Check out Book Collector at http://www.collectorz.com/book/. We've used it for many years and really like it. It has lots of customizable fields. I'm not sure about automatically entering the reading level, but it might.

I don't have a hump either, but I did have speech issues when I was younger. My problem wasn't at the top of my mouth, though, it was under my tongue. I was tongue tied (had too much membrane under my tongue that it did not allow my tongue to move freely enough to pronounce some sounds). Unfortunately, it took over three years of being pulled out of class for speech therapy until a new therapist thought to look under my tongue. I had a simple procedure done to cut the membrane and suddenly I could talk normally. You don't mention what type of issues your son has, but mine were saying the sounds of j, l, sh and some others that I don't remember.

I've dealt with allergies most of my life. I would second (or third or fourth) the suggestion of seeing an allergist. I did several rounds of shots as a child and it is the only thing that kept me from sneezing and sniffling my way through school. The testing was very helpful as it brought out many foods that I was allergic to but never realized it. As an adult, I have tried many different medications. Until very recently, Claritin was the one of choice. However, a couple of months ago, it seemed to stop working. I then tried Zyrtec and it is doing wonders. I'm not sure why Claritin stopped working, but I am very happy with Zyrtec.

I didn't post of specific shipping price, but it varied by location. How do I go about blocking international bidders in the future? Here's another question: In the shipping portion of my listing it said "Shipping to: United States", no other options were available. Am I committed to having to sell to this buyer? As you might guess, I'm rather new to this ebay thing.

I just sold something on ebay and the winning bidder lives in Canada. I've never so much as mailed a letter to Canada (although we did go there on our honeymoon!). What do I need to do to ship this item? It is in a large box and weighs 20 pounds. I know I could go to the post office and get my questions answered, but you guys are so much faster! What's really frustrating is that the second highest bidder had contacted me about the possibility of local pickup. She probably lives about 5 miles from me! I was really, really hoping she would win.

If you google "logic puzzles" you will find lots of free ones online. Most you can either print or play online. Last year I made my kids their own books by printing ones I found on a website. I saved a file of the solutions so that I could check them.

Here is a link: http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/index.php?q=tips Evidently they do send it free with the TWSS now, but I bought mine used so it didn't have it. I hadn't noticed before that they have the handout posted for free. So here is a question to those who have it: does the DVD tell me much more than what I could glean from the handout?

Is the IEW Tips and & Tricks DVD worth the $10? I bought TWSS used as well as SWI-B. We have been using it fairly successfully so far this year with dd8th and dd 6th. Has anyone seen it and thought, "Oh! Wow! I'm glad to know this?" Thanks.

After teaching my three girls to read with Phonics Pathways, I've been using HOP with my 5yo son (I found it at Goodwill). It has been a nice change of pace for me and he loves it. I've tried using it without the CD, but that seems to be one of his favorite parts. He always giggles when she says, "Press the pause button, now." (Who can account for 5yo humor?) He knew his letters going into it and has been racing through the lessons. He seems to have learned the whole blending thing faster than my girls did.

I think it would be very helpful, but not absolutely necessary, to watch the video. A couple of years ago, I finally broke down and bought the DVD and book new. We watched the DVD and then I posted it for sale on these boards and sold it in about 5 minutes for just a $5 loss from what I paid. We kept the book and have been using it ever since.

I was able to pretty easily tear out the parent pages even though they weren't perforated. I then 3-hole punched everything and placed them in two different binders, one for dd and one for me. It's working great.

Wow!! Thanks so much for all of the responses.

Does anyone have or know of good resources for using the Magic School Bus books as the basis for a unit study of sorts for science? I have an 8yo dd who has often declared "I love science". She definitely did not get that love from me!! We joined a co-op last year for the main reason that they offer science classes for the older kids. They don't have much this year science-wise for her age, though. I want to try and kindle her interest without adding a whole lot more work for me. We have a lot of the MSB books and some DVD's and she really likes them. Didn't know if there was something out there that helps take them further or not. Thanks.

Thanks for sharing this. I'm planning on placing an order this afternoon.

I read somewhere years ago that 5th grade in most curricula is a review year. That does seem to be the case, at least with R & S. I agree with the others that you could probably easily skip 4th and just make sure that she completely grasps 5th before moving on to 6th.

I think you can do history chronologically and still start with American History. To me, the whole chronological thing means starting at some point and continue on, don't keep skipping around or only focus on one time period to the exclusion of others. My oldest two started with the Ancients. However, when my third started school, the older two were on American History, so that is where she started. Is she getting less of a chronological history because she didn't start with the Ancients? I don't think so. She'll get there in a couple of years.

This may be a long shot, but has she recently been bitten by a tick? My soon-to-be 12dd had tularemia (rabbit fever) when she was 4. It sounds a lot like what you have been going through. A high fever for days on end that would lessen with antibiotics (she did test positive for strep as well, a secondary infection) but it always went right back up. Long story short, she was bitten by an infected tick. Fortunately two weeks into the ordeal we saw one of the few dr's in the state of NE that could identify it. A couple of days on the right antibiotic and she was back to herself again. Please let us know what you find out.

Thanks!! I was just looking around to see if they had a current code.

be sure to use Blue Lake. When I first attempted to can beans I just used the purple pods I had always frozen. The result was horrible. The next year we planted Blue Lake (we noticed that's what most of the canned beans you buy in the store are) and they turned out wonderfully.

What kind of crust are you making? We like a thin, crispy crust. I will prebake the crust on the aluminum pan (no foil), make sure the crust breaks loose from the pan before adding the toppings, then put it on the stone to bake.

Thanks for sharing. My kids didn't believe me at first when I told them the yellow flower and the white "blowing sticks" were the same thing!

We made exactly this switch for exactly the same reason with my daughter this year. R&S was just getting to be too much, but I wasn't ready to ditch grammar altogether. The only thing she struggled with was some of the terminology was different between programs. We ended up leaving Jensen's halfway through the year, not because we didn't like it, but because we switched writing programs to CW and it has grammar integrated.

Cool! I like the looks of this better than most lapbooks I've seen as well.

Wow! Looks great. Thanks for letting us know.

This is one of the things I love about homeschooling. We can work with each child exactly where they are and not worry about labels. Thanks for sharing.