A good spinning class. Gets those endorphins really going. I always felt REALLY good after a class. Beth

Does the Biology of Behavior CD also include what to eat/not eat while taking the supplements? We've gotten rid of refined sugars and pasta for the most part, but I'm wondering if there's more to it. I'm considering this for my adopted daughter who I'm pretty sure spent the first 2 1/2 years of her life on anti-biotics and exhibits many of the symptoms Diane Craft mentions. Beth

"Prototype this" - it's a show where geeky physics guys get together and try to make a new machine of some sort.

Outsourcing dialectic discussion with TOG year 1 with their online classes. It makes it a huge relief since I am attempting to start school with my strong willed squirrly girl. He is also doing a logic/general science/ TOG lit discussion group with two of his buddies. Not sure it qualifies as an outsource, but I don't have to do everything for it. Beth

My friend's found out her daughter had reversed organs at 12. She only found out because they were looking at all her children for a genetic heart disorder that ran in the family. She has lead a normal life. Beth

My daughter (who was adopted - that's my only explanation), has an obsession with bad guys. She sometimes becomes a "good" bad guy because apparently good guys can't carry weapons. The other day she wanted to play airport with me. So, we get into her play fort in the backyard and she says, "shhh, the bad guys with guns are coming". Where does she get these ideas?! So, the bad guys come and she karate chops all of them down and shoots them with her pretend gun. I was thinking a nice little game where we get to be pilots...nooo...we have to shoot down airport terrorists. Beth

I would suggest reading "So you don't want to go to church anymore". http://www.amazon.com/You-Dont-Want-Church-Anymore/dp/0964729229/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340399007&sr=8-1&keywords=so+you+dont+want+to+go+to+church+anymore It's really a fiction book that shows motivations behind all these activities and people who are seeking to have honest personal relationships with other Christians (the "church"). It's not a book to discourage you from going to church, but it's a really good read about why we do the things we do. Beth

That's a good suggestion! My ds has mastered it so far, but I can see as the declensions and vocabulary increase, he's going to need to spend more time with it. Beth

There is one DVD lesson per week - not daily. My ds spends around 1/2 hour on the worksheet and the vocabulary per day. He has done it semi-independently this year and I am trying to learn it with him at the same time. If you do try to learn it also, I suggest buying yourself a workbook. Beth

Ds watches the lesson day 1 and does purposegames.com which helps him learn the vocabulary. He does 1-2 worksheets per day and Friday takes a test. Each day I have him play the purposegames for the current lesson and up to 3 lessons of review. I have never looked at the teacher notes - we bought a DVD teacher, I never felt the need to. The thing that I should have done as we got into the 5th declension is to have him use the vocabulary cards and match them with the proper declension and gender. That would have helped a bit more. Beth

I'm adding a K'er this year also. I'm not too overwhelmed since my older two homeschoolers can be independent for some subjects. She is also not totally ready for sit down work for long periods of time, so I'm calling this her K-5 year followed by K-6. I'm doing that because she has a late May birthday and as a friend of mine said, "you can always graduate a child early, but it's hard keeping them back a year to mature further if they've already graduated in their mind". We'll see how things go - I will try to engage her in the history and science that I'm doing with ds#3, but with her activity level, I'm not going to force the issue. If she learns how to write letters, starts reading, and does some simple math concepts (basically how to write letters and figuring out what addition/subtraction are), I'll be happy. Beth

Lego Education!!! There are some nice sets for that age group: http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/duplo_early_simple_machines_iii_homeschool_pack/1569 http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/early_math_shape_and_space_set_with_teacher_guide/408 http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/math_games_set_with_cd/998 Beth

I did CC last year with a 4, 7, and 11 year old. With the 4 and 7 year old, I added literature reading, math, and language arts. It was enough for them. The problem was with the 11 year old. Just adding math and language arts for an 11 year old is short changing them in my opinion. They really need more at that age. The program is hard to fit into any kind of science sequence or history time period. The facts they learn are really random in their sequence (it's a planned random, but still random) so if you are trying to co-ordinate it with anything other than a mom-planned curriculum, you'll drive yourself nuts. Just consider CC (or your other curriculum) an add on and you'll find that you'll still have your sanity when the year is done. There are people who co-ordinate history and science with what they're memorizing at CC, but they just have way more energy than I could ever possess. The 11 year old was bored and the 4 and 7 year old really looked forward to it each week. They really enjoyed it a lot. I really think the Foundations program works best with 5-9 year olds. It burned me out - just being gone a full day out of each school week having to do everything else for the rest of the 4 days made it too hectic for me. If I just had a pre-k and 1st grader, it would would have been a lot more doable. Beth

Give him cardboard and a scissors. My son who was much the same at 6 has made all sorts of creations with cardboard. I would also give him broken appliances and he would take them apart to make something else (didn't work, but he was happy). Circuit kits and if you can swing it, lego science kits - they have these great kits where you are supposed to problem solve using lego's and their curriculum. They looked great, but we could never swing the cost for them at the time. Beth

The new history Timeline cards put out by CC have more of a world focus and co-ordinate much better with the history sentences that CC has put together. They also have a timeline on the back of each one that shows where the card is in history. I bought them (even though we're not in a community) because they have a song with them and I like having my kids know a timeline by heart. Here's the brochure: http://www.classicalconversations.com/images/pdffiles/2012%20hist%20card%20brochure_2.pdf Beth

I ask this because I did start ds#2 with the K book and he had trouble making the transition to lower case for most of his letters (he figured it out and now has the opposite problem sometimes - I call him a capital letter phobic). Because of ds #2, I started ds#3 with the 1st grade book and he did fine. Now enter little miss - she has not written ANY letters on a regular basis yet and seems to have issues with "magic C" already (she can't remember which way it's supposed to go). She just started coloring a picture instead of scribbling all over the place and I'm finally starting to figure out which is her dominate hand since she still uses both almost equally well. Beth

You gotta love honest, non-religious answers. I wonder how many little boys in that classroom were thinking to themselves, "Cool!" BEth

I'm trying to decide on Hwot K or 1st. I don't see the reason to start with capital letters since most letters are written in lower case. Is there a good reason to start with K? Beth

My oldest also (like many kids I'm sure) is also all over the place in skill levels, abilities, and interest. I think, if you want something laid out for you a little, you may find TOG easier to tweak with various levels. If they read the history sections too quickly, TOG has an alternate reading selection. If they can read literature at a higher level, choose a different level reading - there's no reason a lower grammar child can't read a dialectic book (other than possible content). For your child with down syndrome, you can choose levels that fit his/her ability level. I've had my son doing upper grammar history with dialectic literature. It's easy go harder or easier with TOG because all the levels are right there without you having to buy multiple levels in a different program. Beth

We have this one - it filters quite a bit and I can keep my kids from even getting on the computer. It's free too which makes it even better. http://www1.k9webprotection.com/ Beth

I'm thinking of having ds do analytical grammar season 1 for 10 weeks followed by IEW's FixIt for the remaining part of the year. Is this overkill? Beth

Is it worth it to start ds #3? :lurk5: Beth

Little background - Ds#2 started Latin instruction with First Form Latin and it's been going great. He's able to mostly do it on his own. It's worked out nicely in my opinion and we are continuing with Second Form Latin next year. I am thinking about starting ds#3 with Prima Latina in 2nd grade, but am wondering if I am going to get in over my head with too much. There's only so many hours in a day and I will be adding a 3rd homeschooling child into the mix next year. Is it worth it? Or should I just do the same sequence that I have done with Ds#2? Ds #3 seems to desire to learn a language (even though he doesn't say that outright). He is really impressed that his buddy next door knows some Spanish words. Thanks! Beth

I saw this to be true also. I mistakenly thought I could run a co-op that ran all day and kept me away from dd for most of the day. It did NOT work. She obviously needed me to be around with her for most of her waking hours. Every time I go would away for a day and leave her with someone other than daddy (some things just can't be avoided), I know I would "pay" for it the next day with having to re-establish my mommyhood. We passed the 2 1/2 year mark this past spring and I can say that things have gotten MUCH better in our home (it also helped that the co-op ended). It was around the 2 1/2 year mark that we politely asked her to not go downstairs. She turned around and said, "yes mommy" which shocked us to no end because usually we got some attitude laced sassy remark. It has taken awhile. Beth

We adopted dd at 2 1/2. She was the same way. We were advised to let no one else hold her for 3 months. After the three months were up, we tried letting her go to other people. At that time when she was mad at us, she would refuse our affection and only give to other people or find comfort in someone else. So we would back up with her affections and limit it only to my husband and I. It even got to a point where ds was on the no touch list because he became the comforter We would go for a couple of months where she would seem ok and then she got cozy with a strange man at the pool so back to the restrictions of just mom and dad. It took about a year for her to get appropriate responses to strangers. She's still very friendly, but its a reserved friendly. She won't give everyone affection, just those she knows. I would say she has no major attachment issues and is appropriate in her affections. Beth