Well ds 5 I knew his before 2 and ds 3 knew his by 2.5. Ds 5 though is reading, but is is slow going. I think there are some developmental things that have to happen and that is what has slowed him up. ds3 is still not speaking clearly yet and I feel that that will cause some problems if I were to try to teach reading at the moment. So I'm waiting for that to get better first.

I had a friend that told grown men that came to her house that they had to sit down to pee. I guess that is why when we were there her dh was always going outside to pee. it was really weird. At least they lived in the country so it wasn't like right where everyone could see him.

I had a friend that we met at her house for a home church type thing and her kids went to ps. We would all go over there on the weekend and then find out that the kids had been sick. One time they had even had a stomach virus. I told her that she needed to open up her windows and air out the house to try to get the germs out, but she didn't want to. I can't remember her reason. We were sick for 3 months straight when we were going over there. When we finally stopped going we all stayed well. It was ridiculous.

My parents were married a couple of months after turning 19. They had know each other since about 5th grade and dated all through highschool. They were far from financially stable. They have been married 33 yrs. I was married at 21 I don't think I was more mature at 21 than at 19. I don't see the big deal, unless the parent just don't like him.

I just wanted to add that my dh doesn't really like to hear about curriculum as much as I like talking about it:D My solution is I have curriculum journals. So I journal about things I find and weigh the pros and cons and all that in my journal. That cuts down on the amount of taking I do with dh about the curriculum. Also I tutor in the evening and that is where my curriculum money comes from so he doesn't say anything about my purchases.

:iagree:I think to use something like k12 or calvert will cost more. What if for each subject you find something that you can stick with for the long haul or at least like all elementary and then all middle school and then all highschool. It would take a little research, but then once you decide you don't change or research until they are about to enter the new phase. I think that is harder to do secular though. I guess you could do Sonlight history, Noeo Science those are the 2 I can think of that are easitly secular and have programs that go into the upper grades. There is Trisms too. Have you looked at that? It starts in I think 5th at the earliest.

There is a secular yahoo group that is helpful for secularizing Sonlight. It is just a matter of leaving out a couple of books. You can either just leave the books out or replace them with something else. It is easy to do and doesn't mess anything up.

For me if she could give the option of just purchasing the lit and history portion of it I would buy it. Kind of like how Character Quality Language Arts started providing Meaningful Composition because people were saying that they were happy with the other parts of their Language Arts, but would really like a separate writing program. For me I don't want built in Language arts or science. I like the idea of the hands on History that you would get from LA. So if they they would just sell that they might could make more money. It might increase their sales, plus they might could actually more money on a smaller volume than on the larger. Sonlight and WP charge $50 or more for their guides. I bet you that she could sell just the history portion for $50 or $60 and that she would be making more money than she would on the full program because of the amount of paper that it would cut out of printing.

I used it, but I only did the reading part. We really enjoyed it and ds was about 4. There were too many things to gather with the instant curriculum although my ds did like it when I did the stuff from it. I recommend it just for reading and comprehension though.

LOL when I first saw the thread I thought it was for people addicted to reformed theology curriculum. i was thinking veritas, CLP and covenant home:) I've looked at Texas Tech university's program and it looks really interesting. I'm not sure you really would be saving money, but at least you would have to plan. I don't know anyone who uses it.

You are missing math. Other than that I think it looks good. You could use Heart of Dakota for your kinder. We did that and really enjoyed it. Oh I just noticed that I think you need a writing program. I'm talking about writing not handwriting. You'll have to ask, but I think R&S is mainly grammar.

Thanks everyone! I'll just keep reminding him and cover up the letters like you said. :001_smile:

My ds 5 keeps reading words backwards. Is this common? Is there something that I should be doing to help correct this other than moving to Israel:lol:?

I use paperbackswap.com and I buy used. That is how I afford Sonlight. I also bought my IG this yr used. Actually it was brand new 2009 IG that had never been used and I saved $20 buying it off homeschoolclassifieds.com

Well when I was helping a math teacher in a ps the students cheered for the student who got the lowest grade and he would stand up and take a bow. So it wasn't encouraging excellence at all. It was encouraging doing poorly. The homeschoolers I knew growing up all strived to do their best. I did too. I remember in college talking to a kid about a paper we had to write and I siad something about proofing mine several times and she laughed and said that once he writes the paper he never reads it again. I was shocked that someone could care so little about what they turn in. I know that there are a lot of ps kids that strive for excellence so think I'm saying otherwise. But I know from being homeschooled and having homeschooled friends that the standard of excellence was very high. What my friends and I considered Average I found out in college that the other kids considered excellent. It really shocked me. The fact that a C is really average. I was trained to expect an occasional high B and mostly A's. The thought of a C made me shudder.

I tried that, but it still isn't working. You mean to type it in like "Phonics Plus" right? It didn't pull anything up, so I did "Abeka math" and it is pulling up Abeka phonics etc. What am I doing wrong?

I try to search something like Phonics plus and it pulls up every thread with phonics in it and every thread that has the word plus. Is there something I can do to make it only look for those words together?

ds5 is is doing mostly 1st work, but I call it kindergarten. i just do it according to the grade he's be in in ps. He'll be 6 in Dec. But you can do what you want. No one says it has to be sept. I know someone who promotes in Jan.

I don't see anything wrong with using them and doing nature study all those yrs, but I would think by 6th grade you will be wanting to do something more than nature study. Sandi Queen herself said she wasn't preparing her kids to be doctor's or engineers. I think if you want to prepare your kids do do well in the sciences then at about jr high then you need to start introducing more traditional sciences. If you want to continue nature study along with the formal courses I think that would be great. I'm now curious about these guides too. Ds is a science nut and we go through science curriculum very quickly. So now I'm thinking we can do one of these guides in the spring when we've finished our science for the yr. I guess make it hald a yr traditional science and half the yr nature study.

Well if you need the kindergarten-2nd LA I have it for sale on the swap board for $15ppd. I'm really not a CM type person so it wasn't for me. You can pm me if interested.

Sonrisas looks really good. I don't think I could afford that much for Spanish though.

Okay I'm bad about going to the library and just picking out books to go along with our science. I function much better if I have a book that tells me what to get and so I can just request it through inter library loan. So does anyone know of a book that would be kind of like All through the Ages but for science?

Okay that makes sense. I had seen on BJU's Schedule where they had science/heritage 30 minutes and I didn't know if that was like doing one or the other every other day or what. So does your science loving son find that there is enough meat to the lessons. Also my ds really hates paper activities. If it is science, he wants messy experiments and not any of this cut and paste stuff. I realize they have some wkbk pgs and that is okay so long as there are more experiments than wokbk pgs.

We love Living Learning Books science. I'm using Science Excursion right now and while it is nice and fun it is science lite like most kinder programs. It comes with all supplies. We are enjoying. My son is a science nut, so it is a little light for us but we are just going through it faster. For those of you who want a simple and easy to use program, this is great.

They need to be at homeschool conferences as well. Too many people haven't heard of Learning Adventures. That means that they are poor at marketing their product. I am considering it for the future, but most likely will buy used unless our financial situation turns around. So my purchase really isn't going to make a difference in her sales. I can't purchase new. So either I purchase used or I buy something else. That is just the way it is. Now if I like it then I'll start telling others and maybe they can buy new. I think their marketing is the problem. There is too much curriculum out there that is bought and sold used and it isn't putting all the authors under. I realize that there is a lot of material in the manual and that is why they charge so much, but I think they could also try lowering the price a little and see if that doesn't encourage more new buyers. They could also do ebook format like TOG does with a few hard copies. I hate ebooks but I know others like them, so I think that could be a route that might work for them. Anyway those are my thoughts.