Well after talking to hubby here's what we figured out.... History: Mystery of History volume 1 Spelling: continue spellingtime.com Reading: classic stories/ books from library etc. and use Mcguffey's readers Math: not too sure 11 yo is not doing good in this subject at all we are thinking singapore math or self made worksheets and such. he still has trouble with basic math facts. Science: have no clue. (this is one of his favorite subjects) Language arts (writing/grammar): not sure but again one of 11 yo's weaker subjects Handwriting: copywork (his handwriting needs a lot more practise) Any suggestions on what to use for math, science, and language arts? We don't want to spend an arm and a leg on this but want something that would work. Son is add non medicated. thrives on 1 on 1 but we also have a 3 and 5 yo at home part of the day. any suggestions would be appreciated. thank you!
For science, have you looked at Considering God's Creation? We really like that and you can make it as simple or in depth as you want.
Lang. Arts---did you check out the Rod & Staff English? It's not for everyone, but the Teacher's book is great, and it's working GREAT for us! THey start young learning all sorts of stuff! My 8th grader is in the level 5 English book! So you may have to go back a couple of levels if you try it. It's not very expensive. There's also Easy Grammar. I don't know a site for that though. There's many more possibilities... I think Leslie has a good idea with the Considering God's Creation. I've heard only great things about it!
Red alert...not doing good in math....don't use Singapore Try math u see or shiller http://www.mathusee.com/ http://www.shillermath.com/sm/home.php?src=index.htm Here are some other fun and maybe not so fun math sites for you to explore http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=Dojo http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/gameswheel.html http://www.ikodeko.com/worksheetmaker/wsm.php http://www.mysavingsquest.com/
check this out for science...http://content.scholastic.com/browse/search.jsp http://content.scholastic.com/brows...&c13=&b0=&b1=&b7=&b2=&b3=&b4=&b6=&b5=&b8=&b9= either of these if they work, they both have great links for science stuff, some is freebie and some costs
http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/w...eId=10001&langId=-1&viewParam=CategoryDisplay try this too its to the teacher store
We have ysed "Considering God's Creation", and it went fairly well. This year, I'm doing two "Great Science Adventures". One is on Tools and Technology (read: Simple Machines), and the other which I won't get to until next year is on light and sound. They have worked VERY well with my younger two!
My World Science has some great unit studies. We've done Rain Forest, Woods, Ponds, African Savannah. They have a website I think it is www.myworldscience.com Ann
I enjoy what I do....with that said I highly recommend that if you are looking at buying curriculum that you invest in Cathy Duffy's 100 top picks book. This book can save you a lot of frustration of buying materials that don't fit your child's learning style. I have a Competent Carl and if things get too crafty or too much coloring....he's done. He thrives on get to the point things. In this book http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805431381...iveASIN=0805431381&adid=03G9AB6KKGFTW6RKAJCG& she breaks it down and then gives ideas and rates each of the top 100 curriculums for the learning style. She has yet to steer me wrong. You can get it from Amazon for $14.95 and it is a GREAT investment to your home library and YOUR education. If you can't afford the $15 then see if your library has it or if you can get it on intralibrary loan. Seriously gals! The best curriculum for one kid is NOT the best for another.
I agree Sheila! Having three children I can attest to the fact that what works for one does not mean it will work for another!
My 11 yo son loves our Grammar program. We use G.U.M. by Zaner-Bloser and he does very well. In public school he spent a lot of time in the resource room, because he just did not get everything as easily as the other kids in some subjects and now that he is at home I found out his problem is that they never taught him the fundamentals of everything to actually succeed in those subjects. Also for math he uses the Addison Wesley and does great, the book seems to put stuff in a perspective of daily life compared to just worksheet after worksheet. We have found many different ways to incorporate daily life into our grammar and math now.
We're using BJU Science right now- just started it actually. It's pretty basic but hits the points I think are important and I can easily supplement if need be. The science I will be using after this is www.noeoscience.com. Dd will be starting 1st grade in the fall and science is her favorite subject. The noeo looks amazing. Math we're using Miquon and Singapore as a supplement. I like both, and both even combined are a heck of a lot cheaper then MUS. The Miquon only goes to 3rd grade, but it's a year ahead of most curriculums I'd say- has them doing multiplication and double digit subtraction and addition in first grade. The Singapore is also ahead. I like both though because they gives ideas for visual and tactile learners which my dd is both so both are working really well for her. Right now we're trying to finish up the Singapore K 2b book and we've left the Miquon alone for a while. For grammar we're using FLL but it's only for 1st-2nd grade. When I'm done with this book I'm going to get Learning Language Arts through LIterature. Dd can't stand the McGuffey's- said they were boring. We're using the 1st grade regular reading list off of Sonlight.com. I also check out other books along that level. I agree though- if he's not getting the math stay away from Singapore unless he is a visual learner. Only reason I got the SIngapore was because dd lights colorful pictures and it taught things in a similar way to the Miqon.
Today was interesting. We took a trip to the academic store 1 1/2 hours away. It's the nearest one that's even worth anything. There is 1 only 40 minutes away but has hardly anything. Anyways, I went with my 11yo and him and I went to the homeschool corner of the store (it's a 12 x 12 room full of different homeschool books) and looked through the history and science stuff. What a blast. Yep I liked MOH 1 a lot. 11 yo said it looked interesting and even was getting excited about some of the activities. SO we bought that. He wasn't too thrilled with SOTW though. Oh well. Science took a bit longer. He liked the cover of Apologia but after looking inside decided it didn't look that good. He looked and looked.. We were in this 1 room for over an hour just looking at all the science curriculum. Finally he looked at Concidering God's Creation and showed it to me with the mom I like this one. So afte I looked at it. We got that too. Didn't find anything for math or grammar/writing skills that both of us liked. But overall it was a good trip. We took my mom with too and she was even looking at the books. It was fun. For now for math, We are just going to work on worksheets, flashcards etc. to help him get the basics down. and Grammar we have a WRiter's Inc. book to use for reference so I'll be making worksheets from that along with what I find online. After looking at MOH, I am still unsure of timelines don't have room for a wall one but have some ideas on how to make a decent size one besides do one in a notebook. 11 yo likes to see things poster size at times. An idea for timeline was for each era/century/etc. Use the white foam board to make a timeline. It'll be seperate sections for each era/century/whatever but can be stored easily when not in use. Any thoughts on this idea?
I'd like to suggest MAth U See. My daughter is "hands on' and this program works well for her. It reinforces what they learned previsouly without constant repitition and has hands on manipulatives. It has worked really well with my dd10. She was way behind in math when we took her out of ps and she has done fabulously well with this. She went from failing her math tests to aceing them. The website is www.mathusee.com
Cailet, here's a link for making a timeline book. She tells you how exactly to go about doing it. This way, you don't need a wall. You can copy pictures from the internet, or buy the History Through the Ages figures.
I was going to mention a timeline book also. I'm doing it differently- using file folders and I've glued them together. I print of pictures for whatever we are studying and we glue them in there along with facts. It's more like a lapbook but glued together like a regular book. I think I may get smaller file folders and do the same thing but put them in a binder. Dd likes the lapbook idea though and liked this idea of gluing the folders together lol.
Did you use the Manipulatives? I watched their video the other day and honestly, I fell asleep. I do like the concept of "adding" as opposed to "counting".
