My pastor's wife just called looking for a program to teach our Jr High kids. She has had no luck with traditional church resource suppliers, and is hoping that the homeschool market has something to offer. She is looking for something that will help them to walk throught the OT, but she wants them to see that the God that they see in the OT is still relevant to their lives today. She is also looking for an element of fun/activity as well. Is there anything that comes even close? I have sent her links to the Apologia worldview curr, AIG, Explorer Bible Study, Balancing the Sword, and Beechick's Finding Our Roots. Have I missed anything? She knows that she will probably have to pull from several resources to find what she is looking for, so any suggestions that come close would be helpful. Thanks,

My pastor's wife just called looking for a program to teach our Jr High kids. She has had no luck with traditional church resource suppliers, and is hoping that the homeschool market has something to offer. She is looking for something that will help them to walk throught the OT, but she wants them to see that the God that they see in the OT is still relevant to their lives today. She is also looking for an element of fun/activity as well. Is there anything that comes even close? I have sent her links to the Apologia worldview curr, AIG, Explorer Bible Study, Balancing the Sword, and Beechick's Finding Our Roots. Have I missed anything? She knows that she will probably have to pull from several resources to find what she is looking for, so any suggestions that come close would be helpful. Thanks,

If you look your Loom disk and click on the online updates, you will see that when a book goes oop, there is a replacement shown and a link to print a new page with the changes. There also seems to be a link to print the oop page as well. Since I purchased someone's books from the 1st printing and I have TOG 2nd printing, I can now print schedules to go with the books I have. I have not actually tried printing the pages yet, I just discovered this a few days ago.

Of course they can. Sonlight is a very good curriculum that has been around for many years and many have gone on to college after using it. You can read just as may threads that say that TOG is too much. What it comes down to is what are you looking for in educating your children and how do you want to approach that education.

Yes, once you purchase all 4 year plans you are set for the curriculum part. You would have to add in the books for whatever level you are doing. Again, yes, you continue to use the 4 plans over and over each time increasing in difficulty. The writing component is broken into 12 levels so that you have lots of flexibility with the writing level.

I like AO, but I have never figured out how I would get anything done if everyone was doing different history and literature. I have always done history all together. I used SOTW for many years and now I use TOG so that I can still use SOTW with my younger children.

I use SOTW for my younger children and will sometimes add a core book as a read-aloud. For my older children the spine book was used to fill in weeks that I did not have the core reading book or we had a busy week and I just wanted to cover the information without digging deeply. I may use some sort of spine like the Kingfisher or Streams of Civ for my D level student to do some outlining.

We only have 5 dc but we also have a 9 seater Suburban. Everyone fits much better than our van with all the car seats.

I have taught two children so far how to plan their work and to work their plan. My oldest son was in4th grade. It took him all year just to learn how to plan his work. He did not get the work done all the time, but each year he has improved. Dd is 9th grade and is independently planning all her work. She was a fast learner. All skills take time to teach/learn you must determine if it is a skill you value for your children to master. Don t stress !

I know you already made your soap, but I really really like this soap better it is from Virginia soaps and scents. It is a lard based soap, which is what I believe Fels Naptha used to be before they were purchased by a bigger company P&G I think. ttp://www.va-soaps.com/vss2_006.htm I make the liquid in a 5 gal bucket and use my dh's paint mixer attachment on his drill to mix it. It make a great gel and I use it in my front loader with no problems.

We usually have my version of an Italian feast of seven fishes. I cook a big pot of sauce and add whatever seafood looks good (or we can afford). Usually clams, cod, shrimp, scallops, and calamari served with angel hair pasta and salad. I will also make pasta with oil and garlic sauce for those who don't like seafood. Add some wine and a great loaf of bread and we are ready to go!

I agree! It is especially hard with at newborn and a toddler! Give yourself some time, I am not a very happy person when I don't get enough sleep. And who sleeps with at 1 mo old and a 2 yo? I know I didn't!!! Lower your standards for your house and for how you think your family should be for right now. You set the tone for your family, enjoy the little things today and one day you will see the fruit of a happy family. My youngest is now 4 and we have a lot more fun now! (((HUGS)))

First, I make sure that my older children can do some work independently, even if that means doing lots of reading while Mom is not feeling well. I have learned from using Tapestry of Grace how to teach my older children to plan out their week and to be responsible for getting the work done. We have a planning meeting once a week for history and literature(and whatever else we do in TOG) and then we meet once a week to have discussions about the work. Skill areas are done daily, science is sporatic in our house except for my highschooler. Then, I make sure that the basic skill areas are covered for the older ones. We now use Math-U-See for math not only because it works well, but also because my children can watch the dvd's and I don't have to teach 5 math lessons a day. When I was pregnant, I did phonics with the younger children when I could and they played a lot. Not one of my children have suffered from waiting until after baby was born and we were settled. Sometimes that meant that we took a break from school. The hardest adjustment after we got back to a normal school day was getting the younger ones to learn to respect school time over playtime. I choose curricula that is not teacher intensive, anything that I use with my younger children has to be pick-up and go. A lot of Peace Hill Press' curricula fits the bill for us. I agree with Laughing Lioness about books on cd, videos, magic school bus, etc. all of these things contributed to informal learning in our house. Take care of yourself and rest.

Thanks for all the help. After soaking the chops, I marinated them in garlic, olive oil, and a little dijon mustard. I grilled them and they came out great!! Only 2 children (the oldest of course) out of 5 did not like them and there are only 2 chops left! Good thing the in-laws have something else to eat tonight!

Ok, this I can do! Thanks

Hmmm, maybe I will wait til tomorrow to cook these. I am getting nervous!

I am not afraid of the gameyness, but I don't know what the kiddos will think. I am not planning on telling them what they are eating! I only got a little bit of stew meat so, I thought I would try the chops. Of course my FIL just told me they are not eating with us, so now I will have to see if I will cook 12 chops tonight. Thanks for the help.

I have never cooked venison before, and have not really eaten it before either ( had a taste of stew once). I bravely purchased some venison from a friend and have thawed some shoulder chops for dinner tonight. She told me to soak them in a vinegar/water solution to remove some of gamey taste, so they are soaking. Now what? Do I grill them? Bake them? Slather them in bbq sauce? Normally I would be braver, but I am now cooking for 9 people every night (including my in-laws), I don't have the luxury of making mistakes. Help:confused: -

This is what we are doing now. Dd did General in 7th and Nature Study in 8th. She is now doing Biology. So far she is doing fine. I don't know if she will have a harder time in some of the other science books, maybe someone else can address this.

I saw it yesterday, went to purchase it today and it is gone. I guess they sold out! Kicking myself.

I have 5 dc, only one willingly gets started with her schoolwork everyday. She is my oldest and she is in highschool. All of my other children are just as you described. It takes time every year to get the younger ones into a routine, and sometimes the older ones as well. Just be consistent and don't let it get you down. As to not getting everything done, well my first grader doesn't get it all done everyday either. Just cover the basics and add in the extras as you can. Does he like crafts or read aloud? Use them as insentive...if you get xyz done we can do abc today. Keep Swimming!

Lots of protein, eat eggs (I would sometimes have them before bed so I would feel better in the morning) protein powder in smoothies, and high protein snacks during the day. Don't let yourself get hungry or you will get quesy. Lemon water and ginger would settle quesyness. I have also heard that eating a good amount of beans helps with morning sickness as well. The first two pregnancies I was soo very sick, the next three were much better with the increased protein in my diet. Hang in there!!

Abeka math, grade 3 made long division soo frustrating (and we did stop Abeka mid-year) that my math loving son shut down and stopped progressing in math for over a year. We had to start MUS from the beginning so that he could find the joy of math again. Singapore math, dd did not retain much, it was too logic stage thinking for her.

Say it isn't so! Finally I have a highschooler and can fully join in the discourse here. It won't be the same without 8Filltheheart and Nan !

Yes, TOG is absolutely easier than what you are doing.