Seems to me when we did it, 15-25 min. max Blessings, Sandwich

Bump. Is anyone even using this program? Any tips or suggestions for using it? Hello? LOL Blessings, Sandwich

I can do it, but I thought I'd try to not reinvent the wheel. Has anyone made up a schedule coordinating the text, workbook, DVD, CD, etc.? I'll be doing it mainly with a rising 5th grader. blessings, Sandwich

Oh, I should mention that in 6 mos or so, the 6 yo has progressed from playing words only to small boards of two or three words to playing the regular way. it has REALLY helped his spelling and reading skills! He is actually an expert at making tight, crossword-style boards (where all the letters interact and fit together). Don't know how he does it. blessings, Sandwich

We LOVE Bananagrams at our house. It is hands-down, our favorite game currently! We play pretty much according to the directions. What might make it more fun at our house than at yours is that I have an 8, 10, and 13 yr old who can play and make it competitive (ie: fun). Playing JUST with my 6 yo who is only beginning to read isn't fun--it's practice for him with me playing along. Variations we play: The original game with each person making their own "board" 6 yo makes just words, not connected while the rest of us play the regular game. 6 yo makes small boards (of just two or three words in each), rest of us normal Often, if I am ready to "peel" (used up all my tiles) I will help the kids catch up instead of peeling More interesting variations: We all play cooperatively on one big board The kids play where they spell things phonetically. This is very goofy Oldest plays in spanish The pirate game sounds fun. My kids tend to cry when things get too competitive, but maybe we could play it taking turns so it goes a little slower. I just bought a SECOND Bananagrams so more people can play and so we can take it places. Scrabble has a new apple game in a zippered apple that seems similar but with points. Blessings, Sandwich

Our favorites: Base Ten blocks (we play games with them using dice) Quirkle Bananagrams Knock-Out and Muggins Flashmaster Old Computer games that no longer work on our newer computers (my kids are constantly sad about this) like Freddie Fish/Pajama Sam/Spy Fox and tons others I can't think of Clue MunchMath (board game) Scrabble (new favorite) 10 Days in.... GeoPuzzles Sum Swamp Dino Math Tracks Boo, Hiss: GeoSafari cards and machine All inane preschool games like Candyland and Hi Ho Cherry-O Blessings, Sandwich

Oh, forgot all the Clan of the Cave Bear series (oh, Jondalar!) and Princess Daisy. naughty, naughty book blessings, Sandwich

VC Andrews --still have nightmares and I read most of them more than once. John Jakes--I loved historical fiction. North and South and all the American history series. Agatha Christie I read Fire Starter by Stephen King and was so haunted by it, I never read another (but I love the prison movie--isn't that story by Stephen King?) Every Robert Ludlum book ever written Lawrence Sanders Deadly Sin series (still haunted by the ice pick guy) Sherlock Holmes the Judy Blume books Chaim Potok Aztec The Thorn Birds The Agony and the Ecstasy When I think now how so much of that stuff was p*rn. Blech.

continued, sorry, I have posting issues. We play "I'm going to ___ and I'm bringing ___" Each person adds an item that starts with the next letter of the alphabet, but they have to say all the previous items, too (so by the time you get to Z, you have to remember all 25 others! Every time you stop to rest, pick numbers to rearrange the seating. Pack little baggies of snacks or treats or drinks. Dole out one thing to each person every 100 miles. When the odometer hits a special number (check your mileage and decide what it will be) stop for ice cream. HTH Blessings, Sandwich

My kids love Adventures in Odyssey and Your Story Hour CDs. You can print off coloring pages of your child's favorite whoever--Blues Clues, Dora, Sesame and they have some puzzle pages, too. You can make up word search puzzles for the older kids. My kids like to play the ABC game (look for the letters of the alphabet in order on signs), keep track of states on license plates, guess the color of the next car/pickup/semi/SUV (choose one). Playing the counting game keeps them occupied for a really long time (someone says 1, then 2, then 3 ... up to 10. Except if any two or more people BOTH say a number, you have to start over at 1. You can't "arrange" it to make it work)

We have never used the Notes. My kids always just worked through the lab books sequentially. If things got too tough, we'd take a break for a month or so and work in a different math program. Blessings, Sandwich

We have not been very good at keeping up either. I have RS4K to try with my dd this year. Blessings, Sandwich

I can say without hesitation, skip the Scholastic Dictionary! It was very frustrating for my kids because it has so few words. Many words they wanted to look up were not found. American Heritage does it better for us! Blessings, Sandwich

Well, not a spine, but if you want something that pulls it all together and gives you activities to boot, check out History Odyssey, Level One. It uses CHOW as a spine, along with Usborne Internet-Linked History of the World and SOTW AND History Pockets--kind of everything that has been mentioned in this thread. And HO is secular. Hope you find something that works well for you. Blessings, Sandwich edited to add: Here's the link: http://www.pandiapress.com/history_odyssey.htm

I put together a schedule combining MOH, HO and some other things last year. You are welcome to it, if you can use any of it. I am having trouble figuring out how to share it with you as it is in Excel. I've lost all the formatting in pasting it here, so it looks a mess. It is much easier to follow in the spreadsheet. If it looks like something you can use, reply and I'll email it to you. (You need to be able to get Excel documents) This is just the History Odessey part put together with Trail Guide to Bible Geography. I also have it coordinated with MOH, Victor JTB, SOTW, Kingfisher and others. First Civilizations & FarmingHO Lesson 1 Control of MesopotamiaHO Lesson 3 Babylon Rises AgainHO Lesson 19 First Civilizations & FarmingHO Lesson 2 Meet the EgyptiansHO Lesson 6 & 7 & 13 Meet the GreeksHO Lesson 37 The Hebrews & One GodHO Lesson 25 Abraham: Ur to EgyptTGBG Week 1 Abraham: Egypt to HebronTGBG Week 2 The Hebrews & One GodHO Lesson 25 Isaac: CanaanTGBG Week 3 Jacob: Canaan & EgyptTGBG Week 4 Meet the EgyptiansHO Lesson 8 & 9 The Hebrews & One GodHO Lesson 25 & 26 Joseph: Canaan & EgyptTGBG Week 5 Control of MesopotamiaHO Lesson 4 & 5 Meet the EgyptiansHO Lesson 10 The Hebrews & One GodHO Lesson 25 & 26 Moses: Egypt to Mt. Nebo Ancient ChinaHO Lesson 21 (half) Meet the EgyptiansHO Lesson 12 The Hebrews & One GodHO Lesson 25 & 26 & map Moses: Egypt to Mt. NeboTGBG Week 6 The Exodus: Egypt to Mt. SinaiTGBG Week 7 The Hebrews & One GodHO Lesson 25 & 26 The DesertTGBG Week 8 The Hebrews & One GodHO Lesson 25 & 26 The 12 TribesTGBG Week 10 Blessings, Sandwich