Ideas: Favorite extras for Adventures?

[gratitude]

We will be starting Adventures (and K) in a few weeks. We have a little money left in our budget for school this year. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for things that may go well with Adventures. We already have Rosetta Stone (Hebrew), and we did purchase The States DVD set from The History Channel. I'm not looking for anything curriculum wise, just add-ons for fun (like the dvd set). So, what would be your wish list??

Since we haven't had much success with our local library I did purchase the Beautiful Feet U.S. History for this age group. I was looking for one of the * book on week 1 or 2 and it led to them, and then I found others in their package. I think it was around $90 for a set of books (I didn't purchase their TM or guides). Many of the books are listed in the back of the ADV TM. They go right along with the topics studied in ADV, and add some nice read-alouds/book basket books if you like to read. George Washington Breakfast is one of my ds's favorite.

Just wanted to say that BF will help create lit packages for you (by phone) ... we did it with them. I had like 4 books already and they let me substitute other books from them ...

Us too. We didn't buy the duplicates, but substituted.

[marsha617]

We did Adventures 2 yrs. ago. Here are the extras we actually used:
Liberty Kids Videos - these can be played instantly on Netflix if you have access
Animated Heroes Videos - Is that what they're called? I can't remember but they are the videos suggested in the book basket. We had all of these on VHS. I got a great deal on ebay.
States workbook at Target in the dollar section - We did both state sheets and this workbook. It's fun and easy. The kids liked it.
Dover Indian coloring pages AND Dover Easy to Make Plains Indian Teepee Village - we made these in addition to the wigwam in the TM
Toobs - Jamestown settlers and Powhatan Indians
Instead of the Exploring American History book sometimes we read Abeka 3rd grade history reader - Someone gave me this; you don't really need it.

You'll have lots of fun! A suggestion would be to buy some of the books with an asterisk* from the book basket. If you didn't buy the deluxe set it's worth it with Adventures.

[Mexmarr]

Do you have a globe? I really wished we had one.

I also ditto purchasing books with asterisks. I got one per week for the first 12 weeks and that made each new week exciting. I didn't have library access at the time. About the time we hit week 12, and I ran out of new books, we got library access. They go back and read the books I got all the time. Amazon is a great place to get them. They have the Buy 3 get one free for new book. Also many I got for 1 cent, plus shipping- $3.99.

[705emily]

Hello:
www.homeschoolinthewoods.com has a free download model of the Jamestown settlement. We enjoyed using this with the toob figurines. My kids also enjoyed watching the Liberty's Kids series.

[RBS in OH]

Would your family enjoy going to a performance of the Nutcracker? Nearing Christmas time, you may be able to find a local fine arts center that will offer tickets at a reasonable price. When we did this two years ago, we even got dressed up and went out to dinner beforehand. It created a great memory for our daughter especially.

And how about considering a set of binoculars? And a bird identification book? There is a small sized beginners' guide by Stokes that we found to be very user-friendly because the bird identification is by color. ADV turned us into bird-lovers

...just a couple of ideas...enjoy your year with ADV--it's fun!

[Poohbee]

My dds loved, and still love, the book United Tweets of America: 50 State Birds Their Stories Their Glories, by Hudson Talbott. We had checked it out from the library and kept checking it out over and over again so many times that I ended up buying our own copy. It's a really fun book about the state birds and is just a great supplement when you are learning about each state.

I would also highly recommend some resource about all 50 states that you can pull out to read if you miss a trip to the library one week or something like that. I bought one called Time for Learning: States, by Lynne Blanton and Betsy Hedberg. That was a good resource for us, but there are quite a few neat books out there about all 50 states.

Also, as Rachel recommended, a bird identification book and a pair of binoculars would be perfect during ADV and in future years. I think we've gone birdwatching each year, and it's nice to have some kids' binoculars and that bird identification book to pull out.

Enjoy Adventures! It's a great year!

[jasntas]

What is Toobs?? &) &)

I can answer one of your questions. Toobs are a brand of 'toys' that come in a tube. You can see them at amazon.com. Just do a search for toobs. Michaels carries these for around $7. Cheaper than amazon and if you use a 40% off coupon they are really reasonable. I purchased the ones mentioned for ADV and I purchased a few for ECC as well. Some of the animal ones to go along with the biomes. (If you go to my blog listed in my signature line, click on May 2011, then ECC Weeks 33-34 - Antarctica and Penguins you can see how we used our Toob penguins) HTH

[1974girl]

We made the most awesome notebooking pages using www.homeschoolshare.com It is free! I would search whatever we were doing at the time and find great lapbooks that someone has done for you! I wouldn't do the whole lapbook but would pull a page or two out of it. We found a wagon that had all the parts to cut out and assemble. We found a skeleton to do the same way (with just a few major bones) for when you do that in science.

But if I could give you one thing it would be to look up Wakko's 50 states on Youtube. It is a cartoon charater who sings the 50 states and capitals! Search until you find one with the lyrics, too! We learned a few at a time (pausing and rewinding) and in a month, even my 6 year old could sing all 50 states and their capitals! (She did this in the homeschool talent show and blew everyone away since the majority of adults didn't know them!) LOL

[Julie in MN]

This made me think of another resource we have that we use. The Audio Memory States and Capitols. We have played this in the car and it really did result in our children memorizing their states & capitols. They also have one for world geography. We ordered the CDs without the books.

MFW uses the Audio Memory set (and sells it) in 1850MOD, too.

You also get some card games in the student pages of 1850MOD to help match those states & caps. And you use a tablet of blank maps to learn where the 50 states are on the blank map. More fun to come!

There were a few more posts here:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=5941
And at the end of that thread, Tammie recommends the Ideas board for more... ideas!

Have fun
Julie

[gratitude]

Some grandparents are likely to buy us books for Christmas. I'm looking at what might be nice to have for Adventures next year. I'd like to reduce our dependence on library books next year for a number of reasons (distance, forgetfulness, kids being upset when books are due). For those who have done or are doing Adventures, what would be your tops picks for books (titles or subjects) to add to the deluxe curriculum in order to reduce the need for weekly library trips?

My ds9 did very much enjoy the books we added to ADV. I added books from Beautiful Feet, Heart of Dakota Beyond and Bigger programs, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder series. We learned a lot of American History.

Blessings,
Carin

[4monkeyz]

We are currently doing Advens. - I have the Beautiful Feet books & would highly recommend the d'Aulaire set. Really enjoying some of the state books. These two have quite lovely artwork - Ox-Cart man & Homespun Sarah. The kids loved Mirette & Bellini Cross Niagara Falls & Copper Lady. For the first few weeks, I also liked the I can read series for my oldest - Sam the Minuteman, Buttons for Washington, etc. We enjoyed quite a few of the earlier books for colonial studies. I'm anxiously awaiting more ILLs!!!

[baileymom]

My kids LOVED watching the Liberty's Kids series the year we did ADV ... we bought the DVDs, and they still watch them from time to time. The Nest History videos are good too.

I would also suggest the books from BF's Early American guides (I believe they include the D'Aulaire bios ... and a few Your Story Hour American History audios, which my boys enjoy).

[Julie in MN]

Some more resources for you, during this quieter time on the board:
Adventures Ideas board: http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewforum.php?f=24
Favorite extras: http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=11201
Book basket: http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=5941
And in the above link, Paige links to the Adventures sample. Scroll to the table of contents (pages 3-5) for the list of topics: http://www.mfwbooks.com/downloads/pdfs/ ... manual.pdf

Finally, don't forget the MFW free shipping sale this month, and they do have an Adventures page for gift ideas:
http://www.mfwbooks.com/products/M50/115/0/0/1#advCMAS
And some more ideas on the age 5-7 page:
http://www.mfwbooks.com/products/M50/115/0/0/1#ctA57
With these, you might have to tell your parents which items you have already purchased or plan to purchase in a future package, but there might be some fun things from past years you didn't get to try yet, as well.

HTH,
Julie