I love this thread! I'm so happy to find the Tolkien release -- that's going to make a couple of my sons and a d-i-law really happy. Has anyone read it yet? How many stars would you give it? And the Bas Bleu catalog! ::swoon:: I'm collecting a basket of board books for my new grandbaby and I found this adorable Counting Primer by catechesis books. (a kickstarter and picked up by a major publisher!).

I used Saxon all the way up (through Pre-Calculus) for my first 6 kids and it was great. Open and go for me, b/c I knew the curriculum. We skipped ahead, combined lessons or slowed down and repeated as necessary. It truly worked for us as all 6 of those kids so far have mastered the math needed for their paths. It didn't work for my 7th child and this year we finally switched to MUS. It's working much better mostly because she needs hands-on materials to see and understand. She's not math intuitive and Saxon was super frustrating for us. MUS was super helpful when I was looking into it. I had a long phone call with one of their reps and she followed up with emails to see if I had other questions. I like Steve Demme's teaching -- I needed to be off the hook for the primary teaching for math for this child just b/c it was getting frustrating for me. We watch the videos/online teaching together and then she's usually good to complete the lesson on her own.

You've gotten lots of responses. We've used the Better Homes & Garden rolled sugar cookie recipe from the checked cook book forever. http://www.bhg.com/recipe/cookies/the-best-sugar-cookies/ The trick is not to overbake. They will seem too soft when you take them out but will harden up. If you wait until they look *cooked*, they'll be too hard.

Created my resume and I decided to address my gap years head on in the cover letter. I talked about the community, homeschool and church leadership and volunteering I've done. And then I pushed submit. This is a ministry job, not a buttoned up corporate atmosphere, so I felt comfortable addressing things in my life that affect ministry. My word this year is *bold* and that's what it felt like creating a resume after so many years out of the workforce. We'll see! Thank you, all.

Thanks for the input and a helpful reminder about how some still see homeschooling. I enjoyed watching your transition back into the workforce, especially as postmistress. I hope it does come up because it's been such a part of who I am and what I've done. Thanks! Ah, great point about references. Thank you, Gaillardia.

Thank you, Liz. We had a wonderful summer packed full of a wedding, high school and college graduations and then my first grandbaby. I cannot tell you how deeply grateful I felt to see my kids moving forward so well. When my dh passed away, I feared how I would ever be able to raise teen boys to manhood and my littles through their grief. God is so faithful and friends and family have been enormously helpful. Exactly! It's no small feat to be fully responsible for these humans. ;)

Thank you! It's so good to see lot's of longtimers. I really think SWB should have us out to the farm to celebrate together. :D Hello! This is the first time in 11 years I don't have a high schooler, so I'm trying to eek out all the field trip fun I can in this window. Congratulations on your job and thank you for the pointers.

So much less. I don't think I realized how judgmental I was until my heart broke into a thousand pieces. Just asked God to go ahead and clean it out since it was already broken open and I saw so much yuck. I would not have classified myself as judgmental. But there it was.

Many of you know that I became a widow and single mom six years ago. I've continued to stay home and homeschool and I'm SO grateful I've been able to. I've done a bit of work for the company my husband worked for, I freelance and I write, but I'm applying for a job that kinda found me. I need to send a resume and I want to address my employment gap. I'm super proud of all I accomplished as I stayed home to raise kids and home educate through high school. My graduated kids have done well. I don't want to detail that on a resume but i do want to note what I was doing. I'd do it all over again and I have zero problems with my employment gap. I've done lots of volunteer work, both in the homeschool community and in my church. So, anyone have any pointers? I didn't see this possibility coming but I find myself excited about it and . . . honestly, after the grief walk these last few years, it feels good to be excited about jumping into something new. ETA: I'll be able to work out of my home.

We've used all 5 time periods and both of my kids love it. What I like: the content is by lecture through costumed narrators, which has held the attention of my kids well; it has lots of interactive games to review; incorporates some Biblical events into the secular timeline; taught from a Biblical worldview; incorporates the timeline (using the cards) and geography. Honestly, at this point because I'm a single mom and freelancing/writing, I need some independent coursework. I still teach math, grammar, writing, Bible and more, but I love being able to take history off my plate and I love that my kids can do history even if it's a busy morning for me.

I won't write the details but just suffice it to say that I'd thought I'd blown it with one of mine who wasn't reading well at a developmental age but by 3rd grade, caught the bug and would read for hours. Loved and loves reading, 100% scholarshipped into our flagship university in a difficult major and doing great. Keep teaching. Modify the curriculum or method if necessary. Read aloud lots. Audible and books on CD. Notice letters and signs in the normal course of your daily stuff. Provide a language rich environment for your child until s/he can read well on her/his own.

Mistakes that Worked is a fun book on inventions.

I've used both IEW (for a couple of years and at multiple levels in a co-op) and SWB's (Writing with Skill and Writing with Ease). I much prefer SWB's curriculum. I love that: Everything you need is in the book. No having to learn how to teach by watching videos or learning some new method or flipping between books. Everything is in the book. No teacher prep is required. Writing with Ease has definitely been open and go. Even when I taught Writing with Skill to a couple of students, I just quickly looked over the lesson beforehand. Writing examples are pulled from literature. In Writing with Skill, two high school sports-oriented boys were not only taught the craft of writing but exposed to great literature. We'll never forget our time with Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It's seared into our collective and independent memories! Different forms of writing are taught. Like you, we've used SOTW since it was first released but I hadn't used SWB's writing books until two years ago. I was kicking myself that I'd never looked at it for my olders! I slogged through a mish-mash or resources including IEW (b/c of a co-op's choice), Classical Writing (great idea; hard to execute) and a couple of Rhetoric books. When I finally got WWS, I was like WHERE have you been all of my life? I turned around and bought the WWE for my younger two and have been equally satisfied. Hope that helps!

Yay! So glad you'll be able to make it work at home! I've found the same. I've always appreciated being able to homeschool and felt it a gift -- as much as it feels like hard w o r k. But when my dh died and I began taking it year by year to see if I could still stay home? I've been so, so grateful for the gift of homeschooling. We'll see what the future holds but for now, it feels good to be able to work and study and learn and spend so much time with my kiddos.

I'm sorry. It can feel lonely when everyone else is going somewhere else. If you're still sold on the reasons that homeschooling is right for your family, I'd press on. You may yet meet other families with older kids or see some of the friends pull their kids from school. :grouphug:

Doesn't it feel amazing to be so filled up from a conference with your people? So glad you got to have that and major kudos to your dh for making the conference happen for you.

A couple of others: Ben Hur The Bridge Over the River Kwai African Queen (not my favorite but it's usually one of those oldie goodies folks cite) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington The Inn of Sixth Happiness The Yearling (with Gregory Peck) Have you seen The Shop Around the Corner (or is the Little Shop Around the Corner?) I've always wanted to see it b/c I so love You've Got Mail.

Other favorite oldies: The Longest Day Man From Snowy River (not too old but good)

Cheaper by the Dozen -- the original. I love Disney oldies like Peter Pan, Aristocats, Lady and the Tramp, Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang

Nutribullet. Small and powerful enough.

The BEST part of my week is Sunday afternoon, after we get home from church where I've taught ladies' Sunday school (a highlight for me) and lunch has been served BECAUSE, I can put my jammies on for the rest of the afternoon and curl up with my current read or veg with my current Netflix binge. How about you? P.S. I won't be able to do it tomorrow because we have out of town company coming and I'm already missing it. :closedeyes:

Oh my gracious, how I'd love a class like this in our town! If you ever move to Florida, let me know! We might drive for this. ;) Thank you for the details.

This sounds fabulous! I like the idea of Latin Club as opposed to class. What ages/grades was this class for? And did the students have any formal Latin outside of class? Was this extra and in addition to Latin they were already learning? One more question: When is the NLE 2018 exam material available? Thanks!

There's probably a sliding measure for *consume* but I would say that if we want our kids to treat their education and school work as important, then we need to as well. When we sign on to school our children, we're taking on a huge task. We are teacher, guidance counselor, administrator -- all of it. And if we want to meet each child's needs, their particular bents, interests and challenges, and we're aiming for a high bar, it takes tremendous mental, emotional and physical bandwidth. You get what you put into it, though there are ways to make it more streamline, more organic and less stressful.