He's 7 and 1/2 and his reading has really taken off. He had been struggling through one chapter a day in the Magic Tree House books. He's now finishing the whole book in one day! He still likes Magic Tree House, but I'm guessing that he will soon grow tired of them. Any ideas for what he might progress to next that won't frustrate him? He really likes adventure type stories.

I would agree that it might just be a maturity thing. My dc did okay with 100 easy up to about lesson 50 or so, then we switched to OPGTR. You might try something different to see if it would help, but I would think it wouldn't hurt to stop for awhile and try again. Also, I would say that if 100 easy frustrates her, switch to something else.

Great list. Thanks for that! We studied MA/Renaiss./Reform. this year, so our favorites come mostly from that time period. Red Sails to Capri (Great!) Adam of the Road (We're still talking about it) Shadow Spinner A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver The Trumpeter of Krakow (hard to read aloud, but good) Spy for the Night Riders (about Martin Luther)

I'm about to finish it for the third time. My soon to be 7th grader still uses the stuff she learned in FLL 1 and 2. It's a painless way to learn grammar.

Not expensive--$28.50 in the current Rainbow catalog. I got all my books from the library that we read. I would have had trouble finding those books with Christian perspective and especially some of the reformation books, but I borrowed those from friends. Otherwise, the library supplied us with enough books to use up our time. I would think you could start with book 3 easily enough. I don't see why not. As far as being good for your ADHDer--that I don't know. I read most of the books aloud to my children because I'm learning right along with them. Occasionally, I assigned a book for them to read silently, but mostly their assigned reading came from other sources--not just history. I do allow my dc to play with Lego's, Polly Pockets, color, etc while they listen to me read, and they concentrate beautifully. For history, I haven't required much more than just listening and discussing with me the books we are reading. Occasionally, my dd's get assigned written narrations. HTH

I used year 2 Middle ages/Renaissance/Reformation. Biblioplan is basically a schedule of books. The books are scheduled to use three days a week. We did history for 30 minutes daily this year, and that was enough time. More time was needed on the days my dd's did a writing assignment. I liked it because I was able to keep my 3 dc together in history. Book suggestions are give for K-2, 3+, 5+ and family read alouds. We really enjoyed the book selections. I also used and liked the timeline suggestions. We rarely used the writing assignment suggestions--I usually made up my own. SOTW was scheduled as well which we liked and read for our spine. Other spines are scheduled too.

What do you mean you got a lot of grief? Could you explain?

I use the plastic magazine holders (you can get cardboard ones too). I have about three of them for cardstock and construction paper. They work great because the kids can find the color they need without destroying the rest of the paper. They can easily see what color they want and pull it out. The holders don't take up a lot of room either. I also use the stackable trays for notebook paper and copy paper.

Do you mean that by doing the themed based lessons you would not need to go through the TWSS? Do the theme based lessons explain to the student and teacher what to do? I mean, I've never seen TWSS or any other component of IEW, but we could still do the theme based lessons without any difficulties? I would understand what to teach and dd would understand what to do? I might be interested in this if this is the case!

My beginning readers don't have a clue what they'd like to read. So, I try to give them books to read that I know they can handle, will enjoy, and that I also approve of. We've enjoyed Cynthia Rylant the best for early readers. Mr. Putter and Tabby and Poppleton have been favorites with all my dc at that age. Also, "I Can Read" has some books based on historical persons or events. The Golly Sisters Go West, George the Drummer Boy, The Drinking Gourd, etc. Rainbow Resource has a list of them in their catalog. Look in the index under "I can read historical fiction".

Yes, I agree with Heather. MUS is a complete program. The children will get to everything. As a matter of fact, my dd's took the IOWA last year in 3rd and 5th grade and did great on the math portion of the test. We've never used anything but MUS. We have covered through Zeta now, and have not found MUS to be lacking.

For me, any history is boring. What I love however, and what gets me and my dc excited about history, is reading fabulous books about the people of the time period. We used Biblioplan this last year, but in years past, I have chosen good books from http://www.abookintime.com, and we just read bios and historical fiction in the order of time in which they occur in history. After reading about some event or person, we usually end up on the internet trying to find out more facts about the person/time period. We LOVE history at our house.

I would second the suggestion to use your library if you have a good one. We use lots of books in our schooling, but most all of them come from our library. I use literature based history curriculum, but if the suggested book isn't in our library, then we don't use it. The homeschool moms that I know also get together and trade around books every year to help everyone save money. I also second the Rainbow Resource suggestion. Love, love, love that catalog. Not only will you be able to save money by ordering from them, but the catalog gives wonderful reviews of most of the curriculum/books they sell. Many times, I go to the RR catalog to help me decide if something is right for us or not. If I'm still not sure, the homeschoolers on these boards are great at answering questions and helping one to make curriculum decisions.

Wow! I can't believe I'm not the winner for the shortest. WooHoo! I'm 4' 11". My husband is 6 feet, so I understand the hope that the children will have a chance at some height! My oldest has surpassed me in height as well.

My son cannot get enough of Rylant's Putter and Tabby series or her Poppleton series for early readers. I'm thrilled to hear that she has written other books we might enjoy.

Thanks all for the ideas to look into. I don't mind Christian resources, so I'll look into How Great Thou Art too. I used Kincaide's drawing lessons one year, or at least tried to. We did NOT like them, so I'll pass on his painting lessons. Ha!

Really? At the convention--I'll have to look there! Thanks for the tip Suzanne.

Anyone know where to find a good jump rope? I'd like some single ropes in different sizes to fit the kids, but also a nice big one that two people can turn. The ones we find are just not good ropes--they're too flimsy, not big enough, too big, etc. And what about those fun jump rope rhymes we all used to chant as kids? Anyone know of book or something that could teach us some of those?

Dd age 12 wants to learn how to paint. She just spent the year learning to draw with Draw Squad, and has learned well. She's ready for something new and different. The thing I liked about Draw Squad is that she could do it independently. Is their anything out there that would help her learn to paint that she could do without my help? Art lessons are out of the question--we can't afford them.

I too am struggling with my decision over history. But, I thought I'd tell you what I'm thinking of doing--see what you think about this. Oldest dd needs a little more to do independently, so core 7 for her, but done over 2 years. I'll have her work until she finishes SOTW 3, and I'm thinking I would supplement other books as needed to make half of core 7 last one year. The following year, we do the rest (SOTW 4 and accompanying books) I'll probably use Biblioplan or Truthquest for my 7 and 10 year olds. My thinking is that this way, we can stay together, but my 7th grader will have more of the challenge she is needing.

I use half sheets of cardstock taped together at the back with packing tape. so the timeline is only 5.5 inches tall. I drew a line right through the center and marked off the years. For ancients, I used four half sheets. For middle ages, we added another 5 sheets to the ancients. It's small but effective. I then Google images of the people we are studying, print them out along with the name and date they lived. The kids stick them on the appropriate spot with double stick tape. At the end of the school year, I have the finished sections laminated. I tried a book approach, to save wall space, but we never looked at the timeline. Our timeline is a wall timeline, and we look at it all the time now.

Thanks for your reply Rhonda. I don't eat or drink anything with artificial sweetners, so it can't be that. I have wondered about my teeth-- maybe the dentist missed something. At this point, I'm guessing whatever the problem is--it's probably far fetched, so thanks for the ideas.

Thanks for the tip. I would like to try that.

At this point, I'm all for theories! Maybe I need to see an ENT.

Mmm... do your ears hurt too or is it just the facial pain? My ears aren't hurting.