Thank you so much for posting. I just ordered the rest of the books. What a pain. First the Italic series goes out of print, now CWP. On the plus side, I'll have less to buy in later years.

Money is covered in 1B. We're going to start it later this week :) Time was also in 1B - to the hour and half hour. They're repeated in later books as well. I felt that in some cases (basic addition/subtraction and measurement) that there wasn't enough practice in the US edition (text and workbook). Intensive Practice helps with that (and has some really neat challenges testing conceptual understanding), but you may want to supplement with other workbooks for extra drill. I think the Standards edition has more practice. I think I won't need to supplement as much in Grade 2 - and I may even cut out some problems! I've liked the "Ready, Set, Go" books by Teacher Created Resources. There are sticker rewards and a track for completing the book. I think the money/time may have been an issue with the Singapore versions of the text. Just be sure you get either the US or the Standards edition and you'll be fine.

I'm finishing up Singapore 1B right now with my 6yo. I teach math at a community college and have been VERY pleased with Singapore. I used the US edition but am switching to the Standards edition for 2A. My son catches on to things pretty quickly, but he's had some trouble with memorizing the basic arithmetic facts because he understands the idea. Right now he's struggling with borrowing with 2-digit subtraction. I use the textbook and workbook (both are necessary), Challenging Word Problems (at the same level - it works really well for extra practice), Intensive Practice (more difficult than the CWP), and iExcel (the model approach with word problems was helpful - we skipped around a lot in here). All available at Singapore Math site. Even as a teacher, I went ahead and got the home instructor guides. They've given me some useful ideas and I've been happy with them. I also supplement quite a bit with other workbooks. I've used the Spectrum Grade 2 math workbook with Singapore 1A&B this year and got a Kumon Grade 1 Subtraction workbook when there was difficulty with single digit subtraction. Manipulatives (especially base 10 blocks) have been helpful with us in 2-digit number work. I've also used the Challenging problems in the back of the Intensive Practice books and really liked those as extra brain stretches. So for us, for first grade, we've done 1A text, 1A workbook, 1A Intensive Practice, 1B text, 1B workbook, 1B Intensive Practice, Challenging Word Problems 1, iExcel 1. I got the Home Instructor Guides for 1A and 1B. And extensive supplementation on topics where there needs to be extra drill. IP and CWP are only for the US edition, but it'll still be easy enough to mesh them with the Standards edition (which we're going to do next year). The Standards edition gives extra reviews and practice in the text and workbook. (Probably more than you were looking for, but hope some of it helps :001_smile:)

Also forgot (and don't see in the WONDERFUL list above), Teddy Grahams seem safe (read label of course to be sure). Vienna Fingers are safe too.

My son has had a dairy allergy since he was 3 months old. A year ago he had an anaphylactic reaction to cashews. We were VERY grateful for the Epi-Pens due to his dairy reaction. So it's definitely worth having them in case of a later reaction to something else. Nuts are easier to avoid than dairy, so this addition hasn't been as tough. I signed up with FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network) and get alerts emailed to me when there's a recall for an allergen. That's been helpful. I also really like the Earth Balance margarine. Some soy yogurts do have a dairy starter, so they're a bit hit or miss. The Enjoy Life chocolate chips are great! Cherrybrook Kitchen (http://www.cherrybrookkitchen.com/) has mixes for some treats. We've found their mixes at Kroger. (We don't have any of the good natural foods stores in our area.) I've never been much of a cook. We ate lots with prepackaged foods, quick meals, and ate out. These books are very basic, but they've been very helpful to me (baked a cake from one yesterday and making pancakes from another today!) The Milk-Free Kitchen by Beth Kidder: http://www.amazon.com/Milk-Free-Kitchen-Living-Without-Products/dp/0805018360/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238692572&sr=8-3 What's to Eat? by Linda Coss http://www.amazon.com/Milk-Free-Egg-Free-Nut-Free-Allergy-Cookbook/dp/0970278500/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238692952&sr=8-21 Good luck. It's tough to feel that you're going backwards, but you'll get used to the routine again. :grouphug:

You can't factor this problem by grouping. Without seeing how the text explains it, I can't do any explanation using their technique. This type of problem is often solved using the "Rational Roots Test" or "Rational Zeros Test". http://www.purplemath.com/modules/rtnlroot.htm (Website with some good math explanations - here linked to the Rational Roots Test) Possible rational solutions are of the form p/q, where p is all factors of the constant term (here the constant term is 3, so factors are plus or minus 1 and 3) and q is all factors of the leading coefficient (here 1x^3, so 1 is the leading coefficient), so q is +/- 1. Put together and your only possible solutions that are rational are +/- 1/1, 3/1, so you need to test 1, -1, 3, -3. Use long or synthetic division to test which has a remainder of 0. That's your factor. Use long division, and that can break it to a linear and a quadratic. As I'm looking at the explanation I'm giving, it may be more complicated than helpful :glare:, but the upshot is that you'd need to find a solution, use long division (or synthetic division) and actually divide. Factoring by grouping is useful, but it's of limited application, and this is a problem that you wouldn't be able to factor by grouping.

You can get the CAT from Bayside Testing as well: http://baysideschoolservices.com/ They're former homeschoolers who live in NC. It sounds like the survey test is enough for NC (double check on this, I'm not in NC) and it is a shorter test. Good luck!

You can also see that a^0 has to be one for other exponential rules to work. For instance, a^m * a^n = a^(m+n) So if you have 5^3 * 5^6 = 5^9 Now if you had 5^2 * 5^0 = 5^(2+0) = 5^2. The only thing you can multiply 5^2 by to get itself is 1. Therefore for the product rule to stay correct, we have to define a^0 = 1. (Note only true if a isn't 0.)