Pop up books are fun. Usborne has some lift the flap and sticker books that are good too.

My easily distracted child does best with a routine and checklist. Pictures might work for a checklist with a non reader so he can see what is left. I try to set up skill subjects so that I start with new teaching and make sure she understands by watching her demonstrate the new skill. Then she has her part to practice the new skill and/or review previously learned skills. If she doesn't finish her part of it in the given time, it goes off to the side to be finished during a scheduled break time. If I am required to help after this point, I set a timer to keep track of how much time she "steals" from me. Then I deduct it from her daily screen allowance. Oral work that isn't completed during my scheduled time gets converted to written work because I am not going to be available to listen to it outside of that time. When she is working independently she has a diy study carrel and some ear muffs to minimize distractions. Taking the wasted time out of her screen time has been a game changer. She only gets 30 minutes to begin with so wasting 10 of it is a big deal. Work completed before the scheduled time is up means she gets to play until it's time for the next subjects.

With Shiller, you, as the teacher, are responsible for building in the repetition. Many of the activities are meant to be repeated. I kept a notebook with things that needed continual review. So, for example, each day we might do one addition problem with regrouping, one subtraction problem with regrouping, one multiplication problem with regrouping, and one division without regrouping. Then when regrouping in division is taught, we switch to that in the daily review. When the manipulatives move to abstraction, we switch that type of problem to abstraction in the review. That is certainly more teacher intensive than some other math options out there, but it sounds like Shiller is probably still your best bet if you are willing to change the way you use it.

We're using Trail Guide as a spine, doing the mapping and geography trails, but skipping the trailblazing and the unit study of Around the World in 80 Days. Each week will include: Reading about one child from Children Just Like Me with the free note-booking page I found online. An art project from Global Art or Geography Through Art ​Music lesson based on the format from MMPT, but including songs from Wee Sing Around the World ​​Family dinner featuring a kid-cooked dish from any of the world cookbooks my library has. A video and note-booking page from a relevant country in the Countries Around the World DVD series. http://www.multiculturalkids.com/dvds-videos/countries-around-the-world-52-volume-dvd-series/ A page from Color Around the World for the K4 and 1st grader. Relevant pages from Atlas: Usborne Sticker Picture Atlas for K4, Nat Geo Beginner's World Atlas for 1st grader, and Nat Geo Kids World Atlas for 3rd grader. Other Resources: Prayer Journal from Winter Promise, heavily edited to fit our Catholic faith and rearranged to correspond with A Life Like Mine and Dear Pope Francis to be done over the course of the year. Christmas around the world unit study for December. https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Around-World-Mary-Lankford/dp/0688163238 Sticker Dolly Dressing for fashion-obsessed 1st grader. Material World - digital so I can display on big screen-just a few countries with young-kid friendly discussion questions. (found online) A Faith Like Mine during study of Africa and Asia ​with diy worksheets featuring matching, crosswords, and fill in the blank. Games: Flag Frenzy, Ellen McHenry's Around the World, Layers of Learning Government and Economics matching cards, Bingo and Pictionary for Geography Terms, DIY Board Game for world religions, lightning (like hot potato) to practice government, economics, and world religion terms. Some paper craft world landmarks from http://www.papertoys.com/. A collection of currency and other objects from around the world for the kids to handle and inspect. Book basket choices using lists from Barefoot Meandering, Bookshark, Give Your Child the World, Guest Hollow, and my own findings.

Why, oh why, didn't they put it up 3 months ago? I just finished planning my year of geography for 1st and 3rd.

It looks like they did a new edition. Mine has a green cover. I think I bought it in 2014. I didn't notice wrong answers, but I rarely looked at the answer key. Maybe the new edition was to correct those...idk. Mistakes in the answer key would not stop me from getting it if I wanted it otherwise. It is for 7-9 year olds. I usually found it quicker to figure out the answer myself rather than flip to the answer key.

I think you can do level 1 without anything. For level 2 I found a science encyclopedia to be a helpful reference. You could replace that with online resources, but I prefer elementary kids to limit that and use real books so we did the kingfisher instead. If you join the bfsu forum, Nebel has added links to online sources.

I think the 7-9 borac book will be too easy after ba 3. I didn't really see a lot of crossover in mk either. It is interesting in it's own right, but not necessarily helpful for mk. For mk, I would just do loads of practice tests. You can easily vary the problems enough to reuse. There are free tests on the Canadian site and some on the us site. You can purchase others. You'll probably want to focus on the 5 point questions. There is an emphasis on turning a 3D object around in your head and on problems that require either simple algebra skills or advanced bar modeling skills. I think the mk FB page offers a daily problem as well.

We have several. I have a small homemade abacus similar to this. https://maggielane.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/4-15-13-021.jpg We also have the physical al abacus and the app. All were exciting for the first few days, but everyone has preferred c rods and hundred flats...myself included. Now the abaci sit unused. For many things the c rods are less abstract than the abacus. I also think the are better for building number sense. The abacus is easier to deal with if you have a young child in the home who may be inclined to eat the c rods, and it looks in your sig as if that is the case.

What if you said you wouldn't use any of those "Christian" curricula without stating the reason? Should I declare you a bigot because I don't happen to be privy to the information on which your objections are based?

Isn't the math program developed by the government? Maybe the owner opposes the lack of free speech or the use of corporal punishment. I wouldn't jump to conclusions in declaring the owner to be a bigot without knowing the reason.

I run the special chapters, such as geometry or measuring alongside the arithmetic chapters. So, for example, we might be doing one page of multi digit multiplication and one page of work with angles. This gives those special topics a longer time to sink in and it gives a little breather from the tedious stuff. I use all the mixed review and cumulative review that comes with the PDF files. I try to do the cumulative review a few days after the test. Doing this, we have never really had a problem with forgetting previous concepts. Fwiw, I don't think there is a big difference in workload between the programs. If he's bored because it's too easy, then maybe accelerate or try beast academy. If it's really too easy though, by which I mean he has reached automaticity with all the practice problems, then he should be flying through those lessons in no time.

I've been happy with these. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DNB4UB8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I tried another knockoff that was terrible. It wasn't the V4Ink: adding that one to my list for next time since it is a few bucks cheaper than EPS.

Seconding what Wendy said. It sounds like you won't need the extra teacher help and differentiation options of MIF. If the lack of color and white space on the page is acceptable, then mm is a no-brainer. if kiddo needs colorful, uncluttered pages, you'll need to decide whether MIF is worth the extra expense. The textbooks are widely available cheap for used, but TM and workbooks will run the price up.

Beekeeping? Maybe learn about bats and construct a bat box.

I really like Montessori for the preschool years. My kids have all done a once a week religious Montessori program that has knocked my socks off. I started reading a lot of Montessori stuff and homeschool books hoping to do some of that with my youngest. I found that the time and expense to do it as written was just not justified for homeschool. Since you say "flavored" I'm going to assume that you are not a purist, but rather would like to incorporate some of the guiding principles. For the practical living things, I found it easier to just use real life to teach those skills. The book slow and steady, get me ready has some really nice activities in it that would provide some structure without breaking the bank or forcing the child into a parent-controlled activity. I wasn't able to use many because my son, at the time, was nonverbal, but his receptive language was above average. A child developing more evenly would do much better. For his 3 year old year we use the task cards from MFW (the cards are secular) along with the Lauri toys. I set things on $1 cookie sheets instead of pricey wooden trays. He was able to choose which activity to do and the cards helped guide me in how to use each toy in a progressively more advanced way. This worked extremely well for us. Shiller math is montessori-based. I think this ready-made option is really good if you are looking to do Montessori math. It starts at the preschool level. It won't make you go bankrupt and you don't need to spend all your waking hours handcrafting wooden manipulatives and relocating your furniture to a storage unit to make room for said manipulatives. They have just released a language arts curriculum as well. I haven't used that one, but the samples look good. Miquon math, though not associated with Montessori, has some elements to it that might appeal to Montessori teachers. It is hands on, child-centered, and discovery-oriented. The first book, orange, might be used for a 4 or 5 year old if accommodations are made wrt writing. For my dd, who needs hands on, I found that making matching cards on trays gave us much better results than narration or worksheets. Most worksheets can be easily reconfigured into a matching activity. This is probably more relevant for k-2, but you might keep it in the back of your mind for when you get there.

Have you watched the videos on education unboxed? They will give you the flavor of miquon. If you feel like Singapore will be easier to implement you can still use the videos to educate yourself on how to demonstrate the concept with the rods. In fact, maybe you should just start with the education unboxed videos and see how you feel after a few weeks of that. http://www.educationunboxed.com

I would continue to work on it as a speech skill. I think a paragraph per day is sufficient to work on that though. If he likes listening to audiobooks, you could include those occasionally as a way to catch pronunciation errors. Two chapters every day seems soul-crushing for a voracious reader. Reading aloud is so much slower at than reading silently, plus you have to concentrate on volume/pitch, rate, projecting your voice, ugh. You might just couple reading aloud with something else. Maybe he could be in charge of reading a book to a younger sibling each day or perhaps poetry or scripture during morning time.

I check them all out, load them onto the dining table, and tell ds to choose 5 (or whatever number is appropriate for your situation) that he definitely wants to read and 5 that he definitely doesn't want to read. After he does that I reconfigure what is left to make sure various genres/time periods are represented. Then I repeat the procedure, sometimes several times. This gives us a baseline. Leftovers are considered ad lib for bedtime or free reading.

If everything is going fine with math currently, then I would find out what the school uses and try to continue that if it is something readily available such as Saxon or math in focus. Otherwise, right start (recommended by moving beyond the page) might be the easiest for you to implement in terms of telling you exactly what and how to teach. I believe the 2nd edition is aligned to common core so it shouldn't present much problem moving between programs.

Given this, I would say bookshark 2 (with the condensed world history version) or moving beyond the page. If you could bring yourself to mix and match, then bookshark for science and history and moving beyond the page (7-9) for language arts. Both publishers sell those subjects as standalone so you would still have your structured guide.

We do pictures with the kids holding a sign that says their grade and what they want to be when they grow up. Then we go out for our not-back-to-school breakfast at IHOP. We do a small amount of work aimed at getting them acquainted with materials and routines. I try to get a lot of time in at a park to burn off all those breakfast carbs.

Ditto what everyone else said wrt curriculum reading lists. In addition, I go by the motto, "If in doubt, check it out." I do try the Amazon see inside feature, but for many it is unavailable or insufficient. There's no shame in checking out a library book and deciding you don't want to read it after all.

Studies weekly is aligned to state standards. Moving beyond the page is also aligned to standards. I haven't used the social studies of either, just tossing it out there since nobody has chimed in with other options.

I like the broader scope of right start and the easy to implement, scripted lessons. I like the discovery aspect of miquon and the way the child can have some choice in the topic each day. My oldest did miquon, my middle did right start. I think the rods are hugely superior to the abacus for most things, especially at the k level for building number sense. Many people like the games in right start, but my child quickly became bored with playing ten different versions of memory. The higher levels have more interesting games, I think. My youngest is doing miquon. If there was a right start that used rods instead of the abacus and had more interesting games, that would be my dream. Haven't used horizons.