Marie131 Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 I'm thinking ahead to next year and want our year to be fun! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Philosophy for Kids, by White, but I wouldn't recommend it before about age 10 or 11. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in MS Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 For age 7.5 FIAR. Grades 4-8 (with adjustments for younger and older) A World of Adventure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Ages 5-8: Five in a Row...my kids LOVED it, and so did I. Right now I'm using Further Up and Further In (unit study using The Chronicles of Narnia) with ds9 and it is a lot of fun. In fact, it is my favorite year...so far! He is having a blast with it as well. I'm also enjoying Oak Meadow Preschool with dd4. It is gentle and fun. I am hoping that next year, when I will use Oak Meadow Sixth Grade with my dd12, will be fun. She is using another curriculum this year, and she is not enjoying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmccumbers Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 The very best/fun things that we have ever done in our homeschooling are the history kits from Hands and Hearts. http://www.handsnhearts.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Wait, what? School is supposed to be fun? :D Our supplemental stuff can be fun, Lyrical Life Science is always a hoot to hear your kids singing in the grocery store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 No curriculum. A library card. When I was my brokest and sickest, I'd just go to the library, grab some stuff that looked good, and just use it. It was easy, fun, and it worked as well as most of the hard and boring and expensive and teacher-intensive alternatives, that I'd switch back to when the crisis passed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 The Chicago Review Press books "xxx for Kids" (Leonardo da Vinci, Lewis and Clark, American Folk Art, Galileo, Einstein, Isaac Newton, and many more) I like the solid, well written texts. dd loves the hands-on activities! I love that she can do the activities on her own - I supply materials, then stay out of it!! She's also having a lot of fun with WP's Equine Science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 My son can't get enough of Life of Fred. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Ellen j McHenry's materials Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 We've had the most fun with supplements. Especially... Grammarland Right Start Card Games Primary Challenge Math Logic Liftoff Lollipop Logic Art Lab for Kids Wakeruppers from Tin Man Press Bananagrams for Kids (makes them into word puzzles) Booklists from Livingmath.net Boston Children's Museum Activity Books Of core curriculum, while we ended up moving on from it for various reasons, we found SOTW fun. Also Miquon. And many of the things about Bravewriter, especially Poetry Teas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 No curriculum. A library card. When I was my brokest and sickest, I'd just go to the library, grab some stuff that looked good, and just use it. It was easy, fun, and it worked as well as most of the hard and boring and expensive and teacher-intensive alternatives, that I'd switch back to when the crisis passed. Okay, I do need to add a curriculum. Draw Write Now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 My kids had fun with RSO Life science and LoF. They also like Mapping the World With Art. Those were fun to teach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 FIAR Prairie Primer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 We've had the most fun with supplements. Especially... Grammarland Right Start Card Games Primary Challenge Math Logic Liftoff Lollipop Logic Art Lab for Kids Wakeruppers from Tin Man Press Bananagrams for Kids (makes them into word puzzles) Booklists from Livingmath.net Boston Children's Museum Activity Books Of core curriculum, while we ended up moving on from it for various reasons, we found SOTW fun. Also Miquon. And many of the things about Bravewriter, especially Poetry Teas. Great list! LOVE the WakerUppers! How have I never seen these? I agree about poetry teas and Art Lab for Kids. Also, they love our homemade writing workshop with a bajillion different resources. This is a very fun, flexible time. Our morning meeting, which starts our day and serves as a catch-all for discussion of current events, plans and menus, memory work, conversational Spanish, character lessons, and whatever else we want to throw in there. Science/tinkering lab where they work to answer their own questions. For nature study, they are putting together a homemade field guide for our area. They have divided the wildlife into categories so that they can each cover/study what interests them most. Read-aloud time, for history/science during group time in the morning and at lunchtime, when I read lit aloud. My kids really enjoy reciting memory work too. The new house we are in has one of those (useless to me :lol:) decorative pass-through niches right in the corner of our schoolroom. I put up a little tension rod and curtain and they recite their memory work "on stage." As far as fun curricula: Life of Fred, MCTLA, and SOTW with supplemental reading/activities are favorites. ETA: Sorry! I think I didn't read the question properly. Most of the fun we have comes not from specific curricula but from how we spin it and fit it into our days in a way that suits how we live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizabeth rose Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 five in a row from ages five to 7 Winterpromise American story 1 Winterpromise animals and their worlds. My son would do this curriculum every year if he could! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 My kids are loving all our Bravewriter activities. They also really enjoy WWE. My Kinder loves Peak With Books. And they are having fun with Mudpies to Magnets. My oldest really enjoyed his Miquon books. He even likes his Saxon book. :w00t: They all love our focus on art this year. We use Harmony Fine Arts and Artistic Pursuits. I mentioned thinking of doing something other than ArtPur and HFA next year and they all raised a stink. Even my 2 year old participates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohmomjacquie Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 we are using my father's world adventures this year and it has been our most fun year! hands on science, crafts and activities for history and Bible, read aloud stories they always hate to see end. Can't wait for next year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 They all love our focus on art this year. We use Harmony Fine Arts and Artistic Pursuits. I mentioned thinking of doing something other than ArtPur and HFA next year and they all raised a stink. Even my 2 year old participates. Forgot Artistic Pursuits! My kids love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Oh yeah - how could I forget Grammar Land! That was a blast, and saved our grammar studies! Sentence Island and Paragraph Town were also fun. And LOF! d'oh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cagirlintexas Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 We have really enjoyed Lego Wedo Robotics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 My DC are enjoying Mad Libs right now...they've been reviewing parts of speech without realizing it. They also enjoy any kind of game. They love Rightstart Math Games, but we also often have a math fact "bee". They either take turns solving problems on flashcards or they try to shout out the answer first. If they get their problem right, they keep the card. It's so simple, but it's much more fun than going through flashcards on their own. I also picked up a Geopuzzle to work on African countries. If you check out games at Rainbow Resource, you can find a game for any subject! Anytime we pull out art supplies, they are excited. We've been using Draw Squad all year and I'm hoping to pull out a Chinese brush painting book soon. It's a great way to end our school day (or spend our evening). Time outside is another hit at the end of the day. I sometimes bribe them to get through their chores with outside time. :blush: As far as curriculum, they've enjoyed both FIAR and HOD. They love anything with lots of activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 We love all of the treasure chest learning kits: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0762407468/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=libhilhou-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0762407468 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nandmsmom Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Getting Started With Latin and Life of Fred have been the most fun for us this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
besroma Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Great Thread! Atelier Art RightStart Math Life of Fred Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Button says he likes: Winning with Writing Evan-Moor spelling -- highlighting this for the OP: it really is a pretty fun spelling, if you are going for a fun year. and academically good too. Evan-Moor geography (but we just added this, not sure if his enthusiasm will last) MEP math (but he's actually losing math skills with MEP, so I'm switching us back to Singapore) Zaner-Bloser Cursive (he volunteered this! he's tired of the manuscript I make him do, though) and I splurged on a Little Professor kit (robotics) over the holiday: that is a sure winner, though pricey: three kits would cover a 36-week school year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 My kids love the Mindbenders puzzles and think they are great fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilly Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 LoF WP Animals and Their Worlds MBTP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Artistic Pursuits Sonlight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 SOTW 2 - knights, castles, vikings, princesses, Shakepeare.... what's not to like?!!! :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffodilDreams Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Most of our fun stuff has been add ons: Meet the Masters (not an add on) Horrible Histories Beast Academy LOF Happy Scientist Ellen McHenry's The Elements (not an add on) BrainPop Earthschooling (the crafts, stories, and recipes) Little Passports (for Geography) Reading Eggs (no longer need it, but it was fun at the time) Grammar Land The Sentence Family Mad Libs Childcraft set Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahamamama Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 We had a great time doing Native American History Pockets this year for American History! We missed doing them when we were done. We enjoyed Story Time Treasures and More Story Time Treasures for 1st Grade and plan to do it again next year (twins/1st). Gentle and sweet. I notice that your three oldest children are boys; however, we are having fun with the historical American Girl books (Kaya, Felicity, Caroline, Josefina, Marie-Grace & Cecile, Kirsten, Addy, Samantha, Rebecca, Kit, Molly, Julie). You may want to keep these books in mind for when your sweet baby girl is in the age range. :) One other fun memory -- from when my girls were toddlers & preschoolers (2, 3, 4 years old) -- we sang and danced to Wee Sing and Cedarmont Kids CDs, played instruments, and had fun. Here's my list of those happy tunes from those happy times: http://weesing.com/Books-Music/Wee-Sing-And-Learn-Opposites http://weesing.com/Books-Music/Wee-Sing-And-Learn-Bugs http://weesing.com/Books-Music/Wee-Sing-And-Learn-123 http://weesing.com/Books-Music/Wee-Sing-America http://weesing.com/Books-Music/Wee-Sing-Bible-Songs http://weesing.com/Books-Music/Wee-Sing-Nursery-Rhymes-and-Lullabies And we sang and danced to all of these (except the lullabies, these were for sleeping): http://cedarmontkids.com/index2.html Last year for Around-the-World Geography, we enjoyed watching Families of the World DVDs. We requested that our library purchase them, and they did. :) We also enjoyed watching all the Rick Steves DVDs that our library had. We had fun doing this human body book when we studied human anatomy. Thanks for the reminder to keep doing fun things! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Considering Gods Creation by eagle wing publishing was a lot of fun. Hands on science crafts for lack of a better description. We combined it with Galloping the Globe and had fabulous workbooks to show the grandparents. Also liked Draw Write Now, LOF, Ellen McHenry...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Another vote for FIAR. Those are some great memories. Wish I had enough energy to get it out for my current batch of littles. A runner-up would be RightStart A. All three of my Kers loved all the games in RS A. The love continued through level B,a nd then they figured out that math is work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Ellen j McHenry's materials This. I'm trying to drag out her offerings for as long as humanly possible. Lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KellyMama Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Another MCT vote here. We loved every minute of our Sentence Island reading! Also a fan favorite - SOTW vol 1 and 2 so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Different things different years. Some things that were fun when they were new were SOTW, Drawing with Children, Prima Latina and Latina Christiana I. I have to say FF hasn't been as much fun.. we don't have time for the prayers and classical studies (Famous Men of Rome that was scheduled w/LCI) because it is just so much more work. We are in our 5th year of SOTW. We love history, though we don't do all of the projects and movies and such that we did the first time around, as all of our schedules have gotten busier. But our love of history started there. And we all love art. So having a set time and doing art together and seeing our work improve w/DWC was a great couple of years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ailey Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 The Chicago Review Press books "xxx for Kids" (Leonardo da Vinci, Lewis and Clark, American Folk Art, Galileo, Einstein, Isaac Newton, and many more) These! We've used a three or four of these so far and they've all been fantastic. Some other fun things for those ages: Basher science books Thames and Kosmos kits Miquon Zaccaro's Primary Grade Challenge Math Grammar Land The Sentence Family NaNoWriMo elementary workbook Unjournaling Draw Write Now Art Start and Illustration School drawing books Story of the World Minimus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyrobynne Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Beast Academy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristi26 Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Up until today, I had no idea what to add to this list honestly! I mean we've had fun with some of our history activities here and there, but not consistently. Yesterday though, DD got Rory's Story Cubes as a belated Christmas present and she LOVES using them to write stories! The effect may wear off but at this point, she has had tons of fun going back and forth taking turns rolling the dice and creating stories together. And we take it a step further. I have her write her part down, then I write my part, and she reads the parts! So we are getting some creative thinking done in a fun way, practicing handwriting, practicing using our phonics and spelling rule skills, and practicing reading words (some of which she really has to work for!). LOVE it! Here's a link in case you're curious! :hurray: http://www.amazon.com/Gamewright-318-Rorys-Story-Cubes/dp/B003EIK136/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358182366&sr=8-1&keywords=rory%27s+story+cubes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heritagelearningacademy Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 We are loving My Father's World, Exploring Countries and Cultures! :) Can't wait each day for geography! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DianeW88 Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Konos. Hands down, without reservation. And, as a bonus, it was the curriculum my kids retained the most knowledge from. My dd (who is currently a 4.0 student in college) told me that she is currently using what she remembers from Konos for her Astronomy class this semester. She said she's light years ahead of the other kids because of our Konos solar system unit that she did in 6th grade. In fact, her professor asked her how she knew so much about astronomy, since it's not traditionally taught to any depth in the public schools around here. She told him she'd been homeschooled and he smiled and nodded. Yay for Konos!!! :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Crisparkle Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Biblioplan! We just loved the literature selections, and took many field trips related to the person or event that we studied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Building Up Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 FIAR when they were little. Sonlight and Brave Writer for the last few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Just thought of Critical Thinking Comany's mathematical reasoning for a fun math program. We're trying this as part of our spring math line-up (I think!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mukmuk Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Ds' faves: Ellen McHenry anything Ed Zacarro anything Aims Edu- a whole bunch but the best, he says, is Amazing Circle Critical Thinking Company -The Mindbenders with jokes/riddles. AoPS Martin Gardner Heart of Math which we had to stop because the math was beyond him, but he loved the style and ideas. I need to follow up on Prof Ed Burger. Not loving MCT Island at the moment but perhaps we haven't hit on Mud yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland_Mom Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 We REALLY enjoyed . . . R.E.A.L. Science for kids - short read-aloud lessons and LOTS of hands on science fun. Homeschool in the Woods Timeline - One of our best purchases Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers - Excellent lapbook, handiwork/crafts/cooking. LOVED it! Discovering Great Artists FIAR SOTW with Acitivity book MFW RtoR and MFW Explorers to 1850 Bible Study Guide for All Ages Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staceyshoe Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Ellen j McHenry's materials Another vote for her stuff. My son absolutely adores her science--rich in content but full of activities, songs, funny cartoons, etc. We might start exploring her other curricula next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa B Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 TOPS Science Song School Latin Watercolor painting (Live Education) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTJo1996 Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Paths of Exploration from GeoMatters. Love love LOVE this stuff!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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