Hello, I know you have made your decision by now, but I wanted to just say that for my 7 year old, we use R&S math, but we also have a really cute little math game called Sum Swamp. My son who doesn't love math LOVES this game and ask to play it. It teaches addition/subtraction/greater than/less than and odd/even. Anyway, wanted to throw that idea out there too. Good luck in whatever you chose! :)

Hello everyone, I was just wondering if anyone has some great suggestions on how to add a little spice, fun, etc... into R&S English and Math. We will be doing both for second grade. I have all the curriculum from R&S, plus spelling and a few other things. However, I have been doing a bit of reading and seeing how many people view it as very boring. I can't send everything back at this point and I sure don't have the money to purchase all new curriculum, so now I am wondering how I may be able to add my own spin on this to make it more alive and exciting. Could I possibly use it as a guide and create more from it? Does that make any sense???:tongue_smilie: Anyway, any suggestions are welcome. I sure don't want to bore my very visual and interactive learning son to the point where he hates doing school every day. :sad: Please help! Thanks and have a wonderful day. :001_smile:

Thank you for all the replies. I had actually realized I had posted in the wrong area, so I went and posted this on the general board as well. I plan on looking over these responses and jotting down a few notes to pass on to my daughter. She is currently living on her own in a very small basement apartment. She didn't want to live at home, tried to live at her grandparents and didn't like that either, so now she is in the apartment. Reality is hitting her pretty hard right now. She also has two jobs which she claims to dislike greatly. I think if she could find a good loan, drop down to one job part time, and go to college also, it might work well for her. We shall see. Thanks again for the information. :)

Hello, My eighteen year old daughter is about to begin college in the Fall. She did receive the HOPE scholarship, but it does not cover all costs. She just called me to say that she is going to apply for a student loan. She figures this will cover what is not paid by HOPE for tuition, plus books, etc... She is also saying that she wants to use this loan to pay for her living expenses. She wants to quit her jobs and focus on being a student full time and basically live off the loan. I have absolutely no experience with student loans, but this sounds unrealistic. Is this actually possible??? I just don't know if this is a smart move at all, but she will not listen to me and my advice. She seems to think she has it all worked out now. Also, is there a better loan to look at over another? Just curious. Not sure if anyone even knows how this all works, but my daughter has me thinking now. Thanks and have a great day!

Hello, My eighteen year old daughter is about to begin college in the Fall. She did receive the HOPE scholarship, but it does not cover all costs. She just called me to say that she is going to apply for a student loan. She figures this will cover what is not paid by HOPE for tuition, plus books, etc... She is also saying that she wants to use this loan to pay for her living expenses. She wants to quit her jobs and focus on being a student full time and basically live off the loan. I have absolutely no experience with student loans, but this sounds unrealistic. Is this actually possible??? I just don't know if this is a smart move at all, but she will not listen to me and my advice. She seems to think she has it all worked out now. Also, is there a better loan to look at over another? Just curious. Not sure if anyone even knows how this all works, but my daughter has me thinking now. Thanks and have a great day!

Hello, I was just wondering if anyone uses this and if so, what are the thoughts on the site? I am curious if it is truly a safe way to budget your money. I am also interested in Mvelopes and possibly YNAB (you need a budget). Hmmm... any advice or suggestions are welcome. :)

Here is our plan for 2nd grade: Math: R&S Math 2 Various math games (usually done on Fridays) English: R&S English 2 Spelling: R&S Spelling (Sound & Structure) 2 ETC for phonics Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting T Reading: Lots of books (learning different styles... fiction, non-fiction, biographies, etc..) Reading Comprehension in workbooks Science: R&S Patterns of Nature Evan Moor 2nd grade Science wkbk Exploring Social Studies: R&S Social Studies 2 Geography: Map skills workbook (Scholastic) History: SOTW 1 plus Activity Guide Bible: Color, draw and learn workbook My First Study Bible Extras: *only done 1-2 times a week R&S Health R&S Music 1 & 2 R&S Developing Motor Skills in Art 1 & 2 Sports/PE: (each done in a different season) Flag football, soccer, basketball & swimming lessons We also do choir weekly and I have my son cook/bake with me weekly to teach other skills. I hope that helps. Good luck with everything! :)

So, basically they do the same thing, but with the mini you can save money? We have a keyboard and monitor, but my husband wants a bigger monitor. So, I don't really know if that is a savings at that point. I am betting he will want the sleeker looking keyboard too over what we have, so I am not really sure if we would come out saving much at all. Hmmmm.... gotta figure this out as we are supposed to go today and pick one out. Thanks for the info!

Hello, We are looking at getting a new computer, and it will be an Apple computer. I am asking this question and hoping that the Mac users out there will be able to help me. My husband and I have talked about getting the IMac for sometime now, but last night he mentioned that we could also go a different route and get the Mac mini plus a Thunderbolt display. Well, I don't really understand this because I don't know the difference really. Can someone please explain the difference a little more clearly and also suggest what you believe to be the better option? I am going to go try and figure it out on the Apple site, but I thought I would ask here as well. Thanks & have a great day!

Hello, There are a few things I am wondering about our upcoming 2nd grade year. First, I will be doing R&S math 2 with my son. Does anyone think I need to supplement another math with this? If so, what would you suggest? Next, I was wondering about ETC (book 3,4, & 5). I have used HOP for my son in both K and 1st. He will be going into second grade this year and I was thinking about ETC. Is this a good phonics program for an almost 7 yr. old? Also, I plan on creating our own reading list, so no actual curriculum for that, but I was wondering if I should pick up a workbook on reading comprehension for grade 2? Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks so much and have a great day!

Hello, I have been looking over the curriculum I have so far for my son who will begin 2nd grade in a few weeks. It seems I overlooked the reading part. We have just used Hooked on Phonics in the past, but I thought I would look at something else this coming year. I am going between R&S Reading/Phonics 2 set and BJU Press Reading 2 set. The R&S looks extremely thorough and it very affordable. The BJU looks great as well, but is pretty pricey, yet I love the vivid colors in the books. R&S is all black and white. We are doing lots of R&S for our curriculum, but it is fine if I choose something different for reading. Has anyone used R&S or BJU, and if so, what are your thoughts? Is the BJU worth the more than $100.00 price over R&S? Any helpful thoughts are welcome. Thanks and have a wonderful day! :)

Hello, I have just been able to read all of these wonderful responses and I just have to say thank you to each & everyone of you for the great encouragement! :) Yesterday, after making the decision, I just felt soooo much better. I began getting excited about everything again, researching any other material I may want to use with my son, etc.... It just made me so happy. :) I still feel that way today and I know without a doubt that the right decision has been made. I do believe that I was basing everything on this past school year and all the stress that it involved. Unfortunately, schooling my son was affected by all this happening, but we pushed through with the basics and got all our requirements in for the year. :) Some of my family knew how hard is has been and really thought that the University Model School would be a great idea for our son. I began to feel the pressure that I needed to send him there so that I would not have another year like last year from others. I think they just knew my stress levels and thought it would really help me out. For a while, I did too. However, now I know what we have chosen is absolutely the right thing for our family. Lots of the stresses are still there with certain situations & they won't go away anytime soon because it involves my older daughter who is eighteen. That is fine. I now have this feeling that I will be able to tackle these situations better and do a great job home-schooling our son as well. O.K., sorry for the book I have written. I just really wanted to express my thanks and appreciation for the encouragement I have been given by each of you. Thank you!!! :)

Bluebell: I have decided to keep him home this year and I will do all the home-schooling. After looking at everything, I came to the realization that I am definitely capable of teaching him in History and Science right now. We do not need to spend the money right now in order for our son to learn well in these subjects. I already have the curriculums, plus supplements for both subjects and I think we will do very well. :) We will re-assess everything next year to determine if our son will go to the UMS in third grade. As of right now though I feel like a weight has been lifted and I am at complete peace with my decision. I definitely feel that I am doing the right thing. :)

Nevermind. I think I have now made my final decision. :) Just needed to calm down, do a touch of research, and decide what is best for us right now.

Hello, I know that I probably sound like a broken record because I have posted about this a couple of times before. It is just that I am having such a hard time making a decision as to whether to send my son (who will be 7 in two weeks & going into 2nd grade this coming school year) to a University Model School two days a week this school year. It would be for Science, History and then an elective. I have attended the parent's meeting, my husband and I have filled out the application, I have contacted friends about help with transportation should we send our son to the school, and I have talked to my son about it just to see what his thoughts are (he is fine with whatever). For some reason I am having problems taking these last steps of sending in the application and knowing that this is the absolute right decision. Maybe it is just because it is all new to me. We plan to definitely send our son to the UMS two days a week once we hit 3rd grade, so this is just a year earlier, right??? So, what is the big deal!?!? I am driving myself crazy with this and my husband just keeps saying "you are the one in charge of home-schooling him, you have to do what you feel best with". Ugh! I know that and I don't know why this is so difficult for me. I feel so goofy. I need to just put the application in the mail today and go with it. I do in-home childcare too and this may help give me a few hours on Tuesday and Thursday to plan our home-school week a touch better while he is at school. Maybe. The teachers at the school will have a lesson plan for History & Science that will be given to me weekly. I will still be teaching both of these subjects to my son on M,W, & F. So, he will be getting ALL subjects five days a week. I am great about creating plans to follow so that both the childcare and home school work well together each day, but I am bad about actually following through. I MUST work on that part. Sorry for bringing this up again. I don't even really know what I am expecting by posting once more. I think I am just frustrated that I can't seem to find a peace about all of this. I know that this is really a great school from what a few of my friends say, so why is that not helping??? Gosh, I feel like just crying, but that would just be silly. :( Thanks for reading this again and I hope each of you have a wonderful day.

This is one of my sweet little guy a few years back. Not sure what happened, but I know he had been playing ball outside with daddy.

Hello, I posted about part time home schooling in an earlier thread. Basically, we would be sending our son (who turns 7 in August) to the UMS part time and then I would home school him the rest of the time. He will be doing 2nd grade this upcoming school year. I have also posted about how I was able to do most of the basics, but Science and History kinda took a back seat due to some stressful family situations occurring the entire past school year. Well, I was looking at the way the school determines where the child should be placed and now I am worried that they will want to put him into 1st grade Science and History because we haven't studied appropriately. They do a placement test to see where he would place right now. I am not sure if my son would pass these subjects well enough for them to place him into 2nd grade. :confused: IF this were to happen, I am not sure how this would work. Doing 1st grade History and Science, yet 2nd grade in the other subjects???? :001_huh: Maybe I am thinking about all of this too much and it shouldn't really matter that much. I am wondering if we should even move forward with the University Model School this year or if I should work hard with him this upcoming year to catch him up so that he can just fall into place at the school in 3rd grade. Goodness, my mind thinks too much sometimes! :tongue_smilie: Help me out here, please. What would you do??? Thanks and have a great day! :)

Yes, this is a University Model School. :) The more I am reading about it and talking with other families about it, the more I am loving the idea. Plus, I am getting great responses here as well. I am going to be calling the school today to find out more information. I am thinking this could be a very good thing for our family. :) Thanks for the replies and have a wonderful day!

From what I understand, this school does not give evening homework as PS does. Instead the child will have assignments that they will do during the day on M,W, and F which will then be due once they return. So, actually my son would be doing math five days a week, along with whatever other subjects he takes. Basically, much of the teaching/instruction is done on T & TH. and then the seatwork will be done at home. I think it could work out very well.

Hello Everyone, Just a couple of weeks ago I was asking opinions about what I should do as far as homeschooling my son this upcoming year. I expressed how this past year has been very stressful and I felt that we didn't get as much accomplished as I thought we should for first. Anyway, I have come down to two choices now as opposed to many I had the last time. My question is has anybody ever home schooled their child part time? I ask this because we have a Preparatory Academy in our area where my son could go only on Tuesdays and Thursdays for whatever subjects I choose. I would then home school him completely in the other subjects on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. My son would go from about 10 AM till either 2:30 or 3:30 on T & Th. Most likely we would have him do math, science & possibly history there. Also, he would get to choose an elective such as art, PE, etc... and would eat lunch there too. I believe they do Abeka for math & SOTW (amongst other books) for history. Not sure about science though. I would take on the English/Spelling/Reading. My husband and I know of two families that have their children at this prep. school and they both absolutely love it for their children. We already know that we are definitely doing this come 3rd grade, but are now considering it for 2nd due to everything that has happened over the past year. It would probably run us $1500.00 to $1700.00 per year which is not too bad considering it cost over $11,000 per year for our daughter to go to a private Christian school (she is now graduated). We most likely could make this work should we go ahead and enroll our son. So, has anyone ever had/or is having this experience? Sending the kids to a school part time and then home-schooling part time? Just very curious to see how it all worked out or is working out. :) Thanks so much and have a wonderful day!

No worries of being tempted. :) I should have clarified in my initial post that for us it is Apple only. My husband is in the group that believes that Apple is indeed the only computer creators. We have had a PC/Windows before and was so unhappy because of all the problems and issues we were constantly having that we switched. It was my husbands dream to have a Mac and so in 2002, we got one and have never looked back. Really, I think the iMAC would be our best choice even if it is more expensive. The IPad just sounds fun! :) However, we can plan that in later on hopefully. Thanks! :)

Hello, This may seem like a bit of a crazy question, but which would you go for? A new desktop computer or the IPad? My hubby and I have talked about both. We have an older Mac computer that still runs, but probably doesn't have much oomph! left in it. We have thought about getting a brand new Mac desktop, but it will run us anywhere from $1500.00 to $1800.00 most likely. However, my husband would also LOVE to get an IPad (probably about $700.00), but I don't know if it would be a big mistake to get that over a desktop. Which would you go with? Can you hook an IPad up to a printer? What would be the disadvantages of going with one over the other? We use the computer for internet, school at times, photos, paying bills, etc... Thanks in advance for your responses. Have a great day! :)

We have a Costco & BJ's membership, but not Sam's. We tend to go to Costco most. It is very close to our home, is nice & clean, carries lots of brands/items we love & they have a great return policy. Also, we usually get our gas at Costco because it is always a bit cheaper, and the Photo lab is great! We even eat at Costco at times. The food is pretty good and super inexpensive at the little food court. We just love the place! My husband & son love Costco for the samples alone! While I shop, they are going around trying everything. :) BJ's is not as convenient as Costco, so we don't go as much. For me, BJ's does carry a ton of brands, even more than Costco, but it seems much more cluttered & unorganized at times. The nice thing with BJ's is that you can use manufacturer's coupons along with their own coupons and save quite a bit on your purchases. Costco has their own coupons too which are great, but you can't stack them like at BJ's. Overall though, I would pick Costco hands down. Hope this helps! :)

My DH has worked from home for about four years now and we both absolutely LOVE it! His commute to the actual office is an hour and a half, sometimes worse depending on the traffic, so it was an easy 3-4 hours in the car daily when he had to go to the office. UGH! Considering how gas prices have gone sky high at times over these past years, that alone has been a blessing for us. We have also been able to go down to one vehicle because of him working from home which has worked out just fine for our family. This has been another area of savings in the financial area. YAY! My husband has an office area in the basement. It is still unfinished, but we have made it fairly nice for him, plus he has a window right at his desk to look out and enjoy the day so he is really happy. Because he works from 8-5/5:30 most days, he is able to spend thirty minutes with our son each morning reading the Bible and reading other books with him. It is absolutely treasured time for them both. Also, we don't get in each others way at all. It is funny, he works from home, but we don't actually talk much until after he is officially off from work. He runs upstairs for lunch and that is about it. He will fix his own meal, then head up to our room to relax & eat for the hour. In the evenings, he simply walks up the stairs to get home instead of driving an hour and a half +. The time that he is able to spend with our son then is priceless. Plus, we all get more family time that way. My son wouldn't know what to do if he didn't have his time with dad. :) We hope that he will never have to go back to the actual office permanently. It has worked out beautifully for us and we feel completely blessed because of this situation. :)

Hello, My husband and I are considering Netflix, but haven't decided quite yet. We will probably do the free trial to try it out first, but I would also love to hear from anyone that already has it. What are your thoughts? Here is what we are thinking. We pay quite a bit for U-verse right now and while we love it, we need to cut somewhere. Netflix seems very affordable. Now we do have our favorites on TV. For example, I love HGTV, especially House Hunters. My husband loves Fox news. Together, we enjoy Food Network. Are we able to get any of these shows on Netflix? Also, how would we go about having the local channels? I am sure there is a very simple answer to this, I just haven't researched much yet. Any input is welcome. Thanks so much! Have a great day! :)