Wow! Thanks for all the ideas!

Yes the mistakes are so obvious and everything feels very unplanned. Are they making it up as they go? Did they not think about what they were going to say before filming? And the mistakes being dubbed over just....ugh.... It drives me nuts! But my kids don't mind so I just cringe and try to move through it. On a positive side, we are having awesome retention and moving quickly through the program. I'm hoping Latin for Children is better.

Thanks for all the ideas!

What are you listening to right now? What are your kids listening to? We need new ideas at our house! Here are some of the current audiobooks my kids enjoy in the evenings: The Buccaneers' Code (book 3 of the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates) Mrs. Rapscott's Girls The Candy Shop War The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency

My daughter likes the fairy books by Gail Carson Levine. They aren't classic literature but I do think they are better than the Rainbow Fairy books - which my daughter also loved.

Brilliant!!!

Thanks. You guys are making me feel better that she might just be tall and thin which is laughable since that is so the opposite of me..... But I've been receiving a lot of family pressure regarding her weight. Extended family makes cutting comments to me and I have been blamed as the reason she is thin (maybe that I'm restricting calories or "making her be too healthy"). I really don't know. I'm feeling a little sensitive right now I guess. Lately the comments have upset me to the point that I've become stressed and worried about her health. I'll see what the dr says but I do feel good knowing there are other kids out there who are similar. And it's true that otherwise she seems very healthy and does well. So I feel much better. And yes. She is getting tall and her feet just shot up another shoe size! Gracious!

I do cook with olive oil. I'm going to try some coconut milk for her. But her sister is allergic to coconut so I'm going to have to be careful and it just makes me nervous. We have an avocado allergy here as well so I never buy those. I've got to find some other fats that we aren't allergic to! And I totally make her bacon and homemade French fries in olive oil! The dr may agree that she's just a lean kid but I want to make sure.

We used Dance Mat which was fun. Now my kids use Typing Instructor for Kids. They enjoy it and find it fun. And they are starting to type well.

I'm worried about my oldest who is almost 10. She was born a month early and has never been big. But now she is incredibly thin. She cannot gain weight or keep weight on. I also feel like she has very low muscle mass. She has no diagnosed health issues and is rarely sick and does not complain of any health related problem. We just moved to a new state and I'm trying to get in with a dr here. Our old dr would just tell me that I didn't have to worry about her being overweight - all he seemed to worry about was if a child was overweight. He didn't take my concerns seriously. I can't get in for a few weeks to this new dr so I'm stuck waiting. What should I ask him? What tests should I request? What could be possible causes of her low weight? What can I feed her to help her gain weight and muscle - keeping in mind that she is allergic to dairy and eggs and we are gluten free? Her sister is allergic to nuts and peanuts so those are banned from my house. We do have dietary restrictions but my other kids are what I feel is a normal weight. She is tall for her age so I think her frequent growth spurts are keeping her from gaining. She eats very well and is not picky. I feel like she eats a good amount. She's actually not a super active kid so it's not like she's burning off more calories than she eats. She's not currently worried about her weight and doesn't notice how thin she is. I don't want her to worry or obsess about it but I'm worried.

Don't feel guilty! That's very normal. However I often feel like I should be doing more with my little ones. So I have a 30 minute time block scheduled into every day for my younger 2 kids. For my youngest who is almost 3 we fingerprint, do chalk pastels, play with shape blocks, practice cutting paper, glue shapes, practice counting, play with a math balance, and do simple coloring books together. We often have great conversations about educational things and she has learned so much just from our simple time. And she so looks forward to our special time. It also eliminates mommy guilt because I feel like she is getting time focused solely on her.

There is a set of cards for SSL 1 and another set for SSL 2. You could make them but there are a lot of words! I've enjoyed having the set because they are sturdy and colorful and I didn't have to write them all out. I'm lazy like that...and proud of it! 😉 I haven't tried the online stuff yet. But I've wondered if it was worth it. We have the DVDs so I wasn't sure exactly what the online portion would add. But I'd love to read reviews.

Ahh! Now you're trying to sway me back to SfC! I don't know why I'm having a terrible time making a decision. And I was also worried about doing both LfC and SfC because I had planned to use their Latin program. Maybe I should reconsider..... Does anyone else love SfC? Maybe I should make a thread about it for those who like it and use it. It seems that all I can find are negative reviews. And for the record, we started Duolingo today and that is going well! Yay! Thanks for those who recommended it. It will be a great resource for us.

I'll have to check out Anki. I hadn't heard of that. Thanks!

I had read so many negative reviews of CAP's program for Spanish that I was scared to try it. It seemed like most people had abandoned it. I would love to hear more of your thoughts about it. I was worried it didn't teach enough vocab or conversational Spanish. And I worried about it not teaching how to read or translate. I want my kids to know more than grammar and be able to speak some Spanish eventually so I wasn't sure if that program would help us work toward our goal. It does seem to meet our goals where Latin is concerned. I was just worried about dining the right Spanish resource.

Thanks for the other resources. I've ordered some readers and flash cards. So hopefully we can start on our new plan this week. We'll see how it goes!

I'm losing my mind! I think what I'm going to do is get a bunch of readers in Spanish for practice. I'm also going to get some vocabulary flash cards- one set of nouns and one of verbs. I've put Duolingo on my iPad. So we will spend 15 min a day on Duolingo. Then we will read part of a story in Spanish and review vocab for about 10 minutes. Then next year we might try Galore Park. Sigh....

I agree that it depends. I have 3 daughters who are very allergic to dairy. It's terrifying. Our house went dairy free to keep them safe. I noticed zero difference for me. However my hubby had major positive changes. His asthma and congestion has cleared up drastically. He's had almost zero asthma attacks since cutting out dairy. His allergies seem better. So I think dairy bothers him and makes his symptoms worse. I don't feel like dairy impacts me as much.

We love right start at our house. So that always gets my vote. We did TOG for a while but I was overwhelmed as my kids were little. We did SoTW for a few years. We are now in book 4 and we don't love this one like the earlier levels. It's just so much info and for some reason I feel like it jumps between countries a lot. I have a hard time keeping events in order. So I've been thinking about going back to TOG. In the meantime we've found veritas history which had been great. We do it online and I learn alongside them. It has books that are recommended for extra reading. But I'm leaning back toward TOG in the future.

Thank you for those resources! I will check them out. I'm leaning toward getting Galore Park and working through it very slowly. I just put Duolingo on the iPad so we'll work on that too. My dd watches Salsa with her siblings but we'll have to try out the other program.

Thanks! I had read good reviews of their Latin so I hoped Spanish was equally as good. I just hadn't been able to find much about it but I'll check out the thread you posted. Thanks for your help! I am so frustrated trying to find Spanish resources. Why is it so incredibly difficult?!

GSWL would be your cheapest option. And they are good ages for that. However, I am using SSL this year with my 9 year old. She will finish in 1 semester and then start SSL 2. I do the exercises in the book orally and she watches the dvd daily. We cover at least 2 lessons per week. We will do GSWL next and then probably LfC. I'm doing it this way because my 7 and 6 year old listen in and sing the songs. I'll use the program in a year or two with them but for now they are getting exposure. So I'll use the program several more times with my littles anyway. That's how we're doing Latin this year. It's working well. It's been fun and stress free and my dd is really picking up the words so I'm excited to move into GSWL when we are done. I meant to start last year but we were preparing to move to a new state. So my dd is on the older end for the program but she's not complaining and she enjoys teaching the songs to her siblings. And while the dvd is not the greatest quality, my kids like it and it does seem to help them really retain the vocabulary words. ETA: after GSWL I think we will try Latin for Children and then Latin Alive. I'm not sure yet.

Thanks for your help. Now I'm thinking that we will try So You Really Want to Learn Spanish? from Galore Park. I can't find anything else that is more of a middle school type level. Most of the programs move so very quickly and I don't think we can keep up - these programs are geared more for high school students. Breaking the Barrier Spanish seems like it is aimed at older kids as well. So I think we should wait on that one. Has anyone used the one from Galore Park successfully?

Ok thanks. I was thinking we would be ok jumping into 5 after FLL 4 but I wanted to make sure.

Anyone? Can I jump right into 5?