Good ideas for the bookmarks, playing cards, detergent. Any thing else?? Blessings, Pat

We have 9 seniors graduating at our church this year and they are all going away to college. We have laundry baskets that the church members put gifts in for each graduate. Do you have any ideas for gifts to put in the baskets? Since we have 9 kids it needs to be something reasonably priced. I thought maybe the hive might have some very creative ideas. Blessings, Pat

If you were going to use Singapore as a supplement to MUS would you use both the Textbook and the workbook? Would just the textbook be enough?? Blessings, Pat

Thanks Brindee, I will remember that. Blessings, Pat

How about Hearts of Dakota http://www.heartofdakota.com/ . It has parts that are to be done independently and parts you would do with the children all labeled in the Teachers Manual. Blessings, Pat

Thank you JudoMom and Mallory, I appreciate your help. I will have her do the Grade 5 book. Blessings, Pat

My dd (10) will be grade 5 next year. Would I put her into the grade 5 text or step back to grade 4. She did Primary Language Lessons last year and is currently doing LLATL grade 4. I realize neither of these are the same as R & S, so thus my concern about which level to place her. What is your opinion? Blessings, Pat

I understand what you mean about Lials BCM. My ds would not have done well with that book just because of the layout of the book, too much stuff on a page. Maybe you could continue with LOF and add something like Keys to Fractions, Percents, Decimals, Algebra etc. Blessings, Pat

Thank you everyone! Some great ideas and thank you for letting me see some of the curriculum you use. I am trying to read through CM's original series and finding it quite challenging sometimes and other times I glean a lot of info. Blessings, Pat

Thanks Angela. I guess this was what I was looking for, what choices you have for various subjects especially language arts that fit your CM view. I am thinking we will be going back to AO next year. It made me feel good when I pulled out Our Island Story to look through it for dd and my ds says, "Oh, I love that book!" Time to go back to AO after that praise and this from the child that could care less about school. Thank you to everyone that has responded. I do understand that CM is a way , not a list of curriculum, but I was interested in what you use that fit the CM way. Does that make sense?? Blessings, Pat

Nice site AmericanMom! It seems to have a lot of helps. Blessings, Pat

If you follow a more Charlotte Mason approach in your home school what curriculum do you use? What do you use for language arts, math , science, etc.??? Do you follow Ambleside, Simply Charlotte Mason, or _____?? I am trying to follow a more CM approach but get so confused on what to use. :tongue_smilie: Just wondering what others use. That might help give me ideas. Thanks! Blessings, Pat

I don't know if you would consider this a full curriculum but it sure does look fun! I purchased it for dd next year. It reminds me of Myth Busters. It's Hands-On Science Mysteries. http://www.timberdoodle.com/Hands_On_Science_Mysteries_p/866-401.htm Hopefully, the link works. HTH Blessings, Pat

Just checked my son's classes and it depends on the class how they weight each portion of his work, but each class does give a grade for daily work. Two examples are: Algebra 45% of his grade comes from homework and 55% of his grade is from tests. Biology (definitely a tougher teacher) gives Tests 35%, Homework 25%, Quizzes 20% and Labs 20% . This school does allow a student to re-take one test during a marking period. They are allowed to hand in work late, but the grade on the assignment is reduced by at least 25%. (They can hand it in anytime up to the end of a marking period) So even if my son were learning at home I would be giving him some credit for daily work and late assignments. HTH Blessings, Pat

Well, I will attempt this question. I have only used SL for one year and haven't used Beautiful Feet yet but have several of the guides and will be doing a study with dd next year. So I may not be the best to answer this, but maybe this will get the post going. My own personal experience with SL totally overwhelmed me and ds. Too much reading and I personal didn't like having to find all of the questions for each book. It seemed to be a lot of time on one subject. (personal opinion, I know many love SL not trying to get blasted here) MFW has less books and some projects and probably a little more hand holding. They do not however have review questions of the books like SL does. You would do narration. (In the grades before high school) The manual has teachers notes listed after the weekly schedule. The high school program, I believe, has literary analysis and writing components built into the program. (We have not used the high school program) Beautiful Feet from what I see is more of a notebooking approach. You read the book and look up vocabulary words, research various things, (people, how something is done, etc.) copy maps and put them all in a notebook. The guide goes lesson by lesson, no flipping around to find the questions for this book, or reading additional teachers notes. It is more streamlined but your student will do more outside research. This is what I am being drawn to because it has good books and seems less intensive and easier to fit into our schedule. I hope this helped in some way, if only to get others to respond because I'm sure others can explain things better than I can. Blessings, Pat

Nope, my son is in a ps charter school 9th grade and they do not use books at all. Only in English when they read a particular novel do they have books for everyone. The other classes have to make copies of the text. My son likes it because it makes his back pack lighter, but I would rather see a text book. Blessings, Pat

I plan on doing this with my dd next year. She will be 10. The guide says primary and intermediate grades so that usually means to 6th grade. I hope it will be good for those ages. My dd is already excited to study about horses. I know this didn't help, but at least it gave your post a bump. Blessings, Pat

Is it Christian Liberty Press? or Covenant Homeschool Curriculum? I know they use MCP math in the elementary grades. Good Luck! Blessings, Pat

Well you described my ds perfectly. Unfortunately, the one math that worked for him you have already ditched. We did MUS with him because it was the one that worked the best out of Singapore, Saxon, Miquon, R & S, Moving With Math, LOF, Developmental, And Ray's Arithmetic. (There may have been more :w00t: ) I did not make him use the blocks when he did his lessons. He used them if he wanted to, but mostly they were for building with. :) We watched Mr. Demme and then I usually would work Lesson A with him to make sure he was getting the concept, but I was always available to Help him with math because it is his worse subject. It was around Delta or Epsilon that I almost ditched MUS also, but the wise Hive advised me to stick with it at least through Zeta and I'm glad that we did. He isn't brilliant in math and probably never will be, but he is in 9th grade ps now and doing decent in Algebra 1, so I guess MUS worked. If your child is like mine you need to pick a math and stick with it, (the consistency helps) but there can not be too many problems in a lesson or they immediately tune out just looking at the page. I also found that the lesson instruction has to be short. I think that's why MUS worked for my ds. (Not so many problems to each lesson and the video instruction is short) I hope this rambling helps is some way. Blessings to you and your child, Pat

My ds would have been the same way at age 9. I think some kids just don't write as well as others until later. Today at age 14 my ds is in public school and has to write constantly and doing fine with it. My point, don't stress he will get there. With my 9 year old dd I am using a book called Writing Skills Book 1 by Diana Hanbury King. It is from Educators Publishing Service. I bought it from Rainbow Resource. They have examples if you want to check it out. They also have a Book A( pre- book 1) and Book 2. It only takes her a few minutes a day to complete. At the beginning of the book they only work on sentences and then it moves to topic sentences and supporting sentences. Then they move into paragraphs. It is very step by step and not at all overwhelming. I sometimes break an exercise down into a couple of days or have her do every other sentence because they have them writing a lot of sentences in some of the exercises. I am very pleased with this book. Or you could do Brave Writer ideas where they just have to write for 10 minutes on anything. It can be a list or story or whatever. It doesn't have to be complete sentences. They just put words on the paper. At some time later you could choose one of these topics and have him write on that. HTH Blessings, Pat

Well, my first thought was maybe creating a map of the area using playdough or something so you can create the hills and valleys or draw a map showing the movement of the troops and the indians. You could always make a bow and arrow or research the lives of some of the tribes involved in that battle maybe create a meal similar to what they may have eaten. HTH Blessings, Pat

If only it were so simple, :) but that funding also has to pay for things like superintendent, principal, vice-principals, busing, extra help in the classrooms, lunch room, gym, music, art, etc. Superintendents in big districts by us are making a lot of money. Blessings, Pat

I haven't tried this method that Maria from Math Mammoth suggests but it looks effective. I plan to start dd with it soon. I hope this link works. If not go to Math Mammoth under Multiplication 1 and there is a link for the YouTube video. HTHBlessings, Pat

I always have these thoughts and feelings and never quite know how to get them out in writing, but I'll try here. Anyway, I hated, detested box curriculum. We tried Calvert, MFW, Sonlight, and BJU (parts of this). I did not like having to follow their curriculum especially Calvert (too school in a box). They also do not allow for the child that is not a typical 3rd grader or what ever. I guess what I am saying is you can piece your own curriculum together and come up with a wonderful program for your children. As others have said, you need to make the choices and stick with them unless learning is absolutely not happening with a subject, then you can look around. Make sure you do some careful evaluating of yourself and your children. What kinds of materials do you like to work with? What kinds of learners are your children? (Check Cathy Duffy for this, 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum) What materials do your children seem to respond best to? Don't be afraid to use something that doesn't seem to be very popular if it will work for you and your children. For example, we use Learning Language Arts Through Literature which isn't very popular here, but I am loving it and it's working well with my dd. It is teaching the same things as the other programs , just not the same way or quite as rigorous, but the job is getting done. Do you want a classical education, Charlotte Mason type, etc. I love Charlotte Mason but can't completely follow her philosophy. I just can't get it all flowing, but I do what I can. I make sure that math and language arts get done everyday. Those are the two important areas for me. What subjects are the highest on your priority list concentrate on those subjects first when buying and schooling. We may not get through as much science or history as I would like but dd will be able to write a decent paragraph and do her math well. What will make you feel content? What will make you feel as though your year was a success? My year will be a success if dd is narrating well, moving into writing her narrations by herself, writing a good paragraph, knows her math facts without any help, and understands how to work out the math problems we have covered this year. The rest will be icing on the cake for me. It has taken me 8 years but I finally realize that there are many wonderful programs out there but you can't do them all, you can't have them all, you can only pick the best one for you and your family. Make it work for you, stick with it, something may look better and more suited to you but, consistency is more important. I hope this rambling reply helped in some way. Good luck to you! Blessings, Pat

:iagree: We have Typing Instructor Deluxe and Mavis Beacon. My kids prefer the Mavis Beacon one. HTH Blessings, Pat