We've been very loosely following the Guesthollow plans....they are great, I am not. :tongue_smilie: We've essentially just read some of the books and taken a lot of field trips....fortunately we live in a "history rich" area....it's been nice, but not as thorough as I had hoped to make it. We've found a lot of great books through her site, though, and have enjoyed them.

I bought WWW3 for DS after he requested some workbooks he could do on his own. (I was rather surprised at that one!) It's been a great fit for him and he does it without complaining. We still use WWE but the approach is so different there isn't too much overlap right now.

Even I like the Happy Hollisters....:blushing: I don't mind (within reason) what my kids want to read on their time. They read enough "high quality" stuff with school and read-alouds. I read quite a few series as a newer reader and thoroughly enjoyed them. It fueled my love of reading and eventually I moved on to higher level books. No harm in them that I can see. Sure as snot beats television.

We have a mix where we live...there are a few families that we schedule things with on a pretty regular basis. However, most of these families (ourselves included) have younger kids. I don't know what it will be like as our kids get older. Most are families that we know through our church. We moved to PA from Northern VA (where I grew up...) I never thought much about it, living there my entire life, but in retrospect, it's a crazy place to live. We had very few families that we socialized with, mostly because of work schedules/long commutes/too many activities/etc. It's a terrible pace for living.

We do several lessons at a time, usually finishing 2-3 chapters a week. There's plenty that is just done orally, perhaps skip the writing part for now and focus on narration?

Just ate my first one of the day (well, one and a half...) My favorite day of winter! Between fastnachts and soft pretzel rolls, I love my corner of PA!

But have you tried them? Best.Donut.Ever. Go get some today, you'll be fastnacht believer. :tongue_smilie:

This site has preschool packs....I am planning to use them with my youngers next year. Not all of the characters you listed are included, but they do have a good variety.

What a great idea! You must have had a blast!

$800 so far for 2 kids, grades K and 3. That does include a few nonessentials. Does not include activites/extracurricular.

Of the places I've lived, Pennsylvania (both Western and Southeastern.)

Congrats! Boys are super!

This was our first year doing HS, I stopped keeping track (seriously, I don't really want to know what I spend) but I'm guesstimating that our total was about $600 for the year. Most of that went toward reusable stuff. Next year we add DS#2 for K....my list thus far totals about $700, but again, much of it is nonconsumable. We'll see. I'm sure that list will keep growing....and we're not counting any "extracurricular" stuff in our budget. I total that separately. As I keep telling DH, it's waaaay cheaper than private school.

We used to live off of Backlick Road! VA has some doozies.....like the correct local pronunciation of Fauquier County....DH did a double take the first time he heard that one.

:iagree: I will add that after the first dozen or so chapters, we started doing 2/week out of WWE.

How about a slightly incoherent, probably not-at-all-helpful post? Still deciding on a few things....this was our first year HSing and we're still tweaking quite a bit. We plan to do school year-round, but lighter during the summer months. So far, we have.... Math - continue with MM, look at Beast Academy? LA - FLL3, continue WWE (finish 2, start 3), looking at MCT?, working on finding a new spelling program, going to start cursive History - SOTW, unless I change my mind again. Geography - finish what we're using now, which I cobbled together from a handful of sources Science - finish BFSU, start vol 2. Logic - don't know yet. We finished Logic Safari and Logic Countdown, and an analogy book (he loves those. :001_huh:) Trying to figure out what to buy next. That's all I have planned (ahem - using that term very loosely.) He'll also continue cub scouts, art, and horseback riding, and is start piano lessons next month.

:grouphug: I'm so sorry, I hope he's getting the care he needs. Few things frustrate me more than problems with emergency health care (happens to be where I work) and I feel terrible for people when I hear stories like this.

You could try abreva, I do think it shortens the healing time, though I think the earlier you can start using it, the better, as in before it gets past the tingly just-starting phase. They are awful, aren't they? Hope you feel better soon.

Ditto this. My dentist told me to try it when I was having trouble with canker sores, I rarely get them anymore.

Take it, that's a great offer for this market. Congrats!

I would start by seeing a peds ophthalmologist (not an optometrist) and ruling out any eye issues, since she has some underlying problems that you already know about. FWIW, I can always tell when my DS is ready for a prescription change - and so can he - headaches are a typical symptom for him. I also have noticed that he had a growth spurt lately (he's turning 8) and his eyes have changed. He has an appointment this month. Both my DH and oldest DS have eye muscle issues and they see an ophthalmologist...DH has had problems seeing an optometrist, they just don't seem to factor in the muscle issues as much as is needed. Good luck! :grouphug:

If we make it all the way through with these 3 (and don't have any more) I'll be 48. I'll probably continue working....I don't know, I can't plan that far ahead.

:grouphug: What a difficult time. Thoughts and prayers for your family.

We're enjoying BFSU 1 and I've been excited to hear some feedback on vol 2. Good news for us!

We are a family of 5 and spend about $150/week or $600/month. That includes paper products/health and beauty/cleaning/etc.