When my kids took a class at co-op, they also played the 50 state songs from Audio Memory. They focused on the states in the song (eastern border, northern boarder, etc.), then when they were done, they moved on to different regions in the song. Here is another option as well: State History From A Christian Perspective I haven't used the above book "yet", but I have used the WA State History study and LOVED it!

We use them. :)

Another thing to keep in mind is the curriculum is HUGE! It is/was easier for me (and some children are this way too) to look at when I divided up the curriculum in shorter sections and placed them in a binder for my dd.

hum... I will go try that (scrolling to the bottom). I was just looking for the previous board link at the top of the page. It worked. Wow! you are amazing!!! You're getting a rep from me for that one. Thanks so much! :D

Thanks Denise. :) I did go back to that link, but it won't let you see previous pages. I haven't tried doing a goggle search yet. For some reason I don't like doing searches that way. But I guess I am going to have to get over that quirk. :D

I used it, but found it overwhelming... I am a CQLA drop out! I really, REALLY wanted to love this program. I purchased EVERYTHING (video, teacher manual, spelling book, audio tape, etc) to go with and was so excited to get started. During the short time I used it, my dd really liked it. I wasn't faithful with using each day (overwhelming to me), and decided to sell it and move onto something less teacher intensive for me. I have heard there are spelling errors in the curriculum. We didn't make it far enough to find that an issue, and my spelling is horrid anyway, who knows if I would have noticed. On the old WTM board, there are a few posts about CQLA. I sure wish we could access the archives on the old board too. There has been times I know things were talked about on the old board, went to search, but was disappointed I couldn't. :(

Happy Birthday! Oh to be 30 again...

I was thinking you had a clearer reason/explanation, but I didn't know how to put it in words to ask you the question. :) Yes, take a break from SOTW and do the Beautiful Feet's guide if you want to. :) I would do just that if I wanted to. Sounds like it will be a lot of fun and a nice change of pace. :D

I don't know how you would do 1 w/o the other. If you are doing geography, you've got to have some history to go along with. Who lives there, current events/past events, why is it important to where it is located, etc. And visa versa, you can't do history w/o learning geography. Sure, sometimes it you may focus more about the history/people, etc, and other times learning more about the land(geography). I really feel they both go hand in hand and couldn't imagine going a year with w/o one or the other.

Here is You Tube video that my sister in law sent me. It really got me thinking about smoke dectors. And I am keeping my eye out for when these new smoke dectors come out. Does anyone know if they are available yet?

Wow, those do look nice. Now I want to get these! :D

Another vote for evan-moor books too! Yes, we have used those as well. :) Seems like I have used so many things, but I have been homeschooling for 13 years and have 5 children. I get around to using a lot of different things. :). But for a unit study approach w/ living books I really think Jennifer's is wonderful. :D And they don't cost an arm and a leg either. :D Another thought (don't you love all the idea's :D) is Living Learning Books. I did purchase Level 1 (don't know if they revamped it or not, but the cover looks the same) and wasn't to impressed with it, but that could be just me. It just didn't seem deep enough for me. I heard Level 2 gets better, but I haven't seen it first hand. This might be an option for you too.

Yes, this is a GREAT resource. I wish they had this when my kids were younger. Jake and Holly can still take advantage of this though. :)

BBQ Pork (we slice it ourselves) Chicken Sausage (Annie's I think it is called) Tilapia (I don't eat it, dh does) Mango Salsa (great as a topper on Tilapia or anything) Garlic Chicken Noodle dinner (In the frozen food section) Roastier Chicken (YUMMY) Breaded Chicken Strips Breaded Chicken Patties (easy way to make Chicken Parmesan) Have to get with about each stop (GREAT deals on these): Pineapple Banana's Treats: Box of Duncan Fudge Brownie mix! YUM!! Chai Tea (for me :) ) Love the All American Chocolate Cake (but only on rare occasions) Kids love those peanut butter Nalley bars And of course the staples: Eggs Meat Cheese (sliced, bagged, etc) Sliced Honey Ham coffee etc. But next time I go I am getting a package of their chicken walnut salad in the deli/fresh meat area! Oh MY that is YUMMY!

I was going to suggest these too. We love them! ~Tina

Yes, I have used the unit studies and loved them. They are laid out nicely and was easy for me to set up the notebooks and accomplish what was laid out in the guide. Off the top of my head, I remember using Farm Life, Pirate Study, Pioneer, and I can't remember what else. I still have some that I plan on using in the feature.

You ROCK, Lisa! That is a good idea too! :)

I would encourage you to look at Jennifer Stewards unit studies: Stewardship. She has lots of science unit studies to use. There are notebooking pages included and she does provide book lists as well. And like with any unit study, just because the study is a science it can touch on history, geography, etc. That is the beauty of unit studies! :) On a side note, you if ever get the oppertunity to attend one of her workshops, I would highly encourage anyone and everyone to attend! She is a wonderful encourager and literally saved me from homeschool burnt out several years ago! For using HNS, have you checked out Barb's Green Hour Challenges? She provide neat challenges for others to do each week, along with suggested readings from HNS. By doing these challenges, I am not afraid of HNS any more. :) You can start at any time. We are doing this and LOVING it. I am a couple weeks behind, but that is ok. :D You can check out my blog to see what we have doing HERE, and be sure to check out what others do as well (links provided in posts at Barb's Blog)

Oh those are good idea's too. :o) Thanks! ;)

Thanks so much! Yes, I saw the guide (and an answer key to the guide! Love that!!). That is one reason why I would like to purchase these. They look like wonderful books. Again, thanks for responding! ~Tina

I am playing this week too. :)

Thanks so much for the idea's! Anyone know of anything else. I really want to try and find something/ideas for folks to teach if they say to us, "I would love to teach something, but I just can't prepare a topic/subject for a whole year." If we suggest books with teacher guides, etc I think more folks might be willing to teach. :)

What age levels are these books? I have searched the site but can't find any age suggestions there.

Do you know of any curriculum that also has a co-op schedule with it or ones that are easily adapted to use in a co-op? We are pulling a co-op together in our area and we are pulling together a list of curriculum's that provide co-op schedules. Here are the ones I know of so far (I know there is more, but I can't think anymore at this point...): Apologia elementary (Botany & Astronomy) Writing Tales Vol 1 & 2 All American History I/we are also interested in Jr. High and High School curriculum's. Thanks in advance! ~Tina

I like it and most importantly DD likes it. Is it worth the $$? I wouldn't purchase it new. I would try to find it used. But with that said, if you purchase it new, the teacher book has been updated by Geo Matters and it seems to have more information in it then the old version. I want that teacher book! But I am worried it won't be with $10 plus shipping to get it. Still up in the air about that one. I don't use the map activity book either. I find it to confusing to use.