:lurk5:

Watch Knives over Forks on Netflix and read the books recommended on their website. The approach most doctors take of telling you what not to eat is way less effective than creating a plan of what to eat.

I have the same one. We bought it at Sam's but they also have them at Costco and Target for around the same price. We have several family members who purchased the same one and everyone is happy with it. They are around $99. We have used ours for several years off and on but since watching Fat , Sick and Nearly Dead we have been using it daily.

I will check these out also. I almost bought the engine2 book before I bought the Idiot's Guide to Plant Based Nutrition by Julieanna Hever. I saw both recommended on the website for Forks over Knives. I still might get it after I finish the Idiot's Guide.

I agree with the other responses and with your desire to pray about it. I don't see this opportunity as the same as you taking a full-time job and putting the kids in school and daycare. They would be in the same place as you and you mentioned that it is a small school. Your children are still young and even if you did it for the 2 years your husband is finishing up school they would still be young when you went back to full-time homeschooling. Unless it is a pretty rigorous private school I would still plan to afterschool and just consider what's done during the day as fun socialization time. In I were in your situation I would also want to make sure this was an idea my dh was fully behind before I did it though.

I just started a book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Plant Based Nutrition by Julieanna Hever. I'm finding I need to totally re-educate myself on how/what to eat. The book focuses more on what to eat instead of what not to eat. I'm only a few chapters in but it is good so far. We aren't going totally vegan or raw but after watching Forks over Knives and Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead we are attempting to keep dairy & animal products to less than 5% of our diet. I am finding it very challenging so far but I figure I'm had 36 years to get used to the other way we were eating so there is going to be an adjustment period.

Thanks for the link. We watched "Food, Inc.", "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" and "Knives over Forks" in the last two weeks. It was a real kick in the pants to get us motivated to do what we know we need to do to be healthier. We'll watch this one, too.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to checking these out. Since you use the large blender to you store the smoothies and drink later and if so how. Refridgerator, freezer?

I'm looking for some good links for recipes, blogs and ideas. My best friend and I have been juicing a lot lately and are looking to transition our families to a more plant-based eating plan. I am reading and googling to get ideas but there's so much to sort through I thought I would ask for some suggestions. We are particularly interested in some lunch ideas for on the go for adults and kids. She has one child in school and even though I homeschool I do it at our small business so I need to bring lunch and snacks with us every day. Also, I would love suggestions on a good blender for smoothies. I have a very old blender that works but it has the shortest chord imaginable and part of the top is missing so I have to hold something over it so it won't squirt smoothie all over my ceiling. I'm thinking it's time for an upgrade.

I agree with others that you need to ignore all the traditional wisdom regarding when your daughter will be ready for things.

I think we'll be in the same boat here, too. My dd isn't as fond of math as yours but I'm pretty sure she'll like this and will want to move quickly. We're also doing MUS, LOF, & Singapore CWP so I'm hoping if we do a little of each every week we can stretch the Beast Academy out. I know she'll read the whole guide the first day but we'll stretch out the practice book.

We have moved more than one level ahead but we didn't exactly skip. Instead, we did 3 years worth of MUS in a little over a year. We'll probably finish the next level in a few months which will make it under a year and a half total. We watch the DVD, test if she's ready and move on. That way we're not missing any math facts but we can move to more challenging stuff. We are also doing Beast Academy. I just got the books in today and I'm sure dd will love them. Most of the math is stuff we've already covered but it is a more challenging approach to problem solving and I think it will stretch her.

I watched some YouTube videos where the guy from the movie answered questions and he said juicing allows the nutrients to be absorbed more quickly because smoothies are treated by your body like food so it tries to digest them. Also, I think you need lots of green stuff for the immune boost. Most juicing books come with recipes for using the pulp or you can use it in a garden if you have one.

Have you watched the documentary Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead? If you want to be pushed over the edge to purchase a juicer watching that should do the trick.

I would try probiotics. They need to be a brand that is refridgerated in order to be strong enough. We buy ours at Vitamin Shoppe. I would also try juicing. It is the only thing I've found that boosts my immune system enough to avoid having to take daily sinus/allergy medicine. I drink mostly green juice but I would google and do some research on what options are best and how to start out slowly with children.

I love Lou Priolo and found the Heart of Anger to be one of the most beneficial parenting books I've ever read. Some others I enjoy that are similar in their approach: Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tripp The Faithful Parent by Stuart Scott & Martha Peace (I haven't read this one but it comes highly recommended) ADHD: Deceptive Diagnosis by David Tyler (Obviously this book takes a stance agains the number of ADHD diagnosis in the US. I don't want to get in a debate about that. I bought this book because there are charts in it about the behaviors associated with ADHD and potential biblical instruction and solutions for working with your child on those issues...I found that most small children exhibit the characteristics listed in the book and could use the instruction provided) You will also find mp3's on parenting at this website. I have attended these conferences and the speakers always recommend the books by Priolo and Tripp. http://www.nanc.org/Store/MP3 Also, these books are more on general change/sanctification but I found them benefcial personally and also for instructing dd Paul Tripp (who is Tedd Tripp's brother) How to Change and other books. I've been to both a parenting and marriage workshop conducted by him and they were great. I Really Want to Change, So Help me God. authors last name is MacDonald. There is another book about Attitudes which I haven't read but heard is great. There are two pastors who teach on parenting/marriage/family that are along the same lines and very helpful. They are biblical counselors so they also have a lot of teaching resources on their websites. Brad Bigney https://www.graceky.org/ministries Steve Viars http://www.faithlafayette.org/resources/speakers/steve_viars DH and I find these counseling materials to be incredibly helpful for "counseling" our 7 year old:lol:

I was thinking along the same lines. I don't know I'd it's too late to apply but I was considering it. We traveled a lot this month and I missed the initial message. I fluctuate between thinking the testing is unnecessary and thinking I should do it in case we want to enter programs in the future that require it.

My 7 year old comes up with similar stories. I love the explostion pills idea. DD loves making up stories about good vs. evil and mythology.

I agree with the others about taking a deep breath. The good news is you are starting off way ahead due to his natural ability. This gives you lots of time and room for making mistakes and adjustments.:lol: I used ETC when dd was 3 and it worked well for her. The writing was a challenge but a lot of times we either did it orally or I wrote for her. ETA: I didn't discover OPGTR until after we were done with most of ETC but I probably would have used both if I had them. She liked doing the ETC worksheets. Also, I understand that you have an older child so just waiting probably won't work. My niece and nephew who are 2 and 3 insist on "doing" some kind of school while there older siblings work. I have an only child but we have a small business so doing some "school" play together was necessary to keep dd from being bored while I worked in the afternoon. When she was 3 school was a few 10 or 15 minute sessions a day where we worked together on Bible verses, ETC, Handwriting without Tears, etc. HWOT was a great fit for us since she was reading way before she was ready to write. This didn't stop her from being frustrated because she wanted to write. HWOT helped with her frustration. Also, I added Song School Latin when she was either 3 1/2 or 4 because I realized she had a great capacity for language and figured it wouldn't hurt to try. She loved it and it was a good foundation before starting Prima Latina and eventually Latin for Children.

I just posted in this thread about some of the things we did to get through long division http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=358956&page=3 I considered getting a new program when we were there too. Then I searched the board and found that long division seems to be an issue no matter what program people use. We just reduced the work load, I sometimes wrote the answers while she gave them to me orally and we just pushed through. The good news is if you can just get to the end the introductory fraction lessons are an easy refreshing break.

On the issue of moving quickly I would say mus was perfect for us in that regard. The early lessons in gamma & delta are easier. We started a testing out approach where if dd said she understood the concept, could teach it back to me and seemed to get it I let her take the test and we moved on to the next lesson. Sometimes we did more than one lesson per day. We moved this fast until around lesson 15 or twenty. I mentioned blocks earlier. Just to be clear, at this point dd plays with the blocks but doesn't need them to do her work. At the beginning of Epsilon she used them for some lessons because she just likes to play with them but she is able to do the problems with or without the blocks and with or without writing anything down in most cases. Long division was torturous but it was more about the level of sustained attention than not understanding the concept. She just flat didn't want to work on math problems long enough to get the answer. I reduced the number of problems on the condition she got them right and we made it through. I think she actually clapped when we started fractions because she was so happy to finish long division. My experience with Saxon was similar and we didn't like Singapore either. Every once in a while I get caught up in all the Singapore talk and buy a workbook. So far everything we've learned in mus has translated in to her ability to work problems in other programs, including the Singapore cwp and the beast academy assessment.

We moved quickly through gamma & delta and it felt like a waste to write on the workbooks since we only use two or three a week. I usually scanned them and she wrote on the pdf's on the iPad. Sometimes she just wrote the answers on a piece of notebook paper. I gave the books to my SIL who has five kids when we were done. We're now in Epsilon and I've gotten lazy so we just write on the pages we use and are saving the others for her as extra practice sheets.

We switched to MUS after using Horizon for K and really like it. There were a few lessons where dd didn't like some of the tricks but since he shows several ways to do the problem we watched the DVD, she worked a few with each method and then I let her pick the method she preferred. I like it because's it is easy to accelerate and it's straight forward, the systematic review is great for making sure de hasn't forgotten things she already learned. She loves the blocks and when we first switched to mus she taught herself quite a few addition and subtraction facts through playing with them. I also like the fact that the curriculum emphasizes learning to do the problems on paper and in your head. I supplement with Singapore cwp for more difficult word problems.

I've tried several things and nothing seemed to work until I started juicing regularly with lots of green veggies. I tried juicing before for a few weeks here and there just having one glass for breakfast but that didn't do the trick. In the last 60 days I've started drinking several servings of juice with lots of kale, spinach, & cucumbers. I also add apples, carrots, lemon & ginger. After 7 to 10 days I notice a big difference. I stopped taking Zrytec D after being on it or some kind of sinus/allergy medicine for 15 years. I took a 10 day break from juicing while were were at Disney and by the end of the week needed my medicine again. Started the juicing up and within a week didn't need the medicine. I had some symptoms I would attribute to some sort of withdrawal (insomnia, tiredness, etc) for a few days but after that I was fine. I still get itchy eyes and stopped up occassionally but I just seem better able to fight it off. ETA: if you try juicing be sure to start slowly with your son. My dd likes the juice but you should google "juicing for kids" to get some tips to make sure his system has time to adjust to the change and he doesn't get an upset stomach.

I am ordering it. I was excited that it's not too pricey. That helped me talk myself in to it. I suspect it will be challenging enough and that it will be fun for dd. We'll see. If it isn't too challenging I hope it helps improve her desire to do math. If she liked math a little more I suspect it would turn in to one of her easier subjects. She has the capacity to do pretty much anything I put in front of her but where math is concerned the desire levelnis way below the ability level.