Momma2Many66, how does it fit on the chair? Is it adjustable or something on the front? What is the extra yellow binding?

I really want to get chair pockets/pouches for our school chairs. I have smaller chairs than regular dining room chairs and Aussie Pouches come in the right size. I've seen some on Etsy that might fit, but I wonder about the durability and quality. Can anyone recommend a particular product? I'd like 2 pockets, approximately 13" wide x 15" wide and if it has an angled top that would be an even better fit.

I can say from having owned it (and using it briefly) that RC History is good history spine, but there's a lot of teacher prep. It's definitely NOT "open and go." It's really designed for a lot of interaction and dialogue, which doesn't sound like what the OP is looking for at this point. I've only ever seen CHC's prek-3rdish science program; what do they call it in the upper grades, kandty?

Thanks for sharing how those are laid out. I don't know of any Catholic publishers that do it that way. I suppose you could always take the texts you do like and cut the bindings off. Group the pages/units together from the text, workbook and teacher's manual if necessary and spiral or comb bind them. Then, you'd only have to grab the unit you're working on. You could easily put in the tests, quizzes and extra stuff that you might want in to each. Would take some work on your part, but if you did it all in one fell swoop you'd be set for the year. Ellie, I think the OP isn't lamenting the lack of Catholic homeschool curriculum publishers, but that there aren't Catholic versions of that particular style of text/curricula. Good luck, OP, finding what you're looking for.

It's my impression that the younger years of Seton are extremely workbook-y. Couldn't tell you how small or large they are, though, compared to others. Catholic Heritage Curricula does workbook style as well. I've seen a lot of their prek-3rd grade materials and there are many workbooks that don't take long each day to complete. Do the CLE and ACE books only cover say, one topic within a subject each? For example, a CLE math workbook would cover just addition with renaming within 1000? Then a new workbook when they're ready to move on? I'm not familiar with them, so thanks for clarifying what it is you like about them.

Have you checked the CC Connected? It's a wealth of info. Last Man Standing is good for timeline review. Jeopardy is fun for all subjects. Challenge Tic Tac Toe (draw lots for the two that go first, winner plays next person)

I hope the insurance company comes through or a private donor has the urge to step in!

From the USCCB catechism online: http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art12.shtml You have to scroll down a little to get to your exact topic.

I have little ones, too, and have really appreciated going through Teaching the Classics. It has helped me ask good leading questions. No writing at all unless you want there to be. You use the books you want to use in your regular studies, this just gives you ideas of how to lead the child to dig deeper than the surface (as deep or as shallow as you want/need to). I agree with choirfam that it doesn't need to be super formal literary analysis at this age and that's definitely not what we do. Most of our discussions are while the kids are retelling (narration) and I'm just asking questions. :001_smile: It's usually fun, and when it becomes laborious, we stop!

We're not changing any curriculum for second term. What we started with is working fine. We made a lot of changes in the summer, though.

There are other changes in the memory work, but since you asked specifically about history and timeline: The new audio cds will include the new timeline. That's the major difference. The old audios did not include the timeline titles because of copyright issues with Veritas Press (whose timeline it was). Since CC is publishing their own timeline, now they can include it on the audio cds and make songs as well as other memory aids for that part. There will be slight changes to the history sentences in the new materials (no major fact changes, just wording here and there). I do not know if all the tunes will be the same (I am assuming so, just slightly different words occasionally). If all you are using from the memory work is history sentences and timeline, you could just buy the audio cd for the cycle you want. I don't know if the titles of timeline cards will be included in the memory work flashcards (those little 2"x3"ish colored cards with one cycle's memory work). If you have the new audio cd, you won't have to purchase the timeline cards separately to know what it is.

As a poetry anthology used to introduce kids to good poetry with a variety of elements that increases in complexity, I really like The Harp & Laurel Wreath by Laurie Berquist. It is not, however, an illustrated kids-read-it to themselves picture book sort of thing.

Ah, that's better, knowing that there would only be one place the older three would go. Sorry I read your post wrong. That doesn't really solve your dilemma, though, does it? I just remember that it was those first few months that I desperately wanted the mid-day nap and to shop with fewer helpers, by 4 months it wasn't as critical. I wish there was a simple answer for you! Good luck. :001_smile:

I decided to strike a happy medium based on your responses: I asked for a refund, minus her shipping charges. She obliged but refunded the full amount and asked that I send back the book. I'm out the cost of returning the book to her, but it's not much. I figure it's the risk I take buying things secondhand. Thanks, Hive.

It sounds like you and your family have started making friends within your CC community...I'd think that the support and love they'll be able to offer you would be invaluable and hard to walk away from when you need it the most. Baby is due in May, the PDO and CC wouldn't be starting until August, right? You might not want to tutor next year, but you might be able to find another mom or two that are in the same boat with the disruptive 3 year olds and perhaps hire an off-site babysitter together at the house of whoever lives the closest. I've found in my years of CC that there are always lots of loving arms to hold babies during Foundations, so your 3-4 month old probably wouldn't be a distraction at all. Your now 4 year old is going to mature a ton by next fall (that's 8-9 months away!) so I wouldn't worry about him not "getting it" right now. The thought of getting 4 kids out of the house to deliver one to a PDO at one place and two kids to another place...first, that tires me out thinking the baby would be just 3 months old. Second, that really doesn't leave much time to do anything during that day except shop which is exhausting to me! That scenario wouldn't give me the much needed quiet, down time at home I'd be hoping for. Good luck!

I vote no. Definitely take a picture afterwards...I bet the priest and other servers would be happy to pretend for a minute for you so you could get one that shows what it looks like from the pews.

I need the advice of the Hive: I posted here and on another forum a WTB for Singapore Standards editions of a couple of things. I received an email from someone saying they had one of the things I was looking for, which I agreed to purchase. I paid via PayPal and she shipped it to me in a reasonable amount of time. But it's not what I asked for. :glare: It's a US Edition textbook, when I very clearly asked for (I double checked my posts, to make sure I said "Standards" at least twice) the Standards editions. So now I still need to purchase the right thing and have this other one I won't use. Would it be reasonable to ask the seller to refund my purchase price? I've never had a secondhand curriculum transaction go awry, so I'm not sure if that's reasonable or if there's another solution I haven't seen. It's not a lot of money we're talking about, it's more the fact that it's not what I asked for. Does the Hive think there's some kind of etiquette that applies here or do I just suck it up?

It terrified ME and I'm a grown up. :D It's an excellent book and one I'm glad I read. What she witnessed and lived through was gruesome and extremely violent. I commented to my husband that it was less the violence and more the psychological horror of the whole situation that stayed with me. The violence depicted was terrible, but she doesn't describe it in a way that bothered me (and I can barely watch some crime shows). What bothered me was the fact that the men with machetes had sat at her family's table and were looking for HER and calling her name. If your daughter is bothered by gruesome, she should be fine with this book. If your daughter is bothered by the idea that her beloved next door neighbor might start chopping up her brothers with an axe...you might want to skip it for now! I recommend Cry, The Beloved Country without hesitation.

Well..we do something similar. My husband works for the church and is gone from 1 PM on Christmas Eve until 1 PM on Christmas Day. He's home for about 2.5 hours from 2:30 AM to 5 AM, during which time he sleeps! He has to get a little sleep, so opening presents while he's home isn't an option (not to mention really messing up my kids' sleep pattern). Santa comes while Daddy is sleeping and leaves one present per kid (or one big one for all) out, unwrapped and ready to play with. The kids get to play with those/that until it's time for Mass on Christmas Day. We're home right around lunch time, they eat, play with the Santa thing(s) until Daddy's home. He oohs and ahhs over their Santa thing(s) and then everyone takes a nap. Yes, I make my kids take naps on Christmas Day! They don't seem to mind and yes, they know that most people open all their presents first thing in the morning. They realize that it's the sacrifice they make so that their daddy can do his job (he loves his job, too). They've never known anything different and have their major anticipation buildup in the early afternoon. They know what time to come wake Daddy up and we then have Christmas afternoon. We usually stop them a couple presents in, so that we can put things together/untie/detach/etc (love family who sends that kind of stuff!) and we have a snack, too. Then we start in again and finish opening everything that night. We've thought about saving things for the following days, but haven't really ever had that much under the tree. I don't think the OP is cruel, unless it really makes her kids unhappy. Doesn't sound like they mind, though. I hope they continue to appreciate their calm and peaceful way of celebrating!

For a little while longer, you could put the bunk bed up in the girls' room, but not put the bottom bunk in. Just use a little toddler bed for your younger daughter. We just screwed in a couple of extra brackets to keep the bed as steady as it would have been with the bottom bunk rails. Good luck, it sounds like a conundrum!

I say that often when receiving calls from telemarketers that I truly cannot understand. Some times they try to speak more clearly, some times they just hang up. If I can't understand what they're saying and my attempts to communicate go unheeded, I hang up. 5 times in 2 hours? Sounds like he didn't understand YOU either!

Our associate pastor gave a homily a few weeks ago about sacramental imagination and encouraged it's use...you might want to read up on St. Teresa of Avila (and her drunken monkeys) to help your kids use their sacramental imaginations. He spent a little time pointing out some of the imagery in the sanctuary that folks might not have noticed before and suggesting things to think about. Can you go the church some time that there isn't a Mass happening and spend some time letting the kids wander and look at thing up close? I agree that even though it's scary at first: sit up front during Mass! Volunteer to bring up the Gifts, too.

I'm in a major metro area and drove the sitter home (she was dropped off) and paid her $10 an hour. I had dinner ready, but she had to get them to eat it, clean up, play a game with them, get them ready for bed (pjs, brush teeth, clean up toys), watch part of a movie, read stories and put them to bed. I have 3 kids aged 3.5, 6 and 7.5. The sitter was a newly 16 year old homeschool girl we know from co-op. If we hadn't needed her so early and the kids were already fed and in pjs, I probably would have paid a little less ($7-8 per hour). Hope that helps. For what it's worth, she respects our rules, cleans up and the kids love her. She doesn't let them get away with much, though she is "lots of fun," so I hear.

It is weird, isn't it? Maybe it's a psychological thing...either way, I'm not going to point out the obvious to my *darling* felines.

For the purposes of the state and standardized testing, we've assigned grade level based on age. It will be very easy later on to "skip" a grade once the physical and social maturity has kicked in, if that is necessary. At home, it doesn't matter because we just work with them where they are academically. But for those standardized tests, I'd rather my kids were blowing the ceilings than failing them because they just can't sit still that long.