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LavenderGreen

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  1. Learning.com has "Adaptive Curriculum Science" - Its only $8 a year for either middle school or high school version. (They also have Aha Science for grades 3-5 for $15.) www.learning.com/marketplace/ (Not sure if I added link properly) We have used and like both programs. The Learning.com website has lots of other resources, but many are better suited to classroom teachers. Registration is free, but it did take me a little while to learn how to use the site.
  2. Can try filling hefty gallon freezer bags with water (with some room for expansion) They fit in freezer more compactly than bottles, and help keep the refrigerator cold. When they thaw they are another source of clean water. Put frozen meat you may want to grill outside/or cook on your gas stove in fridge to thaw and use first, (also so you dont have to leave door open while digging around looking for it.) Helps keep fridge cooler, too, while its still frozen. We also do what someone else suggested: use our ice chests for items we want to keep chilled but might use when power is off (like milk for instant coffee/cereal :) This way no one opens the fridge as long as possible to conserve its temperature. I actually used to look forward to hurricanes as a kid... the idea of no school for days! Its sooooo different looking at it as a parent and having to worry :(
  3. Only the questions on the very first quiz each session count toward the percent completed score. That first quiz takes only about two minutes. They have to get two out of the last three days/attempts correct for it to consider them having mastered it. (So I think, from the FAQ page). ;). I tried to learn more so I could help him after I saw him hitting the number pad wildly in irritation, which only messes up his progress reports!!) My third grader initially did fine with addition once he learned the keypad, but struggled to hit 100 with subtraction. At 97 I finally moved him to multiplication. I was astonished how long he stayed below 50, because orally he was much better. When we realized that accuracy was more important than speed, and that he only needed to be super focused on the first quiz, not the next two practices, it seemed to help his frustration. We also scrolled up the screen to hide the smiley faces so he couldn't see them counting down the the time. Stressing accuracy over speed resulted in a forty point leap in the less than two weeks! He was beyond excited. He is in 90s for the first time this week. He also connected that he he has fewer facts to practice on the second two activities if his first quiz of the day has better accuracy. Hope that helps a bit. I like that it gives me the error report so I can practice those facts with him.
  4. We use Cozi. http://www.cozi.com/ It's an online FAMILY calendar, (with color coded info for each family member.) It's accessible via computer or through apps. It even has a flylady version, with already generated flylady to-do-lists, or you can customize your own to-do-lists, or import ones from their site. It has reminders and a shared shopping list feature, too. We have had fun with the family journal component with photos, but don't use it consistently enough. I'm sure it has even more features, with menus and such, but I have only consistently used the calendar and to do lists, so my husband and I can keep up with changes and updates to our schedules. We use the free version.
  5. Not sure if this is helpful, but its a large collection that includes your time frame available for viewing online http://havefunwithhistory.com/movies/index.html
  6. My son loved the smaller 100 piece kit, and I had the same thought. While looking into getting him a bigger kit, I found (I think on these boards) references to http://www.quickstudylabs.com/ Even though he had done some of the projects before, he really has been getting a lot out of the Edison Project Class. We did upgrade to a larger set and had to get a multimeter. My husband has been doing the course with him and has been impressed. It helps kids see the "why" behind the fun of getting the projects to actually work.
  7. We are doing Story of the World with my eight year old, and then following up by listening to the free librivox podcast through itunes of Story of Mankind, either on computer, ipad or ipod. The chapters don't correlate precisely, but he really enjoys (or maybe I just do) hearing it almost like a review or different take on what we have been doing in SOTW. At least I feel like we are covering both bases. Dont have any experience with CHOW or Little History of the World.
  8. We downloaded the free librivox podcast on itunes of Grammarland. My son listened to it on my computer during the day, or on our ipod or ipad at bedtime while I was busy reading to my younger son. Finding those Grammarland recordings opened up a whole new avenue of "read-alouds" for us (even though I wasn't the one reading it aloud!) Some oher librivox podcasts we found: Fairyland of Science, The Reluctant Dragon, My Father's Dragon, Alice in Wonderland, Story of Mankind ... so many more. If they don't download in order, you can save them as playlists and then shuffle them back in order. I've also seen worksheets available online for Grammarland, but he really just enjoyed listening for fun, so I didnt want to take the fun out by making it seem like an "assignment."
  9. Also check out http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/events-timelines/14-american-history-timeline.htm It lists many more events than you asked for, but could be a starting point for making your own. Sorry about the two posts. I was going back and forth trying to find the link. Newbie here.
  10. I ran across an ipad app called History Line, which was free. It gives the player random US History events, which must be dragged down and placed in the correct sequence on a timeline. No super-fun graphics, just the information and a timeline, for three different spans of time in US History. Its kind of like placing key points in history on flashcards and rearranging them in the correct order, only virtually. (Which you might do- have student write date and event on a card as he/you go over them, and keep them filed in a filebox, then pull out and rearrange to review. - not my idea, I read it somewhere.) Btw, there is another ipad app called Timeline Eons, (which was free) and it spans all time, and is amazing, but is not in the form of a revew or game. It's a cool resource, though.
  11. We started in third with ds 8. He loved to read grammar island and building language. He could describe the function of each part of speech, and give examples, but couldn't consistently identify them in a sentence. The different kinds of adverbs and verbs would throw him off (like linking and helping verbs, or confusing adverbs and adjectives). This really surprised me, but we couldn't move on, so he began listening to Grammarland podcast, and we started growing with grammar as a supplement. I hope that we can move back to sentence island soon, but I think he needed to slow down a little. Maybe I didn't give grammar island enough time on it's own, but i wasnt sure we could make leap to diagramming without stepping back a little. Overall I love the program and think it's a beautiful to present and discuss language and writing. I plan to keep using all parts.
  12. My son just turned 8 in July and is in third grade. Part of why I took him out of public school is because he is so strong in many areas that we had considered having him skip first grade, but he was so weak in others, like fine motor skills and writing, that it wouldn't have been possible.
  13. Thanks for the link- This honeycomb idea is great. I have never seen it before, and I had never thought to drill his tables in reverse, so to speak. (Guess I havent been doing this long enough!) So I printed it out, and was impressed by how easy it is to use. It really challenged my eight year old to try to figure out the factors from any given product, and I like how I can tuck it my purse or post it on the wall for a quick review. I can even imagine doing this orally in the car... just giving him a number and asking him for any two factors.
  14. You mentioned that you were looking for "links to any online games or thoughts to memorization" I thought you might want to check out watchknow.org. Registration isnt necessary to view resources. The site contains links to tons of videos and songs that other educators found useful, in all subjects, not just math. My four year old listened in and enjoyed the multiplication songs/ videos as much as his eight year old brother. Btw, there are also apps available for watchknow for ipad and android, but I could never get the android version to load. They were free apps, and I think they still are.
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