Just curious. I bought a used GWG 4 for my newly turned 10 yr old. I'm at that point where I feel like it's time for big boy school, if you know what I mean. We've done grammar lightly to this point, and he's slowly working through WWE 2 (just to give you an idea of how little he's into English lessons). Anyway, this used GWG has 1/3 of the book already written in. However, it's pick up and go. So I went to the first lesson not completed, fully prepared to help him out, but it's over capitalization, with clear examples. Everything is extremely straight forward. He only did 1/2 of the lesson (1 side of a page) and he missed alot. So, I was wondering if it was just too much information for him at once. He's no dummy, but his work didn't show that. I was thinking that maybe he'd do better with one lesson being over capitalizing names, one lesson over places, etc. Any ideas? I want to prepare him for the logic stage/5th grade. In my mind that means doing a steady grammar program and trying to jump up to speed in writing and spelling(he hasn't even written a letter yet!). That's my goal for him, but of course it all depends on his abilities. Someone suggested I give Bob Jones English a try, so I was thinking about buying their 4th grade workbook...is this too advanced

Academically, I'm calling him a 4th grader right now. A new 4th grader that is. Will 4th still work, or should I go to 3rd? Alison

Would VIE work at grade level. This would be for a 10 yr old who needs to be doing more, but easily freaks out at alot of writing and problems. I would probably skip the writing portion and keep with WWE. Thank you, Alison

yep, bumping again.

:lurk5:

How many here use Voyages in English? I always see posts on Rod and Staff and GWG, but never VIE. Why is that? It's still recommended in WTM. Also, if you use VIE, what do you think? Can you compare it with anything else? Alison

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I'm debating which one to purchase right now. I had read though that with a juicer it would just spike your blood sugar, whereas if you go with a blender then the fiber would slow the digestion and give you a more even level of energy. You sound like you understand the process fairly well, can you share with me what you think about this? Also, what is the importance of digesting the enzymes without fiber (I don't even know what an enzyme is :tongue_smilie:. Alison

I'm off and on so much I wasn't sure how you are doing. Is everything going okay with you and your family? Still homeschooling this fall? Alison

We all need to honestly and critically evaluate our own thinking, but it's really hard to follow through with. It's a lot easier to ask for info from friends who will possibly pad their answers some :D. As far as bringing the burden to this group goes, well I understand this post annoyed you, but I see this forum as a place where I can bring my burdens. That's what I love about a message board, and because I homeschool and own the WTM, this is the best place for me to go to. I've asked so many questions here and received a lot of encouragement and wisdom. Some I didn't agree with, and some I did. I'm so glad I have this board to turn to when I need help, on curriculum, parenting, or the best WII games to buy :001_smile:. The OP didn't bother me, but I understand that many of you didn't like the posting. I just hope that nothing I've seen in this thread will keep me from posting in the future. If I had posted the original question then my self esteem would be at a record low about now (speaking for me, not Terri...hopefully she's a lot stronger and more confident gal than I am). God Bless all this morning, Alison

I am so sorry :grouphug:. Like everyone mentioned, I think most of us have been there in our relationships. I know I've been married since 95 and I'm just now handling my relationship with my husband fairly well (on most days). It takes time. Are you a Christian? The one thing that helped me was finally stepping out in faith and putting my focus on God. I wanted to please Him and so I just started to talk to Him more. I'll admit in doing that I did beg him to either take my husband away (yes, in a permanent way) or plug him into our life with a more gentle spirit. We did the yelling thing, not all the time, but when it happened it was major. I spent all of 2006 ready to get a divorce, but I never felt like God gave me the OK. So I stayed and I was miserable for a time. I can look back now and say I'm so glad I'm still here with an intact family. This may not be your answer, but it sounds like things are so messed up around you that it's hard to just have peace and give the relationship a chance. Think about this, what if you didn't have paint chips falling on the floor? And what if you made a friend or two...would that relationship with your boyfriend change? Would your attitude improve...and your boyfriends attitude follow? It may not improve at all, but from your description then you aren't happy with anything. It's just too hard making a good decision with all of your unahappiness weighing you down. Try to have some peace and let your boyfriend know, in a letter or someway that will not escalate into a shouting match. Go outside for some walks, in the rain if you have to :001_smile:, and meet some people. Church is a great place for free counseling...that's what I did and it did help me, it was comforting to feel that someone cared about what I was going through...and it was free:). And please understand where Flockofsillies is coming from, it took some courage to post that, and a lot of love. Alison

:iagree: I debated on saying anything, but my independent mouthy self just wanted to chime in :) Anyway, I really don't think Terri (:grouphug:for you) meant anything bad by her question and I feel bad that so many of you are slamming her. Like Terri, I may not always phrase things the best, but I have to write questions/statements out the only way I know how. She's a busy mom with several kids and I think she just want's to be a part of this group. Not all of us can write quite so cleverly as some of you. So please, give us more foot in the mouth but said with innocence people a break. And my respense to the OP is that I do believe there are uneducated/less intelligent overweight people out there who have become overweight because of their lack of intelligence. And even this is hard to put into words, but what I mean is that there may be plenty of people who just aren't very smart and because of this they are unknowingly eating foods that are terrible for them...leading to them being unintelligent overweight people. That being said, when I overeat on good ole southern food I know exactly what I'm doing to my body, darn it! Please, no stones. Alison

Never tried MFW. I chose HOD because it was cheaper and I liked some of the book selections better. HOD Beyond is going great for us. As far as reading goes, you will have one read aloud, then one history reading, then one science reading. OF course if our next HOD package doesn't work as well, then I'll really be looking at MFW:001_smile: Alison

bump

Well, she did just turn 8. When I read the WWE 1 passage to her she just looks lost, then when I ask her the questions she has no idea on the answer. I have to go back and re-read and point things out to her. I think it is a bit easier for her to read something herself and tell me something about it, either that or she is just paying more attention because she is interested in the books that she is reading (she's still on first grade readers). It's not WWE, it's this way when I read aloud anything to her...she can't listen and tell me about things I've just read. Does this have anything to do with her being left handed? How can I help her along, or is this just a learning style that she is low in? She's so darn hard to figure out, I never know what's going on in that brain of hers. She does okay in the other subjects, but it just doesn't seem like those light bulb moments go off very often. She giggles at herself a bit, so I just don't know how to take her...she's just a nut (and I say this with a whole lotta love). Help please. Alison

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If you still have Primer, I'd give it a try again. Unless it brings up bad memories. My just turned 8 yr old finished Alpha, but she still doesn't have the facts down cold, because I went forward with the lessons instead of holding off. I have a card game called Easy Addition War that she loves. Also, I have her do the online math u see drill. Alison

For the first time I'm looking a bit farther into our future schooling. I need some guidance from some of you wise women. I have a 10, 8, and 6 yr old and I haven't stayed with the 4 year history cycle at all. I did cover ancients with my oldest when he was 6, but since then history has really not been done very consistently. I recently started an American history program from Heart of Dakota. I combined all 3 kids in it. It also covers science, but it's light for my oldest, so I'm adding in a textbook science for him. Hopefully we'll stay on track this year and finish sometime this fall. I feel like I should try to get him through the 4 year history cycle twice. To do this, I would plan on doing Heart of Dakota's Ancients when he is 10/11, then keep going with their programs through 8th grade when he will be 14. My other two would just follow along with that history cycle, although it wouldn't technically be age appropriate for my youngest. But then the waters get muddied when I look at high school Social Studies requirements. Our state says 3 credits in U.S. history, economics, government, world geography, and world civilization. So how does the 4 year cycle in high school add up to these state requirements? I know the US history part is covered, but what about the rest? Is everyone who is covering the 4 year cycle for high school doing this as electives? Lastly, does my plan sound okay? I would be skipping several Heart of Dakota packages to start my crew in the HOD ancients, plus these packages aren't really designed for my younger two kids, but I really would hate to be doing more than one history package. I had thought about either just having my two youngest follow along with the HOD package, or having them listen to SOTW (which is what I failed at following through with them these past couple of years, although I love the program). Help? Please. Alison in KY

Beyond Heart of Dakota, Beta MUS, WWE 1 Alison

My very first readers are from the Saxon Phonics K program. Then we start on Nora Gaydos books. I have been given several reading books that are from Bob Jones 1st grade, but they don't say Grade 1 on them, so my daughter, who is 8, has no idea she's behind (she's just reading on her terms ;)) Then we have some Sonlight readers like Frog and Toad. I liked Sonlight readers until I reached all of the Betsy/Tacy and Ralph S. Mouse stories...it just seemed like there were all alot of books that did not click with my son. So until that, the books are versatile and most of them are pretty good. I also just switched to Heart of Dakota, and she has some great book sets. One is for emerging readers, then there are some books recommended for Drawn into the Heart of Reading. These you could either do with the program or without (I'm not using the program, but I might in a few years). I plan on using the level 2/3 books (which range from 3rd to 5th grades) with my 10 yr old after he finishes up some books we have now. HTH Alison

Thank you. I took 1/2 1 mg melatonin for myself last night, because I've been woken up so much lately that I haven't been settling down so well. Wow, who knew that stuff was so potent. It knocked me out in about 30 minutes. Unfortunately I found myself wanting to sleep way later than I should this morning, I just have this urge to lay down and sleep more. That's not good for me :confused:. Ria, one of your choices sounded like my husband speaking. We hate he is having these struggles, but I have said some similiar things to my son. I assure him he will be alright and I can't make him go to sleep, that he has to do it on his own. But I also assure him that he will go to sleep. I've told him it's impossible for him to stay up all night. I do hate that in the morning I get the crabby boy, the oldest who is setting the worse school example, to deal with. As far as the pallet goes, I would be okay with it for awhile, but my husband wouldn't vote for that. He considers that the more I go check on my son, etc (all at son's request) that I am making the situation worse. That son needs to figure out, with assurances from us of course, that he can do this. My son started running a fever last night. So after giving him a dose of Tylenol Cold/Flu (kid's stuff since he isn't a pill swallower) he still didn't settle down to go to sleep. Once we put him in his bed it's like his comfort zone is gone. He does say he is trying to get to sleep. He tells me he is being still and closing his eyes, and we've broken him of talking to us from the bed (saying I love you numerous times, goodnight, come check on me). Now, so husband doesn't hear, he asks me to check on him X number of times. I told him I didn't want to do that because then he'd be on a kick that I would always have to check on him X number of times. My middle daughter lays her head down and goes to sleep (like her daddy) thank goodness. My 5 yr old still hates not sleeping with me (I totally miss her too) and she says she will always hate it. She likes me to come check on her every 9 minutes so I'm worried she'll start having hang up's like my oldest has. With the youngest, if I leave her alone, she will usually go to sleep pretty easily, however, she wakes up once or twice nightly and wants me to lay down with her. I'm working on that too. UGH, I wish this were easier. Anyway, just posting here and hearing that others have experienced what my son is feeling is helping ME. I will be trying the melatonin, music, reading, bedtime routine (which we already do), backrub, etc. I might have to try the exercise earlier, our kids exercise comes in the afternoon, and it's not really exercise as much as it is going outside. My kids will be physically active, but they want the parents involved, which isn't easy at supper time and after dh gets home from work. The only reason I do not let them out in the morning more often is that they tend to dawdle greatly when it's time to get on the school work. If they could do a quick bike ride, come in and get busy it would be different, but everytime I give them an inch they try to take a mile. I'll work on things and I'm feeling better about the situation already. I asked ds yesterday if he still thought he was seeing the people/animals coming into his room at night and I was relieved to hear that when I placed a new night light in the living room, the people/animals went away. That's progress! Alison

When is an appropriate time to exercise? I had heard if you exercise in the evening it makes it harder for kids to get to sleep. Is there a time frame for avoiding exercise for bed. Alison

Oh, I found 1 mg melatonin at Walgreens. I plan on cutting it in half and will try it tonight. Thank you all for the suggestions. Alison

I guess I could let him listen to SOTW, but he might not fall asleep

I've been reading up on the melatonin, and of course I'm reading some conflicting info. Have any of you been taking it long term, and if so have you experienced any negative health effects? I'll try to run by walgreens later and see what they have. Alison