We used MFW K for PreK (4yo). My dd already knew her letters and sounds but MFW K was just perfect for her. She loved it and so did I. I liked the science and art and how it tied to the letter/word being studies. I actually can't wait to do it with my ds2 in 2 years! We used LHFHG this year and although I do like it, I don't like it as much as MFW K. It's a good thing that they are very, very different programs. :D I also do not like the devotional and so we skip it. I like the History portion, the Geography, Bible, art, etc. The math is way below my dd5 and ds7's level. It is really more PreK material. My kids don't get into the little games or dramatic play like some kids do so we skip that as well. That being said, it is bridging a nice gap for ds7 who finished MFWK but was NOT ready for MFW 1st (the phonics moved too quickly). The REading Lesson is a good bridge for him.

And to confirm my "aha" moment, I heard a message this morning on our local Christian radio station and while the preacher was praying, he was thanking God that He is big enough to handle our questions and our anger and our doubt in times or trouble and insecurity and tragedy. God didn't design us to stuff those feelings and He is certainly big enough to handle them. Thanks for the hugs. I feel better but am still rather irritable. Might be that time of the month. :D

I will see the Guide at convention in June! I'm not purchasing until then anyway so I have some time to think. Right now I do think RtR is the best fit. FWIW...CtC would have been the "best" fit for my older 2 boys this past year but b/c of budget and time I chose to put all 3 boys in Preparing. It has been a "light" year for ds11 and ds12 but certainly challenging enough.

For the most part, I think all that I want is a family farm. Our Amish friends have 112 acres, cows, chickens, horses (of course), and grow just about everything you can imagine! I don't want that. I'm certainly not romanticizing this. I know that it is HARD, HARD work and a lifestyle...not a hobby. :D It would be hard for me to raise animals to butcher. I suppose I could get used to it, but at this point can't wrap my brain around it. Gardening, raising chickens for eggs, perhaps having a dairy cow for milking or goats...at this point it is all just in the thought stage, kwim? I'm grateful to hear your experiences and wisdom. This is something I don't want to just jump into blindfolded! LOL.

Very good advice! Thank you! I do have very good friends who are Amish and run a dairy farm. I ask lots of questions already! I would LOVE to "shadow" my friend for a day to see what it is like. Getting started with what I already have is very wise! :D

:D I am not crazy and I'm not under the influence. I have been contemplating this for some time although this is the first I've voiced my musings. We own a modest home on almost 1/2 an acre. Plenty of room for the kids to run around, for a nice sized garden in the spring/summer, to keep chickens if we ever desired. I am under no delusions that owning and running a farm (even a small one) will be easy. I'm not afraid of hard work especially if it benefits my family. If you live on a farm or ever had, can you tell me what it is like? How much money are we talking upfront to either buy a farm that is already up and running or to buy the land and start one yourself? I have never lived on a farm, raised animals (unless you count hamsters, dogs and cats :tongue_smilie:), been very successful with gardening or been very domestic. But I want to be! I want to learn! I am somehow so drawn to this way of life. So, what is it really like? :bigear:

Well, I went and I am sort of glad I did. Do you ever come to a point in your life when you stop thinking that YOU are the one who is crazy and just plain ignorant and start thinking that it is actually the people around who are crazy and ignorant? :D To clarify...I used to think that I was so far behind in my spiritual walk and that my relationship with God was inadequate or lacking or somehow inferior to that of most of my Christian friends. Tonight, I had an "aha" moment. My relationship with God is REAL...complete with doubt and anger and love and trust and pain and questions and "wrestling until I knock out my hip" and just plain RAW emotion. I am real. And I am real with God. I've had it with phony facades and pretending to be somebody that I am not or to feel something that I don't or to be more perfect than I am. I am who I am. Take me or leave me. Thank you, Hive friends, for accepting me for who I am...the good, the bad and the ugly and for listening and encouraging and validating and not trying to fix me or throw "Scripture darts" at me. I love you all. :D

Rebecca, we just started HOD this year...put ds9, ds11 and ds12 in Preparing. They all placed well there (ds12 using extentions) with the exception of ds9 who would have done better in Bigger. But I could not handle another guide. He will do Preparing over 2 years. My older boys would fit WELL into RtR if I were new to HOD and just selecting a Guide. Does that make sense? They can do all the things the placement chart says they should be able to do. I am drawn to RtR for a number of reasons and my gut does tell me this is a good choice...and dh thinks so, too. I don't "want" to skip a guide...the "perfectionist" in me is cringing. :D However, RtR would be a better fit in a variety of ways. I realize there is a jump in skills and I guess I won't know for sure if it is the best fit until we get it (or look at it at convention) and start using it. Math-wise...ds11 fits perfectly, Grammar the same, DITHOR same, dictation same (he is flying through the highest level dictation in the Preparing Guide as it is) AND, most importantly, he is very capable of independent work. Ds12 fits well, too with the only exception being the independent work. He uses a different math, so that doesn't matter much. I wish we had found HOD 5 years ago and just progressed through but hindsight is always 20/20, right? ;)

I really want to skip this Bible study but there are only 4 of us. The 2 women I mentioned are the hostess and her neighbor (both moms of friends of my children). The other woman is one of my neighbors whom I really like a lot. I feel like I need to get out. And I feel guilty skipping (this is only the second week). Perhaps I'll go and just leave early. Thanks for the hugs. I wish I had somewhere to go and somebody to cry with right now.

We didn't use MFW for Ancients. They used K12 several years ago (which was basically SOTW 1 b/c SWB wrote for K12) and then MOH for Ancients. I'm sure it would be different as far as books used...but I honestly just cannot even think about doing Ancients again with ANY curriculum! LOL. I do believe that both boys could do RtR...all aspects. Ds12 is a good writer. Ds11 is as well. Ds11 is a bit more capable of independent work while ds12 needs/wants more Mom involvement, kwim? The work would not be a problem for them, I'm certain.

I don't even want to be around me right now! I'm coming off of several really good days. We're back in the "school groove", dh has been home b/c of all the snow, I've been baking and cooking (which is a miracle in itself) and have been pretty happy and content. Then today...BAM! Mrs. Grump. I'm sad...still grieving a loss that I'd rather not talk about for fear somebody will think it "trivial". I just want to cry. I'm irritable b/c my house is a wreck, dh is nursing a slight concussion suffered after he and ds11 clashed heads playing football...WITHOUT HELMETS! :glare: Ds 11 was fine. I had a therapy session today which brought to the surface all those sad feelings and now I don't know what to do with them. I have a Bible study tonight that I don't want to go to b/c 2 of the women there make me very uncomfortable b/c they are very judgemental. I'm planning school for next year and can't figure out what to do for 2 of my boys, am sad b/c ds12 wants to go to public high school in 2012/13 and while dh and I have given him permission, I am just sad about it. I'm sorry to just ramble and if you have read this far God bless you. You are either very bored right now or a saint. :D Thanks.

I've posted on the HOD board and have gotten some great answers/suggestions as always. I want to post here as well b/c, well, I figure I could get some more, um, "unbiased" advice? :) Here is my dilemna: Ds9, 11 and 12 are finished Preparing. Ds9 will keep doing it half-speed and finish by end of next school year b/c of the time he has missed. Ds11 and 12 will be ready to move on. Ds12 wants to go to public high school in 2 years (2012/13 school year) where he will study the 2nd half of Amer. Hist in 9th. He hasn't had a good background in the 1st half yet! So far since we have started hsing he has had Ancients, Rome to Ref., more Ancients using MOH, Geography with MFW, Geography and some history at ps last year and now World History using Preparing. If we follow the HOD sched, the boys will do CtC and I must say I am so not excited about doing Ancients AGAIN and neither are they! I want to skip CtC and do RtR. Can I do this? Will they be missing anything crucial? Age-wise, RtR fits them. Ds11 is a very independent worker and can easily do the work. Ds12 needs more hand-holding but he can do it, too. What do you think? Do I have permission to skip CtC? :D I can then do a mini-semester over the summer in Amer. Hist to get ds12 ready for public high school.

My 6yo boy enjoyed the first one b/c he LOVED the Virginia Burton books (Mike Mulligan and Katy). He as obcessed with Mike Mulligan for some time. ;) We really enjoyed the other stories as well. Of vourse, Vol 1 is the only one we did so I can't speak to the others. Generally speaking each Vol. gets more challenging so that your boys, depending on their ability level, would prob fit better in the later Vols. Make sense?

:grouphug: We've lost 5 little ones to miscarriage. It is a pain that doesn't ever fully go away. I'm so sorry for your losses.

I'm really looking forward to using this in a few years. Carrie Austin of HOD is planning to use this for her upcoming Geography curriculum due out in a couple years. Her 9th grader is using it this year and she raves about it.

Did you use hot water to fill it? My birth tub had a heater that was meant only to KEEP the water heated, not to actually heat it up, kwim? Might wanna check that. Good luck!

I'm with you. We have 7 and the past few years have been wwwaaayyy overwhelming for us and now with the special needs of ds9...dh is adamant about not wanting more. He is done. Period. Me? I'm crazy enough to want more. One more. But unless God intervenes, we are done.

As I have posted before, my dd14 is a young 9th grader having started school at age 4. The cutoff was late Dec. in MD when she started school. All of her friends now in PA are almost a year or more older than her. The cutoff in PA has always been Sept. 1. This has never been a problem for her academically...she has always been right on target or advanced. She is very immature "socially" in that she still enjoys playing with younger girls, fits in much better with her middle school friends at church, etc. I'm happy with this. I am looking to the future and her graduating at 17 and starting college at 17. I believe that to be rather young to be away from home (if she would go away to college...it is likely she will do local comm. clge. for 2 yrs). I don't want to "hold her back" a grade b/c she is capable of 9th grade material but I want to give her time to mature. Does this make sense? How would it look to colleges if she took 5 years to complete high school? Would it matter at all? She would still keep up the pace of a normal course-load. Perhaps she would even just delay college for a year to pursue interests more or go on missions trips. She would like to be a missionary one day. What do you all think? Thanks.

You just described my ds9. If you have followed my threads re: this child, you know that we are fighting the same battles. :grouphug: It is draining. The rages were awful. A diagnosis of mood disorder or ODD or whatever doesn't change the behavior. KWIM? We were so frustrated and so against meds but finally had to relent b/c this child was destroying our family. We had him put on Celexa for irritability and it has really taken the edge of his rages if not eliminated them. That in itself is a blessing and gives us the energy and time to work on his focus issues and behavioral problems. Does that make sense? He is a very bright child who learns quickly but can't focus on long assignments. We break his work in bite-size pieces. I can't tell you whether or not to try the meds but can only say that I understand NOT wanting to go that route. For my son, the psych started him on 1/2 the lowest possible dose of Celexa and when we found he tolerated that he upped it to the full lowest dose. That's what he is on now. He has NO side effects AT ALL except possible a bit of excitability (which doesn't help with his focus issues :glare:). But I'll take that over rages any day. I'm going to try something natural for his focus. There is a formula that was recommended to me on another board called "Sea Buddies Concentrate" found at iherbs.com. :grouphug: to you and good luck.

I am so sorry. :grouphug: Losing somebody that special to you is so very difficult. I "lost" somebody very close to me over a year ago (very different situation, not lost to death, but lost none-the-less). The feelings of grief are very similar if not the same. I would suggest, as other PPs have said, finding somebody IRL that you can talk to, with whom you feel safe enough to just break down and cry. God gave us tears for this reason...like a catharsis and to relieve all those sad, angry, yucky feelings. Can you find a therapist near you who can help you work through this? Very few people know "how" to grieve and just get stuck; a therapist can really help you. One last piece of advice is to ALLOW yourself to feel EVERYTHING that you are feeling inside. Do NOT beat yourself up over feeling sad, angry, bitter, depairing, depressed, hopeless...whatever you are feeling at whatever time. One day you might feel okay. The next you might even be happy. The next you might not want to get out of bed b/c the sadness feels so heavy and suffocating. All of that is okay. I wish I could do something for you but I will pray that God will comfort you during this time of grief. :grouphug:

Karen, thanks. I think that I will have to force myself to check her work at the end of each day and go over errors like you suggested. I spoke to dd and am making her use lined paper to show her work and to show each and every step of her problem. Hoping something helps. I am also considering purposely holding her back and counting this year as 8th grade as she is young (started K at age 4) and had she started here in PA, she would only be in 8th. Make sense? That will give her and ME another 1/2 year to really make some changes in her habits and have a successful 9th grade year and beyond. Thanks everyone.

It seems her mistakes are 95% due to carelessness, sloppy work, rushing, etc. The rest are problems with comprehension. She uses Saxon Alg. 1, btw. I check her problem sets every week on Fri. but she comes to me if she has questions throughout the week. We go over problems together on those she either gets incorrect or doesn't understand. I have her re-take the tests she does poorly on to see if she can correct her answers by being neater and taking more time on the problems. This usually helps. I guess I was just concerned about keeping her test grades as the Cs or below, adding them together to come up with the end of year grade. It makes better sense to just use the end of year exam for her grade. Thanks.

I'm not sure how else to say this. My dd14 is a young 9th grader (just turned 14 in late Nov.). She has always been a good student (at home & at public school). She is doing MFW Ancients this year and really likes it. I do as well. She does well in all subjects except writing (she hates it) and now, surprisingly, math (Alg. 1). She says she understand the material but when she takes the test, she consistently gets Cs or even below. :001_huh: I'm at a loss as to how to continue. Do I assign these grades and count them toward her cum. GPA and just keep moving forward or do I stop, rewind a bit and go over these tests with her until she understands all the material and can pass with a B or above? I want her to understand the material (master it) and have never before been concerned with assigning a "grade". That means nothing to me except as a diagnostic tool to tell me with what she is struggling, kwim? But this is high school and I must assign a grade. How would you handle this? Thanks.

We are doing Preparing now and I really do like it. I'm a bit frustrated b/c my boys don't seem to enjoy it as much as I do. :glare: But, then again, my boy don't like school, period. LOL. I like HOD b/c of the "box layout" I love having everything that I need for that day on a neat 2 pg. spread. No flipping back and forth btwn. pages, kwim? But you know this if you've used HOD at all. I like all of the books chosen for this particular curriculum (so far...we are only in wk. 14). I like how my older boys can do it mostly independently which frees me up to teach the youngers. If you are a sciency type person, you might find the science lacking. My 12yo wants more science. So we use Rainbow Science for him. All-in-all I am quite happy with it and plan to continue with CtC for my 11yo 5th grader for next year and jump to the new Rev to Rev guide coming out for ds12 only b/c he will be going to public high school and will study 2nd half of Amer. Hist. in 9th. So...since he's had a lot of Ancients and quite a bit of Rome to Ref...the new Rev to Rev guide is perfect...topic-wise and age-wise. :D

:grouphug: You are not a bad Mom. You are super Mom who loves her son and was at her wits end as to how to help him. I've been there too many times to count with my own ds9 who I have posted about many times before. They sound exactly alike. I wish I had answers for you but we are still in the middle of this nightmare, too. Just know you are not a bad Mom and you are not alone. Ds9 was finally given a sort-of-diagnosis of mood disorder-NOS. Medication (an anti-depressant) has really helped prevent those types of rages. I will also add that 11yo is about the time my ds12 got very defiant and aggressive. And he doesn't have any known psychological issues like our ds9. Ds12 is also as sweet and loving as can be to his 2yo brother. It's like Jekyl and Hyde sometimes. I also agree that computer games/video games, etc. can be very addicting to many adolescents and he might have been going through "withdrawal". Does that make sense? I hope you get some rest tonight and wake up refreshed and recharged. Hang in there!