Thank you...I'll look into that. I'm just trying to think of topics to research for her and your list helps. Thanks.

So, for 2nd grade the Usborne Internet-Linked encyclopedias are recommended. Unfortunately, we can not afford the books right now (money is SUPER tight) and the library is not an option for us. My mother, however was a DK Rep. and has TONS of their books from those days (she is no longer a DK rep, as she's now teaching middle and highschool Latin at a private Christian school and no longer homeschooling). She gave me a book from DK, the "Space: Stars, Planets and Spacecraft." She also thinks she has a book from them on the Earth (i.e. Earth Science). Will this work? I know they're not the recommended books in TWTM, but do y'all think these will work? Finally, while my mom looks for her book and then gets it to me (we live 200 miles apart) can y'all recommend some topics that I should research online to start instruction for Earth Science? The nice part of having a mom who homeschooled for...18 years...is there is a plethora of materials at my disposal (she just brought up 8 BOXES of books!!! Including Matin Latin!!! *squeal*). Okay, off topic but...can y'all help?

Okay, my mom used Writing Road to Reading with my younger siblings, but not with me. I have the book and want to use it with spelling for my DD going into 2nd grade, but have NO idea how to set up the notebook. Can someone walk me through it? My mom is offering to help me, but she won't be up for a visit until a week before school starts and I need a LOT more time than that to become familiar with it. Thanks! FTR - we live 200 miles away from my mom.

I found this for $9.99 on my Kindle app on my phone, and downloaded it. I've been reading through it and I am very impressed with it. It is EXACTLY what I was looking for. THANK YOU! To everyone else, Thank you VERY much for your time, thoughts, input, and thoughtfulness. It is appreciated. I researched every suggestion, and they all looked great. I've added them to my "list" of stuff in case I need more down the road.

I'm looking for a good Bible curriculum for my kids for next year. We have our tax return, so I'm ordering stuff now while we have the money. This year we just didn't do enough Bible...because I felt lost and w/o direction. As a Christian family it is important to us that we incorporate this into our day, but I'm not sure what to use. Does anyone have any suggestions for a Kindergartner and 2nd grader (their grades for next year)?

What is that exactly? I"ve never heard of it

Hello! I am in my 2nd year of homeschooling, and my 1st year utilizing the Classical method. My oldest (the one I am working with the most) is in 1st grade, my second child is 4.5 and doing "pre-k" work. He's doing well, recognizing numbers and such, but I'm seeking more structure with him. He is weak in the writing area, and we're working on that at a pace which he can handle so as not to overwhelm him. However, most numbers activities I can find require extensive amounts of coloring or writing...neither of which he is fond of. He likes to build and create things, is very hands on (and coloring/writing is too abstract for him). I just switched my 1st grader over to Math U See - Alpha, and it's going well. It's very hands on which is what she needs. However, the Math U See - Primer level is a bit over my son's level (at least from watching videos on it). He's counting well, he's just not recognizing numbers on sight (same with letters to some extent). Can anyone suggest a method for him? Thank you all!

Sorry, no advice on how to go about doing it as I don't know how much your family "did" Santa (if you KWIM). We never "did" santa in our home. Instead, we taught the children that there once was a very kind man who would give gifts to children who didn't have parents, or whose parents couldn't afford to give their children Christmas gifts. His name was Nicholas, and because he was such a good man some call him a "saint" (we're not Catholic, so our children aren't introduced to saints, so we had a separate discussion on this). Over the years, Nicholas' story has been told and gotten bigger, and now its a fun game that some parents play with their children to remember the joy that Nicholas brought to other children. (we also taught the children that it's not nice to tell other children that Santa is just pretend because it's something special that they get to play with their parents) Maybe start from there? Either way, GL with this revelation.

Thank you all for the warm welcome, input, and advice. :) I appreciate it, and look forward to getting to know everyone.

No, not yet. I've been here less than 2 months, and it seems like most of the HS groups locally are in the "off" season right now. LOL I am just waiting for them to start getting active again and then I'll jump in. We live off Normandy, just a few miles from the Navy housing out here, next to Cecil Field, and it takes hubby less than 30 mi. to get to/from work every day. We LOVE living out here. My kids are always discovering some new critter. Today, it was a walking stick...on our front door. Well, speaking as a piano teacher, an avid musician, and the daughter of a piano teacher, my advice would be to have her take piano lessons. Piano is NOT my primary instrument, but it is the first that I learned. My primary instruments are flute and bassoon. My piano foundation taught me how to use both halves of my mind independantly and simultaniously, gave me an outstanding foundation in music theory, and enbaled me to easily pick up multiple instruments down the road. I started playing flute in 4th grade, and in 11th grade I learned bassoon...on a dare. 3 months later I was playing in on of the top youth symphonies in my area, and in a year was playing in THE top youth symphony along side the FL Orchestra. Could I have learned bassoon without my piano foundation? Yes...but as it's a bass cleff instrument and would have required me to learn a whole new cleff in addition to learning the nuances of the new instrument. Instead, I just had to focus on learning the nuances of the new instrument. If your daughter is wanting to learn violin, I'd encourage her to take a couple of years of piano first, because whose to say that she won't want to learn cello later on down the road...which would also require learning to read bass cleff? (I later went on to major in music performance on both of my instruments...but if asked in 4th grade would have NEVER said I would want to learn bassoon).

I just received my copy of "Story of the World Vol 1" and I'm wondering how you break it down to teach? I've been looking through it, and I'm trying to figure out how to break it down for our weekly assignments. I'm working on our school planning for the year, and am not sure how much of the book I should cover each week. There are 42 chapters, but 36 weeks in the school year...so how do y'all do it? Are there some chapters that take less time and I could do more 2 chapters at that time? Do you figure out which chapters you want to spend more time on, and if so...which? I'm overwhelmed trying to figure this out.

Oh wow! NAS JAX is where my hubby works. :-) Where in Jax do you live? We're in westside. I <3 the country, so when we had to move up here hubby and I started looking for a place to rent where we could bring the horse instead of boarding. God blessed us richly. :001_smile: It's literally a dream come true, for me. I'm also a flute and piano teacher, and trying to get my house organized so that I can start advertising for students. A little something to try and help contribute to the finances (or at least pay for the horses w/o dipping into the family budget LOL). Thus, Heather (6) is learning piano as her musical aspect of her education.

Hi! I'm Gen, Wife of Former-Marine (now Dept of Navy employee) TJ for 8 years, and mom of 3 cool kids: Heather (6), William (4) and Samantha (born Halloween '08). We recently moved from Tampa Bay, FL to Jacksonville, FL. When hubby was hired by the Navy, we were given 1 week to move up here. We're finally settling in, and I'm spending my days caring for my 2 AWESOME horses, playing with my kids, taking nature walks down our rural country road and into the forest with the kids, planning for school, and somewhere in there doing a wee bit 'o house cleaning. :tongue_smilie: I am a homeschool graduate, so I have a wonderful support system with my family. My husband is as disgusted with the state of our public school system (and the LACK of education given to children now...in FL, they don't even teach spelling or cursive handwriting any longer). Since private school is not an option with 3 children, he became fully supportive of my desire to homeschool our children. Thus, I'm homeschooling with an outstanding support system in place. The only nay-sayers are my in-laws, who live 1500 miles away, thus not much of a problem. Heather went through FL'd VPK program at 4 through our church. She received a great foundation and was a great way for me to boost my confidence in homeschooling. We started Kindergarten last year with her knowing her alphabet and numbers 1-100, as well as some basic addition/subtraction. We used Five-In-A-Row at my cousin's suggestion (my cousin also homeschools), and we really enjoyed it. I love unit studies, but wanted my children to have more depth to their education. I fully believe learning can, and should be, fun...especially at these young ages. Thus, I turned to Classical Education. I read through TWTM and decided this was "it" for me. So, here I sit...planning out our school year. Since we are so far in the country now, there isn't a church close by with a VPK program, so I will be homeschooling my son for K-4 this year as well. If anyone has any advice on how to help my son learn his letters, it'd be appreciated. Right now I'm just reading books with him, and each day/week we work on a new "letter". I'll read each page to my son (usually Thomas the Train books as he :001_wub: trains, especially Thomas) and then upon completion I'll challenge him to find all the letters that we're working on that are located on the page (If we're learning about "G" he'll be challenged to find all the g's on the page, etc). He's been picking it up that way. In fact, from time to time he'll come running up to me carrying the book he's looking at, and excitedly point out certain letters that he's found. I guess I make it into a scavenger hunt of sorts. I was planning on putting a letter chart up to help him as we work through the year, too. Samantha is currently 20 months, and the extent of her 'education' is she's learning to sing the ABC song (and pretty good at it too for a 1 yr old LOL) and LOVES horses. She is getting into pretend play, and independent pretend play, almost always involving horses. As I stated, I have 2 horses, on our property, and both of my girls LOVE horses, so a lot of what I've been teaching them is tied in with the horses. For instance, Heather has been learning about fractions by helping me feed the horses at each meal (one of my horses is an ex-race horse and his feed requirements are VERY high...eating as much as a draft horse or two). Stormy gets 1/2 a scoop at each meal, Boe gets 1 3/4 scoops of grain, plus 1 1/2 scoops of beet pulp...so she's been getting an education in fractions through life lessons. Anyway, that's us in a nut shell! If you read my novel, then I thank you. I look forward to getting to know everyone!