We've done the geo bee twice. There is a book on Amazon called "The Geography Bee 1001 questions and answers". We've used that as it gets close for practice. Mostly he's done Seterra (free program online). This year we are planning on adding Trail Guide to World Geography as a course and reading National Geographic (I don't know that will help). We've done some physical geography as well, which does help. Also, note that 1 or 2 of the rounds changes each year. 2 year ago they had to know all the state nicknames. This past year that didn't come up even once. Brownie

Thanks! We'll be home, so I don't mind if some of the questions require internet research. And I don't want just a list of places to memorize. That will get too boring and tedious every day. I want some cultural geography and key historical info as well. We're basically dropping history for a year to do this. I'd really like it to be a borderline high school level class. I may use the HS level stuff because he already pretty much knows where all the countries of the world are and key mountains and rivers. If anyone has already done it at home, I'd still like to hear how you choose what to do each day and how much time you devote to the different pieces. Thanks! Brownie

I think I am going to get Trail Guide to World Geography next year for my geography loving soon to be 6th grader. I wish I had the opportunity to look it over before using it, but instead I am wondering if someone here who has used it for middle school or high school can give me an idea of what a 1 hour lesson might look like using this curriculum? For the sake of my son I like that there is some freedom so he can choose to go more or less in depth on topics that interest him. On the other hand, I am not good about using curricula where the path is not clearly laid out. I do love SOTW because the questions and answers and mapwork are clearly laid out. On the other hand, though we rarely use the activities and lit suggestions, I know they are there to help me if I want them. Is it kind of like that? or less orchestrated? Thanks! Brownie

Marshall Cavendish has some really nice products for geography, history and science in Singapore. I can't tell if it's possible to get your hands on them here in the U.S. http://www.mceducation.sg/Catalogue/result/titleCountry=/iSBNTitleAuthorTags=/levelName=67a6082d-f6eb-4484-9f1a-e24b52d20837/subject=Geography/typeCategorySub=/typeCategory=/#hook1 If anyone knows of a distributor who sells them, please let me know. Brownie

We work from about 9AM until 3PM, with a brief break for lunch. We start with an hour+ of math every day. I aim for about 4 hours a day of traditional academics. In addition to math, this includes about 30 minutes of SOTW, 30 minutes of science, and then some reading and/or writing. Occasionally reading detective or grammar. The other time is at least an hour of instrument practice. Often hw for his robotics team for about 30 minutes. Maybe some exercise.

http://www.amazon.com/Human-Geography-People-Place-Culture/dp/1118018699/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398903654&sr=8-1&keywords=ap+human+geography+people+place+culture Hmm...this seems to be one of the possible books they use for the AP course. Might be a bit much, being college level, but it does look interesting. Apparently I can try it free on my kindle so at least I could check it out before purchasing because it is quite expensive (being like a college text!) I am really rather useless in geography and history so I'm not much use for helping him delve in without a curriculum.

Exactly. This is what I've found. DS9 is not dyslexic, but crazy visual and I've found these books helpful for teaching spelling, etc..

Thanks. DS is 11 though. There's a lot more to geography than just being able to find every country and capital in the world on a map. He can do that for free with Seterra and has basically known all of that stuff for 2 years. For example there is cultural geography, human, physical geography... a lot of this stuff comes up eventually between science and history, but I am looking to focus in on it for one year. The problem is finding a curriculum that is interesting, digestable, and actually presents this material in pretty much one place. Geomatters (Trailguide to world geography) looks pretty decent. It allows you to do through high school level with one book so I can amp it up if need be. And I could get the U.S. version for ds9 to do smultaneously whose strength is NOT geography. I just hope that it is specific enough regarding the assignments and objectives, versus vague suggestions like "study such and such". Otherwise, paying for a curriculum is of no help to me. The curriculum that gets done is the best curriculum! Has anyone actually used it? Brownie

I will check that out. I've looked at it before, but needs change :) I also discovered the website worldatlas.com which seems worthwhile. I could creat a whole curriculum, with that as the spine...of course that's a lot of work :( but I have a hard time finding what I want! Brownie

I've been looking for something for about 2 years I think! I am just not sure what to do. DS11 loves geography and does the geo bee each year. In the fall, I'd like to give him time to pursue this in more depth over the course of the year rather than cramming for 3 weeks before the geobee. I've looked for a curriculum to guide him - I can't find one that is appealing and not ridiculously expensive. I just don't think he will get anywhere if I give him free reign, though I am totally open to pulling together my own plan to guide him. I looked at Memoria Press and here's what I think. It has 2 components...label the map and a dense paragraph or 2 of historical and current information. Maps are free online to be completed again and again so I have no need to pay for this. The info is great - probably the closest I've found to what I'm looking for but blech! It's so boring! It's a dense list of facts. Are you supposed to memorize it? Read it again and again? It's just not very appealing and it doesn't look like there are any REAL questions on the material to encourage interaction with the material and actual thinking. So does anyone have any suggestions? Lists of resources? This is for a will-be 6th grader who is VERY bright and has an excellent memory. Brownie

There are a lot of books out there. I would check some out of the library and see if it feels like a fit. In the end though, we can be somewhat in denial or see our kids' faults as worse than they are, causing us to "mis-diagnose" our own kid. BTW dyslexia is not just about reversing letters from what I've read. I have an ADHD teenager (mild - inattentive). I think ds9 is likely ADHD as well and he's the kind of kid whose lucky he is not dyslexic because his brain seems to work like that, but neither issue is bad enough to do anything about because he's home. Either way, the things that might help academically wouldn't really hurt any kid, so I suggest learning as much as you can.

Answers are listed in the back. I'm not aware of a teacher's manual? It's really more of "here's the sample, now imitate it" so there's not much to teach per se. I have sentence composing for el school, and though I think you'd be struggling if you didn't know what a prepositional phrase or appositive was, you should be fine without a teacher's manual.

My 13 year old asks for them as gifts :) He reads them in his free time. He is getting Advanced Algebra for Easter tomorrow...it makes him happy! I do NOT like them as a math curriculum, but if we're talking minecraft versus reading LOF, LOF is probably a better use of his time so I feed his interest. He's not about to read a regular textbook in his free time so even if a LITTLE math sinks in, it's worthwhile.

I would think of it as 2 separate issues...whining, which is a bad habit, and lack of motivation. One does not need to be motivated to stop whining. It's rougher the older they get I think so this may be to childish...but when the whining, and getting up from our chairs, and arguing across the table and general unruliness cycle up here, I implement 5 Hershey morsels for 30 minutes of peace during math, our first subject of the day. And then another 5 for the second 30 minutes. The criteria are well defined as we begin. I've also gone so far as to offer 1 for each "yes m'am" when respect is the issue...they get silly about this and that is fine. Or I dock them if they interrupt me talking to the other child. Just depends what the prevalent behavioral issue is at the time. This fades away after a week and seems to buy me a few weeks of improved behavior even though I pretty much let it go the rest of the day. Of course another option is punishment. If a child is doing Saxon for example, I would let them pick 20 problems, and if there is no whining they are done, but each whine earns an extra problem. I've never actually followed through on extra work though I've extended the length of time when they are clearly not giving me their attention for the full allotted time. I HAVE done checkmarks...3 checkmarks on the board for "bad behavior" earns a chore. I am sure there must be books/stories out there on how our attitudes impact those around us...I would approach the whining from that perspective. As far as motivation, you sound frustrated because you can't Externally motivate him, but it souns like he has some internal motivation or at least natural academic interests. I would try to pursue those as much as possible (while making him think it's his idea) :) Brownie

I've always had a laptop with microsoft operating system and we have NEVER had an apple product in this house, so the idea of integrating an ipad and its file types with what I already do does not appeal to me. My parents want to buy me an ipad for my 40th, but want my opinion. I am leaning toward a Kindle Fire HDX 7". Especially since my laptop is falling apart from being dragged everywhere, and might last another year on lighter use. Mostly, I do the following: Hotmail Facebook with occasional posting This site with occasional posting My lesson plans in excel - I would be OK with just being able to view them and not necessarily edit them Waste time reading a lot of useless new stories :) I would also like to be able to skype, which looks possible on the HDX I would like to be able to take limited notes while I read. I don't know if this is possible on either device IF I am reading on the device at the time? We are Amazon prime members for the next 8 months anyhow...don't know that we will continue. Questions: My biggest concern is that I keep hearing the kindle is poor for typing. How is the ipad better for this besides being larger? I know the Kindle can view microsoft. Can the ipad? Can I actually use word or excel on either device? Thanks! Brownie

I do because I am required to test certain years, and why spend the money to no benefit? My 5th grader just took the 8th grade Stanford. We'll see how he does, but at least I *might* see some differentiation of scores in the subtests, which will give me a better idea of relative strengths. Something is better than nothing! even if it usually just corroborates what I already know. There are sometimes surprises. On the other hand, my 3rd grader took the on grade level test. It was his first experience, he is younger for his grade, and he was not an early reader. After hearing how proud of himself he was that he never used his scrap paper and was the first kid done with every section, I'm concerned the 3rd grade scores will be hard to interpret. Good grief! I should have provided some instruction besides "don't worry about it - it's a test of how well Mommy is teaching you." Brownie

We're in the same boat. Just another thought for you...my teen got a raspberry pi last year. For about $100 he is all set up. He plugs into the TV with an HDMI as his monitor. It has no internet access (though he keeps telling me he thinks he can set it up :O) They learn not only about programming but about setting up the system. I believe the website we got it from is adafruit.com The other thing is I would attempt to separate programming minecraft from playing minecraft. Brownie

Thank you for the different perspectives! My thoughts are clearly colored by my own childhood experiences and it's helpful to see how others view it. We will definitely continue through the 6th grade, but I'm a planner and like to know where we're headed :) I clearly need to be patient and keep all of your thoughts in mind as we make decisions about where to put our efforts. Brownie

Interesting perspectives on the social benefits and on band in high school! He has to practice an hour because that will be the studio policy based on his years of experience and lesson length next year. At $160 a month for lessons, he had better practice at length! I can't afford for him to just play around with it. And that's not a criticism of our teacher...I love our new teacher. He is progressing so much more on the finer points with this teacher.

He has expressed no interest in a career in music...but then again he has not identified a career path yet :) Music is awesome...but he needs to start practicing an hour a day and at some point a decision will need to be made. There are only so many hours in the day. He also plays a band instrument through our local school. That is a much more feasible option for taking it low-key. He can get away with not practicing all the way through middle school OR he can take it seriously and be in the honors and competitive groups. Maybe I'm looking at it incorrectly...he doesn't have to be a virtuoso to continue. But on the other hand, piano is isolating and expensive. If he is going to choose piano over his more social activities, I guess to me it should be because he's good. If it was because he LOVED it, that would be OK too, but as I said...he will never state a preference for his activities which include the 2 instruments, a sport (which he plays nearly year round) and a STEM team, also year round. I'm trying to figure out where he's going with the piano...if he's really good there may be more opportunities to get out there and make it interactive....performances and school jazz band. I expect that if that doesn't happen, he will request to quit in another year or 2. Brownie

I've seen that some of the moms here are piano teachers. I had a whole long post explaining where ds is, but I don't feel comfortable posting it because I'm not looking for reassurance. I honestly want to know if piano is worth the time and money for my kid long term versus putting our energy into his other interests. DS11 says all his activities are "tied for 1st place" so it's up to me to be a bit more realistic in my discussions with him and encourage him in the best direction for him because we're getting to the point in a year or so where something has to go. So how do you realistically know if you have a kid with potential? We are doing an eval in May based on the U. of Illinois guidelines? We've switched teachers so it will be our first time with that particular eval so maybe that will help...I don't know. Brownie

My oldest clearly developed a passion for science at 4 years old when a chemist came to his preschool. For his bedtime story, he wanted to hear about molecular motion! He is still interested in science, though leaning more toward computer science these days. I never would have thought to expose a 4 year old to science, but once I realized he was interested, we continue to expose him to his interests and show enthusiasm for his passion. He continues to have somewhat quirky interests in all things history and science and reads non-fiction regularly. Our 2nd son never really showed a passion for anything at that age except reading fiction. Now he clearly also has an interest in many things, but nothing obsessive...he really can't make up his mind which of his activities is most important to him. My 3rd would develop short-lived interest in particular science topics and definitely has an engineering bent, but is my most stereotypical little guy - he would prefer to run around, play in the sandbox, wrestle, cuddle :) He says he will be a scientist, and he definitely would make a good one, but no particular academic passion yet. If they have a passion, I think you encourage them. I don't mean spending thousands of dollars. But whether long or short-lived, they will learn a ton following their passion and it is an avenue to strengthening them in other ways academically as well and learning how to learn. If they read about it, write about it, watch shows about it instead of junky programming, etc...it is good for them whether or not it lasts.

Cool! ChemMatters...pretty inexpensive. There are some free articles we will check out first but it looks interesting. Also, you can get the last 30 years for $40 on DVD! I would go that route except I think kids are more likely to pick it up and read it if it's a print magazine rather than me assigning it all the time. http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/subscribe.html

I would like ds11 to start reading more "current event" non-fiction. I plan to get National Geographic because he loves geography, but I also want science. I've tried Science News, and I just think the writing is poor. Topic-wise though the content is of a desirable variety and selection. I don't want all nature articles. Is there anything more appealing out there and yet age appropriate? Brownie

OK so not a serious one but this one cracks my kids up :) It's our go to reminder of how easy it is to abuse statistics. I personally think the correlation between kids taking Algebra in the 8th grade and college attendance leading schools to insist on Algebra in the 8th grade is a simple example. That one came up yesterday so it's fresh on my mind. But dh and I are constantly yelling at the news because of the ridiculous conclusions they draw.