Next year I need to streamline our schooling more. I have gone back and forth about boxed curriculum, but it may be a necessity. This is what we would like: chronological history, great grammar and writing, well laid out and easy to use, and challenging. Just wondering what is out there and pros and cons of each. Thanks!!

Heaven, Randy Alcorn Safely home, Randy Alcorn The Four Loves, CS Lewis

Dining on a Dime is pretty good....the recipes are very basic, but there are some good cleaner recipes and homemade kid stuff and bath stuff.

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If you blog, where do you do it? Pros and cons of each site? What ones are not too technologically challenging?:lurk5:

I am starting CLE reading with grades 2,4, and 5. The 2nd grade has 2 readers and 10 workbooks, the others have 1 reader and 5 workbooks....how do I make this work out for the whole year, the 2nd grade seems as though it will last the year, but the other 2 seem as though they will only last half a year, if we cover a lesson a day, 4 days a week. Am I just approaching this wrong? I have never used CLE before. Thanks!

We are going thru them w/ dd 8 and 9, and they love them. if you are tired of reading aloud, http://www.librivox.org has several done that you can download and burn onto cd's. Anne of Windy Poplars is #4, where we are now, and that has Anne teaching at a high school and dealing w/ Pringles (this is where some of the 2 movie comes from). enjoy!

yes, it started with our identical twins....they are blue and red, the others are pink, purple, and orange. Pencil boxes, folders, water bottles, cups, plates, even clothes...they are all so close in age and size, it keeps me from having to look at the tags to see whose it is....and for the twins, I can always tell who is who from far away!

I lined up the Horizons with their grade level, although some would go one year behind since it is a little more advanced than Saxon, but it worked out well for us....my son was doing Beta and Horizons 2, daughter doing gamma then delta and Horizons 3, etc. It is very different in the approach and content, and after a while we tired of 2 full math programs (Horizons started as a supplement), so we dropped MUS. I think my children had a good foundation with some of the MUS, but it spent very little time on anything else that wasn't the "basics" and that showed up in their testing. hth, tho it was more than you asked for.

I always have wondered what happened to all of those things....and I had to go to the library for Shurley grammar and have the librarian explain to my kids what a card catalog used to be....they still don't understand what I am talking about!

I will start...I love finding things that I wouldn't otherwise have bought or could have afforded....and sometimes I am glad that I only spent a few $, full price would not have been worth it.... Geo-Safari and cards......worth the $3.99 to us, but I am SOOO glad I did not buy it full price and I really had wanted to. Leap Frog globe...$4.99 Math Safari and 5 books! $4.99 2 Leap Pads $4.99 Electronic boards of...$2.99 each Presidents States Countries Take Off! board game Trivial Pursuit for Kids board game Stratego board game Battleship Mille Bornes card game Boggle Jr. Numbers what have you found?

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Writing is not our strongest point. I am using TOG, but I want more structure in teaching the writing skills. Writing Aids is nice, but more like a reference book, not an instructor's guide. The IEW history based program and WWE look good, how do I choose? Thanks.