I have heard so much about how great Oxford University Press's Ancient World Set is, and ordered it when they had the huge price drop. However, we live overseas, and I had it sent to my Mom's since we will be in the U.S. next year. I have some Christmas money, and am wondering how The Medieval and Early Modern World set compares to the first set, and if I should buy it while I have the money:D; unfortunately, I can't review the first set yet to see how well it fits my boys, and also haven't heard much about the second set. Opinions appreciated, please. . . Thanks!

"Just the thought of all this is starting to make me furious. You trust your doctor to prescribe the proper medications, but I'm having to do my own research to discover there may be tremendous side effects on his behavior and personality. My little boy hasn't been himself for years, and it may be because of these meds?" The problem is that these meds affect different people in different ways. That makes it so complicated to figure out. What works for one causes extreme side effects in another, and it is not static but changes over time, plus you have the meds interactions with each other as well. I had bronchitis four times last year in a span of six months. It was severe enough that I needed strong antibiotics to clear it up. In trying to find a preventive regimen, my doctor and I worked through quite a few meds. Some (Singulair, for example) that are very effective for others did almost nothing for me. Zyrtec worked at first, but then the side effects just started building up and multiplying. Finally, taking Clarityn (which doesn't work well for me alone) with two puffs of Xenopex(sp?? it's upstairs) at night, is working very well for me right now. So sometimes, in spite of the doc's best efforts, it is a matter of experimentation, which is hard when doing nothing is not really an option.

I have had conversations with a friend of mine who often reminds me, "Well, in an ideal world . . . but this isn't an ideal world, so we have to do what works best with what we've got." I have six kids, and have done a variety of things. Next year, I will only have the youngest two at home, and they are pretty young boys, 8 and almost 11. While I have been writing down future curriculum ideas, I am keeping in mind that lots of factors come to influence what we actually do. If I find that my boys start developing that "you can't teach me anything" attitude that 13-14yo boys often do (ask me how I know!), and therefore become difficult to teach, and/or if I feel they will benefit from developing independence in their work, then we will use a K12 for high school or maybe some middle school classes. If they are developing independence and are still open to being under my teaching with a respectful attitude, we will explore together what directions we want to go in more of a WTM way. It is not copping out, it is making wise decisions that fit your family. There are certain stress factors that I am not willing to put myself under again.

I know you said "other than Dave Ramsey," but he has an actual homeschooler's course that my daughters went through, with CDs and a workbook. They enjoyed it. You can order it from his site.

Zyrtec can have some pretty strong side effects as well, especially after a time. I can't take it. It started out as one of the most effective sinus meds I had used, but eventually I built up side effects and couldn't sleep, etc. When I tried to reintroduce it, they came back.

Having two boys who are opposite personalities and extremely competitive, I couldn't have their punishment benefit the other one without adding to the already tense sibling dynamic. When ds10 was in 2nd grade (yes, he was 8!), I pulled out a jar, wrote "complaint jar" on it, and talked it up. "Every time you complain and whine, you will have to go and get me 10 cents from your 'spend' envelope to put in the money jar. Then, when it is full, I am going to take myself out for some coffee and dessert by myself! I am going to enjoy it, because I will deserve it after hearing all that complaining!" I had to get him to pay me twice, each time hearing comments like "I can't wait to go out for coffee!" That was it. No more money for me, and never enough for coffee. Both my boys do get frustrated when I am working with one of them and the other interrupts. They lose focus and momentum, so I think OP's idea to give her uninterrupted time will pay benefits.

Thank you, Nansk. I will look over these. I would love to hear from someone who has used or seen the book (besides the online sample pages) I mentioned above. It looks like an easy-to-use workbook that gives a lot for the effort, but it always helps to hear from someone who has used the actual product.

Has anybody used MP's Roots of English? I am playing around with what to do next year with ds10. He is using GSWL this year, and I am trying to decide whether to do Visual Latin or First Form with him next year. For vocabulary, I want to do something that is not too time-consuming. I used Engish from the Roots Up with my oldest years ago, but I don't know where the cards are now. We just used the flashcards, so probably didn't get the most out of it, but he learned a lot quite painlessly. We enjoyed using vocabulary.com, but the site has been very slow for us lately (we are overseas), and it has become too frustrating waiting for the pages to change--just a waste of time. I had ordered Vocabulary Vine, but it is so much more involved than I want. My olders used Vocabulary from Classical Roots for a year or so, but I don't think they actually retained much from it.

"Many times it seems we're not quite finished. Many times, I think I'm crazy." Yep. This is where I land.

Our sixth child was adopted internationally at the age of 3 yrs. 10 months. He does not have RAD. He is charming and adorable (even at the age of 8!), and even though he does not have RAD, he does still have the occasional rage and is somewhat moody. We have a good relationship with him, but there is room for improvement, and we feel there are still some barriers that we would love to see come down. Just background info. With our son, we do not deal with the major issues that many do. However, as much as we read, as much as we were required to do by our agency for self-education (required books, required courses, etc.), as prepared as we tried to be for all scenarios, it is still a different thing when you bring the child home. I was shocked by my own reactions--my seething anger when he pushed my buttons, which he did like an expert. I did not expect the deep competitive nature of the relationship between him and my youngest biological child, and how stressful that would be for everybody in the family. It just looked different from what we expected, even though we tried to be prepared. All that is to say, that many parents, when going through the adoption process, do not "have ears to hear." Some that we knew just brushed off the required preparation as educating about issues that wouldn't apply to them. That took me aback. I was personally terrified by some of the things I read, and had to be willing to push past it to continue on in the process. There is definitely an element of faith involved, and I would hope that it is "educated faith." I think the poster above who mentioned post-placement support as being vitally important was spot on. You just do not know what you are going to be dealing with, or what it is going to look like once you are home. In our own situation, I am glad we adopted our son. I would like to adopt again, though our ages and circumstances may prevent it. But I am much more contemplative about it now, much more reticent about feeling like it is such a "wow" thing for everybody, much more aware of the risks--and again, we are not dealing with the much more difficult situation of RAD. Adoption is a response to a crisis. It is birthed (pardon the expression--I do not mean it facetiously) out of pain. Adoptive parents need to recognize that if they want to understand their children. My child grieves, and I grieve with him--not that he was adopted, but that he was in the circumstances where he had to be adopted. I am rambling; don't have the answers; I just know this conversation touches me in deep places.

B.S. in Office Administration (now obsolete at my Uni-ha!) with a minor in English M.Div. Nope, not a dummy. My mother is my inspiration. She didn't go to college, but is one of the best-educated people I know. She reads, reads, reads. I remember her taking a CPR class, bringing home a big notebook which she had to study for a detailed test, when they were first offered to non-medical people. She bought us any books we ever wanted (she could afford that--I can't!) She took tailoring classes, cake-decorating classes, learned to crochet. When we first got online, she went with me to the nearby university to take adult education classes on the Office Suite. She was the only 70-yr.-old in the class. She is now 81. We live overseas, and she handles all of our stateside paperwork and "stuff". We have some smart siblings, but nobody is as organized as she is, so I don't know what we will do when we do not have her. She can tell you anything you want to know about the Atlanta Braves and their families. Yep, she is a little bit eclectic. It was due to her example that I thought nothing of starting violin lessons at the age of 42. One day I may get a M.A. in Tesol. I love my mom!:001_wub::001_wub:

I have twin daughters who used all online classes for their freshman year (5 classes each). One used Keystone, and the other used North Dakota. They both enjoyed their respective programs in general. We moved and they are attending a small private international school now. However, if we had continued to homeschool them for high school, one says she would have stayed with Keystone, and the other says she would have switched to Keystone. And they would have done full online rather than any correspondence (we did a mixture that first year to get a feel for both). Our oldest child did one year of Northstar. Northstar would be hard to do if you have a busy travel and training schedule. It was very intensive, and at least at that time, was more time-oriented. If you get behind with Northstar, it is very hard to catch up. The administration and faculty were great to work with, and the teachers really sought to build a relationship with the students. But the system was more cumbersome. There was no busywork--all the assignments were good. But it was a very heavy load, at least for my son, who admittedly had some organizational challenges. This was in 2001, so things may have changed, but I believe it is still very heavy. The positive (and negative for our son because he spent too much time with it) of Northstar is the online interaction with the other students in your classes; but you have to have students at close to the same place in the courses to do that (i.e., class "discussions"), hence the time-orientation. It is important with Northstar for you to be very well organized and on top of things at all times. The daughter who used North Dakota says there was a lot of memorization at times, and she would have preferred more thinking through things as an approach rather than the rote. I preferred Keystone because it is so well organized, and is not more complicated computer-system-wise than it needs to be to get the job done. My daughter did the honors English for 9th grade, and I thought it was an excellent course with interesting assignments. She really enjoyed that class as well as the art and music appreciation class. When she didn't understand something her English teacher kept asking her to do in her writing, she finally wrote and just told her, "I don't know what you are wanting. Could you please explain more what you are looking for?" The teacher did so, and was very supportive. DD learned a lot. Tests are all open book, but require work and are not easy. This did not hinder DD in later test-taking. Rather, the tests themselves were learning activities. Keystone is a secular school; I would have loved to have something like Northstar in Keystone form. DD was not really interested in online relationships, so I do not know what kind of online interaction they have between students. But you can start a course at any time of the year, and have one full year in which to finish it. You can also finish one quickly, but must take at least 8 weeks to do so. I know this is long, but I hope it helps. Oh, and as you probably know, all three of these are accredited.