In light of my inability to accomplish any scrapbooking, I'm planning to make some of those books where you go online, download photos, arrange them, and order up bound books. Ideally, I'll do one each year for each DS, working backward from 2007. I've decided that the cost is justified by the joy my DSs will get from looking through self and family photos. I feel so bad that I have no scrapbooks to show them!

And now I had better go to the library. Sounds like you think it is appropriate for the 7-year-old crowd, so I can probably hand it over to DS7, too, which is nice because he devours books... thanks!

Watching movies 1-5 will give you an idea of the general plot, but the books had so much more detail that really helps explain 6 and 7. Abandon schooling, abandon housework, order out for dinner, and get reading! (Said only a little tongue-in-cheek....I re-read 1 through 6 in 2 months last spring to be ready for #7 in July, and I may have abandoned at least the housework to do so...) Enjoy, enjoy!

Thanks, I'll be PMing you with some more questions I suspect, as I get a better handle on the move. I'm glad to hear it's been a good experience there! Linders

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Hi all, I thought I posted this yesterday but it didn't show up - forgive me if it ends up being a duplicate. My husband is on a several-month assignment in Aiken, SC, and the company would like us to move there permanently. Can anyone tell me anything about homeschooling/living in SC? I've been in the Pacific Northwest for 30 years. HS in Washington is a breeze - notify the district, test once a year. And I love the fact that in our community, there are a lot of homeschoolers. This means HS doesn't get as many "raised eyebrows" plus there are a lot of HS activities. What's is like in SC for homeschooling? I have read the legal requirements - seems like a bit more paperwork, but not too bad (at least upon reading them). And living there in general? Although I don't need to hear any more about snakes, bugs, humidity, and tornado watches! This is a big decision for us - any input would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks P.S. Given the location of DH's work, we have the option of living in Augusta, Georgia, too. Any reason that would be better?

Besides lots of reading (which I did before kids, before DH) I like to... Backpack (which has turned into car camping with the DS) Ski (we are just getting back into that as the DS get old enough) Golf (maybe someday) Race sailboats (probably never again) Scrapbook (someday) Quilt (someday) Make dinners with (adult) friends that require all-day planning and cooking and end with all-night eating and talking But I'm with you. Right now I have a career (HS) that is very time- and energy-intensive, and I love it. Most of my "extra" activities in some way relate - teaching classes at the co-op, getting together with friends who have kids of a similar age, field trips to kid-friendly places, and finding a pleasant way to incorporate the piano, soccer, etc. into our daily lives. I reserve most of my free time right now for the thing that grounds me best - reading. Reading is so important to my well-being that when I get grouchy, my DH sends me to the bookstore. Your sis truly can't understand. Heck, before I had kids, I'm sure I didn't. Many of my mom-friends who don't homeschool can't even quite understand, but they are all generous with help when I need it. Honestly, it isn't much different from some outside-the-home careers that become all-consuming.

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he will turn 8 in two months. Someday....

...because I read everyone else's lists and think, "That would be good to read, too!" And sadly, there are only so many hours in the day (and night). P.S. Forgot one of mine - "Three Cups of Tea."

and continuing to read "These Is My Words" (a pioneer "diary"). then on to: Last of the Mohicans (wasn't someone else doing Cooper?) Emma Tale of Two Cities The Mermaid Chair Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and some PC Doherty mysteries set in Egypt. Now that I look at it, it seems like a strange mix...

We are just finishing up 1st. I had a whole plan for the year with every intention of breaking it down into a weekly plan - never got around to it. And I'm rather glad, now. At this age they often learn in bursts. We would zip through multiple math lessons or reading skills, then hit a wall for a while (our wall was subtraction). If I had done a weekly plan, I'd always feel like I was off. Instead, I kept my end-of-year plan in mind and just started writing down what we accomplished each week after-the-fact. From that, I could see great progress toward the final goals without feling like I was off schedule. This method worked very well for us in the core subjects, and at year's end we actually did a lot more than I had planned. The only place it didn't work was history - we love, love, love history and SOTW and spent way more time on Ancient Egypt and Ancient China than I had "planned." The 4-year rotation is likely to become a 6-year rotation for us! Some good advice I have seen on these boards is to remember that this is just 1st grade - they will learn, no matter how much or how little planning you do, and you don't want the planning to kill the joy of learning. Very best wishes!

...that "grabs" my DS7. WWE is on order. After I take a look, a may check out Writing Tales. Or just start pulling out my hair.

WWE (for my reluctant writer) Artistic Pursuits (so I approach art a bit more thoughtfully) English From the Roots Up cards (just a fun language arts thing) For the rest, we'll continue using RightStart for math, FLL, SWO, ETC + PP (for my DS5), SOTW, and REAL Science. All of these have worked well for us.

other kids have the whole summer off. We are early birds and can get quite a bit done before the neighborhood wakes up, so we will continue math, history, science, and lots of reading any weeks that we don't have other major activities.

Your overall plan sounds really good - splitting a country up into 2 days should work well, and I think 4 hours is a reasonable target. Just a couple of thoughts: I found Material World a bit heavy for that age (I bought it last year when my DS was 6). I would highly recommend Children Just Like Me instead - very approachable for that age. For the info on your scrapbook page, I assume you will be doing the writing. As you do your reading/video work in Week 1 and 2, you might want to have your DD tell you when to stop and note down interesting info. If you wait to write it all down at the end, she will likely have forgotten a good bit. Reviewing the notes to make the scrapbook page will be great reinforcement. Have fun!

I am in the same boat, about mid-April I was ready to be done but...it wasn't done (at least, it wasn't where I wanted it to be). For language arts, we are just toughing it out with the goal of being done forever with ETC (for DS7). For math, I had the foresight to switch around the order of RightStart, skipping ahead to multi-digit subtraction a couple of months ago so that now we are going back and doing "fun" geometry. And history and science ar always fun. I recommend looking at your curriculum and see if there is some "hard" or "boring" stuff you can move up and save funner stuff for the end. Also, plan good field tripe for May-early June before public school's are out. Because May-June-July do get long.

The Steve Martin routine for "King Tut," then. Also on YouTube. The only redeeming feature of that song is hearing my DS5 sing "He was born in Arizona but he moved to Babylonia" add, "but he was really born in Egypt, right Mommy?" So I guess he learned something.

Seriously, if my boys are at the same table, little gets done. So I put one at the kitchen table, one next door in the dining room or living room, and go back and forth. Sound like a lot of effort, but ultimately easier on me and more productive.

When we go to the zoo (this works for museums, too) I keep an eye out for docents and send my two DS off to ask questions. Sometimes I'll feed them a starter question, but then they're off and running. The last time we were at the aquarium, my DS7 was practically adopted by the "Octopus Keeper" who took him on his rounds for an hour. On quiet weekdays, I've found the docents are just wonderful with the kids.

just to make sure they get next year's? I know, I know, I can just request a new one each year, but instead, I find myself ordering at least some minor thing from VP, WP, and SL just to stay on the mailing lists. The big order(s) are still with Rainbow and Amazon. (We just got one of each, and expecting another of each any day...)

I'm using EFTRU (cards only) as a vocabulary-building element for my DS7 next year (in lieu of any other vocab program). We will continue to use Spelling Workout for spelling, and FLL (modified) for other grammar elements. I do think EFTRU will be a help for spelling, but won't address the "Anglization" (is there such a word?) of the Latin and Greek.

I always love these threads, we find so many new books to try. One OP mentioned the Three Cousins Mysteries - my DS is thrilled to hear about a new mystery series to check out! Thanks!

Hi all, We will be moving on to SOTW2 sometime next year (if we can ever leave Ancients!) and I was looking for a loose-leaf version of the AG. I have a loose-leaf AG for SOTW1 and love it - even though I bought student pages for my DS, we had occasion (such as when the dog ate my DS's picture - really) to make extra copies out of my AG. I checked Peace Hills's website site - nada. Didn't see a loose-leaf anywhere else. So, do I just buy the paperback version of the AG and get the spine cut off? If so, where do you recommend? I have a fear of someone ruining my AG. Thanks!

Seriously, my almost-8 DS is exactly the same, down to negotiating each and every word he will agree to write in ETC. I am so glad we are done with ETC in another month! It has been terrific for his reading/spelling/comprehension but the daily negotiation has been ridiculous. It isn't a hand strength/endurance/fine motor control issue - he can do detailed pencil drawings for hours. It isn't a get-your-thoughts-together thing - he has the same resistance to copywork as original writing, and does very nice narrations. Not even just a boy thing - my DS5 whips through 5 pages of ETC and casually says, "I don't know what the big deal is with writing!" (You can imagine DS7's irritation hearing that!) We've tried various things, fun story starters, writing alternate sentences with Mom or Dad, copying his favorite quotes from Star Wars (seriously!) Nada. I pre-ordered SWB's WWE and plan to start slo-o-owly at the very beginning and hope it helps. If not, well, well,......I'll be back asking advice.