We have used the released questions from the California Achievement Test, but more as a teaching tool. I started ds at his age/grade level and used it to show him how to answer multi-choice questions as we has done very little of those (I would rather find out what he knows from narration). We didn't do it as one big test, but just did about 15 minutes each day and talked about how to eliminate obviously wrong answers etc. He was enjoying it so we continued and went up the next several grade levels until we got to the point that there was lots of stuff he didn't know. That information was interesting for me, to see what level he was working at, but didn't mean anything to ds as he didn't know what the 5,6 or 7 referred to (he's always confused when people ask him what grade he is in - it is just not something that is relevant to us). We have not been required to do any testing in any of the countries we have lived in (so far), but at some point he will probably have to do some form of standardised tests so I wanted him to at least be familiar with them (even if I don't see much value in them).

That's what I was thinking too.:confused:

Well at my house it doesn't look anything like what's in the Instructor's Guide. :D We are not American so instead of doing just American history we have added all those good books into our chronological history study. We always add in lots of extra books too - just because that's what fits for ds. At various times we have done lapbooking and notebooking, but not all the time - we like variety. I have used some of the LA but dropped it because there was too much creative writing for us, though I am sure it would be perfect for other families. I'm sure there are almost as many different ways of using it as there are people using it. It just depends on what suits your family.

Well, I don't use SL for everything, but I do know there are plenty of people who love SL but don't like their science. So I don't think liking their science guarantees you will love the rest of it. My policy has always been "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". :D

I have used the samples and I liked it. But I didn't like it enough to spend that amount of money on it. :D

Sorry, I have no ideas, but bumping this as my son would be interested in these type of things also.

Since you already own Sonlight K, I would go ahead with that. I can see waiting 3 years to do SLK as being a good option for your daughter, but I can't imagine it holding the interest of your (by then) 9 year old, especially since he is already doing readers 2 now. A three year gap is really hard to combine in the lower cores (unless the older one is behind etc). I could see using core 3 with an 8 and 11 year old, but before that I think combining is going to be hard.

I would suggest that you get your hormone levels checked. Even if you want to take a natural non-drug approach you need to know what you are trying to fix. I had similar problems last year (but not to that extent) and I assumed it was perimenopause, but testing revealled that those hormones were still fine but I had problems with my thyroid and diabetes. It would have been a waste of time me taking supplements for perimenopause because that wasn't my problem.

Yes, this is what I did too. But I used sandpaper for all of them and glued them onto two different colors of card.