I look for sales at Michael's. They often have buy-one-get-one sales on sketchbooks, or you can just pick one up every time you get a 40% off coupon. If quality doesn't matter at all, then I'd head to Dollar Tree.

Have you used R&S Spelling yet? I'm wondering how it would be for this age, since some people say it's difficult and wouldn't work to put an advanced speller in at a young age. We did AAS 1&2 last fall; I bought 3, but the kids wanted a break from spelling. I'm going to try to slog through 3 with them, but I really think it's overkill and wish I could find something that would similarly reaffirm the phonics we never learned without taking so much time and effort from me--especially since spelling doesn't seem to be a weak area. If it's helpful to PP, we ended up going with WWE2 for DD this spring. I now own MCT and plan to start it in the fall; after looking through it, I think we will be ready at that point. We'll also add spelling back into the mix a few days a week, since the kids do so much writing that I really think we ought to. I've not used FLL, so I can't comment on that one. If I were you, I'd probably go for MCT, add AAS if you're not already doing spelling, and maybe choose a writing program like Jot It Down to do some occasional extra writing. (I see WWE as more comprehension and summary work that could be done separately and orally; I bought the book, but I was surprised that they do the saaaame thing for the entire year: read a passage aloud, ask questions for comprehension, ask for a summary, do some dictation. I don't think I'd survive it beyond a few months. Actually, we used it for about two months before DD tired of it--though it did help her auditory comprehension, which isn't the strongest.) I haven't decided if we'll do more for writing; DS is so prolific that I'm not sure if I'll bother. Then again, he could use some honing...

To give you some perspective--his writing is better than pretty much all of the eighth grade students I taught in my final year as an ELA teacher. (Though most of them completely lacked motivation, which didn't help.) I love some of the sentence structures he used, and his description is beautiful, especially considering his age. My best writing instruction happened under college profs, who made me really ponder my writing and be ruthless in my analysis of it. (There's always room for improvement; in high school I received so many compliments that I didn't realize this.) I'm not sure what resources would be good for you at this point, so I'm hoping someone else has ideas; I just wanted to chime in to affirm your belief in his talent and tell you I'll eagerly await his first novel! :)

I used Getty-Dubay handwriting books until my kids had pretty solid handwriting before moving on. ODS is passionate about writing, so we added writing early. He was already reading solidly, so we picked up IEW's Bible Heroes; otherwise they recommend their Primary Arts of Language (PAL) program, which has both a reading and writing component you can purchase. The PAL writing component starts with handwriting and ends with some short compositions. That may be a good option for you to look into. Some people condense it into one year, while others spread it over two or even three years. I've heard quite a few positive reviews and would have used it myself if the folks over there hadn't suggested trying BH since we had the reading and handwriting already.

I used worksheetworks. It's free, and it allows you to decide which guidelines to include and how big to make the font. I actually own curisve handwriting books that I bought to use this past year, but I ended up ditching them and making my own with a more reasonable size, sequence, and pacing for us (and more fun/applicable words and sentences).

I read aloud from a chapter book for 20-30 minutes each weekday while my kids are having morning snack and playing quietly around the table. It's how we start our worktime. The little guy (3) will sometimes wander to the adjoining family room to play, but I know he's still listening because he will pipe up with questions occasionally and act out the story later. The 3yo also gets about 20 minutes of read-aloud before bed--any books he chooses. The older kids used to as well, but as they started reading on their own they often chose to read to us; eventually it transitioned to one book with Mom or Dad (we read to you or you read to us) and then 30-45 minutes of quiet reading in their rooms. Sometimes now they'd rather play for a few extra minutes rather than read with us, which I don't mind since they still get a minimum of an hour a day of reading exposure. (That solved the problem of needing to push back bedtime as they got older--we're still out of each other's hair around the same time, but now they just read in their rooms until I go for final tuck-in procedures. I don't remember whose trick it was, but it was someone online to whom I will be forever grateful.) Before we started "school" we did a lot of spontaneous read-alouds throughout the day. YDS will still bring me books during the day, but the other kids just read on their own mostly. My kids are 3, 5, and 6.

This! While not a main reason we moved cross-country, it didn't hurt to avoid this. I had to endure a soliloquy from MIL via phone the other day about how often she watches the other grandkids (we stopped asking her before YDS was born since it inevitably went really poorly even with two kids) and how EASY they are to watch--they are just so very ATTENTIVE to whatever is on the television! At least over the phone the comparisons are directed at me and the kids don't hear; in person it was really awkward trying to be politic while also sticking up for my kids and our lifestyle choices.

I have an extra whiteboard that I have sitting atop a 4' bookshelf. I can use it myself, or I can set it on the floor (lean it against the coffee table) and the kids can work on it. It's a 2x3 whiteboard that I got for $20 at Walmart. I've been surprised at how well it's working, since I figured a cheapie whiteboard would probably not hold up too well. Before that I used generic cookie sheets (or jelly roll pans? they have a little lip all around) from Walmart. (Most cookie sheets are not magnetic, so test before you buy!) I found an 11x17ish cookie sheet (along with two smaller ones) in a pack for around $4, if I remember right. I put half of the AAS letters across the top and half across the bottom. The lip prevented the tiles from getting knocked off, and the pans were easy to store--I tucked mine on top of a high bookshelf so they were out of the way when we weren't using them. (A bonus--these also made great trays for travel. I bring them along in the car and they can nicely fit a coloring book or a large sheet of paper on which I've drawn roads for toy cars, and they're also great for snack or mealtime in the car, since they can balance quite a bit of food and have a lip to prevent things from easily getting knocked off the edge. When the kids aren't using them, they stand them up next to their booster or on the floor beside their chair.)

Move across the country. We did! But you still get the vibes through FB...

I rarely post on here because my kids don't seem to measure up to what most of your kids are doing, and yet I still get embarrassed talking to my sister about what the kids are doing academically because my Ker and PKer are reading at 4th-5th grade level and finishing 2nd grade math while hers are in public school doing average work. It's weird to feel like you don't fit in normal society but also don't fit here because your kids are merely accelerated and not PG. Maybe that's just my self-consciousness coming through, though. And I also have the problem of a 5yo who has arbitrarily decided that she is not good at math--I think because she's visual and her brother just intuits things and is moving a little faster than she--so she's suddenly struggling with it because she panics as soon as I mention math. After getting the stink-eye when I accidentally mentioned her reading back when she was 3, I've been very careful not to mention to my kids that they are doing anything out of the ordinary so they won't feel odd (or puff themselves up, either), and I make an effort not to talk about their academics with others on my own, either. (If I do, it's always apologetically!) I don't know how to tell her, "Most kids in pre-k are just learning to recognize numbers in the teens and are mastering counting to 100--of COURSE you're good at math!" and have her believe me.

We're still on the early end, but we've just been taking breaks as-needed. Last year we had fairly regular interruptions which seemed to be timed about right for breaks. Then last fall we moved away from Grandma and she came to visit about every 6-8 weeks, so we'd take off whenever she was here. This spring she moved here, so I'm trying to plug until I'm starting to feel worn out and then taking a week off, figuring the kids probably feel the same. This summer I will do "school lite" (just math/reading) during June because we have daily swimming lessons; then we'll have 2 weeks of vacation in July, after which we'll probably start our regular work again. I just move the kids to the next level/material when they finish one thing, but I tell them their grade level based on what they would be in PS, so that "officially" changes in the fall when everyone else heads back to school. If the "extras" have fallen through the cracks, you could consider making those a focus for summer to change up your pace and just do maintenance learning/review with your core subjects. You could either do school only a few days a week or only a few subjects a day, or take off on the weeks you have summer camps/vacations. I find that if I stop for more than a couple weeks, the kids forget so much that it's disheartening.

I may be the other end of this spectrum. My kids LOVE the hands-on projects. Because of this, I try to make my projects into the primary learning experiences. I will admit, though, that it takes a ton of time and energy to plan out, and I can definitely understand wanting to do a "light" version of hands-on. If you want to vary things slightly for history, try changing up the product you request. One week you might ask for SOTW dictations, the next week you request a drawing or diorama that demonstrates understanding, another week you ask him to act out something he's learning (and you can take a picture if you're notebooking--the caption can help him remember). I think someone already mentioned the websites recommended by Math Mammoth for a game that reinforces what he's learning. For science, even an occasional demonstration or experiment to add clarity or concreteness to your learning will spice things up.

Jean Craighead George's books run in a similar vein, if he hasn't read them. Another single book that comes to mind is Roland Smith's Peak, about a boy whose mountain climber dad wants him to be the youngest to reach the summit of Everest. ETA--Read your post too quickly and missed the My Side reference. NM about JCG, then. If he's willing to go more of a futuristic/sci-fi direction, there's Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion which is only partly set in wilderness but is very much teen-fending-for-himself and raises some really good ethical questions about the uses of scientific knowledge. Gary Schmidt's Straw into Gold goes the opposite direction, and is a boy on a quest (partly wilderness) set long ago (based on the Rumplestiltskin back story, though with teen boy characters and not at all cutesy-fairy-tale).

I look primarily on ebay, though I've also checked Amazon and the classifieds here and at Homeschool Classifieds. I only buy used if I can save a minimum of 30% after shipping, and things like workbooks I just buy new because people often forget that they tore out page such-and-such or their kid doodled on certain pages or... You get the idea. If I'm looking at used, I'm looking at things that have pricey manuals new, and I'm assuming that the stuff is not as nice as the seller says (though I have been pleasantly surprised once or twice).

I've noticed my DD skipping over words she didn't know, so I went hunting for one of those old-style readers that has gotten saved as PDF online. (I don't remember which one I ended up with--something about Remedial Reading Drills.) It has word lists separated by phonogram, so kids practice reading certain phonograms over and over. (For oa, there would be boat, toast, road, etc.) DD actually LIKES reading a drill or two each day, and it's forcing her to slow down and pay attention to the phonograms, since that's the whole point of the exercise. I've noticed it transferring to her read-aloud time, too. Before she would moan and groan if I stopped her to go back and sound something out; now she gets to a word she doesn't immediately know, pauses to grin at me, and carefully sounds it out. If you want more of a quick overview, this could be an option for you. (DD was an early reader with no formal phonics instruction; I've done AAS 1 & 2, but since she's now reading at a 4th grade level, I needed to cover phonograms faster than AAS was going.)

Thanks, all! It's so helpful to hear how each of you does math. From what I'm gathering, DS--my math-obsessed lover of numeric brain-teasers--should be fine using BA without enrichment or breaks as long as I don't extend math time beyond what we're currently doing with RS. (Though I can see where a bit of review on things like time/money/long subtraction could be helpful, so maybe I will plan a daily warm-up to keep those fresh.) I may want to alternate materials, though, with my convinced-she-can't-do-math DD when she gets to that point to avoid too many meltdowns (if that's possible). I'll definitely plan to buy some form of supplement for DD's Singapore; now to review all my options and try to narrow it down to one, for starters. I wish I got paid for all the hours I spend agonizing over my kids' education...

I waffled about this for a long time. The stories of inaccuracies scared me off a bit, and I worried that if I had too open-and-go a complete resource, I may not go through the effort of finding extra resources with competing explanations or more information. I got E.H. Gombrich's Little History, but I find that his audience lived about 50 years ago in Europe, so even though I want it to work, it doesn't feel right. I've ended up looking at a few timelines of world history to put together a scope and sequence of study, and then filling in each culture/time period with a bit from Usborne and a handful of resources I've found in online lists. We read some books, I make up lots of hands-on projects (my kids LIVE for the projects), we add some notes to our timeline and summarize our learnings for our notebooks, and I call it good for an early elementary into to world history.

1. ...do you also pull out something like Singapore CWP or Zaccaro, or are those rendered unnecessary? I've seen them recommended often, but not in conjunction with BA, which made me wonder if BA serves the same purpose, more or less. I'm working on my next RR order (purchasing BA3), and I want to make sure I don't end up having to pay shipping later for a $20 book when I could just bundle it now. (A little ridiculous, but I'll pinch every penny I can to spend more on supplies. :lol: ) 2. ...do your children need "brain breaks" from BA? If so, what do you do for that "break"? Is there a good way to manage BA so as not to need breaks, or should I plan to schedule in something less challenging or at least different at some regular interval? On a related note, if I have my middle child working through Singapore 2 next, would you recommend either of those supplements (CWP or Zaccaro) or shall I just pin all my hopes on BA when she gets there? TIA!

A wide variety of reasons, including the following: Local public schools switched to full-day kindergarten the year before ODS would have gone. Kindy students were organized in classes of roughly 25 and given one recess each day and an hour of homework each night. The district prided itself on the academic rigor of its program (read: lots of worksheets and teachers declaring, "Your child WILL read by Thanksgiving!") That didn't seem like the right way to nurture a love of learning (especially not in my ADHD, introverted oldest). When I looked at our school district's posted goals, ODS had already achieved nearly all the kindy outcomes a year in advance (as had DD, a year younger). I was homeschooled for two random years and thoroughly enjoyed it. I went to school. I was miserable. (Excelling academically was not popular with peers, and somehow teachers didn't appreciate it either--they preferred the sporty kids who barely managed a respectable grade.) I was a teacher. As much as I loved my students, I only really got to know the outgoing ones; about half of those with whom I spent 7 hours a day, I just didn't have enough time one-on-one to get to know much about. I was mostly stuck teaching to the middle, because I couldn't hold the whole class back for the three who didn't understand or move on to the next step for the four kids who understood right away. I could only do one fieldtrip each year. I handed out a fair amount of busywork in order to check off some of the endless subject requirements or fill pre-determined time requirements for certain subjects. I could only do activities that were easy to do with one adult (or three, if I were really lucky in garnering volunteers) and 24 kids. We lost lots of time transitioning between subjects, restoring order, lining up and walking the halls. Need I go on? :-) DH tentatively agreed to see how they progressed the year before kindy (and maybe homeschool kindy). Six months into our informal preschool-unschool trial period, he was sold.

We've been schooling year-round, with lighter or heavier loads as feels appropriate. (We seem to naturally go through cycles of about six weeks or so.) That said, summer tends to have unusual class/camp/reunion opportunities that change the rhythm of life. This year we will do just math and reading to accommodate swimming lessons in June, and we'll follow up our "school lite" month with two weeks off to visit family in July. Then we'll leap back in again. Next year is not a family reunion year, so we'll probably break things up with a daycamp or two and a few days off around holidays. (I count Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day as summer's sandwich of holidays.)

I am replying solely to vote against Across Five Aprils. I've always been a voracious reader, and A5A was the only book I couldn't bring myself to finish as a kid. (I started it in 8th grade.) For years, whenever I thought of that book I just pictured someone standing by a fence in the middle of a field, thinking and rambling. I went back and read it in college because I felt bad that I hadn't stuck it out; in college I could appreciate its introspective nature and thought it was a great book, but even as a pretty mature 8th grader (homeschooled!) I found it boring at that age. Though it seems that most are more mature than I was, since I see several votes for it.

In that case, I'm glad I didn't buy it. :laugh: I had looked at the preschool sample online but decided I didn't want to spend that much for a workbook, esp for PK.

Have you looked at the Critical Thinking Company math books? I haven't looked at their kindy material, but the preschool stuff struck me as having a similar feel to what I've seen of MEP. Here's the CTC Mathematical Reasoning Level A link, if you want to look at their sample and see if it's at all what you have in mind.

Hmm... So far this year I have learned: 1. Each of my children really IS an individual, so even if I pick curriculum that's intended "for every learner" I may find that it's a better fit for one child than another. 2. It's hard to find a balance between being out and about and being home--especially one that suits everyone. 3. Even when I'm ready to plunk my children on the curb, I'm still not willing to seriously consider enrolling them in school. 4. Homeschooling is HARD--the planning, the children always underfoot and making messes, knowing when to push and when to step back... But I wouldn't give it up. (Besides, it gives me an excuse to learn about things I've always wanted to know more about!)

I use "kindergarten" mainly as a reference for age. So ODS is "in kindergarten" and DD is "in preschool" without regard to the level at which they are working. I think kindergarten is more of a phase than a specific time of a child's life--it's the "I'm ready to start learning to use symbols like numbers and letters" phase. For my older two kids, it hit early, and I have just continued to provide them with activities at their level as they progress, without regard to their level; perhaps YDS will not be ready for that learning until he is 5 or even older...we'll see.