*sigh* I should clean, cook, be productive....but apparently I'm playing online today. :tongue_smilie:

Great list. Just looking over it, I'd say that MOST of these are available for free on Kindle. I recently loaded about half of them for myself to read (and later for DD). ...Just FYI. Free is always nice. :001_smile:

What a great thread! Definitely making a list. I've read Charlie & the Chocolate Factory w/ my 5yo and she loved it. In our to-do pile: Charlotte's Web Stuart Little the Narnia series The Witches (Dahl) Mouse & the Motorcycle and Ralph S. Mouse the Borrowers series If you have a kindle, there are a lot of good classics for free: Voyages of Dr. Dolittle Story of Dr. Dolittle all of the "Among the ____ People" by Clara Dillingham Pierson all of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books

I plan on using How to Teach Art to Children next year. It looks like the projects are fairly simple exercises to teach the 7 elements of art + there are some artist profiles/works in there.

This site (below) has some cute ideas....they have one camping unit and one seaside unit (with lots of activities and songs/finger-plays that can be used for each). Add a fun book each week to go with the subject and I think it could be really fun! (i.e. "guess what boys & girls, in our class we're taking a imaginary trip to the seashore...") http://www.funlessonplans.com/aSea/seashore.htm (LOL, I love preschool stuff...now I kind of wish I was teaching a preschool co-op in the fall!!! :D)

For that age group, I would probably go with Hubbard's Cupboard's 4 yr old lessons. They are based on character traits. They have 38 different traits (so you could pick & chose). I'd start off with a few songs/finger-plays before starting the lesson. For example, one week could be "being a good listener/attentive". After you intro the theme, you could read a storybook (shouldn't be too hard to find a library book to fit the focus) or a Bible story. Then do a craft (for attentive, they could make bunny ears to remind them to listen?) With 3-5 yr. olds, that might fill up an hour. If there's time left over, each trait has a coloring sheet with a picture and a poem/song at the bottom to go with it.

My 3yo is really liking the Letter Factory dvds. Our living room (tv) and our dining area (school) connect, so I generally don't allow tv watching during school time (too distracting for big sis)... but we bought a set of those headphones that have wireless transmitters (have you seen the commercials?) You can turn the tv volume all the way down so it doesn't distract the school kids, but you can turn the headphone volume up. We love it! (Bought it at an office supply chain but I've seen them at Walmart.)

I wondered if that was part of my problem. I'm used to having it all laid out and just adding in the fun stuff, the extras. Also, I'm used to teaching to a crowd, LOL..... teaching to 1-2 is quite a different story!!!

I can't really give much of an opinion, I'm unfamiliar with some of curric. you listed (I'll have to check them out!), but we'll be doing 1st in the fall, so I figured I'd just share OUR plan. Math: CLE -- daily Phonics/Reading/LA: CLE -- daily Bible/Character: Our 24 Family Ways, then Long Story Short -- daily **these 3 are my biggies, the rest is icing on the cake Science: The Complete Book of Science Grd. 1-2, Inquiry Science Grd. K-1 (using the workbook pages as a outline, supplementing experiments & library books on subjects...flexible and following our interests) -- 2-3x/wk Art: Art Lab for Kids, How to Teach Art to Children -- 1-2x/wk Soc. Studies: Beginning Geography grds. K-2 -- 2-3x/wk

I think it sounds like a good plan. I was considering something similar as I looked at our next school year: Math/LA/reading daily (Mon-Fri) Social studies - 2 days in a row (i.e. Mon/Tues) Science - 2 days in a row (Weds/Thurs) Art - 1 day (Fri)

:iagree: :D What a great find! I don't have any suggestions, but I bet it sure is fun (and overwhelming) to have so much fun stuff to look through!

Well, I had a feeling I wasn't the only one, LOL, but it's good to have it confirmed! I am trying to relax a bit. DD is in Kindergarten, so it's not like choosing 1 art program over the other is going to make or break her educational experience. :001_huh: :tongue_smilie:

I have the Complete Book of Science, grades 1-2. I really like it. I think it offers a good (easy) variety of experiments, discussion and workbook pages. I used this as a teacher in my 1st grade class when my school did not have a science curric. for that grade. Next year, we'll be using it for my DD's 1st grd. year. It'll be our spine and we'll be adding in library books on the topics. We'll probably expand on it a bit, and doing some animal studies to make it last the whole year.

I haven't tried it yet, but I've just bought Art Lab for Kids. It looked interesting and like it'd be pretty adaptable/flexible for my DD's 1st grade art (next year). I also bought How to Teach Art to Children, to maybe mix & match... ETA: Artistic pursuits looks really nice, too!

I'm fairly new here, and I am a first year homeschooler. I have been "researching" homeschool curric. since DD (now 5) was 2. Before she was born, I was a 1st grd. teacher in public school. My dilemma: Every time I think I have *A PLAN*...something new and shiny floats into my line of sight and messes it all up! I started with MFWK...moved on to ETC & Alphaphonics (very briefly), and we are now using CLE's kinder workbooks. But I still want to add in science/art/moremoremore... I also like to have a rough plan for the coming few years...and it seems like I make changes to it weekly. The more I look, the more I revise. Please tell me I am not alone! What was the turning point that helped you to stop LOOKING for greener grass? Is that possible?

I have a question for those that use page protectors/dry erase markers for workbooks... Do you ever photocopy a page for the child to complete to save for your records? Or are these workbooks things that are extra? (I know records-keeping differs from state to state)...but I like keeping a record of some things (even workbook pages :001_huh:) for nostalgia's sake... :) (I'll be using a reproducible workout next year for DD's 1st grade geography and I like the thought of not making all those copies, but I'd also like some kind of record of her work...)

This is a bit of an older thread, but I just had to say how I'm glad I'm not the only one that acquires more curric. than I use.... Unused: VanCleave's Science Around the Year Alphaphonics Write...from the Beginning a couple of Literature pockets books I would say I'm getting better about it, but we're only in Kindergarten!

The Nora Gaydos readers look cute! We're currently using Fun Tales. DD likes them and we like that on the back of each is a couple of paragraphs about the type of animal depicted in the story, along with a photograph of the animal in real life.

I'm a 1st time poster here, but I'm interested in what everyone has to say (we're on the path to do MFW ECC in a couple of years). I have no experience with Expedition Earth, but I've looked at the possibility of adding parts of WinterPromise Children Around the World with ECC. Not to threadjack, but just curious if anyone has tried that? (not the whole CATW pkg. b/c it's rather pricey, but just a few tidbits to add to ECC)