I'm going to have to get my DH or my oldest DS to read this so I have someone to go watch it with. It looks SO good! Comes pretty close to matching the picture in my mind. I never go to the movie theater, but I just might have to for this one.

Definitely use the placement test. I am/was contemplating going the other way (from CLE to TT) for my 4th grader. He is using CLE 4 and places into TT 6. The placement test will give you the best place to start.

We have a wicker basket in the corner of the living room that is supposed to hold all of ours. Sometimes it actually does, lol.

I use the TM for the 100 level, because a lot of the actual teaching is in the TM. But I've only used the answer guides for levels 300-600 (although I do have the TM's for all of the levels, I just don't use them).

I LOVE my brand new GMC Acadia. It is AWD and the rear seating is easily accessible. We looked at the Traverse/Acadia/Enclave and decided to go with the Acadia because you have slightly more head room in the 3rd row seat. With 3 boys, we wanted to make sure they were comfortable. My 13 year old said the back of the Acadia is way more comfortable then the back of our Grand Caravan was. The only thing I don't like is that I gave up cargo space, but hey, I'm not driving a minivan anymore, lol.

What I'm using with my daughter is in my signature, but I'll list it here as well: Reading/Phonics: Explode the Code and a combination of OPGTR, Phonics Pathways, and The Reading Lesson (she hates this part, so I switch it up and use different parts of each book) Grammar: CLE LA 100 Spelling: SWO A Writing: Zaner Bloser Grade 1, Writing With Ease, and Writeshop Primary A Math: CLE 100 History: Adventures in America Geography: Expedition Earth (without the religious parts) Science: Real Science Odyssey Earth and Space It seems like a lot, but it doesn't really take us that long.

The Elements by Ellen McHenry. I wasn't too sure about it but my 6th grader LOVES it and is learning so much. We are supposed to do another free chemistry program after next week when we finish up The Elements, but I'm tempted to get one of the other McHenry programs.

I am usually out of bed around 6:30 am. Definitely not because I want to though. I get up to see my oldest off to school. He wishes I would get up with him at 6 but I'm not a morning person. It takes everything I have to get up at 6:30. I would sleep until at least 8 if I could. But if we sleep that late, it would take forever to get around and get school started and we wouldn't accomplish anything.

My children. For various reasons.

I use a little Molskine address book for mine. It works great and I feel much more secure using it than I would having them stored in an App or online somewhere.

I bought the Scott Foresman Grade 1 art book off of someone's recommendation here and my daughter doesn't like it so much. She loves to paint and there wasn't a lot of painting (not sure if there's more later in the book). She didn't like the projects the book had.

Wow, that's a lot of work, lol. We belong to an ALE here in WA and we don't have to do anything like that. Of course, ours doesn't buy us whatever books we want and we primarily just use it for a day of socialization for the kids, but I would flip if I had to do all that work.

I'm still buying things for this year, lol. We've had some things that haven't worked out and other things that I only bought for a part of a semester so I need to buy more to get through the year. Unfortunately, I think all of the kids are going to go to PS next year. So there will be no curriculum shopping for me.:crying:

I have a 1st grader using CLE LA and a 4th grader using Growing with Grammar. We like both of them. CLE is religious (we aren't so we just skip over those parts). It is thorough and easy for my DD to understand. Growing with Grammar is secular, also thorough and easy for my son to understand and complete. GWG is just grammar while CLE also includes spelling and some writing (but not a complete writing program). You could easily skip over the parts you don't need in CLE and still have plenty left.

That's not too far from here. It's a beautiful area! Lots of outdoor stuff to do if you like that sort of thing. It rains a lot though.

We are still slogging through The Secret Garden. The kids seem to enjoy it, but I was sick last week and couldn't make any progress on it. This week I'm just having difficulty finding the time for it. Today we finished Meet Addy: An American Girl. That was a lot sadder than I was expecting it to be. Even the boys want me to find more books to find out what happens. Tomorrow we will start The Last Safe House as part of our history.

We had the same problem with AAS, although my kids aren't natural spellers. I switched my DD over to SWO and it's going good so far. She's not struggling with it yet, so we are doing 2 lessons a week until she runs into problems. I moved my 6th grader to Spelling Plus with the dictation book. It's going ok. I really love the program, but he doesn't slow down and put effort into it. I'm keeping with it for him though because he would have the same problem with any program. I'm putting my 4th grader in Apples and Pears. I suspect he may be dyslexic. I'm not sure I'd recommend it for a natural speller though.

I am using this with my 6 year old DD and she really enjoys it. So far the stuff has been easy to find. Although, we made the clay from the recipe she had listed and it didn't turn out too well, but I think that was user error.

I never ask anyone that question either. Because if it does hurt if they aren't. A year after my daughter was born, I went to Thailand to meet my husband. We were signing up for an Elephant ride and wanted to add the Oxcart package. The lady looked at me and said women in my condition shouldn't do the oxcart. I looked at my husband, confused. He pulled me to the side and said, "She thinks you're pregnant." I was mortified. I know I hadn't (still haven't) lost the weight after my pregnancy, but I didn't think it was that noticeable. I laughed it off and said I was just chubby, not pregnant, but it hurt. And we didn't add the oxcart because I was humiliated.

I used to look a lot younger than what I was. I would get those kinds of looks all the time after I had my oldest (and even after I had the next one as well). When my oldest was just under a year old, I went to Cracker Barrel with my family (DH was deployed) and someone thought my brother was the father of my son. They made a rude comment about teen parents. He's 6 years younger than I am (so I was 21 and he was 14). The worst was when I showed up at DH's first port call and one of the guys said he'd go get my father, lol. DH was sent to the boat at the last minute and nobody knew me. They assumed I was someone's daughter.

Thinking we could make AAS work. I bought it and sold it once before because we just couldn't make it work for us. The kids asked to try it again, so I bought it. We just never got around to it. It was the thing that got dropped when time was short. I can't afford for my kids to not do spelling as the boys are both horrible spellers.

Yes, we do. Plus Geography, lol. They go to an enrichment class on Wednesdays and I wouldn't know how to fit it all in if we didn't do them both every day.

I chose other. My oldest son attends PS and he sets his alarm to wake up. I *usually* wake up a short time after him just to make sure he's getting around. I wake up the other kids though. I think they'd probably sleep through an alarm clock, lol.

We are 2 weeks in and so far we are enjoying almost everything. Here are the biggies: HITS: Ellen McHenry's The Elements- so fun! It was meant for my 6th grader, but everyone is having fun with it (even the not homeschooled anymore 8th grader) Winning with Writing- I love that writing if FINALLY getting done. It's not their favorite, but they realize that it's working, which is great. RSO Earth and Space- my younger 2 love this Evan Moor The 7 Continents- we are starting with Africa and the boys are actually enjoying it and learning from it; we are trying to memorize the countries of Africa SOTW 4- this seems so much more difficult than the other ones, which we need; the boys are struggling with comprehension, but once we discuss it, they seem to remember it; my 6th grader, all on his own, started taking notes!!!!; we are actually getting to the extra reading, some of which is boring, but some of it isn't and they are making connections MISSES: AAS- again *sigh*; we tried this before and could just never seem to get around to it; with 3 kids this year, it is just not working; we all love the concept, but my boys are horrible spellers and they just need SOMETHING; for some reason, AAS just doesn't get done; I have moved the boys to Spelling Plus with Dictation and DD will be doing Spelling Workout when it gets here Next week, I am starting Adventures in America and a secularized version of Expedition Earth with DD. They both look very promising and I hope she enjoys them.

We were living in upstate New York, about 3.5 hours north of NYC, in military housing. DH was an instructor at a nuclear training plant (US Navy). He was at work and I dropped my older two boys off at preschool. When I got home with the baby, DH called and told me to turn on the tv. They had heard something about a plane flying into a building in NYC, and wanted more details. So I turned the news on and there it was. I stayed on the phone with DH and explained to him what was happening. I saw the second plane hit and just couldn't believe it. My first instinct was to go pick my babies up from school and hold them close, but I didn't want to worry them. So I just sat at home and watched the news in shock. It was eerily quiet in the hallway that day when it was time to pick the boys up from preschool. I remember going apple picking not too long after that day and looking up at the sky whenever I heard a plane go over. I was never one to really notice planes in the sky before, but after that, it took awhile for me to stop looking up when I heard one. A few months later, we went to visit NYC and walk around Ground Zero. It was just an unbelievable feeling. I have been subconciously avoiding watching footage from that day for all these years. Although I've seen pictures, I haven't watched what happened since it happened. Last night, I was flipping through stations and landed on the History Channel. It was SO hard to watch it. I couldn't believe how upset it made me after all these years. I didn't sleep very well last night.