Melissa Neilson IMHO is the cheapest waldorf curriculum but it's also excellent. It is very similar to christopherus but at much lower price. My personal favorite curriculum is Enki they combine Montessori(individually driven and independent learning) and Waldorf. I like them because there is so much support they teach you how to teach. The dvds show them actually teaching and it is was so helpful to me. I also think you have EVERYTHING that you need. You will not have to buy anything extra like I felt I had to do with the other curriculums. I've homeschooled 5 children and seen a lot of curriculum over the years and this one is by far my favorite.

OmG so scary!!!!! It's amazing how much things have changed in such a short while. On the Cape they say it's all the drug addicts that are doing these inane things. Just in the last 5 years or so we went from being a sleeply little place to news every week of people being assaulted in their homes,cars,gas stations,banks. They will do ANYTHING to feed their addiction it's scary.

Ugh I'm trying to sell some of the curriculum that didn't suit us and I keep buying more because I'm at that board more. LOL I do find it helps my teaching a great deal as I learn from each curriculum I buy but ugh....... It doesn't help that my one great addiction is books so buying curriculum is a bit too tempting for me. I should just make my list of things I've decided we need for next year and stick to only finding those because honestly it's amazing all the fantastic curriculums there are now. We've been homeschooling for 15 years and mostly used Sonlight. It was only recently that I felt Sonlight didn't seem to fit our youngers ones so I started looking and now I"m in a heap of trouble. LOL! anyone else??? :tongue_smilie:

I had a friend who relentlessly pursued some extra help for her foster child with no success. They would rather label him a trouble maker. In end she ended up tutoring him and also paying for some tutoring and it make a HUGE difference. He stopped misbehaving and did much better in school. Frankly no one gave a ---- about him and he was very blessed that his foster mom did.

I totally think they did the right thing. I had a lousy home life growing up. Yet I did well in the classes that the teacher's actually cared (most of them were older from another generation) and did a great job of teaching. I think the best solution is allow vouchers then it would be natural elimination.

Wow these are interesting! My isn't nearly I went searching a while back because the kids were curious. Do you remember in the piligrim peanuts/snoopy video the man who fell off the mayflower and survived well we're related. The kids found that soooo cool because we had already watched the video. side story that is kind of interesting My Great Grandfather had a mistress (before and after my GG died) for years. When he died quite a few of his assets had just disappeared. We think he provided for her in case of his death. He must of loved her because despite being very wealthy he was super stingy yet he provided for her. Why did he never marry her? He was society and I'm sure felt he could only marry a certain kind of woman. Fast forward to the next generation they sent my 16 year old unmarried mom away to "camp" to have my brother and give him up for adoption. A week after the adoption my grandfather unexpectedly died and my mother took my brother back. It's weird to think I might have never known him. The weirdest part in the end is he did kind of end up adopted. My father no relation to him raised him after my mother abandoned him with my father,after she received a huge sum of money from my Grandfather's estate. (my dad never asked for a dime to raise him. My partying mom ran through it all and now lives off my Grandmother) My dad and half brother are super close and he took my Dad's name. It's weird how much timing effected the now my life is.

See if there is a knitting group in town. I'm self taught it's not too hard the getting started part. Do learn continental knitting rather then throw knitting it's a huge time and joint saver. Try knitting a scarf with large needles size 8 or larger with thick yarn

Nope not at first. It all turned around to the point where last year when I was all for quitting,he kept pushing me to keep at it. Which in turn led to him helping with my teens. He doesn't always follow through and I have to nag which I HATE!!!!! He does fits and starts of things with the little one but mostly it's all me. I wish he would help more. I too have the feeling, doesn't he care? It was annoying when he said he was too busy with work etc... I mean single parents have to check their child's work. That was about all I was asking for him to do ,check the teens work. I'm homeschooling 5 one with learning disabilities,I could use a little bit of help. Other then homeschooling he's a great dad,seriously love that about him. He enjoys his children and they adore him. He's a great friend and love to me,so for the most part I just accept that homeschooling is mine. It's tough for me knowing I can't change it but when I dwell on it I just get bitter which is never a good thing.

I had moved 18 times by the time I was eighteen. It used to be weird but not as much anymore my parents had 6 marriages between them.

I've bought some Enki and Christopherus

Yes when I worked I had to deal with a lot of sexual advances some from married men. Thankfully I was a super naive kid and didn't usually realize till later what they "meant". By then they realized I wasn't that kind of girl it's so annoying to watch my daughter having to deal with some of these issues and now I can see it. We've been chasing away the boys since she was a young girl ( We hope she will be like my husband and I ,we had our first kiss at the altar). I think for some people it's just something you have to deal with and I'm going to teach my daughter to be more aware then I was. I'm glad that the law is now proactive about these issues.

Yeah I would totally be jumping all over that lying because it will only get worse if you don't nip it. Have him write scriptures that speak to gossip,lying etc.. I would have him make a dinner from beginning to end (meaning he does the clean up as well) so he can appreciate the labor that goes into a meal. Have him do it for a week he will never again be so unappreciative of a meal.

Man that stinks!

Yeah for you! :hurray::hurray:

We enjoyed MUS simple easy to understand

KidsHappen Kids being loud drives me bonkers too! I discovered a wonderful trick for it. You make sure they are outside playing at least 2 hours a day and you make room for movement within your lessons. It's amazing how much more settled my hyper kids can be.

WE loved Avatar. Yes the storyline is predictable but the world it takes place in leaves so much to awaking the imagination. I don't think I would have a problem with a 12 year old watching it if they really wanted to.

Yeah for you! nothing like a fresh loaf of bread!!!:hurray::hurray::hurray:

Oh your post made me laugh!!!! I'm just like this most of the time. Occasional night out with girlfriends and vacations with my husband oh what a dull life I happily lead.

I've found books have helped me,watching people whose families I admire,and therapy. It's a process that we all have been greatly enriched by.

We did a year of SOS when I just couldn't'...... one of those years. The next year the kids and I were happy to get back on track with Sonlight. They enjoyed parts of SOS (computer based curriculum which corrects itself. All you have to do is check to see that they did their work and are getting decent grades) but they were glad to be done with it.

I agree it's a shame.....

We've homeschooled 5 children tried lots of different curriculums. Alot depends on what you enjoy and they enjoy. We love books,music and movement so most waldorf curriculums (christopherus,enki,oak meadow etc...) suit us. Here are our favs over all FIAR simple easy . We have lovely memories of doing this together. For my older children when I do it with the younger it's like being with old friends. Enki my FAVORITE!!!!! If you could only afford the movement part it's sooo worth it. We do this along with a light load of fiar The curriculum leans on teaching children through childlike ways. Stories,art,music,movement. But it's not wimpy they are memorizing frost,Dickinson,Yeats etc.. all done in a way that doesn't seem like school at all. Sonlight Sadly Enki only goes to 2nd and I'm not sure if we will switch to sonlight for our younger children. I might try live ed. Most of the years we homeschooled we used sonlight with our older two now teenagers. They are still using Sonlight and enjoy most of it. It's a nice curriculum which seems to be changing to younger and younger academics which I do not care for. I would only use this with the older grades now.

Honestly I didn't care for either. There are a lot better programs for teaching phonics. I like to teach my kids learn to read in 100 lessons then alpha phonics with phonics game then spelling power. We also did dictation. I would not use a workbook unless your child LOVES them. My kids prefered Abeka to BJ (We used them for a limited time with our youngest 2 which is why I know about them and do not care for them)

Yeah for her!!!!!:hurray::hurray: