My 12 year old has gorgeous writing but I still want her to practice. My 11 year old tends to rush and her cursive is sloppier. I've been debating about having her redo the last two books. I've read some things about the educational fontware cursive fonts being difficult to link together. Have you found this to be the case at all?

Maybe educents as well?

I love it! And belated congratulations to your DD!

We went through the Getty-Dubay cursive books with great success. As they're still 10 and 12, I'd still like them to do regular practice worksheets to keep up their levels of ability as well as improve. What do you use next? Full on italic cursive, buy the font from educationalfontware and make your own practice sheets? Something else that I know nothing of yet? Please let me know. Thank you!

Berta, I really hope you're able to find something that works well! If you do and it's convenient, please let me know so I can keep it in mind for the future. Since we're having such a difficult time now, I'm at a total loss when I think about the pre-alegebra and beyond years.

Oh, I love that song!

Are those jumpers acid washed by any chance? :laugh:

PeachyDoodle - I LOVE your homeschool name. I've loved the Narnia books so much since I was nine that we gave our youngest the middle name 'Aravis'. Edited: to clean up a sentence

Every time I see a post about Mystery Science, my first thought is "Mystery Science Theatre" and any time someone mentions Reflex math, I think of the Duran Duran song. :laugh:

That's a great idea (lucky you!) but our library is all about the money.

We briefly lived in rural Washington and there were four aggressive dogs in our neighborhood that escaped one year on Christmas day. They came into our yard and my husband had to get into our (thankfully) unlocked car and wait them out. They then went to our next door neighbor's farm and killed all of his livestock (4 lambs, 20+ chickens, etc) before our neighbor was able to get his rifle and shoot all the dogs. As others have pointed out, an aggressive dog is an aggressive dog, regardless of breed. But a dog that size... I would not want to risk an encounter. I would be greatly concerned living in such an area with young children and I would look into an electrical fence or at other properties. If neither of those options were possible, I would not allow my children to run around the property unless I was with them and armed. Even then, I'd be concerned.

Next question - color or monochrome??? Our inkjet printer died a couple of years ago and anytime I've wanted anything printed, my husband prints it out for me at his office or at Staples. We don't print a ton in color, but I keep thinking what if I realize I need a color printer. My husband suggested seeing if I spend more than $150 per year on color printing, and if so - get a second color laser printer, and if not - don't. Again, I hate to spend money that I don't need to. In case anyone thinks I'm being ridiculous worrying over this (and I know I am) - I've been so anxious about world affairs that I've become extra focused on little things in my own life that I can control.

Wow, thanks everyone! Such great information and it's making me certain about going this route! I really appreciate everyone who took the time to read my post and respond. Again, thank you.

I'm printer shopping, which means I look and research and research some more. My main question regarding Brother laser printers (most likely a monochrome) is how often do you need to change the drum? Toner? I hate being wasteful and don't want to throw out a perfectly good printer and just buy a new one like I've had many friends suggest. Answers appreciated. TIA!

This fb group has a track record of about one per month. https://www.facebook.com/groups/256935961369124/

I make a lot chana masala, gobi aloo, vegan tikka masala, biryani, and various curries. Enjoy!

When we did this, I drove with my girls (then aged 8 ad 9) while my husband drove the u-haul for a total of 20+ hours. We were in a vehicle that had no dvd player and what we did was... listened to audiobooks playlists full of songs the girls chose sticker books mandala coloring books and assorted activities that I ordered and hid until they needed something new in the car near constant conversations between the three of us - a lot of happy memories of those hours on the road :001_smile: I also made sure to stop at rest areas/parks every couple of hours for bathroom breaks and so we could run off some energy I baked a lot of nutritionally sound snacks/meals that we brought with us (we couldn't eat at restaurants as my one dd has severe food allergies) - I think that helped quite a bit as well, honestly. No sugar highs to come down from.

After spending the last week reading the daily math lesson questions to my daughters, I was able to watch their reactions to see where they were having trouble. My youngest is fine - does the work and is happy to, but my older girl (age 12) - she has always been anxious about math. She has little confidence in her math abilities and I would love to find a site like xtramath or reflex math that offers untimed or longer timed drills for review. XM and Reflex both made her anxious, which is the last thing I want to add to her already present math anxiety. Prodigy was not a hit for us, is there anything else that might be helpful?

We're super secular about homeschooling but I knew CLE would work for my girls. And it did. And I was humbled because I had always sworn I would never use religious curricula - we use the math and LA. They both love the LA; my eldest has been having a bit of a tough time with the math (nothing to do with CLE, she's very math-anxious) and my youngest still loves it.

Unless she has an order of visitation, I would severely curtail her time with your grandchild, requiring supervised visitation. I would also suggest you contact your attorney, explain that the other grand is trying to undermine your parental position and ask them to send a letter to the other grand. That might do the trick. Best to you and your family.

We took a break midway through CLE as well for LoF. We then returned to CLE (we needed to finish the CLE books they had been working on before leveling up) and continued supplementing with Fred (we started at the second or third book and are midway through "Fractions" now).

Is there such a curriculum for ages 12 and up? Or do you piece together your own? For "pieces" - I know of Code Academy, Kahn, Scratch, and Lightbot. Suggestions greatly appreciated.

She's a visual learner who loves to work alone. She'll often take off, away from her sister, to a quiet part of the house to do her school work. She likes feedback after the fact, but no direction during. We'll have to change this. MUS didn't work for us in the past - perhaps it would work better now that she's a bit older.

DD (age 12) is having math issues again. We have used CLE for the past few years with much better success than past maths (MM, Singapore, MUS). We've taken a break from CLE for the past six months for LoF because DD1 is having truly horrible math anxieties. She freezes and can't complete a lesson in less than two and a half - three hours (when we first switched to CLE, I started her at a lower level to help her review as well as build confidence) and she's currently in the 400 levels. She doesn't like that the concepts aren't laid out more clearly in CLE (she likes to work independently and doesn't want to get me involved by asking about concepts). She does have some developmental delays and likes things in school work to be just so and "right" with no deviating from her schedule. She's asked me to find something - a curriculum that engages her, that she understands, and that she won't freeze up while doing. Now, though, with Fred they're about midway through fractions and she feels that concepts are explained better as well as in a way she quickly grasps. But... I want something beyond Fred to use as a main curriculum - for us I believe that Fred is a wonderful supplement but I feel that more is needed. She's right brained all the way - give her something crafty or a cooking project and she's in her element but math drains her self-confidence and leaves her crying on a daily basis. Can anyone suggest a curriculum that fully explains concepts in an easy to relate to way and is better for children with crippling math anxiety.

I've ordered mine from Amazon too. They're generally shipped from the UK and shipping takes a few days. I've also found a few titles in better used condition on Better World Books.