Thank you, that's great information!

Thank you for this thread. I'm up late tonight freaking out over this journey... and just found this. I've bookmarked it so I can study it. Thank you.

I'm schooling four boys and our computers are on the fritz. I'm going to have to get 4 computers in the course of the next year. We need enough "machine" to power things like heavy internet use, lots of educational sites online, school by CD rom and gaming (like minecraft, etc.) Can anyone suggest a great computer (type, brand, etc.) that is straightforward and simple for a non-computery mom like me to run and maintain for the kids? I'm not sure how to shop for computers or hone in on the best one to purchase. Thank you.

What is your favorite? My two older kids are middlers now. It's time to begin getting serious about tracking everything. What do you love to use?

It also frustrates me that my 4 boys have to put in and take out the disks each time. But I understand why(from the company's pov). We use lots of different CD roms throughout the day and week, so leaving it in doesn't work for us, either. It's a bummer. But they are getting a lesson in being very careful !! LOL

For young beginners I really enjoy the Alfred's Kid's Guitar Course Books 1 and 2 (combined) , with Computer CD Roms (included)....and there is also a corresponding DVD to demonstrate each lesson for about 20 bucks.

I don't see a "buy it" button on the site. What am I missing? Where would I buy it from? Thanks a bunch.

Can Fastt Math be used for homeschoolers?

I teach piano and I start out with the Music For Little Mozarts Series (CDs and flashcards also) and move on to either Piano Adventures (Faber) or Premier Piano Series (Alfred's).....depending on the child's learning type. Both series are excellent IMO. Enjoy.

Piano Adventures and Alfred's Premier Piano Course both are simple, direct and have Audio CD's to aid in listening to and playing along with music. These are what I use when I give lessons. For the VERY young I begin with Music for little Mozarts (and Alfred's Publication) and for children your sons age the previously two mentioned. I'm not one who's good a choosing between things, I own both and like them equally. Hope that helps.

I just asked my husband. He said to Copy and Paste the OP into an email and send it to him and he'll try to reply and answer after mulling it over while checking up on his sports and news online tonight. :lurk5:

I'll be bookmarking this fun thread. My husband and I are currently salivating over the idea of making a Shipping Container Home. Google it. They're really cool. :-)

Do you lefties mind italics very much? I ask because while my oldest two boys are right handed, my youngest two, so ironically, are lefties. Xander (5 1/2) is doing really excellently well with A Reason For Handwriting so far. I'll be moving my older two toward cursive, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't for Xander and Ryker and if I should just focus on Italics when it's time to do something beyond printing. I think Italics look nice and it's easy to turn it into a nice looking cursive when necessary. Right? LOL

Thank you so much! I'm sorry I didn't get back to this in a very timely way. I have been busy and away from the computer. But THANK YOU. This is a great thread and was very practical help. I'm that ENFP intuitive who makes things that COULD be simple more complicated than they have to be. LOL LOL! As for CC.... CC is whatever you want to make of it. If you want to carry it on through the rest of the week, there is plenty to do to accomplish that. OR if you just want to show up on class day...get the community, drill, peer involvement and hands on stuff out of it....then you can. We chose the latter because of our family life being a bit off track with Cancer and other challenging issues going on. Things have balanced out now and I'm ready to try to tackle TOG. Our CC day will last til 1 p.m. next year. I will probably still go next year because the boys really love it. But I think I'll continue wanting to carve out a TOG path for us with the rest of the week. I'm good at changing my mind though and I have through the spring to decide. I'll practice doing that this spring and see how it goes. I love all the suggestions presented. Thanks so much!

I think in "The Core" by Leigh Borton she said to try to have the kids memorize to the 15s and not just the typical 9s or 10s. I grab my reading time in obscure left over moments so maybe I read that wrong, but it does seem logical and helpful. I'm having a hard time finding a set(s) of flashcards for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division that goes that far up. Does anyone have a set? I know we could make them But I just don't wanna if I can buy some. LOL What a wimp huh? Also I wanted to say...HOW COOL ARE THESE????!!!!! http://www.dryerase.com/MFSP1116.htm < Squeal !! > The teacher in me really gets crazy about stuff like this. I absolutely LOVE LOVE this website, and I've already bought a couple of boards (for my music classes) from the bargain bins and the slight blemishes are easy to live with. Some of the boards had ZERO sign of apparent blemish or damage. That's a really nice way to get these boards even more discounted. but really they are just so well priced already. I have the boys work on various boards while I'm preparing lunch or doing dishes. So far we have several of the cool math ones, the clock, and the music ones. The music ones make repetition for learning the lines and spaces, etc.... SO much more fun!