We use Nordic Naturals as well, and all three of my children, DS10, DS6, and DS3 truly love them. I mean, if I leave them on the counter, DS3 asks for them all day, so I have to keep them inside the cupboard. Omega tastes like lemon ,and DHA taste like strawberry. Not sure about EPA and all of that.

We using All American History this fall, for DS11. Adding in reading from Sonlight catalog list. We decided not to use Hakim's books, due to the fact there is SOO many, and I did not want to rush through them, but did want to complete US History in about 1 1/2 years.

Well, as far as what previous posters said, I think it depends on the child and the neighborhood as far as if it needs to be "planned". I have DS6, who is naturally active, has lots of boys his age in our neighborhood, runs out the door when the school kids get home, and doesn't come in until dinner, usually. He is always on the move and rarely sits down. He participates in Karate currently, as a form of group "exercise" if you will. I don't necessarily "plan" any sort of exercise for him at this point. Then I have DS10, who is naturally a couch potato kind of kid. Just is, that's just him. There are only 1-2 boys his age in our neighborhood, all of whom are either too busy with their activities or just in the house, so they all might see each other outside in the cul-de-sac maybe once a week or so. So in his mind "there is nothing to do outside". He does participate in HS P.E. once a week via City Rec department, and he loves that. He also participates in sports, different depending on the season. He just got done with baseball, in the middle of flag football and golf lessons, will do Tackle Football in the fall...so it rotates on the season, and he loves these things. BUT that being said, I DO require him to do an exercise program at home. He is a bit overweight, and loves to eat. If I did not have him exercising, and limit his portions, his weight could really get out of control. Here is what we do: He can either run one mile or do 20 minutes on the Elliptical...this is almost daily. This is his aerobic. He also does our Total Gym 4 times a week. This is his strength training. These are a scheduled part of his day, required to be done in order to earn his "free time". He has lofty aspirations for a career in Athletics. He has the natural abilities, but we are also trying to teach him that you have to work to reach your goals. NFL players don't just walk onto the field on game day and start playing. They train all week and off-season. Not to say that we are pushing for a NFL player here, just saying it's about setting a goal and working for it. Sometimes it's hard work and not always fun. I am hoping to get the Wii soon, so will use that as exercise as well, with the Wii Fit. But for a child like this, we almost have to schedule exercise otherwise he wouldn't do it.

What about scheduling play dates at your own home? I think this is very valuable, more so than scheduled activities. I have found that at most activities, the children have very little time for "free socialization" because they are busy doing whatever activity is scheduled, then it's over and most parents hop in the car and are off to the next errand/event, etc. My good friend HS's an only, and they are impossibly busy. Both she and her son are extrovert types, but sometimes I think they over do it, at least for me. They have somewhere to be and something to do every day, almost. In between they invite friends over to play, and plus neighborhood children are always around. She has a hard time understanding why I can't take my own son (same age as her DS) to EVERY activity they go to.....cuz I have two little ones to drag along and it's just not possible to do that every day.

Well, let's not forget that diet plays a huge factor in this scenario as well. If you are feeding a ick diet, then Omega 3 will only go so far, and maybe not far enough to see a difference. Not saying anyone here is doing that, just putting it out there. I know that making HUGE diet changes is almost too overwhelming to many people, but simple things like eliminating red food dye in foods (which suprisingly enough, is added to ALOT of foods, even things that should be red, ketchup, cranberry juice etc) can help, and that is not too hard to do. I usually see a difference in about a week or so, assuming our diet is going the right direction as well. Sometimes, depending on our schedule, we fall off the right wagon, and start doing the "whatever is quickest" wagon, and behaviour issues usually fall right along.

It depends on the subject and grade level. We have done History for 1st-4th grade. This is all 80% done on-line, with some off-line activities and extra reading thrown in. It would be impossible to do without the online portion. We used everything, all subjects for 4th grade. You need the online portion for Science. We did not need the online portion for GUM (which is Language Arts, including Vocab, Spelling, Comp, Lit, Grammar), nor did we need the online portion for Math. There may have been "extras" that we missed by not having the online services for these subjects, but definately nothing that was detrimental to using the material. I had bought all of the material used (but not actually used), so it was mine to keep. If you bought the material from K12 directly, and then canceled the online portion, not sure but I "think" you have to send it back. Other grade levels will vary. I know for 5th and 6th grade history, US History, they use Joy Hakim's books, so not sure how much of the online you would actually need.

Good to hear! I ordered WWE level 1 for my DS10 last week.....dang Amazon still hasn't shipped it...can't wait for it to arrive.

I use the free program from HomeSchool Tracker. It does everything I need it to at this point, although I know many prefer the paid version. I schedule week by week. This way I can look at our activities for the upcoming week and know which days I might need to not schedule so much work as compared to the days where we are home all day. I put in each of DS10's subjects, the page number, the assignment, how many points the work is worth (just some formula I figured out, so DS can have his "report card" he likes to get at the end of the semester). I print out the schedule by the week, it's all listed there, so I don't forget what we need to do, and the subjects that he works independently, he doesn't need to wait for me to get started on it.

When are you starting? Apologia is coming out with a elementary Anatomy book by Jeannie Fulbright. It is supposed to be out this summer. So if you can wait, this book will probably be as fabulous as the rest of her books.

As a indepedent user of K12, you certainly can pick and choose what you use/do in the program. You can skip chapters, sections, whole portions. We used K12 for 4th grade, and for LA, we did the grammar, spelling and Vocab (each a completely independent program, with their own books) and skipped the Literature (although we read the books, both the readers that come with the program as well as picked from the list of novels they gave us, just didn't do the "study" portion of the Lit program), as well as skipped all writing portions. But you can't BUY them all seperately, so it should would cost alot of you only wanted a Lit program.

California Baby for us too. I buy it at www.vitacost.com....or www.drugstore.com (if on sale there). It does leave a bit of white "film" on the skin, but I like that cuz it shows me where I missed. The film doesn't come off on clothes or stain anything. We have been using this for 3 years or so...living in Florida, going to the beach quite often, long weekends all day at baseball tournaments, long afternoons at the pool (sometimes I remember to reapply, and sometimes I don't)....no sunburns in our family ever. Yes, a necessary expensive, so I pay the price for a organic high-quality product.

That is the book that we used for K12 math last year. Does it have a purplish cover with a picture of fruit? If so, that is the exact math we did for K12 for 4th. That being said, we didn't officially use it from K12, we dropped the K12 online portion as it was nothing worth paying for since all of the work came straight from the book. So we used the book only, no TM, no guidelines, etc and my son did just fine with it. You can definately use it as your main spine and if the child needs extra help on a particular part, use free worksheets etc from the internet. If I remember right, the publisher, SO, has their own website where they offer extra worksheets, games etc that correlate for free. hth Oh, wait, I think we did K12 5th grade math last year, when DS was in 4th...so book might be different than I described, but all of my other info is correct :).

I was just reading another thread about TT Math, and someone said the format changes after Math 7??? Can someone explain exactly how it changes???? We used TT7 this year, and was planning on moving up to PreAlg. What are the differences? Now I am worried :(((!

Here's what I have planned: Math: TT Pre-Algebra Science: Apologia Astronomy Latin: Lively Latin Writing: Starting WWE this month, hoping to fly through lower levels this summer, work through 3 and 4 in fall, and on to Writing Tales Vocab: Wordly Wise History: All-American History Vol 1 and lots of Historical fiction Art: Artistic Pursuits Typing: Class via FLVS P.E.: Homeschool PE via City Rec, plus various team sports depending on season hmm...thinking I am forgetting something, but that is the jist

The workbook is word-for-word the same as the lecture....but IMHO, it's a pricey program just to use the workbooks:001_huh:.

I have this and love it. We have used it for Science, doing Apologia Zoo II, Marine Animals....so we are able to watch different videos on all kinds of ocean creatures. We have used it for History...any subject you want to talk about, there is something....we talked about the Berlin Wall coming down and then promptly went and watched the actual footage of Ronald Reagan's speech at the Berlin Wall. We have watched it for various other things here and there. It has a Spanish program that many people like, but the system to organize the lessons was painstaking, so I never followed through on that. We did the first few lessons and did like it, so might do it again. It even had a TM to print if wanted, and correlating worksheets for the lessons. The first lesson, they had my son making a family tree with the Spanish words for family members. There is SO much on there, Language Arts, etc etc etc. What I really like about it is that you can have the child watch just a few minutes of a program. For example, if you were to watch a documentary on Animal Planet about ocean creatures, but just wanted to hear about jelly fish, your child would have to sit for the whole 30-60 minute program just to hear the five minutes of jellyfish. Here, they have listed the program out by subject matter, so you can click right to the five minutes of jellyfish and just watch that part. I love it.

Okay, is any one selling these things, cuz I see lots of things on these lists that I want to buy....how's that for a addiction....trying to buy things that aren't even listed for sell.....ugh! Seriously, whoever posted HWT for K, and Artistic Pursuits......I am buying if you are selling!

Yayyyy! Thanks ladies.....I feel better with the WTM permission ;).

My sister did this. Basically the company called all of the creditors, and negotiated a lower pay off balance, and monthly payments. Then my sister paid one lump sum to the company, who then paid the individual companies (and I assume they kept a slice for themselves, how they stay in business??). I guess it worked for her, I mean, all of her old bills are paid off. Not sure about her credit rating, didn't really ask. But I do know the monthly payment she paid each month was quite a struggle for her, but she followed through. The thing is, you can TOTALLY do this yourself. Most creditors are happy to accept a part of what you owe, better than getting nothing. And they will take payments. But better yet, if you can pay them a lump sum right then. I did this a few years ago for some of mine. Say, I owed $1000....called them and said, "look, I can pay you $250 right now, and then we call this settled and done with". If they accept, you pay, request them to send you a payment letter, and it clears up your credit report in 30 days.

I am wondering if we can skip grammar for one year, in 6th grade. My DS10 has a good grasp on grammar as we used Shurley for the first couple of years, a year of K12 grammar, and now using GWG. My son is a very rule-oriented kind of guy, and since grammar follows basic rules, he grasps it easily. We will be doing several other programs that could tie in Grammar. We will be doing Lively Latin Book 1, Wordly Wise Vocab, and starting from level 1 WWE. I am wondering if it would be detrimental to not do grammar this year, and pick it back up again next year, since he would get basic review with these other programs. Just trying to see if we can cut out a few things, otherwise I have such a long daily list of work for him planned at this point, I think we will both have meltdowns :).

I would suggest that you focus more on how the program teaches the cursive techniques, rather than how the font actually looks. As we continue to use cursive, most people start to put their own "style" to it. I bet if you asked 10 of us to write the same sentence in cursive, most of us would be writing our font vastly different, and you probably would not be able to guess which font we used to learn cursive as a child. I already see this in my DS10, who used HWT cursive 2 years ago. His cursive is beautiful, but has already changed from the basic HWT font he learned. I found the HWT font was very easy to teach, and very easy for my son to learn the letter strokes.

Yes, I do agree the so-called "socialization" in public schools is a myth, as well as a travesty. 1. Alot of the socialization is not something that I would want my children participating in, ie name calling (I heard 1st graders in our neighborhood calling someone "gay"), peer pressure. 2. Socialization is often squashed in PS, due to the large amount of children....ie, children labeled as "they talk to much"....when my DS went to PS in 1st grade for 3 weeks, my DH went to the school to eat lunch with him...the teachers turned the lights out in the lunchroom because there was "too much talking"...everyone had to be silent and eat until they turned the lights back on. Also, I do believe introvert/extrovert is a born-personality trait that CAN NOT be changed, regardless of what situations you put the child in. They can be overcome, but not changed. It only does the introvert more harm by forcing them into situations they are not comfortable with, and often, especially in PS, the introvert is labeled as "weird" or outcast, ie the wallflower. Case in point: My DS10 went to daycare from 10 weeks old, while I worked full-time. From age 4, he attended a private school for K4 and K5. This was a small, wonderful private school, 13 children in his class, same ones for two years. Point is, he "went to school" and was "socialized" from very early on his life. He is extremely shy, would never iniate a conversation with another child, and often "hangs in the background". Started HSing in the 1st grade (after those three horrible weeks in PS). I have presented him and enrolled him in numerous classes, and opportunities to meet children and "socialize". Ever so slowly, I can see him coming just a wee bit out of his shyness, in certain environments. He will always be shy, but he is learning, as his self-confidence grows, to overcome it. My DS6 is a complete extrovert. He has never attending daycare, or school. He has been home with me since Day one. He makes friends whereever he goes. Children always know his name, always saying hi to him. He walks up to a crowd of children at the playground and is instantly immersed in whatever game they are playing. I feel sad that some parents think they are socializing their child by droppign them off at PS for 8 hours a day. Not judging, but just sad that they do not know they have better options.

You have two options: 1. Register with the county as a homeschooler. Once you do this, you have to send in an annual testing OR portofolio review, both done by a certified teacher. NEITHER has to show child is at grade level, but only that progress was made through the year. It's a simple form that a certified teacher signs off basically saying the child is progressing. or 2. Register with a umbrella school. In this case, you "legally" are not considered a homeschooler, but instead a private school student. As such, what you have to do depends on the requirements of the private school. There are many that do not require statements of faith. There are some that are more involved, and cost more $$, and there are some that are very basic, just to cover the legal requirements, and cost very $$. Most will require attendance records, to show 180 school days. As far as FLVS, that is only for 6th grade and higher. It is also on the chopping block at the State Legislature this month, so funds might be drastically reduced, thereby limiting what classes are offered. Wouldn't count on that taking care of all the classes for your child, especially if he is "behind", as you said. Did you mean FLVA? That's a whole other ball of wax, and you are not a homeschooler, but a public school student who does their work at home, ie virtual schooler. It has it's benefits and drawbacks. That is also on the chopping block at Legislature, so who knows where it will be by the fall. There are also very specific requirements for students to be eligible to do FLVA, so I would definately talk with the county to see if you qualify before deciding to go that route.

Why pay $$ if you are JUST looking for states/capitals. There are tons of free websites with U.S. maps broken up by region. Start with a region, pick a state. Have child color map of that state, labeling capital, border states, points of interest. Day two, create flashcard of state. Repeat 49 times.....review flashcards daily. Have child fill in blank regional map occasionally, and US map when all done. This is what I did this year, and my son knows all of his states by sight/shape, and their capitals. I did a few other things, like State Fact Sheet, etc, but weren't necessary. So easy, and cheap!

It's fine if you are mentally prepared to get "off" schedule when your child takes longer on a particular subject, or it just doesn't go well on any particular day. For me, although I am a planner by nature, having such a rigid schedule, I would start to get stressed out if we got off schedule time-wise. I find it much better when I loosely plan what I want to get done in a week, day by day, so I know my goals, but if something goes askew, then my mind doesn't flip on me. If math takes us 15 minutes, but science took us a hour, so be it. We got them both done. Also I like to give "breaks" when it seems like my child needs it, getting squirmy, frustrated, etc, not so much by the clock. It comes as a nice "treat" for them when I tell them they are doing great today, why don't you take a little break and stretch your legs. Also, I think you loose some "fun" when doing subjects like History, Art, Science when you are so rigid in time. If a day comes along where your child really takes an interest in the subject, and wants to explore, and read another book, or look at a website, or re-do the experiment cuz it was fun, your time isn't allowing that. Flexibility is so key with education young children.