I feel so much better about my plans for science next year! A thousand thank yous!!!!

This is awesome and exactly the approach I want to take. Can I ask - do you require a certain amount of daily time reading science? I'm looking for 3rd/4th grade so was thinking maybe start with 15 minutes or so. These lists are amazing!

I'm seeing many different Killgallon books for elementary and was wondering which ones are the best. I see: -Story Grammar for Elementary School -Getting Starting with Elementary School Sentence Composing -Sentence Composing for Elementary School -Paragraphs for Elementary School Where do you start? Are they all good or are some better than others? What is the strength of this curriculum? Do you use them as a supplement or as a complete curriculum? Thanks!

For those of you who use living science books throughout elementary school, do you have a list of topics that you run through in certain grades? How does this work? My son will be in third grade and I want to compile some science books to read for next year and am not sure where to start. Thanks!

Sometimes I struggle with reading comprehension skills in general. For instance, in WWE, they ask the student to be able to answer very detailed questions (like "What color were the bunny's ears?"), but then they also ask the student to write a narration summary of the text as a whole. Now, I am used to teaching reading with the idea that we "read for main idea." All the details will still be in the text (and we can go back to it to find them and answer questions about them), but the main idea is the most important part to remember without returning to the text. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Just checked out this website - love it!

Anyone use Write from History that could tell me a little more about it? Can it be used with SOTW? Is it mainly copywork? I am specifically looking for a companion to SOTW that would give me copywork along with short reading passages and comprehension questions. THANKS! Laura

Mine has trouble forming the letters in cursive too if the example isn't in front of him. I initially purchased TGATB because they have some drawing pages that might say, "Daw a rain shower." I knew my son would like that, but I specifically didn't like the tracing exercises - it used dotted-lined letters and it just didn't work well for us. My son would always ask to skip pages. It might just be me, but it was the only book we never finished. If I had to pick among all of them, I like Universal Handwriting the best just because of formatting. The pages look nice. But like I said, they all really are very similar.

Thank you!

Is there anyway to still purchase Treasured Conversations?

I am looking for a cheap geography curriculum that will teach basic map skills and that reviews states and capitals. Any good ones?

I like Handwriting Without Tears for younger grades. I don't like it for cursive. I also like Universal Handwriting and Zaner-Bloser. I did not like The Good and the Beautiful. Honestly though, I haven't loved any handwriting program. For me, they are all basically the same.

Just wanted to give an update. I started the elimination diet 2 days after this post, so I'm on day 12ish. The first week I noticed that coconut and almond milk were causing stomach pain, along with other sources of fat. So I stopped those, along with all coffee and meat. I'd say my reflux is 75% better at this point. I'm thrilled. I need to exercise, but I'm hoping to start as the weather turns. I also want to look at supplements like those that were mentioned in this post. I saw this as a possible option: https://enzymedica.com/products/digest-gold-enzymes-digestive-enzyme?variant=1125337536 I'm planning to stay on the diet until that 75% gets closer to 100%. I also made an appointment with a gastroenterologist, although now I'm not sure I need one. Just wanted to thank everyone who commented and gave their own experiences - they were just the motivation I needed to start! I'm also monitoring my sinus headaches to see if those get better with the diet. Fingers crossed!

I really, really like this idea of not making them write out everything! Thank you for suggesting it.

Any advice for finding MCT stuff used? I've never seen anything of theirs used and it's so expensive new!

Very helpful! Thank you!

I'd much rather NOT buy teacher manuals if I don't have to. Can anyone tell me if I need them for these curriculum choices: -MCT The Island Level (I definitely cannot afford both editions! Which edition is better?) -IEW theme books like Fables, Myths, and Fairy Tales (I do own TWSS) -Writing and Rhetoric Book 1: Fables I've never taught with any of these curriculums before and won't be buying all of them. Just trying to compare prices and such. Thanks!

Thanks PeterPan. Will check these out!

These links are awesome! I love the narrative format you mentioned. So many of the encyclopedia-type books I purchased have beautiful illustrations but can't keep out attention content-wise.

My oldest two are 8 and 6.

Would you say the editions are very similar?

Great idea. How did you find such books? I'm great at finding literature books my kids like to read, but science not so much. Would you say look for illustrated books at the library on topics that interest them? Check amazon reviews? How would you find science books? Thank you!

I do this all the time! Good reminder for me too!

I'm looking for the equivalent of Teaching the Classics for STEM. I am not very confident in science and want a book that can educate me on how to see and teach from a STEM perspective everyday. Any ideas?

This list is awesome! Thank you!!