The classic starts books are abridged. While the story line remains the same, and many sentences remain the same, some chapters and/or paragraphs are removed to make the book shorter/simpler. Many of the boy-oriented classic starts original books are quite long for young child, even a good reader, so it's a great way to introduce the story. I love Around the World in 80 Days, but the original is pretty long for a child with a short attention span!

Not knowing what resources there are where you live, but there may be an option for a youth-oriented lab in the area with programs for kids that would fit in with chemistry (we don't have any here, but there's one where my parents live that's amazing). Or a co-op or charter school option? Chemistry day camp at a museum or university in the summer maybe?

If she's that interested in biology, she should start chemistry with the plan to move into organic chemistry- it will be important later on!

My son's been doing the Trail Guide to Learning. We finished Paths of Exploration and are doing Paths of Settlement this year. It's very enjoyable, and includes everything but math. It's a multi-age curriculum http://www.home-school-curriculum.com/learning_series/ that has different options for each levels within the same path (biggest kids have more complex writing, more or slightly harder map work, read all on their own vs read-aloud, etc). Some friends of ours have doing it as a two-kid curriculum. My son has enjoyed what he's learned, and retained the information well. Some topics were more exciting than others (Daniel Boone vs Pilgrims), but that's also a balance of very boy-friendly ideas and those that aren't quite as interesting. The levels have a Middle School supplement that goes with the text for the oldest, and we've thought it's well-presented and clear to expectations and process (no hunting around trying to figure out what you're supposed to do). They have samples you can download on the page to check it out-

My son is LOVING the Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter. Very good chapter books with plenty of pages and a good adventurous story line. And there's a ton of them to read. He went through all of the first six in the series in the five days after Christmas he loved them so much! And yes, that's about all he did that week- they aren't short books.

5A and 5B is not a practice/review. It introduces adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing mixed fractions, algebra (yes, there's a sections titled Algebra, and it does really get into the number/letter and balancing concepts of Algebra), geometry, and many other concepts. You can check the scope and sequence online and compare, but MIF does not spend a lot of time going over things multiple times. There's a short concept review at the beginning of each chapter, which we often skip, and a few cumulative reviews, but we just finished Singapore Primary Standards 4B and went into MIF 5A, and it's not a review at all. It takes the level 4 concepts and moves them forward another big step. Some sections are easier than others, like adding fractions, but those are ones that you can accelerate through and do quickly. I believe the 6 level is more review, at least in the Singapore scope/sequence.

For ondreeuh- you need to look at the teacher's manual to see where the lessons are supposed to break. It will tell you to do pg 134-137 on Day 1, then 137-138 and the Workbook on Day 2, for example (just throwing out numbers here). You can view it online through the publisher's website if you don't already own it-

We just switched from Singapore math (did 2A-4B) to Math in Focus this year, now about 3/4 of the way through 5A. The switch was pretty seamless. The presentation of ideas is very similar, the pacing is about the same, and we didn't find any jumps or gaps in the material- I compared the 5A book for Primary Math and MIF and they were almost exactly the same in scope and sequence (compared before I switched to make sure!). My son was a little apprehensive at first, since he was used to Singapore, but after about 2 lessons, he actually likes this a little better, since the workbook has a lot more room to work things out. Be aware that some of the lessons are designed to take more than 1 day (it's noted in the TM, which you can access online if you don't want to buy), or you'll be wondering why something is so long. MIF does seem to present a few more ways to solve problems- for example in multiplying and dividing fraction word problems, it goes through methods 1-3 for several different examples. For the most part, we only really focus on 1 or 2 of them, since it's the way we would have already done things through Singapore. Otherwise, it was pretty much a no big deal for us. Of course, it may be a little more different at different levels.

You might be able to write in (or over) the textbook in the younger grades, but in 5A most problems involve too much written work to ever fit in the textbook, except for the few "demonstration" problems in each section. Maybe a simple subtraction problem, but improper fraction division takes too many steps to fit! As for the teacher's manual, it really depends on what you're teaching, I think, and how ready you are to introduce the subject. It can be very helpful, at least at the 5 level, but you can also sign up and view it online for free. You can also view the assessments book online (and print the tests!) for those who want to test. That's what I did, so my son can get used to having to take an actual written math test. He'll need the practice someday! So if you're not going to use the manual too much, just do that, otherwise, you can buy it- maybe used? or try and resell it and get a few $$ back?

We're just using the textbook and workbook- not the extra books. I think it really depends on whether your child will NEED the extra practice; mine doesn't. The workbook sections are plenty long enough, with both easy and harder problems to work out. We don't write in the textbook, and there's not really room to work out the problems. We use a whiteboard (we have a chalkboard/whiteboard easel) to work out the problems together or demonstrate from the textbook. The workbook is nicer than SM, in my son's opinion (we did SM 2A-4B, and are now in MIF 5A)- it has more room to work out the problems.

Crash Course videos! We use both the Chemistry and American History ones. Very fun, and professional- not just a guy holding a camera!

My son is a very advanced reader (now 7), but also sensitive, so "scary" topics are pretty much out- no Harry Potter here. He loves the Geronimo Stilton books, which are VERY colorful, have tons of pictures, and are real books- a great start on chapter books that keep kids engaged through the use of color, font, text, and pictures, and they're not text-dense. Even when a page is all text, the author uses color and font to emphasize (and make funny) different words or ideas, so its not intimidating. And a lot of them are about real-world places like Niagara Falls, or real things, like the Olympics- so they present a good opportunity for learning and discussion (they usually include a lot of insets with "fact" bits about the topics that are a good starting point). My son also loved the National Geographic Readers- Tigers, The Titanic, Cheetahs, etc. They're leveled out so you can progresss through them, and because they're not fiction and include tons of great Nat Geo pics, they're good for a reader to stretch himself with. He also really enjoyed the Classic Starts versions of Tom Sawyer, The Swiss Family Robinson, and Around the World in 80 Days, although they are all pretty much just text. All these are easy to find at B&N or Amazon.

It depends on whether you have a Kindle Fire or regular Kindle. Since most books for beginning readers are very color and picture heavy, a regular Kindle would not be so fun. On the Fire, it's great! They have all the Dr. Seuss books, for example- there's a reason they've been so popular for so long... Just look at the Amazon Kindle bookstore for kids, and click on the right age group- there's a lot of good suggestions. But honestly, if you want them to show up right, you need to just get them from Amazon- sometimes people's random pdf's and other formats don't work out well (any more than they do for the iPad).

We use A Reason for Spelling. We skip the story part and the journal and all the other fluff, and use the word list and exercises, which are actually very well done. It works great for my son, and doesn't take much time at all- it's based on a 5-day, weekly plan, which takes him about 10 minutes a day, and covers the basic spelling groups and rules. BUT he is a natural speller. Something like AAS would drive him nuts! (and me...) The big one is to look at how much time you want to spend, and whether your dc kind of "get" spelling, or just have no idea- that will drive some of your needs for a spelling program. Look at the samples online- thanks Rainbow Resource! and see what might work for you. Most also have placement tests or other samples on their websites- A Reason's is here http://www.areasonfor.com/downloads.html for example.

I'm homeschooling an only, as well. Ds is 7, but mostly doing 5-6th grade work. We have a detailed schedule printed out for each week (done my me), so he knows exactly what needs to be done each day, and can be checked off. We start with the most challenging subjects each day, since he's an early bird and at his best in the morning. And yes, we start early (0730-0800). After each subject, he gets a "play break" of at least 15 minutes, sometimes more if he needs it. This helps keep him focused and on task when it is time to work. And even when the subject is only 5-10 minutes long, he still gets the break (like spelling-he's a very good speller and we use A Reason for Spelling, very short work!). Through the course of the week we cover History/Social Studies and Language arts + science 5 days (using Trail Guide to Learning Paths of Settlement), Math 5 days (Math in Focus 5A), Spanish 3 days, Typing 2 days (Mickey Typing Adventure), Spelling 5 days, and additional Science at least 3 days (RSO Chemistry right now). Most days all the subjects except Chemistry are done by lunch. Chemistry is after lunch and another big play break, because it's "fun" and easy for him. He also goes to a Charter school 2 days a week and does more science, spanish, music, art, etc. So some of our lessons are longer or shorter than others because of the time at school. But regardless, we have a schedule, check items off, and he knows exactly what needs to be done. If he gets ahead or behind, he knows what we need to do. And often we do get ahead because he wants to keep going- so then he gets time off later in the week as a bonus. No color coding, no alternating kids, plenty of time to do our lessons, go to swimming lessons, play golf, be on the soccer team, go to Cub Scouts... You're not the only one! Although sometimes I sure feel like it! And sometimes we throw out the schedule and go to the zoo instead- we just make it up later :drool:

Tons of History Channel series/episodes, and PBS specials, like America: The Story of Us. Pretty much every Ken Burns series/special (The West, The Civil War, etc). Great add-ons for history lessons! As for me, I love watching old episodes of Cupcake Wars :001_smile:

I second the use of Freetime. It's a free app that comes with Kindle Fire that creates a "world within the Kindle" for the kids. And you can set up different accounts for each of your children on one Kindle if you need to. So you can load individual books, games etc into Freetime, and they can play, read, have fun without being able to get out to the net or buy things! 2 favorite apps of my ds- Stack the States, Stack the Countries. And Where's my Water. If you get the Kindle Freetime subscription (couple bucks a month), there's a huge library of books, games, videos, apps, for the kids to use in the Freetime "world". Otherwise, Freetime is just what you load into it (kind of like Prime vs. just an Amazon account). Usefulness of Freetime subscription probably depends on the age/interests of kids- based on the ages in your signature, they may be a little old for the books in the subscription (lots of character stuff and little kid stuff, but some good elementary books). All the Fire stuff comes over your home wifi. My ds uses a thin lightweight gel/silicone case, not one of the big ones or folder-type ones. Really depends on how your kids handle electronics or use them. We went with the super-lightweight since any case adds weight and bulk to the fire. We use it for school when there's a book we can download vs use in paperback- way less space taken up! We have Amazon prime because there's so many great videos, like all the History Channel videos we use to add "fun" to what we're learning.

Not even pretending. DS wanted to get Christmas present for dh and myself this year (ok, he chips in a few $ from his stash, and we buy the rest)- told him I wanted Lego Friends Treehouse. Finally, Legos for me! Hey, it will make a great addition to city we build together!

If your kids love animals and you're looking for a fun, low-stress science, check out the Sassafrass Science Zoology adventure. http://elementalscience.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=61_73 It's an adventure-style living book curriculum about twins going around the world studying animals, and you can get the logbook and activity that goes with it. It's very engaging, and if your kids love animals, might be a way to study that without having to piece together 8 different unit studies (which can be a lot of work).

Mickey's Typing Adventure. Works through each step of keyboarding, with a lot of cute games to reinforce. My son's favorite is Run Pluto Run... requires no effort from me! (except to tell him to do it...)

My ds (7) got some Christmas presents early, since we're visiting the grandparents. The one he was most excited about? The shower curtain with the periodic table on it! "I can memorize the atomic weights while I take a shower!" BTW, the shower curtain was because his christmas list included "the elements" (as in all of them, ha!)- we had to explain that Santa's not authorized to carry radioactive or explosive materials, and neither is mommy or daddy...

If you don't have the teacher's manual, that would be the problem- the breakdowns are all in the teacher's manual. If you don't want to buy it (and it's probably really not necessary for 1st grade!), go online to Houghton Mifflin online virtual sampling: http://forms.hmhco.com/virtualsampling/ and sign up to sample the level of Math in Focus you need (you can sign up more than once). You can look at the teacher's manual there and write down for each section how many days it's supposed to be and the breaks). My son is doing 5A, and MIF 5.3 is broken out to: Day 1 Textbook p 226-231 and Day 2 is MIF 5.3 Textbook p 232-235, with Workbook Ch 5, Practice 3. You'll have to write them all out, but it's a place to start with the breakouts. Hope that helps. There's actually some pretty good information in the teacher's manual at Level 5, that's one reason we switched from SM to MIF for 5A and 5B.

At the beginning it should say whether the lesson is 1 day, 2 days, etc, and which parts to do which day. It's in the box on the left at the beginning of the lesson (for example on the lesson 3.1 page, it would say that it is 1 day, or more).

Number one- actually having books. I live in a place where there are bunch of individual small city libraries (even though it's really one big giant city), so none of them has all that many books. And even the county library system doesn't seem to have hardly any at the branch that is actually near me. We went there- shelf after empty shelf. Where are all the books? Why do I have to go online and request them from other county libraries to be shipped to the one by me for hold? It's not that they are checked out of mine- they just don't have hardly any books. Very sad. You can have all the computers in the world, and a nice building (like this one), but without BOOKS it's not a LIBRARY.

We've used Singapore Math (2A-4B) and Math in Focus (1/2 thru 5A), and we skip over things all the time. If my son (7) gets it right away, we practice a few problems, and if he's nailing them all, we just go to the workbook. If the workbook is really long, I often have him do either even or odd, with the understanding that if he gets them wrong, he'll have to do the rest (motivation!). But really, there's no need to bore them to tears doing 500 of the same thing when they got it the first time- that's why we're homeschooling in the first place; be glad she gets it and happy you can move on- just means you have more time later if there's something you need to spend extra time on.