I guess it depends on the major. For my comps for my MA, I had 5+ essays to wrote in 90 minutes, no m/c there. The ability to formulate and orginize my thoughts in a quick amd concise format was important. The more I squeezed into the written, the less I was questioned on my orals. I was only asked to clarify three written answers in my orals. Now, those essays were longer than 5 paragraphs. I wrote two pages per answer except for one that I was not in my comfort area (technical theatre rather than history and theory). But, I will still say that the study of the five paragraph format led me to be able to put my thoughts together quickly. I have a structure, a formula yes; but that does not mean my writing was stilted. You cannot just teach a formula, you have to teach style as well. I am just trying to say that the formula works as a tool to develop writing skills. 5 paragraph essays were step one in our writing education. It os a starting piunt, but in my opinion, an important one.

Was it baby talk that had a nursing baby picture a few years ago? That was beautifully done. This picture really just stirs up a megative reaction to breastfeeding, if my Facebook feed is any indication. The picture was selected for shock value, the title/caption is antagonistic to a grpup of women. There are already bad feelings about who does and who doesnt, do you worl or are you a sahm....this just creates a deeper wedge between the two groups. My kids self weaned at two. This picture, as others have mentioned shows nothing of the relatiinship between mother amd child. It is awkward.

We use it at home without a community. That is an option as well.

In college, it is more useful on essay exams, not essay papers. I had tests with 4-5 essay questions or 100 m/c and two essays to do in 50 minutes. Being able to write a short and clear answer covering 3-5 points was essential. The 5 paragraph essay is not meant for a paper. It is a stepping stone to a full paper. It is meant more for testing situations. In timed test situations, having a formula for sharing knowledge is important. They typically want god spelling and grammar, but hitting certain points and giving the information is the focus. Not tyle.

When you have 2-3 papers a week plus other assignments and a full time job, plus graduate assiatantships....it is necessary. Some were better than others, but they got done. We used the lively art of writing in high school.

There is truly no experience like rush to prepare you for job interviews. While being recruited, you talk to many people from the house, but that is just the begining. For three years, I was the one Interviewing girls. We would speak to 20+ girls in one day. We had to sell them on the house and learn enough about them in 5 minutes to know if they would be a good fit. I gained more interview experience than I could imagine. Networking after college is great. The chapter I graduated from is matching current members with alumni in similar fields around the country for mentoring. All Greek houses must maintain a certain gpa. Freshmen have manditory study hours and tutoring if needed. Upperclassmen have study hours if their grades fall. There are also lots of leadership and service opportunities. Great resume builders. There were parties, but at our school the houses were dry. A house lost their charter for having parties in the house. We had to have advisors and police at off campus social events with alcohol and drivers licenses were checked. You got a waistband if you were 21. Each weekend there were designated drivers assigned to stay at the hpuse and go pick people up if needed. Yes, there were big partiers, but there were few who droped out of school for grades. I would not discourage my kids from joining as long as they were firm in theor morals and goals.

We learned it in 9th or 10th grade, wrote a bunch of them in response to essay test type questions. We could have 6-7 paragraphs, but a minimum of 5. It was a good short writing assignement to help develop skills for writing a thesis statement and providing good support. It also taught us not to be wordy and write for the sake of filling a page requirement. We learned to be concise. After we learned the basics, we moved on to longer papers. Between the 5 paragraph essay and the research methods class in 11th grade, I developed the ability to write a good 10 page research paper in a couple of days. By the time I finished college, I could do a 10 page paper in one night. The method they followed to teach us worked. As I applied it, I just became more efficient. I did continue to use the 5 paragraph essay through my master's program. As others have said, it is great for an essay test that.must be done in a 50 minute class period.

Our kindergarten class was mainly lit based. They would read a story and then do activities around that story. One example that sticks out was Ping. They read the story and my son came home with stuff about ducks and China. It is a two hour class broken up by snacks and outside play. Another week they did a bunch of coloring sheets about the state bird, flower, tree, etc for North Carolina. I don't know what book they read. I would keep it project and lit based. You will have a wide range of abilities. Some kids will know how to read and others will be learning their letters. I would stick woth projects and content, let the parents teach the basics at home. Next year, they are changing it up a bit and doing more unit studies. One hour may be spent on an animals class, a different live animal will come to class each week and they will learn about it. You could do one on animals, state symbols, bugs, lots of things.

Spelling Plus with Dictation and the Homophone books. See notes with in quote. I hope this is helpful. We love this program. It is working great!

We have a dog that has had no formal training, we have some a lot of work with him at home, just no classes. He is protective of our children. He will stand between them and a stranger at the door. He will do the same to protect me. He has done it since he was a year old. We have set serious boundaries with him and he is obedient. He is very social, he is a family member. The best punishment for him is isolation. Anytime he would show an unwanted behavior he was kneeled or put in the garage or back yard. We also kept him on a leash constantly. He ran around with it like a security blanket. If he needed restrained, we just picked it up. We were close to getting rid of him after DS was born, his aggression went up when anyone was around. He did not bite, but he did jump in my lap between SIL and myself when I was handing her the baby. He went back to isolation punishments after that amd we were able to keep him. At three years old, you need some serious obedience training. We started when our dog was air weeks old. It takes a lot of diligence. I would find a reputable class and start it now. Of will show that you are.taking action. I hope you are not made to put the dog down, but know that it can be a consequence of an untrained or poorly trained dog.

I really enjoyed the books. I finished all three in a week. I won't let my kids read them until they are ready to discuss the books. Right now, DS just reads for plot. He is not ready to look at charactr motivation, implications of the government system, or discuss any deeper issues in the story. I also know 13 year olds who read of and only see the romance story in it. I want my kida tobsee beyond the basics before they read it. It is an easy read, but it is a lot to digest.

I had no bOOks until I had babies. Not even a pamphlet. Then, I had dictionaries. I still have not adjusyed to the wardrobe challenges it causes. I teach dance and need leotards. I finally have up on cute ones. There are not many cute ones that allow the use of.....um....book shelves without the shelves showing. I have purchased a few high wasted dresses in various sizes that I like. I hate wearing tops and jeans though. It the short fits my chest/ribcage it is to loose for my waist and I look awful.

My doctor did not even measure until after 20 weeks. I think I would have measured big. I was showing at 8 weeks!

I have heard that the 5th grade book is where the program really steps up the intensity. It ia much thicker than 2-4 as well. I plan to take 2 years to complete it when we get there. In TWTM, I think it recommended to do the program a year behind anyway. Someone mentioned I. another thread to put stickers over the grade level. Don't tell thwm what they are doing, just do it.

I use the CAT/e. It is just math, reading comp, and grammar. It gives me a pretty good idea of where DS's weaknesses are. Last year he rushed the computation sectio. And missed a few easy problems. This year we have worked on slowing down, is scored 20/20 this time around. He did however miss every question where the first word in a sentence needs to be capitalized. He correctly identified words mid sentence and book titles, but he just failed to look at the first word....so we will work on general observation skills next. I opted not to do akything with social studies or science because we cover different material than public schools.

No problem :) I am glad I could help.

As I said in the other thread, we do them as worksheets. I have found them very useful and not busy work. For the most part, they pick out important details from the text. My six year old generally gets them all right If we have listened to the story three times. We discuss anything he misses. It really cement things in his head.

My son did much better with memory work that had context. We went through all off cycle one at home this year. We only did as much of the timeline as is covered in SOTW 1. We will do more next year.

They have either fill on the blank or matching, then a few multiple choice, and a few true/false. I let DS answer and we discuss them as he for a through. It takes 10-15 minutes.

We rarely do projects. We do the color pages and maps as we listen to the story. Then we do the test as a worksheet. We also do the lapbook that does with Ancients. His recall is great with thos method.

I bought the Hakim books used for a reasonable price. My library also has them all. Watch Amazon, they had the new sets on sale for a few weeks. I plan to use Hakim for middle school and then use more original documents for study in high school.

Once we finished 100 easy lessons and the Bob Books we did a few phonics books I picked up at Mardel. Then we just read together. This year, we reviewed with some phonics flashcards.

I had problems with the aite off and on all year. Links would stop working and the site would not pop up. I finally just printed it all one day instead of a couple weeks at a time. It saved me a lot of headaches. I really like the stuff they have, but the site maintenance dis not seem consistent.

Our two favorites: Pour picante sauce in the bottom of a baking dish Place pork chops in dish Cover with slices mushrooms, then shredded cheese. Bake at 400 for 30-45 minutes or until the center pork chop is 160* We serve with rice and Brussels sprouts or green beans Or Place pork chops in pan Sprinkle with nutmeg and bread crumbs Place a lemon wedge on each pork chop and bake the same as the above recipie

1. Tailoring the education to the child. Our pace and curriculum choices are made for one child, not for the average child. 2. We are involved in the education of our kids. This benefit is seen in public and private schools as well. A parent who keeps up with the kids work will see the rewards in the child's progress. 3. Low stress. My son danced and cheered the day his standardized test arrived. I try to keep the pressure and stress level down. We can always put something off for a day or a week. 4. My kids get all the sleep they need. If we stay up late for an activity, they can sleep in. No alarm clocks for the kids. I think all of these factors, and many others, contribute to our success.