This has happened to us. We have raised butterflies 5ish times now. Last time one's wong didn't develop right. We kept it till it died. The kids liked it. Named it...something or another.

We have this through our homeschool association and I rarely use it because the video quality is HORRIBLE. Very blurry unless you keep it small but then you are distracted by the other stuff. I would not pay 10 cents for this, sorry.

*****I had elaborate plans again for this upcoming year... chronological, moderately intensive history. Intensive science with a singular focus.***** Me too and I started this thread and I keep reading it because things keep happening to spoil my plans. Things not in my control like today my mom had a biospy to see if a patch os skin is cancerous. My parents live with me now, since May and they are getting more of their stuff moved in this weekend. My 10 yos asthma is acting up. I must be an idiot to think I should plan anything beyond the basics! And real books.

It must be in the freakin air!!!!!!

I glance at them but not every single one. Takes maybe 3 minutes out of my day. Btw, with practice they should be able to do the who;le sheet in 5 minutes or less.

This is how I feel but I have looked into the dang things just because my kids have no homeschool friends. All their friends are at church and attend ps. But they are SO expensive here! And there are waiting lists! Thats so weird!

I feel your pain. My 12 yo was doing TT prealgebra and I saw that CLE had those placement test. For the heck of it I gave it to her and she placed in CLE 5. Yes. 5. Yea...

You may be onto something here. The past few years have been harder on me because I feel more pressure than I used to. Even though I graduated one child already and another is almost done, I feel more insecure than I used to. When I started this 11 years ago I KNEW what I was doing. I never for one second had a doubt. Now? I struggle weekly, at least. Maybe it's because I'm older. Maybe it's because my oldest child rebelled against everything we"ve ever taught her and doesn't even speak to us. But maybe it's because I have average and/or below average kids and someone decided that I'm supposed to be raising geniuses. I even feel pressure from most of the people we go to church with because we managed to find a small church with FIVE ps teachers and to hear them their schools are the greatest, the 5 year olds write paragraphs and know how to walk down the hall quietly while my 5 yo still can't tie her shoes.

Goals and beliefs have certainly changed over the years. I think that is ONE of the reasons I am resorting to oldschooling right now. LOL, I just made up a new term and am sticking it on this thread as tag. The above is a quote from Hunter. Can you explain a little more by what you mean by this? :001_smile:

Some of my files are invalid. Has this happened with anyone else? I emailed them but they never acknowledged that part of the email.

YOU, I LOVE!!! lol Now I can just start downloading what I want!

I ordered this this am and I have spent ALL day loading files. The 3rd one, #12, is invalid and I'm now on the 4th one. I have never had this problem downloading any files before.

Sonlight!! I love to read and would have LOVED "just reading" for school work. Even their science. This could explain why I've tried this a billion times with my weirdo kids who like textbooks for pete's sake! Math on the Level or Rightstart. Playing games to learn math? Great!! Only doing 5 review problems a day? Heaven on earth! Did that work with my weirdo kids? NO! ugh

Has anyone ever heard of or used this? http://christianhomeschoolhub.spruz.com/available-downloads.htm

i would love these! tammyforchrist@yahoo.com thank you!!!

Thanks for all the replies. Supplementing...hmmm...maybe I should just do that. But not LOF, this child hates to read and reads sooooooooo sloooooowly. I know there've been lots of different opinions on here about math, that's why I asked I hoped someone would come up with something that my Mommy brain can't think of.

I did give her the placement test and she placed in pre-algebra. She was coming from Saxon 76 which was taking soooooo long. I didn't think math needed to keep taking 2 hours a day. She is getting the lessons done and is passing, mostly 90's and above. But I'm thinking she needs more review because of the fact that she forgets things.

Out of curiosity I had my almost 13 yo dd take the CLE math placement test She placed in grade 5! Sh'e on lesson 31 of TT pre-algebra but forgot some of the things because she hasn't done it in awhile. :glare: So, now I'm going insane trying to decide if i should put her in CLE 5 and push her to catch up or use Lial's BCM. I HAVE Lial's and she said that would make her feel better since it's a college text but I would have to be more involved because of the size and amount of problems. The problem with that is my other 5 kids and my parents just moved in with us in May. I kepp leaning toward CLE because I "assume" it would be more independant which is why I chose TT in the first place! But I don't want to switc h around anymore and CLE doesn't have algebra.

You get a project book which is a workbook with lots of questions. Here are some that you can download for free. Some are complete. Older but complete. Some are samples. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/department_4-h_youth_development If the whole group is doing the book together then they base a lot of trips and talks and whatever on this, say trees. They get a tree expert to talk about trees and answer the questions in the book. If only one family, or one kid in a family is doing that book, the parent will stil arrange for field trips or whatever and everyone else will tag or along or not. They also have things called "judging" which, from what I gathered, the kid will learn as much as possible about something, say horses, then go to a competition and answer questions about horses. This is what the 2 different groups my kids were in did. But I could not explain 4H to a person without sayin g all of this, to save my life.

Some of my kids were actually in 4H for several years and I STILL don't get it! They held monthly meetings with certain kids as president, vive pres, treasurer, etc. and they took votes of wether they would do certain projects like have a booth at a local saftey fair thingie and tell people about 4H. So then KIDS were supposed to vote on this but in reality the PARENTS were the deciding factors because...duh...we drive! Then there would be long, drawn-out discussions about wether or not to do that. Then someone woud suggest a field trip like going to a state park and having a ranger teach about the tress and stuff. Ok, then they would have to decide how much it would cost, if we had enough money in the account, etc. Then we would go on the trip and the parents would ask 5 trillion questions so they could get all the answers that were in the project book while the older kids tried to look interested and the younger kids sweated to death and died of boredom because the moms asked so many questions. All the field trips, group project books, etc. were voted on. Most of the kids also did seperate project books and a lot of the parenst would set up field trips or demonstrations so their kids and any other who were doing the same books could get the answers. The parents did most of the work, as far as I saw. Then at the end of the school year, the kids turn in these project books and get ribbons for them. They had a very looooooong banquet where the kids were presented with the ribbons. Some of the kids would raise livestock which got auctioned off at the fair. Some showed chickens, ducks, rabbits. All of these things were awarded and it was a VERY, VERY competative atmoshphere. Also, we lived ina REAL small town and the same kids always got first place, blue ribbons, etc. BUT it wasn't really the kids doing this, it was the parents, kwim? Also, the meetings were SOOOOO unorganized even though they tried to make it look like they were organized. This sounds like I know a lot about 4H but I still don't understnad the PURPOSE of it.

:lurk5:

Has anyone purchased this? Did you get the whole thing or just parts?

THIS is us. We are Christians but my 17 yo has a lip ring and belly button ring and purple hair and my 12 yo wears make-up and high heels and I won't even LET my boys tuck in their shirts! So...no co-op or homeschool group for us!

MOTL is a book that will teach yoyu different ways to teach your child all the math they will need until they reach algebra. YOU decide what concepts, what order, etc. Then AFTER you have taught your child say, multiple division, borrowing in subrtaction, and addimng fractions (these are just random concepts), you make a worksheet with one problem from each of the concepts the child already KNOWS how to do without any extra teaching from you. Only 5 of them a day. Just 5. This can be done, if you enjoy teaching math and are willing to put forth the effort needed to teach this way. I would rather drink gasoline than teach math although I did try this, at least 3 times in the past few years.

I have tried to be a planner but every time something happens and messes it up. And it's never anything I can control, like kids getting sick, me getting sick, husband leaving town to work out of the state, etc. So forget it. BUT, I live in SC and they require a log of interaction between educator and student, which is a royal pain in my neck. So, I made copies of all the table of contents of their textbooks (which I recently switched to) and I'm writing the dates they do each lesson. That will have to suffice.