Hi. I found this thread that had some great help, too. I also got The Ocean Book and Study Guide and the VanCleave Oceans. I'm in the process of lesson planning to keep us all together, but add to the Middle School workload with all the materials. I'll get VanCleave from the library, as I am only using few chapters from there. Great stuff all around, but I don't want the oceanography focus that VanCleave offers. Just waiting on the The Ocean Book in the mail. I'll post when I have the plan all done. Thanks again for all the suggestions both past and present.

Thank you. We're working on it. Improvements all around, and great tests of patience. I appreciate every prayer!

I should have loads of blogging time this summer :) No school for me! It's so nice to be missed...hee hee. :grouphug:

Monica, thank you so much. That is just what I was hoping for: investigation, drawing, and joy! I'll be researching for certain. In appreciation, Tina

On the yahoo groups, there is a list of additional work for anatomy that really beefs it up. I am hoping for the same kind of increase for swimming creatures. Makes for a nice and easy base, then depth in other places, while keeping dd interested and on the same page as ds. Def. not enough on its own for middle school in our house.

Hi, friends. I miss ya'll so much. I'm getting my ducks in a row for next year and can't imagine that I don't need to get much, muchless have the time to hang out with ya'll! I'm supposed to be glued to the Forum in March! My how time changes things! My extras left me in December so I could go to school full-time and devote all my time to my own family. They are doing well and my kids appreciate the extra mom time. I'm in school full-time and making great grades (even though I know most of the material from home schooling!) I'll have my AA by May and am currently making application for the School of Education. I keep busy at church,too, just not as busy as before. ds16 got accepted into the Early College Program so free books, AA, and high school diploma. He's doing very well in his first 3 classes at the college. He's doing very well in cross country and track at the local high school and looking to be team captain in the fall. He just became a Life Scout and already has his Eagle project planned. He's easy. ds15 tested well and will start dual enrollment this summer. I am looking forward to only having 2 classes to teach him next year. We're getting there. He's running track and growing there. He's been tough for me this year. I pulled him from Boy Scouts b/c of behavioral issues...like I said, he's been a tough one this year. That teenage rebellion can make a mom weary, but I know we'll get through it. I am glad he's at least doing well in school. I NEED him to be a well behaved boy. dd13 is going to take a TOG class online so I can back off her a bit and dig into my studies. She's taking an online math class and jammin'! We'll be down to history discussions and generally oversight next year, as she enters 9th grade. She is wrapped up on sports at a local Christian School and doing very well. Got an award in soccer and is a co-captain for softball. She makes life easy. dd12 and ds9 are doing well with me full time. Still loving the TOG + PR combo. AMAZING results and joy in the classroom (mostly ;) ). I am so blessed to have found our golden zone. Beakman Science was incredible btw. ds9 has watch every episode, taken notes, notebooked, and learned so much. We went on a science field trip and he knew everything in the show. HOW FUN it was and how easy it was for me! We'll move into Apologia Swimming Creatures (beefed up for dd12) and spend as much time as possible at the beach this summer, as we have "summer school" in a few areas. We can't keep a traditional schedule b/c our lifestyle is anything but traditional. Dd is also in sports at the middle school and enjoying the social time tremendously. Ax Man is keeping me less busy as he's in a fundamental league for year round sports that only meets twice per week. We've worked hard and allowed for plenty of time for play this year. The kids keep me running Mom's Taxi Service with sports year round. Our days are long and full, but we are doing well. God is with us and we continue to love the ever-changing journey that is home schooling. I'll check back to see how ya'll are doin'. I really do miss so many of you. We've been friends for a long, long time. xoxoxoxoxo and hope to hear from you. Feel free to EMAIL me anytime. I hardly every come this way to check pms. tmgilbert6@yahoo.com Much love.

Hi, friends. I miss ya'll so much. I'm getting my ducks in a row for next year and can't imagine that I don't need to get much, muchless have the time to hang out with ya'll! I'm supposed to be glued to the Forum in March! My how time changes things! My extras left me in December so I could go to school full-time and devote all my time to my own family. They are doing well and my kids appreciate the extra mom time. I'm in school full-time and making great grades (even though I know most of the material from home schooling!) I'll have my AA by May and am currently making application for the School of Education. I keep busy at church,too, just not as busy as before. ds16 got accepted into the Early College Program so free books, AA, and high school diploma. He's doing very well in his first 3 classes at the college. He's doing very well in cross country and track at the local high school and looking to be team captain in the fall. He just became a Life Scout and already has his Eagle project planned. He's easy. ds15 tested well and will start dual enrollment this summer. I am looking forward to only having 2 classes to teach him next year. We're getting there. He's running track and growing there. He's been tough for me this year. I pulled him from Boy Scouts b/c of behavioral issues...like I said, he's been a tough one this year. That teenage rebellion can make a mom weary, but I know we'll get through it. I am glad he's at least doing well in school. I NEED him to be a well behaved boy. dd13 is going to take a TOG class online so I can back off her a bit and dig into my studies. She's taking an online math class and jammin'! We'll be down to history discussions and generally oversight next year, as she enters 9th grade. She is wrapped up on sports at a local Christian School and doing very well. Got an award in soccer and is a co-captain for softball. She makes life easy. dd12 and ds9 are doing well with me full time. Still loving the TOG + PR combo. AMAZING results and joy in the classroom (mostly ;) ). I am so blessed to have found our golden zone. Beakman Science was incredible btw. ds9 has watch every episode, taken notes, notebooked, and learned so much. We went on a science field trip and he knew everything in the show. HOW FUN it was and how easy it was for me! We'll move into Apologia Swimming Creatures (beefed up for dd12) and spend as much time as possible at the beach this summer, as we have "summer school" in a few areas. We can't keep a traditional schedule b/c our lifestyle is anything but traditional. Dd is also in sports at the middle school and enjoying the social time tremendously. Ax Man is keeping me less busy as he's in a fundamental league for year round sports that only meets twice per week. Our days are long and full, but we are doing well. God is with us and we continue to love the ever-changing journey that is home schooling. I'll check back to see how ya'll are doin'. I really do miss so many of you. We've been friends for a long, long time. xoxoxoxoxo and hope to hear from you. Feel free to EMAIL me anytime. I hardly every come this way to check pms. tmgilbert6@yahoo.com Much love. We've worked hard and allowed for plenty of time for play this year. The kids keep me running Mom's Taxi Service with sports year round.

Hi, friends. I miss ya'll so much. I'm getting my ducks in a row for next year and can't imagine that I don't need to get much, muchless have the time to hang out with ya'll! I'm supposed to be glued to the Forum in March! My how time changes things! My extras left me in December so I could go to school full-time and devote all my time to my own family. They are doing well and my kids appreciate the extra mom time. I'm in school full-time and making great grades (even though I know most of the material from home schooling!) I'll have my AA by May and am currently making application for the School of Education. I keep busy at church,too, just not as busy as before. ds16 got accepted into the Early College Program so free books, AA, and high school diploma. He's doing very well in his first 3 classes at the college. He's doing very well in cross country and track at the local high school and looking to be team captain in the fall. He just became a Life Scout and already has his Eagle project planned. He's easy. ds15 tested well and will start dual enrollment this summer. I am looking forward to only having 2 classes to teach him next year. We're getting there. He's running track and growing there. He's been tough for me this year. I pulled him from Boy Scouts b/c of behavioral issues...like I said, he's been a tough one this year. That teenage rebellion can make a mom weary, but I know we'll get through it. I am glad he's at least doing well in school. I NEED him to be a well behaved boy. dd13 is going to take a TOG class online so I can back off her a bit and dig into my studies. She's taking an online math class and jammin'! We'll be down to history discussions and generally oversight next year, as she enters 9th grade. She is wrapped up on sports at a local Christian School and doing very well. Got an award in soccer and is a co-captain for softball. She makes life easy. dd12 and ds9 are doing well with me full time. Still loving the TOG + PR combo. AMAZING results and joy in the classroom (mostly ;) ). I am so blessed to have found our golden zone. Beakman Science was incredible btw. ds9 has watch every episode, taken notes, notebooked, and learned so much. We went on a science field trip and he knew everything in the show. HOW FUN it was and how easy it was for me! We'll move into Apologia Swimming Creatures (beefed up for dd12) and spend as much time as possible at the beach this summer, as we have "summer school" in a few areas. We can't keep a traditional schedule b/c our lifestyle is anything but traditional. Dd is also in sports at the middle school and enjoying the social time tremendously. Ax Man is keeping me less busy as he's in a fundamental league for year round sports that only meets twice per week. Our days are long and full, but we are doing well. God is with us and we continue to love the ever-changing journey that is home schooling. I'll check back to see how ya'll are doin'. I really do miss so many of you. We've been friends for a long, long time. xoxoxoxoxo and hope to hear from you. Feel free to EMAIL me anytime. I hardly every come this way to check pms. tmgilbert6@yahoo.com Much love. We've worked hard and allowed for plenty of time for play this year. The kids keep me running Mom's Taxi Service with sports year round.

I love the Phonics Road series b/c it brings the whole of language arts to life. Phonics doesn't stop...it grows to reading and spelling, doesn't stop...grows to sentences, to paragraphs, etc. Comprehensive and fabulous. LOVE IT after trying many,many, many other things over the years.

You will find the approach in PR and IEW to be quite similar. Take a glance at my blog and you'll find many examples of PRs writing, especially in PR3. GREAT stuff that produces sound paragraphs. The sentence analyzing is a focus early on and teaches children to identify the work of parts of speech, which will later encourage more vibrant sentences. It works. And the style is easily transposed across the board and applied in history, science, and other areas where writing for understanding is appropriate. FWIW, I'm ending PR4 now and very pleased with my dds writing ability. She will easily head into WriteShop's high school level writing program. She will be in 7th grade. If a child balks at spelling with sounds, I'd encourage allowing them to say the letters, but always with marking and identifying sounds. This still gets the daily review and practice of rules in spelling, without the grumpf. This will work in the purpose...that when they misspell they are able to identify the reasons for their mistakes. It takes their mind to the practice of analyzing spelling words, not just memorizing spelling lists (which eventually runs its course). HTH, Tina

PR is completely comprehensive in the language arts. By the end of the program you have handwriting, spelling, grammar, light lit. analysis, vocabulary and word root studies. It's brilliant! Been off the boards b/c I'm in school full time right now, but my blog has a lot to offer about PR, including a great review of just how comprehensive PR really is.

The style of handwriting matters not with PR ;) More hand holding than many others, and great for visual learners b/c of DVDs. No need at all for additional grammar w. PR and always received with more excitement than RS ever was in our home. Love PR.

Hi, friends. I miss ya'll. :grouphug: Did anybody do Swimming Creatures w/ supplements of additional reading? Got a lesson plan? I'm getting the notebook, but would like to beef it up in the same way we beefed up anatomy w/ the free lesson plans at the yahoo group. I checked there first, to no avail. Thanks. Tina

And HHMI is included in my schedule.

Just piping in w/ my experience. Dec. and Sept are the worst months to find a renter. Nobody is looking to spend the $ b/c of Christmas and school.

Look at the home school launch in my siggy. There are some living books and movies worked into Apologia High School Bio on my page ;)

No. And I might hesitate to send my kinesthetic learner there unless I was sure there would be a lot of projects and less writing (than we do in the very classical parts of our schooling). Hi, btw ;) Miss you ladies!

That's a great idea. Try and find the positives while your nurture your body. GET WELL SOON! :grouphug:

I think you might be missing the "build up to" part of TOG. THere is always some transition time built into the program. In other words, the upper grammar student who is 3rd year upper grammar should easily knock out that reading, but a new UG student may have to read about 1/2 the material himself and you read aloud the other half. Also, you can never look at TOG in 1-week to get a feel. Often times, when there is a lot fo reading one week, there is little in surrounding weeks. It's okay to spread it out a bit. It's also okay to skip some of the literature. There are weeks when our lit. reading time is replaced with history reading and vice versa. I suggest, humbly, that being able to refuse the buffet is the problema here.

Ladies, You said it all for me! Great job at the BEE! That's a tough one! Sad. This KILLS me. Honestly, the work I saw from a local 3rd grader shouldn't even be called "writing;" yet she received high marks. Cruddy handwriting, cruddy spelling, cruddy sentence structure, cruddy paragraphs....but HEY! She's writing --- NOT. :iagree: :iagree:

totally different....I parent and my mom tried to make us friends. I was not raised in a Godly environment and I was raised to be very egocentric. We have Christ, serve others, and understand authority. I did get my servant's heart and my desire to have FUN with my kids from Mom, though! And my work ethic from my dad, who worked 7 days most of my childhood.

She meant it matter of fact and as reference to a lifestyle -- not to the potential or character of her children. Appreciation as in recognition, not adoration. Yes, she does refer to some qualities in a negative light....comotose tv kids who run solo or are locked in the crib net for hours and hours give way to negative opinion that I happen to agree with and also have witnessed again and again and again. Ever heard the song Chicken Fried? Redneck heaven, huh? Her descriptions were appropriate adjectives in this case and representative of an entire Culture and Lifestyle. I suppose having raised kids from the lifestyle brings a Different Understanding when you see there is a different way, even if a person (like me) reads the different way as "better." I will stelp out of the pc box and say with conviction, I don't think it's appropriate for kids to be left in front of the tv for hours, locked away, and not encouraged to work hard in school. I know from daily life experience that these are acceptable (based on frequency) actions in a ghetto community. FWIW, ghetto does not equal color or socioeconomic status. The OP may have used words that you don't appreciate, but she did speak the truth -- PC or not. Best wishes.

I found "trade off" worked well. Require certain reading and then allow the twaddle.....Magic Tree House is pretty good (Cap. U. is not an option over here ;) ) Even twaddle is getting them reading! Baby steps! 9 is young to "enjoy" classics. One of mine (classically educated his entire life) didn't want to read anything of true content until 7th grade (might have been 8th)! great post. It IS culture shock. I'm not sure that people understand just how much of a culture in and of itself a ghetto lifestyle truly is. And if they do get it, they understand that ghetto is not defamatory, simple factual. Honestly, calling someone "white trash" or "ghetto" is comparable to calling them retro, euro, emo, gothic, etc. They are adjectives that conjur familiar images and are appropriately connected to sub-cultures of the American population. People who live in the ghetto will call themselves ghetto-fabulous b/c they not only acknowledge, but appreciate that ghetto is a flav-ah, a style, and at the same time appropriate for the less glamorous of the population sayin' something like, "You might be ghetto if..." If they see a car with dark tint and bangin' rims, they might say, "Look at that hood car." Yup, they mean neighbor"hood," but they say hood. The ghetto culture has clothing and music associated with it as much as it has low test scores and low incomes. This is factual, not derogatory...unless one means for it to be derogatory. Since the OP has opted to care for these children, my guess is she understands the cultural differences that make ghetto a cultural comment more than a disparaging one. I understood her references perfectly and without feeling she was being unkind or hurting her children. She was simply being honest. My family is the "cream in the coffee" of our very ghetto church (we are caucasin in an African Methodist Episcopal Church, where the "African" means black folks) My dc think of themselves as all kinds of white trash b/c we live across the street from a (low-income, dirty, busted up) trailer park; my boys are very comfy in tanks/undershirts/(wife beaters); we are poverty level); with ghetto flavor (my son loves to flip his lid and pulls off bling quite well and prefers rap music). We say each of these words affectionately b/c we realize that they speak to the cultural references of those communities. We are not offended for ourselves and would ask that noone would be offended for us ;) Ghetto---yuppy---whatev. We are people with cultural preferences and cultural heritage.....and for us, it's all good! To deny that these variances of culture exist is unrealistic. To be fair, I realize that each of those words Can be meant with harshness or hostility; however, in this case, that is Clearly not.so. Instead, let's look beyond political correctness and actually appreciate an honest perspective....op it's refreshing to hear someone call he kettle black (an just so every/anyone knows...that was Not a racial comment ;) )

I have successfully done this (see my blog). Our situation is different in that the ghetto mom is moving forward and we are in agreement about what to do with the dc. We're in year 3 of home schooling the eldest boy and we made RADICAL turn arounds in social and academic areas. You would hardly know (other than apparel and music selection of the family) that they had ever been deeply ghettofied. In fact and as encouragement, I actually heard the 6yo use proper past tense form this week...a real improvement! Keep your expectations about 6m--1year below what you would expect from your dc. I have found this to be a solid standard of comparison for all three brothers. Take time for the snuggle and lovin' parts as a means of interaction while learning and it will come together. Narrations will come slowly, so start by reading aloud a lot, then giving examples of narrations. They will really need Modeling a great deal. The greatest challenge is patience on your part and being comfortable to meet them where they are and not where you want them to be. Walk with them to get there...don't run. Don't expect their mom to get it. Don't expect her to change. Don't expect that the kids will (right away) be like they are for you, when with her. They will keep their habits at her place b/c it is simply the lifestyle of the household. Don't worry, you're influence will gain ground. You just have to get past the deficit...which you CAN DO!. Feel free to email me if you want to talk. I get where you are. I SO get it.

Dropping in to share some good news. I miss this place. I'm just too busy to have hardly any computer-fun time. Our hope has been to utilize various dual enrollment options offered by a local 4-year, state college as soon as our children were spiritually and academically fit. You might remember me struggling through (typical) teenage boy gunk (lazy, unmotivated, chaotic...driving me batty kinda stuff) so I wasn't sure when that was going to happen...ever (tee hee). Well, with a little help from me, who got a TON of help from the Hive, he's turned into a wonderful young man. Okay, so he also worked hard and simply matured a bit (I am so impatient). He'll be 16 next week. (I am so covered by grace!) We recently talked about dual enrollment and I told him I knew he was having a great time (team sports, boys scouts) so if he wanted to wait until next fall to enroll, I was fine with that. He said, "I'm ready. I want the challenge." I nearly fell over, and so all I said was, "Okay. Let's make sure we finish up WriteShop." (Then Mom took over Teacher and I called my dearest friends to celebrate!) Last week I took ds to the college for placement tests. We were hoping he would test into College Algebra, but were unsure b/c he's only about 1/3 into Alg. 2 (Chalkdust) and about halfway through Geometry (FLVS). I was pretty confident in his reading, grammar and writing, so I expected he would test into Comp. I. He scored highly and cruised into both! I'm so proud of him! He handled the entire process, talked to the necesary persons and told me what I needed to do. He starts Jan. with Speech, College Algebra and Intro. to Music. He'll have 3 classes with me next semester and that will be the end, other than some reading I'll require. ~~~huge sigh~~~ I feel wonderful for me! I wanted to dance around and sing, "I did it!" This is the first major goal in life that I set and completed. That is collectively sad, but independently WONDERFUL! Homeschooling ROCKS!