Have you seen these Extreme Dot to Dot books? They truly are extreme! When my kids saw all of the dot on the pages, and that some of the puzzles go past 1000 dots, they were hooked! Hours of entertainment! We, of course, had to get the Prehistoric one with dinosaurs but there are many different choice out there. They are made by Mind Ware.
I have recently joined a site called Good Reads. A fellow homeschooler sent me the link a while back. I’m just now getting to it. Seems like a neat site and a good way to learn about books you might be interested in.
Explode the Code 1 by Nancy Hall
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
My kindergarten has really enjoyed this book this year. We are about to move on to book 2. I recommend ETC, they read and do a little writing as well.
If you do a google search for Konos organization you’ll find links to her blog. We’ll officially start school this year just after Labor Day. Actually, we really haven’t stopped this summer we just do less and I try to make everything more fun. B will start Kindergarten this year and J will be doing stuff along side us. I love lapbooks and plan to do as many as we can of different subject. Last year, Five in a Row was big for us. We’ll continue rowing some books this year as well. I love Five in a Row. The booksare awesome and we never mind reading them over and over. Some, like Lentil, we’ve read well over 5 times. I started off just rowing the books I could find at our local library but then ended up buying quite a few used at Amazon.com. You can also buy lots of Five in a Row books on e-bay. Most of the books are so good you’ll want to have them in your home library. 
Each set of cards completed earns the child a ticket that allows them to do a privilege like watch a TV show or do something on the computer (anything that works for your family).
We only have them do simple daily chores that they should do anyway; make they beds, clean their rooms, clothes into hampers, get dress, brush teeth (with our help). The tickets can also be taken away for discipline for not listen, name calling etc. It’s really worked out well. We don’t expect perfectly made beds but sometimes they do extra well and over time, we hope, it will stick with them and realize that it’s nice to have a tidy area to play and live. Over time we can start to pay them for extra chores completed like taking the trash out. a reward for 10 days without loosing a ticket your child can get a date with whoever they choose. Here, J went for ice cream with Mama
