Where do you all get these audio books? iTunes? Audible.com? Do you pay for most of them, or are they free? Just perking up to listen as my kids are getting to the age of appreciating some great read-alouds! Thanks. :)

I am :bigear: this thread since I'll have a 2nd grader next year. Thanks for all the suggestions thus far! Can I highjack just a bit to ask a question? Do you think a "typical" 2nd grader - say, reading at a solid 2nd grade level and neither exceptionally advanced nor particularly behind - can handle the American Girl books? And by handle, I mean read by herself with supervision and guidance by me - probably reading aloud to me. My young first grader is currently reading at a solid 1st grade level, and I am trying to ponder if we should read these as the base for her "history" curriculum next year. I had a friend do that with her 2nd grade daughter recently, and it worked well. I went through all the American Girl books with my older daughters, but it's been a LONG time. ;) I don't remember what the "ideal" age is for this series.

I'll take a stab at this . . . We did McRuffy K Phonics pretty much as written last year for my daughter's kindergarten year. She was a young K-er who turned 5 at the end of October last year. I do think it's a full program for kindergarten. It starts out slowly but rapidly picks up the pace. It has the kids reading simple books almost immediately, and by the end of the year they are reading many/most short vowel words and simple long vowel words. We did finish the program maybe in March, but only because we were both motivated to pick up the pace a bit. We started taking around three days to do five lessons. In our case, we just went ahead and started McRuffy's 1st grade program. Hope this helps. McRuffy Phonics K isn't a perfect program, but it is effective and solid, and my daughter genuinely enjoyed it. One caveat I'll mention is that I do prefer doing All About Spelling for spelling. About 2/3rds of the way through K, we started AAS and I just dropped the spelling aspect of McRuffy. McRuffy 1st Grade phonics is *extremely* spelling heavy, and at this point I am mainly just using the little readers. They are cute, colorful, incremental, and mostly phonics-controlled (ie, they keep sight words to a minimum). HTH! :)

Just to offer an alternate viewpoint, I actually think that the AAS spelling levels *do* roughly correlate to grade levels. Roughly. We started my daughter on AAS Level 1 when she was maybe 2/3rds of the way through kindergarten. We're on track to finish Level 1 approximately half way through her first grade year, maybe a bit later. I feel like my daughter is a normal bright little girl. Not profoundly gifted, but with no known learning issues or challenges either. And I feel like Level 1 is the perfect level for her right now as an early reader - not too easy, not too difficult - just right. :) I will confess that I have no idea how kids zip through a level in a couple weeks, particularly if they are *not* doing it remedially. Sure, if you're 9 or 10 years old and doing Level 1 just to play catch up to learn the AAS "method", I can see where you could get through it that quickly. But if you really suck the marrow out of the program - doing ALL the review, all the extra words, all the dictation phrases - well, it's a pretty rich, full program. So I'm completely fine with treating the AAS levels approximately as grade levels. That would have your student finishing up spelling around grade 5-7, which seems just about right to me. HTH.

Well, I am a HUGE fan of R&S English through their Grade 8 book. We started the 9/10 book and thought it was over-the-top nitpicky and obscure. I honestly believe that nobody needs to know the minute grammar details taught in that book, including a professional editor. Since you're asking advice, I would stop at the Grade 8 book. You can go back and review in subsequent years if you really want to . . . maybe assign the occasional worksheet or chapter test, just to keep things fresh. But if you go all that way - trust me - your daughter won't need additional grammar. At that point, typically around 9th grade, you'll switch into an emphasis on literature and writing. I did this with my older girls, and they have done beautifully. My eldest daughter still remembers most of her R&S grammar, and knew more grammar than the vast majority of her fellow university students. R&S through Level 8 prepared her extremely well. :) HTH.

Hi Mrs. Mungo! :) As you know, we have this issue as well. No lung disease (that anybody knows about, anyway), but definitely a similar issue. I too have felt frustrated with well meaning people telling me not to worry about it. It's one thing to be ok with being naturally thin, and it's another to have your child look like she just walked out of a concentration camp. When NO ONE else on either side of the family does. So I definitely empathize with your concern! (In our case, we've done all kinds of testing and nothing has turned up, but I can't shake the feeling that something is simply wrong.) Anyway . . . we have tried Pediasure and all the variations, and our child simply doesn't like them. But we have had luck adding in a packet of French Vanilla Instant Breakfast to her morning glass of whole milk. I think the 8 ounce combo is something like 270 calories. Would you mind sharing your best recipes for high calorie, kid-friendly shakes?

I have a young 1st grader who *just* turned 6 a couple days ago. We are using: ~McRuffy Phonics 1st Grade (loosely . . . focusing on the graduated readers, not many of the worksheets and none of their spelling); will start to add in miscellaneous easy readers such as Little Bear, Frog and Toad, etc. as the year goes on ~Right Start Math B ~Zaner Bloser handwriting Grade 1 (twice a week) ~Writing With Ease 1 (4x/week) ~First Language Lessons (3x/week) ~All About Spelling Level 1 (we started this slowly in K and are about 75% done with Level 1) (4x/week) ~DK Illustrated Story Bible ~Read alouds taken from the Memoria Press 1st grade list, as well as the Sonlight P4/5 Core For both science and history, I cobbled together my own collection of living books. The science topics are just miscellaneous books on basic science concepts and animals. Maybe half of them are from the "Let's Read and Find Out" series. I do either 1 or 2 science books a week. For history, I'm doing my own gentle introduction to American history. I'm using a 2nd grade history spine (Abeka, actually, even though I normally am not a fan of Abeka) and then added in probably 20-25 living history books . . . biographies written for the early grades, that kind of thing. We do history about twice a week. HTH. :)

We've enjoyed the Busy Bee Bags: http://www.mybusybeebag.com/ I find them a bit pricey, but worth it (to me) because I truly despise gathering craft materials. And I don't think I have a creative bone in my body. Yet my little ones love crafts . . . and these fit the bill. :) HTH.

The Arizona Science Center is excellent, as is the new (3 yo?) Phoenix Children's Museum. The latter would be for younger children, say, under 8 or so. Unfortunately, both are fairly expensive. Ditto the Phoenix Zoo - excellent! I would recommend a day trip to Sedona. It's a beautiful drive, especially if you tack on Oak Creek Canyon. (Gorgeous drive, but twisty . . . give yourselves lots of time.) Of course, the Grand Canyon is about 4 hours away. I wouldn't recommend doing a turn around trip, but a one night stay would be good. You can visit a place called Pioneer Arizona that would make for a great field trip about Western pioneer days: http://www.pioneeraz.org/

Wow, this recipe sounds intriguing! Where on earth did you get a recipe for black bean brownies? I never would have thought of that combo. Guess that's why I'm not a baker. :D

Thank you . . . I don't know why I couldn't find it during my initial searches. :confused: Oh well, thanks so much!! :)

Thank you . . . ! The Dragonling books are intriguing, and probably something we would all enjoy. (Dh loves the fantasy genre.) But I'm a bit confused by the choices on Amazon. I see many Dragonling sequels, but am having trouble finding the original book. Is it out of print? What am I missing?

Sounds like a good option . . . thanks! It's also on 4-for-3 on Amazon, which is awesome. :)

Glad to hear it; Amazon just "suggested" it to me and I put it in the cart too! :)

I'll have to try the brownies first, then! DD used to love brownies. ;)

Ooh, thanks so much for the info on King Arthur Flour. I love and trust that company, but wasn't aware (or maybe had forgotten) that they now had a GF line. Thanks again! :)

Wow, you guys have been fantastic! Thank so much for all your input . . . I'm off to check out a whole bunch of possibilities. Thanks again! :)

I do have the Jamie and Angus stories. We've gotten into one and, honestly, were a bit disappointed. Maybe it's time to give it another go. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle . . . I've somehow missed this book all my life. Off to check it out! ;) Thanks to everybody who has replied!! :)

Thank you, Julie! Iron Man sounds very intriguing. I think I actually have Doctor Doolittle somewhere. Off to look . . .

These look great - I love other books by Steig - so I just ordered them on Amazon. ;) Thanks!

Thank you . . . off to look at Amazon. :)

Thanks so much for sharing. Interestingly, this is almost identical to our family's chocolate cake/frosting recipe that we've used for 30-40 years! It's definitely a winner! I've never tried making a GF version, though. ;)

Best of luck, Faith! :grouphug: For what it's worth, my daughter has been through two complete rounds of testing by two excellent GIs. Each time she had the upper endoscopy. And nobody's ever found a shred of evidence for Celiac. BUT . . . she and I basically self-diagnosed her. Her three years of migraines, crippling abdominal pain, and alternating diarrhea/constipation have all disappeared. It took a whopping 24 hours of her giving up gluten before she experienced an improvement. So I know there are definitely cases where the diet makes a massively positive impact even though the tests show absolutely zero. No wonder this is such a notoriously difficult condition to diagnose!

Ah, I saw this on Amazon and, based on your recommendation, moved it from my Wish List to my Cart. Thanks! :)