This sounds like my recipe except I fry the bacon and crumble it on top of the soup once it is in the soup bowl and add some shredded cheese. YUMMY!!

Charlotte Mason Companion has been the most helpful to me.

Yep -what she said! It is our main program.

No, it is not classical, but WTM is not the only version of classical out there. It is great, but we more use the outline at http://www.triviumpursuit.com . I love FIAR and have used it for the past 8 years with varying children.

I use Teaching the Trivium as my spine. It more fits my lifestyle and educational philosophy.

I don't think I would let my dd play, there is enough stuff going around I don't want to invite it. :tongue_smilie:

I have not completely homeschooled for free, but I know I could do it pretty close to free if I had to. There are free math programs online, http://www.homeschoolshare.com has tons of free unit studies, The Old Schoolhouse just had an edition with several articles devoted to Highschool, and there is Ambleside online with the public domain books, etc... It would take some leg work, but I do believe you could do it for free.

Have you looked at Five in a Row? That is what we have used for K for all 4 of my children, and they all love it and have such fond memories with the books. I would not trade it for the world. http://www.fiveinarow.com Fkor K we use Reading Made Easy, FIAR, copywork, and informal math.

Jesse Tree Unit study. There's something for each day for studying. http://www.employees.org/~lathem/HomeSchool/LogEntries/JesseTree.html or a different one http://www.eriercd.org/jessetree.htm Jesus Names this study is multi-aged, and if you needed help getting it made for your age range, then the author invites you to email her for help in that area. http://happyhomeschool.familyclassroom.net/Archives/Holidays/JesusName.shtml I just copied that from another site, there were a few more, but the links would not work.

We prefer Apologia too!

This may be your problem too- we we put some in our bedroom where we have installed a light dimming fixture and remote on the ceiling fan. When I turned the lights off at the dimmer switch (off-not trying to dim) they flickered and blinked and looked like a lightening show. However, they do not do this in the dining room where we have a dimmer. Our regular bulbs work great in the bedroom and we never had a problem with light bulbs burning out. :001_huh: Just a thought.

I do agree with you, and I may try a co ed class, but I was just thinking the projects I choose may be better suited for girls. I was also thiking about charging $25 a month. Thank you. :D

Yes, I will provide all the fabric, cooking supplies, etc... I may charge a supply fee for more expensive projects.

I have been pondering the idea of starting a class in my home 2 times a month for 2 hours each time for little girls to learn to cook and sew. In the class they would be learning a project, than working on it at home. For the cooking part they would make a recipe and learn needed skills. As they complete classes they would be adding pages to a home book, with the recipes we made in class -personalized with their picture on the completed project along with the day they first made it. That sort of thing. Am I making sense? So what I need is a name for the class along with any ideas you have to make the class more successful as well as how much you would charge (or pay for) for this class. It would be limited to 5 girls, and it is to make extra money, but also for my girls for fun. So please give me your thoughts.

We have used and loved Reading Made Easy by Valerie Bendt. It is awesome and I highly recommend it.

I use it for 1st - 4th usually. With my oldest I added in history and science because he is a history buff. For my other children I did it pretty much as written. I use homeschool share units now and then too. We really enjoy this type of learning and retention is great. :001_smile:

We do a couple of different things. We don't "school" during the entire month of December. I wrap up 25 Christmas books and putt hem all on one shelf. We unwrap 1 and do an activity with that book each day- could be decorating the house, making gingerbread, making paper snowflakes, etc... Also we use FIAR here so in December we "row" Christmas books- the nutcracker, Jonathan Toomey (our favorite), Cranberry Christmas, The Year of the Perfect Christmas tree, How the Grinch stole Christmas, etc... Some of these you can find on http://www.homeschoolshare.com There are several different book studies there. We also always do an advent book, this year it is going to be Tabitha's Travels. We love this series. Other than those it is very relaxed around here in December.

:iagree: We are just starting book 2 and it has been great so far.

First, go to http://www.triviumpursuit.com and read the article 10 things to do before age 10. Second, you are not looking at the newest edition of the Well Trained Mind. The recommendations have changed. Jesse Wise has written 2 books since then. First Language Lessons is language arts for 1st and second grade (it replaces English for the thoughtful Child) and The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading replaces Phonics Pathways. While those resources are good ones, I thought you might like to know that there has been updates as they wrote curriculum themselves to fill a need.

I am not sure how old your children are, but we have used A story of Texas (at least I think that is what it is called) and it is written as a story. We enjoyed it, and now that my son is older we just use it as a framework and jumping off point.

Homeschool Enrichment and The Old Schoolhouse here.

Yes here are 2 websites that really break it down for you to easily see how it is done.This one is a blog of a lady from the Five in a Row message boards. She is very intelligent and just fun. http://blogshewrote.blogspot.com/2008/06/thoughts-on-grammar.html and here is the other http://www.design-your-homeschool.com/language-arts-lesson-plan.html that one contains lots of information on schooling in general I have enjoyed reading. HTH! :D

:lol:

Thank you- great site!

I think out of control spankings or yelling or anything else "out of control" is abusive. I do think spankings by loving parents is fine, I also believe that it is taught in the Bible though some people disagree with me. I will not get in that debate though. :D So in short doing anything out of control is abusive.