This looks like a good option for us. What do I need to buy for one kid? Do I need the regular book and the student text or just the regular book. Are there video links included with the digital version only that make that a better option?

I'd love some advice about which Chemistry programs I should consider. I'm looking for something for my 10 year old daughter (4th grade-ish). She would love hands on stuff of course. I need something without too many crazy materials needed, but I'm good with experiments. I will be reading the lessons to her and working through them with her, so we need a curriculum where that works. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Wow! Thank you for all the ideas so far!!!!

Any feedback on times alive?

My dd is starting 7th grade and I need some book suggestions for her. I have a hard time finding books for her to read that she enjoys. She is so sensitive. She loved the Clementine series, Baby Sitter's Club, and Dork Diaries. Reading at grade level is not a problem, but I struggle with finding content she can handle emotionally that is written at grade level. I am not even worried about keeping her challenged with grade level material at this point. I just want to keep her reading & enjoying it. I need books with very, very little "bad guy" content or sadness and no death. Any suggestions?

Any thoughts on making the transition from Math U See to Teaching Textbooks? My dd will be entering 7th grade and is ready for pre-algebra. We have been very happy with math u see. I am looking for something more hands off for me. I'd love a program where it can tell her when she makes mistakes and force correction. Having the curriculum and book online is also appealing. I don't want something that takes hours each day. Also is there flexibility with teaching textbooks as far as being able to back up & review or skip lessons or problems?

I would like to buy my almost 9 year old a “real” Bible, not a kids Bible. Her sister, who has always been a great reader, got one at this age so she would like one as well. This daughter is a struggling reader though. I want to find something that has chapter and verse numbers like any Bible, but she may be able to read it sooner than most versions. Any advice?

As my oldest will be in 6th grade next year I am thinking it is time to move her into something more formal for both science and writing composition. Agreed? Both of these things we have done organically in the past. We do museum programs, state park programs, snap circuits, travel journals, mystery science, language lessons, and so on but nothing formal. I'd love any suggestions of 6th grade writing composition program and science curriculum options. For science we will want a Biblical worldview. For both, I don't want anything overwhelming or incredibly time consuming.

My dd10 has not done much (probably not enough) composition. We have done handwriting and Language Lessons for the Very Young Child along with spelling and reading. We'd like to add a program to improve her ability to compose sentences and paragraphs. She likes to doodle and be creative, so something a little artsy would hold be great. Where do we start?

My 8 year old has no ability to cope with time deadlines. Games that require her to do something in a set amount of time cause her to panic. Are the challenges in mathletics time based?

My DD8 (2nd grade) needs some practice on addition facts. I am not too worried about her memorizing all of the facts or being able to respond on a timed test, but I feel like she needs to get more comfortable with them to allow her to continue doing well in math in general. The apps we have tend to all have a time factor which really stresses her out. She has trouble even trying to do the math because she is so worried about the blah blah that is going to happen in however many seconds. lol. Any suggestions for low pressure apps to practice addition and subtraction?

Yes. Picture Books would be perfect. Thanks!

We are going to be visiting Boston next month. I would love to find some books to read to my almost 5 year old that would give her a general overview of the part of US History around the time of the revolution in preparation for our trip. Any suggestions?

My daughter is only a few days away from finishing her light blue Math Mammoth 1A. We alternate with a Life of Fred lesson every few days. She LOVES Life of Fred, but is not a fan of the Math Mammoth. I have promised her we will choose something different for 2nd grade (which we will start as soon as we finish the 1st grade math mammoth). We have also done most of the Orange Miquon book, but that wasn't a hit either. I am not sure what her learning style is as she seems to have many characteristics of all types. She does strongly prefer Life of Fred to Miquon or Math Mammoth. I feel like she had more success with Math Mammoth than Miquon though. She does great with Life of Fred. She loves any word problems that we come across in Math Mammoth as well. Any suggestions on what I should consider doing next? We will continue with Life of Fred, but I would like to have something else to mix in with it.

My daughter will be 6 in May. She is expressing a lot of interest in learning to write in cursive. Should I just teach her? I see there are many people who believe cursive first is better. She is an early reader (Bob books, I Can Read Books, Dr. Suess), so I don't think recognizing printed letters would be an issue for her. She can print all of her upper and lower case letters, but they aren't perfect. We are finishing up HWOT. I had planned to move into A Reason For Handwriting A next. If I do cursive now, does that mean right now? After we finish HWOT? Any suggestions for the best way to teach cursive to a 5 year old?

Hi! I am a new homeschooling mom. My oldest will be 6 in May. We didn't send her to kindergarten this year as we didn't want to rush her. We want her to have another carefree year and be free to learn and play on her own and just be a kid. She is also pretty shy and we were undecided (especially my husband) about what type of school situation we wanted for her. We thought by next fall she would be six, braver maybe, and we would do kindergarten in one way or another. Now we have agreed that we are going to homeschool at least for next year. Yay! Now I am unsure of how to proceed. I feel like she is going to be beyond kindergarten level work by the fall. I am wondering if I missed a chance to do a fun kindergarten type thing with her. I am interested in maybe something like My Father's World or Heart of Dakota. Maybe. Or maybe something like just basic reading, writing, and math. Right now she can write all her upper and lower case letters. They aren't all exactly right but close. She loves to write. She is always asking how to spell things and writing notes and lists while pretending this or that. She can read a lot of words out in the real world. She says she can't read books, but she can read the first 22 BOB books without any problems. That is as many as she has tried. She can count to 100 with maybe 1 or 2 hints depending on the day. She can add and subtract numbers up to maybe 12 or 15 when we phrase the questions as real word questions or when she is making comments in normal life. She doesn't know "add" and "subtract" or how to read math problems on a page as we have never shown her that stuff. What would you do? Should I start something now and do like a half year of something for kindergarten now? Then do first grade with her in the fall? Should I stick with our original plan to take it easy and wait until the fall and then do kindergarten? Should I just wait until the fall and then do first grade? Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

They are in the process of adding wifi to the parks. When we were there at the end of September, the Magic Kingdom and Epcot had it in place. I took my ipod those days to check lines. The other two parks didn't have wifi in place yet, but they might now. I think by the end of the year they were all supposed to be done.

We are not actually homeschooling (at least not yet), but have been using HWOT with our 5 year old who is not yet in school. We haven't used the workbook at all yet for her to write in, but I look at it sometimes for the little saying and such. For us, we have used the wooden letters and the slates along with either the teacher manual or the workbook.

Thank you!

My oldest is 4.5. She isn't reading yet, but knows letters and sounds. She is interested and picks out some words. She loves to be read to! We read lots and lots of picture books. We will continue that of course, but I was wondering when I should add in a chapter book reading experience? Suggestions for what to start with? P.S. We do already read Little Bear and Frog and Toad books.