We've been using FIAR and I hope to use TOG when my little ones are older. I've gotten so fed up with our local library's. They never have what I need and take forever to get them in. My plans were really mucked up by them this year. So I try to buy as many as I can. We are on a tight budget so I look for good used books (thrift shops, book stores, yard sales, library sales) locally. If I see a really good deal online I will try to get it. BUT being in Canada the shipping often makes the price the same as new with free shipping from amazon. :001_huh: I'm always trying to buy a head and that is a huge help. I'm planning on doing GTG in the new school year. So I've been keeping my eye's open for books to go along with that. I was very lucky at a local library sale I found some really nice books on my wish list.

We are using FLL to and like it. But I didn't know there was a CD to go with it. :tongue_smilie:

LOL Well if she got it then she wouldn't be doing them all. :tongue_smilie: Problem is when she does not get it, but gets stuck on the same work for so long. I think it's the presentation mostly all the pages look the same. So sitting on one topic for a long time bores her. It also frustrates her a lot also. I was thinking that when she gets stuck if I could alternate types of work sheets it might help. A different presentation or process might click better. Our latest struggle was on rounding and estimating. She just couldn't get it with there method. Once I found some helps online and made my own sheets it clicked.

I haven't seen his school curriculum yet. But we have watched his creation seminar set. LOVE it!

Thanks! I'd hadn't heard of Professor B. It looks pretty good. :001_smile:

The only math curriculum I've used so far is MUS. But my oldest dd has used it for 3 years now. We all really like it. Basically you or you and your child watch the video that explains the lesson. Then you work on the practice problems from the teacher book with the child. Once they understand what they are suppose to do, let them start on the workbook pages. I think there are 4 workbook pages per topic. You just do the number that it takes for her to understand the lesson. When she can sit down and teach/show you how to do the problems, it's time to move on. After each lesson work pages there are 3 or 4 (can't remember) review pages. They review what you've just learned as well as the material up to that point. They really focus on knowing each point well before moving on. My dd has found the blocks very helpfull when learning something new. But once they start to memorize the facts they don't use them as much.

We really like MUS but some times my dd just gets stuck with it. I'm thinking about using another program (or parts of it) along side it. I'm trying to decide between MEP and mammoth math. Does anyone combine these, or use a different program? How easy is it to line them up? She's working in Beta right now. She really likes the videos and blocks, they help a lot. Were the problem comes is when she has trouble understanding a concept. To stay on the practice pages for so long bores her. So I'm thinking a different look/approach might help with that.

I run into the same problem a lot. Especially with the area I live in, I don't often find curriculum at yard sales. To order used books from the USA or even with in Canada the high shipping cost eats up any savings from the new price. So most of the time I buy from places that have free shipping, or that I can pick up. Since I have 5 little ones and probably will have more, I need my books to be in good shape so they will last.

I would love to have a school room. We just don't have an extra spot right now. So we work at the kitchen table, couch, sun porch or outside. Just about any place. I have plastic "drawer" type storage units in the kitchen. These have have most of our art supplies. I have a large pantry cabinet that holds paper and other things I don't want the kids into. Our book shelves are in the living room.

I haven't had a chance to read all the replies. But I would stock my pantry not a freezer. In emergency situations I would be worried about power outages etc. We try to keep stocked at all times, just did a big restocking trip this week.

We painted ours white last year. I love how it brightens the kitchen, BUT I would never do it again! We will be repainting a slate blue ASAP. Every spot, scrape, nick etc done by the kids show up.

We're a family of 7 and our house is just a little under 1000 sq. ft. I love our house only draw back is lack of storage. There are only 2 small closets in the whole house and none on the main floor. It's 159 years old and back then they didn't need lots of closet space! LOL I'm working at another sort and toss binge to reduce clutter.

We use FIAR and all you need to add is math and phonics. We use MUS and used 100 easy lessons for reading. FIAR covers social studies, literature, science, art and applied math. This coming year we are going to use Galloping the Globe with it to dig a little deeper into different countries.

As far as I know we don't have anything like that here in Ontario. I put 200 or under per child. Most of what I buy is multi year books or are texts that can be reused. I could spend more if I had the money lol but "extras" I get through the library.

I'd get peanut butter, dry beans, rice, tomato sauce, cheese if its really cheep and some dry soup stock. If you have enough then some onions and carrots or other cheep veggies. :grouphug:

Our basic menu is Sunday ~ A roast (pork, beef or a turkey), mashed potatoes, veggies, biscuits and gravy. Monday ~ Noodles and hot dogs (sliced with the noodles), salad Tuesday ~ Potatoes (if I'm in a rush I make homemade fries, if not then mashed, scalloped ect.), left over meat from Sundays roast, veggies, salad. Wednesday ~ Pancakes with eggs or homemade sausage Thursday ~ Meat (normally from Sundays roast), potatoes, veggies, biscuits, salad Friday ~ Pasta night, normally a tomato pasta with garlic bread and salad Saturday ~ Homemade pizza night, normally with garlic bread and salad. Breakfast is oatmeal with milk and fruit. Some times pancakes or eggs with fried meat. Lunch is homemade soup. When dh was working he would take supper left overs for lunch. He liked it better then sandwiches and it was cheaper to. So I would just make a larger supper every night, that way there would be enough. Snacks are homemade cookies, muffins, etc. I make every thing from scratch...well except for the dry pasta :tongue_smilie:. We make our own bisquick mix, laundry soap ect. I don't buy organics often any more. But we do have a large garden and can and freeze a LOT. Last year was not a good year for our garden the weather was really bad. However our potatoes did really well and we harvested about 1200 pounds. So we have lots to base our meals around, share and use for seed this coming year.

Every Sat. is pizza night here. Dh used to have his own restaurant, so he makes ours. :D He just made a video on YouTube showing how he does it. Will be making another one soon showing the ingredient prep. Here is the link if you would like to watch.

I wonder if they might be bald face hornets. They look a lot like yellow jackets but are bigger. We get a lot of wasp nest around our place every year. And yes I've had them get in the house in the winter to. Some times they come in on the fire wood hibernating in the cracks, under the bark.

We are 57.00 per person (family of 7). Now my youngest is just nursing, but I'm hungry all the time feeding him so make up for that. :tongue_smilie:

Ahh (sigh) as much as I would love to, I just ordered the original set about a year ago. Didn't know they were going to redo it! :sad:

I've only used 100 easy lessons. Its always worked well for us.

It does depend on the child but when my oldest was in K we did: math reading (she was already reading well) science LA light history and geography

GTG s Galloping the Globe. We have been using FIAR for the last few years and my girls especially love the geography parts. So I'm going to combine it with gtg and "row" around the world. We'll take our time and enjoy each country. Thanks for the other book ideas! I'll keep my eyes open for them :001_smile:

I think that might be what I'm looking for! I was hoping to find a story format. :001_smile: Thank you!

The only Donna Ward book I've seen is CMC, we are doing that one this year. The kids like it ok. They don't mind workbook type material but do like story/hands on things better. We tend to mix CM, classical and units together. I might do a little Canadian history with them this year. However I'm mainly looking a head a year or two. My oldest is almost 7 and would be 8/9 when I wanted to start a longer unit on our history. I would love to come up with something smiler to SOTW but Canadian. I do have the Discovering Canada set on my wish list. I haven't seen them, but they sound like something my dc would like. I'm planning this coming "year" (we go year round), to start GTG in the summer. When we are done working through that (taking our time) I would like to start with Native Americans and work through each time period in our history. So I guess I'm mostly looking for a time line guide, reading suggestions and activities.