She reads pretty well, but is is mostly pre-reading/level 1 type books about 99% on her own. I haven't challanged her much beyond level one books. I think she could read level 2 with help.

I am trying to figure out if I have my bases covered for my 1st grader reading and LA wise. I have FLL 1&2, I have ETC 1 1/2 (I got that free from a friend but assume I need to buy other books to go with it or I may do the plaid phonics books) I also have FIAR which I know is not a reading curriculum per say. But we will be reading a lot of the books and extras together. when we read books that are above her level I point to each word and she reads along and says all the words she knows and I try to get her to sound out more challenging words. She LOVES to read. We have been reading simple readers like "the fox and the box" and bob books. What other readers should I add in here? do I need an entire reading curriculum on top of these things?

does your local school allow your high schooler to participate in marching band? I read our laws and homeschoolers are allowed to participate in extracurriculars including varsity sports and band but it doesn't say "marching band" I am just wondering if anyone has an experience with this? how did/does it work out? We live very close to the high school and I have no issue at all taking my dd to the many many after school band practices. My parents did it for me :001_smile: She desperately wants to do marching band with her cousins who go to the school already. It was some of the best times I had in life so I want to encourage it.

Nope, School is not really a social outlet IMO. You are their to learn. The work load of normal classes + all the homework that comes with highschool she may not have time to do all the fun things she does now.

I don't see why not. I would think you could find a happy medium speed that wouldn't be to fast for one or to slow for another. I am starting my 1st grader on it as well but plan to read some parts to my 4th grader too she has had 2 years of education away from me and I think she lacks a lot in grammar so I don't think it would hurt for her to hear some review. I will scream if I have to tell my 3rd grader what a pronoun is one more time :glare: almost every time she has grammar homework I have to re explain the basics to her.

I just paid $15 in library fines. I like to think I am helping keep the library funded for newer books :lol:

lack of sleep on your part could really be affecting things too. I know I am so short with the kids on nights I am up late and then dealing with unruly children in the morning. I would also suggest mixing things up a little curriculum wise. if she loves science capitalize on it, try to make science more apart of other subjects. Try to add some more fun things into the day try a math game where you would normally be doing drills. take a break from history and watch a educational dvd. I know when dd12 was in 5th we had a few power struggles and i really had to add some fun, me her and books wasn't going to work I had to bring more fun and change things up a bit.

:bigear:

I have a GPS but nothing else fancy. I get lost all.the.time. so it was almost a necessary evil. I like it when I have friends or family in town too because I stink at directing people now its just "lets see what the GPS does" lol. sure I would like to have all the fancy gadgets but I like to stay behind I just got a laptop this past year that was a big step.

great Idea thanks so much

Thanks for the info.

I love that, I may have to use that on my blog :D

We are a family of 6 and dh makes around $22-24k he worked 2 jobs to have the $$ for pvt school and did it for 1.5 years it make more sense to quit that job take the income down to $22-24k I would not ask him to go get another pt job so we can HS (with a spendy curriculum.) I would go nuts if dh was gone all the time again and I had all 4 kids alone w/ no car all the time. I have a lot of respect for all who are struggling to keep HS'ing. :grouphug:

we use it for streaming, we tried to be "active" with it but we are more sit on the couch and play mario cart people. We do have a wii fit and I plan to use that for part of our P.E next year :lol:

She got out we assume as we didn't even see it happen around 4pm on Friday evening She returned home Around 3-4am Saturday morning so we assume 12 hours give or take. I didn't look at the clock when I heard her Early Saturday morning. I do know it was before 4:45am because dh hadn't gotten up for work yet. I didn't bathe her anymore I gave her 2 baths Saturday one with baby shampoo because I was out of flee shampoo and the 2nd bath was with the flee shampoo. Our big Cat "Sammy" is a grump she was a rescued cat that lived with 25 other cats and we had her a few months before we got the baby cat "Izzy" Sammy was less than thrilled to have a new friend we assumed she was lonely because she was used to living with so many cats. She would never play with us, never sits in our laps pretty much a chunky lazy cat. It took a really long time for them to take to each other, they are far from pals. They have a few sweet moments here and there. I know that when I took Sammy to the vet a few months ago (she had a bump above her eye it turned out to be nothing I feared cancer or something :lol:) Izzy kinda acted a little off towards Sammy. Izzy usually tries to engage in playing w/ Sammy but kinda stayed away from her for a few days. I never had cats growing up. Our first cat was a kitten werescuedd from under our deck that the mama abandoned. She ended up dying at 5mts old (she had paracen**** sp?) We didn't know and took her to the vet and she had surgery and we found this out. My grandma died the week before so it was such a mess and so hard on the kids. I am super sensitive to cat issues. Had we never had that cat we would never of had any at all. Sammy has been neutered and I will do Izzy asap if she is not preg. I just don't think as a Christian women I can end life even if it is a kitten. I will have to take with my vet and maybe my pastor :lol:boy that is a topic I never thought I would discuss with him :lol: ETA: haha it edited out the disease I was trying to spell... para-sin-titus is how it sounds apperntly it read it as a word for b@@b LOL

forgive me for being undereducated here but.. would spaying now mean a kitty abortion? I don't know if I could do that. I would have to do some serious soul searching on that. I found a place that spays for $36 totally doable.

dd5 is in pvt school kindy. She will not turn 8 until Aug 8th prior to 3rd grade. The SD cut off for Age is September something, Affidavit's are due Aug 1st. When do I need to file the first affidavit for her?

I am in Pittsburgh :)

I wouldn't force a haircut on them. dd9 wanted shorter hair and I let her cut it once it was long enough for locks of love. She HATED it an still complains that its not as nice as it was before. She hates that her sisters all have hair longer than her etc. I dont think at 8 she had the maturity level to get and live with a hair cut. I still do dd12's hair she is trying to do it herself but she isn't very good at it.

I have a purple cows laminator I got it off amazon it was on sale at the time for $25 and came with 100 mulitsized sheets. I have been happy with it thus far. I have laminated maybe 50 things and only messed up on one but I wasn't paying attention and fed it crocked.

Lunch- turkey roll ups & carrot salad School- My big kids are at school. dd2 and I read some potty books. She is so cute telling me stories with pictures. We played with some blocks I am trying to teach her some shapes by arranging them on the floor. everything is a red circle to her and that is fine with me :D She also said one of her longest statements today "Dad, Dad, Dad, I got sticker on my cheek see, see, see..Dad, Dad, Dad want sticker I do it on your nose" I was proud that was a lot of words :lol: We finger traced the Letter C & A then we watched some Dora :001_huh: She feel asleep sitting on the couch she hardly ever naps anymore so I don't care where or how she falls asleep at this point. Misc.- I am trying to kick a sweet tea addiction and it's not easy I am trying to limit to 2 glasses a day but I am already on #5 :001_huh:

Thanks, I will look into a lot of that. I also don't believe that free/cheap don't do the same job. my grandfather was a street kid and a hustler (his parents where addicts) he stopped going to school in 3rd grade he schooled himself via a library card passed his highschool competency test and got a PhD in physiology at the ripe age of 53.. he worked as a carpenter and went back to college for the fun of it and he made it to the top :) (not that I would do that to my kids but just a good example of the power of a library card :lol:)

This thread has been very helpful. I am glad (well not glad but I can't think of a better word) to see that others struggle in this area somewhat too. I like knowing too that I can pass things down easily, having 4 girls I already do so much passing down with clothes, toys etc. I think my first grader is set mostly. So that frees up more $$ to use on the older kids. My 4th grader would do workbooks all.day.long if I let her. She is NOT the type to even want to be taught she wants to figure everything out for herself. She is big on reading too so its pretty easy to Tailor things to meet those needs. I have the more expensive things already purchased for my 8th grader. I have Math & History covered (and then some) I also bought Apologia Gen Science but I think I need to do physical science. More or less I need to figure out LA/Writing for her and I am so stumped because she is week in this area so I don't want to skimp.

He said $100 per semester (I just asked him to clearify)... I am doing trimesters so that will give me an extra $100. so roughly $300 for 3 kids for 1 year. Tax funds are not an option we had to buy a new van this year so that $$$ went fast and I did get a few things just not everything I wanted. the good points though are 1. he loves book sales he never really limits me on grabbing books if they are super cheap and they spark some interest in him as well. 2. I do already have some things I have Math & History for my 8th grader, and I have almost everything for my 1st grader. 3. I don't mind a trip to the library every 2 weeks. 4. Our local public school will provide text books upon request but no TE's (I could supplement some with them but I couldn't fully depend on them and they are not from a biblical perspective) The best and most reasonable good point is I can usually convince him to allow 1 purchase per pay check on things. for example my printer takes 4 inks, so every 2 wks I get a new ink I am 1 ink away from being all new ink :lol:. I need storage supplies so he allows me to buy 1 $5 storage bin per check. I am quite certain I could do this with some of the more affordable items like spelling books or workbooks etc. he is just the type that its so hard to put a bunch of $$ out at one time when we have many pressing bills that have to come first.

dd5 is will be coming from pvt school kindy to HS for first grade. Should I start at the reception level this summer (we are schooling "lite" in the summer) would the reception level be to simple coming out of Kindy? when you do MEP do you print the entire thing? lesson by lesson? or do you work off the computer? my printer is not spectacular on graphics it more of a work horse for black and white text.