Everything went better than I realistically expected. The kids started their Tuesday /Thursday workshops. I am very pleased with the schedules. It is about 3 hours History, 45 min break, just over an hour of Science, another hour of Art appreciation on Tuesday and Music Appreciation on Thursday (which will go along with the time period from History). So far everything has been totally awesome from the literature assigned, read in class or discussed as a group being good choices (it also goes along with the time period either from or about- ex. "Witch of Blackbird Pond" for Puritans, "Oliver Twist" during Industrialization etc.) for all age groups. This goes along with the reading that I am assigning. This week Red, for instance, read "Outrageous Women of the Renaissance" and "Royal Dairies: Princess Elizabeth" in addition to her free time reading book. I was concerned about getting back into the swing of going out to workshops and the temptation of calling that the whole school day, particularly since our afternoons tend to be busy, but so far we have been up and at 'em and on track with getting Math, Bible and Logic done before hand. That way all we have to worry about after afternoon/evening activities is chores and music practice, and maybe silent reading. I did make a few changes in our curriculum/organization from what I put in my earlier post. For example, for Art class the kids will be using the drawing lesson books and videos with me for practice, but they are also doing half an hour of cartooning with Daddy on Mondays, and hopefully continuing to take Art classes once a week from the fabulous lady who has been giving classes over the Summer. She teaches in her home, and she combines Art with History, taking the drawing subjects form the time period and talking about them as they draw. Also, we can not afford Rosetta Stone right now, so we will not be using that for Latin. We are going to re-do "Getting started with Latin" and see what we can come up with later in the year. On that subject, HUGE blessing! My mom, who is brilliant at languages, like she is at most things has offered to take over the kids Spanish lessons and teach them herself! Yay! We will not be doing tennis lessons this year either, although I hope to get some family playing time in, and we are holding off on martial arts for now, but we are continuing with dane and gymnastics and have soccer 3 or 4 times a week. In addition to that the kids are signed up for a once a week PE class with bunches of their friends at a local park. Due to both finances and a soccer schedule conflict, we can not be in band for the first semester, but that is another thing I hope to be able to pick up later in the year. I am going to do a little more with geography this year than just maps and charts. So far we are thinking of trying "Mapping the World by Heart" and I ordered a couple of games that Fridgedr. suggested... 10 Days in the USA
Item #: 027208
ISBN: 9781932359091
EAN: 659390010115
Grades: 4-Adult
Retail: $24.99
Rainbow Price: $19.25 10 Days in Europe
Item #: 036431
ISBN: 9781932359435
EAN: 659390010122
Grades: 4-Adult
Retail: $24.99
Rainbow Price: $19.25 I also ordered some extra Logic resources including the books "Logic Countdown" and "Logic Liftoff" and more of the "Math detective", Science Detective" an Reading Detective" books that we loved so much last year, as well as some of the other critical thinking books we have enjoyed in the past. I am also looking forward to receiving the Science stuff I ordered last week including these things from Rainbow Resources... Mystery of the Periodic Table
Item #: 029477
ISBN: 9781883937713
Grades: 5-Adult
Detective Science: 40 Crime-Solving, Case-Breaking, Crook-Catching Activities for Kids
Item #: 008089
ISBN: 9780471119807
Grades: 4-8
Retail: $12.95
Rainbow Price: $10.50Atoms: Alphabet of the Universe
Item #: 031184
Grades: 3-Adult
Retail: $19.95
Rainbow Price: $15.50 Cub Scouts has been running all Summer, but we are looking forward to Girl Scouts starting back up this week, and Bible Study and choir starting up next week. we are still in a total dilemma over which church to go to, but meanwhile still want to be involved with youth choir, or at least the girls do at the one we are technically members of, although we have only been a few times over the summer. We started doing Science Club again yesterday. It kind of snuck up on me, so I didn't officially start a unit yet. I handed out Science project journals for the year and we did a few little fun experiments to refresh our minds on things we learned last year (eggs in different water, milk molecules with food coloring and detergent,and the old baking soda and vinegar). then as a look forward to the unit on Land forms that we will be starting when I get my act together, hopefully next week, we made clay models of landforms. That all took about an hour, and the kids played in the pool for the other hour or so, so all in all I think it was an okay beginning. In fact I am very thankful for the whole week. It really went very well, and I can't think of any major hitches at all. We even made it more or less on time to workshops and that is almost unheard of! Hoping for as much good news to report next week. | 
I'm also curious about the __________ detective books. have to go search for those.
