At the National Archives you will see important historical documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. A new exhibition just opened called “Big†– this includes a 13-foot scroll of the Articles of Confederation, an enormous map of the Gettysburg battlefield, and the 1941 tally sheet of the votes in the House of Representatives to declare war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Expect to spend about 1 ½ hours at the Archives. Also, I agree with everyone that recommended the Spy Museum. There is also a Crime and Punishment museum that our entire family my loved.

These are our favorite places to visit: National Museum of Natural History (dinosaurs, insect zoo, Hope diamond, just to name a few highlights), National Museum of American History, Air and Space Museum, National Archives, the Capitol, Arlington National Cemetery and, of course, all the monuments. Many of these sights have websites with educational materials. For the Smithsonian museums look at www.si.edu/ Narrated trolley tours are great when you get tired and hot. You can jump on and off at designated stops and the narrations are very interesting. And sometimes the little ones get a quick nap in while the older kids and adults enjoy the tour in the air conditioning. A good book to look at is Fodor’s Washington, D.C. With Kids. This provides insight on the best sights and activities for young kids, tweens and teens. It also lists children’s books and movies about the sights.

We just moved out of Montgomery. The best part of being there was joining a military homeschool group called MAHE (Maxwell Area Home Educators). I think this is the website: www.geocities.com/MAHE_al/ If not, search "mahe maxwell afb". You don't have to be stationed at Maxwell AFB to join. The group is extremely well organized and there are many activities you can participate in -- field trips, sports, bowling, Mom's night out dinners, etc. It is a great way to meet other military homeschoolers from Montgomery, Prattville, and Wetumpka. Good luck!

We used Sonlight Core 3 American History Part 1 and we loved it!!! My boys are 9 and 10 and history was their favorite subject by far. Almost every single day they begged me to read another chapter of the history book and the read-aloud and I often read another chapter because we enjoyed the books so much. (I read ahead in several books because I wanted to know what happened.) The pros of Sonlight for us were: excellent books, planned schedule (although we adapted it slightly because we read books quicker than scheduled), and good discussion questions in the IG. The only con for us in this Core was the Landmark book. I didn't care for it, although my kids thought it was just fine. I added several of Joy Hakim's History of US books instead.

We used Atelier level 5A this spring with my two boys -- ages 9 and 10 -- and they loved it. My kids made several pictures or paintings from a single lesson simply because they enjoyed what they learned on the dvd and they were so thrilled with their art work. I think Atelier does teach technique. My kids learned how to create contrast, contours, horizons, etc. The dvd demonstrations are so effective that I think your younger daughter could easily learn from the level 5 dvd too. If you are interested in drawing techniques only, a friend of mine uses the How Great Thou Art (Feed the Sheep level) and that book/dvd gives very detailed drawing instructions. Good luck.

My kids have expanded their vocabulary this year and I think it is due to these three things: (1) Reading quality books such as books found in the Sonlight catalog and Newbery award books; (2) Using Spelling Workout -- I require them to write the definitions for ten spelling words and also write a sentence using each word correctly; and (3) Writing with IEW -- they look for interesting adjectives and adverbs to use in their papers.

I'd just like to say a big thanks to Lori D. for all of the book lists that you provide! I always copy them to a file so I can pick books out for my boys. Once again I'm copying your list.

I also recommend Sonlight Core 3 and 4. If you want American History to last 2 years then you could use Core 3 the first year and Core 4 the second, but if you would like it to last 1 year then you would want Core 3/4. We used Core 3 this year and history was our favorite subject. There are so many good books to read! Good luck.:)

Some more ideas: Ben and Me (Lawson) Mr. Revere and I (Lawson) Johnny Tremain (Forbes) Om-kas-toe (Thomasma) Sign of the Beaver (Speare) Robinson Crusoe Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH series Murderous Maths series Henry Reed, Inc. series

If you need any resources for classical music there is a website that we like -- www.classicsforkids.com There is information on instruments of the orchestra, composers (divided up by country or musical period), timeline, lesson plans and worksheets. You can also hear the music of some of the composers. We like to play the music sometimes just to hear a quick bit of Bach, etc.

I printed out several worksheets from these websites and I explained the concepts using your suggestions and guess what happened -- my son understands this now! Thanks again everyone.:)

I downloaded ten books and the corresponding worksheets and lesson plans! I was amazed by the subjects -- genetics! electric cars! artists! Yeah! I can't wait to see what is on the website today.

Thank you! :001_smile: Thanks for these wonderful suggestions. I've printed out some of the worksheets to try this morning. I appreciate the explanations too -- this will help me explain the concepts and I think he'll be able to understand them now.

You can see the actual document (the Constitution for example) and read the text. There are lesson plans and other resources as well. I believe that all of the important American documents are found here. The link is: www.archives.gov/historical-docs/

I'm looking for resources for teaching addition and subtracton of positive and negative numbers. We started these math concepts a few days ago and my son is not getting it -- which essentially means that I'm not explaining it well. Can you recommend any websites or worksheets or other resources? Thanks, Lori

Thanks for these suggestions. :) I'm going to start looking at these books tonight. And I had no idea there was a yahoo group for SOTW 1 -- I just joined!

I was surprised by the topics -- genetics, telescopes, forensics, wow!

Thanks for your suggestions! In another thread I learned that Story of the World 1 has a list of books to look at too. Any favorite books that we should not miss? And do you know of a single book that would help with any or all of these topics? Many thanks!:)

Thank you! :001_smile: This is a big help for us. My 6th grader will be studying ancients next year and I was looking for a list of books to help me figure out what we should buy. I didn't know if SOTW 1 would help us since it sounded like it was geared for younger grades but maybe I should just buy it for the list of books.

We love the Lego Mindstorm education kit for homeschoolers. I don't have the link, but you can look at it on www.legoeducation.com/homeschool. But it is pricey. My youngest son just turned 9 when we started using it. He loves legos so it was the perfect fit for us. Good luck!

Any chance you have a list like that for SOTW 1? :)

I'm trying to find resources for a 6th grader for these world history topics: 1. Development of civilization in Egypt/Nile River between 6000 - 300 BC 2. Greek civilization from the development of city-states through Hellenistic Age 3. Ancient Rome from development of Republic to fall of Rome I have no idea where to even start looking! (Would Story of the World help me or Augustus Caesar's World or ?) If you have any recommendations for books, websites, or anything else I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks! Lori

We looked at maps and documents on these websites: From the National Archives: www.archives.gov/education/lessons/lewis-clark/ From National Geographic: www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/ This link includes timelines, maps and journal entries: www.lewisclark.net If you have time for a read-aloud book we enjoyed "The Lewis and Clark Expedition" by Neuberger (Sonlight Core 3).

We just discovered these books last fall and my boys (9 and 10) love them. They also enjoy the Murderous Maths books. If you go to this website you can hear 4 of the Horrible Histories books being read by the author -- www.horriblebooks.com. There are also readings of the science books and others.

Another vote for Atelier! I use it with my 2 boys -- 9 and 10 -- and they love it. Even though there are only 6 art lessons per DVD we have stretched this to be more than 6 weeks of lessons. We'll watch the art lesson on DVD and do the art project that day and then the next week we'll do another art project based on the same lesson. We didn't intend to do this but the boys enjoy the projects so much that they want to repeat them. I agree that the Atelier website is a bit difficult to understand (a previous poster wrote this) but if you e-mail them with a question they will respond. If you search this forum for Atelier I previously posted part of their response to me where they explained what projects you get in Levels 4 and 5.