We're using her Chemistry unit right now and it is really good. I may have to do this grammar one too. The mapping one looks fun also. Very cool!

I used Analytical Grammar and we also used Harvey's (Mott Media).

My reasons for not chosing CC: 1. We've already done some of the curriculums (SOTW, bluestocking Economics, Drawing With Children are a few I noticed). 2. Some curriculums we wouldn't choose (Saxon-We like A Beka and Foerster, FLVS and other units/kits for Science etc., using Classical Writing.) 3. I just can't see paying $$$ and spending that much time for something I can teach at home. I suspect the meetings are similar to coops I've been at-too many kids and too little control. It takes more time to teach in that environment and IMO it just isn't efficient. 4. It is my understanding that the children get 'homework' on the non CC days. One of the major problems I had with regular school was the helpless and disjointed feeling of not knowing exactly what was covered in the class and yet having to help with homework. I don't want to teach homework for another teacher. I'm sure CC works for some and if that is the case then I think that is great. The idea is to do what works. :)

We're a martial arts family (Taekwondo). My son and I have Black Belts and I think it is one of the best sports. If you get a good Dojo and Sensei you will learn much more than the Taekwondo forms. It is great for teambuilding and builds confidence. We like horses too but the ones that are good near us are very expensive and I like sports we can do pretty much year round indoors.

It is predictable form writing but one of my daughters loved them so we let her read as much as she wanted in her spare time. You can get them in huge lots on Ebay. I sold ours when my daughter read her stacks of them. I figure if it encourages reading speed then there is value in that.

Scary! What kind of snake is that? It looks HUGE!

I didn't use a program. We followed a classical format and kept to the general guidelines for college entry for FL. Our son began college as an early entrant at 10th grade. All he needed to do was pass an entrance test. His classes from that point on were at the college even though we kept him as homeschool high school because the tuition was free for those 3 years (we had to pay for books). Now he has a full Bright Futures scholarship and everything is free and he made a seamless transition from homeschool to college because he was already in college for those 3 years. We have never even needed a transcript but I have all the records in case we need one and he has taken the PSAT and the ACT.

We had a horrible time trying to find one too! Finally found one at Staples.

This is really scary and I agree with the others that something seems off about this. 2 years is a long time to have been kept in the dark. I'm something of an overprotective alarmist but I'd be getting her name, license and whatever else I could and be calling a reputable private investigator. I know it sounds very untrusting but I'd tell my son I was doing it for his own good anyway. I'm just a meanie I guess.

I wouldn't be ok with that situation at all. I can see why you're upset. However, you don't have much control over what with acceptable and responsible to other people. They probably leave the child alone and have a casual relationship with the neighbor to 'keep an eye out' and don't think anything can happen. IMO 8 is too young and I wouldn't feel right about making the neighbor responsible like that (or assuming she would be responsible). I also think they should NEVER have left without giving you a heads up that they wouldn't be at the house. That would have given you the option to watch all the kids or ask your child to return home. Personally, I wouldn't address it with the other parents but would make a mental note to have the playdates at my home if possible, and explain to your child that if there is no adult in physical presence then she is to return home immediately...and bring all the parentless friends along too. :)

This is such a wonderful and insightful post! Honestly, I am going to print it out and stick it right where I will see it everyday since I'm dealing with a dysfunctional family (thankfully they're at a distance!) too. Everything you said about obsessing on things you can't change robbing you is sooooo true. Thank you for posting this!

So true. I am experiencing a similar issue with my sister who is financially exploiting our mother. After years of trying to help, I realize now that I was more of a sounding board for my mom's griping about a situation she wouldn't ever remedy. Years of anxiety and lawyer fees to help mom didn't help-she had allowed the situation to go on too long. It sounds like your niece and sister are real losers but your mom is enabling them and co-dependent. They're all running their own agendas. Personally, sending the congrats card might be a little bit of an eye-opener for your mom. Maybe if she sees a few "congratulations on all your hard work' kinda cards and how N takes all the credit she might wise up or at least feel a little put out. I wonder what she will do now that N is graduated? Is your mom planning to go to graduate school? :lol:

There might have been a time that the fact the kid is homeschool would have surprised me. I know now (after many hsing years) that bad manners are found anywhere and you can't assume that people homeschool to keep their children away from bad influences that they can pick up and imitate. What shocks me most about this is the nonchalant attitude of the coach and other parents. Since this happened to your child, you have the right to expect the coach to take appropriate action. Even if it is late in the season, I would make it very clear to him that it is his responsibility to maintain a non-threatening environment. He dropped the ball - so to speak. I'd approach him again but this time with a demand that he take action if it happens again. As far as your dh getting into it with the child...that IMO is a big no-no. I would discourage dh from any back and forth from now on. That child obviously has problems and you never know what he could accuse your dh of doing in order to defect blame from himself.

This! :)

Ohhh I want to know this too! I've been thinking that would be a good way to get north and see the sights from FL. :lurk5:

Call Amazon right away. They might be able to cancel one of the orders at their end if they have processed yet. If they have, see what they can do for you. If it is early enough you might be able to avoid dealing with the sellers. X'ing my fingers for you. Let us know how it goes. Edited to add: Telephone Amazon...that is about the only way I've ever had much success with them.

That is fantastic! My son got a 31 on the ACT and he has a full scholarship..tuition, books, dorm-the works. This looks really good for you! Congrats!

:lurk5:

Several years ago, I got some from Dover Publishing. They came in a book but were designed to be taken out. Here is a link to get you started: http://store.doverpublications.com/0486435717.html

I'll try since we just studied this. As I understand it, electron want to have 8 electrons in the outer shell. If there is anything less than 8 they will steal another. If there are 4 atoms in the outer shell then it is +-4 'valance'. 5 and up the electron will try to get more to complete the 8. Anything less than 4 and the electron will try to get rid of the outer shell and therefore ending up with the next to last as the outer shell (it will already have 8). The number of electrons that an outer shell wants to get or get rid of in order to have a full outer shell is the VALANCE number. Example: An electron with 6 electrons in the shell has a valance of -2 because it wants to steal two to make the total of eight. An electron with 2 in the outer shell will have a valance of +2 because it is easier to get rid of the two instead of stealing 6 more. The outer shell is called the Valance shell. I'm guessing the term 'valance' just refers to it being a cover or outer layer. About the hydrogen...I'm going to have to leave that for now since we're off to see 'UP' but if nobody can help you out in the meantime, I'll see what I can find because I think we read something about that too. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the update. I've been getting updates via email from Caring Bridge and progress is painfully slow. The family is very brave. The pneumonia is very scary. I hope they can get the breathing tube out soon. I think getting that out would be a huge step in the right direction. We're keeping the family in our thoughts.

Don't forget to check out Hake Grammar. We like it. It has a writing component but you don't need to use it and it isn't much anyway. The grammar (with diagramming) is straightforward and all we needed.

There was a good amount of geometry on the ACT according to my son. He said the brush up we did was very useful.

We did math, vocabulary and the Elson Readers. We're almost finished with The Elements (Chemistry Unit). Today in their vocab (Wordly Wise) they read about the Titanic so that started us on a day long quest to find interesting Titanic material. We have a Netflix account so we were able to find that old 1958 movie, A Night To Remember and it is a free immediate download. I have a cable hookup from the computer to the wide screen tv and we watched that movie. It is such a sad movie and while I've seen it several times, I see something new every time. Then we watched a Unitedstreaming show that showed an expedition to gain information about why the Titanic sank so quickly. It was very interesting and presented new information. Then we found a fun online Titanic game (a hidden pictures kind of thing) that the kids enjoyed. Since they are doing the summer library program and they can do film critiques, I had them complete one for the movie and they can turn those into the librarian tomorrow. Now my little one wants to check out books on the Titanic. It was fun to see how reading one thing for vocab turned into a mini unit study of sorts. I'm working on being more flexible and seizing teaching moments where the kids are especially interested so I'm kinda proud of our progress today. :D:D June 1st is the start of our Hogwarts Summer Correspondence school and I've got lots of cool stuff planned for that!

I use a mac too and wanted this same thing. I used Edu-Track with my pc and liked it. I looked all over for a good Mac program and none of them were as good as Edu-track. What I ended up doing was buying Parallels for the Mac and now I can run pc programs on my Mac. Parallels cost $79. It works great. I weighed the expense of purchasing mac software all separate or the one time cost of Parallels that will let me run all my favorite pc programs on the Mac in a Windows environment. It was a good deal because I have some favorite graphics programs that I had for the pc and I can manipulate them in Parallels and then export it over to the mac environment. It is like having two computers in one now.