You don't even need the PLUS to do this. I use the free one, and I can do all of this. I load up my son's schedule for the full week. You can add notes, such as read Chapter One, pages 2-10, you have a whole box to add notes. Then after you have it all loaded, you can determine how you want it to print, daily, weekly, monthly. So you could print a weekly schedule for youself, but then just print the daily one for your child. Also, it is easy to change anything if your schedule changes, or you need to push a lesson back a day. I am LOVING this software...not sure why I would need to upgrade to the paid one. K

Not sure about your technical problems, but as far as what to use it for, there are SO many things, basically anything you might be learning about, they have a video for. We are studying US Geography, starting with New England states...found several videos about New England, history of, etc. We are studying Earth Science, currently on rock cycles, tetonic plates, volcanoes. TONS of videos about these things. And there is the Spanish (and other languages) others have mentioned. Almost anything you could study in History will have something. We aren't doing History right now, until we finish Science, so by mid-Sept we will be back into History and I am just salivating to start matching videos with our lesson plans. Truly, just figure out what you are studying for next week in your curriculum and then do a search on US for it. They will have something that correlates :) Have fun! K

We do not normally have "homework"....but that being said....I planned on doing this last year, started it, but after a few times...didn't need to do it anymore...have the same plan this year as we gear up for a full load of work. Here is the plan: If I see my son dwaddling (ie unneccessary messing around, spacing out, working slow due to bad attitude), I give him a warning of a certain time "Ten minutes and then we have to move on"......if the work is not done then we move on and he has to finish that work during his "own time". His "own time" is after school work, exercise and chores are done...which this is usually in the early afternoons (1p ish). So said unfinished work would have to be completed at that time. So a few times last year of this and my son realizing what this meant, it wasn't too much of an issue. But also, we do work on some school work on Sunday a.m's, which are usually a quiet, at home time for us. So we will do one or two little things. Plus we do also school year around (light in the summer), so I am not so much bent on "having to be done by a certain date". So to answer the question, honestly, I don't see why a HSer would have to do "homework", unless they wanted to. K

You should try avoid all products with chemicals. Any of those things you listed are horrible for people with sensitive skin...well, really, horrible for any of us. You are putting straight chemicals onto his skin. Read the labels and then look up those ingredients. scary! Look for Organic products. Products that do not contain Sulfates. California Baby products are great, and carried in Target as well as some grocery stores. It's just gonna be a fact for ya....you will have to buy certain products for your child, you won't be able to shop for those cheap things. good luck! K

My five year old son does the same thing.....when I see the wet spot, I would be like :(, Oh, did you pee? and he would act totally surprised, like he didn't even realize it. It is not a full blown, run down the leg thing, it is like a trickle. And he definately had no intention of changing, until I saw it. I don't see what a pediatrician is going to do, except prescribe a medication, which will probably come with other side effects. BTW, my son was premature as well, 29 1/2 weeks...thankfully at this point we do not have any associated issues, and didn't have your DD's issue, obviously :). Here is the thing: Try a chiropractor. Think about it, the spinal cord controls everything our body does. If a nerve is pinched/bent/out of wack somewhere, the bladder might not be getting the full message that it is full and needs to be emptied, or the sensation that it is emptying NOW might be dulled. Now with children, from the birthing process, to constantly falling from learning to walk, and just being children, their bodies are constantly being joshed and juggled. Their spines are out of whack, even ever so slightly. Many chiropractors work with children, and the process is very gentle. After a handful of visits, we have seen marked improvement with my son. Actually, you would be amazed at what a well-adjusted spine will do for many people. The thing is, if your daughter's spine is not in alignment, it can lead to other different issues as well. I am not talking as drastic as scolios, but minor issues that are cumbersome in life, just like this pants wetting issue. I am of the homoepathic/holistic mindset when it comes to medicine, so the last thing I want to do is give my son a medicine for something like this. Talk to a chiropractor, consults are usually free. I know several families that chiropractic care has helped with pant-wetting/bed wetting issues. K

We go anywhere and everywhere during school hours. Actually, alot of times, that is the BEST time go to, cuz you miss the crowds...if you are going to a child-oriented place. As far as anyone wondering about us, who cares! If they want to ask, we tell them. We should not be ashamed and made to feel as if we have to hide in the house. We are proud to be homeschoolers. Alot of people have commended us when told we are HSers. I dont' think that you want to give that idea to your children "We can only be in the backyard during school hours" Why? "Because we don't want people to know we are at home doing school". Leave your house, walk the streets, go to the playground, enjoy life! K

I guess it depends on what stage of baby food you are making. Are you making first foods, which are basically mush? Or are you making finger, pick up yourself foods? For first foods, I made the food first before freezing. I would parch or boil if needed, but if not needed, then I would grind in the food grinder. It is a electric one, so it needed a little bit of water to get the process going. So I would add water, a tablespoon or so, in the mix. Then I froze the mixture in ice cube trays, put the cubes in baggies and defrosted as we needed them. Not sure about freezing whole pieces of fruit though. But I would certainly suggest NOT adding sugars...kind of defeats the purpose of making your own food, if you are doing for health reasons. hth K

I had this same problem. I had my son take the PreAlg test first, after looking at it, I thought he would have no problem. Well, he freaked out that it was a "PreAlgebra" test, and did miserably, said he couldn't even answer half the questions. :(. So then I had him take the 7th test and put white-out over the "7th" label, so he had no idea it was a 7th grade test. He aced it. I thought that the placement tests for the two very very similiar. So I am thinking that it wasn't that he couldn't do the PreAlgebra test, but more he "THOUGHT" he couldn't do it. So then I saw TT at our local homeschool convention. I placed 7 and Prealg side by side with the table of contents open. Most of the chapters were the exact same, but the order was ever-so-slightly different. And then the last 2-3 chapters were different. So at that I point, I was thinking go right into PreAlg Then I got home and did a online chat with TT customer service. I asked what the difference was. She did say that Math 7 covers a little more geometry whereas PreAlg dives more into Algebra (must be these last few chapters). So now I am pretty sure we will do Math 7. Here are my reasons, although there will probably be heavy review/repeat in PreAlg the following year, I am thinking the actual problems will be slightly more advanced. Two, I am going with this curriculum so that I do not have to be involved with Math as much (as it is my weak subject, especially as we get into th ehigher levels, plus this is my first year with HSing my K son), so I want to make sure that he is comfortable, not pressured/stressed, with Math. So I fear that with PreAlg, it might be too much at certain times for him, thereby requiring me to jump in more than I am hoping to. Third, I think that if he thinks certain parts are "too easy" then that will be a confidence booster for him, since I do feel as we get into these higher grade levels (doing 5th this year), there will be certain subjects that he is going to struggle, ie composition, so to have others that are deemed easy, will create a balance for him. Fourth, he is already going to be 2 grade levels ahead in math, as it just comes naturally to him, so I do not feel any pressure to skip him ahead THAT much just because he might be able to do the work. So it will be Math 7 for us. In the end, when he moves to PreAlg, it might be too much review, thereby a waste of money, but the resale value of TT is so good, it won't be that much $$ wasted for the benefits of going with Math 7. hth K