He is risen indeed! 2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So grateful that we serve such a holy God who gave His greatest gift, Jesus, who paid the ultimate sacrifice to purchase our salvation and to restore fellowship with Himself. What wondrous love is this, O my soul! He is alive!

Thank you so much for replying, LJPPKGFGSC. I will pass on all of the suggestions, and hopefully we'll find something to use next year. Thanks, all!

Bumping back up...

Thanks, ladies. I'll take a look. What do you like about Canvas? How do you use it? Does anyone use Google Classroom?

I work at our local homeschool co-op, and for several years now, we have been using Engrade to keep grades and attendance records for our students. We can also email through Engrade and keep a record of correspondence between teachers, parents, and students. Engrade is part of McGraw Hill, and they are not offering this service anymore beginning next year, so my co-op has to find something to take its place. So far, all that has been researched is proving to be very expensive compared to Engrade. Parents only pay $7/student currently, but all the record-keeping programs our director has research runs into the thousands of dollars- way over our budget. I believe that we are trying to target around $300/month overall, but truly, cost is very much a factor. We need to keep the cost as low as possible. I thought I would ask all of you very wonderful, knowledgeable ladies if you could make any recommendations. I know we've checked Blackboard, but I don't remember any other names. We are trying to get something lined up to begin using for the next school year (2019-2020). Thanks for any help! PS... Cross-posting on the other boards.

I work at our local homeschool co-op, and for several years now, we have been using Engrade to keep grades and attendance records for our students. We can also email through Engrade and keep a record of correspondence between teachers, parents, and students. Engrade is part of McGraw Hill, and they are not offering this service anymore beginning next year, so my co-op has to find something to take its place. So far, all that has been researched is proving to be very expensive compared to Engrade. Parents only pay $7/student currently, but all the record-keeping programs our director has research runs into the thousands of dollars- way over our budget. I believe that we are trying to target around $300/month overall, but truly, cost is very much a factor. We need to keep the cost as low as possible. I thought I would ask all of you very wonderful, knowledgeable ladies if you could make any recommendations. I know we've checked Blackboard, but I don't remember any other names. We are trying to get something lined up to begin using for the next school year (2019-2020). Thanks for any help! PS... Cross-posting on the other boards.

I work at our local homeschool co-op, and for several years now, we have been using Engrade to keep grades and attendance records for our students. We can also email through Engrade and keep a record of correspondence between teachers, parents, and students. Engrade is part of McGraw Hill, and they are not offering this service anymore beginning next year, so my co-op has to find something to take its place. So far, all that has been researched is proving to be very expensive compared to Engrade. Parents only pay $7/student currently, but all the record-keeping programs our director has research runs into the thousands of dollars- way over our budget. I believe that we are trying to target around $300/month overall, but truly, cost is very much a factor. We need to keep the cost as low as possible. I thought I would ask all of you very wonderful, knowledgeable ladies if you could make any recommendations. I know we've checked Blackboard, but I don't remember any other names. We are trying to get something lined up to begin using for the next school year (2019-2020). Thanks for any help! PS... Cross-posting on the other boards.

I work at our local homeschool co-op, and for several years now, we have been using Engrade to keep grades and attendance records for our students. We can also email through Engrade and keep a record of correspondence between teachers, parents, and students. Engrade is part of McGraw Hill, and they are not offering this service anymore beginning next year, so my co-op has to find something to take its place. So far, all that has been researched is proving to be very expensive compared to Engrade. Parents only pay $7/student currently, but all the record-keeping programs our director has research runs into the thousands of dollars- way over our budget. I believe that we are trying to target around $300/month overall, but truly, cost is very much a factor. We need to keep the cost as low as possible. I thought I would ask all of you very wonderful, knowledgeable ladies if you could make any recommendations. I know we've checked Blackboard, but I don't remember any other names. We are trying to get something lined up to begin using for the next school year (2019-2020). Thanks for any help! PS... Cross-posting on the other boards.

I have only heard a little about Trim Healthy Mama, but I am giving it consideration. I would like to lose a few pounds (10 +/-) that is associated with natural aging. Exercising and portion moderation has not helped at all, so I think my next step is to begin limiting sugar and getting on a more intentional plan that helps with good nutrition. This is the plan that I think I would like to try, but I need to be mindful of sodium intake. On average, I probably consume less than 1000mg of sodium/day, and I use Himalayan salt. Have any of you used Trim Healthy Mama? Can you tell me if the recipies can be adjusted to be low sodium friendly? I understand the new Trim Healthy Table would be the best book of the series for a newbie to buy.

Ty, klmama! I'll check them out. Happy Thanksgiving, all! 🙂

Thanks so much, ladies! I am not a Cosco member. I think I can go into the store to look at the towels, but I'll need to find a Cosco member friend if I decide to buy them. Wonder if they are running some kind of special during this time of year to draw in new customers.....That would be convenient.

This may be a silly question, but I need to find this for my dad for Christmas. If you have run across an especially soft bath towel, please tell me about it. He wants a white one in a regular bath size- not anything extra large. He tried the ones from LL Bean, but that apparently wasn't soft enough. Thanks for any help!

Lori and mom2scouts, thank you so much for replying. I agree that Eagle Scout is enough to stand alone. I appreciate your wisdom regarding if merit badges should/could be counted as part of high school credit. I am very proud of ds for pursuing Eagle Scout. This is truly an exciting time! Thanks again! ?

Has anyone done this? My ds is close to getting his Eagle Scout award, and after accomplishing so many merit badges, I was just wondering how I might use them for high school credit. If not for credit, have you documented them another way on your student's transcript? I think I have read about this on the forums, but when I searched, I didn't find anything to help with my question. If someone could link related topics, I would appreciate that as well. Thanks, ladies!

I have an ink jet printer, and I would like to print a few transparencies to help at school. I would also like a few to simply write on with a vis-a-vis pen. Can I buy the inkjet transparencies for both purposes? I know with one kind that Amazon sells, a purchaser commented that the actual film became sort of gooey when she tried to clean it with water. What is up with that? I'm just not sure what to buy. I know that you can purchase write-on transparency film too, but I don't want to buy both. They are just too expensive. Also, the write-on film cannot go through a printer at all. Can anyone tell me what I need to buy?

Katie, we used these years ago. They are pretty good: http://www.historyscribe.com/

We have had backyard chickens for several years now, and we're on our second batch. I agree that they are easy and great fun. Having a fresh supply of eggs is also wonderful, and it is fun to share them with friends. At the same time, I want to throw out that chickens are dirty little creatures. After we got our first batch from our local Tractor Supply Co., and after they were old enough to be outside in their coop, we let them free range. They all eventually ended up on my porch. This is a nice porch with outdoor furniture, and they pooped all over everything! I was horrified. We tried to train them to stay away from this area, but you can't train chickens. Eventually, this really got next to me, and we keep them in their coop most of the time now. This isn't a bad thing really. It is a very large area- about 20' x 30' with a 4'x8' lockable shed where they roost at night and have laying boxes. We're in a wooded area as well, and tree cover plus fencing keep predators out. At the top of our fencing is additional fencing that angles in which also helps with protection. It's a great set-up. One more thing... Because they are dirty little creatures, if you are planning a coop area, think hard about how to organize it. You will want to be able to get in and out to collect eggs and to clean the coop easily. We still need to improve in this way. Because our coop is so well shaded, no grass grows in it. We've tried to beautify with rosemary plants, but they died. I would like to make a concrete step path to the coop shed one day. For now, the ground cover is dirt. Dirt and chicken poop is not so bad in dry conditions, but when it rains, it is just gross. It's not like you can keep a chicken area clean either. If you got chickens because they are cute and fun to watch, you might be totally disgusted at the filth they can create if you were not aware of this truth ahead of time. This is not meant to persuade you not to get chickens. It's just meant to lay the good and the bad on the table. Oh, one more thing... We live in Alabama, and the winters can be cold. During our first winter with the first batch of chickens, we felt like they needed a heat lamp to keep them warm at night. We used the same one that they had as baby chicks when they lived in our house (in a big box.) Well, they began fighting! Long story short... The bulb in that light was red, and that color makes chickens crazy. They will fight each other at the sight of blood too. We simply took the lamp out. They were fine. Lesson learned.

Lexi, I also vote Analytical Grammar. I've used Jr. JAG, AG, and one High School Reinforcement book with my kids. It sounds like your dd is at the green book AG level, but since it is a longer text and takes more time to get through, would it make sense to use Jr. JAG as a refresher course? Jr. JAG only covers the information in the First Season of AG. Then you could use Jr. JAG Mechanics for the punctuation. After finishing these, you could re-evaluate to see what to do next. (Your dd would not cover the phrases & clauses of Season Two like this, but the overview she would get would still be worthwhile.) AG helped my kids solidify their understanding of parts of speech. Then it directly linked grammar to punctuation. AG is efficient, and once my kids finished a book, most of the information stuck. I also agree with others that grammar study is best practiced within the context of writing/editing. When a student can see why a seemingly meaningless subject is relevant- why it has direct application to success in life- that can help reverse some of the apathy. You could buy the digital versions of the books to save some money.

It is a help. In fact, the company finally answered my email. They requested my access codes, so maybe they are going to fix the system to allow the codes to work on ds's computer. It is good to know that you've been through a similar situation successfully. Thanks so much for replying. :)

Thank you! I have an email from the original purchase that says downloaded programs can be used for a lifetime, but I'm not sure if that means on different computers.

Mom, ds tried to use the original codes that we have to download VLS onto a new computer. He found out that the codes that we have are one time use. I tried emailing VLS support, but they have not replied. Would you tell me how they reinstalled the program on your new laptops?

Yes. Ds is going to down load it at grandparent's house. Actually, he tried early this morning during free time but found out that the codes we have were a one use time only. I'm not sure that we can reuse the codes that we have. I emailed VLS support about this, but they have not responded. Do you have any advice about that?

I've been out of the house all day. I'm going to see if VLS is still on my laptop now. I think it is. Otherwise, it is on ds's dead laptop. In that case I guess we have to call the company. We are on limited internet. Can anyone take a guess how much data it would take to reinstall? I can see myself up between 3-6 AM getting this on the computer.

We actually have Visual Link Spanish! I forgot about this! Remembered about it late last night. This may be exactly what we need. I have no idea how to get it back up and running. I'll give this a shot today. I truly hope this works.

Duolingo is a name I hear often. Don't recall how expensive it is or how to use it. Thank you for answering!