No advice. I just wanted to add that my 7th grader started her standard testing today and she told me the reading was "sooooo lame and boring" maybe he didn't enjoy the content and it reflected in his scores.

My dd turned 9 in Jan. She is around 42-44 pounds I don't remember her height but she is the shortest of her age group in church and such. She has medical condition that partly causes the stunted growth but she is very active, smart and seemingly healthy despite her condition. She was also born at 31 weeks so she had a small start. My 2 year old is also on the small side (she is below the 5th percentile) Doctors have had some concerns on both of their sizes but with no real developmental delays or anything neurological going on I don't fret too much. Dh's side of the family are all really tiny women and really big men.. I feel bad for his Mom who is 5ft and 95 pounds and he was an 11 pound baby :lol:

mostly just that we are deciding to HS again :lol:

not sure what you are looking for but, this is free http://www.wordlywise3000.com/ and you can get the books pretty cheaply to go along with it. I have not used it as of yet but I plan to add it in next year.

I got this book from a friend who got it from a friend :lol: so... I have no idea what to do with it. it appears to be the teachers guide and I cant seem to find the workbooks that go with it. They are not combined anymore. are the new books the same just split? or do I need to just buy all new here.

My Oldest went to Wilkins Primary for 1st grade (Hs'ed 2 & 3rd)and she went to Fairless for 4th (worst school ever IMO I pulled her after a few weeks and went back to Hs'ing) I have a lot of teachers in my Family I beleive one works at Edgewood. We live close to swissvale. I used to take the girls to The center for creative play all the time I was so bummed when they closed it. :001_smile:

I wear dresses/skirts 100% of the time out of the house. I wear night gowns with a tank and leggings under neath. I usually take the night gown off before I go to sleep though its just a comfort thing when I want to be out of my outfit of the day. I can't sleep well with a night gown on I am always twisted up or choking myself.

Oh I will have to check again I have 2 of them and I haven't seen them in ages.

Woodland Hills SD (near pittsburgh)

I have seen a few here. Wondering if any of you are local to me. According to the distinct their are over 100 homeschool families and I only know 1 of them lol.

thanks for the info and blog links. gives me lots to think about. the bottom line is I am worried about managing my time and having grades so spaced I can't combine much so I need to make time for all 3 and be able to wrangle a toddler too.

We don't do a lot of tv here. I am over the top strict on what my kids are allowed to watch. Movies that I love though (sorry if some are mentioned already) How to make an American Quilt Inventing the Abbots Fargo (though it was a bit to dark for me it was still pretty good) Fireproof (I did let my 12 year old watch this) Dead Man walking Left behind (thought I did let my 12 & 9 year olds watch this) Good Will Hunting With Honors 10 commandments (I let all my dd's watch this)

I'm also in PA and pretty sure that the district still gets the funds. We pvt school (until next year) I wish those taxes we paid could of gone toward tuition.

We have quite a few chronic conditions in our home, I get SOOOOOOO irritated with my mom for one. I have extreme cold urticaria I can not be cold, touch anything cold, eat anything cold. I have a few other pain issues (fibro for one) and I am just weak I have lots of muscular/pain issues and my mom always tells me "you really should ICE your knees" as if I can even do that.. it drive me right up a wall. I am more bothered when everyone under the sun tries to employ my dh for manual labor. he might big a big strong tough guy but her has severe back issues (he was in a parked car that was hit head on by a drunk driver he broke his back, ribs, and has never been the same since) but sure he can move that couch and mow your lawn... ugh. I have given up on talking to most people about anything, especially related to my kids. I can not tolerate grown adults who don't have sympathy for children who are in pain or can't live normal lives. I try to be sympathetic to others but sometimes my plate is just so full with sympathies extended to my dh and dd's its really hard to have compassion for others and their stubbed toe. I pray I can be more compassionate.

The only thing I am pretty set on is with my 1st grader (she was easier to plan for) my 4th and 8th graders I am not 100% done with my planning. I have a super tight budget too so I have to be very cautious of what I buy because if I can't re-sell I don't want to be stuck with something we both hate.

Praying!

mostly school storage and playroom. It's too small to have a big table to work at. its just off the dinning room so it will be easy to grab things and head to the dinning table. I need a place to contain the toddler while I work with the big kids so we will see how it goes.

I make all kinds of cards and such. I did our churches entire homeschool grad group last year a common theme was a traditional card with photo and on Biz cards we printed their plans like: Joe is attending ABC and plans to major in Biology He has gotten a scholarship from blah blah blah and has been invited to join the basketball team. it was more cost effective to it this way then to make another card and seemed more professional than adding a paper letter. Some of the moms even laminated these cards as a keepsake type thing. They all turned out really nice.

$8000 for 2 weeks seems a bit much. I am more inclined to give locally even though I have done short term trips as a teen and my dd will this summer (not leaving the states), and the cost is low. She is doing her own fund raising and I am giving her my wahm earnings (which is not much but its not money essential to our family) I would have to know a lot more about the mission. If it was a persistent and or annoying person I would be inclined to make a very small donation (maybe $100) just to get them off my back lol.

I like getting those yogurt tubes (gogurt I think they are called) you can freeze them and they are good for about 4-6 hours before they need eaten or put in the cooler. they are small and don't take up a lot of space which I like. aside from that I like making sandwich wraps I roll them in plastic wrap and then in tin foil. other than that, veggies, fruits, trail mix, cereal bars. raisins, dry cranberries, pepitas (pumpkin seeds that are hauled I roast them with soy sauce they are by far my kids fav healthy snack)

I don't do pork, but I have some way to dry grilled chicken before my dh told me to put it on a paper towel in the microwave and put a coffee cup 1/2 full of water next to it.. It worked pretty well I used the chicken to make chicken salad. not sure if this would work on pork but might make it better before you stir fry it even.

my biggest mistake was trying to do an online public cyber school, I liked all the freeness but in reality it was awful. we switched to traditional homeschooling and bad choice #2 was trying to do it with 100% free resources. some free resources are great don't get me wrong but I think it needs to be balanced with other curriculum choices.

workbox set up? and can you tell me your workbox success and failures? and how you run your workbox system? I am thinking about doing this next year :D

Vocab. http://www.wordlywise3000.com/ Science http://msnucleus.org/curriculum/curriculum.html Spelling http://www.zaner-bloser.com/spellingconnections/practice-pages.html Grammar http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghb.html

I purchased "all american history" got a deal I couldn't refuse on it. We are planing to use it next year along with library books and such so we can go a little deeper.