sigh jeri

Anyone else? jeri

I'm still working my way through Power90--about 1 month into it, but I'm also doing lots of other stuff. I covet your ability to do Insanity! I'm trying to decide whether to do Insanity or P90 after this. Ordered both at the library, but I'm one 4 out of 6 for the former and 15 out of 17 for the latter! Not sure if my elderly knees can take INsanity. Again, way to go! Jeri

My 14 yo has finished LoF Alg 1 and Alg 2, and we have finally arrived at Geom! Overall, she's a great math student and really likes the subject. And because I am a math geek, I have what I think are the best of the best: Solomonovich, LoF, and AOPS Geom. So, what do I use? I need something that is somewhat self-teaching (but for a kid good in math who doesn't need a lot of hand holding), something really solid and deep (she wants to go into math), and something that does include proofs (just because). I like the look of Solomonovich--classical geom, lots of logical reasoning (she's 1/2 way through Trad. Logic 2 and really is a good logical thinker), "deep" thinking. What I don't like is the lack of answers/solutions (but I saw some sort of TM on Amazon which I don't believe has all the answers but maybe will hold my hand a bit?) Also, it seems sort of slim--is it complete? LoF--well, I like this series but I do get frustrated at the lack of solutions. (By corollary, that means that I end up having to selfteach myself first when dd gets stuck on something. And this takes time when you have 5 others!) But I do think it's challenging. AOPS--great problem sets! Honestly, it's not dd's style of learning so we have referred to the Alg books for further explanation (see my LoF comment above). But I do think it's solid. So, is it more thorough than Solomonovich? Can anyone comment, please? thanks. jeri

I just need to find the hours to do this! jeri

jeri

And I don't mean that in a bad way! I actually live in Germany so I'm not near either of you. So who actually uses all these relaxers on the shelves, then? (I don't have a hot iron either.) jeri

DD is ours by way of Ethiopia and is 11 (tomorrow! gulp!) Question is: Can I do this at home? She really needs an appt at her hairdresser and I just do not have a spare 3 hours of time with soccer, swimming, school, etc. I've watched her hairdresser do it twice, bought the same products she uses, and read the directions. I can definitely do it this Wed after school and before soccer. I mean, people do this all the time at home, right? Thanks for the advice (or even the warm thoughts!) Jeri

jeri

Can anyone tell me about living there? This is one of the cities dh may get to apply to for work and he and I were looking at houses and schools. I know about the PA homeschooling laws, but now that kids are approaching high school, I want some good options. So, where do people live for good schools? Is Pittsburgh a "livable" city or do most people live in the suburbs for quality of life? We can't figure out where the houses for sale are on realtor.com since we can't figure out the relationship between suburb and city! Thanks. jeri

Ok, so it is now different. But we didn't take "pre-calc"--we took something called Analytical Geom, then Calc. Wondering since my dd is following the LoF sequence and just finished Alg 2. Now she's on to Geom and I just bought the Trig book off of the board. But he doesn't list precalc, and his sequence is to go directly to calc after trig. I feel better! Thanks. :) jeri

I just went to our illustrious Dept of Defense school system web site (Germany) to look at math courses. They list Alg 1, 2, Geom, Discrete Math and Calc. Whatever happened to trig? I remember it being a semester course in high school 35 years ago. But maybe sin/cos/tan don't exist any more? Can anyone enlighten me? jeri

HOTS is Higher Order Thinking Skills (I think) published by the Singapore math people. MPS is My Pals Are Here, which publishes these little thematic books for grades 3/4 and then grades 5/6. You buy both the texts and the workbooks. I have six kids (not all of this age) so I confess to copying the workbooks. HOTS go with them and I think really add to them. Case in point. A couple of weeks ago I saw on the computer news that they were studying the differences in the brain when someone had a cell phone on. We had just gone over a HOTS exercise that had them draw inferences from a study of the lengths of arms, earlobes etc. between men and women. We looked at the study on the internet and talked about how we cannot draw inferences on cancer of the brain from what they found. And then my 8 yo said, "and they should have used a larger population than 46 people." That's what I like about the Singapore BFSU combination--I think it teaches them to think about science. HTH! Jeri

with my 8th grader and she found it too choppy and she got frustrated because she couldn't keep it all straight in her mind. (that being said, she is more gifted in math/science, and really isn't too interested in history). I think if I was to do it again, I would write a syllabus that followed one culture for a little while, instead of leaping all over in SWB's style. In my view, this would have been more interesting and less tedious to read for school. But it is not a difficult book to read for a strong 8th grader. On the other hand, I *liked* it! But I'm reading it for enjoyment. Jeri

I bought Vol 1 for my younger set a couple of years ago, but didn't get too far into it due to life, a move, etc. Now my kids are older (11, 10, 9, and 8) and I have both Vol 1 and 2. I am trying to merge them together since I still believe that Vol 1 lays a terrific foundation. I am also combining them with SM MPH levels 3/4 and 5/6. Here's an example of how we worked one "thread": From Vol 1 we did lesson D-1 (Earth's Gravity), D-2 (Day and Night and Earth's Rotation along with the same section and worksheets in MPH), and D-3 (north/south/east/west). Then we went into Vol 2 and did C-9 (Center of Gravity, Balance, Wobbling Wheels), and D-9 (Seasonal Changes). As of this week, we are back in Vol 1 with A/B-1 (Organizing things into categories, and MPH Organizing thngs) . . . etc. I guess what I'm trying to get across is that unless your child is a real science whiz, I think that you can easily use Vol 1 or Vol 1 and Vol 2 together. They are both very meaty and I appreciate the fact that if I find the level in Vol 1 a bit too light, I can skim through it and get into a related subject in Vol 2 very easily. I cannot tell you how much I like the HOTS books to use along with the BFSU! I actually bought the entire curriculum for MPH 3/4 and 5/6. Even when we run through the text and workbooks quickly, I think that the HOTS books give them a very good review with really thought-provoking questions. Well, this is probably way more than you want to know, but I will call it cathartic to write! Bottom line is that I am using both since I don't want to miss anything in Vol 1. I figure that it they know something in Vol 1, I skim it and move on to Vol 2. I love how this curriculum, combined with Singapore, teach them to think "about" scinence, rather than just to memorize a lot of info. jeri

Well, I'm doing the Power-90 disks. I know--it's the baby version of the P-90 and the Insanity disks. Found out two months ago at a gyn appt that I had high blood pressure and jumped into the gym. Anyway, I'm about 2 weeks into this but I just felt motivated to move up to level 3/4 from 1/2, and also ordered a set of higher level bands. I am so proud of how much working out I have been doing! Two days a week I go to the gym just because I'm in love with my spinning class, but other mornings I usually do two rounds of the carb workout or one round of carbs and one of sculpting. You guys really motivate me!!! Can anyone advise about the diff between either P-90 or INsanity? I like the idea of both but need to focus on weight loss (about 30 lbs to go). Also, have a bad right knee so I don't know if Insanity would make it worse. Checked my library for either adn there is a 16 hold backup on P90 and a 3 hold backup on Insanity! What do you all think? Thanks! jeri

Everything sounds great so I feel much better. Now we have to wait and see what's happening. It's a bit stressful since the move is a result of my dh's office closing. Also, we are living in Germany right now. So, it's really a big adventure to see where we wind up! Jeri

DH has to put in for places to move. We are good with #1 and #2, but other than a 100 Best Places to Live, we know nothing about Indianapolis. If it helps, I don't like "country" decorating, we have a large and multi-racial family (we are caucasian but have two kids adopted from Ethiopia), kids are very involved in Scouting, soccer and swimming, I like museums/libraries/day trips/foreign languages/cultures (any of *that* there?). Thanks! Jeri

My cousin and her dh make a ton of money every Christmas for relatively little work. Jeri

that they can use for screen time after school is completed. They get 8 tix a week for a total of 4 hours. That way they can use them however they want, and I dont' feel like a nag. I say to just take control. If she's 8, and you're the mom, you need to be in control, not her. And if it helps, I know what you mean by a tv addict since I have one too! Jeri

jeri

I think it takes so long because some of the readings *are* very difficult, especially for my ESL kids, since they don't have a lot of context for what they are reading. Also, many of the words are unfamiliar to them. Even my 3rd grader (bio) doesn't always understand what the selection is about! But once we get to the "writing down the narration" stage, they all actually do quite well with writing mechanics. We've already completed level 2, so I don't want to go back there. But your ideas about taking something we are already reading are really good! And I will definitely keep them all on the same page, so to speak. Also, you are right in that slower and more carefully done will yield big dividends. Perhaps I need to relax about this! Bottom line is that it sounds like most of you with several still keep them apart for this. So, I think I will keep that up. Again, thanks for the input! Jeri

I have six all together with three using WWE 3. (One is a bio 3rd grader, and two are ESL 4th and 5th graders.) Although I know it is pretty much grade level for all of them (and we completed WWE 2 last year), it takes FOREVER to get it all done in a week! LAtely I have tried to do a reading/dictation on days 1 and 5, and a combined dictation on day 3 I think part of is that I do it individually as per SWB, and that sometimes the readings are difficult (new words/new concepts), especially for my ESL children. Any tips on how to move this program along (btw we are on week 9)? Jeri

I find that they work just as well as the big names, and are much cheaper. The only disadvantage I;ve found is that they are a bit messier. I just put down some paper when I'm changing cartridges. Jeri

But I like it sort of sour. I pour 1 cup in a bowl and add an unsweetened musli kind of thing to it (not sure what it would be called in the US since we are living in Germany,but it's a grain mix of raw oatmeal, flax seeds, rolled rye, etc. without any added sweetener). It's really addicting and it makes me feel full all morning! Jeri