I did NL2 when my ds was 6 turning 7. For an 8 year old, I would definitely look at NL3.

We love the magazines put out by Carus Publishing Company (the publishers of Cricket and Muse). We're currently loving Ask and Spider, but have also enjoyed Ladybug. Check the website for the different magazines for your kids' ages. Muse is aimed for kids 9-14. We have our eyes on Appleseeds at the moment! We also really enjoy Ranger Rick (for my older ds) and My Big Backyard (for the littler ds).

I really like Demi's picture books on religious figures (Gandhi, Buddha, Muhammad, Jesus, St. Nicholas, etc.). She also has some about celebrations like Chinese New Year. Amazon listings here.

We've been studying Arabic since day one and have just added Indonesian!

Have you considered buying CLE used? That way you wouldn't actually be supporting the publishers, but rather other homeschool families. Just a thought. We run into complicated faith issues here, too. :)

Both of mine write everything in cursive. I transitioned DS1 around 7 and DS2 started with cursive.

My son enjoyed going through an Elson reader at that stage, as it was a thick, hardback book that he was able to read successfully. From there, he took off.

Excellent, thank you!

We're preparing for an international move, so we'd like to polish our Asia geography. While there are obviously many countries in Asia, do you think this game would be enjoyable for an 8 year old?

My older ds had this problem too, and it came to a head when he was trying to do some shading in a drawing exercise -- it was so hard and dark that it was more blacking-out than shading. I just told him to put his weight on his *hand* so he can move the pencil lightly. It seems so obvious, but to him it was a lightbulb moment. I hadn't had any success trying to get him to relax his hand. When he adjusted where he was pushing, he ended up really relaxing.

I would definitely look into FLL3. I did this with a 1st grader because the format of FLL 1/2 drove me crazy. Definitely give it a look. If you want to be further along in writing, I would suggest picking up the pace a bit with WWE2. You could easily combine days 1 and 2 (narration and copywork), leave days 3 and 4 as they are, and do it five days a week. There is definitely a skill jump with WWE3, so if your kids are comfortable in level 2, I wouldn't skip over it.

Does this have Christian content? How long are the videos, and can you give me an idea of what the lessons are like?

Thank you so much for the replies! Amira: That is just what I imagined. I think that Pimsleur would be great for me, but I can't imagine it capturing the interest of my children. I just discovered that my library has Pimsleur Indonesian (yay!), so I will check that out and perhaps try Rosetta Stone for the boys. Dian: No tenses?! No subject-verb agreement?! I'm in love already. :D After so many years of studying Arabic, that sounds lovely. Thank you for the link, I will definitely look into that. As for where we will be... we will be closer to Jakarta than I would like (I fear the traffic!). We will be south and a bit west, where Banten, West Java, and the Jakarta Capital Region meet. It will no doubt be an adventure! stripe: We like visitors!

It looks like we'll be moving to Indonesia this summer for at least two years. I'd like to give my boys a head start learning Bahasa Indonesia. Does anyone have any suggested resources? Rosetta Stone has one level of Indonesian, and there is also Pimsleur... Any advice about these two or any other suggestions? Thanks!

I started my then-7yo with level 2, and it was a great fit for him. You may need to do some of the reading for your six year old, depending on his reading level, but I think the content wouldn't be too much. YMMV, of course.

I'm currently in training to get my AMI Elementary Montessori certificate / M.Ed, and while I *adore* Montessori math at the elementary level, I cannot imagine creating (or buying) all that you'd need. It would be a tremendous investment of time and/or money. One thing you may need to think about is where your child is in relation to traditional scope and sequence. My five year old is in Montessori school this year and he is very comfortable doing four digit addition and subtraction and is doing a lot of work with large number multiplication and division as well. The approach is so different that it would be hard to imagine placing him in SM or RS. If you can work placement out, I think the general approach of RS is as close to Montessori as anything else I've seen, and it is what I used with my older ds before he transitioned into Montessori. If you want to do a little elementary math the Montessori way, I would highly recommend the multiplication checker board and division racks and tubes. They are expensive of course. Montessori Outlet has the best prices I have seen, but you could easily make a checker board and, with a little thinking, racks and tubes too.

Thank you so much! Books like that... I'm not sure if they really make my life easier or not. I am not one to simplify things so much for my kids. Are you planning on continuing with this series or do you have another plan? Have you seen any other Islamic-centered curricula that appeal?

What do you mean they're a bit much? I've seen these but haven't bought them. I haven't found really any Islamic curricula that I'm happy with - for any subject. Apparently I'm picky, and there just aren't many good choices. :glare: Susan Douglass's materials are interesting, but they're definitely designed for the classroom and have always seemed a bit below grade level to me.

:iagree: These are *great* audiobooks! We've gone through the whole series at least twice.

I used this and thought it was okay, but I much prefer Vocabulary Vine.

Do your kids do better with the frame by frame instruction? I think my boys would like the videos and the energy Mark Kistler brings to them, but I'm not sure how well they would be able to follow along.

If you sign up for Mark Kistler's drawing lessons, is there a particular order to follow? I've watched some of his free videos, but I'm always confused about the best ones to attempt first with my kids.

If you look up the YouTube channel of MasterCommunications, there are a few of these films there you can rent for $3: More Families of Mexico, Families of Korea, and Families of Japan.

I just wanted to point out that Montessori does NOT use the red rods in any way similar to c-rods!! Those red rods are huge and are used sensorially by 3 year olds to develop their sense of dimension. On the Nienhuis website, they are listed in the sensorial materials, not math. They are a preparation for the blue and red number rods which are also huge (10 - 100 cm). Those rods are used by 3.5 - 4.5 year old children to enable them to experience the quantity of numbers and learn their names. Kids use the colored bead bars once they know the names of the numbers. Those are colored and very similar to the c-rods. Link.

My older ds finished RS C awhile back, and I'm wondering what to do with him over the summer. In the past we have just moved on to the next level, but as the boys are going to (Montessori) school in the fall, I'm not looking to invest in a teacher-intensive, expensive, year-long program. I want to do something with him to keep his brain working though. I'm looking for independent and ideally spiral. And hopefully cheap! We've done some MEP, but I'm looking for something a little more traditional. I love the thinking required in MEP, but it's just a little too different from what we've done and where he's headed. Suggestions?