For sibling conflict: If they fight, they can't play in the evening with the neighbors, which is a big deal to them....very effective.

My son turned 7 in September. He is also hard to please in read-alouds. However, he LOVED the whole Narnia series. He also, surprisingly, enjoyed The Matchlock Gun.

Love... nature studies Right Start B FLL & WWE Classical Conversations

kosmos and thames kits for age 5 & up.

I like Mary Engelbreit's.

Over the River and Through the Woods

Nice list, Terabith. It's also a good age for songs. You could sing/listen to songs from the era, which include: Battle Hymn of the Republic Dixie's Land Goober Peas The Yellow Rose of Texas Aura Lea When Johnny Comes Marching Home

:bigear:

We do six weeks on and one week off, too, with two weeks off in May and December. However, I like Delaney's idea of staggering the weeks off between kids to get more one-on-one instruction. I may have to try that next year.

Amber beat me to it. I was going to report that Princess Kate is bringing pantyhose back.

Make homemade pizza and run a mini-pizzeria for grandparents or close friends. Create and perform a play based on a book they've enjoyed.

My husband and I just sat through a TORTUROUS time share presentation. The annual maintenance fees alone are CRaZy expensive. Most packages (I'm not sure that's the term) don't include air fare or car rental. If you tack those costs on what you're already paying for a time share it's even more than exorbitant. They touted the tax savings, but I'm just not a believer in 'the more you spend, the more you save.' It's ridiculous. They also point out that you can lock in a price in today's dollars. But, if you crunch the numbers, it just isn't smart.

Picturebooks about scientists: Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas Snowflake Bentley The Boy Who Drew Birds I've seen the Smithosonian Backyard Book Series recommended, too. Titles include Monarch Butterfly of Aster Way, Bumbletree at Appletree Lane, and Mallard Duck at Meadow View Pond.

I started reading them in 2nd grade. That was back in 1977.

I've seen this described as the best volume of Grimm published for children, but haven't actually seen it myself: http://www.amazon.com/Juniper-Tree-Other-Tales-Grimm/dp/0374339716/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1315681360&sr=8-4

I have a six year-old, and we're using PR1. We also are using both FLL and WWE. FLL1 is painless--it takes about 5 minutes to do the lesson. Our history and science are light. I use the guidance in WWE to create narrations and copywork based on our history/science readings. This takes about 10 minutes. Our PR lesson also only takes about 15 minutes. I definitely don't think it's overkill. I think the extra narration and copywork are good. I'm sure what we're doing in FLL and WWE will be covered later in PR, but I think it will be good for him to be exposed to these things multiple times from different angles.

I've found that I really enjoy presidential biographies/autobiographies. I've become a huge David McCullough fan and have read or plan to read John Adams, Mornings on Horseback and Truman. I have also recently read President Lincoln by William Lee Miller and George Bush's Decision Points. Do you have any other recommendations? I'm especially interested in reading about Thomas Jefferson.

:grouphug: I can totally empathize because my walking partner broke up with me last spring. I, like you, totally enjoyed the girl time chatting about this and that. She emailed me one day and said it made her too tired during the day to get up and walk. That made me very sad, but I understood. What made it worse is that a month or so later I finally got it together and started walking in the mornings by myself only to find her out and about with another walking partner. My feelings have never been so hurt. It still puts me in a funk to think about it.

I get up early. During the summer, I would ride my bike for 6-9 miles starting at 6:00. Since it's staying dark later, I've started walking with my neighbor at the same time. It's a great way to start the day. If it were more strenuous exercise, I'd probably find an excuse to stay in bed.

I don't know anything about Google+, but one of my favorite bloggers, Melissa Wiley, has written a series of blog posts about it: http://www.geekmom.com/2011/07/a-geekmom-guide-to-google-part-four/

We use the plastic one and have had no problems. For some lessons, its even advantageous to have two. Also besides the colors on the RS abacus, the back has the columns labeled (1000's, 100's, 10's and 1's) that are used to teach place value when adding.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond...I'm enjoying it a lot more than my son who is six. It's kind of a girl book.

My plan is to stick with it. We're still working our way through Level 1.

We're in Classical Conversations, so during breakfast we review the memory work. Then my first grader plays with his sister until 9:00. During this play time, I have the CC memory work CD playing in the background. At 9:00, we do a lesson in OGPTR (we're around lesson 150) and a lesson in FLL 1. This is couch time and takes about 15 minutes. We move to the desk and do 5 new spelling words and 5 review words in Phonics Road. He does narration or copywork based on the guidelines in WWE. As for the length of both those, our narration passage is 3-4 paragraphs and his copywork is only one sentence based on WWE guidance. After that we do a lesson in RightStart B. All of this desk time takes less than an hour. After a snack, he does 20 minutes of violin practice. After lunch, he reads to me and I read to him, which takes between 30 minutes to an hour.

I love the Bible too. I found I'm a huge David McCullough fan. I'm not very original with my fiction choices: Pride and Prejudice To Kill a Mockingbird The Count of Monte Cristo I'm tempted to add The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. I read it over two years ago, and I still savor it in my memory. I don't know if it will stand the test of time in my heart like the others, though.