Now that's just scary. My SIL, a nurse, offered DH some heavy-duty prescription painkillers of hers when he had a run-of-the-mill headache. She was offended when he said he *couldn't* take drugs not prescribed for him due to regular drug testing at work. I wonder if this sort of attitude toward prescription drugs is common among nurses? That's a topic for another thread, if any, though...

Carpet Beetle Larva?

Ummmm.... I've dosed myself with either Benadryl or the generic version of Tylenol Simply Sleep (same ingredients!). During allergy season, I don't mind the sedating qualities of a Benadryl before bed, though it's usually breathing I'm concerned with. Have I dosed one of my boys before? Yes. Once. And I'm not ashamed of it. My older DS is our emotional barometer, and when things get stressfull, he literally bounces off the walls. They have the dents to prove it. The time I "drugged him", he hadn't slept in DAYS, which means neither had I. My teenage stepson, the cause of it all, was being such a complete @$$ and causing so much trouble that week that I nearly left my husband over it. Nothing "natural" I tried on DS worked. A warm shower, a good snuggle with mommy, and a dose of Children's Benadryl was what finally got him to settle. I'm not exaggerating when I say that one dose probably saved my marriage. I was NOT thinking clearly and needed a good night's sleep, and one dose of something he gets fairly regularly anyway (at least during the summer, when he swells up terribly with even the smallest bug bite!) wasn't going to hurt him. So yah, add me to the "done it" list. Luckily, I'm fairly fire resistant on this one. ETA: I wouldn't do this regularly, or for anything other than a seriously desperate reason. I think doing it regularly is wrong.

I still haven't found a key for Nutting's Latin Primer, but I did find a vocab list, broken down into individual exercises!

When I say "we have no money" I mean NO. MONEY. For a few short periods in the last several years, we actually did have some savings, and then I said that something "wasn't in the budget". No money is different. No money means: -- We have just enough (or not enough) to cover bare expenses, not including groceries. -- We have NO savings, unless you count the few pennies we leave in the savings account attached to our free checking. -- We have NO access to credit, and can't just put expenses or emergencies on a card somewhere. We don't have any credit cards, and wouldn't qualify to get one. -- We have cut our expenses to the bone, leaving only Netflix and the internet. No cable, no nights out, nothing that isn't free. Cell phones stay only because it's our ONLY way of staying in touch when DH travels for work, which is pretty much always. We've been in the "no money" situation more often than not in the last several years, and I've discovered that people have very different ideas of what that means. One friend of mine was sympathising with me last month, when I was trying to decide which bills to juggle so I could pay our mortgage, saying, "I'm right there, too." Then she went out a week or two later and spent almost $2000 on materials/items for a new HOBBY. :glare: Meanwhile, I'm thanking the gods that DH got a short-term job the week before many of his benefits were cut because he'd been out of work too long. DH is in the middle of considering a major life/career change that may or may not pull us out of the "no money" situation, but until then, I'm stuck listening to friends talk about having no money while drinking Starbucks or telling me about the new toy they just bought. It hurts.

I'll have to look this over. At the very least, it might be good for me to self-teach. Thanks! It's funny, but a couple of years ago, DH saved a bunch of money from his work/travel budget to buy me a Sony e-Reader for birthday/Christmas. I had NO IDEA what to do with the silly thing at the time, as I'm a definite real-book lover. Now, though, my Reader and Google Books have become my very best friends! ETA: No luck so far on the Nutting key. I'll have to keep looking!

Lol...I actually just finished downloading both Nutting's Latin Primer and First Latin Reader. I'm on the lookout for a key now. Thanks! (Btw...GSWL looks very interesting. I'm trying to find no-cost options because money is and probably will be VERY tight for the next several years, but if I can find it used, I'll probably try to pick it up.)

Has anyone found any good vintage Latin texts, primers, readers, etc. out there for the 3-8th grade? I'm specifically hoping for eBooks, preferably on Google Books but I also have Kindle for PC if necessary. DS is only going into 2nd grade, but I likely won't have money for "extras" like Latin in the next few years. I'm hoping to find an introductory Latin course from a vintage text that I can adapt for use with my older DS. Especially since, if I find it now, I can start teaching myself before he starts and will be less likely to get left behind! :D I'm off to bury myself in Google Books, now. If I find anything, I'll come back and post it. Otherwise, I'll have to hope someone here has some suggestions.

Veritaserum -- Your post reminded me of something someone told me once. She said D.A.R.E, not marijuana, was her "gateway drug". She tried marijuana, enjoyed it, suffered no ill effects, etc. Since D.A.R.E. lumped all the drugs together as "equally bad", why not try the other stuff, too? Last I heard, she was addicted to meth, though it's been a while. I really like some of the ideas for conversation posted, and will definitely be keeping them in mind. My 7yo hasn't gotten anywhere near to asking about drugs yet, though we have started to discuss "safe" alcohol usage.

:lol: That's priceless. My son wanted me to rearrange the living room recently so he and his 2yo brother could recreate the battle of Thermopylae. He was soooo upset when I said no. Some kids come up with the funniest things, don't they?

Glad to hear they're that good. Thanks. What are TQ AHYS guides, btw?

By the time I got around to planning science this year, our school budget was $0, so I have to work with what we have on hand. Luckily, I've been "buying ahead" on some things since DS 7 was, oh, about 2yo. :D Since I can't buy anything else, I'm sticking with a mostly-WTM approach this year. We'll be using these as spines: Kingfisher Young People's Book of the Universe Usborne First Encyclopedia of Our World Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia We'll be using these to add experiments and activities (almost) weekly: Earth Science for Every Kid Astronomy for Every Kid Magic School Bus Secrets of Space kit (birthday present, yay!) A build-your-own volcano kit More Mudpies to Magnets We'll be using these for additional fun and activities: Bill Nye science videos a really nice telescope from my SIL, plus a few constellation guides a small collection of Let's Read and Find Out books lots of extra books for DS's book basket DS isn't huge on science, so I'm fine with the way this year is working out. If he was a more hands-on, experiment kind of guy, we'd be in trouble!

My MIL picked up a huge stack of Cornerstones of Freedom books for $3 back in May, then gave them to me for DS. Since they weren't related to our SOTW 2 material, I put them away until I had more time to go through them. Well, I finally got around to investigating them the other day. There are 28 of them, and they're hardbacks with white covers. From the looks of them, they're older editions. These books look like they'd be nice for our 3rd & 4th grade studies. At the same time, they take up a LOT of space in my 3rd/4th storage tub. Are they really that good? How have you used them? Are they better as read-alouds or to put in a book basket for supplemental reading? (DS is a strong reader, if that makes a difference.) I've been downsizing our book collections, but I don't want to get rid of these if they're really great or useful! TIA!

Would this help? They also have basic and intermediate level pages. These would make great laminated bookmarks!

:iagree: This is me. I'm not changing anything I'm doing with my sons for this year, but I am rethinking my self-education path. It will probably be a few months before I have it all pulled together. I'll be back with more later, but DS just finished breakfast and wants to get started on his schoolwork early. :001_smile:

Hunter, before I get started, can I just say I'd love to take you out for coffee and discuss this particular topic? I have a feeling it would be loads of fun. As that would be impossible, I'll simply have to attempt to make myself clear here. [Deleted a long post here, that upon preview would have been a bit too much for the way the thread is currently going.] I think a solid education can be done in one generation, as so many mothers (and fathers!) are proving on these boards. I think that your average low-middle income family isn't likely to desire a classical education as you've defined it. A family that does have the desire, but is in most respects similar to the average low-middle family, might not have either the money, the resources, or the time to do a by-the-book WTM education. The lack of any of those three things would make reaching the stated goal difficult, though not impossible. Critterfixer: Interesting point. To continue the bridge-building metaphor, "designing the bridge" is establishing your goal and the WHY? behind it. Once you know what the goal is, and why it's important to reach that goal, you can then build the foundation to support your "bridge". I think the idea is not to ignore either part, the foundation OR the goal. Both are important.

Nah, not crazy. I'm done planning for this year. I've filled in our gaps with free and/or online resources, and only have RS C left to schedule once I scrape up the $$ to buy it (won't need it before Dec., so I have some time!) I'm already roughly planning next year and the year after for my 7yo and 2yo. I use the excuse that it's necessary to plan so early on because I have to budget for it all, and who knows when I might miss a great deal because I wasn't certain of plans yet? :D It's worked out so far. Despite having NO money to buy anything right now, we're set for 2nd grade, and I have enough materials to cover the absolute basics for 3rd/4th. I also have enough Pre-K, K, and 1st stuff that it's more a matter of what I have to leave out of my plans than what I want to include. Planning ahead is just being wise. *runs off to add something I forgot I owned to my 2012 schedule......*:D

When you get to the point where you're working on side two of the abacus for trading/large numbers, you'll be entering numbers the same way (vertically, in pairs when even). Personally, I like it because it makes it easy to see the 10 when you need to trade ones for a ten, tens for a hundred, etc.!

:bigear: Seconding (or is it third-ing?) that this thread is a great idea!

Thanks for the help, ladies! I really appreciate the PMs & emails. I'm off to bury myself in these suggestions and work out what will suit us best! Ink is expensive. Hmmm...would it be tacky to ask for printer ink for my b-day????

I just noticed the message. Responding by email. :001_smile:

Overpeople -- That looks awesome! Thanks!

I can't get to *any* other libraries right now. I'm carless, since we're a one-car family and DH is working away from home just to bring in enough to cover our bills (barely, and only with juggling). Even the library here in town is a 2-mile walk each way, and in this heat, that's not happening! That's why I'm looking for free resources and ideas...I can't get anywhere, and I can't buy anything. :(

I can't get anything interesting at my library, let alone anything curriculum-related. Their selection is horrible. They're also not too keen on doing inter-library loan -- by the time you get the book, you can usually only keep it for a week, no renewals, and $1 a day late fees. I like the idea of the Donna Young composition book lessons. I even have a few of those notebooks hanging around in the school supply box. Thanks for the suggestion, mtcougar832! As for dry erase boards, we LOVE them and each have our own in addition to our larger "school" board. For some reason, I can get DS to do things on the board that he'd never do if I asked him to write with pencil and paper.

My 7yo DS is starting 2nd grade in a month. Currently we're on 1/2 days, working on finishing up a few things from last year and reviewing math before we move on. Out of the blue, DS asked me to teach him cursive "so he could write faster". I'm not against the idea, because I was planning on introducing cursive in January anyway. I just don't have the money to buy anything else right now. Here's what I've figured out so far that doesn't require me to buy anything: -- cursive writing pages from a BrainQuest Gr. 2 workbook -- cursive writing pages from Crayola.com, printed and laminated back-to-back for dry-erase writing -- later on, printed out cursive copywork pages collected from just about everywhere, and/or Momma-made copywork pages Do you think this is enough for now? I don't want to miss this window of interest just because we're short on funds, but I don't want to find out later that we missed something big, either. What do you think? Any ideas for FREE cursive resources that I might have missed?