I have a dd who will be four in December. We have been using several drawing books with her out of desperation! She would pretty much melt down if she couldn't get her pictures 'right.' Daddy has taken many of the How to Draw...books and simplified the drawings a bit, then we put the examples in a binder for her. She will draw sea creatures all day if given a chance. We also have her graph paper to draw on as it seems to really help her get the proportions correct. The other thing we did was to take a drawing from a VERY simple coloring book, cover up a portion with a white square of paper, then make a copy. She could then 'finish' the drawing. This really helped her practice a bit and was a much smaller project for her to tackle without as much frustration. But the biggest help has been the Draw Write Now books. She loves them. The drawings are very simple, an have really given her confidence and improved fine motor skills. She also colors the pics with colored pencils as it seems to build up those muscles really well. I am going to try to attach a couple of pics just to show how quickly her skills have grown. The first picture (the chicken) she did at the end of August, and the second (horse) she did mid October. The Barn we recently did. I do let her use a ruler for things like the barn as he gets very frustrated at having straight, symmetrical lines! You could just skip the writing portion for now if he isn't interested. ETA: finally managed to upload pics but the quality isn't the best. Still, you can get the idea. We have the DWN books in PDF, which is cheaper, but I ended up buying them in paperback anyway for convenience.

I absolutely LOVE a set of math fact games called GiggleMath. It is just games to play with the kids, but it is split into 26 levels that teach the same strategies the kids would learn I they were doing their practice in a book. And the games are fun:) My dd was very young learning her math facts and we found this to be the perfect, fun way to practice without overly burdening her with writing. The set is designed by a teacher. The website is below: www.GiggleLearn.com

My sister made the coolest-looking vest out of those pop tops from soda cans, something that looked about like this one: http://m.instructables.com/id/Genuine-chainmaille-from-pop-tabs/ It is actually very sturdy, and has lasted through three active boys and plenty of sword fights:)

Apparently, November 19th is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and I received an email from the folks at Homeschoolfreebieoftheday to announce a competition of sorts. It looks like fun, and might challenge some of your kiddos. Here is a link to the details, but basically it is a challenge to memorize the speech and submit the recitation. Everyone who submits will receive a downloadable prize (no idea what it is), but some of the best recitations will be added to the website for others to listen to. Just thought it would be a fun way to get some additional memory work in. For those of you interested: http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/

I am currently teaching my dd (nearly 4) Soroban primarily at home. We really love it. I had no previous experience and there was a bit of a learning curve, but there are lots of great resources out there to overcome that hump. I have acquired a ridiculous number of books, software, DVDs, YouTube videos, and even some great apps for IPad. I am on my phone at the moment, but would be more than happy to share links to some of he better resources. In the meantime, there is a thread in another forum where several members (including me) have listed just about every resource they have found, and which ones helped them :http://forum.brillkids.com/product-discussions-and-reviews/overall-abacus-programs-math-discussion/ We do now drive about once per month to a Soroban school, just to make sure I am teaching her properly and to help me with any questions. My dd would absolutely LOVE to do her classes there with the other kids, but it is nearly a 2 hour drive one-way, and the classes themselves are about 2 hours long. The kiddo really does want to stay, but I just feel like it is too much! If she continues to love it, we will attend more when she is ready. Currently we are using the software from the school, which can be done at home and uploaded to the site so she gets feedback and competition if she wants. We also found a lovely college student at the Uni where my hubby teaches, an exchange student from Japan, that comes over as a mother's helper once per week. She also helps with any questions and works with my dd on the abacus. Also, do you already have a Soroban? If not I can link some decen ones. Part of my learning curve was buying poor quality ( not necessarily cheap!) or improper versions. I also have a larger, demonstration style Soroban for teaching. One thing you can do immediately that will be very useful as you are gathering resources, is to make sure your child is very confident in his 'friends.' That is simply terminology for pairs of numbers whose sum is ten or five. Big friends are pairs that add to make ten, small friends add to make five. Practice these in terms of Singapore number-bond style, and it will make things much easier. If you are using Singapore math as your spine, Soroban seems much more natural. It really is a lot of fun, and gives the kids so much confidence!

Regardless of stance on religious instruction, I absolutely love the following book on raising freethinkers. It is called 'Raising Free Thinkers: Parenting Beyond Belief', by Dale McGowan. I have an extremely literal, skeptical child and am very interested in helping her to develop her mind to think critically-regardless of where her path leads her. This book is another tool for me. This book is more for parents but has all sorts of activities, lists of resources grouped by topic and interest. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0814410960/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1383489948&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

Hubby teaches at Baylor. I guess I might have a different opinion of conservative, but we consider it pretty darn conservative!! It really is a microcosm in itself, and there is a reason it is known as 'the Baylor Bubble' around here. I wouldn't say it is the absolute most conservative school you could choose, but if a larger conservative school with lots of academic options is needed, I would recommend it.

Every single 3 and 4 year old I need a gift for (including my own!), I buy his amazing, virtually indestructible camera for. It really is TOUGH. Kids LOVE to take pictures, and this Playskool version is so cool because it has a little flip-switch that turns the camera into a projector...so that the child can project onto any flat surface the pictures they have taken. http://m.playskool.com/playskool_en_US/product?cid=&id=C6817703-5056-9047-F5A7-22D85839E677%3aen_US So much easier than worrying about only being able to see them on a computer. In addition, the camera lets the kids easily add in silly effects and sounds. A huge bonus for me was the fact that my kiddo took nearly 700 photos at Sea World (at least 300 of which were of random strangers, random strangers feet, random strangers cups or electrical outlets..and frightfully, the inside of a toilet bowl after use!) She never managed to fill it up or run out of battery power. She also dropped it down a flight of steps in the rain with not a scratch! I honestly think it has trained my dd to be more observant, and sh loves to take pictures for her nature journal as well...

I have an accelerated dd who will turn four this December, and we are doing WWE now. I had actually purchased it for later, but she had been reading Little House on the Prairie at the time--WWE was on the table and she opened it. She was so excited to see the first passage based upon the book, and begged to try. She absolutely loves it. We are at week seven, and have only just encountered something she had yet to read for read-alouds or buddy reads, so it was like finding old friends for her. This has been wonderful. I do let her choose which sentence she wants to do, and she generally chooses which one she likes the best...regardless of length. That being said, she is writing quite well, reading at a very high level with comprehension, and has been through the first level of AAS. And more than that: she LOVES it and asks to do it. As long as that continues, we will motor on. I am not concerned with keeping to the schedule, and there are times when she prefers to do DWN. Great. So yes, I absolutely think it can be done and that your kiddo may well love it, if she is reading and somewhat comfortable with writing...if she is not comfortable with writing, you might buy the book and focus on narrations, and possibly reading more great literature that she might recognize when her writing is ready!

How fun! I think it would be so much fun to pick a few classic books that most people would recognize. Do cookies or treats involving characters or ideas from each, and let the customers have fun recognizing and identifying each reference. We did something vaguely similar but a more narrow focus with a Mother Goose bday party like this one year, where all the cookies were in different nursery rhyme characters. An easy variation or way to add more depth would be to do some simple iced cookies and do favorite or famous quotes piped in Icing-again, lettering customers identify them.

Thank you for mentioning this! When I met my hubby, the joke was that he never managed to wear a matching pair of socks-in the rare occasions that he did, one would seem to be on inside out?! He is a chemist, and we laugh that it is more of an absent-minded professor kind of thing. When we got married, I gave him 20 different socks, in coordinating colors--sort of a 'I love you as you are and won't try to change your eccentricities' kind of a thing. The Solmates will be perfect!

I have an almost 4 year old daughter doing 'school' at home with me, and we do some focus-building activities. Before I come across as too harsh with a preschooler, let me clarify: I don't expect her to say, sit for longer and longer periods of time to focus on things. What I am interested in primarily is short blocks of time in which she devotes her attention to something...even if it is just 3 minutes, but she is actively focused rather than just 'there'. Granted, this kid will request to actually sit at a table for an hour to 'do math', and any attempt to keep it short will end in tears, but has SO much energy that she literally vibrates around the house. It just depends on what catches her current interest...or if the activity falls into her areas of interest. Unfortunately, there are times when kids need to focus on other things, right? Definitely start with a short block of time and build up. Puzzles (especially when she picks out one that interests her!) are wonderful for this. I read somewhere that dot-to-dot pages are useful as well, as it keeps them engaged, so we do a lot of mazes. We really like the somewhat more complicated mazes in the Kumon world books. Playing games like chess (for this age we have successfully used No Stress Chess), memory, and logic games. We also play a favorite game where you hide about 10-20 random objects in a bag, let them look for a set time period, then take a few away whilst their eyes are closed- let them try to tell you what is missing. Mine REALLY likes to have her turn at hiding them:) I do think that working on the ability to intentionally concentrate for very short bursts, then work on building up the time she spends eventually seems to work for us...and of course, time will help as well! I also think that minimizing TV time is important because regular TV seems to teach/encourage only superficial focus...which is why it is relaxing on some levels. We do a lot of do documentaries and more educational stuff, which tends to be slower and less 'flashy'. It also tends to be more interest-based, which she pays more attention to. I DO think that intentionally and deliberately working on attention span and focus is a valuable skill, even starting at the earliest of ages. Hubby's Uni classes are filled with students that cannot focus on what he is teaching for more than five minutes!

Unfortunately, you pretty much have to go through libraries and used book stores. I just had a quick look and Powell's seems to currently have a few: http://www.powells.com/s?kw=Bernie+Zubrowski&class=

Hhmm, do you remember if you saw more than one? I was hoping:) I only found one for the Navy...but it seems like if they had one branch there should be more! I tried searching in different ways, but to no avail. If anyone manages to find them...

I am an Army veteran and have tried to put together some materials for my dd for the beginning of November...unfortunately, I have yet to find a decent lapbook. All over the Internet are references to the one at Currclick, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to exist. There are others referenced as well, but most are membership sites or paid sites. So I have been pulling things here and there, but have had some good luck with the following sites. There is a lot of material on the Enchantedlearning site, and the second site has lots of great links. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/veterans/ http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/homeschool-lesson-plans/veterans-day/ I also really like the Department of Veteran's Affairs Kids site. It is geared for K-5. It includes a teacher's page with some great materials as well. http://www4.va.gov/KIDS/

Noooo! Don't tell me this! The kid already insists (since she was 2) that her nickname is Charlie Chicken. She does not have a doll or bear...but has slept with a stuffed chicken for over a year. She has an imaginary pet chick named Pollito to play with her imaginary Orca Donty (short for Odonticeti!). And the topper? Last month, after reading a handful of books about Thomas Edison, I discovered her in the kitchen atop a stool in the door of the open 'fridge. She was attempting to reach the egg carton (she is allergic!) to see if she could do a better job of brooding than Edison did in the books!

I am glad to read this thread as I was thinking maybe I should skip the Xmas and bday presents and save the money for future therapy:) In Friday, my dd3(-almost four!) decided she wanted to make a list of items she wanted. As usual, a live chicken tops the list. I was actually relieved at some of the other items. 1. A chicken, but definitely not a rooster. A red Bantam hen with 5 white spots??? 2. An electric pencil sharpener 3. Toothpaste that is not minty 4. Sea creatures that she can rescue 5. Cashews Uh, okay...maybe I can swing some of them this year! Still not getting that chicken though, and rescuing sea creatures is going to need some thought!!

Another thumbs up for Salsa Spanish. I have a dd nearly 4 that requests to watch it daily. (We are learning Spanish together) We are also doing Song School Spanish, which is a lot of fun, and my dd loves to dance to the music. It is just right for young kids, especially for moms that are learning as well. I will say that I first purchased just the Student book...which would be more than adequate for a mom with even a bit of HS Spanish, but I recommend the TG if you don't! I also have several DVD-based programs that focus on vocabulary. If you haven't seen it, take a look at DinoLingo Spanish. It is one of our favorite of the DVD-based sets. For that matter, they have sets for just about any language you can imagine! They recently came out with DinoLingo Latin that is adorable as well. Cute characters, even dinosaurs:) I also bought a book called Kid Stuff Spanish- it is really a phrase book, but geared toward things phrases a child is likely to hear regularly: like 'it's time for bed!' The idea is that you pick a phrase daily (or whenever) and say it in Spanish, as well as English. It really is genius, because the parent quickly adopts the phrases and it becomes second nature. Immediate conversational Spanish, in phrases that can be extrapolated to new phrases. For example, we taught my dd3 to say 'give me a kiss, please' in Spanish...two days later she asked what the word for chocolate was, then immediately put the word together to cheekily request a chocolate kiss, candy we had purchases for a bake sale. Cute.

If you enjoyed the article, the researcher in the article, Dr. Carol Dweck, has compiled the team's findings in a fabulous and life-altering book called 'Mindset, the New Psychology of Success.' Reading the book really helped me change and solidify my thoughts and methodology for how I encourage and respond to my dd. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Here is a link to the official site called Mindset, where you can buy the book...or find various articles, including an NPR interview. http://mindsetonline.com/ In addition, there are several books out that are similar, each focusin on a different aspect. Most of the books are listed on the same site:)

Have you looked at the Modern Marvel series done by the History Channel? There are even sets based around themes...hubby is getting the Modern Marvel Science set for Xmas, but there is a seperate set for engineering and yet another one for technology. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000NO240C/ref=pd_aw_sims_5?pi=SL500_SY115

DP

We have one of those magnetic tot locks on the cabinet where our meds are kept, up high. There is a small lock mechanism that attaches with tiny screws to the inside of the cabinet, and nothing on the outside...the 'key' is a magnet that you have to hold directly over the lock to disengage it. I love that there is no sign of a lock, it just doesn't open:) http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000HKVVH4

Possibly the Popular Mechanics for Kids DVDs might work, especially if the instructor went through ahead of time and chose a theme around which to select the episodes. And of course, depending on which level you needed, you could use the episode as only a starting point or a focal point. If I remember correctly, many of the episodes are available on Netflicks. We have chosen to purchase the whole set from Amazon as my kiddo likes to watch them often. You can get the entire set for about $40! http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BQ1S3N8/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1382739146&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

We do not do the whole Santa thing in our house, and likewise, the whole Elf on a Shelf craze would not work. Regardless, I am not a fan of the whole 'eyes are watching you so adjust your behavior accordingly' idea. That being said, at least part of the premise of EOTS sounds like a lot of fun! So I have decided to create our own version, combined with the idea of a book tree, to count down the days to the holiday, and to inject a bit of educational holiday fun into the month. My dd is a bit of a geography/culture nut so that will be the stepping point. I have purchased a stuffed bear that is attired in world traveling gear, and am planning on sending the bear to a different country everyday in December. I will still let her hunt for the bear around the house in the morning: Each day I will have his passport stamped with a different country, give him that countrie's flag, and any other particular trinkets I can come up with to fit the country of the day. The holiday aspect will come from the book tree...you know the kind, where a stack of books is wrapped up prettily, arranged in the shape of a 'tree' and one is unwrapped and read each evening? I want to coordinate each book (or couple of books for the day) with the country of the day, including non-fiction info for the country and specific holiday stories for that country. It would be lovely to have popular seasonal books from different countries, whether or not they celebrate Xmas, similar, or just a holiday in December. So any help from the Hive? What are your favorite books on Xmas traditions and the like around the world? Any and all thoughts and ideas greatly appreciated as I am only going to have about six weeks to pull it all off!

"You are so right! A hint is definitely in order...how about as in 'go A-WAY'