THAT is a fabulous idea! Isn't it funny how some of the simplest solutions can solve so much! That WILL help for many things. I'll make a color key to put on the shelf ;) Part 1 solved.

Great idea, that would work for somethings, however some books are shared books, so I can't tuck them away. Some are reference books that are needed only sometimes, etc.

I'm struggling with my homeschool bookshelf. Yes, it's one bookshelf. The books are essentially tidy on the shelves, but despite that, it takes forever to find what I'm looking for if I don't remember what color it was. We've only been at this one year, so I don't have as much as some of you. Perhaps we need another shelf, but I don't have space for one, nor funds for it at the moment. We have some texts, some workbooks, some coil bound, some comb bound books. Binders, printer paper. What suggestions can you offer? I tried in small bins by subject, didn't work because it's hard to put back in. They get heavy so hard to slide out.

Have you considered the older dog at all? In our 4h, there was a teen who had an older dog that wasn't friendly with other dogs. After the first year, it was tolerant of other dogs, and after the second year it loved other dogs. I wouldn't have dd9 do it, but the older child might be able to handle him. I'd talk to the 4h leader to see. We have 2, and they are a handful, I'd never consider getting a 3rd.

DD12 has started this now. It's pretty painless for her. It's quite independent. She will read and do the assignments. Then she'll often look for corresponding reading with SOTW or Osborne books. She loves it. This is her first exposure to history on a global level. She's only been home a year and was resistant and as a result did virtual school.

I plan on doing lots of science with dd7, as many things require things that aren't available through winter. Bugs, butterflies, dirt, bird watching. Our winter can start as early as September and end in May. So I'm going to be evaluating what we need to do in our summer. I continue to do math, a few lessons a week, writing, and spelling. The rest can wait. That said, our school day will be very short. And summer experiments are fun. She is planning everything she'll do when we're camping - we have dug out water, lake water, swamp water, ant hills, bugs galore, bird feeders everywhere. In the city? We'd have maybe some birds.

My desktop is on it's last legs. I've had some funky errors recently. Outlook express won't open, I had to install windows live mail in order to have email access. Chances are it's partially due to hard drive space (it's only a 40gig drive and it is very close to full), all files are on external drive, only programs on the computer drive, with all the windows updates, it has filled it. We don't have a huge budget :( right now, and my income will be reducing by nearly 1/2 so I don't want to go over board. However, with my Aeroplan miles(like airmiles) I can get a gift card to local electronics shop. I was saving them for a trip, but this is more important, and it will be about 5 years before those points will do much anyway. I'm not sure what I need to look for in a laptop. I like that my desk would be able to double as another table if we have a dinner party(it is a large 7' table) if we slide off the laptop and kids netbooks, toss on a table cloth and we have 2 tables ready. What brands do you trust? What is the minimum specs you'd go for? Currently looking at a Toshiba. It is 4gig ram. AMD processor. 500 gig hard drive, 2 usb ports(that sucks,but told pretty typical). 15.6" monitor, Windows 7 Home premium, Office Starter, dvd reader/burner, memory card reader. I am fond of Dell, for their customer service. but a comparable would have 1/2 the hard drive, but an extra USB for $100 more. Thoughts? Suggestions?

ds is nearly 17 and still likes bubbles. Maybe it's only to entertain his little sister, but I've caught him on his own too. :lol:

I make artisan breads all the time! I started due to this article: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx Then I took out hte book from the library, and ordered it. From the master recipe there is so many varieties! Sticky rolls, buns, french bread, sandwich bread, braided bread, etc. I just signed out their new book, Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day. Kids don't like whole wheat as much.. going to lower the whole wheat content to get them used to it, and slowly increase it back up.

Why not ask them to spiral it at the top? THen it won't interfere at all.

Why are they in different areas? Because this year dd11 didn't want to do it and she did virtual school instead. She now realizes how much more interesting it has been for her sister and she wants to learn about it too. She will likely catch up as she is starting now, and I haven't completed SOTW 1 with dd7. So we will do SOTW 2 but likely not til late fall with dd7. DD11 prefers to work independently overall, so she is using Pandia press. I read everything before she gets up in the morning or after she goes to bed the night before, when she's done the days lesson I discuss with her, look over her outlining, etc. And we're done, she is loving it. We will likely be at the same point for SOTW 2. I don't worry about it. DD7 requires lots of mom time, dd11 prefers independence with accountability. Considering where were were this time last year, I will not hamper that.

I recently decided to revert to Catholicism, my girls are registered for RCIC(will be baptized, first communion, confirmed) :D So, I'm looking at what I have thus far. I have much of my curricula for the fall, some non-Catholic Christian items, and in looking at them, I don't think there is anything in conflict. Some secular :) nothing particularly Catholic per say, but definitely nothing negative toward Catholics, but I do want to include more of it. Math -Math Mammoth 3 - this is fine, it's math. McRuffy - Grade 3 - this is fine, I was going to add Apologia, but not sure I want to explain all the views of various Christian Faiths at her age. LA - WWE 2 - fine CLE LA- we are finishing LA 2 in the fall and moving on from there. I'd like to continue with it, I don't find it has any negative applications within the program. (Yes, I know their social program has some negatives, but I'm looking at language arts only) CLE Reading - we'll be finishing Reading 2 in the fall, not sure from there (as above, I heard that CHC had good readers, any one?) History - SOTW 2 - would like to add something with more on the Church but not sure for her age. Religion - we started Telling God's Story, there is nothing conflicting with in this, it is a sweet gentle introduction to Jesus. But as we complete this, I want to move to a Catholic curricula there(suggestions?), however she is doing RCIC in the fall, so I don't know how much more. Grade 7: math - Math mammoth 6 Life of Fred (what comes after Fractions?) History - History Odyssey - Ancients level 2 LA CLE LA Writing Strands Writing Jungle Need a spelling maybe. Science - Apologia General Science - I'm a little conflicted with this. I have been reading ahead of her, and I don't really have any issues with it. Dr. Wiles is open that not everyone shares the same beliefs, that is trying to be unbiased, but as is true with any author, they can't truly be completely unbiased. And encourages you to read books by other others who have different biases :) I LIKE this about the books. DD is also of an age that she knows people have different views until last year she was in a Catholic school. She knows that one needs to respect that people have views that will be different from her own, and that it needn't affect her own views. I really like the books because it has paved the way for many interesting discussions. Is there anything in the Apologia that will really conflict with Catholic beliefs? We just started with the series so I'm not sure. Religion - I don't have anything but she will be going RCIC, so I don't know how much more we'll need, but I'd like to have something. I think I covered it all. Grade 9 - I really have NOTHING planned other that the One Year Adventure Novel and Around the World in 180 days. Not sure what else to do with her. Until a month ago, she was returning to school. Now she is staying home :) Any suggestions?

You can download it by link. Each like opens a pdf and you can save that. It means it'll a little time to download, but then it's on the computer and printable as needed.

I like LA and Reading, I can't speak for math as we're very happy with MathMammoth :)

We are just starting the reading. I'm very happy with some of the things it is teaching. Some of the tools being taught, my older 2 daughters never learned. Right now, she is working with dictionary respellings (phonetic spelling type thingie). On our little white board I have 20 or so words in the dictionary spellings. Dh walks in a goes - What on EARTH is on the board??? :001_huh: So I called dd7 over and she read it to him. The older girls came over to see what was going on, and they struggled hard. They got some of them, but missed most..lol. Then I showed dd the correlation to the dictionary. The dictionary is not only for definitions, but can help us read things. I picked a word she wouldn't likely know. She tried - her sounding out said rog-age. Then I showed her the phonetic part ruf-ij she said it, and I told her that was exactly right. We also took a long word, she was able to sound it out, little squirt, but I showed her the phonetics and how it was easier to sound out. The older girls looked amazed. WHY DIDN'T THEY KNOW THIS? They have only been home a year, I had trust in our school system. But not any longer :( They will be going back to some basics of the summer.

Raven, she doesn't have the best attitude about mistakes either. But I have a mantra that I say every time she starts with the perfectionism. "We learn from making mistakes, so you don't get to quit because you have a mistake. So let's see what went wrong and learn." It has helped to have a 'canned response' so I don't get reactive toward the attitude displayed, . I find that she is less and less the perfectionist. Although now her response is "Oh, I meant to do that." Yeah, right. So the response is, "Let's go over it just be make sure it's stuck in there good, like a boot in the mud." (or like gum on a shoe, etc) That gets a giggle usually and we can move forward.

This week we are introducing borrowing. DD7 is cruising along. We did it with diagrams to start with, breaking up a ten and showing how many ones we have now. Today we carried that over to doing it within a subtraction equation. She wrinkled her nose as we did the examples, then I had her do it. She frowned, but the lightbulb went on within seconds. Math lesson took 5 minutes, her work took 10. I love it when she grasps the concept. She's such a mathy kid thanks to being home and MM.

Who is the author or publisher?

thanks :) After lots of searching, I found what I wanted was where my roots were. So I'm going back.

Our church just listed it as CIC but I think it is more commonly as RCIC - Rite of Christian Initiation for Children Thanks I'll look at that.

Posting here as well, due to ages of kids. My kids are entering CIC after Lent :hurray: But I want them to learn a complete history too. I want them to understand that there have been failings during the Catholic history(history to recent history, as with any organization, church or otherwise), that it isn't perfection, that anything run/managed by humankind will have failings, as we are all sinners, clergy included. Is there such a thing out there? I've searched and searched. I can read all the blurbs about the books, but I wanted to hear what has worked for you, why, and what parts weren't accurate. The kids studying this will be 12, 14, and 17. Now an idea I'm considering in using tandem to history - I am very interested in the new series coming out this summer, Catholism - hosted by Fr. Barron(www.wordonfire.org) it will air on tv in the fall as well, would it be suitable? He is an engaging speaker. It will be modern and up to date, with lots of historical references, could that work independently, or in tandem with other books? :bigear:

My kids are entering CIC after Lent :hurray: But I want them to learn a complete history too. I want them to understand that there have been failings during the Catholic history(history to recent history, as with any organization, church or otherwise), that it isn't perfection, that anything run/managed by humankind will have failings, as we are all sinners, clergy included. Is there such a thing out there? I've searched and searched. I can read all the blurbs about the books, but I wanted to hear what has worked for you, why, and what parts weren't accurate. The kids studying this will be 12, 14, and 17. Now an idea I'm considering in using tandem to history - I am very interested in the new series coming out this summer, Catholism - hosted by Fr. Barron(www.wordonfire.org) it will air on tv in the fall as well, would it be suitable? He is an engaging speaker. It will be modern and up to date, with lots of historical references, could that work independently, or in tandem with other books? :bigear:

I have my dd just going through it. I read a few pages so I can answer any questions. It's pretty easy to break it up in manageable segments. I go to the point where is says On Your own, or just after the experiment, there appears to be a few paragraphs in explaining what might have happened in the experiment. Typically it takes 30 minutes or so, unless there's a lab, and we are working on writing concise lab reports, so that might be the next day assignment as well.

Tonight, my friend came over to pick up dd11's sleepover stuff, he'd come earlier in the day to drop off some chapter books his dd11 was done with for dd7 to read when she was old enough(aka can read well enough). The day before dd11 had bought her little sister a chapter book, and he thought it was a waste because she's just 7. Anyway, she was all excited. DD11 asked dd7 if she'd started reading to book. She went to get it, she was on chapter 2. My friend was in shock. "YOU are reading CHAPTER BOOKS?" I laughed, "She sure is!" Not bad for being "unqualified" to teach my child. It was priceless. While he hasn't been unsupportive, he has been worried the kids wouldn't be learning. Well, dd7 showed him :lol: THEN she proceeded to read to him, she read with expression, clarity and proper pauses. He was in awe. 3-points for the homeschool!

I'll go back to it when my brain can focus, have a headache at the moment. I did download Fr. Barron's lectures for my MP3 player, so when I go walking I'll listen. It's about the only quiet time I get. Plus a good lecture, makes me want to walk the whole time :)