Label-maker + Dewey Decimal system + Library Thing + packing tape over all of that. LOVE it! I can find the books I want, & the kids, in learning my system are learning "library skills." :D For further labeling books--you know how you have a tough time w/ some--do I label this Medieval or Art or Biography???? You can tag things in LT w/ ALL of those labels, then? When you're looking for "Medieval" stuff--everything w/ that tag comes up. It's really fun for planning K stuff, lol, because it searches titles, tags, etc, & "duck" for ex comes up w/ stuff I wouldn't think of on my own.

*nodding* *big ears*

1 to 2: I remember thinking--if I'd known it would be this easy, I would have had #2 sooner. BUT I also remember weeping over the # of diapers. 2 to 3: Well...she was colicky, & we moved when she wasn't 3mos old, but 3 to 4? *faint* Difficult #3 was only 14mos old. I haven't recovered enough from the PTSD to look at the pics of those first 2 years yet. LOL! 4 to 5: *shrug* LOL--I guess that's when it got easier. *Lots* of "helpers." Someone told me recently they couldn't imagine my # of kids, but theirs were the ages yours are: 5 & under. So here's the thing: they come (generally) one at a time. And no one *stays* 18mos old forever. ;) 12yo has its difficulties, but they come tied in a pretty ribbon of being able to take out the trash, do the dishes & laundry...

The cool thing about turtles is...it's hard to tell if they're dead or alive...

SOTW Singapore Alphaphonics--I don't love it, but it's gotten the job done for 4 kids, so it's one of only 3 curric that has been consistent since we started. You guys. Seriously--I read the old '99 ed of WTM, so when I found the forums later (when I was actually ready to start hs'ing, lol), & you guys convinced me to try SOTW & Singapore--well. I think it's safe to say you saved hs'ing for me. :D

Anything by Steve Sheinkin--we read Which Way to the Wild West last time through that period. A 10yo is probably fine reading it on his/her own--but with his books, you wouldn't want to miss out. Dh even lingered when we read these, lol. Two Miserable Presidents was also good, but I think that falls in SOTW 4. We like doing simulations--last time we did one on the Oregon Trail. This summer, we're going to do one on Columbus. I love this book for reading about Native American tribes. This is probably my least favorite of the 4 periods of history, but now that I have kids in the mid school range that can REALLY read, lol, I'm kind-of looking forward to the deeper discussions. :)

Praying here, too. :grouphug:

Oh, he's 12. I had him doing about 10 problems a day; I've adjusted that to 3-4, hoping he'd be inspired to pay more attention, but alas. I also ordered the Ask Dr. Callahan DVDs, & he likes those, but this lesson he's been stuck on? It's the first one he had the DVDs for, so there's no obvious help there, lol. I wish there were a practical way to step away from it & give him a fresh start in a week or a month, but...the way this year has gone, I feel like that would just create more disruption. Fwiw--we started w/ NEM, then tried Saxon (because a friend had it to borrow for free), then Jacobs (thank goodness my ils' library had it, so I could SEE it!). With LoF pre-algebra 1 on the side back in Sept. So...only being half-way thr the book...isn't a reflection on him, if that makes sense.

Although I've shown him the differences in his scores, I like the idea of marking them this way--I think that might help him to *see* what I'm telling him.

I haven't given him access to the answers--I guess...I'm afraid he'd use that as a short-cut. But maybe it's worth a try. I usually assign x amt of work for Tues because he wouldn't get enough done otherwise. But no, I don't follow that up with no play time until it's done. I mean...sort-of? But after a certain point in the day, I just want them all to go play, you know? Or if it's a pretty day (lots of snow days here lately), I figure he needs the sunshine more than he needs more math, lol. But that said, I've cut that amt of work in half and in half again, & he's still not getting it done in a reasonable amt of time. Partly--it's up to him to do it. He chooses other subjects to work on, staring out the window, helping the littles with something. Our schedule has been REALLY nuts this year--lots of moves--and now...we've got a new baby coming in about a month...just...lots of other things going on, you know? So while I understand...he also needs to be moving forward. At *some* pace.

This is kind-of a perennial problem, right? And it's easy to stay calm or even laugh about it when it's Someone Else's Kid, right? But if you'll humor me anyway...I'm at my wit's end, lol. Ds has been getting slower & slower all year, & the lesson he's on now was just abysmal when he turned it in (lots of wrong answers). But when I looked at them, at least 2 were COPIED DOWN WRONG. We're about half way through Jacob's Algebra, & his algebra is fine. But BASIC SUBTRACTION? Careless mistakes. I think what sent me over the edge was a subtraction error one one problem. I pointed it out, he corrected it--that is, put a different answer--and STILL got it wrong. He doesn't struggle with this; he's just in a hurry to move on. The TM had select problems for him to complete, but by the time I'd graded it THREE TIMES, I made him start over & do ALL the problems. a) It's taken him more than a week to do what should have been done in 1-2 days. B) He made a lot of mistakes again--all basic math. (At least he's copying them down right, though.) :p c) That one subtraction error I mentioned above? He did it AGAIN. Same wrong answer. What's frustrating is...I don't know how to say it. If I look at his work, I'm really impressed with what he *can* do & how well he does it. He's got some lazy tendencies he's outgrowing, but overall, there's no way I could call him a "lazy kid." I've started asking him before I grade stuff--did YOU check it first? Esp if he's having trouble, he gives me a desperate YES. And then he'll have his work right--all the way down to the answer, where he divided something like 270 by 15 & got 16.7 instead of 16. Probably because he's trying to do too much in his head--thank you, Singapore. So maybe my answer is to just make him show MORE work? Make him write out the long division? I mean, he CAN do it in his head...I think he just gets to the end, & his brain checks out. If the problems (or parts of them) aren't hard enough, they're not worth his full attention. And, yeah, we've talked about why those little things matter in real-life applications. (He wants to be an engineer.) If the slope of the bridge is 16.7 instead of 16, you could end up killing people.... He just giggles. :p Slow down? Speed up? Grade harder? Give him push-ups? ;) Give him a cookie? Tell me what to do!

Sorry to resurrect old threads today, but THIS is just what I need to know! My 5th g'er isn't super mathy & doesn't love science, but her reading level is great. So I had her read one of the sample lessons from The Rainbow--she said it was fine, good explanation, would have been hard to understand without the explanation, but wasn't really anything she didn't already know. WHAT am I supposed to do with that? LOL But I'm thinking if I slow it down--say just do the physics portion the first year... and actually *teach* it myself instead of just handing it off to her... maybe? It's a lot of $ for one kid & "maybe," though. :(

Has anybody used it with younger kids? Any ideas why this might not be a good idea? Or what might MAKE it work?

I'm not sure why I'd blame dh--at that point they seemed like really nice people, it looked like a great job opportunity, etc. My best guess would have been an ins policy on mom or something like that--but there was no such ins policy, mom wasn't rich. But the neighbor had been really close to mom before I came, so...I guess she didn't want to take 2nd place to me once I was there? Or...that's not what happened at all. My mom DID have the printed pages from here, & the neighbor DIDN'T ever speak to me again. That's all I know for sure. The details were provided by my mom. So. Who knows? She also told me that they both said I'd been saying bad things about her, which was particularly funny since I hadn't even met the dh. A few months later, when I'd calmed down enough to be slightly rational, it occurred to me that they had seemed really nice. I prefer to think that...um...well, no, the alternatives don't make a lot of sense, either. If mom lied about them or "misunderstood" something...that doesn't explain them ceasing contact. Unless she said something about me to them, too? But she started complaining that we ought to be friends & was upset when I indicated that I was satisfied with the friends I already had, lol, so...well, I don't know. But as long as there was nowhere else to go, I couldn't risk posting anything here. I did try changing my name, but gosh, that was even worse. If I hadn't known a couple of you guys irl here, it would have been an incredibly lonely year.

I don't know if I can beat your stories, but I've got one I've been saving for you all. Remember the "perfect" homeschooling neighbor who lived across the street from us after our move a year ago? With a baby in tow, would make meals for people, drive them to the dr, etc? I joked that we had so much in common, she must have been stalking me. Her dh had a "job opening." Mine took his res over, & that night, the 2 of them googled me, found the boards, & printed 300 pp of conversations here. Delivered them to my mom. Isn't that cozy? So anyway, that's why I wasn't here for the following 18mos or so.

I've imagined taking a subject, but probably not the whole shebang. I've been thinking about some kind of Gram's Home School, though, to take hs'ers' kids for the day so they can do dr's appts, jury duty, or escape a Really Bad Day. :)

I figure 50% of new + shipping, then adjust if necessary. For ex, if it's not in good condition or it's commonly available, price goes down. If it's in GREAT condition or hard-to-find, the price might go up. BUT I usually check Amazon & make sure I'm not asking more than they are (used). And it doesn't make sense to me to sell very close to the original price, because *even* if my item were in PRISTINE, NEVER-USED condition, the buyer is taking a risk buying from me--not just because I'm a nobody on the internet, but also because they're foregoing their chance to exchange/return/whatever the original company offers. THAT is worth more than 10-20%, imo. But...it seems like I've got less & less to sell ea year. My littles are both doing K work, the baby is nearly 18mos...too many little hands lined up waiting their turn w/ all the curric. So I guess nothing (or very little) is going to be leaving the shelves any time soon. Time to get more shelves.... :p

My sister & I finished our MAs at the same time, same college, local to *everybody.* Dh finished his BA at the same time/college, too. Neither of us girls really wanted to attend, don't remember how dh felt, but it ended up being a good opportunity for a family get-together, so we did. I made a cake for sis, though, & she was so busy w/ friends, she never even stopped by to *see* it. LOL Dh & I already had 2 kids, so we were in a different life-stage, much more low-key. Although. We were *always* more low key than sis! :D Anyway, all of that is to say--the MA wasn't a big deal for either sis or me. I'm not sure why...maybe because mine was in Education, & I was more embarrassed than proud? LOL Maybe because it feels more like career training, not something to celebrate on the same level as a BA. I'm guessing your dd really means it. If you guys have an otherwise good relationship, send a card, gift, whatever. Make as big a deal as you can when you see her, but don't worry about travel.

Um...if so many people are at least suspicious that ADD/ADHD aren't real, don't you think it would make a *terrible* crutch/excuse? Anything can be used that way by the lazy, dishonest, etc of society. I think it's fairer to compare apples to apples--there are lazy people who claim ADD & lazy people who claim to be "busy" & lazy people who claim disability, illness, poverty, etc. And...to be fair, I guess all of those problems are blemished by people using them as an excuse for poor behavior. But if we limit the sample size to only people that we'd otherwise respect...if that makes sense...seeing each of them actually crippling otherwise good people is heart-breaking. If only every *real* problem came with something visible like a wheelchair, I think it would be easier for us humans to be more compassionate toward each other. Now, just to be fair, I'll say--I didn't really believe in ADD before marrying dh. I'd never said so to anyone--that seemed rude. And it took YEARS of frustration w/ him to really believe he couldn't help it. Of course, having pg brain a time or two has made me more understanding, too. (I once dropped my purse on the sidewalk--out of my HAND--& didn't even noticed, just kept walking.)

I was in college, going somewhere w/ some guy friends, & realized my skirt was on wrong-side-out. We had to stop to pick a couple more people up, so I ran inside & switched it. Not ten minutes later, I realized...I'd had it right the first time. *faint* On the up side? I've never known a guy who'd have been able to tell. Well. At least not if it's THAT hard for a girl to tell. :p (It was a prairie skirt.)

No trap door, but the new house has a basement that we lovingly call the DUNGEON. It's the kids' playroom, which *sounds* like it wouldn't work for dungeon-y effects, but it's actually better that way: I can send them w/out the guilt. :D

We've used the US Ed from the beginning to 6B, & although I can't tell you any more what's where, I think everything on your list except Roman numerals is covered. My kids learned those in Latin, lol. Really, though...the *way* that Singapore teaches kids to think about math is so great that...if there's something that isn't covered...well...like phonics, they've been taught HOW to think mathematically. They'll figure it out. Which is better than being taught how to do that one thing & then forgetting, kwim?

No. I mean, if you're talking about my pre-kid figure, the amount of time I put into hair & make-up in high school or college, then yes. But now I spend that time reading history, cooking, chasing kids. The beauty doesn't show on my hips or face (well, I guess kind-of it does, lol), but I think if you knew me 15-20 years ago & compared that to now, I'd be a better friend, a more interesting companion. Plus...don't you just feel a little more relaxed around people who look *real*? I've got real like nobody's business. :D

Used wb, + nobody taking the pencil away = happy boy. For about 2 min. ;)

Ok, there's absolutely NOTHING I can think of to do to help, but we're probably going to be in Aurora that night, so I was going to joke about spying on the meeting & giving you updates, & then I had this vision of Lucy in Japan posing as a geisha girl, &...I thought maybe you could use a laugh. Esp at the thought of me trying to disguise this particular figure as a geisha girl!