I do a ton of counted cross stitch, and my daughter (newly 8) is perfectly capable, although not interested enough to keep up with it and finish projects. Hobby Lobby has a TON of small cute kits, though. Michaels and Joann, less so. For just general "craft kits" though, this was ENORMOUSLY popular with my daughter when she got it for her birthday. We've given it as a gift a couple of times since then, and it's always been well received. https://www.amazon.com/Klutz-Make-Clay-Charms-Craft/dp/0545498562/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477748171&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=clay+craft+kit+charms

King Cluck was our dearly departed fowl pharaoh. 😂 So far this year we have done a contraction paper mosaic on a poster board sized picture of Emperor Justinian. We plan to do the Ren Fest. We are touring a castle nearby with our homeschool group in a couple of weeks. We will go see the Gutenberg Bible on exhibit at the University of Texas the next time we visit grandparents in Austin. I already had plans to build cardboard castles like Farrar suggested, and I'm trying to put together some sort of intro to embroidery project based on The Bayeaux tapestry. None of that really comes close to the scope of the chicken mummy , though!

I carry a wristlet wallet, as well. It's big, but it can also be the only thing I carry if I don't want to throw it into my big ole' purse. I can fit my phone inside, plus all of my many, many cards (library, costco, insurance, credit card, ID, gift cards, various store reward cards, etc), and a zippered section for cash. I love it. Mine is a Keen Hazel, which appears discontinued. This is similar: https://www.amazon.com/Haiku-HK043-Zip-Eco-Wallet/dp/B01B7FINZ0/ref=pd_sim_sbs_468_7?ie=UTF8&refRID=P29C1N61VW7AJGXTZZRJ

I'm on the leadership team for an enrichment mom-taught co-op. We also have 3 classes, one morning a week. Starting this semester, we have had a put in place a rule that people cannot join our co-op if they are also in another full morning thing (like CC) or in a university model school (HUGELY popular here as a part-time homeschool option). We have just had too many moms drop out because of overwhelm, or not drop out but also not be able to really fulfill their responsibilities to our co-op. They're coming late, they're not well prepared for their classes, they have too many absences, etc. I have come to really believe that more that more than one weekday morning commitment is too many for homeschooling families.

DH has a new Outback and we LOVE it. I'm so jealous! My old minivan is no fun in comparison. :lol:

I have endometriosis and took clomid. 1st round, low dose, 3 ripe follicles, and boy/twins. :tongue_smilie:

This is how it worked at my house, too. There were also times when we needed to read enough on a page to show me that they had it and moved on before finishing the page. Those pages have a LOT on them. I actually started with mine before they were 5, but they were sounding out CVC words on their own, so I knew they were ready. I had one that was overwhelmed by the number of words on a page, so I tended to write words on a white board for him and then let him read and erase them. Silly, but we'd cover a LOT more ground that way. It's really easy to use. There's a point in the book that it tells you it's now OK to add easy readers. We did that with Bob books and (our favorite) the Nora Gaydos Now I'm Reading ones. It's a hard program to mess up. She'll be fine!

This is true. We did Stanford because that is what my homeschool group administers. Results did include Lexile scores, and yes, they seem very close to what I would have guessed for my two kids who took the test.

I'm not the one you asked, but I started BW Arrows last year when my twins were 2nd graders. She has a whole set of Arrows aimed specifically at the 1st and 2nd graders who are reading and handwriting well, but not quite ready for the longer copywork and dictation passages in the regular Arrow units called the "Quiver of Arrows". They are really fantastic for 2nd grade. There is a sample week from the Charlotte's Web Quiver of Arrows unit on the Brave Writer website. That would give you a good feel for how the units are structured. LMK if you have any more questions about them! I'm a HUGE Brave Writer fan. :thumbup:

I posted mine in the 3rd grade planing thread, but I'll copy here, and add notes about what's new, etc. Morning Time: Long Story Short Memory work: scripture, poetry, Latin vocab, math facts, etc logic puzzles variety of read alouds rotation of things like art, picture study, composer study, poetry teatimes, etc LA: Brave Writer Arrows and a project or two from Partnership Writing, MCT island level Math: Beast Academy 3 Latin: finish Song School Latin 2, start ?? (probably Latin for Children A) History: SOTW 2 and read alouds, occasional (very occasional!) projects Science: Science in the Ancient World PE: ballet (her), tae kwon do (him) Plus one morning a week at our wonderful, wonderful enrichment co-op! We have not done registration for fall yet, but my kids are hoping to take math club (him), astronomy (her), off the grid survival skills (both), and computer programing with scratch (both). Neither of them plan to take the class I'm teaching (age of exploration). :lol: New for this year: Long Story Short & Beast Academy were both adds just because I wanted to try something new in bible and math, not because I was unhappy with what we had been doing. In fact, I LOVE the math we used in K-2, and will go right back to it if Beast flops. MCT LA is an add, not a replacement, just to beef up grammar for their 3rd grade year. Science in the Beginning is a change because I just could not keep up with BFSU planning and implementation last year. I needed something that would get DONE and with the handful of lessons we tried in May just to see what we thought about the new book, I think we've found one that fits the bill!

I wonder about some Brave Writer Arrows or Quiver of Arrows month-long language arts units for your older two, with the others just listening in on the stories. There are tons to back issues to choose from, so you may be able to find things you like there. Ambleside or A Modern Charlotte Mason or something like that could give you some really fantastic book options, but they don't do much in terms of "lessons" from them. CM is all about letting the book speak to the child, not pulling units from the books. You can pull copywork and dictation from them, obviously, but Brave Writer will do that for you, which earns them big points for me, for simplicity's sake.

:iagree: My DH just replaced his ancient car with a '16 Outback. It's the first thing that has made me think I might not have to replace my van with another van when the time comes. I think I still will, but I LOVE that car! It's nice, roomy, has fantastic storage space, and is so fun to drive!

Yes! My favorite c-rod resource. C-rods are my very favorite math manipulative!

We flew into Calgary for our honeymoon but then went west to Lake Louise and Emerald Lake and spent most of the week there. Absolutely gorgeous country. Can't wait to go back!

I just ordered LOE's Rhythm of Handwriting for my rising 3rd grader. From the samples, I thought it looked like a nice combination of working on strokes, an attractive font, and not overwhelming/not too much on the page.

Yes! Dragon Masters and others in the Scholastic Branches series are great for this age/ability. http://www.scholastic.com/branches/

The only two I'm familiar with are SOTW and FIAR, having used both of them. IMO, FIAR will come up short as a core curriculum for a 3rd grader. It is labeled for 4-8yos, but I found it perfect for PK & K and would have felt like I was short changing 2nd and 3rd graders to use it. There are many moms who use FIAR for those age groups and would disagree with me, though. It would be lovely for your 1st grader, but I would not want to do two different core programs for two kids that close in age. So I'd knock FIAR off of your list. We LOVE SOTW here. We do very little of the activity book, although I do buy it to use as a resource. We listen to the chapters on audio in the car (Jim Weiss narrating is fantastic!) and do some supplemental reading (library books, historical fiction), map work, and a very occasional project or craft at home. edit to add: SOTW 1 is not going to cover American history, if tat's what you're looking for. It covers ancient civilizations through the fall of Rome.

I have used Singapore exclusively so far (finishing 2B right now) and have always found it very straightforward to teach with the HIG, textbook, and workbook. Additionally, my 2nd graders have EXCELLENT number sense and problem solving skills. I have no experience with CLE, but I am in general agreement with everything Kate writes about SM and MM in her reviews of each program on her blog: http://kateshomeschoolmath.com/curriculum/

We had used FIAR for PK and K and I lived the literary elements and really missed them in 1st when we went straight Charlotte Mason with AO. This year we've been more free form in our CM approach and have used a lot of Brave Writer, and the literary devices are back! I definitely recommend BW's The Arrow when your kiddo is old enough.

Planning for cursive over the summer for my one who is not writing cursive already (the other self-taught at the beginning of 2nd grade, LOL). I bought the Logic of English Rhythm of Handwriting PDF and will print off pages for him to use as we go along. I love it. Pretty font, not a ton on the page, focus on strokes and connections, seems the best marriage of the different curricula I'd looked at so far, which is pretty much all of them. LOL

Yes, planning for Island level.

I gave the above linked boxed set to Ker his kindergarten year. He devoured them! Super cute reads.

None of my choices were on your list, but for my twin 3rd graders' LA next year, we're using Brave Writer's The Arrow and Michael Clay Thompson's Island level.

We used Essentials because it only required the one book (well, one per semester). Neither is easier than the other. Their content is the same. I found this blog post helpful when I was making my decision http://www.blueskiesacademy.com/2011/03/singapore-earlybird-versus-essential-math/

I spent the weekend doing the major overview planning for 3rd grade. Here's what I've got: Morning Time: Long Story Short Memory work: scripture, poetry, Latin vocab, math facts, etc MCT LA logic puzzles variety of read alouds rotation of things like art, picture study, composer study, poetry teatimes, etc LA: Brave Writer Arrows and a project or two from Partnership Writing Math: Beast Academy Latin: finish SSL 2, start ?? (probably Latin for Children A) History: SOTW 2 and read alouds, occasional (very occasional!) projects Science: BFSU and read alouds PE: ballet (her), tae kwon do (him) hoping to start piano lessons