Ok folks, I could use some serious help. We are doing American History in the fall, but really it could start in 2 weeks. We are getting bored and snarky. Mine LOVE to be read to, and we've enjoyed reading the Ambleside Online history so much, that we got lost for a few months doing explorers, checking out explorer bios from the library, mapping, and having general fun with Home School in the Woods. I must move us forward into the next chapter. I was looking at Guerbers 13 Colonies and Great Republic but not sold I guess. I love the Landmark books MPress has and will probably buy some if I can't find them inter-library loan as ours doesn't have them. I have a 5th and 6th grader, we have Liberty Kids but I've saved it they've never watched them. I will bring my 2nd grader along with possibly the Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans. I have the Home School in the Woods Colonies and Revolution sets so I need to see what fun is in there. We really enjoyed some of the projects and readings. Sorry for the long intro. I'm stuck on a good spine. Yes we have SOTW 4 as well, but we want to focus on just AM History soo faro there it sits. I could assign additional reading of SOTW4 to my older 2, but don't want to complicate. What spine have you used that you LOVE???? Should I just move ahead with Ambleside? Thanks for the help!! I'd love to just start this 2 in weeks and assign writing as well. Resources for writing with history??

Thanks for this suggestion. Maybe we could give one a try.

Well, right know I guess the goal is both. I've got a great friend who is very skilled, and he recommends JavaScript to learn first when it comes time for that. So I'm looking into that. But the first step I would think is to think in code. Thanks for your thoughts!

Happy Summer to all of you who are there!!!! Sticker Shock. Just checked the coding classes at our local private college thru ID TECH -- $899-1200 for a one week class. Don't get me wrong the descriptions sound amazing, just too much for us. So please help -- Coding classes are on the schedule for this summer and into the fall term for my 11 YO and 9YO. Would love my 7YO to do some basic things too. No experience to date. Where do we start?? I've enrolled in the Coursera free course on basic programming and I'm checking that out now - first program deals with scratch. (Some vocab might be over the 11YO head but I could help define it along the way I guess if he needs it.) I had a code.org account set up for each child in Jan and looked at the first fun lessons of Course 2-4 just now. Oldest could probably whip those out in 2 weeks if I just let him go. These lessons look fun and I'm thinking about starting there. I took Code Academy classes in Javascript 2 summers ago, did the whole course twice and I didn't feel it explained why I was doing things very well. Not sure how well that would work for a child but I know lots of people rave about it. I've taken HTML and CSS classes on Lynda. Again I'm not sure the audience is geared for kids there. I found this list but I don't know which ones are good, or better than others, and we don't want to waste our time. https://mommypoppins.com/coding-kids-free-websites-teach-learn-programming Any direction or help would be MUCH APPRECIATED!

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses everyone. I'm not sure if she is gifted or not. She is super sharp yes, but I thought phonics just came more easily for many girls rather than boys. She has just taken advantage of the one room school house, absorbing so much of what we do everyday. I think that is a great part of it. Which test would you all recommend??

Thanks for the great ideas. I'm digesting them and seeing what we can do here. So appreciated!!!

And yes I have SOTW on audio, so I need to look for a good player she can have with headphones. GREAT IDEA! The last 2 CD players I bought broke within a month. :(

Thank you all SO MUCH for the suggestions. So many good ones thank you I don't have time to respond to each right now but I am reviewing all the ideas. She is super interested in sewing new outfits for her Calico Critters, but my hand sewing skills have been LOST. Haven't done it in 20 years. Are there any good youtube channels that teach hand sewing for kids? I can take her to Grandmas to learn to knit, I do not know how but could learn along side her. I have a bracelet kit I can get out, the friendship bracelet set that is good. Keep the ideas coming! I am starting to have hope!!! :) Links to youtube channels you have used in the past for clay and sewing would be great!

Looking for suggestions to give my 7 year old girl a few more things to work on for school each day. I feel bad for her it seems I'm always looking over when working with the olders and she is just bored and feels left out or just left. Today she asked if she could go to school. I know this can come and go but she is getting really bored of being home all the time, getting done with school and wandering around the house. She has 2 outside activities at night per week which I feel is plenty and a room full of toys. She plays cards with her stuffed animals and reads aloud to them. LA is covered. She is flying thru Rod and Staff spelling 2. Retaining. She is working thru MCP Phonics B -- 5 pages a day limit or she would have the whole book done already. She writes short stories, and letters to people. Last week she wrote a Christmas Hymn. She reads 3rd grade or higher level so only work phonics once a week to touch on like ci,si, and harder sounds on my list. We check out 20-30 books per week and she reads them all. Current fav are the Rainbow Magic Fairy books. Fairies are HUGE here. Luckily there are ALOT of them. 70-90 pages each depending. Now there's a website but I can't get it to run on my laptop for her. I WOULD like to get her a few audio books PLUS the real book so she could read along, or stop and play if she wants. Need to make a list of titles. She has completed her ZB print handwriting book for the year already. The whole thing. She needs some practice with cursive but she is doing well with that too. I could order her the cursive book now. Math is covered. We are working thru Evan Moor Geog and she enjoys that. Making the landform book now. I need to add history back in for her, the olders are studying a time period in depth and she tries to hang in with them but it doesn't last.I guess I need a plan for history for her that is a good place to add. I am trying to add the timeline sprial books in January and get all the figures she would love that. We have just finished Abeka Fables and that was really nice. She got it out everyday and asked for it. We read one or two per day, Then she narrated it back, I write it out for her and she copies it in her writing book. The TE set the scene with questions before and after and we discussed the character themes. I'm not a huge Abeka fan but this WAS nicely done. I should check for other things they have like it. I feel like we are hitting the 3 R's and not getting much else done and it's not enough for her or I. Even the school down the road hits science 3 times a week. Why can't I?? We have online art once per week she loves, she would do it every day but I need to sit there and stop the videos so she can work at her pace. One lesson can take awhile. Maybe I can get her brother to do this with her more often. Happy to look at anything books or online. She likes Sheppard Software, but even that is getting old now. She has chores, she has piano, she just needs more. Maybe I should start teaching her latin early. I have French and Latin maybe we could do that 15 min a day. I have some Mindware maze books in my cart, but I need more ideas. ! Something substantial that will take more than 5 minutes and TRANSLATE to something later on. ?? KWIM? Not just a coloring book or word find. . . . Maybe CODING actually. Why not. I saw some neat things for her age group on code.org. I need to go back and check. Thanks for listening to my vent and frustration. And to any ideas you may have. I just wish I had more time and energy, and don't want her year to slip away. Can't one of you just come over and help?? :001_smile:

I need to get over to AOPS to see what they recommend or have, just havevn't had time to check yet.

Thanks I'll check that out. Looks like I could pull a few off every sheet they look interesting!

Ok folks some big time help needed. What resources are out there so can we add this skill? One of my boys would eat this up if I could put the right program in front of him. He is getting a PC for Christmas. He will be 11. Help please! The only thing I've found locally are classes over the summer. Nothing during the SY. (No minecraft please.) I am looking for basic coding skills, and I'm sure some robotics.

I want to work word problems more every week, and really work them hard so they become second nature for them. I know Singapore has a book for each year (70 must know word problems . . .), but I have all the Challenging Word Problems books already which we are working through and assume there is major overlap. Do you think there is? What would you do? Are those books worth it? I assume there is no magic resource all in one for grades 1-6 for this; just curious what your thoughts are. :) We use SM Standards, and lots of drill practice with math-drills.com sheets. Oh, just so you know my pattern . . . :laugh: I feel like we should do more, I buy something I think we need to help with an area, I find out what we were doing is enough and don't use it, after a few uses, it sits on my shelf making me feel guilty we are not doing more in that area and using it, then go back to what we were doing but maybe add more depth to the material we originally had. :laugh: Thanks for reading!

Thanks Ellie, that makes a lot of sense. She said she used it when in school. I don't think I could give up my Rod and Staff english and spelling it's so easy (love the teachers guides. . .) and we are super comfortable with math now and I wouldn't change that for anything now that we have got a system down. I am tempted to buy RodStaff phonics to see if its just as well laid out as English is. But would need the middle of it my 6 year old reads really well (3rd grade level )and I wouldn't know where to start her. I'll have 2 days off to plan next week which is nice I am going to pull a few things together from AO and chart out the next 6 weeks. Was just curious what people would say here.

Thanks for the thoughts and experiences. The gal who works at my bank enrolled her 2 in it this fall grades 4 and 6 I think, and she said how challenged the kids are every week, as compared to public school. She said the workload was more than they were used to. So I was curious what people here would say about them. We are pretty happy here with the curriculum we are using, but there are some days I wish I could have someone else teach everything but LA and Math. :laugh: Wish that existed somewhere in my perfect happy place.

I am interested in hearing your thoughts, especially any who have used it. I've heard it's pretty school-ish, which is probably why many here wouldn't like it. (Not classical.) I'm curious as to thoughts of those who have used it and how it worked for them. Strengths? Weaknesses?

Oh thanks -- I'll check that out tonight. :)

I got a second fire in June, with the thinking I'd use it for rewards come September for the kids. They are way too obsessed with mine and I don't like the control this device has over them, so I was going to list it on eBay for $40. It's still in the cardboard shipping box, never opened or activated, and my return window has ended. If I sell this, can I just slap a new address on it and send it to the new owner? Or when they turn it on will it be linked to my Amazon account, purchase history, saved credit cards etc. Thanks for your help!

After 2 years of taking my projects in to be bound at my local print shop, I think I want to try this myself and save the costs. We are starting to need so many of these now with unit studies and other projects. For those that use them could you recommend a good machine? I would think this is pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it. Current uses: Binding 25, 50, 100 pages writing paper (thinner newspaper type ZB paper) Binding 25 - 100 page unit studies, regular paper

Why don't you put some videos up on youtube teaching the techniques?

Oh - I even found a group that meets every Monday, but it's at night so we'll see. . .

These are all great suggestions, I'm still looking them all up thank you all. Shout out of thanks to Lori what a great list of resources!

I want to add this hand craft, but don't know where to start. Other than cross stitch which was like 30 years ago I don't hand sew at all. Could you recommend good instruction books you have used? Can't afford classes. Maybe youtube. . . We did the potholder loom and that was a huge hit, but a no brainer for Mom. :) I was heading to Joann Fabrics in the next day or so, so thought I'd shout it out to you all. Ages are 6-10. If the boys could sew and stuff something Star Wars that would be fun. They all need new comforters this year, and I'd like to work with them in sewing basics, so they can help when we do them.

What is a good version to read -- beside Norths version? I've glanced at North's version and for 4th grade I just don't think we are interested.

I will be the first one to drop things out and do them just once a week on a loop if it gets to be too much. They are just all so good at languages I doubt I'll be dropping that back. (My Latin time slot is actually for Latin and French too). With the interests the older 2 are developing (robotics, programming, and others) there will need to be time for them to pursue those.