Your local Domestic Violence shelter would probably love to have them. All the children who enter our local shelter receive a stuffed animal and all of those are donated by private supporters.

I am so sorry that your baby girl died. I am so sorry that this experience with this man caused you pain. I can't know the heart of this man but I do know the heart of God and I know He didn't take your baby from you as any sort of punishment or test. I distrust Christians who claim to be so because of mystical experiences. I personally do not believe that God calls people today through mystical experiences. I believe He only calls today through the preaching and hearing of the Word of God, the Bible. And, when one hears the Word and believes the Word, he is born again and becomes a Christian. So, perhaps this man is misguided, we can't know for sure if there was more to his testimony. Regardless, God loves you and He loves your baby. There is no Biblical basis whatsoever to conclude that God would use a man to speak to you in this way for any reason. If this incident caused you pain, then I am sure it was not God. I do believe in Satanic attacks, having personally experienced that myself. Satan can and does speak as if he were God, in fact, that is exactly how he speaks. And, yes, God does allow that. Satan is the prince of this world and as such he can do many terrible things. He can use men and circumstances to oppress us, though I doubt this man that spoke to you had the intention to be used for mischief or harm. The important thing is that you not allow either Satan or any man to steal from you your personal walk with God. God will take care of Satan, you can be sure of that, and He is taking care of your little one today. This life is temporary. You will see your little baby girl again one day. I hope you will turn to God's Word and spend alot of time in it. Read it, meditate on it, memorize it, but most of all believe it. God will comfort you through the Bible, He will give you peace through the Bible, and whatever lessons He may or may not have for you through these things will become clearer to you through your meeting with Him through the Bible. I know it's hard, but try not to dwell on this man. You can trust God, He knows all things, and the important thing is that you turn to Him when you hurt. He is the Comforter and He wants to be that for you through all of the painful experiences of life, whatever they are. Blessings, praying for you.

I think a child will do well in Preparing if he is already writing original sentences and is ready to start writing down his own narrations. He wouldn't need to already be writing his narrations. Preparing will teach that very well, but he does need to be ready to begin. If a child is ready for that, he is probably ready for Preparing. It is easy to adjust the amount of reading but it won't be as much fun or as effective if he's not ready for the writing. It would also be nice if he already knows some very basic drawing skills and likes to draw. My youngest son places into Preparing but I think he needs another year to mature before he begins to write his own narrations so we are going to use Bigger Hearts. I have wanted to do Bigger Hearts for two years and I do want him to have some more American History before heading into Preparing and the subsequent guides. He did Core 3+4 with his big brother last year and he really enjoyed it but I think alot of it was over his head. He enjoyed it but I don't know how much he has really retained.

Thanks! He is expanding his product line, so it will be interesting to see what comes up.

We used Preparing and absolutely adored it. My son was in 5th grade. He used the Extension Package. He had also done SL Core 1 and 2 prior to HOD. He used Sonlight Core 3+4 this year for 6th grade and will be going back to HOD next year for Creation to Christ. My youngest son will be doing Bigger Hearts. Have you used the placement chart to determine the best HOD guide to use with your 3rd grader? If you want to cover some American History, you may want to look at Bigger Hearts. Then, if you like HOD, you could do Preparing the next year. I would be glad to answer any specific questions that you have.

You should take a look at Visual Latin. We haven't "officially" started it yet but my 9and 12 year olds have watched all of the free lessons and they love it. I think the teacher is weird,; my boys think he is brilliant and hilarious. My kids like the instructor's quirky sense of humor and that they get to read Latin right away. There are three free lessons on the website. By the time they had watched those, they felt like they were Latin students. My DVD should be here today and we will get started with it immediately. I have tried the drier approaches and we just couldn't get excited about learning Latin, even though we want to study it. I am no expert, so I have no idea if this is considered the best way (or not!) to learn Latin, but I'm excited to find this product. It makes Latin accessible to us in a way that other products haven't. My kids loved that they were immediately learning words and reading sentences. They felt like they were finally doing Latin and not just preparing to do Latin. He is currently having a 20% off offer. Amazon recently had the DVDs for $25.00 but the last time I checked they were down to only one available copy. I ordered directly from Visual Latin and they shipped my product literally fifteen minutes after I had paid for it!! http://www.visuallatin.com/

I would try FLL 3 (if you decide to try it at all). It is gentle but covers the basics so well. But, if he did well with R&S 2 then there is probably no reason to change. If he is doing some additional copywork, the AAS, and some oral narration, he should be well covered for LA, in my opinion. Personally, I would not drop the IEW Poetry. It is so effortless to use. My boys love it and are eager to learn the poems. You could use the poems for additional copywork if you think it would benefit him. One thing that may be helpful for him is to have him copy some lines from the poem that he is learning over a period of time... maybe a full week even, and then after he has a piece memorized, have him write a line or two (keep in short!) without looking at the model. So, he has looked at it for his copywork and memorized the poem and THEN have him try to write a little bit of it down from memory. That will help him to put the words that are already in his head on paper. It is a very basic exercises but really helps them to begin to write with some confidence. You can make it more challenging by using the more complex portions of the poems he is learning. Just an idea! One that I happen to like :001_smile:.

I had very gradually worked up to drinking almost a full pot of coffee every day plus a diet soda in the afternoon. I weaned myself off all caffeine by buying decaf and mixing it in with my regular coffee. I went from 25% decaf to 50% decaf in a week and then from 50% to fully decaffeinated in about two weeks. I quit the diet sodas cold turkey. If I can do this anybody can! I have drank one or two, sometimes three(!!) diet sodas a day for atleast 20 years plus a couple of cups of coffee a day for atleast 20 years. I realized awhile back that I had gradually begun to drink almost a pot of coffee a day!! I have been caffeine free for almost six months and I never crave it anymore. I drink two cups of decaf coffee every morning and drink Dasani water instead of the soda. I also drink decaf tea every once in awhile. I no longer have migraines and I am sleeping much better. Caffeine can disrupt your sleep for as long as 72 hours.

Oh, yes, I meant to say that also. I will be using IEW SWI-A with my 4th grader this year but I will type all of it for him (he will dictate and I will type while he watches) and I may just drop it all together and pick it up in 5th grade.

I signed up for Audible.com. I have always intended to but never got around to it. But, I would LOVE to have these on mp3. My 6th grader read some of the books this year but didn't get to finish the series. He wants to but he just doesn't have the time to read all the books for now and he is headed back into the Ancient time-period next year. I think it would be great to just let him listen to the books that he didn't get the time to read last year. I am so glad you shared this info.!

Hi, Daisy! I really like your list. I do have two thoughts. First, I think I would probably drop the Pathway Readers workbooks and I would consider replacing R&S English 3 with First Language Lessons 3. My oldest son really struggled with handwriting at that age and I found that FLL was so much better for him than R&S. He liked FLL better because it has the diagrams already drawn out and he greatly preferred the workbook pages. He went back to R&S for level 4 after FLL 3 and was ready for it at that point. But, that one year with FLL 3 really developed his confidence and he loves grammar that year. R&S was really intimidating to him but he has done a great job with it since using FLL 3. I like R&S very much but found FLL to be alot gentler at that level. Those are just the two things that I would consider.

We love History of US but have never heard the audios. I didn't even know there were audios! The cassettes are $377.00 from Recorded Books. I hope my library has them!

I had a hysterectomy in December. It was rough, because I want to have more children and the stress of that probably made my symptoms worse. It has felt very much as if I'm in a constant state of PMS!! I have struggled with extreme fatigue, insomnia, hypersensitivity, and also have swung to the other side of the pendulum and have had alot of anxiety, irritability, and nervousness. Believe me, I haven't been a very nice person to be around. Fortunately, I am feeling better now but from February through May, I was a basketcase most days. I decided to forgo hormone replacement and have been practicing alot of TLC towards my self!! This has been the first time in my life that I decided that I would put myself first and I think that is what has gotten me through this difficult time. I decided to go the natural route as much as possible. I suggest you go to womentowomen.com and begin to read the articles there and possibly take the assessment. I have been following their nutritional guidelines pretty closely and have used a few of their products. There is alot of info. there, you don't have to purchase their products to benefit from their knowledge. I tried the B vitamins for fatigue and found that I am very sensitive to them. They cause me to feel "spazzed out" and caused anxiety... they "rev" me up like crazy and were a big problem for me. They were probably the main cause of the irritability that I had been experiencing. So, just be aware that they can overstimulate you if you are sensitive to them. Some things that have helped and are helping me: 400 mgs of Magnesium everyday - Magnesium is the most relaxing of the minerals and is of huge benefit for PMS, irritability, nervousness, depression, and insomnia plus many other things. You need a high quality form like magnesium citrate, glycinate taurate or aspartate. Avoid magnesium oxide, carbonate, sulfate or gluconate as they do not absorb well. Epsom salt baths are a great way to get magnesium. You need to have Vitamin B6 (just not too much, it can rev you up too much, as I wrote above), Vitamin D and selenium in your diet to get the full benefit from magnesium. Omega 3's Calcium is important but new studies are showing that we don't need as much as we have been previously told. Your body really can't absorb alot of it in one day so don't overdo it. I cut back from two 600 mg tablets a day to one. Most of your calcium needs to come from your food, not supplements. Black cohosh for night sweats, chills, and hot flashes. This is a miracle herb for me, but only helps about 50% of women. Soy - I drink one soy shake a day and could. not. live. without. it. If I run out and go two days without one, I am a beast. I use the ones that womentowomen sell but any will do. I wanted soy that was not genetically modified. Soybeans are excellent, too. I have eliminated caffeine from my diet almost completely. Caffeine and sugar will make me spin out of control within minutes of consumption. I can not tolerate milk very well, but do enjoy cheese. I eat very little sweets but can have a little dark chocolate, but it has to be dark and I can't eat it alone. I have it with cottage cheese and strawberries :D. I only use Truvia as a sweetner. White flour products of any kind make me feel horrible. Adaptisol is a product sold by womentowomen that I have found extremely beneficial. It contains astragalus extract, siberian ginseng extract, siberian ginseng root, cordyceps, and rhodiola extract. This product is targeted to provide support for your adrenal glands. You may want to google for info. about those herbs and see if it sounds like any of them may help you. They support the immune system, help with your mental clarity, help with anxiety and help your body to manage stress. Those are the most important dietery things that I do but I also have found alot of relief and support with essential oils. There are so many that help. My favorites are Clary Sage, Lavender, and Geranium. Each of those help with stress, help me to sleep better, and help me to calm down and chill out :chillpill:. I especially like to mix 10 to 12 drops of one or more of them into a cup of Epsom Salts for a lukewarm bath. But, the bath needs to be no longer than 10 or 15 minutes because the salt detoxes your body and if you sit in the water too long you will reabsorb what has been drawn out of your body. I also like to mix them with Vitamin E oil or Grape Seed oil and have a little massage before bed. When I was at my worst, I began to take a daily time out for myself... atleast 20 minutes a day I would lie down and take a short nap. Yes, I would allow my boys to play video games or watch a netflix movie and I would take a NAP!!! In the past, I would have never done that. I would feel guilty that they were having screen time but I HAD to start doing that. It was a matter of survival. I don't need to do it anymore but for a couple of months, I had to. If you will send me a PM with your email, I will scan and mail to you a couple of articles that you may find helpful.

Oh my goodness, I could never say no to that pout!! I'd be taking him to the store for some Fresh, New, play-doh!!

I looked the link up that I mentioned and it is now Mr. Johnston reading, instead of Mr. Scourby.

Oh, yes!! We really love and enjoy Alexander Scourby's readings. You can hear a sample here: http://www.christianbook.com/kjv-bible-audio-on/9781565638037/pd/37593?item_code=WW&netp_id=287150&event=ESRCN&view=details We have the NT version that CBD sells for $19.99. We love it because we love his voice, just the way that he reads it... not too fast and not too slow. The carrying case is durable. We have tried dramatized versions but don't enjoy them. We just like the simplicity of Scourby's readings. He sounds very reverent and distinguised! Here is the NT that we have: http://www.christianbook.com/kjv-new-testament-audio-bible-on/9781565638853/pd/37577?event=CF At one time I had a link to a web site that has the entire Bible read by Scourby available for on-line listening. It is free. I can try to find the link if you want it.

I would get the book. It is THICK.

:grouphug:

I've seen these in the yahoo group files. You have done a really nice job with them. Thanks so much for sharing your work!

We won't start CTC until August and I have only seen the sample pages from WWS but I don't see why you couldn't do them together. You could just use WWS instead of Write With the Best. I don't think it's necessary but you certainly could if you wanted to. The next HOD guide will cover outlining and lots of other writing topics. I used Little Hearts with a 2nd grader and used Writing With Ease with it since the LA in Little Hearts was too easy for him. It worked great, but of course there is practically no writing in Little Hearts. I would do the narrations in the history box because that is one of the ways that the child uses the student sheets to build his notebook, but CTC does assume that you will be doing additional writing and they say you can use any writing program that you want to use with it.

I don't know, it's going "over my head"!! :001_huh:

We are Fish Fell Academy.

I have the three that are currently available. The prints are beautiful. I really like them. They are of a high quality. The paper that they are printed on is heavy and the colors are bright. The books contain a portion of information about the artist that can be read aloud to the child. In keeping with the CM approach, the information is storylike and interesting. There are also specific lessons for each of the prints. Do you have any specific questions? I can pull them out and take another look at them if you do.