Was this it? http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135639&highlight=read+nonfiction+day+art I've had a few days where I've used this idea this year.

I like FLL. I think after finishing it a child would be ready and do well with MCT. Not a lot of writing especially in the first half of the book. Covers 1st and 2nd grades.

Wow, that was quick. Didn't it just come out? I would like to here more about it -anything that you can think of that would be helpful. I am confused as to how the biology fits into it. Is it a complete Pre-Algebra Course. I know the author is doing 2 more Pre-Algebra books so are all 3 considered a complete course or does each stand on its own? When compared to something like Lial's BCM is anything left out? It looks like this was your dd's only math, correct? How much did she do a day to get through it so fast? I have so many questions and would love to hear any insights. Thanks.

After 17 years of homeschooling I am down to my last one at home. Here are my favorites for this year-6th grade. Language Arts-MCT Love is not a strong enough word. I always dreamed of teaching subjects this way. It is so rewarding for me as a teacher. My son gets it and loves it. History-Winter Promise American Cultures 1850-2001 We've both learned so much this year. Love all of the books, the web-sites, the movie suggestions, and great activities. Spelling-Apples and Pears Finally my son is spelling on grade level. After trying 4 different curriculum with him I found one that works with his brain.

My dd went from 5B into Liah's BCM. My ds is about to finish up 5B and I am trying to decide what to do next. I won't be doing Singapore as I like a more traditional approach to Pre-Algebra . It's been a few years but someone had posted about what Singapore didn't cover as compared to a traditional elementary curriculum, and I felt that there were too many gaps that I would have to fill in before Algebra 1. For my son I've been looking at TT or Chalkboard. I also may add in the new Pre-Algebra Life of Fred w/Biology book. BCM was very thorough but very dry and I don't think the college vocabulary is a good fit for my son. I'd be interested to now what others are doing.

Apples and Pears http://www.prometheantrust.org/soundfoundationsbooks.htm was the magic cure for us. I've been homeschooling for 17 years and have taught poor spellers and natural spellers in our family, so we've been through many different spelling curriculums. With our last son, a extremely poor speller, we've gone through three different ones before finding something that worked. We started with Spadling, switched to All About Spelling (worked until we hit the middle of the second book), then Sequential Spelling, and finally Apples and Pears. Apples and Pears would not be babyish for a 4th grader. We started at the beginning because my son needed the extra handwriting practice but many skip the first 12 or so lessons. It quickly advances in grade levels where All about Spelling takes forever to get to upper level words. It is a painless way to teach spelling. Do some searches and you will see that it is working for many older children. Good luck I know the frustration of going year after year with little progress. Maturity may help but it is hard to wait when other subject like writing are suffering because of spelling.

Thanks for all of the replies so far. You've given me some great new ideas of places to visit for this trip and future trips. A couple of responses: Yes, I was refering to the Marine Corps Museum up by Stafford/Quantico. Glad to hear that it's INCREDIBLE. I looked at it's web-site again and I think I will save this one and the Newseum for another trip at the end of the year. We are studing American History(Civil War-911) this year and I think these two places will be more meaningful after we have studied more about current events. I called and Woody's Golf Range (Perils of the Lost Jungle ) and it is open Nov 2nd and 3rd. They will closed for the winter season when it gets colder. The working farm is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and the C&O canal boats will close the end of Oct so those two places will have to be saved for another trip as well. President Lincoln's Cottage looks interesting. Has anyone done this and what was it like? The tour sounds unusual. The following is from their website. What exactly does this mean? "The tour professional guide uses “historical voices†and images through multimedia technology to bring the stories of Abraham Lincoln and his family to life" I'm still wondering about the Holocaust Museum. It was requested by my daughter but I'm worried that my 10yr old is two young. That's why I'd like input on specific parts that would be worth seeing but would not be too disturbing. I'm sure all of it would be emotional. We've read The Hiding Place and other books about the Holocaust so they have background information. I know the schools take up middle school children to see it. I'm just not sure which parts they see.

We will be visiting the DC area Nov 2nd and 3rd. We live in Richmond so visit there frequently and have done all of the usual monuments and museums many times. We would like to do something a little different this time but fun and not too expensive. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the following places and would be willing to share them with me: Woody's Golf Range @ http://woodysgolf.com/perils-of-the-lost-jungle/ This looks fantastic on-line. Says it's rated one of the top 5 Mini Golf Courses in America! by Newsweek Magazine. Does it deserve this rating? Pumkinville and Leesburg Animal Park @http://www.pumpkinfestleesburg.com/Activities.html Has anyone been to this this season. Would a 10 and 13 year old enjoy this or is it geared to a younger crowd? Fort Ward -http://oha.alexandriava.gov/fortward/ any opinions? We just finished up a study of the Civil War. The National Museum of the Marine Corps and Heritage Center @ http://www.usmcmuseum.com/Museum_Expansion.asp We always pass this on our way up to DC and wonder about it. One more thing. How do you feel about taking a 10 and 13 yr old to the Holocaust Museum? How is the exhibit Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story? Would you recommend them seeing anything in the Permanent Exhibition or would it be too disturbing. Anything else that should be on our to do list? The schools down here are closed on Nov 3rd. Are they closed up there too? Just wondering about crowds. Any info will be appreciated and hopefully help other too.

I only have to wash mine once a month and it they come out looking brand new. Once I waited more than a month and it they didn't come out completely clean. I put them in the washer a 2nd time (before drying them) and they came out fine. Saves a lot of work and money. With the cheap ones I had to replace them several times a year.

Wow, I can't imagine starting VT Algebra in 5th grade unless your son is a math genius. For each concept, Algebra 1 problems are taught and then Algebra 2 problems are taught. The problems are pretty rigorous. I'd recommend a solid year of pre-algebra first. That's what we did after Singapore 5. With my oldest math loving child we did Lial's Basic College Math. With my youngest I think we will do Teaching Textbook pre-Algebra.

My experience is that Video Text is quite challenging. Your daughter would be working on some hard Algebra 2 problems even in the lower modules. I think the fact that it is explained so well is a big help to those who may struggle with math or not like math. If she breezed through Lial's BCM she should be able to do VT independently as well. Don't skip over the Pre-Algebra part. There's terminology and other important info that isn't covered in Lials.

Singapore is heavy on fractions/decimals/percents/ratio, some geometry, and 2 -3 step word problems. Go to their website and you can click on the table of contents for books 5A and 5B (primary math US edition). There isn't anything covered on Roman numerals although it is useful to know for outlining in writing. Place value and rounding off are important when working with decimals and later with scientific notation. Many problems in higher grades will have you give an answer to a certain place value. One thing that isn't covered in 5th grade Singapore but is taught at the end of 5th grade here in the public schools is negative numbers.

My favorite Jamestown book for Middleschoolers and up, also a great read aloud for younger ones is Dark Enough to See the Stars in a Jamestown Sky by Connie Lapallo. "Based on the true story of the women and children at Jamestown. Connie Lapallo's gripping story is historically accurate and is based on years of research of genealogical and historical records. This is the untold story of journey, pilgrimage and survival in a "different kind of wild" during Jamestown's Starving Time." Written by a homeschool mom too. Check out her website for teacher helps and activities that go along with this book: http://www.connielapallo.com/

We did a quick unit on WW2 last year (My children were 10 and 12). Below are just a few of my favorite resources. We are going to cover it again this year using Winter Promise American Culture (1860-2001) . I like the way it covers both wars and the events leading up to them. Favorite resources for WW2: Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti -explains why so many young people were willing to follow Hitler and ignore or take part in the Holocaust.. "1940's House"- from Netflix- Gave us a good perspective as to what things were like for average citizens living in Great Britain during the war. Hitler's Canary by Sandi Toksvig Story of how Danish people got the Jews out of there country before the Germans could round them up. Thought provoking story (would I be willing to put myself and my family in danger in order to save others.) The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom My favorite read aloud from this era. So many great values and lessons taught. The War - A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Also, I don't think the these wars can be taught effectively without a good understanding of Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, and Progressivism. I can't remember now the resource I used for this but it was basic and very helpful in understanding all of the events.

I was just at a bridal shower recently where the bride-to-be couldn't read any of her cards because she never learned cursive. She was embarrassed and I felt sad for her thinking of all the heartfelt sentiment that she would probably never read.

Take a look at winter promise Jiggle, Jostle, and Jolt for grades 4-7. http://www.winterpromise.com/jiggle_jostle_jolt.html From wedsite: "Spend a year exploring energy -- heat, electricity, magnetism and light. Easy-to-complete activities are scheduled, but in addition, your student will work through the Physics Solar Workshop..."We have been using this for a few weeks. Lessons are easy open and go. 2 lessons a week for 36 weeks. If you did 3 lessons a week you could possiblly finish the book depending on when you will end RS4K Chemistry. In our school district 1/2 yr of chemistry and 1/2 yr of physics is considered physical science for middle school. My 10 yr old has enjoyed this curriculum so far and has especially liked the experiments with the solar workshop. So far it is his favorite subject.

Here's some research results for Brainware Safari. Average results were 4 yrs of cognitive development improvement and 1.11 yrs of academic improvement http://www.brainwareforyou.com/professional/PDF/BWSGeneral.Research.Short.V3.1.11-28-07.pdf This brain work is very different from Critical thinking books. For my dyslexic son it's worth the price. Much cheaper than cognitive therapy. It's also worth it to me to make him work on it every day wether he wants to or not.

I bookmarked this list the other day. Lots of ideas: http://www.amazon.com/World-nbsp-War-nbsp-II-nbsp-DVDs-nbsp-for-nbsp-Homeschool-nbsp-unit-nbsp-study/lm/R5XT06X2V0TJ1/ref=cm_srch_res_rpli_alt_1

Here's some nice picture books about naturalists that we've enjoyed recently. Anyone else have any others to add to this list? My dc are 11 yrs and 9 yrs. Snowflake Bentley (Caldecott Medal Book) by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Mary Azarian Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst and James Stevenson The Flower Hunter: William Bartram, America's First Naturalist (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 (Awards)) by Deborah Kogan Ray The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 (Awards)) by Jacqueline Davies and Melissa Sweet

We just enjoyed this book: Science Detectives: How Scientists Solved Six Real-Life Mysteries

BYU Idaho (Rexburg ID) 85 miles south of Yellowstone National Park, also 3 hrs to Grand Teton National Park. We just went camping about 15 minutes from VA Tech on the New River. Good fishing and you can rent tubes to float down the river. It was beautiful.

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I was ready to give up. It's nice to hear that we aren't the only ones having problems with this. I will try some of these new strategies tomorrow and hopefully something will click.

My daughter is doing Megawords book 3 pages 6-7 and she is just not getting this. She can not seem to hear the differences between syllables and I can not seem to teach it without sounding out the syllables extra loud (much louder then they would normally be pronounced. How do you teach this skill. She has had problems in previous books with this but this lesson she is missing them all.

I received mine in the mail about 4 days after ordering it. I was thrilled because I thought they wouldn't be sent out until Sept. 9th. We got it in time for the first day of school which was great because I wanted to start off with a fixed schedule for the year. My son has used it 4 days now for 45-60 min. per day. He has enjoyed it so far and hasn't complained yet. I have him do it first thing in the morning and feel like it is helping to wake up his brain and get him ready for his other subjects. A couple of the games he has done really well at and passed off all of the levels at one sitting. Others he hasn't made it through the first level yet. My son has dyslexia and his eye doctor recommended this program last year but we couldn't afford it. I'm really grateful for the great deal I got through the co-op. Hopefully it will help but it is too early yet to know.

Probably too late at this point, but I always put a sticker over the number on the book.