My kids love the myths. There are two Greek, an Egyption, and a Norse, I think. Giants, Treasure Island, Fairy Tales, Gulliver's Travels, they are all favorites as well. Uncle wiggly is nice and gentle. Oh, Arabian Nights is great. It depends on your kids. Mine really love action and don't get scared easily. Some of these could be scary for a younger or more sensitive person.

Click and Spider are our current favorites.

thanks everyone. I checked out the Magic School Bus link and chose electricity. My son was just asking about electricity the other day, so I think he will enjoy it. I ended up reserving a few non fiction books, and hopefully I can get the Magic School bus video online. I think Discovery Streaming has them.

We are using REAL science Odyssey life right now for science, and we are doing the zoology section first. I figure we will do the human body section next, when the weather isn't so nice here for finding and studying critters. My son doesn't love it, and dd just sort of likes it. We enjoy learning about the animals, but as far as the curriculum goes, a lot of it is hard to do- like, we couldn't find any snails and I don't want to buy a fish (ours just died a month ago). So we are skipping a lot. Anyways, we did a mini unit on magnets and another on sound (one inspired by Click magazine and the other by my son's interest in magnets). These were a hit. Oh, we also did matter/ air. Anyways, I'm thinking it is time for a week long mini unit on something fun for science to get the kids excited again. Any suggestions? They are really interested in space, and they already know a lot about the basics. It's not getting dark here early enough yet for them to spend much time outside, so I'm going to put that off until winter. I don't have a problem coming up with ideas once I have a topic, so I don't need a pre made plan. thanks! chelsea

We are really still trying to figure out what works best for us as far as scheduling and such, but we have a few hits. The Sentence Family SOTW- they love the audio cds but don't love the map work or coloring pages. We haven't done narration because I think it would throw them over the edge. They are excited about the stories and that's it so far. I supplement with fiction read alouds, non fiction movies and shows, other random projects. Singapore- I love it. They are ok with it. Starfall Learn to Read app- ds loves it. Bookflix- dd loves this Montessori math app- both kids like it and really understand place value now

We just started xtra math and dd likes it. I have math facts written on our kitchen slider and we review them throughout the day. I have ds skip count while we play. He still needs to look at the writing on the window, but he's getting better at it. Jump roping would be a fun way. We use chalk and make number lines on the driveway. Sum swamp Gum ball math game Monopoly jr Concentration where the cards need to make ten

Just because others don't like the journey option doesn't mean that you can't make it great. :)

Where the mountain meets the moon. We are halfway though and loving it.

My almost 8 year old dd likes Ivy and Bean. She loved the American girl books, except Rebecca. Maybe try more of those? Kanaini was good. So was Jess. They are year dolls who do some cool stuff. Are you looking for books she can read herself or read alouds? My dd likes to read books below her level outloud to her brother- the Fly Guy books come to mind. Zack's Alligator. Oh, and Mercy Watson, the books about the pig.

In case anyone is wondering, you can download later. I just bought it and had the download link sent to my email address. :) For $0.62, I figured I'd give it a try.

Does anyone know if I buy it do I have to dl it right away? I'm not at home on my home computer, so I can't dL it until tomorrow. Also, the reviews say it doesn't work for mac....but it says it does.

I'm looking into Math Buddies, Singapore's online site. Right now we are trialing it, and my son loves it. He's all about the computer. The problem is that he is on 1a and my dd is finishing 1b. So if I buy a subscription, I'd need grade one and grade two. And that's $200, plus the books which we already buy. It's kind of a lot for me, but if it helps the kids get a really good foundation, then it's worth it. I'm so nervous that they won't "get it" when it comes to math, although, so far they are doing great. DS is 6 and doing fine with 1a, and DD is almost 8 and doing well with 1b and ready to move on, in her opinion. :) I think ds could benefit more that dd, but she would want to do it too. Anyone know if I can have two kids use grade one on one subscription? I don't need to monitor their progress as I will sit with them when they do it. And if they finish the whole thing in under a year, anyone know if I can move up a grade or would I need to buy another grade? The website faq isn't very helpful. Thanks, Chelsea.

We aren't officially on break, but we did spend two days visiting family this week, and today was spent at old Sturbridge village. What a great place! Tomorrow...beach!

I have an extra 1a that dd started. I bet I cod have him do that again and he wouldn't even notice! :)

My kids are enjoying The sentence family. We do it "for fun" mostly since they are young still, but they ask for it regularly.

I haven't done the mental math in the hig. I've been pretty bad about using the hig since the kids seem to get it without me using that. I'll check that out first. Thanks. I also found some right start games that will help ds with facts.

I have two kids- ds is 6, a young first grader, and is just halfway through 1a. He "gets" math, but his math facts aren't quick. He understands and can regroup, but not fast or in his head. I don't want to move on to 1b when he is finished without giving him some more time/ practice. dd is almost 8, second grade. She is more than halfway through 1b. She is quicker with her facts and can do some of the problems in her head. But again, more practice won't hurt. Before moving on with both, I'd like to add more. It seems like there are too many choices. What do I add-Singapore More Practice, Intensive Practice, Challenging Word Problems? I'm so confused as to the choices. Do some people use it all? There is also the Math Buddies online, the new Singapore online site. It seems kind of expensive at $99/kid, but I wonder if that would be better? Any ideas? thanks, Chelsea

Ok good. I have time then, we are on 1a and 1b here!

Ok, you have convinced me! Are they appropriate for ages 6-8 would you say? Seems like it would me fine.

My son is six. We are using Singapore 1a, SOTW, REAL science life, etc. similar to what you describe. He is just learning to read. We are doing mostly Starfall right now with some first readers ( mainly Fly Guy and Hop on Pop) and some Progressive Phonics. He likes them all. My 8 year old dd still likes them too. Not too babyish for her at almost 8. She can read at a much higher level but likes them for fun.

oh, great site. I printed out a couple things for us to use tomorrow. Thanks.

yikkes! what level is this????

Our current favorite apps are starfall, eggy math, and the brainpop apps. They get used almost every day. We also read using the kindle app. YouTube is used for finding short animal videos. Today we watched a few anansi stories on YouTube as well since we are doing ancient Africa. Oh we also use the HWOT app. :) have fun!

You might want to read the book about Highly Sensitive People. http://www.hsperson.com/ The website has a text that you can take for yourself and your daughter. My two sisters, my daughter, and I all seem to be highly sensitive. We all have different sensitivities, but we all fit the profile. It was very eye opening for me and has helped me to help my daughter as well. It's one of the reasons we are homeschooling. :) Music is a biggie for me too- Anyways, check it out. SPD is different but similar. Look them both up and see if you think either fits.

We have enjoyed many Roald Dahl books recently. I'd suggest Harry Potter, but if they are scared easily, then it might be too scary. My kids love HP, and the books are LONG so they work nicely for long trips. Mary Pope Osborne's Adventures of the Odyssey was great, but it might be scary, I suppose. Stuart Little, The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan are all great.