I say as long as you have the resources to pay for it, and if that schedule doesn't stress you out, it seems reasonable to me....and leaves time for academics and being bored. If she is that serious about dance though, I'd probably try to find a way to fit that extra dance class in there, even if it meant doing away with something else...

I actually am seeing something similar - its only in headings, and not in all the headings, seems maybe its less for me. I don't have my ipad 2 here, but I was reading it in either notability or grr, my other PDF app that I can't remember the name of at the moment.

I love your photos Tammy - hope you don't mind that I added you to my contact list on flickr so I can stalk, er, I mean admire, you.

I thought I heard that it was on sale for its first week only, but I have no idea where I heard that, so I could be pulling that from thin air - it may have been on their facebook though or in an email - wherever I heard it, its what prompted me to buy it now rather than waiting until Aug/Sept.

I'm using it with my daughter who will be 12 at the time we start - she enjoys writing, but has no formal instruction in it - I think it will be fine and fun!

I purchased this too, while it was on sale. I've been reading TWJ and am excited to start Parntership Writing with two of my girls next school year - I'll be doing it with my 8yo (9 next week! Yikes!) and my 11yo who will be 12 in Sept. I think it will be perfect for them and since I'm new to Brave Writer, perfect for me too! The projects look great, and the schedule is very helpful - I bought a few older arrows on sale on the homeschoolbuyerscoop too, and am excited about it all. I may also try to talk my upcoming 9th grader into taking an online class with them - she doesn't respond well to me working with her, or I'd suggest the Slingshot for her.

Hey, I have a question for you experienced AG users - Appx how much time in a day does this take? I've had it saved, thinking I'd use it next year, and as I look at what else we'll likely do, I was just curious. Thanks!

I was going to mention Jase in that celebrity crush thread yesterday, but thought better of it :lol:

We actually do have a beagle - so I was speaking with some experience. They are great family pets. But you're right on the walking, our Beagle doesn't heel so well, he likes to be in front with his nose, and sometimes we do have to redirect him back to the path because he will find something that smells interesting. I just think Beagles are such a sweet breed, but poodles are awesome too. Super smart, I've heard. I don't have as much experience with them. A beagle/poodle mix? Poogle? :001_smile: ETA - I should mention that our beagle is a beagle-mix.

I have one of these too. Sigh. I'm the same way, if my dd would hate it less, I'd be willing to try it, hoping that she would come back home with a new appreciation for homeschooling and education in general, but I doubt that would happen (with her at least)

you simply must check out City Museum - http://citymuseum.org/site/ - it was unlike anything I've ever seen.

Beagles are great dogs. SO good with kids and families. Smart, easy to train, very friendly. I wouldn't rule one out based on their nose. :rolleyes: Since you want a dog that enjoys walks, that will help - beagles love walks - all those new smells! Heaven! All dogs have a natural hunting instinct to some degree.

Oh my - the user photos are HILARIOUS :-)

I couldn't do the poll either - none of us are morning folks. If we have to be somewhere, I wake up first, only because I have to wake up the kids. If I'm just dropping them off at a class or something, I will wake them up and then come back to my bed for quiet time until its time to leave. Then I just drive them wherever they need to be and come home to do my stuff before I have to pick them up. If we don't have to be anywhere, they usually wake up before I do..but it depends. We just get up when we get up. They learned early on how to get their own breakfasts and leave mom alone :lol:

I always send one to my stepmom - they married when I was an adult - she's a great lady, kind to me, grandmotherly to my kids, and fantastic to my dad - I'm glad she joined the family and I appreciate her - why not?

It really looks interesting from what they have online! If you call, please share any details here! Thanks!

wow!

our ortho prefers to wait until their adult teeth are in, which is usually around 12 - my younger daughter got hers very early at 9 because she had some impacted adult teeth that were not coming down, so we had some teeth removed, and braces to keep the adult teeth that she did have in place with the hopes that the impacted teeth would make their way down. They did, thank goodness, because otherwise she'd have been looking at oral surgery. And now her teeth seem very straight, and even though we thought she might need braces again when she got older, now I'm wondering if maybe the initial set of braces and her retainer didn't do the trick! Fingers crossed! My older daughter got braces last year, at the age of 12 - but she should have waited. She still has baby teeth waiting to fall out - we loose 'em late around here ;-) But she was very embarrassed by her crooked teeth, so the ortho said we we could do a round of braces now, knowing we'd likely need round two much later, when all the adult teeth were in. Since it was impacting her quality of life (she refused to smile and was covering her mouth when she talked), and I grew up with very crooked teeth, and never had orthodontics, and knew how she felt, we went ahead and did it. She just got them off last week - she'll wear a retainer until all of her adult teeth are done, and we'll likely need braces again at that point..but at the rate she's going, she'll be 17 years old before that happens. My younger one is almost nine, and her teeth are the worst of them all, but she isn't embarrassed (yet) and doesn't have any impacted, so we're just monitoring her teeth until she's older...she'll probably be 14 or so before she gets braces.. because we loose our baby teeth late.. After they got the braces, they were seen by the ortho every 6 weeks - maybe that could be stretched out in your situation? Good luck!

We've been using it with my 3rd and 5th grader (it sounds like my 5th grader is just like SkateLeft's 6th grader) and we're averaging about a lesson a week - the author has some potential schedules at the front of the book, depending on how quickly you'd like to move through the program, and how much time a day you have to devote to it, along with the age/ability of your student(s), but we sorta wing it - sometimes we do the optional activities, which means we may spend more time on a lesson, and other times we don't. But typically, we do average about a lesson a week. We do it about 4-5 times a week, and it takes us maybe 30-45 mins a day. Its working REALLY well for us. We came to it from AAS, which we also really liked, but this seems less fluffy, and my 5th grader especially was frustrated with how slow she was progressing with AAS. And I like that this has grammar in it, and we also use their handwriting curriculum, so for us, right now, its all we're using for language arts, besides reading books as read-alouds and independently, I have a question for those that have finished LoE, or those that have thought ahead - what did you do or plan to do afterwards?

Oh, you simply have to pick Days.....I just watched today's episode, and those genius writers figured out how to work the "plot" so that most of their male leads wound up stripping in a strip bar - all in the same episode. Now that's some quality viewing right there! :ph34r: I started watching Days when I was on bedrest with my first pregnancy some 26 years ago and we didn't have cable... I've stopped here and there, but thanks to DVRs, I can watch it after everyone is asleep and I'm trying to get some work done late at night. Or cruising the boards.

This looks really great - thanks for sharing!

You can find sample pages on amazon - there's review questions at the top of each page, with circular speed drills next to them, and under that is the instruction, before the practice problems - its not a lot, but each day is another increment, so really each day you aren't introducing a ton of new stuff anyway - like for fractions - one day it introduced finding the least common denominator and the next it talked about adding fractions with different denominators so it built on the previous day's instruction. I'm not mathy at all, and I've found it to be fine for me and my girls, and the girls were way behind - but like I said, I have pulled up a khan video for my 5th grader a few times...

Its very self-contained. There's a section on each page with instruction notes - nearly every day adds a new skill to previous instruction - the book moves quickly, but in pretty small increments with constant review, so the instruction is brief, but I've found it to be very clear and helpful, and we've done really well with it so far - a few times I've pulled up a Khan video for my 5th grader - in fractions - she really likes to completely understand a concept - the whys as well as the hows, and the Khan videos helped when she wasn't understanding what I was saying. My 8th grader just wants to understand how to work a problem. I don't see her with a career in mathematics ;-) Since I am with the girls the entire time they do a lesson, and we do the first two sample problems together, it really has been fine. It starts at the very very basics, but doesn't contain any fluff, or any childish stuff - doesn't talk down. Just to the bones instruction, practice, and constant review, and its really getting the job done - and quickly and with a minimum of work each day. My 8th grader really didn't care, but my 5th grader was bothered by feelings that she was "behind" - but after working through this for the past few months, her confidence is soaring - so much that she joined that Life of Fred co-op class that I mentioned - before she was too embarrassed about her math skills to join any outside math things. And she's doing great, and can't wait for prealgebra. Again, my 8th grader really could care less - I've told her that once she takes a college algebra class, I will never again ask her to do math if that's what she wants. So her goal is just to get to where she can enroll in a CC college algebra class, and be done forever ;-) The younger one cares more - this program seems to work well for both - getting the job done for the kid who could care less, and instilling understanding and confidence in the kid that does care.

we're using Mastering Essential Math Skills Book One (no grades - I copy the pages, so they don't really notice that it says for grades 4&5 on the cover) and its been such a fantastic move for us - I'm remediating a 8th grader and a 5th grader (both at the same level of math) and this is working SO well. Book two, for middle grades uses the exact same format, the problems are just a bit more challenging and detailed (I have both books - I thought I'd use book two after book one, but really they are essentially the same, and to build confidence and keep them on board, I went with book one - I may pull out pages from book two for review when we're done here and moved into prealgebra) The lessons are super quick - some warm up problems (usually four) which are a review of previous material, a quick speed drill for both addition and multiplication, two sample problems that we work through together, and then ten problems, plus one word problem that they do - I never thought something so quick would be so effective, but it truly is! I stay with them the entire time they are working so if they have questions or get frustrated, I'm there (they both deal with frustration in very different, but nonproductive ways) and if I see them struggling as I watch them over their shoulder, I stop them right there and help them out - then we check the work all together, and if they miss any, we go over it all together - figure even if one girl got it right, it won't hurt them to see us work through it together - but honestly, they rarely miss any, which blows me away, based on our previous attempts at math programs. I fully expect them to be ready for prealgebra by next year - that will put my 5th (6th next year) grader on target for where I'd like for her to be for her grade, and put my 8th (9th next year) just a year behind, and considering our goals for highschool math, I think she'll be fine (she's NOT mathy - I just want her ready for college algebra before she graduates highschool - I will consider that a success) - When I bought this, I fully intended on using it with something else - Aleks, Khan, or Math Mammoth, but I've been so delighted at their progress, and their lack of complaining, etc., that I'm fine with just this for now! My 5th grader is doing Life of Fred in addition to this, but she's doing that through a co-op, and its just once a week. When we're done, I think the girls will be ready for a (perhaps light) pre-algebra course - I'm thinking they'll be fine moving into Teaching Textbooks, but since they've done so well with this format of instruction, we'll consider our options. The same author has books on individual topics, like Fractions, geometry, etc. as well, but I haven't looked at those.

I have one like this - I'll be listening