Not sure what you mean by stand alone. It can be just geography but it has Bible, science, and language arts suggestions as well. The suggestions are mostly in the form of Bible verses, famous people, missionaries, animals to study, and library books to get. I found it lacking in actual ideas on what to do with the information it gives. More like a list of names and topics. There are a few meal and craft ideas given. The cd that comes with it does have map pages to print and flags but also busy work type pages, plus a few blank generic notebooking pages. I personally found it more work trying to follow the guide then doing my own thing.

My 2nd grade dd is using the book Children Just Like Me, this web site http://homeschoolcreations.com/Geography.html, (if you scroll down and click on a continent you will find 2 weeks of ideas and printables for different countries) , and the library. Every two weeks we pick a different country, our 2 weeks looks something like this: WEEK 1 Mon: introduce country, find it on large map, talk about what countries are near it, oceans, directional questions, look at books from library Tue:label printed map Wed: pick a geographical feature special to the country if there is one, or just a geographical feature, read about it in Geography A to Z, add it to our ongoing geography dictionary we are making...drawn pic and definition Thurs: Paint the country's flag Friday: listen to World Geography song that applies to our country, look at library books WEEK 2: Mon: Find the child representing the country in Children Just Like Me book. Read and fill in printable from web site Tue: If there is a page in Celebrate! Children Just Like me, then read it. if not pick an animal special to the country or landmark/person/place/thing and read about it, make a notebbook page on it Wed: listen to the language and write numbers 1-10 in their language Thurs: pick a craft representing the country and while working on it listen to the countries music Fri: review what we learned, make a special food dish from country, read library books It has been fun so far. Easy and cheap.

LOL, warning not needed, even without a site with nudity I do not think this shopping spree will be done while the kids are around.

Thanks all! This will take comparison shopping to a new level.

I would get it now. These things, since new, are regulated price wise usually. Getting a $20 gift card is a good perk.

Can you recommend a good place to purchase teA toys online? I know of Good Vibrations but where else?

:iagree:THIS! And with this our freedoms in the name of our safety. We are the frogs in the water slowly being heated...before we know it we are cooked.

Can it be possible for others to track the RFID chip? Not just the schools?

Honestly I do not know how this can help with truancy issues. So the school knows Johnny is truant, they call, then what? Do they go get Johnny? How is knowing Johnny is truant using the tracking any different then knowing Johnny is truant once role call is done? And if this is mainly to help with truancy, why does a student need the tracking once in school? No matter how they spin it, the real reason is not what they state. Maybe school officials really believe this is the reason behind the tracking, but school officials are not the most 'thinking' type people. This idea came from another group of people whose agenda is not our safety but something else entirely.

The ones I personally watch over and over, usually when hubby is out of town: Sabrina (with Harrison Ford) Twilight Hatari You got Mail Music and Lyrics

Tracking during school hours is just a way to get a boot in the door of tracking 24/7, it is scary. Next it will be chipping newborns for safety reasons. The mark of the beast, big brother, what ever you want to call it.... it is right there ready to go into effect.

Locking the doors is a big red flag. No door should be locked when children are in the room. Is there an assistant youth pastor in the room also? Or is it just one adult with the youth? I have worked in all age ranges in church and NEVER was a door locked. Parents were welcome to sit in any class with their children. As for the video games, are these available for use during a scheduled event or for social time? It is weird that these particular games were brought in, (I personally have no problem with them in my own home). Video games can be fun in a group setting and their are many fun group type party video games out there that could be used instead. Maybe you can suggest these instead of the ones he has. Could be these were his games he brought in. Over the many years I have worked in children/youth I have met some interesting youth pastors. The ones I have had the most trouble with are very young and try to be more of a popular guy then a mentor/leader/pastor to the youth.

I picked other....Honeycrisp apples or Pink Ladies

What are you doing this year? I have not used any of the ones you mentioned so I don't know which I would choose. However, if you did some US history this year I would do World Geography next year or the PP for a different approach to US history. Last year we did US, this year we are doing World Geography using Children Just Like Me and http://homeschoolcreations.com/Geography.html , next year we are doing US again using the American Girl Doll books and Time Traveler cds.

:iagree: Personally I think this just sends mixed messages. Either a church is okay with Halloween or not. If it is, fine, have a trunk or treat thing if they want to offer a safe place for the night. If not, then go about like it is just a typical night and don't draw attention to it.

If you have a library card you can go to your library's online page and look up Tumblebooks. This is an area where a picture book is read to your child or you can read it.

:iagree: This is the heart of BJU math. BJU does not sell just answer keys for math.

Ugh! I hit the wrong button....we loved it but I clicked Tried it. I will specify though that I only love it for the upper grades. I would not use it for the younger grades. My ds used vol. 1 last year and he said it was the first history he has used that has not put him to sleep. He is constantly telling us about what he has researched. This year we are using vol. 2 and it is still the same love.

I am getting more into the relaxed way of doing things...no schedules this week. Certain things are easy to do, you just do the next lesson or read the next chapter. However I started keeping a notebook for each child on what skills/topics were covered. Nothing in depth, just a simple list something like: Date, dd English: articles, diagramming adjectives Math: estimate thousands, adding with carrying Science: Venus and spiders Geography: Antarctica Reading; Bunnicula Read-aloud: The Whipping Boy Audio: Peter and the Starcatcher I plan on doing some kind of spread sheet or computer thing so at the end of the yr I can print it out and put it in the packet we need to turn in. Theme this week was suppose to be Bats but we are extending the Spider theme because we didn't get everything done that we wanted to do. Big project of the week is getting dd to ride a bike. She turns 8 in a few weeks and has decided this is her goal. We tried a bike before but she was too petrified to even move. So for this week we are working on feeling comfortable on the bike and learning to turn without tipping...training wheels tend to do this id the turn is sharp. Ds is working with all the mushrooms we collected last week. We set them on paper to collect falling spores which he will look at under the microscope. I had him take pictures of them before we collected them and the pics will be part of his ongoing 4 yr High School project of recording Iowa City's flora.

Great ways to read aloud: bath time swinging during breakfast or lunch bed time coloring/painting/chalk playing in the sand play dough time let them cut paper building blocks/duplo/lego What to read: Anything they will listen to. If you find a book is not catching her attention then change it. Books with short chapters are great for this age. Also rereading books she is interested is acceptable. If you want her to listen to books with more meat get them on audio and play them in the car. Do not think a picture book is not worthy of a read aloud, there are some wonderful stories out there that are in picture books.

I got on FB because it is the easiest way to keep in contact with my 2 sons who are in the military. They can see family pics and I can see pics of them. We can let the other know we need to contact ASAP because calling is not always an option. My FB is set to private and I guard that privacy by being extremely picky on who I invite in. No drama.

I was going to buy a bunk bed for dd's dolls but instead I am using a small bookcase. I saw the idea somewhere (maybe pintrest). They used a white bookcase and added decals to the ends to make it look cute. Each shelf had a pillow and blanket and a pad.

We started breaking away from boxed curricula a few yrs ago but this is the first year I can honestly say we hare completely free of it...it took 20 yrs of HS to get to feel like I can do it myself. Because of that we are more relaxed in our HS journey which is creating some amazing weeks of learning. There is nothing wrong with boxed curricula and it served it's purpose. We (maybe it was mostly me) just got to a different point in our homeschool and needed a different direction. I am glad all is going great.:party:

"Turkey in the tub"...please explain this because my imagination is going to all sorts of places.

I would do a search of this board, there are several threads started that are similar. We are only using it as a supplement and dd is doing along with me, not solo. With that said, we are enjoying it. I am finding it more logic problems and puzzles then a typical math curriculum. We are enjoying it though. I plan on using 3A and B this year and C and D next year. Dd is not the student BA is geared for, a math beasty, she struggles in math, but we work together to solve the problems. As of now she is enjoying it and even though it is hard for her she is enjoying it.