You will find a wide variety of opinions which can get a bit heated if you are a loyal FIAR fan. :) If you don't care for HSS, you may love FIAR FNL's. I am the opposite - we are loyal FIAR users for the past 5 years, but I was very disappointed in the FNL's. The ones I purchased were just a bunch of pictures to cut and paste...not really very many directions, etc. I prefer HSS because each component has something for the child to write themselves, different mini-books to fold, etc. That said, there are those who love FNL's! :D So, that's just my .02.

We have FINALLY gotten into a good rhythm with adding in our 3rd student...it took me a few months!! Here is what we are definitely hitting daily: *devotions *memory work *prayer together *reading aloud a various chapter book *math (thanks to Teaching Textbooks!)\ *Explode the Code with ds *math with ds *cursive for the girls *English from the Roots Up (girls mostly do this independantly) *language arts lesson with girls We are regularly doing science, but it is maybe every other day.

I took piano lessons from age 4yrs all the way through college. My undergraduate degree is General Music with an emphasis in voice and piano. I have done various things...played for churches pretty much since i was a teenager, played for weddings, sung at weddings, taught music at a private school, taught piano lessons for several years... Now that I'm homeschooling I don't really have the extra time to teach piano lessons, but I did enjoy that, maybe again someday. :) I love singing with our choir and praise team at church, I fill in for our pianist but can't play regularly, just too time consuming...plus it is a big church and our regular pianist is phenomenal. :D I have written music from time to time and would love to have more time to concentrate on that. (my house is too loud now to even sit at the piano and think!!) I also love leading worship for women's Bible studies and such...I"d love to do that regularly once my life calms down...or once homeschooling is done for me, whichever comes first. ha!

I know not everyone wants to go on the pill (BCP) but for me, it has saved my sanity! I was having periods like you describe and just COULD NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE. I was also in a lot of pain...but the heaviness and not being able to leave my home was really affecting my life. I had to have a stronger BCP to get it under control, but once we found one that worked I haven't turned back.

other - all through the year, as I find sales or used options! :)

I have!! I think they are GREAT!! I have used 2-3 of them so far! :) I blogged a little about them here and here.

I blog a lot about a lot of things. :lol: My link is in my signature. Also on my Links page, I have lots of favorite blogs listed. Some of my favorite blogs for homeschooling are also under my "blogs that encourage me" category.

Well, I can honestly tell you that I have been in your same position! Only I wasn't pregnant so I had NO EXCUSE!! :lol: We hated math. All of us. Til now... Teaching Textbooks has saved our school day and our relationship. :) It does all the teaching for me!! I'm totally out of the picture unless they need help with a problem here or there...which I can handle. I know you probably don't want to switch curriculums again, I didn't either...I had tried SO many!! But, thankfully, because this was totally computer based - it was so different from the others and it is working!! We've been doing TT3 and are on the last week of lessons!! We will be starting TT4 in a few weeks!!

Hey, fancy seeing you over here, this is the first time I've "seen" you over this way! :) I have done this with my girls...it kind of comes and goes, we will do it for awhile and then one of us will let it go for a bit and we forget about it. I need to start it again. :) Thanks for the reminder... Pen pals is another way that has really worked for my girls!! Also writing letters to the kids we sponsor, like through Compassion, etc.

I just wanted to give a quick THANK YOU to those of you who are commenting from other countries, or with experience in other countries! This thread has been VERY interesting and eye opening!! :)

I love blogging also!! Mine is in my signature as well! :)

I was not aware of this and have been reading about Martin Luther, so thank you for sharing the link! I do wonder...could this be compared to all the Christians who went right along with slavery in our country? I am NOT advocating any of the slavery or hate of any persons...but I look back on American history and think WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?!?! :eek: But I know back then, it was normal!?!? right? almost a way of life? Not advocating, just wondering if this might be a fair comparison??

Here are the resources we used last year when we studied India! :)

It's really no hassle, I promise! :D Like you said, telling family members to order through your blog is a great thing!! If you know you have people who will order anyway, I say go for it!! :)

For me, it has been worth it. Now, I'm not raking in the dough, but every 2-3 months I get anywhere from $25-50 and every little bit helps SO MUCH right now!! It has been SO easy after the initial set up!! I don't really do anything except add occasional links into my posts where I'm discussing a certain book. I did put a "disclaimer" on the side of my blog stating that any purchases through amazon gave me a few cents credit. You can look on my blog - on the sidebar I have 1 "widget" with my favorite titles. I also have a favorite books link across the top... People can click on ANY amazon link on your blog and you will receive credit. However, if they purchase something that you have an exact link for, you did get more money from those. :) Finally, I think you have to have a pretty good amount of traffic for this to make money. I'm not a "huge" blog by any means, but get around 8,000 hits a month, just to give you an idea. :) Good luck!!

I am not sure if any of this would work, but thought I'd share.

I play piano...started lessons when I was 4 years old. Took all the way through college and then got a music degree. :) Over the years I have played for churches, weddings, taught piano lessons, taught music at a private Christian school, and also play for fun. :)

TJ Maxx is my FAVORITE!! They are better prices than Target and much cuter. :) We just re-did our girls room and I got everything in the room from either TJ Maxx or Hobby Lobby! :)

Donna is right, I didn't understand that anyone was saying the other volumes were harder, maybe I just misunderstood... But volumes 1-3 are for the same age group 4-8yr olds. They can be used in any order... Vol. 4 was written for 7-8yr olds who might be ready for a bit more... However, i have used all volumes with all of my kids ages and have had great success in just "beefing up" the units I needed more for and "toning down" any of the books I wanted to include my 5yr old in! :)

I would probably also choose Vol. 3! :) We loved Salamander Room and Truman's Aunt Farm!! There is another post pretty close to the top on FIAR just from today too... I have lots of FIAR posts on my blog, here is my FIAR category. And if you scroll down on this page, you can click on individual titles that we have rowed and see what we did with them. It doesn't take long to do FIAR and have fun with it! We generally start our day on the couch with devotions, memory work and a few books to read - our FIAR title being one of them. Then, we might have a few discussion type lessons while we are still looking through the book sitting on the couch, etc. I generally print things from HSS or Enchanted Learning, etc to go with books, sometimes we do a lapbook, sometimes a craft here and there...and that will take a little bit of time, but usually around 30 minutes is all we do with FIAR each day! HTH!

Thanks for the blog compliment, Mango Mama! :) I do think that people should still give FIAR a look even if they don't enjoy Before. It's just very different... A few things I wanted to mention after reading some of these posts... We do not usually read the book 5 days in a row. :tongue_smilie:But we still love FIAR! We generally read the book on Monday (or when we're starting) and maybe 1 other time during the week...so don't let that be a turn off. Some people love that, but you don't have to do that to be a FIAR family. :) Also, you can definitely pick and choose books! In the 4 years we have done FIAR, there are still a few titles we have never done...just cause I wasn't interested or couldn't find it, etc. I am now re-rowing our very favorites with my son for his K year...that is fun, too, because some of them haven't been read/rowed in 3-4 years!!

We have loved FIAR in our home for many years. :) I do a lot of planning with it - finding go along books, crafts, etc. But the planning of extras is fun for me! (I know, I'm weird.) :D I have a category for FIAR on my blog if you are interested in seeing kind of what it looks like in our home. :) Also, if you scroll down on this page you can click on particular titles that we've done over the years to see what we've done. I do like the Bible Supplement, but it's kind of one of those things that doesn't "make" FIAR in my opinion, so you could use it and it's good, but if you don't have it, FIAR is still great. Basically, with my kids, I would take one of the scriptures listed for the FIAR title and use it for copywork or to memorize or just discuss as 1 of our lessons for the week!! I personally feel that the FIAR volumes 1-4 are much more FIAR-ish than Before FIAR. Before is great for parents of little ones who need suggestions and help on preschool-ish type ideas, but the other volumes are just more the heart of FIAR, just in my opinion. :) HTH!

Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss Beyond Survival by Diana Waring

The Depression Cure is a great book on this topic!! Some things to look into: Exercise Adequate and good sleep Good, quality fish oil Eliminating white sugar Meaningful activity regularly - something she enjoys Being around friends 5 HTP

thanks so much ladies... I am leaning towards not spending the money right now. I did put an app on my i-touch that they can do - called Flash Tables, I might see how that goes for awhile before I make a purchase... I'm just at a loss, we have GOT to get these facts down, it is really keeping them from moving on and doing well with their math lessons. ugggg.