OR, where is a good, printable, colored world & US map that could be enlarged to wall size? We need some new maps and I want to either buy a laminated one, or take a printed out one and make my own using our charter school's enlarging. Either way, I'd like some links both ways :) And what about historical maps? We just started SOTW...are there any specific historical ones that we should invest in?

We have enrichment classes through our charter school for 4, 5wk sessions through the school year, so on those weeks we have Wednesday off from normal school at home. The rest of the year we do m-f.

We've been doing MCT Island level this year (4th grade...our first year homeschooling). I love it. Truly love it. HOWEVER, we haven't been able to devote enough time to it so it's unfortunately been something that hasn't been as steady as I feel it should be. I've learned that my oldest is very much a rule follower - not necessarily a learning through reading type person. We've started up IEW and it's working well, but it appears to be just writing. What else should we cover? Grammar specifics? Poetry? etc. I feel like we should add something to it but not quite sure where to look. Suggestions?

Interesting! 3rd grade is what did it to me too! I could see the changes that were happening and learned that it really wasn't something that I was liking.

Thanks for asking this! We're finishing up Astronomy this year and were trying to decide which one of those 3 we should do next. Looks like swimming is the overwhelming winner :)

LOVE Google Sky. My kids ask to turn it on anytime we're in the car at night. There's lots of great Story Books, ABC4Me, Kids Alphabet, Sight Word Bingo, Super Why, Slice It, Math Workout, and tons more. Such a fun toy :)

My 6 yr old dd LOVES these. We're in the middle of the regular series (which we all love), and she came across these that she could read on her own and was so excited. We have 2 now, but I would love to get more. Our library only has a few of them.

It's fixed :)

Good information here! Several I hadn't heard about - thanks for the info :)

I totally get the chronological thing. I really do. And I want to continue doing that. BUT, I don't want my 4th grader to wait 3-4 more years before she gets to learn about our country. Because she's been in ps up until this point, she hasn't had the last 3 yrs to benefit from SOTW, so we're starting at the beginning there, but I feel like it's putting American History too far away for her specifically. Now if she was in 1st grade, I wouldn't find it as that big of a deal, but at this age, I would like her to have some of it. There's just so much we do that would benefit from having a background in US history. Vacations we take, places we visit, etc. I just don't want to put it off for that long. I want to do US history chronologically as well, and I know it will be much farther in time than we are at in SOTW, I'm pretty sure they'll "get" it. And it will make it even more logical, once we do get to that point in SOTW, or MOH, or whatever we do at that point.

We're currently in SOTW1, but really feel like we should be getting some American History in as well. I'm fine with doing both, if the American History is similar to SOTW. We currently listen to SOTW in the car, do the mapping, discussion and generally 1 project, and books we find interesting. I could do the same thing for American History if I could find something similar. Anything mapped out like SOTW, but for the US? I kind of like something that walks me through like the AG does, not just a spine with no other information to go with it :(

I was just going to come post this same deal. I have this same laminator and love it. Great price!

Yeah..I do the covers, but I'm just thinking it would be really nice to somehow see what they are from the spine, for when they're on the bookshelf. With the old fashion plastic binding, I could label the spine. Just haven't figured out a way to do that on the spirals!

:bigear:

Just wondering if there's a way to keep track of all these binders that I might not know about?

Is stressed about this...especially with how to work it with 2 kids and some things together, some things with me, some things independent, etc. Come to find out...it just works lol. When they're is independent work, they know it. When it is work they do with me, they get me. If I'm busy, they move on to the next box and we gip back to it later. It just works for us :)

Ooooh- Loving this so far for myself!! I have a different program for my kids, but I have been wanting to learn conversational spanish for myself in my business. Going through the first lesson and loving how they have it all laid out. Thank you!

Since beginning hs'ing, we listen to audio books whenever we're in the car. DD picked out Peter Pan at this last trip to the library (she's never read it), so she's following along in MCT's book while we go, but is not getting into any of the sidebars. We will then read it together later and get more into the notes and such. I liked the idea of her having a feel for the story as a whole first, before getting into the nitty gritty :)

I just saw someone show this on another board. The children's pastor at their church designed it for a home or Sunday school lesson. Thought I would share it here: http://littlepeoplebigword.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/remembering-september-11.pdf

1. How long have you been homeschooling? Just started August 1 :) 2. Which homeschool philosophy(ies) do you use? We're Classical with a Charlotte Mason feel to it - if that's possible ;) 3. Why do you homeschool? I need to write this all out soon so that when I get discouraged (because I'm sure it will happen), I can look at it and remember why I made this choice. We got into homeschooling by God's pushing. I have several friends who hs, but always felt very happy with our PS choice. Near the end of last school year, I happen to be more involved in the online homeschool community and just couldn't leave it. I learned that it was more than just sheltering my kids from a bad school environment (which is what I'd felt from my friends' who were doing it). I learned about all of the amazing things my children were missing out on by being in that school building for 6 hrs a day. They were missing out on an entire world of learning because they were being forced to learn in a box. They were missing out on a fabulous sibling relationship because many of their friends viewed siblings as an annoyance instead of a blessing, and that attitude was starting to rub off. There's so much more as well. It wasn't that I thought that something bad was happening to them at school, it was that there was so much more that I was hoping I could provide to them at home. 4. What was your biggest waste of money in homeschooling? Oh I've had alot so far, but I don't actually consider them wastes. Simply learning experiences. I was sold on Biblioplan, but got 1 week into it and just couldn't bring myself to do it. Same with a couple others. 5. What was the best money you have ever spent? So far...hmmm....not sure :). We LOVE our white board that we got for FREE. It's is a massive, wood bordered conference room style white board that I got off of Freecycle. It is worth over $1000 when I googled it! 6. Which curriculum/curricula did you want to love, but didn't work for you? Biblioplan, SOTW for now (still like it, but not starting with it) 7. Which curriculum/curricula did you end up loving that you thought you wouldn't? I don't know that there's any that I didn't think I would love - I wouldn't have bought it if I thought that :) 8. What is your best advice to anyone just starting out? Well, I'm just starting out, so I can only say to be ready to go along for the ride and make sure you are doing what is best for YOUR family, not necessarily what is best for every other homeschooler's family :) 9. Which mistakes have you made with your olders that you will not repeat with your littles? Keeping her in PS through 3rd grade ;). I see a whole new opportunity by starting with my 1st grader in HS and I can only imagine how great it will be for my pre-ker to be brought up in this from the beginning. It's a struggle to find the right curriculum for my 4th grader knowing that I wish she had had the last 3 years in that same curriculum. 10. Anything else you want to share? This isn't a "real" poll, but I still feel compelled to have an other!!!! Stand your ground as a hs'er and don't feel pressured by anyone. You came into this world by doing your own thing, so make sure you don't feel pressured by the hs world to do anything but your own thing :)

Noise is definitely something that can go with earthquakes, but depending on where you are in relation to the true epicenter (depth and distance), you might not notice it. Many people will say that they've "been through XYZ quake" when in reality they were hundreds of miles away from it. It doesn't mean that they didn't experience some shaking that went with it (and sometimes even strong shaking), but they didn't truly feel all the strength that that quake had to offer and would definitely not experience the same thing that someone would who is right near the epicenter. I grew up in Coalinga, CA - home of the 1983 6.7 Coalinga earthquake, and just a short distance from Parkfield, CA - known as the earthquake capital of the world LOL. Parkfield has the San Andreas fault run right through their town and for at least a century or so, their earthquakes were actually pretty darn predictable. They would come approx every 22 yrs...until the Coalinga Earthquake. Apparently ours threw the predictions out the window LOL. The one that was to happen in 1993, didn't actually happen until 2004. With that being said, Parkfield has been the home of many, many researchers, and scientific equipment to test earthquakes. Anyway, I have a fascination for earthquakes. One thing I've learned is that people can experience the same earthquake absolutely differently. Sometimes it's just the personal way that people experience something, sometimes it's the difference in location, but no matter what, it has about the same accuracy as eyewitness accounts, which we know can be highly off LOL.

We're using Apologia and we LOVE it! I have a Jr. Journal for my 1st grader and the regular Journal for my 4th grader. It's working fabulously. There's still a little more writing in the Jr. one than my 1st grader is up for quite yet, so we skip a few things in it, but not many. We started with Astronomy this year and really are having a really good time with it :)

Ouch!! This reminds me of when I was a teenager at the coast with my family. We were having lunch at a local bbq place...eating outside in the garden area. My mom (who is in a power wheelchair) had a wasp fly up her skirt and let me tell you...the dance she did is one I will never forget. She was stuck in the wheelchair, but the skirt practically went up and over her head, while she was screaming and hitting herself. As a teenager, it was so incredibly embarrassing. As an adult, I love harassing her about it now ;) Hope you feel better soon!

I was going to college and working part-time at Walmart. I had a friend who was wanting to get together with dh's best friend. Because we were all 18 and dumb, my friend wanted to hook me up with his friend, since she was too chicken to say that she actually liked the friend. Anyway, dh stopped into say Hi to his friend and we were finally introduced (in the soda aisle LOL). DH tells the incredibly loving story about how when his friend first pointed me out to him (without me knowing about it), dh's response was, "Yeah, I'd do her!" NICE, huh?!?!?!?!?! Anyway, 15 years later, here we are. Those friends did end up getting married and having a baby. She was pregnant at our wedding and they were divorced before we had our first kid. So yes, my husband got me for a discount at Walmart ;) LOLOL

Well, I'm brand new in this world and actually just started a blog. My very first long-winded post was used as a "coming-out" post to my friends and family on facebook. Most didn't know what we were doing so I just decided to put it out there. It's incredibly long, but here it is: http://ourlifeoflearning.blogspot.com/2011/08/so-here-it-is_15.html