how about PAL Reading by the excellence in writing.

I am not sure what penmanship style you are looking for, but if you are just looking for ideas here is a cute website. It shows all the types of scripts in an animated motion. http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/cursive/animation/uppercase.htm :)

:iagree: We don't have lavish birthday parties due to the same reason. Our children birthday parties were usally just family oriented. One year I did bring in cupcakes to share at story time, but that was the most we could do.

I agree skip level 1 he wont' miss anything :iagree:

I know how you feel. It is tacky! A long time ago, I was invited to an adult surprise birthday party and at the end they told me I owed them 10.00 for the food. The kicker was that I bought my own food and I sat in the corner of the otherside of the birthday party because they couldn't make room for me. sorry for the rant, it brought back an ugly memory.

Personally i like the bamboo. It depends what you are going to do with it. Some people use there I pad to draw. If you go on you tube and look up stylus review you can actually see how the specific items draws, writes. How much pressure you have to apply for it to work. It is all on preference. Good luck! Here is one review :

My ds will be starting ninth grade this coming year and i am really confused on what we can use for history that follows the chronological order. We live in a strict homeschool district and I have to provide daily documentation. I looked at susan bauer's historical book ,but i don't understand how we would document what he has read, since there aren't a study questions to go with it. I guess my question is for those who have used bauer books how did your student document and for those that don't use bauers book what did you use? I am also wondering how the transcript would look using the materials you choose? Thanks in advance :001_smile:

In my research for a thorough math program I have heard the same thing about saxon form some people and it seems to be a big debate among engineers. I am under the impression that with saxon you either hate it or love it. I believe it all depends on the person. My second ds is a saxon user, he needs the repetition and like things broken down. He likes his math cut and dry and wants to know how to do it. He neeeds to see the steps and doesn't like to assume anything in math. My oldest ds likes TT, he doesn't like the tedious break down and he feels saxon has more technical jargon than TT. I have never used chalk dust, but have heard that it is a rigorous curriculum, unfortunately I have no experience. Hopefully someone else can chime in to see how their math is set up.

This thread was very impressive and informative; thank you for posting it . :001_smile:

My ds switched over this January to LP english 8 and history. They are different then what my ds is use too. As far as the history we got rid of that asap, but we used the English. The vocabulary is mostly technical jargon, which on some level it is good, but he doesn't really seem to grasp it as wen we used Wordly wise. The student defnes the word, but really doesn't really use them in content. The spelling seem to be off beaten words and just look like busy work. With that said the material itself is to the point and informative. It spent sections on origins of words,which my ds liked. It is laid out different than other curricula. It is written in units, which is nice if you want to skip a unit. The LP representative told me that it would cause a problem and so far it hasn't. Though it is packed with information, I am concerned how much my ds will retain after the year is over. PS If you do decide to try it, I have to agree with the others the AO site will harass you if you do it through them.

I don't know if you like chapter books but there is one that I like , When the Knights are Bold. Here is the website:http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com/catalog/displaycatalog.php?catalog=history

I like Lyra color pencils, they are rich earthtone colors and they are durable with young children. Prisma's are great as well, but the lead tends to break more often then lyra's.

I think you have it pretty much covered so I don't know if I am offering you much. The only thing I could think of would be actual cut out letters, maybe the pop outs from a scrapbooking kit. This way when they are spelling you can see that they don't read the letter reversed. Just a thought :)

Hello Iam fairly new I hope no one minds me chiming in I just learned my lesson as well. They have called me 3 times this week to see if I am interested in purchasing my item for the following school year. TBH the prices are better at rr and cbd.