I was looking for something that was a little more put pre planned. Anyone used Great Adventures Outer Space either as a family or as a co-op? It looks crafty, but does it also have at least 1 or 2 experiments per section?

I will be teaching a space science theme in a couple of weeks, and I need help finding a curriculum. I needs to be secular, age range would be from 6-9, and I would prefer that most of the stuff for experiments come from easy to get items. Any suggestions good or bad would be helpful! Thanks

I have not read a non child related book in years. I book a week will be hard, but I am going to give it a go.

I found various sized Christmas/Winter felt bags the at Big Lots one year. I wrap all of our presents in them instead of wrapping. Saves tons of time, and paper. The kids wanted a Wii last year for Christmas. That is really out of our budget, but I told the kids if they were ok with that being the only present they get we could buy it as a family Christmas present. They said yes, and didn't complain one time about not getting anything else. This year I gave them the option of redecorating their rooms or presents. Both of them picked redecorating room instead of presents. They are as excited about that as they would be lots of presents at Christmas. This also saves lots of unwanted wrapping!

I let my kids choose the program they work on from a narrowed down selection that I give them. I go over the choices, and what kind of work it would mean for each program (so I do sway them a little). Once they choose what they want they have to stick with it unless it is really bad or over their heads, and are not allowed to complain. My dd decided she wanted to do The Reading Lesson to start out instead of OPGTR (I will switch her to it later though). They have the same material in color and in b&w only so I let her choose. She chose the b&w so she could color the page when she was through.

It varies depending on what we are doing, and who is home. We have a really old house and I bump up the heat if there is a strong wind. Day 62-67 Night 52-55 We sleep in heavier clothes in the winter and all of us have heated blankets. It is still a lot better than my in-laws. Their high temp is 55. Way to cold for me!

Andrew Lost series is science based The new Flat Stanley's World Wide Adventures books have good geographical/cultural stuff in them There are a few Ms. Frizzles Adventures that feature the same characters Geronimo Stilton is a hit and miss. The one we read about Australia was very informative, but they are not all like that. If I remember more I will post.

I use EA Sports Active. It is a lot better than the Wii Fit. If you decide to get EA Sports Active get the newest version that has some of the glitches worked out, and lets you customize more stuff. I saw a Wii game at Costco the other day that doesn't take any remotes. You hook a camera up to it and point it at yourself. I thought it looked really cool, but I just bought EA Sports Active 6 months ago. It is called Your Shape with Jenny McCarthy.

I put eggs, cheese and other stuff inside of cresent roll dough and then bake them. I use 2 cresent rolls per person and wrap it like a knish.

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You might want to check out this link to enchanted learning. They have lots of Alphabet stuff. I used the alphabet coloring pages with my younger and she loved them. They also have a blank page where you write a word and then draw a picture in the box above. That might be good for your 4yo. Also check out History Scribe or Boy Scribe. They are really inexpensive and have some free samples to check out. HTH

I bought the e-book thinking it would be great. I am not thrilled with it. I am just as happy using A Book in Time . It doesn't have as much as All Through the Ages, but it is free.

My ds likes Dinosaur Cove series. http://www.scholastic.com/dinosaurcove/

I am not sure but I am :bigear:

Is there any other hands on US History program that is secular?

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The notebooking link has all 4 TOG years.

TOG has a lapbook that you can purchase for each unit of each year. Here is the link: http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/tog_fast/lapbooks.htm If you would like to do the notebooking/lapbooking yourself you can find free pages here: http://www.notebookingpages.com/index.php?page=Free-History-Notebooking-Pages

Do you think that these would work well in a co-op setting? My ds wants to do a US History co-op. It would be from 2nd grade and up. Would one of the series work better than another? I was thinking Explorers, but anything would be ok. On average how long did it take you to complete a lesson? Thanks!

I started ds7 on it about 2 years ago and he didn't like it. Reading has been a really slow process around here, and I have stopped and started quite a few times. Working on leveled readers until he was ready to start again. All of the sudden something clicked in his brain this week, and just read a chapter book (I did help him with some large words like embarassed) with 9 chapters in 4 days. It is a really big accomplishment for him and a big suprise for me since we have only gotten 1/2 thru OPGTR. I will continue with the book until the end, but probably be until next year. My dd4 doesn't like the OPGTR either. She refuses to use any book my ds uses. She is a natural reader though. She was sounding out words on her own at 3. I have purchased The Reading Lesson to use for now, but I will switch her over to OPGTR when we are done just to make sure all bases are covered.

If my ds has homework he has to do it after a short break (no electronics) and a snack. Would a snack be a physical enough trigger to start homework? I remember when I went to PS when I came home had a snack before I started my homework. HTH

I am looking for the same things in AH program that you are looking for. I looked at everything I could think of and more. I decided to go with Guest Hollow with some tweaking. I was hoping the History of the US was written into the Guest Hollow AH1 curriculum, but it wasn't. I am going to see if I can figure out how to add them. If not I can save them for the next cycle. I found this link, but I have not looked at it yet: http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/sotw3hakim.htm

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thanks for this!