Talk to me about Elemental Science & Rainbow science.. I can see from samples Elemental Science is 2 or 5 day depending on how you break it down. We'd need the Logic Stage. I can't tell from the sample what, if anything, is used aside from the spines. We own the spines, which is cool, but is that really all that is used? How hard will it be to round up the science experiment supplies? I noticed they are sold out of kits, & may not be able to ship to me anyway.. Rainbow Science.. reading through the samples & like what I see. But.. Is there a schedule? I don't see one, but I may need to pursue more & give up making tea. ;) How many experiments are there each week? Will it be difficult for me to obtain those supplies if a kit can't be shipped to me? How many dissections {if any}? We have 2 people who will most likely pass out if they are present for this {one of them is a student..}? Is there a large jump from Rainbow to Spectrum? Is this young or old earth based or are they just quiet about the whole fiasco?

Anyone have the Up2?? It's not a watch, I know, but it may be what I'm after for now.. I love the Garmin Watch, but it's more for runners from what I can gather & as I'm no longer able to run {boo-hoo} I'd rather not set myself up for frustration. I'm intrigued by the Moov, but it may be more then I need right now..

You need to start with a beginner's workout no matter how "sissy" you might think it feels at first. I'd also suggest just going every other day at first so you can build up strength. I'd do every other day for a few weeks or even a month, but you'll need stretching. A simple yoga workout {not a hefty workout one, but a calmer one like Candlight Yoga} will help stretch things out & keep you from seizing entirely..

We live in another country & continent from my family. We don't use an app, but we do check in daily. A simple, "How's it going.." via imessage {free} or a photo on FB, just something. If I don't I have family that worries.. I hadn't posted anything publicly for a while & had an aunt who sent out an SOS.. I will say, that as children & living in a semi dangerous place {weather related} we always had an emergency plan & #1 on the list was that if we had access to a phone we were to call our grandmother because she lived in another state. We were to call her, identify ourselves, tell her where we were & if any other family member was with us. We were then suppose to stay put until a parent caught up with us. Thankfully, we never had to actually use that method. It did, however, dawn on me recently that I really need to put this into effect with my own children because having an emergency plan is always wise.

I'm staring at my FitBit dashboard right now & I can see how many steps I took, but not the break down I use to see. Am I missing something then?! You use to get a detailed break down of times when you started being more active vs when you weren't.. ETA: To answer myself I'm not missing anything. According to the premium info page I can't get detailed analyses of workouts anymore unless I pay.

Oh, I should have been more specific.. My fitbit does tell me how many steps I've taken & how many calories I've burned without having to pay anything.. The other day I forgot to check the time I started a long bikeride & normally I can come home & check my FitBit to see when a major increase in activity happened, I couldn't get that specific of a reading from the website. I can't click on the graph or get more then very basic details. I use to be able to click on the graph & get a specific per day & then broken down by hour. I'm not opposed to my little Fitbit thingie.. but there are some other pretty cool ones out there I've debated for a while but opted against because I owned something & the website that went with it is free. YEARS ago I owned something called a SportsBrain. It was awesome, I LOVED that little thing. BUT, when we moved overseas I got rid of it because I didn't want the dialup {yep that tells you how old the contraption was} fees for an international phone call. It was a very inspirational little device; I don't get that type of inspiration from the nifty little FitBit I have..

If you own one what's your favourite & why? I have a fitbit zip {the original thingie they had}, but when I went to check some stats on the computer with it recently I noticed that I couldn't access them unless I wanted to pay for a proper subscription. Clearly I haven't used it as I should because I don't log into the website very often & never heard about the change. I saw a couple I was keen on, but never compared or bothered much because they often needed a subscription & I figured if FitBit was free.. I'd love something that tells me distance & calories burned. I don't run {mangled knee} but I walk, bike, & swim, so I'd like something that would work in those situations. I don't care if it checks my heart rate.. but I would like the pedometer portion to be reasonably accurate. :)

What about this.. All though I found the quickest way to plan FIAR was to do it this way.

Do you mean something that uses projects or that all the pieces for the project are included? If you're looking for all the pieces to be included have you looked at craft kits? If you're looking for ideas WP, SOTW, & Oakmeadow all include "ideas" & are boxed curriculum. Some of them sell "kits" for some of the projects..

Have you considered looking at Simply Stated? They've done all the work, included call numbers, etc. :)

But there IS a Writing Without Tears. It's called Writing With Ease & Writing With Skill. Seriously. :P

We finished that core up a few weeks ago & really enjoyed our time with it. :) Why did we like it? Hmm, that's a hard question, we did want to study world history & starting at the beginning seemed wise. I liked how SOTW was used with Kingfisher all ready lined up. We loved the majority of the book selections, all though some could have really used pronunciation guides. All up though, we liked it!

We like Timeline; we have a few decks & you can mix them in. You may want to preview the cards before playing some are so-so for children.. :)

Oh.. hmm.. I might be a member of that group, hubs asked me something about it recently which means he was getting emails because I use his yahoo account for it. I'm terrible with yahoo groups.

I've seen the line up for Volume 2 of both these books, has anyone done one for Volume 3? If you have would you be willing to share? Pretty please?

The HSITW cds really add a huge amount to the programme. We enjoyed it immensely when we used it many years ago & are back in it again with the next one in line. :)

Winter Promise Currclick has live classes

I'm confused were you doing FIAR alongside SOTW & other "things"? I only ask because I think you would find it hard to enjoy FIAR if you were doing other things.. just my .02. Having said that, in the back of your FIAR book should be blank story disks as well; why not pull those out & let your children draw a small picture of the SOTW story & slip it on the map.. Just a thought.

We obtained the Writing Response Journal in PDF format from AVKO's website. I can reprint it for every new book per child. :D HUGE bargain because it was only $3 or something crazy like that.

My reasons are nothing like that which was listed. :) We live in Australia & many of the upper cores are based on US History & Government, not something we specifically need. With Core 100 I'm butchering it to include both USA & Australian history. It will take us longer then one year, I can't see it NOT, kwim? Our highschool ends when Grade 10 ends, then children go to college for 2 years, & based on test results move on to university. So our entire layout is different. I will probably use bits & pieces of the upper cores, but not as a whole merely because of time, location, & need. :)

It'd be great to hear it like it really is vs how it could be if we did it by the book.. such as the Day In The Life posts you did on the blog.. ;)

You know, years ago when I knew I needed a boxed curriculum I had my eyes torn between Winter Promise & Sonlight with a heavy lean towards Sonlight, I had many well meaning friends tell me how they'd bombed with it & how awful it was.. Yet, we tried it for ourselves & really loved it. We are currently using Core D with our youngest child & he's enjoying it so much. :)

Have you considered asking on the SL Forums? You might get a wide variety of views. Even though the SL forums are for people who use SL, there are a lot of view points there & you may find a vast variety of answers. All though it's not abnormal for SLers to seem to move away from SL in the highschool cores. We're in that position ourselves. ;)

We like Winter Promise which is easy to combine with. I'm curious by Wayfarers.. I'd love to see more of Modern times.. the sample doesn't show much.

Oh, that is horrible. Unfortunately, some children hear what their parents say, be it snippets of conversations not meant for their ears or theology to great for them to fully grasp, & they spout it back like fact. We've had some really uncomfortable situations with a homeschool family in which one of the children repetitively repeated things he did not understand. He hurt children's feelings, mostly mine, as he spouted out things that indicated my children were awful because of his own lack of understanding his parents theology. It took me a long time to gain courage to speak to his parents about it, & even then I only mentioned 1 of the many things that was spoken. I didn't want to hear from the parent that they agreed with the child.. One thing I was very firm with at home was to remind my children that everyone is free to believe what they want.. we don't have to agree with them, but we won't waste time judging people either. I think this was easier for one of my children, who is incredibly less sensitive, then my eldest who took it very very personally. At the same time, I've heard some things my own children have said by misunderstanding choices my husband & I make. Personal choices, like not drinking. This is not a belief system or lack of for us.. rather my husband once had a horrible drinking problem, & once coming out of it has never touched it again. I, came from the background of an alcoholic grandfather & thus it was a personal choice not to follow suit. Yet, my children misunderstood those PERSONAL choices as beliefs that if they didn't follow they were unworthy. I overheard them asking a relative if he drank wine, & that was the moment in which I took my children aside & told them that it was absolutely, 100% unacceptable. We were out in the bush on a long weekend camp trip, the ride home left a lot of time to speak about the actions & be more in depth about it. I am so sorry your little girl heard those words, & I'm even more sorry that a little girl has those thoughts in her own mind. I can't imagine what that must be like, for either child.. One so deeply hurt & the other so deeply concerned she'd wish such a horrible thing on another. I so pray you can help your daughter find peace in what's happened. *hugs*