Strongly agree with Lori D's lists and what pp said about level 2 readers. In general, I like the books by Franklyn Branley (physics, space science), Romla Gans (earth science), Melvin Berger (biology), Paul Showers (biology), Arthur Dorros and Millicent Selsam. My criteria are the amount of information introduced and clarity of explanation. Good pictures are a plus, but the series is usually consistent in that regard. From the Level 1 page: - Clouds by Ann Rockwell, good overview and clear illustrations - How A Seed Grows - Where do Chicks Come From - How Animal Babies Stay Safe - I'm Growing, deceptively simple but good attitudes about people who are different, e.g. stopped growing early. Also, friends of the same age can have vastly different growth rates year to year, just take care of your own body and not compare. - Ducks Don't Get Wet - Where Are the Night Animals - From Caterpillar to Butterfly - What's Alive? - A Nest of Eggs - What Lives In A Shell - What Makes A Shadow - How Many Teeth Big Tracks, Little Tracks by Millicent Selsam is not on the page above, but is a Level 1 book that introduces animal tracks in an interesting, deductive manner. http://www.amazon.com/Big-Tracks-Little-Lets-Read-Find-Out/dp/0064451941 From Level 2 page: - Forces Make Things Move - A Drop of Blood - Spinning Spiders - Energy Makes Things Happen - Mission to Mars - Switch On, Switch off - Follow the Water From Brook to Ocean - Feel the Wind - Germs Make Me Sick - Volcanoes - The Sky Is Full Of Stars I don't own every book in the pages listed, but I agree with a PP that I haven't really found a dud. If you do collect other series like the ones Lori mentioned (Gail Gibbons, Seymour Simons) then you would find overlap, e.g. I found Gail Gibbons's book on spiders very similar to 'Spinning Spiders', both still good but if shelf space was at a premium I could pick either. Seymour Simons's books seem more advanced and use photographs instead, so whether those would appeal to your dc more would be another factor.

Blast from the past.. I remember this article from last year: Some Singaporean parents hire tutors to do their children's homework http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120304-331544.html It looks like the US is emulating the Asian rather than the Finnish model.

(Sorry, no Librivox recommendations here). My ds is 7, he enjoyed "Stories of the Pilgrims" read by Jim Hodges. He has recorded other books as well, e.g. Henty, some selections from Yesterday's Classics. http://www.jimhodgesaudiobooks.com/ Our local Christian radio station also broadcast excerpts of the missionary biographies written by Janet and Geoff Benge. We enjoyed those enough that we bought the audio books from the same publisher (YWAM). http://www.ywampublishing.com/c-101-audiobooks.aspx Classics.. we enjoyed E.B. White's reading of The Trumpet of the Swan. On the same page, Amazon also recommends "TheCricke t in Times Square", "Homer Price" and I remember those as being mild read-alouds though YMMV. http://www.amazon.com/The-Trumpet-of-the-Swan/dp/B000LV6QCE?tag=ap0a7eddd0-20

Thought this was interesting because of the MOOC factor. Even if not, I always enjoy reading about young people persevering through difficult circumstances and their determination to contribute positively toward society. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/the-boy-genius-of-ulan-bator.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

The Yahoo group Bay Area Homeschool Field Trips - it covers a large area, but I commonly see posts from around Palo Alto. More groups here, including the Mitchell Park group Jenne mentioned http://californiahomeschool.net/about/supportGroups.htm#clara http://midpeninsulahomeschoolers.org/

Praying for wisdom and peace for you and your family..

Searched in the forum but didn't find any hits: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_382772722_7?ie=UTF8&docId=1001373341&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=1SCABYYAP5XG0HQCG9CP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1611850642&pf_rd_i=507846 Excerpt: For thousands of qualifying books, your past, present, and future print-edition purchases will soon allow you to buy the Kindle edition for $2.99, $1.99, $0.99, or free. As I understand it: If you bought a book new from Amazon (even if the purchase history went back to 1995/Amazon's inception), you may be able to buy its digital edition for <= $3. It looks like they are still working out the terms with publishers. On one hand, it looks like an easy way to go digital. On the other hand, I haven't really bought that many books new from Amazon - many of my books are out of print, or the price difference between used and Amazon-new was large enough that it made sense. So I'm still undecided if/how this will impact our family.. what says the Hive?

ThinkFun has a few - RushHour, TipOver, PathWords http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dtoys-and-games&field-keywords=ThinkFun Educational Insights - Kanoodle SmartGames - Anti-Virus The above games basically have a board, pieces and a set of cards which set up the puzzle, ranging from easy to difficult. The latter two (Educational Insights, SmartGames) have others too, I just listed those I'm familiar with. Not a board game, but my 7 year old likes KEVA planks - open ended but can be used to build up complicated structures. Competitors: Kapla, Citiblocs. There are some helpful threads if you search for Games/Christmas ideas on WTM, here's one: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/346031-best-games-ever/ ETA: Re-reading your post, it seems you may be asking for games using what you already have at home. I've found that older books, especially in anthologies e.g. Childcraft, have some good ideas. Here's one from the Young Folks' Treasury: http://archive.org/stream/youngfolkstreasu10mabirich#page/n9/mode/2up

I agree with mamajag. I have downloaded from Sun directly many times without problems. This page gives a possible explanation why the security software may give an error - does it happen to be an old version? http://java.com/en/download/help/virus.xml

We use Language Lessons through Literature - I think the author is also here on WTM. http://www.barefootmeandering.com/lltl.html We are only partway through the 1st year and it is a hit here. So far we have read from Beatrix Potter tales, Five Children And it and the Jungle Book. I have been amazed that my dc could actually sit through the passages, including the younger one. The older one gets excited over the selections, and I've seen him pick up the books for leisure reading - either to sneak peek at the story to come, or to re-read a story he liked. I do agree that the first year is light, as the page above describes, and I use SWR for spelling. Looking ahead, the grammar seems comparable to other early texts of grammar I've seen (FLL). But what I've appreciated the most is the author's selections - they build stamina to listen and enjoy longer, more complicated passages.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-c1-cal-freshmen-20130816-dto,0,4673807.htmlstory Excerpt: Kashawn Campbell overcame many obstacles to become a straight-A student. But his freshman year at UC Berkeley shook him to the core. As I write this, I've just finished watching lecture 3 or 4 from the Stanford Math course that's been discussed on the board, and one focus was mindset - how encouraging students to make mistakes and learn from them has a disproportionate influence on females and minorities in STEM fields. Yet, Kashawn's story seems to point to some other requisite: an intellectual scaffolding to make mistakes and grow in. One more data point - ds recently read the picture book "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" - about a Malawian boy who learned to build a windmill from reading science books, in English, a painstaking task since he did not know the language. He's at Dartmouth now and apparently doing well. This article does mention that he works with a math tutor for calculus, so he can take more engineering classes, but that sounds reasonable. http://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/the-power-of-one/ So my mind is a jumble of factors, and where they fit in the picture - motivation to succeed, natural talent, intellectually rich environment. Certainly we want to encourage all aspects for our dc. Still, can we end up over-emphasizing one to the point that dc misread the situation, e.g. I can do this if I try hard, I can never do this because I have no-one to teach me?

Thought this might be of interest - an insight into the initial evaluation of university applicants. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/education/edlife/lifting-the-veil-on-the-holistic-process-at-the-university-of-california-berkeley.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2& Excerpt: "WHILE teaching ethics at the University of San Francisco, I signed on as an “external reader†at Berkeley for the fall 2011 admissions cycle. I was one of about 70 outside readers — some high school counselors, some private admissions consultants — who helped rank the nearly 53,000 applications that year, giving each about eight minutes of attention." My dc are far from this stage of education, but stories like these unnerve and fascinate me at the same time. The pool of applicants is so large and talented, and the number of places so few.

Ooh, my (Swedish) DH sometimes sings this, and it drives me nuts too! :) The song is "Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot" by a Swedish group Caramba but it might as well have been any other nationality because it's complete nonsense as you said. http://www.lyricstime.com/caramba-hubba-hubba-zoot-zoot-lyrics.html

Something I've observed from my family and friends back home (Asia) is that they can express things in the imperative far often than here in the US, especially when speaking to someone close. So they can come across as opinionated, e.g. instead of saying "You could try this", it comes out as "You must try this". But I agree with Arcadia - this crossed the line. If you are talking about Chinese culture, it must really have changed - in my time, my parents never said anything good about us in our presence, and only praised other people's children when we got together (which has its own set of issues). Either way, I would pray for her because she has exaggerated the importance of academics so much it may hurt her and her child one day. On good days, I remind myself of my goals. I read your blog post and thought it was expressed beautifully with the quote 1 John 3:18. Some others that may help - 1 Cor 4:7 (knowledge puffs up, love builds up), 1 Cor 8:1 (What do you have, that you did not receive?). On bad days, I end the interaction as quickly as I can and get to a different space where I can cool down. I find it rarely helps to talk back, unless I can sense the person is really trying to help (as opposed to justifying her own choices). It can take me hours, even days, but I try to get to the point where I can pray instead of lash out. Many times I have had to question myself why I feel that way, e.g. does this person's opinion mean too much to me? 3 Jn 1:4 reminds me of what I should truly be happy over (when it comes to my children). OP, I read your blog post and thought it was wonderful. Academics can be learned, but deeper character traits like humility and forgiveness require intense cultivation. PS: FWIW, I don't think it is uncommon for 8 year olds to struggle with reading. Mathwonk made a post that I really appreciated in this thread, "Just relate to each child as is appropriate. school is just one experience. home relationships are still real and immediate. just give them whatever they can receive and enjoy.".

Freecycle and craigslist for your closest cities might also work, if you are close enough to cities which have those. But my first thought was the library sales too - I suggest some volumes of Childcraft for the science. http://www.booksalefinder.com/ For history,could public domain downloads work ? http://www.homeschoollibrary.info/900-history-geography/ http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/worldhistory.htm Paperbackswap is also an option - if you don't have books, you can buy a credit. The current cost/credit is $3.95. It works best for books you wouldn't be able to purchase for less than $2 (e.g. it's not really worth it for thin readers that you can easily find for 50 cents to $1). For thin readers, I would look on eBay for bulk lots.

Hi everyone, I searched the board but didn't see this - it should be good for multiple uses/families. http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=3075095&sp=102656&p=1172188&emid=U2FsdGVkX1_pU8pGXmFubLflQwReKNztNhKPt9RsV33x4Tbq8oTH3N_dulA9yqO6&oc=407015 Free Standard Shipping until July 15, 2013! Just add your chosen homeschool curriculum & supplies totaling $35 or more to your cart before 11:59 PM ET on Monday July 15, 2013, enter promotion code 407015, and choose standard shipping.

Hi everyone, I saw someone posting about this set being on sale today: $50 for a 100-piece prepared biology slide set. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055E8620/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0055E8620&linkCode=as2&tag=fhd2013-20 The comments on Amazon are mostly positive, detractors mentioned that the packaging was not good and the slides would fall out. Does anyone else want to comment on if this is a good deal, quality wise?

Yes, the iguana really stood out. Oy. I hate to contribute to stereotypes here about Chinese eating everything but I once had a Chinese cookbook (as in literally from China) which had a picture of a soup with some chopped parts which I couldn't identify. I flipped over to the ingredient list and it was a lizard. It had blue and orange spots too. :svengo:

Local tutors here charge upward of $25/hour (craigslist), and local Chinese schools work out to $15/hour. So I used those as my guideline. There is certainly a wide variation if you look online, in my experience the tutors from bigger cities in China will have rates approaching $15/hour since the cost of living is expensive there. Lanny made an excellent point about using a site like eLance for both parties' protection. For Chinese, the Bilingual board has discussed the site eChineseLearning. IIRC the rates there were $15/hour if you committed to a year, and $20-25/hour for the shorter contracts. There was a large pool of tutors to choose from, but also a large variation in their effectiveness. Lanny - all the best with finding tutoring opportunities for your daughter!

I use FaceTime with a tutor in China for my son. I tried Skype, but there were various issues which someone told me was due to the file transfers happening on Skype (which FT doesn't allow). So that would be the first issue I would check - having a trial call to work out connection problems, and get to know each other. The first couple of lessons, I sat beside ds so I could help if my son didn't understand the tutor's issue, and to show him how to reconnect if the connection was dropped. Now he has his lesson in the study with the doors open, and I can hear it but I don't have to be in the same room. The next thing would be to track progress. Finding a tutor who can email you a schedule/lesson plan ahead of time is useful. I also like to wrap up the last 5 mins of the session with the tutor to check on progress, confirm what homework needs to be done and exchange suggestions. Billing - I pay a month's tuition ahead of time for X number of hours (1 hour/week). We have to make arrangements through people we mutually know, but if you go through an agency, arrangements like Paypal should be available. About materials - if the tutor is in a different country, I would check whether both of you can work off the same set of materials or if someone has to scan/link copies of text ahead of time. In my case, we use a set of materials available locally in China and which my parents had brought a copy of. Hope this helps - all the best as you find resources for your dc!

Hi Kashuen, Welcome! I hope you will find the information you need. Also, here is the link to the Chinese homeschoolers group that happycc started, we have some international homeschoolers there: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/forum/235-chinese-homeschoolers/ Have you moved here recently? My first suggestion would be to look at the homeschooling organizations within your state, for a couple of reasons 1) Some states have more requirements for homeschoolers, e.g. portfolio, annual testing and you should be aware of those. 2) You may find more groups, resources closer to you than you realize. I also suggest reading Susan Wise Bauer's (SWB on this board) book, "The Well Trained Mind". It is usually available at libraries, and there are eReader options too. It will give you a framework to get started, and help you focus on the basics (3Rs - Reading, Writing, Arithmetic) and how to add in other subjects like history, geography, science. Then, as you plan, take a look at the K-8 board on this forum. It has plenty of discussion on different programs - especially, search for phonics programs. Feel free to post questions and ask for suggestions (keeping in mind that you know your children best, so the decision is ultimately yours) on your plans. Also, your children are young and you may find the schedules you more relaxed than what they are used to (for the 7.5 year old who went to school in HK), or what you grew up with. This is not necessarily a problem - it will take some trial and error to find "what works", and even that changes as your children grow. Blessings as you think through these decisions! I hope you will find all the support you need. PS: I too grew up in Asia. I did not learn phonics, and my pronunciation was different from the locals'. I'm using a program (SWR) which has taught me along with my son, and he is reading and conversing well. There are other excellent programs - just an encouragement, phonics/reading is one aspect with a multitude of options, it should not be a source of intimidation.

If you have already decided where (which room, bookcase) you want to store each type of book, I'd go for boxes. One box for each category, e.g. school, bible, undecided, and just start in a room and pull out the ones that don't match into the corresponding boxes. Then move into the next room, shelve those you pulled out, and continue pulling/reshelving between them. That will keep the job bite-sized (or rather, box-sized) so you don't end up with heaps and heaps of books on the floor. Categorization - I use Dewey Decimal for the non-fiction, a couple of shelves for the picture books and just alphabetical for the fiction (not sure how well this works, since adult and young adult fiction are sitting side by side - your idea of separating them sounds better). For selling books - I'd try to sell in lots on the Facebook page, homeschool classifieds or local homeschool group/convention. If the books are scattered, individual titles I suggest donating them.

Either way is fine - SWR can be done by children who print. All that is required is they are able to: 1) Listen to the teacher sound out/break down a word by phonograms 2) Write down the same word, repeating the phonograms as they do so. The primary motivation I've heard for doing cursive is to avoid letter reversals. At least, that was my reason for starting ds with it. In your case, it sounds like you could start SWR anytime.

Ouch. I have heard of similar experiences - I understand why kids here (US) might be nervous about moving to a different school. Good point about 12s being useful for base 12/base 60 measurements. Your post also reminded me of another point - are there some languages which express their numbers in a different base? Doesn't French, for example, express 60 as 3-20? I'll vouch for Chinese being consistent in using base-10 (which is why they have a mnemonic for the tables to 9x9).

I'm intrigued - primes and binary arithmetic! For the latter, your dc will enjoy Computer Science. Are you learning primes out of interest in number theory? I've met someone who did that (key facts + addition) and who claims that it was easier that way vs. memorizing. It was hard for me to comprehend, but then again he did well in college. Ah, yes, CC! I believe they teach them as skip counting, and also introduce the squares to 15 x 15, and cubes to 10 x 10 x 10. Thanks for the responses, everyone! It has been interesting to understand why we do things a certain way. Most of the times we go with something because that's what our math curriculum teaches, but there are clearly decisions to be made in the tradeoff (spend time drilling now vs. time computing later). Squares and cubes are an interesting aspect too - I didn't memorize any, my parents did. I hate to sound utilitarian, but when are they most useful - approximation of area/volume? Trig? I don't remember using them, although for trig and EE classes the square roots of 2 and 3 popped up so much, I knew their approximations by the end of the term.