never mind - I was wrong!

When we eat at home, we eat almost all meals at the dining room table. Occasionally one of the girls will eat a quick meal or snack at the kitchen island. Or if the weather is nice we'll eat outside on the patio table. When after-school activities fall close to the time that my younger daughter gets out of school, we eat wherever we need to in order to make sure they're fueled up and ready to go. It's usually for ice skating practice, so we usually eat at a table at the skating rink.

I am adding another resource, in case it's of help to anyone else: Right now, we're working on chapters from The Early Human World. The American Museum of Natural History's Spitzer Hall of Human Origins (one of thier permanent exhibits) has a ton of resources and activity suggestions, including the following: Their Sackler Educational Laboratory is currently open to the public on weekends, where you can handle fossil skull casts, learn about DNA, and ask scientific experts questions about human evolution. They have several fossil-related activities. We plan to do the "Buried Bones" activity, which involves burying chicken bones in plaster of paris. We also plan to do their "Investigate Fossilization" activity (it's in the Educator's Guide), which involves soaking sponges in Epsom salts to show how the salts fill in the openings in the sponges. Does anyone else have any recommended activities to go along with the Early Human time period?

Just a suggestion that the SM workbooks do not have to be consumable - you can make a plastic cover and do the work with dry erase crayons or wet erase markers on the plastic, leaving the workbook blank for siblings to use later. Just take a plastic page protector, and cut off the long side with the three holes, so it's open on the top and one side, then slip it over the workbook page. I also highly recommend the SM Home Instructor's Manual to go along with the textbook and workbook.

I think that your dh should handle this with his mom. When there is conflict, the direct relation needs to step into the middle and work things out. He needs to call and find out why she's taken the tickets back, see if there's been a miscommunication or hurt feelings, and see if it can be worked out. If the trip is off, he needs to explain it to the kids.

Put out a request on Freecycle. ETA: Instead of magazines, which you might need to sort through tons of issues to find what you're looking for, how about old textbooks? That way the pictures would be organized by topic. You might get old textbooks through a Freecycle request, or at used book sales.

My kids are subscribed to Highlights, Kids Discover, Creative Kids, National Geographic Kids, Scholastic Art, Arts & Activities, and Skating magazine (figure skating). I keep them in a portable library in the seat-back pockets in our car, updating them when a new magazine arrives. It has worked well for us - they will grab a magazine to look at whenever they're bored in the car, or if they need something to pass the time in a restaurant or waiting room.

I am so happy that I've FINALLY figured out where to hang a map in our livingroom, and I've ordered a world and US map. I wanted to hang a map where it would be easily accessible (in a central location) and low enough for the kids to look at easily. We have a small house and no big stretches of wall space (walls are covered with glass-door storage cabinets, piano, etc. I considered putting it on our coffee or table top covered with plastic. I considered cutting it in strips and hanging it across the front of several cabinet doors next to each other. I considered a rug. But I've decided to hang the maps across the front of a built-in bookshelf in our livingroom, using lathing strips and cup hooks as described in this blog post (it's a long post - scroll down to "Hanging a Map with Little Wall Space"). It will cover some shelves, but we don't access those books all that often, and when we want to, we can lift or move the map. We can reverse the map, or take it down and carry it to the table. If I can fit a map in my space, then anyone can! If you want to hang a map, I encourage you to get creative and think beyond the wall! ETA: Oops, I didn't realize this thread was so old! Well, maybe refreshing it will let somebody else see it who was also looking for map ideas!

I am looking for suggestions for programs or websites to use to have a 5th grader learn keyboarding skills. She is a beginner - right now she does not know how to touch type at all. I did a search, but all of the threads I found were several years old. I was hoping for some more up-to-date recommendations. Thanks!

Another

Testing

As our first day of homeschool is quickly approaching, I have more and more questions! My dd (grade 5) learned cursive handwriting for the last two years at public school using the Zaner-Bloser Simplified style. She commented to me that she has difficulty reading other people's cursive writing. So my plan is to write notes and instructions in cursive to give her practice reading it. But I was wondering - at this point, do I need to do any formal handwriting work with her? Or is it enough to simply require her to do a portion of her work (e.g., final drafts) in cursive, and if I find a problem with anything in particular to review that portion of her handwriting? Thanks!

I am preparing to teach Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Town level to my 5th grade daughter this fall. I see that pretty quickly he has things that he suggests the student memorize - a list of Latin word pieces, the subject pronouns and object pronouns. I dread making my daughter memorize things. I just remember it as such drudgery from my school days; I memorized things for a test, and then promptly forgot them. Maybe she'll memorize them quickly, and it's not as big of a deal as I'm making it out to be, but I'm looking for a little inspiration. So . . . How do you work with your kids to memorize these types of lists? Any tips, tricks or games? The only ideas I've come up with so far are (not the most creative, I know): Post posters with the words, and whenever we come across an item from one of the lists, point it out and discuss it briefly. Each day at the start of our Language Arts time, have a little quiz and see how many she can remember. Continue until she consistently remembers all of them. Make up a little song (I don't know if I'm creative enough to do this effectively - maybe I should have my daughter make up the song, she likes to do that.)

I never heard of this - cool! At 8 he might have difficulty holding a traditional flute properly and reaching the keys, so you might want to take him to a music store and see. I remember when I was a child, I wanted to play the flute, but I had to wait until fourth grade (that was when our public school started lessons). Even then, reaching the keys was a stretch for me.

The first Montessori Great Lesson begins with The Big Bang (and continues through the formation of the Earth): http://missbarbara.net/thebeginning.html

My dh mentioned that he thinks our dd (going into 5th grade) should begin to have exposure to current events. I am open to the idea, but am wondering what resources to use. I do not watch the news on TV and read very little of it myself - not because I do not care, but because I have noticed its effect on me. Reading or watching the news quickly leads me to a more negative state of mind. My dh, on the other hand, is exposed to the news all day at work. Some ideas I had included: getting only the Sunday NY Times and reading the news in the Week in Review, watching the McNeil- Lehrer Newshour, or having dh select important topics to discuss as a family at the dinner table a couple times a week. So I am wondering what resources others use to discuss current events with their upper elementary and middle school students. Thanks for any ideas!

I am preparing to homeschool my dd who is going into 5th grade this fall. This will be our first year homeschooling; until this time she has attended public school. She loves math and picks up concepts easily. From K through 4th grade, her school used Everyday Math for her mathematics curriculum (which she did not like at all). ETA: My plan is to begin the year with a review of multiplying 2- and 3- digit numbers, division, and fractions and decimals (especially addition and subtraction of fractions) - all of which were covered at the end of 4th grade. While my daughter could do the work, I know that she doesn't understand deeply why she should solve the problems in that way. Based on recommendations here, I ordered Singapore Math, Life of Fred: Fractions, and Jacobs' Mathematics: A Human Endeavor to check out as possible resources to use for her mathematics curriculum this fall. (I was planning on some combination of the three.) I am also looking at working on math using Montessori materials. Now that I have the books in hand and have looked through them, the book that captivated me the most - and that my instinct says will also engage my daughter the most - is Jacobs. However, the concepts introduced in it seem very different in sequence and scope from typical 5th grade curricula. So, my question for those of you who have also used Jacobs: 1. At what grade level did you introduce it? 2. How did you use it? Did you work through it from front to back like a regular textbook? Did you combine it with another curriculum? If so, how did you integrate them? 3. Do you recommend the Student Workbook? Is there a Teacher's Manual? Thanks for any advice! Lori

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I also wanted to share some resources I found, in case they help anyone else: Literature: By coincidence, one of my favorite blogs just put up an extensive post on how to create a booklist, with tons of recommended resources. Other activities: The website History for Kids has a ton of resources across disciplines for various historical time periods.

I am considering using Oxford's The World in Ancient Times with my 5th grader this fall. This is her first year homeschooling, and she has not had any previous study in world history. I'd like to round out the books with a variety of literature readings - fiction, nonfiction, or classics that would be engaging and a good compliment. Any suggestions of lists of books or particular books or resources for this? I'd also like to add a variety of activities to round out the curriculum as well. I have one possible resource in mind for this, but am open to other ideas. Any suggestions? ETA: Last, does anyone know where I can purchase the Teacher's Guides? I don't see them listed on the Oxford University Press's website, or on Amazon. Never mind on this point. I found that the Teacher's Guides are not listed with the series, but are listed individually, so if you do a search for "Teaching Guide to the Ancient Roman World" it comes up. Thanks for any help!

I am currently considering using WIAT with my 5th grader, and wanted to do this - round the books out with some related literature and other activities. I was wondering what resources you are using or recommend to find related literature and other activities?