My ds's class of 5/6 kids is watching the musical Hairspray as it fits into the study of music curriculum of studyinig the music of the 1960 such as rhythm and blues and motown and tyingin the social justice themes of this time period. honestly, I don't have time to watch the movie, I watch the trailers, read the review on pluggedin, I'm not impressed. Not for 5th and 6th graders. Maybe for 9th graders. but the sexual inuendo seemed a bit much on the trailers so we are having our ds pulled from the movie. does anyone have any suggestions of an alternative movie from addressing music and social justice themes from that time period that we could have him watch instead? I don't know what the music teacher will have him do as an alternative but if we suggest something to her, she is pretty open to our suggestions. I'm just not a big movie buff. thanks!

you can also make your own using pvc pipe with a short straight piece and two little 90-degree elbows. that's what we used :) super cheap !!

I'll take a shot at both of your questions because these were both issues for me!! first of all, this is what I used to organize all the stuff! (although mine has three levels plus the lid) I bought it on sale at Joann with a coupon so it wasn't too expensive. After using it for over a year, the organizational benefit it offered me has been so great that I would have paid full price!! I love having a compartment for each manipulative, a level for the books, a level for the abacus, the tiles, the blocks...plenty of room to even add in a few extra manipulatives and my dd is able to put her math away lickety split without any help from me! It has worked great! Now about having enough time...When we started RS B, my dd was way behind in math, hated math and practically burst into tears at the though of math. My two sons were plugging right along with Singapore Math. I left them in SM. There is no way I could have done RS with all three of them, too much time. Instead, I worked the lesson with dd, then all three would play the games, usually it would be review for the oldest and a new concept for my youngest but he is very 'mathy' and catches on quickly. Even so, we still have had to drop RS because I work part-time and it is just too time instensive. I still love the curriculum. we still play the games but it gave my dd the foundation and confidence she needed to be able to scaffold into Math-u-see. Hope this helps some Karen

voted! although the dog in your avatar is pretty cute too!

How about Rosetta Stone?

growing with grammar looks pretty interesting. Where would I start though. If I have a 4th, going into 5th grader who knows no diagramming, could I start him out in GWG level 4 or 5 without him getting lost?

these are some great resources! I'm having fun checking them out! Will definitely be getting something for summerschool. The best part is that I've been talking it up enough that all three kids are begging for diagrams!! Even dh is intrigued :D

I just looked at the dates and realized the OP is from 2009?!? I don't know how this got dredged up :001_smile: but she may not respond :) We don't use Kumon, we use a combo of SM, MathMammoth and Miquon for my youngest. For my older son we use Transition Math (UCSMP) and Life Of Fred and fo both we add in computer games and board games as needed to mix it up. as an aside At the risk of getting flamed, I think at least part of the problem with Everyday Math is that the PS teachers are not trained in implementing it. I was given the first three years worth of curriculum to try with my kids when I had them all home still to see if I liked it. I actually really liked the curriculum, it was just awkward to use in a home setting. But on reviewing it, I can see how it really needs to be implemented by someone who has totally bought into the philosophy behind the curriculum. It is not "open and go". Maybe your child will have a teacher who does a good job with the curriculum. My friend used EM for several years teaching K-1 and her kids did great in math, she was totally bummed when her district switched to something more "open and go" workbook based because she was one of the few teachers who understood how to teach EM.

We do math and handwriting/spelling roughly three days /week for approximately 20 minutes total. Bible study for another 10-15 minutes/day during the week. Then on days off/ snow days/ Saturdays, etc. we add in geography/cultural study to correlate what I'm doing with dd that takes about an hour. I also keep plenty of library books in the house to go along with the country we are studying and the boys use those for free reading. I guess that's not really a schedule though is it?:confused: We submit our afterschooling to the homework of the day and adjust as necessary. hope this helps a little... ETA: we use car rides to listen to great literature, SOTW, and Bible on audio and we do our read alouds at bedtime. I will also be adding in sentence diagramming either afterschool or summer school, not sure yet because I haven't gotten the books in yet.

another math curriculum to consider is Miquon Math, which uses the cuisinairre rods. We just started alternating Singapore with Miquon. I think the Singapore was a little too workbooky for him after a whole day of workbooky stuff and he is really liking the variety of the rods. Plus just the surprise of which book I'll pull out that day. The two curriculums go well together also. We also use All About Spelling for our phonics/spelling, as well as spellingcity.com and starfall.com

I would like to spend some time doing an afterschool "unit study" on sentence diagramming with my 4th grader. any recommendations on what curriculum I should use or a website I could go to?

:lurk5:

Have you looked at Winterpromise? Their kindergarten program uses SOTW to do an overview of world history with sort of a highlight on the most interesting points along the way...if I understand it correctly. I always wished I had found the program when I still had a kindergartner to use it on. It sounds fun to me. A broad sweep of world history then you follow it up with 4 years of more indepth study filling in the details each year. Maybe someone else will chime in who has actually used it:)

:lurk5:

my ds-10 is studying the Vietnam War and I am trying to find a good age appropriate historical fiction type book for him to read. He is 10, reads great, he could read anything I gave him in terms of his reading ability, but I definitely want to stay at a 10 year old content, especially. Does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe even a good literature book about the Vietnam culture from a young boys perspective? I'm not even sure where to start so I thought I would start on the forums!!

I'm in my second year of using MFW, we used singapore math by default since that is what we had been using anyway with my sons, their LA does not fit for any of my children. It is totally easy to substitute in whatever fits your child. their suggestions are great if it works for your child but they are not scheduled into the grid.

oh! I've never even heard of this, how fun! I just spent two hours shopping! Thansk!

I agree with you in terms of academics, however I have left out a lot of personal details that also led to the choices we made, diagnosis of chronic illness, hospitalizations, needing to go back to work most days of the week...I could go one but I won't. Schooling decisions are never ones that are easy. I recognize that more than ever now. My heart breaks for other parents who also clearly recognize that, in an ideal world, their children would be best served if they were educated at home, but find themselves in the unenviable position of having to make a choice about alternative educational options. However I also see that we do not live in an ideal world and, given the choices that we have, Dh and I praise God for the schooling options that he provided for us. We praise God for the Christian teachers that he placed in the charter schools at our childrens' grade level, for the school's 'outside the box' thinking that lets us do some creative educational things with our sons so they still feel connected with their sister who is homeschooled. Again, I could go on but I won't. Is this charter school the best purely academic situation for each of our sons? No. We know this for sure. They would be more challenged at home where they could progress more quickly through the material. However, is this schooling option the best choice for our family as a whole in this season of our life? Absolutely. Sometimes choices are just not as straightforward as we would like them to be.

I'm using ECC with my kids, granted we are afterschooling my 4th grader but my 3rd grader is home full time. I think you would be fine without the encyclopedia unless you really, really like to check all your boxes off. Most of the encyclopedia assignments though are for the older kids and for enrichment for elementary kids who need a little extra. Do you have a good library system? I would not buy the encyclopedia even if I had all three of my kids home unless I had one in 8th grade who really needed to practice researching.

we just sent our second son to school with his big brother so we have two in and one still at home for many of the same reasons you have mentioned. We were blessed to find a school that's not too bad in terms of teachers, the kids don't get too bored, they love the interaction with the other kids, we still lightly afterschool history, geography, math and Bible as time allows and I have time now to focus on my dd who has some learning disabilities. It is amazing how much less stress I have. This is what is right for our family in this season of our life. Will school look like this next year? Who knows?!? We'll re-evaluate at the end of the year and see what lies ahead! That's the beauty of the journey! So don't worry! Your kids will do fine! They will enjoy the adventure of navigating a classroom, they probably won't learn much academically the first few months but that's okay, they will be challenged in other ways and you will be freed up to be the mommy you need to be!

I'm such a lurker around here but I just had to add that we just (as in 10 days ago) enrolled our youngest in charter school for many of the same reasons you are considering enrolling yours. A midyear start was a great way to go for many reasons, one of which is that, by starting mid year, all of the other kids in the class are cued into the routines, our ds walks into the classroom and he just assumes there is no other choice but to conform! it is a beautiful thing to behold! And he is doing awesome with the structure!! It helps that his teacher is also wonderful. We were very upfront with the school before hand and have a good relationship with the administration because my oldest ds has been there for a year. That leaves just my middle dd (with some learning disabilities) at home to focus on. blessings as you work through all the issues and make the best decision for your family.

my 4th grade son just finished a 3 paragraph paper where he was supposed to write an "editorial" on if the French introduction of fur trade to the Native American Indians was a positive or negative thing. so he had to do a bit of research, formulate and support his opinion and then sum it all up.

You could download the Startwrite font program and make your own worksheets. I have the program and the italics is exactly like the Getty Dubay Italics and cursive. the program is downloadable (after you purchase it). you can download a free sample to see if you like it first, which is a nice feature.

I'm not qualified to answer your questions but wanted to let you know that I will be right there with you in terms of ages (except for the pre-Ker)! We did Adventures 2 years ago, tried SL Intro to World History (poor fit for my kids) and are back with MFW again for ECC. In terms of being too much for the younger kids, I've gotten lots of ideas from the message board on MFW. They address which books to go easy on with the littler kids etc. I'm so excited for this year! I think it will be great! We start Tuesday next week!

another vote for MFW for ease of use. I have used both, SL for 3 years, a year of MFW, another year of SL and now back to MFW for the fall. This is where we will now stay. SL has many great features, but the ease of use and the lack of "flipping" from IG to IG are what has sold us!