If you use the SOTW AG, the review cards work well for this. My kids really enjoyed making their own. I would write the title and year of an event we had studied at the top of a 1.5"x3" sticker/label. Then they would draw a picture of the event, color it, then put it on the timeline (with help to get it in the right place!). They love those pictures the best--can't imagine ever getting rid of that timeline.

I consider CWP essential to how I want to teach math. I want my kids able to solve real problems. I started out using IP, but found it not to be a great fit for my older dd. She's not into puzzles or math challenges, and though there is also good practice in the IP books, she doesn't really need extra practice. I don't think it's necessary, but it's useful for a kid who will thrive with a little challenge. We also supplement with some other programs and one more book would just be too much for us, though my younger dd would probably like the challenge more than older dd.

I would definitely talk to A and find out if she discussed this further with R. I assume she is her supervisor. Of course no swim professional should ever say such a thing. But I would also try to extend some grace to R. You don't always think clearly when you are in pain. I've been scratched unintentionally by my disabled dd and it hurts! I'm sure R just wanted that behavior stopped immediately and couldn't think clearly about how to make that happen. The swim lesson supervisor should be able to coach her about positive ways to handle such incidents.

I'll just say that we use Biblioplan without any of their extras and we're doing just fine. We're on our 5th year (2nd cycle now). The extras weren't available when we started. We used the SOTW AG our first 3 years, Biblioplan maps our 4th year, and are now using the Knowledge Quest Map Trek maps for this cycle. We've had no trouble using various map programs. In fact, I'm having an easier time this year figuring out which map to use than I did using Biblioplan maps last year! Their maps are tied to SOTW, and since Biblioplan scrambles up SOTW chapters, it was sometimes difficult to figure out when to use one of their maps. I spent an hour or two last summer getting all of the Map Trek maps into Biblioplan order and just wrote in the name of each map on the Biblioplan schedule. I believe Cool History is also tied to SOTW--not the other readings. Not sure about the parent companion.

Our history is heavy on reading (Biblioplan), and I always have at least one history read-aloud in progress. Right now it's three which is a bit much! That reading is done during the school day and probably runs 30-45 minutes. Then we also have a fun book going at nights and I read maybe another 30 minutes then. Weekends tend to get skipped for other activities.

I hated that book! We had to read it for book club too. The person who picked it felt so bad--we all hated it. I got that out of my house as quickly as I could. This week I read Gail Tsukiyama's The Samurai's Garden for our book club and loved it. A beautiful book. It was published in 1994, so this has been out awhile. I also read Janet Jackson's new book True You and thought it was a waste of time. There's really not enough there to call it a book in my opinion--her struggles with weight and self-image, a very little about her family life, and then lots of unconnected stories from other people: "A friend told me about when...", or "I got a letter from a woman that touched me...". There's a chapter from her nutritionist and recipes created by some chef at the end. You really feel like they're padding it because there just isn't enough there to call it a book. Not sure why I checked it out of the library...just curious about her life I guess...but can't say I really learned much. Definitely one to skip! I have a bunch of books lying around, but no idea yet which one I'll pick up this week. Don't think I have anything to fit the Irish theme! 2011 Reading List 15. True You-Janet Jackson 14. The Samurai’s Garden-Gail Tsukiyama 13. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet-Jamie Ford 12. God’s Middle Finger-Richard Grant 11. Kristin Lavransdatter-I: The Wreath-Sigrid Undset 10. The Housekeeper and the Professor-Yoko Ogawa 9. A Lucky Child-Thomas Buergenthal 8. Three Cups of Tea-Greg Mortenson 7. Run-Ann Patchett 6. The Red Queen-Philippa Gregory 5. Agnes Grey-Anne Bronte 4. The Daughter of Time-Josephine Tey 3. Mythology-Edith Hamilton 2. Phantom Toll Booth-Norton Juster 1. Her Fearful Symmetry-Audrey Niffenegger

I place orders with both RR and Amazon. Why do you need to choose one? I buy a lot of books for our history program (Biblioplan) and I do significant research ahead of time in order to save money. I figure which books we will get from the library, and then for those that we buy I will price them on the used market, new from Amazon, and new from RR. RR usually beats Amazon on price for typical paperback books. There are also books that are popular in the home school world that they carry but that Amazon does not. I always have enough to order at RR to get free shipping because I place one big order in the spring for whatever I need for the coming year. And because I shop early, it's really no big deal if I get it in two days or two weeks. I will get it long before I'm ready to do anything with it. Amazon is convenient for smaller orders--only need to reach $25 for free shipping.

A minimus book AND cd at Amazon would run $36.34 with free shipping for brand new and a known, reliable seller. I would not pay $30 used for an unknown shipper. Do you want both Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways? We did fine with just Phonics Pathways, and it is $18 new at Amazon. For me, I would be spending more to get an additional book that I wouldn't really need. But if you are looking to buy both, $20 is significantly cheaper than both at Amazon (about $35). It has to be a really good deal for me to risk used. I will spend a few bucks more to have new materials and not have potential hassles with sellers, shipping, condition of materials, etc. It's a bit different if you are at a used goods sale and can see the condition, but for buying sight unseen, you are taking a risk and should be compensated for it with a good purchase price.

I just started in February and will probably get some stuff every month until June when I hope to be done so I can plan. Buying all at once would be overwhelming for me and the bank account. We set aside money each month so it works best to buy it over time. And I like to just focus on a little at a time.

It's always 70% off some subset of courses. But this catalog did have the one I've been waiting for. I was hoping to get it at Christmas, but they never offered it. It's the set of the 3 middle ages courses--you save a bit more when you can get them as a set. I ordered it a couple nights ago. Dh said something like "how can anyone was 72 lectures on the middle ages?", but I'm looking forward to it. That's my prep for next year's history.

Carry it on and allow lots of time to go through security. We have not had any problems with dd's medications, but they will take it aside and swab it for explosives/chemicals/whatever-it-is-they-swab-for. I know it's stressful, but we have always had polite, respectful, even helpful security people. Hope it all goes well for you.

They make nutrient-packed drinks that can help pack on calories--my uncle used these when he lost a lot of weight due to cancer. They are like Ensure, but I think they pack in even more calories. You could try Ensure just to see if she could go that route.

I'm on the mailing list for a person who sells a certain line of products as her at-home business. I cannot even read her messages. The run-on sentences hurt my brain as I try to figure out what she is trying to say. I just don't even read them now.

I would LOVE to see this happen in Portland OR--easiest drive for me. But I could conceivably consider WA or northern CA. Sacramento might be possible. Echoing what's already been said--all of the Great Home School Conferences are happening east of the Mississippi. They all look like they're within driving distance of each other to my west coast eyes. It would be nice to have some alternative on the west coast. A site like Las Vegas would mean almost everyone would have to fly in. A site in WA, OR, or CA would mean a lot of people could drive. People who can't drive to one of the awesome conferences east of the Mississippi.

We do not have them, but after being in a house with them I know I wouldn't want them where we live. They block a lot more light than regular old blinds. That's fine in CA (where I experienced them) or in the south, but here in Oregon it would be downright depressing to block that much light! During the gray months we need all we can get.

Finished God's Middle Finger by Richard Grant about the lawless Sierra Madre and was very glad to be done and get that back to the library. I found it heavy and depressing and a very negative reflection on this part of Mexico, more than the author intended I think. Then I read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford and loved it. Much more my style! Next up: our March book club pick which is The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. I've had a few Japanese themes recently! Here's the list so far: 2011 Reading List 13. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet-Jamie Ford 12. God’s Middle Finger-Richard Grant 11. Kristin Lavransdatter-I: The Wreath-Sigrid Undset 10. The Housekeeper and the Professor-Yoko Ogawa 9. A Lucky Child-Thomas Buergenthal 8. Three Cups of Tea-Greg Mortenson 7. Run-Ann Patchett 6. The Red Queen-Philippa Gregory 5. Agnes Grey-Anne Bronte 4. The Daughter of Time-Josephine Tey 3. Mythology-Edith Hamilton 2. Phantom Toll Booth-Norton Juster 1. Her Fearful Symmetry-Audrey Niffenegger

Happy to not have them here. Kiddos will play games on dh's ipod touch occasionally and I can see how addicted they could get to that type of entertainment. I would rather see a book in their hands. Books work well here for keeping them entertained on car rides or waiting at doctors' offices, etc.

Each girl has a plastic crate meant to hold hanging files from Office Max. There are hanging files inside. I can put several workbooks in one file--like their Singapore math workbook, textbook, and challenging word problems. I can put loose pages in a file folder and then put that in a hanging file, like youngest dd's WWE pages that have been cut loose from the book. I can even put a textbook in a file, like a R&S grammar book. But if you have a lot of hardback books, a shelf would be better than a crate. If you have mostly workbooks, the crates are great. They are stored behind each girl's seat at the table. Ideally, they do their work and then put it back in their crate, but we're still working on the putting back part.

9 for our neighborhood school. Most of the schools in town are 8 or 9. I too question the criteria as our amazing core knowledge elementary school with a wait list to get in and with students winning all kinds of academic contests is rated lower than our more ordinary neighborhood school.

It depends on who makes them. I bought a Demarle muffin pan and the perforated metal sheet to go with it from a home show several years ago. It is wonderful--no need for Pam, muffins release easily, and the clean-up is easy. No weird odor or taste. My mil once got me Kitchenaid bread pans. Horrible odor, very "chemicalish". The Demarle representative said that is due to additives in their silicone. She said that if you can bend the pan and see white, you don't want to get it. The real silicone is natural stuff--same as sand. Same as parchment paper. That's what I remember of the spiel anyway. I've been pleased with my purchase.

My dd is 5th grade. There is certainly work that she does on her own. Some of it is completely on her own, some of it I will do a short explanation first. But having her work completely independently is not an educational goal for me. I want to be helping to shape her mind, contributing another view point, pushing her in a direction she may not go herself. I used to teach math. I don't think it would be ideal for her to just get all of her information from the book on her own; I believe that I can make a valuable difference in how she connects the information. I have always appreciated good teachers, through my college years. While being able to learn from a book or DVD course is great, I don't think it is better than learning from people (good teachers, and I think I am one) or learning from a combination of books and people.

I use both MCT and R&S. It's not too much for us (at least the way we do it). R&S is great for basic grammar skills--I wouldn't want to drop it. MCT adds a love for the English language and using it well that you don't really find in R&S. I see MCT as more of a writing program for us. Even the poetry and vocabulary are geared toward making you a better writer.

A free option sounds great. I do believe that Home School in the Woods has an option to print the even pages, then you flip those over and print the odds on the back. I do not have duplex printing, so I must have done that--can't really remember! Something they could answer for you if you need to know for sure.

I guess it's going to depend on how tight the budget is. You know, you *could* just draw a line down the middle of the page! So here is what tipped it for me (and I do have enough of a home school budget to buy things that just make my life easier): 1. Biggest advantage is that it includes the Suggested Placement Guide which helps us know where to put the figures. It might be obvious to some folks, but when it is an event that spans many years, it can be tricky to figure out where to put the thing! 2. As with all of her products, the pages are very nice looking. I wanted the girls to do nice timeline books that they could use as a reference in high school or even college. 3. I was comparing the CD to buying her printed pages, not to making my own. When you factor in two kids, and the youngest may start over with fresh pages on her next cycle, the CD is definitely cheaper than buying them already printed. 4. And I could choose vertical pages, which I wanted. Fits on the shelf better. 5. Didn't think I would use the maps (have a different program for mapwork), but it worked perfectly to pull up her ancient Greece map when we needed one for a project. And it is so lovely that I'm pretty sure we'll use other maps in the future. It comes with 18 maps, so not sure it would have everything anyone could need for map study, but then again it might. 6. Also, she has already figured out what timeline spacing to use. An Ancient History page might cover 500 years, while later on a page will only cover 100 or 50 years. Saves you a little work if you are making your own pages. Anyway, I would never put this in the "must have" category, but I would put it in the "nice to have" category. Completely depends on what kind of budget you have.

We use Horizons with Singapore. Horizons has many different types of problems in any given lesson--great for review and exposure to some topics you don't see in Singapore (eg Roman numerals). I much prefer Singapore for teaching concepts, but I feel like we're keeping skills sharp and are preparing for standardized testing by adding in Horizons. Starting in 5th grade we also add in some Life of Fred. I know others combine Singapore with Miquon.