I have planned out TOG a lot in the same way you have and we love it. It does take some time to get familiar with but once you have a system the planning is really not so bad, the most time consuming part is probably reading the Teacher's Notes but that would be true for any curriculum. We get some of our books from the library, others I buy used or from Rainbow Resource. RR is usually cheaper than Bookshelf Central. We don't do every single part each week (Arts, geography, history, Literature, church history). Some weeks we omit the church history and arts. it depends on what else we have going on that week. Since I am mostly using it for my dialectic students I make a calendar with all of the weeks reading, I like them to break it up into whatever chunks they would like, as long as they have finished the reading by the day I have planned for discussion (often Monday of the following week). We work on Geography and TimeLine one day and focus on literature Worksheets on another day. It's fairly simple once you find the combination that works for you.

I LOVE it and I have stuck with it all year. Amazingly. I normally do not stick with things this long but I love being able to see how much we have gone through and what week we are on, how many weeks worth we have left. I will tweak it a bit next year but I will be using it again for sure.

My kids have all done this and I chalk it up to the fact that they are excited to be out of the house and having some alone time with mom. I took my DD(5 at the time) to Urgent Care once because her fever was registering 106. We got there and she was joking and smiling and the nurse said, "When was her fever that high?" "It's that high now." I told her. She looked at me all sorts of cross-eyed and down her nose and then took DD's temp. 105.8 Nurse was shocked.

I believe ours changeover in September. We usually follow the school year.

Yes, but not any more than everyone else on earth.

Kohls, Bed, Bath and Beyond or WalMart. They all have either really good coupons or just a low price in general.

When I read The Sign of the Beaver to my kids they were so engrossed and i was so drawn into the story. By the last chapter I was sobbing and my kids were all looking strangely at me. Still, it was the best reading-with-my-kids experience. As far as picture books go, The Fiddler of the Northern Lights always enthralls me. I love it.

There was a time when I would have agreed with this but since using First Language Lessons my kids do not forget. All the little memory work really seems to have cemented into their brains.

I loved the book but not until I was close to the end. It took me a long while to take in the style. Reviews like this one on Amazon make me giggle nonetheless.

I think one of my biggest secrets is...I don't like other people's kids. Shhh... don't tell. I am generalizing some but for the most part I don't. People assume that because I have 6 kids I love all kids. Not so much.

We love him too, so much that our bunny is named for him.

Jo from Little Women Lucy from Chronicles of Narnia Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird Mine is going to have to be a list. LOL

The audio renditions are EXCELLENT in my opinion. I could listen to them over and over again and I have!

For Breakfast I am having a croissant. My older kids have an audition tomorrow so they are perfecting their audition song. I do not have an exercise regimen but I am painting my house and it's a fairly athletic endeavor. :lol:

Congratulations! I did not ever go on bedrest. I delivered at 38w1d. I had a vaginal delivery. I did not nurse but for a short time ( I was inexperienced and lacked support) but I know many many many women who have bf'd twins successfully and if I had it to do over again I would have kept at it. Schooling is GREAT with twins because you have two students in one grade. Projects are way more fun.

They do here in So Cal. Not every time but a lot of the time. There is sometimes cheering during a movie too.

Same here! And I am only sad we did not do it years sooner.

I switched my girls from Saxon TO Singapore and they went from 7/6 and tested into 4b. So you may be able to go from there to figure out how they correlate.

I read The Notebook last week. (Loved the movie, abhorred the book...but I knew I would since I think Sparks is a horrible writer...still I caved and read it). This week I am reading, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Brave New World is excellent. I think I may need to do a re-read of this one.

:iagree: Exactly.

Absolutely makes me think of The Joy Luck Club. I know that was fiction but I think it was a very realistic portrayal of the issues that grown Chinese children have with their mothers. I don't want a perfect child. This model is a quest for perfection. I wonder what the suicide rate is for children raised in this manner. On another note. my dad called me fatty all the time growing up and I struggle to this day with body image.

My girls are 7th graders and they do talk about what they might like to do but they are not extremely driven at this point and that is ok with me. I know one of my girls wants to be an interior designer but she also enjoys doing hair so who knows what she will end up doing? Interestingly, she would probably make more money doing hair than being an interior designer...kind of sad. My other daughter talks about the mission field but her passion is writing which she says she can do alongside any other job or career.

I have started figuring out what I am going to use. I won't buy much until convention in the summer.

I read it and I did find it disturbing but no more so than The Hunger Games. I am sort of a dystopian novel junkie so I liked it.

Just had to post that I have the best memories of those songs! I loved them.