Yes, that is my dh. I'm not sure where he learned it as his father isn't like that at all. I hope my son picks it up because it does make one feel special. Dh takes care of all car things including gas and always does little things like making sure my cell phone is charging before he leaves for work, picking up individual items from the grocery as soon as he notices any running low, putting my keys and phone together with anything else I might need underneath them any time he knows I have to run out with the kids in the morning, packing a cooler any time we are going out, making sure I have soda in the fridge and not just stacked in the laundry room, calling when he is off early to see if he can run any errands. I could go on, but I had better go tell my dh what a great guy he is!! :D

We only get our kids one big gift each. Dd 12 - underwater camera Dd 10 - keyboard Dd 6 - bike Ds 5 - bike

We volunteer at the YMCA. It is worth it for our family. We don't participate in any homeschool or church groups either. The kids get a lot out of the sports and activities at the Y and they are always in need of volunteers to keep things running.

Keepers of the Night written by Bruchac (who incidently wrote the Pocahontas book used in the middle school supplement of Jamestown) is part of a series that covers nature study for students at all ages. Each chapter begins with a Native American story followed by several pages of information on the topic studied and discussion questions on the topic. Then there are many activities related to a theme. For Keepers of the Night the main themes are night animals, night plants, astronomy, camping and developing relationships with the land (the standard ending unit in all the books.) I felt this book tied in best with POE because the focus so far has been astronomy/navigation and animals. Things we have done or plan to do from the book - constellation map using beans, model solar system, night frog hunt, moth experiment, building a campfire, campfire cooking, lots of night walks looking for different things. I think the books are great. They are interesting and have a nice balance with stories, factual information and activities for children of every age.

Aime, Sorry, I don't know how to quote a quote. In answer to your questions: There are lots of writing assignments in the middle school supplement - enough that we don't do them all. I think they are grade appropriate. Many of the assignments are additional research on a subject already being studied. There was a report on a country being studied and a report on an animal being studied. My favorite are the compare/contrast assignments. They are open enough that a student can work at his/her ability. In the first unit there was an assignment to read a short biography on Leif Erikson or his father and then to write a compare/contrast paper between him and Columbus. A more experienced writer could write a compare/contrast between Leif, Columbus and the main character in Carry on, Mr. Bowditch (the middle school assigned book.) There was some instruction on making a Venn diagram and suggestions on how to organize the paper. Following the CM way, there is not much grammar and what is there is studied as it is come across in the readings. There is daily dictation. For the middle school student it is 2-3 paragraphs daily from the middle school reader. The student is expected to keep a personal spelling log. Each week the student adds spelling rules. (The nice thing about the assigned dictations is that they will have words that match the weekly spelling rule.) The student is expected to also determine rules for other words that are frequently misspelled and there is a large emphasis on word study. I noticed in unit four (the regular book - not the middle school supplement) expository writing is introduced and covered quite a bit. So, maybe if you used the books at the ideal age you really wouldn't need any supplements at all - certainly not if you were a strict CM follower. I prefer having a writing curriculum with an outline of how to write and then I can take the writing assignments in the book and have the student write them using the outline learned in his/her writing curriculum. I do feel that CW and Trail Guide to Learning used together is plenty. Yes, TC is teaching company. I already had the DVDs and my dd12 was already planning to work through them this year for American history. They are listed as high school level - but I would question that. They are more middle school level and the lecturer dresses up in costume and uses fake accents to keep the students' attention. It works better for some students than others. :)

You would have no problem with the first two units, but the last unit does a review each day in place of Science/Geography so you wouldn't be able to do some of the review of the first three lessons (or weeks.) We are planning to do a couple of bigger enrichment projects during the last unit since its focus is primarily language arts and review.

I've found blue, red and yellow are best with younger kids. The stories seem shorter and more familiar. The others all seem the same in length and difficulty and we read them in any order. However, dds just told me pink is their favorite. :)

We are using it this year and I really love it. I revamped my younger two kids' plans so that I can use it for the next six+ years. :) This year I am using it with a 1st and 5th grader along with a tag-along 7th grader that refuses to be left out of anything fun. The first unit was probably best suited to her, of all my kids, so I couldn't leave her out. :001_rolleyes: I've found it too difficult to include my ds5 (pre-K.) He will be folded in when he is in 2nd grade and we begin the world history series. It takes my 1st grader about 1 hour per day using the easiest level, my 5th grader 2-3 hours using some of the third level and some of the middle school supplement and my 7th grader 2 hours using the middle school supplement (but only because I refuse to give her any more time, she sometimes does more work in her free time.) Things I've added: 1st grader - CW Primers for additional language arts (considering using the CW program throughout the years for additional language arts) Keepers of the Night for a bit more nature study (again will likely add a Keeper book each year for more science.) 5th grader - added the middle school supplement. So 1st grader reads aloud the easiest book to all, older two girls take turns reading aloud the book marked as a read aloud to all and then there is a chapter a day from a third book listed in the middle school supplement that the older girls each read to themselves. Added MCT grammar (and Latin) for additional language arts, the Keepers of the Night for more science and for additional history reading the Hakim series History of US and the G. Foster series (Columbus and Sons, World of Captain John Smith.) These readings assigned to her before I decided to use the POE program and since they fit and dd enjoys reading - I've just matched them up for additional exposure. 7th grader - basically does everything planned for her at the beginning of the year just added this program at her request :D So she has additional language arts, history and science As a note - the TC Early American History lectures match up quite well to the POE program with both ending in the same time period. Usually all three girls will watch the TC dvds while only the eldest does the additional readings and worksheets.

I have four the same ages - 12, 10, 7 and 5. We also use Singapore math. One thing I had to start doing this year was keeping the younger two up later at night so they would get up later in the morning. Dd 12 starts school at 6 and we begin with math followed by language arts. Dd10 begins school at 7 and we begin with math followed by language arts. The youngers get up around 8:30. Once dd7 has finished breakfast/morning chores she does her three subjects she can do alone - typing, math facts, Latin (all on the computer.) I focus on the older two in the morning. After lunch they work independently while I work with the younger two.

Things my kids have received (or will this year) desk cell phone Ipod computer (netbook) keyboard guitar camera rock tumbler misc. sporting equipment cooking items magazine subscription bike

We have the oldest Flip cam. My husband won it the year they came out. I love it. Ours has been dropped, tossed about in bags, sat on many times, gotten wet more than once and still works fine. :) It is very easy to transfer video to the computer or hook up and view on the TV. You can also make still pictures from it, but it is hard to get the exact frame (although it may be easier on the newer models.)

I have a similar daughter. She is only in 5th grade, but I will share our high school plans for her. She is very creative and her talents lie in music and writing. History - Trisms This will allow her to go deeper in areas that interest her (literature) and light in the actual history. It also incorporates IEW throughout. It will count as a credit of history and a half credit of literature each year. Science - Oak Meadow A solid but not rigorous program. It will give her room for her creativity in the assignments. Math - Singapore Discovering Mathematics 1-4 DM 1-4 is basically PreAlgebra, Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II. I know it will be a challenge for her, but we want a strong foundation in algebra so she doesn't feel she isn't capable of achieving something later simply due to a lack of math skills. Composition - half credit, online class each year. This is a strength and joy for her and an area I want to outsource so she can reach her full potential. Latin - online course each year. The program we use moves at the student's own pace. She would struggle greatly in a program that had criteria to meet on a weekly basis. Religion - online course that again moves at the student's pace. The rest of her time will be devoted to music and creative writing. :D

If you don't need it until next year and you have to remove money from savings I would wait until after January to purchase it new. I would keep watching Ebay and the sale boards for the next three months as many people end the school year or switch curriculum in Dec/Jan. (Unless of course you really want to be one of those switching curriculum in Dec/Jan. :D In that case, I would stretch the curriculum out for 18 months and not try and rush through.)

Tigger, Aphrodite, Artemis and a little witch :)

Lingua Mater 7 was developed to follow ILL. And that is followed by Lingua Americana for 8th.

My 5th grader will be doing NaNoWriMo in her spare time. I don't change our scheduled school work in any way. ETA: Dd set her own word count at 6000 words. I think it is a little high, but she has written books to give for Christmas presents the previous two years. (I have them printed up at Kinko's.) So she woud probably know better than I what she is capable of doing. Somewhere on the NaNoWriMo site I believe I saw something about getting one copy of the book printed for free this year. I plan to look into that more later in the month.

:iagree: I reluctantly agreed to coach one of my dds' soccer teams this fall. They really needed someone and called the evening before the coach's meeting. I truly love soccer, love kids and have a great bunch to coach. But it feels like such a chore to have to leave home two more times each week. :tongue_smilie: Once I'm there I really enjoy it, but I've probably spent as much time this season dwelling on having to leave my home as I have on actually coaching. :D

Stone Soup

We spend around 2.5% of our annual income on Christmas if you include gifts, cards, tree, etc. OR a little over 1 month's rent

I'm not sure if these will show up, but here he is cleaned up to walk his sister down the aisle :D and more day to day with our eldest daughter.

We give the kids each one big gift which they get to choose and then one or two little 'stocking stuffers' that I choose (usually books/diaries/flashlights sorts of things.) For all the other kids in the family (cousins/nieces/nephews) I give them each a magazine subscription to the magazine of their choice - with parents permission. I also try to heavily influence what others give my kids for the holidays. :D

This is the way the Singapore book teaches it too. :)

Educating through Art is one of my favorites.

My dd is in 7th. This is our first year of applying credits/grades. I dropped spelling and vocabulary from our English studies, but still incorporate them into other subjects. I am also doing literature with our history studies. I am doing one full credit for American History/Lit and one full credit for Ancient History/Lit so I am not doing Literature with our English studies. That only leaves grammar and composition. 7th grade: Magic Lens I / 4 Practice I (grammar) Put That in Writing I (grammar and comp) online Composition class - for 8th it will be the same only level 2 of each program Dd still spends 7-8 hours per week on English. For 9th-12th we will drop grammar and do .5 credit composition and .5 credit literature each year.

dd12 - 8 hours (10:00 - 6:00) dd10 - 7 hours (10:30 - 5:30) dd6 - 11 hours (8:30 - 7:30) ds5 - 11 hours (8:30 - 7:30) dh - 8 hours (7:30 - 3:30) me - 6 hours (12:00 - 6:00) The only one who naps around here is me. :D I try and get in a 15-20 minute 'power nap' while the kids eat lunch.