I just spit on my hand and call it a day. JK :lol: I always wash my hands with soap and water and sing the tune of happy birthday because Oprah had a show one time that said that is the length of time it takes to really clean your hands. I don't own hand sanitizer. I was talking to dh and he said he uses hand sanitizer at work instead of washing because he doesn't like the fragrance of the soap that they have and he says that if he uses it he is smelling the fragrance all day long. I flush the toilet with my foot, I use a paper towel to turn off the faucet and to get a another paper towel to dry my hands and I use a paper towel to open the door. If the garbage is not close enough to through the paper towel in the garbage after opening the door or if there is only those blow dryers then I use my pinky/ring finger to turn off the water and open the door. I figure I use those the least of my fingers.

My mom started homeschooling me in 3rd. I think my 2nd grade ps teacher was concerned, but didn't say anything. She would write me letters during 3rd grade to see how I was doing and I would write back. My last letter to her was telling her all about everything I was learning. I never heard back from her. I think she decided that I was doing okay. I really liked that teacher. She took me to a theme park the summer after 2nd grade. I would love to contact her again and just update her on how I'm doing. She didn't have any kids of her own. I think she would probably like that. I would be concerned about that teacher making your daughter feel bad, but then again, if she is used to him being cranky then maybe it would be that big of deal. She could do a slide presentation of all the cool stuff you do.

My sister in her Biology class had to grow bacteria in petri dishes. They were allowed to swab everywhere but the bathroom because bathroom swabs won't grow due to all the chemicals they use to clean the bathrooms.

That is hilarious. Well I've been sitting here at the computer only to look over and see a little naked butt stuck up in the air demanding to be wiped before, so I feel for you. My ds almost 6 still refuses to wipe himself. It drives me insane. Also my newly turned 3 yr old potty trained himself, but refuses to poop in the toilet. He brings me a diaper to put on when he wants to poop. I keep wondering when he'll finally decide to quit doing that. I'm hoping that when we run out of diapers then he move on to the potty. My oldest was forever running around naked too. My youngest wear's sweats and jackets in the summer when it is 100 degrees outside, but during the winter I find him outside naked. My friends say to make my oldest eat his dinner all I have to do is keep serving him the same thing for breakfast lunch and dinner until he is so starving that he eats it. All that ends up happening is that I have a 5 yr old vomiting up all the water that he drank to make himself feel full and still refusing to eat what was served for dinner the night before:lol: Oh and currently he has a cold and he insists that the only way he can breathe is by holding a tissue over his nose and no amount of logic and reasoning can convince him otherwise.

We'll do it too.

praying. That is scary.

Is there a link to it?

The experiment kit is $15. I'm only selling the manual and activity pgs.

Every once in a while it will say God designed it to do this or created it to do that. There is nothing specific to Christianity. There isn't alot. If you believe that God created everything, then no matter what religion you are you shouldn't find anything objectionable.

My son did Horizons K book 1 last yr for prek. He was able to move directly into Abeka 1st grade this yr after just the first half of Horizons. It really picks up towards the end.

Living Learning Books, Science Excursion. They are put out my Christians but they don't have a lot of Christian stuff in it. There is Christian Liberty Press The World God Made, Abeka and BJU.

I just finished Science Excursion K and have it on the for sale board. You would have to buy the experiment kit or find the stuff on your own. We enjoyed it, but it only took us a month to go through. My son is a science nut though. It sounds like something you would like. Each lesson takes maybe 10 -15 minutes and is done once a week (unless you are like us and do lots of science everyday) There are worksheets and coloring sheets and experiments. It is a nice gentle intro to science.

Well Winter promise has a whole Native american emphasis package in their American history. I haven't used it, so I can't say what perspective it comes from.

Well I really like Critical Thinking company's Mathematical Reasoning books. I am also enjoying Abeka first grade math. I know that Abeka isn't thought of highly as far as the conceptual development goes, but they actually present things really well in the Homeschool guide. My ds5.5 is in the 1st grade book and doing really well. We have used Horizons K bk 1, MUS Primer and 1/3 of Alpha. Ds didn't like Alpha and he liked Horizons, but I didn't. I feel the conceptual development is better in Abeka than horizons. I hear people switch from Abeka around 4th grade, so I'll have to look into it at that point for the reasons why. I know I don't care for Abeka highschool math. We've tried Singapore and Rightstart and my ds didn't like them. We could possible try Singapore again at the point we switch from Abeka or we may move into BJU because I think it is really strong in concept development. I do like BJU's Highschool math. I've taught co-op classes using it. I have on my list to look at for highschool and jr high LOF, Video Text, Thinkwell and Art of problem solving.

I was homeschooled and we always wrote it as 1 word. It wan't until the past couple of yrs I started hearing people question whether it was one word or 2. So anyway I've spelled it as 1 word for the last 21 yrs and I'm not changing:D

Get her the leap frog videos and she'll have all the sounds memorized in a week.

Well since my son is in kindergarten, I'm not real concerned that they aren't great lit. We read other stuff together that is. It looks like the guide has hand on activities and extra books to read to round it out. I was thinking we'd do the guides that go with the books. I would like some activities though. Is there anywhere that lists the books in historical order?

Has anyone used this for their curriculum for history for kindergarten or first grade. My ds is more of a science guy and likes hands on. I found this book: http://www.amazon.com/Curriculum-Connections-House-Travelers-Grades/dp/1586832816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256240949&sr=8-1 Has anyone used it? Any other ideas to turn the books into a History curriculum? Thanks, Heather

Alphabet Island has a whole story line that she might like. There is a story for all the phonics rules and music. it would allow her to be a part of their world and learn to rad from that.

I would ditch Saxon and go back to Abeka since that was working. Also since Saxon is spiral it isn't like a mastery program where all the problems are the new concept and so she just didn't happen to understand that particular lesson. The lessons are made of a wide variety of problems and so if she is missing that many problems then it means she isn't getting a large portion of what is being taught. If there is that drastic of a difference between this yr and last yr I would definitely go back to Abeka. Sell your Saxon and Rod and staff on the swap board to help cut the costs of your purchases.

This is more what I had in mind for phonemic awareness at this point. I wanted something fun to do with him and thought this would help his speech. I'm keeping a list of the more expensive programs though for if he still needs help in the future.

Can you tell me what a lesson is like when you use it? Are there games and stuff?

They checked his hearing at birth does that count? They said he could hear really well.

That is expensive although it probably costs as much as a speech evaluation. Did you buy the whole kit or just the manual?

Yeah it says that it can be a core. It is new though so it remains to be seen how kids perform on tests after using it. I am using it alongside Abeka. I would just use CTC if it had a longer track record. I really like the Abeka we are using though. So it is up to you whether you want to use it as a core or not. I'm tempted to use their Language Smarts next yr. it is supposed to be a core too.