We have a LeapPad and an Innotab - both were purchased last Christmas. The kids like both of them equally as well. The LeapPad has a much better design though, the Innotab has parts that have fallen off (battery cover and kick stand) but they can still use it. If your kids still chew on things like my 4 yo, watch the stylus. I didn't know my son chewed the end of it and exposed a thick metal wire inside which then scratched the screen very badly. Had I known there was metal inside the stylus I probably would have bought a screen protector when we bought the LeapPad. I think their favorite game on the LeapPad is Mr. Pencil. All that said, the kids much prefer to play on our iPad and tablet :)

Just curious what people are using for kindergarten math if you use Math Mammoth for grades 1-6?

Thank you!

Congratulations on your pregnancy! I am going through the same thing as you are right now - a cautious pregnancy. I am 43, have 6 kids but have lost 5 pregnancies over the past 3 years. I am 6w 4d pregnant and on progesterone. I had an ultrasound yesterday where they only saw a sac with the possibility of something in it and a yolk sac. They didn't see a fetal pole or heartbeat :( they said it's early and to keep hope. I go back next week for another u/s. I am terrified that this won't work out. I share your feelings on not being excited. I'm so scared to get excited and get hurt again. I have kept myself very distanced from this pregnancy. Like you, I want another baby so I can't give up but the emotional roller coaster of getting pregnant and then loosing it time after time can get to be too much. I don't have any words of wisdom for you, I just wanted to let you know I'm in the same situation.

Wow, this looks great! Thank you so much!

I'd love to get a copy. I was just searching for a beginning Spanish curriculum and we love Song School Latin. This sounds great! Thanks in advance :) My email is SewingMom2many@gmail.com

Thank you!

Thank you!

That looks like lots of fun! I think we are going to give it a try. So far we've only bound books with our comb binder, yours look so much nicer this way :)

Thank you! My boys are really going to have fun with this :)

I agree about looking at the styles first. I didn't do this and started with HWT even though I didn't care for the way it looked. The look of the print is one of the reasons we switched mid-year. I had heard such great things about the program (HWT), I just thought it would work for us. It was definitely overkill for our family - way too many extras with it, I couldn't keep up. I ended up switching about halfway through the year to Getty Dubay Italics and now I'm very happy with my choice :) I really wish I would have checked out the print styles first and gone from there.

We have Lollipop Logic which he likes but the puzzles are quick to do. I laminated all the pages so he can do them over and over and so can his brothers. I've also printed some things off from this site: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/math/logic/puzzles/ I'd love to find some new books for him so I'm very interested to see the replies :bigear: I'm definitely going to look at the Perplexors book. eta: I just went and looked at River Crossing... that's definitely going on our wish list! We have Traffic Jam (also by ThinkFun) and my boys love that game. Even my 3yo plays with it, he simply likes to line up the cars like on the picture, he doesn't try to get them out yet. My 4yo likes me to read the solution and he follows along to get the cars out.

Looks like we posted at the same time :) Thanks for the link, that looks like a great program and it's free! That I like. I'm off to check out Climibing to Good English.

Hmm... we have RS Grammar 2, Preparing to Build. I thought it was just Grammar (I haven't looked at the book much yet) and we were going to move to that after we finished FLL 1 in about 8 or 10 weeks. If I get WWE it sounds like I'll be duplicating things so maybe I should just stick to handwriting for now? I'm happy to save some money but is RS Grammar going to be enough for writing?

Thank you! I didn't realize I'd just need the workbook. That brings the price way down. Unless Rod and Staff has a writing program, I'll be getting WWE.

I'm starting to look at options for a writing program for my first grader. WWE - I like it but I'd want to get both the TM and the student workbook which is >$50 and my curriculum budget is just about used up. I know I could just get the TM but I am pretty sure I wouldn't be very good at coming up with copywork samples myself. If I don't find a better option, I'll be using this. IEW - I don't really understand it and it looks like it needs to be used with AAS which we tried and found it wasn't our thing at all. I love Rod and Staff curriculum and was hoping they had a writing program but I don't see one. Any other good options out there? Thank you :)

Thank you, Aime :) I do have the Kingfisher Encyclopedia (the huge one) and I'm looking at buying the Usbourne one although I'm not sure if that would be duplicating the Kingfisher one since I've never seen it. I was hoping to find some books at the thrift store (they are only 10 or 25 cents each) and maybe order a couple of used books online. Netflix is a great idea! I saw a link to a list of movies that correspond to the lessons once and I think I bookmarked that so I will definitely check that out. My son who is doing SOTW is in first grade but my kindergartner and preschooler love to sit with us while we read and I try to include them as much as I can when we do projects. We are working on volume 1 right now.

I have a 2, 4, and 6 yo plus three older kids and the only thing that's helped me is to get on a regular schedule and stick with it. I spend a fair amount of time on the weekends planning/researching/printing things out so I can just go from one thing to the next. I don't have a baby though... that would really make it tough. Thanks for these links!!

I know it would be possible but do you think it's reasonable that we could do SOTW without using the library? We are only on chapter 2 and there are so many resources I feel like my kids would miss out if we didn't get many of the books and videos that are recommended. The thing is, we are having some problems with our library so I'm not sure we are going to keep going there. Do you think online resources supplemented with an occasional purchased book from the recommended reading list would be enough?

Thanks for the replies. Maybe I need to encourage her to try to piece it together. I think she just feels overwhelmed with curriculum choices so she wants it boxed, I'm not sure how close to $200 she needs to be. I'll send her all of this info with some links to review sites - maybe that will help.

I need advice for a friend. She is scared to send her son back to school, he is going into 6th grade and is being bullied and has some medical issues. She really wants to homeschool him and wants me to help guide her to some curriculum that she can buy and get started in 2 weeks when school starts. She'd like a prepackaged 6th grade curriculum. It should be secular. She would be happy if the cost was under $200. Any ideas? I can help her with reassurance, homeschool laws, etc. but I have no clue what to suggest for curriculum because I've never used a boxed curriculum or a secular curriculum. I'd sure appreciate any suggestions! Thanks in advance :)

My 6yo is into Legos in a big way and now my 4yo is getting there too. They get these kits and make these elaborate structures and vehicles and they are taking over my house! I want to encourage it because 3 of the boys plus dh all play together and I think it's great that they are reading the instructions and following step by step to get to the end result. I need to figure something out for storage where they can build and have it portable. They build on the kitchen table and then we can't eat breakfast, or lunch, they build on the dining room table and I can't fold laundry during the day and we can't eat dinner there, they have a Lego table downstairs but then I never see them. I'd love to figure something out that is portable so they can be in the middle of a project and move it from table to table or upstairs/downstairs when necessary. Does anyone have any ideas? There must be something out there that would work but I can't find it.

This is really interesting! It's what happens to my kids... they get sleepy and start to fall asleep out in the living room and by the time I get them in bed they are wide awake again. I want to learn more about this. I'm definitely going to check the book, I hope it's the right one.

Anyone?

:lol: My dh has a great sense of humor too. I think I'm going to have the kids start leaving him notes on the whiteboard too, what a great idea! We have a "I love you because..." board in our bedroom that he and I write notes to each other on which has had it's share of humor. I'd love to see what he'll write to the kids lol