Those books by Vicki Iovine made me laugh out loud when I was expecting my first and second children. Not many books make me spit out my drink. :D I wouldn't call them thorough or medically sound but definitely informative and funny!

Is there a local or semi-local parenting magazine/journal/newspaper? A "what to do with kids" website or rag around? Not necessarily a homeschool audience, but the new-to-the-area-looking-for-stuff-to-do crowd would see it.

We make our own. I get the handwriting paper from wherever (at the moment it's the bumpy kind) and using a Sharpie (oh, how I love colorful Sharpies :D) I write out whatever it is she's copying. Hole punched, it stays in a folder in a binder. She pulls out a page, copies it and then puts it in the binder rings. I only do 4 or 5 ahead of time. If I go too much further ahead, then what she's copying isn't "relevant" and that, I have learned, is her own personal need when it comes to copywork. Any of her memory work is fair game: Scripture passages, poems we're reading, virtues/habits I want to embed, etc. We do Classical Conversations, so I've had her copy out some of the science and history. Some of them are multiple pages long, some are just one page. I only require one page a day, but sometimes she's just so interested in what she's writing she'll keep going until it's finished (her record is 5 pages in one day). As long as it's "relevant..." :lol:

It's a book. The Core by Leigh Bortins. Sort of her version of TWTM, Teaching the Trivium, etc.

It was scary and a long time coming, but I did finally break down and start cutting up spines. I did it once myself to a smaller experiment book, but now I just take it to Office Max. $5 later I have an activity guide that has the TM in a spiral bind (oh, after I self laminated the covers) and the student pages in a three ring binder. I have now done this with our Critical Thinking books. I LOVE them but they are very expensive and I can't stand writing in books. Copies were too hard to make so the books just gathered dust until I broke down and took the Hands-On Thinking Skills in for a spiral bind (lays flat so you can use manipulatives on it!). The Building Thinking Skills (the 3-4 year old book that's in color and gorgeous) I had them cut the binding off, took it home and laminated each and every page then took it back and they spiral bound it for me. I love, love, love it!! Now my kids can actually USE those books. So....cut it up...cut it up...cut it up...you'll be glad you did!!

Sounds like a pretty tough situation. It's nice to hear that you want to help and I wish you the best of luck as you try. Someone else suggested Maurrean Wittman. I second the For the Love of Literature book. It's basically a giant book list, separated out by subject and reading levels are indicated. All the books are vetted for possible anti-Catholic sentiment and occasionally she'll include a warning for a book that she's recommended a part of, but the whole contains some anti-Catholic material. That would be an easy book to send your daughter in law with "I've heard this book of Catholic reading lists highly recommended and thought it may be useful to you when you're looking for a book on a particular subject or on a regular library run." This site here: Cathy Duffy Reviews has a page of Catholic curricula. I think sending "fun" science project stuff for birthdays (and any other random holiday you can think of!) is a great idea. Maybe sending history themed packages every now and then: a couple of picture books that go along with the time period, material and instructions for an activity and then a pre-made lapbook for them to fill out with what they learned. Not terribly classical, but easy for the mom to just pick up and do with little preparation and if it comes from Grandma, then maybe the kids won't resist. :001_smile:

Making flashcards that stay in the car. Calling out spelling words that they write on notepads and you check while they're in lessons. Lots of mental math! They take turns reading out problems to solve. Word problems could be fun in the car, too. Sounds like it'll be grammar school only in a moving vehicle. :D Start with the youngest student who recites their lesson out loud, then move to the next who recites THEIR lesson out loud, etc etc!! Hey, do you have a DVD player in the car? Might be a good investment if you don't. Movies and National Geographic stuff to go along with history and science would be fairly easy to find, I would think. Getting a library card from Wichita might be the answer for cheap rentals, especially if you're there once a week!

As far as the class sizes go, Classical Conversations will not allow you to have more than 8 students per Foundations Tutor. You can, with permission from the State Manager (and a really good reason) have 9. Challenge is 12 per class. So I'd be interested to know what the former director was allowing for class sizes and what the new director is saying. Is the director that is stepping down to tutor going to be tutoring a Challenge class? Tutoring Challenge classes requires a lot more time, effort and dedication than Foundations or Essentials does. She may be the only willing to invest in it right now. When it comes to "being picky" about who they let in, that could mean any number of things. Do you have more than 64 students interested in Foundations? More than 12 per Challenge class? If so, then the director HAS to "be picky" but will give priority to families committed to the classical model. For a potential Foundations/Essentials student, the F/E director should give priority to a sibling of a Challenge student. And, it's only March. The potential Tutors have not been trained yet. That all happens in the summer. Just FYI. I don't know if any of that helps you as you make your decision, but it's what your post made me think of.

I haven't seen Catholic Schoolhouse, but I just learned about Aquinas Learning and called my friend in a frenzy: "you've got to check this out, it's Catholic CC!!" :lol:

CWH is Connecting With History by Sonya Romens. It's a chronological Roman Catholic unit study history program. Very easy to use with multiple age groups. We used it last year, but it, like most history curriculum, moved much too fast for my family. We've decided to break history down following St. Jerome School's outline (6 full years to cover Creation to Modern Day for elementary school years). I know many, many families who use Seton. Personally, I can't stand it. Even CHC is rather "sweet" for me, but I prefer CHC materials over Seton any day. The beauty of following the Classical model is that it's not WHAT you use, but HOW you use it. Some things are easier to use classically than others. :001_smile:

Must be the season for nature study! Thanks for the link.

I sing in a choir. Tuesday nights are sacrosanct in my house-I leave at 6:15 (rehearsal starts at 7, that gives me time to stop at Starbucks and actually walk in, not go through the drive-thru because it takes 15 minutes to get all those people in and out of the child seats). The choir I sing in does tremendous music, it's hard work and concert weeks take quite a lot of time. If dh has something else he has to do on Tuesday, that night it becomes HIS responsibility to find childcare. Same thing with dress rehearsals and concerts. They are on his calendar 3 months in advance and he can just deal. :tongue_smilie: It's not a year round thing, just August-November, then January-early April. The older kids can come to the concerts now, but again, it's up to dh and HE has to find childcare if he wants to come without them!

:bigear:

A while ago there was a thread that listed a place to purchase 5"x7" binders and the same size sheet protectors online. It was a GREAT price but I wasn't ready to purchase. Now that I am, I can't find it!! I have searched through the threads but can't seem to find it. Can anyone help me, please??

On the subject of library recognition, kalanamak, my then barely 4 year old shouted out (from a few aisles over) "MOMMY! IT'S THE REIGN OF TUTANKHAMEN! CAN WE PLEEEEEASE TAKE THIS ONE HOME?" And, when she finished running over to show me the book, it really was about King Tut! Librarian thought it was hilarious, the rest of the patrons looked puzzled and not a little annoyed...

http://www.CouponMom.com has been awesome to us, since one of the grocery stores listed is one we regularly shop at. Check and see if your local ones are listed!

We had Rottweilers growing up and the only time I ever saw them aggressive was when this one babysitter wanted to come in to our room after we were sent to bed to check on us. The dog wouldn't let her. :D Poor babysitter ended up calling my mom because the dog actually forced her back down the stairs and the babysitter was freaked out. The dog's low warning growl woke me up so I witnessed the dog slowly descending the stairs while the babysitter backed up. When the babysitter got to the bottom, the dog simply flopped on the landing halfway down. Things were fine as long as the sitter didn't look like she wanted up the stairs! It was entertaining to everyone but the babysitter. ;) It's all about upbringing and training. Just like people, there are always "bad apples" but please don't discount a puppy that needs a home because there might be an "aggressive" breed in it.

I just bought R&S yesterday...I love FLL, but my eldest daughter cannot stand anything scripted. If we're sitting at the table and she's listening to me read, there has to be a story line there, if you know what I mean. :D Also, we're doing CC Foundations with the intent to do their Essentials grammar program in the future and I'd rather not frustrate my kids and myself with two different lists to memorize. My dear friend, however, has been using FLL 1/2 and was trying to decide between FLL 3 and R&S 3 this weekend. She went with FLL 3, because it was easier to use it with her age range of kids. Easier to adapt on the fly, if you will.

My husband was adopted at birth, a closed adoption. He has never tried to contact his birth mother and has absolutely no desire to. Not even for medical records. He doesn't have a reason, per se, other than he has no desire nor any curiosity at all. He has no information about her other than she was 18 and not married. So, there isn't an obvious she's-a-total-nut-case sort of thing going on that would be his reason. I wonder if it differs when it's a woman...do we have more natural curiosity than men do?

Just a little note, in Essentials the kids don't do much coming up with their own sentences to diagram or to analyze. If they do something spontaneous, it's together as a group and they work through it together as a group. And definitely keep in mind that the class you are watching has been doing it since around August!

One thing you might want to consider is your state's laws on the matter. Here in TN, who you designate as your child's legal guardian should you or their father die or some other catastrophic event occur is (get this!): only a suggestion. The judge will actually have to rule on the matter once (if ever) the situation warrants it. That scares the stew out of me, but most of our families knows of our choice and approves it (the guardians are not related to us). It's those wild cards, you know? Either way, definitely check out your specific state laws. When we asked our dear friends, it was in person. Was definitely hard to do. We did practice a little beforehand, though. :)

Many do have a "vendor hall only" pass. The Great Homeschool Conventions do this year. Memphis is this weekend and it's only $10 to get into the vendor hall.

What about a Classical Conversations group? Every community across the nation does the same cycle each year so if/when you move, that won't be an issue. Depending on the ages of your kids, it wouldn't be a full curriculum, though. What about Catholic Heritage Curricula? You can swap stuff around very easily with them.

In my house we're in volume 1 of SOTW and will still be there when fall rolls around and we're in Cycle 3 of CC. I'm breaking history down into 6 years versus 4 (SOTW) or 3 (CC). CC doesn't really think that world history (including American) can be thoroughly covered in 3 years. :D It's meant to be a broad outline of facts each year. For the students, some of those facts will be preview, some will be right on, some will be review. If you're using CC's history as your spine, you'll want to have SOTW 3 on hand, but don't expect to be relying on it entirely. Just get lots of literature to read along, do a few projects here and there and you'll be fine. Here in our house, we do some reading along with the history presented in CC, but the bulk of our history curriculum is still back in Roman times (this week's CC sentence is about WWII!!). Each family is different!

This is my kids' second year in Foundations. They were 4K & K last year, K & 1st this year. They could definitely be "subject masters" for there are some subjects that click easily (like history sentences and English grammar) but others like the timeline have been a real challenge for them. It'll take years before they're ready for the timeline! Each kid is different, but few first year students (except for oldest students who have had exposure to some of these things in a different setting) make Memory Master. There is NO pressure to become a Memory Master until at least 3rd grade and even then it's a totally optional thing. Most 3rd & 4th graders who go for it have been doing it for years and/or are really motivated by the rest of the class. The students have to be self-motivated and determined, which varies widely from kid to kid.