I didn't know that and I am teaching a 1/2 Geography class in co-op this fall. Good to know, good to know!

I love the R&S ones! DS6 did them and DD4 is using them now. That said, I have given her some of those dollar workbooks from Target with mazes and dot-to-dots in them for just that purpose.

I need some memory inspiration! We have been schooling all summer, just taking breaks for camps.

:bigear: I'm teaching a 1st/2nd geography class for co-op in the fall, I'd love to hear some recs.

Yay! Today I was wandering around the school where my kids are doing camp. They are also doing an "academic review" summer school. I read all of the topics covered in their 2nd grade review and realized we did most of those in K.

DS just finished K. We used CLE because he likes to workbook format (less writing). We also use Math iXL (an online thing) as a supplement. I def. agree with the suggestion to scribe for her for most of it.

Hmm. Interesting! This has made me question all sorts of things this morning. From my family's side, we are only 1 generation (me) removed from classical education. I imagine that other families might be further removed and therefore at a different spot. Now I'm wondering what is typical...2 generations? Economically speaking, I think we might fall into lower middle class. But we made that decision based on our priorities; DH took a huge pay cut in order to work fewer hours to spend more time with the family, I became a SAHM for the same reason. I was brought up middle-middle, DH upper-middle. Socially we are not typical LMs.

:iagree: I definately have a lot of ground to cover to make up for my PS education. That said, I graduated summa cum laude, earned a master's, and had a well paying job. Only now am I even aware of what I was not taught during my childhood. There has to be some middle ground between education as a functional means to productive adulthood and 100% coverage of every subject. If my kids want to focus on Latin beyond the foundation (we will do at least two years, but we're not there yet) then great. If they would rather focus on other things, they can focus on other things. My mother had a classical education. She didn't even realise it was much different from mine until she read TWTM a couple of years ago. Very interesting question!

After looking at (and buying some) different math programs, we went with CLE last year. DS works well with a workbook format and I like that it is not so teacher-intensive as some others. He spends about 40 minutes on math (total time, not "active work" time) a day; we've been doing school 2 or 3 times a week this summer. In that 40 minutes he usually only completes half of a lesson. He is doing very well with comprehension, but he has a very hard time settling down and actually writing out the answers (he is, afterall, a 6yo boy). We verbally review math facts in the car and he as those down cold. At our current pace, I think we'll be at the 100 level forever! He definately understands, he just hates the bookwork. So far, we have been doing almost everyting in the lesson. I have started to do the review problems orally, which DS prefers. How else might I speed things up without missing or skipping new content? Should I look for a new program that moves more quickly?

My son isn't a fan of fiction, but he has happily sat through a couple of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. We've done the rabbit ears folktales too.

We've never lapbooked; I have learned so much from this thread! Are lapbooks strictly a HS thing, or is it more of a general education-wide thing? My son hates coloring and cutting and the like. I though all lapbooks were created at home by crafty scrapbooker types, I had no idea you could find kits. I'll have to check that out.

Props to you! I just got done with my 1st year of hsing, and I'm a little apprehensive on schooling 2 at a time. Maybe its easier if they are coser together??? I have just (as in the last 15 minutes) learned of synthetic phonics which is something I'm going to try with my 6yo. The idea is that there are nonsense words made up of English phonics so there will be no guessing. My son tends to guess words that make sense in the sentence but are not at all close phonetically to what is written. The only other thing I can think to add is to caution you against buying "the whole set" of anything before you become more familiar with your kids' learning styles as well as your own teaching style. The math program that I had idealogically sold myself on did not work at all for us in reality. Stay flexible.

Thanks, ElizabethB for posting your sight. I have a reluctant 6yo reader and there are many things on your site I can make use of!

I spent a lot my first year that I ended up not using because it didn't mesh well with DS' learning style or my teaching style (I was expecting the learning style thing, but was kind of blindsided by my own quirks). If what you have chosen comes in multiple books, i would caution against buying them for the whole year. You may not like them or you may come accross them used. All of our supplemental reading comes from teh library which has to be requested through inter-library loan quite often. But its free. I drive past several homeschool groups to get to a low cost co-op. Even with the price of gas, it is so much cheaper than the other two near me. There are also plenty of lessons that I can get cheaper because of our availability (we do "homeschool" piano lessons at 10 am on Fridays for $15, the same lesson would cost twice that after school lets out).

I have really struggled in finding the right math program too! But congrats on finally finding it, that seems like the hardest part. We started out R and S, then went to RightStart and ended up CLE. I thought we were doing well because DS was doing 1st grade math when age-wise he was in K. But then my niece, same age as DS, comes for a visit and she is clearly far, far ahead. Sigh. From my admittedly limited experiece it seems to matter so much more to find a program that fits well with a particular learner than to find a program that has the "right" schedule. I am so very sensitve about whether DS is behind; whether I am failing as a teacher and a mom. Luckily it is very easy to extend the schoolyear in case you need to hit a certain milestone (like if your doing standardized testing or your MIL is coming for a visit:D).

Yes, thanks. I guess that since I am not crafty, I really want/need explicit instructions on completing the book as a whole and all I have found are instructions for each project.

We're doing SOTW1 plus History Pockets as a supplement. We have completed two HP projects but I don't really know what I should (could?) do with them after. There are no instructions for creating a big lapbook type thing like that shown on the HP cover. Should I put them in the history binder with the SOTW stuff? Or make a separate folder? Just completing the HP projects themselves have used up any craftiness I may have had...got any good ideas?

My 3yo loves the alphabet activities at http://http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/05/z-review.html She has a free one that involves cutting out pictures of words that begin with a certain letter and glueing them on the letter page. Can't find the link right now but she LOVES it.

My 6yo son loves: http://http://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Museum-Unforgettable-Interactive-Virtual/dp/1426303351/ref=pd_sim_b_4 http://http://www.amazon.com/First-Dinosaur-Encyclopedia-DK-Publishing/dp/0756625394/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1305376044&sr=1-2-spell His all time favorite: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Dinosaurs-CHRIS-MCNAB/dp/184566082X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305376149&sr=1-2 we read this before bed every.single.night! I find it rather dry, but he loves it. I'm fairly certain that it does not contain a bronotosaurus listing, but it does contain triceratops. I know the brotosaurus/apatosaurus controversy has been settled, I'm not completely sure if the triceratops/torosaurus is still being debated or not. Just putting that out there in case your son is a stickler for up-to-date info.:D

For over a year now, my son has insisted on encyclopedia-type books as his bedtime story. I can't possibly read the ones we own again - does anyone have any recs so I can get some new ones? Lots of charts, graphs, and diagrams are a plus! ;)

I feel like my son forgets so much over the weekend, i can't imagine not doing school for two months! I haven't quite figured out yet exactly what we will be doing though.

Congrats!

CLE!!! I think they are $3 a pop. My son LOVES them. We did Rod & Staff and then Right Start but neither one was a good fit for us. My only complaint is that the story problems are all about farming :D. I like that it covers a variety of topics (we're on CLE 102, DS just turned 6); today we counted change, did a quiz, number dictation, flashcards, addition and subtraction. There are just a handful of problems in each section so he doesn't have time to get bored.

:iagree: too. If you have the financial means, get it checked out. Either something will be found so it can be dealt with, or your mind will be put at ease. Its a win-win.

:bigear: