Happy Things for the New School Year

[letisca]

Last week was the first week of school (only four days due to Labor day) and this week is our first week of school with everything added in. Consequently I'm in SCHOOL mode so I thought I'd share some things that I'm really happy about

Comments

[anonymous]

AOPS! I am currently planning to move to exactly that book next fall. I attended a math camp in 1995 that was run, in part, by the author of that essay, and have his first two books autographed. Shortly after I began homeschooling, I discovered that those two books had been fleshed out into a jr high/high school curriculum that was about to be expanded into 2-5th grade. The Beast Academy books are being released just about perfectly timed for Leo to use 3rd-5th grade and Tim should be able to use the 2nd grade books in a couple years. Peter and Leo both do Beast Academy on Fridays - I had them start when they began Singapore 3A, which was 2 years ago for Peter and last fall for Leo. It is so perfect for us - the graphic novel format is fun and the critical thinking is what the boys need. I'm not rushing them through it since they're being released at one book every 5-6 months. Peter is in 3C and Leo is in 3B. I bought the 3A books, then bought 3B-4A once 4A was released. I'm waiting for 4C to be released, then I'll have enough to get

[letisca]

I was pretty sold on the book, when I suddenly had this thought, "Amy told me about this." and I then felt relieved that I was on the right track

[anonymous]

I forgot about typing!

I bought Mavis Beacon - perhaps early last summer? - and Peter used it a little but never got much into it. This year, I went for Handwriting without Tears' new Keyboarding without Tears program and purchased 5th, 3rd, and kindy licenses. Since I was buying kindy and 3rd grade writing books anyway, I think I paid an additional $10-$15 for the typing downloads. It's kind of nice that it ties into the familiar "without tears" look. Peter and Leo want to learn to type so they can program faster. Tim likes having his own thing to do. I'll see over the year how well it succeeds.

[letisca]

ooh, I didn't even know they had that. Good thing to know. Samuel likes the Mavis Beacon, he's currently added in all the letters and is at 6wpm with like 95% accuracy. He'll get the speed in there sometime.

love HWT though, I had a worry moment today when isaac was showing me his HWT book and it seemed very familiar. I was like, "You didn't do this one last year, did you?" but no, I was remembering Samuel's from two years ago. Phew!

[wifeofjoshua]

I'll have to keep the Art of Problem Solving Prealgebra book in mind. We've been doing Singapore math for 2(?) years and I really like it. Have you used or seen their "Challenging Word Problems" books? I've been using them, but only after the grade is completed (e.g. book 4 we did while working on level 5, because it was too difficult to start when we were just starting level 4). My oldest does well with math and is usually only limited by his own lack of desire to spend more time on it. ;)

[letisca]

My kids haven't used the Challenging Word Problems books from Singapore Math but they have used the Intensive Practice books, usually as a supplement for the level we are on (though some of the challenge problems in the IP books can be quite tough). I've not seen the Challenging Word Problem books but I bet they are good.

I like the IP books as part of using Singapore Math because they review the basic concept, add some "outside the box" thinking on the basic concept, have a section of word problems and then have a section of challenge problems. It seems like the perfect thing to round out the workbooks.

AoPS seems really good for the self teaching student. But it has enough entry points for the parent to look in and see what is going on and how things are progressing. It's a nice resource for homeschooling.