I have no experience with this yet, but I am ordering the Draw Today program recommended in the Sonlight catalog. It's around $50 and comes with a vhs tape and the supplies needed for the assignments. You could check it out at Sonlight or Rainbow Resource (which is where I'm ordering it from, I think it was a little cheaper). My dd thought it looked very interesting.

Sue, Dd just happened to have her Jump In book sitting by the computer. I'll give you a little right out of the book. The first assignment is about opinions. The first "Skill" for that assignment is simply list your Favorite and you Worst :001_smile: Good non-threatening writing day LOL! They walk them through the "Why" and good "Order" then they give the student the opportunity to think about their topic in "Now it's your turn." They have them pick one of the opinions they have already written down. Then they work "skill" by "skill" on the body, the "Hello" and the "Goodbye" (beginning and end). At the end, the actual assignment says "Choose One:" 1. Complete your own opinion you've been working on. 2. Agree or Disagree with one of their sample paragraphs and write about it. 3. Write your opinion of writing (LOL) 4. Choose a topic from your favorite or worst list at the beginning of the assignment and write about it. 5. Your choice. Write something you love or can't stand. The next topic is Persuasive Writing: The Basics. It follows a similar format, with a little more detail (this grows as the book progresses). The Assignment at the end is again finish the topic you started, finish something that pertains to one of the stories in the book, or your choice. It looks like just about all of the assignments have a "your choice" at the end. The Newspaper Article lesson doesn't as much. Plus, most of the time the "complete what you've started" is also your own choice. It really does give a lot of leeway for those who want to write on the subject of their choosing, but it does include a specific topic for those who have a hard time figuring out their topic. We are using this over two years with my dd. We just didn't make it through very far this year (my fault) and there is a lot of information there. If this didn't help, ask me again, I think I'm still half asleep:tongue_smilie: Angel

When my dd13 (8th) does LL writing assignments, she does not do Jump In that week. When she is reading for LL, she continues with Jump In as scheduled. I feel that LL doesn't give them very many of the "tools" needed to do their writing assingments, it expects the student to understand most of them already and just get on with the assignment. I believe that Jump In has been giving my dd the "tools" she needs not only to complete the assignments in that book but to help her to apply what she's learning to her other writing (like LL). Using the books this way has not been overkill for her. The only other writing that I require is her lab reports in Apologia General Science (and those are not too often as we don't always "do" the labs) and notebook pages for MFW RtoR. I take a different approach than most. My dd has a hard time writing for assignments. Instead of overloading her with writing in the hopes that "more must be better," I have chosen to take a lighter route and be pleased with a gradual improvement that doesn't lead to a bigger dislike of the writing process. With the pressure of assignments off, she has chosen, on her own free time, to do some poetry and creative writing. I am pleased with the progress I am seeing. I hope that helps somewhat :) Oh, and for what it's worth, for 7th grade I'd probably give up the spelling dictation.

My dh works with videos all day, therefore he is ALWAYS quoting something. :glare: It seems to fit into our daily lives and I couldn't even begin to list what usually goes on around here :001_smile: Some of our favorites are: "We're going to need a bigger boat!" Jaws "Inconceivable!" Princess Bride "Hold on to your butts!" Jurassic Park "I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request" Pirates of the Caribbean (gets many a quote around here) One of dh's favorites "Fear leads to hate, hate leads to anger, anger leads to suffereing." Yoda One of my favorites "I'll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day." Gone with the Wind Dd7's favorite "Why is the rum ALWAYS gone? Oh...THAT'S why!" Oh, my, I really could go on and on....

Hi there, Take a couple of deep breaths...it'll be ok. I, too, would probably finish out the year, but I can understand your (and his) anxiousness to get ps behind you :) You can google CHEO of Ohio. I think it stands for Christian Home Educators. They have links with all the pertinent legal mumbo jumbo you'll need. If I remember correctly, the first year we homeschooled in Ohio, we only had to report that we were homeschooling (there is a form you can print out at CHEO). The NEXT year we were required to report AND send an assessment. This sticks out so vividly because I didn't know anyone here and I was trying to figure out who could assess my child before filling out the paperwork to send to the school district (I was getting a bit frantic). I emailed either CHEO or a local homeschool group (can't remember) and found out that the assessment was not required until the next year. Good luck!

We used them one book at a time. Other than the Bible book, I think that they build (a little) on the previous books. At least I know that the last two books did. We just worked through them one at a time. My dd loved them. They really were enjoyable.

I fit in between poll option 1 and poll option 2. I did read it. I did take a few things from it to use but there were definite parts that I just didn't identify with. It DID broaden my horizons as a new homeschooler, though, and I'm grateful for that.

I don't know if this will fit your criteria, but my aspie dd(13) has done well with Rod & Staff for grammar. This is our 3rd year using it. We started her with the 5th grade book in 6th grade, finished it in 7th grade. That said, we do make modifications. We do the lessons orally, she reads along in her book while I read the lessons that is in her book. The lessons in the student books are very good at presenting the concepts, so I don't bother with teaching from the TM. I use the TM for grading and any helps I might need. We then do either the oral or written exercises orally and usually only odd's or even's if she grasped the concept. We also do the review because dd needs review to keep the concept there in her head. If anything can't be done orally (diagramming) then we do it on a white board. The only "writing" she does is for the review and the tests. The first year we used the writing lessons in Rod and Staff, but dd struggles with writing and it just wasn't a good fit. This year we are trying Apologia's Jump In Writing along with R&S and it is working very well. It breaks the lessons into such little chunks of writing that it is not intimidating for the writing phobic child. Dd does well at English but only tolerates it, it's definitely not a favorite subject. If he has had very little formal English, then you could start with R&S 4th grade and work your way up. 5th grade really sets the stage and there is a big leap from the 5th grade book to the 6th. Hope this helps some.

We're using MFW RtoR right now and we've enjoyed our year. I'm using it with a 13yo and 7yo. I'll see if I can answer your questions. Not doing their science would be ok. My oldest did Apologia this year and my 7yo has been hit or miss with MFW science. You could easily pick your own science. I have not used SOTW's activity guides, but MFW has maps and activities built into the curriculum. In their appendix they have maps that you'll photocopy and use throughout the book. They also have timeline pieces to copy and use as well as notebook pages that are assigned throughout the year. There are quite a few activities scheduled and they give detailed instructions in the TM for the activities. Some of the activities (off the top of my head) were making a viking runestone, growing a medieval garden, making a knucklebone game, making mosaics, etc. There are also some recipes for certain time periods. Overall, this has been a very easy year for us. The way that the curriculum is laid out is so easy to follow. They give you ample room to add in your own English, math, etc. on their schedule for the week. It has been easy to keep up with the history readings...something we had a horrible time doing with Truthquest...because it's all planned out. We did miss one read aloud and haven't done as many activities as my girls would have liked, but that was due to life happening here :001_smile: My 7yo has really gotten more out of it than I expected. It also tells you when you might need to skip or summarize a subject that might be too much for younger kids. I did not buy all the books, we have a good library and so I only had to buy a few that I could not get there. So that reduced the price for us. What books I did buy came from overstock or rainbow resource. Their prices were cheaper. There is also another list of books in the back of the TM to go along with each week. This gives you plenty of extra read aloud materials if you have the time or want to explore the subject further. If you have any other specific questions, please let me know.

Finished "Presenting Miss Jane Austen" last night. I am now on to "The Sorceress of Darshiva" by David Eddings...it's not on my 8/8/8 list but I'm sick and need to "revisit" an old friend that doesn't require much thinking. I'm reading "Peter and the Star Catchers" out loud to dd7. I'm also reading through John R. Rice's "Prayer...Asking and Receiving." Dd13 is listening to "Eldest" and beginning whatever Shannon Hale book is next on her list. She is also making her way through "Helen Keller: The Story of my Life" for Lightning Lit.

I shared this with my dh and dd (the one who has food sensitivities). Dh said this gives him new ideas for conversation at the dinner table.:lol: I think your ds is a real trooper with great manners! Thanks for sharing with us and opening a little peep into your side of the world :001_smile:

What a sweet baby boy!! Congratulations! I vote for Tadpole :D

I didn't go to college. Very early on I knew that I wanted to be a mommy. I did want to get married and have children and didn't want to "waste" money on a degree that I wouldn't use. I came from a family who had a very successful construction business, none of whom had a college degree, so I knew you didn't need college to be successful. And I wanted to be a mommy :001_smile: My parents wanted me to try college for a year because of my grades in school (10th in my class). I agreed, applied and was accepted to Baldwin Wallace, but ended up getting married two months out of high school. I had to wait 4 years to become a mommy, though :001_smile: In the meantime, I did secretarial work. In high school I had worked my way through every business course and had spent the afternoons after school working secretarial work found by my business teacher. In other words, I was prepared to work without college. I don't regret not going. I'm glad that I didn't spend thousands of my parents money on a degree that I would not use. My girls can choose if they want college or not. I will support either decision.

Hi Sue, I think that would be fine. I actually almost considered doing that with my dd this year, however, she had seen "Rikki Tikki Tavi" and was excited to read that. It was also short, which helped her ease into the program. We did have to skip "Helen Keller" because it took us a little longer to get it from the library than expected. We just went on to the next unit, finished it and came back to "Helen Keller." No problems. There are some references here and there to former lessons, but I think if you do a quick skim, you could double check any problem areas for your dd. "Helen Keller" is taking a little while, dd is not used to the biographical novel :001_rolleyes: HTH

Thank you both! That site was a great help.

I was planning on using Sonlight Core 7 and Lightning Lit 8th with my upcoming 9th grader. Is this overkill? Could I give both a history & lit credit with Sonlight? We will be doing Rod and Staff for English and Wordly Wise for vocab to round out the lit/language arts area. We are using LL7th right now and I like it, dd does too, for the most part, but I was just thinking maybe I don't need both? Thanks.

My avatar came from my own pictures that I have saved on the computer. I went into the user control panel and chose avatar from the side bar. I think I clicked something like add your own or some such and then browsed my pictures for the one I wanted. I don't know how they get the cool "Pirates of the Caribbean" or "Pride & Prejudice" ones. I'm glad it worked, that's why I posted, I just wasn't sure.

I didn't "sign up" for the Fitness challenge, I hope I can still share. The past 2 weeks I have been exercising (Finally!) Leslie Sansone 1 mile aerobic walk 3x a week, plus I have been out raking leaves. I played wallyball at a teen overnighter we chaperoned Friday... for over an HOUR....I'm so sore:eek: However, I have not been eating well consistently and have gained a pound instead of losing...very discouraging :(

just wanted to see if I did it right. Nothing important. :001_smile:

Rainbow Resource had some blank journals. I don't remember all the sizes and I don't know about how thick the pages are. They were very inexpensive, though. Angel

We had subscription to Nature Friend last year and dd's (then 12 and 6) loved it. They do have a whole page where reader's submit the art that they've done from lessons in previous magazines. I can't remember about submitting articles but it seems as if they had a little of that. The magazine did have big, beautiful pictures that weren't overtaken by lots of other "junk." We would subscribe again but oldest dd's curriculum seems to be getting pricier and I have to wait for the extra $$. Angel

My dd13 is working through R&S 8 w/me right now (what a struggle...for ME!). I am beyond my math abilities here and we are just "getting by" till the end of the year. We are moving into VideoText next year. I've really liked what I've seen and what the gentleman at the convention had to say last year. I want nothing more to do with math:tongue_smilie: No real advice, just wanted to say that we're in the same predicament and have chosen VideoText. Oh, did you see a sample of the videos at their website. It gives a real clear idea of the program. Angel

Hi Sue, We are using MFW RtoR this year, so we had book basket scheduled in. Actually, at the beginning of the year it was one of the things I was most excited about. Here's what I found out. Dd 13 had a tougher time with the concept because she wanted time to be able to finish the book. To her, 20 min (give or take) was not enough to either get into a good book or finish a smaller one. She had other books going for LL7th and also for her own pleasure reading, so she never came back to the books in the book basket. Dd7 is not as particular about "finishing" a book as her sister. She had no problem browsing through books, reading what she could or actually reading. In fact, I spent lots of time trying to find easy-type readers for her to go along with the subjects and I would find her with the harder books...go figure. She also was more apt to grab a book out at any time of the day and look through it. What ended up happening is this, I would fill our book basket up and then usually we would pick one or two and add them as read alouds at the end of our history readings. The books were still there for them to pull out if they thought of it (and sometimes they do, dd13 did this yesterday with a book about knights). There were quite a few books I would have liked to have read that we just didn't get to, unfortunately. If we were short on time, book basket was definitely dropped from the schedule. That's how it has worked out around here, not exactly what I had envisioned :glare: but, oh well. Angel

Jump In Writing by Apologia! What a great program. Dd13 is using it now.

My cousin was dealing with this last summer. She, too, lost weight and was eating next to nothing with the blandest things she could find. On a longshot I'll tell you what has helped her. They removed her gallbladder to start with, it helped some but was not a complete cure. They then put her on medication for her irritable bowel. If I remember correctly, the irritable bowel was somehow related to the reflux. That medicine has been working wonderful. I cannot remember if she still takes medication for the reflux, along with the irritable bowel. She is now mostly back to normal and has gained weight. I just wanted to share this with you on the rare occasion that it might be of some help. I know how worried my cousin was with how she was feeling and then doing so many of the normal routes to get relief and none of it working. They even had her on an anti-depressant for a while to get her stress level down so it wouldn't exacerbate the reflux or the irritable bowel. Hope you find some relief. Angel