When she was a Brownie (so 7 or 8 years old) my daughter looooved using a cool glue gun and popsicle sticks. She built abstract creations but also made a model of her bedroom to scale. She spent HOURS creating with these materials.

Just listening in.

I actually have this program, have used it and have been to a workshop with Trevor Calkins, the author. I will give a review of it later.

The book Teaching the Five Themes of Geography doesn't have worksheets, we're not a worksheet kind of family, it has activities. I'll try to explain some of them here. Location: 1. The Human Grid - this activity uses kids at their desks, but we used our Beanie babies. You look at different BB with respect to others, in other words, relative location 2. That is Absoluetly Right - You have to find places in an atlas or on a globe using only the coordinates (absolute location), 3. Places Everyone! - Given a famous place, you have to find it in an atlas and give its coordinates. Place: 1. Why is this place famous? Research to see if a place is famous beacause of its physical or human characteristics 2. Geography terms booklet - making a booklet of landforms 3. topo quest - id physical forms by applying geography terms to a fictional map drawing. Does this give you a better idea? We actually used a different book, EMC 0840 Hands-on Geology for most of the Place ideas. We made a huge landscape out of clay with mtns, buttes, mesas, rivers etc...The EMC Daily Geography books are all based on the 5 themes and are quite good if you want worksheets. Most of the activities in those are based on US maps. Cindy

We study geography considering the 5 themes of geography. This free resource is wonderful. http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/outreach/fulbright05/Husiak_EcuadorWow.pdf (story) http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/outreach/fulbright05/Husiak_FiveThemes.pdf (lesson plan) We also used this book http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Themes-Geography-Middle-Grades/dp/0867345713 Then we started to look at each theme individually. We got as far as location last year and will continue this year. You can study any country using this format and in fact there are several books based on the idea that I drooled over but never purchased. See here http://www.flipkart.com/exploring-chile-five-themes-geography-book-140422677x

We just started using Middle School Grammar yesterday so I can't say much about it, but my dd likes it and to me, it looks brilliant. Don't forget that you can download a teacher's guide off the site.

Listening in, that's all. Thanks

Just listening in too. Thanks

Thanks for the site with the free TOPS units. We did Corn and Beans last summer, and I must say, we thought it was brilliant how he designed the growing containers and measuring "sticks". We (dd-11 yrs and I) loved it.

So far we have worked on the dividing and search sections and all I've had to do is add labels for the pill bottles in the dividing section. Looking at the book, looks like if I hadn't bought the prepared kit, I'd be cutting pill bottles to height and doing a lot more work! In the search section, we've been fishing for pinto fish in a lake of lentils, by hand and with a net (screen). Then we talked about renewable resources... BTW I purchased Get a Grip and Intermediate Lentil Science complete already prepared kits. The Get a Grip containers are included in the Int LS box, so you only have to buy the Get A Grip book, not the compete kit, if you order or already have Int LS.

Whew, I'm glad to hear I didn't miss the boat. Looking forward to working on the next lessons.

:iagree:We are on book 4 now and the others all took at least 2 years to do, with lots of extra books and activities. Looks like sotw 4 will take us 3 years the way I have it mapped out, to add Canadian geo and hist at the pertinent times. For sotw 4 we take 1 week to do each of the parts of each chapter, so 2 weeks per chapter, with the Cdn hist and geo added in, we will only get to chap 11 of sotw 4 this year...

If you go to the website, http://www.lhsgems.org/gemsguidestopic.html, you'll see orientation videos for many of the book. These give a good idea of the activities within. There is also a free pdf of the book, Vitamin C testing. We've done that one, it's great!

Just subscribing as well, as I'm always looking for french resources.

We are using TOPS LEntil Science Intermediate and I bought the set up package wehre all I have to do is tape on labels and buy lentils; not much work at all. We actually do it together as our main math curriculum from time to time and we mix up the sections.

Just listening in. Thanks.

I'm waiting to hear the response too!

I just finished a very nice book, "The Shooting Star" by Maxine Trottier, a Canadian author.

You can make a "lava lamp". Put oil and food colouring in a jar. Add alka seltzer tablet. Voila!

We are presently reading "Where soldiers Lie" by John Wilson. It is a novel set at the time of the Sepoy Mutiny (colonial India). We would love to find a copy of Mangal Pandey: The Rising about the same period of time, but all we can find on You Tube is a copy in Hindi, no subtitles.

I already checked Colleen; it's only for residents of the USA. Maybe we should start our own!

YES!

My dd grade 6 does a lot too. She plays water polo 3x/week (1 1/2 hrs/time), does musical theatre 2x/week and competitive jump rope 2x/week. This all happens in the evening after "school" time. We also do Girl Guides on Monday afternoons. She would do more if she had time; she likes to be very active.

I have the Stop Faking It! Light book. It is excellent. Clear and well laid out. I should add that they are meant to be read by teachers so that they can teach the subject, so the content would be for middle grades and up.