Thanks for all the information! Honestly I can't even remember what I used with my kids, or when I started it - it's been a while. Dd mentioned it yesterday after dgd wrote a list, and I was thinking of just picking up R&S for her, but I may look at a couple other options listed here.

mid first grade, reading decently, but not great (she's a guesser and still guesses at words she's unfamiliar with, versus trying to sound them out). Thinking of R&S because that's what her brother used/uses, but just thought I'd ask in case anyone had good suggestions.

Awesome! Thank you for this!

Well I was asking about written, but I guess the 1st grader is not quite ready for that. Maybe having them do oral ones after reading history would work, and then having the older one do one written weekly or every other week til I break him in. 😜

If you're doing something like R&S, and want to add in narrations, where do you get them? Do you typically take it from specific literature, history books, or what? We haven't been doing this, but I'd like to implement it to get dgs writing more, and I think dgd would enjoy it. She is only in first grade, and not reading everything yet, but she LOVES to write stuff. So what would be fun to narrate for her, and then him as a third grader? He reads well, but his writing leaves a bit to be desired.

And for what ages/grades do you recommend those? Could one do R&S and learn some of the basics and then move to those, or would that be overkill? If you could move to them, at what point would you? Obviously I like R&S. I used it with my kids. I just don't really know if this textbook-y thing is gonna work really well for my grandson. Right now he seems to be doing okay because of the sentence diagramming (he seems to enjoy that), but as a whole, the excessive writing frustrates him a lot.

Thank you! I absolutely know the texts aren't likely to be a good fit for the 4yo. That will be a whole new set of challenges I'm sure. He's starting a 2 day/week "class" at a big learning center this week actually. It's a small group class, mainly for speech, but he's on the waiting list for a couple other classes as well. This place also has a school, and it may be that he winds up in a p/t school like that initially (if it's remotely affordable), just to help dd figure out the best ways of teaching him. We aren't in an area where public school would be an option for him at all, and most of the private schools around us likely wouldn't either (most people are doing private schools here just to avoid ps, and they are pretty overcrowded). I'm sure there will be a lot of adjustments that need to be made for him.

Easy grammar? Really? You've always been such a big proponent of R&S. What would make you choose EG?

Any tips for implementing SOTW? You must be pretty adept at it after 7 years! Do you follow a certain schedule? I'm just now starting it with my grandkids, and would love any tips. I do have the activity pages.

I'm just starting to help my dd home school her 2 oldest kids (she has a 4yo on the spectrum and a new baby coming anytime, so I'm gonna be helping with the school load). We have R&S Math, R&S English, R&S Spelling, R&S Patterns of Nature science - combining the first/third graders into the 2nd grade book and just doing it a little loosely (I have several Apologia books to do with them later), and we are doing Story of the World Volume I w/activity pages (combining the first/third graders here also). I just see so many people that pull things together, and honestly, even when I was teaching mine "back in the day," I just wasn't a natural at that sort of thing. I did mix and match things from various curriculum providers, but other than history, I rarely ventured much outside the box. I just like knowing what I'm using can stand on its own and I'm not screwing it up. 😜

If you only use a single program per subject, what do you use? I see a lot of threads about what people are using, and so many have multiple things they pull from for various subjects. I can totally understand why people do that, but if you don't, and you tend to pick one thing per subject, what are you using, and why?

Do we think there's no possibility at all that we are dealing with mutations of the flu virus because of the vaccines? I tend to wonder with all these "flu-like" viruses that keep popping up. I mean bacteria sure do know how to get around antibiotics, so it seems like this could be a possibility.

If you are at all into essential oils, I have found that diffusing purification really helps with odor. I'd be doing that along with other things mentioned above to combat it. I can't imagine. 😞

I don't have much to contribute other than this thread is great, and timely. My dd is due in less than 2 weeks with baby #4.. She lives in a house on our property, so I'll be helping out a lot. I did do a freezer cooking day where I froze some of my mom's family recipes (her chicken spaghetti, and meatloaves in gravy), and a couple different types of meatballs - some that go in a curry, and then some beef/bacon ones (my grandson told me he thought those would be good, and they are). I also froze a gumbo "soup," which is just a made up recipe where I put gumbo ingredients (chicken, good sausage, okra, some tomato), and then add something like kale to a homemade chicken bone broth instead of a roux/gravy. However, I clicked some of these links and love some of the freezer to slow cooker recipes - making a list and will get some of those in the freezer for sure!

I keep a stash of burritos in the freezer for my husband. Mostly he'll take a couple for lunch during the week if we don't have leftovers. I just do them with homemade refried beans, cheese, some diced onion and jalapeño, roll them up, wrap in foil and freeze. He keeps a jar of salsa in the fridge at work. They also come in handy on nights I don't have time to or feel like cooking, like if I'm getting home late or something - he'll just pull a couple out and throw them in the oven.

We are pretty darn dependent, I know that. Last week, dd had a court date to finalize her divorce. I dropped her at the courthouse, and planned to take the kids to a nearby park, get a snack, etc. and then just pick her back up (parking down there is nuts, and we had some things to do afterward, in case anyone wonders why she didn't just go alone). She accidentally brought in both her phone AND mine. Had it not been for the grandkids' iPads, where I could face time her quickly and make a backup plan, it would've likely been a big pain trying to guess when she'd be finished. I realize I count on my phone a lot, but honestly, I don't know that I would've survived the teen years without the ability to make sure my kids were okay if they were past curfew, or just the ability to have peace of mind that they arrived somewhere safely. I don't know how my parents did it.

I know I'm late to the game, but elderberry syrup has been proven to reduce flu symptoms by days, and has zero side effects. I'd try that. I would never take Tamiflu. My nephew, who is an anesthesiologist, and my dd's FIL (pediatrician), won't use it for their own families. My nephew doesn't give his family flu shots either, even though he HAS to have them for work - not sure about dd's FIL.

I'm a Disney travel agent, and have been to Disney a lot. I also get a lot of feedback from clients about dining. One in Epcot that I get a lot of positive feedback about is Teppan Edo (hibachi in Japan). Another is Le Cellier steakhouse in Canada (albeit pricey). We also really enjoy Via Napoli's pizza - it's wood fired and the $40ish one will feed 4-5. It's really big! Tutto Italia was another we really enjoyed, but it has been a few years since we've been to that one. For something outside parks, I'd recommend Disney Springs. There are several really good places to dine there. We actually LOVE Cookes of Dublin for fish and chips. It's the counter service version of Raglan Road Irish pub, but the fish and chips are always super hot, fresh and we go there every trip. Morimoto Asia is highly recommended. My sister-in-law and brother went last month and loved it. There are quite a lot of good places to choose from in Disney Springs. IMO, Spirit of Aloha is not worth the price, but it's been quite a few years since I've gone.

Considering God’s Creation

Thanks! I’ll tell her about those also.

Thanks! I actually might do that. I had also forgotten how much I love all their products - good gracious I probably need to stay away from there!

Thank you for the responses! So if you were gonna use a different program for pre-algebra on up, at what level would you switch? I didn’t use R&S math with my own kiddos, but my dd and I are using it with my grandkids. I’m just trying to get a feel for how for we can go with it. Neither of her kids really like it much, but she does. Since I’m gonna be teaching them several days a week, I want to try and make it more interesting for them, then let her basically just have them doing assigned pages on her days. My other dd has a daughter doing it as well, and that daughter doesn’t like it much either. I think she’s likely gifted though, and just doesn’t really need the repetition, but also needs more stimulation overall - R&S is just a bit bland.

Thank you!

I have been slacking on my daily meal planning, but I did get about 20 meals put in the freezer for after dd has her baby, so I’ve made progress. Of course after 3 days of pretty much straight cooking, I rebelled and we’ve been eating whatever random stuff I can do without much effort. 😜

He was my husband’s favorite - always showed my son videos of him back when he was younger and they played music (drums/guitar) together out in the shop.