My stress point hit one day when I got a call from a somewhat hesitant man. I had been getting "hesitant" don't get around to the point from a politician we sorta not really knew, so I was frustrated. I had our newly adopted child screaming at my leg while another whiner was in the house and at the same time trying to make dinner. Why I picked up the phone in the first place :confused:. I said in a snippy teenager voice, "what do you want?!?!" He was calling to tell me I had won our towns human rights award. Needless to say, I ate some humble pie. Beth

Do you do sotw in place of the primary history and history indepth readings or in addition to them? I was looking at that for the future just to save some money on buying all those books. I like to buy the books and will have D and LG kiddos. Beth

Table mat. My friend has done this and her kids have something to talk about and look at. They remember where stuff is also. Beth

This is exactly the reason I went with TOG. I'm too much of a tweaker. I like to have a lot to choose from so that I don't go crazy with all the alternates that I could add to a basic curriculum. Beth

I've used Alpha Phonics with 2 boys now. No bells or whistles. My first was very "active" and we did a lot of it running around. He is my math kid. The second boy caught onto reading pretty well. He thinks outside the box in a lot of ways, but with reading has done well. Beth

ECC is very repetative. VERY. Your instincts are correct. I have no idea about the rest of the years because I jumped ship after ECC. Beth

My son went to R&S 3 without having much introduction to grammar at all. He did just fine. I can imagine the same for R&S 2 after FLL 1/2. Beth

I don't know that I would throw out MFW based on your daughter not liking the Bible reader from Grade 1. Adventures is very different from Grade 1, She may find Adventures more exciting. If you liked MFW, I would try another year and see if that helps. If you had more issues with it, then that's a different story. MFW is a good program and lots of people like it, it just didn't work for my teaching style (I'm a little on the like to choose different things and want something a little more flexible for me. Ds really liked his 2 years with MFW). I like TOG because it helps keep all my kids of various ages together and it really won't take the read aloud time that Sonlight does. The books are also more appropriate because they contain pictures which is great for that age group. If you wanted read alouds, you could choose books from the UG literature section. I tend not to do long read alouds or many activities just due to the crazy nature of our home right now, but they're there if you want them. Beth

Homeschool buyer's co-op has Rightstart Math on Sale. Look here: https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1420 Beth

Here's my plan - not sure if I'll follow through though. I bought this book http://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Great-Artists-Hands-Children/dp/0935607099 Discovering great artists and I also bought Sister Wendy's 1000 masterpieces. Every week in year 4 it seems you are studying a different artist. Most of the artists studied has a project in the great artists book and a painting or two in the sister wendy book. So, I plan on having the kids do a project every week or every other week while they hear about the artist (from the TOG notes) and look at their paintings. There are also plenty of links on the TOG site for the artists and composers. Beth

How do you get on the lifestyle of learning (writing) e-mail list? Do you have to buy the curriculum? I'm just not sure make your own schedule will work for me. i like the concept, but the execution?!?! Beth

To get the free reminder lessons from bravewriter, do you need to have bought something from them? Anyone know where to sign up for those? Beth

I second small stickers. I always have a sheet on hand in my diaper bag. There have been some Sundays that dd comes out with stickers all over her face. Beth

I think the book selections for TOG have been wonderful. Ds has enjoyed most of them. He is a strong reader in UG and he does all the reading completely on his own. We just finished year 3 and I am looking forward to year 4 when ds #3 joins the mix for Kindergarten. He is reading (I will read to him) some classic kids books (like Horton hears a who, Velveteen Rabbit...) while his older UG brother is reading things like Winnie the Pooh, the Phantom tollbooth, Wizard of Oz. I love the selections because they are age appropriate and have pictures in the books for the younger groups. I'm finding that a lot of read alouds from Sonlight Core K are popping up as literature for Upper Grammar (that they read on their own). I find that TOG is much more doable than Sonlight in the amount of reading that I need to do. I'm not reading everything to my strong reader and focusing on the one who needs the most instruction. Once my 3 year old settles down a bit more, I'll start doing the suggested read alouds. Beth

Today, I was at my son's (he is in special education - not a lot of mainstreaming) 5th grade graduation/celebration. The principle was making a little speech about how they wanted these kiddos to get a good academic and social education so they could get a good job. I know this has become the goal of public education - to get a job. So, the question I pose is - why are you giving your children an education? Is a job the most important thing for you (I'm guessing not)? I guess the reason I educate my kids is so that they have the skills to fulfill their God given destiny. And that destiny may be their job and very well may not be. I'm a stay at home homeschool mom without a "real job". Does that mean public education has failed me? I guess so... Beth

I plan out the whole year during the summer in bits and pieces. I also print out all the maps and literature sheets all at one time. I write up a plan that looks much like Sonlight with what to read each day. When it gets to the actual school year, I just open and go. It takes me 5-10 minutes at the end of the week to plan for the next week. I actually like the planning. Beth

Check this out: http://llc.tapestryofgrace.com/. TOG now has CLASSES for Rhetoric students, upcomming classes for us moms, and a host of other stuff to make teaching this curriculum easier and easier. I especially like that there are writing classes for the upper levels. WOW - I did pick a good curriculum to stick with! Beth

I was against leashes also until we adopted dd. She is a fast runner for her size and is still getting the whole "you need to obey us" thing. She also has a mild hearing loss to boot so I am a child-leash lover now. I also get a lot of comments including 'is that legal?" My friend is now on my side since she watched her for a couple of hours and dd took off running causing my friend to have to do a full sprint. I avoided libraries with her for a while too and just had dh pick up books at the desk. There were too many incidents involving screaming at the top of her lungs and pulling all the books out ect ect. I really loathed the library for a while there and it's a small one. Beth

I calculated ours and for the 6 of us, dh would need to be making almost $80K for a living wage (according to the random chart who knows decided). This helps me to understand why I feel like we can't keep up and why our retirement savings is not further than it really should be. Right now, having dh back to his old salary (before they cut it due to the economy) seems like a windfall and that's only $200 a month or so. Beth

I've thought about doing classical conversations memory work only because it's already picked out and put on a schedule. Beth

I started ds in year 3 (3rd grade) - just because that is what year the co-op was starting. He is doing fine and doesn't miss all that other history. At this age, kids don't really grasp the whole big picture. I don't know where that puts him in the high school rotation, but the rest of my kiddos will be messed up anyway in their rotation (they won't get them in order). I'm not worrying about it too much. How many people ever study this much history in order? Beth

I always tell my boys that having a princess running around is one thing - but princesses grow up into queens and we don't need a queen ruling the house. So, no princesses here - just sons and daughters. Beth

I see her as a child that just needs a lot of activity and is very curious about everything. When she wants to do something, she just does it. She is starting to have issues with our authority (which means she tries hitting us) which has happened with all of my abled kids - just not to the duration in time she has. She knows not to hit mommy, so she just swipes the air in my direction. There are little things too - like licking water out of the toliet when we've told her yucky (over and over and over)...I can see in her eyes she's not being willful, she just wanted some water and the toliet was closest. I'm really not seeing attatchment issues or ultra clingyness. She's really acting like our bio kiddos at that age. It's really how she just doesn't get it and keeps going back to doing things that we've told her over and over not to do. I think she may just be a little emotionally younger due to her orphanage years. She's caught up in every other area almost. My friend says she has a 1 1/2 year old much like her. We hang out together during field trips and stay close and commiserate. I told her we should get them together and they can use their dollies and electrical outlets to burn up my house:tongue_smilie:. Beth

The baskets hold up well. They're made of fabric similar to seatbelts. there would be enough room to hold tms. Beth

Yup - got those too. She's really good at them. Beth