Here! :)

:lol: Just thought of a few more. Every one of my children said "oit-meal" and "o-gert" for oatmeal and yogurt. Not a mispronunciation but my oldest wanted to know how they got the "cheese" in the hard-boiled eggs. :tongue_smilie: My oldest always said she was towered for tired. And when we'd go to the playground she would say, "My name's Megan, whose your name?"

LOL! My oldest daughter always wanted to wear "heehiles" (high heels) and her dad worked at the hop-sit-al. Our third daughter couldn't say her K's so she said here titty, titty, titty Our 5 yo boy still says that daddy works at the host-i-ble

I have often thought the same!

These have made my day! I had a long tossing and turning night last night. So it was great to get on and read these. Kids are so awesome, including and especially the big ones! I'd love to hear more!

Sometimes I'm amazed with the things my 5 yo ds comes up with. For example just recently.... Dad, the world is round, right? Then why is the road to *nearby town* flat? After hearing a conversation between dh and dmil conserning if it's not raining it's pouring... And if it's not raining or pouring it's hailing! And if it's not hailing it's gonna storm. After sitting down in a huge sand pile...*sigh* I've been dreaming about this all my life! Have your children said anything that made you go hmmm lately?

:party:So happy for you! We went debt free (except the house) about 4 years ago. It is such a great feeling. My dh's truck died back in January and would cost too much to fix it. He seriously thought about taking out a loan to get a decent truck (it's our family vehicle) because they were just too pricey for us. We only had x amount in savings to spend. After talking about loan payments he decided we just were not going to do it. Shortly after he found a vehicle that was listed for 1200 dollars more than we had and asked them to drop it down to what we had and include tax, title, and liscense in the price. They said no, but he finally got them talked down to $300 dollars more than what we had (this was a dealership too). We drove around for a while and figured out where we could pull the $300 from (We just had to delay something else for a month) We got the truck home and looked up the book value and it booked for 2700 more than we paid for it! God is good! I think he honored Dh's decision to not take out that loan with a great truck at a great price! You can do those student loans! Just remember to put something away for emergencies because you will have them.

I do!!! I think! Actually she would be a junior, but she's done enough work over the summers that she will graduate in the spring. She's anxious to see what the Lord has planned for her. She doesn't see college in her future so she is working on a home business making flower arrangements for weddings, showers, proms, etc.

Thanks, Colleen! I'll have to get ahold of another copy of WTM! I haven't had one in a while. Sculpting sounds like a grand idea!

:bigear:

Wow, that is half a school day. I think that is a little too much. Any other ideas?

My second daughter is going into 10th grade. She has always loved art and would like to continue. I need some ideas for art for her. We do art appreciation and study 3 artists a year. She's reading The Story of Painting which would be art history. She used Drawing with Children and Art with a Purpose (BJU). She's used many How to Draw xxx. She's drawn animals, still life, caricatures. She has used paint, markers, chalk. First question, I gave her a half credit for Art last year for BJU and 3 artists, and The Story of Painting. However she has done many of the How to Draw books and the caricatures were done this school year. Can I give her more than a half credit for all that? She put the time into it. Also, can I give her art credits each year as long as she tries something new and/or improves? Next, I would like some ideas for curriculum for her for next year. I thought about just having her imitate the artists we studied this year and next year. She is also interested in whittling; she has all the tools. Painting technique could be improved. She has never sculpted. Any ideas, or good curriculum to use? Videos? Art classes are out of the question. We live too far from anywhere that would teach them, and I'm not sure she would learn much at the local high school. Last, I need ideas on how to classify her art credits on her transcripts; Art I, II, III? Art Appreciation, History, Drawing I, etc.? (While I'm asking, how would I classify her Voice lessons, and Piano lessons?) I'm excited for her to continue growing in her talent. :)

I love, love, love OPGTTR! I used it for a struggling reader. She was going into 6th grade and was struggling terribly. We bought OPGTTR and worked through it in about 6 months. 1 1/2 years after starting it she read Hamlet with her older sisters and did really well! I'll be using it with my 5yo soon.

When my daughter was finishing up 5th grade we were still having a terrible time with reading. She would flip words, skip words, add words, substitute words that fit in the sentence and had the same first letter, and often times totally loose her place. She would curl her toes and make fists and got terribly stressed out. We had used phonics workbooks with her when she was younger and she did fine with them, but couldn't implement them when she read. I was looking at An Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading for a younger child and realized she couldn't read most of the words from the last lessons. I bought the book, read the tips from the back section, and started her at the beginning. I knew the beggining was a bit babyish for her, but asked her to bear with me and work hard at it so she could learn what she needed to. We turned the consonant poem into a rap to make it a little more fun for her. Some important things we did with this curriculum: *Made sure she was pronouncing her sounds properly, especially the vowels. The book pointed out that this was important, and told how she should hold her mouth. *I made sure she was pronouncing the whole word. I noticed during this time that she was leaving the last sound off of most words she said. For instance if she wanted to say bolt, it sounded like bowl. My Dh sometimes does this and my FIL did this alot. *I also made her SLOW down. She spoke really fast and tried to read faster than her brain would work. We worked on reading really slowly just one word at a time until she got really good. *She had to use her finger whether she liked it or not. I also watched her eyes to make sure she was always going left to right until the end of the line. The back of the book talked about how some children have problems processing if they are looking around on the page. For instance, they look ahead to get a clue from the rest of the sentence (often taught in the schools and was told by her supervising teacher to do this) and then look back. They may or may not find their place again. They've seen the word forward and backward in their mind and now don't know which way it goes especially if it is a real word either way (was/saw). They think they have already read the word so skipping it altogether. We worked on this over the summer and into the first few months of 6th grade. I read a lot of her work to her into 6th grade and we buddy read some things until she got to where she was reading fluently. She is now finishing up 7th grade and is reading all her own school work. We read Hamlet this year with the 9th and 10th grader and she held her own. We went from barely reading at a third grade level to reading Shakespeare. We were diligent and totally focused on reading for about 6 months, but it was 100% worth it. She devoloped some good habits during that time and she speaks better. Oh, and she no longer needs to use her finger. She also doesn't need to read just one word at a time. Hope that gives you some ideas. I've been wanting to praise this book for a long time. Good luck with your son.

Exactly, then I'll just have to bite my tongue because she won't be exactly like me! (Maybe she'll be even better! :001_smile:)

We've been using AO for the last 3 years (only slightly the first year). We've followed so many curriculums and ideas over the years, but was never completely happy. I loved the classical approach, but even with the WTM was never able to follow it. I love that AO has a loose (weekly) scedule and has all the books laid out. I'm happy to finally find something we are ALL happy with! Will be moving on to AO 0.5, Pre-7, 8, 9

None of your family went to school with you? That is how all my old classmates found me. I would love to delete everyone except the few people who I really miss who don't live nearby. Would that be terribly rude?

I used to love it, especially when it was just close friends, family, and church family. It's gotten so big now and I don't really know most of the people on my list. Meaning... I haven't seen her/him in years, and only saw then because we went to school together. I have only been on once a week in the last two weeks and that was only to check if I had a particular message. There is no way I could spend the hours it would take to catch up on everything I missed in those two weeks. I left a message saying I wouldn't be on and that if anyone wanted to talk to me they could call, email, or visit. I easily get sucked into time wasting activities on the internet, so best to stay off. I only come on here when I am looking for something specific, or buying or selling. Now how did I get into a discussion about Facebook. LOL! Chop, chop, back to work!:001_smile:

Thanks Holly. I really appreciate your help. Funny, I had been looking at Life of Fred, I just don't always make the connection. I can't find that Making Math Meaningful has a Geometry text out yet. However, I did find the rough draft, and my daughter thought it looked like it explained the concepts well. We don't do well without an answer key though. I'm going to order the Keys to Geometry today and she can work on it during the summer so she can get her geometry credit. I'm not sure exactly what we will do next year, but I have a little time to work on that. I would really like to get the Videotext series, but my goodness it is pricey. I'll keep researching and let you know what I discover. I've got several ideas to go on now. ~Sheila

I was going to post to the highschool board, however 2 of my dds are in 6th and 8th grades. We used Making Math Meaningful K-4 for the youngest and she loved it. I did not realize it went up through Geometry. I'll have to check that out. What is LOF? Keys to... is the follow up to Miquon correct? Oldest dd used that in early elementary, but it was not a good fit for the other 2. The problem with curriculums that follow a different sequence is that dd1 has already completed Algebra I. She is half way through Geometry, but just turned in the semester test with a failing grade. She's never had problems before. Maybe she should have done Algebra II before Geometry. We went in this order because that is what I did in highschool. I just know the younger 2 are not going to be able to follow BJU, and I need to figure something out soon. Thanks for the help.

anyone?

I really need a one-size-fits-all math curriculum. My oldest has used Saxon until this year and has done well with it. We used Bob Jones Geometry this year, and she is hating it. The reason we switched is that Bob Jones looked like it explained the concepts better, and Saxon sometimes threw problems in that were not covered, or not covered well. Algebra I threw some Algebra II concepts into the final exam, which we had failed to cover, well, because it was Algebra II. My second dd used Saxon with one year of Rod and Staff tucked in their to review. We used Bob Jone's 7th grade math this year as a review. She did fine with it, but we didn't like it that much, and it has taken her a loooong time getting through it. My third daughter always loved math. We used Bob Jones this year with her, and we are sick and tired of all the different ways they use estimates in Math 6. She's doing horribly, because half the time she doesn't know which method they want used and if it's rounded, estimated, or for real. (up until this year, I didn't know there was a difference between rounding and estimating; front end, etc.) Obviously Bob Jones math is not for us. Saxon was great for the oldest, until a few issues with Algebra, was not so hot for the middle, and just okay for the youngest. Any ideas for a math curriculum that is fairly self taught, great explanations, and doesn't have 180 lessons.

Another NE Iowan here! We live in the country too! BlsdMama is my irl friend!

IMO-What the op ment was "Do you participate in Halloween activities?"

One more thing, I don't have a problem with people doing their "thing" for Halloween, however I do have one problem. People who try to push or trick us into celebrating it with them. Last year the kids were in 4-H. The leader called me in October, knowing that I was not fond of Halloween. She told me they wouldn't be doing anything Halloweeny, to which I assured her it wouldn't matter, we would just skip out on that meeting. She assured me that they wouldn't, but that one game was a dress up game in which the kids had to pick out a costume for the other kids. It had a time limit and was just going to be fun. I didn't have a problem with that. However, when the meeting started, she went on and on, with a speech to the kids on how Halloween is not bad, or evil, and can be celebrated without anything evil. I never thought she, or anyone else, was evil for participating, but the speech was unneccessary, and embarrassing for my girls. When it was time to play the game, we saw that there was devil horns in the pile. One of the girls came to me and we (the girls and I) went to the kitchen to prepare the refreshments. I'm not sure her intentions were bad, she just thought she could change our minds, or something. Once in the past, she suggested, in private to me, that we could each bring a vegetable, and give thanks to the sun, soil etc. for it. To which I told her, we could not do that. The issue was dropped and never presented again. I assumed the same thing would happen with Halloween. We just decided we would not go this October. We decided not to return this year anyway, totally unrelated to the Halloween issue. ~She