It didn't work for me either, and the email is supposed to appear within 10 minutes. I had to reregister with a new username on my alternate email address. But I didn't have full forum access anyway, as mine expired in the spring. The funny thing is now I have access to all the forums, at least to read them. I just can't post on any except the "choosing" forum.

What spine have you decided to use? I'm thinking of pulling together something like this for my dd's 9th grade year as well.

Core F/5 is the only one I know off the top of my head because I think to myself that 5 starts with F. Lol, I know 4 starts with F too, but for some reason I associate it better with 5.

I understand this completely. I've always found it much harder to keep everyone together for history and science. So now I don't worry about it. My oldest two are only a year apart, so they do the same thing, but independently (basically a modified Sonlight Core H). I try to discuss what they are learning with them on a weekly basis. I do history with my dyslexic 3rd grader, as he's not reading on his own yet. I'm doing a middle ages study with him because that's what he's interested in right now. My almost 5yo listens in as she wants to. I only do reading instruction and picture book read-alouds with her right now. I tried MFW ECC last year when my dc were 7th, 6th and 2nd graders. It was a huge flop because a lot of the material was over the head of my 2nd grader, and some of the material was too young for my older two. I think it's harder to meet everyone's academic needs while trying to study the same thing. I hope you find what works for you.

Thanks so much! Still pondering this.....

Sonlight's Core W does this.

We like Top Story by World Magazine.

I'd love a comparison. Which is better for VERY reluctant writers? Which is easier to teach? Thanks!

:iagree: My third grader only does reading, writing and math. He will start history and science next year, but it will still be pretty casual (reading books, no mapping, timelines or comprehension questions....just casual discussion). Right now he has an interest in knights and castles, so that is where our read-alouds are focused, and we are doing a lapbook. However, it's not required school work. It's for fun. My PK 4yo does a reading lesson each day because she loves it, but that is it for her. Now, my 7th and 8th grader start lessons at about 8:30AM and finish around 3:30PM, taking about an hour for lunch because that's also when I read aloud to them.

What do teenage babysitters in your area charge? My 13yo dd has her first "official" babysitting job and is not sure what a reasonable fee is. She has babysat for her younger siblings, but we only pay her sporadically (it's an unexpected treat). And I'm sure we don't give her as much as she would get babysitting for someone else.

Ok, that helps. Thanks! I want something mainly for keeping track of the books I have. I like LT's tag system. I have a spreadsheet I use to keep track of the books each child has read. Sounds like I should just stick to LT. I can't handle using both.

What are the differences? I have used Library Thing for a few years now, but never did finish loading all my books to it. Now I've signed up with Goodreads. Is this basically the same thing? Which is better? I know that's subjective, but why do YOU like one over the other?

I would get Lial's BCM, Pre-algebra or algebra (depending where he is). You can get it used very cheaply at Amazon.

What is it going to take for my 8yo ds to remember the "silent e" rule? It is so frustrating! We have been working at reading for a couple of years now. He's had vision therapy, which didn't seem to help much. His major reading problems are trouble breaking the words apart in order to sound them out (even though he knows the phonograms when we quiz with the flashcards), learning/remember the silent e rule and confusion with the or, er, ir, ur and ar phonograms. And, of course, fluency and speed. We've been completely through The Reading Lesson and Alpha Phonics, along with about three Explode the Code books and drilling with phonogram flashcards. What now?

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:lurk5:

I keep reading logs for my dc from about third grade on. Looking back at our records, my ds read 52 books in 3rd grade and 65 books in 4th grade. My dd read 70 books in 4th grade and 88 in 5th grade. These included books for history, science and literature, but NOT the books I read aloud to them. Now that they are older (going in 7th and 8th grades) and the books are longer/deeper, the volume has decreased. HTH! Edited to add..... I don't assign a certain number of books a year. I just keep a list of books I know I want them to read and hand them off as they finish the one before that. I did have a set amount of time I wanted them to read each day though. I don't remember what it was at those ages, but I've heard a good rule of thumb is 10 minutes per grade level each day.

this site as a guide: http://www.abookintime.com/

:iagree: Wonderful advice!

Ok, I GET having to get up early in order to fit exercise in, especially if you have small children. BUT that usually means having to go to bed earlier. How/when do you have "alone" time with your dh? My dc go to bed at 9PM and read until 9:30. I would go to bed at the same time, but my dh likes me to stay up and hang out with him a little before going to bed, and then.... :001_smile: I have been working up to running a 5K for the past year, but am really having a hard time balancing everything. Most days I end up running in the evening, about an hour after dinner, which I'm sure isn't the best for my digestive track. However, then I feel like I'm missing out on family time. Dh likes to play whiffle ball with the kids or roast marshmallows over our fire pit, or play Wii games together. They end up having all this fun together while I'm on the treadmill, and I miss out and feel guilty. BUT I just can't get up early to work out if I don't get to bed at a decent time. Ugh! It doesn't help that my dh is a night owl, and would prefer staying up until midnight every night instead of the 10-10:30 bedtime we've established. Anyway, as it is I usually find time to run about 3 days a week. But it's usually a different time each day. I'd love to find a good workable routine.

Great idea, Donna! The only problem is that I want my dd to do both SOTW 3 and 4 since she will be an 8th grader. After looking at several options for high school, she really wants to do BF Ancients for 9th (or possibly MFW AHL). So I really need her to get through both volumes of SOTW this year. Still, I may be able to combine two years of Biblioplan.

My dd will be an 8th grader next year. I'm trying to find a history more suitable to her than what we have been doing. Basically we're doing a tweaked plan of Sonlight's old Core 6. I planned to do the same next year with SL's old Core 7. It uses SOTW 3 and 4, which we've never read. However, there's very little written work and dd keeps saying that though she is enjoying the books, she doesn't feel like she's retaining the history she's reading. She needs to do something with the reading for it to stick. We've done a bit of narrations, but she hates that. She tends to make them way too long, getting very detailed. She needs something that asks more specific questions. She's done an Apologia notebook with Zoology 1 and loves that format. I bought the tests that go along with SOTW 3 & 4, thinking maybe that would work. The one for SOTW 3 is pretty basic (fill in the blank, multiple choice, a few short answer questions), but the one for SOTW 4 seems meatier. I'm not sure though. Is there something else that would add more and be better?

Thanks! I'll take a look at Abeka.

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Anyone?