http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/01/free-audio-dramatization-of-the-long-winter-by-laura-ingalls-wilder.html Thought somebody here might be interested. :)

I am a bit confused about whether or not we should bother going through a Diploma program or not. My dd15 wants to go to a Christian College here in PA (Valley Forge) after 2 years of a Community College (to save $). I don't think she will need to go through the Diploma program. My ds13, however, will start high school next year and has his mind set on attending Penn State Univ. I'm not certain if my own home-issued diploma, coupled with his home-issued transcript, work samples and SAT scores would suffice or if he would need that State issued diploma. Does anyone here have any experience with this? Did you have to use on of these programs in order for your child to be accepted into a college/univ.? Thanks!

We have been going to a new church for several months now. The church used to house a Christian school (K-8) but when the church fell into some huge financial problems and was filing bankruptcy, everything was just left there. Classrooms FULL of stuff...curriculum, manipulatives, teacher planning materials, etc. My husband took over the kid's ministry at the church and has been cleaning out the space that is to be used for our Kids Church. Last time he was there, he found several copies of Rosetta Stone Spanish 1 and 2. I texted our pastor's wife and asked if we could borrow it and she said we could have whatever we wanted! :D I am so happy. Rosetta Stone was never something we could afford for my kids so this is a huge blessing for us! 2 years of a foreign language...free. And she said I could have a look at whatever else is there when I go to worship rehearsal on Wednesday! :D

Donna, I agree about the love/hate thing with ECC. And I also agree about the missions/people focus being central. I was very disappointed that my children didn't enjoy this part as much as I did. I often wondered if we gave it another try now that they are older if they would. But, I am too happy with HOD now to go back. :D

I wanted to pop in again and share our experience with ECC. ECC was the first MFW Guide we used (with the exception of K)...and the last. I LOVED the idea of studying different countries and cultures esp. with a focus on missions. The guide looked like so much fun, I researched books to go along with each country/culture, etc. We dove right in...all 4 of my school-aged dc (ranging in age from 6th gr. down to 1st) with my PreKer just tagging along and coloring flags and such. The first month (say 4-5 weeks) were okay. They enjoyed the mapping games, coloring the flags, the crafts, cooking, etc. They never enjoyed the workbook pages and much to my dismay, didn't enjoy the book about the different cultures. :glare: We trudged through for about 15 weeks until we gave up. It had become a chore. I considered doing MFW CtC but was too jaded from using ECC. We used MOH instead. And then we found HOD. :D Do you want to keep your dc combined in HOD? Have you re-checked the placement charts? We ended up skipping CtC and moving right to RtR after doing Preparing b/c my older boys both placed securely in that Guide. We ended up moving ds10 down to Bigger and putting ds8 and dd6 in Beyond. It's tough to juggle 3 Guides, but I "tweak" a bunch and skip some things that they already know (a lot of the Geography stuff my dc already know) to make it work. Just wanted to share our experience. I will add, in all fairness, that many MFW users have said that ECC was their favorite year. So YMMV. :D

We also use K-9...after finding out that one of those 11yo boys (our own) had viewed internet p*rn on several occasions. While he "may" figure out other ways to do so other than the internet...I'd rather have this be one less avenue. KWIM?

:lol::lol:

I was just reading some of the "Sneak Peak" posts over at the HOD board for the upcoming guide: Missions to Modern Marvels and was so excited to see Carrie's plan to use SOTW4 as one of the History Spines...along with All American History 2! :D I am so doing a happy dance right now! We won't be getting to this guide until 2013/14 but I am soooo excited! :D That's all...back to your regularly scheduled board-searching!

The slogan is fine, but back it up with real scripture! Have the children memorize the actual scripture reference that is the basis for the slogan. The bully drama has a good "message" attached to it. We are directed to pray for our enemies (again, though, attach a real scripture to this). But I got the same feeling you did. My "mama bear" instinct kicked in and I was like, "That's IT? Just pray? Sure...but what about my kid's safety?!?" Make sense? I think that the drama wanted to emphasize praying for your enemies, which is good, but there is too much to "bullying" than just that. Am I making sense? An 8yo being threatened with "being pounded" needs to be dealt with at the adult level FIRST (get the kid out of harms way?) and THEN the child can pray for the bully child. I might address this with the SS teacher and suggest adding real scripture references, actual Bible reading during class but would probably let the drama go and talk to my OWN child about bullying and the steps to take if he/she is being bullied. KWIM?

Karin, thank you. I think I would like more of the traditional proofs but at the same time, ds is actually DOING math now and tolerating it. If LoF is working...I'm all for continuing with it. Make sense? As for DD15...hmmmm...I might have to consider a more traditional approach. Kelly, I did read the FAQ and saw Stan's comments about sequence. My plan for my dd15 anyway is to do Geometry concurrently with Alg. 2. I want her to have some sort of basic Geometry knowledge for PSAT's next year. Off to check out Geometry texts now...:001_huh:

Thanks for that! I sooooo get math drama. :svengo: My dd is mostly even-keeled...except for math...and writing. Once we switched to Lial's, the drama-moments for almost gone. :D I want to use Intermediate Algebra with her since Lial's is working, but also want her to take Geometry simultaneously. Saxon Algebra 1 put us behind schedule as she just didn't retain anything. Anyway, I'm glad to hear that LoF is good enough to stick with all the way through since ds13 seems to tolerate it. Notice I didn't say "like" either? :D

ThisIsTheDay, how are you liking Jacob's? I'm torn btwn that for my dd15 and giving LoF a try since my son uses LoF Pre-Alg and we really do like it.

Carole, thank you! That is good to know. I'm looking to purchase it for my dd15 as well. She is finishing up Alg. 1 using Lial's and I want her to do some Geometry in concurrence with Alg. 2. (going to use Lial's as well since she likes it).

Just wondering if anyone here has used this successfully? Is it as rigorous as say, Jacob's? Does it cover everything other Geometry programs cover...proofs for instance? Thanks.

Thanks, all! And thank you, Chris, for the Lial's! I'm not sure dd will like MUS so I'm wondering if another Geometry might be better. Jacob's? LoF? Not sure. Any suggestions?

Dd15 (a young 10th grader) is using Lial's Alg. 1 (whatever the title is, I don't remember!) successfully! Yeah! After struggling through Saxon Alg. 1 last year and not doing well at all, Lial's is a breath of fresh air and has given her back her confidence. My question, as I am not familiar with Lial's at all (I figured we'd stay the Saxon course until 12th grade), is where do we go from here? Alg. 2? Geometry? I have heard that some people actually do BOTH of those in a year (Alg. 2 one week, Geometry the next, etc.). I'm concerned about PSATs and dd not having any Geometry knowledge. I'm very confused as you can tell! :tongue_smilie: Anyone using Lial's, please tell me what your sequence is/was! Thanks!

The spreadsheet looks great...thanks for sharing! I made a spreadsheet that incorporates all 7 of my children, the guides they use and times to work with each. It was beautiful. Simply a work of art..on paper. :glare: In practice, it left me feeling like a chicken with her head cut off running around trying to get to each kid at the right time slot, etc. Block scheduling works so much better for us but it's not perfect. I find myself just skipping stuff here and there b/c it is too much for me. 7 of them...1 of me. :001_huh: I was hoping somebody who was running more than 1 guide like I am could share a spreadsheet of how they keep it all on track. KWIM? Cause I'm at a loss. :tongue_smilie:

Janet, I am using 3 Guides here as well. Would you mind sharing your spreadsheet? There are weeks that I just can't get it together to finish all the boxes with all my dc. FWIW...we use Beyond, Bigger and RtR (my boys are mostly independent with this though). Thanks!

There were many parts/lessons in the Devotional that I did not agree with and which led me to ultimately stop using it. I shared the same opinion as the PP re: the History. I did, however, really enjoy the Burgess books as did my dc. I found that when I cut out the Devo and certain parts of the History, it just didn't make much sense to continue. We also didn't do many of the activities as my dc found them a bit "babyish". Plus, I needed the money so I sold it. :) But, to be fair, there is much to like about LHFHG and many love it. It just didn't work for us.

Back to the younger guides and what to do after MFW K (which we love)....FIAR! I find that taking a year to just explore and read and not have to follow a curriculum persay is just what we need at that age!

That is really too funny about the younger guides! I didn't like them either! I found myself cringing when I took out LHFHG, but I kept trying b/c I wanted to like it. I really wanted to like it! But, I do like Beyond and Bigger...much better than LHFHG and I like Preparing better than either of those! AND, RtR is probably my favorite so far. I can't speak for CtC since we skipped it but I am really looking forward to Rev to Rev next year!

I'm going to "guess" by your siggy that you wouldn't mind a Christian curriculum (since you are using Apologia!). HOD Bigger Hearts might be a good fit for BOTH your kids (but you would have to look at the placement chart). Guest Hollow is also a very well put together FREE AMerican History curriculum. Bright ideas press has just put out an All American History Jr. for the ages you have. Though I've not used it, I would recommend anything put out by BIP. :)

I think the most challenging box for my boys is the Research box...but that is only on Day 1. It is also the most time consuming. We usually save this for Friday as well. :tongue_smilie: There really isn't anything else that is too challenging for them. Remember though, my boys are on the older end for RtR and we don't use extensions for ds13...yet. ;) My 12yo is very bright and also very independent. We skipped CtC this year b/c of where they both fell in the placement chart (and b/c we have already done Ancients...ad nauseum). My 13yo is also bright...but lazy and not a book lover. It's enough for him to read what is scheduled must less the extensions.

I really like RtR. My boys, 12 and 13, are using it this year, and while they don't LOVE it, they do LIKE it. LOL. They don't like school period so this is a compliment. :) I don't think it takes a long time to complete and they are learning a lot. We cut out "most" of the crafts/projects simply b/c my boys are NOT artsty-craftsty at.all. I usually pre-read each Unit and decide whether we will or will not be doing the craft/project. And if so, we typically save it all for Friday instead of doing a little bit each day for 3 days. We don't use the IEW writing but have used one of the theme-based books in the past. Not my favorite for writing, but many love IEW. I love the book choices and boy devo. If you look on the HOD board, you can do a search for time spent per box in each Guide to give you a better idea how to plan.

If I remember correctly, Cymbalta is a BEAR to wean off of. Near impossible.