To review Geography terms, have your child make a pretend salt map. You can get a recipe for salt dough online. I gave ds several terms (like mountain range, bay, peninsula...) that I wanted him to include in his map. He then had to form these terms out of the dough and make his own country. He put ...

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:38 pm Here's what helped us to make the year go smoothly. - I made copies of all the appendix pages and put them into a file folder in order. When I needed a copy for the day, I just pulled it out. - I also collected everything I needed for the crafts and science experime...

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 6:45 am

In Adventures, I would assign some of the easier books for required reading. I don't know that ds would have read them on his own initiative.

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 8:08 am
I would use poker chips in 3 different colors and mark them if I could actually find them at a store around here! The paper number discs we found to be very annoying- we just needed something more substanial to move around.

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 7:02 pm We schedule math for 1/2 hour a day. About 10-15 minutes to explain and then 10-15 minutes of workbook. When we were using something else, I used to cross out 1/2 of the problems because he didn't need that many to "get" the concept, Singapore has just enough withou...

I am still trying to decide if I should switch my daughter over to Singapore next year when we start using MFW. My daughter will be in 4th grade next year. She is very good in math and I feel she may be falling behind because we haven't learned a lot of the things on the test for level 2. Posted: S...

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:18 am We are sticking with MFW. We did like the literature program, but ds really needed more than just a bunch of good books. He needed to DO stuff and not have to sit through more reading with his wiggly body. I like that MFW has activities scheduled and gives enough t...

I've received my package for Exp-1850, but did not order the Pioneers and Patriots book because I already have a copy. The page numbers don't match up with the lesson manual. In fact, I haven't even been able to figure it out when looking at the topic for the day. My copy is about 6 years old. Is t...

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:28 am

Here's my latest find. It's a blog that gives you a weekly nature study assignment with notebooking pages. For those of you (like me) who need further nature study direction, here is the place to go!

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HarmonyArtMom/480223/

Beth

I checked our local library and they have a lot of different versions of The Nutcracker on book and video or dvd. The thing is, I'm not familiar with The Nutcracker and I want to choose something that is "original" and not remade or adapted....so I have no idea what I'm looking for. Can someone hel...

I am having a hard time teaching my daughter how to divide. She has done this previously, but suddenly has hit a "road block." We are currently using Singapore math and are in 3A page 79. We struggled through pg 69 and I tried to explain it to her again but she just isn't grasping it. Any suggestio...

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:22 pm For dictation, I'm having my ds 7 go through Green Eggs and Ham. It's a little easier, on his spelling level and it teaches him basic sentence structure without him having to think too much on spelling words. we'll go over the passage and write down any words that a...

Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:48 am I feel like MFW is more age appropriate and I can involve my 3 year old in school too without much trouble. One reason I switched is because I will have 4 year gaps between my last 3 children (eventually, it will be 10,6, and 2). The little ones would be left behind...

Someone asked me about the difference between MFW and SOTW. I have never seen SOTW and I'm hoping some of you can give me answers. The main question I have is, why do you choose MFW over SOTW? MFW is more than history. It's the "everything else" too (aside from LA and math). I don't have to search ...

This is for a ds 7 years old in 2nd grade. We use Singapore math - just because it teaches a child to think mathematically, doesn't involve a lot of busy work, and teaches how to do word problems which is the reason you should learn math anyway. I use something else for spelling. I tried queen homes...

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:13 pm "Jesus is the Giver of Living Water" in week 10: I've read thru the TM a few times looking for when to color the drop of water and paste it on our poster. I know we're supposed to put it on a glass or pitcher, but is it not part of the poster too? Or did I miss it s...

Today, we were looking at some star pictures and ds said, "oh there's Betelgeuse". I thought to myself, "where did he pick up anything about that star?" You see, we're on week 28 of Adventures and ds learned about Betelgeuse in week 5! He remembered the lesson better than I did. It finally came to m...

Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:27 pm We use something called Flashmaster. It's basically an electronic version of flash cards. it has + - x and division. It's not exciting but gets the job done. I'm also going to start with math wrap ups. Just a little plastic piece that you can practice math facts. Beth

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:22 pm Mine looks like julie's, only we have it on the bathroom door. Very simple just running down vertically. I also have the names of Jesus poster on another door to the garage (I don't have alot of wall space). Basically, we're never going to get into better homes and ...

I would skip going back also. If you're concerned about them retaining where the states are, just get them a state puzzle. I usually read a story about a state when ds is coloring his sheet. He still listens and we kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Don't let the curriculum be in charge of you.

Here's what we did (we didn't know about mfw 1st)...I used very short lessons (15 minutes per day max). Sometimes, if it was a lot of words, I would print them out on scraps of paper and play musical words. I would put them in a circle and sing and when I stopped singing, ds would read his word and ...

There are some great book basket books to go along with the whole history cycle. They start with "you wouldn't want to..." For example, You wouldn't want to sail with Christopher Columbus", You wouldn't want to sail on the Mayflower", ect. Ds 7 reads them eagerly and they seem to be historically acu...

Recording Progress I've seen a report card that our public school issues for grades 1-5 and they don't have "grades" like A-F. They have 3 (or more) levels of evaluations such as 1-exceeds grade level standards, 2- meets grade level standards, 3-below grade level standards. So in things like LA and...

I am having a hard time finding books that my analytical, logical, left brained son will find interesting. I am doing Adventures with him and he is reading very well although it is not his favorite thing to do. He is not ready for novel type books yet (like the Little House books) because he gets o...

I LOVE the library!!!! I've found so much stuff there. I have become a resource for my friends telling them what all they can find. My husband works at a Christian Publishing house and I guess I work against what he's doing when I tell all my friends about all the wonderful books he publishes that t...