Definitely great suggestions! LOTS of Markers LOTS of Crayons LOTS of Pencils (we only use Ticonderoga) Pencil Sharpener (or two) LOTS of Paper (all kinds...we have spiral *cheap* notebooks for 'free drawing' and such, rolled paper, etc etc) Couple of Bottles of Glue LOTS of Glue Sticks A couple of pairs of scissors (really 2 is enough...one to use regularly, and one for backup) Those things above are my "usually buy every year even if we don't NEED them" items just b/c you can't have enough of them. I also check my stock, and restock as needed of... Construction Paper PomPoms Glitter Paint (watercolor & tempera) File Folders (for filing, for lapbooks, etc) Composition Notebooks (specifically the Primary Journal right now)

Oh, thank you for reminding me...I was planning to email her about one we found in Level 1 as well.

We are liking it so far...however, DS is only at Level 1 and he just started at the beginning of month when we started the 'new year'. Like a PP said, it's a step-by-step worksheet approach. We are not far enough into it to give any substantial feedback, but are liking it so far. It's setup to cover a 36 week period, with one "lesson" per day.

For this, when you create the lesson plan, you can create it just one time, then, when you click to submit it, you can assign it to each child. Maybe the easiest way for the kids to recognize it is to have a note that says group work (or let them know which activities are to be done as a group?) I don't yet, but have thought about it. I am not really sure how I would set it up in HST though...maybe just as a journal note? That's the only way I know of that would work...hopefully someone else knows an easier way? For single-day things, it might be easier to just go to the student tab and add in the activity for that specific day instead of creating it like a lesson plan. In other words, Student>Assignments>Add> and then add in the specific information for that lesson on the day you want it. If you want it for all students, you would click the drop down menu, select all students and then click the Add button, otherwise, just select the student you want to assign the lesson to.

Awesome! Thank you for posting...I don't usually get the newspaper (although I am this week, lol) and would have missed the sale :D Will have to head over there tomorrow I think ;)

:lurk5: I will definitely be following this post! We are only at the K/1st level, and we just started using IQRA' this year and are liking it enough, so far.

Plenty of invites :) Just need to PM your email addy in order to send it :D

We love RSO...even though there are experiments, it's not so much that it's overwhelming...in fact, part of me wishes there were more! We have added a lot more to RSO by adding in library books and such, but I love the layout of RSO..."R"eading the lesson, "E"xploring (through the labs), "A"bsorbing (through the worksheets) and then finding out just how much he has "L"earned!! We have just started with the Animal Kingdom portion of RSO and have only done the unit with sorting the blobonians (classification) and you would not believe how much this simple activity and scientific classification poster I found have really hit home with DS. He had out his plastic critters yesterday and was classifying them all and asking questions about how scientists determine what groups go together (he specifically wanted to know if horses and donkeys were in the same family since they look similar and we discovered that they are also in the same genus b/c of the hooves)...and he also found out that zebras are in the same genus too! He was thrilled to tell DH all about it when he came home! So anyway...even though RSO may "seem" like a lot of labs, it's really so much more!

ITA...we are only starting Year One right now, but I am interested as well...which books specifically??

Thanks for the great detailed review! I can't wait to purchase this timeline once we are ready :D

Good suggestions so far...I would also suggest reading The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease! It has a lot of great suggestions and feedback on reading...and he even brings up the fact that even though a child *can* read at a higher level, it doesn't always mean they *should* always read at that level. Picture books are just fine :D My DS sounds like your DD...he can read Frog & Toad books, Dr. Seuss, and similar books in length, but that's about as long as he wants to be reading. He *could* read more, but he just doesn't want to...he gets tired of reading, and I think that is just age appropriate. I just have him continue at the pace he is and hopefully his stamina for reading will pick up with time.

We have used Headsprout and LOVED it, but my DS is also more of a whole language child than a phonetic child...if you have strong convictions about your child NOT learning sight words, it may not be the program for you. It didn't bother me if DS learned sight words and phonics at the same time, but it's a big deal to some.

Is it just me?! The board keeps ending up moving SO slow when loading the last couple of days. I thought maybe it was just doing it in Firefox, but it's doing it in Chrome too...Other websites seem to load just fine for me, so I dunno! Did I miss a memo somewhere? Or is it just me having issues?:confused:

:iagree: We aren't doing one formally yet, but I do have one ready to go and we will likely add things here and there...I don't expect him to remember any of it though...not yet ;)

I use Goodreads to track all the random books DS reads and I use my Reading Log in HST+ for any chapter books and read-aloud's we are currently reading.

:iagree: I would *LOVE* to have a nice huge closet type room or library where I could organize everything. That's sorta what we have going on now. I had the dining room converted to a 'school room', but now it's where I store everything on shelves and we do school at the dining room table or in the living room :)

Oh, I forgot to mention Goodreads! I use Goodreads and LibraryThing to help keep track of the shorter books that DS reads. All of his easy readers have gone there so far any any other picture books and things. I love the idea of eventually letting HIM keep track though! I will have to keep that in mind!

It pretty much is just that. The teachers manual has the outline, craft, suggested stories, read-alouds, etc. The student workbook is just a coloring page, narration page, copywork page, state page and that's it. The download included both, but if I was just getting the printed versions, I would either get the combo OR *just* the teachers manual if it were me. ETA: The teachers manual is where the craft is listed...I need to go back through, but I believe there is one 'hands-on' activity per week that goes along with the lessons. I know the first week is a clay bead making craft.

I am not sure if we will actually get it, but I did log my interest to help :D

I haven't needed to watch any of the videos, but do consider myself fairly techy. It's got a bit of a learning curve to it, but it's really fairly easy to use and explain! Whatever you use on basic will automatically transfer to the upgraded version. I worried about this as well when I upgraded last year and it was a breeze! Definitely check out the yahoo groups...if you are planning to use the lesson plan feature, they will come in SUPER handy. I actually enter in everything *after* we complete it and track that way since it allows me to be more flexible. I LOVE the ISBN feature (and actually just did the update yesterday, and the newest version has now added the option to use the AISN as well as ISBN, which is great!) The reports options and things available are just fabulous.

I have a bunch of people I don't know following me and the same is true for the other way too...I follow lots of boards (esp those that post a lot of homeschool stuff). You just follow those people who (p)interest you :tongue_smilie:

We have more of a K/1st schedule, but here's what we are doing: Language Arts Explode the Code 2 & 3 Winning with Writing 1 All About Spelling 1 Ambleside Online Year One Math Singapore Primary 1B & 2A Math Whizz (online) Science R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Social Studies Maps, Charts Graphs C Ambleside Online Year One (possibly going to start Elemental History later this year) Fine Art World's Greatest Artists Classics for Kids/Stories of Great Composers Technology Easy Tech Religious Studies IQRA (Islam) Logic Logic Safari 1 & 2 (& 3 if we get to it)

:iagree: I know I would end up just deleting them all and the reimporting the entire thing, but the copy feature will do what you need it to do as well. And the archive feature is one of my favorites :D

Ditto. Skedtrack was OK, and I do like that it was online and accessible everywhere, but I LOVE HST+ and am glad I upgraded. It's a one-time fee too...with lifetime upgrades...you can't beat that! It really just comes down to what you need the program to do.

I am just using the log in Homeschool Tracker. It allows me to enter the date he starts and the date he finishes (same with our read-alouds that I read...I enter when we start and when we finish them). He may want to keep his own list at some point, and I will leave it up to him as far as which kind he wants to use. He's still mostly reading shorter 'chapter' books like Frog & Toad and the like so he still has some time before he will use one. I would possibly have him use the chapter book one to 'turn in' to me when he's finished and then I will track the start and finish date in HS Tracker, then just file his log with that weeks files.