We are using this for 6th grade and it is FREE... http://www.glencoe.com/sites/georgia/student/languageart/assets/workbooks.html For writing I was able to get some good, brief writing ideas (again, FREE) at http://scholastic.com under teacher resources and lesson plans. I just searched "writing". Last year we used Wordsmith Apprentice. Sorry I don't have the link. It was inexpensive and painless to do.:)

Amanda Bennett unit studies are great for that. We did the baseball and the horse units last year and have photography and oceans on the schedule for this year. They can be done by both lower elem and upper elem as there are both levels on each day's activities.

I used Paragraph Writing Made Easy last year with my 5th grade twins. It progressed from identifying main ideas and key words in paragraphs to outlining and identifying the different types of paragraphs. The second section of the book was about writing paragraphs from outlines using signal words and supporting details. Overall, it was a good entry level book for paragraph writing. I used this along with Remedia press' Outlining 2 book for 5-8 grade as our writing curriculum last year. I was pleased with their progress. :001_smile:

My MIL is a retired HS principal with a Master's degree in education. She is not supportive, but is not nasty. I know she probably vents her concerns to others,but generally says nothing to me. She always "quizzes" my kids when they talk with her on the phone. We live 1300 miles away from them so she is really a non-factor in our lives. If I suddenly told her we were sending our kids to school (never going to happen), she would probably say "oh, thank goodness!!" with a large sigh.

Well, I am a DO family physician. When I was practicing, I also delivered babies. I was, therefore, quite capable of caring for children at any age. Some of my collegues did not do OB as part of their practice and didn't feel comfortable taking care of newborns-toddlerhood. I would imagine that with your childrens' ages you should be able to find a family physician for them. It's great, in my opinion, to be able to have your entire family seen by one physician. I loved taking care of whole families!:001_smile:

You do almost exactly what I do. I have a set of greek/latin root flash cards that I use from English from the Roots Up. I have also found a great free site at http://www.myvocabulary.com that has fun online activities. I usually pick 2-3 roots a week and we try to come up with a list of words where we have identified the roots each week. Extremely painless learning!:001_smile:

I used the book with my preK, K, and 1st grader. We didn't make the pockets themselves, just the papercrafts. Easy to do and they enjoyed it immensely.:001_smile:

Thank you for this thread! I was just bumming about the Scott Foresman free workbooks not continuing past 6th grade yesterday! Now thanks to Savmom, I have free grammar through 12th grade! Yipee!!!:D

I have 6 children and on paper my two oldest could be finished in 4.5-5 hrs. So if they started at 8am I suppose they could finish by a 1pm lunch. Reality,however, is COMPLETELY different. From the eternal questions like,"Mom, where's my.....", to my 9month old and preschooler jumping in the mix we don't get started until 9 (sometimes later) and usually are finishing around 3pm. I DEFINITELY think many children, especially young ones, can often slow the progress of the group. But they sure make the days more interesting!:001_smile:

Even though my kids are still pre-teens, I have similar struggles. My current suggestions are learning to play an instrument and digital photography. A small investment in a used guitar and keyboard and free access to my digital camera really got the ball rolling. They now have a limit of 30 min computer time daily and fill the rest of their free time with these pursuits.:001_smile:

I used the life science course last year and found it to be enough as a stand alone for 2nd-3rd grades. It was still very appropriate for 4th-5th grade with supplements. I believe all the courses to be at that same level. I will be using a couple of units from the earth science course this year as well.:001_smile:

I have 10 yr old twins and they shared one student manual. They each had their own workbooks, though. It would have been a waste for us to have had two manuals. This past year was our first year using GWG (5th grade) and I believe retetion was very good.:001_smile:

Thanks for doing all the work for me!!! Your timing could not have been more perfect!:001_smile:

Perfect timing!!!! Thanks!:001_smile:

Last year we used Native Americans and Explorers of North America. This year we will be using Moving West. I found it to be a quick resource for easy crafts/projects that help make history lessons fun. All my kids (preK,K,2nd, and 5th) enjoyed them. I believe these were all 4-6 grade level.:001_smile:

http://www.dltk-kids.com has a lot of those types of things, too.

I have used MUS with my kids from Primer (pre-level 1) through Zeta (level 6). We usually watch the DVD together when we begin a new lesson. Then I go through 1 or 2 problems with them together on the dry erase board just to make sure they understand and have an opportunity to ask questions. They usually complete 1 lesson a week. The most "teacher-intensive" time is the first day of the new lesson, otherwise, my kids are mostly independent doing the related worksheets throughout the week. I merely check their work upon completion on those days. The only supplementing I've done is for extra word problem practice. I found an excellent site that has more word problems than one could ever want or need. It does require an annual subscription of around $20, though. http://www.mathstories.com

I love Enchanted Learning for the PreK-3rd/4th grade set. Now that I have soon to be 6th graders, I think they might only use an occasional map. Definitely worth the $20 for me.

We're new to the forum and live in SW Florida. I have 6 children who would love to participate!