Yes, in addition to notebooking here are some examples: *Writing Activity: Choose an island from the previous geography lesson. Find info about it (using ref. books, internet, etc.), write about it. Tell where it is located. Find a picture of the island. Then, basically, make a notebook page about it. The olders will then make a travel brochure for the island. *Science: Make Animal ID Cards for specific animals mentioned. (ongoing project) These are then used for games, additional study, etc. *Games: Games are included in the curriculum like Word Searches, Crosswords, Ocean and Continent Concentration, Bingo, Charades, etc. All games have instructions, are scheduled, and game pieces are included in the appendices. *Enrichment Activities: At the end of each week, enrichment activities are scheduled. It might be games, cooking, timelines, Profile sheets (all included in the Appendices), etc. For example, from the Atlas, choose one or more Native American tribes that lived in the NE part of the US with the pilgrims. Research the tribe(s) you have chosen and fill out a Native American Profile sheet for your N.A. notebook. All of these activities are fleshed out with much more detailed instructions, but you get the picture hopefully. :) I am very pleased with how sensibly (not randomly) integrated everything is. Did you find them yet? They're in Appendix A. Love them! There are ongoing discussions about how to get these sheets to users without worrying about copyright infringement on the Yahoo group. GeoMatters is looking into a few different ways to do that. Personally, I think the books lay flat enough to make a good copy of it, and I understand the problems that it could cause Geomatters so I don't think it is that necessary.

Just in case you haven't seen it, this thread has some ideas, and also discusses the Apologia series.

There's not an option for "Currently reading it, so will withhold judgement until finished" either. :) We read many of the AO books and we're nearly finished with Our Island Story, which dd and ds loved! AO schedules TCOO over a couple of years and we started reading it/listening to it on librivox in the spring. I tend to ignore much of the excitement such as has been going on here the last few weeks, so we'll keep at it until (and if) I don't see the worth in it anymore, just like we do with any other book. I'm either reading it aloud to, or listening in the car with my dd, so I'm right there to discuss anything that I believe needs more explanation. Plus, she's a huge history & mythology fan, so even at her young age she's become pretty astute at picking up inconsistencies/bias on her own and always asks questions when something doesn't jive. *shrug*

Trail Guide to Learning if they're in the 2nd-6th grade range. The second volume due out I believe next month targets 3rd-7th graders. It includes all subjects (science, geography, history, art, nature study, language arts, copywork, dictation, read alouds) except math, although some people supplement the Language Arts portion.

This website has a ton of resources.

I order about 3 times a year in increments of $150-$250 each time. So, probably anywhere from $500-$700/year. They are usually cheaper than even Amazon and CBD (I always check), so I just have a wishlist going all the time and order when I need something on my wishlist or am ready to spend 150 bucks. My experience with backorders is that they send an email letting me know that something is on backorder...I receive the rest of the order within a week...I get the item on backorder usually within a week of the initial package. No big deal, but I order in advance so I don't need things right away. Customer service has been very good. Twice, I've decided to get something a few hours after I completed my order online, and I call and get it added to my order, no problem.

Finally got mine here today in OK. :)

For me, rather than showing me *how* to teach math, Ma's book convinced me that I would be a pretty crummy math teacher if I didn't change anything--so I guess I would say it totally changed how I *look at* teaching math. I'm still looking for books that would give me practical ideas to implement her ideas in my math teaching.

:lurk5: I would love to learn more about how to conduct a Socratic Dialogue but there's so many resources, it's hard to know which would be the best to start with! To the OP, I'd also recommend Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book.

I have the first two books linked, as I'm taking myself through LL. I thought I'd mention that the College Companion (the first link) replaces the Latine Disco (the last link), as well as the Grammatica Latina and the LL Latin-English Vocabulary book. *I* wouldn't have even attempted Lingua if it wasn't for the College Companion--it gave me the confidence to move ahead with LL, knowing that if I couldn't figure something out, I could fall back to the College Companion for guidance. I am hoping to get through much of Henle I and Lingua and then we'll see about taking dd through LL. In the meantime, dd is over half-way through Lively Latin I, then I'll probably have her go through Lively Latin 2. Then, we will re-evaluate and see if I want to do Lingua with her by itself (my ideal choice) or as a supplement. It will all depend on how far I've been able to get in my own studies. I want to be far enough in it that I will not worry about her catching up to me. (I am fairly confident in and quite passionate about learning languages and linguistics, so I have quite a bit of personal motivation driving me, which definitely helps!)

Our library started charging $2 per item last year. That's enough to keep me from using it at all, but I'm a cheapskate. :D

I'm hoping to use the Colonial CD with my dd8.5 (and possibly some things with ds 6.5) this fall, so I'm :lurk5:.

I started Lively Latin halfway through 2nd grade with my dd. We had done PL in 1st and the first half of LCI in the first semester of 2nd. With LCI, I was getting concerned about the amount of vocabulary that was piling up, even with taking extra review weeks. Second semester was the perfect time to start LL with her. I think she would have been overwhelmed if I had started it at the beginning of 2nd, because I have chosen to go at the rate of two pages a day (see below for explanation ;)). Doing part of LCI gave her a leg up on some of the concepts of LL, which I think would have been more difficult had she not have done them in LC I already. I still think there are some abstract grammar concepts that she is not totally *getting* but I think she's understanding enough to keep moving, and being exposed to it and working with it helps her understanding to come. My dd loves the history part here. We started out doing the History of Rome book but we dropped it after a while, although we still do everything else. You could easily pull out the history sections and vocabulary and do them separately. However, I love the integrated nature of LL. I think that's one of its strengths. Because we're working with younger children on a tough subject, the breaks that the history portions provide within the chapters allow the vocabulary and grammar concepts time to sink in, while giving the children a favorable view of the subject (if they enjoy the history portion, that is). If you were to pull those out and do them this year, then next year those pauses would not be there for the dc. Also, LL1 gives new vocabulary only every other chapter, which I love. It gives us more days to work on getting that vocabulary down pat and listening to the chant/vocab CD. All that to say, I think you could start it with a 2nd grader if you slowed down to about a page a day when you're doing the exercise/grammar pages (some days like history you could do two a day since they go together). I personally wouldn't want to spend 2-2 1/2 years on it like I've seen some people do here, so I'd rather start a little later to be able to go at a little quicker pace than drag it out (I get bored after a while with doing the same thing! ;)). Looking back, I'm glad we started Latin in 1st with my language- and history-loving dd. But I won't be starting PL with ds until at least 2nd and possibly 3rd--he's my math, science & art guy. Good luck with your decision!

Same here!! I so wish I could find more information on how to deal with auditory spatial kiddos! This article (PDF Warning) by the same lady the OP quoted really helped me with some math issues. I'm also :lurk5:.

I am doing it again from the start. :) My ds6 has recently started the RS sequence with B. I briefly switched programs once dd finished C, thinking I was done with RS, but have promptly switched back after a tryst with CLE and Singapore. The break was actually really good--CLE got the + and - math facts solidified and a good start on multiplication facts. Plus, we both needed dd to work more independently for a while. However, nothing teaches concepts like RS, so we're back to it, and I'm planning on sticking with it at least through E. Then we'll move into MM5 and 6. I've already bought MM and will use it as a supplement to RS for both my dc. My ds is quite mathy, so I've toyed with the idea of making MM his spine but for now we're staying with RS until I feel like he needs a change. The way RS teaches place value in Level B is way too good to miss--even if I were planning on switching immediately after B.

We own Levels 1 and 2 that I purchased through Homeschool Buyer's Coop. We've been using it this year for dd8. I *really* like it. DD likes that she's playing songs right away. It's really increased her confidence in and love for piano. We're still in Level One because we're taking it slow and I want to make sure she gets everything down really well before moving on, but I really like the direction he seems to be going with the lessons. After teaching a few different songs where he introduced basic techniques throughout, he has starting prepping the students for accompaniment. I usually watch the lesson with dd and then oversee her at the piano to make sure she understands. We'll probably start moving a little faster since I'm upping the required daily practice time for dd this summer.

:iagree: This is us as well. We haven't started SS yet but I'm planning on adding elements of it in next year. We use Wheeler's Speller which is free from Google, and it is similar in that it includes patterns, rules and dictation. It introduces the pattern, and then will go over the rule the next day. This week we did these lessons: For my dd, introducing the rule after she has worked with the pattern some has been brilliant. She has enjoyed trying to figure out the rule herself--kind of like a mystery. Things seem to be sinking in more than when we were using AAS and I was beating the rule to death with the tiles first. (Oh how she hated those tiles! :tongue_smilie:) BTW, the Speller also includes poetry for memorization and dictation. It has a lot of variety in its lessons. The more I use this program, the more impressed I am. ETA: I use Webster's Syllabary for spelling about 2xs a week also. These seem to complement each other well without being overkill.

The only things I don't like about camping are the bugs, the heat, the humidity, the raccoons, sleeping on rocks, the campfire stench that seeps into every thing you brought with you, the icky park bathrooms, and the sticky-not-hot-not-cold-just-sticky feeling when you wake up in the morning. Oh, and packing up to leave. Other than that, camping is okay. :D

I've felt like that the last two years doing SOTW. Next year we are moving to Trail Guide to Learning which will keep us within the main boundaries of the cycle since it covers American history. Yet, we will be covering six topics in depth for six weeks each. Once I *finally* decided on this curriculum and was able to savor what it meant to spend six weeks on a topic (and all of the branches that would come out from that main topic), let me tell you, it was like a burden was lifted off of my shoulders! :) I am so excited for next year. We'll get to really dig into some things! My other option was VP since it only covers 32 topics from the time period. Much more manageable, IMO. (I'm actually planning on adding in just the cards and memory song since my dd can't get enough history.)

1. A number of reasons: All of my kids are 8 and under, so it adds structure to our day. Like so many others, I don't want to lose ground in our skill subjects over the summer by taking such a long break. I like to continue to make forward progress with our work. I totally switched up our curriculum at Christmas and we need to keep working through some of them. Our summers are HOT. 2. We school M-Th for about an hour and forty-five minutes. We do Recitation, Latin and Math every day. English and handwriting are done M/W and French and our Speller are done T/TH. 3. We're mostly continuing our curriculum, but dd has started reading through the books listed in Artner's Guide Unit 1, which mostly covers the explorers, so we're going to do the Explorer's History Pockets for fun. She *loves* anything history. We'll also play lots of RightStart math games that we often neglect during the school year.

I made Geography easy for us this year by doing The Complete Book of Maps and Geography at the pace of 1-2 pages a week and added in reading from Hillyer's A Child's Geography of the World whenever I felt like it. :) Cheap and painless. The Complete Book of Maps says it's for grades 3-6 but I'm using it with a second grader with absolutely no problem. The beginning pages are pretty easy. At the rate we're moving, it could take us 2-3 years to finish although I doubt we'll complete it. (I'm kind of picking and choosing pages that I feel like she needs exposure to.) I like that it includes map reading and skills plus world and US geography.

FYI for the future: Always make sure that everyone is wearing good shoes and put the kids' bicycle helmets on them as well. We had quite a scare last week when a tornado touched down about 8 miles from us. We had quite a crowd gathered at our house in case we needed to head out to our underground tornado shelter. (Bless the previous owner who had that installed!) Hopefully tornado season is over now!

When I was making our loop schedule, I realized I had too many things in our loop, too. If you're interested in seeing how I worked it out, you can check out my blog post about it. :)

There are placement tests available for Math Mammoth.

What?!? I thought Latin and Math WERE the fun stuff!!! :D;)