I really loved 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp. She discusses not really living in it. I did this for years. You are so afraid of experiencing pain that you just exist and don't really live so you don't have to feel. The Truth was that I ended up being devastated by pain anyways; hiding didn't keep me from bad things. I think of all the years I could have enjoyed that are gone now. But each day is new, you can choose to live it to its fullest.

My dh has never bought me a gift for anything in 11 years. I would be thankful for anything, even a card.

I voted Darcy, but Captain Wentworth is a close second. His anger is understandable as he felt rejected. She should have stood up for him from the start. I agree with a lot of the males being too weak for me and unmanly.

I have the Fruit one. The bible is a major part of the program, it has them memorize The Fruit of the Spirit and different verses every week. It is basically a Letter of the Week program, but it does add in science, math and social studies. The math was good. They recommend Singapore 1A and B for older children. They do schedule it all out for you though too. The Science was all anatomy, learning body parts and senses. You would need to add an acutal phonics program, as this just teaches letter sounds and recognition. I used it with my advanced dd2 last year and it was great. This year she is doing MP K.

We tried all R&S for 2nd grade. The Science is very light. The Social Studies felt more Canadian based than American to me. I wondered why it included so much on Canada. Not that Canada's not an interesting country but we live in America so I would like them to learn about it. I liked the English, Spelling, and Bible a lot. The readers are good. The math is a solid program. They do defefinitely require use of the TM, you won''t understand the math without it.

MP is much more simplified. Veritas has too much to choose from. I do however love the Self-paced History by Veritas, it is very entertaining. I like MP schedule a whole lot. I implement it here. My youngest is doing MP K this year and I like how it is scheduled. I am switching my older boys next year to MP as well. I like the focus on the Core- Math, Latin and Composition.

NOEO has Level 3 science available now. I keep looking at that.

Memoria Press. You can see the way they set up their Classical Schools here: www.thelatinschool.org I believe this is also described in The Latin Centered Curriculum, my copy is on the way.

I really like the way MP set up their schedule: 1 day World, 1 day American, 1 day Bible, 1 day Science. I have tried to imitate that and it works really well in our house right now.

I think buying curriculum in October but claiming to yourself and friends that it is just for next year would qualify. Owning more phonics programs than you'll ever use should count too. I am Constantly researching for the "perfect" curriculum that just doesn't exist. You know it is bad when friends start calling you and ask what they should buy for their children. It is bad when your friends make jokes about you owning all of Rainbow Resource's catalog items.

If you are not from Aus. DO NOT go look up Australian spiders! :eek::leaving::scared: I am so sorry you are living with that for now!

I just want to offer a small encouragement. When our oldest was 1, I was going to college. My babysitter was 32, but moderately retarded. She functioned as a 16yo, and would never grow past that. I felt totally comfortable leaving my child, as I knew her family really well. She often babysat and loved little children. Her mom was real honest and told me that she would not be able to babysit my child past 3. She could not handle older children. Anyways, she ended up meeting an Aspie and they fell in love. Neither could live alone, but Richard was extremely intelligent and did have a job. Her parents arranged for them to marry, and live in a little house next door to them. So they both could feel like they had a somewhat normal life, but the parents were close by to supervise. I thought this was wonderful of the parents. The wedding was beautiful.

That's the problem I had with HOD. My children never quite fit into the guides right. It was too easy or too hard. LHFHG was way too light for a 1st grader, even one who couldn't read quite yet.

:iagree: Every child has a currency! You just got to find it. My oldest used to refuse to do math. He would sit at the table 4-6 hours doing nothing rather than just do his math. He didn't care that I took away free time, outside, video games, or tv. I may get flamed for this, but what worked is taking away meals. I told him he would not eat lunch until his math was done. After 1 day of missing lunch he amazingly finished his math in 45 minutes the next day. Once he realized I was serious, he just started doing it without complaining. Haven't had a problem with school with him in 2 years now! My middle child loses computer time, it is his best motivator.

My first son was HUGE! I breastfed only, but at our 2month check up he was 19lbs. At birth he was 9lb8oz, AND by the time we left the hospital (3days for c-section) he was 10lb4oz. 4 week checkup he was 14 lbs. My next 2 weren't that big.

:lol: I dated this guy for awhile, and for our first time he wore one. It really broke the ice, and I thought it was attractive!

So, this reminds me of a funny story. My sister bought her first house 2 years ago, and the whole family went to check it out. She showed us around everywhere, and we ended up congregating in her bedroom. She was explaining the changes she wanted to make to this large built-in. My dad sort of plopped down on her bed, knocking the pillow off and her v** rolled out onto the bed. He looked at it! Everyone looked at it! Then we all looked at her and burst out laughing, I thought she was going to drop over. :lol:

Wow! Thanks for posting this, I thought it was a great article!

I think homeschooling is best with advanced kids in the Elementary years anyways. I am doing MP K with my 3yo. I can't imagine sending her to pre-k next year with her already reading.

We do narrations and notebookiing. My younger children narrate orally. My 2nd grader tells me his narration, I write it on the board, and he copies it into his notebook. My oldest does 3 written narrations per week. In our notebook, I might print out a picture for them to color. I do a vocabulary page, they look up definitions. I have them do maps in their notebook too.

I don't think the guides are worth the money, just follow the free module.

:lol:HAHA! This is what my dad said to us all the TIMe growing up! Accompanied with telling us he only owned 1 pair of shoes, 2 shirts, and 5 pants. These had to last the entire school year, so if your shoes broke you had to tape them together or go barefoot. We never believed him.

Thank you for this schedule! This is what I want our homeschool to look like too!

Thank you, and for more info too! I printed out the 3 week sample for Egypt. I do own the majority of the books and was able to request the others. I would have to buy Old Testament Days and Streams of Civilization. I plan to start it next Monday if the library gets those books to me soon. Someone mentioned a sample for the other years. I wasn't able to find that. I would love to look at another year too.

My favorite year was BF Early American too. I did that with my oldest for 2nd grade. I was thinking about just going back to BF for next year. I did try MFW RtoR and ECC. I just thought the book choices were too much for my younger kids. I would love to combine if possible.