We loved Johnny Tremain The Witch of Blackbird Pond Justin Morgan had a Horse Sarah Plain and Tall Little Britches Caddie Woodlawn Little House books American Girl books Dear America books Turn Homeward Hannalee Across 5 Aprils Check out the sonlight core 3 and 4 choices, most of them are really good!

I put one of those retracting clotheslines in my laundry room. I also have clothes lines outside for summer. I try to make as many things from scratch as possible. I can and have several folks in the community that call me to come get extra apples, pears, peaches from their trees. I slice and shred zucchini when it is in season and freeze for later use. I freeze the shredded zucchini in 1 cup increments for bread, quiche, whatever. I try to use my crock pot as much as possible. this keeps the house cooler in summer and also everything I have made has been very tender and yummy. Make sure you only wash full loads of laundry! I also save coupons for laundry soap and buy it when it's on sale. I recently got jugs of All for only $1 a piece. I shop yard sales and thrift stores for many things from books for homeschooling to clothes to furniture. DD went away to college this year and I found some wonderful furniture for her in like new cond. I also got her a really nice microwave for $5. Save old socks with holes, they are great for dusting and also cleaning rags. Old jeans with holes can be made into shorts and capris. Use a pump on your shampoo bottle! My dd alone used to go through a bottle of shampoo or conditioner in less than a week. Since using a pump bottle it lasts about a month.;) Use cloth napkins, they look classy and save on paper towels. Use the old socks and rags for icky messes and then pitch em - you would have thrown them away anyway.;) Oatmeal for breakfast. Not only is it really good for you but it is very inexpensive and everyone feels better with a warm meal in their tummy.:) We often add pecans, apples, peaches, brown sugar, bananas, and butter not all at once of course, oh and cinnamon is really good too.:) When making tacos you can extend your beef by adding refried beans, yummy!

Personally I love those Amish romances.:) I know, do amish have romances!:confused: Well they must cause there are lots of little amish kiddos. Anyway, they're not trashy, in fact pretty squeeky clean and there is always the plus that the amish lass owns a bakery or some such shop and they always make you hungry!:D

I am a diabetic, was on medication for a couple of years, non insulin though. Anyway, I have been on South beach diet, maybe even leaning more towards atkins as I really watch the carbs, for about 5 months now. I have lost 58 lbs and am no longer taking diabetes medication. I feel 100 percent better.;)

I second this! I have lost 58 lbs so far on South Beach and still going strong. My nephew who is on it with me has lost 70 and is really looking good!:001_smile:

Been there, done that yesterday.

Take that poor, sad cabbage, cut it in about 6 wedges. Put each wedge on a square of foil, salt and pepper, and put a dollop of butter on each and then wrap the foil into a packet. Now you can cook it on the grill while you barbque some chicken or whatever, or you can cook it in the oven while dinner is cooking. It is totally delicious, especially when done on the grill.;)

I make this alot but I pour the barbque sauce in the crockpot with the pork to cook. Right now dh and dbil are hooked on this with Sweet Baby Rays Cipotle barbque sauce and with pickled banana pepper rings. Sometimes we have it on buns, sometimes tortillas.:)

Thanks Dana, I took a look at her site and read a few articles. I think I might purchase her transcript book. I really wasn't planning on homeschooling high school but ds went back to public school for ninth grade and his migraines were just too much for him so here I go again.:confused:

We have used the Pioneer one, the WWII one, the Civil War one, and the Egypt one. We really enjoyed them. In the pioneer one they had projects like making a bonnet or a ammunition bag, building a log house or a sod house out of eddible things like pretzels and brownies. Ds loved that one, we built a brownie soddie on a piece of wood, there was a pretzel wood pile, outbuildings, green coconut grass... he took it to cub scouts and they ate it for snack.;) The WWII one had a game to teach dc what it was like during the war shopping with ration stamps, airplanes to make, victory garden, lots of good stuff. the thing I like best about these is the text is really interesting and there are lots of good pictures, not just projects. It's a shame wowio doesn't carry them anymore, I downloaded all of mine for free. Blessings Paula

I know how you feel! Ds was supposed to go to public school for high school but after only one week it was apparent that his migraines had returned with a vengence, he had one every single day, and he requested coming home for high school.:glare: In a way I'm happy cause I love having him home but I have no curriculum, no plans:confused: Dh just started a new job and we had to wait a month for payday so I also have no money.:tongue_smilie: Right now I have him reading the first volume of Story of the US by Hakim, doing a literature study on Summer of the Swans, and doing a science unit I got from NASA. His math is on its way and hopefully next payday I can get his other subjects. Yep, a panic attack pretty well describes it.:iagree:

Martha Greene has a neat site and sells lessons that come out twice a month that you can print out on cool things like making aprons and cleaning kitchens and canning. It is called Homemakers mentor and they have a yahoo group for members. Believe it or not you are not alone, there are a bunch of us crazy ladies that want to be more like our grammas.;)

The one year I used BJU handwriting it did require the teacher's manual as some of the assignments required an answer key. Seems like with BJU the tm's are used quite a bit in all subjects.

Of the two you selected I would pick God King. I would also like to recommend The Golden Goblet, it was really good.:)

BJU has 9th grade geography. If I use this next year I would probably go through CC unit studies volume 2, For God So Loved the World again with it. Sonlight core 5 is also geography but only Eastern Hemisphere, it would be plenty of work for a 7th or 8th grader.

There are tons of Bill Nye the Science Guy episodes on you tube and at least 10 are Earth science related. Just go to youtube and use the search engine.

I purchased 1 unit of TOG to check out while using sonlight core 4 last year. It was the unit that covered the World Wars. It was really interesting and I enjoyed reading the parent notes but we really enjoy our sonlight books and it was just too much work on my part.:tongue_smilie: Anyway, I would just have all your dc working on one volume of SOTW. The youngest ones could always do volume 1 on their next cycle through. This way everyone would be studying the middle ages and you could read them all the same read-alouds and plan some fun projects for them out of the AG once or twice a week. This way you would have the maps for everybody, the older dc could do the crossword puzzles and things and they younger ones could do the color pages while you read. There are great books listed in the AG but you could also check out the books sonlight uses for that time period, we love their books for read-alouds. I also agree with the other poster that suggested you could get other books from the library too, like picture books. You could have sort of like a mfw style book basket, picture books for the youngers, chapter books for olders, fun dk or usborne type books, pop up books, and project type books for all to enjoy.:001_smile: Just a thought as it would save you from having to switch to another quite intensive, fairly expensive curriculum.

A couple more thoughts NOEO Chemistry - This includes living books and lots of experiment kits. Christian Kids Explore Chemistry

Congratulations, he sounds adorable.:) My dd was 9lbs 15 oz, I can't even imagine 11 lbs.

Wonderful poem!:) What about some of the children's or teen's magazines? I had some of my short stories published in Seventeen when I was around 13 or 14.

School is going great here! My idea to use mfw CtG alongside the first half of sonlight core 6 is working out even better than I thought it would. Also we have really enjoyed the Biblical feasts. BJU Pre-algebra is going well too. No struggle at all, ds actually gets it. I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to handle the algebra without the dvds but it's going fine. LLATL has turned out to be a good choice as well. In fact, ds was actually enjoying it until we hit the poetry unit. I don't think there is any way to make him really like poetry. The Automotive upkeep course is going well too. Ds has learned how to put on spark plug wires and put in the plugs and adjust them, change the oil, bleed the brakes, and is rebuilding a carberator, with his uncle's help.

You all are making me hungry! All these things sound so good..... and healthy. I've never even seen a Trader Joes so I guess there are none within a 100 mile radius.:glare: Gotta ask, what's a Joe Joe?

Gib and the Gray Ghost! My dd loved this book so much when she was in elementary that she insisted I read it and I was glad I did.:D

Oh dear, I think I had this all wrong.:glare: I thought the wooden arrow deal was part of it because with the price of the whole thing we could no longer afford a military or weapons, other than wooden arrows of course.:D