With my boys we never had terrible 2s, but 3, 6, and 9 were so, so (so, so, so, so, so) difficult. My oldest is 12 and this has been another challenging year. My daughter is only 4, but 3 was her only really awful year so far.

These look interesting, but are they worth the $35 they cost now? I wish I had seen them when they were free! Kicking myself.

If you do France I recommend Avignon, Carcassone, and the Pont du Gard for sure!

I would just buy one to start. We bought a bunch and hated it.

Look into Feingold.org and do it fast. Your son sounds like my 10yo son at that age. We walked on eggshells constantly. Bedtime was such a huge stressor I started having eye twitches. Cutting out all artificial dyes, flavors, and preservatives, as well as scents and salycilates, has changed our lives.

My kids will be starting 7th, 5th, and pre-K or K this summer. For math I would use Math Mammoth so I could print only the pages we needed for a few weeks at a time and then recycle them, saving only the review and quizzes for portfolios if needed. I wouldn't bother with manipulatives, except perhaps for Cuisenaire rods. I would stick to dried beans or rocks or toys for any manipulative work I needed to do with the youngest, or print off papers manipulatives so they took up very little space. I would buy an iPad or other tablet and download the DragonBox apps, King of Math for speed drills, maybe SplashMath or another similar app, a clock app for the youngest. I would buy most of their literature for the year in e-book format or audiobook format, but would definitely take some print books along, too. Beatrix Potter collection or Winnie the Pooh for the youngest, The Dark Is Rising series or The Chronicles of Narnia or something similar for the middle, and some Twain for the eldest. I would also make sure they each brought along a few of their favorite books. For my 5th grader that would be the Percy Jackson series, for my 7th grader it would be nonfiction about wars, and my 4yo would bring along her favorite picture books. I wouldn't bother with any sort of reading curriculum. Look up a list of Bloom's Taxonomy questions online and use those for literature discussion. I would stick to narration and copywork from the literature they are reading for writing, and use Webster's Student Writing Handbook for the older. https://enotez.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/new-world-student-writing-handbook.pdf Maybe BraveWriter for the younger two, downloadable so it can be printed and recycled without taking up much room at all. I would buy the Toontastic app, the Sentopiary grammar app, SpellingCity app, and the MindSnacks Vocabulary app. I would print the Barefoot Ragamuffin Curricula Spelling Journal. I would use SOTW audiobooks for the younger kids and K12 Human Odyssey for the eldest. I would buy the Presidents Vs. Aliens app, Stack the States and Stack the Countries apps, and use SheppardSoftware.com. I would take Prismacolor colored pencils and sketch books, water colors and watercolor paper, and The Children's Book of Art. I would take The Children's Book of Music and any instruments my kids played. I would plan to download music or find YouTube videos throughout the year whenever needed. I would take Natural Science Through the Seasons http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Science-Through-Seasons-Teaching/dp/0983180091. I would take a microscope, a telescope, and binoculars. Maybe Mr. Q science, so I could print and recycle the same way I did for math. Don't forget plenty of pencils and a sharpener, as well as notebook paper and printer ink. That's all I can think of right now.

Me, too! Here's the link. https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s

Ooh, that looks beautiful!

We're using the Eyewitness Plant book already mentioned (http://smile.amazon.com/Eyewitness-Plant-DK-Books/dp/0756660351/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456340965&sr=1-8&keywords=Plants&refinements=p_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A2579000011) with my 4th grader. It is scheduled in the Quark Botany Notebooking pages. The book From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons is excellent for that age range, too. http://smile.amazon.com/Seed-Plant-Gail-Gibbons/dp/0823410250/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456340965&sr=1-3&keywords=Plants&refinements=p_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A2579000011

Found it! It was creekmom's son. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/189638-check-out-my-sons-element-collection/

I remember that! I realize that is no help, but at least you know you aren't crazy? lol

Thank you for mentioning this! I bought it, and now I have to decide if I want to revise my plans for next school year.

Poems Every Child Should Know has quite a few poems about historical events. https://librivox.org/poems-every-child-should-know-edited-by-mary-e-burt/

Here is another link which isn't exactly what you're looking for, but is very interesting. http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/timeline-text

I don't know. I just remember that poem, probably from high school.

Double post

The first one that came to mind was The Eve of Waterloo by Byron. Here are a couple of links I had saved. http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poems/history http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/history/

How on earth is my little baby almost a 7th grader?! I bought Wayfarers Revolution History, but I don't think I'm going to use it. I'm fairly certain we are going to do the following: TT7 & Jousting Armadillos WWS1 Grammar Voyage Caesar's English II A World of Poetry K12 The Human Odyssey U.S. History Detective 1 world geography The Story of Science: Newton at the Center chemistry from The American Chemical Society Spanish for Children B Duolingo Spanish Geography Through Art guitar lessons literature list TBD

I paid for it, too.

The study guides are just pdf files. I got links to download them when I ordered, and the paper copy of the test in yesterday's mail.

I'm not diabetic, but I am on a low-carb diet and this is one of my favorite sites for recipes. http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/ This site, too. http://lowcarbyum.com/

This is exactly what I'm doing with my 6th grader and it's working out well.

Frequent conversations are good, but I would definitely make sure he watches videos/movies. Seeing what these drugs can do is so much more powerful than just hearing about it.

I'm happy to see that I'm not the only mom who like DanTDM! lol

We have Sassafras Zoology and Quark Botany. We couldn't even finish Sassafras, but Quark is fantastic! I'm planning to buy Quark Anatomy and Quark Zoology to read for fun next year.