl Creep & Flutter... my boys spent an hour drawing spiders after reading this book. There are coloring pages on his site that can go with his books if I remember correctly. David Macaulay's The New Way things Work Audubon Field Guides