Have you seen this resource: http://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Connection-Workbook-Classrooms/dp/1603425314/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340888631&sr=8-1&keywords=claire+leslie+walker I'm fairly certain it is appropriate for your age group. I have 2 copies here at home to use with my own children in that age range.

:lol: You go, Mom! I got so sick of my son and his talking back, disrespect, and utter nastiness to me one day that I took away his pillow, blanket, mattress, toys and clothes. He had to earn each back by doing chores of my choice. :D And apologize to me...sincerely.

I'm a rule-follower...except in cases like this. :D I'd go without guilt.

Not a tat person myself but that, quite honestly, is perhaps the most beautiful one I have every seen and it looks fabulous and very, very CLASSY! :D

You might want to take a look at this free curriculum: http://www.guesthollow.com It was, I think, designed for your a 3rd grader but easily adapts to older/younger. Can't beat free!

There are several (more than several! :tongue_smilie:) for you to choose from. For 1st grade, MOH would be a good program to use! An older child would get more out of it, but certainly a first grader would gleam some information! Just have fun with it and do lots of the fun projects and crafts, etc. Focus more on the main idea of each lesson (the lessons are short which is good). I would even recommend summarizing the lessons in your own words. Have you looked at MFW 1st grade or HOD? Depending on the skill level of your 1st grader, he/she could fit into HOD Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory. It is American History with heavy emphasis on the Colonial Period. MFW 1st grade isn't specifically a History curriculum but does incorporate History. It begins with Creation. :) There are many more, obviously, but those are the ones I am familiar with. Good luck!

Prayed for all of them tonight during our church's corporate prayer meeting and will continue. :grouphug:

Just forget about it. This sort of stuff makes me CRAZY. We already have to jump through hoops in PA...shouldn't have to jump through more. Document the calls you made (write down date and time) and that there was NO response. You tried. Just goes to show you how CRUCIAL those portfolios are. :glare:

I am where you are. 40 in a month and irregular cycles...after years of being very consistent. My cycles will go from 28 days to 37 days back to 33 days, etc. For a few years now I have had very occasional "hot flashes", mostly in the middle of the night (night sweats). A friend of mine is mid-40s and having similar symptoms but add to it crashing fatigue, anxiety, etc. You can still conceive. If you are still getting AF, you are still ovulating. The only difference when you are older, like us, is the umm "conditions" surrounding your ovulation. We have been ttc now for a few months. I am charting and everything. Last month, based on my chart dh and I had relations the day before and the day I ovulated. BUT, we didn't conceive. I'm reading a book called Taking Charge of Your Fertility and it does mention that in your late 30s and early 40s your cervical mucous may not be fertile quality enough to allow sperm to reach egg (sorry to be so graphic). In your 20s, for most, it is possible to have many, many days of fertile quality mucous and greater chances of conceiving. For me, now, it's hit or miss. I wouldn't worry to much or stress too much about it. These symptoms you are having could go on for years before you stop your cycle altogether. If you are TTC I would start charting and checking mucous daily (again, sorry so graphic).

Yes, what the PP said. It is def. more of an Earth Science program. It covers such topics as continents, oceans, plate tectonics, layers of atmosphere, structure of the earth, seasons, weather, climate, earthquakes, volcanos, etc. It is a good program and would go very well with a "traditional" study of geography (countries and cultures). HTH

Crying with you, Julie. :grouphug: Lots of prayers still being sent your way. You are loved.

Spalding method IS effective...for MOST students. ;) I'm finding that it isn't sticking with my ds9 who isn't a good reader, but is a better speller :confused: It seems crazy to me that he can spell a word that he cannot read. Anyway, we are trying Sequential Spelling along with WRTR (learning the phonograms can't hurt, I figure). Your comment about your boys writing our their own comics each day got me thinking though. I have "How to Teach Any Child to Spell" by Gail Graham and plan to use that with my older boys. Basically, you use your child's writing to find their spelling errors and categorize them into the correct "rule" and use their OWN spelling mistakes. Does that make sense? My 14yo is an atrocious speller. I'm hoping something like this will help him.

:crying: My heart is breaking with you, Julie. I'm so, so sorry. Praying for peace and comfort...for God to just wrap His strong arms around you all during this sad, sad time. Words fail me...but just know I am praying. :grouphug:

She will go through it all again in 9-12. Typically they study World, American (2 years) with Government and Econ, and a year of Geography (we did MFW Ancient History and Literature instead). She'll be okay. :grouphug:

My plan for my 2nd, 4th and 6th graders was to do 2 years of American History using AAH. They all had SOME American History using HOD's Beyond and Bigger this past year. So, I am using AAH as my spine and will add just a few of the suggested extras (probably more for my 6th grader). I'm interested in doing a Geography study with them as well (and a PreKer tag-a-long). Nothing too involved, but something more "fun". GtG seems to fit this bill and since it is a unit study we can do as much or as little as we want. The book says it is a 1 to 3 year study. If I spread it out over 2 years, would it be too much to do in addition to AAH? I have 3 older children doing 3 other programs (2 high schoolers using MFW and a 7th grader using HOD Rev to Rev. They are mostly independent so I can focus more on the youngers. Thanks for your opinions!

That's the direction we are going in this year with my PreK, 2nd, 4th and 6th graders. I have curriculum, but mainly just for the reference. I think this is going to provide the DESIRE for learning that we were missing. :)

Good luck with your quest for raw milk :)

It can certainly be overwhelming, can't it? :) Even after 8 years homeschooling, I still get overwhelmed. We currently have 7 children (15, 14, 12, 11, 9, 6 and 4) and would LOVE another (but alas, I am closing in on that crucial age...40). Anyway, first, let me assure you that you CAN DO THIS! You mentioned your children bored in school...that is one very good reason to pull them out. I can almost feel your stress if you have to drive 100 miles each day. :001_huh: Your children are young. Focus FIRST on core subjects. Have you read the WTM? I can't recommend that book enough. Even though we have strayed a bit from the classical method she details, I still find that book a valuable resource. Choose curriculum for the basics for each child. If you liked Saxon for math...go for it (I personally did not prefer Saxon in the younger grades). I personally prefer Singapore (and if your kids are bright like you say, Singapore will challenge them). You can go to their website to get a placement test for each kiddo. Many here like Rod and Staff for English (being Catholic, it would probably appeal to you!), as do we. You could use level 4 for both 3rd and 4th if the 3rd grader is at the level you say she is. R&S contains writing exercises as well. Spelling...lots to choose from (anything from a workbook style like Spelling Workout to a more teacher intensive program like you mentioned). If you like SSRW...go for it! I'm not familiar with it enough to to really comment there. ;) Moving on to Science and History...try a program that combines. Our neighbors have similar ages to yours and have really enjoyed Beautiful Feet for History (it is a literature based, living book method). There are others obviously. For science...definitely go with interest led! If your kids are curious about anatomy...go with that! And when they tire of it, go where their curiosity leads! At that age, science should be fun. I don't want to overwhelm you anymore by mentioning this program and that. The conference might be a tad overwhelming, but certainly informative and FUN. Have in mind only a few programs and don't get overwhelmed looking at EVERYTHING. Do some research first and take a list of what you want to compare. I'll just end with this...YOU CAN DO THIS! :D

If you like the rest of MFW US1 & 2, I would get a copy of the BJU text and read through it. In fact, we have the US1 package for dd15 for next year and I'm going to give it a good read through myself (you have me curious :)). I'm curious how anybody could "reinterpret" something as horrid as slavery, kwim? The rest of US1 just looks so good...perhaps you could just sub out the BJU and use Notgrass instead? Seems doable since it IS only .5 credits. Good luck with your planning if you don't use MFW. There is something "fun" about designing your own. :D

Rabbits chew...everything. And yes, even the cute little dwarf ones. :glare: That being said, rabbits are CUTE and a LOT of fun! :) We have 6. I do NOT suggest keeping them in a cage that size. Rabbits NEED space to run and hop and well...be rabbits! Guinea pigs are much more suited for a cage. Our 6 rabbits have free roam of "most" of our house. If you do get a rabbit, consider gating off a small section of your house and letting it out for at LEAST a few hours each day and only caging it during the night. The can be litter trained quite easily. Females especially will mark their territory by leaving poop pellets everywhere (spaying them will help this). BUT, the pellets are DRY and easy to sweep or vacuum. :) Rabbits are NOT low maintenance as many people think. Guinea pigs, I think, would be far EASIER to care for...more like a hamster. Please do your research if you plan to buy either. There are several wonderful house rabbit sites on the internet. As far as companions...rabbits ARE social animals and if you purchase the rabbits together as BABIES you will have a far better chance at bonding them. Females together are difficult to bond...very territorial. We had a time trying to get all 6 of ours to live in harmony. LOL. Best scenario is a NEUTERED male with a female. Food is not expensive and we use non-clumping, paper based cat litter (Yesterday's News brand) for the litter box. We constructed our own "cage" (it's really a condo) using those wire cubical shelves. It's really quite a set-up! :tongue_smilie: Anyway...we love our rabbits...except when they chew through $80 Macbook power cords...then not so much. :glare:

It sounds like SL is confusing you and based on that I would probably advise you to sell it or spend some time this summer "getting to know it". Does that make sense? The learning curve on some of these programs can be steep...especially if this is your first year homeschooling. I have never used SL but have used both MFW and HOD...still using them actually (MFW for high school and HOD for the others). Both programs are what I would call "open and go". There is minimal planning. You really can't go wrong with either. By your siggy, you have a 2nd and 4th grader? I have successfully combined those ages into one HOD Guide. However, it depends on the academic skill level of you dc. It is VERY important to place EACH CHILD correctly when using HOD. Otherwise, it can be very frustrating. Take a look at the placement charts on the website. It could be that they would place squarely in Bigger Hearts and that is a fabulous year! Not to knock MFW, but if you went with MFW your 2nd grader might not get as much out of it if you started with their 5 year cycle. AND, Adventures would be a bit too "easy" for your 4th grader (again, depends on their skill level in the core subjects). So, those are my thoughts, FWIW. Not knocking SL...just haven't used it so I can't advise. I *would* recommend combining your dc if at all possible (in areas other than math, reading and la)...whatever program you decide to use. :001_smile: HTH

I like the idea of laminating and using dry erase. I don't want to spend the $ on HSTOnline (can't use the Plus version b/c I have a Mac), have tried and not liked Skedtrack, tried the free trial of Scholaric and liked that (I might use that since it is ONLY $1 per child/month). That isn't too bad. If you are using an all-in-one curriculum (we use HOD and MFW for high school), you might not need a detailed planner. For the first time in many years, we have strayed from the HOD/MFW program for the younger kids and so I am looking for something to help keep me on track. We will be using AAH and interest led science topics. I think I might like to have something on the computer...b/c I have to keep records for my state. :glare: (Sorry to hijack...just wanted to put my thoughts down on the matter. :tongue_smilie:)

:bigear: Bc my ds14 is a horrible speller. I'm so frustrated. Dh says spell check will be his friend. :glare: I don't want him to rely on that! I'm contemplating using WRTR with him if he would listen and try to learn. He doesn't really care...that's the main problem.

On my Kindle...can type more later but Preparing was my favorite HOD year. Our first taste of HOD as well. Loved everything about it except perhaps the science. Cant wait to do it again in a couple years with my younger children. :)

I have noticed the same but it really just jumped out at me seeing somebody else put it into words, kwim? Certainly no disrespect to DR...we have benefitted enormously from his concepts. I always loved listening to LB on our local radio station...was heartbroken when he passed away. Thinking about this more, and your statement is probably all the more reason to do both. Different perspectives...both Biblical. My son, who is waaayyy too concerned with HAVING money would certainly benefit from the MM curriculum (giving, stewardship, etc.) but also from DR's principals of saving (beginning young), paying cash for things, investing, etc.