I have to say that I am right there with you. I was a History Major in college and had to write tremendously long papers all the time. Spelling was a huge nightmare for me. I was fortunate enough that at the birth of personal computer use, Emory University provided computers for student use which included Spell Check. It was cutting edge at the time and saved me and my GPA. On exams, however, there was no spell check and I too, would search for easier words that I knew how to spell correctly. It is extremely frustrating to forego the use of a "better," more descriptive word because you fear you can't spell it correctly. Lucky for me, I never had any professors who were such a--holes that they felt the need to humiliate others about any deficiencies. I think that I am also a decent writer. The salvation of Spell Check prevents me from coming across as a complete idiot (mostly :)). But even with Spell Check, I still have my husband proof-read my blog posts. He catches all sorts of typos and misspellings that don't get red underlines. Cure available or not, I accept that I can't (to quote someone earlier) "spell my way out of a paper bag." I have found ways to cope by mainly NEVER handwriting anything-- not even shopping lists. Whenever I do handwrite something, I am prepared for the inevitable teasing of how I misspelled some simple word.

I can't spell to save my life. Thank heavens for spell check! While I know it is the height of arrogance to say, I am quite intelligent and well educated (IQ tests as a child, BA and a JD), but I truly cannot spell. I have never forgotten what my 5th grade teacher told me when handing back a spelling test. "It's a good thing you are smart, you will always have a secretary who can spell for you." I could learn the words for a test on Friday and come Monday... had no idea how to spell them. (Clearly that dates me as well before the dawn of personal computers... getting old is no fun!) Yes, spell check had to tell me how to spell "arrogance." Too bad my daughter seems to have picked up my natural tendency towards "spelling oblivion."

First of all, I want to say how much I appreciate your time in elaborating on the different microscopes. We need to purchase one now for next year. We will be teaching Middle School and Elementary Biology. I have no desire to purchase another microscope for high school. If we have kids who want to take AP Bio, I guess we will have to address the issue at that point. I just want to make a solid purchase that will be effective throughout our studies. Like anyone else, I would like a good value for my money. Your responses have been extremely helpful and timely for our family. I have forwarded this thread to my husband and he had a specific question that perhaps you could address. He emailed me, "I have always had trouble seeing through a single viewer like a microscope. There are ways to transmit the view to a screen, which to me makes it much more pleasurable to use. Some of them are build into the microscope, some are cameras that clamp on. I would like to check them out." Do you have any specific information about cameras which would allow the transmission to a screen? If so, what are the cost involved? Thanks!

Thanks for the help! I really appreciate it. I have seen people like that on other websites and discussions. I had no idea that they had a term for them. I just always thought they were a--holes. At least "troll" is a "G" rated term.

Well then I guess I will have to stay a "poser" or a "wannabe." Except I don't "wanna" grind my own flour. I do have a bread machine though... I guess I will just have to get used to being the "black sheep." I am far too lazy to not buy bread at the store. :blush:

I'm listening too! I just bought a bunch of seeds and plant pots to attempt a "garden" on our deck. We have monster rabbits the size of raccoons, so I don't think we can plant in the yard. I feel like we will be "official homeschoolers" if we have a vegetable graden. With my luck (and black thumb) I will probably kill it all before the first harvest. I eagerly await all tips and tricks of veteran gardeners. :bigear:

This is great news! It makes me giddy! Love NF and just about anything he is in... Firefly, Castle etc. My kids are obsessed with the Percy Jackson series. I had warned them ahead of time that the movies are almost always way different than the books. Readers will virtually always prefer the books to the movies. I warned them to try not to be disappointed with what gets changed and just to enjoy the story. Worked somewhat and allowed for my daughter to analyze what was left out and what the possible motivations of the movie producers could have been (too expensive to shoot etc). There is NO chance that we would ever miss a Percy Jackson movie. The kids' pestering us to see it would drive any mortal insane. Now Mommy has extra motivation to go see it with a smile on my face.

So they are basically internet scammers??? Do you find that more are just trying to satisfy sick senses of humor or more criminal in nature?? I feel like Pollyanna! I would never have anticipated scams on WTM. It has been more of a lifeline to me. I have found gem after gem of brilliance that has truly helped me on this new homeschooling adventure. Geez, people need to get a life! Who has that kind of extra time on their hands?

I was reading the thread, "Admonished Teacher with Agenda" and noticed several people discussing "Trolls" who "were trying to get us going." HUH??? Are there fake posters out there? Is there a conspiracy against homeschoolers? What are the agendas of these trolls? Why? Why would they bother? Man, I hate to come across as an idiot, but I had to ask. Obvioulsy, I do not want to be naive and would like to know what to watch out for. Thanks!

This made me laugh out loud! There were times when I thought I could sink no lower in the vomit drama of pregnancy... one of the worst was with my first and I was still working at the courthouse. I was leaving the D.A.'s Office (of course stopping first to puke in the clean restroom in our private offices on my way out... fruitlessly hoping it would hold me until I reached my car in the parking lot) at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon. I couldn't even make it down the hall and rushed into the courthouse's public bathroom. Ewww! If I had needed to pee, I would have held it or I would have preferred to wet my pants. It was that nasty! :tongue_smilie: At least I can say I have pretty good aim for projectile vomiting without even bending over. This has been a humorous walk down memory lane for me tonight. Now that my daughter is almost 11, I can see the humor in the situation. Time really does heal all wounds. What I would have given for Zofran when I was pregnant with her!!!!

When I was a teenager and caught my dad checking out other women, my mother would always say, "It is when they stop looking that you need to worry." So I don't expect my husband to wear blinders. I believe it is an innate trait for most men... I even point out particularly good views on the off chance he missed it. :001_smile: I have never forgotten the night when we were waiting for a table with my family and the extremely well-endowed cocktail waitress made sure to "bend over" to enhance the view for the men. My mom, my sister and I watched the guys gawk... first my brother-in-law, then my father and finally my 80 year old grandfather who was on a walker. We were a little surprised and my grandfather never missed a beat. He smiled, sipped his scotch and said, "Well, I may be old, but I'm not dead yet!"

Do you ever just want to take the water or whatever food you are attempting to eat and just toss it in the toilet... maybe save yourself a little time and a whole lot of effort??? :lol: It was also at that point when I discovered every flaw in my cleaning techniques of the toilet, baseboards and bathroom... Having been there and puked that, I am so SO very sorry that you are feeling this bad!!!!!!

Zofran is a blessing. I too threw up multiple times every day until I delivered while on Zofran. Zofran was a life-transforming drug for me. I was able to leave the confines of the bathroom an function in a semi-normal way. My husband and I joked about naming our son "Zofran" (lucky for him, we didn't). If you are at the "Zofran" level of morning sickness, no home remedy is going to work, you are too far gone for them. Good Luck! I empathize with you!!! Being that sick simply sucks!

These women are NOT being paranoid, but are giving you very sound advice. I was a prosecutor for seven years here in Atlanta. This is an extremely typical scenario for the beginnings of burglaries and home invasions. A "scam" would be the best post possible scenario--much less dangerous to you and your family. Do NOT open the doors to any strangers-- little old ladies included. Do not open the door with a chain attached at the top to talk to someone. A strong shoulder will bust through that in seconds. However, if your doorbell is rung, go to the door. Do NOT open it. You want the person at the door to know that the home is occupied. Just shout through the door that you are "not interested" or that if they need assistance, you'd be happy to call the police for them. Manners should never come before your safety. Better to be safe and perceived as rude if the person's intentions are honorable than becoming a victim. Keep all doors and windows locked and report anything out of the ordinary to the police.

When my husband first got Prime, I thought it was a rip-off. How often were we going to use it, anyway? I could not have been more wrong. We use it ALL the time. How does one Christmas shop when they homeschool??? Amazon Prime! The Lightning Deals alone paid for Prime. Then there is the last minute shopping for relatives, birthdays etc. Use Prime and ship it to them for free! Since we are new to homeschooling, my lessons do not get planned very far in advance. I start to figure out what we are going to learn in history. Look it up at our local library and they usually don't have it or I am on the waiting list. Buy it with Prime and it is here in two days. By the time I get an email from our library that the book is available, we are three units beyond that original topic. It more than pays for itself in the convenience and ease of purchase as well as returns. This reminds me that I should go thank my husband for signing us up against my grumbling complaints. :001_smile:

Never mind, I figured it out. Duh!!! Just had to keep exploring a bit more. These are the times when I wonder if I should really be homeschooling my children. Yikes! But then again, look at the alternatives... :)

Looks really interesting. Here's a stupid question... do the study guides come with an answer key for the parent? In a perfect world, I will have read the books before she does. However, I have found that my world is an imperfect one. I want to be covered in case I haven't read them first.

What are the "literature study guides of her choosing" exactly??? You have picked my interest. I would love to let my daughter choose what she reads, as long as there is the study guide component. I think that would combine the best of both worlds her wants and mine. What source/company are you planning on using? Thanks!

Thank you all so much for the recommendations. I will sift through them all and hopefully discover what will be the best fit for us. I really appreciate your assistance. I am feeling rather overwhelmed by the thoughts of planning "middle school."

Can anyone direct me to a Human Biology text/source that they would recommend? My dd has no idea how the various systems work. We desperately need to cover respiration, digestion, circulation, skeletal system, reproduction etc. Kind of hard to understand changes undergoing your body when you have no clue how they work or are put together. We have RS4K Biology, but it is very week in human biology. I would really appreciate any suggestions.

Only if you are not a teetotaler... Try Port! Small amount while you are relaxing before bed will help you sleep. It has worked very well on bouts of insomnia for myself, family (the adult members obviously) and several of my friends.

Thanks Michelle! I really appreciate it. I'm going to check yours out as well.

I would love to have another blog follower, but I don't post with any sort of the frequency with which you are referring. My blog is: http://neweducationexplorers.blogspot.com/. I will certainly check out your too.

Okay, as a newbie HSer, I was not about to tackle Latin in our first year. I think I really would like to start it with my rising "middle schooler" for next year. Where do I start? What would you recommend???? What about for a rising 3rd grader?? Should he get Latin too? The Hive has a lot of collective wisdom. I'm hoping you guys can help me out. FYI: I know no Latin! Unless you count Semper Fi because my dad was a Marine. But let's face it... I didn't even know that it was "Semper Fidelis" until I looked it up. HELP PLEASE!

I believe that you should step up and be a co-leader to this troop or form your own. I became a GS leader several years ago when my daughter's 2nd grade troop had 24 girls. Brownies are wild without structure, control and discipline. It is the nature of the age group (regardless of economic status). A group of 24 in all practicality needs a minimum of 3-4 leaders so that you can work in small groups on elements of Try Its etc and then rotate through. If the groups are too big, chaos will reign! Your comment made me think of the movie Kindergarten Cop with Arnold Schwarzenegger..."Phoebe: [advising Kimble on how to be a teacher] Look, you've got to treat this like any other police situation. You walk into it showing fear, you're dead. And those kids know you're scared. Detective John Kimble: [looks at her a moment then nods] No fear. Phoebe: No fear. " Don't ever let a kid get away with obnoxious behavior like that little girl did with you! Draw a line in the sand! GS is about promoting the proper values of respect, leadership, independence etc. etc. Her attitude was WAY out of line. If you give in, mob mentality takes over and then the inmates are running the asylum. I have truly enjoyed watching my GS grow and mature and take on new responsibilities. I think you would really enjoy being a leader. HS families are ideal for it because we are already "take charge" kind of folk or else our kids would be sitting in school like everybody else's. Go for it! But the key is structure, control and discipline! Can't behave? Can't stay!