Oh please share!!

We do devotions, Bible reading and Scripture memory as a family every morning but I would like to encourage a little bit deeper study for my 8yr old son to do independently. He is a fairly strong reader and has a copy of the NIRV Adventurers Bible. Looking for something that would take him 10-20 minutes, possible workbook or drawing based... Ideas?

Jesus Storybook Bible! I love reading it to kids or listening to the audio CDs. You can purchase the DVD curriculum or look up clips on YouTube. My kids love this bible and reading it as an adult helped me understand the Old Testament better than I ever have.

We do MUS 3 days a week and then supplement with Kumon workbooks and CC math fact memorization on other days. We just finished Beta and I have wondered about supplementing bc sometimes MUS seems 'light' to me but he does very well with it and his understanding of math concepts seems to be excellent. I just wonder if there are gaps I'm unaware of that might show up down the road.

I will also have a Ker and 2nd grader- we do Bible, CC, Readalouds, History, Geography and Science together; separate studies for Math and Language Arts. We are doing US History next year and will do most of it together, although I will beef up the 2nd graders work with VP self paced and independent reading.

What are the Maestro books?

We love and laugh at all the Skippy Jon Jones books!

Any lefty mamas/teachers have advice on handwriting curriculum for my left handed DD5? We've just done prek workbook stuff, tracing, etc but I'm wondering what to do in kindergarten. Are there special programs for left handed writers? She writes in mirror image 90% of the time although she CAN write correctly if I tell her, but her default is right-to-left with letters facing the wrong way. Truly mirror image. I've been told this is developmentally appropriate especially for a lefty? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Here are our tentative plans for 2nd grade: Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Bible- Daily Devotions, weekly Scripture Memory, Character Education (We Choose Virtues?), plus What's in the Bible DVDs and Jesus Storybook CDs MathuSee, Kumon workbooks Sonlight LA3, AAS 3, CC Prescripts Cursive History Sentences VP Self-Paced History Exp-1815 Science and Geography- Interest led reading and projects Various Readalouds for History, Literature, Poetry, etc Weekly art lessons, seasonal sports participation Thinking about adding violin and maybe a foreign language

The syllable division rule in AAS says that in a 2-syllable word, you look for the vowels, find the consonant(s) in between and if there is only one, it USUALLY goes with the second syllable and you spell it phonetically- this works for begin, prevent, student, moped, belong, etc. This does NOT work for habit, edit, finish, seven, limit, etc. What I notice is that if you follow the open-syllable long-vowel/closed syllable short vowel rule, it seems to make the spelling work. But AAS doesn't teach that (or I'm not there yet, we are on lesson 16 of level 2). I hope I'm making sense. Basically, I think the rule should say: When spelling a two syllable word, locate the vowels and the consonant(s) between the vowels. If there is only one consonant between the vowels, determine if the first syllable is a closed syllable (short vowel sound) or an open syllable (long vowel sound). The consonant only goes with the first syllable if it is a closed syllable (short vowel sound). So it would be fin-ish, lim-it, sev-en, ed-it and then be-long, mo-ped, stu-dent. Is this rule taught somewhere and I'm totally missing it? Or does the rule not work and I just can't see why?

My DS loves loves LOVES animals. He is infatuated with habitats, life cycles, diets, cool facts, pictures, etc. His obsession changes weekly- from dinosaurs to raptors to whales to forest animals- but he loves it all. He reads all the books, children's encyclopedias and field guides he can get his hands on and is addicted to Wild Kratts, Animal Atlas, Magic School Bus, etc. We don't so much science formally because he chooses to do so much of it in his free time. Lately he's been asking me for 'animal homework'. I can't add another teacher intensive element to our homeschool right now but was wondering if there is a good independent science program for this age. He loves enchantedlearning.com but we have literally printed and colored every printout on that site! Something I could hand him as 'busy work' but that interests and challenges him would be awesome. Any suggestions?

Thanks @merry! He loves it when I scribe for him, kind of awkward in Math but it does help him work so much faster. Lately I've made a deal with him- if he'll do the first sheet in a timely manner withou complaining, I'll do the second sheet with him orally. It's helping and he is very pleased with himself when he does it quickly. And yes, I know I'm gonna miss the dinosaur drawings. (Although this week, we have shifted to birds of prey :)

Well we are on the verge of burnout (maybe its just that time of year??) but I'm trying to muscle through so we can finish up by June. Right now we do: Everyday: Bible, Literature readaloud, Memory work; DS7 does Cursive, Copywork, Grammar workbook and Math; DD4 does preK pages, AAR and learning games 2-3x a week- Spelling, History, Science, Geography 1x a week- Art, Dance, Tennis and Gymnastics

I've always heard such great things about A Child's History of the World and I was so excited about starting it as a read aloud with my kids. I've tried really hard to like it and I just don't! My kids actually don't mind it- DS7 even requests it but I just don't care for it… Am I the only one?

Following. I have looked at Adventures but I am in the same boat as you, only need it for History, although we would get use out of the science texts and I *could* use their language arts but was planning on Sonlight LA. I've seen lots of options for piecing together my own but that always ends up being more work than I anticipate.

Thanks for the feedback, glad to know he's not the only one! He does much better if I sit with him the whole time but I can't always do that and I feel like he needs to develop the discipline to work independently some. What's frustrating is that I know he CAN do it and he does work independently very well on other things. Its not outright defiance, just more wasting time. I try incentives and consequences but it doesn't seem to help... I mean, it bothers him but it actually seems to slow him down more because he becomes preoccupied with the fear of losing whatever privilege 'doing his work in a timely manner' was gonna get him... I guess I just wonder what it is about math specifically that results in this procrastinating/mind wandering resistance...

My DS7 is struggling to get his math work done. I don't understand because he 'gets it' and he does well with it. But he takes so long to complete an assignment. I don't think its an attention span issue- He can sit happily and draw or do copy work for long stretches of time but with math, its a battle. We use MUS which I do not think is overwhelming in the amount of work at all... And I only ask him to complete 2 pages a day. He will literally sit at the table with those pages and in an hours time draw 18 species of dinosaurs on his math page and maybe do one problem. It is so frustrating!! Any advice? I don't think we need to switch programs as he understands the concepts very well. I'm just not sure how to motivate him to get it done in a timely manner.

I am looking at Bedes History of US and A Childs Story of the US, both from VP

I am still researching reading programs for my K-er next year, this week I'm looking at PAL. I read Cathy Duffy's review but I'm looking for some real life opinions… What did you like/not like about it? Did your child like it? What did a typical kindergarten lesson look like? Did you do the Reading and the Writing programs? Any other thoughts or opinions is appreciated!

I am still researching reading programs for my K-er next year, this week I'm looking at PAL. I read Cathy Duffy's review but I'm looking for some real life opinions… What did you like/not like about it? Did your child like it? What did a typical kindergarten lesson look like? Did you do the Reading and the Writing programs? Any other thoughts or opinions is appreciated!

Would the VP Self Paced classes work? They are divided into daily lessons.

Thanks for sharing!! Great ideas!

Can someone compare the two? I've used Sonlights Language Arts in the past and really like it. I'm considering MFW Adv in US next year and they recommend PLL. It seems similar to Sonlight. What are the similarities and differences? Do you prefer one over the other?

Just saw that the makers of MathUSee, which we love, has just released a spelling program, Spelling You See. Has anybody tried it? It's not DVD based like MathUSee but it still looks interesting. Just wondered if anybody had tried it

I've got the TM and I'm reading thru it. I would like a workbook for those times when I can't dictate. I'll start with book 1. Thanks!