I know what you mean OP. My son attended Public School from K to 3rd, and we had a horrendous experience with the implementation of their idea of what Common Core should look like. My son went from loving math to thinking he was stupid even though he made excellent grades. Even though he made excellent grades, he had no real conceptual understanding of number sense, and in fact could not even add or subtract without serious hesitation. We pulled him after 3rd grade, and I had to start at the beginning practically with 2nd grade math. I used Singapore as well as Math in Focus both of which are hardly anti- Common Core. For him, it was necessary to revisit and build a foundation of number sense and place value. He needed the concrete traditional algorithms before he could even begin to understand the abstract methods that were being taught at his school. We were discouraged from teaching him the way we learned how to add and subtract. The school wanted the kids to learn based on the textbook which taught via drawings and multistep solutions to basic problems. Unfortunately, his school also had time requirements left over from the traditional way of teaching "facts" so the kids were required to do all this abstract multi step processing BUT they were supposed to solve the problem quickly too! If you have read up on Common Core implementation, time requirements are not encouraged because it does nothing to foster a deep understanding of basic arithmetic. So, in my opinion, you might want to just back up to wherever you think the problems began and start there - taking as long as you need to take to get your kid comfortable with math again. After two years of homeschooling, my son is very much back on track. He could theoretically start pre Algebra but I am taking 6 months or so to make sure he is really ready. For him, number sense and place value were just simply not taught in a way that he was able to understand. Flying through the material and doing timed fact tests were also disastrous and greatly added unnecessary anxiety to his math experience. I truly believe there has to be a concrete foundation for many kids before they can begin to think in the abstract. I hope this helps. Good luck.

Sorry but in my opinion, common decency dictates a different response than just laughing and joking at a tragic event like this one. Making excuses for a young person's lack of empathy by noting differences in personality types sounds to me like a cop-out. Just for the record, I test as an intellectual not an emotional person but I have always been empathetic to my fellow creatures. I am not attacking anyone just vehemently disagreeing because of the complete disregard for human decency which is so prevalent in our society.

Wow ! Garga - you and I are long lost sisters. I had the exact same experience. I am still atonished at the complete lack of empathy in our society. I now have an empathetic sensitive child of my own and wow do I worry about him being subjected to that kind of brutality. It is yet another reason we homeschool. To tje OP , I am so sorry for your daughter's experience as well as for the family that lost their precious child. Just.so.sad. on all levels.

My 9 yo started at Apples because I was able to get the books at the library. He finished Apples in an hour. We started in December and are now on Honey. We supplement too. I highly recommend starting at the beginning just to get the storyline. Mine thought that Apples was funny. That may have hooked him!

I have a ds who was in Ps last year. The only thing they did was a dress up book report oral and written on a famous person and some short writings example: why should Miss Z be class president or who would you choose - persuasive writing type things. I did not find any of it terribly beneficial as my ds is not yet a good "reporter" or writer. Some 3rd graders are. This year in our homeschool, we are concentrating on basics - how to write a complete sentence, how to write a paragraph, how to be descriptive etc... I am no expert but I prefer getting the basics down before requiring my Ds to write reports. We also do biographies coupled with worksheets that require him to answer specific questions so as to help him focus on what type of information is important when doing a biographical report. That being said, I am firmly in the old fashioned camp and don't much care for stream of consciousness creative writing which seems to be highly favored these days. So my 2 cents which is probably worth exactly that. :)

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/january/math-learning-boaler-012915.html. Just thought you would find this interesting and timely perhaps. :)

We did this year - same age. We do map work, supplemental reading of library books on whatever our subject is, watch documentaries on Netflix or Youtube, and occasionally read and do short biography reports. We also have a timeline notebook that we are filling in as we go. We still managed to get through SOTW 1 fairly quickly. We just started SOTW 2 so just do what works for you.

I had the exact same problem with my 9yo ds. It is only now starting to come together after daily 15 minute fact practice either worksheets from math fact cafe or math war with playing cards, dice games with hundred chart, Zeus on the Loose, online and phone app practice, and now believe it or not or maybe just coincidentally Life of Fred elementary series. After all that, it is starting to click. Maybe its just the age? Some kids learn them without effort; others like mine take forever; and then some never do but do fine from what I understand. It is a challenge to find what works. That I do know!

We use typingweb.com. It has games but it also has courses that teach typing without games. It records time and accuracy and builds upon prior lessons. It is free I believe.

Yall have jogged my memory and I remember that projector and comprehension test afterwards. It was 5th grade for me because that was my 1st year in public school. Oy! Not a good idea.

I can't remember the details but I believe I had some exposure to speed reading training in elementary or I was a very fast reader. The problem I have is I have great comprehension as I am reading but two years later not so much. I remember the story but not the details if that makes sense. So I have read many classics like The Lord of the Rings or The Count of Monte Christo several times but couldn't tell you the names of the characters if I had to. FWIW ?

I had a similar problem with my ds. I tried Life Of Fred just to see how he liked it and wow! He loves it! We still do Singapore as our main curriculum but he ASKS for Fred. Go figure. ..

This is really helpful! Thanks!

This was so frustrating when my ds was in PS. They push them so fast in some things only to come to a screeching halt for the reasons you mentioned. No wonder he was confused and stressed!

Try these sites too: https://www.wisc-online.com/learn/humanities/linguistics/wcn8207/diagramming-sentences and http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams2/diagrams_frames.htm. Helpful if you like online instruction. I don't know what is wrong with the last link - sorry. Just Google "Wisconsin sentence diagramming" and it will pop up.

I am a bit surprised (pleasantly) at the Linux comments somply because no one I know personally has ever heard of it. :) I've had everything from Debian to Mint to Mepis for several years now and nothing but fun. Well some frustration but mostly fun. It is awesome for learning mostly for the reasons stated! Highly recommend!

This happened to me when I was in 3d grade except it was my writing hand! I quickly became ambidextrous for a while! Don't worry! It will be fine! I broke my non writing arm the following year and yep still fine! Kids are resilient and highly adaptable! :) Best of luck!

This is great information! Thank you all! We use Khan as well and find it very helpful for extra practice. I am thinking staying with Singapore and continuing with Fred and Khan may be the ticket for us. I appreciate the replies!

Anyone out there use LOF as their only math curriculum? We use Singapore but we also supplement with Fred. We are almost finished with the elementary series. My ds loves Fred amd really seems to be retaining the info much better than with anything previous. But I am just not convinced that it is enough. I know you are supposed to reread the series but that seems - well boring. I am in an LOF group on FB and they have many success stories of Life with just Fred. How about any of you? Please no Fred bashing as I am well aware of the love/hate relationship some may have. I really want to limit this to do you use it alone and have you had success doing so? Thanks in advance!

I will add that I agree with Ellie on marking the paper every single time. My kid was in PS for 3 years prior to homeschooling and was never corrected on anything - punctuation, spelling, grammar. While I understand the desire to encourage creative writing, I also believe it ingrains bad habits that are very hard to break. That is just my opinion though. Call me old-fashioned :)

Unfortunately, I have no suggestions just an almost 10 year old who is the.exact.same.way. It is glacially slowly getting better but wow so frustrating. .. I have been told it will likely all come together sometime after "10ish". Good luck.

I would love to and am kind to them in other ways every single day. I just cannot contribute financially even if I wanted to. That being said, I think I just needed a mini-rant. I already feel better. Thanks everyone!

I should add that these are my kids' friends so it complicates things a little bit. Mom is a wonderful person and relatively new to American citizenship so I don't think she understands the complexity of this issue, or I would just politely ask them to stop. Does that make sense? I love them dearly but I have trouble with this. The kids have been told at school that homeschoolers are "dumb" - their words not mine. Unfortunately they tell me everything :confused1: Know what I mean?

neighborhood PS kids ask you buy something in support of their school's fundraising effforts? Honestly, when my kid was in PS, we did not participate because - ironically enough given my user name - I hate begging for money especially door to door and I have serious issues with how much money actually goes to the school and what they choose to spend it on. This is based on my first-hand experience with our school system not anyone else's. But, now that I homeschool, I am even less likely to contribute because (1) again like my username implies we are barely hanging on financially, (2) no one helps us with our homeschool expenses nor do I expect them to unless they choose to do so, and (3) well I'll just leave it that given that I am genuinely curious to know what others do in this situation, and am seriously fighting the urge to start a rant.

FWIW, I only use MEP to supplement Singapore. My 9 yo thinks MEP is often quite challenging and we so far have only used year 1. It is just so different from what he is used to. I like that it is different and challenging but he would definitely melt down if I attempted to make it our sole math curriculum. Hope that helps.