Teaching Textbooks can be used totally parent free (except to check the grade book and make sure your child is doing the work).

I'm using Otter's science. The topics all have to do with the human body : Week 1: Cells Week 2: DNA and Genes Week 3: DNA and Genes Week 4: Skeleton Week 5: Skeleton Week 6: Muscles Week 7: Muscles Week 8: Brain and Nervous System Week 9: Brain and Nervous System Week 10: Eyes, The Sense of Sight Week 11: Eyes, Senses & Illusions Week 12: Ears, Hearing, More About Senses Week 13: Ears, Hearing, More About Senses Week 14: Heart Week 15: Blood Week 16: Lungs, The Sense of Smell Week 17: Digestion, Teeth, The Sense of Taste Week 18: Digestion and Elimination Week 19: Nutrition Week 20: Nutrition Week 21: Nutrition Week 22: Urinary System Week 23: Endocrine System, Growth and Reproduction Week 24: Skin, Nails, Hair and the Sense of Touch Week 25: Germs Week 26: Germs Week 27: Diseases and Parasites Week 28: Diseases and Parasites Week 29: Fighting Disease Week 30: Fighting Disease Week 31: Drugs and Your Body Week 32: First Aid and Survival Week 33: First Aid and Survival There are plenty of optional projects/experiments, websites, movies, etc. All of the books used are secular. As for the expense - it's not too bad IF you can get a lot of the books from the library or used. All of the books are NOT required and the main spine/materials aren't really that expensive. I ordered a few kits and the rest of the materials were things I usually have at home (vinegar, a chicken bone, etc.). I do use Brainpop.com (an AWESOME addition) and that is the most expensive (optional) element. We've really had fun with it this year and Otter is retaining quite a bit. It's really easy to follow/implement. I designed it to be pretty flexible and so you can easily leave lots of things out or add in something else that you have on hand since the weeks are arranged by topics. Let me know if you have any other questions. :001_smile:

I designed one. You can take a look at it here: http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/bears_science_human_body.html I tried to include different things like some movies, etc. to liven things up. So far it's been really successful. I thought it was really fun to design it and plan on doing it again at some point. I really like getting to customize what my kids are going to learn. I love looking up the different books and materials - but then I'm weird that way, lol.... ;) Let me know if you have any specific questions!

Here are some I like: :001_smile: history http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/ http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/Movies/index.html http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/history.htm http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/ science http://scitoys.com/ http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments/ http://www.whatsthatbug.com/ math http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm http://argyll.epsb.ca/jreed/ http://www.purplemath.com/ vocabulary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?vt blogs http://thepioneerwoman.com/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Jimmie/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazybusy (love her pictures)

I think TOG is great. I also really like Winter Promise. They have some nice programs you can use for high school. I wouldn't go the textbook route because -for my kids- that would just kill all of the joy. They really like digging deeper with plenty of literature, activities, movies, etc. History is so much more fun to learn (for us) if it's rich with resources. :001_smile:

I found out mine when I was pg and they tested it for some reason. My kids found theirs out with a simple, inexpensive blood typing test from Home Training Tools. We are all O negative!

I've never used MFW, but I have used WP. I LOVE WP. It's easier than anything else I've found to combine my kids and it's FUN. WP has a very nice balance of activities and reading. I would also say that WP would be considered more non denominational (or even secular for some programs with the exclusion of a few books) than MFW (which I've only looked at). WP's bible items and/or books are not integrated in the programs (except maybe the programs that use The Mystery of History as a main spine). I like this personally because it's more flexible. As for combining... My kids are 7 years apart from the oldest to the youngest. So far they are all doing CAtW together and next year the boys will be doing Sea & Sky. I could have easily combined them in the other programs (if I had known about WP then). I wish I had. There are lots of other families I've seen that have successfully combined multiple ages. WP is set up to do this and even have combined packages that mix the books for the different age groups. Also, I think the WP guide is super easy to follow as compared to the MFW guide (which again - I've only looked at it). It's much more flexible and you can follow the schedule either day by day or do it in chunks horizontally (look at the samples and you'll know what I mean). As for it being new - WP is kind of new...but they have been around for a few years at least with a huge explosion in growth in the last 2 years or so. I wrote a review (initial thoughts) awhile back here: http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/reviewwinterpromise.html Since that time I have finished 2 of their programs and am halfway through another one. I've also put in my order already for next year's materials (which we will start this summer). If you have any specific questions, please let me know. Also this might help - it's a post I made at WP about WP vs. Sonlight. It highlights some of the things I like about WP.

Parallelogram 2.2 22.1 8.9 Midpoint 5.4 4.0 3.0 Bisect angle 2.4 1.3 2.2 Triangle center 6.7 2.0 6.3 Circle center 1.4 3.6 4.1 Right angle 10.5 10.8 6.8 Convergence 18.7 7.1 10.2 Average error: 6.65

I used the Teach Your Baby to Read program with all 3 of my kids. I had mixed results. It worked the best (or as intended) with my youngest because I was more consistent with him (and possibly because of how he is wired). With the 1st two I used homemade cards. With the 3rd I used mostly PowerPoints (much easier to deal with). There are TONS of free PowerPoints available by other parents using the program (at least there used to be). With all 3 I did use phonics programs/book(s) afterward though because I think phonics are very important. I also incoporated phonics into the program itself with my youngest. I guess I benefited the most from the program because it got me interested in teaching my own kids. It was part of our path to homeschooling - and for that I am ever grateful. If my daughter hadn't been so advanced reading wise at the age of 5, I probably would have sent her to Kindergarten. As it was I thought she would be bored. I also had figured out I really liked teaching her myself. ;) The thing is though, with her...I quit using the program when she was about 2 or so and dove into phonics. She wanted to learn to read and I wanted an easier (for ME) and quicker tool to teach her with. It was also burdonsome for me at the time to try and make her ten trillion cards. :tongue_smilie: I never could keep up with what she wanted to learn. So, the program got her interested in words and reading until she had an insatiable desire to learn more and then I went looking for something else. That is the concept of the program though - that little kids love to learn. It opened a door for us. To this day I believe my daughter benefited from all of those early teaching experiences. She has always been advanced in reading and writing. She has always loved both. I guess she got a head start. My middle child was never a words kinda kid. He is a voracious reader now, but that was slow in developing. He learned some sight words using the program but it never taught him how to read. I used the Teach your baby math program more with him and I don't know if it was conicidence or not, but he is a math whiz. I think it gave him a good foundation or starting point. He could add and subtract "dots" via his cards when he was about 2 years old. He could also recognize quantities on the cards. I would show him a card with 32 dots on it and he could distinguish it from one with 33 dots, etc. Now my youngest could be a poster child for the reading program and the encyclopedic knowledge program. He did learn to read with it amazingly well and he also picked up phonics naturally from it (though I did eventually incorporate phonics into the program and later and I also did a phonics program with him to make sure there were no gaps). By the age of 1-2 he was figuring out words he had never been taught, etc. He also knew tons of info. He didn't understand it necessarily, but it gave him a foundation for later on. To this day he hasn't forgotten what he was taught (for the most part) and is interested in many of the things I showed him back then (presidents and so on). I agree with this comment...but for us the Teach Your Baby series something my kids really enjoyed.They LOVED it and it was something fun for us to play. It was never forced on them, etc. In fact my youngest would throw himself on the floor and have a fit sometimes when it was time to stop. It was a game to him and he wanted to keep on playing. ;) The only "negative" (in a way) that happened to us because of it was that I didn't discover my youngest has Aspergers until the end of 3rd grade. He was so advanced in so many things that his knowledge and abilities were masking and/or compensating for some problems. We knew he was quirky, but it all didn't come together until he was older because he had been doing so "amazingly well" in many areas. I had a kid who could read words WAY ahead of grade level but wasn't retaining any of it. And although he could read SO well, he would only choose to read kindergarten to 1st grade books. He couldn't handle chapter books. Something wasn't meshing. So anyway - long story short - we found out he is autistic and that was part of the problem. There are a lot of different opinions on the program(s). Our experience was mainly positive and I think I would probably do it again, if I had another baby. Some people don't approve of "teaching" babies "academics". For us it was just like playing patty cake or whatever else. It didn't take away from our time blowing bubbles and exploring the outside and looking at pictures in books and playing tickle and so on.... I guess it's like the differences in approaches to homeschooling...You have unschoolers and then others who are really into academics and then everything in between. You have to look at your philosophy and see if you see any problems with a little one having the ability to read. It DID give me one minor challenge - finding books with age appropriate themes/material because my daughter was reading so ahead of schedule. She wanted THICK books with lots of chapters from a very early age. I guess you also have to look at if you want to do the work .....it might be a game for baby, but it's work for mom to come up with the cards (or PowerPoints or whatever you use) and make sure you have the energy to make sure it's accomplished on a regular basis. Anyway, if you have any more questions, feel free to PM me. I had a good experience and am happy that I did it. I have a lot of warm & fuzzy memories of "playing" with my little ones in this way. My daughter even fondly remembers doing it with me. She says her favorite word was refrigerator (and she's right - I remember that too!). ;) Edited to add: I just noticed you are asking about a different program (I think anyway)....DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LOL... Ok, well my whole long post is about the Doman Teach Your Baby to Read book (and other books). I did use a video with my youngest but it was only a small "supplement".

I don't like the God's Design book series - they are really boring to me (and Otter). I do like the Blood and Guts book. I scheduled it for Otter's science (see my sig). All of my kids have had a lot of fun with that book. :001_smile: They especially liked the very easy to do activities that are presented in the text. I like it because it's easy to read, doesn't take a ton of time to do and there are lots of "hands on" type of things that help you retain the material. Do be aware that it is a secular book (although very easily modified). Also the illustrations are...crude? Still, we found it to be a really worthwhile addition to our human body study.

http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/printables_country_and_culture.html :D

Hi - thought I'd jump in here, hopefully I can find the exercise threads each day....because I NEED them! I'll post what I did last night, since I'm on a wacky schedule and do my exercising really late: 61 minutes pedaling (stationary under the desk pedal thing) with the resistance turned up 100%.

Thanks for the replies! I decided to name it guesthollow.com. :001_smile: This way I can branch out in the future if I want to (maybe sell my art or??) - things don't have to be limited to homeschooling, anyway. I'm going to totally redo the graphics, etc. and kind of envision brambles and berries and whatnot...I will definitely let everyone know when I make the switch! It's going to take awhile since I want to give it a complete makeover and because I have so many pages, etc....but hubby bought me my domain name and paid for it for the next 10 years! :D I'm really excited!

*bump* *sniff sniff* ;) Ok...since I didn't get any responses, how about this...Any techy moms here? I always wanted to know what people were using on their websites to have comments, etc. without using a blogging site. I finally stumbled across WordPress the other day and found out it's FREE (yay!). I've always used Dreamweaver to create sites and have never used anything like Wordpress before. I was just wondering if anyone here uses it. If so - what do you use to edit it? I really don't want to hand code. I quit hand coding a Looooooooong time ago. I found a plugin that will let me see Wordpress PHP in Dreamweaver but it's $30. I'd like to do the same thing only for free, lol.... I guess I'm just hoping that someone here has any ideas on how to do Wordpress in a wysiwyg environment. Also, does anyone here have their own site with RSS? I'm trying to figure out how much my traffic will spike if I include RSS. I don't want things to get really expensive, but I want the convenience of letting people subscribe to my blog or different sections of the (new) site in the future.

Congrats on your new toy! We love ours! We like Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart. Wii sports is also a lot of fun and I've actually lost weight playing it. I am supposed to get a Wii Fit, but our stores are still out of them. *pout* Also, I'm totally excited about Animal Crossing that's coming out in November. We had it on the Game Cube and it was such a cute, relaxing game. As for accessories, I don't know if yours comes with a charger for the remotes, but we have one and I think that is a "must have". Other than that...I can't think of anything you really need except maybe 2 wii motes and nunchuks to play against someone else.

My husband and I are talking about splitting the homeschool section off of our losbanos site and turning it into it's own site with its own domain. However I don't have a clue about what it should be called!! I really wanted to call it Otter's Homeschool, but after looking around online I saw there are a lot of places called things like Otter's books and so on that are too close to what I am doing to use that name. I don't want to step on anyone's copyright, etc. Soooooooooooooo.....if you've been to my site: www.OurLosBanos.com/homeschool do you have any ideas as to what a good name would be? I want it to be: 1. easy to remember / catchy 2. easy to spell 3. possibly related to some sort of "mascot" I can incorporate into my free curriculum like Otter's science 4. NOTHING related to los banos - sorry I really dislike the name of my town which means "the baths" Any ideas? I may also redo the entire site's look....and I'm not sure in what direction I want to go in with that either. Anyway, I thought I'd ask you ladies and see if anyone came up with a brilliant idea. ;)

http://www.chainfactor.com/ Must. get. highest score. Besides that...I'd say digital art programs for the computer, computer games and books. I love books.

I measured large with #3. I remember my midwife joking about twins. He turned out to be a pretty big baby - 9 lbs 13 oz!

This is what we ordered for our Prismacolors: http://www.dickblick.com/zz214/22/ http://www.dickblick.com/zz214/12a/ I recently read that a professional uses a Boston electric sharpener: http://www.dickblick.com/zz214/12/ Also, I recently read somewhere that if your core is crumbly and breaking, you can fix it by microwaving the pencil for a very short time. I haven't tried that yet, so don't take my word for it! lol...

This isn't probably helpful, but I use Dreamweaver. You don't have to know code to use it and it was fairly easy for me to learn. It's kind of expensive though since it's a "professional" program.

We just started doing this after reading a post about other moms doing it. ;) So far, so good. I also have had to use a cold water bath to defrost some. I only buy the big plastic jugs. I haven't had any break so far, even without pouring off some of the top. I did however have it bulge - so that when I put it in the fridge, it wouldn't stand up and I had to put it in a bowl with sides to have enough space. :tongue_smilie:

Otter likes things to be room temp. or cold. He will eat soup out of the can just the way it is. He also comes up with really odd combos and loves them too. Of course now I can't think of any! ;)

http://www.carrotink.com/Epson-Stylus-CX3200-cartridges-category-Ink-22880-22738-Epson.htm Carrot Ink has very good prices for ink and they always ship stuff out really fast, etc. I've had very good experiences with them and they've saved me tons of $$$!

Thanks so much for the feedback Carmen! :001_smile:

We're going to be doing WinterPromise's Children Around the world for this coming school year (as well as a geography program I designed to go along with it for my older kids). Anyway, I purchased a lapbook and was so totally disappointed in it, I decided to make my own. I'm still working on making some additions as well as some notebook pages for when we aren't feeling all crafty... but I thought I would share it with you all now to get some feedback. http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/soapbox.html They are linked via my blog. Also, I would like some very honest feedback :bigear: about the donation button on the lapbook page. Do you think it's tacky? I don't know why but I feel kind of funny about it. Everything on my site is available for free and will most likely always be that way. I don't want to come across as tacky or greedy to put a donate button on some of the pages. Please let me know what you think about that, if you take a look. Thanks so much!