Some labeled "mercury free" have come on the market in the last six months, but I'd wait to see what happens with LEDs in the next year. That's the real solution to this fake problem.

:001_rolleyes: Nice effort at changing the topic.

Hire a tutor? Seriously. At 11 the boy should be doing real grammar and translation, even in an "intro" program. So all the usual kiddie-level stuff will just bore the lad. If you're not in a position to provide the instruction, your best bet is not a "program" but a competent tutor.

Peter Kreeft's Socratic Logic 3rd edition -- there is nothing else better out there. Period. A possible good supplement is Kreeft's Philosophy 101. It's appropriate for an adult or advanced high schooler and will give you the logical background you need to teach it correctly regardless of what program you elect to use with your child.

Call him and ask him if there is anything he needs or wants in particular.

We're using mini-blind slats. We're not worried about chemicals.

We bought the folders, but we freely admit we're lazy when it comes to craft projects, DIY solutions, etc. Some of the solutions proposed here sound like they would work better than the plastic folders that ParentChild Press sells.

Monarchy. preferably a Catholic monarchy. The real thing, not the secularized, centralized, authoritarian model that came into being with gunpowder, the printing press, and the Protestant religion. But that's a discussion for another time and place.

I think it is. Particularly when combined with abortion, so-called gay marriage, the assault on faith in the public sphere, continued violations of the 1st, 2nd, and 10th Amendments, and a host of other nonsense. Nationalism is an ugly thing, even in America. A desire for union, when none exists in fact, will require a police state to enforce. I'd rather see the union dissolved than the trappings of this once-great commercial Federal Republic parodied in the service of a Jacobin-Marxist police state.

Far too many support a vision of the United States that is anathema to its founding principles and are intent upon compelling those of us who do respect the founding principles to accept their POV.

Human nature hasn't changed since the Fall. Based on that, I answer in the affirmative. A republic is an inherently unstable form of government because it is fatherless government. As the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment observed, a commercial society cannot produce virtue. It can only spend the virtue accumulated by the martial society that it supplants. Combine the inherent instability of republican government with the inability to produce moral capital of a commercial society, and you have a recipe for failure. It may be the best government man has ever conceived of for himself. And therein lies the problem.

No.

I think his conclusions vis-a-vis map division and foreign influence are incorrect, but I don't disagree with the essential conclusion. I think he's off on the time frame by about a decade. And it presumes that those who are at war with us don't succeed in a strike on US soil before the natural frictions present within the nation result in balkanization. Also, his reliance on "ethnic" lines for division is the sort of error a Russian analyst would make. It makes sense given his experience of people, particularly in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet empire, but it really doesn't obtain in the unique environment that is the US.

Actually, 250-300 years is about the limit for a republic. Rome's lasted about that long, as did Venice. And those were relatively homogenous, aristocratic republics which are inherently more stable. A heterogenous, commercial republic obsessed as ours is with democracy and equalitarian delusions would be very lucky to last that long.

When the Constitution has been violated beyond repair and the deck is stacked against anything other than Jacobin tyranny, the only sane option is to leave. You can't negotiate with an abusive spouse. And the abusive spouse is now in control of this country.

Don't be disappointed. I think the last few months have been a wake-up call for lots of complacent folks. Perhaps Rick Perry is among them. The tree of liberty is oft watered by the blood of patriots and tyrants. Don't tread on me.

Nope. Just Lulu. Order away. :001_smile:

While it does have lots of good copy work, it really is the best compilation of things for memorization I've ever found.

I believe all that the Holy Catholic Church teaches to be inerrant and revealed by God. She, as our Holy Mother, provides us with the text and the correct interpretation of the Scripture, along with all thing necessary for Salvation.

It is wonderful. You will not be disappointed.

Ignoring all previous responses to answer the OP's question...yes. Why would I teach them otherwise?

Depending on your long term Latin goals, you may want to consider doing LC2 over 4th and 5th or using the new Form series from Memoria Press. First Form is due to be released this Fall. Eventually there will be four volumes, covering the material in Henle 1, so that from 4th through 8th grade, for example, you'd cover all of the Henle 1 material allowing you to start Henle 2 in 9th grade.

There is a particularly aggressive Baptist church up the street from us. We see more of their folk than we see of JWs or LDS. The thing I find so amusing about the Baptists is their church's "slogan", if you will: "Old-fashioned church! Just like it used to be." To a Catholic, such an assertion is either deeply offensive or highly amusing. This particular Catholic finds it highly amusing.

If Nalgene bottles are cheap, I don't want to know what Kleen Kanteen run. :eek: I bought my Nalgene bottles nearly a decade ago at a hiking/camping/hunting supply store. I did get insulated sleeves for my Nalgene bottles, but they didn't insulate well and in nearly doubled the volume the bottle occupied in my bag. So I ditched them shortly after I bought them. I'm not even sure where they are anymore (the sleeves, not the bottles). HTH

I'll do what I can. I will note that the "special pen" included with the Cursive kit is an ordinary rollerball. There are other programs, much more expensive, that require special pens to write the Spencerian correctly. My initial impression is that SmithHand is elegantly simple. There's so little "method" that to post it on the web or to provide it in a sample would, as with some other methods, render the purchase of a text unnecessary. He does request that you buy a separate book (although not a kit) for each person using the method. This doesn't seem unreasonable and, given the structure and contents of the book, makes excellent sense. The Manuscript text, in addition to the exercises, includes some recommendations for testing whether or not your child is even ready for penmanship lessons. No copy work is included with either kit. The books are just the proper formation of the component strokes building up to the completed letters. Since many letters share strokes, these letters receive simultaneous, rather than sequential, treatment. The practice pads are where most of the work is done to hone the child's (or adult's) hand at consistently perfect letter formation. Copy work strikes me as the aspect of this that will make or break it. No examples, beyond the optional KJV sheet, are provided in the neo-Spencerian of SmithHand. The expectation is that copywork will be acoomplished not by the child replicating the look of a model, but in having the child copy a given word/phrase/etc. in their best hand, regardless of the font/typeface of the model. That's my initial impression. Dr. Smith's customer service is excellent and responsive. He is planning to change the mailing address on the website and order form in order to speed up processing. He is doing this "on the side" as it were, so it's a very small-time, one man operation. As to a question that came up earlier in this thread about Tax in Michigan vs. and address in Ohio, or some such, he's moved since he first debuted the program and had it printed. Since he's not a Print on Demand shop the books, and the web order form, are somewhat outdated with regard to contact information. But Dr. Smith kindly noted the changes on the copies I received. The books are saddle-stitched with cardstock covers. Interiors are clean, legible, and intuitive. The practice pads are solid, with a good cardboard backer and a readily removable binding glue that allows you to tear pages off as you like. HTH, and I'll post more, as I noted above, once my wife (and perhaps I) dive into the Cursive Method to improve our own handwriting.