I wish! It's ear surgery, so driving through pressure changes will be excruciating. :(

I'm from Cincy (we live in IL now) and wanted to go see family, but I'm having surgery the 17th and probably won't be able to travel. :( Too bad-this sounds awesome. MCT and SWB!

When I was in high school, I had a friend who was a French exchange student. She had to re-do her last year in France as the two did not compare favorably and she was "behind" even with a 4.0 here in the states. Dh teaches chemistry in a cc and has a lot of foreign students. We were talking about this subject after I read this thread. He agrees the difference in the average American student & foreign students are startling. There are differences between countries, too. Not so much in achievement as in their range and depth. I know that of the people I graduated with, all of my friends (honor students for the most part) had to take remedial math and english in college.

Thanks! I wonder if you can start over so that later my youngest can use it under another child's name or someone can start over at all if they need to?

My dh teaches chemistry and a bio background would really help, but isn't necessarily required to get through the material.

1. Worms 2. Bruises on bananas or apples 3. Grocery store tomatoes 4. High humidity 5. Liver 6. Brussel Sprouts 7. Undercooked meat (anything not blackened to me :lol: ) 8. Spicy food 9. The rebirthed 80's style trends 10. My stomach scar!

Personally, I don't think learning languages is a waste of time, even if they aren't used often. You can always reinforce with Spanish language radio or tv programs, or seek out language learning groups or Spanish speaking families in your area.

I just bought it and realized I forgot to look up how many students can use it at a time. There will be 5-6 of us using it on one computer. Is that a problem?

I think it's totally possible for a lot of people. I was raised Jewish and never learned to write, but only read and pray in Hebrew. We lived far from a synagogue. I self-taught myself some latin and greek as a teenager, and started self-teaching myself more advanced french through translating things I liked and then back to english for fun. We're working on latin, french, greek here at home, and they have heard some of the Hebrew prayers though we are not Jewish (dh was raised Catholic). So I think it partly depends on the parent's motivations in teaching and the students' desire to learn. I would use many resources and be patient-learning many languages is a lifetime goal!

For the shorter school days-does anyone have any idea for a common school schedule? I'm curious as to how it's done.

Well, my older kids are doing it and my little ones like being "big" so they sit in and learn along. It's not forced. We start French from birth in some amounts, just like when I was younger (a lot of my family speaks French). Not a lot, and only small amounts. I have lost a lot of my fluency over the years from being a former French National Honors member. When only your cat speaks french to you, that's what happens. :lol: We have added in learning the Greek alphabet and small amounts of Hebrew (I was raised Jewish) and German. We started Latin this year and will be doing more intensive French and Latin for the older kids. My oldest dd is a language lover like myself, so she is self-teaching Modern Greek and my son is wanting to learn Arabic. :) Why French? I love it and was raised with it. Latin helps with other languages, German is fun, Hebrew is history and just to know. Greek is for help with English and fun. We don't do Spanish because it's the one language I have tried and failed at. Maybe someday, but I can't do it, and can not teach it atm.

No, she really could not do it. I looked through them and I know at least half of those concepts she's never seen before in her old Singapore books, Kumon, or MUS. I printed off a Math Mammoth sample for her to try. Are there Saxon samples?

My oldest dd loves the Greek Code Cracker, but I have only seen a little of Minimus, so I don't know how it compares.

Wow. She just did the placements and she is SO behind. Which is weird because she's so smart-she easily figures out fractions, multiplication, and division on her own and does algebra and balancing chemistry equations with dh (he's a chemistry professor). Apparently the "mastering" programs she's been using have her behind on a lot of the usual subjects that are in other programs, though. It feel so wrong to hold her back, in a way, and start with Singapore 2B!

I don't have the money for a travel agent. We are more free form travelers, anyway. I was just wondering what other people have spent for these types of trips so I know about what to budget. :001_smile:

Family of 7, if it matters. ;) I have so much I want to see this year. We're already planning a trip to New England to see some American history sites, but I want to do one of these, too: Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. How cheap could you make this trip besides transportation costs to the site? New Orleans historical trip-no museums, just walking the streets, parks, graveyards, and historical sites and staying in a decent family-friendly historical hotel?

Sorry this is rambling! My 10 yo is unhappy with her math. We tried Singapore and she thought it was too easy (that was several years ago, though). She hated the Kumon workbooks. She found MUS tedious doing the same thing-add/subtract/etc. for too long without variety. I was thinking either MEP or Saxon. I would like to go back to MUS because *I* like it, but does it get more challenging or diverse? What about Saxon? I hear Saxon is quite boring, but that may have been a biased opinion. MEP is free and looks fun-we tried the first week and it introduced a lot of things we hadn't done before, but it seemed almost too challenging, even though she's normally very advanced. Does anyone usually use this? I also hear CEP is good, but is it able to be used secularly?

It's probably cheaper to get their flours at a local store. I would get some of their baking additives like fiori di sicilia (sp?).

I third the vote for Shar. That's where my 6 yo's violin (1/16) came from. It's beautiful and holds the tuning and is great. They also have used ones through them for a discount. This is the only place (besides vintage violins) that I would buy from.

This may have been answered, but can you start BFSU at the second book or would I be better off starting at the beginning (kids ages K-4th grade with a gifted 4th grader).

..

I live in IL. The schools here are terrible. In our school district, the budget was so bad that they cut band, most special ed workers, teacher aides, and 90 people in our tiny town of less than 8000. So you can imagine what the schools are like right now. But somehow my kids are a threat. :glare:

It looks amazing!

:iagree: We have a honey color through most of the house on pine floors original to the house (don't get me started on the evil that is pine floors). But my ds' room has dark laminate. It's gorgeous but shows every.single.tiny. speck of dust and debris and is so slick it's hard to clean.

It is nice to see "real" homes of other families. So often you see these pristine houses that look like they've never been touched and kids couldn't possibly have set foot in there and it gets very disheartening like I am the *only* person out there who can't keep up with the lego mess!