Hi ~ about to become a new homeschool mum! Few questions...

[Ukmom4]

Hi All!

After much research into the classical education model of education from the WTM, I have decided to HS my daughter as of Jan. She is 6, currently in public school and was just accelerated to a 2nd grade “gifted” class learning a 3rd grade curriculum. Not the greatest learning environment hence the HS.

I am planning on using the Singapore  Math books but unsure which level to start her on. I feel that level 3 may be too challenging if compared to 3rd grade common core which she is working on now. Should I just start her on 1 and then swiftly move forward? She is an extremely fast learner!

Thanks in advance!

[EKS]

Have her take the placement test.  Or have her start with 2A (it's a good starting point).

[Ukmom4]

Thanks! Do I need the teacher guide,textbook & workbook?

[Condessa]

Welcome!  Nice to meet you!

 I use the textbook, Intensive Practice, and challenging word problems books with all my kids, and add in sections from the workbook as needed for some of my kids.

[Ukmom4]

Thank you!! Where do you purchase these from? 

 

 

[Ukmom4]

6 hours ago, Michelle Conde said:

Welcome!  Nice to meet you!

 I use the textbook, Intensive Practice, and challenging word problems books with all my kids, and add in sections from the workbook as needed for some of my kids.

Thank you! Where do you purchase these from?

[SanDiegoMom]

Welcome!! Second grade was where I started with my kids, and now they are in seventh still chugging along:-) 

My son was very math accelerated, and needed very little repetition, so for 1-6 grade Singapore Math I compacted GREATLY.  We only used Intensive Practice. For my less accelerated daughter I used Textbook, workbook and IP. We also used Beast Academy.  

[Ukmom4]

Thank you all! Where is the best  place to purchase the Singapore math books?

[SanDiegoMom]

I have used Rainbow Resource, Christianbooks and ordered directly from Singapore Math in the past. But it's been a few years! 

 

[Ukmom4]

Thank you.

Do you have any recommendations for a Latin starter book? I like the look sof Prima Christiana but we need a more secular program?

[Condessa]

My dd loves Minimus Latin.  It is secular and would be appealing to a young, accelerated student.  It has little comics told from the perspective of the mouse that lives in a Roman family’s house in ancient Britain.

We use the Teacher’s Manual, the Pupil’s book, and the CD.  I bought them used off of BookDepository.com

[Condessa]

In retrospect, I guess that’s not very similar to Prima Christiana, is it?  Sorry.

[HomeAgain]

1 hour ago, Ukmom4 said:

Thank you.

Do you have any recommendations for a Latin starter book? I like the look sof Prima Christiana but we need a more secular program?

We enjoyed Getting Started With Latin.  It's short and sweet each day, but builds on itself so that the child actually has a working knowledge when done.  The author is making a second, but it's not out yet. Memoria Press has a charter school version of Prima that you might consider.  It's secular.
If it were my preference, we would have gone from GSWL to Cambridge Latin.  I vastly prefer the layout and the stories.  My youngest preferred First Form, though.  We have managed to strike a compromise of slowing down FFL and adding in a picture story or paragraph to translate from Cambridge each day so that he works on the grammar and gets a chance to just read.

[Ukmom4]

Thank you ~ I just looked at Cambridge Latin and it looks good.

[Rush]

1 hour ago, Ukmom4 said:

Thank you ~ I just looked at Cambridge Latin and it looks good.

We are using it as well. Before that we had Galore Park Latin, which was great.

Regarding the Maths - we did Singapore from 1 to 3 in a few months and after switched to MEP and we were using it until Pre-algebra. It's very good, deep and completely free.  

The Beast Academy online is fun too. In fact after it came out last summer my little one switched from MEP to Beast Academy, but he is not that accelerated in maths like my eldest son. For enrichment we are doing competitive maths problems from a few books like Zaccaro's math, Borac's, Yongcheng Chen, and etc.

 

Edited December 2, 2018 by Rush

[Rush]

4 hours ago, SanDiegoMom in VA said:

I have used Rainbow Resource, Christianbooks and ordered directly from Singapore Math in the past. But it's been a few years! 

 

We used to buy from Christianbooks too. It was only a shop, which was posting to Europe at that time.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Rush

[Ukmom4]

Thank you all! Im so excited to start the home education journey.

It seems as if there are plenty of resources to choose from, I appreciate all the input! 🙂

[Ukmom4]

Any suggestions on spelling and penmanship books would be appreciated also!!

For LA, Im planning on using writing with ease and the language lessons by the same author. She is working on a 3rd grade curriculum at school, should I scale down and get the level 2 on these? (Her reading is at a much higher grade)

[HomeAgain]

7 hours ago, Ukmom4 said:

Any suggestions on spelling and penmanship books would be appreciated also!!

For LA, Im planning on using writing with ease and the language lessons by the same author. She is working on a 3rd grade curriculum at school, should I scale down and get the level 2 on these? (Her reading is at a much higher grade)

Spelling and penmanship - it depends on what you want to get out of these.  I had one child who needed explicit rules and lots of time, and one who didn't.  Had Spelling You See been out with the oldest I would have used that in a heartbeat.  The youngest does just fine with a free program called Dictation Day By Day, in which we casually go over spelling rules as he comes across them.  For penmanship, I always start with D'nealian so that cursive is an easy transition.  Youngest picked Spencerian with a fountain pen after that and does 1-2 lines a day.  The 5 book set will last him until middle school, I think. 

Language Arts - I think it's easier on the child when starting a new style to take a step back and have it go at an easy pace.  There's no rush. I would definitely do level 2 to start.  Writing With Skill (the follow on to WWE) is better for a 7th or 8th grader, imo, than for a 5th or 6th grader. 

[Cake and Pi]

I think this was mentioned above, but you might want to check out Beast Academy as well for math. 

There are a lot of options for handwriting and spelling and they'll work better in different situations, just depending on the student and instructor. In the past we've used and liked Spelling You See and Handwriting Without Tears, which work well together because they both use 2-line paper. We're using Sequential Spelling now and like that too, though it's a *completely* different approach than SYS. I couldn't get the oomph to do Spelling Power, but it was on my list of possibilities at one time because the lists are customized to the student and it seemed like it could work well. 

For Writing With Ease, there's a placement test available. I'd guess that WWE 2 would be a good place to start, but check the placement test. The program changes somewhat between 2 and 3, and 2 is the level that introduces dictations. Also, it would be pretty painless to compact WWE2 and finish in 40-50% of the allotted 36 weeks if you felt it was just a little on the too-easy side.

First Language Lessons 1 and 2 are soooooooo easy and quick, but also fun (as long as you skip the repetition when it becomes more than needed for the student). My kids liked them at 3.5-7yo (three oldest were all combined then), but the two levels together only lasted us a few months. FLL 3 is a step up in intensity and switches from almost entirely verbal lessons to writing and sentence diagramming. Maybe look at the samples on the welltrainedmind.com store.