I had a 40% off coupon to Mardel so I went and hot the CLP Nature Reader 1 today - I like it! I also went by our Hastings and they had Texas guides for Butterflies, Wildflowers, Trees, Birds, and Tracks (Mammals). They were all clearanced out so I paid $15 for all of them. They are laminated pamphlets, and Noah has already been looking at the bird one. I subscribed to the One Hour Challenge newsletter, so maybe there will be enough recommendations in that to guide me each month.

Here are all the readers and guide in PDF form for free. Hope it helps :) http://themommaknows.com/treadwell-readers/

If you used a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby you could get Prismacolors for pretty reasonable.

I don't know :). I want to go out once a week to a park or our local nature center and let my son explore. Then I want there to be a specific task he has to complete: locate a plant, draw an item, find an item in a field guide, something like that. I'd like to do one "project" each semester (like composting, raising butterflies, having a small garden). The other day I found 5 pine cones on his dresser and he said he had found them in a neighbor's yard. I though to myself, "you're going to love nature study!"

Would you guys share your favorite nature study guides, curriculum, journaling, articles, etc resources? I have looked at CLP readers, The Nature Connection, and Outdoor Hour Challenges (but not in great detail)

This is so enlightening! When people ask my son if he's in kindergarten, he says he homeschools but I respond that we school at home. I had no idea it meant anything other than I educate my son at home. We are structured but only for about 3 hours 3 days a week. I am a cross between classical and cm and I piece together our curriculum. My degree is in education and I was a teacher at ps (gasp!!) until my son was 2 1/2.

I asked my hubs what we should name our homeschool and his response was the Derek Zoolander Center For Children Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too. Apparently we teach that there's more to life than being really, really ridiculously good looking ;) I would love to use Bereans/Berea in our name for the people who received the gospel and studied to test it's truth, but the name is kind of strange... I think of us as Robertson Academy. Maybe Robertson Academy of Classical Studies. We could just use the Scottish coat of arms as our logo and make a knight as our mascot.

I was planning on doing Mr. Q's science, but it is a textbook and I just don't know if I want to go that route. It looks nice for upper grades, and I could see myself using it later on. So... I have been looking around and the CLP nature readers interest me. Are they intended to be read by the parent or by the child? I would love to have my son read them and narrate from them, then also do a nature walk/study once a week. I was thinking we could do worm composting in the fall and then raise butterflies in the spring. Opinions?

Super old post, I know, but any recent users of Elementary Spanish on United Streaming?

Not crazy - I only lack about 3 items and I'll have everything for next year :) I took advantage of sales around Christmas and always browse resale boards for good deals.

I second Salsa :) Also just found out about rockalingua.con and instant replay videos.

Ooh, I'm excited to see the recommendations :)

No! I am still going back and forth.

I have been thinking about just walking through some first encyclopedias for science next year and I thought I would bump/resurrect this tread to see if anyone had opinions :) edited to say I found this link.

Sweet! My library has 31 of these books :)

I was planning on doing MrQ's life science with my first grader but have been thinking about taking a different approach and using books to do two orthree unit studies. I wish the Sassafras books had amazing reviews and there were lots of them - I am afraid if I compile my own stuff that it will end up not getting done.

I have a kindle on the way and I am LOVING going through all these recommendations :)

Their workbooks are half off until Feb 7th!

I have found some more Spanish things I am looking at... I really like the looks of Song School Spanish, but I don't know if it is going to foster a lot of Spanish conversation in our home. Lightning Fast Spanish for Kids and Families reminds me of Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and Francois a little bit, super simple but maybe a good option 52 Weeks of Family Spanish Rock A Lingua I will definitely use this to supplement whatever we do - but I thought about buying the cd and doing the vocab and phrases from one song OnlineFreeSpanish.com

I pulled the trigger (or clicked the mouse) and got the 8.9"! Excited to play with it!

Would the 7" even be better for pdfs?

I am getting a kindle fire and wonder which size would be better to use for schooling. Here is primarily what I want it for Books (chapter books, readers, etc) PDF tm's Textbooks (like Mr. Q) Audio books Educational games and apps Spanish videos (salsa and instant replay) Web surfing Then I figure it will be handy for movies on trips, etc. I was really wanting the 8.9" but now I am wondering if it will be so big that I won't want to carry it around with me. I have an old kindle keyboard that I keep in my purse and it is not too heavy, I just doubt I will want to carry around an 8.9"... Thoughts?

I think I was able to prioritize things alright last night. I feel like this is manageable and now I just need to NOT feel the need to add a billion books and more curriculum. I am also planning to only school 4 days a week. I really enjoy reading how y'all prioritize! Daily Morning work - calendar, Bible copywork, memorization work, and a poem or fable Reading - walking through readers Spelling - AAS Literature w/ WWE Math - MUS Twice a week each (for around 30 min) History - MrQ Science - SOTW 1 w/coloring pages and mapwork Once a week (15 minutes-ish) Logic Art Study Greek Alphabet Orchestra Study He loves puzzles, legos, coloring, painting, play-doh, etc - so he will have those available to him also.

I keep seeing posts pop up concerning subjects that I hadn't even considered. Then I think, "Hmmm, I want us to do that too!" Until I realize that I have something like 15 study areas... and I know that just won't work. So I am trying to prioritize. Could you tell me what your priorities are for the early years? I'd probably put the core as follows: Reading Math History Science But what about Bible and other areas of English, like copywork, grammar, literature, spelling, and writing (I guess I need to figure out how to combine some of these with the core subjects)? Where does a second language fit in? Then learning Spanish is very important to us, but I also want to introduce him to the Greek alphabet. Then there is art study and music study and learning piano... And logic - I just saw a post about teaching logic! I read some good advice to start with a few basic areas of study and add when we have those managed.

I know this is way old, but does anyone know if this workbook is available somewhere?