Hi! I live in Indiana and try to get as much out of out little, basic house lot as possible. I bought some Nanking cherry bushes and THEN found out that they will get to be 6-8 feet high and 6 feet wide. Yikes! LOL Anyone here grow these? We have about 50 different things growing here...maybe more. I'll have to count them. :) What do you grow? I add something new every year, too. This year is the cherry bushes and blackberries. Mary

Here in the midwest, we can live on 40K with a family of 6 and do OK as long as we are really frugal, but that would not fly in California or CT, I imagine. Mary

continued on with that into cursive. It is amazing how neat just about anyone 's handwriting is when using that program. I have neatened up my own writing by adopting some of it. :) Mary

I am having trouble keeping my 7th grader interested because there is not much there for that age. I need to get other books to supplement. I am starting to feel like I am writing my own curricula again. Mary

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I have to say that it just looks different in the summer. We keep up with math, but do more nature/science study, go on field trips, etc. We do more schooling outside, too, on picnic tables. :o) We just decided which subjects need to continue through the summer and make sure to get those in during the hottest part of the day when we want to be inside, anyway. We take off of school when relatives visit or there is a cool festival, etc., but it is still considered a school day if we do meaningful things. HTH, Mary

I am not worried about the arguments about whether or not it is up to grade level because many people have said that their kids did fine on the SAT after using it. Besides, the guys who wrote it are math professors. I'd think they'd know. I love how every problem is explained well. The solutions are explained well, too. My son loves it. Mary

...curricula that does not go deep enough. History textbooks are especially troublesome to us in this way. Id the book does not give enough detail about a topic, then it is hard to remember anything about it, ykwim? That is one reason I dislike history textbooks in general. I realize that the books would have to be huge because so much has happened in history, but couldn't they do a little better job writing them?? We are trying Notgrass soon, so maybe it will be different. Mary

He's only 8, so I would be concerned with burn-out if he does too much. He needs to have time to play and read for fun, explore outside, get lots of books from the library and just read all day now and then. That instills a love of learning before they have to hit the books seriously. This has been my experience--all 4 of my kids are ages ten and up now. Mary

just to see where they are? I would want to grade them myself. Testing is not required in my state, but I thought it would be nice to see how they do. This would be for 4th and 7th graders. Also my 9th and 10th graders, if I can get tests for those grades, too. Thanks for any recommendations you can give me. Mary

until the kids are in junior high or so. Then we start using history texts. Mary

and oil pastels, and charcoal pencils. Mary

My kids do not mention wanting to go, either. Mary

It opens up a lot of good discussion. Mary

There is McDougall, although I think his is vegan, if I remember correctly. Mary