My understanding was that the new edition had one or two additional lessons. There is a website, now, with user-entered support information and I bet you could find the gist of the new lessons there. So, I didn't hear about any substantive changes. I made up a checklist for myself so that I could check off lessons as we completed them. That helped keep track when we went out of order, and motivated my inner box-checker.

My dc have seen both and enjoyed both. We did Twelfth Night a week ago. We started with the great cartoon summary from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's website. The kids read through the Coville illustrated version on their own, we read the Lamb version and used some of the famous quotes for studied copy work. The homeschool winds of fortune were blowing favorably, I found a 40-seat production being put on by graduate students from the local theater department (which I didn't even know existed), for that weekend. Score! No one else I tell seems to care, but I know I can count on you all.

Maybe the appropriate MM book? It would re-present the topic with problems for practice. I think the individual books are inexpensive.

So glad to hear you're both doing well.

Logic Safari is one of those series. It's too young for you, though, unless you have an elementary kid you can give it too to finish the ones you don't need! Sudoku or Ken-Ken have the same logical approach, but with numbers instead of words.

I feel your pain! At our previous house the main route in and out of the attic apparently went up and down through the wall behind our headboard. So, so frustrating in the middle of the night. If you find one in the house, then for years afterward you are forced to play my last favorite game, "Sock Fuzz or Mouse Poop?"

Sadly ALL is on permanent hold. However, if you email PHP you may be able to get the first 15? 18? weeks of the beta test copy.

A credit union we were loosely affiliated with offered "fleet sales service", where we told the guy what we wanted, he contacted dealerships in a multi-state area, found the closest matches and sent then to us to choose. We picked (or could have modified the search), then paid fleet price - I don't remember what the mark-up was, but it was low, designed for large-volume purchasers. This guy got his son to help deliver the car to our house, but my twins had just been born, so I don't think that was part of the standard package. With our other car we picked it up at the bank.

We do Spanish and Latin also. I intentionally draw comparisons between the two. We compare new Latin vocabulary to the Spanish and verb conjugations are similar between the two which I've seen my children capitalize on.

I think you should less the movement to personal mobile libraries. It will cover your need for a library and hold all your books. You could fit it with shelves on the walls, but it would have a refrigerator, leave s comfy chair, plus, so could take it with you on vacation. Win, win, win!

If you are babysitting for the children of the old alternative rock band it would be: I babysit The Smiths' two children. Although I have no idea if any of the band members actually have any children.

Keep in mind that the babysitting job is likely to change somewhat in a year when the 5'er goes to full day. That might open up time for field trips, our a day of in-town activities.

At the airport once a lady asked me. She said she guessed by the way my kids were all listening to me read-aloud. I was reading quietly!

I didn't even know Jeni's was available commercially, but her cookbook (ice cream) is very thorough.

At our house we just do one program a day and work in it until, as Rosie so colorfully put it, they "spit the dummy." Sometimes we have a day of puzzle math for additional variety. ETA I don't worry about matching topics. We do all the problems in BA, if we see those subjects in another program I severely pare down the problems to just check retention.

Sometimes they ask what I'm laughing about, but I'm pretty sure answers like "potluck problems" and "creative responses to bad parkers" dampens their interest. Perhaps I should point out to them that if it weren't for WTM they would be doing worksheets all day and reading from books of Selections from Literature, or something. On the other hand, they keep an open mind to it since this place keeps them on the leading edge of pop culture need-to-knows like What Would the Fox Say?, Rainbow Looms, the latest Star Wars or LOTR trailer, and that we no longer put two spaces after a period (I might have been more amazed than they by the last).

Well, if you did focus on Four Corners, add Paria Canyon to your list, that place has long intrigued.

"wasn't willing to do the work" "The course is taught at a rigorous AP-prep level, and if your student was "under-challenged" and could not find it in herself to dig deeper and add to her own challenge/interest, then she will have the same problem with other courses." Their comments seem contradictory and that almost bothers more than their snarky rudeness. First it is your dd's fault because she wasn't willing to do the work, then it was her fault because she didn't add in extra to make it more challenging. Sorry you have to deal with that. Thanks for giving the rest of us a heads-up.

I check out everything that looks interesting and strew them around. They read whatever attracts their attention and sometimes I will pick out one for us to read together. Hey, whatever works for you!

Haha! That looks great.

Thank you so much for responding. I'll check out all your ideas, but the solitaire chess sounds like it might be just what I was looking for to set up independent challenges.

Ooh, great! That is my favorite price. I'm not seeing signs yet of needing anything labeled "advanced", but I am trying to nurture any independent interests outside of graphic novels and video games. Thank you!

Thanks! I'll check these on Amazon. Sadly, our library doesn't have them, although there was a similar title I'll take a look at. I find the subject overwhelming and difficult to penetrate. Perhaps I am simply intimidated.

We use Sentence Composing for Elementary. I had to take a break and switch to Paragraphs for Elementary in order to "officially" introduce paragraphs before the "write a paragraph" exercise in the sentence book. I originally bought the Sentence Composing for Middle School one, but the model sentences wouldn't yet be familiar to my 4th grade dc, and my stressed-out writer would have been more stressed by the slightly longer sentences, so I backed off to the elementary one. So, I own a number of the books, but have only thoroughly used Sentence Composing for Elementary so far. Like it, though!

My ds has been casually interested in chess for a while. I have a basic understanding of the game. I bought No Stress Chess, so all three of my dc play together on occasion. However, I'm not seeing any particular improvement and I'm wondering if there is a book I could use to give the four of us an occasional lesson. I'm hoping for a book that will build on itself lesson-wise, and also give problems to solve. On a related note, does anyone sell decks of chess problems with a variety of difficulty? I'm thinking of the Rush Hour logic game cards, where they have a picture of the set-up and you solve it. They start easy and then progress in difficulty. Any other chess-related ideas would be welcome.