Thank you for the links. A lot of Ambleside is available for free on Kindles.

What are your favorite books to add for the following levels: lower elementary, upper elementary, middle school, and high school? I just bought 4 kindles for my dc Christmas and I want to load each of the kids Kindles with some great books listed in the following topics: classic literature, math books, science or history topics. Just wondering what your favorites would be to add, as I want to place a variety of topics to each kindle that they would enloy. 6 year old girl is reading early readers/ could read beginner chapter books. 9 year old boy is reading easy chapter books 12 year old girl has read a lot of middle level chapter books. 14 year old son has read just about every book known to me-lol. I am really excited to add books for each of them- they will feel so special :party: . Brenda P.S. Thank you to all of the ladies who helped me decide to purchase Kindles for the kids instead of buying books that the toddler(s) may decide to eat :drool5:.lol. I also like that the Kindles keep track of how much they are actually reading, and I can load it with things they want and that I want them not to miss.

I just bought 4 paperwhites for my kiddos CMAS- thank you for the encouragement! I will set up books individually for each child a few at a time. I am so excited for their Christmas now. Brenda

This is why we had issues, we bought Kindle Fires. I will definitely go with paperwhite in the future. I loved my paperwhite until it wouldn't get a charge anymore.

What is something that you are thankful for, but doesn't get mentioned a lot? I am very thankful for God in my life, my husband by my side, and my children around my feet. I am also thankful for life, and being able to be able to spend with my family and friends. I am thankful for these forums, so I don't feel so alone in my perspective of loving and educating the children that I have been blessed with. I am thankful that the Lord miraculously makes a way for me to be home and focus on raising our children. I am thankful for health within our home this season. Brenda

I Love this idea! I will be making my kids a Bible verse/ Famous quote jar!! Thank you for the idea.​

Queens curriculum provides a large variety of copywork for various ages and abilities. I have not used her curriculum, but it does seem to get nice reviews. I have used Draw and Write Through History, and this series gets great reviews from my children-lol.

I have been considering W&R for a semester each year for my "middles" and "youngers", and now I believe I just can't resist-lol.

I am going to chime in that copywork of patterns has helped at this house. We use Natural Speller for the purpose of exposing our children to patterns. I quiz them until I find a pattern that they haven't mastered and then they do copywork of those words for a few days, at a later date when I go through list again they will be requizzed on those words and they get a star if they pass and a fresh copywork list if they don't-lol. I do this for a couple months each year after we finish Rod and Staff Spelling for the year, I appreciate different approaches to the same subject and it adds variety for them as well.

English From the Roots Up is vocabulary for that age range. If your 3rd grader is a strong writer they could both do Intermediate Language Lessons (this is more writing/usage focused) or Rod and Staff Grammar 4 (this is grammar heavy). I also like the book Grammar Mechanic, but it is better for next year when they are about another year older. Spelling actually can be done together using copywork/ group practice of patterns in the book Natural Speller. It may be an easier year for the 6th grader, but review never hurts anyone-lol. The 3rd list is very easy, so you could work through levels 4-6 in one year using it as copywork practice/ oral competition quizzing. I like the idea above The Paragraph Book series.

My favorite gentle phonics program is The Reading Lesson because all required reading is built in. I would follow it with a complete phonics program like Phonics Pathways or Alphaphonics (both are equally magnificent-but don't include readers-kwim).

The LOF Fractions book is HILARIOUS. Enjoy.

I love LOF Fractions😀. He recommends waiting based on the following skill requirements of Algebra, not because of anything inappropriate or edgy in content. It is my favorite LOF book, and is why I bought the whole set. Originally there wasn't a Prealgebra series available, as he said one could go from Fractions/ Decimals straight into Algebra. With the ability of slowing down the sequence with the three LOF Prealgebra books, I wouldn't see a problem with an advanced 4th grader moving on if they have completed the intermediate books of Kidneys, Liver, and Mineshaft first.

I am so sorry for all of the loss you have endured as of late. I went through something similar a few years ago, but the deaths were preceded by two years of living in hospitals on and off between family members. I lost my father, mother, and grandmother within a year and had a new baby during all of this. During that time our family was also dealing with unemployment, but the Lord helped us through. I agree with everyone else, just focus heavily on reading, writing, and math. A strong few years of Rod and Staff English, Spelling, and Math really will strengthen a child across the board. I would add a silent reading your daily as well. Sorry this is short, I am answering on a kindle. God Bless your family. Brenda

How do you use streaming video content in your educational efforts? I enjoy adding streaming videos that correlate to the studies that our family is doing at the present. We probably watch a compatable video biweekly or in spurts of daily if it is a series (Liberty Kids videos on youtube,ect.) My oldest also watches free Math videos on youtube or Khan Academy. Do you watch videos about homeschooling, parenting, skill development, or education? I love watching how other mothers(or fathers-lol) choose to grow their families and homeschools, as well as encouraging mothers to contifue their educations as well. Do you use videos with your children as part of your lessons (not counting full online classes such as Well-Trained Mind Academy)? Yes, occasionally for mathematics, but if history or science correlates that is awesome to. What are your favorite programs/channels/presenters for this type of content? Why? YouTube- Darci Isabella, TheFallCoFamily, Parsnips and Parsimony, and There's No Place Like Home channels. I also like Blimey Cow, but it is just funny. How long, on average, are these videos? 5-10 minutes, unless it is a video series or documentary. And: For this content, do you use paid services (Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, other [please describe]) or primarily free ones (YouTube, etc)? We mostly use YouTube and other free programs, but if something was made with quality I would definitely consider the addition.

Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons are definitely Charlotte Mason styled programs. They incorporate Narration, Copywork/Dicatation, Language Usage, Poetry Memorization, Letter Writing, and Observation Lessons. I think these are fabulous programs!

If you are looking for an all-in-one The Good and the Beautiful is a very good program. If you are looking for a grammar intensive year I would suggest Rod and Staff English 4 or 5, Rod and Staff Spelling by Sound and Structure, and reading great literature for a set time daily. You can always add in cheap Pentime handwriting 5 and a Wordly Wise for extra vocabulary (definitely optional). I also love Intermediate Language Lessons, but it is more usage focused; it is not a solid grammar vocabulary or diagramming style program, but it does have a lot of writing practice built in.

I agree that heaven is found in a pile of books-lol. A friend of mine is always bringing boxes of books by our house- I LOVE her, not just for the books either-lol.

Landmark books are fabulous, pm me if she does decide to sell. I won't have extra money until I get my tax refund sometime in February.

This is a great idea, just put the homeschool money in a separate account and buy a few books per child as they read the ones that they were already given. I really like this idea. I would also mean that I could buy one smaller bookshelf at a time vs. 2/3 larger ones now. If we keep it in a separate account we would definitely leave it alone.

I never could figure out how to do that for the main user, just additional ones-kwim; this would be great to look into. I will go to Amazon and look and see if I can do it myself, as this would be a blessing here. I bought the Kindles thinking that a certain amount of Educational app time would be good, but my children would just bypass their profiles to mine (which I didn't put any restrictions on-kwim). At that time we didn't have the computer, so I didn't want to limit my time working on things, kwim. We have tons downloaded to those Kindles as I was trying to give my oldest more literature access, and HE did read a lot on his, it was just all of the other kiddos who saw it as a game station-lol.

That is so sweet.

This looks awesome! Thank you!

We purchase Kindles for our children a few years ago, but they never seemed to use them for reading, as they have access to games/ internet, so we no longer use them for reading time. We also only have one laptop (the one that I am typing on-lol), that is mainly used by our highschooler, as we don't want our younger kiddos focused on computers, but cuddled up with books (media tends to distract our children from reading, rather than encouraging it-this may just be our family). I think for adults who want to read, this is definitely the most economical.