Institute for Excellence's Poetry Memorization Program -- my kids actually enjoy listening to the poems and look forward to the new one each week. Audio memorization in general -- I compile a new file for each week and we listen during lunch. One of the best things I've ever done. Using small white boards for all manner of responses that don't necessarily have to be saved (such as the first-draft of a spelling lesson or a math concept lesson). They are probably the most-used item we have. Story of the World audio. Big thumbs up!! Mapping the World with Art by Ellen McHenry. Awesome! Tapestry of Grace crafts and activities. You can even access some of them for free on the website. Here's an example. Look at "supporting links." Bob Books. They drive me batty, but the kids love them. It gives them a great feeling to read a real book soon after learning how sounds go together. Binding samples of their work at the end of the year. I'm hooked! Accountable Kids chore system AlphaBetter -- drill system to improve alphabetizing skills. Tracey

I have a 7th-grader who will be using Easy Grammar Plus this fall. I wanted to share the schedule I came up with since there seems to be a scarcity of information about this and I could possibly save someone else the headache of figuring it out. Also, I would love to have feedback from people who have done this before. Did I schedule too much per week? I scheduled about 2 pages per day (and by "page," I mean one side of a page that is printed front and back). I used this lovely Donna Young form to lay it out, which was very helpful. Tracey Easy Grammar Plus Scheduling Prepositions 37 pages, plus one-page test=38 pages=4 weeks Verbs 73 pages, plus six-page test=79=8 weeks Nouns 34 pages, plus 4-page test=38 pages=4 weeks Interjections & Conjunctions & Adjectives 29 pages plus 6-page test=35=4 weeks Sentences 9 pages=1 week Adverbs 32 pages, plus 6-page test=38=4 weeks Pronouns 43 pages, plus 7-page test=50=5 weeks Punctuation 25 pages, plus 1-page test=26=3 weeks Capitalization 19 pages, plus 1-page test=20=2 weeks Grand Total of 35 weeks of work This does not include time for the 8-page pre-test and post-test. Note: one page equals one side of a page that is printed front and back

I loved this book! I'm not very interested in science myself, but it captured my imagination. I read it outloud to my 11 and 7yo. It is "The History of Medicine" by Tiner. It has chapters on various important people in the history of medicine. http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-History-Medicine-Hudson-Tiner/dp/tags-on-product/0890512485

I want to bump this topic to get an answer to Aconnelly's question. How do you schedule this? I have a soon-to-be 7th grader and I'm trying to see what his schedule will look like for next year. I'm not sure how long this will take and how many days per week it should be done. I'm also trying to fit in spelling. Is it possible to do grammar 3 days per week and spelling the other 2? TIA, Tracey

I'm loving this discussion, but all the acronyms are killing me!! What is MM? There are lots of acronyms and it gets frustrating to decipher. Help! Tracey