I don't know any of them personally, but Chelsea Mehmel, and the Hamm brothers (who had to bow out of men's gymnastics due to injury) are all from the area of WI I grew up in.

I've not pitched anything but I am going to add in Spelling Power for my older son. He's in 4th and his spelling isn't horrible but it's not great either. We have All About Spelling which seems to be a great program but he's not really into the letter tiles and stuff, so we may still use it for a supplement to SP if he needs other activities for a change of pace. I will keep AAS for my dd but will use it more for phonics reinforcement.

I'm guessing because nobody wants to see men like Rogers and Dalhauser in a Bikini? :tongue_smilie: Sorry just trying to interject a little humor

I really think it's great that he's there. I think it shows that he's proud of the country he's the leader of. I didn't think the interview with Bob Costas was all that long. I really don't think they pre-empted the equestrian events because of the Presidents interview, at least not on NBC, maybe they did on one of the sister stations. Equestrian isn't generally a prime time event, nothing against those that enjoy them, but when it comes to Prime Time coverage that's just not one that is usually covered.

I don't have a 6th grader but I've been using Growing with Grammar for my now 4th grader. He really enjoys it and I love that it's completely secular. The author is also very helpful if you have questions.

How does going to a 4 year school constitute the real world. I guess I've been living in Lala land all these years because after I graduated from Public School (which was in no way like the "real world" ) back in 1992, I went to a technical college for a year, not a 4 year school. My dh went to a 4 year school and said he felt I was more prepared because I was actually living on my own, holding down a job and paying my own way, where as he was living on student loans with his only concern being getting to class on time. My dh and I have used all the jokes about keeping our kids "locked away" but some people seem to honestly think we as homeschoolers don't let our children out of their rooms or houses.

I go for the gusto in what I want back. I personally wouldn't eat the ziti, but I have a pretty severe mold allergy so I'm not one of those "just cut the moldy bit off" people.

Well we started because after a great K year in WI we moved to VA and our oldest had a terrible first half of the year (very non understanding teacher) My dh suggested we look into homeschooling again, which we had in the past. We then realized it would give us just what we wanted. We're military so we move a lot. Here's our top reasons that we continue 1. Flexibility, we can now school in summer when dh may be on deployment and take a vacation from school when he's home 2. Continuity, our kids are not ALWAYS "the new kids" now. We can also put the books away, move across the country and then pick up right where we left off. 3. Togetherness, we love being with our kids and they truly love being home.

Thanks for the responses all. I guess my kids aren't the only ones that dislike his voice. I know they don't miss the cuddling because we never cuddle when we read SOTW (we do when reading our fun fiction read alouds) usually they are coloring a picture when we read SOTW. Dh and I listened to part of it today and he said "I'm not sure what it is, but there is something not fun about his reading" I'll just stick with reading it on my own. Guess I'll put the audio book on the swap board.

The reader is Jim Weiss. I'm not sure maybe it's his deeper voice that they don't like. Maybe they are just too used to me reading.

After 2 years of reading SOTW aloud myself I bought the vol 3 audio books so that I could give myself a break. I tried it out yesterday and my kids hated it. They said "the guy sounds creepy" I know it's not because they don't want to listen to a read aloud. They love SOTW and being read too. I read aloud every night for 30 minutes plus our school work reading daily and have done this for the past 2 years. They love this but hate the SOTW audio book. I hate that I paid $40 for something they hate, but I may have to sell it and just read myself. Anyone else not like the SOTW audio books?

I watched it when it was broadcast on NBC last night and it was pretty good. Some parts were boring because they lasted longer than they should have IMO, but my kids enjoyed it too. The only part I found difficult was the parade of nations was not in alphabetical order for us. Apparently they were listed in the order of the chinese characters which made it just seem jumbled but it was ok. I noticed no booing for the US, I was truly surprised by how loud the cheering was, I definitely heard some booing for some nations, though the US wasn't one of them.

We've been at it a week and we're liking everything so far although some I'm on the fence about, but want to give it a fair shake so we'll keep at it for a few more weeks and re-evaluate. Here's our definite keepers 1. Writing with Ease 2. NOEO Biology 3. Growing with Grammar 4. Saxon Math 5. Daily Geography by Evan Moor On the fence... 1. All About Spelling, I don't remember being taught spelling rules so I'm not sure how this will work out, but the kids like it so far. 2. History Odyssey. I love that it uses SOTW, but I'm not sure how it will work out or if we'll end up back with the SOTW activity book. Don't love but will deal with it... 1. A reason for handwriting. My kids love the format, but none of us care for the bible passages since we're not a religious family. I wish I could find something like this that's not religion based.

Another vote for this sharpener. I bought one our first year of hsing. We just started our 3rd year and it's still going strong with no issues. The shaving collection cup is huge. My kids are always doing something with colored pencils and it works really well on those as well as the usual lead pencil. I love that it has the different size openings to, because my youngest prefers the "horse leg" pencils so it even works with those.

Finally got mine up :001_smile: Link in signature

1. People who tell others not to judge others but don't realize they are judging that person and others just as much 2. those that think my kids must be perfect quiet angels at all times in public just because we're homeschooling 3. When someone says "No, I know you're a mom, but WHAT DO YOU DO?" 4. When someone finds out I homeschool my kids so they think it's just an excuse to let my kids run wild and that I sit and eat bonbons all day while watching torrid soap operas or something because I'm to lazy to get up early to send them to a "real" school. That's all I can think of for now.

We used to burn through ink jet cartridges too then in 2005 we bought an HP 2600n color laser printer. I print about 30 sheets a week for school plus I'd say anywhere from 2-20 for personal home use per week and we are just getting ready to put in our 3rd black toner cartridge (well it say we need to order one which means we have about 2-3 months of use left on it) We just replaced the color toner cartridges in Dec for the 1st time. So it was almost 3 years before used up the ones it came with. Each black cartridge is about $79 and can print about 2500 sheets. The color ones are about $84 a piece. These prices are direct from HP and they always seem to have free standard shipping on them. I love this printer. It does an amazing job even with photos and I love that if something gets dripped on a paper it doesn't run like inkjet ink. HTH

Here's my answsers 1.) How many kids do you have and what are their ages? 3, ds age 9, dd age 6.5 and ds age 3 2.) What is your favorite food? chicken chimichanga 3.) What is your favorite movie? Mr. Blanding's Builds his dream house 4.) Coke, Pepsi or neither? Definitely Pepsi 5.) What is your favorite book? Marley and Me, or anything Harry Potter 6.) What is your least favorite household job? cleaning the bathrooms 7.) What is your favorite season? Fall 8.) What is your favorite sport? Gymnastics 9.) What is your favorite holiday? Halloween 10.) What is your least favorite store you have to shop in? Walmart (it's so hard to find things in the one here and it's always a mess)

I'm also in VA and I don't post anymore than I think they need, which is very basic. So mine looks something like this Child A: Grade 4 LA: continue penmanship practice, grammar, writing, spelling and reading. Math: Saxon 5/4 History: Early Modern Times Science: Biology we will also include art and music according to the child's interests We reserve the right to change any and all curriculum to fit the needs of the child. Hope this helps

Glad I could help

Thanks for the tip, I doubt they'll take ours as we bought it in 2005 so it's not too old, just way too small.

Hi all, We've far outgrown our tiny 7 cuft upright freezer. Our rental home has a side by side (which I hate) and there's barely any room for food in it even though the thing is a beast size wise. Why do people by these things? Any way, we're looking for something in the 15-20 cuft. size range to put in our garage. Anybody have any brands they suggest or ones they don't recommend from experience. Any tips? Thanks in advance

You're right that this was discussed not to long ago. Here's the basic deal. If you want to have the basic overview for the whole 12 years you may like the text that covers the first 4 years, because it does have a part in the beginning about why most writing programs fail and then gives they basics of the entire WWE plan. Most of the book is the first 4 years though. It will go over the basics of each year and then give you a few example weeks and then they follow that up with explaining how to follow that weeks example and what things to look for in your own narration and copywork passages. The workbook has everything you need to teach Year 1 only. The front of it is the script for the teacher to follow with the overview of what your doing that week and then gives you the copywork passages and narration passages to read along with some questions to help you child learn how to narrate back which is done orally then they tell you what to ask and then write down your child's response to that question. The second part of the workbook is the student pages. If you have more than 1 student doing year 1 at the same time you can then buy the additional student pages separately. So If you want it all laid out with all the narration passages and copywork figured out for you then buy the workbook. I hope this all makes sense.

You can see our room on our blog. Link in siggy

Thanks for re-posting that link. I forgot about that. My nice British boy was only looking for $425 but that was for 5 books, yes I said 5 books! They were beautiful books though.