I'm finally getting around to this. This is our 3rd time doing third grade, so it is somewhat easier and I don't really have any angst other than wondering where my energy will come from. Lit---MP Lit (we will pick and choose questions and most will be done orally) LA---CLE 3 Writing--IEW All Things Fun and Fascinating (doing MP 3rd grade schedule) Spelling--AAS or Apples and Pears ..I have both Cursive--Zaner Bloser and whatever Abeka cursive I still have Math--Horizons 3 and a few Kumon 3 word problems History--Story of the World 3, MP States and Capitals with the corresponding read alouds Bible--MP Christian Studies 1 Read Alouds--one of the Sonlight list--probably B or B+C German--not totally sure here but probably watch Nico's Weg from DW Lernen and find a A1 text. If Getting Started with German comes out we will see what that is like too. This may become our language instead of latin. Latin--I feel nostalgic about Prima Latina and my other 2 kids did this, so we may casually go through it. One of my older kids did MPOA through Fourth Form. I just am not sure I want to do that much latin again. This might be it for latin.

Can you plant a couple of fast growing trees? Bradford Pear for example.

I'm going with my older kids college schedule. They start back on Aug 17 and move in 3 or 4 days before, so that gives me a few days to organize and prepare.

Right! It is a great thing if they can just enjoy reading.

I'm trying to remember. We started to use some Abeka. The Letters and Sounds and Writing with phonics. We did continue to use the Primary Phonics readers and American Language readers that MP uses. We used every set of the Primary Phonics readers and 3 of the American Language Readers. 1st grade was a bit a mix up year. We finished up using the K Abeka phonics and then did 1st grade letters and sounds and went through summer. edit: We also used the Bob Books in the very beginning of learning to read. In 2nd grade we moved to using all Abeka 2nd grade Letters and Sounds and the Writing with phonics along with their readers. He really liked the readers. He did like the enrichment and read aloud stories from MP so we did those. We also used their K-2 Christian Studies. He memorized the bible verses in 1st grade, but did not in 2nd and just simply read the bible stories and discussed if we wanted to. Erik Carls Animals Animals is a good book and A Childs Book of Poems is also good. We read these for fun at night sometimes. I use the Sonlight list of books for read alouds. We used Apples and Pears for spelling but then switched to All About Spelling. I like both, but Apples and Pears was too much writing at that age, so we swtiched. He's not a great speller or I would just use a traditional spelling currriculum. I have always used Horizons Math, but that is just what we like, so I can't compare with Rod and Staff which MP uses. I read through a volume of Story of the World each year and while I read he colors the picture and we do the map together. It's pretty easy and he really likes it. In first grade he did a narration notebook and drew pictures of the story and i would write down a sentence or two about it and he would copy it into the notebook. He loved it. I should probabl do that again this year. We will see. LOL I think I like Abeka better for K-2. Then I like to move away from them and use what I like from different providers.

I want to add that for 3rd grade we will be using MP Christian Studies I, but we will only do it orally. We will try to memorize bible verses, but the goal is just to be familiar with the bible. I have used their K-2 bible as well and we just read through the suggested stories and sometimes memorize bible verses. We will also use the lit curriculum, but we will do very little of the workbook. Perhaps we will write out an answer to one or two questions and discuss the story together. For extra read alouds we use the Sonlight reading list.

I have used MP curruiculum a lot, but I reallly don't like it for the younger years. It really seemed to be a joy suck and we ditched it. I did like using several of their options in middle school, but adjusted their expectations to fit. We used their Latin, Comp and some Lit during from about 5th -8th and that worked very well.

Yes, I do think we stifle teens and give them so much school, homework extracurriculur that they have no time to think, but I also think we abused kids back in the day. It's hard to say where the line is. My grandfather was required to work full time after completing 5th grade. He left the family at 14 and was on his own. He was married at 17 and my dad was born a year later. He was married 60+ years. He was self employeed the rest of his life. I would say it could have been so much better if he could have been in school and only worked part time. Not only did he work, his dad planned with a local farmer to give him to the farmer so the family could live rent free in one of his houses. It was seriously child abuse.

Last year I listened to this on my walks. I only listened to the commentary and have to say I didn't listen to the bible readings. https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/17704-bible-in-one-year-2020-with-nicky-gumbel

We have been in mostly agreement for the past 10 years. I am a serious saver and was raised in a very saving conscious family and taught that from a very young age. Dh was raised in a spending family where the decisions were made solely by one parent. It did cause some issues but eventually we did a financial peace course and were able to talk through goals. We now have clear savings and spending goals. We don't always follow 100%, but we follow pretty closely.

This was my problem too. I'm going to have to go walk up the hill down the street that the water tower is on. I live right on the eastern continental divide. Well the RR right in front of my house is right on it, so then all the property slopes gently down and there are too many tall pine trees in the NW direction to see even though I stood on the RR, which is the highest area, I could not see.

Yes, I keep trying to see it, but apparently I'm not finishing netflix binging in time. So tonight it's my top priority!

I don't like to grocery shop so we have 1 upright freezer and 1 side by side in the garage, plus inside fridge. I would say we regularly have 1 month of food. I did not stock up on TP, but I do now. What happened in our area is hoarding rather than limited supply. A lady in my parents neigborhood bought a garage full of TP then resold it for a profit. Another lady in their neighborhood bought so much TP and papertowels than she rented a storage unit for her warehouse and resold. This is a gated golf club community. I don't know why they felt the need to do this, but anyway. So now, yes I most certainly stock up so I don't need to pay double for my TP. Last time I had to buy from the lady with her garage stocked with cheap sandpaper TP for $1 a roll. I have 3 costco size TP packages in the garage. 1 very large Charmin package for kids to take to college. Right now I'm stocking up on all purpose surface cleaning spray and disinfectant wipes for my college kids. It is very hard to find these right now.

I think I was anxious for about a week or 2 then I relaxed a bit and now we are over it and done and we are carrying on as normal to the extent it is possible. Dh still has to work from home every single day.

Our local H-Mart (Korean grocer) carries N95 and quite a lot of them. Wipes are in the grocery store if you get there when they open, otherwise I never see them. There seems to be limited supply of all purpose cleaning sprays. I buy one everytime I see it. Hand soap is limited and we buy every time we see it. Found it at Aldi yesterday. Limit 2. We were totally out.

I eat a veggie or fruit at every meal. I do have to be careful about too much raw or my guts will hurt.

I would call MP and discuss. They are very helpful and knowledgeable.

I know 6 people who have had it. 4 were in their late 40's and early 50's. Flu like for several days then recovered. 1 was 80 and it took them about 6 weeks to recover energy, but never hospitalized. 1 died, I would say more with covid rather than from it as he was lingering from a stroke and was 92.

That's probably around the same price. This was listed as curbside pick up package. We had a celebration last weekend and that is what we got. We had a lot leftover and had some great steak and eggs for breakfast and steak and pepper salads.

At our local butcher you can buy 6 12oz ribeyes for $110.

I used to use a bio-identical cream. It was awesome. I now use a compounded pill. I"m not sure why we changed, but the pill works great too. I use 20 days on 10 days off. It helps me sleep better, feel positive and feel less irritable. When I first used it that is the time they changed to using metric at the pharmacy (but failed to say anything about it) and I totally messed up the dosage and ended up using about 10x the correct amount. I did feel like a million bucks for a few days till I figured it out! LOL

Alexa has answered questions while we were homeschooling and no one said it's name. So now we unplug Alexa unless we are using it for music.

Sometimes about 3 to 4 times in one night! LOL

I agree with 6 weeks on and 1 week off. I preplanned everything and I also learned not to be tempted to just keep going. That week off is important. On the week off we can catch up on sick days/missed work if necessary, get the house looking really good, watch movies and go to some fun places like th zoo etc.., or if it's the time of year we take a vacation. Up through about middle school we do a very light summer schedule and then take 2-3 weeks in August completly off.

I do lot's of things by myself and I'm fine with it and even love it, but walking alone in isolated areas makes me nervous. i'm only 5'1" so almost everyone is bigger than me. I'm acutly aware of that when I'm alone.