I would like to do a unit study to help my kids learn more about the elections process. I have put together an entire pinterest board, but I am expecting a baby in 5 weeks and am ready to just buy something. :) I have looked at the Build Your Library study because I already have two of the three books. However, it's geared toward 8-10 year olds. I have an 8, 12, and 14 that would be doing it. So it would probably require some tweaking on my part. Does anyone have one they have used that worked well for multiple ages? Wasn't too dry? You felt was effective? Please post pros and cons. Thanks

My children have misplaced pg. 18 from our History Odyssey Middle Ages Level 2 please pm me if you are willing to email me a copy. Thanks so much! We just need lessons 15 & 16.

My kids just didn't like the set-up with explanations to questions right underneath. You have to hold a piece of paper over the whole page and slowly slide it down in order to not see the answers. I can see using them as a brush up but not a stand alone text.

Well, most of the time we are working on the material through the summer as we don't take a summer break from math. I happen to have one doing 4 right now, so she'll finish that next month and then we'll see where she needs to be in 5.

I have used this program through 6 with 3 of my dc now. It does begin with a lot of review in the last levels. I have had them finish all of 4 and then test out usually around lesson 30 of the next year and then we go from there. Horizons is such a great program I didn't see the point in just leaving it because of the extra review. It's an advanced program that leaves them very well equipped to start Pre-Algebra/Algebra right after Math 6.

My .02 :001_smile: My older daughter had a hard time finding a good fit with Algebra. She loves Geometry. So, in order to get her through the required maths before testing she is currently working on Algebra II and Geometry concurrently. She does Geometry everyday and Algebra II 3x's a week. For my mathy daughter I plan to follow the Alg. I, Alg. II, Geometry, Trig sequence. She will done with time to spare.

This thread has been so much fun to read! It's amazing what people think of. Just thought I would add some more laughs: I went to school with a girl named Tamalpais Star....., my neighbor growing up was Rhyll and her married name was Sharpe, my parents knew a Bunker Hill, and my husband went to school with a guy named Reefer. The craziest one was a gal my husband did some work for, Flossie Mollhair, apparently her name was Florence but she went by Flossie.:D

No, I don't. I'll look into it. I did order the other practice materials and that appears to be going well. Thanks!

Not sure what this means. Are you a home schooling parent? Just wondering as the only thing on your page is an advertisement.

Here's an interesting article at Slate from several years back. Interesting argument, although I think it led me to more questions than answers! http://www.slate.com/id/2064227/

Actually my personal experience is that this attitude is rampant in home school circles. Most of my friends who ps wouldn't dream of sending a sick child to an activity, school, church, etc. But, my family and I have been repeatedly exposed to illness that run the gamut from a fever to whooping cough by those whom we associate with in the home school community! :tongue_smilie:

Thanks for the responses so far! Just to clarify I am referring to creative writing suggestions, original writing, etc. Thanks!

I too am doing a co op class on the body! I second the suggestion of The Body Book, I have used it at home as well, the multi-layer projects are great. The kids in my group loved listening to their heart with a stethoscope, then finding their pulse and doing exercise to see how the pulse changes. We examined a small heart model from Learning Resources, and colored a heart model to show the oxygenated and oxygen poor blood paths. I am doing the brain next, and the skeletal system. Here's a little heart poem I found: My Special Pump My heart is a special pump and it’s good at pumping blood. When I listen to my heartbeat I hear it go lub-dub. My heart is made of muscle, which makes it very strong. If I work to keep it healthy, it will last my whole life-long! I also used some great reproducibles and ideas from the Texas Heart Institute. Here's the link: http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/HIC/ProjH/grade2.cfm I wouldn't mind if you passed me along any fun stuff you find! :001_smile:

Right now we do an outline for each chapter of SOTW we read, that is usually two per week.

We've left SL language arts behind and are trying out WWE & FLL this year. However, I am missing the writing assignments and structure of SL. My younger dc are K,1st & 3rd grade and with SL we were used to writing a lot of original work. I am enjoying the thorough grammar instruction and scripting of WWE & FLL, but I feel like we aren't being challenged. So far most of what we are doing is review so we are pushing through it quickly. I'm ready to go buy the SL Language Arts just for the writing part! Any suggestions or experience from the hive is most welcome!:001_smile:

Thank you for the update. Our prayers are with these families.

We love homeschooling in Missouri. We were in Washington before and while it doesn't rank among the most difficult you still have to do yearly testing or evaluation, and letter of intent. Missouri has no such requirements. The law outlines number of hours and basic subjects, and keep your own records in case anyone asks. I just throw all of the yearly stuff into one bin and label the year! As teachers for our children we all have lesson plan books with information that should satisfy anyone. We have never had a single problem here, most people we encounter think it is awesome that we have chosen to home school. An added bonus is how many people in this area home school.

I'm using The Body Book, my kids loved it too. Hmm...discarded x-rays is a good idea, I'll call around. Thanks!

Polly, Sorry no help here. I was doing the same thing with our 14 yr. old dd thankfully dh stepped up to the plate and did it for me. I told him I got up that early for 4 years as a teenager, plus all the years of public school mornings and none of that banished the night owl in me.:001_smile: I hope you can figure out something!

... when the 5 and 6 yr. old discuss their favorite composers, Tchaikovsky or Mozart ...when you have more than one science experiment on your kitchen windowsill, the dead dragonfly found on the porch, or the piece of banana being observed for signs of mold ...when dd saves a bit of tongue ripped out by her retainer to study under the microscope and ds 6 swallows it by accident ...when dd finds some copper piping, nylon rope, and old tent material, lashes it all together and makes a beautiful tepee ...when dd hunkers down in the basement with a vast number of newspapers and fashions a geodesic dome ...when dd 5 states to a playmate that her "behavior was very inappropriate and unacceptable":001_huh: ( I think that may be a reflection on my parenting) ...when your children say things like "it's an honor", or "I am so pleased" ...when dd 5 wants to point out the McDonald Islands or Chile on the world map for all of your visitors ...when the dining room table is used more often to build rockets, airplanes, and helicopters than for eating purposes ...when a trip to the grocery store is a cross curricular activity involving budgeting, handwriting, spelling, basic math skills, food group discussion, finding easy words to read, etc. ...when the only way your dc can recite the months or math facts is with a song ...when you have pictures of the family star gazing, in sleeping bags, in the snow, at midnight, in December ...when you take a trip to the park the kids bring their nature journals and baggies for any specimens they may collect Somebody needs to take this stuff and write a book! :D

I pm'ed you:001_smile:

I just wanted to add that :iagree: with the above posters concerning RightStart and Singapore. We use both together. RightStart is our base program and I add a Singapore page a couple of times a week. It most definitely does not take an hour to do a lesson. I usually look over the lesson the afternoon before or even that morning to see what needs to be gathered or copied out. That takes 2 minutes max. We usually do the warm-up, lesson, and a game in 30 minutes. Some of the lessons are longer and I have split them up into two days. To second Heather, my kids enjoy playing the games together also. It helps when I don't have anymore time! This program just does a fabulous job of teaching the math skills for my kids.

7 am - get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, and do our housework. 8:30 - 9 school starts, the older kids do math, spelling, and reading I work with the younger kids in short bursts doing FLL, WWE, RightStart Math/Singapore. 11 or so- we get together for History 3 days a week, includes mapping and narration. I then go over the weekly and daily writing assignments with the older girls and do WWE with my middle daughter. 1/1:30.- Lunch Afternoon I work with the younger 3 on science or art, we alternate days and any extra history reading we want to do. The older girls work on their writing assignments,science, art, logic, and Latin or French Our basic schedule is this: Monday:Math,History(mapping,narration,outline),grammar/essay, FLL, WWE,science,French, logic,art,music,karate Tuesday:Math,History(mapping,narration,outline),grammar/creative writing, FLL, WWE,science,Latin,art,photography,music Wed.: Math, grammar/creative writing, FLL, WWE, French, photography, music, karate Thurs.: Math, History (mapping, extra reading), grammar/essay, FLL, WWE,science,art,Latin, French, photography,music Fri.: Math, writing assignments are due, FLL, WWE, Latin, Library day! My oldest daughter does all of her studies independently, consultations with me during the day, and end of the week evaluations.