Awhile back, I bought Saxon 5/4. Was thinking of switching to it as my boys were struggling with Beast Academy. At the time, a friend said she really liked the DVDs that went along with Saxon math, while another friend was like "what? There are DVDs?" Yet another said they liked the DIVE DVDs, so that's what I went with when I ordered the books. At the time I probably didn't realize that there is more than one DVD option out there. Now, I'm aware of at least three: DIVE, Saxon Teacher, and Art Reed (which I just stumbled across this morning while searching for something else in this forum). So it makes me wonder: are there more? And the obvious follow up question: Which ones do people like best? From whatever else I read this morning, it sounds like people like Art Reed. I still have the whole 5/4 set, including unopened DIVE DVDs, sitting on my shelf. Annnnnnnd I'm thinking of not using it at all and going with CLE. Or, since I already own it (and I did have one kid fill out oh, maybe half of one lesson when he was melting down with Beast Academy and I wanted to try a different approach, so I can no longer resell it in brand new condition), we could use it and then switch to CLE...or use it with one kid and CLE with the other guy...or...or...or... But anyway, if I do decide to use it, I also need to decide if I want to get different DVDs.

I need to check off the "health" portion of my county review, and am obviously behind for this year! What are your recommendations for an online, or printable, or library-based Health unit that I could do with my 3rd and 4th graders in the next month or two? I know that simply checking out some library books and reading them would suffice, but just wondered if anyone knows of anything I might add, just for fun.

Wow! Apparently I'm long overdue for a medal, along with my sisters and brother! Well...I can't totally vouch for my brother but we three girls definitely learned to wield a long broom and dustpan like champs! My sister remembers my dad telling us "you're not trying to kill snakes here." We have no idea what he meant.

I just today mopped my kitchen floor for the first time in oh, I'm thinking over a year. We generally spot clean with a cloth. For some reason I am really averse to pulling out the mop, but after I did it today I was like "now what was so hard about that?" (disclaimer: it's not that I think the once-a-year mopping plan is sufficient, lol! It is what it is in our house.)

Well, this has all been very eye-opening! Here I've been all these years, thinking that everyone did it like my mama did. :) Maybe I will go ahead and get my guys a nifty new whisk brush / dustpan set. Yay, another thing to store in our limited cabinet space!

So do you get down on your knees or stoop over to sweep the whole room with the brush, or do that bit with a long handled broom and then switch to brush for dustpan time?

Yeah, I get it that there is more than one way to get the job done. It's just that I want them to learn how to use a broom, darn it! :laugh: I mean, somehow I learned to do it, so I know that it is indeed possible to learn. (and, the main level of our house has no storage for a vacuum cleaner, so it has to be lugged up from downstairs)

Ahhh HA! Ding ding ding. I get it now. Thanks!

No---I get that. But in Beast Academy, it says 5/5 = 5÷5 = 1. I understand that five fifths equals one, and I understand that 5÷5 equals one. However, "five fifths" evokes a picture of a whole in my mind, whereas 5÷5 evokes five wholes, distributed among five groups with each group containing one whole. So five fifths is a very different thing from five divided by five. So---while five fifths and 5÷5 both equal one, I know that they have to be equal to each other as well. But I guess they are just two very different ways, conceptually, to describe the same thing. Am I making sense?

I think I'm just being dumb here, but my kid stopped me in my tracks when we were reading through the first section on fractions in Beast Academy 3D. The monsters were explaining that fractions are really just division, written another way. For example, "five fifths" (written as 5 over 5) is the same as 5÷5, in that they both equal 1. However, to me (and to my son) they don't seem to have the same meaning. When I picture five fifths in my mind, I picture a whole something, divided into five parts. When I picture five divided by five, I picture five whole somethings, divided into five groups resulting in one per group. What am I missing here?

What's that you say? A person can be a productive member of society without knowing how to use a long handled broom? :eek: :eek: :eek: you just blew my mind. ;)

No, it's fine---scaffolding is great. I like your suggestion and plan to use it. Thank you. But I'm just saying---how DOES a person learn to use a long handled broom?

I've just never been able to get those to stay put as well as short handled ones, so that the edge of the dustpan is sealed against the floor. Dirt always seems to get up under the edge. The whisk broom would help, that's true. But eventually, somehow, surely they are capable of learning to use a proper broom so that they don't need yet another tool!

Oh the drama! Oh the crocodile tears! I've tried to teach my boys, ages 10 and 9, how to use a dustpan off and on for several years now, and I always get the same result. They just CAAAAAANNNNN'T DOOOOOO IIIIIT! They cry. They yell. They stomp around. What gives? They can't seem to get the broom handle braced up against their arm so that the bristles can move the dirt with enough force to get it into the dustpan, while also holding the dustpan with their other hand so that it doesn't move around. Is there another technique? Do they just need to practice more? How does a person learn how to do this? I can't remember not knowing how, LOL!

Looks like we're far enough from the Algebra II and Geometry years that by the time we get there, hopefully CLE will have them finished. Cool!

I'm still trying to find my kids' sweet spot for Math. The background: 2 sons, currently grades 3 and 4, both bright but both think they are terrible at math. Sometimes I think they are right, LOL! Not really---it's just that I think they had a bad experience last year with Math Mammoth (grades 2 and 3), which I still think is a good curriculum but they found it tedious. This year, in an effort to simplify and also to woo them back to math, I've been taking them both through Beast Academy 3, even though they are in 3rd and 4th grade. From what I'd read, I gathered that it would be challenging enough for a 4th grader, and doable for a 3rd grader. This has been correct. They have both really enjoyed the style, reading through all the guides as soon as we got them and tolerating the practice pretty well EXCEPT they do get stuck on some of the more challenging starred exercises, further contributing to their perception that they are terrible at math. :/ I LOVE Beast Academy. It is so creative in the way that it goes over a concept from different angles, requiring the student to use the skill repeatedly but not killing them with tedium. I think BA 4 will be fine for my now 4th grader next year when he's in 5th grade. However, I think I'd like to ease off on my 3rd grader. He's made it through most of BA 3 this year, but as we've gone on, it's gotten harder and harder for him and I think BA 4 might be too much for him next year. He can read and enjoy the guides, but maybe do something else for his actual "work." With this in mind, I finally went out and bought Saxon 5/4. I had borrowed it from a friend and looked at it enough to decide that 5/4 should be about the right level for him. I have several friends who love Saxon, and I liked the idea of a more independent program. HOWEVER I've since read some glowing reviews of CLE, and I'm wondering if it would be a more motivating format for my son (or maybe both my sons?). The Saxon book is so huge, and maybe intimidating, and...maybe CLE is more gentle? With 10 books for a grade level, maybe giving more of a sense of incremental accomplishment along the way, thus restoring confidence? So...anyone with knowledge/experience of Beast, Saxon and CLE, what do you think? For my rising 4th grader, should I spend yet ANOTHER $35-$50 and go for CLE, even though I already spent $100 plus for a year of Saxon? If so, should I abandon Beast altogether and get CLE for my rising 5th grader as well? Thanks.

I'm in somewhat the same boat as OP, except that my kid isn't a natural speller. We're working through AAS 2 (he's in third grade), and it's super easy for him but I'm staying with it, going through every lesson because his spelling is so bad and I want to be thorough. I've also considered switching to something less teacher intensive...for those who recommended Rod and Staff, would you recommend it as highly for a NOT natural speller as you do for a natural speller?

Ok, here's a little update: on advice from several contributors here, we spent some time today going over the concept. We worked through several made-up examples together, and though I think he now understands the PROCESS better, he still gets stuck on WHY we put numbers where we put them and WHY we subtract things at the bottom, etc.---despite my repeated explanations. I think I will also look it up in Math Mammoth (which incidentally, IIRC, doesn't really present long division until 4th grade, or if it does come up in 3rd it's at a very basic level) and give him some problems from that, and check out some of the links folks have suggested above. So thanks! After that, I believe we will move on. I know division WILL get revisited, so whenever it comes around I can try again to add layers of understanding.

I have both of my guys, grades 3 and 4, working on Beast Academy 3. For my 4th grader, it's about right---challenging enough but not hopelessly difficult. The same is mostly true for my 3rd grader, but occasionally we run into something that he just doesn't "get." For example, there were some aspects of the distributive property in 3B that got very difficult for him---we muddled through the exercises, but he needed a lot of guidance and explanation from me and even after that, I don't think he mastered the concept. But we got through, and moved on. For division, likewise...we have completed the first section of long division practice in 3C, p. 48-49, but I really don't think he understands why we put the various numbers where they go in a long division problem. For example he wants to put the remainder up in the quotient area and add it to the quotient in the same way that the material tells you to add each multiple of the divisor. I tried to explain to him why that would give us an incorrect result, but his eyes were glazing over. He didn't get it. Granted, there are still quite a few pages in the Division chapter, so maybe this will be revisited as we go along...BA is pretty good about approaching concepts from multiple angles so that if you don't understand it one way, another approach is presented that might work better. I'm just wondering, though...should we camp out longer on this part of long division, with me making up new exercises? Maybe reread the section in the guide and stay where we are until he gets it? Or, should we move on and trust that it will be revisited later and maybe he'll get it then? I do wish there was BA for grade 2---it probably would have been better for him this year. It also leaves me wondering if continuing with BA 4 next year will be best for him...or should we take a break from it, doing an easier 4th grade curriculum (suggestions? I own Saxon 5/4) next year and then coming back to Beast 4 when he's in 5th grade. It's just that my guys really do enjoy the style of Beast, so going back to something more traditional/conventional might be received poorly. Math Mammoth, for example, practically killed both of my sons---as much as I wanted them to love it. I wish we could repeat BA 3 next year without him knowing we were repeating it. So I guess that's 2 questions. One short term (camp out on the current concept with additional exercises, or move on), and one long term (what to do next year, graduate to Beast 4 or do a less challenging 4th grade curriculum). Thanks!

Yeah...it looked that way to me too. But do you think the Bob books really teach phonics? We have (I think) all of them, and so far none of my kids has (have? SOS grammar police) wanted anything to do with them. Maybe they are just too boring when the storylines are so ridiculously simple? Not that the Fred stories in this series are exactly what you would call sophisticated...but the one thing we have going for us with Fred, is that my kids (including Mr. 4yo) already know and love him. I know, I just need to cool it, LOL! I get nervous when I hear friends talking about their brilliant 3-4 year olds who are, from the sounds of it, already writing their doctoral dissertations. But my 4yo? Definitely not into it.

I'm just wondering if they might "throw the switch," so to speak, and turn him on to the idea of learning to read so that he's more motivated to get started on a more thorough phonics program. I'm sure I'll only know that by trying it, though---I think I'm talking myself into buying them, LOL!

So...do you think they helped him learn to read?

DS and I sit across the table from each other. He has a small whiteboard in front of him, and whenever the guide says to build a word with tiles, I just write it on the whiteboard. He is amused by the fact that I can write upside down...but if I couldn't, I could sit beside him or write it right side up and then turn it around for him. The only reason I don't sit beside him is that I don't want him to peek at the guide, lol! If it says to have the student build a word with tiles, he writes it on the whiteboard. Added advantage: he enjoys wiping the board clean after writing. :) When it has a list of words/phrases/sentences to write, he writes them on paper. And I require good penmanship for this. Not necessarily for other things, but for this. I do pull out the cards when it says to read or review a key card (is that what they are called?) or may use them when new phonograms are introduced, but the cards don't bother me as much as the tiles. I hated the tiles and so did my kid! I agree though about the teacher-intensiveness of it. That I do not like, but it seems to be working ok so I'm sticking with it at least for now.

I was shopping for our next Life of Fred fix (so far we only have the first four elementary math books), and noticed that they have a beginning reading series. I think it might be new, since I can't find any reviews of it anywhere except at Educents, where naturally 4 out of 5 are glowing. :) Does anybody here have any experience with these? I have a 4 year old boy who as of yet shows no interest whatsoever in learning to read. He doesn't even want to TALK about letters and their sounds, LOL! I did buy the AAR pre-reading program, and he's not impressed. So I'm holding back with him, not wanting to force the issue and trusting that he'll be ready when he's ready. At the same time, I'm wondering if this LOF series would be a gentle way to get the ball rolling with him. Thoughts?