We do an hour before bedtime of reading in our home too. It is nice. They love reading but they are especially motivated to read because if they don't they have to go to bed. They see it as getting to stay up later too. My oldest DS is pretty much an independent reader. My DD is almost independent and is reading beginner chapter books. I take advantage of the playaways at the library to foster a love for chapter books. They follow along in the book with their finger and listen to the audio. This not only improves their speed but comprehension and confidence as well. My DD picks up chapter books on her own now with confidence. I then focus on budding reading with my youngest DS during our family reading time. Sometimes we end the time with me reading a book to everyone. We also do audiobooks in the car and I have them follow along in the books with their fingers. Of course, they will grow out of this and just use their eyes, but it's a process. They actually love following along and we are currently going through the Clementine series in the car.

Anyone using the iPad version? I am hesitant to try it as I have a real problem with not being able to redo lessons, but I am still interested in the experience of those using the iPad version.

I am using this for bible study and narration exercises with my lower elementary DS. It's just Genesis, but it's very simple. I think I am going to come up with one very similar to this study for the other books in the Bible. This study showed me how simple it can be. http://www.crbible.org/?p=452

I have been down this interesting road. Atwill saw many very true facts. At some point, a polluted view of the holy scriptures was used to the benefit of the Roman Empire to control the masses. Atwill just sees it as making up Jesus as the only alternative to explain why and how people today use the bible to manipulate and control people. To be perfectly honest, a messiah like figure very similar to Jesus can be found in many cultures throughout history. Hindu, Shang Di, Egyptian stories and many more have stories about God giving a self sacrifice for the world. One must either say there is alien conspiracy going on where some evil reptile civilization is painting the same story line over and over to control the masses or maybe, just maybe there is something to this. It is interesting that the emperor of China recorded a solar eclipse on the day Jesus died and said that a man from heaven died, and then turns around three days later and records a rainbow halo phenomenon around the sun and states the heavens declare pardon of sin. Or something along that lines. Anyway, Psalm 19 is not just some figurative nice sounding poem about the sun and stars. Oh the history of stars are so very interesting. Atwill is trying to get past all the garbage that has been put out by the churches and govt for almost two thousand years that is used to manipulate and control people. I give him kudos for asking hard questions even if his theory is flawed. http://godevidence.com/2010/07/which-god-is-real/

Not to be picky but what about the story of the man who no one came to save and drowned. The reality is either God is doing miracles for all people or he isn't. God is never dependent on man to perform his miracles. The truth isn't what some people want to here but for some it's exactly what they need to hear. That girl that didn't get rescued from rape, the abused child, the father who watches his child starve to death, the person dying for cancer who's miracle never came...maybe what people need to hear is how God is really operating in this dispensation so they can find out how God has made a way to deal with the sufferings of this present time. For I reckon the sufferings of this present time can not be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18 I am not saying this for your benefit but for the benefit of those dealing with the sufferings of this present time. Those hurting people have those very real and painful questions. There are people all over Christian and non Christian helping people with the sufferings of this world but many fall through the cracks waiting for that miracle that never came. God has given us a hope that is greater than any miracle that saves us from the sufferings of this world. Grace and peace to you.

This phrase comes out of the Old Testament and frankly you are right to be confused. It is a term for Israel during that time they were under the law. Under grace through Jesus, you have that ability to determine if you want to marry, have children or no children. It's okay to think that having lots of children is a blessing but it's not a blessing specifically from God to a specific person. Instead it's a blessing of sex that was set in motion from the beginning. The blessings given to Israel were performance based. If they did well under the law, one of their blessings were having lots of children. The context of the time points to why this was a blessing. Under our current dispensation, our blessings from God are spiritual and as offensive as it sounds to some, your fertility isn't something that God blesses to some and not to others. Instead it's about of the sufferings of this world that we are called to deal with as it is apart of the grace package. I am not saying having children is a suffering but certainly to those not able to bare children would find this a suffering. In some countries and sects, having a bunch of children is a suffering because of the financial burden. Hopefully that helps you.

This is typical of so many people in Christian religion whether they are in QF movement or tithe or follow the law or any rule to bring about righteousness. They operate out of the law and that is oppressive. It's called the wretched man syndrome described by Paul in Romans 7. Instead of operating out of grace and who they are in Christ, many Christians ride the self righteous roller coaster of the law. They hit a self righteous high and the next, they are twirling out of control by all the oppression and failure. They pat themselves on the back for following laws of no birth control, ten percent tithe, etc. Then the oppression kicks in. It is the nature of the flesh and the law. For law is good but it operates out of the flesh and the flesh is weak. The law was given to condemn man and that's it. It has no ability to bring about righteousness let alone godly living. Most Christians think that God will bless them when they tithe and perform other rituals. Tithe is enforced by the church as a form of control and manipulation. It is never done honestly. Churches don't rightly divide the bible because they would lose the law and lose their control over people. We are under grace and that is scary to control freaks and religious people. How to live godly without the law well that is a whole other conversation but most pastors have no clue how this works. Also, the term bride of Christ is a term many religious people use and it's completely made up and not biblical doctrine. She used this term a lot and you can see how one bad doctrine can just build upon another creating very confused and easily manipulated people. From the article, you can also see that her oppression came mostly out of Old Testament and NT that was not written by Paul and was written to Israel. The verse from Paul about children is often abused. It's say "in the Lord" for a reason. The other verse from Romans is taken out of context and doesn't mean what pastors have told people it means. I feel for this poor woman. The god she believed in was created by controlling self righteous people. I am sure most Christians don't have some evil intent to control and manipulate people. Most do it out of ignorance. I came out of that world and it's a miracle I found the truth. The churches fed me a gospel of oppression instead of a gospel of grace and peace. So many people are getting frustrated by it and leave the bible all together. I too left the bible and went looking for truth. I found out all religions are the same in that they have the same self righteous roller coaster. Eventually I did come back to the bible after doing my own unbiased (as much as one can be) historical research but this time I know how the bible is abused and how the word of God has always been abused and manipulated from the beginning. Most Christians don't even know why they are saved. They think that eternity of strumming on harps and singing is what awaits them. I shudder to think that is what eternity would be like. The mind of God and all He has created is way too fascinating to end it with an eternity of harps and singing or even sipping margaritas on an exotic island. No thank you. It's no wonder people are caught up with the things of the world. Who really can look forward to an eternity of only singing in the clouds? I guess some can. Certainly He is due praise but that is not why we were saved. If you have an understanding of the historical meaning of adoption of sons, Galatians 4:5 will begin to take on a whole new meaning. Well, that is my two cents.

I don't remember that part. It is such a great book that I guess I forgot about it. So much to love about the book. I can't wait share it with mine, especially my girls. I have had a few awkward audiobook car moments that a pause and discussion was needed. It's always the classics and must read children's books that get me.

At our library used book sale, I found some great gems. Four animal books by George F. Mason, one book on tools by Irving Alder, biography on Galileo by Rebecca B. Marcus, a history of the Greeks by Dorothy Mills, a diary of an early American boy by Eric Sloane, and several more. These books mostly come from out of the 50s and 60s, but some older. I have been actually very frustrated with most of the books in the children's area at our library, and finding these gave me hope. The modern science and history books for children are poorly written, vague and choppy and there only redeeming quality are the graphics. I love graphics but my kids need a little more challenging text. There seems to be nothing in between these graphic filled children books and the adult books. We aren't ready for textbooks and I prefer that their understanding of history and science not be narrated by just a couple of individuals. Does anyone have a list of authors/books for children that have depth and cover science and history? I think nonfiction narrative would be the name of this particular style. Age level is upper elementary to middle school. I tried to search the forum for the authors I found today, but I came up empty. I haven't read any of these books and I was curious if reading science books of this age would be a bad idea due to possible out dated info. Any up to date books like this would be great too. Thanks for any help.

I came to the realization that right now morning school isn't going to work for my kids. Getting through school was painful and long. We would start in the morning and not finish until the afternoon. Then we started to go to the Y in the morning and do morning field trips. By the time we got back home the morning would be over, so all we had left was the afternoon. But strangely, all of a sudden we were getting all our school work done in three hours in the afternoon. I think I am a nicer teacher too. This is the first time I feel we are finally in our grove. My oldest DS was the main one who just wasn't feeling morning school. My DD took to the switch just fine, and it works out that it is also during my youngest DS's nap time. Why didn't I change to this a long time ago? I think that there is this unfounded fear that your kid won't develop successful habits if they don't roll out of bed and start school first thing.

My son finished MM2B strong and was solid on his addition and subtraction facts and he jumped into Saxon 5/4. I didn't pretest him though. It just seemed like it would be an easy transition. We are at lesson 66 and I can't say I made a bad choice. He likes that he learns something new everyday and I like that he is always practicing problems from the previous lessons.

A common and easy way to increase speed is to have the child get an audio narration and increase the play speed gradually overtime while following along in the book. Our library started carrying playaways with an speed play feature and sometimes the actual book is included. Several media players like windows media player have this feature so you could use free librovox recordings to try this technique. I would use this technique on a book she normally would enjoy. Have her increase the speed as fast as she is comfortable and able to follow along. This is the easiest method to start the process of increasing reading speed. I use the speed play feature myself to plow through lectures.

I think addimals and mt. Multiple are great apps for math facts and they are free. They pair well with MM.

We have all three. If I had to keep one, I would keep amazon. Netflix has disney while Amazon only gives you a buy option. Amazon prime has all the little pim series in every language, but you get more foreign language options on Hulu. Amazon has a couple of original series for kids that I think are cute and educational, Tumbleleaf and Creative Galaxy. For my older girl, I find more desirable shows for her to watch like the American girl movies. I hate trying to browse netflix. I never find anything I am interested in and I find it very restrictive. I feel like it only suggests popular shows instead of shows we would actually watch. Browsing Amazon is more like browsing Hulu as far as format goes. Amazon has almost every popular show on TV available for purchase but if you don't mind waiting, it will come out on prime eventually. I don't have any streaming glitches on any of them anymore since I updated to a new wifi modem. Before that I used to flip my wifi off, wait 30 secs and then flip it back on. It would clear the cache (so I read somewhere) and everything would run smoothly for a week or so.

I agree. I feel word problems are very important. I knew this issue was important, and I am thankful for all the great feedback. I found some great word problem apps on the ipad that I think I am going to add to our program that include a lot of the techniques you all have given. I think this one will help especially and it is free. Maybe some else can benefit too so here is the link. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/thinking-blocks-addition/id668450919?mt=8

Sometimes starting a session out with something fun and special gets all the wiggles out and then rolling into a activity that sets a tone can really help. Librarians are really good at this. It makes me want to take them home so they can do their magic for me. Maybe do a song from here (I can't sing so I would be dependent on the video itself) and then you can bring the tone back down with some simple rhyme like this: Touch your nose Tune: “Here we go round the mulberry bush†Touch your nose, touch your chin, That’s the way this game begins, Touch your eyes, touch your knees, Now pretend you feel a breeze Touch your hair, touch one ear, Touch your two red lips right here, Touch your elbows where they bend, That’s the way this touch game ends This works likes a charm on my kids at the library. At home, I haven't tried it. I just run my high energy kids about all morning and they are quite ready to settle down in the afternoon and do some work. I have given up on the idea that we would all wake up and get school done first thing. It is just not my family. We are the kind to do the gym, library, zoo or park first thing. Maybe that will change when they are in middle school.

Thanks for the suggestions. Really awesome ideas. I knew I just needed a fresh perspective and the encouragement that we will get pass this eventually.

"Julie has 20 apples and Mary has 10 apples. How many more apples does Julie have than Mary?" We are really struggling with this problem. There isn't a conflict needing to be solved in this problem above. Instead, the problem is asking the child to extract information. When I introduce a conflict by saying "Mary wants to have the same amount as Julie, how many more does she need?", my DD is able to find the answer by counting forward. Without the conflict, she just can't grasp it. In fact, if any problem is introduced without a conflict and it is just asking her to extract information she gets lost. How do I help her bridge this gap? Or is it okay for me to use the method of introducing a conflict until the gap is bridged naturally? Is there a reason why math books don't introduce conflict but instead want the child to learn to simply extract information without purpose? We are using MM1B. We have had many problems like this throughout the book, and as we come to the end, I would have thought by now that these problems would be a breeze. She isn't struggling on anything else. Hopefully my terminology is easy to understand. Thanks for any help.

Diatomaceous earth works great and safe for the most part. Some complain of breathing issues but this is from excessive use generally. It is a fine silica and is abrasive in away that affects mites, fleas and such. It's cheap too. Some people eat it that is how safe it is. I haven't had a need for that. :)

We just came back from over 46 hours of driving and here are the audiobooks that we (ages 2, 4, 6 and 10...and young at heart) listened to Voyages of Dr Dolittle (long but a fun story) The House at Pooh Corner Pippi Longstockings (a book of a very psychotic girl IMHO. We had a some talks about this one). Mary Poppins (very fun) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang The Tale of Despereaux (long but way better than the movie so maybe it might work)

I think its a perspective issue. You don't go to church to see God and these days most churches and pastors are bible illiterate so forcing church isn't a great idea. A real discussion about what it means to be saved is important but you don't need to go to church to get that. In fact most churches will just put you under the law in one way or another with tithing and such. The law was given to condemn and most of what Jesus said in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were to Israelites and not to Gentiles. He didn't start dealing with Gentiles until Paul (who became like a heathen rejecting work of the Holy Spirit) was stopped and saved by Jesus. Who better to demonstrate the power of grace than someone who broke the unpardonable sin? Amazing. Anyway you won't hear that in most churches because they like to put you under the law to control you or they have forgotten what Jesus showed Paul in Romans that we are under grace and not the law for the law came to condemn us and through the weakness of the flesh it didn't have power to make you dead to sin. Thankfully Jesus through Paul showed us that we were baptized into his death and baptism just means you are given a new identity and in this instance it means we are dead to sin. And just as Jesus was raised from the dead to live unto God so Holy Spirit baptized us into this newness of life. We have the freedom to live unto God but not under the law but under grace. For grace is the power in which we can reckon ourselves into who God now sees us to be through Jesus Christ which is redeemed, justified unto eternal life (and God doesn't do take backs) and sanctified. Because it's by grace that we are saved it means that you can be saved and still serve sin. Does it mean you should? Of course not. Why serve sin? But it's the goodness of God that is His mercy and grace that leads to repentance. You can't repent and be saved because you don't have the power to repent. You have to be saved first. These days the church has it all backwards and we have a bunch of depressed or self-righteous Christians. We are only righteous because God gave us His righteousness. Isn't this such a great gospel of peace and grace. God wants us to hear His word but our hearts have to be willing. If going to church is just some religious requirement that he is being forced to fulfill I think he will miss out on having an amazing relationship with God that is filled will grace and peace. Share your relationship that you have with Jesus with your DS and if you feel like you need a good teacher on the bible I can make a few free suggestions.

I am going to just throw this out there. Brainwashing comes in all forms, atheists to scientists to Christian to Catholicism to I-don't-care-about-anything-but-a-good-jerry-springer-fight. Each mind is molded. Some logically and some not so much. If this is your fear, it is unfounded and is created by the policy of evil to keep you from being empowered to make a wise decision. I do consider myself to be a grace believer. I recognize that I am in the dispensation of grace and I enjoy the peace of knowing that I am justified unto eternal life by believing (that is I have saving faith) that Jesus is who He says He is and He did what He said He did and will do as He has said He will do. He also provided for my sanctification by making me dead to sin and I am to reckon this as true so that I can walk in newness of life. My reckoning this to be true is the renewing of my mind (brainwashing? ;) ) It is the word of God that does all the work that is it is effectually working in me. I do not put myself under the Mosaic law in any fashion albeit tithing or any religious ruling. Rather I walk after the Spirit that is who He has made me to be justified, redeemed and dead to sin. Every moment is a new moment in which I can choose who I serve sin or righteousness. For the law came only to condemn and because of the weakness of the flesh, it had no power to make one live righteously. So righteousness of God was imputed to me when I believed and so I can declare that I am righteous not by works but by faith and because this is who I have been made to be so I walk after the Spirit choosing to serve righteousness. Can you have saving faith and serve sin? Yep. That is what happens in the dispensation of grace. It is God's goodness that is His mercy, love and offer of grace to mankind that leads people to repentance not the law as some might think. What you might be struggling with is how to answer those tough questions that come to your mind when you hear contradicting statements in the bible...if this is the case you might find it helpful in finding a grace pastor that will teach you to rightly divide the Word and can help you to understand the most foundational books of our faith, the book of Romans. If you can't find one, I recommend Dr. Mike McDaniels who has an excellent series on Romans called Justification and Sanctification that you can find free on YouTube. It's rather a long series (over a 150 videos) as he teaches thoroughly on every word of Romans, but he is biblical and demonstrates the importance of context when reading the Bible. He teaches and not preaches. It is God's Word that persuades you to the truth whether you are a child and an adult so let Him do the work. You just facilitate and reckon it to be true and be sure to know how to rightly divide. This is my plan for my kids. I think the Word of God rightly divided can stand on its own. Once you see it for yourself, you will be at peace about teaching your children the Word of God. Grace and peace to you.