I can't find Bill Nye on Discovery Streaming. I see his older series on there, but not the Disney: Bill Nye the Science Guy programs. Can you post (or PM me) with the title of one? Discovery seems to be better with their upgrade, but they still aren't easy to search! And as an FYI for anyone in South Carolina - we have free access to it.

I'm still working through the guides. We'll start MPH in June. There are experiments. The activity book has most of them. The Teacher's Guide gives suggestions for introducing and reinforcing material and gives experiments that can be done. There are some experiments (2-3) in the activity books that I don't know how they could be done at home (wanting sensors to read & register motion/heat/forget what else then used to create a table). I think you'd lose a lot by not doing most of the experiments in the activity books. That said, the majority of them are ones you can do pretty easily at home and (apart from some with plants and one with watching mealworms grow) they don't take too long. The Homework book, Tests book, and HOTS do not have any experiments. Rather, they present experimental results and ask the student to interpret the results.

With Singapore, be sure you're doing the textbook and the workbook. We also do Intensive Practice for more practice - and on some of the more basic topics, I pick up extra workbooks (Kumon, Spectrum) to give for more drill. We're also doing drill with the DS (Personal Trainer: Math) to work on basic facts and speed.

Thanks. Netflix has it (although not as an instant watch). We're going to be studying weather in another month or so, so this was great to add to my list! :D

You're correct :001_smile:

Again, just as a heads-up, it depends on the calculator! The current generation of TI calculators do order of operations so a student can enter the problem just like it looks and be correct, but not all brands do this - and older models handle the arithmetic based on entry. I demonstrate this one with -3^2. Without parentheses, we have 3^2 and then take the opposite of it, giving -9. Some calculator models say the answer is +9 - even without parentheses. It makes for interesting discussions - and does really show the importance of knowing what you're doing and why - and not just blindly following technology.

For the CAT (both survey and full): Bayside School Services - owned & run by former homeschooling family (kids are grown now)

But in a different situation, it does matter what order you do the multiplication and division in. I use the example of 12 / 3 X 2 The correct answer is 8 (do division, then multiplication) I see a lot of students say 2 is the answer because they think "multiplication, then division" rather than "multiplication and division from left to right". (Just one of my pet peeves, so I have to add the clarification :) )

Other people will probably give more info - people who've actually used the program. I bought everything for MPH 3/4 and we'll start in June - so I'm speaking from only looking over materials and prepping. The texts and activity books are definite needs. I really like the Homework, HOTS, and the Tests. All seem to go a bit beyond and challenge the child to really think. There are no experiments in the Homework, HOTS or tests - but they do have the student answer questions about if there were an experiment and these were the results, then what would that mean? More Notes would NOT replace the teacher's guide. It gives quite a bit more background information for the teacher - kind of like an extra reference book. It has one or two additional experiments for each book - but they generally require more supplies. I like the Teachers Guide because it does give more information (has notes to teacher for each general topic and gives suggestions for things to do for gifted students). It also has some additional experiments and talks about ways to approach the material - kind of like the Instructor's Guides for Singapore Math. Again, I went with everything, but I do tend to overdo :)

Heart attack yesterday while writing. I'll really miss his books. I loved how he incorporated quotes - it was really neat to catch them. :sad:

Netflix has them :)

We did the research and at the time (don't know if recommendations have changed) it appeared that there were some health benefits. AAP was no longer recommending for circumcision, but they weren't opposed. We did a lot of reading, I gave my opinion (I don't see a need for it) and I let my husband make the decision b/c he has a penis and I don't. I checked with my OB who's the one who did the procedure, and they did use anesthetic. I wasn't there and I don't believe dh was either. Ds was born just before 1am and he was circ'd the same morning in the hospital when the dr was in (prob about 7 or 8am). Healed up in about a week. Apparently it's a "looser" circ and I'm happy with that. Haven't had any problems here.

The district I student-taught at had a written policy that there were no grades below 50. The thinking was that you'd get discipline problems if students knew there was no way to pass and by assigning no grade below 50, students would remain engaged and continue to learn. :confused: It was a high school.

"In a cave in the woods, in his deep dark lair, through the long cold winter sleeps a great brown bear." Yup... shame on me for forgetting this one.

You could always go with some classics: Roald Dahl, Pippi Longstocking, Beverly Cleary And check with your library too.

Sometimes I Like to Curl Up In a Ball - Vicki Churchill Kitten's First Full Moon - Keven Henkes Gave these as Christmas presents this year.

If you're a Netflix subscriber, they have Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts (done in late 50s early 60s). We've watched Disc 1 (3 hour long episodes). The second program had Copland conducting Appalachian Spring! We're starting Disc 2 this week :D

The activity book has experiments. There are a couple I don't think we'll be able to do (using a motion sensor and light sensor attached to a computer to collect the data). Some of the things in the activity book are just answering questions, but in the later 3 books there are more clear experiments. On the plus side, the experiments are clearly explained. If you're interested, I've set up a spreadsheet that lists supplies and links together the order from the textbook, activity book, HOTS, HW, Tests. I haven't put together stuff from the teacher's notes yet but I do have the websites mentioned in the More Notes in there. If you'd like, PM me with your email address and I can send it to you. Unsure how much help it'd be, but I'd be happy to share it.

The models do NOT all go together. :glare: It's still a really good program. The ones we were able to put together were: the skeleton, the digestive system, the respiratory system. I think all the others are separate. Do color the model before cutting it out and assembling it.

I might use base-10 blocks or place value discs and a number board and spend a LOT of time actually doing the problems with manipulatives. It can be tough moving to the abstract with numbers. Seeing the problem physically can help with the move to the abstract. When my son had trouble with subtraction with borrowing, I had him show me the work for each problem with the base 10 blocks. It took a LONG time to get through a worksheet, so we did less work each day, but he really got the concept. I waited to move back to just the worksheet without the base 10 blocks until he asked to stop using them. May be worth a try!

Maybe someone who's used them will post for more info for you... We're using MPH next year and I bought everything. "Overkill" is my middle name :lol: Both Homework and HOTS are only writing - they don't have any experiments to do or extra activities. From looking at them, I think if I were only to use one, I'd go with HOTS. Both extend the lessons from the text. Both have work for each chapter in the textbook/workbook. The HOTS does look to have a bit more in-depth thinking. I like that it has students doing line graphs early on and doing interpretation of given data. But again, this is just my opinion from looking over the books and not having used them at all yet.

Yes. Without it, you won't be able to play. I don't think the game will even start up without the balance board.

Wii Fit was the original. Wii Fit Plus has all of Wii Fit - Plus some extra features. If you don't have either, buy the Wii Fit Plus.

I like PurpleMath for additional explanations. One of my students found this free worksheet site. It may be helpful with extra practice. I also agree that understanding where point-slope form of a line comes from can help with memorizing the formula.

Good luck to you all. Hope third time's the charm with the house and that the interview goes wonderfully.