:auto: read reviews of hotels in the area where you are going. This is a great resource.

but the previous poster made a good point. Don't do it because of :iagree: outside pressure. A 'scrapbook' or 'lapbook' to review what was seen is a great keepsake and would give him something tangible to show others. There is a yahoo 'lapbooking' group you might want to check out for ideas on putting one together for a kindergartener.

If you have an very picky group, try to have the adults who may have questions preview it. It all depends on what topics each person finds offensive. In the last half of the movie Indy (10 years old) meets Picasso, and he hangs out with 'ladies of the night' in a bar, and the entertainment is showgirls doing the can-can. You need to know your group - the artists were called 'bohemian' for a reason. I found nothing offensive, but the idea of a young boy hanging out with these people may offend some. I found the section where he meets the artists particulary helpful while we were discussing the transition from Impressionism to Cubism. It taught while being entertaining. I have to say I didn't show the first section, where he meets Roosevelt, to my son, because there was a lot of hunting and showing dead animals. That part would have disturbed my son. (It starts in Africa, then moves to paris) The series is 12 or more episodes. I ordered the next one from netflix and plan to watch it sometime this weekend. If you are concerned, I suggest you rent it and preview it, and then describe possible concerns with your group.

I found "Young Indiana" series on Netflix. Do you know the name of the documentaries for a search? thanks. Joyce

Ken Follet has 2 fantastic books. To read them in historical order, first read "Pillars of the earth" and then "world without end". They are each about 1000 pages. The waiting list at my library for "Pillars of the earth" is over 100....so I have only read "World without end" and it was great. (Although because of it's length, it took 300 pages before I was actually hooked so I couldn't put it down).

My homeschool mom friends all pretty much agree we didnt' learn much after the reconstruction periods in our public schools. We range in age from 40 - 50. We almost never studied anything but American History, and always ran out of time at the end of the school year. I am enjoying this time period because I am learning so much along with my ds. Honestly, I never knew WWII was caused by the ending of WWI! What went on in the last 100 years is so very connected to our current world, and how our countries relate to each other, and to the conveniences we take for granted, so I think it's a rather exciting time period to study. Joyce:001_smile:

We used R&S 5 this past year (my son is 10), and I was using spelling workout book C (which is 3rd grade) because my son struggles with spelling. I just wanted to encourage you that you can do spelling with R&S 5, but you may want to repeat what you worked on last year so the words and rules 'stick'. All of a sudden, after Christmas my son started spelling better when writing. I think his brain just had to get to a certain developmental point before it made sense. We'll be using grade 4 next year, with R&S 6 - but I'd rather he build a good foundation. So hang in there, whatever you decide to use, Joyce

Since I never took Latin, having the DVD to teach the lesson helped me teach correct pronunciation (my son and I watched it together), and the workbook is well written. It's a lot to learn if you've never studied it, so if we'd just used a book I would have been very stressed out. As it turned out, I learned it right along with my son. Joyce

They are selling some damaged books at 40-50% off, which makes it more affordable. The teacher's manual is easy to follow, and the reader is creative as well as informative. The student workbook makes it easy to write up the results. Each lesson has an experiment to do, using easy to find materials. check out the web site for the phone # and ask the exact prices of the books. getting the student reader at a discount cuts the cost of the program back to an affordable one. My ds is in 5th grade and the chem I is perfect for him. I am buying the chem II series from the damaged lot to be able to afford it. Joyce

This is a nice program - sonlight.com but those suggesting SOTW are also right - it's a great program, with lots of interesting activities to do and a great narrative to read aloud. I combined SOTW and Sonlight in a loose way, using the activity guide for SOTW to supplement Sonlight readers. Joyce

If you check out www.notebookingpages.com, they have some free pdf files of several timeline layouts which you can save to your computer. They are very simple boilerplates, and this leaves the creativity to the student - by printing pictures off the web, coloring, etc. Joyce