I like supplementary materials. Now, the key is remembering that I have some and using them! These are great tools to put in a grab and go school bag for errands, Dr.'s appointments, or staff meetings, should such a thing exist for you! These are helpful also for changing up your schedule, or filling in some blanks.

Today I picked up these items:
Skill Builders: Grammar, Grade 4. Short lessons focusing on parts of speech, sentence types etc.
Skill Builders: Reading, Grade 4. Skills include comprehension, vocabulary, logic etc.

Both of these are published by Rainbow Bridge Publishing. They are reproducibles and easy to understand so that the student can do the work themselves. Two pages per week would take you through the year. They are small in size so easy to pack and carry. See also summerbridgeactivities.com.

Also: Cursive Writing Practice Grades 2-3 by Teacher Created Resources. Cursive has been the challenge for us as of late, and as far as I can see it, these will help jump start our hesitancy to really jump into cursive. The book is small with very self explanatory lessons. Two pages a week and you're done!

Finally: Math Detective(Beginning) for Grades 3-4 by The Critical Thinking Company. I love these books. They challenge me! They also have grade appropriate Science and Reading Detective series. Visit CriticalThinking.com or call 800-458-4849 for resources. We have used Mathematical Reason with Daniel, and it's a great tool. It helps them look at math in a whole new way. One that I would have liked to have seen at some point is Can You Find Me, for PreK-1. It develops skills in reading readiness, science, math and social studies.....just sounds like fun!

I also picked up Teachers Daily Lesson Plans by The Riegle Press Inc. I will be using it to plan out our Geography Studies over the next couple of years. It can be used to plan art, reading, music, cooking, crafts, service projects, reports etc....all focused around Geography, a particular continent or people group. It was in the bargain bin for $3. I hope it will work.

I also purchased a nice-sized wall chart of the World and the United States, the 13 colonies, plus a cute border (that I thought included more countries and continents) that I will use as a border round our bulletin board and white board. Now I am just sorting through which Geography books and/or curriculum we will use. Geography, here we come!