Well, I am not an official drop out yet, but i did just read LCC and i *know* it is right for us. My dd loves TOG, but it is too much variety for my ds. I am toying with the idea of doing LCC in the a.m. and letting my ds do TOG on her own in the afternoons (she is just that kinda gal). I think if I set up quarterly notebooks she can do it independently. I already have this year's plan and the books for both LCC and TOG (ack!) so we will try it out and see how it goes.

We have panels. It's really hard to answer your questions as there are so many factors... it's like if some one asks "what is homeschooling?". There is just too much information to put into a post! Here is the site I started with: http://www.realgoodssolar.com/ We did not purchase panels from them (though I have purchased other things form Real Goods) but their site is informative, and will get you started. Here are some products we use: http://www.outbackpower.com/ They should have some FAQ pages and informative beginner-type stuff as well. It is all very confusing at first- just dive in to the info and it will sort itself into understandable chunks soon!

Right there with you! I had to do the exact same thing yesterday, for the exact same reason. Hang in there! :grouphug:

Thanks, AC- I did not know about the list. I just applied to join!

Thanks!!

Could you clue me in on this? Do you have a link? Thanks!

This gives me a great deal of encouragement, Jennifer. Thank you.

I think the actual number is not as important as butgeting within your means. I know folks who spend way more than $2500/yr., but it is within their means and therefore appropriate. There are worse ways to spend money! That said- I have a tendency to spend tons, as we have very poor library resources. I have a total $ number that I have to keep within. I look and list to my heart's content, and when I hit my number I have to start prioritizing the list. I also wait to order until the last minute, so that I have time to see if a certain book can be found used. There is nothing worse than finding your book for 1/2 price the day *after* you placed the order! I am relentless about scouring the sale forum here, as well as other places, so that I know a good used price when I see it (This year I have saved over $700 by buying used, though that also tells you that my budget is pretty big!). If possible, I try to choose curriculum that I know will have a high resale value. I try to buy non-consumable books. I also check with the publisher- often their copyright will allow workbooks to be used for the entire family. That said, It takes some time. I do these things because I enjoy the hunt. If you don't enjoy it, use your time to save $ in another area, and apply those savings to the homeschool budget.

What she said! I actually had a huge mourning process, complete with all the "stages of grief", after reading TWTM the first time! It was great, and caused me to snap to reality. Reality: my ds' path will be different- no better, no worse, just different- than what I expected. When I really "got" that it made a radical difference.

I don't know about sage, but I am gray! I have been graying since I was in my early 20's. I am now 37 and about 30-40% gray. I colored for a while, but I hated the chemicals and the $$. My dh hated my obsessing about it. Finally I bit the bullet and cut my hair short (my hair is dark and I did not want the skunk look!). MY kids hated it short, but they don't mind the gray. My dh *loves* that I don't color it (he's the natural type). I get compliments all the time from people, especially women who say "I wish I could do that". I think the big key is having a snappy, stylish cut. Then I look bold and avant garde, instead of mousy and old (OK, I probably don't look mousy or old, but that is how I feel). With a cool cut, whether long or short, I get many nice comments. One of the biggest was in talking to a cute grocery store guy, who thought the color was intentional and complimented me (he was pretty young, but I still felt all puffed up about it and bragged to hubby!) I am not trying to brag, just trying to encourage that it is not bad to be gray. Don't fall for the young Hollywood hype! I actually look *younger* now that I am not trying to look younger.

I want to second Math-U-See. My ds has difficulties with transition, so the spiral approach of math programs was torture. Sometimes I have no idea why a curriculum bombs with us. My ds took a serious dislike to Cheryl (or was it Leigh?) Lowe on the Prima Latina DVD's. Perhaps it was an inaudible-to-us echo in the production? At any rate, we had to work hard to explain that the problem was not with Latin itself, and one does not have to hide under the couch when the word 'Latin' is uttered. We are doing Lively Latin now and it is working great. Ds does not love it, but he is retaining it! History is a subject of obsession around here. We like the SOTW books (thank you, SWB) and also the history encyclopedias (like Usborne and Kingfisher). Rod and Staff grammar has also been great; the simple straightforward approach and B&W layout works well. When I see my son diagramming sentences I get all misty-eyed (OK, he will only write the first letter of the words in the sentence, but they are in the correct position on the diagram!! Whoopeee!) I agree that *permission* to change the program is important. There are so many complex emotions a parent goes through when choosing curriculum for their LD child (A parent might be afraid to try classical ed. because they don't want to set their child up for incompletion i.e. failure, or they are still fighting their fears about the diagnosis, etc.). When all of that settles, the knowledge that there *is* an education path that is good for the child... wow! That is really liberating.

SWB- Thank you so much for asking this! I have been pondering what classical ed. might look like for my aspie son. In my opinion, he will benefit from a classical ed as much as or more than his neurotypical sister will, though the results will look different. I use a theory from my yoga class: regardless of how your posture looks, 100% of correct effort reaps 100% benefit. Someone who does a posture picture perfect will be getting less *benefit* than someone who looks worse, but is giving more effort. The key for us is reminding my son that our work is not performance oriented, rather it is process oriented. If I can keep him proud of his effort, then he can stop comparing himself with others (which causes his frustration level to skyrocket and his self-esteem to plummet). Some things that help: -Grouping like tasks into manageable chunks. my son has difficulty transitioning between subjects, so we do better with less frequent changes. A posted schedule helps him see what changes are coming up, so they are not a surprise. - Pace is child-driven, not curriculum-driven (I stole this phrase form Andrew Campbell's Latin-Centered Curriculum). I would rather have the material mastered than be able to say we finished a book on 'time'. -Allow work to be done orally. We still work on composition and handwriting, but oral work allows my son to answer literature comprehension questions without getting bogged down in mechanics. Working with a marker on a whiteboard or even writing paper in page protectors helps with sensory issues. -Utilizing other teachers. Our day is quite teacher intensive, so dad, or even instructors on DVD's give a welcome change. There are many other ideas gathered from books like "The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome" by Tony Attwood and "The Out of Sync Child" by Kranowitz and Miller (like how having ds jump on a mini-tramp or sit on an exercise ball while listening to read-alouds dramatically improves his comprehension! Who knew?) I will try to distill my other various and random thoughts on the subject and post them. There are so many knowledgeable folks on this board; I am looking forward to reading their replies!

I will add that Amazon.com had the text book last time I looked. It's not as good a price as Horriblebooks. but might be easier to purchase if you just wanted to check out the text more thoroughly.

AHA! I know someone would know! Thanks!

If you are on the LL homepage, you will see a "log in" on the upper right side of the page. If you log in, you will be routed to a page where each lesson is listed along with appropriate links. These links are to the pronunciation MP3's, as well as to games and etc. Both Classical and Ecclesiastical pronunciations are available. I would love to know if there is a way to download the MP3's or oder a CD- I just have been too busy to find out! Hopefully someone else will chime in.

Bad for you- the chemicals leached into the body have been proven to cause certain cancers (all I can remember off hand is breast and maybe prostate?) and also causes reproductive issues (fetal abnormalities).

Me too!! :) (Edited to add: If that's OK!)

These are good ideas to ponder. I think he could do this at a modified pace, with modified expectations. I do like the idea of dropping the grade level vs. using other readings; that would keep the quality high. I have never considered splitting the year... I am going to go sketch that out and see what it looks like. Thanks, y'all!

Wow, that looks great!!! Thanks for sharing!

My kids love Ramen, but I don't like them to eat the mysterious contents in the spice packet. We found that you can buy the plain ramen style noodles (they are in larger portions so my kids just break off a bunch). They put them in a bowl with bits of fresh veggies, soy sauce, and whatever spices they are in the mood for, cover with boiling water and let stand for a few minutes. It's easy (and breaks the long stretches of nachos for lunch).

Perhaps I should re-word my question. I was in a 'musing-mood' last night, and I admit I can ramble a bit. Does anyone have any thoughts about adapting LCC for kids who are not advanced? Would you just drop grade levels? Would you find alternate readings? OR would that dilute the program beyond recognition? Thanks for your patience as I sort this out! :)

I can't help much, but to say that we have been doing LL for a week now and *love* it. My son took an instant (and irrational) dislike to LC 1, so I am thankful that he likes LL! Since you have LC on hand, you could always try out a few lessons to see how you feel about it, and then make up your mind. I know the feeling of planning and switching and more planning! I can't wait for next "semester" to start so I can quit planning!

We just made our own litmus paper out of cabbage juice! It actually worked, and has kept the kids fascinated for over a week now. Who knew? The instructions are in RS4K Chemistry, Van Cleave's "Chem. For Every Kid", "How Nature Works", and countless other places.

I just finished reading LCC and am absolutely koo-koo about it. You know how it is when you read something and are saying "Yeah!" "Yeah" "Oh Yeah!" every other sentence? That is me right now! I am currently doing TOG and WTM, but it is just too much, really, spinning all those plates. My dd *loves* all the work, but my oldest son, who has LDs, is just buried. I am thinking he would really benefit from the LCC schedule. I am pretty sure, however that he won't be able to do the work at grade level; it's just more the *focus* that might work for him. I have been really questioning what "classical ed" looks like for kids like my ds. I don't think it is fair to not give him the chance to learn this way, even though he is likely not college bound, you know? I also want to be realistic about his limitations, keeping him on that narrow edge of challenge without pushing too hard. It is so hard to keep the balance, especially as he is quite self-conscious about how well his younger sister does. My questions are: Do any of you do LCC with not-so-advanced kids? How about with a mix of advanced and not? If so, how do you modify your schedule for that? Also, for those of you planning to do LCC soon, what do your schedules look like? (I have read all your wonderful previous posts, just want to talk more about the book, and how it could apply to kids like mine:))

My mom had a piece of furniture that she could never get the smell out of. She finally covered it with 2 coats of kilz primer, 2 coats paint, and 2 coats of clear poly. Worked great! Hopefully the other stuff will work and you won't have to paint it....