My 6 and 7 year olds like these comic books: Mega Man Super Dinosaur For collections of comic strips, they like: Asterix and Obelix Calvin and Hobbes

My son does a reading/phonics program called "i-ready" on the computer. His school has a subscription, which we use at home. I don't know if it's available to the general public (I spent a tiny amount of time looking at their main website for you, but couldn't find the info easily), but I think it's a pretty decent program.

I'm interested in the answers to these questions, too! DS(6) takes traditional piano lessons. DS(5) does Suzuki violin. We've considered attending a Suzuki institute this summer. We worry that DS(6) won't fit in or have fun because he doesn't know the Suzuki songs. FWIW, I wasn't a huge fan of the violin idea. I've never liked violins. But DS(5) was adamant, and I gave in. It isn't so bad. :laugh:

This is tricky. I voted for the "weak" answer, but it's not exactly accurate. DS is a relatively strong student in most areas. We noticed him using his fingers to calculate for math homework early in the year - so we started requiring daily Xtramath.com practice, and that has really helped. Other than that, we follow his interests and preferences.

I really enjoy reading the "Biggest Curriculum Fail"/"Favorite Curriculum" threads on the homeschooling boards. I thought it would be fun to do something similar on this board, but with a focus on activities and curricula that work especially well in an afterschooling context. Anyone else game? This year we've had success with: Xtramath.com SOTW on CD Draw Write Now (for drawing, not handwriting) Music Lessons! Hasn't worked: AAS (This was great when we homeschooled last year, but we just can't find time for it after school.) Miquon

We use XtraMath.com. We also play math war and RightStart games sometimes.

I don't worry about "mastery" with each lesson in OPGTR. At the beginning of each lesson, I have DS read a handful of words from the word lists in the previous 2-3 lessons. He doesn't have to be perfectly fluent on all of them (sounding-out is okay), but I want to see that he can figure out the words on his own. If he can, we move on to the new lesson. If he can't we re-do the lesson with the troublesome concept. Occasionally, we spend an entire lesson just reading word lists from earlier sections of the book. I never have him re-read any of the stories; they're so boring.

I wanted to add: there's some value to the Get Ready books even if your son already knows the phonics in them. My DS5 really enjoys doing them as a fun review/solidification of letter sounds. And it's good handwriting practice. But we also do the Explode the Code books together, with me doing most of the writing.

It's tricky. Your son is past the Get Ready books, in terms of phonics knowledge. I'd say go ahead and start on the Explode the Code books, but there's a TON of writing required in those. If you don't mind writing for your son, that would work.

King of Tokyo is great, but can be hard to find. We also like Metropolis (also hard to find in the States). You might have to special order both, but they're worth it!

YouTube had a ton of drawing/painting videos. Just search "how to draw" or "how to paint" and you could watch for years. Of the YouTube videos, I really like Mark Crilley's ones. He posts a new video every Friday.

My DS6 flew through it without any guidance. He was never interested in the games or rewards he could buy with his golden eggs; he just wanted to pass off every lesson ASAP. We got a year subscription, but he was done in under a month. DS4 (now 5) is getting more out of it. He tends to just goof around on it, mostly listening to songs. Now I require him to complete a level of lessons before he gets free time on it. Some of the lessons have tasks that require more speed and dexterity with a mouse than he has. I help him with those. We opted against Math Seeds after our free trial. It may have expanded since then, but it was very basic and seemed more game-ish than educational.

We also like AAS for the same reasons. I think it is an especially good program for kids who are starting spelling at a young age.

We work by time, not lesson. We work for 15 minutes, 3-4 times a week. We usually get through 2-3 lessons each week, but sometimes it's much slower.

The book "Two Plus Two is Not Five" is good for giving strategies and practice. We also use Xtramath.com and the RightStart games, especially War and Go to the Dump.