I thought I was a "for all my homeschooling years" a TOG person. I went through four years and then really wanted to try Sonlight because I felt like my two youngest were lovers of stories. That went fine and then my #3 ds started 6th grade. Sonlight just doesn't have the dialectic type thinking questions I want my junior high student to complete. I thought Biblioplan would give us the questions of TOG with not as much intensity. Let's just say I did the companion for 4 weeks and then tried to salvage it for 3 weeks and then sold it. The companion is very choppy. It's like a bunch of little articles all put together into a textbook. I know a lot of people love it, but we didn't. So, because I really wanted my dialectic student to have more thoughtful questions, we are now back into TOG. Here's the thing though....if I had to start over again, I would do SOTW for four years and jump into TOG with upper grammar or even dialectic. It does shine in the dialectic levels - not as much with the lower ages. By the time your children are older (I'm assuming they are young), there will probably be something wonderful and exciting that hasn't been developed yet, or at the very least, something will be improved upon. TOG has improved upon itself since I bought it 8 years ago. SOTW with the companion guides would be all the history they need right now and it gives you more than enough to study if you get even half of the suggested books or do even one of the projects.

I would ask what would happen if you waited until all their permanent teeth came in. Sometimes, the expanders need to go in while younger before that upper palate solidifies more. I had one wait until he was a teen before he got braces and one who had a palate expander when he was 9(?). He hasn't needed braces since nor does it look like he'll need them. My youngest has a cleft lip/palate so she was an orthodontist's road to a beach house[emoji12]. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've run various co-ops - a couple of years with a Tapestry of Grace co-op - one year co-ordinating activities to go along with the program and the second year leading a dialectic discussion with a bunch of tweens/ early teens. I helped to start a full functioning homeschool support group with by-laws and leadership that was consistent and was in leadership with that for 3 years. I started a Classical Conversations group to specifically help people who were either starting to homeschool or just needed extra support to keep consistent. What happened with that one is that the majority of people who joined were already homeschooling well. Recently, I tried starting a homeschool group for those who were on the fringe of really needing help being consistent with homeschooling and just keeping at it - helping them to make sure that their children were educated (whatever that meant to the parent). That one flopped. To me, it seems if you are on the fringe of not educating your child, you don't know to make the extra effort. I have found in my own experience that the people who join support groups are the ones who are homeschooling successfully.

Can I just share a tip I learned with my son's college class? If there is a problem you just don't understand, you can google a generic question related to the problem and more often than not, there is someone who has posted a full solution to a very similar problem.

We went to Saxon with ds#2. He needed a more spiral math since with Singapore he was forgetting whole concepts. He mostly has taught himself with Dive videos. An unexpected bonus with that method is that he is now taking college level math and so far had one lousy professor. He was able to get a good grade by self teaching himself the material. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am part of a charter school that has enrichment classes for homeschoolers one day a week. They are branching out into high school university model type schooling. Talking to the director, she sees children whose parents feel like their child should be ready for dual enrollment their senior year woefully underprepared. She has to explain to these parents that their child would at best place into remedial college classes. If that. The parents seemed shocked that their child couldn't jump into college with Algebra 1 and basic writing skills despite attending college themselves. They added math fact practice into the enrichment classes because the students that were taking pre-algebra and algebra didn't know their basic math facts with automatic recall. My 6th grade son said he was bored in class. The director mentioned that maybe he was ahead of everyone else in the classroom and that was why he was bored. I don't consider my ds exceptionally bright, but pretty average. Come to find out, he was bored because he is ahead of most of the kids. He made a comment about how he gets bored during their book discussion time because most of the kids in the class couldn't read the big words. We're talking a book that is written for a 6th grade level. I came from a small town and moved to this larger town homeschooling all the way. In the small town, we had the smaller group of homeschoolers all who take their homeschooling job very seriously. Their children were all doing at least grade level if they didn't have a learning issue. We didn't big co-ops that would teach classes for the families other than a gym class. In this more metro area, there are all sorts of co-ops and enrichment programs that there are people who send their children to various co-ops during the week and consider that good enough. What I considered to be educating my children well (much to what others on these forums would consider to be acceptable) in my new metro area is apparently exceptional. And the thing is, most don't know they're not doing a decent job until their children hit later high school and are not at all prepared for college level work.

I do both. I never thought I would be a two math kinda person, but dd was finishing MUS really quickly and we are using Saxon at half speed. I'm not sure what we'll do when she gets behind grade level for Saxon, but it seems to work well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had an alcoholic grandfather that was never talked about. I just learned last year at age 45, that he died of ALS. Wouldn't that be important for future medical records?!? My grandmother insisted she immigrated from Germany. My Grandfather immigrated from Germany. When I was 46, I find out they both immigrated from Poland. My Grandmother had crossed out Poland on her citizen papers and put in Germany. So all those Polish jokes in the 70s in Chicago that we laughed about where really about me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wouldn't go with a detached guest house for a special needs son who cannot live independently away from you. That also goes for a full kitchen. I agree about induction stove tops and a really good toaster oven would be a good compromise. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I did use that book for learning how to put a baby on a schedule with two of my children. I thought it worked great for my two boys. I didn't follow it religiously though and if they were obviously hungry before the scheduled time, I would feed them and adjust. By ds #3, I let him make the schedule as a newborn and just adjusted it to give him a daily schedule. I'm a type A personality and a baby schedule brought sanity to my life. My oldest also had special needs and it was helpful to have babies where for the most part, I would know nap times and general feeding times so that I wasn't having to nurse a baby during a therapy appointment. I could make appointments when younger brother was fed and happy (for the most part). That being said, there is a "spirit" behind these books that proclaims if the mother doesn't do xyz, then their child will rule their world and grow up to be a bratty kid who is spoiled (I can't remember the actual wording, but there is some strong wording with it). The people who get in trouble with these books are those who take everything they say to an extreme and don't know how to take some good advice and leave out the "your child will be ruined if you don't follow our path" renderings. My take away with the book was the simple schedule stuff that did really help. The rest I was able to ignore.

My ds 6th grade is in that class. The teacher doesn't seem to be a stringent about papers and is on the more encouraging side as opposed to English 1 or other classes of that level. Here's what they have had for papers so far: Character sketch- write a descriptive paper (3 paragraphs) on a person you know Compare/contrast concrete item -3 paragraphs compare/ contrast abstract item - 3 paragraphs describe a process abstract and concrete - 1 paragraph short story - 4 pages I guess the pace of it seems a lot slower also. They are given more time to work on their papers and given the first draft feedback as other Potter's school English classes. My older ds took Narnia for English 1 and I felt it was a pace he could keep up with. He was a strong writer at that point though. Here's some perspective--- If you decided to take all Potter's school English classes from 8th- 12th grade, she could take Writing Fundamentals 6, English1, English 2, English 3, and English4/5 her senior year which will prepare her for college level writing should she go that direction. With English 4/5, you can even get college credit if you choose. I would be satisfied with that.

South. My northern exposure rooms also have the same color. We had a yellow tint in my last house and DH wants something different. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I started with 4. The previous choices looked white in my opinion. I have 1700 square feet to think about. That's just the start. Another 400 sq. Feet will be a different color. The previous owners painted the whole house a gray green color. It's depressing actually. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm torn...the color on the left is more "taupe" and the color on the right is more brown. I have to cover up walls that are way too dark. Which one? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm a full on redhead and so are 3 of my sisters. Just antidotal...I had to have minor surgery to remove a large splinter in my hand. They kept injecting more and more shots to numb up the finger. They were amazed at how many I needed just to not feel any pressure at all. I've had medication where the correct dose for me (I was supposed to up the dosage until the symptoms went away for this particular medication) was similar to a person twice my weight. My sister remembers having a tooth pulled as a kid and the Novocain they gave her was obviously not enough. It's also scary how well I synthesized alcohol when I was a stupid college student back in the day. The redhead mutation has a lot of weird side effects.

At Potter's school, my 16 has taken - Narnia, English 1, English 2, and is currently taking English 4/5 College Composition which is preparing him for college level writing. My 6th grader is taking Writing Fundamentals 6 and will continue through their English program as he gets older.

Potter's school. They are mid year though and I'm not sure you can join a class mid year. I did this with my now 10th grader and the stuff he is required to write and the level he is required to write is excellent. I have my 6th grader in a class this year also. I really like how they challenge students to go above and beyond.

Yes. Due to my oldest son's special needs, we will never be able to travel freely as a couple when the kids are grown nor will we ever have an empty nest. I really wanted to go on a second honeymoon when we hit our 20th anniversary, but due to the constant needs of our oldest and the lack of real 24/7 help, we couldn't figure out how to do it. If he was a typical kid, we could send all the kids to stay with grandma and grandpa (the rest are pretty self maintaining) and go on a much needed vacation for just the two of us. The last time dh and I had to be both away for about 4 days, it took 7 people to replace me. ETA: On the other hand, we made a conscious choice two years ago to stop "surviving" and start living. We took a crazy chance and moved 1000 miles to Colorado so we could live. It's been a very good choice so far and I thank my husband weekly for choosing to take an adventure and move to where we can see mountains every day and hike to our heart's content. I guess that was a dream of ours that did come true.

For the dialectic level books, do you just get the History:Core books or do you also have to add in the History:In-Depth books? I would like my son to possibly do TOG in 7th grade and would like him to answer the questions included in that level. I have the curriculum and it seems like the history in depth books aren't needed? TIA Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Republic wireless is a good deal if the Sprint network is good in your area (they use Sprint if wifi is not available). We had to get rid of them because Sprint is horrible around here.

That's been my big wondering over the years. I'm wondering if all the risk is put into the backs of the directors. I would hate to see those directors get into IRS trouble. I was a director 6 years ago and did as they said about the tutor classification. But knowing how stringent the rules were for a tutor about how their day was to run, I can't imagine how they could be classified as anything but an employee. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If Landry Academy can close due to not classifying their teachers correctly (if that indeed what is happening), couldn't classical conversations also have this happen to them? They are basically doing the same thing - the tutors (and directors - I can't remember) are independent contractors despite the tutors having to do their job a certain way with pretty strict parameters. From what I know, the CC tutors have less autonomy in how their class is run than any online teacher I've ever known. I wonder if CC as the head organization is exempt from harm in this case and the problems will be forced onto the backs of the directors who will have to pay the outrageous fees if the IRS attacks them next.

In our HOA, if the renters don't keep up to the HOA standards, the owner gets a letter saying as such. We have a hyper HOA and they didn't feel that the renters across the street had done enough to maintain the yard. So the owner got on their case and it was resolved. We have a lot of renters around us and you would never know. I don't think it affects home values but the only thing it affects is the long term owners don't get the same sense of long term community. That does bug me a bit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had a similar experience with all of that when my DH was unemployed. We all wound up being approved for Medicaid, but the computer program automatically insured us with another very costly plan for myself and DH. It took multiple months and many many phone calls to get off of a plan we weren't even using. Even after we moved to a different state after canceling all plans we were on in the first state, we were getting cards from the previous state a year later. Another round of calls. I have never encountered such inefficiencies in my life. The amount of waste just in our family despite my efforts to correct the mess was quite a bit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk