Come and go with me! I am taking the two oldest girls. They have no idea. <giggle> My 13yo has yet to go to something more than a tribute band at a park. I cannot wait to see her eyes when she sees all of the musicians and all of the stages ... and all of the PEOPLE. It will be a small piece of heaven for her. I am more excited for her than I am to see some new bands/groups.

I will add a few more links then to this thread this evening ... if you like the use of original documents to draw conclusions. Oh, and look at the samples of the Critical Thinking Company books for history. We have done the lessons for Roanoke, Declaration of Independence, and now working on the Constitution. These were are just super. I was never impressed with Mind Benders, but their history books did wow me.

Do you know how close this is to South Carolina ... lower taxes, more bang for your dollar too. I am in Rock Hill ... and the back commute to downtown Gastonia isn't but about 30 minutes and I am pretty far out. :) You do still have to watch your areas, but it is a great experience to not be confined and be 40 minutes from literally hundreds of things. We are going gold mining! We studied the Gold Rush, LOL. You don't have to live in NC. Our York group is fun too. We also do lots with Carolina Homeschoolers when we can. You would also be closer to Lake Academy ... private school that will take the kids for one subject or any variety. Another point, the school districts let the kids play sports too. Not so everywhere. Just wanted to add to your confusion. :laugh: ETA: Mathews to Gastonia in the morning is a nightmare and very long commute even with 485.

Fallout boy - Save Rock & Roll Imagine Dragons - Night Visions Of Mice and Men - Restoring Force Paramore - Paramore My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade And then ... I am going to Van's Warp Tour in a few weeks. :)

http://web.wm.edu/hsi/?svr=www Now that is just plain cool! History Investigations - like criminal case files.

I could use them. I will post the lesson plan once I get it together over the next month or so. How about some help? LOL Tips? What was hard? What made it easier?

Funny you ask ... http://www.learner.org/resources/series85.html I found the Prentice Hall book and requested it at the library, but I was also looking for a copy to view of http://www.ebay.com/itm/Human-Geography-People-Place-and-Culture-/181439151570?pt=US_Texbook_Education&hash=item2a3e9dbdd2

http://www.discountpartysupplies.com/gnome-figurines.html?zmam=33473167&zmas=1&zmac=5&zmap=200224000000_fvr123843&catargetid=1845404585&cadevice=c&gclid=CM32qcS_hr8CFUwV7AodhT8AMw Party Supplies .... 12 for 6

We used liners. That pretty much killed the smell. The box was holding the odor. Also, we use clay liters with scent. You can add cedar to the litter too.

No matter what just keep at it ... :001_smile:

That's it! I could not remember yesterday what the first two books were that the girls worked through. I have a third and she needs them too. I was resigned to have to dig through the old stuff and hope the portfolios had pages with workbook titles on them. Gah ... thanks!

Well some things I agree with but there are a few that do not meet what I would typically call good layout. Too much white space and I feel like I am wasting paper. Use Top and Bottom layouts for clipart only if it is large. Otherwise, do wrap text but increase the padding around the image. You can bleed the image beyond the margin (but watch trim size) Keep images to RGB and CMYK (When preparing images, open your image software and set the RGB to Adobe RGB. There is a CMYK value that is preferred too (a concern is sending to the printer).) This is a peeve of mine. Which image prints better? TIFF / BMP for print Watch DPI for printed images too - 600 DPI is usually the norm. I do logos/cards at a higher DPI, but 300 will print great from PDF and 600 if going to publisher. Allow a method of completion for each lesson/day. I hate the "2 weeks", and no indicator of what should be adequately accomplished in a day. Do not start lessons on just any new page. If we print double sided, that can be an issue when separating lessons. New lessons (chapters) should be on the right hand page always. It is OK to leave a blank page on the left hand side. Insert blanks as you need them. (which reminds me that you should use running headers ... top of the page indicating the lesson/chapter title ... google this) Use an increased left margin but you may want to use mirrored margins for the purpose of binding. Check the margin specs for page count, i.e. outside margins are .25 and up to 400 pages the inside margin is .75 You will need to check the trim size of the page, final page size, if you are printing to PDF or sending to the printer. Yes, you need the front matter - e.g. title page - and there are lists of what is appropriate and the order that they should be presented. professional appearance = professional respect If you use any sources that are not public domain, follow the rules .... many parts of good subject content are often edited out because permission could not be obtained. Don't forget to document your notes and references appropriately. (Not MLA style ... don't forget. :) ) Font should not be smaller than 10 points ever. Weird things ... one space after periods and colons because of space and printing of the postcript or opentype fonts. Never use more than three heading levels - never ever. Indicate by size, boldface or italic type. I have not prepped for print in sometime, but those are the things that I end up fixing. :) HTH Website ... remember that there are federal US regulations when you start dealing with financial information. You will have to have a an account with a merchant services provider, like Paypal's business. You will have to pay a fee to the service provider. Watch the design - a cheesy site will turn me away every time if it looks like "mom" did it. Again ... professional website = professional appearance The sites is your skirt, heels, and jacket. Keep it simple t hough! Have you seen Oak Meadow lately uggghhh .... visit donnayoung.org and feel the difference. Whatever you do ... do not make me click more than three times for something or I and 90 percent of all traffic will leave. That is a ***rule of web site authoring***. (I do this on the side and freelance a bit. I keep to the rules and my sites typically rank well as they meet SEO guidelines and W3C standards.) Do not use a marketing company that cannot tell you what W3C is. ETA: I sent you a pm.

Yes, agree.

I think that you are on to something here. I am definitely and extrovert and comfy in anything that I put on my body no matter the frump scale.

OK, I think it is too short too. I am a prude. I get the point though. It is hard when rules are not clearly applied and she wore the dress to school before that incident. Time to make a point. Yes, mom did pull it off OK, but she needed a sweater and leggings! (Hiding)

That cracked me up ....roflol To the OP - I wouldn't, but I am freaky about having to have everything just right and just so. You may be able to do it, but what about the other people on the road? They may not be able too.

Check the trees ... mine would hide for girl talk. Silly kids. Let us know when you find them.

I hate to admit it, but I went in a t-shirt, duck pj bottoms, and my slippers! I just needed glue sticks! LOL I told the kids to wait just a minute and I would be right back. Daddy laughed at me. I got back, and he says "I would have gone and picked them up for you" :lol: I forgot he was even home! ETA: The Chinese dragons were gorgeous.

Maybe you need to homeschool to learn the general rules of life? :huh:

Logic Liftoff here too and it was great. I used one book each year for 5-7. You could start them earlier with a good reader.Yes, the liftoff series is rigorous without being too over complicated. No religious foundation. I am moving on to Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox this year for basic logic. The first two do contain some Christian ethics and morals from what I have read. I will let you know once I read through them myself, but I know secular families that have used them. This is not a problem for us. Next, I am using Art of Argument and Discover of Deduction for introductory logic (high school credit). Teach them to argue informally and an introduction to formal logic with the study of how an argument is put together. There are quite a few critical thinking company books that you could intertwine with other subjects too. I like the history and science quite a bit. The history ones are best left for junior/high school aged students. They require some work.

I have used outlining, summary and sentences books. You should look at the rest of them. http://www.rempub.com/writing Remedia is my favorite. I love the Highlights in History series too. Forgot to answer you: Yes, very, very easy to use. The kids loved the simplicity and straight forward approach. I liked the variety and the fact that the skill was accomplished at the level that I expected by the end of the book. Yes, the kids did retain and apply it.

I checked MHEonline too. Nada.

I have used clear contact paper for years. I do like it. That is the first thing we do with literature that we have purchased for the year. I do the notebooks (composition style) too. I have the kids decorate them with cutouts, stickers, and the like. Worth the 10 dollars. :) Buy a very big roll. You will not stop.

The Kingfisher, white book, from years ago is an example of how up and down the price can go. At one point, I saw them for $280. Demand drove that price up. I have the red cover that followed. I have seen it for as much as $120, and sometimes as low as $15. Nuts.

As soon as they come out of the pool from practice, I had them shower. I bought the towel wraps for the hair. When the girls came out we used the special swimmer's conditioner. They wrapped their hair and rinsed in the sink when we got home. This was the only way that I could keep their hair soft and manageable. Practice 3 to 5 times and hours in the pool each week and it worked. BTW rinse off at the public pool ... they should have an outside shower somewhere for that reason.