Our first day of school is always a light day. We start with a treasure hunt, the treasure is a big box with school supplies, games, etc. We make a sign with their name and grade level, take pictures, and fill out our first day of school booklet. We start new read-alouds, play with our new games, have a special snack. The treasure hunt is the most fun.

Not a sampling of the actual pages, but a blog that does a wonderful job summarizing their adventures with BFIAR/FIAR. With plenty of pictures! http://delightfullearning.blogspot.com At the top you'll see her links for each book they've rowed. Her posts are really detailed but beware they might just make you fall in love with FIAR.

Just wish they would offer the student activity books as pdf's or change their copyright to allow copying for family use. I find it incredibly annoying to have to purchase one for each subsequent child (and then pay hefty international shipping on top of it!). I'm still on the fence about it, I am using it with my 4yo and 2yo but am not enamored as yet, I'm glad to hear why you like it OP, we are not as far in as you are.

We started out with the big 2'x3' board, but before long DS would balk when it was time to start spelling. I read a tip to use a smaller board (I read it on a blog who said they got the tip from PAL) and decided to try it out. That immediately solved the problem. It's about 16"x20". The alphabet row wraps onto a second row but since he knew the alphabet order well it wasn't a problem. We are now on Level 3 and so far do not find it too crowded. We love being able to easily use it at the school table (and I don't have the wall space anyway!). When not in use it is stored on top of a tall bookcase. If it eventually becomes too crowded it won't be an issue as we can just use a personal sized mini-whiteboard next to it, which is what we use if we aren't doing any tile work for the day (say for the second half of a lesson).

:iagree:

Found some simple Olympic calendar cards, good as a jumping off point to look at the different sports.

I think so, I am using it with my 7yo just as fun reading/reinforcement. The worksheets may or not work for you depending on the time you have in your class and the writing ability for your students. You could go through them verbally and come up with the answers as a group, or send them home with the students. We also love the Brian P. Cleary books.

I'm so glad! The only reason I don't own this yet is because their international shipping is unreasonably high- I think it was $36 for one level, more than the cost of the dvd. I am shipping it to relatives in the US and they will bring it over later this year when they visit. I had the same thoughts about Atelier, no samples? It looks great and I've heard good things about it on these forums but there is very little product description and no samples to look at. Here's a couple of reviews of Home Art Studio if you are interested: 1+1+1=1 Everyday Snapshots- there are more on her blog but they aren't tagged well, you have to search for Home Art Studio to find the other entries.

Grammarland? With these worksheets? To review parts of speech.

This is what I'm hoping to use... http://www.officialhomeartstudio.com/ It's DVD based. It might actually get done around here! There are sample lessons on the site. Easy to combine different ages. In the meantime we are doing random projects from Maryann Kohl books and Art Projects for Kids. I also intend to use Usborne Art Treasury at some point, it has a (very) brief bio on an artist and a related art project.

:bigear:

My kids are young, but we have a Kid of the Day everyday, and that kid gets to choose their screen time first. If they choose the computer, the others can use the tv. If the Kid of the Day chooses the tv (wii or watch a movie) then the others are free to use the computer. We use Kid of the Day for many things around the house. Do you have Publisher? It's so, so, so much easier to design things. I can't stand using Word for anything other than basic documents. I used to use Excel to design things but now I use Publisher, it's very easy to catch on.

:lol:

Me, me! :blush: I'll have to pm her to see if she still has it.

We've just started Level 3 and had new letter tiles, not just syllable tags. Same with Level 2. I couldn't tell you which came with which level though, I just throw them all in a baggie until they are needed.

I completely understand about your MIL and sweets. My mother was the same way, every.time. we saw her she was filling my kids up with sweets and junk. It was so bad that one time her friend took an apple out of my son's mouth and gave him a bag of m&m's. UGH! I was so mad, but I held my tongue because we were moving out of the country a couple of weeks later so it wouldn't be happening after that. I've completely stopped eating sugar myself. So we don't have anything but 85% chocolate in the house, that's my only sugar. The kids get some of this once a day, and they like it! Anything else is occasional and is a real treat. Ice cream about once a month. I find that other people give them things often enough that they aren't deprived. Cookies at church, lollies after soccer, etc.

If you don't already have one, go get a Swiffer vacuum. That's all I ever used on my wood & tile, the battery charge lasted just long enough for me to quickly go through the kitchen, lr, 2 beds & bath. Even if it isn't your main vacuum it's perfect for quick pickups. Loved mine so much! It got all the dog hair, and it was perfect for the kids to use too. They don't sell them here in Australia, I am seriously considering having someone send me one and using a power converter for it!

This Richard Scarry Big Busy Sticker & Activity Book is a favourite! http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Scarrys-Busy-Sticker-Activity/dp/1402773145/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340512606&sr=8-1&keywords=richard+scarry+sticker This is very easy to help him with while he sits at the school table with us. I cut out the stickers he needs for the page and give him instructions, he can sit next to me and complete it on his own. My 7yo wants one! (We love Richard Scarry at our house.) Also Kumon workbooks, he likes to work on his cutting, tracing, etc. These feel like school but aren't difficult. For literature we use SL P 3/4 & 4/5- I just use them as booklists, and I also have BFIAR which we use occasionally. When he's ready you can start with HWT, a gentle intro to writing.

Also this is a great picture book about London... http://www.amazon.com/Katie-London-James-Mayhew/dp/1843622858/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340363876&sr=1-1&keywords=katie+in+london And homeschool share has both an Olympic lapbook and a London lapbook.

I like this one...my library had it, but I'm planning to get my own copy. http://www.amazon.com/Story-Olympics-Richard-Brassey/dp/1444000489/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1340363798&sr=8-12&keywords=story+of+the+olympics

I don't remember any dictation in WWE 1, I think it all starts in 2 (am I just forgetting?). Also, WWE 1 really only asks for a one-sentence narration- anything that happened in the passage. WWE 2 goes more into narration, starting with summarizing the main idea in a few sentences and then moving to summarizing the plot by the end of the workbook. There is copywork and dictation in the beginning, moves to entirely dictation by the end. Day four is always two pages- one for narration (parent writes) and one for dictation. HTH. I haven't used anything above Level 2 yet so can't tell you whether it would work for you. I think you can see samples of each level here: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/language-arts/writing/writing-elementary.html

My DS7 still does this! :tongue_smilie:

Have you considered buying sticker paper and printing your own? I've downloaded state flags from somewhere to do just that, I can look for the link if you need it. I'm not sure how much sticker paper costs but then you would have it for other projects.

At that age he'd probably still enjoy a book with flaps like Usborne's See Inside Ships. Your library might have it, we love the whole series of See Inside books.

We use Level 2, we double up some days so that he is doing copywork everyday. It's not much, though. Just wondering if others add more copywork or do you feel that WWE is enough?