I just cut it out (bars included) and stick it in my AAS book to keep in the event a word has to go to jail. I just stick the word behind the bars. DS was so excited when one of the words had to go to jail. He had been looking forward to it ever since he saw there was a word jail. I don't do anything fancy with it. Beth

My son (7 years old) has loved: Boxcar children Cam Jansen ( a little too easy?) Jigsaw Jones A-Z Mysteries Capital Kids Mysteries Cul-de-sac Kids books by Beverly Lewis 3 Cousins Detective Club by Elspeth Campbell Murphy My Fathers Dragon (and follow up books - least bit of "twaddle") Magic School Bus chapter books (which contain a bunch of fun science stuff) I'm not sure what you consider "twaddle", they are all a little bit "non-classic", but fun to read. I'd say the first 20 books of the boxcar children are the best reading and My Father's Dragon books. Most of the above are not on the same level as a Star Wars book or Babysitter Club book. Beth

Is there such a thing? Do laser printers save on ink costs? I am finding that I am starting to print out more and more while making multiple copies on my inkjet printer. The cost of ink is getting to be a bit much. I do try to refill the cartridges, but that only works so well. Do laser printers print more efficiently and at a better cost? Do you have a recommendation? Beth

Aside from the library and internet- a purely "have to buy" thing would be flashmaster. It really helps kids learn their math facts somewhat painlessly. Beth

I'm replying just to bump it up- I would get a lot of early reader books. Nora Gaydos has some very cute controlled readers. I would get a bunch of the Dr. Suess books and Little Bear books, even going up to a little harder like Nate the Great. These are fun books just to hear and look at even if her kids don't get to them reading wise. We used Alpha Phonics and flailed around with LA until just recently so I'm no help there. Possibly for handwriting, she could try the Startwrite software if she has access to a printer, computer, and paper. That way, she could make up as many worksheets as she needed for the space of a small CD. Sonlight Core K would be a great fit. I would add in extra readers just to have that correspond to the core (again just to make the year go longer and also just to have in case of reading through the books faster than scheduled) for example: extra Boxcar children books, The book of Pooh, "In Grandma's attic" series books, My Father's Dragon has 2 more books in the series, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has extra books in the series... Also, just fun science books that relate to what they're learning - I'm trying to think of all the things we get at libraries that she would not have access to. Beth

I will assign the books I want ds to read that are "better" books (I'm thinking Charlotte's Web, Winnie the Pooh, ect.). Those are for school. He can read whatever he wants (within some guidelines - boxcar children would be one of these) in his own free time. I also established a reward chart. There are books I would like him to read on his own initiative and I give him a certain star value for those books. When he reaches a certain number of stars on a chart, he gets a comic book (within our boundaries again, but still a comic book) or can exchange 2 comic book rewards for a movie out with Dad. He's done enough for a movie and is halfway to a comic book. I'm trying to change what he considers to be good reading too since I was like you and let him read anything - as long as he was reading. On another note, we as adults like to read "brain candy" books every once in a while, so I think it will be O.K. for our kids every so often. Beth

I realized the need to have a homeschool library when ds hit the 3rd grade reading level. Our library has a lot of JUNK! Now even, the Hardy Boys are being replaced with Hardy Boys graphic novels. I too do not have a problem with a comic book here and there, but the library is starting to become a place of kid/mom contention. "But why can't I get this book?!" is starting to be heard more and more. We use MFW and love the book basket thing, but it's coming to a point where I don't want to go to the library because ds can't find anything that looks good to read (and that I approve of). I'm just sticking to requesting the book basket books from MFW and just buying all the chapter books I think would be good for ds to read. Here's a plug for buying books too. Ds would not read Encyclopedia Brown. I kept telling him he would like it. He wouldn't touch it even if I checked it out from the library. I found one at a garage sale and bought it. 1 week later ds read it and loved it. YAY! It was just because it was sitting around. He will also read on his own books on science or history that are on the shelves- just because it looks interesting. We will be getting more books as we can afford them. My mom has a joke that says "homeschoolers don't need insulation, they just buy bookshelves!" BIG QUESTION - someone mentioned a scanner that tells what books they have. How does this work? Can you scan all your books, go to the bookstore and find a book and will the scanner tell you if you have it? Beth

I have the home instructors guides from Sonlight. I rarely use them. They do have some nice practice in the back for mental math drills. They have games to help the child learn the concept. They also include a day to day schedule. We are in 3A right now. I am math minded, so I usually have no problem explaining the problem or finding the right answer, BUT, if you need a little extra help teaching math, I would start the instructors guides by at least level 3. The textbook pretty much explains everything you need to know. I would tell your friend to try it out and if she feels like she needs a little extra help to teach the concepts, then get the instructors guides. I've heard they are more helpful as you get further on in the course. Beth

We do dictation in AAS and PLL (but this still applies). My ds is not a natural speller. When he has a dictation sentence in PLL, we will go through it together and he'll tell me what words he doesn't know how to spell. I will write those on the top of the page. If there's a word I know he should be able to spell, we will go over the rule. I figure, eventually with all the dictation, copywork, and AAS spelling, he'll get it. I see dictation as more of a way to get proper sentence structure. I do like AAS because all the dictation sentences are words they should know. Beth

I used them with Sonlight Core K two years ago. I did the Bible for beginniners one. I would just use them for copywork mostly (it gave it a more "notebooky" feel). When we studied a missionary, I would use the missionary pages from the CD. The only pet peeve I had with them is that you seemed to need internet access. It wasn't (at least 2 years ago) just a CD that you could pop in. It did need website access to work. It wasn't a problem, but it would have been for friends who have limited computer internet minutes. Just so you know that! Beth

A side note with the tiles. They do come all color co-ordinated for the letter "pairs" (such as er, wh, st, tr ect...). We don't use those. My son tends to think that since it's only one tile, it's only one letter so when we get to the spelling on paper part, he will make it one letter (especially on things like the "wh" sound). So, I tend to ignore that they're there. So, if you use the program like I do, the tiles are necessary, but regular letter tiles would work too. But like the other posters mentioned, the tiles are not that expensive. Magnitize them though. Beth

We started PLL at the end of 2nd grade and will finish up in 3rd grade. I agree that it is a 2nd semester LA course. It would be great for 3rd grade. May I suggest the Hillside version shown here? http://www.hillsideeducation.com/pll.php It is visually more appealing in that the print is more spaced out and they do have colored pictures. It also lays flat due to a spiral binding. I like it! Beth

Flashmaster! It will take up half your budget, but I don't think anything beats it when learning math facts. It's simple to use and a child can use it independently. Less than 10 minutes a day and your child will learn their math facts well! DK and Usborne books (or any of those big books with the great pictures). I could get these from the library, but when they're around the house, I've noticed my kids just reading them for fun - just because the mood was right. I want to keep more of them around. Half priced books will be the place to go for those. Beth

My Father's World All About Spelling Singapore Math Beth

Maybe the math thing is just our district. The teacher wanted everyone to really get their +/- facts down before starting multiplication. It makes me wonder now too. I think they've been introduced to multuplication, I'm not sure that they work on drills though. I just wanted people to not freak out when their child tests lower than their grade level in Singapore. Beth

I just got information from a teacher who teaches 3rd grade at the public school. She says that children start multiplication in 4th grade (we live in MN). Singapore math 3A starts multiplication. So, if your child is testing lower than their grade, this is why. Singapore appears to be a year ahead the regular public school math program. Just so you know! Beth

Would this work for MFW ECC? Or would that be overkill? Beth

My son did adventures last year. He was reading at a 3rd-4th grade level. It was just enough. There were times when I felt like he should have a little more reading on his level and was able to find books in the book basket list or I just had him read the read alouds. He did read some books lower than his level, but he was able to retain the information better since they were easy to read. The D'aulaire books on American history would be good to read at that level. They are suggested in the book basket list. There is also the "Childhood of Famous Americans" that would fit nicely with whomever you would be studying. Ywam publishing also prints a bunch of books about famous americans (Christian Heros now and then). I think Adventures would be fine. There are lots of books available and it is a good program even for an advanced reader. The program is as rigorous as you make it. We found it to be plenty. I did not think of it as "light". There's enough time to have a really academic program when they're older and the CM approach of MFW has the kids really learning, but not being overwhelmed. Beth

Now this is what I'm trying to figure out! The "no-schoolers". I really don't care if the child is 1 year behind in math because that's the speed they can go. What I do care about is if they're 1 year behind in math because "we are so busy, we never get to it". I just am not sure how to encourage those moms to see homeschooling as their job - not just something we get to when I don't have other stuff going on. We did have a mom in our group that decided not to homeschool anymore because she wanted to do other stuff with her life like volunteer with various organizations. She was honest with her time limits. She decided she couldn't do both and made a choice. I worry about the ones that want all the volunteer stuff but don't find the time to fit in homeschooling. The "no-schoolers". Maybe I just need to ask the question -"If you were paying for your child to attend a school like you have, would you feel like you're getting your money's worth?" I guess if the answer is yes, I can only try to encourage more and pray a lot. Beth

I do like the mentorship thing. The problem is (maybe all groups are not like this), but the ones who could be mentors tend to be busy because they're running teens around or other very good reasons. We're trying to get them back somehow just so they can give all of us who have no idea what we're doing some feedback. We're trying! No, I don't think government intervention is the way to go. I guess I'm thinking of organizations that Christian non-profits join to tell others that they're fiscally responsible. Something that if a homeschool family joined, the government would say, "well, if you're accountable to them, you don't need to be accountable to us." (I know dream world!) I just think the government is desperately wanting to regulate homeschoolers more and it's a battle that doesn't seem to go away. I guess I'm just trying to think of alternatives that could work. Beth

I've been having thoughts about accountability with homeschoolers. I am a support group leader and every once in a while, I'll hear something like this.."Oh we haven't been able to school now for a few weeks! I've been so busy!" Or something like this "(Insert name here) is behind a year in math. We just never get to it." This is from people who just are busy with extra non-education related stuff. It's not due to illness or pregnancy. It just seems like mom has a lot of extra stuff on her plate. Now, I realize that most of us who homeschool really want our kids to do well, but homeschooling is becomming more mainstream and there are going to be the people who homeschool "on the side". I don't want the government to be the accountability. But I feel like there should be some accountability. Usually, we extend grace to the people who just never seem to get around to homeschooling. But how can we keep each other accountable? Has anyone ever thought of having a non-profit homeschool accountability program? Beth

We used the first llftvy. We are switching to PLL. IT seemed like most of the book was copywork of poems (ex..here's a poem, you'll be copying it for the next 10 days. That drove me nuts! I appreciate copywork, but it seems like I could find a good poem to copy and I just wanted it for the language arts lessons. So, we're changing to PLL and overall, I think it's a much better program. Beth

I'm with Jessica- I need the structure so I'll be buying a pre-k curriculum. I didn't need it with my oldest because he had a lot of time with just me and it was easy to do learning activities together. I need the structure with ds who will be 4 just to give me something concrete to do with him where I know he will get mommy time all to himself. I read to him and he joins in with big brother's stuff, but I just want to make sure he gets some alone time with mom too. Beth

About the sing spell read and write pre-k...it looked interesting, but I noticed it doesn't have a daily schedule. Does it and I'm missing that aspect of it? Beth

I'm looking for a pre-k curriculum which will teach numbers, letters and their sounds, have cutting activities, and all that preschool stuff for a 4 year old. I know I could make my own easily, but I'm one of those people who like to have a thought out plan in front of me to follow (mainly because if I don't, I won't). I'm not looking for something too workbooky (some is O.K.). I have MFW preschool toys, but there is no daily schedule and while I have good intentions, I never seem to find the follow through without a daily list of what to do. Any suggestions? BEth