I think I have seen "Count of Monte Cristo" about 100 times (not exaggerating) I have read the abridged book twice. It is way different than the movie but both are good. I love that movie.

My one sister has hazel/green eyes/blonde hair and the other brown/brown like me. One brother has hazel/green eyes/blonde hair and the other brown/brown. My dad has hazely/brown eyes/sandy blonde hair and mom has brown eyes/brown hair. We are a crazy bunch. Both my girls have pretty blue eyes and one has blonde hair and the other has brown. My little DD looks just like her birthmother and my 6yo DD looks like me but with blue eyes. My sister with the green eyes and is DD's "birthmother" as she was my traditional surrogate (using her own egg). So DD has the brown hair trait in our genes but no one in our whole family has blue eyes (neither did the genetic father's side) so we don't know where the blue eyes came from. So it really is like roullette in what you get. DH has red hair/blue eyes and his 1st wife has auburn hair/ brown eyes. They have one girl with red hair/brown eyes and one with auburn hair/blue eyes so each girl got one or the other from their parents.

I thought I was just going to wing science based on WTM suggestions of animals/plants/humans for first grade but I don't want to under-do it in terms of learning. I bought BJU grade 1 science because I liked what the pages looked like but now that I have it in front of me I don't like how it skips around too much. It has the senses, wild animals, tame animals and the moon and stars all in one package. Maybe it would be OK but I guess I had the 12 weeks of animals, 12 weeks of humans and 6 weeks of plants idea in my head. I have looked at Apologia and I guess I just don't understand how it is layed out and what books I would even start in and what would be appropriate for a 1st grader. Can anyone help me pick a curriculum for science using the WTM tract? Do I even really need one? Has anyone used BJU science and did you like it? I don't know why I feel like I need a curriculum for it but I guess I am a little unsure of myself yet and need a little bit of "hand holding":001_smile: Thanks!

yes!!!!:iagree::iagree::iagree: You also only get one chance to raise your kids! What works for some, doesn't work for others and what you do with your kids is your business and noone else's. As long as your family is happy, that is what matters!

I am pretty sure that now that I am homeschooling I am more in touch with the physical world around me. I am constantly looking for "teachable" moments. Today I was walking into work and under the awning of the door is a few little nests of birds. I have always known they are there because they fly out and scare me when I walk by. Today there were 2 little males (I assume male because they are the ones to do the dance for the girlies) They were strutting and fluffing and wagging their little behinds and turning in circles. I stopped and watched them and was only a few feet from them and they were oblivious to me since there was a pretty little girly bird on the fence post near by. I sure wish DD was there so we could have watched them together. About 2 weeks ago we were at our farm and looking for worms. We aren't studying worms yet but I wanted to show her that there a a lot of them if you know where to look so we were flipping over rocks and logs and picking up the worms and putting them in a bucket. I moved a big 55gal drum and there was a SALAMANDER!!! under it. We scooped it up and took it home (our farm is 80 miles away and we stay there while doing farm work but live in town). We now have a pet salamander named Spot and both the girls love feeding him worms and crickets. We have read 3 books about salamanders that we probably wouldn't have read other wise! I love homeschooling!!!!

I love WWE. We just got started last week and I was just going to use the "idea" of it with other stuff like SOTW but I like that it has the questions all written out on what to ask. For example yesterdays was about the Lion and the Mouse. I read the story to DD and the questions were "What animals were in this story?" "What did the Lion want to do to the Mouse?" "How did the Mouse help the Lion?" I like that it gives specifics, not just "what do you remember?" that is such an open ended question. This teaches kids to focus on one part of the story.

Tell the kids..."pack up your books today, we are taking a brain rest day!" go for a walk, to the park etc and then when everyone comes home give a list of chores they can manage. I took today off too because the last 2 days we were at our farm, DH mowed the grass for 2 days (all 3 acres of it) and my sinuses were killing me and I was grumpy! DD is at the park now with my sister feeding the ducks and little DD is in bed taking a nap and mommy is having quiet time!

well, I can tell you what I have in mind for my DD age 6, end of K, beginning of 1st. When she was in our church school and doing ACE she started not "getting" spelling and couldn't do words well but they didn't stay on them long IMO. When I pulled her out and brought her home I started out at short vowel words and tested her on them to guage her learning. She did great with shorts but got stuck with long vowels like LAKE. So we started SWO 1 with long vowels. THEN.... I started OPGTR and have decided to put spelling on hold until we review about 1/2 the book then I will start spelling again. I just think she needed some help with some of the phonics so we are doing that first. I think if she does well with phonics then she will have more of the "rules" to do spelling. HTH

thanks for that. We just started HS the first week of April and I have questioned myself a few times. I got straight A's in school but I am not a "teacher". I am glad I started in K though not a higher grade because we can stumble a little bit here and there while we picked our curricula and I feel like it won't make that big of an impact. We are doing good now, have all our curricula picked out and have received it and have our schedule down pretty well. I just have to trust that God lead me to HS for a reason and "God causes all things to work together for good"

I just read a book called "Tear Soup" it was awesome! It is short and non descript about the "loss" that "grandy" the main character is suffering from but it talks about grief. Another nurse got it for a mom that just lost a baby at our work. Hugs to you in this great time of mourning and sorrow.:grouphug:

I am a nurse in Labor and Delivery and wouldn't change it for the world. I wanted to become a nurse since I was 7yo. Don't laugh...but I saw a movie where a man was in a car wreck and he fell in love with his nurse and they got married. It was then I decided I was going to be a nurse:001_smile: I also have a "fix it" personality. I have to fix everyones problems (you quickly have to get over that in nursing because you can't fix everyone) I love my job, I only work 2 days a week (12 hour shifts) so I have the other 5 days to homeschool and stay home with my girls. Another reason I knew I wanted to be a nurse was the pay. I grew up with 5 of us kids and a mom who worked for minimum wage and a loser dad who didn't help with the $$$ part of raising us. I didn't want to struggle like my mom did with my kids. My job is very rewarding. It can also be very stressful with still births, birth defects, maternal drug use and people getting to take a baby home that shouldn't own a salamander! Good luck to her what ever she decides!

I have used the last few days to read my WWE book that just came. I agree, I don't want to overdo it either so I think I am going to try to tie in my lessons of WWE into SOTW1 since it has narration in it and a lot of things to use as copy work. We are still going to do FLL but I use the page and then tie the lesson into what else we are doing ie: proper nouns/special names...we talked about Tarek in SOTW being a proper noun, look how it starts with a capital letter, etc.

thanks ladies, I will be doing a whole lesson on this and will use all the advice given. We really try to live an "accepting of everyone" attitude so hopefully she just thinks her cousin is mean. We need to talk about that too. We live in Montana where we don't have a big population of different ethnicities so she doesn't get exposure to other races and we live in a very small, tight circle consisting of home, church, grocery shopping and the library so she doesn't get exposure there either. Thanks again ladies, I knew you would have great loving answers!

I am embarressed as a mother to even ask for this help but my ExH called me yesterday to talk about something DD said casually to him. She supposedly told him "I don't like people with dark skin" We are NOT prejudice and try to teach our children that God created everyone and loves everyone. I have no idea where this comes from. The only thing I can even think of is that I have 2 nieces that are biracial and my 8yo niece is very mean and bossy to 6yo DD. We had a talk about "what if someone didn't like you because you had light skin or freckles or blue eyes?...that wouldn't be very nice would it?" etc but I would love to find a book for her age that discusses acceptance, fairness, different ethnicities etc in a gentle way. Thanks for any suggestions.

sorry to hijack a little bit...so am I understanding this correctly? You don't have to use both the WWE strong fundamentals and the WWE workbook? I bought both but only have the WWE SF (I just it today and have read the intro so far as I just got home from work.)

I live in MT and a wolf is a wolf is a wolf is a wolf!!!!! Wolves cause very serious injury/death to wild life and not just for food. They kill just for the fun of the hunt. If my neighbor had a wolf and it came to my property (assuming I lived out of town which I don't) I would shoot it, no questions asked. Today it was your chickens. What happens when it harms your dogs or worse...your kids! I would report the wolf! Wolves aren't endangered anymore (at least not here in MT) infact they are debating increasing the number of permits issued to hunt them. I am not really for the sport of hunting wolves for the sport either but I am for farmers being able to shoot them to protect livestock. I have horrible pictures of wolf damage to deer, elk and dogs still on chains if you need proof of the damage they do. I just don't want to post them on here because they are graphic. PM me if you want them.

I used to live in Belgrade MT and lived in Henson Subdivision (as in Jim Henson). Some of the streets were Kermit Ct (where we lived), Bert St, Ernie St, and Happy St.

anyone??

I have been researching bible curricula (just for bible) and have looked at and printed off a lot of stuff that just isn't what I want. DD and I like the workbooky stuff. I have spent all day looking at BJU, Sonlight, CLE etc and finally I think like ACSI bible grade 1 the best so I found it pretty cheap on Amazon. Has anyone used it (or grade k,2, or 3 for reference)? Do I need the teachers manual? Do your kids like it and retain the info? I want Bible time to be fun for now since we have a lot on our plates and I am still getting in the swing of things but I definately want more "Bible education" not the devotionals stuff we have been doing. Thanks

I guess I am pretty close to what WTM has to say. I really like what the books have to say and I like how they are layed out and scripted. This is our first year (first 5 weeks actually under our belt) so I need that structure. I think as I get more confident I might be able to branch out but I might not have to if this works well for us. We are using Saxon math, FLL, OPGTR, Spelling workout (on hold to finish OPGRT), SOTW1, science on our own using the WTM layout for 1st grade animals, plants, human body. I supplement with the corresponding lessons in Starfall, Starfall grammar, Scott foresman grammar all free off the internet. DD likes worksheets. I just ordered ACSI bible for 1st grade so we will see how that works for us.

I know with old books you can put them in a bag with baking soda so can you try dumping a few boxes of baking soda in a garbage bag and shaking the comforter in it. I would also then wash it and put it in the sun.

wow Tina. you are officially my hero!!!!!! I kept reading each kids stuff then scrolling down and there was another kid, I am happy I finally got ONE kids first grade planned!:D

I may have too much be we are going to focus on the 3Rs and work everything else in. So far for DD (end of K, beginning 1) I have accumulated and started Math-Saxon Math 1 Reading- the ordinary Parents guide to teaching reading (DD finished learning to read from the ACE curriculum this January before I pulled her out of school but I think she needs a lot of review so we will be doing this during summer) Grammer-First Lanuage lessons of the well trained mind. Spelling-SPelling workout-I have put this on hold though until we finish most of OPGTR. Writing-Writing with ease 1 and 2 (haven't got this one in mail yet and DD writes well but I want to see if there is anything we can use in one, if not I will keep if for next DD and start in 2) History- Story of the world 1 (haven't got this in the mail yet so I don't know how much of it we will do as far as activities, copy work etc. I have to look at it first but I love History so I bought it because I want to do it:D) Science-We are going to follow the Well trained mind as far as this goes will lots of library books as well as some books I bought. Right now we are doing plants/seeds for approx 6 weeks. WTM has doing animals first but we want to be able to grow plants while it is warm and DH is a wheat farmer so we can dissect our wheat plants as they grow. At the end we will get wheat right from the combine and we are going to mill it into flour and make bread from it to see where the wheat ends up !!! (I am very excited to do this!) Bible-lots of bible stories, devotions and I printed off the first 5-6 lessons in Calvary chaple bible curriculum but we haven't started that yet. Social studies-Scott Foresman grade one "all together" I have the student book and work book but I might skip this depending on what SOTW has to offer. Music-I got the book Usborne piano level 1 and a $25 keyboard from Walmart (yesterday) so we will play around with that too. Fun-lots of it and lots of reading books! For supplements and extra worksheets I have (free off internet) ZB spelling connections, Scott Foresman Grammer, Starfall and Starfall grammar. I just find the sheets that correspond with the stuff we are working on. I haven't worked out an actual schedule of what days we are doing what because I work 2 days a week and she goes to her dads. When she goes there I send worksheets to do because she may or may not get any work done there...long story but we make up for it at my house. A set schedule wouldn't work like History T and TH and Music F etc since my work days rotate but we have been doing this for 5 weeks and I think I have my routine down pretty good.

My sister is still nusing her soon to be 5yo. My little one is 15 months and I hope she nurses past 2 at least AND she is adopted. In fact she is on my lap now and I am typing one handed.

It's ok to be ignored, I just wanted to put another VERY CHEAP option out there. Try it! You will love it. First just get some cheap flannel and sew it into squares. If you end up not liking it, throw it away and you are out about as much money as if you had used TP Yep, I would wash my kids peed pants or poopy pants (after rinsing) in the same wash as my other stuff. I am certainly not going to throw wet or messy pants in the garbage everytime. We cloth diaper too but rinse out the poopy ones in the toilet using a sprayer hooked up to the toilet, then wash the whole load. Works for us.....a This one just made me laugh! For the people that are totally grossed out by it, that is OK. For the ones that aren't grossed out, give it a try. It makes wiping nicer and when you go to a place that has scratchy 2bit TP, you will really LOVE your cloth when you get home!:D