I loved the Elegant Essay Writing Lessons by Lesha Myers! It is recommended by The Institute for Excellence in Writing. Very easy to use!

I used the 7th edition hardcover (ISBN 0673995755) for ds 2 and used a student solutions manual, 7th edition (ISBN 0673995410) which had solutions to the odd problems. The solutions matched up fine even though the chapters were in a different order in my textbook....almost made me panic, but it worked out, fortunately. I would recommend using a solutions manual, especially for Intermediate Algebra.There are also Digital Video Tutor discs that you use on your computer for this. I am going to be selling mine but haven't posted them yet if you are interested.

Lingua Latina recording is good to use with the text.

I actually used Discovering Geometry with my middle son and really liked it. We used the Geometer Sketchpad too. It was not proof heavy like the Chalkdust Geometry I used with my daughter this year. The two are very different approaches to Geometry. My daughter does not like Geometry at all. I like the Chalkdust lectures and hate the textbook which was the newest one. I had used Chalkdust Geometry with my oldest son years ago I liked it but the textbook was different from the current one. To compare the two, I would say that Discovering Geometry is very hands on and construction oriented and Chalkdust is proof-heavy.

I was also going to suggest Lingua Latina especially if you have already done a couple of years of Latin.

I wanted to add that I used the redesigned TOG. I do love the teachers notes and discussion notes....extremely helpful.

I have used TOG (Rhetoric) for 2 years and love it but, it took months for me to figure everything out. I tried to do everything....impossible, but now use it as a guide, which is much easier. I would suggest downloading the free samples and reading through them to see if it is doable for you. I would also suggest getting the latest copy of "The Well Trained Mind" and try that instead of TOG. It is also separated by the same levels as TOG and everything is laid out. Trust me, you will have to spend a lot of time and money with TOG. I wish it was simpler to use. I have only used Year 1 and Year 2 of TOG and am not familiar with the American History part of TOG. I did not like the writing part of TOG and found it hard to fit in. I don't know how hard it would be to start with a Year 3 or 4 TOG. Maybe someone else can chime in here.

The "Great Books" for government SWB recommended were The Declaration of Independence, The Federalist, the Constitution of the United States, "On American Taxation" (Burke), "The Rights of Man" (Paine), "Democracy in America (de Tocqueville). These are supplemented by "The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government" or "Holt American Government". This is only for American Government, not History or Literature, which would have another list entirely.:tongue_smilie: I think that having "The Well Trained Mind" book is the best way to see how to put it all together. I just got my copy last year and wish I would have purchased it years ago! It takes the mystery out of the study of "Great Books", along with a list of the "Great Books".

SWB recommends "The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government" or Holt's American Government as a supplement to the great-books...The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Federalist, "On American Taxation", "The Rights of Man", and "Democracy in America".

We quit using the DIVE and just use the Apologia text, skipping the chapters we covered in Bob Jones. I did not like the DIVE at all and it was confusing to use.

I used the DIVE biology at the beginning of the year with Bob Jones and really hated it. We switched at semester time to Apologia and are much happier.

This summer we did math 3 times a week for an hour or a bit more, maybe 15 minutes. (My daughter held me to that) Day 1-We would watch a video for 30-45 minutes depending on how many times we paused it. She would take notes and pause when needed. Then we would try to get through the first 1 or 2 easy sections in the text, even if it went a little over an hour. Day 2-we would work as much of the rest of the sections. Day 3-finish the rest of the lesson. On days 2 and 3 we would try to stick to the hour limit. If we didn't have too much left on day 3 we would go ahead and watch the next video lesson, then finish the previous lesson. This seemed to keep me on schedule or a little ahead and probably won't be necessary during the school year when I have more days to work with. Last year we repeated the whole chapter on slopes so that's what put us behind. On day 1, I felt it was important to do the first couple of easy sections on the new lesson because it seemed to give her confidence and it usually only took about 20 minutes. There were times we repeated the video lesson when I felt we needed it. I also split up long lessons by watching half the video, doing the first 2 easy sections, then watching the rest of the video the next day. I always watch the video with her because it saves time when she needs help. (It's too hard wading through the text)

Mommy, Something I learned this year is that the problem sets are very advanced in the last part of each section and usually the test questions didn't cover this advanced stuff. (I'm not talking about the story problem portions) Chalkdust suggests "self-pacing" which means to me that I don't need to require the super hard parts to be mastered. The Larson text has wayyyy more than you need to do. Keep that in mind and make sure your student understands the basics of the lesson and require mastery of that. Don't go beyond what Mr. Mosely covered in the lesson. I went a little overboard last year and will try to simplify when we do Geometry this year. Less is more, concentrate on the basics... my mantra this year.

Great story, Lori. Susan, we didn't do precalc. but we did do the College Algebra course with Chalkdust. You will find Mr. Mosely's lectures to be enough to do the problem sets. Make sure student takes notes. You can refer to examples in the text as needed but I found it very tedious to wade through the Larson text when my son needed help and I didn't watch the video. Lesson learned, watch the video with the student, save time later when student needs help.

These pizzas look great. Would this work on a gas grill? What kind of pizza stone do you have and where did you get it?

I bought directly from Chalkdust and there are no daily lesson plans. I did receive a dvd schedule with the number of minutes per lesson on the dvd which were around 30 minutes average and these correlated directly with the table of contents of the Larson text. This would give you a guide as to how long the dvd is you're watching. The only schedule that is recommended is watch the dvd, pick 25 problems from the lesson to do. They also suggest watching the dvd twice, which we rarely did. We always do more than 25 problems. If you spend an average of 3 days on a section, a couple of days reviewing a chapter, a day to do a mid-chapter quiz and a day to do the chapter test, you should be able to finish all ten chapters. So for Algebra 1 there are 47 sections, with 47 dvd lessons to watch. Most chapters have a mid-chapter quiz, review section, and a test. If you spend 3 days per section, 2 days for review, 1 day for a quiz, and 1 day for a chapter test it adds up to 141+10+20+10=181. This is just a rough average, a couple of lessons were much longer to watch and I treated it like an extra section (there were 3 like that) We did not finish the book and did math 3 times a week this summer to finish because we spent more than 3 days on a lesson. Hope this helps.

ha, ha :lol: I think California is good, no problems here after 20 plus years. My daughter has been able to be in the orchestra class (public school) starting in junior high so we're grateful for that. We live in an area where there are many homeschoolers and a great support group, too.

Hi Linda, I like the "diversity" here and it has helped me be more open-minded.:bigear:I don't post much have gleaned much valuable information here for many years if you include the old boards before the "hive". There were some pretty interesting characters on the old boards that could really stir things up. I also like the format here, much faster than other homeschool sites.

Definitely bake it, and with bones is much better than boneless. I just started buying big packs of chicken breasts with bones and skin, then put tarragon, salt, & pepper on them. Bake at 350 for an hour or so. They get nice and brown, very juicy, smell wonderful. I use a couple, then refrigerate or freeze the rest for another couple of meals. I usually get quite a bit of juice and of course save that too. Oh, I use my big blue roasting pan with the lid off.

Oooo...These sloppy Sams and Curried lentils are vegan. They're going in my recipe book right now!:D

My Rowenta that I paid $120 for did not last.:confused: Consumer reports top rated 5-6 years ago was Black and Decker Digital Advantage. I have had that for 5 years, love it, the steam is still amazing and it was around $50. My mom, mil, sil all bought one after trying mine out, then bought one for my niece last year for a wedding gift. They are kind of hard to find, make sure it's digital advantage, the wrinkles will disappear.

Lentil, Walnut, & Rice Loaf 1 large onion, chopped 2 tbs. oil 1/2 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. thyme 1/8 tsp. garlic salt 1/8 tsp. celery salt (can use basil instead of thyme/celery) 2 eggs 2 cups lentil puree (red lentils)* 1 cup walnuts, chopped (can use pecans) 1 cup cooked rice (brown & wild ok) Cook lentils in beef broth w/ bay leaf. Saute onion in oil. Add to lentils, add spices, eggs, walnuts, & rice. Pack mixure into a buttered loaf pan & bake at 350 for 45 minutes, slightly browned on top. Serve with Carmelized Onion Gravy Carmelized Onion Gravy Melt 1/4 cup of butter, add 2 large thinly sliced onions, & saute until deep brown, about 40 minutes. Mix in 1-2 tsp.rosemary & thyme, then 3-4 tbs. flour. Add 3-4 cups of chicken broth, whisking until thickened. Can use regular lentils, the red ones cook faster and taste really good. My friend made this and gave me the recipe. We all loved it. I want to try and make it vegan for my son so haven't made it myself yet.

Ohhhh...so sorry. Can I suggest using aloe as much as possible. It will help with the pain and help with scarring. I burnt my arm on my iron and kept putting aloe on it. You can't hardly tell where the burn was and I would say it was 2nd degree...a little worse than sunburn. My daughter always uses aloe when she get sunburned and swears by it.

Let's see, McDonald's...Have ya seen "Supersize Me"? Arby's, tastes good but the when the "roast" comes out of the oven, it's gross.(My niece worked at Arby's) I love the horsey sauce. KFC my hubby has gotten food poisoning a couple of times (he has an iron stomach) when he's on the road and gets hungry for chicken. Taco Bell, inexpensive and I've heard very clean. We frequent it, get a little tired of it but it has never made us sick so I would rate it #1 from the choices given. I got "poisoned" by Carl's Jr. eating an innocent chicken salad. Was taken by ambulance to the hospital where I remained on IV's for 3 days. My hubby had to hose me off in the bath tub. Love In 'n out Burger, but is that healthy? Probably the healthiest we eat at is Panera Bread; it's fast and good, a little expensive but you don't have to tip.

Good idea, Jean, to do parts. These books are not that expensive and good for reference. I have the American Lit. from many years ago and saved it for my last one. I will purchase the British Lit. for use with my TOG. Oh, and I like your kitty.:)