I'm looking for the teacher's guide and any books that go with this. You can email me at populatingdakota@hotmail.com Thanks! Susanna

When I tutored the ABC's we ended eachclass by playing a gmae for review. By this time thier attentions apans were used up so it was a good way to keep them focused for the rest of class. Some ideas: Pick any boared game or kid's game: Go around the circle, ask each child a random review question. If they get it right they get to take a turn at the game. Depending on the game, you can split them up into teams. Games that work well: Jenga (individual, not teams), Jumping Monkeys, Pick up Sticks, Cat in the Hat, Battle Ship for older kids, etc, etc. Play a version of Doggy, Doggy Where's your Bone: One kid goes outside the door, another child hides the eraser (or whatever you have). Child #1 comes in and has to find what was hidden. The rest of the class sings or says a review sentence while he's looking. The class (who knows where it's hidden) sings louder if the child is close to the hidden object and quieter if the child is far away from the hidden object. This works great for timelne, history songs, bible, science songs, math songs, etc. This is my kid's all time favorite game! You may have to put a time limit on how long they have to hide it though, they really get into it! Draw pictures for the sentences (especially history) to teach them sentence, then cut it up and let the kids put it together as a puzzle. Stick Memory Cards to the bottom of the kids chairs before class. At the end of class split them into teams and let them pull them off one at a time and answer the questions. They can get a point for each one they answer correctly. Hope this helps! Susanna Mom of 8 ages 12 - 1 (and one more blessing on the way!)

I'm trying to decide between Winterpromise American Story 1 and Sonlight, either Core 3 or Core 3+4 for my 8, 7, and 6 year olds. My 4 1/2 year old will be listening in. All my kids do Classical Conversations (which will be American History) and my 5th and 7th graders will be doing Sonlight Core 100 (the 5th grader with modifications). Here are my questions: I've heard WP AS1 is choppy as far as events in history, is Sonlight the same? Does anyone know anything about the new "hands on" stuff that sonlight is offering in the new catalog? I'm a little worried my younger kids will get tired of all the sonlight reading (although they love to read) and need some hands on stuff to do. (The 6 and 7 year olds are active boys!) Which leads to the next question, I have 8 kids 12 and under. I love to do hands on stuff but it often doesn't happen because we just get busy. Are the hands-on activities of WP easy to do, easy to find materials for, and are they something the kids can mostly do on their own? As far as sonlight Core 3 vs Core 3+4...Does Core 3+4 move so quickly that they will miss out on stuff? Thanks for your insight! Susanna: Mom to D (12), S(10), D(8), S(7), S(5), D(4), S(2),D(6 months) and wife to a wonderful husband!