Many of our favorites have already been mentioned. We've also loved I Stink! (garbage truck with an attitude), Jesse Bear stories, The Gingerbread Man (retold by James Aylesworth), Max & Ruby (and other Rosemary Wells books), books by Eric Carle, another recommendation for Kitten's First Full Moon, the Hairy MacLary series by Lynley Dodd. Oh, and Momma, Will You? by Dori Chacanos. And books by Byron Barton... I could go on and on. :D

I love going into semi-hibernation mode. I love staying in bed longer in the mornings, snuggling with my kids. I love being inside, with a book, a blanket and a mug of hot chocolate, while the snow falls. I love the starry winter skies and the hush of a white world. Winter makes me feel more creative, more mysterious, more alive, somehow. As if the world is full of secret wonders just an arm's reach away.

These are more about knights than castles, but how about: The Knight at Drawn (Magic Treehouse #2) Good Night, Good Knight (easy reader about a knight and three little dragons, very cute) We also liked: A Medieval Feast by Aliki This castles pop-book

Books by Edith Nesbit (The Railway Children and The Enchanted Castle, frex) and I second books by Joan Aikin (my favorite is Midnight is a Place). I'd also suggest books by Rosemary Sutcliff, but you'd have to preview them since they might be too mature content-wise for your eight-year-old. Have you read any Susan Cooper? The Boggart and its sequel are fun reading.

The Reason for God by Tim Keller

I found out when they did a blood tests during my first pregnancy. Dh knows his because he donates blood a lot... or maybe his parents told him.

I'm in! That is, if I ever make it to the end of Ron Chernow's 700-page biography of Alexander Hamilton. If you don't see me posting on the check-in threads, it's because I got stuck back in 1800. :P

I wouldn't. I got the ETC primers for ds when he was 3 and a half and they were too much bookwork too soon. The primers are much more writing-focused than I thought they would be. If he knows his letter sounds, you might use Starfall to reinforce them.

WoWb = World of Warcraft My husband is a gamer, but I'm lucky in that he doesn't like massive multiplayer online games and is very good at policing himself. My issue with a game like WoW is that, unlike an RPG that we buy for him to play through, it never ends. :P I'm sorry, op. :(

Okay, I have no idea why my post above got formatted so oddly. :P

We had a lovely quiet low-key Christmas. Winners: *snuggling in bed with all the kids in the morning *Dh made eggs benedict for breakfast * the lack of present-opening, paper-tearing orgy. the kids were very good about taking turns and they did NOT rush us through getting up, breakfast, singing carols and reading the christmas story in order to get to the presents *watching the kids play with their gifts. my son's expression when he saw his * play armor. my d's face as she scribbled on her new chalkboard/whiteboard. the baby munching in his new Taggie. * lovely low-stress low-prep dinner of honey-baked ham, ceasar salad with homemade dressing, yummy rolls, fruit and awesome desert * having a friend over to share the dinner with * Getting the Planet Earth series on DVD Losers: *Having to work with the world's stickiest dough for the rolls. But the rolls were awesome so it balanced out. * Both older kids having accidents! O.o * the kids' overtiredness in the evening from too much excitement, which manifested itself in screaming, running laps, being unreasonable, and (baby) refusing to be put down. Overall, it was a great christmas. happy day-after-christmas to you all. :)

A couple suggestions for directing your ds' energy in an *ahem* educational way. 1) Make flash cards out of index cards. I've used them for letters, numbers and shapes. Stick tape at the back and tell your ds to go stick the A, or the square, or whatever to the wall. (If you pick a wall that's far away from where you are, it'll take him more time ;) ). Then you can ask him to bring the letters or shapes back one by one. My dd(2) liked it when I stuck the cards on my fingers and waggled them at her. 2) Give your son a basket and have him find objects to put in it, frex, something that is red, or round, or is made of wood, or an animal figure. Does your ds nap? I work on phonics with ds(4) while dd(2) is napping. For math, we use manipulatives a lot and math picture books which both kids enjoy. I also second (third?) the suggestion of doing something with your ds first thing and teaching your dd once he's done and wanders away to find something else to do. Hope this helps.

Jessie, Here is the link to the Standards Edition of Singapore Earlybird Math on Rainbow Resource. ~Rabia

:iagree: I think ending school on my terms, rather than ds' is a good idea. I don't want to set him up to think that he can walk away from work if it's too hard, boring or something better comes along. We do little seatwork, but when do, I expect him to give it his best, follow directions and not leave things half-done (like start tracing a letter and not finish it :P). I've come to believe that working on character and discipline issues, like obedience, now will set us up for a better learning environment when we really need it.

Do you like Regency romances? I love Georgette Heyer, especially Sylvester and Devil's Cub.

This has been a really interesting and helpful discussion! A little off-topic, but has anyone here used Miquon? Is that spiral, mastery or incremental? TIA!

Me, too. I'm quite happy with my 3 (ages 4, 2 and 5 months)

I don't have teenagers, but I want to second (third? fourth?) the posters who said that screen time late at night was contributing to your daughter's insomnia. I write (on my laptop) in the evenings after my kids are in bed, and I've noticed that the more screen time I get, the more blech I feel and the harder it is to fall asleep afterward. (This is also known as suffering for my art ;) ). Your dd is better off having a relaxing hot shower, a cup of something hot and an hour with a good book before retiring for the night.

Snowy. 24 degrees. Just about right for this time of year in Vermont. *fingers crossed for a white Christmas*

I agree! And like your dd, my oldest is only four. My solution is to ignore the signatures. :D I also went through a couple months last fall when ds was really interested in school work. We flew through two of the ETC primers, a preschool math workbook and a chunk of Shiller Math. Then his enthusiasm dropped off and I found myself forcing, begging and cajoling him to do "just one page today." No fun for either of us. Once I backed off and found fun ways to learn, we did much better. We use a lot of manipulatives and picture books for math. Pattern blocks are a big hit around here, as are Stuart Murphy's MathStart books. We do simple math in the kitchen as we're cooking and baking. We use finger plays for teaching subtraction by one (like those crocodile-teasing monkeys!). We did skip counting using cheerios and a 1-100 number grid. Last year, I wrote the numbers 1-100 on index cards and had ds tape them on the wall in order (only 20 at a time, though!). We also play games like Bingo, Chutes & Ladders, War and Go Fish and ds LOVES dot-to-dots. I've learned the hard way to make learning fun for us at this age. I still require my ds to do some schoolwork every day we are not going out, but I let him choose from a wide variety. Good luck! I understand your stress because I sometimes panic over the thought of ruining my children, too. :eek:

This thread has made me feel so much better. I thought we'd gotten dropped from everyone's list this year. :D

I used the ETC primers in the fall with my son (just turned 4) and thought that they required a lot of writing. My plan is to do Alphaphonics and ETC for phonics starting in January and hold off on a handwriting curriculum until he's at least 5. In the meantime, I'll just print handwriting practice sheets off the Internet or make some of my own. Right now he's doing the Kumon Uppercase Letters book and loving it.

Read the thread. Thanks for the link!

Hello, I hope that you can help out a newbie here! I'm planning on getting ETC 1 & 2 for my son and wondered how necessary the Teacher's Guides are. I will also be using Alphaphonics. Thanks so much!