This is a problem with bare minerals. I do apply moisturizer first and that does help some. Have you thought about mixing the shadow with a dollop of moisturizer? I havent tried that one yet.

I cant find the pretzel salt!

Did you make the mustard too??? My dh loved the mustard as much as the pretzels! He keeps asking for foods that can be paired with mustard.

89.125 is that sad or what???

"I" couldnt do the program without the TM. It is not difficult, but the placement tests, evals, answers and "backup" info are in the TM.

Off the top of my head, just about all of them will be magical. I am thinking about ballets in particular: Nutcracker, Coppelia, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc How about Handel's Messiah?? The Easter section might be appropriate for the coming season. Can you do a musical like Sound of Music, Oklahoma, or Fiddler on the Roof?

BJU has a solid grammar program. I cant say enough about this program. It really prepared my dd very well. I did not like the writing lessons (neither did dd). We are doing CW Homer and we are liking that quite a bit so that might give you an idea. While I do love this program and think it explained things very well, I chose not to use it for my younger dd. The expense of the TM, the difficulty with resale, no free shipping offers or hotel meetings nearby, and the fact aht I was only using half the book (remember we were using a different writing program) really turned me off. I know that sounds like silly reasons to abandon a good program, but the cost of using BJU really got out of my budget when I could no longer get the TMs 2nd hand. And, I discovered GWG. That is a wonderful program! IT is really complete, effective, easy, my dd loves it and it doesnt include a writing program. HTH!

Noeo has a nice Chemistry program. They actually have two. Chem 1 is for 1st - 3rd grades and Chem 2 is for 4th - 6th. It is a really neat program and I love it!! We started this year (3rd and 6th) with Chem 2. Dd in 3rd grade loved it and did very well. Dd 6th grade did not do as well. She did not like the single minded focus of the program. She does much better with a BJU style text book (go figure) that changes topics every chapter. Again, I loved it. I will pick it up again next year with dd in 4th grade while 7th grader wades through BJU Life Science 7.

Out of curiosity, have you had his eyes checked? It might sound silly, but my dd wrote really small until she got her first pair of glasses. The doc said that was fairly common in dc who need glasses. We used Cursive First with the wide rule at first. I really love that program and it is very inexpensive.

I used Abeka Health for K-4th grade. We are looking at AOP's HealthQuest in LifePac form not SOS.

I am also looking at JR High next year. I am seriously looking at Analytical Grammar. We have done Winston 1 and I would HIGHLY recommend doing that. It was a great way to explain grammar concepts. You might look at BJU. I know it is not a secular program, but the usage of scripture and other religious material is not that heavy - esp compared with Rod and Staff. You could easily overlook it or leave it out I would think. I do prefer BJU to Abeka. Hake looks very interesting. I have not used it. But, I did consider it for this year. We settled on Winston 1 followed by CW with Harvey's. I would love to read what you decide - I still need to finalize my 7th grade plans.

I really could use a "hang in there" thread about now. I have had brownies with my homemade chocolate sauce for dinner. Left over pot roast will be dessert :p Nothing serious going on - knee deep in remodeling - will it ever end???? Typical mid winter homeschool stuff - looking toward the end of the year but planning for next year. "That" time of the month. Lousy Weather. Tiling and painting - yes, the remodeling project that keeps on going. So, how about a "hang in there!!!

I love it when I dont hate it. I love the phonograms and rule cards. I love teaching the why (as best as one can in the English language) of spelling. I love the extra activities. I hate the "TM". It is nearly impossible to understand in my opinion. Learning CW was almost a breeze compared to learning SWR. It is NOT plug and play by any means. I hate list N. Both my dc have come to a complete stop at list N. I really think this must be an issue with the program. How can 2 different children with 2 different learning styles come to a complete hault at the same place. My youngest went from missing very few (if any) words through list M to missing nearly all the words in list N. She is dreading spelling now when she used to enjoy it. I know proponents of the program say list N begins the more complex phonograms. But, really, she knows the complex phonogram cards and such a huge jump overnight is just a bit odd to me. The testing lists are a bit odd too. We can do one list and get say to grade 5.5. We can do another list 2 weeks later and be 3.6 How can there be such a variation? So, that is my love hate relationship. I started my youngest on CLP Building Spelling Skills. I asked her what she tought about it. She said, "Its fun, but I thought we were going to do spelling". That summed up the issue I have with spelling programs other than SWR. I am sure there are others out there similar to SWR and perhaps easier to use. If you find one, let me know! :rolleyes:

I do baked oatmeal using the Penzey's Spice Recipe: http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/recipes/r-penzeysbakedOatmeal.html?id=YKWzwCnS Because my dd is allergic to dairy, I substitute soy for cow's milk. My dh who thinks oatmeal is related to wall paper paste, really liked this recipe!

I've tried Walmart, Target, Brunos, and Winn Dixie. No luck so far. Watching Alton Brown is getting dangerous and expensive!!!!:D

I love Walk Away the Pounds too. But I also use Dance it Off by Prevention Magazine. I have tried several by PRevention and this one is my favorite. I TIVO Shimmy from FiT TV do that. Also I have a few balance ball dvds. The beginner dvd is still my favorite - it covers all the muscle groups. I have the individual dvds - abs, upper body, lower, but I still prefer the beginner.

I have searched and searched and cant find Dutch Processed Cocoa locally so I must order. Where is a good place to order it?

I used these with my 11 and 8 year old

So far we've enjoyed Emergency!, Family Affair, Lost in Space, UFO, Star Trek, Keeping Up Appearances, All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriott), Mr. Ed. Dh has enjoyed BaaBaa Black Sheep (Pappy Boyington) and I've caught a couple episodes of Matlock. Movie wise: Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Sound of Music, Exodus, Fiddler on the Roof, Hell Fighters (Oil Well Firefighters),

I personally think you need all three - Core, Student Guide and Instructor Guide. You could do it with just the Core but I think it would be really, really hard (for me anyway)

So far we/ve enjoyed: Augustine Came to Kent First Empress of China Science in China Art of China Art of Japan Sword in the Tree Arabian Knights Shadow Spinner The Vikings Beorne the Proud EyeWitness Vikings Beowulf - I did 2 different versions of this this - one illustrated and another. I have others planned but havent gotten that far. We keep getting bogged down in history fun!

This has been my goal my entire homeschool career. I want to be somewhere in between free-flow unschool and rigidly structured. My personality works best with structure: x number of workbook pages/day type thing. I have made great strides! I started out with Abeka -doing it "by the book" very rigid in my plan. Now I am more ecclectic in my mix of books - some living literature - some workbooky. But, I find myself still a slave to the schedule. How can I strike the balance? How can we have art days and I not worry that we didnt complete the CW HOmer lesson or do the GWG lesson or read X number of pages in our reader? Where and how does one solve ths??

In Britain, they've outlawed guns, toy guns, ! I just want to comment on the toy gun thing. I recently had the wits scared out of me by a toy gun. I walked into my friend's place of business (she is a massage therapist and creates her own line of lotions,etc) and saw on the back counter a very nasty looking hand gun. Having my 2 dc with me, I was startled. I wondered if she had it because she works alone much of the time. Then her adorable youngest dc runs in and grabs it waving it around. I just about had a heart attack. They laugh since it was "just" a toy - the thing looked so very real. Not long after that I was driving my car in my subdivision past the open area park we have. Several teens were hanging out there and 2 of them were carrying "weapons" - 1 a handgun, the other a shotgun type thing. I saw them as I started around the turn. The one with the handgun, pointed it at my car, tracked us and "fired" it. All his buddies laughed up a storm. These were big teens - probably 6ft tall carrying toys (I hope) and laughing about pretending to shoot at a family in a car. I dont want to even talk about where this type of "play" leads and what it says. These toys look real, very, very real. Besides scaring me and my dc for no reason, what about their safety too. IF someone felt genuinely threatened and had the means to defend themselves or their dc or they are waving one of these things around a police officer - would someone get shot - over a toy? Why do they have to look so realistic?

Sometimes I feel like we are appeasing the dental god. My 11 has a full set of braces and my 8yr old is on her second appliance for space maintainance. We have had lots and lots of dental visits. I am not sure why you need an oral surgeon. Our pediatric dentist and now our family dentist has done all our work for us. I dont have much to offer except sympathy/empathy and encouragement. We go to the dentist tomorrow - I might be posting requests for encouragment then!!!!

I Plan on using CW Homer with Harvey's Grammar and MegaWords