Just thought I would add a link to another Soroban app that I am really loving at the moment. The best thing is that it is FREE!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/know-abacus/id641867438?mt=8

At first sight it seems a little dry. There are no fancy graphics or colours. There is a very simple two column black abacus. But actually this is exactly what we needed. The colours and graphics have been distracting. There are no rewards but no penalties for making mistakes! Also there is no timer in this app - unfortunately the added time pressure of having a timer (e.g. in the abacus adventure app) has been causing my DD increasing stress. It started making her cry and then refuse to play. Not exactly enjoyable learning so we have had to stop using it.

It is also laid out in an extremely simple progressive way - I think this has been lacking from all the other apps I have tried. It starts with counting 0-100 or and then backwards. The next level is addition with 1-5 (without needing to regroup). Each level has several simple sub-categories which make it easy to focus on a particular learning goal.  It moves on to Little Friends (regrouping with 5) and Big friends (10) and has multiple other levels.

Finally I feel I have found an app that actually covers the main theory of using a soroban in a simplified way that has very small steps and allows choice about which bits to cover (and re-cover).  I'm really pleased with it.

We do a lot of rhyming games - just coming up with a list of silly rhyming words. Nonsense ones count! But I give extra praise for real words! The game tends to evolve as my DD will throw in something different after a few words and I tend to just follow her lead.

You could think about simple spelling if you thought he might be interested. I'm not sure my oldest (just 4) could answer "what sound is in the middle of cat?" but she could certainly spell it with ease using spelling tiles or much more laboriously by writing. Do you have an iPad? If so Montessori crosswords app is fantastic for this and you can start with CVC words. Or else using spelling tiles? I did it because I was worried that my DD was not really getting the phonics concepts.  We are nearly at the end of AAS level one in this way using a related app and its definitely made a big difference.

I've been wondering for a while about creating some LR bilingual stories. I think this may be helpful for my kids and a little easier than pure immersion which my oldest tends to switch off from.

I was thinking about a series of fairly straightforward sentences with both languages on the same page and read in both languages which can be alternated each time you play it.

I'm keen to start with French (as we are finding LR French really good). So are there any French native speakers interested in recording and doing translations with me? I can record native (British) English.

also any thoughts and advice on the best way to do this?

Great - thanks Keri!! 

Keri so glad to hear you are all safe and I hope you are all well too.
What a lovely video! A princess indeed 
I'm afraid I have nothing much to offer in exchange for your amazing collection. I will have to make do with poaching all your fabulous ideas and trying to replicate it instead!

We are loving the French curriculum. My oldest has never shown much interest in languages, and we have tried quite a number of DVDs and other online French lessons but she never seemed interested and did not learn a huge amount.  But after only a few days she is now learning and speaking French words!

Is there a transcript or translation for the sentences used with the images? I would like to be sure I'm translating these bits accurately.

This is great, thanks.
I saw they also do a multiplication CD but I didn't like it anywhere as much (kind of a standard rap without much music)

Welcome to the forum! I'm also from the UK - just North of London. There are a few of us here dotted around   

I really love your blog - I will take a good look over the next few days. I thought you have some really interesting articles and ideas. I was interested in the idea of young children having a long attention span. I never thought of it that way before. Also, there are many parents here teaching young children the piano using a variety of ways. In our family, we love Soft Mozart - it allows me with my fairly basic piano knowledge to teach my 3.5 year old at a time that suits her, just as you discuss in your blog

Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts!

Hi Sonya

I find this really interesting.  Could you educate me in "idiot's terms" as to what the common aspects to all these programs are?  It would help me when planning all our teaching and how to tie things together.
I'd love to know know what are the bits that work - it can be difficult from the outside to compare Soft Mozart with Jump Math for example.  Is it the incremental progression?

This is a little off topic, but Waterdreamer you mentioned about using Dreambox.  Can I ask how you are finding it?  I'm thinking about online maths curriculums at the moment and that is one option. It seems like it might be fun, but I don't know how much concrete teaching and learning is involved.

Thanks very much!

Oh, just a thought but if looking for a completely different way to master math facts then the soroban abacus is another possibility to go alongside traditional learning.  Could be a bit of a different game and because logical it can feel more like a puzzle than learning math per se.

Having been glued to all the recent threads about maths, I'm thinking about all options for teaching maths to my kids.  In particular, I like the idea of self-directed learning BUT I'd also like to feel confident that they are learning what i want them to without cheating. I wondered if an online assessment / teaching program could achieve this? I'd rather spend time teaching or playing than marking if at all possible! Would this help teaching multiple children? Or is it better to stick to the age old practice of books?

So, has anyone got any experience with any online curriculae (curriculums??) for maths?  I don't want something that is all flashy graphics and minimal content.  Equally it would be nice if it were interesting enough to grab the children's attention.

Some of the sites that I've looked at are:
IXL
Math Whizz (US and UK curriculum available) http://www.whizz.com/?syndication=MathsInsider
Dream box http://www.dreambox.com/
Conquer maths http://www.conquermaths.com/index.php?r=12327
iSingapore maths http://www.isingaporemath.com/

I found quite a good review here:

http://www.mathsinsider.com/online-maths-programs-is-it-time-to-ditch-your-maths-workbooks/

I have used IXL - I like it, I don't love it.  I see it as a great way to ensure you've covered all the correct topics, I didn't find it overly inspiring for teaching maths concepts.  I'm not sure it is enough on its own.

Anyone tried any of these?  Or any others that are better?!

I have been 'lurking' and following this thread with great interest since the beginning.  Thank you Robert for all your insights.  One of the main impacts on me has been to make me better able to understand the need to prioritize maths and make choices about future education. I am based in the UK so don't follow all of the discussions about US curriculae though.

I was really interested to read of the 20 hours a week that you devoted to maths.  This makes a lot of sense to me following the 10,000 hours to reach expertise rule from many different sources, which would suggest that at this rate it would take about 10 years to become an expert in maths - it sounds like that roughly is a  match for your journey?  Would you agree?

I'm interested on your take on other curriculae that are available.  It strikes me that 10,000 hours on any half decent curriculum in maths (or anything else) is likely to take most people to a pretty high level.  Do you have any opinion on approaches such as Singapore math (where they have a far higher achievement in math across the whole population compared to most other countries) or Rightstart, for example?  I can see that Saxon has worked fantastically well for you, so I understand why you would advocate this as one of the best routes to follow.  I'm wondering if it is a less good fit for some children, whether you see it as a stand alone choice or one of many possible good options. 

I like the way that you raise these issues so clearly and eloquently.  My oldest is 3.8 years and not quite ready for following a formal curriculum although we do a lot of preparation and maths development work using various materials including different types of abacus.  Like you as she gets older I will be afterschooling her and I can see that the reality is that there is limited time to do music, sport, maths, reading, languages etc etc.  So there are some hard choices to be made.  Like Manda and Tamsyn, I also place value on some non-maths subjects (music in particular) and sport / exercise is to me an essential part of a healthy lifestyle.  So I think we will struggle to find 20 hours for math (I hear you sigh and shake your head disapprovingly  !!!).  I do have a rationale though.  Many careers also place a high value on a range of skills and expertise and I would like to equip my children to have both academic, communication, leadership and other skills for their future lives. For example, in my field (medicine) it is essential to have a very broad range of these and to be able to demonstrate them on a CV for admission to university as well as the requisite academic requirements. 

However, where we can hopefully agree is that maths is super-important to focus on, starting from early in the child's education, and that if we are to choose academic subjects to pay attention to, then this is the big area to go for.  This is the one message I have taken from this thread.  We will aim for 10 hours.  I hope this is achievable.

I'm interested in your comment about the importance of learning to read (I agree).  Once a child can read (which does not necessarily take a long time, especially if starting early as many of us have done here), then what do you see as the next steps?  Do you mean learning to read is the process of systematically learning to decode words using phonics instruction or do you also refer to the later skills of increasing fluency in reading more complex text, fictional and non-fiction etc?

Wow Sonya - amazing videos!  Thanks for sharing these.  I must get my boy trying but I'm not sure he's going to be as focused as Ana!

Ruwan I'm really interested but I'm not sure my 3.8 year old daughter with limited attention span who is currently in a particularly resistant mood is a suitable participant 
What are your thoughts / criteria? I'm guessing she may be better up fr it in a year or so.

I love this forum! Whenever I hit a wall then I can learn something here.

MrsObedih your words have really made me think. I sometimes feel frustrated when my 3.5 year old does not want to stretch herself. She often prefers to do things that she finds easy. But now I'm realising that it is the emotional reassurance that she needs and that this can mean that she needs to progress more slowly than she probably could in terms of knowledge and ability. Looking back, we have clearly made progress in all sorts of areas, but it involves step forwards on days when she feels more confident and then lots of support and reassurance at other times when she did nt feel able to achieve so much. It feels like a backward step but I probably should not view it that way. Sometimes I probably underestimate the effort it takes her to do some things that i think she should find easy. I'm definitely going to read that book.

Btw my DD learned to read sight words and has never been keen on sounding out. We are doing level 1 of all about spelling using an app on the iPad with letter tiles and this has been amazing for both phonetic awareness and spelling. I really recommend this alongside teaching purely reading.  We do very few words at a time and this works well. I must remember to keep our goals tiny and bite-sized!