We're reading it right now for SL Eastern Hemisphere, and my boys love it! Every time I say we're stopping for the day, I hear, "Noooooooo!"

Don't feel badly! My daughter is a National Merit Scholar and didn't pass the grocery store test either last summer. She ended up working at Taco Bell which, around here, is the armpit of fast food restaurants, but she got a great internship this summer.

I just finished reading the seasonal allergy thread and have a related question. My ds12 suffers from allergies and is congested most of the time, but he also gets what we refer to as allergy attacks. Out of nowhere, he starts rapid, repeated sneezing, his face itches to the point that he is rubbing his nose like crazy with both hands, and the snot literally flows. This is followed up with coughing, and, with the most recent attack, he was wheezing and having trouble breathing. He said he feels "trapped in my own body". We haven't been for allergy testing because he knows what's involved and refuses despite my best arguments. He's extremely needle and pain phobic; we have to sedate for most everything at the dentist. We haven't been able to pin down any specific trigger or pattern. This happens indoors and out and at houses other than ours. Does this sound asthma related? I'm not sure how asthma presents. Thoughts?

I've only read a few of the other posts, but here's my two cents worth. Our income is only about $50,000 a year, so college would seem impossible for our four children but we intend for them all to go in some form. We believe that degrees are important, but that the standard, four-year, live-on-campus plan isn't for everyone. My oldest dd got a full ride based on her PSAT scores (she's a National Merit Scholar) and is living on campus at a four-year, private university. Her younger sister, however, has struggled a little in school, but has strengths that big sister doesn't have. She's finishing high school this year, but is a fabulous, hardworking, intuitive employee and has loads of common sense and people skills. She will take a gap year to do a year-long missions internship and take a few online CC courses. Then we will reevaluate. Her plan is evolving and we're just being fluid with it. We're not sure what will happen with our two ds's who are in middle and elementary school right now. We firmly believe that God has a plan for them and will make a way, so faith is a big factor in our lives. We have no college savings, but firmly believe that there will be provision for what each of our children needs to live successful lives. It will likely be a combination of sources of funding and creative approaches to getting it done, but fear is not a factor--you can't live like that.

My oldest just left for her third year of college, and we've transitioned to "if it doesn't fit in your own car, leave it behind because we're not going this time." We finally decided that it didn't make sense for us to spend $300-$400 on taking the family and a second car just to haul $200 worth of stuff that wouldn't fit in her car. "They've got stores" is my husband's mantra at this time of year.:001_smile: At move-in day on her campus we saw all sorts of packing systems . . . from throw it all in some laundry baskets helter-skelter to perfectly taped and labeled boxes. We even saw one kid hauling in his own dresser from home with all of his clothes still in the drawers! Nobody really cares what anybody else is doing because they're all too busy. You really will get more in the car if you go squishable. However, the totes with lids make great extra storage under the bed for all the stuff that has nowhere to go in those teeny-tiny dorm rooms. We put the bed on risers and use every inch underneath!

This. makes. me. sad. Ugh!!!

Know thyself! If reading the boards makes you second guess (which it does me), then take a nice, long board break and get to know your curriculum in relationship to your kiddo. Your curriculum is your medium of instruction . . . your clay . . . mold it to your teaching style and your child's needs. I have perfectionist tendencies, so I'm always looking for the "perfect" thing when the reality is that I'm pretty sharp and could probably make just about anything work if I'd take the time to get creative with it. I allow myself to spend a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of time on the boards in the summer while planning and purchasing, but I discipline myself to stay away as much as possible during the teaching months. I just have to settle in and do my thing so that I don't derail myself. Give it a go for a couple of months before jumping ship! For all of the posts that you find about someone loving a curriculum choice, you will find as many that don't. I hope you have a great year!

I'm deciding on levels of MEP for my two ds for this year, and I see that through Level 4 there are answers to the practice books. Are the answers for levels 5 and 6 elsewhere, or not available? :confused: I really don't want to work all that math myself, although it would serve to grease the brain gears that have gotten slack over the summer!:001_smile:

We live in an 85 year-old house with those same baseboards and we love them. We have a gap in places, and quarter round trim was our solution. I would agree that removing them will cause plaster damage and the repair for that might be more unsightly than the new trim.

I haven't read the other responses, but CREEPY! If you feel uncomfortable (and I definitely would) that's your mom alarm going off . . . trust it. Any arrangements should be made through parents, and the church needs to be alerted that they have a volunteer "going rogue". It sounds like, at the very least, the church needs to train people of procedures.

I just checked the mail, and a book that I ordered from ebay just arrived; the wrapper looks like it's been chewed up by a machine or run over by a truck. It wasn't very expensive, and I didn't request insurance; I wonder if there is any recourse for this? It was mailed in a plastic mailing envelope which is slashed open on one side and chewed up/torn on the other. One side of the book has a deep crease from top to bottom and one corner is heavily scuffed and blackened. Any experience with this?

Absolutely! Yes, please!! If I pay you up front would that help with motivation? :D What if I pay you a lot???:lol:

I have to wholeheartedly agree with the poster who said that your family is your ministry right now. You are furthering the Kingdom of Heaven by preparing your children; your impact on the world will be multiplied through them. Just avoid the guilt and comparing; you don't have to explain yourself. In our church, there are less taxing ways to serve: greeting, ushering, making meals for families in need, making phone calls, etc. You might inquire if there are jobs like this that need to be done.

We're going to create our own "handbooks" this year using composition notebooks. Math handbooks will be a place to right down new terminology, show examples of new procedures, record math facts, etc. Similar to the idea of the Write Source handbooks that you can get for language skills, except they will create these as they go to reinforce learning and then have them to refer to when they get stuck. I want to do something similar for grammar and also create personal dictionaries of spelling words and vocabulary that each student struggles with.

With you "managing" his learning without him knowing it, I think you can get a lot of mileage with a plan like this. I would simply add to include practice in oral skills (narration/recitation), which can be done in a very casual way and still accomplish a great deal. Make sure you spend lots of time talking about what he's reading, casually "quizzing" math and language arts skills and letting him expound on what he's read. Show great interest in any little thing he's willing to share from his reading, restate what he's told you to show that you're listening, ask leading questions and it should spur him on to want to delve in further. Good luck! You're inspiring me to pare things down a bit and leave room to breathe.

Around here (West Texas), it likely would have been a feral pig, but the slurping would have been accompanied by snorting, and rooting and they come in groups. Bears would probably do me in on camping!

Okay, hubby works for a health insurance company and says employees can get free glucose meters, so he'll tend to that on Monday. I'm going to monitor at home, clean out the pantry a bit, and think through some better eating strategies. If that helps, I'll wait until my thyroid checkup in a couple of months and talk to my doc about the sugar crashes. If the diet and exercise changes don't seem to help, I'll go sooner. Thank you all so much for offering your wisdom. I've had other health problems for so long that I'm not sure what normal feels like anymore. This will force me to make health choices that I've needed to make for a long time. I've been in the giving up zone for a while, but I've got too much to do and too many people depending on me to put up with this any longer! Thank you, again.

I figured that was what was going on. I forgot to mention that lately when I eat sugary/high carb foods I feel like crud afterwards--naseous and my head feels . . . well, weird. I'm not taking any kind of supplements, and I'm struggling with so much fatigue/joint pain/pelvic issues that I haven't been eating well at all--it's like everything takes overwhelming effort, even when I know it shouldn't. I need to lose about 70 lbs. I've had a struggle getting thyroid meds regulated and we're trying a new one, but I can't tell if my fatigue and joint pain is from too much or too little. I've been just trying to power through and get life done anyway, but if you look at my house it's obvious that I'm not accomplishing much. I hate always having to use how I feel as an excuse for not being able to do things, but that's the reality right now. AND, I hate going to the doctor, but I guess I'm just going to have to get over that. It just seems like there are never really any definitive answers. Okay, done whining. Thanks for the info and encouragement.

Since SL is so history-based, can anyone see a way to do one week of history and then one week of science if using SL. We really dislike doing every subject every day because the boys feel like they just get into something fun and then we have to stop. We'll definitely do Bible, Math, and Language Arts every day, but I'd like to block schedule everything else in some fashion. Opinions?:001_smile:

Lately, I've been having episodes that come on very quickly where I get queasy, extremely hot and sweaty, shaky, and weak. This is accompanied by hunger, and, by the time I get to the kitchen, I want to eat everything in sight as fast as possible. I'm sure I looked ridiculous today. This happened around lunchtime; there was a box of cereal left on the counter. I just grabbed a handful and was stuffing it in as fast as it would go. Ridiculous, but I felt panicked. I was too weak to stand and make food, so my daughter heated up some leftovers for me and after twenty minutes or so all was well. I'm guessing this is a blood sugar issue. Both of my grandparents were insulin-dependent diabetics. I also have a fairly severe hypothyroid condition that has been difficult to regulate lately and have an ovarian cyst (and I suspect endo) that causes a lot of pain at various times of the month. Anyone have experience with this? Is there a medical solution, or is it just to eat more frequently? Any info would be appreciated.

Not completely set in stone, or completely purchased . . . :glare: Grammar-Rod and Staff 5 or 6 Writing-Essentials in Writing 7 Spelling/Vocab-Rod and Staff 7 Literature-Sonlight F Handwriting-Daily Practice wkbk. Math (remediating after a year of K12 through Virtual Academy)-Key to Fractions/Decimals/Percents . . . then moving into something Pre-Algebra History/Geography-Sonlight F Spanish-The Easy Spanish Bible-Who is God? and Foundations 1 Science-NO CLUE (he wants mechanical/electrical/engineering)

Generally, covers and paper quality may differ. Page numbers are often different, but other than that they are basically the same. International editions often don't come with accompanying CD's.

Tee-hee! I'm going to have to show this thread to my husband to make my fines look better. About $60 was our worst so far. Kind of like watching Hoarders to make you feel better about the state of your house! :D (Not meant in an insensitive way at all.)

This sounds like just what we're going to do. My boys will be in 5th and 7th, except 5th grader should really probably be in 4th. He started 1st grade at 6, but was a preemie and would have been better off to wait a year. I don't want to give him the stigma of holding him back, so we're going to call it 5th but work at his ability level. All that said, he's going to do RS 3 English and Spelling (since he's behind in LA skills) and 7th grade ds is going to do English 5, but will probably do Spelling on grade level (his LA is on/above grade level, but RS 5 is a significant program). I need to look at the spelling again to be sure.

We haven't used 7th or 8th, but have used Biology and Integrated Physics and Chemistry for my non-sciency dd. There are no labs, but we supplemented with a dissection kit and virtual labs online. She is not going anywhere near science as a career, and so even though this was light, it got the job done for us.