$40 a year seems reasonable for an online only planner. For $65 I would want a program that I could use offline as well as online. Does anyone know if there will be a demo to try before you buy? I have to admit, after seeing the screening shots, I'm not as excited about this as I was back in April. I'll be looking for the reviews of the testers, if they ever get their hands on it.

I'm happy I haven't purchased my ticket for Hartford yet. Now if only someone would put together a truly diverse convention.

Mrs. McGinty's Dead and Sad Cypress are two of my favorites.

If you open the package you won't be able to write return to sender on it. You would have to pay the postage to send it back. Did she already send you the money to cover the return postage?

I was chosen too! I never get picked so I'm very excited!

I use them similar to the way kebg11 use them. When she's ready to move on to the next chapter I have her take the test without any help or coaching from me. She gets one chance to correct any mistakes and then I grade it. Next year when we have to start taking the CAT I want her to be prepared for it.

There are quite a few companies that manage to update/upgrade their website without causing a huge inconvenience for their customers every single time. Several of those, I know only have 1-2 people on their IT staff. Most companies choose to do this type of maintenance when it will not impact very many customers trying to access their website. Sonlight, on the other hand, has decided 8am - 4pm is the ideal time to change over their website. :confused:

I bought this one from Amazon. It can take a serious beating. One side holds the letter tiles for AAS and we use the other side for OPGTR.

And my personal favorite "Our forum members are a small portion of our customer base. Everyone else loves the changes." :glare:

The website going down for the day so they can update it happens every year. Same with it taking hours longer than they originally planned and the correct samples not being up. It's frustrating and I've learned to avoid them the first week in April while they work the kinks of the annual switch out.

No email for me. Oh well! I'm dying to hear what the lucky chosen ones think of it!

Now that it's Monday I've gone back to obsessively checking my email/spam/facebook. I noticed the website says it's being released in May so even if I don't get selected the wait won't be too long. I just hope they have a free demo so I can give it a bit of a test run before I decide.

I just had a heart attack, thinking I was chosen. It was an email letting me know only 3 days left to buy the planners at a discount. :lol:

I've started planning next year's first grade too. I've already purchased most of what TWTM recommends but I haven't thoroughly gone through everything yet. Read Alouds: SOTW activity guide recommends several books for each section. WWE (I have the hardcover all 4 levels NOT the workbooks) there are excerpts from several books used. I didn't see a list of books any where in it but maybe the workbook volumes are different. I do plan on using most of books used in WWE as read alouds new year. Science: I'm following TWTM. It seems very simple and little prep. I have Green Thumbs. It's mostly gardening projects. Make your own compost holder, birdhouse, scarecrow, bug spray, etc. It looks fun but doesn't go into many details. When we get to plants I will add other books, depending on what interests my girls. Memory Work: I have to go back and read the book because I don't remember there was a lot of memory work. I know FLL has some and we'll do that as well as some for history but that's really it. Notebooks: I have a big binder with tabs for math, science, history, spelling, grammar, reading and writing. Everything will get hole punched and put in here instead of trying to juggle and keep track of several notebooks. I hope this helps. I'm diving into the unknown of first grade too and I keep repeating what Momma2three said - it's practically impossible to irrevocably mess up a 6 year old's education.

I checked the website and my email as soon as I woke up this morning!