Hooray! Baran is on Netflix! And I've just requested Seven Daughters from the library. Thanks for the recommendations!

Rickshaw Girl is about a young girl who wants to help her poor family earn money, so she disguises herself as a boy so she can drive her father's rickshaw. It's a really cute story. I don't remember how I heard about it, but I have seen it in threads here and there. http://www.amazon.com/Rickshaw-Girl-Mitali-Perkins/dp/1580893090 Anyway, NPR just did a story on two Bangladeshi sisters working in the garment industry. I let my kids listen to it because it brought to life some of the issues addressed in the book, including social customs, poverty, and economic opportunities available to young women. It was really a lot more interesting than I'm making it sound. :) http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/12/03/247360855/two-sisters-a-small-room-and-the-world-behind-a-t-shirt

History Pockets are a little work-sheety, with cutting, coloring, and pasting, if she's into that. :) My girls are. Also, history is not my DD9's favorite subject, but sometimes she really enjoys the fiction books recommended at the end of each SOTW chapter. I just put a few of them in her book bin (they are required to read something from the bin everyday). There's no lesson or assignment attached, and I don't present it as "history." But she often likes the stories so much that she doesn't mind sharing about them. Glad you're getting so many great suggestions!

double post

In previous years we've used FLL. The pace was just right, the kids thought it was fun, and it was great for memory work (poems, helping verbs, prepositions). But, I have three schoolers and a three-year-old, and I work from home. I needed something more independent. This is our first year using GWG, and I'm relatively satisfied with it. I will still discuss the lessons with them, but sometimes DCs can get through with little or no help from me. I guess the word is still out on retention. Ask me again in a couple of months! :laugh:

You might like the worksheet generators at homeschoolmath.net. You can specify many parameters, including: the number of problems per page the number of columns and rows max and min values for the addends/subtrahend/minuend max and min values for the sum/difference This link is specifically to addition problems for first graders, but if you scroll up and down you may find what you're looking for. http://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/grade_1.php#mentaladd

We have enjoyed using the lapbooks from Elemental Science. It's great if your daughter likes to cut, color, and paste, even if you are lapbook-phobic. :D It's all laid out. The program also includes lots of recommendations of books to get from the library. You can use it alone, or since it is inexpensive, as a supplement to another program.

I read through most of TWTM about 5 years ago. My oldest was still in public school and I was afterschooling. I found the board shortly thereafter. The book and probably the board helped me decide that I was capable of homeschooling. Though I don't follow TWTM as closely as I'd originally planned, I still refer to it at least once a year.

The OP describes me to some extent. We struggled through WWE. I think I am a decent writer (I think? :laugh:), but teaching writing to my son was frustrating for both of us. Last year, we were in a co-op that offered IEW and I was THRILLED! Writing still wasn't DS's favorite subject, and we still had mini-battles over homework, but he was writing. He was using quality adjectives and strong verbs and all that good stuff. :) This year I am outsourcing IEW again. The co-op no longer meets, but we enrolled in Classical Conversations Essentials (grades 4-6), which includes IEW. (As a bonus, they are using the medieval history lessons, which lines up with our history this year.) This is definitely more expensive than doing it myself, but I have three other children, work from home, and did I mention teaching my son writing wasn't working for us? I would try again to teach him if I had to, but I'm grateful to have found another way that works for us.

I cherish those days! Rejoicing with you. :hurray:

Two birds with one stone! :lol:

Hi Rina, I have three school-aged kids and my 3 yo will be doing preschool this year. The group subjects--science, history, etc.--are the most challenging for us because I am constantly having to tell them to stop talking to each other, looking at each other :laugh:, etc. Maybe you already have a good handle on this with your boys, but adding two more kids from another family could certainly change that. Will the other mom stay around? We have done co-ops that meet once/week for up to three subjects, and at least one other mom is there to help. I have loved our co-ops for their fellowship for mom and kids as well as the academics. But I know I would find it difficult to do the same co-op multiple times a week, or every day it seems like? That's just me! I would also be hesitant about being responsible for another child's reading and math instruction. These are just too important. If you have become close, have the same values and academic goals, and go into it talking about expectations of behavior, rigor, etc., I suppose it could work. And I hope you do work out something great for both of you.

It is a noun, and the object of the preposition "about."

Homeschoolmath.net

I voted for #1. Sounds like the most fun for everyone. But if your husband is thrifty, he may have a hard time enjoying the gift. So if you can find lots of ways to bring the cost down, that would be great!

As kiwik said, Math Mammoth is generous with the sample. She also provides tons of practice resources on homeschoolmath.net, whether you use her program or not!

Elemental Science might work? It includes a lesson plan to use with the recommended books, some of which you might already have. Here is a description of the elementary program, but there is another one for the intermediate level: Biology for the Grammar Stage lays out a 20 week study of animals, a 10 week study of the human body and a 6 week study of plants using using visually appealing encyclopedias. It is designed to be used with K through 2nd graders, but the plans include ideas to adjust the plans for use with your older students. ...The teacher’s guide includes a 2 day and 5 day schedule for reading assignments, vocabulary, experiments and ongoing projects. The student workbook includes all the pages you need for the ongoing projects, narrations and experiments, plus over 100 pictures for you to use with those pages. Here is a link to the sample: http://d3r1z7wkgqhj9d.cloudfront.net/Biology20sample.pdf

Do you include computer time in your school day? At the beginning of each chapter there are links to games and online helps that my kids sometimes enjoy. You could even go back to old chapters and pick the links from there. It takes me a little while to go through them and find the ones that will work for us, and occasionally the links are no longer active. But some of them have been a big hit. Hope that helps!

I use Donna Young also, specifically the weekly Excel planner: http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/exweekly.htm. The website says the files work with Excel 2003 and older.

I try to schedule my kids' subjects so that I am working with one child while the others are working independently. That could be silent reading as I think OP mentioned, computer time, etc. I love the "while-you-wait bags" idea!

OK, I didn't realize this thread was so old. :laugh:

When my children were in school and received assignments that I thought were "goofy," I kept my comments to myself because I didn't want to pass that attitude on to my kids. It is true that in life you have to do things that are boring, or silly, or whatever. I have a great boss, a great job, and I don't plan to look for a new one anytime soon. But sometimes I do an internal eyeroll about things we are required to do, and honestly, I know sometimes he is rolling his eyes too, because he has to do it. That's just how it be sometimes. I do sympathize, though. I hope you and the teacher can work out a way to challenge your child and not waste precious family time. *hugs*

Thanks for the review. My kids enjoyed doing the Scratch tutorials last year and this looks like a great way to follow up on that. It's in the cart!

I second that! If GPs still would feel more comfortable with a curriculum in the chosen subject, you could just get them one and let them know they don't have *have* to use it, only if they want to. They may find, after they get into the groove, they don't need it after all. So sweet!