We've only had experience with Shurley 1. We liked the jingles and it was a great introduction to grammar, but there are two reasons why I didn't like the writing portion. First, the amount of writing they expected a first grader to do was INSANE. Secondly, I found the quality of writing in the examples to be less than stellar and kind of boring.

I haven't been able to fully implement said plan yet because dd has been sick with an ear infection all week. In the meantime, I rediscovered Ellen McHenry's Professor Pig, which dd is excited to use because of the comic book format. She just has to cement a few more facts and she will be good to go with it.

This public library has THE most awesome database for finding out what order to read a series. Works for adult and kid books.

Lots of people really love MUS. We started with Primary and are now on Beta, and for me, it just seems like a traditional math curriculum with blocks added on to it. And my dd is not crazy about the blocks. I think if what you are using is working, stick with it, and tweak it as need be, as per SparklyUnicorn's suggestion.

I don't have the subtraction one, but I do have the addition one. I tend to be more of a printed book sort of person. (I was at a conference once where somebody referred to a printed book as an analog book. :huh:) Anyhoo, I am tempted to get the pdf of the subtraction one once we get to that point, because then you can easily print out the worksheets and whatever game boards there are. If you have a laptop or tablet handy, I think it would be relatively easy to read off the screen. The content is easily digested, so it's not like trying to read War & Peace off a screen.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your gracious and helpful response. I am, of course, driving myself crazy because this is my first time around. :001_rolleyes: We'll work on getting the facts faster with some flash cards and math games. I have a book with lots of colorful worksheets on time and money, so I'm sure she will be happy to work on those while we deal with facts. Thank you, thank you! I wish I could give you more than one like. :001_smile:

First, many thanks to everyone who took the time to put down how they would explain regrouping. I will keep that in mind while I regroup. ;-) Do you think R&S 2 would be good for getting my daughter up to speed on her math facts, or would 1st grade be better? She pretty much knows them, but she is slow at recall. I have found some timed drill sheets here - http://www.tlsbooks.com/timedmathdrillworksheets.htm, could I just try doing those until she's faster? Also, should I stop everything and just focus on getting her up to speed with addition facts, or do I spend half our math time on that, and the other half with other concepts?

Ah. So *that* is how the world is divided. ;-) How does one go about determining what camp your child belongs to? Mine likes worksheets and having the right answers. However, math is not just about having the right answers, which makes me reticent about trying a traditional approach. She is not crazy about the blocks, but was very happy with bean-counting.

Sometimes people speak as if manipulatives are a magic bullet. I've started reading Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics and she mentions that manipulatives can be used badly. We counted and regrouped beans for two weeks, and several months later are experiencing the same issues that made me go to bean counting.

Thanks for the link! I was totally unaware of that site. She explained addition the exact same way as MUS, but with ten frames instead of the blocks. It might be enough of a difference for it to click with dd. I think MUS seemed comfortable because the workbook looks a lot like what I grew up with, but with the blocks. The thing is, dd is not really into the blocks, and I got so I stopped pulling them out because she would say, "I don't need those." I do however pull them out for MEP occasionally, and she is fine with it. Go figure. Thanks for including your friend's review. That was an extremely thorough comparison.

We have been using MUS with our 7yo 2nd grade since K, so we are working on Beta. I am not in love with this curriculum, but it was recommended by a seasoned hs mom and by SWB. It seemed to get the job done and I am loathe to change math curriculum, since each has their own way of doing things. My kid seemed to be doing fine and progressing at the expected rate of one lesson/week - until we hit adding with regrouping. It was then I discovered she was doing the algorithm without understanding the why behind it. So we stopped MUS and started counting beans and using paper cups for two weeks. We did some more addition practice for another week, and she seemed to have a better grasp of the concept. Over the course of those three weeks, I totally obsessed about math, because if she was not understanding this concept, then I must be totally ruining her. So I started reading math blogs and about number bonds and number sense and wondering what her understanding was exactly, and what to do about it. During this time, I also started exploring MEP and doing several pages a week with her from the Year 1 book. She mostly knows her addition facts, but cannot come up with them in 3 seconds or less. (She has ceased to be a fan of xtramath.org). But then again, she does almost everything slowly. She is always about 30 seconds behind the rest of her class in Tae Kwon Do. We have passed the lesson that covers column addition and moved on to measuring. However, I print out a worksheet from MUS's generator and make her do four review problems each day. I discovered that she still does not understand regrouping with addition because the generator came up with problems where the ones column added up to 20-something and she carried a 1 to the tens column, because that is how she's learned to solve these problems. I am not math-phobic. All through school, I was able to plug the numbers into the algorithms and get a B+ or A-, but I never understood the why's behind them. Apparently, I am the product of some of the worst math teaching in the history of the US (80s teaching with 70s textbooks) and it shows because I can't even teach adding with regrouping. Soon I will be getting a copy of Elementary Math for Teachers which I hope will help my deficiencies. Usually for math, I play an addition game with her and have her do xtramath.org every other day. She does a page from MUS in 10min. or less. I have her do 4 practice problems, and then we do a MEP lesson. So, I guess I have several questions. 1) Should I stop everything and try to get her speed up on addition facts? 2)Should I drop MUS and go to MEP? I like that MEP has a lot of different ways of presenting concepts, but it is scary because it is so different from how I was taught. (Which is probably a good thing.) There is an irrational voice in the back of my head that says "How can she possibly learn math without pages and pages of addition problems? How can I prove she is learning without pages and pages of addition problems?" Sorry this post is so long.....

Don't you have magical kids who do all the housework for you? ;) We have two toddlers. I usually spend 45 minutes after they go to bed tidying up. Dinner dishes get done immediately following. Dh works from home and takes breaks to start and flip laundry. Our house is not magazine worthy by any means, but this keeps it under control.

I don't know what Kumon expects for writing. The WTM suggests for this age to just focus on copywork and narration, possibly some really simple dictation. I am still shedding the schooling mindset after doing this for three years. At the start of this year, I tried doing more creative writing with my dd because I had a hard time believing that writing would just happen through the osmosis of copywork. By December, I gave up because it was growing cumbersome and I didn't know how to steer it well. I think I have decided just to do WWE and have faith that it will work. For right now, you could use WWE for writing and grammar and call it good.

A lot of people on this forum will say don't bother with spelling until a phonics program is completed, as it can be a bit redundant. A lot of people would skip a formal reading comprehension curriculum and just talk about the books they read with their kids. And a lot of people would not even bother with grammar at all until 4th or 5th grade. You could drop half of what you are doing (it kind of looks like you are doubled up on phonics, writing, and reading comprehension) and you will still be fine. And the girls can have time to read, or do some kind of crafty thing (my 7yo dd has been doing some simple book-making), or to play.

I don't have as much experience as you do, but fwiw.....my dd is a strong reader, but a poor speller. We started AAS 1 about the middle of last year and just about were finished with the book by June. Then we took six weeks off, and started school back up in August. It took until October for her to get back to where she was in June. This year, we will continue spelling all through summer vacation in order to avoid the slide, though probably just doing it every other day.

I can so sympathize with you. We are a Catholic family who homeschools for academic reasons. We know several other homeschool families in the area who are lovely people, but homeschool for religious reasons and hold views on different issues which makes me feel awkward at times. So we don't fit in with the religious homeschoolers and we don't fit in with secular homeschoolers. Also, I am a typical introvert and have a hard time doing small talk. So as not to be completely isolated, I hang out on this forum; and I subscribe to a bunch of different blogs. It seems that among the blogs, there are a handful of circles where they all know each other. And even among those circles, there's only one set that I think I would mesh with in real life.

It's so nice to hear we are not the only ones who have a hard time managing to get school started before 10. :-) When we can manage to start at 9 or even 8:30, we can usually do everything on the list, but still never finish it all before noon. There is always one or two more things to do after that. Trying to do anything after 3 (except possibly an art project) is not worth the effort.

That makes sense. It's nice to know it's not just our area. I've only been on this forum for about a year now, and it is a God-send. I have learned so much. It's too bad about conferences shrinking. The paradox of the Internet is that you can find almost anything you could possibly want, but it is easy to hang out in little circles of like-minded people. Conferences can be a good way of being exposed to things one might otherwise not run into.

This is my third year homeschooling. I live in a rural area, and don't have a lot of contact with other homeschoolers in the area, partly due to the long afternoon naptimes we have in this house. I have been looking into homeschooling conferences in the area, and there is not much. I have been to LEAH's conference for the past three years, and last year it was way scaled back. It looks like it will be at the same scaled back venue this year. And the Catholic homeschooling conference is not being held this year at all. Is homeschooling shrinking in this area of the world? Just curious.

I came across this website when my dd was 12mo and still not sleeping through the night. It bases recommendations on evidence, not on what seems like a good idea, or what is trendy, or whatever. It takes into account that there are lots of ways to raise children in lots of different cultures all over the world.

I think you would be best off in both cases to cite the online source and the date you looked at it. It looks like you can just copy and paste the web address into easybib.com and it will eventually get you what you need to put into the bibliography. Most styles (MLA, Chicago, etc.) have various ways of dealing with the citation of various electronic sources.

These are the things that I am certain of: History: SOTW Vol. 3 Writing: We started WWE 1 in first grade and mostly finished, dropped it at the beginning of to explore a writers workshop approach and am picking it up again, so finish WWE 2 for third? Unless I totally flake out on writing again. :) ETA: Flaked out on writing *again* We ended up using ELTL 2 the second half of this year and expect to continue it. Spelling: AAS, continued. Reading: Oral reading from CNR 3 and whatever she picks up from SOTW lists, trying to steer her toward things meatier than Geronimo Stilton This past week she started reading Humphrey and a few other books with drastically reduced illustrations. Woo-hoo! Science: Hoping we finish BFSU Vol. 1 and can move on to Vol. 2 Music: Continue with Music Mind Games These I am less certain of: Math: Currently doing MUS Beta which is going alright, but considering MEP because its presentation is so intriguing. We are now using Year 1 as a supplement, and though she's familiar with the basic concepts, it presents them in a way that makes her think. Will be finishing MEP 2 and going onto 3. Latin: Finish up with SSL2, but have no clue what to do after Art:Thinking of trying Artistic Pursuits Will be using arttango and saving money.

We had a ball with SOTW Vol. 1! There are soooo many projects and books for kids about ancient Egypt. As for its being secular, you can easily skip the chapters about Bible characters - IIR, there's one on Joseph, Abraham and Jesus. If you skip them, it doesn't really interfere with the other chapters at all, which generally do not have a religious slant. As for science, we use Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding by Bernard Nebel. It is intimidating at the outset, but totally lives up to its title. There are a bunch of threads on this forum that can give you some guidance on how to implement it in a homeschool setting. It's not exactly open and go, but doesn't require enormous amounts of prep, either. Mostly you just need to read and understand the lesson before trying to teach it, and any demonstrations usually use stuff around the house.

Yep. We are halfway through second grade, and although she generally gets the right answer for addition facts, my dd takes a bit longer than 3 seconds to come up with them Crossing my fingers she will be to that point by the end of this year. :001_unsure: