Are there any good geography books fiction/nonfiction for this age group?

We have a pinterest board for each child, each grade with every book read plus a board for our family read alouds. When they complete a book they put it in a pile for me to pin when I have time I pin them. It's quick and easy and gives me a visual list of their reading.

Also any suggestions on map skills workbooks/books (besides Evan Moor we have that one :001_smile:) and any hands on geography items you've come across that you love.

Hi I have a kindergartener and 2nd grader and I'm looking at World and US geography programs. Any suggestions of ones I should check out. I have Galloping the Globe and Expedition Earth but I'd like to check out others.

Oooh share please?

You can also skip a line between each line of the poem, so that if the line is lengthy and runs beyond the end of the line on the page there is a definite separation between the lines of the poem. That's how my private school when I was a kid made us do it.

We do about 30 minutes

maybe a laminator or some amazing art supplies...

Oooh cool sharpener, maybe that would work better on my colored pencils. Girls recently cracked my cheapie electric one.

I was debating a color laser printer, huge investment but ink jet cartridges are costing me a fortune.

I was just reading the homeschool budget thread concerning cutting back, but I was wondering what's on everyone's wish-we-had-the-funds-wishlist? What homeschool purchase are you saving for or simply dreaming about? I decided to make a wish list for our bonus money this year and curious what others are dreaming about.

We fly a lot and carry all sort of things in our checked luggage. At least one of our bags gets searched almost every trip but nothing has ever been confiscated. I would leave everything in it's original packaging. I wouldn't think there would be a problem with dissection animals (we have packed mounted insects and butterflies before) but I'm not sure about any chemicals because if something is listed as explosive or flammable on the Haz Mat list you are not supposed to have them in your bags. Would it be possible to have them shipped to your destination directly? We order a lot from Ward's Science and it is delivered to us via Fed Ex or UPS.

Me too. I think Peak with Books is better than FIAR

Heidi I struggled with this so much. I made huge changes to our home to fix it. I had to create a system that worked for my girls to maintain so I labeled every bin and basket with words and pictures. I also had to put the bins and baskets on lower shelves. I also had to reinforce the clean up, no more doing it for them! We do random pick ups throughout the day. What I am trying to teach them is to put one thing away before they take out another but I have to make allowances for the idea that they are each simultaneously playing together but with different things. Dolls, doll clothes, little animal figures, blocks and legos may all be played with at the same time :confused: Whatever, it makes sense to them. So now I've learned to order pick up times to coincide with activities. Everything must be put away before meals or outdoor time or before bedtime routine starts. Other than that I ignore as long as they are still actively playing in that area. I also abandoned having a play room because it was impossible to keep organized, perhaps too much temptation. By spreading everything out throughout the house, like we grownups do helped a ton because they knew that if they intended to go do something in a different room the previous location has to be straightened up.

Yes!!!! Our toys fall into 3 categories Physical (trampoline, skates, balance beam, tumbling mats, swing set) Creativity/Imagination (dress up, dolls, art/craft stuff) Building (Lego, Blocks, K'nex, Puzzles) I am a huge fan of unstructured play, especially outdoor play. The book Last Child in the Woods had a huge impact on me. Most of my childhood was spent either reading or playing outdoors.

:iagree: I can totally relate to this statement. My dining room looks like a first grade classroom. We have A Reason for Handwriting's alphabet that runs along the ceiling of one wall. Two huge corkboards are on another wall this is where we post current work. The wireless printer sits on the buffet along with baskets that hold resources books. Wheeled organizer drawers are on another wall and hold all sorts of materials and books. The third DR wall is covered in posters/charts about the solar system and astronomy. The fourth wall has a big In our kitchen huge floor to ceiling cupboards line one long wall. Half are devoted to pantry (unfortunately a necessity) but the other half are filled with art supplies organized into bins as well as shelves of art books. All our music books are also house here. Two walls in the living room are lined with bookcases. Nonfiction are organized by topic and Fiction is organized by reading level and then by author. We keep baskets of books in various spots around the house. I also have designated "return" baskets so the girls don't have to worry about reshelving (this also allows me to see what they are reading when I am not home). The cabinets under the coffee table as well as a set of shelves in the girls room are designated for games. We keep two baskets on the end table, one for each DD of independent readers. They must choose a book to read each day and I rotate the books back to the shelves after they are read. Our den is the "history" room. Again, huge bookcases line an entire wall and our history timeline lines one wall up by the ceiling. This room also has a counter height table and chairs that we use for ongoing jigsaw puzzles or building projects (lego, models etc) That way our dining room table is always free for family meals. Our mudroom has cabinets and shelves where we house lots of outdoor stuff that is fun or used for science. We have bug huts, bubble soap, sidewalk chalk, magnifying glasses, empty jars, butterfly nets etc etc. In the mudroom we also have a 35 gallon aquarium with fish and snails and two active wormbins where we raise nightcrawlers for fishing and redworms for composting. My husband is incredibly understanding and supportive. He also knows that much of it is temporary. In another year or so (once younger DD masters alpabetizing) the alphabet will come down. I used to worry about what other people would think when they came over but I've learned other parents think it's awesome (and so does every kid that comes over :D) and if nothing else it really promotes homeschooling people don't have to ask what they do because they can see it. It's a great conversation starter too.

:iagree: yep, that's me too and I think I also keep more because I don't have to necessarily resell what we just finished with. I don't think my kids are better educated I just think I'm just too lazy to make trips to the library each week.

Funtastic Frogs Manipulative Math Program. Dr Seuss on the Loose.

:iagree: and so is using more than one curriculum ("supplementing") because nothing is exactly the right fit. Don't get me wrong I'm glad I have a budget that allows me to make mistakes once in a while in curriculum choices but sometimes it can be frustrating wasting time and money on something that turns out to be an epic FAIL

Yes that is a very good description, it is very factual, especially lots of times/places. I'm sure we will use it as a reference to OT History over the next few years. When I used it with my son we used in conjunction with Diana Waring's Ancient Civilization and the Bible History program.

I used Victor Journey through the Bible and the Greenleaf Guide to OT History with my older son in grade 9. They are great programs but personally I would wait a bit, maybe grade 5 or 6 or above? Unless your boys are very advanced of course. I know my DD7 wouldn't get as much out of it. We are using Telling God's Story and Grapevine Bible Study this year.

I consider my homeschooling expenses to be what I spend to educate my children so yes I include art supplies in that if they are on the art supply list for the course/curriculum. I do not include things like playdoh or lego because they are not utilized by my course of study. However that is not to say that if my children attended school I wouldn't spend that money because knowing me I would most likely be an afterschool and still buy a lot of educational stuff. That is why I didn't include things like music lessons or sports fees because I wanted to be more specific. I think $100 or more a month is reasonable assuming that you purchase outright most of your books and curriculum. Multiple children increase that amount but they do not double it because often big expenses need to be purchased only once for a family (our microscope and telescope come to mind) I do have lots of friends that homeschool on a much smaller budget but they invest a lot of their time and energy finding free or inexpensive sources for curriculum and learning opportunities. I think these are amazing, hard working, dedicated moms and dads and I applaud their efforts to educate their children at home despite financial barriers. It's just my opinion but we looked at the tuition costs of good private schools and I feel if I am spending less than that each year I am way ahead of the game. :001_smile:

Ok I will not tell you what we spent last year because after reading this thread it's almost embarrassing. But I will say we spend approximately $100-$150 per month on books and supplies, these are in addition to curriculum. So readers and additional books that I didn't consider "core", extra manipulatives, additional workbooks, generic student/teacher supplies (paper, ink cartridges, art supplies etc). So in total I spend X dollars on curriculum, usually in 2-3 large purchases throughout the year (we school year round). Plus the above amount monthly. Plus what we pay every month for field trips, music lessons, sports fees etc. Now to be fair, we DON'T use the library, I simply don't have time and I don't have hours to search the Internet for a lot of what may be out there for free.

My DD7 is like that. Thus her nickname is Busy. She is not learning disabled she is simply too busy to slow down to do many of the things that I want her to do. She does not have attention deficit because she has no problem paying attention to the things she wants to do. She is just in full throttle most of the time so she misses a lot of details because her mind is already off on some other tangent. Interestingly she can explain these tangents to me in great detail. I do need to find a way to have her slow down a bit in certain circumstances in order to prepare for testing. However, I don't want to stifle her creativity either and if she misses details of a book because she has rushed to the end in order to get right to a pencil and paper to design a contraption that something in chapter 7 made her think up well, it's hard to say that's a bad thing. But I do understand your dilemma. I have no solutions but just wanted to say you're definitely not alone.

I'm curious how you define reading instruction? Do you mean simply phonics? Or are you talking the whole picture, phonics, reading comprehension, literary analysis etc. We used Veritas phonics which ends after first grade but I will continue with other supplementary materials that teach/review phonics rules/exceptions.