First grade was different for both kids. My ds would go in spurts. He would speed through his school work and then need time to mentally sort through it all. So I let him take days off when it looked like he needed it. He was not required to do much writing and I picked RightStart for his first grade year so we could play games to concepts. My dd who is in first grade now is the opposite. My dd loves to do school. She loves worksheets so I chose Math Mammoth for her. She does 1 to 2 pages per day depending on where she is at and the worksheet. I base math more on cementing the early concepts than worksheets or lessons. We are doing Adventures in America this year for history. They have a one sentence of copywork per week. That is about all the copywork I ask of her. She also does HWOT and sometimes they ask her to write words or sentences. She also does grammer, spelling, geography, science, art, music, and phonics. She a lot of this because we do geogrpahy, science, art, and music as a family. My ds would not have handled that much school very well. For him I kept it to math, phonics, and FIAR.

I just started making my booklets for Lights and Sounds today. My dd is a super crafty person and she is more than willing to help me put the booklets and mini books together. I will probably use Janice VanCleave's Physics for every kid for extra hands on stuff and look on the internet for videos. I also plan on using Tools and Technology after Lights and Sounds. The content is great! Most of the activities are good. If you don't mind a lot of cutting, pasting, and folding then you will probably like it. It reminds me of the work you would put into a lapbook.

I will add a couple I have not seen on here so far Dinosaur Cove series and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series. I don't think Mrs. Piggle Wiggle are boy specific but my ds loved reading the series. My ds will read any Geronimo Stilton, A to Z Mysteries, Calendar Mysteries, and Magic Tree House. You might also look at Capital Mysteries, Ballpark Mysteries, and Andrew Lost.

I spent weeks this summer working out my ds history curriculum. Now on week 5 it has all changed. Original science scrapped. It is the thing I am researching the most right now. I can't find anything that I really love. Geography is not getting done and I need to figure out why. I made these lovely spiral bound notebooks this summer and they are just sitting on the shelf. We are still slowly adding things to the schedule every week. By doing this it has allowed me to figure out what is not working much faster than last year and change it.

I am a sucker for a Gail Gibbons book! She has one on Sunken Treasures. My ds also liked Gold and Silver, Silver and Gold: Tales of Hidden Treasure. You could take a US and a world map and locate all the hidden or sunken treasures. For ships you could map the routes and estimated sinking place. This would also be a good time to learn about the names of all the oceans. Make a timeline of the time the treasures were lost. Have her bury a treasure and make a map for you to find it.

My kids thought this was a funny poll. It is good to know they would rather work than eat poop!

It might work for you because you pick out your own core books. There are suggestions of books to use, but it is up to you. She asks that you set up a learning environment with all the tools the kids need. The task cards are set up for the child to use, but the author does have suggestions to use them in a group and co-op setting in the TM. HTH I just bought the Music set and I love them more than I thought. They are open ended enough that if my kids find a rabbit trail they will be free to follow it.

My great aunt was hired by the government in the 1930's to do geneology. She found a letter from a past relative that talked about the family book. Research had been done for generations and added to the book along with family stories. She loaned it out to someone and they lost it. I always wonder that that book would have said. I am related by marriage to Clark of Lewis and Clark. My ancestor was his 2nd wife. The most facinating thing that I recently learned about an ancestor was someone that went to Jamestown. He was promised 10 acres of land, but when he got there they said he was too young and gave it to someone else. He go mad and went to live an a cave. He met the Native Americans while living in the cave and that is how my European and Native sides got together.

I have a really long list. I watch tv while I work so I have plenty of time. :tongue_smilie: Parenthood Secrect Circle (maybe) 2 1/2 Men Castle Playboy Club Glee New Girl Raising Hope Body of Proof Modern Family Community Charlie's Angels Office Grey's Anatomy Private Practice Fringe Pam Am Terra Nova Happy Endings Chuck Grimm Bones Misfits Doc Martin Being Human Covert Affairs Warehouse 13 Haven Chopped Burn Notice Pysch House Falling Skies probably still missing some

I have a no school=no activities outside the house rule. I also gave my ds a ice cream sundae for finishing RS B. It took him 2 years to finish it. I have yet to do that with any other book. This year my ds has to show me he can do the work without me sitting next to him in order to take co-op classes.

I ordered Music and Great Composers task cards earlier in the week and got them by Friday. Not really what I expected at all. They were 10 times better :D! The teacher's guide is very informative and explains thing really well. I really didn't get the task card thing until now. I am so excited to have my older start taking ownership of some of his school work. This is an excellent way to start that process. I also like that he can learn to follow his own rabbit trails. I am about to scrap my American History and order more task cards!

Awesome find! Congrats!

Do you know a lot or a little? I know a lot on my dad's side. In the 30's his aunt was commissioned by the government to do genealogy. She learned quite a bit and the genealogy lovers of the family add bits and pieces. We also had some DAR members that have done research. Would you know if there were people of color (to include Native Americans) or slave owners in your family tree? Yes I had a lot of ancestors that intermarried with the Native Americans. It all started with an ancestor that went to Jamestown with a promise of 10 acres. Once he got there they said he was too young. So he went to live the the Native Americans. I have not found any slave owers so far. Do you know which side of the Civil War your family fought on (or if there were people who fought on each side)? Some people were on a border state and sided with which ever was in town at the time so they could keep getting food and supplies. Has your family been in the US for many generations or only a few? Many

I am taking it one day at a time! Some days are really good and then others well school takes all day! I am trying to get my ds to realize that he can be done with school early if he wants to. He digs in and decides not to do it and sits at the table all day. The other day he sat at the table for 5 hrs over 15min worth of school work. :ack2: I told him that he will have to do this and there is no getting out of doing it. After that day and that talk it has been a lot better. I am adding a couple extra things a week until we are at full force. He was kind of upset about the extra work, but it went smoothly and quickly.

We just started this today. I made my own state study that we are doing as a family so I took that part out of the program. I am using it with my dd who is 5. She went through the whole book (I spiral bound the parts we are using for her). She did see one or two pictures she didn't really care for, but I think she will like them when we get to those stories. I was not impressed with the book selection. My dd would never allow me to read a book for 2 weeks. It would be torture for her. I will be substituting my own books intead of what is presented. I am also going to change some of the copywork sentences.

We are trying classical music. dh he concentrates best when he has the tv, radio, and computer going all at the same time. Drives me crazy but it works for him. My ds is very much like this. I also let him play quietly while he listens to stories or CD's. If he just sits and listens he spaces off. He also thinks the best when he walks. He usually walks around me. I don't think he is aware until I tell him to stop circling me like a shark! :001_smile: I will also try peppermint oil and see if that helps.

A lot of people I know use Kayak to search for flights and then go to the airline website to make the reservations. Make sure you read all of the restrictions on the ticket. Take advantage of free stopovers (if wanted) that are built into a lot of international tickets. Try to book all on the same airline or partner airlines. If he has any trouble the airlines are more willing to help. When there are multiple airlines the airlines will often blame the other and the passenger is stuck in the middle. What ever airline you choose check the web for any updates or cancellations. In Italy they will have a scheduled strike. It can last a couple of hours or a couple of days.

Both my dh and I have shared bed space. If it is a guy then they sleep over/under covers. I have shared bed space with guys and girls. It is no big deal. I usually just hug the end of the bed and make sure I have my own covers. We had to do this when we volunteer after major disasters. Only 1 room w/in hundreds of miles avail. We make do with what we have available. I wouldn't sleep in the same bed as a stranger. That would be weird.

We have used this program for 3 years now. I print out the student pages in black and white only. Then I spiral bound it for the year. I only do this b/c my ds9 would be distracted by the computer if I had him read it online. I also never print out the chapter title pages. Way too much ink to use. I make up my own very simple and easy to print. I only use the TM on my computer or laptop. The only thing I print from the TM is the definition pages. This year I am trying to decide if I want to bypass the printing and put it on my laptop. It might be less destracting for him and save me some printing cost and time. You could have him read off the screen and only print out the ESP pages and the optional worksheets if you use those.

I don't like dolls or clowns. My dd on the other hand like dolls. Her grandma gave her a creepy doll. Everyone in the house thinks it is creepy but those two. I am ok with Barbies though. My ds hates anyone dressed up in full costumes with adults inside like Snoopy, Mickey Mouse or Pluto. He will walk quickly in the other direction. He has ever since he was little. He also has an aversion to clowns.

I can recommend a current event type thing CNN Student News. They are only doing weekly news during the summer. During normal school time though they do a daily show. They cover a lot of current news in 10 min. They also have transcripts, maps, and quizzes for their shows. If I remember correctly if you like them on FB you can get a rough draft of the news program 24hrs in advance.

Here is some stuff we used or came across on our chemistry journey last year. There is a Periodic Table coloring book here with the exception of elements 58-71. Here are some videos for specific elements. Awesome website for the periodic table online. We got the book first and then found out he had a website. The kids liked that they could rotate the objects online that were in the book. We also purchased this game called Elementeo. It was created by a boy who was in 4th grade at the time. He is now in 11th grade. I second the Guest Hollow for human anatomy. I have used it in the past and it was a hit.

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I am using a book called Great States! from the Teaching Learning Company for part of our geography this year. I used the maps from Enchanted Learning, crayola coloring pages for my younger, and my own notebooking pages to round things out. I was very impressed with Great States book. It has all of the facts, extra pages of interesting info, maps, some activites and ideas for learning more.

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