Oh man, I am so stretched these days -- staying up to wee hours, heading out nearly every day for basketball practice and basketball games. I could really, really use someone to make dinners for us (I'd even do the cleanup) and keep my boys' bathroom clean. :tongue_smilie: Just those two thing would change my world. Or at least how orderly my world is. A girl can wish, right? I'm in a treading water with my house phase. I suspect January might look like this. LOL, what job would you love to hire out right now?

I'm so sorry, Chris. Lots of pain in your words. :grouphug: I believe that God has the ability to heal fully but those healed may still walk with a limp. But I cannot. Even my love cannot. But I can pray. And hope that the person will go to God and do the hard work for complete healing. And provide a safe, loving, warm place. But I've probably not been where you are and I cannot imagine the pain there. Just sending hugs and prayers to you. :grouphug:

In our memory work, we just pretty much kept adding new scripture to the mix. We memorize large portions or chapters so we spend months at a time learning them. Younger ones have always been part of our morning Bible time, so they hear it, then begin to repeat parts, then are fully participating at a certain point. The younger ones learn the scriptures as they grow, which may or may not be the same ones their siblings knew at their age because we just keep going. I do periodically take a break from learning new to revisit older scripture and to teach them to my youngers. I suspect that as my final older one who's in the mix now graduates, we'll revisit even more those early scriptures I did with my olders so that the younger two can learn them. I've found (and this may be our family rhythm but I think it applies pretty generally) that you can plan your heart out when your babies are 2 and 4 months, but it will likely look a bit different 3 an 5 and 10 years from now. For instance, I'm doing serious poetry memory with my younger two which I never did with my older 5. We were just busy doing other things!

Gonna bookmark this Kfamily! I've longed enjoyed your posts here. :) Congratulations and Happy New Year!

Hey Camy! Still around and still homeschooling. I started posting in 1999. In those days, I came to the boards every day. It was my teacher break, my sanity saver, my talking to other adults and my virtual homeschool meeting. What a difference these boards, and the folks who've populated them, have made for me! I'm down to homeschooling three. Good to see you here!

I'm so sorry. Such a hard loss. :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Gingerbread cookies keep well. We like them soft though so not sure how the harder variety would do. Honestly, we've never had a reason to have to keep cookies for longer than several days though!

Not too much changing though we'll finish American history in Feburary-ish and pick up science. Still looking for what to use. I want something like Apologia elementary but maybe more fascinating? We did Exploration Education 2 years ago and that spoiled us for fun hands-on science. But I really need an open-an-go book with some excellent hand-on activities that stretch the lesson and not my patience. :)

Mine loved them as well. It's was like a field trip day to have a couple of days together with other homeschoolers in our various groups over the years. My 11-year-old told me the other day he can't wait for 6th grade camp b/c they take a bus. :D Lol!

I would suggest Apologia biology in 8th. It's very manageable. That's what we did and it was especially helpful for my science loving kids because they had room in high school to pursue higher sciences -- through AP or at through dual enrollment. Or she could add in marine biology or A & P, the kinds of sciences there may not be room for if you start biology in 9th. Lisa

:grouphug: And add a praying hands emoticon. I'm so sorry. So many things have hit you all at once. Just take things one step at a time as best you can. The mom-guilt is so pervasive but so unhelpful emotionally. Give yourself generous grace just like you'd be ready to give a friend if she were in your shoes.

Cheese and crackers. Fruit tray. Assorted sweets -- big cookies, key lime bars, cowboy bars, etc.Or more Christmasy if close to Christmas. Cheese quesadillas cut into quarters (add chicken if you want to kick it up a bit). chicken wings, drummettes Sausages wrapped in biscuits

I would supplement as the astronomy book was clearly written at a younger level. I think Jeannie Fulbright wrote these as her own children were growing and you can see it in the meat given in each subsequent book. There's a big difference in level between astronomy and anatomy. Not to say your 6th grader wouldn't enjoy it. But I would plan to supplement if you want to keep him challenged. Especially if he's science loving and especially if he's moving into physical science in 7th.

My boys enjoyed Clyde Bulla books My girls enjoyed Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and Amelia Bedelia We also stocked up on the I Can Read chapter books (fiction, non-fiction, histories, science, etc.)

We did a year of geometry using Life of Fred. LofF was a breath of fresh air. After many years of Saxon -- which we for the most part enjoy and do well with -- it was great to switch to a different way to approach math. My kids and I liked the zany stories and the way geometry was woven into the story. After a year of zaniness, thought, we were ready to go back to Alg. 2. Worked well for us!

I just noticed you have just about the spread that I have with my kids. I love getting to revisit all fun things about the early years with my younger two. We don't do nearly enough field trips, but still. Nothing better than curling up with Narnia or Swallows and Amazons or all the books I loved with my olders. :)

Yes! I think we started it last year after Dec. 1 and I so appreciated it not being nightly. Hope you enjoy it. :) Thank you, Abeilles. It's been a long road and clearly not one I ever in a thousand years would have thought we'd be walking, but God has been so faithful to us. Thank you for your kind words and your blessing. <3

Yay for Saturday! Clean bathrooms. Walk. Make chili for dinner. Loan out some boys to help a friend move furniture and 30 boxes of books. Study Sunday school lesson. That's on tap. Gorgeous day in Florida. Hope y'all have a great day!

Yes for Saturday! Clean bathrooms. Walk. Make chili for dinner. Loan out some boys to help a friend move 30 boxes of books and furniture. Study for Sunday School lesson. That's on tap. Gorgeous day in Florida. Hope y'all have a great day!

I think it's a style preference and correct either way. In journalism school, it was a bright-line rule to cut out any extra "that" b/c we were to slice and dice anything extra. So my go-to is to write it without, but I'll add it back in now and then so when my writing feels too bare bones.

Yay! Hope you all enjoy it as much as we have! And I realize I should change my title b/c, yes, on a writing/publishing thread I have a misplaced modifier. :D Gonna leave it authentic.

Done!

I'm published! In a small way but it's kinda fun and my kids are getting a kick out of it. Last year, I started a new tradition in our family where we built a Nativity set one piece each day for 15 days and read a scripture passage from the Christmas story that matched that piece. So when we added the donkey, we talked about the journey to Bethlehem and the Roman census that required Mary and Joseph to travel there. When we added the shepherd, we read about the angel's announcement to the shepherds watching sheep outside of Bethlehem. Well, we loved it! A pinterest pin matching the scriptures to the Nativity piece kept getting organically pinned all year. Apparently, people pin Christmas stuff in June. Anyway, this year, I wrote a small e-book that unwraps the real Christmas story using a Nativity set with the scripture passage and daily discussion in the book. I loved researching and writing it and I've already tried it out on my kids. A few friends also tried it with their family and gave feedback. It's written for families and intended to hold the interest of a wide range of kids much like I've always needed to do. It's open-and-go and only 15 days, which gives our family margin for days out of the house in a busy December. It's FREE through Saturday night. I hope it might be helpful for some of you and that your family enjoys it as much as we have! Countdown to Christmas: a 15-day Advent Nativity Activity. Let me know what you think!

Woop! I just popped over here to link this as well. Now, what to get off my wish list!

The ONLY thing I don't like about Veritas is that we have to complete it by a certain date. That stinks because, hello, we're homeschoolers, and we've had at least 2 years where we didn't finish on time. One year, I got a deal and it started in April so we had to be done by the next April. But, it was for the school year that started in August and my ds wasn't able to finish on time. I'm just really aware of start/finish dates now to avoid that problem. Otherwise, no tech issues and I LOVE the content. And that it's independent. And super engaging for my kids.