For years we have been involved with the local Little League and it is one of the few things we do outside the home. Well after a great year last year, suddenly no one wants to play this year. Our oldest quit a few years ago after being bored to death in T-ball and then rejoined and played two years till he was hit with a ball and he was done. We did not force, or even ask, him to play the next year because we knew he was "done" and has other interests anyway. Second ds has been playing straight through since T-ball and is pretty good at playing. He has always looked forward to it but this year he says he doesn't want to play and will give no reason. DH has coached his team in the past and has offered, gladly, to step down if that is the problem but he says it isn't. Now, since 9yo ds doesn't want to play, 6yo ds doesn't want to play either. Personally, I don't care if they play or not but I used to think of it as part of their PE. I feel as though my children are becoming hermits and do not want to participate in anything. DH has already informed ds's that time spent not playing LL will not be replaced with video games, legos and sitting in the house. They will probably play soccer over the summer but that will virtually be our only outside activity. I want my kids to be involved in something with other kids but we live in a rural area without many options. I think ds would play this year and enjoy it if we pushed him but is there any point? I want to help him try to cultivate outside interests but he just isn't motivated. Oldest ds became interested in RC planes and has joined a club for it. No other kids are in the club but at least he is involved in something he is passionate about.

I do! Unfortunately our old farmhouse is almost all wallpaper (yuck) and paneling (double yuck). I have two rooms I can paint and I did them last summer. One is our new study and the other is our dining room. I love both colors and places because they are mine. The rest of the decorating is someone else and I cannot wait till we can rip it down and put up new drywall.

I have been busy all weekend but just wanted to make sure that all knew I saw the replies. I do have the DK book called ART out right now. I really like it as far as a reference for an art dummy like me. I do have to say that I have a hard time leaving it lay around with all the strawn out nudes in it but the boys don't seem to pay it much mind. I also think the medieval/ renaissance studies are a great time to beef up my art and music studies. I still have not had time to work on it but I have quite a compilation of ideas. I never did find out what was up with the AG. I am assuming they may have eliminated OOP books.

Thank you so much for your input and understanding. I am feeling more confident today that I can do this and make it work. Thanks also for typing out your list. I too have also have checked out to see what SL and other "packaged" curriculums are using which helps. I did see that BP used the Rats, Bulls, & Flying Machines so I got it out of the library to check it out.

Just curious if you are using the 1st or 2nd edition? We just started in LightUnit 104 today which coincides with LightUnit 108 in Learning to Read all 2nd edition so I don't know if it will stick. Not much sticks to this guy anyway.

I am attempting to make some decisions for our Medieval studies next year. I own the original SOTW 2 Activity Book minus the student pages. Our 1st time through 5 years ago, we used just the audio cd and the activity book. I am planning on buying the new activity book because I need new worksheets anyway and they are much better. As I was comparing my old activity book to the revised, I noticed that the list of additional history and literature reading suggestions for the sample given is greatly reduced in number in the revised edition. Does anyone know why? Are these books now OOP or are they just not really that good? It would actually benefit me to have less choice and use only the well-loved books. I am using Biblioplan this year with ancients because I thought my brain would explode trying to schedule readers and read-alouds for 3 levels of children. It has worked out well except that I really like doing SOTW in order and BP jumps around. My 6yo doesn't care for anything but listening to SOTW and coloring his sheet. BP may spend weeks with no SOTW and then you will have 2 in one day which doesn't work with the younger kids. I thought maybe next year I could loosely make my own schedule but I start looking at all the choices and I am ready to order BP just for the reading schedule. Even with using BP this year, I still get (from the library) many of the additional history reading and literature suggestions in Activity book 1 but I am glad I have that schedule to work around. I am also hoping to reduce history to 2x per week except for read-alouds which are squeezed in all week.

I don't know what concepts MUS uses but I can give you some information. I have BCM and it is a college text. Not hard but busy with small print and a good number of exercises. I haven't used it but there appears to be a cumulative review exercise at the end of each chapter. There would not be any built in daily work. I have looked at the CLE samples on their website and they appear to have more daily review along with introduction to new concepts. The CLE math would also be more busy parent friendly but I do not know if they teach concepts adequately. I do not know how they compare in scope and sequence. I know CLE has their posted on their website. BCM starts very basic but it does move into some geometry, basic algebra, and statistics in the last chapters. HTH

A few weeks ago, I got the 7th edition of Lial's BCM and the student solution manual off of Amazon used for about $10 total. I agree that it starts at square one (whole numbers) and builds off that. I have not used it but it looks pretty user friendly. I originally looked at the Pearson website for ISBN #'s. The 7th edition is not the newest but I figured it is new enough.

I just tried and I cannot get on either. I am on my 2nd round through SOTW 2 and I need a refill of activity sheets and Rainbow Resources doesn't have them. I was wondering if PHP still had them.

I don't know about the DVT's but I do have the Lial's BCM book 7th ed and the student solution manual here in front of me as part of my quest to decide for 7th grade math. The ISBN for the text is 0-321-25780-4 and for the solution manual is 0-321-27938-7. If you want more ISBN numbers for the texts you could go directly to the Pearson (Addison Wesley) website. I think they have one edition newer than this but I bought both of these from Amazon used for about $10 total. It appears to be a very easy to use book. You may want to check it out before adding DVT's.

I haven't used the McCall-Harby but we do use McCall-Crabbs. I wouldn't really call it a reading program. To me it is more a practice in reading comprehension and a way to measure it. My oldest took right off with it in 3rd grade but 2nd ds who is in 4th still doesn't get all the questions very often but I have seen improvement. The timing aspect can be a frustration to some children but mine have accepted switching to a red pencil after 3 min. I do think it is a good test prep for reading comprehension if you do standardized tests. I have them do it 3x per week and I have developed a system that uses some answer sheets someone made online years ago. I set up all the lessons in the summer so they know exactly which one is next. My oldest even grades his own.

Thanks HockeyMom for the review. You answered a lot of my questions. I also appreciate your voice of reality Jackie, that sounds like a doable plan. I did find a used CPO set that is considerably cheaper than new and if I just borrow and read science books for my younger two, it would be an additional savings. I know I have lists of science books bookmarked somewhere on this computer.

Thanks for the replies. I looked at the Oak Meadow science and although it would be great for my ages, their sample shows the old colored water with celery experiment. I don't see that as 7th grade work. Maybe they are better as the book progresses. I used Mr. Q's Life science 2 years ago and although it was free it just was ho-hum. I am bookmarking the other earth science sites but I have learned from past experience that we just don't get to online programs. My guys need a book they can curl up with and really study. I would love reviews from homeschoolers using CPO.

I am trying to schedule my four boys next year and keep it sane. I will have a K'r, 2nd, 5th, and 7th and my current decision is which science to use. I am heavily considering Real Science Level 1 Earth for my 2nd grader and K'r. I also like the look of CPO Earth for my oldest although it may be too much $$$. I don't know what to do with my 5th grader. I don't know if it would be easier to beef one up or lighten up the other. Any ideas? I know I will not be able to add another program but I do not want him floundering through the year. My gut says he would enjoy the REAL science a lot more. Seriously, I could use any scheduling advice for these ages. Next year will be my 1st at trying to juggle 4 kids at once. I have been spoiled this year with my youngest going to Pre-K every day.

Thanks all. I really like how the new teacher books schedule all the subjects out (Bible, math, LA, reading). I have struggled with also switching to their LA this year but FLL is just so quick and easy that I cannot bring myself to do it.

I just switched to Learning to Read for my 1st grade ds and was wondering about the rest of CLE reading series. It seems as though all the stories are written by the same person and are all of a realistic nature. In other words no fanciful animal stories or such. I really like the layout and sweet stories of LTR but I want more story variety as my children get older. I do have them also start reading full length books come 3rd grade or earlier if they can handle it.

I always order from Fedco seeds. They are based in Maine so I figure if the seeds grow there they may work here in NY also.

This is so cool. We checked out the cheats for Super Mario also. I just have to get past the ingrained feeling that cheating is wrong. I mean it's a video game - right. :001_smile:

I guess I am not totally set on what I want to do but I am leaning towards aligning with the school in case I need to enroll him. It is a very small school which typically starts Algebra in ninth grade. In any case I am interested in having him take the NYS regents and I believe they now do a more focused math each year with some integration. I have linked to the NYS testing site so maybe someone can tell me what Integrated Algebra really is. The new series is Integrated Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II (1st test this year), and Trigonometry(1st tests this year). I am looking at the 7th and 8th grade as a time to really ramp up on writing skills and just deepen his foundation of math. Many people go right from 6B to algebra so I am assuming that much of pre-algebra has been covered already. But I would like to really make sure he is comfortable with every thing first. I figured his algebra exposure in DM would help. http://www.nysedregents.org/

Just curious what those who may be using it think. DS will be finishing up this year with 6B and I am trying to decide in what direction to go. I know I want to hold off on Algebra to at least 8th or 9th grade and just lay a firmer foundation. I own a couple of pre-algebra books but I like the variety that DM offers. My main hesitation is that I want to do a strictly algebra course when the time comes so that means we would only do the 1st 2 levels of DM if I wait till 9th grade for Algebra. Anyway, I would really appreciate some reviews.

I heard this on the local news because we live quite close to Almond but I didn't realize they had video on the buses. Thank God she didn't decided to start backing up when they exited the back. Poor kids should not have to go through that just to get to school and it makes me very thankful for the great bus driver my little guy has in the morning to go to Pre-K.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who appreciates a toasty bed in the winter. I use my hot water bottle or my big heated rice bag. I shove it down where my feet go about 5 minutes before bed and move it up when I got to bed. I get to sleep so much faster when I am warm. I have an electric blanket but never use it because our bedroom is plug challenged. On a similar note, when my guys were babies I would put my heating pad in the crib when took them out to nurse them at night. So when I put them back to bed, I would take the pad out and lay the baby on the warm spot and they would cuddle right in.

I watched it last month. I really enjoyed it and found myself wanting to pop it in as soon as I got each disk (Netflix). I thought it was a good mix of mystery and romance and yeah that one character is creepy but good rules in the end.

Yes! Chocolate in the cupboard makes so much more sense than flying lions and crowing cows. Thanks.

Logic has never been my "thing" so I thought I would look over ds's Orbiting Logic problem for tomorrow and I am kinda stumped on the If False then False is True. For example: If lions fly, then cows crow. LF- False CC- False LF -> CC True (huh?) The book said that the only time an if /then statement is false is when the if statement is true and the then is false. I faintly understand this but I am not sure how I explain to false/ false statements to be true.