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.

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 :(

Thanks for posting these!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This doesnt answer your question, but I thought I'd mention that itunes has a librivox podcast of the Reluctant Dragon. I was considering downloading and putting on CD for my son to listen to at night. I was going to preview it on my ipod, but Im glad to know your son enjoyed it- mine's eight, hopefully he will, too.

I'm not sure if anyone posted this already, but I found 40 free pdfs just by typing "free" in the search engine at scholastic teacher express. They are short, but some are useful. There are also items for .79, but I haven't explored them yet... something for my next coffee break :) Winter Weather Word Ladder (Grades 2-3) A Gift for Bear (Winter): Sequencing Mini-Book Piggy Potluck (Nutrition): Science Cut-& Paste Mini-Book Alpha Tales: Quick-and-Easy Activities Draw a Ladybug in 6 Steps: Follow the Directions Taking Care of the Earth (Earth Day): Draw and Write Prompt Catching Critters: Word-Building Pyramid Puzzle Thoughts for the 100th Day of School: Poetry Frame Watch Your Step (Two-Step Problems): Math Mystery Story Making a Bird Feeder (Informational Article, "How-to"): Differentiated Comprehension Activity - Grades 2-3 Sentence or Not? (Complete Sentences): Grammar Practice Page (Grades 4-5) Skip Counting Caterpillars (Number Sequence): Fast Finishers - Grades 2-3 Questions About Characters: Writing Prompts Voice: Writing Trait Scoring Guide and Sample Comments (Grades 3-5) Multiplication: Exploring Patterns (Greetings From Space) Eat Your Vegatables Word Ladder (Grades 4-6) Sweet Valentine: Winter Glyph Activity Spring Fever: Poetry Frame Spring Tree Reproducible Pattern

I'm very new here. Although I have read many, many posts, this is my first reply. My four and eight year old boys use our ipad daily, both with and without me. It travels from room to room with us. It is on the table during lunch or snacks to view discovery streaming or brain pop videos. It is in their bedrooms at night so I can read aloud to them. (The number of free books is astonishing.) During free time, they play games together on it, like chess, checkers, and connect four... and so many others, so that don't need to have all the little pieces set up on a table, which the little guy usually would knock over accidentally anyway. We can review math facts or practice phonics, quickly pull up maps or timelines during history lessons, google topics on the web, access pdf versions of homeschool texts and labs, play word games, practice spelling, there are just so many free edutainment apps. I can update and review skedtrak, access my email, keep up with the news, read my books, view netflix and other free channels, and listen to my itunes music and podcasts (and read these boards.) I like scanning in book ISBNs and started keeping an inventory of read and to read books for each subject and child on Goodreads. My husband and I started using the Cozi/Flylady calendar and journal, too, to keep up with each other's schedules in the same place. It has an adequate camera and videocamera, too, which we started using to keep portfolio of crafts and art, but I haven't checked out skyping with the cousins yet. The ipad lets you create little folders where you can drop similar apps together, so I created groups for each child's subject and age level (All phonics apps together, all astronomy, all math, all geography, all american history, all videos, all games, all interactive books, and so on.) Its also easy to bookmark a webpage on the desktop for kids to do online review (although not flash-based ones) I started creating a list of free apps- many of which I found from reading some of the posts here: ABC Magic 2 ABC Magic 3 Line Match ABC Magic Phonics ABC Magic Reading ABC Magic Reading 2 ABC Magic Reading 3 ABC Spelling Magic Short Vowel ABC Spelling Magic 2 ABC Spelling Magic 3 Sentence Reading Magic Blanks Grammar Jammers Idioms Mad libs Meet The Vowels Miss Spell's Class My Word Wall Virble Worcle Vocabulary Central Grade 6... and other grades Bob Books (I paid for full version, but the lite is free) Grammar Dragon Spelling Cat Same Meaning Magic Same Meaning Magic part II Opposite Ocean Opposite Ocean part II Same Sound Spell Bound Portion Platter (Fraction) Aesop's Quest Alzebra Mathomatix Geometry Mathomatix BrainPOP Featured Movie Castle Tiles (Math game like "SET", for 1-4 players) Checkers Free Chess Free HD 3D Chess Free Chicktionary 300 Chicktionary Lite Jumbline2 Free for Ipad Fishtropolis Textropolis Electric Company Wordball Light it Right Monkey Match iLearn with Poko Addition iLearn with Poko Seasons and Weather Chrysler Museum of Art Dinosaurs: The American Museum of Natural History Collections Musee de Louvre MoMA Explore 9/11 Explorer: The American Museum of Natural History Computer Carl Egberta's Equations Equation Creator Fraction Factory Freddy Fraction Sticker Shop European Exploration :The Age of Discovery Zeppelin Adventure Ace Multiply Matrix Algebra Champ Arithmetic Invaders EnVision MATH; Understanding Fractions Math Dungeon 2.0 Math Hero Math Ninja MathTappers: Multiples Numberain Number Sense WormJump Pearl Diver HD (math) PennyMe Pass the Past (3rd grade social studies sols) Virginia.gov Early Jamestown Pocket History Ancient Egypt History Line Timeline Eons FREE K12 What's Sid Thinking: Science K12 Whats Sid Thinking: History K12 Timed Reading Practice Geo Walk HD 3D World Fact Book Google Earth GeoMaster TapQuiz Maps World Edition History Maps of The world USA States (spelling and flags) Atlas 2011 Kids World Maps Stack The Countries Stack the States ( Lite/free versions, but I bought both full) GoSKyWatch Planetarium Mars Globe Moon Moon Globe NASA App NASA Visualization Explorer Planets SkyView Free Mini Adventures - Animals Project Noah Simple Physics The Elementals Language Central for Science Life Language Central for Science Earth Language Central for Science Physical KHAN ACADEMY