A lot of people buy JUST the teacher's book...it's pretty much the same text as the student book, but with extra information for the teacher added in. The answers are all in the back, though, so the student won't see them if he's reading along with you. I bought both the student and teacher book this year, and I sort of wish I hadn't--I'm just really not seeing the advantage of having both. BUT since you have two students doing it (assuming the plan is you'll all work on it at the same time), it'd probably be easier to have 2 copies. But, yeah, you definitely don't need 2 separate student books; they don't need to write in the books at all. ETA: okay, rereading and I'm thinking you mean your kids will be at different levels this year? In that case, I'd just buy the teacher's manual for each level.

I used this place: http://www.healthcheckusa.com/ for my thyroid test. You go to a regular lab (the same kind of place a doctor will send you to if they don't have an in-house lab) and then the results get posted online. Looks like they do iron, too.

DH is a hs teacher, so we pretty much follow his schedule. We start beginning of August, take a week off in September, a week for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks for Christmas, and a spring break. He also has a February break, but we'll probably work through that this year since we wound up starting later than he did. When he has random days off (Labor day, etc.) we usually do at least a light day of school unless we have plans to go somewhere all day. I don't like having part of a week off; it's throws off my sense of order :)

DS10 just finished week 1. The first three days were pretty quick (20-25 minutes?), but then day 4 took him FOREVER. he split it over 3 days, and I'd say he spent at least an hour and a half on it. I'm hoping things will be quicker once he gets the hang of it (he did the first 3 levels of Writing with Ease, but it's been awhile, so he's out of the habit of doing that style of narration). Adding it in this year was kind of a last minute decision for us, and I'm fretting a bit over how to find the time, as he's also doing MCT Voyage level this year. But I really like the looks of it and DS likes it, too, so far (which is odd, since he HATED WWE), so I'm hoping we can shuffle some things around and do both.

Thanks everyone! Sounds like I'm more or less on the right track...they're doing 15 min/day right now, largely because it just doesn't take them very long to play everything they're working on several times at this point. I'm expecting it will be up to 30 minutes within a few months, at least for the older two. They also usually spend more time working on fun stuff that's not in their books...DH helps them pick out the Harry Potter theme, songs from musicals, etc--but I'm not sure how much that sort of thing "counts." I am not the musical one around here!

DH is teaching all the kids piano this year. They've done a little in years past, but we're really trying to make it a priority this year. He's played piano since he was 6, and he's using the Faber books with them, but he's never taught anyone to play before so it's kind of a figure it out as he goes thing. So I'm wondering how much time it's reasonable to expect the kids to spend practicing every day. Generally DH does a lesson with each of them on the weekends and gives them stuff to work on during the week. Kids are 10, 8, and 5. Thoughts? How long do "real" piano teachers expect their students to spend practicing?

:iagree: I'm SO glad we went with touches over other gaming things.

Ari Daniel: named, in a roundabout way, for DH's grandfather, who was named Leo/Hebrew name Ariyeh Milo Joseph: I actually wanted Benedict for a middle name (long story; because he had kidney reflux and I was looking at lists of patron saints), but people talked me out of it. Milo we just like. August David/Gus: my favorite full name to shorten to Gus. I've liked it ever since I read The People in Pineapple Place as a kid. I can pretend he's named after a slew of famous August/Auguste/Augustus/Augustines. David is DH's name. I suggested it with Ari, but he rejected it then. With Gus, he admitted that he'd been kind of disappointed he talked me out of it so easily earlier ;)

an update.... Well. DH went to the doctor and got a celiac panel the same day we stopped the gluten....and it came back completely and totally normal. Nothing even borderline. So we ended up eating pizza 2 weeks into the experiment instead of giving it the full month. We are not terribly patient people. And that night my 5 year old got a stomach ache. The next day, my 10 year old was a rage-filled monster. Hmm. We cut the gluten out again and continued on. Notable events since then: *DS10 had regular bread at communion one Sunday (they actually offer gluten free, but it's in a separate place and I think he would feel too conspicuous taking it, so we told him he could try the regular). No ill effects noted. *DS5 accidentally had gluten in the form of a cookies and cream milkshake (oops. my bad). Had a little bit of a stomachache right after and then a monster headache starting about 20 minutes later, lasting the rest of the day. He gets little headaches sometimes, but this one seemed much more intense. *DH and I went out to dinner without the kids and ate gluten with wild abandon. DH had a roll, a beer, and an apple turnover thing for dessert. Later that night, he reported feeling really, REALLY itchy--itchier than he's been in a long time. So. In short, I don't know. If these are all coincidences, they're very interesting coincidences. I'm wondering if, particularly for DH, it could be a wheat thing rather than a gluten thing; he's had the occasional beer over the past few weeks and not noticed anything. Most beer is just barley, not wheat (unless it's a wheat beer). He would have no problem giving up just wheat, I don't think. He makes his own beer, so that's really the hardest thing for him in contemplating a life without gluten. He eats pretty much anything--is not picky at all--so day to day eating isn't the problem. He's going to start over and completely cut out gluten for a full month to see what happens. I've already told my oldest he can have a piece of cake at a birthday party this weekend (DS5 has requested I bring him something without gluten instead), so we'll see if we see the same results as after the pizza. I want this to be easier to figure out!

Well, I have my three: Ari Milo August/Gus And then there's my wasteland of unused girl names: Susanna Delia Rosalie Maisie what else? Since DH doesn't get a say, we can put in the names he's rejected: Ezra Evangeline Declan And then boy names that didn't get used: Jasper Henry/Hank Owen Jonah I think I need more girls: Hazel Matilda Sorrel there!

Unless your 13 year old is REALLY into legos, I think Legoland would likely be kind of boring for her. We went when mine were 3, 6, and 8, and even the 8 year old was looking a little jaded (we went after spending a few days at Disneyland; I think it would have been better to do it in the opposite order). The rides are mostly dressed up off the shelf kiddie rides of the sort you'll find at any local amusement park (with a few exceptions). It's a cute park, and we appreciated the lack of lines, but, IMO, it's really not in the same league as Disney.

That's when I started using my husband, the math teacher, for the problems I had trouble explaining/doing :D

We only buy the textbook and workbooks.

Doug Ross!

My kids are lower carb than they were before, but I wouldn't say they're low carb. We're also doing gluten free right now, so that adds an extra layer of complication. They're pretty much off of bread, and I'm trying to cut way back on how much sugar they have. But they snack on tortilla chips and popcorn a lot, and they eat a TON of fruit. For dinners, they often, but certainly not always, have white potatoes with whatever meat and veggies we're having, and they have rice pasta probably once or twice a week. I'd love to get them off, or at least mostly off, all grains, but the gluten thing is already a big adjustment, so we're taking it one step at a time.

Our county started today. DH is a teacher, so he actually went back last week for planning...we usually start when he does, but the kids had camp 3 days last week and again this week, so we're getting a bit of a late start. We did a couple of short days last week, and just did our first full day today. Next week we'll be full time.

You mean what's my favorite? If I had a kid named Katherine, I'd go with Katie. If I knew someone named Katherine, I'd call her whatever she wanted to be called.

Last I checked, the website says August.

ooh--that looks like exactly what I want! thanks!

thanks! We have used that before, mostly for my older kids...I may take a look at it again.

DS10 used the first level last year and is about to start the second level. I was really impressed with it last year. I noticed that he used a lot of the words from it in his own (creative) writing throughout the year. I think he retained most of it. He took a cumulative end of year test and got something like 97 out of 100 questions right (with a minimal amount of studying beforehand).

It passed for mine (he was mostly a sleeve chewer, so it only happened in winter). We bought him some medical tubing and made a necklace out of it for him, and that helped some when we remembered to give it to him.

Okay, I just found this: http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/spanish_for_children Which looks pretty good, at first glance.

Like BrainPop or Sheppard Software or something, only for Spanish? Is what I'm envisioning. Does such a thing exist? My older two are doing Spanish for Children (Classical Academic Press), and all three will probably be taking an outside Spanish class. But I'm suspecting my 8 year old will need a lot of hand holding for SFC, so I'd like to set my 5 year old up with something he can do online while the older two work. He reads well, so it's fine if it requires some independent reading. And it doesn't have to be particularly structured...I mean, it's fine if it is, but it doesn't need to be a complete curriculum; just games or videos + games or something that will keep him occupied. I keep thinking there MUST be something like that out there, and I keep not being able to find it.

My shiny new schedule for this year says we're going to start at 8:00. In other words, ask me in a month ;)