I don't know if it is pregnancy brain or just that time of year, but I cannot decide what to use this fall. :confused: My 4th grader will use HOD Preparing. That was a fairly easy decision. My other two will be 7th & 8th. I can't decide between: HOD Missions to Marvels (new modern guide) & Notgrass America the Beautiful, with several Tiner books & biographies for science. & I also can't decide between WWS 1 or another IEW theme book. We have used HOD for years, and I really thought I wanted a break from it. It sounded so nice to pick and choose my own books, but it has been a lot more work than I anticipated. I have a baby due at the end of August, and I really wanted to get started on school in the next week or two, so we would have a few weeks done before baby arrives, but it doesn't look promising.:glare: I have ATB sitting here and my oldest son really likes it. He keeps picking it up to read different excerpts. THe reading seems a bit easier than what we have been doing with HOD.I just feel overwhelmed with planning everything. And I'm worried my science choice is lacking. (I was worried about using Apologia Physical, since we just used EE Physical) HOD is sounding so nice right now, but it won't ship until mid September. That would be a really late start for us! Although it may be nice to have to take a mini break after baby arrives. And now that oldest likes ATB so much, I'm afraid he will be disappointed with the HOD choices. Thanks so much if you've read this far. Okay, what would you do if you were in my shoes? I am all ears....:bigear:

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am writing them all down and going to call my dr. When I was in yesterday, they gave me a few different samples to try, but I didn't recognize any from the suggestions you all have given. I would love to just take a flinstone vitamin but I'm afraid that won't be enough. My level was 9.2, and that was from a couple weeks ago. I've just started to feel really yucky in the last few days. Thanks again!:)

Thanks, HappyGrace. Will you come back and post your list when you're finished with it? I'm still looking for a few more ideas. Thanks!

I am 7 months pregnant and my dr. just informed me that I am anemic and need to take an iron supplement. I feel awful- very tired and no concentration. I have never been able to tolerate iron supplements, they make me very nauseated and I usually end up throwing up. I have had horrible nausea/vomiting throughout this pregnancy and am still taking zofran, so I'm not terribly excited about taking something that will make my stomach issues worse. Has anyone found an iron supplement that was well tolerated as far as stomach issues? Also, how long after starting the iron will I begin to feel better? Thanks for any suggestions!:bigear:

As of right now, the plan is to use HOD Preparing (history, Bible, science, art, poetry) Rod and Staff English 4 Latina Christiana 1 Math- either Rod & Staff 4 or TT4 I already own Preparing because I used it with my olders a few years ago. I really love Preparing, but the MP 4th grade package is looking very tempting.:)

Can I get some opinions on the reading list I've come up with for my 7th and 8th grade boys? We will be using Notgrass America the Beautiful for our history, but not the lit suggestions. Blood on the River Calico Captive My Brother Sam is Dead Tom Sawyer Great Little Madison Lincoln a Photobiography Across Five Aprils Treasure Island War Horse The Yanks are Coming Seargent York Number the Stars Corrie Ten Boom 10,000 Days of Thunder Call of the Wild God's Smuggler The Giver Any thoughts? I would like one more book on World War 2 if anyone has any suggestions. :bigear: Thanks so much!

abrightmom, My boys are 12 & 13, finishing up 6th & 7th grade. I do think that my 7th grader has gotten much more out of the guides than the 6th grader. However, I really like having them combined. I have tried a couple of time to uncombine them, and it has never worked out well. :) alilac & Evergreen Academy, I thought the science was great in RTR. Both boys loved the Apologia Astronomy book, even though we had already used that one several years prior. One child couldn't stand A Child's Geography, the other didn't mind it, but it wasn't a favorite. They both loved the Tiner book, and the biographies, especially Galileo. I'm not sure it had that much more critical thinking than the science in CTC, it sort of folllows the same format, but they had a love for Science that year. This past year in Rev2Rev, the Science has been more challenging. Exploration Education has been interesting and they have learned quite a bit, but they much preferred the inventor study. Hope this helps some.:) I will say that HOD has been a very good fit for my boys, but I'm not as convinced it is as great of a fit for my dd. We may end up using something else for her. Allison

CTC covers a longer time period than CTG. CTG ends before Rome, that is covered in the next MFW guide. CTC goes through the fall of Rome, I think. I think your plan will work fine.:)

We have used every guide with the exception of Little Hands. Our favorite years were Preparing and RTR. My boys especially enjoyed RTR. I wasn't as crazy about some of the history books, but my boys loved them. I just really like SOTW and would have been happy with that. They want more detail. I do think MOH reads more like a living book once you get into it though. If you pick an excerpt here or there, it might seem more textbookish. The art study, the Shakespeare study, the boyhood study, and the science were great! If you really liked CTC then I think you will love RTR. My boys have enjoyed our year with RevtoRev this year, but not nearly as much as last year with RTR.:)

Thank you all. I had no idea so many people have had severe pregnancy sickness too. In real life, I know of no one else that has been as sick as I have been. This is my 4th pregnancy, and I've had morning sickness to some degree with all of them, this one has just been by far the worst. This is my second day off the Zofran, and I haven't thrown up (yet) this time. I'm just really nauseated. If I still feel like this tomorrow, or start throwing up again, I'll resume the Zofran, and assume I just need to be on it until baby comes. I just though by 25 weeks I shouldn't need it anymore! Thanks!

Have you had trouble stopping Zofran? I am 25 weeks pregnant and have been taking Zofran since about week 6. I was vomiting about 20 times a day, and could keep nothing down. The Zofran helped me feel a little better, but not great. I have only recently, within about the last month or so, started to feel better. I keep trying to quit the Zofran, I'm down to one pill a day, but I end up feeling yucky and throwing up after a day or two of not taking it. Is this a "rebound"? It seems the drug should be out of my system within a few hours, so why do I feel okay until about 36 hours off the meds? Anyone else have this problem?:confused: (my dr. does not understand why this is happening, and suggested a visit to the GI dr.)

The top recs for me were TOG, MFW, and LLATL. I have used HOD for years and it never came up as a match.:confused: Maybe I should try something new.:)

Thank you all. Now I have more to think about.:)

Thanks, Julie. I feel like my heart is telling me to keep him in 8th. But part of me knows that's because I would get to keep him home with me for an extra year.:) I think it worries me that he will be 18 his senior year, but still taking instruction from me. Maybe I need to calm down. I was just reading on another MFW thread that the last hs year is more open. I suppose he could take a couple CC classes that year to give him more independence. Thanks for sharing your story. It helps to hear about successful kids that didn't graduate at 16.:)

I am at a loss as to which way to go here and am hoping you all can help me talk this through. I can't decide whether my ds should have one more year of middle school, or if I should start him in 9th grade in the fall. My oldest will be turning 14 on July 2. We live in TX and it is so common to hold those summer birthday boys back, so we did. (He went to public K and has been home since) It has never bothered me that he is on the older side until I started thinking about high school. If I keep him on the path I have him on, he will be an 8th grader this fall. That means that he will turn 18 the summer before he begins his senior year. Honestly, I'm worried about hs'ing an 18 year old. Maybe I'm overthinking things, but I think it would be different even he were to turn 18 in the fall/winter/spring of his senior year, rather than the summer before. :001_huh: I contacted the MFW office to find out about his readiness for AHL. I spoke with a very nice man who basically said that he could go either way because of age and what he has been doing academically. I am really hoping someone has some insight as to why we should move forward with hs or wait one more year. Another thing I'll put out there is he is very tall and mature looking for his age, and tends to be on the more mature side. And an additional note:), I am expecting baby #4 at the end of August, so whatever we decide, I don't think we'll be ready to start school until late September or early October. If you have read all of this, thank you! I'm all ears......

Thanks for the replies. :)

Thank you, sbaloue. I think we'll try to get through all of Rainbow in 8th. Do you feel that completing Rainbow is adequate preparation for Apologia Biology? Or would Apologia Physical be better? One more question:), how long do the lessons for Apologia Biology take compared to the Rainbow lessons? Thanks!

If my son uses the first part of Rainbow Science in 8th grade, can he use the second part in 9th grade for a Biology credit? If not, is there something I can add, like the Biology 101 dvds, to make it credit worthy? If that won't work, can I try to squeeze two years of Rainbow into one? Or would it be better to do the first half of Rainbow for 8th grade and something else for Bio for 9th? Any other Biology suggestion? Thanks so much!:)

Thanks, SusySchool and lillehei.:)

Thanks, lillehei. :) I'm glad you didn't feel it was too light. Do you think that the main texts read more like a textbook, or did they have a more conversational tone? We are used to lots of living books for history, but my boys love things like SOTW, Mystery of History, and the Apologia Elem Science series. Do these books have a similar style to the above, or do they read more like a typical textbook? I have read the samples online, it is just hard to get a really good feel for it without holding it in my hands.:) Any other thoughts?

:bigear: anyone else?

Thank you, plansrme.:) I read several of your posts, and other posts about AtB. It sounds like it may be a good fit for us next year. I am a little concerned about some of the comments about it being "light". I liked your idea (I think it was your idea :)) about adding in more books about the major wars. Do you have any suggestions for that? Allison

Has anyone been using this? I am considering it for next year and would love to hear any reviews.:) Thanks!

Hi Daisy.:) I have an 11 year old son with some lds and I think your list would have been too much for him in 4th grade. He is now a very good reader but still struggles with writing and spelling. Anyway, I would cut out IEW and just focus on Rod and Staff, with most of it done orally. You can add IEW back in when he's older if you really want to use it. I like your idea about copying the problems for him from the R&S math book. I don't think there will be enough space to write in the 4th grade text. The Pathway readers and workbooks are probably too much. He's already getting great spelling instruction with AAS, and if he's a good reader then he doesn't need more phonics. Also, I would limit the history notebooking to just writing a narration, and not alot else, unless he enjoys it.:) I also like your idea about adding typing. I wish I had done that years ago.:) Just some thoughts.:) By the way, I really enjoy your blog.:)

We have been happy (mostly) HOD users for a few years. The plan was to use Hod's Rev2Rev with my 6th and 7th graders, and Bigger with my 3rd grader in the fall. Now I am second guessing myself and wondering if we should try MFW Exp-1850, mostly to have more family together time. I feel like my olders do so much independently, and I miss not doing more with them. We do love HOD though, maybe I'm just having grass is greener syndrome. I would appreciate any opinions of MFW Exp-1850, good or bad. Thanks!:001_smile: