I do both. As we are studying history there is some geography that naturally gets taught, so this is yearly. Obviously it does not cover the entire globe and is defined by the time and place being studied. For a World geography course I plan on doing it at least 3 times, one for each stage. This year we are doing a World Cultures course based on the book Children Just Like Me. I am focusing on simple family ways in a culture as well as the main cities and geographic features of a country. Dd is in 2nd grade and this is what she is doing. I will revisit World Geography sometime in the Logic stage. It will be similar to the World Cultures but politics and religion will be introduced as well as class and hardships some of these countries face. More in depth study of the geographical features and cities will be done. As for the final covering of World Geography I am not sure how I am going to do it. It will be a High School level but not sure if I will incorporate it with our studies or as a separate course. US Geography gets covered as we are studying American History (at least 3x, once for each stage.

We are using Apologia but I can see what you mean about it being boring. I have dd read it each day...just a page or two and tell me a sentence about what she read, we write it down for her notebook. This is her spine but not the fun stuff. Our fun is hands on type books:RSO, Jan Van Cleave's Astronomy for Kids, library books with space theme projects (look at some science project books for long term projects you can do). Since you have the Apologia book already, I would use it but not as they schedule it. Just a section a day is easy reading. Then have fun. Let them come up with some things to do. Lots of hands on projects can be done with astronomy (I never knew this and am amazed at all we can do for fun..actually more then we can get to). Go to the NASA site, there are interesting things for kids their to add to your study.

I would do specific nature studies: Collect leaves from your trees and find the names of them, then go for a neighborhood walk and see if you can spot the same trees elsewhere, then another day look for different trees in the neighborhood. Look for acorns or seeds in yard then in neighborhood. Mushrooms. Lift a rock and see what you find. Make a bug trap. Do a monthly study of one area in the yard and note the difference. Take a pic each month and compare it to the other month pics. Bird watch. Bug watch. Look to the sky during the day and night. Map the stars you see each month. Note the rising and setting of the sun each week and note how the sun moves through the year. There is so much you can do in a back yard and neighborhood. Do not let the small size or lack of nature trails keep you from enjoying this free science curriculum. This January we are going to be making a nature journal on our neighborhood. We are going to record the names of trees, plants/flowers. Birds, animals, bugs. In other words we are going to make a nature journal of all the flora and fauna on our street through out the year. This will include weather also. It will be an interesting project. This is something that can be done with a neighborhood that is full of plant life or not, or if area is big or small.

If you do not think a disability in learning is the case then I would drop formal math for a while. Play math instead. My dd was reduced to tears daily with math and believed she could not do it. I dropped the curriculum and got a book listing the skills needed (Katheryn Stout's Maximum Math is what I used but you can get a list of skills needed online). Everyday we did math but it was in the form of...playing with money (played store, resterant), made word problems based on her stuffed animals, played card games, pattern blocks, graphed Halloween candy, made shedules(telling time), measured using standard and non standard measuring, balance, cooked, and lots more. Along the way I reintroduced the number facts slowly. She would write word problems with the newly introduced set of facts. We used stickers and stamps to show the facts. Drew pictures of the facts. Played hopscotch with facts and other made up games. Eventually I had her work on facts but she could use anything needed to help figure them out but not her fingers...blocks, dots on a page, number line. Because the extra energy needed to manipulate the things was time consuming and tiring she started using them less and less. By the end of last year she lost her tears and we had a wonderful notebook created of all the math work we had done. She still hates math but it is not the same, she has confidence in her abilities to do the math now so she does not get upset.

I used it in conjunction with Elemental Science and scheduled it according to what was being studied in ES. As for a review on RSO, I would not use it as a main science unless you plan on using library books for the information. The one page blurb they give on the topic is not enough in my opinion to really help, it is more a summery of what you read about from their book lists (or books you get from the library on the subject). With that said, I did find the exercises to be unique and fun. Very easy to do and not time consuming. Pretty much everything needed can be found in your house or a grocery/walmart. The exercises did drive home the learning. We did Life last year and learned quite a bit. This year I am using Earth/Space science. I am not using it as given. This year I am using the Astronomy half along with ES Astronomy half and Apologia Astronomy. I will use the Earth portion next year.

What is fun is going back over your plans you made last year or years before and see how different your plans are. I sometimes look back and wonder what I was thinking.

To end our unit on Japan I would like a good family movie...any out there set in Japan or have a Japanese theme? Nothing dark or dramatic, light and family friendly.

I have a notebook with my overall plan for each child's school through graduation, that gets changed and tweaked every few months. I have another notebook for the actual year plan including my goals for the year, books I want them to read, and anything else important to the year. This gets looked at often and added to/deleted as needed.

Keeping you in prayer. :grouphug:

When asking the Beast Academy (I emailed them) if BA was intended as a complete math curriculum the response I got back was yes but only if the child has their basic facts down and the adding and subtraction with and without renaming. If your child still needs to work on this then use BA as a supplement for now.

We have only used the grammar levels but they were great. It is an easy science to get done.

Yes. Simple to use and if you look on Ebay you can find them cheap.

There was recently a thread on the 3C book. We are only in book 3A but I am very impressed. My non-math gifted 7 yr old loves it. We work on it together and I am highly impressed at how well she is picking it up. My original plan was to work on it slowly and just for fun on Fridays, but she wants it more so now we are using it 3x a week. She reads the guide herself, I then review what she read. We then spend the next few days doing the work pages.

DD 7 is doing all of the actual writing of her narrations now but only after she tells me what she wants to say and I write it out word for word, she then copies. Last year I did all the writing and she just narrated. Next year she will be responsible for writing it as she thinks of her narration. However, she is doing her own narrations completely by her self at the end of our science lesson(2weeks). I have her read a first science encyclopidia on the subject being studied and she is to write her narration...2-3 sentences...on what she remembers of the subject.

I think this is a perfectly wonderful way to school. I am slowly working my way into doing this for all of dd's subjects. Katheryn Stout has a full curriculum set doing just this. Her books (each book is based on a subject: Math, Science, History) are lists by grade of things that need to be covered, how you do the covering is up to you. The only drawback I can see is if life prevents you from planning and gathering what is needed. But with a home library and the internet these bumps can be smoothed out. I say go for it.

Cut them back and put used coffee grounds near the base of the plant. These are hardy things and should come back.

MOH

I'll read it. If I like it enough I will buy it for my library. The hardest thing I think people will do is separate HP from this new book. They will be looking for the same magic the HP books had...I am not talking about the act of magic in the HP books. I am worried it will get less then favorable reviews because of this.

I second Dover coloring books. My dd loves them since she can use markers with it. There are several fairy color books as well as fairy kits. We have the Fairy Alphabet book. http://store.doverpublications.com/0486290247.html If you scroll down you will find other fairy books.

If you have a 5th grade student who is average in math I do not see why BA would not work. Just because it says it is for 3rd grade, it is actually for 3rd grade students gifted in math so that does not equal a true 3rd grade math level. If your child has seen the Guide and tried some of the sample pages and feels challenged then it would work.

Guess the "pack em up early" idea is working right on schedule. Good to know.:glare:

43 yrs living there and a family still in New Orleans...Becuase I live in Iowa does not mean I have no idea what is happening in Louisiana and the info I have did not come from an outside media. The info was from a NO Police officer that could not even direct my father to help, where he should go and what he should do. My OP was a complaint on the NO Police department not having a clue...again. Sorry but that is wrong. A police department in the middle of a city that might get hit by a hurricane in the next 48 hrs (at the time) should have a clear understanding of a plan for the people it protects or at least where to direct them when asked. NO Police have dropped the ball in the past and have never gotten their act together enough to change this. I have had tropical storms do more damage then a hurricane and weak hurricanes do more damage then a strong one. How early is "pack them out early"? To get a city out you need more then a day. What grumps me is people living in these areas that can only see their own situation as normal and why doesn't everyone prepare like they do and if they don't then it is no fault what happens but their own. Not everyone has a car...do you know when the buses stop running in a city evacuating? Will these buses take you to where the mass buss exodus is meeting? Will these people get picked up and brought to the evacuating buses? What about money? Stock up might not be an option for the poor when they barely get by with enough for the month. Getting gas is not that easy....not to mention the extra money you need to pay for this expensive item. If you have ever been in a financial situation that was pretty much hand to mouth then the cost of a hurricane is something you cannot afford no matter how much you might want to buy the extra food or gas...it is not happening. Sometimes life has taken the choice of stay or go from you. From what I have read here, these people need to buck up and deal. How many of the 1800 who died in Katrina had a real choice to stay or go?:glare:

Maybe I am old school or just mean, but when the kids are finished school they are to entertain themselves. I am now needed to cook and do housework. I do provide toys and games, puzzles, legos, yard toys, books, arts and crafts...things to entertain a child. I swap out things during my monthly "Big" clean of the rooms. I think it is important for a child to learn to entertain them self, especially if they are at an age they do not need to be supervised while inside. If one comes to me with whines of bordom then I give then a choice of a chore, the next days school work, or to come up with their own thing. 3rd grade is a great age to introduce a hobby...introduce him to something every few weeks and let him work on it during that time to see if he likes it (painting/drawing, soap sculpting, wood burning, model building, knot tying, knitting loom, magic tricks,.....) Get the Daring Book for Boys or something similar and try some things in it.

Some of the pages in the practice book can be used without the guide if you teach to the page, but there are some that need the guide for the explanation .

We did World Cultures in K and worked on geography then and am doing it again this year in more depth. For US geography we studied the states alongside US history last year and will again next year. You can either incorporate it with your studies or make a year of it as a separate study. I have done it both ways over the years. I also try to do it at least once in each stage (grammar, logic...).