Nope you are not alone. I made a chart for my husband just the other day to help me decide between 3 very expensive options for my high schooler. I'm still trying to figure out how to make it all come together financially. Sherri

or you could just send it to me if its for 6th grade and up. I'll pay for the shipping :D

Tell your friend this. Be vulnerable, let her know you need her. She may be feeling that since her life situation has changed it may be a little uncomfortable since you were a part of her old married life. I don't know...maybe.

I like all the ideas I've received. MeganP ...I think I'll try your route. Post what I have for sale the whole kit & kaboodle) say when it will be ready for delivery and sell the book we are finished with now. Thanks!

The thing is we won't be finished with the curriculum until June. If I wait that long people will have all of the stuff they want by then right? Maybe I should just sell what we are finished with and sell the other stuff when we are done with it. sigh.....or at the very least when I list the stuff we are done with let buyers know the rest of the curriculum will be for sale in June.

Susan...I'm not looking to charge new curriculum. I only buy new if there aren't any used on the market or if I can't find a complete set of a boxed curriculum. Used curriculum at a local sale only takes CASH. But I appreciate your suggestion. Abbey....I've seen others do it this way on the boards and I think what I have is in demand especially as a resale. I had to buy it new myself last year reluctantly b/c I couldn't find a used set. I'm hoping someone will realize I wouldn't damage my reputation on these boards for not following through on my word. Also I didn't mention that I would send out some of the books we are finished with upon receipt of a "down payment" to show good faith. Anyone else? :bigear::bigear:

Yep. I did this this year and it is very motivating for the kids but sad when they find out they haven't won.:001_huh:

Ok so I'm thinking about reselling a high school boxed curriculum now so that I can ensure that I have $$ for the used curriculum sales coming up in my local area. My daughter isn't finished with it yet but I want to ensure that I can sell it now maybe even on deposit. I would even send approx. $50 worth of product to my potential buyer right away as we are finished with those books. So would this be something you would go for or would you feel apprehensive? I do have history on the board so its not like I'm brand new here as I'm sure that would be one consideration a potential buyer would have. So what says the hive? How would you structure this type of sale if at all? :bigear:

:iagree:

If not, what resources would you suggest if starting in high school or if starting in middle school?

Is that crazy? I am more excited to do what I'm looking at 2 years from now than what I have planned for next academic school year.:tongue_smilie: Maybe it's b/c I plan to switch curriculum providers and the newness of that is exciting.

Anyone have the link to this same discussion on the general board? I couldn't find it.

Darn, I just tested my link. You get the whole article except for the last page unless you sign up for free at Washington Posts' website to get the last page.

I just happened to read this article this morning as my kids are eating breakfast. I think a lot of us already know this but it is a dose of reality. What are we doing or what materials are we using in our high school to make sure "our" kids are prepared? My favorite quote from the article (I'm looking at the print copy but online article should be the same): "one of the biggest surprises has been discovering how academically independent I will have to be. Now, I have to go out and get the material, reading more than what is required and doing exercises that I have given myself."

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forum...=lightning+lit

This thread made me sad b/c I really need to get it together. God help me I can't stick to no sugar although I want to. Maybe I need a little more resolve. But you guys got me thinking that tomorrow is another day - begin again! I really believe in my heart that life isn't worth living if you can't eat a cookie or have cake. The scale will back me up on this too. Isn't that sad? Thanks

Well for WHL some of the writing assignment include: writing poems, speech, editorials. I don't think IEW covers this type of writing. The first assignment was to write a play after reading Julius Caesar. I changed the assignment from a play to a character analysis. For an assignment like that IEW would work as it is more of an essay type assignment.

Wow...this makes me so sad b/c I have a friend going through this right now. She is determined to leave and I can't blame her one bit. However she's been a stay at home, homeschooling mom most of their 16 years of married life so she has no income. She has a degree but in this economy has had no luck in finding a job that would support her and the kids. The lawyers she has spoken to say they can't do much until she's been separated from her husband which she can't do until she finds a job. She has no family support either. She knows that if she pursues divorce at this point her husband would have custody of the kids and that is not an option. And yes he makes over 6 figures and he makes it quite clear to her that he has the upper hand. The kids (especially the oldest who has learning disabilities) are experiencing physical affects b/c of their father's behavior. I feel so bad for her situation but she is staying until she can financially leave. I fear the lasting affects on her 4 children.

ElegantLion....thanks for posting that link to Ms. Effie's page. I got lost over there for a while. I wonder how much of that she assigns in a school year. I was going to answer the OP question now I forgot what I as going to say once I got back from following the link.:lol:

I can only comment on MFW high school so here goes: My dd has only been homeschooled since second semester of her 7th grade year. In 8th grade she did Classical Conversations Challenge A. CC uses IEW themed based lessons. She was writing a paper every other week for 30+ weeks give or take a week. As a result my daughter's writing skills improved 200+%. So as I was considering MFW for high school I got lots of advice from the MFW people (at a vendor fair) and from here on the forums because I really wanted to start with MFW WHL not MFW AHL. Many felt if my dd had strong writing skills she would be fine in WHL. The MFW guy mentioned his concern for missing the first 9 units in Notgrass that is covered in AHL. So to remedy that I had her cover the 9 units during the summer and we dove right into WHL in August. She has been doing great! She is doing a lot less writing than what she did in CC but I tried to add in extras where I could. My dd says the Writers, Inc. is very helpful in guiding her in the writing assignments. When I edit I still refer to IEW styling techniques to improve her writing. So IEW hasn't completely gone away. The reason I chose to start in WHL was to include community college in her last two years of high school. I am also following the graduation plan for my state which does not include Ancients. This is my first homeschool grad so I didn't want to veer off the path too far. Since I will have my younger kids a lot longer than my oldest I plan to have my youngers do MFW AHL & MFW WHL. I will still use the last two years of high school for community college and other items I want to add into their education. Just my experience. Hope it helps.

I say go for it! Do what you have to do. I agree the youngers will get their turn at having the lion's share of the budget if they NEED it. Sounds like the oldest needs it. I wouldn't feel torn about that. I have all girls and my oldest costs more as the high schooler. Actually for everything. She gets all new clothes b/c she has no hand me downs. My youngers still get new stuff but not EVERYTHING is new. It just goes with the territory of being the oldest. I remind my youngers that they too will get their turn at the things they think they are getting cheated at. However I do try to even out their outside courses b/c they wander why does "x" get to take 2 classes and I only take 1?:001_huh:

Thanks! I've neglected that blog b/c I need a new camera. I'm glad somebody's reading it.:tongue_smilie:

We did HSLDA's essay contest this year. And she applied to 3 summer programs that required essays. My younger kids entered a program sponsored by Martin's grocery store. I have a list saved somewhere about the yearly writing contests. I will search for it and PM you.

IMHO...I don't really see how you can go wrong with anything you choose b/c of the age child you have. Is the goal coverage of the material? Just about anything would do and you can always get ideas of how to add in what's missing if you find that after you've started w/ something you would like to tweak. The big question I would ask myself it what is my goal? My answer would be exposure to the material as the big deal subjects for a 6 yr old is the 3Rs.

I'm using MFW Ex-1850 with a 5th & 7th grader this year. I'm aiming for retention and coverage. I read aloud to my kids out of SOTW, Exploring Am Hist or GW World but not all 3. I usually end up going with SOTW b/c my kids tend to remember the story format of the reading better than the text language of the other two books. I also eliminate the topics that aren't American history b/c I find my kids get confused when we jump from America, then to France, Russia, China etc. They say "I thought we were talking about the Revolutionary War." Then I explain "well shortly after the War..the French Revolution" ..... :001_huh: so sometimes I eliminate the extra readings. They write 5 chronological summary sentences about what I've read and when there is a IEW writing lesson that matches the topic we are covering we do the writing lesson (which reinforces the content of the lesson and works on composition skills). By accident we've added in movies that cover the time period. My high schooler is doing MFW WHL which scheduled the Tale of Two Cities (about the French Revolution). We looked at it together before the youngers had the French Revolution come up in their studies. Now that we are at this place in history they remember everything b/c they had the movie that helped them understand the war. I don't use the Book Basket that often b/c I don't buy the books and the library is hit or miss. I find that the scheduled Read Alouds are enough with an outside book here and there. For example, my 7th grader just finished Carry On, Mr. Bowditch which I happened to have on my bookshelf (which is rare as my personal library is not very large). Again, a nice reinforcement for the time in history we are studying. I was going to have my 7th grader write a paper on the book but didn't want to slow down my lesson plans so I let it slide but I think this is another great way to add in more. My 7th grader has so much to do in her school day that I'm not looking to beef up history to the max, to me this is sufficient. I do wish there were more age appropriate hands-on activities for the olders. The SOTW Activity books have more activities to choose from perhaps you can add this to your study. For example, in MFW this week we will be covering steam engines and Eli Whitney's cotton gin and the activity was to make cotton with "seeds" glued inside made out of construction paper. Have kids try to remove the seeds to appreciate the invention of the cotton gin. :glare: Nope that's not going to work. My library didn't have any of the book basket books scheduled for the week so I'm thinking of adding books on the Industrial Revolution and a biography on Eli Whitney. Maybe do a 1 pg report with a poster board display on the inventions during Industrial Revolution? So sometimes I have to think outside of the box to beef it up a little. MFW isn't entirely open and go but it is a launching board for me to dig in deeper when I need to. Whew..that was a lot but hopefully it adds to the discussion.