Our school didn't have a break per se, but there was a smoking area out behind the gym. I graduated in 1985. I shake my head when I think of how many kids hung out there and smoked during school!

You forgot Other :tongue_smilie: Jodie

My boys are in 3rd and 4th grades this year (our first year homeschooling). We do the following: math (Saxon 3 and 5/4) 4 days a week spelling (spelling power) 4 days a week SOTW 3 days a week Prima Latina 4 days a week Wordly Wise (vocab) 3 days a week Grammar (FLL) 3 days a week Writing (WWE) 4 days a week Cursive 2-3 days a week Science 3 days a week We are also doing a mish-mash of atlas work (geography) a few days a week drawing with children (art)- once a week learning about the orchestra- once a week We do school 4 days a week and use the 5th day for nature walks, experiments, history projects, etc. Most days take us about 4-5 hours or so a day. They also practice piano 30 minutes each day. They do history, science, grammar, writing, and latin together. They do separate math, spelling and vocabulary. I would try to combine as much as is possible to help cut down on time. Also, they pretty much do vocab, atlas, cursive on their own (i.e. while one is finishing math or spelling, the other will do piano and then work on vocab, cursive or their atlas work for a while). HTH. I'm new to this, so I don't even know if this is the best way to do things, but it's working for us so far. Good luck. Jodie

We did when we moved across town. Took them all day (much longer than their estimator thought). We bought them lunch and drinks, too.

I bought one (which my oldest son uses), but my younger son uses pages that I printed out from the Spelling Power CD. We put these in a 3 ring binder. Same pages just printed out. works fine. Jodie

I've taken pictures with the iPad of worksheets and text pages (math) for my sons to work on when we aren't at home (i.e. if we are traveling and I don't want to carry the big books). Seems to work well. Of course, they can't complete the worksheets on the iPad, they use pencil and paper separately. HTH. Jodie

Thanks! This will definitely come in handy! Jodie

ds8 says Sprite. ds9 says Dr. Pepper Jodie

:iagree: Jodie

My kids (8 and almost 10) enjoy the Scrambled States of America game. And I know you mean board games, but they LOVE Stack the States on the ipad (I'm amazed at how much they learned when we took a train trip last week and they were playing it). We also have that States and Capitals Sequence game (I had forgotten), but we haven't played it yet. Good luck!! Jodie

I've seen then at our WalMart and Target in the back to school sections. U.S. and World Map for 4.95 each. They are a little larger than 2x3 though. HTH. Jodie

There's a series of books called the Carole Marsh Mysteries (Real Kids, Real Places) that might work for you. Each one is set in a different place in America (i.e. Mystery in New York City; The mystery in chocolate town: Hershey Penn; the mystery at Disney World, etc.). When I volunteered in the school library last year, these were very popular for 2-4th graders. I haven't read any myself, but they look interesting. HTH. Jodie

We watched Oswald (and Daisy and the penguin with Squiggy's voice) on Noggin. Loved that show! Jodie

I've been wondering the same thing myself lately. Our collection has now exceeded the four shelves we had allotted for it between the rocks, shells, insects, etc! I found some actual insect display boxes for sale that I'm considering buying at educationalscience.com that were pretty reasonable (starting at 7.99). HTH! Jodie