Just search for children's books made into movies.

Writing with Ease

I like the explanation in the Pre-Algebra for Visual Learners demo video. Here's a link: http://www.mugginsmath.com/store.asp The program is near the bottom.

As an alternative to Kumon, is there a Mathnasium Learning Center in your area?

We haven't used it, but how about The Art of Porblem Solving? http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Classes/AoPS_C_About.php

I just ordered Giggle Facts. I can let you know if I like it when I receive it. Here's a review: http://www.homeschoolmath.net/reviews/giggle_facts.php

I haven't used it, but i just read a great review about Giggle Math games: http://www.homeschoolmath.net/reviews/giggle_facts.php

I don't usually use a formal math program with my children until they are about 8 or 9, but we do a lot of math informally. We do Miquon math and Singapore math if they are interested. We play a lot of games and read a lot of math books from the living math site mentioned by another poster. These books send us on a lot of mathematical discussions.For example, at that age my kids loved The Number Devil. Often our dinner conversation is mathematical in nature. My children are all thriving mathematically with this approach. For full disclosure, I have a degree in math education and run a couple of math learning centers. I think that it is amazing what mathematical topics young children can be interested in if you follow their lead.

I think it's great to know multiple ways to wolve the same problem. This is why we like to use a variety of resources for our math curriculum.

My daughter was very frustrated and in tears trying to learn long division, so we skipped it and cam back to it a year later. I figured it wasn't worth the tears or ruining her otherwise great attitude about math. After her break from long division, I showed her short division. Then we trasnitioned into long division with no problem. She is a very strong math student. Every child is different. My son immediately cought on to long division.

Not a CD, but a free internet source...we love Pandora.com and they have loads of Christmas music.

Excellence Through Classics sell a thmatic unit to go with d’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths, but it looks like fill in the blank type questions rather than cut and paste. I'm not sure as I haven't used it, but they have sample pages on their site. Here's a link: http://www.etclassics.org/materials.html

Just testing...

At first, I thought your pet peeve was when someone says "what?" This is my husbands pet peeve. It drives him crazy when I say "what?" I grew up in a family who said "what?" when they wanted something repeated but my husband prefers "pardon?"

I once watched a video lecture (Teaching the Classics?) which claimed that students learn more vocabulary from listening to stories than from reading because they hear the word pronounced correctly in context instead of skimming over the parts that they don't understand. I do believe that this is true because my son, who is now (finally!) becoming a reader at age 9, has listened to many, many audio stories has a fantastic, broad vocabulary. He uses words that I don't use. I have made an effort to have all of my children listen to more audiobooks, which they really enjoy. I don't really have to make them listen, I just have to make a point to have them available by checking them out from the library regularly. And we also love audible.com. We listen to audiobooks in the car and at home. I'd rather use our time to do this than use a formal vocabulary program and I think it may be more effective, although we may consider a formal vocabuary program in the future.