If you are adopting from China, I assume that you already know about Families with Children from China. They have lots of information on their website. Also the catalog from Asia for Kids has lots of books and resources for families who adopt from China, including children's books.

You may want to check out www.asiaforkids.com. They have a lot of videos in Mandarin videos to get you started. Good luck!

Did you consider the Art Instruction Schools? Charles Scultz, the creator of Peanuts, did correspondence courses from them and endowed them with a lot of money. They take children as young as 14. These books may be too basic for your son, but I have Cartooning for Kids by Mike Artell. There's also Art for Kids: Cartooning by Art Roche. Also your library may have "Imagineering" books, written by Disney animators, which may give him an inside look into the field.

We keep kosher so that means that on long trips, we are totally reliant on what we bring (except fruits and vegetables). We usually bring canned foods (canned corn is a favorite; canned garbanzo beans will give protein), peanut butter, shelf stable milk and/or soy milk (we use the organic ones, but there is non-organic chocolate milk available), and whole wheat crackers (whole wheat will keep everyone feeling fuller). For breakfast there's cereal (we usually allow sugar cereal for trips as a special treat), and you can usually find a grocery store to buy strawberries or blueberries to put on top, along with milk if you did not bring any shelf stable milk. Peeled carrots you can also find along the way or other ready to eat vegetables (for example, celery and snow peas are widely available ready to eat). In general, the more fiber you can get your family to eat, the fuller they will feel and the less they will eat. You may buy more ready made things to eat on a trip, which is pricy, but they will end up being cheaper than restaurant meals. If you are eating out, you may want lunch to be the meal they eat out because they will eat less at dinner (feeling fuller), and at many restaurants, the lunch menu is cheaper.

I can relate to this story, and I even (eventually) figured out why the teachers do this. First of all, some background. I have a college aged daughter, a 9 year old daughter and a 6 year old son and except for preschool for my middle daughter, all three of them have been in a Jewish religious school for all of their schooling (ie. I don't homeschool). I am also telling you this to explain to you that I am not a inexperienced first-time mother (not that that is a sin, although many educators will try to make you feel like it is :lol:). In any event, last year while my son was in preschool, he would not answer any questions whatsoever about any stories or analyze them in any way. I felt like you guys did--he's only in preschool, and it is inappropriate to expect him to be able to analyze a story (where's all the knowledge of Piaget when we need him :lol:?). Well, I picked up from the library The Whole Language Kindergarten, and in there it says that children should be expected to predict stories using the pictures, should make guesses about how the story is going to end, should be able to say whether the characters did the right thing, etc. So then I realized that this is a Whole Language approach to reading. That's why the teachers are doing this analyzation thing. So while you are clearly educating your child very well, you should understand that you are not doing the Whole Language thing, and if you child will be evaluated in this manner, you may want to brush up on what the expectations are going to be for next year (ie. you should probably read up on the Whole Language approach). I also agree with many of the other posters that teachers feel threatened by home educators in particular and by parents who are knowledgable and assertive in general. It could very well be that your evaluator had to give a dig because you accomplished all of this without a school's input. After all, if you did this so well, who says that all parents will not decide to home educate and all those teachers could lose their jobs? (Not that I consider that a likely outcome; many parents use schools as daycare or do want to teach their children for whatever reason). Also, many parents can educate well because they do not have the distractions that some schools have. Some schools have uninvolved parents, poor home environments for many reasons, children with severe problems, bad neighborhoods, poor school facilities, children whose first language is not English etc. So give yourself a pat on the back for teaching your child so well, go ahead and read up on Whole Language so that way your son will be ready for the questions next year, and try not to worry.

For teenagers, Scholastic distributes these Spanish magazines from Europe (they are published by Mary Glascow Magazines). There is some gossip about movie/rock stars in them, if that offends you, but it is pretty much G-rated material. You can check out a sample magazine on this site. I used to get for myself ¿Qué Tal? They are not that easy though! Your Spanish will get a real workout.

The classic book (even my mother had it!) is Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Preschool Years. The advantage to this book is that it tells you exactly what apparatus you need so that you do not spend thousands (literally) of dollars! It also tells you where you may find Montessori apparatus in mainstream toy stores (or second hand toy stores). Basic Montessori: Learning Activities For Under-Fives helps you determine exactly how to present a lesson to your child. However, the amount of recommended Montessori material that he recommends is inordinately expensive! Montessori Play And Learn is newer, color illustrated, and has pictures that you can copy and make into your own, homemade apparatus. It is a British publication so there are some European references that may not be familar to Americans. I also recommend that you check out these catalogs: Michael Olaf and Montessori N Such. Beware that these catalogs charge a tremendous amount of shipping! Michael Olaf's print catalog (and website) in particular is very helpful in determining how to raise a child in a Montessori manner.

I learned flutophone in school for a couple of years, starting in the fourth grade. I'm from Baltimore, and it seems that it is popular in elementary schools there (the Calvert School, which is based in Baltimore, uses flutophone in its Discoveries in Music program). My teacher used mimeographed handwritten sheets to teach us; later, when I wanted to introduce to my own children, I realized she copied the lessons from Music-Time for Flutophone and Other Pre-Band Instruments. The fingerings for flutophone are very similar to recorder but are not exactly the the same. So if flutophone is going to be an introduction to recorder, you may have to do some re-teaching. If you plan to go on to another woodwind instrument, it may not matter.

If you have a piano or keyboard, then Keyboard Capers by Rebecca Doyle Stout (ISBN: 9780898260519; it's sold by Rainbow Resource) is very good. You will have to either make the games using photocopies of the book or buy the optional (and expensive) Manipulatives Kit. There's also Progressive Theory for Young Beginners (ISBN: 9781864691436). It comes with a CD and probably should also be used with a keyboard. The Young Person's Guide to Music History by Carolyn Jones Campbell is meant to be used either in a classroom setting or in private piano lessons as a supplement; however, it is pretty easy for a parent with basic music knowledge to use (you will have to get some music CDs to go along with the program; usally you find those CDs in the library). It is a three book set; each book is $4.50.

Understanding September 11th: Answering Questions about the Attacks on America by Mitch Frank is not 100% accurate (it was written pretty quickly after the attacks), but it is meant for children ages 9-12 and is a good starting point.

There's a book called Conversational Spanish by Juan Kattan-Ibarra that's not bad--you may be able to find tapes for it. You will probably need At Home Abroad Spanish: Practical Phrases for Conversation by Helen Harrison and Nigel Harrison (I have the UK version, which is called Your Spanish Exchange). It is a phrase book with things like how to play board games in Spanish.

For music theory, you could use Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory by Andrew & Karen Sumani & Morton Manus. You can get it with CDs for the ear training. There are also optional CD-ROMs available. For music history, there is a multi-book series called An Illustrated History of Music for Young Musicians by Gilles Comeau and Rosemary Covert, but it might be pricey. There is a book by Roger Kamien called Music: An Appreciation that is used by Oak Meadow (and colleges too). It is available in many different versions, with CDs or without. Plus what Jane said about The Art of Problem Solving may just be the ticket. Or computers like Cinder said. You could even do game design or other programming that requires art in designing the program. If your child really wants more science or math, why fight it?

You could also do theater as an arts elective if music or art doesn't appeal. There may be a teen drama group or class in your area. If not, maybe you could start one. In another forum, I posted the following theater resources, if you need more information or your fine arts elective needs some hard core theory behind it: Some written references you may want to have are the following high school (secular) textbooks: Theatre Art in Action published by McGraw-Hill. Exploring Theatre published by West Publishing. You may be able to get these secondhand locally or you could try www.fes.follett.com. I found How Does the Show Go On? An Introduction to the Theater by Thomas Schumacher very informative about all the work that goes into producing a Broadway show. Be aware, though, that this book is produced by Disney, and as such, overwhelmingly focuses on the Broadway shows that Disney has produced in New York. Also along the same lines is Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew, which shows how much work goes into an opera production. I have also found this website interesting: www.musical-theater-kids.com There's also the now-classic Acting & Theatre: An Usborne Introduction. And for younger kids (but may still be useful at the high school level) is Kids Take the Stage: Helping Young People Discover the Creative Outlet of Theater. www.musicmotion.com has a lot of Broadway resources. Stanley Green has a book Broadway Musicals: Show by Show. They also sell a book for grades 9-12 called Appreciating Musicals. A local radio station broadcasts a syndicated show from New York called "A Night on the Town" with host George Harter. You may want to check if a station in your area broadcasts it. There are some podcasts of the show on their website. If you child get really ambitious and decides to put on a musical, you can buy scripts for musical theatre classics from Hal Leonard, Musical Theatre International or Penders. From Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatricals, the ones meant for children and teens include Getting to Know...Cinderella, Getting to Know...Oklahoma!, Getting to Know...Once Upon a Mattress (a spin-off of "The Princess and the Pea"), Getting to Know...The King and I. Musical Theatre International has load of "Junior" shows for teens to put on.

I tried to use both Alfred's Kid's Guitar Course and the very similar Girl's Guitar Method by Trish Ciravalo. The problem is that unlike piano, you must tune your guitar every time you play; that takes a lot of practice both in hearing how the tones sound and moving your fingers ever so slowly on the tuners to get it just so. So it is very hard to self teach guitar, unless you have someone convenient who can show you how to tune the guitar. On the up side, however, both Alfred's Kids Guitar Course and Girl's Guitar Method have CDs that you can tune you guitar to. Girl's Guitar Method also tells you how to tune your guitar to a piano. In addition if you do go with guitar, make sure you get a good guitar--bad ones are notoriously hard to keep in tune. The Yamaha FG JR-1 3/4 size acoustic guitar is pretty good. Another problem with both Alfred's Kid's Guitar Course, Girl's Guitar Method, and the Progressive Guitar Method for Young Beginners is that they both teach cords relatively soon into the course. Many people will tell you that young children cannot physically do cords on the guitar. I believe that the Progressive Classical Guitar Method for Young Beginners and the FJH Young Beginner Guitar Method Lesson Manual do not use cords in their lesson manuals. Because we were so overwhelmed by the requirements that went along with tuning the guitar (and couldn't seem to get past it), we found a local woman who was teaching guitar using the Childbloom Guitar Program. Since Childbloom uses group lessons, it is cheaper that regular guitar lessons. If finances are the reason that you want to teach your children guitar, maybe someone in your area does group lessons? Also, your local parks and recreation centers may have lessons, too.

Some brass tacks: You could get books out of the library for how to play sports (if you don't already know the rules and how to play) and then make up your own sports activities with your kids. For instance, I have a copy of My Soccer Book by Gail Gibbons , which outlines the rules of soccer in a child-friendly format. You could then buy a soccer ball, take your children to the park and play! Gail Gibbons also wrote My Baseball Book. There are kids books for tennis (we have one published by DK written by Venus and Serena Williams). Another thought: Since you already do a lot of hiking, you should probably get some field guides about the trees, flowers, birds, butterflies, rocks, etc. of your local area. Your kids can become experts of the local habitat! I am trying this idea this summer. I bought a copy of an American Girl script online (my daughter is very into American Girl right now) and trying to organize a neighborhood/friends play. I also just finished reading to this daughter (she's 9) the book Putting on a Play: Drama Activities for Kids by Paul DuBois Jacobs, Jennifer Swender, and Debra Dixon, which has many different ideas for plays. The last chapter got us riled up into putting on a play for July 4th! The books by Lisa Bany-Winters have some scripts that you could perform as a family (and many libraries have her drama books: Show Time and On Stage). Many music teachers need babysitters for their own children while they teach classes. If you or one of your children can babysit her (and it's usually is a woman) children at least one day a week, you may be able to get free lessons. Also, as someone else wrote on this forum, there's always the recorder. A good plastic one is under $10 (so you can outfit your whole family for under $100!), you can start with easy music and go on to music that was written by the classical masters like Vivaldi, for instance, if you so choose. Oak Meadow has a pretty easy-to-use recorder curriculum that is not too expensive, and you do not need to buy the rest of their curriculum to use it. If you have a music store near you, you can find other recorder self-teaching resources. I just bought Progressive Recorder Method for Young Beginners Book I By Andrew Scott, Gary Turner, Stewart James (ISBN: 094718337X), which is a little pricy because it's from Australia, but does have a CD and is very colorful.

Peela has a point. I am one of eleven children, and while my parents were relatively wealthy, with eleven children, things could get a bit tight. Not with the basics, thank G-d, but with the extras. So while I was growing up, we basically only had group swimming lessons at the Jewish Community Center (like a YMCA or YWCA) and maybe a couple of years of piano lessons (my mom inherited the piano from her parents). But on the upside, we learned how to share from a very young age. We learned not to have a sense of entitlement. We learned how to deal with difficult people. We learned family pride. Big families were not uncommon in our religious community, but we were still considered an unusual family. I can handle almost any child-rearing crisis--my parents saw almost all of it. I can use cloth diapers with pins (does that make me a dinosauer?). So was it worth it? Yes! Do I regret sometimes not having the opportunities that kids have today? Sometimes. But I also learned how to take initiative to make things happen, and so I can make up for most of it now (although I will obviously never be a concert pianist or prima ballerina :lol:. But I can learn ballet via DVD or learn to play "Oh Susannah" on the piano.). Even today, I am considered a strong woman who does not need anyone to make thing happen (obviously I need G-d. But I am not sitting around like Cinderella waiting for a prince to rescue me). My car fails? I take public transportation. We don't have money for books or activities? We go to the library and figure out how to do it on our own. And that's a great gift my parents gave me.

My brother developed OCD as a college student. :grouphug: It can be very frightening to have in the family. While I don't have any advice, I can tell you, don't let anyone tell you that it is your fault. OCD has been found to have a biological component to it. There are many books about OCD in children that may be helpful to you; maybe your local library has some copies of them.

You may want to check out the book Play Piano in a Flash for Kids! by Scott Houston (his website is www.scotthouston.com). It's a really good self-teaching book for kids who want to play non-classical music and using "fake" books. If your daughter is really balking about taking piano lessons, this book may help her figure out on her own how to play simple songs.

Well, if money is an issue, why don't you see if you can borrow French materials from the library? Most libraries will let you renew materials if no one else has requested them. And most libraries have Berlitz French Basic Course (some even have the complete course!). You could also see if another library in your local library system has it, if the library closest to you does not. Many libraries also have the well publicized (and respected) Pimsleur courses that you can borrow. Berlitz had some courses and books for children that your library may still have. Conversaphone had French for Children with a Book and 3 Cassettes that many libraries also carried. I also want to add that my library has copies of the video/DVD of Bonjour Les Amis--French Made Easy for Children, which is not too bad either. Oh yeah, I forgot one more thing. You are based in New York City! You really should check out the French Institute/ Alliance Française (22 East 60th Street, NYC | T: 212 355 6100). They have a library and for a small yearly fee, your son could check out French materials. Plus they have free story readings and movies for kids in French. They also have classes too, if you don't find them too expensive.

For Indian history, try Indians Who Lived Texas or Let's Remember...Indians of Texas by Betsy Warren. Both books are published by www.hendricklongpublishing.com.

Jenny-- Have you considered www.hebrewonline.com? They have beginning and intermediate courses for kids in Hebrew.

Ester Maria-- When I was in sixth grade (about the ages of your girls) we were learning Sefer Yayira for Chumash (and yes, we started at the beginning and finished the whole book by the end of the year; however, we did skip some of the more detailed descriptions of the mishcan in Chumash), Sefer Shoftim (which we completed) for Navi. Halacha we did using the teacher's sheets (and I think that she got most of her information for the laws of the holidays from Sefer Hatoda'ah--published in English as Book of Our Heritage, but originally meant as a textbook for Israeli public schools); however, we did start Kitzur Shulchan Orech for Halacha in seventh grade, so your girls may be able to handle it now. Our teacher also taught us halacha based on what we were learning in Chumash--the laws of honoring your parents when we got up to that (there's a book called Respectfully: Honoring Your Parents by Ze'ev Greenwald), the laws of Shabbat when we got to that inside the Chumash too. For the laws of Shabbat, the book The 39 Avoth Melacha of Shabbath by Rabbi Baruch Chait is pretty much what we learned. Jewish history we started in seventh grade also, using Our People: History of the Jews by Jacob Isaacs, which is not great but was all that was published under Orthodox auspecies at the time (and I went to an ultra-Orthodox school). Artscroll now has Sand and Stars, which is probably a better option for discussing Jewish history since the destruction of the Second Temple. Yesterday, Today and Forever is a good history book for the Biblical period. We did not study either mishnah (except for Perkai Avot--The Ethics of our Fathers, which mind you if you want to teach your girls mishnah is a good place to start) or Talmud, because as I said, I went to an ultra-Orthodox school. So I can't help you there. We also learned Biur Tefillah; mostly what the prayers meant. I know that most teachers used the commentary from the Hirsch siddur to explain things. Jewish philosophy was not really taught as a separate subject in school, but the best book in English for teenagers on the subject is L'Hovin Ul'haskil: A Guide to Torah Haskofoh by Eliezer Gervirtz (it's out of print, by occasionally amazon.com has a copy). Other books in that series include Lishmor V'Laasos: A Guide to Basic Principles of Jewish Law and Menucha V'Simcha: A Guide to Basic Laws of Shabbos and Yom Tov. We did Hebrew language too, but I am pretty sure that you have that covered. Now I know that you did not want any "I use this curriculum", but www.shypub.com has great workbooks for all the Day School subjects. Many day schools use them, and they are highly rated, if expensive. Since your are using Tal Am, you would not want them for Hebrew language, but for all other subjects they are the best thing out there as far as workbooks for non-Israelis are concerned. Why don't you check out their guides and buy them for the grades your daughter are in? They also have workbooks for mishnah (traditionally started in fourth or fifth grades) and gemara (traditionally started in sixth or seventh grades). If you want Israeli textbooks, I have bought textbooks from www.books4u.co.il, but you would need to know what you are looking for (I don't think they have sample pages on the web). An American source of Israeli textbooks is www.israelbookshop.com and click on their Brookline, MA site. They do have sample pages for most of the books that they carry.

I just went through some of the foreign language teacher catalogs that I have in my house. You may want to see if you can get a copy of Alles Gute: a German Course for Television that was put out by the Goethe Institute. There were about 6 videos produced (for 26 lessons in all), plus a companion guide. This website www.deutsche-kultur-international.de/en/themen/the-german-language/lehr-und-lernmaterial.html also list some other video courses, some of which are meant for children

Yes, I have heard of it, but I do not know personally of anyone who has gone to their summer programs. German Life ran a few stories about raising children in the United States who are bilingual in German, and the Summer Language Camps at Millersville University were some of the programs mentioned. You may want to check the archives of German Life. In addition, I grew up in Baltimore, which was not too far from Millersville.

:iagree: Some written references you may want to have are the following high school (secular) textbooks: Theatre Art in Action published by McGraw-Hill. Exploring Theatre published by West Publishing. You may be able to get these secondhand locally or you could try www.fes.follett.com. I found How Does the Show Go On? An Introduction to the Theater by Thomas Schumacher very informative about all the work that goes into producing a Broadway show. Be aware, though, that this book is produced by Disney, and as such, overwhelmingly focuses on the Broadway shows that Disney has produced in New York. Also along the same lines is Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera: Behind the Scenes with Composers, Cast, and Crew, which shows how much work goes into an opera production. I have also found this website interesting: www.musical-theater-kids.com There's also the now-classic Acting & Theatre: An Usborne Introduction. And for younger kids (but may still be useful at the high school level) is Kids Take the Stage: Helping Young People Discover the Creative Outlet of Theater. www.musicmotion.com has a lot of Broadway resources. Stanley Green has a book Broadway Musicals: Show by Show. They also sell a book for grades 9-12 called Appreciating Musicals. A local radio station broadcasts a syndicated show from New York called "A Night on the Town" with host George Harter (www.musicaltheaterheritage.com). You may want to check if a station in your area broadcasts it. There are some podcasts of the show on their website. If you child get really ambitious and decides to put on a musical, you can buy scripts for musical theatre classics from Hal Leonard, Musical Theatre International or Penders. From Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatricals, the ones meant for children and teens include Getting to Know...Cinderella, Getting to Know...Oklahoma!, Getting to Know...Once Upon a Mattress (a spin-off of "The Princess and the Pea"), Getting to Know...The King and I. Musical Theatre International has load of "Junior" shows for teens to put on.