We have done a few things- borax ornaments- The kids love these, and they come out so pretty! And it's sciene too :) salt dough ornamanets- We made them but haven't decorated them yet. gingerbread scented play dough listened to a lot of Christmas music listen to the Sparkle story advent story of the day each day. This is probably the kids' favorite part of December so far. We are going caroling with the Girl Scouts next week. We went to Zoolights at our local zoo. And our town had a Holiday Stroll that we went to as well. So far it has been fun!

My kids love Wildcraft. They crack up over the ailments and love helping each other catch up. I have a six year old boy who cried today when he lost at Spanish bingo. So I tend to choose my games carefully at this point. We didn't love Enchanted Forest. Maybe we were playing it wrong. We didn't play as a cooperative game. I'll have to take another look at it. It is such a pretty game. But they both disliked it. Busy town is fun for them both. But hands down, Wildcraft is the favorite.

Oh, there are so many great ideas out there! Pinterest is great for stuff like this. My son is sensory seeking as well. Playdough letters (you can make your own and add texture and scents too) homemade pretzel letters writing letters in finger paint on the bathtub walls chalk letters- you can write them and have him jump from letter to letter when you call out a letter name or sound "walking" the letters- you can make letters on the ground with chalk or tape and have him walk along them in the way one would write them. we keep a tray of salt available for writing letters letter collages- draw a large letter on a piece of cardboard or oaktag and then help your son find and cut out pictures that start with that letter to glue onto the letter collage. I've seen books with photos of kids making letters with their bodies. That might be fun to try. I also really like Peggy Kaye's books- Games for Reading and Games for Writing. Our library has them. Maybe you can find them at your library?

For us, not necessary and not really used. My kids love the stories. I read the text and then we also have the audio that the kids sometimes listen to for fun. I have never even looked at the book lists. I just search through my library system about a week in advance. My library system is great and has tons of amazing books. I don't do the narrations because we do narrations for WWE, and my kids just don't love it. For us, history is extra and fun, and I don't want to make it too schooly. We do some random crafty projects. I tend to find ideas on the internet though. We do use the maps. My dd likes them enough. DS doesn't want to do the mapwork and I usually just give him the map for his notebook and that's it. He loves maps but has hand control issues so the map work is hard for him. My dd does the coloring pages. DS usually doesn't. SO really, it wasn't worth it for our family. I love the audio books though. They are worth it for us. My kids know the chapters inside and out because they listen to them over and over.

So far my only plans are to purchase the Sparkle Stories Advent Series. :) We will listen to a little story each day together. That's all I've got so far...

I haven't seen the Sterling classics before, but this post got me thinking that my kids would love them. Any suggestions or favorites? My kids both love adventure. They enjoy the Jim Weiss reading of treasure island. The also have listened to Peter Pan and the Wizard of oz. I was thinking Robin Hood maybe?

You have already received a lot of great suggestions, but I do want to add one idea. The book from Peggy Kaye about math games is terrific. I just got it the other day from the library. I plan on going through and taking a few weeks to do it all. My dd is 8 and on 2a and doing great, so she will continue but do the fun math games too. My ds is 6 and doing fine but needs more help with math facts. He's on 1b. Certainly a lot of the beginning games are more for younger kids, but they won't hurt my kids either. It's all about becoming comfortable with numbers. And so much of math, well, all of math, depends on that! I have done one thing from the book so far- number stories. We were in a restaurant last night after a long shopping trip, and we were so tired. I told a little story about a witch, and I threw in little math problems (easy ones) for ds to answer along the way. He loved it! It held his attention while we waited for food, and he got some math practice without realizing it. Double win.

I remember my mom coloring with me when I was a kid. She clearly enjoyed it. I would continue with a hobby that I enjoyed no matter what people said. I think it's sad if friends are making fun of you! A little teasing, ok, but to the point where you are considering not doing it? That's not ok! I don't really have a hobby. I spend any free time I have exercising (it's few and far between!), but I do like kids' music a lot. In fact, my kids are asleep and I'm listening to a Spanish kid cd.

We are doing a few things- Salsa- my kids love this Discovery Education Streaming- Elementary Spanish Usborne's 1000 words in Spanish We are going to start labeling the house soon. Right now we have the rooms labeled only and are working on that. Every now and then we pull out the book and just read the words for fun. The kids enjoy learning the vocabulary for fun words like zoo animals. Duolingo- I'm doing this and then using the phrases at home. I don't speak Spanish at all, but I'm learning a bit at a time. Common phrases mostly. Spanish music- I love Jose- Luis Orozco's cds right now. We have the lyric books from the library too. The kids are picking up vocal from the songs very quickly. My kids each have a little Spanish from when they were in school- My dd has 2 years and son has 1 year, but they are little and didn't pick up a ton from school. So we are doing what we can at home for now.

THis is the first I have heard of an ice cream boat…we are just on chapter 13 of SOTW1...

I didn't mind reading Alice in Wonderland aloud- but Harry Potter put me over the edge! I made it through the first three and then discovered Jim Dale :)

Can you book mark the sites you will use on your computer and just write your notes in a notebook? That's what I would do, but I'm a pencil and paper person myself. :)

Is 8 days really too long ? I feel like 7 days is always my cut off, but 8 is just one more day...

We had duck last year. That seemed special and festive since growing up we always had ham and turkey. It was just the four of us, no extended family, and we were hoping for something different to make it special. I can't remember what we even had for dessert because being dairy and gluten free, I tend to miss out on desserts. I might try a fruit dessert this year with an oatmeal based crust.

Check out you tube for ideas. There are tons of tutorials on there right now.

Madteaparty- have you read it before? It wasn't "my genre" either, until I read it. It's the book that got me hooked on sci- fi ;)

Well, that does sound pretty normal for a six year old! My son is similar in many ways. If my son went to school, I would have just put him in kindergarten for this year. My son needs lots of movement. He often is on a swing while I am reading or building blocks while I am teaching something else. He retains and learns it, but he needs to be busy. The letter reversals can be so normal at this age. The fact that your son has decent handwriting and spelling is impressive! He's so young still. I think he probably needs more Movement. And less desk work. Ten minutes might be his max for now. More games too.

Wow. That's pretty much all I can say! I hope you find another pack. We just joined cub scouts this year and also had a camping trip. I am so upset for you! My little guy would have been traumatized by some stranger dad yelling like that in his face. They are six! Drinking while at scouting events is totally not ok. And neither is yelling at and threatening a child. :( Good luck finding a new pack. Hopefully you will find a better match!

My two are still little (6 and 8), and this is only our first year of homeschooling. I work per diem, which works out to be every other weekend, night shift. My kids are in Judo twice a week, they just finished soccer (one weekend game each and one practice/ week), Brownies (once a month and I'm a leader), and cub scouts (2-4 times a month). I would love to add Spanish, piano, and swimming, but I can't seem to figure out when to add it in! We school pretty lightly though- Math and Reading are daily. Everything else is added in when we have time and when we want. DS has speech at 1pm once a week, and we do a half day once a week for a standing get together with our dear friends. So on those days we need to be done with school by noon really. Sometimes we will school a bit during dinner or after if the kids are up for it, but that's when we do the less schooly more fun stuff. Math and reading take about 2 hours total for the two kids, but that's really not straight through. That's with breaks. :) We do go on a field trip probably weekly as well. My house has never been messier. My top priorities are school, outdoor time, and home cooked healthful meals. I can't compromise on food- but I do keep it simple. I am only cooking for myself and the two kids (dh isn't home all day or evening), and the kids don't care what we eat. Most days dd makes lunch for herself and her brother. That helps a lot. I stay up after the kids are asleep to fold laundry, prepare for the next day of school and prep meals sometimes, and tidy up. I'm in bed most nights by 10. I have absolutely no time to myself, but for now I'm ok with that. My garden was completely on it's own this year. In the past I have spent lots of time caring for it. I haven't exercised consistently in ages, which I really want to change, I just can't seem to figure out how to fit it in. I absolutely don't wake my kids up regularly. If we have a special trip planned, perhaps. But for school, no way. DS wakes at 6am anyways, so he plays quietly while we sleep. DD has been sleeping until almost 9am since we started home schooling. I'm so happy that she's finally getting the sleep she needs. I use to have to wake her for school. She was upset, cranky, and miserable pretty much all the time. This is one of the perks of home schooling, imo! So, no, I most certainly don't do it all. I have had to decide what my priorities are and let go of the rest.

I don't use it a lot, but we have watched Magic School Bus Episodes before. Also Elementary Spanish is used by a lot of people. There is a list somewhere on these boards - a link actually- that lists all of the shows on DEStreaming.

Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip Christofer's Harvest Time Read and Learn about Leaves

We are doing SOTW 1 and WWE 1. It's our first year hsing, and I have a 2 and 1 grader. We do WWE as directed. For SOTW, they each give me a few sentences that they think of, and I write them. They don't copy. Ds has is still learning to form capitals. He can barely manage WWE 1. Dd can but doesn't like to write, so for now this is how we do it.

We are currently listening to Harry Potter, read by Jim Dale, and the kids and I have noticed that he pronounces the long u in those words. I don't think the book is wrong, it's just how our accent is. My kids can figure out the word though, so it's not an issue. My ds is just starting to read, and he will sound it out with a long u and then say the word the way we say it. Maybe that's because after five Harry Potter books we have all gotten use to the long u!

umsami- not really a story teller, but a great reader of stories is Jim Dale. We love him here and can't get enough! Odds Bodkin is a really fun storyteller as well.

DD is 8 and reads pretty well. She is working her way through the second grade spelling lists in Spelling Perfect. She just finished the first grade lists. She reads to herself daily. She reads aloud just about daily. We are doing WWE 1. She does HWOT kick start cursive (her request) every day or so. DS is 6. He is starting to read, and we do phonics and sight words daily and he reads with me/to me daily. We is doing WWE 1. He also does HWOT kindergarten version. He has poor hand strength and was getting OT for that. Due to insurance issues, we had to stop and will start up again in January. He gets 30 visits a year and that's it. :( Both kids also are making their way through the Sentence Family. I am pretty ok with what I'm doing with him for lang arts since he has these hand challenges. I think his focus should be learning to read. I'm not sure if I'm doing enough with dd. Does she still need phonics instruction? I have OPGTR, and I just can't bear it. She can read all the words in it anyways. Thoughts? We don't write much. I scribe for ds for science if there is writing. And for math. DD does her own most of the time, but not even always.