I will say that a few people on the Homeschooling with Barton FB group I’m in have said that they called FiS and got troubleshooting help that way, so it sounds like more’s available than what’s in the manual.

She started washing her hair in the master bathroom shower which has much better water pressure and also a detachable showerhead (though I don’t think she uses it). And I did go over how to wash her hair. It has looked cleaner the last couple weeks, but she was having so many issues with tangles. She does brush her hair thoroughly but it doesn’t seem to prevent constant retangling. She got her hair cut to just past her shoulders with a bit of layering and is pretty happy with it. It looks cute and I think it will be MUCH easier for her to manage now. The hairstylist also talked to her about how to manage it.

Forgot to come back to this. FiS is definitely more teacher-friendly. LiPS and Barton say you need training to do LiPS but I and others on this board did it without training. I will say that I didn't do the full LiPS program. I just introduced all the consonants and we played with them some (don't remember the specifics of what LiPS suggested as it's been a few years) and then we moved back to Barton because I started it when my DS was most of the way through Barton Level 1 (long story) so I already knew he could distinguish between vowels and do the sound chains or whatever LiPS calls them. I did LiPS with one child and FiS with another because I had a small baby and didn't feel like figuring out LiPS again. Three things I didn't like about FiS: One, it uses pictures for the sounds instead of pictures of the mouth shape made by the sound like LiPS. I'm guessing that they did this because Barton recommends drawing a picture to go along with a sound if the child is having trouble remembering what sound a letter makes. But to me it makes more sense to use the mouth pictures, and I suspect some kids would have an easier time with being able to see the mouth picture as a reminder. I am no expert though. My DS has done quite a bit of speech therapy so he did ok with the pictures. You could certainly buy the mouth pictures alone directly from LiPS if you felt they were needed and go through the steps with first the mouth pictures, then the picture cards, then the blank tiles. Two, FiS has very minimal troubleshooting included, none of which addressed the particular issues my child was having. Others who've used it have said they provide better troubleshooting if you call them but I didn't try. I wish there was more included like Barton includes quite a bit in their manuals. Three: Once most or all of the sounds were introduced, the process of pulling down the matching picture cards for 3 letter combinations was very difficult for my DS. He clearly has some major working memory issues, and trying to find the right card while remembering what sound he was looking for was really, really hard for him. He did it with little trouble with the tiles though, so I ended up skipping the picture/sound-finding section in the last few lessons of FiS. IMO it would have been way better if they would have limited the number of cards needed for that section with each lesson since working memory issues are so common with dyslexia. I could be wrong, but I suspect the creators for FiS are parents of a child who needed it or LiPS. It is definitely modeled after Barton and seems different enough from LiPS that I wonder if they don't have any speech therapy background or actual LiPS training.

My 13 YO has long (mid-back), fine, very thick hair. She is more of a tomboy by nature and her hair perpetually looks like she just walked through a windstorm. She doesn't like it down but the only thing she knows how to do with it is to put it in a ponytail. She dislikes taking showers and particularly dislikes washing her hair...it's like pulling teeth to get her to wash her hair twice a week. She does brush it thoroughly two or three times a day but it is always full of tangles by the next time she brushes it (even if it's in a ponytail...idk how she does it). She had it thinned a few months ago but I can't tell that that really helped anything. So...she needs to have shorter hair. She finally agreed that she really can't manage her hair and needs it shorter. But she doesn't want short hair, and still wants to be able to "fix" it (have me or grandma braid it, or put it in a ponytail). She would prefer to just have a few inches cut off but I don't think a few inches off is going to help much with the tangling and unmanageableness of it. I'm looking for ideas for cute, medium-length haircuts that requires very very minimal styling, or other suggestions for ways to make her hair more manageable.

Early modern to modern

Do you mean the family studies, or the individual work? The family subjects other than history/geography/science take 3-5 minutes a day each, and I'll rotate things like picture study, poetry, and composer study, probably doing one term/trimester of each. I'd like to do one term each of science, history, and geography also but we may have too much history for that too work.

I'm using a spine that I think is written for mid-elementary age which has very short chapters, and mostly picture books for go-alongs and hopefully some Youtube videos too. I don't think it will take any longer than the SCM literature based science we did this year, which took roughly 15-20 mins/day for one 12 week term.

I'm trying to come up with a list of go-along books for world or American history that are available as audiobooks. This would be for 3rd & 5th graders. It's getting exhausting searching for all the books on different booklists on Audible and Scribd trying to find 8 or 10 total to go along with our history spine next year, so I thought I'd just ask for suggestions!

The writing is terrible IMO. You might have her read a sample first to see if she likes it.

What looks like too much or unnecessary? I do tend to overschedue and end up dropping things.

We need new master bedroom window coverings. I’m pretty sensitive to light coming in, and it’s going to start getting light at 4:30 am soon, so I need something that blocks light really well. How well do well-fitting blackout shades/blinds work? Do they work as well as good blackout curtains?

Who has a literature-based science curriculum for elementary ages besides Simply Charlotte Mason and Noeo? This would be for 1st, 3rd, and 5th grades.

Is there any place to buy a timeline that is already completed and can just be referenced? Somehow we never seem to get around to actually filling in a timeline.

I'm planning for my rising 5th and 8th graders for next year. Am I forgetting anything? Does this sound like enough but not too much? I really need a plan that is as non-teacher-intensive as possible. 5th grader: Personal Bible reading Bible memory work Finish IEW SWI-A & start All Things Fun & Fascinating Dictation Fix-It Grammar level 1| Teaching Textbooks 5/start 6 Typing Piano lessons Booklist for literature/reading (audiobooks as he's dyslexic) Things we'll do as a family (8th grader doesn't participate in family science/history but does her own): Family devotions Vocabulary Greek/Latin word roots Picture study Poetry Poetry memorization Composer study Geography--SCM's Visits to N. America + Seterra Science--I'm putting together a literature-based geology study History--probably early modern American & world history 8th grader: Personal Bible reading Bible memory work Finish IEW SWI-B & start SICC-B Fix-It Grammar 2 Megawords 7 & 8 Interest-led history Rainbow Science yr 1 Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1/2 Booklist, will have her discuss a few of them for literature Piano lessons Typing Logic--The Thinking Toolbox

Haven’t read the whole thread, but I’ve done LIPS with 1 kid and FiS with one if anyone has questions about how they differ.

I wouldn’t use it for that age. I think it’s aimed more for 2nd through maybe 4th grade. We used it as an intro to grammar for 3rd grade last year, minus the story because I didn’t want to read it all to my dyslexic child. It’s engaging, with a story plus half a dozen worksheets per topic. I would not say it’s rigorous. You might look into Get Smart Grammar. It’s a thorough and complete diagramming-based one year program. Watch the video lesson one day (10-20 mins) and diagram 5 sentences over the course of the week.

My 10 yo likes Q-bitz and Kanoodle. SmartGames has a bunch of different logic games. For something entirely different, mine also really enjoys color by sticker books.

I'm having trouble planning history for next year because I don't have a plan for the next few years. My rising 8th grader does history on her own. I'm planning on having her do interest-led history next year (she can choose a topic or major historical figure and we'll find a book or two on it, narrate, repeat). I'm tentatively planning on using Truthquest for her for high school. She may do one year of ancients and then the three Age of Revolution guides for early to modern American & world history, with some government and economics thrown in there somewhere. My younger school-age kids do history together. They will be in 1st, 3rd, & 5th next year. The last three years we've done 2/3 of CHOW and then a year of state history. I'd like to finish CHOW this year but I don't know what to do after that. I could do a couple more years of early to modern American/world history with them, maybe using a couple of the younger-aged Truthquest guides, but then what for the oldest for 8th grade? I just don't know what to plan. Any suggestions? I do not like the SOTW books and I don't care whether we follow a 4 year cycle...I just need a plan of some sort! Ideally I'd keep all of them on the same topic(s) each year but it seems like that might be too complicated with a large age range.

What would you have in it? I'd like it to be a place where the neighborhood kids would enjoy playing also. We have a biggish back yard with a 1/3 acre lot. There are several trees but no climbing trees, unfortunately. There's a brick patio and a deck (over daylight basement so a few feet off the ground) with both enclosed space and an open space underneath. We have a swing set. I've thought of a trampoline, but it seems like trampoline + crazy kids might be a bad combination. They'd love an above ground pool, but pool + 2 YO escape artist is a very bad idea. I could maybe put together a Ninja course. Any other suggestions?

Go to www.stopthethyroidmadness.com and look at their recommendations for dealing with adrenal fatigue. They’ve been very helpful for me. If your cortisol levels are very low you’re going to want to take Cortef (oral hydrocortisone). Adrenal glandulars and herbal supplements aren’t going to cut it (btdt). STTM has dosing suggestions and Fb groups that can help. It’s been a while since I researched this stuff but iirc you want to work on adrenals first and sex hormones second. Supplementing with dhea is a bit of a wildcard iirc...seems like there are different hormones that it can be converted into, and it may be converting into something that’s not helping you. I’d also recommend checking your thyroid lab values against the “optimal” ones on the STTM website, as they may actually be less-than-ideal even if your dr. thinks they’re fine. Mine were all within range except antibodies were just slightly high. Dr. said oh you might have Hashi’s but your body is compensating ok...no, I had full-blown Hashi’s and felt like crap.

Ours is a spinet, but the same thing could be done with an upright. I’d have put the shorter/longer picture over the piano if it was an upright. A basket on the floor next to the piano might be a good place for music. You can just see the edge of our armchair on the left side of the piano picture. We do have a good sized living room, so there’s walking space in between piano and sitting area.. (Ignore the curtains that are hung at the wrong height!)

So...DH objects to long curtains. Says they will get in the way. Sometimes I just want to bang my head against the wall... If I got sheer curtains would they look better short than heavier curtains would? I could just put blackout shades behind them.

I would say to finish their math for the year if possible, and otherwise only ask him to do lots of audiobooks (or RAs if he doesn’t mind doing them), and lots of outdoor time.

I think it would just fit that way. I might try that. If the bed is moved under the window with 2 nightstands, there won’t be room for the glider anymore. The room isn’t huge, about 13’x14’, and door placement means that the spot where the glider is and the spot where the toddler bed is are the only spaces for extra furniture. I already tried turning the toddler bed sideways and putting the glider next to it but the glider stuck out into the doorway for the closet, which is a problem because the baby sleeps in the walk-in and I have to get him a couple times a night in the pitch black. Purple as an accent color is a good idea. I’ll have to look into blackout shades to go behind curtains.

She’s not going to do all that. My sister is much more of a fashionist than I am, and DD looks up to her and asks for fashion advice. Sis also used to be an esthetician, and she suggested that DD wash her face daily, and she still only does it periodically. DD has a bit of acne and complains about it, but rarely uses the acne product I gave her. She may have some interest in those things, but she doesn’t have the maturity to use them regularly.