[Fundanoodle handwriting program]

Has anyone tried this? It looks quite fun, but I'd like to hear from someone who's had their hands on it. Fundanoodle.com

[Please! Come be bossy!! And tell me]

We love listening to the SOTW cds in the car. I don't think history would get done if we didn't have those. I'll ask them questions after we listen. They even do the map work in the car with my oldest reading the instructions. I do add library books for the oldest 2. I feel its the easiest way to school a big bunch of kids.

[Has anyone switched from]

We've used MUS for about 6 years and have been happy for the most part. When Homeschool Buyer's Co-op had MM last year I bought the whole set. I've been very pleased with it and have switched 3 of my 4 math students to it. The other I switched to Aleks.

I've noticed long division is making more sense to my 5th grader with Math Mammoth and my 3rd grader seems to be doing better with multiplication. My first grader is just zooming through things at an alarming rate. I love Steve, but we needed to mix things up a bit.

One reason I felt okay switching is that Math Mammoth has the Mastery series, so if you wanted to say skip Delta, you could do the division books from Math Mammoth.

[What curriculum in PDF do you love?]

I use the pdf of First Language Lessons, Story of the World Activity guide, Math mammoth, and Writing With Ease.

[Old FLL versus the New Editions]

This is going to sound horrible, but I only bought the new editions because its easier for me to file printed pdf. I'm on lesson 30 and can't tell too much of a difference as of yet.

[Moms of many, I need advice that I can actually put to use to increase vocabulary]

We listen to a lot of audiobooks in the car. I have 6 kids total from 13 to 1 year old, so I get not having enough time to read aloud. She'll pick up on a lot of vocabulary just listening and figuring things out in context. Will she learn every word that way? No, probably not, but her understanding will increase.

[we are studying California History and]

I don't have anything to add, other than that building my California mission out of sugar cubes is my best public school memory. I worked on it in the garage for weeks and don't remember my parents out there at all. I got a ton of burns from the glue gun, but was so thrilled with the finished project. I wish I had a picture of it.

[Favorite books of your 4yo boys?]

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Kiss Good Night Sam (and other Sam books)

Froggy books

Bear Snores On and other Bear books

[Settlers of Catan - Best Expansion Pack?]

I've heard Seafarer is the best. We haven't bought any expansion packs yet, but I do play Seafarers on my iPhone and like it even better than the standard game.

[Talk to me about 8-seat vehicles...]

We have an older Ford Excursion (not made anymore) which seats 8 and I love. I believe they replaced it with the Expedition EL. We have a ton of cargo room and plenty of elbow and leg room. I wanted something that the kids would still be comfortable in as they get older and something that could fit at least 3 car seats now. We have had several Fords. All of them have made it to well over 200,000 miles and looked good doing it. My dh's truck has 270,000 miles on it, we sold our old van with 250,000 miles on it and its still going with its new owner, our van now has close to 200,000 and the Excursion has about 150,000. We do a lot of driving and our Fords have held up amazingly well.

Our Excursion is a diesel, so we get about 22 mpg. For the cargo room and leg room, I think it would be hard to beat.

[internet filter for ipod touch?]

I use mobicip on my kids' iPods.

[Internet Filter/ Protection for iPhone]

I use Mobicip on my kids iPods.

[Struggling through OPGTR--what to do?]

I agree on taking a break. I don't think its the curriculum, its that it hasn't clicked for your child yet. If you back off and play games for a while, I bet she will start reading on her own soon. I usually watch my kids to see when they start trying to sound out signs, etc. by themselves. Once that happens, they respond very well to reading lessons.

[Moms of many, and also people who aren't inherently organized- history curriculum?]

Story of the World. I love that we can just listen to it in the car and history gets done even if we're not at home. We don't always get around to the extras, but we always can listen to the chapter and discuss it. I think we discuss it more this way actually, as they're a captive audience.

I also like that I can download the pdf and print the activity pages out. I've lost books more times than I can count. I haven't lost my computer yet, so I get as much printable school work as I can.

[Tapatalk]

I use this for another site and love it. It would make my life much easier if y'all added it too.

[Overwhelmed...need schedule help...*again!*]

Okay, first off hats off to you schooling 6. I have just made the bump up to 4, with a toddler and baby soon to arrive and we've been remodeling while we live in the house. It makes life amazingly hectic, doesn't it?!?

 

The one modification I've made to our schedule is to drop AAS. I feel like it's an excellent program, but I just don't have time for it. I use WWE and FLL too, and although those are teacher intensive I feel its worth it. I've gone back to Spelling Workout for my 3rd & 5th grader. My 7th grader is done with spelling and I'll start AAS with my K'er in a few months. Spelling to me is important but not as important as writing and grammar.

 

I would look at keeping the 5th grader in with the others for WWE and dropping Meaningful Composition for him for this year.

 

The other thing I've done is have my kids take turns making snacks and lunch. I don't do anything for those 2 meals. They actually enjoy planning what they'll make and getting a choice of what to purchase at the grocery store. While they're working on preparing lunch/snacks I can be working with the other kids.

 

I don't know if that's helpful or not, but those are the only places I can see for you to shave time off of your personal schedule.

[Would you tell me more about Modern Curriculum Press early readers?]

I believe all the Set 1s are just short vowel sounds, which each series getting slightly harder. We've used them and like them.

[Dropping WWE. Mistake, or not?]

Narration is not about testing their comprehension. It's teaching them to write before they have to write it out themselves. You're teaching them to form a sentence correctly, to pick out the important parts of a passage, and to simply get used to the process of writing before they need to come up with something completely original. That being said, if you really loathe it drop it.

 

The reason we'd be dropping it is because I think we're way past "ready" for WWE. My daughter has an amazing memory like Nik does so I don't think the narration is necessary. As for writing, she needs something more challenging than copywork and dictation.

[Where do you find girls knee legth (or longer) skirts?]

Cato usually has at least a few, if you can find one with a kids' section. I've been fairly impressed with their quality/price as well.

 

Watch Hanna Andersson for sales too, she usually has some good ones.

[Help: French "Word Book" -- not Heather Amery]

How about this one?

 

http://www.berlitzpublishing.com/berlitz/learn_thousand.asp?TAG=&CID=

[i can NOT get up in the mornings]

I have always had this problem. I can go for a week getting up early, but I'm still not able to go to sleep at a normal hour. So, instead of resetting my internal clock, I just get exhausted. The one thing that has helped me majorly is hypnosis, via Hypnobabies. I used Hypnobabies for my last birth, and I plan on using it again. Aside from their birthing scripts though, they have two for getting a person to sleep. One is developed for pregnant women and the other for anyone. I've been using the pregnant one for about 3 months now, and its the only way I can get to sleep before 3AM. It was well worth the $16 I spent on it. I plan on downloading the other track as soon as the baby is born. http://www.hypnobabies.com/mylink.php?id=4058#peaceful

[Slow and Steady Get Me Ready]

I was going to use it as a reference as well, but if I don't have things planned they fall by the wayside. Hopefully this will take care of that.

[CLE Learning to Read, ETC, or OPGTR?]

We use ETC with OPG. Also, my kids don't like it when I say the poems, but they love to listen to them in the car on CD. That CD was worth it's price for us.

 

I wouldn't have him doing more than 3 lessons. If he knows the sound already, skip the lesson entirely. However, 5 is pretty young to be pushing him. I would be inclined to only do one lesson per day, but you could do them 7 days a week if you're in a hurry. Then supplement with ETC for extra practice. I wrote out a free lesson plan for combining the 2 if you're interested. http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/classical-k4/883144?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

[Please help me find this...]

Samsclub.com has one for $64. Another option, if you have a Sam's membership, are the whiteboards they have in the store. You could get two 2x3 boards for a total of $20.

[First week of school is NOT going well]

We keep schooling through the summer, and we actually prefer the early morning swimming practices. While one child swims, the other do school on the bleachers. I figure we have to sit there any way, we may as well do something productive. This is where filing is invaluable to me. I have everything filed and I just pull it out and stick it on their clipboard. Then school is portable, no matter where life takes us.