Well, here's a map from Middle-East-Info.org showing Jerusalem's border changes from 1948-1967. I got it by clicking through from the site's index, which also links to loads of other webpages. And I got there through Google Images, which usually helps me find great maps--restrict your searches to line drawings (I do black and white, too), and search on something like "Israel map 1947." Of course, this isn't what you asked for, but maybe it's a place to start?

I completely agree with this. I always do the lesson with tiles, but use a whiteboard/marker set for the spelling words and dictation. (Yesterday he got a "preliminary" list of words to spell for the lesson, and he used a whiteboard for that, as well.) We're about halfway through Level 2, and the words are still really easy for my son, too. But the syllabification rules are really helping him a lot! And being able to literally pull the word apart and put the labels on is a neat visual for him. Of course, I liked using the tiles for lessons when it was back at the "Should this word start with a 'c' or a 'k'?" step in Level 1.

Yeah, I've had days like that, too. At least AAR2 is supposed to come out in a little over a week, right?

I think you mean All About Reading Level 2. All About Spelling has been out for quite a while. In fact, my son's halfway through it. ;)

How much larger are these larger words? Do you need to start working on syllabification rules instead of just phonograms? Or is she intimidated by longer one-syllable words? Just trying to get a better sense, here, for the people who do know their stuff. I'm certainly not informed enough about phonics programs to help you--I'm doing 100EZ and AAS to get my phonics covered, so far. The former's fairly cheap, but I can certainly see why anyone might stay away from the latter for budgetary reasons! (I consider the money I spend on that one to be from my teaching resources budget, because I enjoy the program so much and it keeps me motivated. My son may, sadly, feel somewhat differently. Oh, well.)

I second Geography Songs! Some are great, although some are just painful. I also really love Out of the Box's "Ten Days in..." series. It's actually a fun game series and it really helps you learn where the countries are without being in the slightest "trivia"-type games.

I'd just point to one of my favorite hymns, "For the Beauty of the Earth." (The second line is "For the glory of the skies"...) I did just tell that story to my husband, though, who enjoyed it.

I'm not positive, but might it be The Logic of English?

Have you considered logic puzzles? Whether the kind with the grid, such as Puzzle Baron has, or the kind that make pictures (e.g., triddlers?)? For the latter, I love Conceptis Puzzles. Or there's sudoku--my eight-year-old son has loved the easy puzzles from Krazydad, although you have to print those out. Of course, JigSawDoku is fun, too. And I am well aware that this is probably not what you were looking for. Sorry.

I picked up Castle Logix at a convention a few weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised by the size and quality of the pieces. It has a limited play (there are 48 configurations to copy in the little booklet they give you), but that hasn't stopped either my two-and-a-half-year-old or my four-year-old sons from enjoying it immensely.

I third the Primarily Logic recommendation. You can get .pdfs of most of the Prufrock books now, if you want to keep them (or it) around for your third-grader. My son is definitely not a genius, but he's been enjoying Primarily Logic in his second- and now third-grade year. We just do it once a week, and some weeks I can't even manage that. :p

Homeschool Skedtrack is the online scheduling program that is really set up for "the next thing." I love it! Have you considered doing the Coop versions of your lessons, if any are available? Then you'd be hitting each topic once a week or so. Your children would still have to get their homework done, though. It's not like I have a lot of experience on that front, though. Until last year, I was doing Sonlight's four days a week, and stuff still ran over most of the time on a five-day schedule! I will say that I'm enjoying Biblioplan's three-day history week this year; it makes alternating with science a lot easier.

Wow, it was so long ago (high school) that I have trouble even remembering. I think I just wasn't pulled in by the intrigue and cultural battle within Kim the way I was meant to be; about all I remember is that I didn't much care for Kim and that there was a fairly simplistic Buddhist monk or something somewhere in there. (I'm sorry I'm not more of a help!)

I haven't read Red Badge either. And I can't stand Kipling's prose. I read Kim, and regretted it immensely. I think you might be giving books that are too hard to your son. There's a long ways between Tom Sawyer and Kim, or even Oliver Twist. There's even a large gap between Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I would consider the options you're considering more on the Huck Finn (or Lord of the Rings) end of things than the Tom Sawyer (or Hobbit) end. Remember that children will push themselves for a story that they're enjoying in ways that they won't for required reading. Also, if your son can't make it through Tom Bombadil (which, to tell the truth, took me forever), then he probably won't be able to make it through some of the long narrative rabbit trails that Dickens and Kipling both take. That said, I think Oliver Twist was a lot easier to get through than Kim ever was. Once I got through wanting to punch the main character, even Great Expectations was a fairly straightforward read. Maybe you could try your son on Oliver (or Pip) and see how well he fares? But in general, for some slightly simpler books that are still very good (at least the ones I've read), have you considered Sonlight's Readers E reading list? It's also about equivalent timewise with SOTW 4. It includes such gems as Old Yeller, Bruchko (if you don't object to missionary stories), and, for a slightly lighter break, By the Great Horn Spoon! Or you could check out Biblioplan's reading list for the same era, and check out the grades 5-8 list instead of the high school list (which has a couple of the books you're considering). That said, I know of at least two classic radio play versions of Oliver Twist that your son might enjoy listening to on those long car trips. :p

Are you interested in buying a book list? I own All Through the Ages, by Christine Miller, which certainly seems to fit your criteria. For free, you can check out Redshift's "Literature to Supplement History" page. That's all I can think of. Don't forget browsing your library catalog by subject headings or collection by Dewey Decimal number, though!

I'd definitely second the recommendation for the free Starfall resources. My son (a young kindergartener) loves those. For teaching reading, I went with (and am going with again) Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I know, a lot of people here don't like it, since it really just gets your kid started and doesn't do all the phonics they'll need, but I checked it out from my local library and loved it. (Something else my local library has is the Bob books, although my son hasn't been too thrilled with those.) For my oldest, I followed that up (in first grade) with Sonlight's Grade 2 Readers, and now I'm doing All About Spelling to add back in some of that phonics instruction. If you're not scared to go it without a prepackaged curriculum, you could check out Ruth Beechick's The Three R's and work from there. Or, Progressive Phonics is free, although I've never used it. Also, for math, Jay Wright's Kitchen Table Math is pretty popular around here; Book 1 is the "Beginning Math" book. (I linked to Rainbow Resource because it's six dollars cheaper there than on Amazon. If you manage to scrape together a $50.00 order from Rainbow Resource, shipping is free.)

The only thing I really feel like I wasted money on was The Rainbow Book of American History. It was impossible to preview or find it anywhere, several people loved it, so I wanted to see it. At the time, the cheapest I could find the book was $40.00. Once I got it and looked through it, almost every page I read seemed to be anti-native American. Ouch! I don't have a Disney's Pocahontaesque view of native Americans, but this was just painful. No, thank you, to that curriculum. I have bought other things to look them over, and decided not to use them. None of them have been terribly expensive in the first place, and none have made me angry I spent the money like that Rainbow Book did, though. I also bought the Create-A-Story game to try to help my son get more into writing. We've only played it once, but it's one of those I'm going to wait for my kids to outgrow before I call it a waste of money. (Plus, I can see some of my adult friends playing this for fun, although we might adapt the rules a little.) On the other hand, I know I shell out a lot for Math-U-See and All About Spelling when there are cheaper resources out there. But I love them. My son is doing well with MUS without requiring a lot of direct instruction from me (yay!) and I personally like the bright letter tiles and the way review is structured into AAS. It makes me look forward to the spelling lessons, and my son certainly hasn't seemed to mind them.

Ooh, I'd forgotten Beatrix Potter! I know she was a pioneer in writing and illustrating children's books, but they just read as boring or outright strange to me. On the other hand, I have been enjoying the DVD versions... I've never had a problem with the shirts/no pants aspect, though.

Yup, we started today. Everything got done! (Well, except the "critical thinking" exercise for my kindergartener, which was more like playing with a fun logic puzzle. I lost the puzzle!) I was adding things last minute--I completely forgot to put the grammar program for my third-grader in the schedule. Ditto for the phonics for my kindergartener. Ouch!

Clyde Robert Bulla, the author of Viking Adventure, wrote several books that my son has loved reading as part of Sonlight's reading list. The Sword in the Tree, already recommended by a previous poster, was one of them. So are The Chalk Box Kid and The Paint Brush Kid. There's another one on Amazon called Ghost Town Treasure that looks perfect for an adventure-seeking kid, too. Which reminds me, you can check out the Sonlight book list for "Grade 3 Readers"--the vast majority of them are adventurous and boy friendly. The exceptions would be most of the top two rows on the page I linked to, The House on Walenska Street, the two Long Way... books, the Third Grade Detective stories (which have their own appeal, but which may not interest your son) and The Last Little Cat.

Wow, this is a concept my children were never required to learn. I'm not quite sure I "get" it myself, but I think I have the gist. If I wanted to supplement teaching it, I'd definitely be tempted by good ol' Chutes and Ladders. (My oldest son really likes it, okay?) So you're on square 36 (or whatever) and you roll a five. Go "36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41" as you move your piece up. (You could even count it off on the fingers of the hand not moving the piece, if that's not verboten for some reason. I never understand why using your fingers to keep track when counting is considered evil. Then again, I don't aspire to be a mental math champion.)

Well, I'm going with Biblioplan for history, which is similar to Tapestries of Grace but simpler and cheaper. (Since your objection to Ambleside seems to be the reading, I'm not sure how well that would work for you. Then again, there is a "spine" in Biblioplan...) I'm also using Drawn into the Heart of Reading for lit. (Not that that's cheap!) I hope others chime in on this one soon!

I like little piece from Handwriting without Tears. I'll include the important lyrics here: "My thumb is bent, pointer points to the tip, Tall man uses his side. I tuck my last two fingers in And take them for a ride." I taught my middle son proper grip, and then let him go back to preschool (three mornings a week), and he came out of there determined on the fist grip. Sigh. Meanwhile, his two-year-old brother is gripping his crayons just perfectly without any help. What makes it really kind of odd for me is that both are lefties, unlike myself, my husband, and my oldest son. (But just like both their grandfathers!)

Wow, this is a fascinating thread. I've got to say that I, too, can't stand E. B. White. I did get through Charlotte's Web with my son, probably because we studied it in children's literature so I could back away from the plot and appreciate the writing a bit more, but ugh! I completely agree about Stuart Little (both the strange beginning and the indeterminate ending drove me nuts when I read it as required reading in school), and as for Trumpet of the Swan! I couldn't even stand the excerpts I was supposed to read my son as part of WWE2 last year. I remember that that book really skeeved me out when I read it in, I think, high school. Defenses of things others have denigrated: Robinson Crusoe is not a children's book, although it's very important historically. (I have to admit that I've only read excerpts.) The Wind in the Willows is very episodic, so I have no trouble only reading my son a couple of chapters a month. Slow down and enjoy the word pictures and the tone the writer sets; don't try to get through it in a rush. My son loved being read The Hobbit at six by his father. In my opinion, Redwall isn't worth reading aloud, although it's certainly a good read "for fun" at the junior high or high school level. I actually kind of enjoy Alcott's preachiness. (I see Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, AND An Old-Fashioned Girl and raise you Little Men and Under the Lilacs, though. I've never been able to read those more than once.) I don't know that I'd push any of them but Little Women for school, though, and that only if I had a girl. For a slightly younger crowd, since that's where my kids are: Roald Dahl. Yuck. I mean, if my son wants to read it on his own, fine (except Matilda and BFG), but no way am I wasting good reading time on that. You want preachy? Forget Alcott and go straight for Dr. Seuss. Even when he's not preachy, his art is disturbing and his stories boring. I can only stand Green Eggs and Ham (which is still preachy, may I point out,) and One Foot, Two Foot. Bring that stupid cat or those Sneetches--or even the Whos--around, and don't expect any mercy. (Although I can stand the classic Grinch movie every few years around Noel.)

I'm actually not too crazy about Strunk and White. They can be a little adamant on points that don't really make all that much sense. i agree that using the passive voice is the best way to express things sometimes. See here for information with examples that put it way better than I ever could. That said, I had a comp teacher in college who argued that verbs are the strongest part of speech, closely followed by nouns, with adjectives and adverbs lagging way behind. He required us to write a (medium length) fictional paragraph completely eliminating being verbs. (We might have been required to forgo prepositional phrases, as well.) That proved a surprisingly difficult, but interesting, experiment that brought home his point. After that, when I'm really focusing on editing my writing, I try to make sure that there isn't a better way to put things to eliminate being verbs (yes, even when used as linking verbs), or to incorporate stronger verbs instead of using adverbs, or to incorporate stronger nouns instead of using adjectives. I think this exercise could work well in homeschooling. Just don't take it to the lengths of the editor above on other assignments. By the way, what I've seen of the "dress-ups" in IEW irk me because they're mostly adverbs and adjectives and prepositional phrases. No thank you!