If I showed up to a weekend like that without red meat, my dh would probably go home. For an appetizer, artichoke dip and finger veggies followed by a lovely Rib Eye steak with grilled shrimp, a baked sweet potato and a fresh green salad. For dessert, a berry cobler with ice cream or a chocolate somethin' somethin'. There should also be Mike's for him, and a bottle of wine for me. It's not what some would call gourmet, but it is nice to have a delicious meal that you don't have to slave in the kitchen over. I have enjoyed seeing everyone elses suggestions.

This is me most of the time. Coffee helps a lot. If you aren't a coffee or tea drinker, ice water helps too, the coldness of it sort of perks me up. Fresh air is good. If it only happens every once in a while, I wouldn't sweat it that much, just do a lighter day. I find if I am really too tired, I make a lot of mistakes in doing corrections, can't focus on the lesson long enough to teach it, etc. Give yourself a break and get the rest you need.

My two oldest only got headaches when they first got the expander, but not much at all after that. After the precautions your ortho has already taken, I wouldn't think the expander is the issue. From what you describe, I would be suspect that she is maybe a little dehydrated. Maybe if she was deliberate for a day about her water consumption, she might feel better after that. Hope you figure it out. Headaches are a little worrysome when you can't figure out why they are happening.:grouphug:

I am so glad this was brought to light. I was thinking of pursuing AP Lit for my dd, but if this is the kind of garbage they are reading, I will gladly pass. It is just so entirely unnecessary to use books with this kind of content for academic purposes especially at this age.

Thank you, this definitely helps calm my mind about playing catch up with the workbooks and quizzes. She just started Unit 2, Lesson 2, so it will be a good time to jump into the workbook. I will have to look up Breaking the Barrier.

Creekland, this actually doesn't suprise me at all. Back in my high school/college days it was common knowledge that even 3 years of high school foreign language was not going to be much help with college foreign language classes, they were just way harder. I had several friends that took 4 years in high school, took 1 semester at college and did poorly, then didn't continue.

Crystal, thank you for your info on the MFW lesson plans. I did find the alphabet/pronunciation programing previous to posting my original post. I know it's there, you have to select it as a different course in your course option selection. There are many course options, but the MFW lesson plans were for the 'Full Year Course'. I was hoping someone would chime in and say something along the lines of "yes, we did xxxx course first, then Full Year Course, and completed it with yyyyy." Or something like that, IYKWIM? We could go through all the other courses to get a more complete learning experience, but that would take a lot more time, and I am not sure if that is necessary, which is why I was asking for help here. I will still use the MFW lesson plans as they are great about explaining when to use the Audio CD(which she has always done), and puts the curric into nice tidy daily lessons. I will be adding in the workbook stuff and quizzes, and it isn't hard to figure out where they should go so no problem there. I haven't looked at all the additional activites, but so far I am not impressed with the ones MFW has assigned and I don't think there are enough so I will be also using the ones on the handy Additional Resources CDrom I found. I am also wondering if anyone has used the Rosetta Stone Spanish Levels 1 and/or 2, and supplemented with a more traditional textbook that explained the grammar? We do have several opportunities for her to speak Spanish with native speakers, but haven't pursued it yet as it seems like we haven't really learned enough yet to have that be a productive use of her time. I am guessing by this summer she will be ready for that. Our intentions are for her to really learn the language, not just fullfil a college admission requirement. Where we live there are lots of occupational incentives for being fluent in Spanish, and fluency is not achieved in 2 years of high school foreign language classes. Thanks again for your thoughts.

The first thing I was going to have her do was the quizzes for Unit 1, there are four quizzes, one for each lesson in the unit. Then from there we can keep up with the workbook starting with Unit 2, and quizzes, and so forth. I seriously don't understand how they could hinder, it seems like any reinforcement is a good idea, and since everything else she does is mostly oral, it seems logical to do the workbooks and quizzes for writing practice. My only experience with foreign language was 2 years of French in a public high school in the early 90's. We were first taught the alphabet/sounds, a bunch of vocab, and then verbs and proper conjugation of those verbs, combining the language we learned as we learned it in both oral and written form. I suppose I might just be having a hard time letting go of traditional methods of teaching foreign language and not embracing the 'immersion' approach. I bought the program not necessarily to embrace the 'immersion' method, but because we wanted a Spanish program I didn't have to teach. Would so love someone to be my hero and swoop in and tell me how to direct this program so that there aren't any holes in her learning and that I can still use it for credit.

I almost don't know where to begin besides:cursing:. I was told by a MFW rep at a conference that if I used their lesson plans, that Level 1 Spanish would indeed be sufficient for high school credit. They state in the front of the lesson plans that they think the Rosetta Stone workbooks, quizzes and tests are more of an obstacle to the learning process than a help, so they don't include them in their plans. When I read that I was like:001_huh:. I trusted it, I was short on time, so we just started and I assumed that I would have to purchase those things in addition to what I already had, so skipped it. So, dd13 sings the praises of her fun computer Spanish program, is doing awesome according to the progress reports, I am thinking all is good. Oh. My. Land. I was rummaging around in the software box and found the CDrom with the blessed workbook, quizzes, tests.:confused: There is also a section that describes the different courses (had no idea). I just assumed the "Full Year Curriculum" that the lesson plan is for would have all that she needed. WRONG. Apparently if you want to start at the basics, like the alphabet, etc, you have to select a different option.:confused: I know that if I would have full investigated every iota of what I got and did a trial run...that I would have figured out there were missing pieces to this puzzle...I admit that I blindly trusted what I viewed as a reputable opinion on curriculum in general. I just wanted to get it started. Dd13 has completed Level 1 Unit 1 (of 4 Units). I asked her tonight if it has ever gone through the alphabet and taught the sounds for the letters for that language, and she said no. :svengo:What can I do to make this curriculum more complete? Should I switch course settings and come back to it? Are the workbook/quizzes/tests worthless?

Breakfast- berry smoothie and coffee Lunch- whatever Dinner- dunno What we are doing this weekend? Hmm. The list is long, but short, which is probably confusing. We have been sick almost the entire month of February. The first week it was the kids, so only able to do about a half days worth of school work, stuck to the basics. Week 2, my turn to be sick, again half days of the basics. Week 3, we finally get some traction, we get a full week of school in, but out of town for ds11 basketball tournament so no cleaning is done, much like the last few weeks. This week, we are all sick again, I think our only academic accomplishment this week was spelling. Not awesome. All that to say, I will be trying to clean as much as possible in between doing nothing at all because I am still sick. Grrrr. At least the sun is shining today, and that makes me happy. I will also be busy trying not slip into a depression over how little we have accomplished and what fun things we have missed. Pets- 2 sweet cats, a German Shephard, and 12 chickens. dd13 has a beta that is always on the brink of death because she can't be bothered to clean the bowl.

Did anything your dc did(curriculum wise) in Challenge I or II help with any AP testing prep? Would you say that by doing Challenge I or II you are taking yourself out of the loop for AP prep during those years? If at all possible I was hoping to get a few AP credits done early on in HS, the easier ones, but was also considering CC. What do you think?

Has anyone had their child pursue any AP testing goals while doing Challenge I or II...did the curriculum choices of CC help a lot with doing this? I would assume probably not for Science, but maybe Geography, Literature, or History?

This is information I can use to make a decision. Thank you.

Can anyone give me an idea of what CC's Challenge I science assignments are like? This will help me decide whether she would have time to do Bio at home independantly. This wouldn't be my first choice, but if she gets a little review of Phys. Science, and it isn't so much work to get done that it interfere's with Bio, well...that wouldn't so bad.

Golly, yes, this is also a HUGE concern. Their science simply doesn't line up with what we do at home. She will be ready to do Apologia Bio next year, and CC does a different sequence. Will she be able to just follow along with what they do in class(as wonderful review of course), but keep up with doing Bio at home? I don't know. We were thinking of putting ds11 in Challenge A next year if dd13 goes, but we are pretty set in keeping with General Science for 7th, Phys Science for 8th, and Bio for 9th and would largely try to stay with that at home regardless. From this stand point CC doesn't really work for us, but there is more to life than academics, relationship is also very, very important. Our biggest leaning for having our kids participate in CC is community, positive peer pressure, and an outside source of accoutibility. It is THE only homeschool co-op of anykind withing a 45 min. driving distance. We've already been there done that in the closest private Christian school, and don't think the education is worth the money...CC is far, far more rigourous. We've only been away from the school for 2 1/2 years and have surpassed them academically, so we don't really consider going back an option right now.

Thank you for the encouraging words concerning Latin. This is exactly what I was hoping would be the case. Your thoughts on the chemistry of the existing group are good. We do know several of them, and I don't think it would be a problem at all. Maybe a little of questioning if she's really up to the task without having been in CC before, but I am positive she would prove herself quickly. We have discovered this age group is a little socially ruthless regardless of whether they are homeschooled, Christian, or otherwise...facts of life, especially girls. The truth is the local high school is such a social cesspool that the thought of sending her there even part-time makes me physically ill. The local CC group currently only offers through Challenge B, they are eagerly awaiting someone to step up to be a tutor for Challenge I since they have a group of kids waiting to move up to Challenge I.

Thank you for your insight. If, dd13 did start CC next fall, she would actually be 14 1/2. She is an advanced reader, and has the emotional maturity to handle the issues brought up in the books you mention, in fact she has already read To Kill a Mockingbird several times, done the PP study guide, and we've had a lot of discussion. She has already read every book listed in the Challenge A and B list, as well as a large number of Challenge I and above titles as well. This is actually one of the things that would be overly redundant for her. She has very good lit analysis skills already...she lives for Literature. Our alternative plan for Lit if she doesn't do CC is to either do AP Lit at the local public school, or do it at home(God help us!) and take the test. I really have no concerns at all about her meeting the challenges in the Writing, Literature, History, Science, or the presentations. I have a little concern about the fact that we have not done formal Logic, but I can try to fit this in the second half of this year. My biggest concern is Latin, but I am not sure if my concern is over-reactive based on the amount of Latin the other kids have done having been in CC previously. I know Rosetta Stone Spanish is not a rigourous foreign language program, but she has very high retention and loves/has a high interest in learning different languages, I am just spread too thin to provide her more opportunity to do so. I know she would be a very eager learner regardless of past exposure to Latin, which may make all the difference.

So in our process to figure out what would be the best thing for our dd13 for high school next year, we have again come back to a strong "maybe" on Classical Conversations. We think very highly of the program, but have not been able to afford it. I have attended some of their free training practicums, and have a pretty good "outsiders" understanding of what it entails and have several friends with their kids in it constantly telling me about what they are doing. We use many of the same materials for school at home, I even use their memory cd's and a few other tools. So, I know it is traditional to start at Challenge A, regardless of age, but I think that Challenge A and most of Challenge B would be redundant to her. I think for the map drawing skills, she would have to learn that quickly, but she is capable of that and to some extent has done some of that at home. She has done the same IEW, is farther along in Science, and the History would not be a problem for her. No, we haven't done any Latin. This is probably the biggest hurdle, but maybe not the end of the world. Am I completely off my rocker by thinking she could be ok starting in Challenge 1, or in the very least Challenge B? I would prefer Challenge 1, but maybe that is just not done without previous CC experience. In addition to being redundant, I am concerned with the material in Challenge B not lining up with what she needs for a high school transcript and our goal is for her to move to the local dual enrollment program when she is 16. So at most she would probably only get through Challenge II before she went on to a full schedule at the community college. What do you think?

Ditto, Lori D. You just made my day. I was going to start a new thread today on AP, totally exposing my cluelessness and anxiety in planning for high school and you have given me a place to start. :001_smile::001_smile::001_smile: Thank you.

Our preliminary plan is as follows: Math: Saxon Alg 2, if we can finish up Alg 1 this summer English: R&S grammar lessons only, the IEW Window to the World/Teaching the Classics combo mentioned in another thread, possibly with the live on-line lit chat with the Andrews. Another possibility is to take Honors or AP at the local hs. Vocab is undecided. Logic/Rhetoric: undecided Science: Apologia Academy Biology History: dunno yet, this is her favorite subject so I want to get do it up right for her. I don't have an at home option yet, and possibly an Honors or AP at the local hs. Hoping this for geography too. Spanish: likely at local hs. She is not following through on her additional activities on Rosetta Stone for full credit, so she's outta here for that. Other Electives: undecided Probably more 4H. This whole process stresses me out to no end. I would like this child to have more outside accountability, but the local public hs is not great and the only co-op option is CC and I can't afford it. I would only allow her to do it if it meant she could be in an honors or AP class, and maybe a few electives. I have requested information from the hs several times, and get nothing. It's not a very homeschool friendly district and the counselors and registrars don't seem to know how to get us into certain classes without being full time students this year, even after I offer to have my dd tested. Really?! I know of several part-time homeschool students and their families have all put up with this. I will be taking my concerns to the superintendant, his kids are part-time public/part-time homeschooled so he should be able to get us squared away. It shouldn't have to be this difficult. :confused:

When, due to illness, only the basics get done for 2 weeks straight. You allow them to watch history based programming on Netflix...they of course choose the WWII stuff with the tank and plane battles...and all you can think about is...THIS IS NOT IN OUR CURRENT HISTORY CYCLE!

I know in my sig...it says dd13 Alg1, but the truth is we are still working through the end of the Alg1/2. I had hopes of being started on the Alg1 book by now, but we are about a week and a half out, I think. We love the spiral method of Saxon, it has been very helpful in keeping concepts current in her mind, and repetition has lead to success over time. However, in the beginning of each new concept, she bombs it. I feel like for this dd, the amount of practice problems of the new concept is very insufficient, she needs a little more practice. What would you supplement with to solve this issue? I was thinking of using LOF Alg 1, as she has liked all the previous LOF books. Would this meet that need, or would it be too much work? Something else?

To this excellent recommendation (thank you), I would also like to add that www.oaopp.com also offers a live, on-line literary discussion lead by Missy and Adam Andrews. That would be a great combo with the IEW Windows to the World/Teaching the Classics syllabus.

:lurk5:me too.

It sounds like Abreva is a winner, and I am sure the Lysine wouldn't hurt. I hadn't heard of the body temp factor, that is interesting. Thanks ladies for your help.