I've recently picked up an Eino's Kit and we joined The Magic Schoolbus kit club, but haven't used either of the kits yet. Probably no help, but figured I'd put some options out there. :)

I haven't worn makeup for years now! I currently don't even own any. Back before I was married and a mom, I would wear make up if I went clubbing or to a bar, but that was about it.

Yep, they moved from there to their current location. :)

I so wished I had read this thread before I picked up Beric the Briton the other day. And some guide book to his other books as well. I haven't read any, just thought they looked interesting. Blah.

They are still in North Houston, near the Willowbrook Mall (249/1960). I live in the southern NW Houston area and it takes me about 15 min or so to get there. We've only lived in Houston for a year though and, to me, it seems as if everything in Houston is a drive! I take classes at San Jac and last summer had an evening class on their south campus. I had to leave like an hour and a half early to get there on time. I really dislike that it takes so long to get somewhere within the same city. I went to Mardel just to buy SOTW Volume 1 and I was lucky because they were 30% off at the time. :) I had no idea there was another HS store here! I don't get down south too often, but I will store that bit of information away (like I need another place to shop.....). :)

I am trying to purchase something from the PHP site, but it is not letting me log in or add anything to my cart. Is it just me or is anyone else having this problem?

We have one here in Houston and it is awesome! Actually, we kind of have two or so. There is The Homeschool Store, which I love. They have new and used curriculum as well as tons of used books and lots of other goodies. It is awesome. We also have a store called Mardel, which carries a good amount of new homeschool curriculum. I've only been there once, and it's nice and it's great having another place to go if I need too, but it's not as great as the actual HS. :) Mardel also has a ton of toys and my son said it was the best store ever. However, THS has a nice play area that he loves too. I definitely prefer THS. It's so great.

Are there any physical activity type clubs in your area? Homeschool or not. Maybe check with the YMCA? I don't partake in any, but I know there's a good amount around my area (Houston).

I have to admit that I do sometimes wish Ethan had someone to play with too. :) I am an introvert and alone usually ='s good (and rarely happens around here!). :) However, I do have the need to get out of the house even if not for social reasons. We've been home all this week too, with me in bed a lot, so we are both ready to get out, hopefully tomorrow. Are there other kids his age in the neighborhood? My son is younger than yours, but I do remember spending a lot of time outside with neighborhood kids at that age.

I homeschool only one child. We have no plans on having another. We do spend a good amount of time at home, but I do not consider this a bad thing. We attend a group activity once a week and occasionally have other outings. Some weeks we do nothing, like this week. I have some sort of stomach bug, so had to cancel our coop for today,which sucked because I was leading it. So, no meetings this week at all. No biggie. For us, too much outside stuff ='s not enough school getting done at home. I'm curious as to why you think spending time alone at home is unhealthy?

Thank you for the suggestions. I decided that I don't want a whole year of chemistry because I want to go over other things this year, but did find some lapbooks on Currclick (one from Elemental Science) that will do the job. BFSU looks good too! I love all the book suggestions in this thread too. The books I had previously purchased are Life Story by Virginia Lee Burton, Bang! How we came to be by Michael Rubino, and Older than the Stars by Karen Fox.

We're using Horizons and it has been going well. I also supplement some with MM2 and we do LoF on a somewhat regular basis at the end of our school day.

Hi all! I've been using the Stunning Science of Everything as a "spine" for science. I'm barely a handful of pages in and have hit a problem. It starts off covering the big bang. The pages aren't long, so it was only an overview. My son was really interested in it, so I bought a few more books covering the big bang and evolution. They touch on atoms, protons, electrons, etc. SSoE only touches on this as well. My son wants to know more and this is not my strong point at all! Can anyone recommend some type of curriculum covering this in more detail suitable for a 7.5 year old? Something hands on (notebooking or lapbooking) with experiments would be great. He is always talking about how he wants to learn more chemistry stuff than biology stuff. Thanks!

That's good to know, thank you. :) I noticed that FLL3 seems more intensive than the first two, so I was wondering. :)

We are currently using LLATL Red (2nd grade). Overall, it is ok. Neither me or my son enjoy the cutting and pasting aspect, but my main concern is that he doesn't seem to be retaining as much as he should. Or, as I think he should. We're 12 weeks into it and I really don't want to start over with a new program now (I was looking at FLL2). Do you think he'll be prepared for FLL3 after finishing this course? Thanks!

:lol: lol

I never even realized there was a "right" way to cross letters. After reading this, I discovered I cross from right to left. I'll have to watch my son and see how he does it.

I've not used their packaged curriculum, though I almost did a couple of years ago. They do offer schedules for each grade level, which is nice. http://www.timberdoodle.com/Articles.asp?ID=158 Seems like the schedules would help a lot.

Interesting about the mouse! I use my right hand and always have (started on the computer in '94). I do most everything else left handed though. My brother is a mostly lefty and my sister is a righty. I'm the oldest, she's the youngest, both parents righties.

Now I'm curious, how many lefties use their left hand for the mouse? I always assumed everyone used the mouse on the right regardless of hand dominance.

I'm a lefty and I have to say that I never thought to wonder if I would be able to teach my righty son to write. lol :) True left handed scissors are wonderful! I can cut right handed just fine too, it's just something you pick up in a right handed world. However, I love my left handed Gingher scissors. As for all other lefty stuff, I say meh. I guess spiral notebooks can be a pain, but I use them to this day with no problem. They used to make spiral notebooks with the spiral on the other side for lefties, but I haven't seen those in forever! I think my biggest and only lefty complaint is getting ink all over my pinky finger when writing and/or smearing what I just wrote. I never hooked my hand to write.

It's Waldorf inspired and draws different aspects from Waldorf, but they do align their curriculum to state standards. It's not straight up Waldorf, kind of how there are other box curriculum that are classical or Charlotte Mason inspired.

This isn't OM, but maybe it's a less expensive alternative? http://waldorfessentials.com/store/

I am Secular Humanist too. :)

Have you thought about starting your own group on Meet Up? The girl who started the group I belong to did that. I've been lucky enough to have been there from the beginning (not quite a year ago) and we have a great group of around six families who are regulars, but a few other sometimers. It is hard to find a group to fit in with. I belong to a larger group too, probably around 100 families. I belong to that group strictly for field trip opportunities. I went to one social gathering and that was enough for me. TBH, sometimes I even get annoyed on the field trips, but at least we can just wander off. :)