[Boston, with younger kids?]

If you're in the Cambridge/Belmont/Arlington area, I highly recommend joining the Homeschooling Together Yahoo group. I've been seeing lots of posts there for fall activities for kids of all ages. Off the top of my head, the kindergarten-age activities that I remember seeing: a farm program at the Wright-Locke farm in Winchester, a possible gym class at the Cambridge YMCA, an art class at Arlington Center for the Arts, dance classes at Dance Place in Arlington, and a math circle for grades K-2. Good luck!

[Fiction featuring wealthy people?]

Has anyone mentioned the Lawrence family in Little Women? It's been a long time since I read Little Men and Jo's Boys, but I seem to remember Amy and Laurie striving to do good things with their wealth.

[Singapore 6a/6b plus Zaccaro? If so, which Zaccaro book?]

My son started the Challenge Math book (not the "Primary" or "Upper Elementary") after 6a and 6b. He has really enjoyed it (and I think it's fun, too). It's much less frustrating than the CWP books, IMO, but still quite challenging. On the other hand, the directions in Challenge Math don't specify how many decimal places to round to during the calculations or for the answer, so we sometimes end up with a slightly different answer than the book. My son will continue working through the book as review one day a week as he  moves on to DM 7a.

[Anyone want to ponder next year? Fifth Grade?]

Starting our fifth year of homeschooling on August 18th!

 

LA: Bravewriter activities, Sequential Spelling 4, Treasures grammar worksheets, vocabulary cartoons, literature read alouds, and assigned reading

 

Math: Dimensions/Discovering Mathematics 7a, Zaccaro's Challenge Math, and Math Counts problems of the week

 

Science: BFSU2

 

History: SOTW4 and History of US (1865-present)

 

French: So You Really Want to Learn French (finish Book 1 and start Book 2)

 

Latin: review grammar and Latin to Eng. translations with Dad (Aesop, Asterix, and whatever holds his interest!)

 

Other stuff: typing, geography games and puzzles, random art projects.

 

PE: karate and swimming

 

 

[Doing US History During the Four Year History Cycle]

We'll probably complete our history cycle in 4.5 years because I wanted to cover American history in more detail. Once we got to the year 1600, we have alternated between semesters of world history and American history. For example:

 

Fall 2012 semester: world history from about 1450 to 1650

Spring 2013 semester: American history from Jamestown to the Constitutional Convention

Fall, 2013 semester: world history from 1650 to 1815

Spring, 2014 semester: American history from George Washington to Reconstruction

 

Next year will probably be broken into three sections: World history from 1815 to 1914; American history from 1865 to 1914, and then WWI to present all combined. (World events seem too intertwined beginning in WWI to do American history separately).

 

I'm so glad that we spent more time on U.S. history. It has been my son's favorite subject for the last two years. We also live in the Boston area, so field trips galore!