my love watching you tube videos/songs. do a search for something you're learning about and see what pops up. they have learned 2 different songs memorizing the states, memorized all the presidents, etc.

We school year round, but not a whole lot gets done when Daddy's home and he's home for 2 weeks at the end of the summer. So we basically take a break then and start easing back in when he goes back to work. It takes a good week for them readjust to him being gone every day again so we focus on attitudes and behavior while starting things up again. Our first "official" day is the day after Labor Day where everything will be on full force.

making learning fun also has some. http://makinglearningfun.com/themepages/ActivitiesListing.htm look under "magnet pages"

This was my reason for choosing RS, too, but we found that the manipulatives were just TOO distracting. She would make a 20 minute lesson take 2 hours because she would just play with the manips instead of doing what she was supposed to with them. We are now using MM with Miquon math labs and she is doing great. My kids LOVE the c-rods and they are easy to use with MM.

I have several friends who are die hard Abekans. I don't use it because it is too much seatwork and VERY school-at-home. If that's your style, go for it! Otherwise I would pick and choose. I have heard phenomenal things about their early language arts.

we only have books 1a and 2a, both bought pre printed and they are all b & w. in response to the one who said they only use the first 2 pages, the concept is presented in so many different ways- forwards, backwards, inside out, you name it- i would not recommend skipping whole sections. i have my dd do roughly half of each section (sometimes a little less). if there are no mistakes, that's all she has to do. if there are mistakes, she has to correct it and do one additional problem for each missed one. we tried right start, mep, and singapore, but mm is the first thing that has worked. we are going in on the group buy and i think i'm gonna put it on a thumb drive and take it somewhere to be printed. good luck!

This reminds me of Bible Bowl from when I was younger. so fun! Can't wait to try it out in my own family and then possibly with a group of friends. :)

checking it out,thanks!

exactly what i was going to say. she even has a section specifically titled mental math.

i'm sorry, i'm one of those reallyneedstoseeittounderstand type people. we are doing write away. here is what i have laid out for the first couple chapters: Day 1- read and discuss pages 11-17. Day 2- read pages 18-23, Plan a story (choose topic, list ideas) Day 3- Write story Day 4- Revise and Check story Day 5- Publish (neatly write) story and illustrate, Share with Grandma and Grandpa Day 6- Read pages 24-27 Day 7- read pages 29-31, Start an idea notebook Day 8- read pages 32-33, Plan a paper Day 9- read pages 34-35, Write first draft Day 10- read pages 37-39, revise and check paper Day 11- read pages 40-43, have mommy proofread paper, proofread something mommy wrote Day 12- read pages 44-49, publish paper Obviously this is just a rough layout and not really by days, more by steps. i fully expect it to take more than one day to write a paper and we're finding publishing to take a while because dd HATES to write- loves to compose, but HATES writing it out. i am not rushing anything and am on no timeline. so what exactly would the syllabus/teachers guide/etc add to something like this? thanks for your understanding and patience. :)

So If I commit to buy at 50% and it never reaches 50%, then I don't HAVE to buy? Do I still have the option to buy at the lower percentage?

so i have, write one, write away, write on track, and writer's express. if i get the syllabus, would i need anything else?

could you point me to this? I got all the handbooks at a used curric sale for $5 total. I've laid out a plan, but I'd love to know what you're really supposed to do with them.

yep! it's all about exposure here and hopefully when it comes around again, some stuff will be easier due to the nuggets that stuck.

exactly! just haven't found the way to do it yet.

me, too!

Okay, just checked this out and i think it might work for us! I've been toying with a similar idea, but not been able to nail down exactly how I wanted to do it. Thank you!

subscribing because i have a drag their feet kiddo. @elllie- how do you keep them focused on their own work all at the same table? my 7yo is very easily distracted and would much rather watch her sister learn the letter a than do her own work, no matter how many times i fuss at her. if i send her to another room to do it, it never gets done, either. i like the idea of setting a timer for a reasonable amount of time and whatever doesn't get done gets done later, but how do you keep them from rushing to beat the clock?

I got it at a used curriculum sale and it came with everything except the student pages. Trying to decide if I need to order them or not...

Can I do it without the student pages?

We do 2 pages a day

i don't know what the difference is but check out http://www.educationunboxed.com for what to do with them. AWESOME videos!

Pretty sure I saw a thread about not to miss artists, but can't find it. Who are your favorites? Also, how do you decide what order to study them in?

we used road trip usa and artist study this year. I printed very little. for road trip, I only printed the coloring pages. For the artist study I only print the mini books, puzzles, flash cards, etc. For the lessons themselves, I just read them from the computer. we'll be doing the composer study next year and hopefully expedition earth at some point.

i have a book from scholastic's dollar days, but i'd love some supplemental resources. thanks!