I have an easy history for you if it fits your needs: This author has some really neat books --- http://bfbooks.com/A-Childs-First-Book-of-American-History-PB?sc=17&category=1896 This book is a wonderful narrative of stories, and could be a fast read for 1 year, or you could take this into a 2 year study. It would be easy to supplement with things already made, like Dover coloring books, History Pockets on Amazon, or the like. If you want to jump off and do projects you can, but you don't have to. My kids have more knowledge from these stories and its very thorough. This was written in 1955 and it is very patriotic. And a little stereotypical I guess because of the time. But nothing we can't handle. The illustrations are beautiful. It's geared for early elementary ages, has a ton of content. When I wanted to piece together the American Story, I wanted to just tell it from the beginning, without having to do all the research myself or do lesson plans. :) The kids always ask for more each day which is nice. I pull out History Pockets along the way (no prep) and we watch occasional ed videos online that correspond to it. And yes living books galore from the library which I do plan out in advance as some are ILL from other libraries. I've compared this book to the one offered in Sonlight and it is much better I think. And I have all 4 SOTW sets but those don't just focus on American History . . . Hope that helps! I used to be all over the place for American History. Now we've more than got it covered. And I'm buying extra copies of this so each child can have their own to have for their children. HTH!

Thanks for the great resources, as always! I've been building up our library over the year, and wanted to tag a few good sites to be checking because it's started to become a bi-weekly need.

Another site as good as this for finding cheap books? Are there others comparable?????

I know right? And he is burning me out of library books daily. Just when I find a great series and think I can sit back abit, he burns thru 6 of them in 3 days. Extreme Adventures was the latest. 125-170 pages each!

Great ideas thank you! I have extra 3 ring binders downstairs, so I think I'm going to set one up just for him. This gives me ideas of more areas to go with him. I don't have the CC apps yet, but will have to search for them. I've only seen a few youtube videos of the kiddos performing. CC didn't really seem like our thing either even tho we've got a group a few miles away. I abhor time wasters. :001_rolleyes:

Oh - I LOVED the idea of someone here who had her girl memorizing many of the long rants from Anne of Green Gables. She was using it as a curriculum she created for her middle school girl. LOVED THAT! What is similar to this for boys?? I have on the list the Preamble to the Constitution as well (along with some vocab study for it), but wanted to tie it into our American History Study which we are not there yet. And I will admit, I've poisoned his young mind and he knows almost all of School House Rock, especially the history/invention ones. My sister can still rattle off commercials from the 70s and 80s we've long forgotten. Songs and all. It's really kinda scary.

I have no idea but I'd love to know what they sound like . . . Anyone have these and can share what they are about?? Oh - I was going to buy the geography songs from VP so I hope those are good. . . .

I will add these to the list! Hurray! :hurray:

Yes French, as I speak it. I was thinking about adding another one maybe just for fun. I've always wanted to learn Russian or Italian. Maybe he and I could do a new one together.

Thanks I forgot about this book. I had it, and had to return it so I'll check it out again. Yes to Latin currently, but maybe I will make it an every day instead of every other day, and learning some French too.

Yes thanks -- He did the Old Testament on one day, then the New Testament the following day. !! :ohmy: He is in a weekly youth church group memorizing bible verses each week. He does 6-8 verses per week finishing a whole section of his book, most kids are doing 1-2 per week. When his leader asked how he does it, he just says nonchalantly, "Well, I'm home schooled!" And smiles.

My son just turned 9, and he has a gift for memorization. He has always done this easily. I have a hilarious video of him at age 4, reciting the entire, "It's a difficult responsibility . . . .There'll be no more toy makers to the King!" from the Santa Claus is Coming to Town movie. Super cute. It's a really long song! He is able to memorize things very quickly, with very little practice. Words or numbers. Long lists of things can be done in a day. SO. How would you use this? Of course without overloading him. We have memorized things like poems, lists of history items (Presidents, Pharaohs etc), and I'm looking into the chronological history list that CCers do. I'd like to look ahead to math for useful things, maybe some geometry items he could do. And some science content maybe. Any thoughts on this one?

His spelling is pretty good unless he is rushing thru writing something. I think he has my photo memory, once he writes the words a few times he knows them. But give him a new unheard of word and he guesses, sometimes right sometimes wrong. We've got RS SSS 2,3 he is done with: 4's on it's way but I'm thinking that's going to be too easy also. He did AAS 1 and 2 way back and completed in like 3 months when he was 6. It was way too easy for him; he was past it when we began it I see now, so I never picked it back up for him. $40 per level 3+ seems outrageous to me. But I know so many people love it.

I've got the links to this inifo on thephonics page, but where would I start this for the boys already reading? The oldest can read words like constitution or paleontologist, but not a dinosaur name he has not run across before in our studies. I want to work on reinforcing this area for him. I read somewhere about a fast track method. Where do I find it?

Wow thanks for all the great support and ideas. And here I thought earlier to myself -- crap I shouldn't have said anything . . .why did I do that la la la la. I'm just having one of those Thursdays and being difficult. I think it's the cold dark weather. I'm buying one of those lights and starting some vitamins and oils.

What do you do when you are so completely off your schedule and can't get your groove back? I'm been SUPER frustrated lately dealing with numerous issues. We took some time in December to relax and do crafts and just the 3R's. We've never really gotten back on track. I'm up late watching stupid shows and eating crap. We just had a break so how can I need a break? We haven't had some of the curriculum we've needed (And I've been pissed about this because it wasn't my doing), and are now finally getting Feb 1st, I know that's been part of it, having to create the wheel every darn day. But I can't say that's all of it. We lost our school room in Sept due to water damage/flooding and are finally getting back in there in the next month. The table hasn't really worked for us, it's been super distracting. I worked hard last year and we were way ahead. Now I feel way behind my goals and starting not to care. It seems like many of you have such a flow and don't get stuck like this. I heard SWB say she locked herself in the bathroom screaming lol - how can this be a normal thing???

Wow this is all super helpful! Thank all of you who chimed in. I has given me something to chew on. They really should be able to print out the maps. Great idea to photo them. :) They should sell a DVD program. That is a fab idea! I figured there were no writing assigns. Too bad. I'll look these all over again later on- I've got a neighbor at my door. . . .

I'm thinking of adding this for the boys, we want to be doing more history because they really enjoy it and it sounds like all of you who use it are saying lots of good things about it. I had the catalog from last year and finally had time look. Since they love to do history together would this be a good fit? Can they both do it without additional fee? Seasoned VP users chime in :) Is this just a Rosetta Stone of History pictures, dates, and songs/timeline to memorize (thinking CC here) or are there stories and actual historical data shared along the way that is substantial, not fluff. Are there any writing assignments? Maps? How deep do they go I guess is my main question. I have all the SOTW Acitivity books and texts so I guess I could supplement as needed. Your insights are helpful, as I'm trying to pick something we can use year round going forward.

School comes first. Slow it down, and find another Mom to help you out! There is so much going for you I'm sure it's nearly impossible to "keep up!" I know this feeling, and it can be terrible. Delegate what you create, and/or even step back and let others prep the nights for you. If no one can help out, I wouldn't do it again next year. AND I'd tailor back your preps for theses meetings and ease up. It's just too much!! We are not robots!

Cool Hunter thanks!

OP - have you had any luck with this?

Can anyone share how many pages level 4 or 5 are? Just curious how many . . .

Ok thanks so much to everyone for all the input so far. Super helpful! I am going to check out their website and research it a bit more this week. OBTW - the co-op says it's having a 40%off sale of MM starting 1.19 so I guess they are doing it too this month. Gives me more time to decide.

I don't want to be a curriculum hopper if we don't need to do it. I've been really good about it this year. I'm staring at this countdown clock on educents for the Math Mammoth sale and seriously wanting to try it. Singapore Standards is still working pretty well here, but they are both excelling ahead of the materials we have and now I'm needing the next SM set for the oldest AND a replacement of the IPs and workbooks the next level for the 2nd grader. I'm surprised I'm actually reassessing it. It is pretty teacher intensive, I guess maybe I'm just getting tired. It's a lot of books to buy even tho I'd skip the textbook for the new set this round. I'm fortunate I have MCP Math workbooks and can jump ahead where they need it like my oldest (8) who really is starting to enjoy 5 and 6 digit problems, but now I'm on my last one of those as well and won't have more to pull from unless I order more. They are $20 a piece which is not bad for how thick these are and how much practice is in them! FYI for those that need cheap workbooks for tons more practice. I didn't realize I could buy all 7-8 levels of Light Blue in one download as I've never really checked it out, and this is appealing as I've got a girl crying for math everyday even tho she is young. (Her MCP Level K just came this week to do just for fun, and I'm afraid she'll blow thru it in a month). The final blow is printing it. They all really like their own workbooks. They LOVE their own actually. I guess I could bind them with laminated color cover and back? But how strong is that really . . . It's too late for me to make this decision. LOL To add to it we were going to add BA for a fun change in Feb. So now I'm not sure if we should but I've been excited to see that too. Could I use MM as another form of reinforcement and practice? Probably yes. Like for summer work. Can we really teach math without "teaching it"? My Mr. Math PHD friend would kill me if he knew I was considering dropping SM Standards and not formally "teaching math", and using this. I'm skeptical. And would rather have new curtains than another math program on my shelf that may not provide the steps to mastery we need. What say the hive???????????