We school different days too Christine, and it doesn't work with outside classes. We take off from Thanksgiving to after the New Year, and the then spend the rest of the time off during the spring and fall. We live in Texas and don't enjoy the outside in 100 degree weather so we school then.

Choirfarm, I think you are making a wise choice by dropping your outside responsibilities. You will feel different when you have had a little down time from these! I am sorry for the sickness your father is experiencing. I just wanted to second the BJU Science DVD's. My kiddo's love these! I have not used the upper level books, only up to 5th grade, but I think that the 7 day creation is taught usually in the first chapter and that is about all that you will hear about it...at least at this level. So, you could skip it or just add to it with what you think. BJu does do labs on the DVD's that the student can follow along with at home and do the same experiments...not cheap...but well worth the dollars...IMHO! The biology class description says labs are about 20% of the class time http://www.bjupress.com/distance_learning/homeschool/courses/biology.php'>http://www.bjupress.com/distance_learning/homeschool/courses/biology.php'>http://www.bjupress.com/distance_learning/homeschool/courses/biology.php'>http://www.bjupress.com/distance_learning/homeschool/courses/biology.php The secondary drop down box will take you to the other science courses. http://www.bjupress.com/distance_learning/homeschool/courses Here is some info about test scores for BJU users. http://www.hightestscores.com/test-scores/scorecard.htm If TOG is overwhelming you could change or cut back on the number choices you make from their never ending buffet, since you may have a difficult year due to you fathers health.

I have purchased the My Generation undies sets at Target for our AG dolls. They fit great. We couldn't stand for Felicity to not have her undies on around here!!!

This is almost exactly what I was thinking this week...I wanted a Tapestry of Grace Science! :)

This is exactly what I was going to suggest! LOL! I had to look up to see where you live and I'm just north of you! This is also what we are having for Christmas dinner! The other way we eat brisket is with tortillas, grilled onions, cheese and salsa!

I have to agree with the diet. Our dogs were victims of the dog food scare a while back and we almost lost our chihuahua. I have cooked for them since and one of the things we noticed is that the dogs don't stink any more.

We just started using this and I bought the Teachers and the workbook. I am enjoying it but we are not using the workbook. We are really just having a laid back time answering orally and just bunny trailing. I will only buy the Teachers for the next level.

Sorry you didn't get an answer. I am waiting on reprints of yr 2 units 3&4 and what I understand is that there will be no prints of any kind made until 450 orders have been made. That said, my reprints were due to an error made on the full year copies that I purchased. I do see that they are offering pre-print runs of Unit 3 & 4 so I assume it will be when the 450 orders are reached. Sorry you are having to wait!

I quit using them when oldest dd, then 12, had a restless night, probably too hot, and got the cord folded between her legs. The wire overheated and the electricity blow right through the wire burning and shocking her. She a nice black burned spot on her leg not to mention the rude awakening! I am thankful that it was her leg and not the blankets or mattress, because that would have caused a fire...fast!! I threw all the electric blankets in the trash that day and haven't had another one since. AND YUCK about every thing else I have read on this thread, I had no idea!!

I don't know, but I am in exactly the same boat, but without the advantage of your nice friend who is letting you look over hers at Christmas Break. I hope you will report back what you find...and I hope I see the post!!! LOL! This is one busy board!

I was just coming over here to post this. We live an hour from a store but it is a huge hassel to get to! I too have already placed all my Christmas orders...wishing I had a free shipping code then!

In reading through this the last few days I get the feeling that Classic users were "not" supported with book updates as books fell out of print?

On Saturday I spent quite a while agonizing over a copy of YR 1 classic. I didn't buy it. Now I am second guessing myself! LOL, like thats something new. The one Q I have is: Are there as many activities and of the same quality as in the Redesign? THANKS!

Nice lists ladies, I would add Spelling Power since it covers a full course of spelling. Being the curriculum junkie that I am, I think I could teach everything just using A*L*L the stuff I have bought over the years with the exception of oldest dd's Math texts. I wondered if I was the only one who thought along these lines...because yesterday I actually went and bought next years curriculum. My local Christian bookstore has had really poor sales since this downturn in the economy and they are trying to reduce their on hand stock by having a sale. I already knew what I was using next year so it was not problem. With the exception of oldest dd's math I think we could wing it for at least the next 4 years. I am envious of those who have a good library...we don't. I have always had to buy all of our resources.

The doll closet at Target is nice, I bought one a couple of years ago, its still going strong. I know they had them earlier this year. AG just reduced prices on their sale page for the 8+ for girls and dolls online. These prices are the cheapest I have ever seen. The webspecial for a historical doll, christmas dress, accessories, and hair brush on the sale page and that sale goes off Sunday I think...?

There is a cute pair of PJ's on sale right now for $14 and the matching doll set for $8 on the sale page online. My dd favorite things for the AG's besides the clothes are Licorice the cat, Coconut the dog , table and dishes, and the AG horses. The horses at Target are equally nice, but I noticed over the weekend they had gone up to $50! They use to be $29 and on sale for $19.

At the time I started doing homesat I didn't fear we would be doing school at home...we wanted to do school at home! :D Schooling is just something that you have too make time for. It has to become a priority...you have to make it a priority...it's not going to happen by it's self. I have come to think of it as my job...I even had to tell my neighbor lady who came over ALL THE TIME that if I was at work she wouldn't just call me up or come over to chat about her new perm 6 or 7 times a week. I think of my school that way...no interuptions please! She cut her visits to the afternoon and only 3 or 4 times a month now. Since we started using it for Kinder I sat with dd while she watched and did her work, so there wasn't much grading to do. Anything she did wrong while she was working was corrected immediately. Sitting with dd continued for the most part through 3rd or 4th grade depending on the subject and even after that I was always being called to come help. At 5th grade dd rarely calls for any help. I usually try to check the work as soon as she gives me her paper or as soon as I reach a break with younger dd. I have all my TM in a stack on the table beside me so I can just grab it and grade while working with my 2nd grader. It is cheaper to order the whole set, because you get the books, if you are going to use more than 2 classes. If you order a separate class you still have to buy the books extra and at $399 plus books it comes to about the same as the whole set if you order two separate classes. Right now you can't order separate classes for the grade levels I think you would want anyway. As far as puppets go, yes there are puppets, but we teach our children that animals don't talk... BUT puppets do talk...I do the talking for them...puppets are not animals. My children have never been confused by the puppets that BJU uses. My brothers family used Abeka Videos and their kiddos scored well on the Stanford when they were in High school they actually scored post high school in the 9th grade. I choose BJU over Abeka because I did not like the fact that all they did was film a classroom in progress. BJU is filmed with the teacher speaking to the viewing child not a classroom. There are skits by college students, field trips, special people brought in to the class to help present the material in interesting ways. The Grammar Guys come to mind from 3rd grade English, DD loved them. Every time they came on she would call all of us to come and watch and would sometime rewind and watch them numerous time. They were the highlight of 3rd grade English. This year in 5th grade it's the Professor from 5th grade Science. Fun, attention getting stuff not the back of a classroom that's the reason I choose BJU over Abeka. I think they both offer quality material just presented in a different manner. I should say that we started off using all classes in the early years and burned out. We only use BJU for 2 -3 classes a year so we are not in front of the tv all day long. It gives me a break from teaching every class and the kids a break from my teaching!!!!!:lol:

We are in TX too and if our insurance hadn't changed last year from GREAT to CRAP I would be asking you if our DH worked for the same company's! Every time we went in the office personnal couldn't believe how lucky we were to have such great insurance...not any more. If misery loves company...here I am... ((((HUGS))))

This is our second year with TOG and I am sad and quite frankly wondering how other homeschool curriculum producers are doing like MFW, HOD, Chalkdust, etc... I hope to use various things over the next 10 years and wonder if some them will have to close up shop and not be there any more. Makes me want to go on a big shopping spree...LOL! I had already pretty much decided to not continue with TOG before the announcement and going digital really confirms that for me. I have several things on a disc and I really dislike it. It is not easier...at least for me. I am really sorry for them and I hope that they are able to keep going just as I hope the same for all homeschoolers who have made a business out of producing curriculum for the homeshcool community.

Uggghh, I hate to read this!!!!!! I love my crocks and use them all the time. I have two... one new. The response from Rival is definitely telling in my opinion. Apparently there's enough lead in there that most people wouldn't be happy about, but uncle fda is ok with. hhummm.

Sorry!!! This was brought up in a group of homeschoolers a few weeks ago and I was the only one who felt this way!! Those books drive me crazy!!!!:lol:

NO,NO,NO, I hate Amelia Bedeila!!! My kids love her!!! After I read two of them out loud I refused to ever do it again!!!!!!!

I see your little treasures are 9, 5, and 7 years old. For starters I can tell you that you are not going to be able to just sit the 5 and 7 year old in front of the tv and school is going to happen. I usually had to sit with mine at that age and watch and oversee. Math uses lots of manipulative's that if I wasn't there riding shot gun over them, that 30 minute class quickly turned into an hour long class. I usually needed to be there to guide them through the worktext portion that they needed to do on their own for math, english, reading and science. The 9 yr old will probably adjust to doing most on his own after a period of adjustment. My 11 yr can do it by herself only coming to me for grading and help. Which leads me to one of the things I hate... feeling completely out of the loop with what she is learning. I would think that if you are going to use all classes for all 3 kids your day is going to run you about 5 -6 hours a day. Now if you are very organized with all the papers, dvds, manipulative's , having supplies for projects and experiments if you are going to do them, already prepared then that could be shorter, more to the 4- 5 hour range. We started using homesat when oldest was in Kindergarten, which was a fun class by the way. We did all classes for 1st grade and by 2nd grade we were totally burned out with being in front of the TV for so long. We hated school. I hated recording with passion. I recorded for three years and the reason we are still watching any classes is because under the old contract you didn't have to destroy your recordings and I recorded ahead. Some classes have been redone with new texts which is why we aren't doing english...one of the classes that dd loved on dvd. Anyway, we dropped the handwriting, spelling, bible and history portion of our day to make it shorter. We also did not like 3rd or 4th grade math at all and dropped watching the dvd part. Again, I could teach math quicker, see any problems in understanding on the spot and I was still having to teach the math facts. There is some review in the dvd of facts, but it is still something that needs to be practised outside of class. I plan to continue with bju dvd for science and english as I think that next year they will offer all classes ala cart for purchase since Homesat is going away. I think these classes are superior to what I would teach! For math it is a toss between chalkdust and BJU for next year. Just our experience here, HTH Night Elf has asked some good questions that should really be considered!!!

Sorry that it has come to this for him and his company. Dh and I talked about this last week ourselves. His company, a world wide company, has had all orders just dry up...nothing... a couple of weeks ago. Don't know how long they can go on. Layoffs haven't started yet but I know they will have to start soon if something doesn't change. It sounds like he got a good package and I hope that he can get into what he wants to do! I will watch this thread with interest.

We always freeze our wheat and then either use mylar bags in a bucket or food saver it and then put it in a bucket. The one thing I never bothered with was rice, but this year I bought 2-25lbs bags from Sams and they sprouted bugs about 2 months later. I really think freezing is essential to kill eggs that are in the grain, if you are going to have it on hand for very long... and yes it's a pain in the butt. Edited to say that I had bay leaves in with the rice but they were crawling all over it. So, I don't think it works.