Thank you all for writing back. I just wanted to (if you are not already using it) point you towards Xtramath.org. It's free and worked WONDERS for our math facts. I think we are doing a MUS "Challenge Day" today. I'll let you know how we do at the end of the day.

We just started delta yesterday. We've done alpha, beta and gamma. My dd10 already knows all of her division facts (We also do Horizons and Xtramath.) Do you think I should just give her the MUS test until we get to a section that is new/hard? We've never really skipped ahead in MUS, but then again we've had a lot of MAJOR light bulb moments these last months. Any advice would be welcome! thank you!

We made if through Pooh last year, but boy was it a struggle at the end! We finished Pinocchio a couple of weeks ago ... you are in for a treat!

I only have a second but, from what I remember, it covers a few "known" missionaries (Aylward), many missionaries that were unknown to me and several whose names were changed to protect them. I might be totally wrong on this, but I think it is a collection of stories divided out by country. We super enjoyed it. I haven't used it yet, but you might also want to look into Hero Tales if you are looking for specific missionaries. hth

Just checking to see how this worked out for you guys. :001_smile:

:lurk5:

Ditto to your original post, until last year. I put all of our history "things" away and made a simple chronological list of read aloud books (short ones that usually only take one or two sittings, and a few longer ones like Black Ships Before Troy, etc) and then simply read them after breakfast. We started in the beginning and are now at the pilgrims. We are SO loving it. We don't write. We don't draw. We don't memorize. We just enjoy. My 6 year old stopped me the other night and said, "Mama, remember when you taught us about those guys who would fight each other in the arena? ... well, why were they doing that again?" -- We studied the Roman gladiators more than a year ago. It truly warmed my heart when she said the words, "mama" and "taught us". Anyway, I sat down with lots of magazines, the SOTW activity guides, WTM and of course this board to make my list. I purchased all of my books b/c most were not in our library. I got many used at Goodwill and many on Amazon with the 4/3 deal. You need to find something that interested you, so you will do it. just my 2 cents

Have you looked on Donna Young? That's where I got ours.

Now, this is lovely. I'm just getting started with the "thinking" for next year, but I will most definitely be tickling your ear at some point this year for pointers. This is fabulous! Thank you.

Thank you all SO much for the ideas! My pencil is burning up, mainly b/c my printer already did!

I was just wondering if there was a book like the Liping Ma book that specifically addresses word problems. We already use Daily Word Problems, Horizons and MUS, so I don't need another source of problems, just strategy. I already use some of the techniques taught in Singapore, etc. I'm just looking for a compilation book. My dd can easily work the problems when I work through them with her. It's not a reading problem or a "math" problem. I think her eyes just glaze over. Maybe, I'm just looking for an inspirational word problem book .... does one exist?

My littles LOVE to listen to history books. But, we don't "study" history at all. We laugh, love and learn history at our house! We read a selection everyday after breakfast. FYI, 1st graders LOVE Ancient Egypt and mummies! If you did just that, you would have covered a great deal of year 1.

I thought about going through the book and substituting some of our bible passages for the poem memorization. So when at the top of the page it says to read "Poem X "3 times, I would have a note that says read "Passage X" 3 times instead. Using the same reminder (b/c I do like that FLL tells me what to do when, b/c I know that it gets down then ... kwim?), but learning something that I already desire for her to learn. Does that make sense? How does that sound to you guys?

We just started with FLL3 this school year. We are trying to power through it to move on to FLL4 this same school year. Anyway, we just learned the Land of Nod and now another passage is being introduced today. We do memory work for other things. I would really love for her to learn longer bible passages. Anyway, did any of you skip the memory work or did you just keep with it? Since, this is our first year using FLL, any advice would be welcome. thanks!

We are 5 weeks into this school year, so I can officially start planning for next year! :001_smile: I want to do a year long world geography study with a VERY strong missions component. My dd9 really has a strong heart for missions (our whole family does). Anyway, I was hoping that I could get a list going of ANY or your favorite books that fall into either catagory. But, only your favorites PLEASE! I'm just trying to start a list. I have looked at a few curriculums out there, but we tend to work better when we just have a list of great books and ... GO! I really appreciate all of you! Thanks!

I continually sing about it. Fabulous and Free!

I just wanted to jump in on the math facts thing... We have started using xtramath.org for math facts. It is totally awesome and free. My kids love it. It only takes a few minutes a day. They love getting on the computer for school. It's a big deal to see their score everyday. The program will email you reports and reminders. I TOTALLY love it! hth

I say relax let time do it's thing and just keep watching The Frog for "fun" ;).

We love ETC and HOP. We combined the two along with lots of little readers. We do HOP K,1,2 and ETC 1-6. It's been a great formula at our house.

MUS. No teddy bears... but colorful blocks and decimal street! I'm a HUGE fan of MUS at that age. We use our teddy bears and balance for fun free time. :D

Welcome! Delurking goes down as one of the top 5 best things we ever did for our homeschool! So Congratulations!

Have you looked at xtramath.org? We are LOVING it here. And it's FREE!

Liberty's Kids is fabulous! We watch it for "movie night" at our house, with junk food spread out on towels in the living room. Learning has never been more fun!

I go back and forth on this. She struggled for so long and then we had the light bulb moment and just took off. She loves to read too. I bought Sonlight b/c I just don't have the time to pre-read all of her books. I was looking for prescreened books with review questions. Now, all of the extra books I have, I'm going to pre-read those for discussion with her. I also reworked our book list so that it is in increasing difficulty. Should I just read all of them for discussion with her? How do you do this?

Not a list, but have you looked at the Cedarmont kids cd's? They have tons of kids songs, reasonably priced, and they don't grate my nerves. That's how we incorporated kids music into our lives. I got several off of Amazon. hth