...will be out in July. I'm probably late to the party and you all know that already. Pandia Press is having a sale this weekend; 30% off....looks like a preorder of it might be included in the sale (not sure)??

I was going to get Spelling Wisdom, which uses dictation...but the sentences seem to ramp up pretty quickly, even in book 1. Instead, I got Delightful Dictation with Spelling. I really like this. We aren't too far along in it yet, but we are enjoying it. I got the ABC's book to go along with it, so I could choose my own words per list (you don't have to...you can get the Teacher's Guide which has those words already listed. If you don't know what I'm talking about I can explain). I only wish there were more books than just this one.

I think you are right....better get a case. Hmm....I was looking further at Amazon and there is a Brother XM2701 that is only $10 more. It has 27 built in stitches (2 more than the other Brother), 6 quick change sewing feet (not sure if the one you have Homeschool Mom in AZ comes with other feet), and a LED light (the one you linked just said light bulb). Plus...it has a DVD, which might be a great thing for us to have. Anyway....I wonder if this is a nice one. It's pretty. :001_smile: I think I might go with this one. If anyone will go to Amazon and check it out and let me know if you think it's decent I'd appreciate it. Thanks!!

Thank you everyone!! I added this to the WL too. A book assuming we know nothing is exactly what we need.....thank you!

Thank you so much! I put this in my wish list. I also put in the WL a pack of 10 bobbins. I know that 4 come with the sewing machine. Do you think the 4 plus a pack of 10 are enough? Anything else I might need to get? Do you think the case is worth getting? Thanks again! ETA: Just saw the book you linked. I added that too. Awesome!!

My 11 year old loves hand sewing little projects and learned to knit on a loom and with knitting needles this year. She is totally hooked on knitting. She would like to have her own little eBay business knitting hats, scarves, ponchos, ect for 18 inch dolls. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, next stop....a sewing machine. She has been wanting a sewing machine for months. Can anyone recommend one that is fairly easy to operate? We don't need fancy bells or whistles (but not a toy either)...just something an 11 year old could actually learn to thread and sew with. Let's face it...her mother isn't going to be any help in that department (my mil showed me multiple times how to thread a sewing machine and I still can't remember how). Maybe.....just maybe our school will purchase one for her (cuz....it's educational, right??). If so, then I'm thinking of Amazon as the place to order one. But then again, once we get a sewing machine I can see us both standing there looking at it and saying, "Now what do we do with it?"

Next year, we will be doing BookShark 5 Reading with History and it uses the World Book Encyclopedia on CD-Rom. I am so not crazy about that. I would much, much rather have a set of encyclopedias to open and look through. But, I haven't been able to get a decent price on a set that isn't really old. :bored:

So what gives? No link?? What's so special about these Starfall pencils? I've never heard of 'em.

Spell by Color.

Aww..thank you! I'll let her know...she'll be tickled pink!!

Well, prior to last year I really struggled finding anything we liked for history. We tried History Odyssey two times and both times didn't like it (I should have learned my lesson after the first failed attempt!). Then we tried BF. We both LOVED reading the chapter books to learn about history. History is now my daughter's favorite subject....and it had been her most dreaded. We would have stuck to BF...and I kind of had it all planned out until she graduated (LOL!)...(somewhere on this site is probably my plan), but then I heard about BookShark. This is the first year that BkSk has been available (so I didn't know about it the year we did BF). I've always been intrigued with Sonlight, but the school we are in won't purchase Sonlight because it's not secular (honestly, BF isn't secular either..but we got away with that one some how). So, basically it was deciding which one...BF or BkSk. I liked that BkSk was easier to figure out year after year (just do the next level)...and, as you seem to know, BF is much harder that way. Also, we thought we'd kill 3 birds with 1 stone by getting the BkSk pkg for History, LA, and Science. But, it turned out that the History is the only keeper for us. I still really do like BF. But, I'm very happy with BkSk History, so I'm hoping to stick with it. Maybe BkSk Reading with History would interest you. Look at the age range on the corner of the IG's, not the grade (in fact, next year they are doing away with grade levels and following the letters of Sonlight). I know the price is hefty, but maybe you can obtain most, or all, of the books at the library??

I really liked McRuffy for K.

We love the history :001_wub: . The LA we found too advanced for my daughter. I'm not surprised that she is a bit behind in this subject because she was slow to learn to read so we hadn't really focused too much on writing and spelling. BkSk is scheduled for 4 days a week. Days 2-4 are all writing (at least in Grade 4). She isn't at the level of the writing they expect her to be at. So, if she struggled with lesson 1, I figured all the other lessons weren't going to be all that great for her either. So, we had to quit the LA :crying: . And, again, my daughter doesn't like the Discover and Do DVD's anymore (she didn't mind them when she was a little younger). So, that put a damper on the science for her. :banghead: So, we are doing something else for science now too. As you can see...lots of mixed emotions about it. From here on out we'll probably only be ordering the Reading with History. I really do want to stick with that...the literature approach to history is what drew us to BkSk in the first place (last year we did Beautiful Feet and really loved that too).

We are going to be using Legends & Leagues this coming school year. Not the original book...but their newer North, South, East, West sets. I've seen them in person and they look really nice. You could probably start with South (Rainbow Resource has it listed for Grade 2).

:iagree: ...this is what I was going to suggest.

Here's a little explanation about the Principle Approach. I found it fairly easy to skip anything religious in the primary guide that I didn't want to cover, and used anything Bible related that I did want to cover (although, I'm sure it's not meant to be used that way....right Ellie? You know I gotta kid ya some times, right? :lol: ).

I know...I'm just sayin' how I used the guide.

We skipped a lot. As for writing, it seems that most of the writing was a sentence or two to go along with a picture that they color and paste into a notebook. I think it's pretty easy to use the guide as loosely as you want....or do everything, if you want. If you skip stuff, I still think it was beneficial to have the guide, mostly to tell us what to read, how much to read, and I mostly liked the comprehension/discussion questions. The price of the guide is pretty reasonable so I felt it wasn't a big deal to skip what I didn't like or didn't want to do.

Last year I used BF's Early American History Primary with a 10 year old 4th grader. That's what really sparked our love of read alouds and a literature approach to history. It was a really great year for history (the Benjamin West book turned out to be a real favorite for her). Both the primary and the intermediate are great....but because of the 8 and 5 year olds I'd go with the primary. You can definitely add in the First Book of History...it won't be overkill. I'd take a look at the intermediate book list and see if there's anything else your oldest might like to have added in to the primary. Oh...I just looked and I see that A More Perfect Union is now in the intermediate. Last year it was included in the primary, and we really enjoyed that book (but again, this was for a 10 year old).

Hmmm....I think I've always heard the opposite...to stick to the high end of the age range. For example...Grade 4 has an age range of 9 - 12. I'm using it this year with my 5th grader who is 11. Grade 2 has the age range of 7 - 9, and I think that would be a good fit, especially if you are thinking of combining them together. Next year when/if you do Grade 3 that age range is 8 - 11 so she'll fit right in there. I'm not sure I'd worry too much if the advanced readers seem light. They are good book choices....has she read any of them yet? If not, then it would be a shame for her to miss out on them. I'm not much help with the science. If my daughter were a little younger she'd probably be ok with the science, but she really doesn't like the Discover and Do DVD's anymore. Another option for lit based science is The History of Science by Beautiful Feet (although it might not be secular...don't know if that matters to you or not).

Thank you for that. That gives me something to ponder. Maybe we'll go with level 4.

Well, that's what you get for breaking their site. JK! But, seriously...that's weird. Update us on what they say.

Oh, this is good to know thanks! And, no...I hadn't checked the gallery. I didn't even know there was one. I will be sure to do that. Thanks for the suggestion!

Way to go! :001_rolleyes:

Hmmm....you seem to be right. I went to where it should be....or maybe used to be (Sound Foundations, Promethean). Everything I clicked on said 404 Document Not Found. That's very strange.... I checked Amazon and I don't see anything there either. Used sites, like eBay, homeschoolclassifieds, the classifieds here...don't have much either....maybe just the teacher's book here and there, but not a full set. Bummer....