My 8 yrs old loves the SOTW. When we starts half a year ago, she would not touch the books because they are too long and dry looking. We have been listening to the audio CD on the way to and from her school. It is so much easier than the books. Now she loves so much that she puts all first 3 books on her night table and read them every night. We are now listening to the fourth CD. I did not do any activities from the activity book. I will wait till she has a good understanding of the books first. History should be enjoyed. Listening to some greek myth would be a nice preprepation for the SOTW. TedED is also a favourite. I have not found any interesting historical DVD. If anyone knows some good ones, pls recommend.

Early reader/first book: the piggy and the elephant geography: early explorer sticker book and a map elementary level reader: Charlie and Chocolate Factory elementary history: TSOW math: the Beast Academy science: too many good ones.

My DD8 is going to be Grade 4 this coming September. She has been in a French immersion program for the past 3 years. The direct impact is her English suffered. Despite her reading level is very high, her basic English writing is at Grade 1 level based on the assessment in WWE. Other areas she has gaps are: - she doesn't pay attention to the capitalization and basic structure of sentences. - she usually answers questions in words, not in complete sentences. Sometimes, she will use "it" or "they" without specifying whom this "it" or "they" refer to. - she has trouble to find main ideas from a given paragraphs and definitely has trouble to summarize the story using her own words. Areas she is doing well are: - her spelling is good - she reads a lot and extremely fast. I want to work with her on filling up those gaps by following WWE. Because she starts late with this curriculum, I am going to do a condensed program with her. Below are some rough thoughts: - we will alter dictation, notation and copy work as suggested by the book on weekly basis. But I will add more content for each day. For example, I will provide longer sentences with more grammar concepts she needs to pay attention to when she is doing her copy work. - we will select books that is at her level when we try to ask questions and summarize main ideas. - she will do a weekly research on topics she is interested and write an essay. I will point only three mistakes for her to correct. Any suggestions/comments will be very appreciated!

Mandarin!

Recommendation for French magazines: For kids who love animals, Les explorateurs is a good one for mid elementary kids. Mes premiers j'aime lire is good for slightly younger kids. Also there is National Geographic France for flurent readers.

Lori provides a wealthy amount of information that are helpful. Below are some I found especially useful for my DD8: - having a map right besides the breakfast table. So when we discuss an event, DD8 knows where it happens. - finding events through embassies. We are lucky that we live in the capital city and there are free cultural events through out the year. We took advantage of that last year and visited events held by 30+ countries. We watched all kinds of culture performance and tasted lots of food from lemony sponge cake from Ethiopia to mint tea from Morocco. Those are by far the best educational opportunities one could wish for. - learning it with history. While reading the SOTW, looking into a map and see how things changed. Though I have not found a good geography book to compliment SOTW, will appreciate if anyone can provide any suggestions. - doing art work with geographic theme. Drawing, cutting, making clay map are all great activities! enjoy!

As a person who went through the medical school, here are some general advice: - developing an interest in science, math and literacy, - developing an interest in helping people, - being active and healthy (so you can handle the workload). Those will get your daughter ready. You can try out online courses for the first year medical students to let your daughter realize the gap and ask her how she would like to fill in the gap.

Am I the only one feeling this question is a bit too much to the point of meaningless? If the child just starts to learn fraction, such as comparing 1/2 and 1/3, using a pie or a number line makes sense. But comparing 4/6 and 5/7? At grade 3, kids should learn 4/6 is same as 2/3,14/21, and 5/7 equals to 15/21, therefore, get the answer. I know my grade 3 child will not be able to draw the difference of 1/21.

There are a lot 3D apps for human body, but almost none are free. If you have a human skeleton model, that would help. Or building a chicken skeleton using chicken bones, if you can get a complete chicken.

For the brush pen, I suggest starting with something like this https://www.amazon.ca/Pentel-Pocket-Brush-Refills-GFKP3BPA/dp/B002LJRKN8 It is much easier to use than the traditional ones.

You can find free ones at hourofcoding.com. I am too cheap to pay for Tynker. There is also a free google Playground app that you can try out.

Love the activities in the link! My DD8 loves youcubed video and sessions. We use that for her weekly math circle. Do you know why they only post lesson plans for first three weeks?

Yes, she enjoys the labyrinth too! My brain usually turns into a mush after 7pm so I have to learn some new strategy to play better.

DD8 loves MasterMind and Prime Climb. Those games are getting easy now as she plays often. She asks for a new game for Christmas. Is there any recommendation for the games for up elementary school kids? We do have chess and I try to avoid computer games. For parents who are looking for games for younger kids. Here is a list of favorites: - Blockus - All most everything from ThinkFun: GravityMaze, Rush hour etc - poker cards - MasterMind - Prime Climb - snake and ladder - Monopoly

DD8's piano teacher is quite nice and I am thinking of sending her a Christmas gift card. What would a reasonable price range? The class itself is just below 25$ for half an hour.

thank you for all the replies! I live not too far from the board. Maybe I will just plan a trip. Now if I order within US, Does Rainbow Resource have the best deal?

Anyone could advice on where to purchase SOTW with the activity books in Canada? Amazon.ca does have the complete set.

I have a tray for all chemistry related items. The ones get the most usage are: the paper strips to test PH level, different sizes of measuring tubes, baking soda, a big Costco size bottle of white vinegar, microscope and food coloring. I would suggest you prepare your kit based on what kind of science experiments she is going to work on. That might interest her more.

Thank you everyone for the wonderful discussion! Respecting and observing might be the best a parent can do and everyone has different reading and learning style! YogaGirl recommended readtheory.org, which looks very good. TedED also comes with comprehension questions but they are usually challenging for my 8yrs old.

I am currently having a grade 3 and a grade 5 doing NaNoWriMo together. The grade 5 is below grade level for language art. But I can still see she puts together more complicated plot and characters than the grade 3. So have a topic kids can deliver different levels of result would be your best bet.

My DD8 has three languages: English, French and Mandarin. Spending more time on language definitely will reduce time on other areas. So best is to combine them together. Such as watching latest entertainment movies in less fluent languages (for topics requires in depth knowledge, we have to rely on English) ; finding opportunities to communicate with different people in those languages; listening to audio books... If kids do not get to use those languages, they will not be able to develop the fluency. Also choosing very different languages helps too. That is the reason I prefer not to add Spanish - it is too close to French.

If you do not speak Chinese yourself, teaching one is very challenging. I am not saying it is not possible, but it is an up hill battle. The best bet is to find a local chinese school which offers chinese classes during weekends or as an after school program. They are more experienced and would be able to provide more advice. Another thing you can do is to hire a Chinese speaking tutor and insist she speaks Chinese only.

I gave up reading to her in English long ago because it is not enjoyable for either of us (fast vs slow readers). :) She is a fluent reader in two languages (because we live in Canada). I only read to her in the third language in which she is yet to be fluent. The fast reading also impacts her presentation: we are doing NaNoWriMo. She and her friend take turn to present their writing. And the comments she received is always - slow down so people can understand. Have you had experience helping kids to do a presentation? From my own experience, when I get nervous, I rush through material too.

Thanks for all the replies! It is helpful to know people have really different reading styles. Targhee raised a very good question: how to get kids to contemplate after reading? My first reaction would be to ask a lot of questions via the socratic method. I have no experience on this. Anyone can shed some light on this?

I love your way of describing it: for some kids, reading slowly like watching an entire movie in slow motion. That explains why DD8 does not enjoy being read to. She is extremely focused when she reads. So asking question in the middle just annoys her. How do you work with your child on this? what kind of online class might help?