We are doing Dave Ramsey DVD and workbook.

We use raw cow's milk that has the cream on top. We shake to distribute the cream. We have a milk allergy son who drinks rice, soy or coconut milk and eats goatmilk cheese.

Hello, I am a former teacher, principal and educational therapist. In my most recent last 7 years of employment, I was an educational therapist working one on one with primarily dylexic students in a private christian school. Research has shown that whether you read to the student or the student listens to audio books, the learning is the same if the student has short periods of listening and discusses with the teacher, parent or another person who is familiar with the reading material. Also, following along with the audio books can be a distraction for some dyslexic students. You will have to try both ways and see what works for your student. When I was a teacher and principal I couldn't emphasis enough the importance of parents becoming involved in the "at home reading" of their children. I always wrote a letter home at the start of each year stating the above to relieve the parent of guilt of reading to a young or older child. Some students are very slow readers and just having a parent read and discuss sometimes makes the difference between loving reading and hating it. Attention to comprehension comes from the students knowing they are going to have to retell or discuss what they have just read every page or so. Reading with your child is a huge commitment for parents but it will pay off with a love of literature eventually. One of the students I worked with the longest was in high school the last years I did therapy with him and we read through all his classic Great Books list and it was laborous but he loved them all even Wuthering Heights, Screwtape Letters and of course Tale of Two Cities and many many more. We also used Speech to Print software for him to write all his papers. I hope this is helpful to someone.

:iagree:Yes, ironic indeed. A practical example of using original documents would be to use Columbus's journal to learn about his voyage rather than someone's bias on the voyage in a textbook. His journal speaks for itself. We also did the same with George Washington. Mason or not, this man is a praying man. I've heard and seen the info on the Mason's as well and take them with a grain of salt. No much of a conspiracy theory chaser myself. I just have the philosophy of trying my best to teach the truth of any subject I choose to teach. Some are easier than others to research and acquire documents. Most of us already have our trusted sources of information.

Two thumbs up for the Tavern experience in CW. If money is the issue try lunch instead of dinner. I have taken my own kids and my middle schoolers on several occasions and got no complaints from any of them. You don't go away hungry either.

I teach my dgd; she comes to me everyday for school except Friday. We start school at 8:30 a.m. and I run her home at 1:30 p.m. We test every Friday (Bible, Saxon Math, Latin, Literature and alternate Science and History) so we only have class Monday thru Thursday at my house. Her mom proctors her testing on Friday at her house so I can have a free day. She is in 9th grade this year but last year our schedule was very similar. I was a classroom teacher and principal for many years in a private Christian middle school so I approach planning a bit differently. I plan everything by chapters or modules (Apologia) usually every two weeks. It takes about an hour and beginning last year I allowed my granddaughter to have some input regarding scheduling, projects, labs, etc. I teach her Bible, Saxon Alg II this year, History- I supplement the BJU textbook and we discuss at length, Latin - I only teach new material and review weekly, Science (Apologia Biology) independent with labs done in front of me on Wednesday, SAT Prep is done this year only-last year it was Wordly Wise for Spelling and Vocab, Literature - trade books that track with our history and composition is included. Last year we finished the highest level of Shurley English and only review when deemed necessary. Her mother teaches her Dave Ramsey's Economics and this year we have done a unit study on the Constitution in addition to the regular BJU American History. My granddaughter does all her reading independently after our formal school and it varies from day to day. She tells me she usually spends between 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours on independent work when she gets home. That includes her Saxon Alg II, Apologia Science, BJU American History and American Literature and Latin drill work. Last year was primarily the sames except different levels of each subject, a formal grammar but no SAT Prep. She did also take Latin in 8th grade. In our ps district we have to count Bible as an elective on the HS transcript so she has two electives this year plus a foreign language (Bible, SAT Prep, Latin) and the math, science, history, lit/gram/comp. That's a full load for us. Last year was exactly the same but no SAT Prep and we added formal grammar and vocabulary to Literature and PE was done at local gym. I am fortunate that I taught almost all her subjects in private Christian School prior to home schooling her last year and this year. We have to complete 4 1/2 hours a day in 8th grade to count it as a school day in GA (we do much more with the independent work she does at home). High school requires class hours to award credits so we have to consider that. No problem since she does work independently at home . She works well independently with a schedule to follow on the subjects she does on her own. She did have to prove herself last year in order to be allowed that priviledge and that wouldn't work for every student. She's a math whiz but doesn't like it so I teach the lesson and she does the work independently. We also supplement with Dr. Seigal from Great Courses with the Saxon Alg. II just to add understanding (she really doesn't need it but I am not a math major so it gives me the confidence to teach Alg II so I guess I am the Great Course student but don' tell her.) I know I have given TMI, please forgive me. I hope you can sort it all out. We are not the traditional hs's but who among you is? LOL I am so thrilled I think this is my 50th post. I didn't think I would ever make it to 50.:party:

:iagree:I have the 6 Qt. Pro and wouldn't take anything for it. I didn't make bread when I originally got it but do now and it is just the thing I often need. I don't think you could ever have one too big or too powerful and it looks like you have found some good prices. QVC occasionally runs a good deal on one and it always comes with extras when you buy from them and sometimes Easy Pay (monthly payments no interest on debit or credit card).

:iagree:If you have a School Box or similar in your town they should be able to help you with test prep.

Yvonne, I don't personally know an internet site that compares or discusses the benefits of one over the other. When I home schooled my oldest daughter 25 years ago I administered the ITBS to her and it was scored by BJU. I still have the scores but my comparison after teaching for the last 20+ years with the Stanford would never make me use the ITBS. It doesn't seem as comprehensive. You want to know as much as you can about how and why your child received the scores and for my money Stanford is head and shoulders above all the others. I also give the Woodcock Johnson III Achievement and Cognitive so I do have other comparisons. For our purposes as home schoolers, Stanford is great. You get a wealth of information about interpreting the test scores on the back of the test. I hope this was helpful.

:iagree:I have lived in the South all my life and Atlanta for the last 35 years. It is very hot here in the summer and humid at times but we air condition everything - cars, houses, buses, commuter rails - you get the idea. He may have to get creative about transportation since we are a car town but bikes are catching on and depending on where he lives he may be close to public transportation and shopping and groceries, etc. He can probably make it on his stipend if he is frugal. He will probably make friends who have cars so he can bum rides when he needs. Because we air condition living space, tell him to look for a place to rent where utilites are included. Electric and natural gas can get expensive in both winter and summer. I spent a summer in Boston with my hubby and two younger boys. We didn't get to swim even once because the pool water never warmed up enough to swim even if it was fairly warm. The cool nights kept the pool water cold all the time. He won't have that problem here. We swim in May most years. We have hot nights in July, August and September as well as days. No wool sweaters or coats needed. He will like Atlanta, especially the academic Atlanta. Tell him to pack light on clothes and bring plenty of sun screen. In the early 70's when my husband was at GA Tech, we lived in the Little Five Points area in an apartment and had to use public transportation (no commuter rail at that time) some but even then it was not difficult. We were about 1 1/2 miles from Emory and loved it then. He'll have a ball.

:iagree:I am talking about primarily revising history to remove the truth of our Christian heritage and have spent a number of years listening to my beloved friend "Catherine Millard" who has opened my eyes and the eyes of many to the deliberate removal of our Christian heritage in DC and other places. I have taken my middle school classes to DC to tour with her many times and had her come to our school on Christian Heritage Week to do in-service for our teachers when I was principal and teacher. She is the one who originally showed us the revised history of Jamstown and the common revisionist history of Pocahontas. She is a wealth of information and her Christian Heritage Foundation is invaluable to me. She is from South Africa and considers herself a missionary to this country. I use primarily original documents to validate even my BJU History. She showed us how even BJU and Abeka used older history books from the turn of the century that had already been revised in writing some of their history books. That is the revisionist history of which I speak. I am not talking about someone's bias, I am speaking of the deliberate rewriting of history to make it entirely secular. BTW her foundation conducts tours of DC and Williamsburg and Jamestown. We are a uniquely Christian nation and many would like for us to forget that fact.

:001_smile:That is such a wonderful blessing to your daughter. God is so good!

:grouphug::grouphug:Great idea nMoria to search scientifc articles for word usage-you are a chief word nerd. I am stealing that one!;)

Love Colonial Williamsburg anytime of the year. If the weather is mild and dry, pack a quilt and picnic lunch for each day you are there and save your money for one traditional colonial meal while there. Take advantage of a guided tour or glop on with a group that has a guide. The guides have so much information and can add interest for your young ones. Get an early start, so much to take in and the mind and feet get weary later in the day. That is another good reason to take a break for a picnic lunch under a tree on the grass. I would allow at least two full days for Colonial Williamsburg or three days if you have the time. Jamestown and Yorktown are wonderful if you have done your homework ahead of time. There was some revisionist history presented at Jamestown when we were last there.

The goal for reading after the basics have been covered is for your student to love reading for pleasure and to obtain information, increase vocabulary, develop comprehension and retention skills, develop a flow of written language, and much much more. I had a homeschooling friend who said her goal for reading for her children was to get them to love reading by 5th grade. She felt that after that it would get increasingly harder and harder to instill the love of reading. Whenever I visited their home there was a big basket beside the fireplace in their living room full and running onto the floor with books they had checked out of the local library. She would be reading aloud to one and the others would be scattered throughout the house reading on their own. It was very informal but the children were definitely having a reading class with discussion afterwards. I cherish that nugget of wisdom regarding getting them to love reading by 5th grade. That was prior to the video game error so I might say by 4th grade now since the video game craze can interfer earlier than 5th grade if allowed. This would not be my strategy if my child had reading difficulties and needed a more intensive, structured approach, with emphasis on the reading skills in which he shows weaknesses.

I taught BJU Life Science for many years in Christian school. I really loved it and it gave a great foundation for HS Biology. I only taught BJU Earth Science one year and I never taught the Physical Science but others loved it I worked with. These obviously were not DVD courses since I was a classroom teacher for many years. I can highly recommend the Life Science. I did enrich with hands on activities but that was only because that is my thing to do.

:iagree::grouphug: You are great!

:001_smile:I like the new chunking acronym mentioned above. It adds another dimension of learning to the process. That will help students who have short term memory issues to make it more meaningful and then it will get into their long term memory for easier recall. That's how we remember anything new; we must attach meaning to it. Write the last statement down somewhere you can find it easily it is a very important strategy for learning anything. Think about it yourself. That is how you can remember names, dates, events, obscure facts, etc.

:001_smile:I like the new chunking acronym mentioned above. It adds another dimension of learning to the process. That will help students who have short term memory issues to make it more meaningful and then it will get into their long term memory for easier recall. That's how we remember anything new; we must attach meaning to it. Write the last statement down somewhere you can find it easily it is a very important strategy for learning anything. Think about it yourself. That is how you can remember names, dates, events, obscure facts, etc. We remember nothing that doesn't have meaning to us. Ask your students what something means to them and help them remember it in that way. It's called making a connection in some programs.

After evaluation (testing) a prescriptive plan is designed to address the student's processing weaknesses in therapy twice a week for 85 minutes per session. I use an Orton Gillingham bases phonics program, rhythmic writing on large chalkboard, Zaner Blosser writing frame on laminated mat, assorted techniques for reading skillk, auditory skills, etc. for each individual student. There is a math block and intensive reading a grammar. This starts at 2nd or 3rd grade. There is a program prior to this one for K-1 that is very hands on called Search and Teach. These all build the cognitive skills needed for reading success. The program is minimum of 3 years and for dyslexia it can be much longer. I hope this is helpful.

:iagree:

:glare: Well, I learn something new everyday if I pay attention. I was all ready to go with the octopi because of my Latin background but I am so glad you all clarified it is Greek, not Latin. It makes perfect sense and I am so glad I read all the posts, not just the ones I could agreed with. Love you language nerds.:)

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree:I agree agree agree agree with all of the above and want to add a couple to go with strengthening the upper body in order to sit up in a chair and write in the age of TV watching and video game playing for our preschoolers. When I was an elementary principal we did notice an increase from year to year of students not being able to hold themselves up in a chair without becoming fatigued quickly. I advised two things: helping mom to carry in the groceries in plastic bags, one in each hand and finding playsets with "monkey bars" the students could hang from by both hands even if they can't walk hand over hand yet. Those two things strengthen upper body which makes writing and coloring less laborous. The other important thing is crawling on the floor while pushing a car or other toy around or crab walking mentioned above. Actually, playing with Matchbox cars or Hot Wheels is a great fine motor strengthener which wasn't listed above. Children used to do these things regularly before TV was so important in our lives. Coloring with those broken crayons we usually throw away is great for fine motor and it also promotes a correct pencil grip if your child is having trouble holding his pencil correctly and holding the pencil correctly is important.

I have taught Saxon 5/4 through Algebra II in the classroom for many many years and there is no better program in my experience. I highly recommend that you do the program as it is written, especially in the lower grades. It may seem tedious but this program will work if done correctly even with students with learning differences. There is also a supplemental program to use with students with learning disabilities and it is wonderful as well. Practice does make perfect and requiring your students to name there errors and correct the problems they miss also helps from about 4th grade up. The errors are either computation, operational, careless errors, etc. You can tract these errors and help your student develop strategies to correct the most common ones first and then the next most common, etc. The only students I saw who weren't successful in Saxon were the ones who didn't correct their work or didn't do all the problems. Saxon's strategy is baby steps all the way up. My 9th grade dgd is in Saxon Alg II and she is daily amazed at the ease in learning Alg II each day. Some days we look at the lesson and it is so easy we may do two lessons and do only the new problems in the first and do all in the second problem set. We have done that on her level and she consistently makes 100's on daily work and weekly tests. She doesn't even care for math that much but is a good student.

Ellie you hit on a strategy that would help many students. I hope others read your post. Sometimes it is just the approach that makes the difference. I applaud your creativity!