My kids have a couple of games--Scrambled States of America is one of them. Another idea is just a map puzzle. To learn the state names I taught them the Fifty Nifty United States song. For the capitals there is an Animaniacs song that teaches this; my husband found it on YouTube.

I think that, if you are Christian and really believe in the CM model of education, Ambleside Online can't be beat. We used it for a couple of years but, in the end, I'm more WTM-ish than CM-ish and it was just too much trouble finding substitutes for some of the overly Christian selections (if I was really a huge CM fan I *would* do this but it just got to be where I was substituting so much that it was like, why bother?) For placement I would begin by looking at the child's grade equivalent and work downward from there. I mean, some children that are fourth grade age would be able to begin AO year 4 but many might only be ready for year 3 (or 3.5, which is available), but I doubt nearly any child that age would be ready to start AO year 5. Make sense? The reading is pretty rigorous and ahead of your public school grade equivalent.

I have to say that reading everyone's weeks in review is one of my favorite things to do online. They are so inspiring! Ours is up.

Ours is up as well. :)

I'm thinking about cutting my teacher's guides up and putting them in sheet protectors in a binder (we're hard on books here) along with some stuff I've printed out from the yahoo group and Dinsfamily's schedule (love that schedule!) I'm a real newbie to SWR--I just got my core materials in the mail last week and am doing an initial glance-over of the red book as I laminate the spelling rules--and want to make sure I have everything as efficient as possible. How have you organized your materials?

Ours is up but it was really disjointed as we had a death in the family (major upheaval). I'm just happy that we got any schooling done at all.

IIRC the moderators have to okay your membership before you can have full access/post in the forums. Since it's a holiday weekend they might not be around. :)

My blog is in my sigline. It's primarily homeschool-related although there are a lot of farm-related things on there too. It's impossible to separate the two completely. :)

I just got my approval notice so I'll ask there too. Thanks. :)

Here is the link: http://swrtraining.com/id60.html

My 5 year old has a speech delay and is currently in speech therapy. I just saw that the SWR website also has a home-based speech program--has anybody tried this? What are your thoughts? I'm not looking to replace Holden's therapy (he loves it and he has other issues requiring therapy) but I'm all about helping him at home as well. Please give me your reviews of this product. :)

We had a hard time deciding between Earth & Space and Chemistry. We're really loving Earth & Space but I'm excited for next year when we do Chemistry.

True animal stories? Hmm...How about James Herriot's Treasury for Children?

That is very true. It is obvious that you and I have very different ideas of our childrens futures. In addition to raising mine to be ill-mannered miscreants destined to rub shoulders with only their mediocre societal peers, I've also put a good bit of importance on them being able to express their point of view without being, well, rude and demeaning to those who see things differently. So, you see, we shall agree to disagree.

LOL. It's certainly not going to break my heart to be that boorish American if I butter my entire roll before eating it and I'm sure that my wee ones will still live somewhat successful lives without being told to scoop their soup away from them. (Not that they would scoop their soup anyway. Far easier to toss the utensils aside and put their faces directly into their bowls).

Of course I have no "proof", which is why I prefaced my statement with "I think". Historically one has used "Sir" and "Ma'am" to refer to their social betters. Who were those social betters? White people with money. Certainly poor people and minorities weren't given those titles of respect. They were called "Boy" (or worse). I guess when I'm thinking about 'old fashioned' etiquette the story Maya Angelou tells in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings comes to mind. She is working as a maid's helper in a white lady's house. The white lady, unable or unwilling to say Marguerite, calls her Margaret. One day the lady has friends over and one friend says that "Margaret" is just too long of a name to say and that it should be shortened to "Mary". Maya laments that something as sacred as her name can be changed in order to not inconvenience her social "betters". Come to think of it, there's also the story in Gather Together In My Name when she ventures to the white part of town to buy a dress pattern. The white saleswoman is very rude to Maya and calls her "girl". Obviously a black person (although I think that any other minority *or* a person with little income could stand in the example) would be taking some very big risks speaking to a white person with money in such a way. Now, IIRC Maya Angelou is in her mid to late 70s--not *that* far removed from today's society. Again, ymmv and you're certainly free to disagree.

We're using both REAL Science Earth & Space as well as History Odyssey (ancients, middle ages, and early modern). We've only been at it for a couple of weeks but I really like everything so far.

nak this is what we have done.

LOL, me too! Now that I think about it I have actually probably been "that person" at any event I've ever attended, as I'm left-handed and naturally grab for the things to my left and would unthinkingly put a nametag on my left side.

We are VERY down to earth, salt of the earth types of people. Beyond your basic common courtesy (don't interrupt people while they're speaking, say "It was nice to meet you," etc) we don't really do any "etiquette" exercises. For one thing, my parenting philosophy pretty much hinges on teaching my children respect by modelling it. I expect them to be treated with the same amount of respect as I expect them to give others (and I have very high standards for both). My problem is that many standards of etiquette seem to put children on a plane lower than adults and that just doesn't work for me. While I'm fine with addressing a person formally (we use Mr. and Mrs. unless we are told not to) I'm not so okay with the idea, for example, that children should be seen and not heard. In fact, I think that children *should* be heard--and often! More than anything I think that many rules of etiquette were designed to keep people in their places--socioeconomically, for example, but also racially. While I want my kids to know how to behave properly I don't really want to perpetuate those ideas. ETA: I don't mean any judgement for those who do teach etiquette! Those are just things that I'm uncomfortable with personally--ymmv. :)

Okay, can I add a question? My 5 year old is somewhat difficult to work with. He has a speech delay and has an evaluation tomorrow for suspected SPD/SID. We tried Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and it did *not* work (the pictures distracted him). Then we switched to Readinga-z.com and that didn't work either (he liked to spell the words using the letter cards but hated everything else). Now I'm trying to decide if I want to use OPGTR or Phonics Pathways. I own OPGTR and used it briefly with my older son. I have Phonics Pathways from the library. Which do you prefer? I'm sure that both are thorough programs, I'm just trying to decide which will work best.

This has been our first week so I don't know have accurate times worked out (plus we're on a farm so sometimes schoolwork gets jumbled) but here is was my 5 year old is working on: WWE1 FLL1 OPGTTR History Odyssey Ancients REAL Science Earth and Space Artistic Pursuits Color the Classics Rightstart Math A Russian and German plus lots of read-alouds

I bought CW Aesop a couple of years ago and it just fell flat. I suspect that this might be because I wasn't fully grasping the concept of the progym, though. I also have WWE. FWIW my 10 year old dd is a competent writer but a terrible speller. Terrible. My 8 year old is a competent writer and a good speller. My almost 6 year old has issues with fine motor skills because of his seizure medication so I will only do the very bare bones of copywork this year with him. Which program do you like better and why?

This made me laugh. I thought we were the only ones who did this.

We use Yoga Kids. Holden really loves it.