My 7th grader is using Runkles Geography. All my children learn as we are reading or studying different countries. I purchased A Child's Geography for my my 2 youngest to use, but I am not sure what my thoughts are about the curr. yet. I had a different idea in my mind as to what it was when I ordered it. Anyone have opinon's on this curr?

Oral Language for Daily Use by McGraw Hill. It is for 6th grade, but I am fine using it. I also have Take 5 minutes: A History Fact A Day for Editing. It is for grades 3-5, but it sure would fit the bill too. They have them for other grade levels too. Check HERE to see more. I think I will get one for 6-8 grade for her to use next year. :D

We are using it and enjoy it greatly. I can't think of a dislike at the moment. There is no teacher manual. I would highly encourage you to join the elementary apologia yahoo group. In the file section there are schedules there that folks have made while using the curriculum. Choose on that works for you and your family. It really breaks down the lessons for you and lets you know what to do daily. We did lesson 1, then skipped to lesson 9-14, then went to lesson 2 and will will finish with lesson 8. We wanted to do birds this time of year (spring). We are taking 2 weeks to complete a lesson. We also use Live and Learn's lapbook for Zoology 1. There are experiments with each chapter, What Do You Remember Questions, Explain Questions, and more.

I really struggled over this one... I teach a Zoology 1 co-op class and boy the cost of purchasing a kit for all the kids was more then I liked to see. I didn't do it. But with this said if it were for my family only, I just might have. We only have 5 lesson left and we will be done with the book. I didn't have a hard time finding anything I couldn't have found on my own with ease and a lot of the stuff I already have on hand. It is just going to be a personal preference. And remember just because you purchase a kit doesn't mean you will have "everything" you need. You will still have to gather some of the items on your own.

Didn't see if this was mentioned yet, but the freebies for super members are ones that are not released to the general public yet either. It is like a special bonus/extra for those that are super members. :) I LOVE my super membership!

OH that is a nice idea! ;) I like that!!!

Our homeschool group did this several years ago. The biggest problem is having a place to hold all the books. If you have a place to do this, you are way ahead of the game. Other than that, I am sad to say it wasn't a great success in our area. It fizzled out because no one was accessing it and the people that would host it in their home got tired of having extra books that wasn't benefiting others.

My dd is in 7th and she uses Apples and she will do Apples 2 in 8th grade. It only takes about 10 min. and I think it is a good refresher on spelling rules. I also have her doing a oral language book where she has to find the errors in 2 sentences and correct them. She does this daily and it only takes about 10 min to do. In this book it deals with punctuation, spelling, etc. I like that it is just a quick review she does daily. I haven't used Megawords.

I don't think it would matter to much. I don't have the curr in front of me, but if you wanted to skip a book, I think it would be ok. I just did a search at the yahoo group and found a GREAT post that would answer your question at the yahoo group. It is message #413 (don't want to post a link in case it goes to the direct post and this is a group you have to join). Here is a link to join the group: Hewitt Homeschooling. {{Tressa}}, Good morning my friend! I really enjoyed the poetry section/worksheets. I learned a few things while helping Jessica with her activity pages. (just another reason I live homeschooling, I am learning too) Jessica didn't really like Tom Sawyer. She said there were parts in there that scared her... :( Poor little girl... Have a wonderful day everyone! ~Tina

I love this book! I use the graphics (shrink them down) to make lapbook booklets when making them for my kids. GREAT resource! ~Tina

Stacy, Which thread did you start yesterday? I can't find it. I wanted to see what others were saying that left you to not consider it. For my own knowledge, I like to read pro's and con's of a program I am using. I am using it and LOVE it. Thanks in advance for directing me to the thread. :) ~Tina

I love to lapbook. We have been doing it for quite a few years now and I think it is a great way to help reinforce ideas, concepts, etc. Did you mean Tobins Lab? I did a search at Timberdoodle and nothing pops up for lap book or lapbook. If you are referring to the cd that Tobins Lab has, I have viewed it and thought it was really neat. I don't own it, but wouldn't mind having it in my library. It is pretty long and shares a variety of lapbook topics on it. Oh the one I saw is: Great Idea's. I haven't viewed the other one. The book, Ultimate Lap Book, is on my WANTS list. I don't have this, nor have I seen it first hand. But it is one of my wants. I have heard it is very helpful with providing ideas. I know I have seen it for sale on the sale boards in the past. I would suggest purchasing it used to save a little $$. If those weren't the items you were referring to, could you please provide the titles of the items.

Here is a link to making a horse cake from Family Fun Magazine: Horse Cake. I made this one year for my dd, but added a horn for a unicorn. :) It was easy enough to do.

My son is the same way. :) He is 10. I heard of something a while back and sent the information to my dh. I will see if I can track it down for you. My son uploads his video to the computer and uses Microsoft Window's Movie Maker to edit and create his short clips/movies. It even has scene intro's, and credits at the end like a real moview. He LOVES doing this. :D Edit: Just realized it was for PC games that I sent him. If you're intrested in creating PC I can help in that area. :)

Ours is up! It is a 2 week report. I may add a couple more pictures from today but not sure. ~Tina

We pay for art lessons for our dd at a local art studio and BOY it is expensive. It is around $20 for 1 1/2 hour lesson and projects aren't done at each lesson. It is a lot of $$, but we want her to have this experience for a while. Honestly I didn't see much there that isn't provided on Atelier. Sure the instructor knows more about art than I do and could provide tips I don't know about, but the end product/result is the same. With each Level there are 3 modules(A, B, C). With in each modules there are 6 lessons (including art appreciation, assessments, etc.) Each module is $55. So for $55 you get 6 complete instructor taught art lessons. I would purchase this used if possible. I would try and get the DVD's (not the VHS), make sure you ask if it has the parent manual (you need only 1 of these for ALL modules), and ask if the art prints are included(1 set is used for multiple levels/3 art print sets total for the whole program). OH and make sure the lesson plans for the video lesson is included. Some folks sell them w/o the module lesson plans(note: for each video instruction you watch on TV, there is a corropsonding instructor guide that goes with it), meaning you are only getting the video, not the binder (ask if it includes the binder too) with the module lesson plans. Sure you have to purchase the supplies, but there isn't much there that is hard to find. I found the hardest item to purchase is paper. BOY this can cost a lot of $$. Therefore I purchase my paper from Miller Pads and Paper. Even with shipping the cost (per page) is so much better then purchasing the art paper from JoAnn's, etc. You only need to purchase 1 parent manual (I recommend purchasing this) and you use this for all Levels. It is filled with information and also provided a quick glance of materials you will need in the future (great for us planning folks). I take it out and put it in the front of each new level I move into. I would purchase the art prints, but that is me. You certainly don't need to. You could look up the prints online and view them that way as well.

I use a variety of materials. The main product we use is Atelier. This is where we do most of our projects from. I am teaching a copy class and I think that is what really keeps me accountable to doing this each week. :) To see our projects just check out our weekly reports. I have also being adding in Hearts and Trees art studies. You can see what we do HERE. So far she has 2 of her studies available for purchase with notebooking pages. Anyone that knows how we homeschool knows we LOVE to notebook. So this is perfect for us. :) In my post I also shared a wonderful link that I just LOVE to learn more about artists and their paintings. I also purchased Barb's Harmony Fine Arts at Home. I want a little more in-depth artist appreciation study then what Atelier provides. I haven't dug into it yet, but it is on my list of things to start. This also provides music appreciation as well. We will be doing that aspect of the program as well. I won't purchase Artistic Pursuits to go with it, since we have Atelier. I don't need more projects, just need something to dig deeper into learning about Artist. HTH~Tina

For teaching a co-op class. In replacement of white board. maps, fill in the blanks, etc that you could pre-write on a transparency sheet. Having an overhead projector is great, but you need a wall to be able to use it. :) This is one reason why I don't use ours. I would love to use it for our zoology co-op: have all the answers to the lapbook questions already writing out on the transparency sheet, ask the kids the answer to the lapbook booklet and then reveal the answer on the overhead. This way they can copy the words and I don't have to write it out as we go.

Not sure what subjects you're looking for, but here is an online class we use: Home2Teach online writing class. I believe classes start at age 9. I have used it for a couple years (started in 6th grade) and love it! I highly recommend it.

Here is a link to the Yahoo group: Hewitt Homeachooling People share their schedules, give help, etc. It is a great group of supportive folks. Just so you know, the teacher guide (LL7) is really laid out nicely as far as scheduling goes. My only disappointment is that I wish they had page number references to the comprehension questions using the books they (Hewitt) supply in their curr. package. I wish I could say to my child... the answer is on page whatever and have them look again for the answer.

I am using LL7 this year and LOVE it! But it does involve me somewhat. I have to check comprehension questions, workbook pages, see vocab is being copied, etc. But I don't have to do the planning or the thinking part of it. :) There is a neat yahoo group of this too.

It has been a while since we did General Science, but I think it would be overkill... Here is a link to a wonderful FREE resource on Scheduling Apologia curr: Apologia Schedules And a direct link to the schedule for General Science

The book I use is: Aesop's Fables by Grosset & Dunlap Isbn# 0-448-06003-5

Thank you! I am glad others enjoy having them available to use. :)

Awe, thanks Dawn! :001_wub: I am behind right now though... Bad me. :w00t: