My daughter is doing Calvert School 6th grade science this year which I think maybe PH. I don't have the book near me so I am not sure about the publisher. Before this we used Rod and Staff two year older lifescience set. I know my daughter got a bit bored by the end but on the other hand, the current science goes into no depth at all. She is a sixth grader and I think at that age running through subjects lightly is not a good method for reasonably smart kids. For smart ones, it is extremely boring. SHe doesn't hate it because she is at a stage where getting her work done fast is more important than learning ; however, she finally realized how lame the book was when she encountered a part she had already studied with R & S at a much higher level. Often dumbing things down only serves to confuse. In this case, talking about kingdoms with a few sentences didn't enlighten but confused. Since the kingdoms have changed since I was a child, I couldn't really help. I am probably going to have her do BJU LIfe Science next year and her sister BJU Biology and have them do dissections together. I will say for young ones, lets say K-3, having units versus years can work out very well. However, by around 4th grade, they need more meat.

I have never heard of purity dances and I do find that concept creepy. My daughters attend a father daughter dance when one was about 9 and the other was 6, I think. It was with the Girl Scouts and there was nothing creepy about it at all. They especially liked it at that time since the Father was travelling a lot for the military and it was a special day for them.

I tried to use very intensive curriculums a few times- Sonlight, TOG, etc. They both seemed so good but I just don't have enough energy or enough good days to make it work. Currently my older is mostly doing work on her own. She does taped lectures of Spanish and Chemistry, guided program with Geometry and Literature/Writing and her history is text based with printable tests. She has also done dual enrollment and will do that again plus online courses. My younger is still a work in progress. She did an online short course in grammar and learned how to diagram and learned her parts of speech much better. She is doing Calvert and getting assignments from me written down. She does most of them by herself and only gets discussion questions with me. I am trying to decide between something like BJU dvd, continuing with Calvert or switching to more of a mix like her older sister. I do know that I can't do things that require too much parental involvement. I have Sjogren's Syndrome and possibly have lupus. I also have asthma and my migraines have in the last year become more severe plus my arthritis is more disabling too.

It is one of the required vaccines here but you can opt out. Since I don't send my kids to PS, I don't worry about it. Neither wants any extra shots and I don't to take the chance with this vaccine at this time.

I am debating what to use with my youngest next year. We are using Calvert 6 with Calvert 7 math. I like the math, geography, art, reading, and history. I am not finding the science very thorough. The English is okay but the spelling is too hard for her. Since she is having a hard time with spelling, we aren't doing the composition program either. What I like are programs that are easy to use for the children without much help from the parent all the time. I simply do not have lots of time or energy to plan. Calvert is doing that for me. I just haven't decided whether I should continue with this or change to BJU video classes or just put together various mostly self teaching programs. I help all my children as they need it but I really feel that by seventh grade, they should be able to learn a lot by themselves with parental supervision and guidance.

I have never had cortisone shots in my back. However, I have had them in my elbows and my toes. They don't work immediately. It takes a day or two and then the pain goes away. Now I don't know if they would do anything at all if you don't have arthritis or some other form of inflammation. I have an inflammatory form of arthritis.

I would try to find an evaluator who is friendly with unschoolers. I do want to tell you that my youngest did her best on her test last year (we haven't gotten results for this year yet) when I had the worse year ever homeschooling. She had such a disrupted year between her sister's and her brother's very serious medical issues and her breaking bones and being evaluated for possible bone cancer (negative). I was so scared about her test (and her sisters) that I used an option in my state then which was to enroll them in a umbrella school. I am not an unschooler by inclination but that year showed me how much children learn even if the schooling is not as standard as you may like.

My dh who does woodworking and carving for hobbies just left on business but I will look around later for catalogs. I know that Lee Valley Tools has various carving and woodworking tools. http://www.leevalley.com

I am so sorry. I hope God will bless you with a better opportunity soon.

DOD already has a homeschool policy for dependents in SOFA areas. It is a wonderful policy and it would be nice to have that adopted as a national policy. (Education is ultimately a parental matter and homeschooling is left to the parents with schools providing services as they are able and you want them to).

We just moved in the middle of my dd's 10th grade. We don't know when we will move next but it may very well be in the middle of her 12th grade. In light of this, I am going to push an extra English credit somewhere in the next 1 3/4 year so I can graduate her officially according to the next state before we move again. What I am scared of is moving to a state that has onerous regulations and keeps her from graduating on time. By moving up her graduation, if necessary, I would be free from that but she could still continue studying our normal 12 grade subjects for college.

I have this book and love it. My first choice was really a dress but after not finding one, I had to settle on a skirt at last minute. Thanks for reminding me to start sewing again and get clothes I like.

My son was telling me about the show and I replied that I am strobglu insupport of safety education including gun safety. My children were taught preliminary gun safety when they were little- guns can look like toys, bad guns go off very easily or can explode (this was when we were living in CA, we had police chases of robbers running near our house, and badly made Chinese cheap guns were implicated in all types of gun accidents), don't topuch and tell an adult. As they have gotten older, they all have gotten gun education. Basic gun education doesn't include shooting since the Eddie Eafle program is presented in schools and other non-shooting environments. My girls particularly have heard the gun safety lecture because everytime a new person came to 4H shooting, they heard it again. As a homeschooler, I use all sorts of things in my teaching. Natasha Richardson's death was a teaching moment and Walk, Talk, and Die syndrome. ANd a previous poster is correct about misjudging risks. I know that not all pool deaths are reported in the news since in the county I lived in, a homeschooling family lost a young child on the day they were moving out. There was no story in the paper and yet the so-called gun accident where late teens were playing Russian Roulette was certainly covered. Even with the incomplete reporting of pool deaths, their were more of those reported anyway, many more.

I have been looking for a dress to wear for Easter. I like to get a new oufit each Easter. Well this year was awful. Lots of multi-colored in weird ways (a la someone's messed up idea of the 60's) that are clingy or nice sundresses which are not okay for a day which will start out at 38 degrees. So I give up after many stores and go back today to check out skirts. Considering women my age have the money maybe they could ,make some clothes for us. I don't want to show my knees (and most of us over forty don't either) and I would like spring colors. I got the best thing I could find. It is a black/ birght blue/ yellow and white skirt in geometric patterns. At least it wasn't completly black or black and white only. I got a black shell and I will wear my nice blue cardigan with it. Not exactly what I thought spring clothing should be. I couldn't get any shoes and I came home depressed. I am arthritic and need wide sized shoes but want to wear nice pumps with about a inch and a half to two and a hlf inch heel. I used to be able to get some. I found a nice pair but they claimed they couldn't order it for me and I couldn't go online and rder it either.

Actually the one that I am cringing about is my oldest choice- he is a philosophy major and would like to become a philosophy teacher. My middle wants to either go into the military, become a lawyer (prosecutor), or work in politics (not the politician but maybe a speech writer or policy wonk). I greatly approve of those choices. My youngest vacilates between librarian and engineer. SHe also is considering the military. Unfortunately, unless her osteoporosis goes away, that won't be possible. My kids have spend their entire lives in the military life and the girls love it. My son wanted to go into the military earlier but he has had medical issues and can't get in. I will be really sad if none of my kids can follow their father's and three of their grandparents' footsteps and at least serve a short while. I have discussed with dd1 that she could work for the DOD if she is unable to join the military.

I will pray for you.

I would absolutely get some time for you. You need to get a babysitter for some times or as others said, some cobinations of care situtions. It is good that you recoognize this need now. My dh has never deployed but has had many, many tdys some of which where months long. Here are things I did when my kids were younger- go see a movie, go shopping or get your hair done. I would also scale down my activities at home- like unlike when dh is home, I make much simpler meals. Even now with my youngest being 12, I tend to have scaled back dinners when dh is gone which is a lot.

I think parents should be well aware of the risks and benefits of any medication. That being said, while it is sad that some children died while on these medications, children die while on all kinds of medications including ibuprofen, antibiotics, cold medications, etc, etc. These medications have been taken by millions over the years so several deaths are not unusual. That being said, when my dd who takes ADHD medication was foind to be having tachycardia, she was referred to a cardiologist. Two cardiologists have cleared her for the medications and her tachycardia went away when her seven month long headache went away (not related to the medicine). Schools should also not be making diagnosis, only suggesting a trip to the doctor, if necessary. I am currently living with one medicated ADHD and one non-medicated one plus myself (mild ADHD, non medicated), Living with the medicated one is a delight, living with the non-medicated one is a trial that I am looking forward to going away (or e ven better, returning to meds).

Good luck with your new life. I will miss you. Blessings,

Our first got a half tuition merit scholarship and work-study need money. We still paid 12,000. Now that he is at a state school living at home, we pay 8000. Our estimated EFC with the next one will be somewhere in the 40K range which is absolutely insane particularly as I have two-three chronic illnesses and will not be returning to employment when my children are grown. With our current income, that would be about half our paycheck just for one child's school. Dh can also be forcibly retired at any moment if DOD wants and then our income drops by over half. I will never have SS on my own right, can not qualify for disability since I got disabled before I got enough ss credits, etc. Our one ray of good news is that we will be getting somewhere in the area of 90K over four years for one of our children to spend on education if dh can manage to stay in until Aug 2010. As it is, our daughters will not be applying to schools where they have no chance of any merit aid or any other kind of aid and the expenses are over 20K. I don't want them to be disappointed when they get very entusiastic about school X and school X will cost 45K.

:iagree: I don't think we can accidently become pagan worshippers. In the Bible, they were making a choice of following false gods. My chocolate or colorful Easter eggs are not false idols. I don't worship them, I decorate with them. We spend the week before Easter attending services with special music. We do an outreach to the community in each church I have attended whether it is an Easter Egg hunt for children where the Gospel is preached before candy is consumed or like at the present Church, a sunrise service in the town square and Easter breakfast afterwords with a regular Easter service at our church.

Yes, it is an expectorant and you can use it as long as you need it. Is is available now over the counter?

I asked my daughter and she couldn't remember any specific Christian content. She says she is aware of that in BJU Chemistry but couldn't remember anything in the LL. So I read the section about Edgar Allan Poe and The Telltale Heart and thought if it had Christian content, it may have some in there. It didn't. It doesn't even have it in Moby Dick which definitely has theological undertones. For that, I am adding lectures from The Teaching Company which I hipe will go into the various allusions more indepth.

My son has been going alone since he was in college except for when he was home and since he has been 18, by himself. It isn't a good thing but we can't do anything about it legally. My daughters want me with them. I know that my older dd has been getting very anxious about leaving home to go to college (not yet, in another two and almost a half years). She needs to go see a gynecologist and I am wondering how to find one who deals with very anxious people. Not only is she anxious, but she is very modest too. I know that there are dentists that practice no anxiety dentistry but I never heard about gynecologists who do that but that is what we need.

I am using Calvert 8 this year with my youngest. They have a secular science book (McGraw Hill). At first, my daughter liked it because it has nots of photographs. As time went on, she noticed the explanations were rather sparse. The other day, she was studying fungi and remarked that she only knew the answers because of the Rod and Staff science that she had for 4th and 5th (two years of life science). We went with Calvert when our homeschool academy that she was all set to go to suddenly disappeared in mid August right before it was supposed to start. SHe had been slated to go to that and get most of her academic work assigned there and I would supervise and supplement (science and math). So we quickly changed to Calvert to have her do a set amount of work per day and less hassle for me. It is a secular program. I have had to add religous content to many areas but not to math and so far, not much to science. The problem with the science is not that God is mentioned or not but rather that the level of instruction is less than I would want. I am considering what we will use with her next year and am strongly considering BJU DVD or computer since I think she would do better with a lecture by a teacher and mainly because I know the science is so much more rigorous and she is interested in science. I have used math materials in the past that have had Bible verses or puzzles in the shape of a cross. It wasn't why I chose the program. I don't think it added anything to my child's faith but it didn't detract either.