but the Encyclopedia Brown books have been favorites of my boys. The writing style is simple, but the mysteries are great fun.

Janice, I'll see if we can take care of that one. SWB

My daughter (7) and I LOVE reading them together. Have you listened to the unabridged audio versions of the Ramon books read by Stockard Channing? Well, well worth investigating. SWB

and you'll be given the option of adding positive or negative rep. Whatever you do, please do give a reason, and sign your name! SWB

is the album. Just out on iTunes. Listen to "Until the Day is Done" first (but I'm a sucker for that sort of eschatological/apocalyptical song...I keep thinking that it will show up on an episode of Jericho). SWB

I LOVE the new R.E.M. album. They're back! I had to tell someone over thirty this, because I mentioned it to my college students and they looked at me as though I were a semi-senile dinosaur. SWB

That has been my experience almost to the letter. Well put. Thanks. SWB

...stop getting pedicures. While gnawing on Hamburger Helper and wiping my fingers on cheap toilet paper, if necessary. SWB P.S. Or stop buying books. There, that's the more mature answer. :001_smile:

We usually end up at the Corner Pocket in New Town, playing pool with kids, or else at the Barnes & Noble. Or sometimes bowling at the AMC on Richmond Road. Besides the movies, that's kind of all there is to do unless you don't mind getting wet. SWB

Once again I have to appeal to users to give the reputation system a chance. We remove inappropriate, unnecessarily hostile, or random negative points. We leave the others. You, the community, have the right to react to each other. The reputation points are a way for you, the members of this forum, to shape your own community. Receiving a negative rep means that you have offended another member. You have two choices: Alter your style of expression (that's the "shaping the community" part) or ignore the rep points. Complaining repeatedly about the use of rep points is not appropriate. If you like someone's comments, give them a positive rep. If someone is hostile, abusive, or calls names, give them a negative rep. If you get one of the above, decide whether you're going to pay attention to it or not. Please do NOT post endlessly about how persecuted you are by the rep system.

Colleen, I actually think you've solved this for yourself: there ARE two different purposes in outlining. Purpose #1: to see how a good writer develops an argument. Purpose #2: to list facts in logical order as an aid to remembering them. It's great if you can find a text which allows you to do both of those things simultaneously, but that isn't always possible. The Kingfisher text lends itself to #2 but not #1. If your student outlines from a history book twice a week (getting a grasp on the flow of facts) and outlines from a good book of essays or other quality nonfiction twice a week (seeing how the writer develops the argument), you're covering both bases. Does that help? Susan

Mary, Outlining will start with the logic-stage book, in fifth grade. SWB

Susie, Workbook 4 isn't finished yet, but we can put up an excerpt from Year 4 in the WWE main text. I'll keep you posted about the Logic Stage book, but it will be a couple of years. CW, IEW, Wordsmith, Writing Strands--all have good aspects for logic stage writing. Susan

Heather, 1. Don't panic! 2. DEFINITELY first grade. NOT kindergarten. NO WAY. :001_smile: Susan

Gretchen, I wouldn't skip FLL 4--it really does advance quite a bit beyond FLL3. It doesn't sound as though WWE is really necessary for you, though. It's very focused on laying a foundation for good expository writing, and it sounds to me as though your daughters are already fluent writers. Susan

Kathy, If your third grader is still a reluctant writer, or a willing writer who struggles, I'd use WWE and then move on CW, Wordsmith, IEW, Writing Strands--all good programs, each with advantages and disadvantages. If the third grader writes fluently and easily, you probably don't need WWE. Susan

April, You can absolutely copy the pages for your own family (only). Sorry, guys, I came into this thread late and now it's really HUGE. What questions do you still need answers to?? Don't start a new thread, but if you could repost the questions that still bug you today, I'll do my best to answer. Susan

Folks, You'll notice that our posting rules prohibit husband-bashing. (Or wife-bashing, I guess, although the men who post here would probably not survive for long if they started wife-bashing.) What does or doesn't constitute husband-bashing is clearly a matter of interpretation. However, I've been seeing more and more threads where posters discuss how unhappy they are with their marriages. Please remember that the Internet is NOT an appropriate place to discuss marital difficulties. Please, call a friend instead. SWB

So you can eyeball one before you buy. SWB

so you can go straight into it even if you haven't had previous experience. SWB

:hurray::party::cheers2: I'm turning forty this year too, and you better believe I'm going to remind everyone I know that I need to be congratulated!

it will walk her through the basics of phonics--I have found Spelling Workout to be a simple but thorough program, but I'm sure others will have suggestions too. Spelling is just phonics backwards. Instead of learning that a letter combination makes a certain sound, you learn that a certain sound is represented by a letter combination. Hope that makes sense. I like this icon, although it has nothing to do with spelling.:auto: I haven't had time to play with the icons yet! Susan

Folks, Instead of trying to wreck the reputation system with random points, would you please give it a fair try? :glare: Susan

but let me check and see if we'll be at any others...I'll post when I know. If we're not there, Rainbow and Timberdoodle generally carry most of our books. :hat: (I just like that smilie. I don't know why.)

I HEARD THAT!!!!! I think it's a great idea too.