It is a ton of money and I have to say, the print version is working very well for me. I'm a bit stymied as to why the first print version of Y2 was not automatically upgraded for those of us that have that. I think that I would really would benefit from the 2nd printing. But alas, I'm not going to buy it again. Having an opportunity to purchase the DE 2nd printing at a lesser price than the whole entire thing makes me more interested. Really, though, I think I like all the new and shiny new parts. I don't know that they would work any better for me. It's entirely possible that I will use this for all of my girls. At that point, reselling becomes a moot point because it will be so old. LOL I just have to keep myself from buying new and shiny. :)

Thanks, Karen. I'd read that. I wonder how they will keep from having people sell their print versions, even though they are not "allowed" to.

From what I can tell, each section is the same, just geared for teens.

I really like the print version, but I'm often tempted by the DE version. I have Y1 Unit 4 and all of Y2 in print. It's all in page protectors and I have more page protectors waiting for more units. LOL I like to have certain things printed out for me so that I can look at them without having to mess with one of the computers. OTOH, the more they make the DE version fit my needs (not having all of those CD's to lose is a huge bonus), the more I wonder if I would really like to upgrade. Ack. Where did you read about the upgrade? I've read about the newest DE version, but haven't read about any upgrade. It's something I've wanted from the beginning. And if there is an upgrade, would it be a requirement to send the printed versions back? Or prove that they have been shredded? It would be time consuming to take everything out of the page protectors and costly to ship. Rambling today,

I've started Fractions and intend to go through the whole program. I made it through the second quarter of Algebra 2 in high school and then eeked by in Probability in college. I did well in Stats and ended up really liking it in my University days. I have to say that I've learned more math from Rightstart than I ever thought I would, just through teaching it. I hope to learn as much, if not more, with Fred.

Is there a more recent link? I send that one out pretty often and want to make sure that I'm sending out good information.

You all are so incredibly helpful. Thank you so very much. It sounds like I need to do a couple of things. And, I have some more questions. I'm really glad that I posted here. This is helpful. I have a file cabinet, but most of the stuff in there is just thrown in it. I haven't gone through it in at least 10 years. It's where I keep the important stuff. This is not working for me. LOL It's bulk trash week, so the cabinet is leaving. I really like the idea of a pocket file folder near my desk. There were lots of good ideas on how to manage the bills and I think I will find something here for that. Most of my bills are paid online and I even get the bills through my email. It's the bills that come in the mail that I tend to forget to pay. For a while, I would go through the mail when it came into the house. But then, I just quit because I didn't have a good place for the stuff I wanted to keep. I need to figure something out here. I'm tempted to put it in a basket, but then I probably won't go through the basket. What do you all do with magazines you want to keep and circulars that have coupons in them? As for the social security cards and birth certificates, they need to go into our safe deposit box. Plain and simple. This may seem silly, but how do you know what to keep and what to throw away? I have needed Lands End catalogs in the past because it had a free shipping coupon code on it. But, I never know where the catalog is and then end up spending the $ on the shipping. Or, my dh gets tons of stuff for work. Would another basket help for my dh? Or a file folder? Some of this stuff is important, but I never know if it is or not. I just want to have it in a visible spot so that he knows to look at it. I'm going to see if the library has the book that is recommended and look at flylady again, to see if that is helpful. Honestly, I don't know if something will work until I try it because I can't envision using a system. That's what happened with the pantry. It looked so neat and pretty after it was done, but only parts of it seemed to work for me. But, I didn't follow through and try to make it work for me. I just let everything fall apart. Note to self: force self to follow through. And what about school stuff and coloring pages and the pictures the kids bring home from Synagogue/Church? I have a ton of that stuff. I don't write on any of it, so I honestly have no idea what belongs to whom. But the girls seem to care that I keep it. I've thought about getting a box for each of the girls and having them put important stuff in there, but then what happens when the box gets full? Do things become less important as time goes by? Another huge clutter issue is kid's clothing. I'm more and more tempted to only keep an outfit or two for each size. I seem to go to Target and buy new things regardless of whether or not I already have things that will fit the girls. I do have clear plastic bins with clothes in each size for the girls, but that doesn't seem to be working. For some reason, we get the bins down, go through them, and never put them away. I often get distracted and then it seems like too much work to go through them. I had a professional organizer come one time and look at my house, but I could tell that even she was overwhelmed. I didn't invite her back, and I would rather not spend the money. I don't even know that we have the kind of money it would take.

Does such a thing exist? Once again, I'm completely overwhelmed with my house. I've lost two very important things - a check from our insurance company and the baby's social security card. I spent the day hunting for them and I cannot find them. I *did* find the Loom, MapAids, and other misc. TOG CD's that I really needed. I don't have a system for paper and how it's handled. I don't have a system for paying bills. Motivated Moms was helpful, but the clutter before I actually get to the cleaning is what I really need to work on. I feel like I'm missing some sort of gene that tells me how to keep our home from looking like a complete disaster area. We do have 5 kids and we are home a lot, but our home should look more like a home and less like a dump. I have MOTH and it was helpful as well, but all of these books assume that I know something about how to run and manage a home. I don't have a system and I think that is a big part of the problem. Suggestions? I've had friends come and help out periodically. One cleaned out my pantry and we kept up with that for a very long time until her categories quit making sense. I don't want to raise my girls to be slobs like their parents. What do you all do? Do you have some sort of planner that helps you to know how to keep up with all of this stuff? I'd really like to get my schoolyear more prepared, but I think I need to do an intervention on my house first.

We usually buy from Lands End. However, this year, the Tankini that we bought rides up and makes my dd feel uncomfortable and one of the one piece suits is already pilled. I'm not happy at all with the quality. I bought Speedos at Dick's Sporting Goods because I didn't want the pilling I got from LE.

I purchased Beginning Algebra and the Home Companion this week. My 14 yo will be going through it when she finishes the Decimals and Percents book. I'm also going to go through it when I finish the Fractions and the Decimals and Percents books. The Home Companion puts the lessons into nice bite-sized chunks.

I received an email this morning from Beginnings Publishing. They do have everything to fill my kit and are sending it right away. I'm glad that I emailed them a second time to clarify that I needed the Year 1 supplies. It's an expensive program, but I think that my 11 yo is going to love it.

My LG students are not fluent readers. I read aloud to them. I read the primary book and sometimes the in-depth. If the Lit book is decent and not too long, I read that as well. I also read aloud the SOTW. I request interesting alternate books from the library, but I don't usually get to them. When I had an UG student, she would blow through all of the UG core and in-depth books. I also had her read the church history and lit. Then, I would request the alternate books from the D level from the library. She'd often read most of those. I recently made a change and now she is reading part D and part UG. Most of it is D. Lots of people schedule different ways. I've had TOG work for my family several ways. Right now, we are reading history on Days 1 and 2 if needed. Core and in-depth are assigned. Day 2 is geography for my olders. I just talk about the geo with my LG students. Day 3 is discussion. We don't do projects. Lots of people make the time for the projects. TOG has saved my schedule many a time. If my LG students just get read to during the week, I'm ok with that. In fact, my 5 1/2 yo is just a tag-along. I don't except her to sit for much of anything.

Has anyone ever put together the Rainbow Science lab kit themselves? I ordered this from the author in May at my homeschool bookfair. I was under the impression that it would take a couple of weeks to get to me. It has been a month, and I don't think I am going to get it anytime soon. This is very frustrating. Is there somewhere else I can purchase the kit? Where is the best place to buy the supplies online? I'm really not looking forward to putting this kit together myself. :001_unsure:

Very cool... I wonder if it would be worth the drive.

We've only used Fractions and Decimals/Percents, but it really is pick up and go. My student does her math on her own. She has had difficulty three times. The first time, she wasn't reading the "lessons" thoroughly enough. A lot of answers are hidden in the story and a student must be able to read carefully. I had her go back and redo bridges until she didn't miss any at all. The last two times, I'm not real sure what was going on. I had her email the author. He's responded within 24 hours each time.

I tend to do look at my other children. My first just seemed to struggle. I worried, but didn't do a whole lot about it until she was 8. I've heard, and read, from numerous sources that letter reversals at an early age are normal. I've heard this referenced especially for boys. Once I knew this about reversals, I started all of my girls with cursive rather than print. Currently, I'm working on fluency with my just turned 8 yo and she obviously struggles. Learning to read may be simple, but it's not always easy for everyone. I did a quick google search for letter reversals normal and came up with the following: http://school.familyeducation.com/study-skills/alphabet/41143.html http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/showthread.php?t=13270 http://specialed.about.com/od/teacherstrategies/a/reversal.htm http://www.audiblox2000.com/learning_disabilities/letter_reversals.htm The third link, especially, has links to research regarding letter reversals. My current 5yo reverses letters and read cvc words fluently, much more fluently than her older sister.

If he's the doctor I think he is, he will recommend further expensive testing and subsequent treatment. He also wrote a book, which, IIRC, is helpful to some people.

I'd exchange it when I got there. However, do you have a long layover where you will need money? I've been at Gatwick, nowhere near an ATM, and had no money. All I wanted was a bottle of water, so I didn't want to use my credit card. So, having a few euros for incidentals might not be a bad idea. You can exchange usd to euros at a bank (call first to see if they have euros on hand) or at the airport.

I was told a long time ago not to use borax on diapers since it will make them wear out faster. Dunno if that's true. I think your detergent would depend on what kind of diapers you are using. If you are using diapers with polyester, then you would want to be more careful about detergent, IMHO. Also, front loaders can make washing cloth diapers a little more tricky. Once you get the hang of it, though, it's not a big deal.

Lots of girls are great. Level C is a good level. Your dd may find new tricks for getting her math facts down. I know I did. LOL Feel free to do more than one lesson a day, or even to combine lessons some days. Once you get the hang of the program, you can whip through stuff. Likewise, if you need to spend more time on a day, you can. My girls were older when they went through Level C and we didn't always stick to the one lesson a day, or spend more than one day on lessons that were supposed to take a couple of days.

My eldest was a slow to learn reader. She didn't read fluently until she was almost 9. That was in March or April. By that summer she was reading long chapter books. She has had some reading comprehension issues, and still does. We work on that as we can. My current 8 yo has a lot of difficulty with reading. She has a very strong desire to learn and yet she hasn't had that lightbulb moment. I plan to work more with her on reading comprehension, even though she isn't reading on her own. I wish that both of them were able to read at a young age, as I don't remember ever NOT knowing how to read. Plus, it's hard to watch them struggle. FWIW, my other two dd's have had no trouble learning to read. My 5 yo is just chomping at the bit to read. LOL

Even non-mathy kids can like math. Sometimes it takes a different way of doing it to like it. I have 5 kids. I've taught 3 levels of RS at one time. It isn't fun, but it's doable. Your dd may be able to do math more quickly once she learns the RS tricks. I never learned these tricks and I can do math in my head much more quickly than when I was a child. I really think that your dd may even begin to like math with RS. :) My dd that is doing LOF hasn't always loved RS but she knows how to do it . There have been times when she has enjoyed it. She seems to really like LOF.

I would like to see larger examples of the Well Planned Dayplanner. Also, we school year round. I can't find from the website whether or not it has spaces to do this.

I'm currently planning on using it as a standalone curriculum for my oldest dd. She has done the Fractions book and is whizzing through the Decimals and Percents book. She's doing extremely well right now and I expect that to continue. We had a small glitch while doing the Fractions book, but she went back and did some more of the bridges to refresh her memory. I'm not a mathy mom, so I need a curriculum that is self teaching. LOF most definitely fits the bill.

I took my girls to see it. I don't recall anything objectionable, though I had to spend some of the movie in the hallway since the baby didn't want to be in the theater without voicing her opinion. None of my girls liked it. In fact, the 8 yo came to me once and asked if we could go. This was during the movie. IIRC, the action part of the movie does not start for quite a long time. The movie was definitely written so kids and adults would like it, but I think it's more of an adult movie, as I think I liked it better than the kids. FWIW.