If you used their group code, then you will have discounted:tongue_smilie: parking at $20 per night. I remember a coupon too from a few years ago, but I haven't been able to find anything on it for 2012.

Me either:tongue_smilie: boo hiss. Oh well, I would still love to hear what the lucky recipients think! And, congrats!

Me toooooooo!

Hi! I can't speak to the CHAP, but the northeast one is run by the same folks who put on the Midwest convention and that one is huge and terrific. I went two years ago and there were so many vendors, it took me hours to get through the exhibition hall and I had no trouble finding speakers I wanted to see. SWB was there, Andrew Pudewa from IEW, etc. I would think northeast and Midwest would be pretty comparable on scale and speakers. I am taking some ladies down this year because I had so much fun last time! Hope this helps!

I have a coach account set up and each kid signs in through a google account that I set up for them. I use it more as a supplement, but I have a friend that uses it as her math curriculum and she basically has her kiddos go from lesson to lesson in order. Then, she goes in as a coach and looks at the results from the practice problem and looks at their time, etc. I also use it as a resource when I need to teach the kids something that I know intuitively but am having a hard time trying to explain.

:iagree:

If so, do you like it or not and why or why not:bigear:

It's one of my favorite things:lol: DH thought it would be fun to have one, since he knows I am an office supply addict (don't ever leave me alone in an Office Depot because you will never find me again!). Anyway, we use it for tog workbooks, presidents books, state books, etc. The kids love doing their note booking because they feel like they are making mini-encyclopedias!

Not at all! This is exactly what we did and it worked out wonderfully!

I can't speak to the CLE piece, but our 2 boys were fine with the Sonlight books. There were only one or two in the entire range of K4 through 4th, (that would be up through what they now call Core E) that had subject matter I thought they weren't ready for and those were the more missionary oriented books. I can remember them names of them, but I just pulled the couple of books out for when they were older. It was such a small number in such a large amount of books that it didn't bother me at all to do that. As far as using Sonlight for the grammar years, I was just telling my husband that I wouldn't have traded it for anything because not only did they learn a ton of history, but they also learned how to be decent people and how to love learning. :001_smile:

Each year that we have used Sonlight, I have waffled because TWM lines up so well with our family's education philosophy and the way that I think. What I ended up doing is that we used Sonlight from the beginning (k4) through 4th grade with the older. Then, in 5th, I am following ToG because of the more rigorous analysis as well as the four year cycle. However, I realized that doing ToG doesn't preclude using Sonlight, so I am using the Sonlight Core H books that apply to ToG year one. For my dd8, I will be pulling out all of the great books from Sonlight Core A (formerly Core 1). So, one will be dialectic and one upper grammar. TWTM is more of a philosophy, and tog lines up with it nicely... History Odyssey does as well. The big thing for our family came down to the books. The book are why I will probably never give up on Sonlight. ToG's book are fine, but they are still not Sonlight, and even though I am making changes now, I can honestly say that I do not regret using Sonlight exclusively for the grammar years. The books not only keep them engaged in history, but they also give them examples of how to act with civility and grace. Especially now that they are growing up a bit, I see the payoff from those books everyday in their interactions with us and with those outside of our family. Wow, sorry for the book! I guess I had more to say on that than I thought!:tongue_smilie:

Same here... I wouldn't say they were necessary to the program, but they are nice to have around for when you can't get to something or just for fun. I also let the kids watch them and then let them "try" the experiment on their own. If they get stuck, I help them, but it has been terrific to get them doing some independent science work.

Especially in those younger years, Sonlight is terrific for history/lit choices. You get to read good books, and he will absorb so much. As for spelling, I used phonics teaching as spelling and never did any work bookish stuff that early. You can point out the phonics patterns in words as you do reading, but unless you really want to have something else for him to work on, you don't have to worry about spelling being a gap because the phonics parallels the spelling at that age.

The rundown of your planning process was SO helpful. I am combining my Sonlight and ToG this year, coming from strictly Sonlight, and I was missing on my binder:-). I love the way you incorporated that!

I do geography with Knowledge Quest maps and combine it with whatever we are doing in history for the year. We also keep the globe or atlas close at hand when we do read-alouds. It is a huge help for them to have a frame of reference for the story and they have learned a ton of geography through that as well. I have also heard that Galloping the Globe is a good resource, but I haven't used that one personally.

Ignore the apostrophe in were, my iPad keeps trying to self-correct and often makes it look as though I can't spell:-)

Hee, Hee... We're you at my place this morning? After coffee (more issues:-) it's the first thing I did! Then, I did a google search on it to see if anyone had news. Pathetic, I know...

I would go with4 as well. BJU 3 is pretty much right there with FLL 3 from a concept perspective, and FLL 4 has the review.:)

My husband always laughs at all of the book stacks we have in the house. 1. Little Britches 2. The World Wars 3. Just so Stories 4. War Hourse 5. Book of Virtues (we do these on and off) 6. Swiss Family Robinson Those are the ones I can see from the couch:001_smile:

Non-tech: flash cards Tech: flash master or math shark or a tablet-type app. Good luck!

:iagree: this summer, I decided I wanted to learn to knit (go figure because I have no domestic skills at.all...). I used you tube and also had a friend who is an amazing knitter walk me through the couple of questions I had. Now, I can figure out most of the intermediate patterns when I need to. If you run across something you don't know, just google it, and you will probably find a YouTube video on it. (just be prepared to "frog" - :)rriipppitt - a few things while you are picking up the basics)

I have definitely seen results with it, and the results are in direct correlation to how often we use it:). I have had a few times in the past few years when I just couldn't get to it for a while, especially when we moved about a year ago. When we came back, I saw jumps in their summarizing and dictation retention within a few weeks. That was enough to make me stick with it. Dd9 is moving into WWS next year and I feel like WWE has done its job well:)

Good point on the size... If you still need something though, check out the Goodreader app. You can do pretty extensive PDF markup with it. Hope it helps!

:iagree:This is what we did as well?... If I had to do it over again, I would still use the workbooks at first, because they really help you learn where swb is going and get into the rhythm of the program.

I have iStudiezpro and iPlan lessons and both work nicely. I like the more robust nature of Homeschool Tracker Plus, but, honestly... I am really excited about the Well-planned day software coming out. I think my brain is just holding out on making a decision because it's waiting for that:)