I just hope when we get the samples, they'll cover the 3 weeks of school that will go by while I wait for the hard copies to get to me. I'm hoping for at least two weeks worth of material I can run with while we wait.

I would love to see such a list too as I'm looking at that program to supplement a geography workbook.

Most copy centers can remove the binding for you, and either spiral-bind or three-hole punch whatever portion you wish. I can do that at home, but if your OCD is worse than mine you may be better off either purchasing a set of student pages for each child, or purchasing the student pages PDF and having a set printed for each child. Which is most cost-effective depends on how many kids you have and what your costs would be for printing copies from the PDF. You can, of course, limit your printing by removing pages from activites you won't be using. I think we only used about â…” of the activity pages from SotW1, and we didn't use the pages from WWE1 at all because I had DS do the exact same assignments using HWT paper instead.

Have you checked Amazon? I've been buying direct from HWT because the paper is lined differently, so I don't know what Zaner-Bloser uses. I assume it's standard elementary paper. I purchased a ream of each from HWT (three different line widths) and when we ran out we moved to the next size. We use it for everything too, not just handwriting. After those are gone it's single-subject notebooks, which I stocked up on a few years back when they were on sale for 10 cents each. I think I've also seen standard lined paper at Staples, but I couldn't verify that it's white instead of newsprint.

We're using Mensa's Excellence in Reading program lists, but before I let DS have at a new list (we're currently on the list for grades 4-6), I go through and select a few that we'll use for literature and/or history purposes. The rest he reads on his own (I also read them if I haven't already), and we discuss them only as fun stories. If he really gets into one that I didn't pick, I give him the option of doing more and getting credit for it.

I'll second Lori's suggestion to keep them short in the beginning. Here's a quick list of what I have on hand. Steinbeck "The Pearl" and "The Red Pony" C.S. Lewis' Narnia series Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" Wilder's "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" London's "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang" Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles" Shelley's "Frankenstein" Lowry's "The Giver" and "Number the Stars" Scott's "Island of the Blue Dolphins" Washington's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle" Hinton's "The Outsiders" Wells' "The War of the Worlds," "The Time Machine," "The Invisible Man," and "The Island of Dr. Moreau"

I use olive oil (extra virgin) for pretty much everything that requires cooking oil of any kind. No one has ever noticed or complained and my brownies (I also use a boxed mix) disappear just as quickly as they did before I made the switch. If you're concerned, however, I'd go with coconut just because if you do notice a difference most people don't think twice about coconut in brownies (in fact, my grandmother used to make them special for me because I don't care for walnuts).

I'm in the fortunate position of being able to buy whatever I wanted, so I did. I paid attention to price because I hate spending more than I need to, and I was raised to be budget-conscious. That said, I still spent a lot, particularly considering I have one child. I'd estimate I spend $700-900 each year. In addition to the curricula itself, that includes artist quality art supplies, a lot of math manipulatives, and a few expensive pieces of equipment like a research-quality microscope and a Lego Mindstorms robotics kit. It doesn't include museum/zoo memberships, trips to the symphony/theater, piano lessons, karate/swim classes, or books purchased for pleasure reading because we would do those even if we weren't homeschooling. It seems like a lot until I remind myself that private schools cost far more than that, even when they aren't very good (our options where we used to live were dismal).

Yep, I resemble that remark as well. I rarely sold back books even though I was paying my own way through college. Really dull history books, and a few social science books were about it, and I actually kept a fair number of those too. I've rid myself of quite a few old science textbooks as I replaced them with up-to-date versions, but I still have several shelves of books from college in spite of that.

Thank you!

The Amazon preorder went away, but SWB said even the publisher has no idea why that happened. It will be back, I'm sure. In the meantime, I added them to one of my private wish lists. There's also an optional 4th book - seems to be a reference book with all the grammar rules. I haven't seen it, of course.

I'd recommend Mensa's Excellence in Reading program. It's four lists of books for grades K-3, 4-6, 7-8, and 9-12. They recommend that you start with the list that is grade-level appropriate and then move up or down as needed/desired for the remaining lists. The K-3 list is mostly picture books and short chapter books, but there are a few longer titles (Little House on the Prairie and Charlotte's Web, for example). I didn't know about the program myself until DS was near the end of 3rd grade, so we used the first list as summer reading (finished a month into 4th grade). The books can be completed as read-alouds (parent, or even teacher although the parent is still responsible for maintaining the list), audiobooks, or independent-reads. When you complete the first list, your child gets a certificate and a teeshirt (free). Every subsequent list gets a new certificate. The books are amazing, the program is free, and the rules allow the program to work even with children who struggle with reading. As long as they are capable of understanding and enjoying the stories, that's enough. You can find the lists by googling "Mensa Excellence in Reading"

If you work your way through all three of the BFSU books your kid will have a better science background than many high school graduates. My plan, as a college science professor, is to finish book 3, then use college textbooks to teach year-long courses in biology, chemistry, physics, and another science of his choice (I have, from teaching classes and taking classes for my own enjoyment, recent textbooks on astronomy, geology, marine biology, microbiology, and programming. There are numerous similar textbooks available for HS science, some of which I've seen and am reasonably impressed with, but I see no reason for me, personally, to spend extra money to purchase those when I already own a nice collection of introductory college textbooks. If you live near a college, you might want to see what their bookstore has in the way of used textbooks. Amazon has a nice selection of those, as well. Because new editions come out regularly (even for subjects that don't change much), often students can't sell back textbooks, even at the low prices they're usually offered, so you might be able to pick up a perfectly good textbook for cheap from a student who would be grateful to get a little cash for a book they have no other way to sell. Students who take introductory courses to meet science requirements rarely hang onto those books afterwards.

I need something like this for my rising 6th-grader - DH is an electrical engineer, which helps, but we need something structured for kids.

Nice! I might have to look into this as a review if gentle reminders don't correct some of what I've been seeing.

Do you think the 120-page syllabus would be sufficient, or do you really gain a lot from the full package?

I can understand why they wouldn't want to ship formaldehyde to a residence. I've had problems with some of the alternative preservation methods in the past, however, so I'd want to make sure the specimen was in good condition even if a formaldehyde-preserved specimen was my only option. I might have options not available to others because I'm a biology professor and have numerous contacts that might be able to help with both ordering and appropriate disposal. It's probably worth asking at a local college if they would be willing to help, but my guess is if they don't know you that's probably not likely.

No new recommendations at this time, but I'm following along so I can see what everyone else is recommending. I'll have to check my book shelves to see what I have that might be appropriate.

I'm looking for a good nuts and bolts book for essay writing for a 5th grade student. Would any of these recommendations fit?

Don't feel bad, beckyjo. My MIL thinks I've turned my back on God because I believe evolution is real, and I let my kid read Harry Potter. She'd probably denounce the Christian college I attended as being heretical if she knew my organic chemistry professor agrees with me. Regarding the Rick Riordan books. DS discovered those a couple months ago. I had read the first series when they came out and had forgotten about them until he asked for more books. He LOVES them. I suspect he would have done just fine with these if we'd started them a couple years earlier, both interest-wise and ability-wise. I'm aware that a character in the Magnus Chase series is not heterotypical, but it doesn't bother me. I trust the author will treat it in an age-appropriate fashion, and I will use this as an opportunity to have a discussion with DS. I don't want him growing up the way my husband did, thinking people are disgusting or perverted because they aren't heterotypical. My godfather is gay, and several of my friends and children of my friends are not heterotypical, so I care that he sees them as people just like everyone else for personal reasons as well as humane reasons. If this is really a problem for you, then I suggest avoiding the books, and pre-reading or using a screening site for every book your child reads. Many modern authors have sought to include kids who feel like there must be something wrong with them because there are no characters like them in the books they read. This is a good thing, and I applaud the authors who do it. Bullying is a huge problem for these kids, even when they aren't "out", and having a character in a favorite book that is like them may help them weather that abuse.

Thanks for the update - can't wait to have this in my hands. I did a home-brew sort of grammar program this year, hoping it would be out before we finished 5th grade and we could move right into it, but DS doesn't mind starting with it a year late.

Bud, Not Buddy Esperanza Rising

I returned them to the students when I could (very few actually bothered to come get them after the semester ended), or I'd keep them for a couple years then toss them in a shredder box. I gave my students the option of providing a SASE at the final exam if they wanted the graded final returned to them, but only one student ever took me up on it.

We skipped them - at the end of 4th grade DS was reading on an 8th grade level, so I'm thinking the program works just fine without them.

Corraleno did a much better job explaining than I could have, and clearly understands some of the fine points better than I do. All I know is I have the right to photocopy a magazine article to distribute to my students for an assignment. OK, I might know a bit more than that, but that was the part I cared about when I was trying to learn about copyright law. Since the norm in the homeschool curriculum world is to allow photocopies for use within a single family, I would not be pleased to purchase a physical copy that tried to tell me I couldn't do that. I'd probably return it, or just refuse to buy it in the first place if that detail was made clear up front. I've only got one kid, but that's really not cool. As far as digital goes, that's a much stickier area. There isn't a norm as far as I can tell, not even within the homeschool community. Because it isn't a physical copy, the license agreement can vary quite a bit from what most of us understand about our rights regarding a physical purchase. Even if you purchase the digital copy on a CD or DVD, the rules for software are probably more applicable. I'd probably have to ask our attorney about that if it ever came up (assuming our legal service has a copyright attorney - I'm told it's a fairly specialized field - no wonder most of us don't understand it LOL). I generally try to avoid ebooks, but not because of this - I find physical copies much easier to deal with. However, I suspect I'm going to have to give in soon. As long as I can print pages as needed and make copies for use in my house, I can live with it for some things. And I'm fine with not being able to sell or give away my copy when I'm done with it, as long as that's stated clearly at the time of purchase, so I know what I'm buying. There are some digital versions I will never purchase no matter how much cheaper they are because printing is blocked (I'm very glad I found out about that from someone else before I purchased those, because I was going to purchase the second edition as ebooks since I already had the first edition as physical books).