we have the royal diaries one. there are some others, but you would have to make sure that you get them from the children's section. . . . here is a list i found when i googled, scroll down to children's books http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/Russia/Romanov/CatherineII.html

good stuff here: http://www.homeschoolcreations.com/Geography.html

dd who is almost 6 is working on spelling words based on SWR rules. i have her learn the rule and a word list. she just started the free grammar lessons on English Grammar 101 http://lessons.englishgrammar101.com/EnglishGrammar101/Foreward.aspx this is gentle and slow. and also works well since she is not writing much. i don't want to require much writing beyond handwriting lessons. i still take these pretty gentle. she is such a new reader that she gains quite a lot of spelling, vocabulary and grammar from reading. i want her to have plenty of time for free reading and exploration.

from looking at the two it seems that it would be easier to pinpoint a mistake in a student's work in long division easier. which doesn't really metter in a homeschooling situation because you can have time to sit and talk to them about every single problem if you want. i have yet to reach this bridge, but i would say doing it both ways would be a good idea. what is perfect for one kid is not for another. though short looks like the winner to my eyes my kids have been known to surprise me with their methods.

it seems gentle and fun, my dd couldn't use it because he writing skills are so far behind her reading skills. i only have the blue, i used the book suggestions and we used the readers. i think they are worlds better than bob books. one of the first books dd ever read was Mom is hot. ha!

my dd is five and we do nature studies, animal studies and magnets and electricity as three separate subjects. when it is too cold to go outside much we will probably do more of the electricity and less of the nature. we are also reading aristotle leads the way as a history text.

it will help if he has note cards to read as a fall back, or even just reading the information off of the back board. i noticed at 4-H presentations that note cards really helped the kids who had them. better to make it through the information without eye contact than freeze up and become even more embarrassed. my kids have surprised me. my dd is very shy but has no stage fright when dealing with a prepared performance. my ds will engage in conversations with strangers and do all sorts of ridiculous improv for anyone who will watch but on parent observation day for tumbling he wouldn't perform and after that wouldn't participate anymore at all in dance or tumbling because of the chance of performance.

my 5yo dd loves the usborne book of greek mythology, she picks that over the d'aulaires for reading to herself.

i am totally guilty of this! i also round up when guessing kids ages. in my defense i do this because the kids are usually in earshot. i will also tell a five year old that they run faster than a nine year old.

here we love good times travel agency (dd will read them over and over) magic school bus ms frizzles adventures american girl mathstart books diary of a roman slave- we have had fines on this book from the library three times now. i think she would love the others in this series but we haven't tried them yet. any step by step drawing books easy readers and storybooks in spanish just like me usborne book of greek myths celtic myths american tall tales great painters great composers animals in art national geographic encyclopedia of animals childhood of famous americans scholastic biographies

try donna young http://donnayoung.org/penmanship/manuscript-animations.htm

hane you looked at the complete book series? the seem to cover the basics. or really you could do the 3 r's and then do science and history over the summer! for sure it is more important to hold a baby, every month is different and 5 months is a very mom focused age. big kids can wait a few months to go on a nature walk. :) by then they can take turns with the baby.

looks great, love the bookcases . . . our room is STILL a work in progress. ha! you have reminded me that i really need to rehang our world map.

some we have that dd read in addition to tons of twaddle: owl at home oliver pig frog and toad oscar otter little bear a bargain for frances wagon wheels mouse soup poppleton grasshopper on the road sam the minuteman the big balloon race the drinking gourd

the magic finger by roald dahl, my dd loves this book. dd also has been reading the usborne book of greek myths and the sam mcbratney celtic myths book- lots of males but some strong females. she likes the american girl books but these don't sound like your dd would like them much. if she does want to give them a try dd says the mysteries are better than the regular series. magic school bus chapter books are great. a little more difficult than a magic treehouse but short fast paced chapters. i think the quality of writing in the disney fairies books is a little better than the rainbow fairies but the rainbow fairies books have more action and less interpersonal relationship drama. unicorn chronicles are said to be good fantasy writing. dd has one but hasn't started it yet.

what are your goals? counting? number recognition? for counting i would give her a number of items you know she can count and have her count them everyday for a few days, then give her one more to add to her collection, etc. get to about 30 and then start using the collection to match to other items, to take away, to bring together, to compare quantities, to make simple patterns. for number recognition make or buy a hundred chart and count with her while pointing at the numbers- up to 10, then 20, then add counting down. add more numbers to you counting only when she feels ready, once she gets the pattern you can start skip counting by 10's.

i think it might end up being everything by joy hakim. i want to love her stuff, the writing is so engaging and the concept is great. but really the christian bias drives me nuts. i feel the whole time reading it that she is writing a text that is supposed to be secular, but for a christian audience. i am surprised that people like her so much, because to my mind she misses the mark on every audience except for very liberal christians or spiritual agnostics.

addition and subtaction to to 9+9 skip counting through 10's up and down

with saxon K we did about 2 lessons a day 5 days a week. and we used it for preK. my dd LOVED it, especially the meeting, she likes structure. saxon 1 was too much writing for her, and harder to accelerate because of the writing. to combine the grades i would think that you could do a modified meeting to accomodate all of them, then work youngest to oldest on the lessons.

are you reading chaucer you them? jk! ha! but i do find classics to be racier than contemporary kids lit. regardless of what you don't like about the book, if you know that this is a recurring issue for you keep the reciept, at many stores you CAN return a book in new condition within a certain period of time. i also like to check out books from the library to peruse before i buy, but that isn't always possible.

we have done great with miquon since i stopped reading the teacher guides. i say something along the lines of "here is your math, do you need help?" . if she does i figure out if it is the math or the format and then we go from there maybe making up a few of our own examples or coming up with something else to illustrate the same concept. if it is taking longer than about 15 minutes we take a break and pick it up again the next day. mostly though she just does the work. one page front and back if they make sense together. but this is kindergarten. i am pretty sure i could have the whole kindergarten math thing locked down with a blank notebook and a pile of rocks. maybe i will need to revisit the teacher material a few books in to miquon.

brand new readers LLATL readers scholastic high frequency readers the wright group readers dick and jane

for animals i really like national geographic encyclopedia of animals as a spine. we are taking a break right now because my daughter was very upset about the conservation watch information on each page that tells the number of species in that order that are endangered. i think this would probably not be a problem for most children.

my daughter is only in K, so i am no expert, but we have a similar situation. for quite some time she has coasted through math and a few days ago she was doing something she found hard and tells me, "I used to love math. Now I'm not good at math." maybe i am a jerk, but i think learning to do work that actually challenges her and to chug along even when it is hard is quite healthy and that she will feel accomplished and confident for not giving up. now if the concepts are not coming at all or it is always a struggle i will bring in another approach and slow it down, but still will not go for giving up just because it takes extra effort. i REALLY don't want her to think that she can only be good at something that comes naturally.

i started this year with word lists from phonics II flash cards from the dollar spot at target. we would go over the blend or digraph then the words then i would have her help me come up with a couple of more words that would belong on the list. she would write them two times each. possibly she would play around with them on spelling city, she would let me know when she wanted to test. we whipped through those, sometimes going over the rules more than the words because she could spell many of them but didn't know the rules. i added a few lists as i saw fit- like covering all of the r controlled vowels instead of just two of them. i am now using the rules from SWR to create lists so we can start up again. and i am sure i could have filled the rest of the year just by using rules i know and google, but i had the SWR rules offered to me. i try to remind her that she knows a certain rule so she can correct her own spelling. this works great.