Weird thing is this really stuck with my ds and he uses is. It boggles me, but in the case when a CD is unclear, as the pp said, it's a quick way to get a common denominator, though not necessarily the lowest one. We are in Zeta now, and he has trouble with some of the conventional shortcuts, but he remembers the rule of four.

Mine is up a little late, but it's up.

We did CC for three years, and for various reasons opted not to continue. We worked hard to give the memory work context, at least in History and sometimes in Science. Even so, the grammar and math memory work ARE PAYING OFF, even now. My ds 11 said that the best thing he learned in CC was the skip counting, and is really glad that he did it. They still sing the history songs all the time, and we make reference to the grammar memory work often. You don't have to decide now, but after a few years it will be clear to you what direction you need to go, as you learn what kind of learner you child is and what kind of teacher you are. It may be that it is just the "thing" for you. You have to believe in the system--which to a large extent I do--but it's not the only system, or even necessarily the best system. It may be, but it's not for everyone. I explain in detail our reasons for leaving in my blog, which is linked in my signature if you're interested, but please don't take this as discouraging you from continuing if it's going well. For us, it was the intensity of it all--I just didn't have it in me to keep the pace, and my son is very auditory and requires a lot of time in discussion with us to satisfy his curiosity. He processes everything externally, so it was EXHAUSTING to keep up with it all. We didn't have the time to "land on" stuff as we wanted to and soak it up. We were just kind of getting the hang of the middle ages and the history songs had jumped ahead to the discovery of the new world and what-not. It was just too fast.

:iagree: we are doing Anatomy now with a 2nd and 6th grader. My 2nd grader gets about half of the material, my 6th grader grasps all of it. It is perfect for 4th - 6th. My dd7 is doing the Jr. notebook, which she loves! Even so, if you want full comprehension, wait on that one. Anatomy is the easiest and shortest, followed by Botany, followed by the Zoology books, followed by Anatomy. That is the order I would follow. I have all of them, and have used all of them to some or full extent. No, you don't HAVE to do them in any particular order, but if I were starting from 1st grade, that is the order I would choose, based on the difficulty of the books.

:party:

sometimes I wish the forum had a "like" button. I guess instead we have this guy: :iagree:

Oh, i am SO DOING THE SNICKERS IN THE TAMPON BOX! THAT is GENIUS!

The unabridged version is available on audible now. My 7yo loved, loved ,loved the hobbit.

Jumping in for the first time... Joined a CrossFit gym: Nov. 1 did my first CrossFit workout on my own (did partner workouts last week, was in agony for days, but decided to go back anyway!)

mine is up.

Well, I guess you know yourself best! :001_smile: Jmo--good luck.

We listen over breakfast, over lunch, over tea-time...whenever we are gathered together. I don't know exactly how I got them "into" audiobooks except I said "let's try this..." and we were all hooked. I could clean up the kitchen and we'd be into a book. They could then worm their way out of hours of schoolwork by listening to a book with me...long after I would have tired out. Maybe THAT is the hook! :lol: "PLEASE, MOM, PLEASE?" JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER?" DD is not at a reading level to read a lot of these books independently. She's getting there--she is able to do much more than she realizes. She still thinks it is "hard" and "tiring." She doesn't realize that she can read much longer than I even ask of her when we do SSR. I don't force her though. She dutifully reads what I ask her to read, but would rather listen, still. I know it will come in time. She has been exposed to so much complex vocabulary and literature, it's practically inevitable. If (God forbid) it turns out that she is not a reader, then at least I've exposed her to really great literary texts.

Do you really need a curriculum to teach your child number recognition, etc.? MUS is a good curriculum. The fact that it is not working completely for a 5yo is not about the curriculum, but rather the maturity of the student. My dd7 has done great with MUS, but at 5 she did not get the place value thing either. I say revisit it later. Play counting games and recognition games that will help her to grasp the concept of 1-20. Don't sweat it. really. I pitched the primer and gave her Kumon workbooks to "play with." They had lots of counting activities and dot-to-dot things that just helped her get the knack until she was mature enough to do the MUS. Let her play with the blocks. Let her count the number of beans you are putting in the soup. Just play. I think we are quick to think that a curriculum is necessary for a 5yo, but really it's just counting and basic adding. Play with play-dough balls, buy an abacus and look at number groupings, look at dice, sing skip-counting songs (if you can get hold of one of CC's old memory cds these are great). I'm telling you from experience. My son at 5 blazed through his primer. DD at the same age just didn't get it--it took a little longer. Now she gets it and loves math. She is 7.

:iagree: and can lead to clinical depression

I would remove whatever "thing" it is that they are trying to get to. I am very specific with my kids about what the job should look like when it is done. Then I have them repeat that back to me or write it down on a piece of paper. I tell them I am coming for pre-inspection to help them figure out if they are on the right track, then they come to me and tell me they are ready for inspection. If the job is not done to satisfaction (but they clearly showed effort) they work on it until it is satisfactory. If they goofed around and didn't put in effort or blew it off, they lose the privilege. I actually have pretty good success at getting jobs out of my kids, but I think it is important to be VERY CLEAR what your expectations are, and VERY CLEAR about the consequences if those expectations are not met. is the task age appropriate (10 yos can do most anything) are the parameters / expectations clear? are the consequences for not doing a good job clear (before they start)? do you support them / praise them when they are demonstrating good attitude and effort? I also do not believe in rewarding children for good behavior--praising them, yes, but not rewarding them. Then everything has a contingency clause, i.e. what am I going to get out of this?

I actually forgot it was Halloween until I looked at the hive. We don't observe it, so it was absolutely a normal day, except that we have colds.

Thank you for all the wonderful and well-thought-out replies. You gals are the best! :001_smile: I will start looking into all of these and see which seems a good fit.

ooh...W of O might be good. We read the first book a few weeks ago and she liked it. I'll look into that. More please? :001_smile:

My dd7 just finished listening to all of the Chronicles of Narnia series (in less than one week) and she is dying to listen to something similar. We recently finished the Hobbit and her brother (11) is listening to all of the LOTR (the unabridged audio version). She is keenly interested in listening to it, but I think that it is "too much" for her--I just feel it is a more mature story. She has requested something else along the lines of Narnia (what is there, after Narnia?) Since LOTR and Narnia are the only real fantasy books that I enjoy, I don't have a clue about what she might like. Any suggestions? TIA

didn't read the other replies, but avocados / guacamole is high in healthy fats.

You might consider analytical grammar. While it is challenging, it is effective, efficient, and very, very thorough. You may need to review the basics, or start in the level before AG's main program, but I am very pleased with this for my DS11. FLL was getting too repetitive and even too easy.

Mine is mostly up. I have a separate science experiment post which will be up in a couple of hours.

I am doing every lesson and plan on it taking us two school years to get through it. DS really likes it, but there is a LOT and he works a little on the slow side. I want him to take it all in and learn it thoroughly, so we get through about one lesson in 1.5 to 2 weeks.

:iagree:and you can beat yourself up over this or let it go. Do what can get done, especially at first.

I tried the penny game with him today, and he loved the idea. I talked to his teacher and she laughed (in an understanding way) and totally backed off in his lessons today to allow him to be his one-track minded self. I think we are back on track, at least for the present. Thanks so much for all the helpful advice, suggestions and support! You gals are GREAT! :001_wub: