Probably geared toward middle school and up? Anyway, I'm searching for 1st grade stuff and came across this one: Music Notes There's a link in the first paragraph that might be suitable for kids a little younger, since they have a 'beginner' section, but still - not really what I'm looking for for my 1st grader, either (the beginner section looks like where *I* should start, having no musical bones in my body, lol): Music - The Unspoken Word Both sites have sections on theory, history, styles, etc. and an interactive area with quizzes/games.

I'm finding that the breaks really work well for my almost 7 yo DS. We'll do school a little while, then we'll take a break - either a play break or a snack break or an exercise break. But, when all else fails, I do like to offer him a choice: He can clean up his act, or he can clean up the kitchen! (or bathroom, living room, etc.):D

Man, I really liked the sound of your post - That land wouldn't be in Mississippi would it? lol We just found out this month that my DH and his brother also inherited some mineral rights, and they're about to put a drill there to start looking, but they have a good feeling about it. Whatever that means. We only have 5 acres, though. I hope we might have the same dilemma soon, hehe.:D We sure could use a boost, until the military starts passin' out gold bricks in the sea bags.

We are also in our first year of HS. In SWO A - we do one lesson a week. Like someone else said, we skipped the first 6 or so lessons. I hope it becomes more "rule-oriented" as we go along, too...but for now, I'm not skipping it. It's definitely an 'easy' subject for him at this point. We do it every day, unless we get behind on something, then we skip the 'extra' stuff we normally do. We usually do: 1 - read the first page, out loud (he reads it) then do the back of it. 2 - do the front of the second page 3 - do the back of the second page, minus the spelling superstar part that asks you to write something. 4 - spelling superstar, which we use as our handwriting lesson for the day, too...today he wrote about how to make a pb&j sandwich, hehe. He didn't use any list words, but did a good job (with a picture!) so I let it slide, lol. 5 - test - sometimes he does it orally, sometimes on the white board, and sometimes on regular paper FLL we also do every day...but - we skip some of it. It's very redundant, so the parts I know we 'get' we sort of just brush up against and keep moving. I am trying to work on two things more in-depth with him: narration and memorization. We are just now getting serious with the narration and he tends to retell the WHOLE thing instead of the main points. He doesn't 'get' the idea of condensing it down to main points yet, lol. They're all important. :) With the poetry, he memorizes them very quickly and loves to recite them for Dad, so I'm going to add in a few more as he can handle them. These are a great confidence builder and he's really improving the way he speaks when reciting them...he started out speaking to the floor, monotone, running words together, etc. But I'm really seeing him come out of his shy-shell with the poetry stuff. Yay! We don't do WWE this year, though, so I have nothing to add there.

I feel so much better reading this thread, lol. I have a 7 dollar fine right now, and one book I'm pretty sure I've turned in, but to a different branch...I'll end up paying for it if they say they don't have it, though. I can't risk being cut-off from my library privs, hehe. I NEED them. I could maybe afford to buy all our school books, but not my audiobooks!!

mock... (yeah) ing... (yeah) BURRRRD!

Raising Arizona: So many social engagements...so little time. Nobody in this house sleeps naked. We got a family now, things gonna chaaaaange. Ok, then. Napoleon Dynamite : Don't be jealous that I've been online chatting with babes all day. My lips hurt real bad. I'm going to build her a cake. Tina! You fat lard! Come get some dinner! Vacation: Seriously, clark? Go do your own front. How much do I owe you? How much you got? Best in Show: I'm going to punch you in the eye until it turns to jelly. I'll stab you with forks until you bleed, how about that? Peanut. Hazelnut. Macadamia nut. Cashew nut. Pistachio nut. RED pistachio nut. All natural WHITE pistachio nut... Where are you from, like Nor... Norland? Babymama: Can I just spray a little Pam down there before the baby comes out?

This was exactly us not long ago. 3 in our family had it, only one had not been immunized. I like to have NEVER convinced a doc that we had it. We went to the ER, the ped, the urgent care clinic and finally children's hospital. I got it in January, I think. My baby (he was 9 months) got it in May, and my 6 year old got it in June. I was worried about the baby, and he was the one I tried to get a diagnosis and treatment for, b/c it was bad at night and I just wanted to get him some relief. I had to do the same as you with the online research, and man, you say "Well, I looked it up online..." and the doctors here totally shut you down! How DARE you try and play doctor, right? My pediatrician was actually the one who finally told me that it probably was WC, but even he didn't want to believe me until I recorded the cough and let him listen to it. (another frustrating thing about wc - hard to let ppl 'witness' the episodes...and most of the day you're normal...healthy...quiet...) ANd like you said, no treatment, no positive test, most ppl don't know they have it... I hope you guys clear it up soon. It's tough for a little while, but after that, it's mostly just annoying. We're finally all clear here.

I've read the HSDLA stuff, but can anybody give me layman's terms/experiences in MA? Thanks!

This EXACT thing happened to me, except I had 4 baby teeth and 2 perm teeth pulled when I was 13 for braces. My teeth are normal size, but my mouth is small. My husband would probably disagree with the latter, though, lol.

My babysitter (not my mother) used to make us eat grits every single morning. I haven't touched nary a grit since. Grit overload. I can't think of anything my mother has ruined for me, but I don't like several of the things mentioned in the other posts - tuna casserole is just wrong. Salmon cakes? Ew. (Salmon fillet? That's another story, yum!) Liver and onions, blechk. Canned asparagus, tough chops, buttermilk - no, no, no!

I laughed my face off at that movie, lol. My mouth literally HURT from laughing when we walked out of the theater. It was very predictable, though. Definitely not The Departed, hehe.

avast or avg might help get rid of it. :)

We use firefox web browser on my son's computer, and installed Glubble with it. He's only 6, but he's a really good speller, lol. It works well, IMO. It has several kid-safe sites pre-approved (like Disney games), and then he can 'request' to add other sites, but can't log on to them yet. No googling, either. Then, I have to log in to my account (on that computer) to permit or deny the sites he requested. You can add one page, or the whole site. The first night we installed it, we sat and he thought of the stuff he liked to play (mainly club penguin) and I added those myself. It's handy.:001_smile: If you do a search on parental control for other browsers, there are probably similar programs no matter what you're running. I can only speak about the one we use, though.

Wow! Those are cool! Bookmarked! :D

this handy dandy little free download will convert a doc (or anything else) to pdf for ya... pdf995 The free version does show an ad when you use it, or you can spend the 10 dollars to remove that part of it. First, you get the download/install it. Then, just make the document like you want it, in whatever program. The final step is to print it, but instead of selecting print TO YOUR PRINTER, you select print TO PDF995. It will then open an ad, and then your converted file as a pdf file. :) (It will not erase the original file. You'll have the original AND a pdf version.) I found this when I did the newsletter for a MOMS Club. Since not everybody had the same software I used for writing the newsletter, I'd convert it to pdf, which is more universal. HTH :)

Very nice! Thanks for posting; I didn't dig too deep last night.

This is also our first year of homeschooling: Math - Abeka 1, every day Grammar - FLL 1/2, every day Spelling - SWO A, 3x a week Memory Work - memorized poems, grammar rules, every day Copywork - taken from other subjects...history, poems, grammar, etc., every day Reading - read alouds and independent reading, every day History - SOTW 1, 3x week plus extra reading Science - self-made mish-mash, hehe. Right now we're going through a workbook where we learn about each organ of the body, color/cut/paste it on the kid-sized human we traced and cut out. :) We will also do animals and plants this year - mostly put together by me from various sources online and off. We do science 1 or 2x a week. Other - art will be artist studies/picture studies and some arts and crafts - music will be composer studies and listening to classical music. pe - we swim, play, meet for sports/park days, and in the winter will sign up for basketball...considering a karate class soon, that meets 2x/week We have a poetry notebook, Bible Stories and coloring book, a Map Skills workbook, and a character development course. I am doing the map skills once a week, but the others are just when we can get to them. We also try to do a cooking project once a week, if possible.

coffee time! lol

http://gardenofpraise.com/art.htm

This is me, too. It's about 4:30am here now. I'm at the table, doing lesson plans, lol. :) I do appreciate naps, though. :D I get to sleep in once a week, usually, and sometimes I'll steal a nap when the baby naps if I'm super-tired. That's the best time for us to do school, though, so I only do that if I have to because we can get so much done while the baby's asleep, hehe. (He's 1: climbing, grabbing, climbing, disappearing, climbing, opening everything, climbing, etc.) I've been a night owl as long as I can remember. It used to drive my mother nuts, lol. It's not that I'm not tired - I just can't sleep well at night. Even when I do fall asleep at 9pm, I'm up at 1am. Now if tomorrow were my day to sleep in (it's not, drat!) and I went to bed in an hour or so, I could sleep until probably 2 or 3 pm - if I wasn't interrupted.:tongue_smilie:

In addition to several of the reasons listed here, we think that homeschooling fits in with our lifestyle better than public school. Military families move around a lot. It's hard enough to be the new kid, but to be the new kid AND have to worry about consistency with regards to an education? Nah. We'll do the educating part. Plus, I hate fundraisers. Not all fundraisers...just the kind that make the kid feel like they have to sell x amount of crap before they can get the glorious pizza party or glow-in-the-dark ball.

Oh my goodness. I hope they find him!

Whatcha sellin'? I'm using it for Arithmetic 1 and like it pretty well so far.

LOL Since that last link, I've been getting my fix on youtube. I can't wait for the new season!!!