thanks! those are great articles!

okay so i want the kids to start learning another language. 1st and 5th grade. DS 5th grade wants to do japanese or chinese. DD 1st grade doesnt know. I would like them to learn spanish, dh would like them to learn something that isnt normally taught in high schools, because most people take spanish, french and latin. I see quite a few of you teach latin and other than for science am unsure why? please fill me in, because i must be missing something lol! I do know ontop of a language they will be learning sign language. Thanks! Christina

thank you everyone! you all gave great advice.

thank you everyone!!

what a great idea for fridays! I think i will work something similar into our plan :) Thanks!

Have you checked into the feingold diet? it removes all the stuff most of you are looking to get rid of.. not to mention if you buy their shopping book you can shop in the stores and not have to read every label.. I found it very helpful as there sometimes are "hidden" ingr. that would make my son go off the wall. Hope this helps.. it did for us. Caution- it is pricey to get the book, but it also gives you an "eating out" guide as well which is great!

Have you looked at story of the world? it usually has quite a few options for reading more on subjects it teaches. My kids really enjoy it. (we started story of the world 1 but it got put on the backburner waiting for our chicken mummies to get done.. and so now we are restarting it in the fall)

thank you everyone! so far everyone has given some great information.. anyone have anything to say about my 5th grade stuff?

for language arts: first language lesson writing with ease teaching reading from peace hill press but does that leave out anything? will i need to still cover something else.. if so what? my soon to be 1st grader will already be able to do all letter sounds, and identify them. she will also be able to read at minimum 3 letter words and some 4 letter words. so im at a loss as to what direction to take her.

I also wanted to do star-spangled states with DS (the 5th grader) but do you think thats putting too much on him?

okay I am new to putting together my own curriculum. I have been Using Calvert up until now. So.. here are my thoughts.. please be gentle lol.. 5th grade: writing- IEW and hwt cursive practice book Language arts- Wordly wise 3000 grammer ace phonetic zoo ETA Reading- various books from science and history along with a extra books Science- astronomy and botony - apologia (DS wants astronomy, DD wants botony lol) Math- Saxon Dive History- SOTW 1 1st Grade Science and History to be combined with the 5th graders Math- Saxon language arts- I am stuck between 2 things and unsure of what im lacking depending on which i go with choice 1- Reading- sonlight readers 1 grammer- first language lessons writing- hwt printing power spelling/phonics- Explode the code Choice 2-sonlight Language arts 1 and readers Explode the code HWT printing power Okay what are your thoughts.. christina

I am looking at using this for my 1st grader. Has anyone used it? Christina