I love it. It's the only spelling program I've found that actually works for Otter. It's SO easy and takes very little time each day with real results. There is no busy work (crossword puzzles, etc.). I never knew teaching spelling could be so "painless". :D I wish I found it years ago.

*blush* Thanks for the plug! :D

I have a 6X8 Intuos. I would like one a little larger, but that is out of my price range. The 6X8 does a very good job though. I would not go smaller than that. I started out years ago with a 4x6 and that is just too small. Your hand ends up bending in unnatural positions to try to get your pen strokes to work for painting, etc. If I were to do it all over again, I would get a 6x11 because I have 2 wide screen monitors I work from. As it is, I had to set my tablet to map my screen and that makes the very bottom portion of it "unusable" if I want to get perfectly round circles, etc. So, keep that in mind - if you use a widescreen, get a tablet that matches (6x11 or whatever). If not, then I would go with a 6x8, if you can afford it. To me it's worth the extra $140 for the additional drawing space. It feels SO much more natural. If you get a Bamboo, I would get the Bamboo Fun medium size. :001_smile: Be aware that the Bamboo has less pressure sensitivity than the Intuos, but if you are just using it for scrapbooking and photo editing etc. it will probably be perfect for that. Let me know if you are wondering anything else!

Hi! I really love Wacom tablets. http://www.wacom.com/index2.cfm They are the "best" out there, in my opinion and what most digital artists seem to use. I have an Intuos tablet, but those are expensive. You can get a Bamboo though for less $$. Anyway, that's what I recommend. My tablet is awesome! Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

I read 2-4 hours out loud a day. Usually it's broken up though in at least 2 different times per day. :001_smile:

Thank-you Ginger!

You're welcome! :D Thank YOU for taking a look!

I have a free American history curriculum here. I'm not sure if it's what your looking for, but it worked out great for my son and I know some other moms here have used it. And hey, it's free! ;) :D Another program I really like is the one Winter Promise makes. You might also want to check them out. I used their American Story level 2 program after using my program (didn't want to spend the time back then making a 2nd year's worth). We had a wonderful year with some really terrific books. Otter still talks about some of the things he learned last school year. It really stuck with him.

hahahah Ok...I was a little late on hitting the submit button! :lol: Diana beat me!

You're welcome! Here is a nice tutorial that shows you how to make some in Microsoft Publisher or other free publishing programs. :001_smile: http://www.squidoo.com/make-notebooking-pages

I make them in a combination of programs, but the main ones I use are Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3 and Adobe Acrobat (the final step). Usually I go back and forth between Illustrator and Photoshop while I'm working on things, finalize the artwork in Photoshop and then save it as a PDF in Acrobat. Sometimes (rarely) I will use Corel Painter X for something that is more artsy or that needs to be sketched/painted. However, all you really need is something like Paintshop Pro or a photo editing program OR something like Microsoft Word. :D

http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/soapbox.html They are linked via my blog. Some are at the top and if you scroll down there are a few for science. :D Here are a few preview pics: Enjoy!

When I was using traditional handwriting, I liked the workbooks from Zaner-Bloser. That is my fave handwriting "font" and the workbooks are pretty nice and fairly inexpensive (you don't need a teacher's manual). The site has some free samples you can take a look at. Sadly it didn't work out for my youngest, so I had to go back to Handwriting without Tears.

I have a printable timeline here: http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/history/timeline.html If you print it onto cardstock and put it in a 3 ring binder it should last for year and years and it's free (except for the ink and a binder)!

I've done SL 5 in the past and I've used a God's Design for Life book, although it wasn't the one for the human body. Between the 2, I would choose SL 5 because the God's Design book was drrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I did not like it at ALL and I will never do one of those books again. Otter wasn't too thrilled with it either. He didn't dislike it, but compared to all the other books we were using that were actually fun, he wouldn't have missed it if I left it out. My kids did learn a lot from SL 5, but I personally didn't like some of the books/materials. I also didn't like the tacked on unit about word processing. Um...that's science??? These are the books I didn't care for: Usborne Young Scientist - There are so many better illustrated and photographed books out there now. I don't know why this one wasn't dropped years ago. An Usborne Guide to Rocks and Fossils - Another yawner. The History of Medicine - Although I found some of the information interesting, it didn't capture my kids's attention all that much and they didn't retain it. It was YEARS ago that I did SL 5. Gosh, maybe 6 years ago? This time around, when I wanted to do that subject again with Otter and at a higher level for Bear (human anatomy) I went and made my own curriculum. You can check it out in my sig. :001_smile: I wanted more colorful and fun books and more optional activities with websites and movies. Still, if I had to choose between the 2 you are looking at, I would say SL by far. There will be more variety and activities. The God's design books are very textbooky, not colorful and have boring activities (fill out this sheet, etc.). That's just my personal opinion though! :D

I highly recommend RS. Other math programs weren't working out for my son so I put him in RS transitions. Otter has now completed the level D book and moved into level E. I wish I would have used RS from the beginning. It gives a very solid foundation. We are also combining it with Singapore because that is my other math "love", but RS is enough on its own. ;)

My daughter wrote a review about TT here :001_smile:: http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/reviewteachingtextbooks.html

ACK!

I would chose Noeo because of all the great books, the kits and the notebooking. If I wasn't doing my own thing this year, that's what I would do. :D RS4k is nice, but like others have said, it's pretty short. I also don't like working through just one text for elementary science. SL science was for our family, like another poster said, more dry.

LOL! Darn, now I want some too! ;)

I ran into problems like that with MUS too. I switched programs and used different manipulatives and that helped Otter tremendously. One of the things I did when he was having the very same trouble that you are talking about is this: http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/printablesmath.html If you go to the page linked above and scroll down to the printable math chips and place value chart I made to go with them, you'll see what I used. Basically I would use the chips to model the problems he was working on. We did that over and over together until he could do it himself. It is the only thing that finally cemented it in his head. I got the idea from Singapore math. He just needed something to physically represent the concepts in a way that worked for him.

Thank you Magic Wand! That's me! :D Here is a direct link to it: http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/otters_science_main.html

I have an Aspie. Here are my faves: WinterPromise (FAVE FAVE FAVE FAVE) RightStart and Singapore Sequential Spelling (the only spelling program that's worked for us) Handwriting Without Tears 1st Language Lessons 3, Learning Language Arts Through Literature Otter's Science ;)

We are in Right Start Level E and I'm supplementing with Singapore. RS is full enough though to use on its own (in my opinion). If you really like to supplement, you could use some workbooks over at ETA Cuisenaire. There are lots of fun workbooks that cover a variety of topics. We have a bunch of them and pull them out sometimes to approach things in a different way.

Prayers for you and hugs...