Yes, it uses manipulatives very much. They have a student pack with card board manipulatives (pretty much all they will need for the year) or you can buy manipulatives. I did find the cardboard ones nice but you wind up with tons of little card board coins and counters. EVentually I stopped using the card board things and used plastic animals or buttons or whatever. You will need a nice unifix cube set though, these are used quite a bit.

What about volunteer work at the animal shelter, museum, and/or library?

I have used BJU for 20 yrs. Tried Saxon in the older grades and my math son HATED it, just thought I would mentioning our only try with Saxon. On the other hand the same son saw his little sister using BJU math and said oh I loved that math, Farmer Brown, Paddy the beaver.. BJU is gentle in the beginning but it does cover what is needed. Bright and colorful with each year a special Character and this pet to teach them the lessons. The teacher's manual takes you through daily review, mental math, word problems, and the skills which are taught in many ways to hit the different learning styles. The workpages are designed to do one side together and on their own for the other side (once they can). There is a cd that contains fact review pages and extension pages if needed.

Over the many years I have been homeschooling I have tried pretty much it all. Depending on how many children I was teaching at the time and their ages plus how independently they were and what curriculums were being used determined if the system succeeded or failed. Also I found what worked one year did not work the next. With that said... The last 2 years I have just had one student to work with, my dd, and have simplified it by using a clipboard, the kind with a box type thingy attached for more papers and a pencils. Each week I put the schedule and any work sheets we need on th clip board. In the box I keep paper, pencils, and things used weekly (my SL notes, timeline figures and cds). During the weekend when I am making the new schedule I take out the old papers and put in the new plus anything not finished or gotten to stays on the board. Books used for the week go into a crate next to the desk. So far this system has worked quite well for us.

I have a general rule for books: Keep only one grammar, logic and rhetoric book on a subject However I do take into account the book, ex. a first encyclopedia on the human body and The Magic School Bus book on the human body. I also take into account my children's opinion. For curriculum I keep only things I liked and do not require workbooks (by the time you reuse this type of curriculum there is always a new edition).

You have no right to give your child permission to pick up my baby. I do not care hold old your child is, it is my baby and I will decide who holds her/him. Do not let your child touch my babies face or hands. Teach them not to get in a babies face. A child can enjoy a baby without being in their personal space. Do not take my baby from my arms...ever. Ask or wait till I offer. Do not pick my baby up unless asked or you ask first. Do not feed my child anything unless I okay it first.

A printer with double sided printing capabilities is my biggest recommendation. Then: White board, both for hand held and wall a good pencil sharpener three hole punch a write on/wipe off world wall map with US on back (or what ever country you are in) When buying supplies I have found the cheap stuff usually costs more because you need to replace it often. Go with quality, does not have to be the top of the line though. If you need to cut corners do not do it on things you will use over and over.

Ramona and/or Hank are my votes.

I did post a WTB add for just that a teachers guide or even a used student book. Hopefully I will get a response. Since I pulled out the cd, dd has been listening to it but she keeps asking for the words to the songs. She is part visual learner so "seeing" the song words as well as hearing them help.

This explains a lot then. I thought it was heating it faster and hotter (my pepper steak actually melted 2 nights ago). Recently mine died after 20yrs of service. It was a very basic type and I wanted something similar. I knew I would not need all those fancy features that drive the price up. You need to decide what features are worth it to you. I got a simple oval pot (I actually prefer the deeper pot then the oval) with 4 settings: off, warm, low and high) it was $15 roughly.

Dd is too young for this now but I have plans on buying it for her for 6th (maybe 7th). I think with the videos (and the sample was not a short little clip) it is priced reasonably. I love that they also include a grammar DVD for review. Since we do not do grammar every year this will be enough to review for her. I am unclear on how this is also offering literature, maybe literary terms are covered, but I did not see any literature listed. This would not be our literature so it really does not matter, but i was curious.

Thanks all and for the links. These will at least get up reviewing and in the meantime maybe someone will answer my WTB add.

Are the words to the song available anywhere? I hate to buy the workbook since we will not use it and I already have the cd. I am just trying to review what she learned from SSL 1 before buying SSL 2.

Sounds easy enough. Thank you.

I see them all the time and would love to do one...a giveaway of a book or curriculum....but how do you go about setting one up?

Has she read the Ramona books yet?

They forgot to add Po-boy to the "What do you call a long sandwich that contains cold cuts, lettuce and so on...?" This is what those in and around New Orleans call it...not a sub, not a hoagie, not a hero. It is a Po-Boy plain and simple.

Whew, thought it was just a quirky thing my computer was doing. Even started a thread about My Content MIA's.

My Content is threads I posted in over the last few days. The last one they show was June 4th but I post to at least one thread each day since then. At first I thought the thread was deleted, but could not figure out why, these were curriculum related threads, nothing controversial that would have them deleted. Why are they not showing up in My Content?

What about Word Smith Apprentice? It reviews grammar as it teaches writing. The program is fun using a newspaper reporter theme that takes you through writing different pieces for the newspaper.

Elemental Science is a very well liked and extremely easy to use curriculum that follows the Classical Model.

My middle son had a reading comprehension problem. Most of it stemmed from reading the words and not actually paying attention to what these words were saying. He was rushing. To help him we started off real slow. Read a sentence at a time and tell me what you just read. Then to a paragraph a page and then a chapter. It got him to slow down and focus.

I found (for my children) if they hated writing, the journal idea just made the hate grow and the ones that loved it would write so much on their own time that a daily journal was not necessary. For my haters doing free writing just made then stare at the page (usually tear stained) and prompt writing made them feel like it was an English writing assignment more then a journal entry. I did find some success in picture prompts, usually a funny picture or an adventuresome one, and have them write about the picture prompting them with what happened right before this, or right after, as well as make up a story about this picture. The picture was usually given out or hung on the wall at the beginning of the week so they had time to think about the picture before writing.

I found out about this a few months ago. It is a really fun, kind of addicting. I have gotten some very nice postcards from all over Europe and Asia. Even learned about a country I had never heard about. I find it fun to try and find just the right card for the person I am sending to...they put the kind of cards they would like to collect on their profile and you can do the same. Another plus is you can send them out one at a time as you feel like it, just request an address when you want to send one (or more) so no pressure.

Lightning Literature 7 and 8. My son went from writing pieces that had no rhyme or reason to organized and well thought out pieces. Prior to this he had used several different writing programs but it was after LL that he had it click.