I just bought the National Optical 131 used off Craigslist for $75 (woo-hoo!) from a homeschool mom who was also an ex- high school science teacher. She said it was just as good as the very expensive ones the public school had used if not better. She had purchased the scope I bought from her to use with her own kids last year. I have never compared it to a 1000x scope, but this one is beautiful. I'm still awaiting my marine bio set of slides, but we looked at a few botany slides that we had on hand and it works very well. I suppose more power and detail would be great, but I'm not sure that it's worth the extra $$.

In case anyone is interested, just saw this discount today. It's good through August 8th. http://store.compasscinema.com/categories.php?category=Visual-Latin We're using this along with Lingua Latina beginning this year. I've been waiting for a good sale!

We've done them both ways. If you buy the printed book, you can just cut out the mini-books and assemble them. If you buy the e-book, you can print out the pages and then cut and assemble. The e-book route lets you use colored paper (which is always fun). It''s cheaper to go with the e-book version since you also save on shipping. I have a laptop, so we just read the pages. It would be a little more difficult if you only have a desktop. It's nice to have the pages close to you when the kids are filling out the mini-books.

Amana - I would say that the Hands and Hearts kits win out over Time Travelers in my opinion, simply due to the fact that all materials are already provided. They really have quality material in the Hands and Hearts kits. I really don't enjoy making random lists and scouring the dollar and craft stores to find everything. Hands and Hearts kits are really craft/project based materials, not just coloring, mini-books or making a scroll with popsicle sticks.

(I notice that there are Bible verse memory cards that come in each of the kits. Are these kits able to be used secularly?) **We didn't use the Bible verse cards. There is no religious content other than those that I can recall. The crafts are just crafts and the directions don't have any religious content on them that I can recall.

Little House? They also come in audio book format. We did this series around 4th-5th grade. Magic Tree House? - some people hate this series, but we loved it. There are companion guides that goes along with some of the books. We incorporated history studies and food into our meetings as well as crafts. We've done girls book clubs for a few years. 2nd-3rd grade can be tough since everyone seems to be at a substantially different reading level. At that age, I would read aloud with my daughter or listen to the audio books.

We've used the Middle Ages, Westward Expansion and Early American kits and have loved them all - worth every penny for us. Everything you need, and I mean everything: straws, glue, crayons, is already in the box. I ordered an additional kit for my 2nd child and this turned out to be a life-saver. You can't just make one wooden flute or jacob's ladder for two children! These will work with any history program or living book approach you use. I would love to buy more kits, we're just having to be very selective with our homeschool dollars these days and these kits fell onto the "I really wish we could get them, but I guess I could scrounge the items for a few crafts instead" list. As far as discounts, sometimes they offer free shipping on the kits. You could email them and see what they can do.

I didn't know if this had already been posted. Yesterday, I received a notice from Compass Media (producers of Visual Latin) about a new economics program. http://compasscinema.com/blog/economics/ I contacted the company and asked if this would satisfy a 1/2 high school economics credit. Here's their response, "Yes, it would fulfill it. We recommend an addl textbook for high schoolers to go with it." They are currently offering the $45 program for $29 (dvd or download). It looks great. I might actually enjoy economics this time around!

Thank you all for your suggestions. I had previously looked at Bravewriter. It just seems like such a large, parent-intensive course. I like the author's approach to writing, I'm just not sure how much time I want to spend studying her methods. Perhaps, I have the wrong idea about the program. I've heard people suggest it, I've just never heard of anyone who actually used it and thought it worth the price. I'll search that one some more. I had never heard of Connect the Thoughts before. Affordable. The Creative Writer - why have I not seen this yet! Apparently, it cam out somewhere around the time of WWS. I'm hoping to get a closer look at this at the GHC in Long Beach this weekend. Thanks all. Keep the ideas coming!

I have been gleaning wisdom from these boards for years, but this may be the first time I have ever started a thread. I'm hopeful that there will be many suggestions for creative writing instruction. Back info: I love writing. I blog. I journal. I write articles for church, etc. Although I love fiction, I do not write fiction. My husband also writes: sermons, articles, essays, but no fiction. My son, (9th grade) has a mild aversion to writing, loves to read a good work of epic literature, but would rather have his teeth pulled than be made to write a work of fiction. Enter my rising 5th grader (she's young at only 9). She loves writing stories. She has half a dozen journals and notebooks floating around the house. She loves any writing assignment I dish out and I often find her short stories on my laptop. Her brother is beginning to doubt that she is genetically related. We currently use, and will continue to use, WWE and WWS and the focus of our writing studies has been mostly expository. I've already tagged the OYAN for her for high school, but I'm looking for something to develop her creative writing skills now. She has a basic understanding of plot and character development, skills acquired mostly through our literature readings. I want to encourage this creative gift. Any formal programs, supplemental materials, websites or book recommendations that I should research?

I'll be in Long Beach too, sans kids and husband. I've got a few homeschool moms coming with me. In true mom fashion, we're multi-tasking a homeschool conference and a girls only weekend! I've heard SWB before, but was at that time, focused on a different stage of learning. This year, I've got a 5th and a 9th grader and need to focus on a different stage. I was also looking forward to hearing Ted Tripp, but he's not in Long Beach. I've got sessions marked to hear Adam Andrews, Christopher Perrin, Janice Campbell, Martin Cothran and Jean Burke (I need to start getting a handle on the college game). I'm skipping the parenting (not my favorite parenting perspective) and YE sessions (I fall somewhere in the camp of evolutionary creationist and I think I might have to wear a disguise :). The vendor hall looks overwhelming, and I don't have any plans to spend a fortune. Somewhere over the 3 day period, I need to take a nap, catch up on some reading, spend time in prayer and get a pedicure. I'm still not sure how all this is going to happen!

We're MOTL users and we've been very happy with the approach. My son was math phobic. We'd used various programs, but he continued to have problems. I needed to find something that was easy for me to use, easy for him to follow and help identify various "roadblocks" in his math skills. MOTL allowed me to identify gaps that I didn't even know were there. This program covers all math operations needed prior to algebra. We switched from MOTL when my son hit 8th grade and we've been doing pre-algebra with him this year. My daughter, a 4th grader who excels in math, also loves it. It doesn't seem "schoolish" to her. We do also use Life of Fred books, colorful workbooks, games and math literature to help shake things up. The same thing over and over can get old real fast. Pros: Math skills are laid out in a systematic approach, but can be switched around as needed, show various ways to present a specific math operation) so if your kids doesn't "get it this way", there are options for another approach), affordable if you will use it for multiple kids, yahoo group is helpful and the author will answer questions directly, well organized and once you get past the initial learning curve and understand how the 5-a-days work, it's very simple to implement, math skills are combined so you cover practice of multiple skills in 1 type of problem, thus avoiding "drill and kill". Cons: there is a bit of a learning curve, some people don't like the recording sheets (I used them initially, and then loosened up as I saw my kids developing in math) I do refer back to the overall skills page to see what we've covered and what we still need to hit, MOTL is not a grade-based program, so if you are going to jump to a different math program you might be frustrated. I like this, but if drives many people nuts. I could care less if my 4th grader only does 4th grade math standards. She may be doing 6th grade math skills and may not have seen a 3rd grade standard skill yet, I feel that graphing is weak in this program and you'll need to find worksheets, books, etc. to do a unit on graphing and reading graphs. Like anything else I've ever used, MOTL is a tool. I think it's one of the best tools in my math arsenal. The author really emphasize the importance of math vocabulary and function in daily life. I also love this math website. Great math literature lists and game ideas. http://livingmath.net/

I'll be at the GHC in Long Beach next week and these guys will be one of the vendors. I'm looking forward to seeing it in person. I absolutely agree that it needs a host of additional topics, including sections for grace, forgiveness, salvation, peace, joy, etc. I would also never use it as a tool to "go see where you messed up and what God says about how to fix it". That would be the gospel in reverse to me, as I see it as, "there's no way for me to fix it, so let me see what God has to say about He forgives and restores." I do think it's a good organizational system. I was thinking of taking the idea and developing our own Scripture themes or perhaps they have blank sections to add your own themes.

We are going to give this a whirl this year. I've tried the 30-day free trial lesson and I'm enjoying it. We track with a reformed perspective. http://www.biblemesh.com/ They don't claim "reformed" anywhere on their site, but their contributors are. I was referred to the study through a Tim Keller link somewhere.

http://www.aplaninplace.net/ My friend used them first. Since I'm super frugal and have limped through several years with my own planning sheets, I dismissed them. I finally caved and bought one for my son (7th grade) at the time. It was perfect. I then bought two more the following year for both my son and daughter. This year, I've purchased the Mom Planner and I'll be ordering the regular Student Edition for my 5th grader and the Deluxe Student version for my 9th grader. I really like the idea of the Well-Planned Day planners, but I honestly don't need all those pages and the ones I could really use are not formatted in a way that would be functional for me. Honestly, I probably spent more money on ink, paper and binders trying to make my own planners than I spent on these. One of my best homeschool funds purchases. I think two homeschool moms started this little company. I like supporting small businesses, especially when those businesses are run by homeschoolers.