Twice! Well once was BC (before children). ;) 2 years ago I drove from KY to Utah (Not all the way across, but who's counting?) and back with 3 kids 6, 8, 10. We camped the whole way. It was a grand adventure. We didn't push through on the driving days - the max driving at any one time was 4 hours (with pee breaks). Then we'd either stop the car for the day by setting up camp and taking a hike or bike ride or take a long break outside at a park or other entertaining place (biking, hiking, playing, museum etcl). Then we would eat dinner and get back in the car and drive for 2-4 more hours depending on where we wanted to end up that next day. It was a joyful trip for us. :) Good luck! Kimberly

Thank you so much for that detailed response. I will check those out for sure. I'll also looked into those "bite size" things too. :)

In the fall, I'll be leading a group of 3rd - 5th grade kids through Physics RSO 1. I'm considering using that RSO 1 with the older kids (mostly 7th graders) and using an additional resource to "beef" it up for them. Recommendations of a curriculum or resource to use? Kids expect homework (reading, defining, etc.) (2 sessions of 1.25 hours each week). It would be easier for planning to beef up or simplify rather than using 2 different curricula. Secular preferred.

Or any other ideas that also incorporate more cultural studies with the geography? For this age group? 6-9/10

Thanks...I'll take a look at that Trail Guide....We're going to be doing activities and such in the class; so, I'm just looking for "intro" material for home reading...but obviously I need other options. I wasn't thinking of it as read-aloud as an enjoyable story, but rather they kids wouldn't be expected to read it themselves....but maybe even if they're just looking for a certain bit of info it's still too much. I agree with their age guidelines generally for the entire core, but for individual books within a core, I've read them to younger students with success before. I just don't have personal experience with that book.

My oldest, the only one who currently does Latin, loves Lively Latin. I love that it's pretty self directed. If I wanted to learn Latin I could, but I don't have to. There are on-line lessons/videos if you want to use them. If you already know latin or you are good at just reading it and figuring it out you don't need the on-line part. It has grammar, vocabulary, history, stories, and much more. :) PS: My signature line is completely outdated.

I will be leading a co-op class a couple of days per week and I'm thinking of using Bookshark 5's text Journey To the Eastern Hemisphere kinda as the spine along with the notebooking pages that goes with it. I know students won't get through all of Bookshark 5 just in 2 days per week, but they would read from that Journey book at home and do follow up activities and such in the class sessions. Here's my question, do you think the Journey to the Eastern Hemisphere is accessible as a read-a-loud to younger students? I know the Level says it's good for 10-13. Most of the kids in the classes are in this age range. I've also got a group of kids who are mostly 8-9. These kids would likely have their parents read the book (or sections) aloud to them at home and then we would follow up with activities and such in the classroom sessions. Does this seem like it would work? Does anyone else have a better idea for a "World Cultures and Geography" guide/curriculum that would work? Thanks! Kimberly

I'm sure I posted this the other day, but I can't find it in my search. So, maybe it disappeared. :) Does anyone have an activity guide or specific plans of what you did if you've read this book? Thanks, Kimberly

I'm leading a book group (middle schoolers) through Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep. Do any of you have a lit guide or activities you've done with this book? Thanks, Kimberly PS: I'm sure my signature line is all out of wack ...so here's what we're currently doing 12 year old daughter: Lively Latin, OM History 7, OM Math 6, OM History 7, OM Science 7; Bookshark 4 (just because she wants to do the extra reading - no pressure). IEW US History 10 year old girl - public school and mostly loving it. 8 year old boy - Easy Peasy (when I'm not home). OM 2, AAR 3, LOF, Miquon for fun,

The theme based books from IEW were an easy start for us with that type of writing in 4th grade.

Thanks Merry - I'm glad you chimed in for us as well. Actually I do have a question about the visual processing...will a regular eye doctor check that out for us? Or should I seek some sort of specialist? I'm trying to see if her tracking is a vision problem, a brain problem, or just a practicing problem. ...Obviously there is something going on since she'll be 9 in October and it's still not natural for her. I've got my older sets (Pre- and Level 1) for sale, maybe if both sell we'll get the Level 3 - the Phonics pathways does practice words out of context and not rhyming....but of course it doesn't have the same introduction to each phonoeme group... For my oldest context and telling her the rule just a couple of times when she saw it was all she needed. NOthing like a struggler to make you question your ability as a homeschooling momma. :)

I've got making an eye appointment on my to-do list. Thanks for that suggestion.

My struggling reader (8.5) just finished AAR level 2 (we took over a year and a half for AAR1, and finished AAR2 in about 1 year). She is reading Bean and Ivy (easiest Lexile level of the bunch) with support - usually between 1/2 and 2/3 of each chapter herself and we chime in for the rest. She is proud to have read it, but doesn't initiate much reading on her own. She still has trouble with tracking instead of looking at the first letter (or any letter in the word) and guessing (no diagnosis, but probable "issues"). She makes mistakes with words and sometimes keeps reading and other times does notice the problem and goes back to read again. At the end of AAR 2 I did a quick teaching of each of the leap words and a quick run down of the new phonemes...then I had her read the rest of the reader aloud. This worked well for her. She liked the challenge and the "finishing the level." She wants to be able to read more independently and I want her to as well! It's caused a block in other areas of her schooling because she wants us to read everything to her (and there's only one of me with 2 other kids who need work ask well). She wants to be able to read independently for those reasons (redoing lessons because you can't read the questions at the end is no fun)- but not really for joy (yet?). As we got toward the end of AAR2, I felt like she was able to move through and progress quickly than the program allowed us. It seems that the word cards (getting them memorized) seemed to slow us down because they took a long time to memorize and I felt like we couldn't keep moving forward with the stack of cards growing (each reader story was one day's worth of lesson when we got to it). So, now I'm contemplating what to do with her. I have Phonics Pathways (which worked very well for my oldest daughter). We've been using that for the last few days. The progression/sequence is different than AAR; so, we're doing a bit of review work right now and will move toward the long vowel sounds soon (I think it's in 4 pages from where I placed her). We are easily doing 2 pages of this per day in about 15-20 minutes (plus a read aloud in the evening). I guess I'm wondering if there would be any benefit to continuing with AAR 3 (and eventually 4) beyond the extra practice and slower pace? Since I have the letter tiles (we also use AAS and will continue that) I can depend on those if we hit snags in Phonics Pathways. Honestly, I feel like we don't need the $100 expense right now either, but I don't want to short circuit her reading progress either. Support, encouragement, ideas encouraged. :) Thanks, Kimberly

We use Scribd too. :)

Yes. I've had the converstaion with the grandparents since the oldest was an infant. After 10 years, I'm just going to accept that they are not going to turn the TV off at their house. So, I have to make another plan - and I can't afford additional days of childcare right now. If this were a sitter situation they would have been fired long ago. It's hard to fire grandparents when you don't have any other reasonably affordable options. I did talk to Grandma yesterday about the work they MUST do before any "fun time." - Including excersising between lessons on the computer. The nice thing is that with Acellus I can live monitor what they are doing and I can call and ask to talk to them and tell them to work - instead of relying on grandma to make sure it gets done.

Simply is the name of my game for the coming year. If I want to do this for the long haul, I've got to find solutions that don't make me overworked and burnt out. Good luck finding what works for you.

Hi...does the Redbird program require that they actually be gifted or tallented? Because my younger 2 for sure aren't in that category academincally (just regular ol' folks). I'm looking into it. But I think I might decide to go with Acellus...it seems to offer most of the options that I want. I also will probably add the Reading Eggs subscription (if I can convince my husband that the free childcare from his mom means that we're saving money to pay for the programs!). :)

Is there anyone here who has used either of these as a supplement or a full curriculum? I'm strongly considering Acellus or PLATO for my kids (1st grade boy, 3rd grade girl, 5th grade girl) to do as supplments when they stay at their grandparents' house (2 days a week while I work). We've got the 30 day free trial right now with Acellus so I can see how it works (for some reason I can't access the arent view). I'd really like to know how it compares to PLATO in terms of ease of indpendent use, content (how and how well taught) and the amount of "off-line" or other activities listed to do instead of being all inclusive in the program. Thanks!

For the youngest 2 that would require grandma to actually read it to them so they knew what to do. So, it won't work.

Clever dragons. I'm off to look that up now. :) I've see the options listed on Global Student Network website. It lists a few options. Two of which are: A+ Courseware for homeschool Oddeseyware I'm just not sure what the products are - if they're really something else being distributed by a different name, or if they are specific products. A+ courseware comes with Study Island (which is from Edumentum - which offers PLATO Courseware - so, I'm wondering if it is the same thing). Has anyone used any of these options? Or know if that is actually a reputable site? I can't seem to get any real demo or comments from them. Thanks again!

Thanks for that log idea. I'm really hoping to find something that will work, won't cost me a ton, and won't take me a lot of time to set up and implement. I know that's asking a lot. But at this time in our lives, I don't want to piece together what they do at grandma's ...I just want them to do something educational. My energy for scouring for daily wor for grandma's house is just enough to find something that will make it pretty simple for me to manage after I get it ordered and log-ins created. By the way, the middle will do her TT lessons while at grandma's house. So, that's one thing off my list.

At the grandparent's house they watch TV/movies All. day. long. Literally from the second we walk in the door until I pick them up. The TV never turns off. The oldest, when she would take a stack (very small) of work to do there would have to go to a different room to even be able to think to get anything done. So, I'm thinking if the grandparents didn't have to do anything except let them sit in a room without a TV it would get done. For my sanity, they have to start doing something at their grandparents' house besides watching TV and eating junk food. I've resigned my self to not winning the junk food battle in the near future, but I feel like I can win the viewing battle - IF I have something that I can track that it was completed and it is pretty much independent work.

That MobyMax does look good. I'm going to read more about it tomorrow while my kids play at the bounce house tomorrow afternoon. :)

Has anyone used the PLATO Comprehensive program offered through the Homeschool Buyer's co-op? https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/plato-learning/?source=79990 Maybe that's just what I need?

A trick that helped my now 10 year old was teaching her what I learned in AAS....b is a Bat and a ball (draw the straight line down first then the ball bounces out). The d is a doorknob and a door. I sometimes still hear her saying that to herself when writing. :) She was 8 when she learned that trick.