Hmmm... There is one curriculum in particular I shouldn't have bothered getting - Getty Dubay Italics handwriting. I thought both my daughter and I could improve our handwriting so I purchased quite a few books. But my daughter had already zoomed through all the levels of HWT and writes literally every hour of the day, so switching to a new handwriting style is impossible. She's already developed her own. Another program that might so far hasn't panned out is Singapore My Pals Are Here. I first started purchasing the inexpensive books and workbooks. Then I couldn't resist the rest of the program, but that is expensive! Now that I have it all here, I need to have it all scheduled out first before I start (I'm just like that). A little daunted by that project, it just sits. Oh well, we are already happily using RSO Earth & Space now. I just wanted to try to do them both.

We love it, it's so worth it for us. We use it for Spanish, science, and history mostly, but there's videos we watch for fun on math and language arts as well. You can see some of the things we watch if you click the DE Streaming link on my sig. It's a little overwhelming at first to navigate their own search, but the list should help those getting started.

We have two iPads and two iPhones. The iPad1 now belongs to my daughter, and my DH just got me an iPad2 as a birthday gift. We plan to get the iPad3 next spring. We are a techy family who loves our gadgets. We use them all at once sometimes. There have been times when we all pull out our iDevices at a restaurant and play together. I feel like such a nerd when we do that.

I use Book Collector from Collectorz.com. I synch up the desktop, iPhone/iPad app, and the online service so I have access to my book collection from anywhere. It really has saved me buying duplicate books, which I did many times before.

We have the iPad 1 with 16 gb and ran out of space once I loaded it up with audiobooks. We then purchased iPad2 with 32gb which should tide us over until we go all out and get the most space available once the iPad3 comes out. If you plan to only have one, I suggest getting the most space possible.

Yeah, the current $59 registration gives you access through August 2012. So I wonder if they close registration once fall is underway... I signed up in September. We've been using BrainPop Jr. and regular BrainPop happily since my daughter was 4. The Online G3 deal was my 3rd year paying for the subscription. We love both versions!

We follow it very loosely. I mean to blog about it but wonder if I'm qualified, as we haven't done their projects yet. We also swap some of the literature books suggested for ones we prefer. We add a lot to it actually, with our own book, video, projects. One thing I'm super happy about is that it made starting American History study effortless. Then we can add/change it as we wish.

My husband made me buy some of these, and I also remember them from my childhood. But my daughter didn't get into them. We like the Interactive History (Choose your Own) Adventure type books though. They have over 30 books and most are about American History.

Okay, I cleared it up a little. :)

Yep, we were watching BrainPop on our iPad in bed last night just for fun. :)

Oops, it's 5am here. (I guess it had my attention for more than an hour, hehe.) I cannot make this a habit.

:lol: Hehe, we just finished studying the Roanoke Lost Colony. What is your 3D Interactive Map of Jamestown and Roanoke? Is it the Scholastic one? http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay_33474_-1_10001_10002 I mean to get that, should probably get it this week.

Well, it's a good thing RIFT has a free trial period. :) If I don't like it, I might try WoW again. I also have my maxed level character on LOTRO, which I believe just had a new release in the past month. I could go to Isengard...

Darn that Felicia Day! I don't watch much TV, but I *finally* watched The Guild after everyone told me I had to see it. I read her comic books (#1) three times over as well as Season 1. I then spent all night last night fantasizing about fantasy worlds. Today in a restaurant I overheard two men talking about their raid last night. I asked if they were gamers and they said they were playing RIFT (and we chatted about our past mmos). I was thinking of playing WoW, but then decided that since RIFT is relatively new still, I'd play that for a bit. Downloading it now. I am going to try to keep a healthy balance between life and mmo playing.

Mine's in my sig. Congrats on your new blog! I was just trying to get around to posting an updated blogroll on my blog, this post is timely for me.

We have two Bengal cats. They really are beautiful. They're supposed to like water (although they haven't taken any baths with us yet, they sure are curious). We also heard they are less allergy-aggravating, very intelligent and live relatively long lives. They do like to climb around on high places. :)

Yep, I've blogged and mentioned before how I didn't like this at all about that book.

Thanks as well! We'll be coming from Colorado and plan to do both rims. We've passed the Grand Canyon on our way from other vacations at least three times but knew we needed to dedicate more of a vacation to this place. We will be going late next spring, so I'm all :bigear:!

Oh cool, we have the first two. I'll be getting this one as soon as it's easily available. :)

We love science here. I've found REAL Science Odyssey to be a perfect fit for us. It lays the outline for us, gives us a few experiments/activities to explore, and then we strike out on our own with books and videos. We make heavy use of Discovery Education Streaming, BrainPop and YouTube. We'll incorporate field trips - last year's big one was tide pools in Oregon and this spring will be the Grand Canyon. We started homeschooling at age 4 and explored several fossil parks in the Colorado/Utah area. I blog about science often and intend to publish a new post tonight in fact.

Our family just loves Discovery Education Streaming and will continue to fork out $199/year (through HSBC) for the full Plus version. I expected it to be very grainy just starting out, so haven't been disappointed. It's not as clear as a TV, but we can view our videos, full screen on a large computer screen just fine. We use the 700kps option only. I have both the G3 and full Discovery Education Plus from HSBC subscriptions and I posted the differences in detail on another homeschooling board. People had so many questions and I attempted to answer them (I am not an employee or affiliate or related in anyway to them, I just love the service.) I'll cut and paste my post here: I played with both my DE Streaming subscriptions (Plus through HSBC and Basic through G3) a bit and noticed the following differences. My Plus through HSBC offers a Teacher and Student Login. These are the differences with what you'll see signed in as a Teacher opposed to a Student with OnlineG3. I am signed into two computers with the same username with the OnlineG3 Basic subscription. I suspected we could and was happy to see so. I prefer the initial interface better with the student login with Online G3. Easier to navigate, less overwhelming. OnlineG3 only offers Basic . You can see the differences on the HSBC someone may have linked to. Still, tons of videos! With OnlineG3 , you can add content to "My Favorites" and designate it to a folder. Now all the student has to do is go to their Student Center and click "My Favorites" to see all the stuff. On the other hand, Plus offers you to add content to the following: My Content, Classroom/Students, Assignment, Writing Prompt, and Quiz. Adding to "My Content" is similar to "My Favorites" with the folders and such. I used to use the "Assignment" option, but it was such a complicated process. So I'm pleased that you can do the most relevant/important such task in OnlineG3. The OnlineG3 Basic version offers a Download Type version but when I try to download, it just plays the video. Not sure if it means what I thought. Full Plus doesn't have the Download Type option, but it does offer a higher quality Stream Type of ASF (700 Kbps) instead of just 256 Kpbs on Basic. OnlineG3 DOES offer Elementary Spanish program! That's the program on DE Streaming that most people initially sign up to use. That's the Grade 1-6. I've heard it does not offer the Grade 7-8 program though. OnlineG3 basic does NOT offer "Related Materials" option for any of their offerings. This is what the Full Plus version will see for teachers so you can download possible Teacher's Guides and supplementary materials. OnlineG3 doesn't offer the Ratings, as someone mentioned. Or Printer Friendly Option or Curriculum Standards which I never used anyway. So that conclues my observations when comparing the two this morning. Hope this helps for people wondering what the differences were. EDIT: Adding one more thing. I for some reason am not able to use the search engine with OnlineG3 as accurately as the Teacher Plus version. I found Magic School Bus on plus through the search engine, but not through OnlineG3. I put the URL in and one came up though. Try this link: http://player.discoveryeducation.com...productcode=US Some people hate their search engine. For that reason, you may find my listing of URLs helpful: http://satorismiles.com/resources/discovery-education-streaming/ We found out later why certain videos weren't showing up via the OnlineG3 subscription. The company had this response: "Magic School Bus is definitely part of the base pack. However, due to licensing restrictions, it's not part of the student media pack. While they can't search for it, teachers can still assign it and it will show up that way. "

I've been satisfied with the iPad 2 Smart Cover. Having come from a more protective case for my iPad 1, I don't feel the Smart Cover offers as much protection, but it does great around the house and in my purse for light road travel. If I were to travel more I'd think about something more protective.

Here's a list I made of American History books that would be good for 5th grade independent reads. If you go past the list, there is a chart which tells the subject and year. I started putting the age and gender of the main character in the description to help. I'll also soon add a column that shows approximate interest level.

Not Tibbie Dunbar, but just wanted to say that is so cool! :) You can tell him that grammar level (grade 1) students also learn about Gilgamesh!

I suppose in math (for measurement like Spycar said) I'd want to try to find the A4 paper. But for other subjects, such as the Minimus Teacher's Guide I copied out the student worksheets, there is an option on my printer to make A4 size into Letter sized paper.