I am doing B, D, and MEP year 5 (also teacher intensive) right now. Often the lessons only take about 15 minutes of my time and the child can do the worksheet on their own--if they are the type that will actually do it and not just doodle on their paper...

Our hermit crabs don't do much. We've had them for about 6 months and we hardly see them move and have never seen signs that they eat anything. When I called the pet store, the worker told me that she never notices that they eat anything either. But, we have started taking them out to play just this week. They become very active then. The kids enjoy making little areas for them to explore in the sandbox.

When I worked in a small coffee shop if money was found and wasn't claimed by the end of our shift it was ours to keep. We turned in money to our city pool a few years ago. At the end of the season city hall called and asked us to stop by. They gave the unclaimed money to us. This was a nice surprise because we hadn't even given our names when we turned in the money (but were season pass holders and frequent visitors) and I had never even heard of this kind of policy.

Right Start does a great job with this.

I am using one pack with three children right now. One of them is a natural speller and I do one book in about 2 weeks with her. We do it over the summer and do just one book per year. She can't do the all the cards very well, since I do not review with her, but I don't think it is necessary for her. My oldest (level 5) only reviews the more difficult cards that the level 1 child hasn't gotten to yet.

I know a few people who work in Grandview and live in Lee's Summit. If you would like to be more out in the "country" you could look into Lone Jack or Pleasant Hill.

About two years ago I learned the fourth and fifth declensions with a silly story. I can't remember all of the story, but I can get you started. My children and I came up with the story based on what the latin sounded like. So.... For the 4th declension we imagined a cat- a puss- (us) and a moose (us) dancing together and accidently stepping in something gooey (ui) while doing the rumba (um) and the cat lost his shoe (u). I know we continued the story for the plural, but I can't remember what it was. The fifth declension is a a guy playing poker with a strange deck. In his hand he has an ace(es) and two 80's (ei, ei). He wants to win a gen (em). The guy he's playing against realizes he is cheating and calls out "Hey!" (e). Again, I don't remember the story for the plural endings. I know that you mentioned being a visual learner, so I don't know if visualizing these silly stories will help or not!

I am using year 5 with a 5th grader. Before this year we completed Right Start B-E.

I'm using it now with my 9yo dd. She is flying though it. However, when my ds went through it two years ago he struggled. I'm not sure exactly what you are wanting to know... It is still teacher intensive, especially if they are struggling, but often I can spend just 10 minutes going over the lesson with my dd and assign the worksheet. BTW, I found RS E took much less time on my part. RS D really takes time to let the child visualize mulitplication and division. It moves too slowly for dd, so we are just skipping those lessons, but it was perfect for ds. I've never used any other math program, so I can't compare, but I love the foundation that Right Start has given my children.

We just got that one too!

We faced this question this year also. It was for my 4 yo and I did enroll him, but I was pushing for a type of therapy that they didn't want to provide. (I wanted the therapist to teach me HOW to teach him, so that I could work with him a little bit every day.) My husband didn't want me to push for it after they denied my request, so we are meeting about once a month with an excellent speech therapist who is teaching me how to teach my son.

It's the rule in my mom's house to sit while eating, but I think it is so we don't get crumbs all over the place. That's why I make my children sit and eat!

I am using Year 5 with my son. I just noticed that one of the review pages said "Can be used as a test." It was written very small, and is not on every review page.

This is a great idea! Thanks!

This is why I changed dentists.

I used some of Y3 as a review after 3rd grade before returning to what I usually use (Right Start) and I'm using Y5 this year (in grade 5) as a stand alone. Because I know how to do math but not teach math, I think MEP would be difficult on its own. I like scripted lessons. However, this is just my observation as someone who has jumped into the middle of the program.

This is a good one.

We started with LFC this year after having done SSL two years ago. In those two years we did the Classical Conversations memory work and then quickly reviewed SSL. I think the CC memory work is really going to benefit my children much more than SSL did.

I feel like we take all day too! I've thought about cutting history and science--but that's the fun stuff. What about doing the Bible reading during breakfast or lunch?

We have one starting to turn red. Hopefully more will follow!

I really like the idea of the three ring binder divided into "Daily," "Even days," Monday," etc. But so much of what we memorize is short and I couldn't see putting a few sentences on one piece of paper. Plus, with multiple children I didn't want to have multiple pieces of paper to shuffle. I also didn't know what to do about days that we missed reviewing memory work. If the 13th and 14th were on the weekend, how did I review what was behind those tabs? So, I came up with a modified version. I printed up everything that we want to memorize on just a few sheets of paper. When we begin memorizing something I put a star by it in pencil. After a few days the star gets erased and I put E (for even days) and O (for odd days). After that it would get a day of the week. Now the children have so much memorized and don't need to review it as often, so I came up with a number system. Once an item only needs weekly review I give the item a letter (A-D). Only planning on reviewing memory work 4 days per week gives us some flexiblility if we miss a day. I just keep track of what letter we are on that day. When they need to review less often, the item gets a number. Last year it was 1-12. This year it is 1-16. I just keep a checklist at the front of the binder and cross off which day we are on. If two children had memorized the same selection I would have them review it on different days. It is actually a pretty easy system. I hope that I explained it well enough to be helpful to someone.

I am doing the 50 States Under God for our state as a summer unit. I wanted to do it about at 4th grade because I thought that is what the PS does. I have a (just finished) 2nd grader and 4th grader. When my younger ones are ready to go through it, I plan for my older children to do the lessons with us and add to their notebooks with the ideas and resources given in the teacher's guide.

I did something similar, but I offered $100 to my dd who was almost 8. I was desperate. She really needed to learn how to ride because we love riding as a family. I took her to a park that had a flat trail around the playground and didn't pay any attention to her. (If I was with her, she had someone to listen to her complain and moan. I couldn't take it anymore.) She learned on the second day.

I don't think you are asking too much. But, I second the idea of changing the time. I have been working through one math lesson each night with my dd. It allows her to stay up late, so this adds a little bit of excitement. ( A very, very little bit, but right now it is just the trick we need.)

My 10 yo ds sounds like yours. He loves to play and can play with many ages (girls too!) I just think that it is part of his personality.