I have always been a trusting rule-follower by nature, so I have never questioned requests for SSN's--mine or my children's. I see most of you are adamantly opposed to providing those, especially for children. May I ask why? And if they don't need the numbers, why do they ask for them in the first place? Forgive my naivete.

I have a 2006 Sedona that we bought new. I've put 159,000 miles on it. I absolutely love it. We are very hard on our vehicles, especially the Sedona, and it rises to the challenge. No major issues with it, and the dealerships (in different states, as well as Guam) have been great. I would absolutely buy another KIA.

That doesn't sound like a small step to me. That really is huge! You both should be very proud!

Another Horizons fan here. With my 3 kids over the last 2 years, we've used Horizons 1 through Pre-Algebra, and I have Algebra I ready and waiting for this year. I like to dream that they will publish a Geometry set, but I don't expect that to be a reality.

No collar on a cat does not mean no owner. Ideally, yes, it would be wearing a collar and tag and/or have a microchip, but I have seen more than one warning about the dangers of collars on outdoor cats, and not everyone gets a microchip. It could be that it's someone's indoor cat who got out of the house somehow. Or someone's outdoor cat who wandered to a new part of the neighborhood. Or a newly adopted cat that spooked and got out. If you are not willing to try to find the owner (found signs, an ad in the paper/on CL, a post on a FB Lost and Found page, etc.), I at least would not confine the cat to your house for a while. That way it can go home if it wants. Personally, I would feel awful thinking someone may be missing it. ETA: Whoops, I did not see your last post about the collars before I posted this.

In my experience, I always end up overpacking for my boys, and I am a notorious UNDERpacker in general. I send my boys off with underwear, shorts, shirts, etc for every day, plus extras, and they come back with only a couple sets having been worn. When I see pictures later, they're always in the same outfit or bathing suit. Last summer, I sent a brand new toothbrush for my 11 yr old. When I was unpacking his stuff after he got back, I found the toothbrush--still in the package. Ewww. But there it is. And the person above who said that anything extra will get loaned, lost, or destroyed is 100% correct. Pack as minimalist as you can. If you'd like, pack each day's outfit in a separate Ziplock bag, but in my experience, that is mostly so that you don't have to re-clean clothes that were never used. For some reason, even though my boys never wore most of the clothes I sent them, they still came back wet or covered in dirt/sand. One full size suitcase/duffle bag should be fine, maybe with a backpack as well, but I would not send more than that, especially if it's only for a week. Our first time at camp, I packed a full size suitcase, plus his backpack, plus his pillow and sleeping bag were separate. He got teased for bringing so much stuff. :(

I'm sorry I don't really have any ideas for you, but I am looking forward to hear the suggestions from others! Thanks for posting!

Definitely inspiration worthy! That is beautiful! And if that is "summer disorganization", I'm not sure what to call our space right now. "Armageddon"? Thanks for posting!

Thank you! Your link is fantastic!

It sounds like you designed this yourself, and it sounds amazing!!! If you're willing to share a template, I'd love to see it!

ROFLMBO!!!

This is just beautiful. What a blessing!

I haven't used Jump In! yet, but I have it sitting on our bookshelf waiting to be used next year. I was hoping for the same things you are hoping for in a writing curriculum, so I am glad to see others recommend it. Thanks for posting!

We are fairly new to homeschooling--we're in our 2nd year--but from everything I've learned on this board and elsewhere, you don't want to fix what isn't broken. If she likes Horizons, and you like Horizons, then by all means, use Horizons. Also, I have not ever heard that Horizons is weak, at any level. What I have heard from many different sources is that it tends to be more rigorous, or at least move faster, than most other programs. With my 3 kids, I have used/am using Horizons 1 through Pre-Algebra. Each grade level has provided a very solid, balanced math education. I have heard people complain that the teacher's manual is not straightforward/detailed enough, but I have not personally had that problem. I am not a math whiz, but I don't struggle with it either, so I guess someone who struggles with math might have a harder time teaching it. I don't know. Horizons 5 is written by the same authors as Horizons 4. My Horizons 6 is packed away, so I don't know about the author for that one, but I know the format was the same (1 1/2 pages per lesson, for example), so I would be willing to bet the authors are the same. Pre-Algebra (7th grade) has a different author.

Tests, yes. I completely forgot about the worksheets. D'oh!

Hello, My oldest son has completed Horizons Math 5 and 6, and he is currently working on Horizons Pre-Alg. He is a bright kid and can do math in his head like a calculator, but he struggles remembering new concepts/formulas. I absolutely love the program, and my son enjoys the appearance of it, but after working with him this year, I think he might do better with a mastery-based program--or at least a less spiral-based one than Horizons. It seems like each lesson in Horizons gives him just enough problems to kind of see how the concept works, but not quite enough to truly "get it" on his own without me sitting there for support. And definitely not enough for him to be completely confident with it. I really wanted to use Horizons' Alg I course next year, but I really think a change might be good for my son. Can any of you suggest a curriculum that is as thorough as Horizons is but that is mastery-based? TYIA!

I agree with the above posters. I pulled my oldest out of PS between his 5th and 6th grade year. His first comment about the kids at our homeschool co-op was that "they don't act like public school kids". I asked what he meant by that, and he said, "It's like they don't care what other people think."

Are you referring to standardized tests? If so, achieving a 100% is impossible. Those scores do not reflect what percentage of the test the student got right. They are percentiles that reflect what percentage of students who take the test your daughter scored better than. So if she scored in the 98th percentile, that means she scored better than 98% of the students who take that test. That's pretty darn good, to put it lightly. She could get every single question right, and still not score 100%.

Ticonderoga here too.

Fallacy Detective has a follow-up book/sequel called The Thinking Toolbox. I haven't used it yet, so I can't comment on it, but it sounds like it will be set up similar to Fallacy Detective.

I agree with others who have said they wouldn't do more than one co-op. And I would choose the electives co-op of the two, assuming that is the shorter one on Friday.

Science in the Beginning is proving to be fantastic for us. http://blog.drwile.com/?p=11016 We had been doing Apologia Botany, but it just wasn't getting done, so we switched to Science in the Beginning, and we are loving it. Short, easy lessons that cover all types of science based on the order God created everything. Every lesson has an easy to do experiment that illustrates the concept well.

Ditto this, except we just used it for the first time this year. I used it with 3 kids (7th, 4th, and 1st). I was VERY happy with the whole process (selecting the appropriate test, ordering, logging in to, and taking the test, as well as receiving the grades--instantaneously).

I would think whatever particular health care plan they offer would be the extent of their compensation. They wouldn't be offering a plan with options the employee isn't allowed to use. They just wouldn't be offering those options. Just like all the other procedures/medications that are not covered by any given policy/plan. A benefits package is supposed to be just that. An extra offering of whatever goodies the company wants to provide to try to get/retain you as an employee. Benefits packages should not be mandatory.

But if the employer decides not to spend x amount of money on health benefits, then it is no longer part of the employee's compensation, so it's irrelevant. An employer is (or should be) allowed to decide what benefits to offer his/her employees.