When i first read the thread title, the image that came to mind was of a young hot male post-doc showing up to teach the kids, including setting up, performing, and cleaning up after experiments while I just watch. :D Hey, you said "dream," so why not dream big....

I think if ETC was your only phonics/reading, I'd do it every day. Since you are doing 100EL and handwriting every day and ETC as a supplement, I would do it 1-3 times a week, just 1-2 pages. I didn't start ETC until dc was almost done with 100EL (around lesson 75-80 where things get suddenly tough) and I did Funnix and ETC as "breaks" to lighten things up. So, as long as you are doing 100EL, I would just view ETC as "spice" and "for fun" and do it as often as the variety is interesting to dc. You can pick up again with ETC after 100EL.

A lot of programs have pretty good samples -- enough that you can do a couple weeks of lessons to see if it works for you. It sounds like ds needs a little decompression from the stresses of ps. When I took my 2nd grader out of K12 we took a few months just doing relaxed LA and more "fun" approaches to math, science, and history, including a 2mo unit on prehistory. By 7th grade, if he's been "getting by" he probably has some baggage to unload. I think you are probably correct that a more natural approach (rather than "school at home") will work better for your ds. For math, does he like puzzles and problem solving? Maybe look at math riddles and math olympiad problems you two can do together?

Elemental Science looks like a good program, but you need to keep in mind that it is self-proclaimed nonsectarian, not strictly secular. It's usually less of an issue in grammar/logic stages (aside from earth sciences where age of earth is a key issue). On their website they say they *plan* to present ID in their rhetoric levels (alongside evolution, rhetoric is not out yet). To date, the courts have rules teaching ID is a violation of separation of church and state (ID was ruled thinly vieled creationism hence religion, not science). NOT trying to start a debate here, just pointing out that ES is NOT secular, doesn't claim to be, and you would need to check if your charter school would pay for it/allow it.

K12 is a pretty classical ed, so you might be able to use some of those materials (stuff you didn't return) or reading lists. What didn't work for you? THere are a lot of ex-K12'ers here, so if you say what you liked and didn't like about K12 that might help folks offer better recommendations. :D What style of learner is your son? Does he need to see stuff to get it, or demo it with objects? PS is designed for auditory (sit and listen) learners, so most struggling kids have different learning styles. Knowing that will help pick materials. You might get the Math Mammoth sample -- it might be good to work thru some of the subject workbooks (materials are organized by grade in the "light blue series" and by topic in the "dark blue series"). For example, "Fractions" will cover fractions from 1st thru 6th grade level in one workbook. There are some really good options for secular science. I like REAL Science Odyssey by Pandia Press, but that's a bit younger. They are supposed to release Biology Level 2 this year, which would be for middle school level. Two more options for science are CPO (written for public schools), which you can view the student books here: http://www.nhusd.k12.ca.us/node/52 ...but my current favorite for that age is Story of Science by Joy Hakim (books published by Smithsonian, John Hopkins U developed workbooks of experiments and student pages to go along with it). SoS is a 3 year program covering science chronologically rather than by subject. You could flesh it out to match history and science and teach them more or less together. :) If you search this forum there is a discussion about how the publisher will let homeschoolers buy the books half price, so I got a complete set for $100 (free shipping, too) and that's for 3 years of stuff I can reuse with my 3 kids. SCORE! LOL If he's interested in chemistry, check out: http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/ Pandia also make History Odyssey, your ds would be in level 2 I think, but it's more a guide IMO rather than full curriculum. MOSAIC is a free secular history curriculum. K12's History textbooks are well regarded as well, and you can buy them used for around $25 each if you liked that part of K12. I can't offer much help with LA for that age, but good luck! I found it easiest to research one subject at a time, going from most important (to me) down. I also kept track of 1-2 backup options. When I found something I liked, I'd think about how it would fit with what I'd already selected. It's also ok to not hit everything at once. It's ok to do madlibs for grammar for a while and just read and discuss great books for lit, journal for writing. Maybe do that while he gets on track with math and science/history, if those are fun and what you pick first. Then you can work in more formal LA materials to suit his needs. AGain, good luck and take it day by day.

I know what your friend means -- one of the best things about 100EL is how it does blending right off the bat, which is different from most. If you look at the end of the book, the last few weeks the kids are reading 200+ word stories in single-spaced paragraph from -- WAY beyond what most readers will do. At the end of the book there is a list of traditional kids readers/books listed in order of increased difficulty, so she might just read thru those books with dc. This issue is discussed at the end of the 100EL book. ;) With my first dd, we just did readers for a bit. Within 6mo of finishing 100EL she was tearing thru the MTH a book a day. We only revisited phonics during spelling. Basically, 100EL was all she needed, she finished it at 5.25yo and now at 8 she can read anything, averaging about 100 pages/day of big thick novels. The main thing is to read with them EVERY day. My 2nd dd finished 100EL just shy of her 6th bday. Her speech and phonetic awareness is ok, but just not AS good as her sister, so I felt she would benefit from some extra phonics work. She really enjoys Funnix (computer lessons by same folks as 100EL, but blending not as smooth) as well as ETC (it's easy for her, but good reinforcement and she likes the workbooks) and I keep a good pile of easy books on hand from the library. She likes to reread the stories from 100EL and she actually reads quite well (I'm often surprised by how well she can read difficult materials). I think one of the benefits of 100EL is that kids that do it aren't intimidated by pages of text without pictures, since they are reading meaty stories (with one picture) by the end. So, I guess I'd tell your friend to wait and see where her child is at the end of 100EL (it really ramps up the last 25 lessons -- both my girls needed to stop and repeat a few lessons at that point, so make sure it's easy before you switch ornithology (funny letters go away). Some kids will be ready to go right to 2nd grade level books and a (phonics-based) spelling program and others will benefit from a little dawdling. :D

I just paged thru 1B on my iMac using Preview and it all looks fine. I'm running Lion. Do you have the latest update to MM? I originally go the light blue series Nov 2010, but there was an update, I think Jan 2011. Maria sent out a link to download the new files. I have 1A and 1B loaded on my iPad 2 (OS 5) and so far haven't had any problems using neu.Annotate, but I haven't checked every page.

Can you give an example? Page number in 1A? I'm using neu.annotate and haven't noticed anything yet, but if you give a page # I'll check! :)

It seems like I was pg or bf-ing for most of the last 9 years, so I'll have a glass of wine a few times a year. We have seen/felt the impact of alcoholism in our extended family/friends, so we just...don't. I don't think the kids have ever seen the kind of gathering where anyone was drinking more than one drink -- it's just not part of OUR lives. ;) I just read an interesting article about the liver and alcohol, saying that it's better for your liver to no drink every day: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20111024/Three-dry-days-a-week-reduces-risk-of-alcohol-related-liver-disease.aspx Maybe it's as simple as drinking daily is just not a good habit? Just one more consideration.

Just researched this.... Another option for VOIP phone (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the obi100. You can get it for $40 from Amazon. I ordered the obi110 for $50 (just 'cause it would get here 2 days faster, haha). You get a FREE Google Voice phone number, then use your obi for FREE local and long distance calling to the US and Canada and cheap to other countries. The nice thing about the obi is that it hooks into your internet modem and not your computer, so you don't have to have your computer on to use your phone line. You just plug your regular phone into the obi and it operates like a regular landline, just uses your internet connection instead of the phone line. You also have NO monthly or per use fees. http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html You can check out Google Voice's int'l rates (to an Australian landline is 2 cents/min with no connect-cost, for example): https://www.google.com/voice/rates Only trouble with VOIP and cell phones is 911 -- I've read you can pay for an E911 plan for $1.50/mo from separate companies. 1.5mps is not fast, but I just read on Netflix site that you need at LEAST 0.5 ups, so if that's the best you can do, it should work, just might not be HD. We only use OTA tv (got a nice antenna) and stream videos from Amazon Prime ($79/yr). We get lots of DVDs and blu-ray disks from our libraries. We have a blu-ray player for streaming Netflix/Amazon. SO far we haven't felt the need to stream Amazon. We watch Hulu and tv shows on our computers. Removing those fixed monthly costs really feels nice and I like the added disposable income a lot more than I'd like cable tv!

I was lucky I was in the kitchen when the "fun" started. I just kept dumping the pan of bubbles into the sink. If I hadn't been there, it would have been a lot worse (probably would have covered the whole kitchen floor easily). Ds said, "I watch! Bubbles FUN!" and sat there playing with the bubbles and would call me when the pan started overflowing. :lol: All I wanted to do was lay down for a few minutes with my headache, but nope -- bubble patrol duty calls! I could have stopped the d/w and dealt with it later, but I was really trying to get it cleaned up before dh got home (it was a tie, and he had stopped at Costco, so now we have vinegar and olive oil again. :D ) BTW, I put a drop of bubble bath in a hotel jaccuzi tub -- I have a pic and all you could see is my eyes.

Cleaning the kitchen is usually dh's thing. He didn't get a chance last night -- I was trying to *help* him. :tongue_smilie: Since I rarely run the dishwasher, I didn't notice the I'd grabbed the wrong soap jug from under the sink (same shape, different color, but he'd just switched brands, yes he does the shopping as well), and of course FILLED both cups with dish soap. Ugh! I've got a migraine and a 3yo who woke up on the hour every hour last night as excuses for my stupidity. :lol: Luckily I was in the kitchen making the kids lunch when I started the dishwasher, so I caught it early. I scooped out what I could, but a pan where it poured out, and kept bailing. :lol: 3yo ds thought it was the best...thing...ever! I probably bailed about 5 gallons of bubbles. :p Of course, I was out of both olive oil and vinegar (well, had 2 Tb of oil and 1/2 cup of seasoned vinegar). Tossed the oil in -- no change (just not enough). poured the vinegar and salt in -- bubbles decreased but still poured out. I opened the d/w to a wall of bubbles. In desperation, I grabbed a spray bottle of Pam. There's minimal oil in it, but I thought maybe the emulsifiers would help? Spayed a layer everywhere, maybe 10 second worth total, so really not much. Closed the door (d/w continued) and....no...more...bubbles!!! I've attached 2 pics for your entertainment. Thanks everyone! :)

I *accidentally* squirted liquid dish soap into my dishwasher instead of d/w detergent. I caught my mistake, but the liquid had already slid in (noticed it wasn't as thick). I *mistakenly* thought, "So, how bad can it get?" and started the washer. Five minutes later, as I march my kids in to see what they should NEVER do (everything is a learning opportunity, right?) -- namely a mound of bubbles squirting out of the washer onto the floor. Good news -- the bubbles got rid of the resistant gunk on the floor from the old d/w. Bad news -- no clue what to do now. I'm thinking wait for the bubbles to die down then let it drain -- but how do you tell a d/w to drain? What say you, hive?

DE (diatomaceous earth, used for pool and beer filters) works pretty well with most insects (anything with an exoskeleton). The fossilized coral acts like tiny razor blades and slices up their exoskeletons and eventually they die of dehydration. muhahaha! :) We sprinkle it along the foundation and inside along the walls in the garage (and across the garage door side like some "do not enter" line :lol: ). Aside from that, agree that it's dangerous for young kids and sensitive adults, backlight hunting is important (know the scale of the problem), chemicals rarely kill them but removes their food source (crickets). I think they can live without eating for a year though, so it takes time. In your case, I'd consider having the house/foundation sprayed just to discourage them. :tongue_smilie: You can seal outlets (foam cutouts) and baseboards/exterior with sealant. They can get thru a crack the thickness of a credit card, though. :ack2: A good hunting cat is supposed to do well -- they can get stung, but cats are low to the ground and quick and I think the fur helps protect them. Just hope they don't bring any "trophies" to you! ETA: oh, one more thing: flypaper style traps. We put them under the kitchen sink, stove, garage corner, and behind our master bath toilet. Can't put them where the kiddos may get to them, but it's another way to keep track of what is wandering around in the dark of night. Good luck! We only had crickets, but I was freaked out and wouldn't walk barefoot in the house for months, until my nocturnal backlight hunts turned up empty. ;) In my defense, I'm allergic to all things that sting/bite and my 3yo hasn't seen a biting ant that he doesn't want to pet. :ack:

Can't use it for hardware. I am still waiting for my smart cover (RED) which should act as a stand (apparently sent on an even SLOWER boat form China). I already have 2 wireless Apple keyboards, so was already planning on stealing the one from the kids computer for the iPad. :lol: I will probably end up getting a 3rd, if we use it a lot. It's just sooo nice to be able to put the keyboard up on the shelf when the 3yo is trying to start up *another* episode of Diego. :D I keep thinking there's a reason Apple doesn't make a stylus, but not sure what it is :confused: (aside from the fact they know users like me would just lose it -- haven't lost my finger...yet :tongue_smilie: ). I think I'd lose my mind if it wasn't attached. :D But good ideas! I'm amazed how much the tracing helps my kids though (the older with cursive, the younger with printing). Is there anything for cursive words (instead of letters)? Only things I don't like about Easy Writer is it's only letters and the cursive b looks like a cursive "le". :confused:

I got the free app neu.Annotation PDF. From the iTunes app screen, below the list of apps there is a File Sharing box and when I click on neu.Annotation and the "add" button, I can navigate to any PDF files and then they will get loaded into the iPad. Then when I open the app on the iPad, I see the first page of each PDF, open, and there are all sorts of pens/stamps/shapes to use, I zoom in to the point it's easy for the kids to write (with their finger). They can change colors, erase, etc. And I like that the right-hand bar (you use to move thru the pages of a PDF) the page numbers are RED if the page has been annotated, so I can see right away which pages were done. Then you can e-mail the document or page back to yourself if you want. So far I just look thru them on the iPad. The one app I bought so far is Easy Writer which has full-screen letters and numbers to trace (both printing and cursive). They have the uppercase version for free. It saves me paper and I noticed when my 6yo goes thru her numbers and letters on it before her other learning she doesn't reverse any. Anyone have suggestions on how to spend my $85 credit at the App store? [i also bought another season of Go Diego Go for my toddler to watch while I'm working with his sisters.] :D

We got a Wii last year and up until now I've said it was the most awesome thing for homeschooling -- kids begging to do math at 7am so they can get on the Wii sooner, and that to play games like "Blue World" where dd learned to identify over 100 fish on sight, navigate by compass, world geography, and planning (how to get the most missions in X days of game time). :lol: But now I've found something even better -- the iPad. AMAZING how much more fun math is when they can mark up a PDF on the screen rather than a boring old pencil and paper! The first day we got it, dd6 spent TWO hours doing her MM worksheets! An actual argument yesterday went like this, "Mom! Is it my turn to do my learning? She already did hers and it's MY turn!" And so far I've only spent $3 on apps. And Pocket Frogs on our iPod touch got 3yo thru his well-check at the Drs office (his mood was dicey when we first walked into the office, but then I remembered I had the iPod in my pocket). BTW, cool that iphone/ipodTouch apps run on the iPad as well. Anyway, I'm just chagrinned that these little electronic devices actually make my life easier, even when *I *don't use them. :D Still think they are totally unnecessary...but...nice to have. :p I'm just sharing this since you nice iPad-owning folks helped convince me to let dh have his iPad and not wait for the 3 (and go for the 32GB, with I think will be just right for us). NOT that dh has gotten to use it much yet. hahaha

As to Hakim's series, the 3 books are published by Smithsonian and there are companion lab books and student pages developed by John Hopkins Univ talent development program -- some pretty high credentials. You can also get them from the publisher for half-price and free shipping. You can search the forum for details on that. :D

We didn't for many years. Unless you live in some completely isolated place, you don't need one "for emergencies" -- and I say this as someone whose car overheated and I had to pull over 1 block off some small rural highway 9mo pregnant. Seriously, AT LEAST every other car stopped and asked if I was ok and offered to let me use their cell phones. It got to the point that I crossed the road to stand where some construction equipment was just so people would STOP helping me! LOL Then the construction guys showed up and offered me their phones! It was too funny! DH showed up and got the car home. That was 7 years ago and cell phones are even MORE common now. The only reason we have one is dh started working longer hours and my mom put us on her plan for $10 a month because she wanted us to have a phone. Kinda funny that it's become "a necessity" even among folks who somehow lived over 60 years without one! :D I said "other" because dh, myself, and my mom are the only ones who even have the number. :)

Generally, I re-evaluate my expectations, but since you feel that dc is behind due to unschooling, you might feel more comfortable adjusting the work load. Most curric's have way more problems than necessary, so in that case I'd probably edit what dc doesn't need.

An iris diaphragm is a MUST for me! I like to look thru the scope while I change the illumination -- helps me see lots of detail I'd miss flipping thru disc (pinhole) type. I also wouldn't get anything but LED lighting -- safer for the kiddos, won't fry the specimen, and no bulb changing and coaxial focussing was another non-negotiable for me. Not saying those are "musts" for you, I am just mentioning 'cause what is "not a big deal" to one person may be a deal breaker for another. I'd educate yourself on features and decide what is important to YOU. All but a few very pricey (as in many thousands) are made in China (like everything else these days). I think the QC issues are overstated -- less true than 10 years ago. As to the Sonlight and such -- they aren't manufacturers, just resellers who have the plant in China slap a sticker with their name on it. Most US homeschool resellers don't do any QC or checking, so why pay more? I have a Barska stereoscope and a microscope.net biology scope (straight from China! LOL The importer is a chinese american who got his ed in the US). Mine came with the 100x immersion, but I didn't attach it to the scope -- too easy for my kids to break slides with it and they don't need it yet. As long as your scope uses standard objective lenses, you can switch one out later when they need it (or leave the cover on the turret like I did). I also got a scope with a reversed nosepiece -- just means the turret "leans" the other way, which makes it easier to get slides on/off for the kiddos. Not a necessity, but nice.

First, we limit the number of houses we visit (just our immediate neighborhood). They get one while out walking and one when they get home. We weed out all the stuff they absolutely cannot have (choking hazard or age approp for the toddler) or don't like (get sent to dh's work) Then I stash their bags and they get 1 or 2 a day until they forget about them (usually takes a week). Usually after a couple weeks we send the remaining candy to dh's' workplace. Somehow I must have forgotten, because I still have their bags from last Halloween and they're still half-full! LOL We keep our tone/attitude very relaxed and fun, so the kiddos don't feel deprived. THey think it's crazy when their friends tell them they ate half their bag that first night, like YUCK. When the kiddos ask, I say, "oh, sure, let's have a piece of candy right after lunch." THey understand sugar needs to be with "real" food, and since they get it when they ask, they forget about it sooner. LOL

I got neu.annotate PDF, a FREE ipad app, and so far it's working quite well with MM. You have a bunch of tools and to add the docs, you just add the files to the list in iTunes under the iPad->apps->FileShare box. Easier than e-mailing and such. I've just started using it, so I'll post an update later. Just another option for marking up worksheets (and save that $10). :D

I've only used K12 -- good curriculum, very classical ed friendly. I looked at connections and K12 and chose K12 because it is a "mastery"curriculum, meaning you do it until you get it rather than getting a grade and "moving along". Grading in elementary is purely by %age completed. CA is a more traditional teachers assign grades sort of thing. I found K12 more adaptable to asynchronous learners. That said, I think it really depends on the quality of the VA administering the curric. I'd try to talk to folks using both K12 and CA in GA and see what they have to say.

Actually, I think you're doing fine. Since the question is how much more each book is and off the bat you saw that 4 books costs $24 more than 4 magazines, EACH book must cost 24/4=$6 more than each magazine. DONE. [Once you have achieved a 1:1 comparison of the two items, you've found the per item difference.] If the question was how much each cost, you could then go to your last equation (one book and magazine cost $24) and since a book costs $6 MORE, if you bought 2 books instead it would cost $24 + $6 = $30, so each book would be $15. Each magazine would be $6 less, so $9. Always good habit to plug that back into the original equations to check your answers and you'll see: 5x15 + 4x9 = 136 and 4*15 + 5*9 = 180 I think the key is to always underline (or focus on) what the question is asking for, and at each step ask "so, what is this telling me?" and "Does this get me closer to the answer for my original question?"