I have a 2nd grader and a Kindergartner. I have also used several programs with my older children. We use the Holling C. Holling books with the maps from Beautiful Feet Books. BFB has a study guide, but we are following the schedule from Ambleside Online. They are spread out over 3 years. We have also used Little Passports for world geography, it is a fun extra. Knowledge Quest is having a sale right now on their ebooks, the sale price isn't showing up on their site but I recieved an email saying they are 50% off this week. I also have A Child's Geography from KQ, which I plan to use next year with my 3rd grader, as he will have finished the Holling books. This book is used in Mater Amabilis, which is another CM curriculum. It covers topics in physical geography such as water systems, weather, etc. It is a nice reference, and has simple activities and "experiments" to do. I would call it hands on. We used it in 1st grade and my oldest son loved it. HTH!

I never said all Muslims are bad, I simply think that Sharia law as it is practiced in many countries are bad. I believe that this was a mob that was easily manipulated by the leaders of terrorist groups, and part of the problem is that these terrorist leaders are supported by corrupt governments and Islamic leaders who also promote radical Sharia law. I do not hate Muslims, but we can't afford to be naive about the nature of the dangers facing the world in the Middle East. I have several family members who have served in the Middle East, some in high ranking positions, and you can not boil problems like this down to a few misguided extremists. It is much deeper than that. I do respect the majority of the Muslim population, which is peaceful. But, there are extremists in positions of real power, and there is real danger involved. Simply electing someone who tries to be respectful to the Muslim faith isn't going to change a thing, because the majority of peaceful followers of Islam didn't hate America to begin with, and the radicals who profess to hate America will hate us no matter what we do. I also realize that there are Christian extremists as well, but they are not in a position to rule over the country, like many extremists now do in the middle east. That is why it is an issue we need to look at. It is not about Islam, it is about security. What is the solution? Make sure our embassies are guarded with actual Marines, that is the job of the Marines and I would rather have them guarding our soveiregn soil (which an embassy technically is) than in Afghanistan or Iraq. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203332/Elite-marines-sent-Libya-security-ramped-embassies-globe.html?ITO=1490

Governments across the Middle East have laws against blasphemy with the punishments ranging from imprisonment, tortue, to execution. These mobs are simply acting out in a way that would be considered mainstream in much of the Muslim world. I'm not saying that all Muslims agree with radical Sharia law, but radical Sharia law is widespread. The comparison is not intellectually sound.

I'm Catholic. Contributions at my parish are confidential, they keep track so you can recieve a statement at the end of the year for tax purposes.

DD #6 was concieved when I was EBFing my 6 month old dd. I never had a cycle or any fertility signs, I was 8 weeks along before I knew. I started having morning sickness and took a test thinking it wouldn't be positive. Surprise! I was shocked, but I'm glad that my last two are so close in age, hopefully they'll be great friends.

I don't see this, I haven't heard much criticism of the book here in literary terms, I've heard people railing against objectivism and Rand's personal worldview, which is a political topic. I'm not railing against those who do or do not enjoy the book or do or do not agree with Rand. My point is that I don't read this book from a political point of view, but from a psychological point of view, which is to examine how talented, smart people react to a totalitarian regime that limits the incentives we have for hard work and achievement, and what a society becomes in that type of atmosphere. Communism vs. Capitalism doesn't have to be a political discussion, it could be a historical, sociological, and economic discussion. Our society is so politically divided right now, it makes it hard to take the politics out of anything. To me this book is more of a study of human behavior, and I can enjoy the book without my objections to Rand's politics or philosophy getting in the way. Just as I enjoy many other writers whose overall worldview and political stances I do not agree with.

I reject objectivism, when it is put into practice it is dentrimental to society. But, Rand does present many truths and realities in regards to capitalism vs. communism in her book. I can take truth away from a work of fiction without embracing the ideology of the author.

My dh goes by his middle name, he shares a first name with his father. I agree, it is a hassle. I suggested doing it with our oldest, dh wanted him to have the same first name as he does which I'm not crazy about, but my dh absolutely refused to have a child go by their middle name. My 3 sisters and I all had the same initials. If your kids names were that similiar, I think it would be odd to have one be different, but I see no problem with having biblical and non-biblical names in the same family. My kids have either old fashioned names or pretty typical, boring names, I just tried to make sure they all sounded like they could be in the same family, lol. In other words, I wouldn't name one of my children Jim Bob and then name my next child Zander, they are so different in terms of conotations and culture.

We just finished reading the story of Joseph and his brothers, and I remember the overwhelming theme that struck me as being forgiveness. Also, that God allows us to suffer the consequences of our sins, and the consequences for the sins of others, but if we stay faithful to him and repent he forgives us and will also allow good to come out of sin. I'm referring to Joseph staying true to God in prison, and then God using that situation to bring about the salvation of both the Egyptians and the Israelites through Joseph. So inspiring, I don't understand how people can read the OT and only see the negative.

Have you read Living Memory by Drew Campbell? He uses a binder system, and his book includes all the info you could ever need for memory work. I bought the digital version so I can simply cut and paste whatever we are working on into word and then change the size and the font, print it and put it in the binder. I am starting to do this formally with my son this year. We are incorporating catechism, scripture, poetry, history and dates, geography facts, and latin, and math facts. I am starting slowly, we are memorizing the pledge of allegiance right now along with latin and math. He has his binder that he uses 5-10 minutes a day to review, and then he recites some of his memory work during morning recitation. SCM also has a memory work system, it is used for scripture but many people adapt it for other subjects. I also love this idea, but I don't like my handwriting :001_unsure:. HTH!

I understand where you are coming from, and I see the danger of what you are describing. But, the OE explanation does not add or take away from the Genesis account, imo. That is what I was trying to express. If the OE view explains how the earth was created, this does not add extra meaning to the story. The meaning is laid out, and it is all the meaning that we need. In other words, everything we need to learn from the Genesis account is already there, and I don't see how OE views are adding to scripture. As I said, I believe God created the world in 7 days to the understanding of human beings, but as the previous poster said God exists outside of time and space, and so 7 days for God does not necessarily mean the same as it does for human beings. However, God chose to use that amount of time when explaining the story in order to teach us certain lessons about life on Earth, so that is what I take away from the story. Reading the Bible must be done in context, and you once you know the end of the story it sheds more light on the beginning. That is what I meant by reading into the symbology, it has nothing to do with my own interpretation or worldview, it is simply the way scripture has been read for thousands of years, and for Jews, Catholics and Orthodox Christians it is exactly what He always intended. The symbology is all laid out within scriptures, you simply need to pay attention to it. ETA: For Catholics and other denoms, truth is absolute. I don't mean to imply that this type of reading means that it is open to your own personal version of "truth." That is where the authority of the Church and Tradition comes in, without it you descend into chaos with literally thousands of different versions of the "truth." I don't make my own personal interpretations, I rely on thousands of years of Christian teachings and tradition for instruction.

I'm not OE or YE, but I don't really have a problem with OE. Could God cause 10 million years of creation to pass within a single day? Of course He could, anything is possible for God, and He certainly could have chosen to create the world in such a manner. He also could have created everything in the literal sense of 7 days, and science could be in error. Either way, it doesn't really have an impact on my faith at all, I just believe that God is the creator and our sense of time, that is the way we divide time into days and weeks, has a deep significance. I don't think the issue is whether you take Genesis literally, but if you only take it literally you will be missing out on the deeper spiritual truths to be found by diving in to the deep symbology within the text. The story of Genesis pre-figures and lays out the coming of Christ and the redemption, and you need to look at it as more than a literal document in order to fully appreciate that. Adam is a figure for Christ, Eve causes the fall of Man but will bear children so eventually the Son of Man will be born, the fruit of the tree of Knowledge is eaten and causes death, but Christ will become the bread of life, and so by eating of His flesh we gain life, etc. etc. I think the issue for Christians is not whether you take Genesis literally, but it is about whether or not you have faith in God alone. If you do have faith in God alone, I think you will acknowledge that it could be literal. You are right that science is fallible, God is not. Science is a good thing, but not something we should have blind faith in. I see no problem for Christians to hold an Old Earth view as long as they have a healthy skepticism and not a blind faith in science, and as long as they recognize God as the creator. I know fence sitters can be annoying, but I'm on the fence.

We just finished year one of AmblesideOnline, though we didn't use all of the selections. HUFI at charlottemasonhelp.com is another free curriculum that follows the four year history cycle such as laid out in WTM. Ambleside has most of it's texts available free online in pdfs through one of the yahoo groups, and they also have a yahoo group that has files you can print for picture study. Ambleside uses the Burgess Bird Book for first grade, and we used the iBird app and did plenty of birdwatching, my son loved this. Satori Smiles also has a great resource page for this book with links to coloring pages. We also used the "Among the ___ People" series, which looks at life in the forest, pond, etc. They are free online, but I also purchased them for my kindle because my son enjoyed them so much. MEP math is great and free, although we use Singapore Math We use these free sheets for drilling. My son used HWOT, but Donna Young also has some free handwriting sheets that I like. Coloring is important and often overlooked, we love Dover coloring books. Don Potter has plenty of free public domain reading programs and other books that he has reformatted, including Blend Phonics and Word Mastery, Word Mastery is the same text that MP used for their Classical Phonics text. My son did really well with Word Mastery. He also has links to the McGuffey readers and the Treadwell readers. Don Potter also has great math resources. When your son is ready for spelling, Spell by Color is free. I haven't used it, but it is a rules and phonics based program. I am going to try to use The Writing Road to Reading next year, I need to digest it more. We also read Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans free online as well. We also used SOTW 1, and I would also recommend FLL and WWE. HTH!

I'm Catholic, I don't really have an opinion on the OE/YE, though I probably lean OE. I use Elemental Science along with living books from the library, and we also are using Science 2 for Little Folks from CHC to insert some religion. Have you looked at the Behold and See books? Not exaclty CM, but very CM friendly, and the science is solid.

I found this free online, I was wondering if anyone has used it? I love AAS, but my son hates the tiles. I don't know how I ended up with a son who loves workbooks, but that is his style. I am looking for a workbook approach with solid phonics and rule based instruction. We are using My Catholic Speller from CHC, but I want something closer to AAS. I was wondering if this would fit the bill. Anybody used this? Do you think it would be a good replacement for AAS?

What I remember reading in High School: Plays: Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar Our Town The Glass Menagerie Death of a Saleman Novels: Great Expectations A Seperate Peace The Grapes of Wrath Lord of the Flies The Summer of My German Soldier Of Mice and Men The Call of the Wild Les Miserables Short Fiction: The Yellow Wallpaper Bernice Bobs Her Hair To Build a Fire An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge The Gift of the Magi The Cask of Amontillado The Tell Tale Heart The Jilting of Granny Weatherall The Atheist's Mass

I would have done the same thing, I think that talking through the presentation is more of an insult than leaving. The other mother is teaching her children that it is appropriate to be rude and inattentive to others as long as you are "bored," what a terrible lesson.

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

You could also check out the group buy prices at homeschoolbuyerscoop.com

That is what my bp looked like with all my pregnancies. My doctors have always told me it is a good thing, as you are at lower risk for preeclampsia. I think your lower energy levels are probably just due to the fact that you have 4 little ones already. With number 6 I felt like I could have fallen asleep standing up. Try to rest as much as you can, hopefully you will perk up!

Thats what I usually do, but you can also subscribe to podcasts of various books via itunes.

I may have to find something part time. Inflation is getting to us, costs keep going up but salaries are not. Factor in massive student loan debt and state and local tax increases, and you have a real perfect storm hitting the middle and working classes right now.

Simply Charlotte Mason has some great artist study kits. The price is worth it for the prints alone, they are very high quality.

Alice in Wonderland. I had no problem with this until I read it for a college lit class. My prof painted Lewis as someone who maybe, could have been, might have been a pervert. I realize this was wild conjecture, but it tainted his books for me none the less. I also dont enjoy David Copperfield. Id rather read Great Expectations, which most people I know hate!