What materials have you really had fun with?

[one l michele]

We really had fun with the "My Body" unit last year by Teacher Created Resources and this year we are really enjoying "Simply Stated", especially cooking a recipe from that state at the end of the week.

[Rhonda@LivingWater]

I taught that last year for our co-op in the K-2 class and it was a huge hit with all the kids. Two of my children were in that class and we now have their *bodies* hanging in our school room.
We really enjoyed FIAR when my were younger. Ping, Lentil, Mike Mulligan, those were some of our favorites.
Oldest dd and I have had fun with Mystery of History and Considering Gods Creation.
Also, mine like learning cd's really well. We some spanish ones, and science, and States and Capitals was a big hit.

Next year I look forward to Galloping the Globe w/ my youngest two.

[ArwenA]

Next year I look forward to Galloping the Globe w/ my youngest two.

Galloping the Globe is LOTS of fun. I'm sure you and your kids will love it.:)

[Chris in VA]

SOTW AG is really great fun--I've been very pleased with most of the activities.
Also, we are loving the Viking Treasure Chest. I may buy another one in the series, it's so good. So far, we have made a sundial (still making, actually--need to wait for a sunny day, but it's together!), added stickers to two nice posters, read interesting information, and made a Viking Ship. DD loves that she can lock it with her own key.

[nukeswife]

Evan-Moor Science works for kids books.

We've done the Space one last year and parts of the body one. We are starting Geology in a few weeks.

[Lori D.]

Brings back so many great memories of wonderful books, programs, and fun extras!


Non-curriculum items:
- white board and colored markers
- a globe and laminated maps (they love to mark/erase/mark these)
- "fidget" toys to occupy "busy" hands we're reading
(tiny metal slinkies; magnets; pipe cleaners; tiny "etch-a-sketch"; "koosh" and squishy balls; etc.)
- "fun" pages: book of mazes from Creative Child Press; Puzzlemania books; books from the "Talented and Gifted" series; etc.
- using games for school: Set; Scan; Mastermind; games with money for counting change; etc.


Curriculum items and curriculum "extras"

Bible:
- Jesse Tree Bible study (designed/made our own ornaments)
- Millers series of books
- A Hive of Busy Bees
- Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends

Reading:
- Python Path game (beginning to blend sounds into words)
- Reader Rabbit computer software
- What Your ... Grader Should Know (we really enjoyed reading through these, a page or two a day; and doing the "adages" section as a "wheel of fortune" style game)
- lots of books from Sonlight lists

Writing:
- Peggy Kaye's Games for Learning -- idea for encouraging writing -- take turns, roll a die and that's how many *words* you get to write in a story; pass the die and paper to the next person
- Wordsmith Apprentice (both writing phobic boys here enjoyed it!)

Grammar:
- Schoolhouse Rock video: Grammar Rock
- "Mad Libs"
- "Grammar Ad Libs"

Geography:
- Beautiful Feet Geography Guide & the 4 Holling books
- Complete Books of Geography and Maps

Science:
- 365 Simple Science Experiments book
- Reader's Digest "How Earth Works" and "How Science Works"
- "sun print" paper; magnets set; gears & pulleys; any kit with mixing, heating, exploding things!

Math:
- Miquon math (really! my older son esp. loved this)
- manipulatives: geoboards; pattern blocks; fraction circles/bars
- also booklets like "Math Discoveries with..." or cuisenaire rod books
- Math Blasters computer software

Logic:
- Dandylion series: Logic Countdown; Blastoff with...; Orbiting with...
- Think-A-Grams, Plexers, Word Winks and other visual word puzzles
- Fallacy Detective, Thinking Toolbox

Vocabulary:
- English from the Roots Up (we've made it more like a game)

[JenBlok]

SOTW AG and all of the Evan-Moor Pockets series for History and Literature. My kids like a lot of hands on!

Jennifer Blok
ds9, ds7, dd3

[ArwenA]

Others have been mentioning SOTW AG and I agree. One of the most fun and educational items ever!

[OhElizabeth]

We really enjoy the singing we do each day for memory work using VP songs, Audio Memory Geography Songs, etc.

[Baseballmom]

Hands and Hearts History Kits. My kids have had a blast with the hands on projects, games and notebooking. They will forever be able to identify the difference between a doric, ionic and corinthian column. They will never forget what a fresca is.
www.Handsandhearts.com

[Trivium Academy]

You know, I'm sort of like Lori - everything we've used has a positive impact on our homeschool, I could list them out but it's not the item that makes it fun. It's our attitude. That said, I can't wait to use these things because I see the potential for fun:
In the next year or so:
- Galloping the Globe
- Writing Tales
- Hands-On History type activity books that allow you to build dioramas and other paper type crafts
- Sing, Spell, Read & Write

When ds3 is ready for life science, I want to read Burgess' Animal book to him and do the My Body by Teacher Created Resources- we did this on our own (dd7 and I, last year) but I think using My Body will be better!

We tend to have fun in all our subjects, we just enjoy being together and learning new things- I think it's more attitude than anything though.

[Night Elf]

When my dd9 was learning to read, Hooked on Phonics was a blast. Our second most enjoyable resource has been Calvert's A Child's History of the World on cd for the computer. The presentation is appealing and the interactions at the end of the chapter are like a sweet treat. My son loved it when he went through it, and now my daughter is enjoying it. It sounds corny, but both kids would happily do CHOW even if not required to do so.

[Mogster]

Montessori grammar symbols with sentence strips
Montessori addition and subtraction game
Minimus Latin
Manners Made Easy
Geography Songs CD
Read-alouds (My kids favorite is still Roald Dahl's Danny Chamption of the World.):)

[one l michele]

Brings back so many great memories of wonderful books, programs, and fun extras!


Non-curriculum items:
- white board and colored markers
- a globe and laminated maps (they love to mark/erase/mark these)
- "fidget" toys to occupy "busy" hands we're reading
(tiny metal slinkies; magnets; pipe cleaners; tiny "etch-a-sketch"; "koosh" and squishy balls; etc.)
- "fun" pages: book of mazes from Creative Child Press; Puzzlemania books; books from the "Talented and Gifted" series; etc.
- using games for school: Set; Scan; Mastermind; games with money for counting change; etc.


Curriculum items and curriculum "extras"

Bible:
- Jesse Tree Bible study (designed/made our own ornaments)
- Millers series of books
- A Hive of Busy Bees
- Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends

Reading:
- Python Path game (beginning to blend sounds into words)
- Reader Rabbit computer software
- What Your ... Grader Should Know (we really enjoyed reading through these, a page or two a day; and doing the "adages" section as a "wheel of fortune" style game)
- lots of books from Sonlight lists

Writing:
- Peggy Kaye's Games for Learning -- idea for encouraging writing -- take turns, roll a die and that's how many *words* you get to write in a story; pass the die and paper to the next person
- Wordsmith Apprentice (both writing phobic boys here enjoyed it!)

Grammar:
- Schoolhouse Rock video: Grammar Rock
- "Mad Libs"
- "Grammar Ad Libs"

Geography:
- Beautiful Feet Geography Guide & the 4 Holling books
- Complete Books of Geography and Maps

Science:
- 365 Simple Science Experiments book
- Reader's Digest "How Earth Works" and "How Science Works"
- "sun print" paper; magnets set; gears & pulleys; any kit with mixing, heating, exploding things!

Math:
- Miquon math (really! my older son esp. loved this)
- manipulatives: geoboards; pattern blocks; fraction circles/bars
- also booklets like "Math Discoveries with..." or cuisenaire rod books
- Math Blasters computer software

Logic:
- Dandylion series: Logic Countdown; Blastoff with...; Orbiting with...
- Think-A-Grams, Plexers, Word Winks and other visual word puzzles
- Fallacy Detective, Thinking Toolbox

Vocabulary:
- English from the Roots Up (we've made it more like a game)

We'll be starting it next year.

[Herding Cats in NC]

We're really enjoying the SOTW AG. We don't do anywhere near all of the crafts, but my kids enjoy the maps & coloring pages. And they loved the making Chickenhotep. History Pockets and the Schoolhouse Rock cds/DVD have been a hit here as well.

[one l michele]

You know, I'm sort of like Lori - everything we've used has a positive impact on our homeschool, I could list them out but it's not the item that makes it fun. It's our attitude. That said, I can't wait to use these things because I see the potential for fun:
In the next year or so:
- Galloping the Globe
- Writing Tales
- Hands-On History type activity books that allow you to build dioramas and other paper type crafts
- Sing, Spell, Read & Write

When ds3 is ready for life science, I want to read Burgess' Animal book to him and do the My Body by Teacher Created Resources- we did this on our own (dd7 and I, last year) but I think using My Body will be better!

We tend to have fun in all our subjects, we just enjoy being together and learning new things- I think it's more attitude than anything though.

Yes, we have fun throughout the day and enjoy the materials we use or we wouldn't continue using them, however there are some products out there that really are too fun to "be school" and we'll definitely always have fond memories of.

[Lori D.]

Here's how we used EFTRU as a sort-of game:

Each page of the book is laid out so that the top half has the root, and the bottom half has first a list of words using that root with their definitions, and then text that goes into more detail about that root.

1. We cover the page we'd marked as being the next page we were scheduled to do, then reveal just enough to see the root. Based on seeing just the root, we try to guess what it means by trying to look at the root and guess what words it is a part of. (ex.: "porta" -- we guessed it meant "to carry" because we came up with "portable", "transport", and "important" as words that *looked* like they could come from that root.

2. Then we reveal the root and read about it. (In above ex.: surprise! we were wrong! "porta" means door, gate, entry, and words that use it are: port, portal, portcullis, etc. -- however the NEXT page had the word "porto" -- and yes, *that's* the word that means "to carry", and all our guesses were right for that one.)

3. We make an index card for the root, jotting down the words/definitions that are listed in the book, then we use the dictionary and see if any words we came up with that aren't in the book also use that root. We also look in the dictionary for any other words with that root.

That's how we found the word "decimate" comes from the root "decem" (tenth) -- the ancient Romans would conquer an area, and if the area rebelled, the Romans lined up all the men in that area, took every tenth one and killed him -- they would "decimate" (reduce by a tenth) the population to quell rebellion. From there, the word has come to mean "a drastic reduction". Cool, huh?!

You can use any root words book and keep adding on to your index file this way. Every so often, review the words -- you can make this a game too:
"Hangman" style of game -- show the root word on the front of the card; child guesses meaning of the word; you draw a "gallows" and then each turn thereafter, a body part to "hang" a stick figure for each wrong guess -- I allow them after a wrong guess to ask a yes/no question ("is it a verb?"; "does it have to do with animals (or numbers, or....)"; "does the word .... use this root?") to narrow down what the word could mean, and the turn passes to the next child. They try to guess the word before the stick figure is completed and "hung".

Enjoy! Warmly, Lori D.

[Herding Cats in NC]

That's it! I want to go to Lori D's school. :D It sounds like you all have so much fun. Seriously, I really enjoy your posts & often save them for future reference. And your book suggestions are always awesome. Thanks for sharing!

[Johanna]

Home Science Adventures kits by stratton house. A fun way to do science....great "hands on" for my ds and dd loves them too!

[Lori D.]

"Herding Cats" just cracks me up very time I see it!:D

Thanks for the vote of confidence... Just wish my own kids enjoyed learning as much as I do. Hey, how 'bout we forget the kids and we all homeschool each other here! I promise -- I'd be one of your best pupils! ;)

Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Patty Joanna]

Brimwood Press's Young Historians