I posted details on my blog about getting free teaching materials, including colorful, full size posters from The Mineral Information Institute, mii.org. I included a pic of one of the posters I received, a big, bright periodic table I pinned above my desk. The materials are interesting and well worth ordering!

And I was thinking it was sooooo right! lol :)

I really like the Spanish book, so does dd 12. I had bought Spanish for Children first but it was too wordy and seemed overly complicated for us as complete beginners. We are loving GSWS and learning a lot together. After we finish GSWS we will probably revisit Spanish For Children. I'm hoping that with the knowledge we gain and a fresh eye the book will be a good fit for next year.

I voted both. I use Homeschool Skedtrack free online. They didn't have an option to print weekly plans, but now they do. Yay! I was using weekly planner pages I made myself, just basic grid style and pencil. I would sit down on the weekend and write up our plans for the week. Before the beginning of the year I would enter all info for most subjects for the year on Homeschool Skedtrack. Now that I can print the week view I print instead of using pencil and paper. It rocks!

Here's some cute spring crafts. I get everything ready and put it in baggies for my dd with crafts like this. Rainy Window Garden Plans scroll down a bit Paper Chain Caterpillar Baby Blue Birds Butterfly Life Cycle Mobile though storing this one after may be a problem? Caterpillar Turned Butterfly There's more on my pinterest board.

Would YOU keep or drop the e in these words when adding the suffix -able? I know the rule drop the final e when adding a suffix with a vowel. I looked up these words and it seems most are correct either way. I'm just curious how other people spell them. Some of these I drop the e, some I don't. I suppose I will teach the kids to spell them the same way I do, but I'm wondering if there is any general consensus on how to spell them? bite shake move hate live name rate size sale rope For the most part find myself wanting to keep the final e with these words when they have a long vowel. Here's how I spell them: biteable shakeable movable hateable livable nameable rateable sizable saleable ropeable

This rule is why I'm asking. :) I've seen the words both ways, and looking them up it seems both ways are correct for at least some of them. Some of the words I've never spelled by dropping the e, namely ratable, hatable, bitable, namable, shakable. I guess because to me the vowel then seems short? I would definitely spell them rateable, hateable, biteable, nameable, shakeable. I was curious how others spelled the words. For some reason sizable, salable, and livable seem more okay to me, though really livable and sizable would be the only ones I would drop the e.

Would YOU keep or drop the e in these words? biteable, shakeable, moveable, hateable, livable, nameable, rateable, sizeable, saleable, ropeable

Depends on the age. For a younger child, 8 and under, I'd spell it. For an older child I would have them try to spell it themselves, remind them of any rule that may help if they misspell and/or have them look it up.

I understand you be disappointed by this. Do you use the other parts of the book? My kids never were big on coloring pages, quality or no. I've got a lot of use out of the questions, page numbers of other resources, and maps in particular. Hopefully you can still get a lot of use out of the guide and your disappoint will fade. :)

:iagree:

I'd agree with 4th and up. I'm reading it aloud right now to my 4th and 6th graders. My little dd 4 usually sits with us, but doesn't really pay attention. She is occupying herself doing something while I'm reading. There have been other read alouds that have captured her attention, but certainly not this one. My older kids are really enjoying the book though. I'm happy to be able to introduce a Sci-Fi book and have them enjoy it.

I think it would be just fine. I'm using Story of the World with my 4th and 6th graders. We're on Middle Ages this year, so we should finish the cycle when dd is done with 8th grade. This will leave her 4 years of high school for a World History overview and an in depth American History study. It sounds like your dd would have 3 years left of high school after the 4 year cycle? Then you could do a 2 year World History overview and a 1 year American History study or vice versa.

Another recommendation to finish Mists of Avalon. It's one of my all time favs. Can't you just rifle through the book a bit and start just a little before where you think you left off? I've done this before with books I've set down for whatever reason.

We really enjoyed GrammarLand! We read 2 chapters a week until done. Thank you Jessica for sharing the worksheets!

We are using Sentence Composing for Elementary this year. I purchased Grammar for Middle School to use next year.

To the posters having problems- I'm pretty new to this blogging stuff, so I'm not sure why you'd be seeing a black box? I updated my blog posts to include a direct link to the pdf files on google docs. Now you should be able to click right on through and see them. Let me know if you have any more troubles. :)

I'm not sure why, but in the pdf preview the lines on page 3 look a bit wonky. I wanted to assure people they really aren't wonky at all, they're straight. If you download the pdf and zoom in you can see they are straight. I downloaded the pdf myself from google docs and printed it to be sure everything came out right. :)

I'm hoping to have it finished before the start of the 2012/2013 school year. :)

I made a packet of worksheets for my big kids to use along with our read aloud. These are worksheets focused on plot. There are 9 pages, the 9th page is written to the teacher. I plan to make more of these for other literary elements as well. I want to have the kids learn more about one literary element per read aloud until we've worked through them all. These could easily be used for a read alone too. I wanted to share in case anyone else can benefit from the time I put into these. :) You can find them on my blog. Enjoy!

You're welcome! :D I wanted to bump this up in case someone downloaded or printed the pdf and didn't see my post about the corrections.

Try the link in my post #43, it should work just fine. :) If you are still having trouble let me know.

I updated the pdf files to the teacher book to correct a couple errors. I wanted to let everyone know so they can update their download, or make note on their teacher's pages if they are printed. On teacher page 4 the word revise(revisal) was used twice. Teacher page 20-22 was mislabeled on top as Teacher page for student page 19, 20, 21. Each teacher page, shown on bottom, coincides with the same number student page. These errors are corrected in the new pdf. :) Also I started a blog. The pdfs are available there as well and I will post about my progress periodically.

I updated the pdf files to the teacher book to correct a couple errors. I wanted to let everyone know so they can update their download, or make note on their teacher's pages if they are printed. On teacher page 4 the word revise(revisal) was used twice. Teacher page 20-22 was mislabeled on top as Teacher page for student page 19, 20, 21. Each teacher page, shown on bottom, coincides with the same number student page. These errors are corrected in the new pdf. :) Also I started a blog. The pdfs are available there as well and I will post about my progress periodically.

I went with wordpress. :) Thanks everyone! my blog