I have often wondered if the WISC would give us a different picture than the SB. Has anyone had both and had one show more than the other? I am considering if we should consider it. If I understand correctly the SB isn't timed. We definately have days that the LD's override the GT's.

Five for now...:) We have said we were done before, so I say nothing now.

I'm not sure about geography. We are doing Core 1 and use the maps from the SOTW AG, if that is what you mean. We are also doing the History Pockets Ancient Civilizations and will have it bound into a book at the end of the year.

I have to be careful that history doesn't overwhelm us at the expense of other subjects. I have taken a lot of time to look at all the curriculums, SL, TOG, HOD, BF, HO. The one thing I find is that you can line them all up next to each other and there is a core set of books that are common to most. The premise is the same, it's all in how they get there. I have to adapt everything I use to some extent so it becomes a matter of what is easiest to adapt for your family. Thanks for the help!

Congratulations!

Anyone care to venture how much they spend in a year on TOG? I don't plan on using SL for high school and am looking at other options. I can look in the catalog and say SL cost x dollars for the year. I don't see anywhere that I can do that with TOG. Is $20 a week a true estimate and for how many weeks? I assume that is above the core costs?

Check out www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org for the current group buys. Membership is free.

UniqueReader is working in our house. My kids used to cry with Click n Kids. I stil don't know what I will do with my lifetime subscriptions. Maybe the younger kids will use them later on. Right now I have three using UniqueReader. I like that I can also turn off the sight words. ;) It is a little more expensive if you have only one child.

My DD10 is an aspie and we are starting MCT next week. So I will have to let you know how it goes. We will be going through Grammar Town and reviewing CE I in January. She will be taking Grammar Voyage and CE II for spring semester starting in February but we will continue and work through Practice Town and Paragraph Town (this is what RFP recommended for her), before she moves into the rest of the Voyage series. Her teacher has said there is a lot of overlap between Grammar Town and Grammar Voyage and that CE II reviews CE I so we shall see how it goes. I definately want her to have the Paragraph Town before we moving any further with the writing component. My DD is doing much much better since we changed to keyboarding for her writing. Are your DC keyboarding for writing?

They are definately not secular. I loved the fact that everything is packaged and thought I could make it secular at first glance. Looking at it closer, it would be a lot of work. The last update I saw on Colors was this Spring.

:iagree:completely, especially this time of year. Playing outside might be helpful too.

dlt

:iagree: I am pretty sure I know of the case you are mentioning. It's big news here, the talk on the local HS boards, and I'm sure I will be answering the very same question after the holidays when our activities in the HS community resume. My heart goes out to your community. At the same time I don't think it was relevant to homeschooling. The proverbial ball was dropped so many times in this case, it saddens me that so many opportunities were missed for various reasons. Not that it is always the case, but in this situation I do agree with HSLDA's statement in response to the newspaper articles.

We are using FLL 1/2 with WWE this year and I also skip a lot and sub in pages from the VE workbook at times to cement something, and to force handwriting for my one reluctant writer. I'm not sure, but I will definately be looking at MCT Island for next year. My DD10 will be doing Voyage this spring. I will start FLL and WWE younger with my last two DC.

I like that word, vision. I have a "vision" of where we are going with each child and how we may get there. The problem is that things are always in flex and adaptation is the name of the game in this house. I did try writing out a rough plan for my DD10, chronologically through middle school, so for the next three years. We are already making changes. :lol: I think history is my one saving grace in subjects because I can set a more grand plan there since you can always add and subtract for each child. So I can say history is pretty set through middle school for each child, the curriculum and materials are, of course, subject to change. ;)

I first want to encourage you and congratulated you with BFing your twins. I do also want to offer a little word of caution. My twins were 35 weeks and one had high bili levels. I would definately consult with your peds before removing supplementation with a premie with high bili level. But, that said, there are other ways to supplement that encourage breastfeeding. The supplemental nursing system was already mentioned and should be available to you from your hospital or medical supply. They are inexpensive and they give the supplement while you BF. Most peds haven't heard of them, Medela makes them. :) My twin with high bili was exclusively BF for the first week but battled dehydration to the point she was put on bottled breast milk, she didn't have enough stength left to BF even with SNS. Our lactation consultant was following the "she will eventually get it when she gets hungry enough" though, so that is where my caution comes in. My other twin was brittle and never BF, she was given bottled breast milk. www.twinstuff.com is a great community of people with a breastfeeding forum that you might find helpful, other mom's who have been there. Many there have successfully breastfeed twins and would be happy to support you in any way they can whether you BF or not. ;) Congratulations on your little girls!

:bigear: What's up with the same posts with different name substituted, all introducing themselves? It looks suspicious.

We just did this with my DD10. I had a very long discussion with RFP for placement. She is coming out of 5th grade PS. Her teacher felt her grammar was strong and she is signed up to take Grammar Voyage and Caesar's English II beginning in February as part of an online class. RFP highly suggested purchasing the Town series and working through the Grammar Town and CE I before Februrary. They assured me the pace wouldn't be a problem. (CE I words are reviewed in CE II.) They also suggested using the Practice Town and Paragraph Town afterward until completed, even if there is an overlap, since we don't expect that to all happen in 6 weeks or less. So, she will still be working on the Practice Town and Paragraph Town while starting Grammar Voyage and CE II and then we will follow with Practice Voyage and Essay Voyage over the summer to have her on track to begin the secondary series next school year. So the books have started arriving and we will begin Grammar Town and Caesar's English I next week. Practice Town came in the mail today. I will order Paragraph Town with the Voyage series the beginning of January. For someone needing more help with LA, I would consider starting at the Island level and just move through it faster if necessary. RFP is great to talk to and will advise you with specifics.

The tooth fairy has never been to my house. My science minded kids are keeping theirs, eeewww. :lol:

OK, suggestions from this forum led me to find my Hawaiian Layered Jello dessert, thank you all. So I'm going to try it again on a cookie recipe...My DH's grandmother made a chocolate chip cookie with maraschino cherry pieces and covered with a white glaze. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks a bunch! We are trying to set some of our own traditions and sadly most of these old recipes can't be found.

My DD7's are enjoying Ancient Civilizations History Pocket by Evan-Moor along with SOTW 1 and SL Core 1. My DD10, who has to have something to color while I read or she drives me nuts, is doing the Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome History Pockets along with SOTW 1 and SL Core 6. So, is there something similar that will go along with SOTW 2? (We already use the AG and will continue with SOTW 2.)

Any ideas or referrances on what would be the "normal" pace for this book. We are using it as prealgebra along with Keys to Algebra, and EPGY as a daily review supplement. I know I will have to see how it goes with my DD but looking for generalities only here.

Santa has always brought each child one or two gifts, the others have always been from us. We never make a big thing by changing the handwriting or hiding the wrapping paper so we don't hide it in any way. We watch the Christmas specials about the true meaning of Christmas and the original Kris Kringle so we let them figure it out. We will still have Santa, jeez, he's been bringing my DH's underwear and socks every year since he was old enough to wear them. :D It's just a passing like everyone mentioned. We still love Christmas. I think the give away this year was the many discussions about the family and the importance of family vs. gifts. Like many we are struggling more this year and we talked about how they wouldn't get "everything" but needed to be happy for the things they do receive. We have stressed time together as a family, and our health, especially with DH's grandmother struggling. in ICU all month. I think that really turned the table on the "unlimited resources" of the commercialized Santa at the North Pole with his unlimited elves, so they were comfortable spilling the beans to their Dad. :)

I think the analogy mentioned is why RFP was really encouraging me to backtrack a little and have my DD do the Paragraph Town before getting to Voyage Essay, even if there is some overlap of Grammar books. It makes a lot of sense to me. :) I don't get to any of the social boards but would love to be able to talk to others using MCT this spring, someone let me know how to go about it once you get an idea please. I do use my PM a lot with EPGY.

All my kids got something fun but school related as one of their gifts. My DD10 had $70 worth of books on her list this Christmas. I wish I could have bought them all.