Yep, all the ones I've been to have been excellent! Just this morning I stopped for a chicken biscuit (went inside, not drive thru). He gave it to me for free and I was baffled. Not till later did I realize that he'd replaced the register tape and I had to "wait" for 40 extra seconds. That's the only explanation I could think of! It made my morning though, cause I was feeling kinda guilty about wasting money on a biscuit :)

A friend linked to this list on FB today. It lists curriculum by whether it IS or IS NOT aligned to Common Core. It is on FB, but it's public, so all should be able to view it. I am neither for nor against it myself and know nothing about the coalition that put the list together. I just thought it may be helpful for those looking specifically to either align or not.

Books by Thornton Burgess! ALL animals! Lovely stories and definitely worth reading. :)

We have iBird Plus (not cheap, but worth it!), two different ones that are both just called "birds" (one is a memory game and the other is a multiple choice quiz game with a flashcard-type learning option), and the "lite" (i.e. free!) versions of Birds of Prey and My Bird World, which the kids think are pretty cool. Really, though, iBirds is worth the cost. Think of it like an awesome book packed with gorgeous color photos, showing the locations of sooo many birds and their calls. If you see a bird you don't know, you can also search using as much or as little info as you have available.

My daughter and I started the Catherine Vos Child's Story Bible in kindergarten. She loves books and has good comprehension, so we zipped right through the whole OT. She loved it. When my son started kindergarten, she and I had finished the whole book, so we started back at the beginning. He is not a strong auditory learner, so I could only read half a chapter at a time. Still, IF your daughter is a book lover, it would be a good choice. If not, wait a bit. :)

I've been using First Book in English with my 3rd grader all year, alongside A Beka Language 3. I've been focusing on grammar with A Beka and writing assignments with First Book. What I'm finding is that First Book is covering almost all the same important things that A Beka does. I just haven't gained the confidence to use it by itself! Today we discussed a lovely poem about snow. She then had to answer specific questions as a guided way to write about the poem, and compare the rewritten version and the original to see which is a more beautiful way of writing. Now I've just started using Primary Lessons in Language and Composition with my 1st grader and I love it so far! We're only through lesson 7. He has learned how to answer in a complete sentence, correct usage of a and an, and how to make a word plural. As written, there is too much writing for him, so we do almost all of it orally. They are expected to memorize those grammar rules I mentioned. I just think they are such beautiful books! I found them on Google Books (now called Google Play) and we use them on our iPad.

I work at a teaching supplies store just northeast of Birmingham. We have some small books about Alabama, but I can't think off-hand what they are. I just remember thinking, "Oh neat! I'll have to get that when we take some time to learn a little about the state!" If you are kinda close to my area, PM me and I'll look when I work Thursday.

I have looked at all editions, thanks to the library. I check it out every year and make new notes and such, though I haven't been good at implementing them. I wanted the 1st edition since we're not using many of the Peace Hill Press books, except SOTW (I just don't like scripted styles myself). How neat, Heather, that your mom already has the book! I'm about sit down with it right now and start next years notes. :)

After 4 years of borrowing it from the library, I have finally purchased my own [$4+shipping, 1st edition] copy! I'm psyched. :D Seriously, though, why do I torture myself with curriculum planning every year? Maybe I'll just do whatever SWB tells me to this year, at least for language arts!

I'd most definitely pack an iPad into one of those boxes! Then I'd fill it with vintage books and pdfs and apps and such. You wouldn't need the internet to use them. Then if the iPad could occasionally be taken to a place that has wifi, you could download new things, even if it was just once a year. (I don't mean that I'd have ONLY the iPad, but it would be very valuable in that situation. ETA: It would need to be charged, though.)

Yep, I agree with the others. There isn't much that a child really needs to know before starting K math. Counting and recognizing to 20 is a nice bonus. The biggest thing is the developmental ability to learn simple math (counting, writing numbers, simple adding, skip counting). Your daughter is definitely there and is currently able to do K-level math. :) Don't worry about her in the least! :)

We are using Zoology 1 right now! I haven't done much "extra" stuff, so I don't have anything to add. I pull books from the library on that chapter's theme (e.g. migration and flight for Chapter 4 that we are doing right now). Our big "extra" was to read the Burgess Bird Book. AWESOME book. I highly recommend it!! We had a big bird coloring book, so we usually had a picture of one bird for each of the chapters. I bought an iBird app for our iPad and we looked up each bird, saw photos, heard it's song, looked to see if it lives in our area. It got the kids really excited about birds. :) And now that they think birds are awesome, we are learning some of the mechanics being flight and other details (which they aren't too excited about... it's much less fun compared the Burgess book!). But YES, planning is definitely my favorite part!! :D

Check out New American Cursive. My daughter started it in 2nd grade, but I wouldn't hesitate to use it earlier. Very nicely done. :)

We've just started the following: Essential Math Reading - Word Mastery, A Beka ABC-123 (We're close to the end of that now. Will switch to some other workbook after, I guess.) Handwriting Without Tears Dot-to-Dot book (lol, his choice!) Developing the Early Learner book 2 I'll just see what he's ready for whenever we finish these. He also listens to our history and science, but I don't make them do those until they're in 1st grade.

We use a table. I have a table in the school room and a table in the kitchen. Which one we use depends on how clean the school room is (right now, a disaster). I prefer to be right near them. Generally, I station myself on an end. Then I put my lefty to my left and my righty to my right, so I can see what they're writing (their hands block it otherwise). I am not sure how I'll work in my 3rd child next year! lol:) Anyway, I stack things on the floor next to me (books we're about to use, or books we just finished and having put away yet, or teacher manuals that I only needed at one point of the lesson). I don't think I'd like desks, though I know they work for some others.

I know (in real life, lol) a veteran homeschool mom of 5 graduated kids who recommends this method. She said that she tried everything, but this was the one that REALLY worked. You just have to make sure they aren't writing them in columns to get through faster. ;) My MIL, another veteran homeschooler of 3 graduates, teaches my kids one day a week while I work. I had been struggling to get my daughter to memorize the facts. She went over one day with a list of facts to work on and came home KNOWING ALL OF THEM. It was like a miracle. I asked her what Grammy did with her that she learned them so well and she said, "I don't want to tell you, cause then you'll make me do it!" Eventually (like weeks later) I coaxed it out of her, with the promise that I wouldn't do it much as long as she kept learning with Grammy. I found that Grammy just works on them orally, asking her random facts (of those she's working on) in fairly rapid succession, over and over. Such a small thing, and so effective! I think a lot of it has to do with a child's learning style (auditory/visual/kinesthetic). Good luck finding that magical way that works for your son! :D

Yes, that is my understanding, too. :)

That is awesome. I actually did laugh out loud for real. :D

You know what looks super-duper cute?? Usborne Phonics Workbooks. Look at the sample pages - they are adorable! The books come with stickers, too. We have the workbooks at the teaching store where I work, and I drool over them. :) I would probably bring them home if DS was just a tiny bit younger.

Well, if it's just books... it's hard to say no. :) If I was finding GREAT deals, like at a library book sale or thrift store, I'd have no problem buying ahead.

What a beautiful story! :)

Yep, that is exactly why I want to know! :) My mom already thinks I'm off my rocker about this whole saints' intercession stuff, so I don't want to push too much. When I asked, her reply was simply, "I have no idea which saint that was. We probably were given a list of names to pick from. I really have no clue." She left behind everything Catholic many years ago and I don't believe there is anything else she would be able to tell me. That's why I wondered if there were records kept of things like that.

Hmm, I don't know. I'll try to ask her. ETA: As I was looking at the different saints with that name, I came across this one and thought, 'This just HAS to be the one!' As if... it's almost that familiar feeling. There's a pretty good chance it was someone else and I'm dead wrong! :) My great-great grandparents immigrated from Italy during this St. Frances' lifetime - she came to America from Italy and is the patron saint of immigrants.

Hi all! :seeya: I haven't been keeping up with your group, but may I pop in with a quick question? My mom was raised Catholic and told me that the name she took at confirmation was Frances. In the Orthodox tradition, we take the name of a particular saint, so I'm assuming it is the same in the Catholic church. She said she doesn't remember at all that it was even a specific saint. She is no longer interested in Catholicism in any way, but I am curious who her saint was. Is there a way to find out? Like if I called the church where she used to go, might they have records that would tell me? This would have been close to 1960, but the little church is still there.

Oh gosh, there are, like, 8,000 Rainbow Magic Fairy books. I think DD has read about 5,000. I don't know for sure, but she keeps bringing new ones home. I keep hoping she'll get through all of them soon, but I suspect that the author is churning them out faster than she can read them (and the girl flies through a book in one sitting now, so...).