I can only imagine how you felt talking to a rep in person. I always buy more when in that situation. LOL But, I don't think you wasted your money. This is only my first year homeschooling, but my kids attended a private Christian school, until this year, which uses A Beka. Right now, my 4-year-old son is doing the full K4 curriculum with cursive writing. I only chose the cursive because my 1st grader is using A Beka and I refused to pay even more for the manuscript, so he's learning cursive too, figured I'd get them both done with that at once. LOL A Beka is very strong with the phonics. I think the only negatives I've seen people speak about them is the review and reiteration of things already taught in previous lessons. I'm not sure what I think of all that right now as we're only ending our second week of HSing. What I do know is that A Beka's program works and that my kids are learning their phonics and writing very well. Going forward though, I don't see myself using A Beka for my oldest next year. As a matter of fact, I've already begun to transition her off. I don't like that there's not a textbook that she (grade 3) can use to self-teach. I don't have time (work full time with set hours from home) to sit down with each of them individually for each subject. My goal is to get all my children to become independent learners. With A Beka, I just don't see that happening. Come this spring, I'll be looking for text-book based curriculums for her in all of the three R's, but we still do Bible, Science, History, Art, and any other mini-units I decide on together, as a family. See if you like A Beka's set up. For the younger grades, it's okay because they can't self-teach yet anyway, but when they get older, I just find that I don't like the way A Beka is set up. It's really set up for a classroom, not for homeschooling. Even the homeschool curriculum they have is set up for a classroom. I have to keep looking on the front of my TMs to see if the word homeschool is actually written on them, thinking I have the wrong book. LOL Nope, it says homeschool. I think they just took their regular TMs and slapped the word homeschool on the front and that was it. But, like I said. It's not bad for younger kids, or older if you don't care if they become independent learners, but for me, I need something that my child can read on their own and learn with me in the background to answer questions. I got a bit long-winded there. Sorry. Oh, and my son hates coloring and writing so most of the A Beka stuff right now is torture to him. LOL He does it though, and he's learning. He also sits at the table while my 1st grader is doing his phonics and so when we get to a new letter, he knows it and acts all frustrated that I'm teaching him something he already knows. LOL I'd say lessons with my K4er are about 5 minutes in length for each subject, but we don't do them at one time. We break it up. We do Bible and Art first thing in the morning (Charlotte Mason style to art where we study one painter for a quarter, takes maybe 10 minutes a day) and then after that he gets free time while I work with my 1st grader. Then we switch and the 1st grader does typing on the computer while I do phonics with my K4er. After that we switch again and when I get my K4er back after the next switch, we do the cursive writing portion of the lesson, then switch, then snack, then I get my K4er back and I actually do Singapore Math Kindergarten A with him. He can do it, so why not? LOL After that, he's pretty much done for the day but I have him color pictures from the K4 Readiness book or the ABC-123 book, just to keep him occupied so that he doesn't disrupt his sister or brother as they're working. I also have tons of educational preschool games on my iPad that my K4er loves to play. I have games for all the kids on there, so it turns into a fight at times if I have two in free time, but I'm trying to juggle that so that it doesn't happen... Best of luck to you. I don't think you will be disappointed. A Beka is a great curriculum for the younger grades! Angie

Hi. You've probably already decided, but I wanted to chime in here. My K4 son is using the Singapore Kindergarten A book. I didn't even get the workbook, just the textbook and he does well in it. Someone earlier mentioned the A book being more pre-schooly, and I agree, as my son does the work with ease. We plan to use this all year, but he's grasping onto it so well that we may do Kindergarten B for the second semester, which would put him using 1A next year to begin with...not sure how I feel about that. I don't want to rush him, I just knew he could do Kindergarten A based on what is in it, so why not start if he's willing? KWIM? Good luck deciding. I will say that I LOVE Singapore. My 1st grader is doing both Singapore 1A and A Beka math right now (Pulled my kids out of private school and they were using A Beka, so ordered that then found Singapore and fell in love). I like Singapore better. I love that there's a text book and workbook. Angie

Hi all. I want to jump in here and just say that for me, choosing a boxed curriculum (Winter Promise - American Story 1) is a life saver. I work full time from home with set hours. I've always dreamed of homeschooling, but with working full-time, I never thought it was possible. The private school my kids went to upped their prices a lot and we can't afford it anymore. Our PS is horrible, dreadful. So, I'm taking on the task of working full time and HS at the same time. Crazy? Yes, but I think it's best for us. And that is why a boxed curriculum is best in our situation. No family is exactly like another. What works for one won't necessarily work for another, and vice-versa. I wish I had the ability to sit and plan out my own curriculum, that would be my ideal world, but it's not possible for me right now. Actually, I am planning out a few mini-units and researching them and buying the books and trying to figure out how best to inhibit learning for my kids, but that's as much as I can do right now. Maybe next year I'll start earlier (just decided to HS around 10 days ago) and have more time to figure one out. For instance, instead of using WP's Children Around the World, I was thinking of taking the time to get a list of all the missionaries our church sponsors and then write to them and get info about the work they do and their families and then find books about the area of the world their in. I would have my children write letters to the missionaries and all that jazz. That is my dream for when we get time to do a world study, but will it happen? I'm not sure. If I have proper planning, I should be able to do it, but, again, I work full time. I don't know if I will have time to plan. :( Anyway, just my 2 cents. Hope you're all doing well.

Enjoy! We start Apologia's Flying Creatures of the 5th day on Monday! I'm so excited! I think I'm more excited than the kids, and they're the ones who chose which book to do.

Hi. I've been lurking on these boards for a while (first year homeschooling) and saw this post. I am just finishing my second round of HCG. The first round, I lost 25 lbs, stabilized very well and then went on a cruise. I gained 5 lbs on the cruise, but it was ALL water retention from the amount of salt in the cruise food. Those five pounds (plus) dropped off within two days of returning home (this was a 2-week vacation where I ate anything and everything I wanted). I started this second round on July 3rd and finished my drops yesterday. I did Rx - Sublingual this round (did hHCG last round), and I lost 20.8 lbs. I am on my first Very Low Calorie Day (VLCD) without the drops, so two more to go. I start eating everything except starches and sugars on Friday. Stabilizing is the key. Those three weeks after the drops and VLCDs is the most important part of the diet. As it resets your metabolism and hypothalamus. As for what to eat. Follow Dr. Simeon's protocol (Pounds & Inches) to the best of your ability. It's not worth cheating. If you cheat, you will gain and/or stall. Nobody likes that. Anyway, I just hope I can continue to eat healthily while homeschooling...I work full time from home with set hours as well, so this is going to be quite an adventure. Best of luck to you! There is a great message board out there for the HCG diet... I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to it or not, so do a search and you'll find multiple ones...you'll find the best one because it's very well used. ;) Angie