There was Challenging Word Problems from Singapore, but they discontinued those. You might be able to find it somewhere though. There's also Singapore Math 70 Must-Know Word Problems, and I believe Kumon also has books of word problems. I haven't used any of these yet.

We take vocabulary out of whatever we're reading. My oldest keeps a journal nearby when he is reading and writes down any new words. When he is finished with the chapter he looks up the words in the dictionary, and depending on the word, sometimes looks for a picture on the internet to print out and glue into his journal.

I didn't learn grammar formally until college, and while my case is sort of a disgrace, I still managed a graduate degree in linguistics (lots and lots of grammar). So, in the words of Paul Simon "my lack of education hasn't hurt me none...." and in the words of me, "whatever," to her.

I have kids in preschool, K, and 2nd grade. I will usually do a math lesson with my oldest, then while he is doing worksheets I can work with one of the younger children. The same goes for writing; I explain to him what he needs to do, then work with someone else while he is doing it, then I look at it when he's finished. We do science together - everybody learning the same thing.

We have used Saxon K twice, and 1 and 2 each once. I LOVE Saxon K. I think of it as fun and cuddly math. My oldest did not like Saxon 1 or 2 and I am so-so on them. I agree with posters who complained about whole lessons on very little things, but I usually just skip those if we already know them, or do two lessons that day. I really like SOME of the lessons. I would actually like it if Saxon made a book similar to Family Math with their lesson ideas for me to use at will. I'm not sure the full spiral approach works for my oldest. We end up supplementing with A LOT of workbooks. I am thinking about switching to Right Start.

That's about the level my Ker is at now too. He has just finished Saxon K and is ready for Saxon 1. I'm thinking about switching to Right Start though and did the placement test online and it put him at level b - SO - my thought is that you could put your ds in a 1st grade program.

Some of the magazines at www.cricketmag.com are really good.

Sigh. I don't have it all figured out yet. This is what I'm thinking so far. Moving Beyond the Page 6-8 level - buy the curriculum only and check the books out from the library History Odyssey Ancients level 1 Caught 'Ya Grammar with a Giggle 1st grade AAS level 2 Nancy Larson science level 1 Math - Don't know - I am SO sick of Saxon, but we already own it I'm not totally settled on this, mainly because of price. I shake my fist at the price of MBTP.

You hae a low budget so you want inexpensive cookbooks or recipes that call for inexpensive ingredients? Here's a transcript of a radio essay I listened to on NPR once that recommends three books. I would also recommend The Moosewood Cookbook. You should try checking them out from your library and photocopying only the recipes you want if there aren't many. As far as decadent food with cheap ingredients goes, I'll wait to see if someone else has any ideas. :)

More love for Kumon. I especially love Cutting, Easy Crafts, and Easy Mazes.

I took some Latin in college and also my MA is in Linguistics (which doesn't make me an expert on Latin, but is sure helpful). Would it be helpful for you if I explained some of the terms for you, or is that not much of a problem? If you want to list anything you have a question about, I'll do my best.

I love lace and link letters, Kumon cutting, Kumon Easy Crafts, and printing out alphabet coloring pages which my youngest fills in with watercolors, crayon, stickers, and do-a-dot blotters.

We like to do fiction/nonfiction combinations. So, the magic tree house series is a good example of that - first read the fiction book and journal about it, then read the guide and journal about it. With my oldest, we do that with any book he's interested in reading though. Right now he's reading The World According to Humphrey. He is almost done so today he went to a couple of websites with information about hamsters and journaled about them, and he'll also get some books from the library. I like it because it can connect to what he's studying in science or history.

We haven't made any (YET), but I LOVE and often drool over this book.

With my children in grades K and 2 - Saxon, Singapore and time4learning plus Moneybags though I don't actually recommend this game (works, but it's boring. If only someone would spill something all over it so I could get a different money game.) additional workbooks, but the only one I recommend (so far) is Flash Forward Math Yahtzee Hoping to get Math Blasters soon.

Discovering Great Artists

I didn't take a strong stance at all. I said it is clear that opinions vary. You might want to look up "lie on a continuum" yourself before taking such a strong stance on my sincere interest in the different points of view.

It is interesting that some Christians won't use it becuase they consider it secular. Most secular people I talk to consider it too religious, but use it anyway. Here are some links regarding the religiosity of the text. Link Link Link I have not read it myself, but clearly the opinions on how religious the book is lie on a continuum.

Sorry, I wasnt finished. My laptop is too little and I hit keys by accident and things happen against my wishes. Anyway - does HO only have you read the parts of SOTW that are not religious? If this is the case, please let me know. Otherwise, their curriculum is just confusing to me.

Well, it is considered a secular alternative to SOTW activity books, right? At least that's what I've seen elsewhere. So, Christians might not want to use it because it is secular, and don't necessarily need it. Then, while it says it is supposed to be a secular alternative, it still uses SOTW as a spine, even though SOTW is Christian, so it seems that would make secular homeschoolers who do not want to use a religious curriculum not want to use this one either.

Oh! I forgot about Jim Henson's the Storyteller: Greek Myths These I have watched. Honestly, I think they're a little strange. :) That doesn't mean I don't like them though. My kids liked them, but they are younger than yours.

Michael Clay Thompson language arts curriculum from Royal Fireworks Press. I have never used it myself, so that's about all I can tell you.

I have never used llatl, but my children have felt the same way about learning to read. I think it is generally a tedious thing to do. Obviously it needs to be done, but your child is not the only one who wants to learn to read, but "without the fuss." We use SSRW, and though it is successful, it is tedious, like I said. I just imagine it is similar to llatl in that respect. We have been using time4learning.com to supplement phonics lessons for my middle child and it seems to be helping a lot. Another thing that helps is readers he enjoys. He doesn't like the books that come with the program very much. He likes phonics comics such as this, this and this best. He also enjoys Dr. Maggies Phonics Readers.

I haven't watched these yet, but I'm hoping to use some imax movies mystery of the nile vikings: journey to new worlds mummies - secrets of the pharaohs greece - secrets of the past They have them all on netflix.