I'm in a different situation -- I grew up with the belief that I was inherently a bad singer who came from a long line of tone deaf people. I decided a few months ago to actually try to improve my singing voice and have been taking weekly voice lessons. I think they have been so helpful to me. Not only have I found that I don't have a horrible voice, but I've learned the vocabulary of singing and learned different exercises to improve my breathing and range. Anyway, I'd really recommend taking a lesson or two for confidence and suggestions about what to expect at the audition.

is it annoying to get Christmas cards from folks who do celebrate Christmas or is it a nice thing? I'm not talking about overtly religious cards, which would be weird to receive for almost anyone.... just the typical photo card with Christmas themes. Do you prefer the phrase "Season's Greetings" or does it not really matter if it says "Merry Christmas"?

We used base ten blocks too. In fact, we just did a problem or two of long division on the white board for about a month. It was very low key and easy. I'd write a problem on the board like 1398 divided by 3. She'd get out the base ten blocks and do it step by step. Her dialogue would go something like this: "One thousand block... hmmm... I can't divide that by three. Okay, I'll change that into 10 hundred blocks. Now, with the 3 hundred blocks, I have 13 hundred blocks. Alright, I can put the 13 into three groups... four each. But I have one left over. That's okay, I'll turn that hundred into 10 tens. With the 9 tens, that'll be 19 tens... etc..." As she talked it through, I'd have her do the algorithm on the white board (or graph paper, so it all lined up). It wasn't hard at all. She figured it out without stress or tears.

Any period film will be historical re-enactment, right? I'd just look for films on the topics you're interested in.

My 7 yr old loves Magic School Bus videos and Schoolhouse Rock. She also still likes Little Einsteins and Sid the Science kid, though I suspect they're actually aimed at the pre-school/kindergarten set.

Killgallon uses authentic material from good authors. Some of the books would be more part of a popular 'cannon' than a classical one, though.

If I were teaching a class, the teacher's guide and quest guide would have been like gold. It's scripted... but it's scripted in a way that I like to teach. It did a great job of prompting kids to really think about the text. We used it for a month, but in the end it felt too much for just one child. On the other hand, I sold it for pretty close to the same price I bought it. So maybe you should give it a try and sell if you don't like it.

If he hasn't already read them, he might like Eva Ibbotson's books (her funny kid ones, not the romantic teenaged ones). My 9 yr old Pratchett fan loved them. Neil Gaimon is great.. maybe Douglas Adams? The Patricia Wrede idea is good too, my girl loved the dragons series...

Having trained as a linguist... and taught English for years, there were a couple things in MCT that bothered me. There's certainly some good stuff too... but I *wish* that a linguistically sound language program existed.

My kids go to school two and half days per week. My younger one technically does math at school, my older doesn't. But every evening after dinner, we sit down and do one lesson of SM. First we do a quick review (I pull a few problems from the review section), then a word problem or two from CWP. Then I teach the lesson and then she will do the workbook on her own. Once the first girl is on her own, I repeat with the other. The whole process takes about a half-hour per girl.

I have a pretty standard-issue second grade reader... We tried the American girl books this summer and the reading level was higher than she could handle on her own. However, that was 5 months ago... I have a feeling it would be a good challenge now... a stretch, but not too frustrating.

Take a look at Killgallon's Sentence Composing for Elementary School and Story Grammar for Elementary School. I think he does a great job of giving kids a context for grammar... and encourages good strong sentence composition.

My second grader reads pretty typical early chapter books... she doesn't like to read, but tolerates the Rainbow Fairy books. I think they're pretty insipid... but that's what she'll read and right now, I'm okay with it. In terms of reading level, I think she's right where I'd expect her to be.

Also... keep in mind that norm referenced standardized tests (and thus test prep materials) are not achievement tests where students are being tested on material they have (or should have) mastered. The ITBS test questions should be more difficult than typical for the level being tested or else a lot of kids will be at the ceiling. It's okay for your child not to be able to answer some of the questions. It's not statistically possible for all children to score in the 99th %ile and all children to be 'above grade level'.

We've dealt with lice too. If you're going the pesticide route, use a Permethrin shampoo (Nix). The Pyrethrin ones (Rid) did *not* work. I still found adults happily crawling around. I researched and tried almost every home remedy I could find. What I would use again if it happened is a combination of Nix, then a flat iron, and then soaking the hair with Citrasolv (or any solvent with limonene) which did seem to dissolve the glue that holds nits onto the hair. After that we washed daily with coal tar dandruff shampoo or citranella ("Lice shield") shampoo and repeated the Nix again after a week or two. We have not had a repeat. However, my head feels itchy just typing this out!

My 9 yr old is crazy about Terry Pratchett books. She got hooked with Wee Free Men... There is occasional adult humor or themes in them, which tickles her even more. It's pretty benign, but some families may not want to go there.

I am about 15 lbs more than I want to weigh. My BMI hovers between 24-25, which just squeaks by as "normal weight". But I *feel* overweight. The two things that have helped me most are recording what I eat and working out. I like websites like fitday or Lose It for recording weight loss and food. I find if I really want to lose weight, I have to be obsessive about it. I have to weigh myself daily and count everything I eat and every exercise I do. Counting calories works for me because it allows me to make a choice about what I eat... I could eat the ice cream, but I'll need to reduce my calories for dinner... I could drink the wine, but I'll need to exercise for thirty minutes to justify it. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes not. The second thing I do is enroll in an aerobics class. I can't work out alone. I truly need accountability. I need a social setting where I can't just stop after 20 minutes... I need the social pressure to keep going. Right now I'm doing spin classes, but I've done step or kickboxing or high impact aerobics and they all get the job done.

:iagree: Just the first line of the announcement "Your calls are needed to stop a bill that treats every homeschool parent like a child abuser" makes me want to question everything else they say. How is this bill going to treat me like a child abuser? Will my children be removed from me and put in the foster care system? Will they convict me of a felony? Will I end up in prison? The HSLDA rhetoric is so sensationalist. It's like a tabloid from the supermarket checkout line. It's hard for me to actually believe anything they say.

We're thinking of doing a bit of a kitchen remodel... nothing too extensive. We'd like to change our countertops, sink, faucet, and appliances. But we'll keep the layout, floors and cabinets. My questions: Fridge -- double door or single door? Freezer on top or bottom? We only have space for a 31" fridge, so our options are limited. Stove -- It'll be a gas range... but Double oven or single? Is it worthwhile to have a center griddle? Convection? Counters -- will be granite Sink -- We're thinking we'd like an undermounted kind. But no idea on the materials. We saw a cool copper sink -- do these go green? Do they stain? Are they sturdy? I can find very few reviews online. If not, enamel? stainless steel? acrylic? some kind of composite material?

HWOT Can-Do Cursive is intended for older elementary and has some grammar content.

At least in our district, the common core standards are seen as much more rigorous than our state standards (Oregon) and more rigorous than the program our district uses (TERC Investigations)... and will lead to its likely replacement (or at least supplementation). From my perspective, the standards seem like a step in the right direction.

We're just finishing up with Story of Science Aristotle and have Newton ready to go. We began it a while ago... in the spring maybe? And we did the quest activities for a month or so before they started seeming more like busywork. They are definitely aimed at a classroom setting. Now we just use the text. It's become a bedtime story which we take turns reading. My fourth grader likes it a lot, but then... she loves history. She did OUP Ancient Times is currently doing OUP Medieval world and she does make connections with people and places that she's already learned about. I've learned a lot too. I would say that a motivated 5th grader (or younger) would do just fine with the text. The activities do add a nice element if you want to expand on it. Some are better than others.

I have had some of those issues with math with my daughters. Math Mammoth wasn't a big hit because of the length of each of the exercises and the repetitiveness of the problems. I like the explanations about how to think about computation, though... and I frequently will pull out pages for my girls to use when they need it. Singapore is working better for us. We've been using it for about 6 months. What I like is that we do the textbook exercise together and then I have my girls do their workbook exercises on their own, so there is both the teaching and handholding that progresses towards independent work on their own. Plus the lessons have cheery looking kids on the page and aren't as overwhelming as MM.

What's the age of your kids? A good alternative if they're over 9 or 10 or so would be to do the Accelerated Piano Adventures for older learners. The first book covers the material in primer and level 1. It's not so playful, but it works fine. On the other hand, the videos for the primer level of Piano Adventures are pretty cool. It's my first time teaching piano and they've been useful!

:iagree: Those are all good solid programs. Consider also Singapore Primary Math for math