What has helped me most with organizing for school has been blacking out the times when we can't school like Storytime, Co-op,meal time prep, whatever you do during the day. It surprised me how long it takes us to fix and eat lunch, for example. I was scheduling schoolwork for that time without realizing it. Then, I looked at the slots I had and fit the schoolwork aound our life. Which right now means we do what we can in the morning and then an hour after dinner. It's weird, I know. But it works because my husband is home days and gone evenings. A friend of mine realized she had to get up earlier and start earlier because she is always exhausted after lunch. What is your life like? When can you focus most? I see this as working with your strengths. When I tried to do other people's schedules it messed up the rhythm of our day. I couldn't get anything at all done.

Bigger is great for American history. My 7yo is doing it now. We will hit CtC by 4th grade unless we choose to slow down a bit. Why don't you have your 6th grader at least doing CtC? Then your younger could do Bigger. Or the older two could do CtC (at different speeds if they learn differently) and the younger ones TGTL.

Pixi Buch on I-pad has short little books with audio. Ana Lomba has a free one in many languages. I think I got some for I-pad from Cornelsen. Disney has a few read-along books in different languages. Lingu Pingu is a loved app. Dd's favorite app is a flashcard app called Lingo Arcade. The free version has a level for free. On youtube we love Kinderlieder zum mitsingen. But then, my kids can learn anything with songs. I pull vocab from the songs to make little mini- lessons and conversations. I wish I could find a book that did this already.

If I had to do it again, I would get Bobo Siebenschläfer in book and audio. Alphabet Garten has it. Then, I would start her with Learnables. Don't forget music, cartoons, and apps. Learnables looks a bit boring to an adult but both my children like it. Let me know if you want more recs.

This one is lame, but it's about Bundesländer. http://nthuleen.com/teach/culture/bundesland.html

I found this about parts of speech. http://vs-material.wegerer.at/musik/lieder/Sprachlehr-Allerlei.pdf This site has some things you might want to dig through.

Thanks for the replies. I do this every year where I go into super planning mode and try to find "better" ways to do things. I usually end up plugging away the way we have been doing. But, I like bouncing ideas off other people who have been there. The local homeschoolers I know are not like the ones here.

. Does anyone do this? I know many focus on Latin for grammar. We aren't doing Latin. We are committed to Spanish and German for the duration. I love Rod and Staff grammar and it doesn't take that long, but aren't we just going to repeat all this later? How much English grammar vs fl do we need?

For those who wonder why I am doing this, the other classes here are wonderful. This one is where they are failing. That's why I said I would take it and at least try. The teachers are required to supply everything. I just can't do that this year for this many children. Hopefully we can split the class. Thank you for the ideas. I had forgotten about the Games for Math book. I love the look of the Crazy 8s site. Thank you to everybody who took the time to write out ideas.

My children do full curriculum at home. Rod and Staff has been a good fit for math for my kids so far. One family uses Abeka. Some others delay or do random worksheets. I think that explains the wide age range. This class is only once a week. I think I am overthinking this. Some families, however, expect this to be all that is needed. It is a frustrating situation. What actually is K-2 math?

20 children 4-9 yo one room one teacher, one helper no texts limited access to printer no money How is this possible? So far I have skip cointing songs, a hundred chart, and a white board. I could teach a lesson on the whiteboard. I'm comfortable with that, But, how do I determine what to teach? Some children are learning to count. Others are on multiplicaton tables. Any ideas for games, etc. that would work for a class? My kids are in this class so I don't want it to be all fluff. I just don't know what to do that would accomplish anything useful.

Search for printable esl flashcards. They will have the graphics and word lists you will need to learn a language. You may have to provide the Spanish yourself. I think the one I looked at was mes-english.com.

Has anyone done this? I am trying to wrap my brain around how to put this together. We do two fl's using many resources. I would like to keep a record/reminder of what we do but I have never done anything like this. Thoughts?

I did this recently and they ordered three of our science books. I put in all our history read-alouds. I hope they get those too. I wish I knew their criteria for purchasing. Our other library has been good about inter-library loans. They don't charge for these. I save those for out-of-print books. We've had books from all over the country. Mostly from University libraries.

I was like this. The first week of seventh grade I did 40 lessons of Saxon math, for example. Does he need more challenging material? In skill subjects that did the trick for me. With subjects like history, etc., I would let him run with it. Why not? I have the other side to this problem. I tend to be like this, but my dd needs a steady pace.

I have found alot of this for free in German on googlebooks. Search under Fibel or Lesefibel. The current modern book for this method is ABC der Tiere. http://www.abc-der-tiere.de/lehrer/abc-der-tiere-1/schuelermaterialien/silbenfibelR/der-leselehrgang-einleitung/?PHPSESSID=a5ca2889b859cae58e8aca9d4d122d86

Has anyone heard about this or can tell me anything? http://edelsa.es/venta/index.php?route=product/category&path=59_292_71 I am very dissatisfied with what is available for spanish. I ran across this and wondered if anyone else had seen it.

I've been looking at Risas y Sonrisas. What made you decide to use that one? What else did you consider?

I am looking for an elementary Spanish program that is part to whole and not whole to part. Most of the programs are immersion-style which is great for exposure, but I would like something that goes somewhere and is rigorous. What we are doing now is scattered and time consuming. Most of the elementary programs I have looked at cover the same topics. I want something that is going to get us speaking Spanish. Any ideas? Maybe I overlooked some programs or maybe I underestimated some of them?

My brother wants to switch from K12 to something more conservative, more Christian. He wants something that keeps records for you. Also, it must be self-teaching- dvd, computer, etc. I don't homeschool like this so I have no idea. What does the hive say? He is looking at Abeka video, BJU satallite, SOS. Surely there are better choices out there. They have a 7 and a 9 year old.

We do the every day except Sunday thing. It has really cut down on the whining. It enabled me to work with dd at a better time of day for her as well. We do alittle in the morning and a little in the evening M-Sat. It is hard to explain to other people. I just had to realize that my child cannot cope without consistency day in and day out.

Which Fibel? I have been looking at several, but can't decide. Has anyone ever bought the teacher's manual? Does anyone know which use a more whole language method? I've heard this is the trend now. I can't imagine why when German is quite phonetic. It is so frustrating looking at Amazon. If I could look at it in person I would know if it would work for us.

I have been studying Greek this year with Pimsleur, FSI, and other free courses online. It has been hard to stay motivated without someone to talk to.

I add new songs quickly if I have a student that memorizes songs but does not read notes well. Memorizing the songs does not help later when the music gets harder. I add lots of same level supplementary material until that level is up to par and then move on. As far as how many songs at what age? For very young children we work on two songs a week. For students over the age of seven, we work on 3 or more songs a week. Each song is practiced 5-10 times each practice session.

Homemade video of you teaching would be fine. I think some of the latin programs do that. I would look up on the forum what people's complaints on these videos are and try to avoid those mistakes. Please try to keep the videos short. Most parent's will need to preview them, and simply do not have the time. I would like to spend only about 30 minutes/3 times a week with optional worksheets,games, reading, etc for the other days.