Streams may or may not contain answers to all of the accountability and thinking questions at the D level. My 10 yo last year liked using it specifically to fill in some of the civilization charts in year 1. Since Streams is laid out like a textbook, she used the subheadings to zoom right in to find the answers she needed for her charts. We didn't use it every week, though, so I don't know how many of the Qs it may not have answered. Also, you must have an older copy of year 1 if you are wondering about Great Civ. of the East. That book is out of print and the Tapestry reading assignments have been updated with other books. Quite a few of them are available at our library. Go to the Tapestry website and find the book replacement charts in the Loom and you can see what the in-print books are. Monica

Buy your Y1 U4 in whichever format you would find most useful. I don't think it would matter much if it matched the 1st 3 units ... unless, of course, you like everything to match! :001_smile: If you choose DE for your unit (or for Y2), you can still use your current Writing Aids and MapAids Y1. If you want to use the new, spiffy DE update they will have available later this year, you would have to send them your Writing Aids and MapAids CDs. You don't HAVE to do that -- you could just use them as you always have with absolutely no problem. If you do want to upgrade and send them your CDs, you will still have access to the full content of both CDs through your upgraded DE interface. (All of this is still at least a couple of months off.) It sounds like you just need to decide which format would serve you best and then figure out how to make it work the way YOU want it to work. Monica

D'Aulaires Book of Norse Myths Monica

... also known as a little of this, and a little of that -- or even hodge-podge! Monica

I bought the artists lapbook download when it first came out. Everything about Amy Pak's stuff is beautiful. The files are nicely laid out, the directions are clear, the lapbook folds and booklets are not "same old, same old", the illustrations are classically beautiful, the accompanying game and cards are not only visually lovely but very relevant to learning. Her products are on the pricey side but I've found that I'd rather work with something that is incredible and costs a little more than I would with something mediocre or average at a moderate price. Shalom, Monica

I'm with Karyn ... as long as you can swing the $, go for DE. I've used classic years 3 and 4, redesigned (print) year 1 and now using year 2 DE. The classic years were great and I was able to substitute other titles from the library when they didn't have the suggested titles. Even so, once I used redesigned for the first time last year, I felt like a whole new world opened for us. It was clearer, easier to use, included dialectic discussion guides, and would stay current as books go out of print. I knew I'd upgrade to redesigned when I came around to years 3 and 4 again -- then DE happened. Since I needed year 2 anyhow, I got it in DE. I'm sold ... hook, line, and sinker. It's the same content and general organization as redesigned but so much easier to flip around. I'm sure I have "binder-strain" from hauling my big binders around, on and off shelves, pulling the current week out and putting it into a little binder to stash in my bag, etc. DE is cool! (Have you seen the new features they're rolling out this fall for DE? WAAAAAAY COOL!) Having said that, I don't know if I will upgrade to DE from my year 1 redesigned. I can't justify it now. Who knows what the future will bring. However, I did upgrade my classic year 3 to DE already. I sold my classic year 4 so will buy DE when the time comes. Bottom Line: I strongly recommend upgrading from classic to either redesigned or DE. It's well worth it. The jury is out on "upgrading" from redesigned to DE. Shalom, Monica

Another two-thumbs-up for Quarter Mile Math --- my girls like using the horses and my son likes the race cars. I'd hesitated for a year or two because of the price but after the first couple of months of use I noticed great results well worth the $. We have an old Turbo Twist math game that my 6 yo son adores. He'll even set the level up so high that it's comical. ("Mom, what's 11 x 14?") Once he reluctantly admits that the level is too high, he'll reset it reasonably. Leapster games are also a big hit here. My kids will play for as long as I allow never realizing that they're doing math (or phonics or whatever) the whole time. Monica

You've Been Sentenced! (word game)

... with Bananagrams to make acrostics, too. Monica

... are the key to the whole place value thing in our house. When using the blocks, even my 4-yr-old "gets" place value. The only issue we have is when we are just looking at a number on a piece of paper. If there's a question, we just go back to the blocks. I also continue to ask, "Whose house is this?" when I point to the ones place and then again to the tens place, etc. They totally get Decimal Street but connecting that to an actual numeral written down takes repetition and blocks ... or is it blocks and repetition? Monica

This is not parent intensive at all. You may want to consider having your 10th grader just use a teacher book, cover the answer page, do the student page (we use a page protector and dry erase markers so we can re-use the book), and check the answers when finished. Your struggling 5th grader may need a short intro to each lesson. Even if you need to be there as a coach during the worksheet part, each lesson is only 5-10 minutes. Monica

The idea is that you print the base map on cardstock and the student shades/marks it with the unchanging landforms ... mountains, rivers, etc. Then, on weeks where an overlay is called for, you provide a transparency to go over the base map. You could print the same map on it or just use it blank. If you use it blank, just be sure to have each overlay clearly titled so you remember what it is, which base map it goes with, and what order it goes in over the base map (if you have more than one overlay). In either case, it's important to be sure to have the transparency overlay line up precisely with the base map. You can use staples as the the previous post says or you can use packing tape or paper fasteners or whatever works for you. We printed the overlay maps on the transparencies last year and then just kept everything in a 3-ring binder. My dd often used paper clips to fix the overlay onto the base map while she was working on it so it didn't slip. This year, I will probably use packing tape to attach one side of each overlay onto the base map so we could lift any or all of the overlays like a lift-the-flap book. It's so much easier to actually do with your hands than it is to write about it! Good luck, Monica

Hi! TOG doesn't always use a spine resource for every level or for every unit. For example, year 1 UG makes very frequent use of the Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World so it would qualify as a spine. But LG uses a wide variety of books. The D level has a spine book for unit 3 and another for unit 4 but selection of books used from 1-3 weeks each for the other units. (I've used TOG for years 3, 4, and 1 and have had very good results with borrowing history books or alternates from the library.) However, there are alternates suggested that you substitute as a spine. SOTW is almost always listed as an alternate so it could easily be used as a spine. There are also alternate readings listed for Stream of Civ and/or from a BJU history text. So, the answer to your question is -- both yes and no. Peace, Monica

Power Glide? They have the companion CDs that give audio plus some games for the computer. Monica