She's ADORABLE! Enjoy every moment with her!

I agree with Pam. I'd just get something for handwriting and math, then read lots of books. For math I like Rod & Staff or Christian Light Education, depending on whether your dc work best with a spiral method (a variety of concepts practiced in each lesson) or mastery method (concentrating on one concept for the whole/majority of the lesson). I like Handwriting Without Tears for a more traditional ball and stick style handwriting, Italic Handwriting workbooks for Italic style. If they need more help with phonics, Explode the Code workbooks are great.

My 5th grade ds is having a bit of trouble with long division as well. He can do it ok, but I don't think he understands what he is doing. I am planning to borrow my sister's MUS Delta dvd and print the worksheets off the MUS website. Hopefully that will work. Math Mammoth might work. There's a book just on division. Another option is Developmental Math, but I'm not sure which workbook does division. HTH!

Forgot to mention that we make an exception for my 3yo. She is allowed 1 hour of video time each morning. Usually she watches a couple of Letter Factory or Veggie Tales videos. This is a big help for keeping her occupied while my two oldest do their math and I work with my 1st grader.

My dc are only allowed to watch TV (we don't have cable) or play video/computer games on the weekends (starting after 5PM on Fridays), unless they are sick or it is something we are watching as a family. We don't have a set amount of time on the weekends, but they aren't allowed to be in front of a screen all day. They MUST be outdoors for part of the day and have their rooms cleaned/laundry done.

Thanks! We'll finish WG, then do CLE.

Do you use it alone? My 5th and 6th grader are doing WG now and we all like it, but I really like the looks of CLE LA. I had planned to move them to CLE when we finish WG, but could we do both until WG is completed? WG doesn't take much time, and they are doing well so far (about 1/3 of the way through), but would it be overkill to do it with CLE? Would it be confusing? Should we just stick with my original plan and wait to use CLE unitl after we finish WG? Right now we just do WG and writing. Dd uses Jump In and ds uses Paragraph Writing Made Easy. That's it for language arts, except a few written narrations or free-writes here and there. I like how comprehensive CLE LA is, though I know I would still need to add writing.

Oh, I have an awesome cranberry pie recipe! I'm so excited to make it this year. I haven't had it in years because it has a crunchy crust made with walnuts and my son has had a serious allergy to tree nuts. He tested free of tree nut allergies last spring (still highly allergic to peanuts, though.) :hurray:

It's very quiet, but I can't say it cleans any better than other brands we've had. My mom absolutely loves her Bosch.

Wow! I have an 11, 10, 6 and 3 yo also! But my 6yo will turn 7 before Christmas. We told my dc they are only getting one gift each this year (other than their stocking stuffers) because we are spending the Thanksgiving holidays in NYC to see the Macy's Parade and the Radio City Christmas Show. But, I'm sure we will break down and get them a couple of more small items. We don't do Santa, so they understand that Christmas presents are an expense to us. We usually get each child a book, a game, and two or three other items we know they want or would like. One item is usually a special, higher-priced gift. This year, our trip is the special, higher-priced gift.

MCP is not working out for my first grader. It is moving too quickly for him and doesn't have enough review. I have tried to slow down and add review myself, but it is becoming quite a chore. I'd like to switch to something else now before we go any further. I prefer mastery, but a good amount of review is necessary. He tells me that lots of colors and pictures distract him. I've narrowed it down to MUS or R&S. I love that MUS provides the "whys" of concepts, but I prefer the scope and sequence of R&S, so I'm torn. Advice?

:angry: My library doesn't have it. I guess I should break down and buy it.

I agree. I love it. I also use A Book in Time and Truthquest Guides to gather books, but I prefer how ATTA is compiled.

http://www.bfbooks.com/s.nl/it.A/id.456/.f?sc=2&category=2 Here's a link to the books used in the BF guide.

I second this one. My ds loved it.

Thanks, Elizabeth! I love how you have broken it all down into manageable parts! That helps me so much, as writing is a weak area for me as well. Great ideas!

I don't really have any advice, but I wanted to say that I know how you feel. My ds10 will be testing for his black belt in karate in March. He will have to write a 1000 word essay on how learning karate has benefited him, AND he will have to read it aloud in front of a room full of people. My ds struggles so much with writing. We are still trying to form proper sentences and paragraphs. His writing doesn't flow. He's constantly jumping from one topic to another in his writing, and adding in things that just don't fit. Also, he is incredibly fearful of "looking stupid" with anything he does. He's not shy, just always worried he is going to embarrass himself. He is already stressing about having to read a paper in front of other people, and it's months away. We are working through Paragraph Writing Made Easy, and then we will probably work on writing some 5-paragraph essays. He'll have to write his karate essay on his own, but I am going to do my best to prepare him for the task.

Thanks, Angela! I'll take a look.

Thanks, Kristin. Did you move on to something else after BJU 5, or did you just stop grammar there? Also, how teacher-intensive is it really? I keep hearing that all BJU subjects require a lot from the teacher. My older ds used BJU Math 2 for a short time. I had the TM, but I mostly just taught him from the one side of the worktext page and then let him do the other side on his own. I'm not a math-person, but it wasn't bad at all. He loved BJU math. However, we stopped using it because I was afraid maybe I wasn't doing enough since I kept hearing how BJU is good only if you follow the TM. Thanks for your help!

Yes, Saxon is what I was thinking, though I don't know which level. I know we should use the placement test. I just want to get an idea of what other's went to.

I was hoping I could get what I want in one complete LA program, but I guess not. Looks like BJU for writing and R & S for grammar is the best of both. Thanks, again!

:lurk5:

I know there are not a lot of MCP users on this board, but I'm hoping someone who's used it to/for grade 6 can give me an idea of what to use for grade 7. Thanks!

With my oldest two dc I never used a grammar curriculum that included writing instruction. We just did lots of copywork and dictation. We are using IEW's history-based writing lessons this year and it's going fine, but I wish my dc had had more formal writing instruction earlier. I don't want to follow the same path with my next dc6, so I'm looking for something more comprehensive to use with him. We won't start this until 2nd or 3rd grade, but I just want to get an idea of where we are heading. I'm not a natural writer, and it's the hardest subject for me to teach. I need something with lots of hand-holding.

The Abbreviation Sticky is one of the posts at the top of this board.