Hello. My 4th grader will be doing the Portraits of an American girlhood series so it will be leading us in what we read, when, etc. I will be using the biographies that I am purchasing for her curriculum as read alouds for the whole family (Childhood of famous Americans). We will also be watching the nest Animated Hero videos. I plan to give my dd who will be doing K, coloring sheets on the hero/person that we are working on and trying to include her in history as well. I am thinking about buying some of the Cornerstone of America books for my son who will be doing 6th grade. He can probably read at least a few of these books a week and I am hoping that this will give him a good grasp of history in an interesting way. I was hoping to add a timeline on our upper wall of what time period we are learning about, some of the important people that we are learning about, and what is going on in that time period. This could be something that everyone took turns working on. I have not figured out how to create this timeline yet so all ideas are welcome. I know that my thoughts do not sound very organized, but I am trying to organize them. This will be my first year homeschooling and although I am quite certain that this is what is best for my family, I still don't know what I am doing. Also, I would like for my children to learn the 50 state locations and capitals this year. (at least the oldest). Is that even something that I should be thinking about while teaching American history? All of my other subjects just seemed to fall from the heavens into my lap, but this is one that I just can't quite figure out (for the 6th grader). Any suggestions or input would be appreciated.

WOW!! Beautiful!! I would love to do something like that!!

Are there maps in the back of the older editions?

Cinder, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I did not know about the LES website but I really appreciate you telling me about it. I am all signed up and ready to start ordering. Thank you, thank you!!

I will definitely look more into this Elizabeth!! Thank you so much.

I read my son his first abridged classic at 4. It was Tom Sawyer. The next day I had to read him Swiss Family Robinson. Then I had to run out and buy more. I believe that he read through most of the abridged classics by the time he was in second grade. They sparked his love of reading and he is now reading at 11th grade level while in the 5th grade. I am getting ready to buy him all of the unabridged versions to read. I would not do this any of other way. =D

awesome!! Thanks so much!!

I just found something. =) Not what I was looking for but I thought I would put it here incase anyone is interested. http://www.minuteconstitution.com/

I would love to print up some foldable pocket guides for things like common flowers, birds, etc. Does anyone know of a site that I can get this from?

Thank you Susie in MS for telling me what OOP means. That only makes sense. I really think that I am going to love the POAG. Since I want to make reading our main focus this year, when I heard about it, I just knew that we had to try it. I'm trying to make sure that I have all of the supplemental materials needed which is why I am trying to buy the COFA books. I purchased the nest videos a few days ago. =D We will be doing Math Mammoth for our math supplement.

OhElizabeth, thank you so much for the link. I have never heard of eye therapy before but after reading on it, it makes sense. I will look further into this. I really appreciate your reply!! I am glad that you are able to help your daughter!! Hopefully she is not stubbing her toes all the time anymore.

Thank you OhElizabeth for taking the time to write to me. I am so glad that I posted because I DO think that my daughter needs glasses. She sometimes misreads words that I know she knows and she says that her eyes hurt alot. I took her to the doctor and they did a vision checked and her results were horrible so the referred me to an eye doctor. We went there and he basically told me that he just thinks that my daughter wants glasses and that she does not really need them. He said that she does have a slight vision problem but that glasses would just make her vision worse. I am going to find a new eye doctor. I am so happy to hear that your family loves the COFA books. I'm hooked from the first one and I am sure that they are well worth the cost of the book, I'm just trying to save pennies right now. I can't believe that my library does not carry them. They just seem so wonderful!! Thank you again. Oh and what does oop mean?

I am starting the American Girl unit this year and one of the history series that the author suggests is the Childhood of famous americans series. I just happen to have one of these books on hand so I started reading it with my dd today. I love it, I want to go pick it up and finish it while soaking in my tub. She seemed interested enough in it, so I am trying to buy all of these books. My question is, if I cannot buy these books at a decent price, is there anything compatible to this series that anyone knows about? I do not know what it would be called, but these history books read like a story but are actually history books. My dd's reading level is about grade 4. She is not a strong reader and she does not actually have an interest in reading which is why we are doing the American Girl unit next year. I am hoping to open her reading door in life. Thank you. =D

I am in a virtual charter school. We have made no changes to how we school, except that we have to check in periodically. However, my kids have all sorts of opportunities now that we couldn't afford before we started this program. Hi Rosy. Do you mind me asking what virtual charter school program you are using. I stopped looking into the online route because I wanted to teach what I wanted to teach, not what I was told to teach, but if you were able to continue with your current curriculum, I am all ears!! :bigear: Also, how did this make it possible for you to afford extra curricular opportunities? I would like to be able to do more with my children but this is the worst financial year of my life and I cannot do all that I would like to do with them.

Thank you for your opinion Carrie. I need to go see if she has a placement test because I don't even know if my dd would be able to use it for very long. MM is affordable enough that I could always start out with it and move to teaching texts if it didn't work out.

bump.

I have a dd who is going into 4th grade. She is very good at math and she catches on to math concepts quite quickly. She is currently in public school and when I asked her teachers opinion about homeschool math curriculum for next year (he is a homeschooling advocate), he said that Dora needs to be teacher led but that she needs a mastery type program. I have narrowed my search down to either Teaching Textbooks or Math Mammoth. I have also considered Life of Fred, my dd is NOT a reader and I am afraid that she will skim read over too much of LOF. So, I am thinking that Math Mammoth is more of a mastery type program, but that it is not as teacher led. Teaching texts does seem teacher led since the nice man explains everything to you. I am not the best with giving examples on how to do math. Sometimes I make no sense to dd. I'd love to get everyones opinions on MM vs. TT. Oh, and btw, I Meant to add the my dd is an auditory learner which is why her teacher suggested teacher led math.

Wow, I was just getting ready to ask about SM vs. MM and I found this thread. Jackie, thank you for explaining how SM tells you to teach the fractions. I was completely lost by just reading it.

It's working fine for me.

I do not know a spelling website that goes up to high school but I was very happy to find http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/spelling-level-d.html . It goes up to 4th grade. Even though this might not help you, I was hoping that it might help someone looking at your thread. =)

Thank you!! I am very excited. =)

What does TQ stand for? Ooops, nevermind, I found out with a little more searching on this board instead of through google. =) Tanya

Thanks to everyone for showing me what your schedule looks like. I was hoping to kind of be flexible with our school days (we have soccer year round except summers 5-7 days a week if weather permits) so I really wanted to be done around 2 pm to give the kids some free time. I also did not want to start until sometime between 9 and 10 am. I plan to have my eldest do his history reading independently when he has the time (he always finds time to read) so I might just be able to do this as long as he doesn't waste his own time. =D Thanks again!

I was reading another thread which prompted me to wonder not only how long your day lasts but what subjects you do in that day. I saw several posts with the timeline of their school day but not so many with what is done during that day. I plan for the days to be kind of light with my younger two schooled children but for my going to be sixth grader, I am curious as to how long it could take. We plan to do daily pre-algebra (chalk dust), Noeo science, history which in our case will mostly involve grade level reading that should not take him long at all, wordly wise, latin (beginning) language arts. Does anyone have a schedule similar to this? I am just curious because my children are currently in public school and I know that there is alot of wasted time so to read that I might be schooling from 8-3ish comes as a surprise. Tanya