Yes, after much research, we decided to go digital piano. It is a full keyboard, pedals, weighted keys...it's essential the same as playing a real piano. It is not a keyboard. If you saw it, with the keyboard cover down, you'd think it was a real piano. As far as getting a real piano, used and cheap, that was my plan until I researched. Most pianos only have a 20-30 year life span, if kept in prime conditions. When one is bought from Craigslist, etc, it's common for the story to be "it was my Moms" or "it was given to us"...so we don't know the history of it,how old it is, how it's been stored, etc. A piano can not be against an outside wall, as the fluctuation of temps will affect how it plays. So let's say you find a deal, $200, on a used piano. Then pay $150 for it to be moved (most people simply can not move these on their own). Then you pay a tuner, a requirement, to come tune it. If that is ALL they find wrong with it, another $150ish. But often on these used pianos, there's so much more wrong that a piano newbie just wouldn't know by looking at it. So the repair cost jumps up. Then the annual,tuning of $150ish. So your $200 piano deal just cost you $500-600 plus, and the annual expense. It just wasn't worth the risk for us. Plus we are renting to we wanted digital so when we move, we don't have to worry about the moving expense of the piano again. With digital, it was more upfront but then we are done, no fees, no upkeep,,etc. We are looking at it as an educational investment, three boys using it (and me :). Even if in 10 years, all three say they are done, we got our money worth.

Asking seller to pay closing costs is not a habit or trend started by a TV show. We asked that when we bought our first house, 18 years ago, as prompted by our very experience and very successful real estate agent. We, as the sellers, in turn were asked to pay the closing costs 8 years later (different agents involved as well). As far as a teacher and social worker, or,whoever looking for what you deem expensive, it's important to note the market they live in. A $400,000 house here would be a huge McMansion, but in other areas, CA comes to mind, that would be a starter house. We can assume that a buyer wouldn't be looking for a house in a price range that they weren't already approved for, nor are we aware of their whole financial picture when we watch a 30 minute show on HGTV.

Thanks all...definately some good points I hadn't considered...exactly why I asked. The point about the full load vs. required mininum and the time to graduate...that made sense, I hadn't thought about it that way. MyThreeSons, we are in SC too....I didn't realize that dual-enrollment counted as AP for GPA. My son is taking two AP classes this year, and I'd imagine 1-2 next year....that GPA is a driving force because of those Palmetto scholarships and the SC tution ones, so if he could do dual enrollment, that would be beneficial for GPA and the other reasons. Definately some things to consider!

it's not free? Dealing with our oldest, so first time really considering these things for the "here and now". When we lived in another state, I know that dual enrollment was free at the local community college, for high school age students, for certain classes. The student just paid for books. Of course, that is a win-win....get some college credits done at a very economical cost. I'd heard of some students (public and homeschool) who'd graduate from high school with their Associates almost completed. But now we are in another state. Dual enrollment is not free. We'd pay for the class just as any other person taking the college class. I get that a homeschool high school student might still do it, 1. for the class experience 2. for transcript effectiveness 3. to get higher level classes than Mom might not feel comfortable doing at home. But my oldest is in public school. He's taking Honors and AP classes. He scored very well on his first SAT (taken as a "dry-run" with no prep at all). WIth a bit of prep over this next year, he'll knock the SAT out of the park, and probably the same on the ACT. So getting IN to a college shouldn't be a problem, and likely with a good number of scholarships (our state does offer guaranteed scholarships for in-state tution based on GPA/SAT/ACT...from lottery funds) And all students at a college have to take a mininum number of credits to be classified as a full-time student, so it's not like it would lessen his class load once he goes off to college. The only benefit I see for him dual-enrolling while in high school is that he'd complete his college degree quicker. Though honestly, at this point, as a junior, he has NO idea what he wants to do in college, so frankly, I don't see a huge rush to get him graduated from college...take your time, within reason, enjoy the experience, learn about yourself, and life so that you graduate in a field that you have an interest in. Am I missing a point and benefit to dual enrollment in this situation? We'll have a meeting in the spring with his guidance counselor regarding his senior year plans, but I'd like to go in with my eyes wide open regarding this topic. When I mentioned it last spring for his junior year (in my knowledge of the other state we lived in, it was common to start this as a junior), she kinda blew by it, said she didn't really recommend it.

Agree with this, one could not get any MORE touristy than Myrtle Beach. Along the beach itself, is several miles if neon-lit, cheap souviner stores, with bottle neck traffic. So then they built more tourist stuff in the outskirts, several "one stop shop type" mall places, with restaurants...Broadway at the Beach is the big one....there you get tourist things like Dolly Parton's show, Medieval times, House of blues, etc. While none of this is "bad", as long as you went to MB fully aware you will slapped around with lots of traffic, tons of neon lights, and a slew of tourists not fully clothed. Honestly, having been to MB and Orlando several times...Orlando being THE tourist Mecca, there isn't much difference in terms if the "atmosphere"....except for it's all beached theme instead of Mickey themed.

So she was talking about you on the phone....kinda like you are talking about her here????

Oldest son has went to public high school for the last two years, just went today to get his schedule for this year. There are no mandatory fees or,supplies. We do pay $100 for football (though there are scholarships for families that need it), and $57 for mandatory school athletic insurance (again scholarships for those that need them). Other than that, we paid $10 for class dues (collected to pay for senior prom and reunions). Other OPTIONAL fess could be student parking fee (spaces are limited so sold and assigned), and yearbook fee. So we pay for football, otherwise the only real fee is the class dues. Everything else is optional. Teachers do send "wish lists" the first week for supplies, but nothing is mandatory, nor really even tallied in terms of,who brought what. This is a high school in a relatively well-to-do part of,town (we just got lucky with zoning)....it's the norm to see all the fancy cars in the car pool line. And I wanted to add, that in our county, the athletic teams get a very small budget from the county, most of,what is needed is not covered by the school budget, ie bus expense, food for the team before games, field maintenance , etcetera etc. So to pay $100 to help cover my sons participation, I'm fine with that. People,always complain that a school should not be footing the bill for athletics, and around here, they really aren't....but then we must not complain if we have to pay out of pocket for it.

Yep, I get the sadness...when my oldest went to public school as a freshman, I literally felt like crying (felt the same as I did the day I dropped him off for K5...the last year he went to a school). And I thought about him all day! I'm not even a weepy kinda gal. Took about a week for it to become MY new normal, and feel okay. I assume I'll feel the same in two years when he goes off to college!

You keep quoting this article...which is someone else's point of view after watching the same video most of us watched. Go watch it yourself before judging TS. Did the article also make it very clear that TS was following another car, and literally has one second to react to a man standing right in front of him? You act as if it is very straight forward that TS made a direct hit. Did the article also mention the victim was hit by a back tire....on a vehicle where the back end is wider than the front end, the back tired are bigger than the front tires (at least from the video it appears that way)....so it appears TS did try to swerve away, and the front of the car missed the victim but the wider back end clipped him. You are so firm on your judgement without watching the video???

I just went to the online version last month after having used the + version for the past six years. I didn't necessarily want to, I wanted something prettier, something online and something that did all that HST+ did. None of the other online ones do, and most are more expensive. They are prettier but don't do all that HST does. In the end, I did the jump to the online version. I found it's been a quick learning curve (in relation to how long it took me to understand HST+ originally). Within a few day, I'm had the online version down. It's fundamentally the same, just a few different things.

Then this is nothing new, how it is today, and does not indicate FastPass is being done away with. If the plan is to always charge off-site guests for the Magic Band, then the plan is also to always have it as optional....Disney isn't going to burn the bridge of day guests, and require them to purchase a magic and, at a higher rate. Raise ticket prices to include and cover Magic Bands, possibly, but never to require them at a extra price. Disney guests already get more noticeable perks, ie 60 day window to book FastPass, instead of just 30. Invite to Be Our Guest quick service lunch without the wait in line. Not to mention the convenience that Magic Bands offer. But again, none of this says Fast Passes are being done away with, simply changing how they are obtained...which is already done. Disney values their day guests as much as resort guests...of,course we make more money from Resort guests, so they get those perks. But the hundreds and hundreds of hotels in the Orlando area are there for a reason, the Disney day guests, and they come in by the droves...that bridge won't be burned.

Fast pass is not being phased out....the way fast pass is done has changed. Disney has spent millions to change the system to be more electronic based, ie the Magic plus bands.....but the concept of FastPass stays the same...ie, an appointment for an attraction to avoid the long lines. It will be a while before day guests get Magic Bands....right now they have to,pay $14.95 for them. Until then, they use paper tickets/plastic tickets like always

I'm a planner, like the OCD kind. The past two years, I've used SOTW as my spine, always had a read-aloud going along that correlated to history, and had my boys doing readers that correlated as part of their history. Also notebooking. I love to add in visual resources, so Brainpop, and Discovery Streaming (have both free due to a offering in my state), even Netflix, and Amazon Prime streaming. Oh, and recordings from Direct TV, ie History Channel. I like field trips galore as well, but last year doing Middle Ages, not so many to do around here. This year we are doing American History. I am using Simply Charlotte Mason's Early Modern and & Epistles as my spine. It actually does two day a week on U.S. History and 2 days on world History. I'm ignoring the World History portion for this year. I want to focus purely on U.S. I'm just about done planning our year. So we'll read the Chapter in SCM. Let's say it's about Jamestown. That's it..one chapter about Jamestown...that's just not enough on such an interesting topic! So first day, we read the SCM chapter. Then I'll put that down, and spend the next week or so fleshing out the topic. So we'll watch short videos or clips on United Streaming. I've got a documentary planned from Netflix. We are going to read a book about Pocohantas...got a few documentary clips on her to watch. We are doing Mapwork. Notebooking page, timeline piece. Oh, and I got SOTW Vol 3 audio (from the library), so I'm matching up the chapters of that to our studies...leaving out the chapter that are about world history happenings. So overall, from that one chapter, one day read from SCM on Jamestown, I've got about 10 days of lesson plans scheduled. That might take us 2-3 weeks to complete depending on how many days a week we do school each week. Then we move on to the next topic/chapter of SCM..and again do the same thing...if it's a topic that needs to be fleshed out, IMHO, we stop and spend some time fleshing it out. Oh and we live in one of the 13 original colonies, lol...in the South, so we do have lots of field trips we can do...Revolutionary battle sites, Civil war sites, plantatations, forts, etc etc! So I'm hoping to have time/funds to do some of those as well!

The teenager crickets chirping syndrome means where there seems to be no social activities for the homeschooled teenagers. Around here, it seems that homeschooled teenagers either 1. To busy in some ultra-involved activity to get out much...ie "He's training for National Swim meet" or "He's a piano prodigy" type stuff. 2. Already have a network of friends, ie church group, or grew up together. or 3. Not sure...just not interested??? Maybe has a part-time job? Who knows. I just know that there isn't much around here in terms of organized social outlets for a group of homeschooled teens. The few attempts that people have made to make it happened, fizzled out after low-to-no participation. That was one factor for us sending our oldest to public school...we were kinda new to the area, not wanting to do a church group, and just couldn't find much to get him out with people of his age group...we needed him to interact with other humans, lol! Perhaps it would have been better for him if we already had a network established....I look back at our homeschool "network" before we moved to this state...the children and moms that we hung out with and saw quite a bit...and they still do that now that their children are teenagers....the travesty of moving when your child is in middle school age, and introverted, I guess. Anyhoo, I want to try to avoid that with DS11, and get him out there to meet and greet before he hits the official teen years in hopes that he has a "network" established, if that makes sense. As far as weekend school work...nope, I've been HSing for 11 years now, and I know what works for our family. "I" need a day off from being the homeschooling mom, and just be Mom. I want to interact with my oldest son too, he's at school Mon-Friday. DH is home on the weekends, we rarely see him during the week due to his work schedule. Neighborhood children are knocking on my door for DS11 and DS8 to come out and play....I'm just not willing to take that away at this point when I WANT them to go outside and play, and be children. We have a really great group of neighborhood kids right now...all nice respectful children...and I've been in other neighborhoods where that isn't the case, and I know what happens when these 11 year old boys get a few years older, they start to go outside less and less. So when it's Saturday at 11a.m. and we've got nowhere to be, and the boys want to go out and play, I want give a big ol' YES, go enjoy the day! So I am not willing to do weekend schoolwork at this point. After further thought, I think I've decided to do it this way: Monday: Co-op 9a-12p, and then do Speech/Vision 2:30-3:30p....gives us a bit of time to linger after co-op if we want to chat, a break to come home, eat lunch, and let the puppy out. Then after Therapies, we will be right around the corner from DS16's school to pickup after football season. Long day overall, but it is what it is, I guess. Thursday: Piano: 10:30-11:30, and then PE from 12p-2p. That will essentially eat up our Thursday, but I realized PE is on our way home from Piano, so less gas/time etc to do that all in the same neck of the woods. I'm going to give this a shot this semester and see how it goes. I only have to pay for co-op for the first semester now, so if I decide this co-op is too much of a waste, then we just won't do it again next semester. THanks for letting me think this out!!

We stayed at the Residence Inn in "Pentagon City". Arlington, but they called that area Pentagon City. We could see the Pentagon from our window (across the interstate). It was a great price, I paid like $135 for a suite. It had a King bed, and a double pull out couch..but the couch itself was like areally long L...so one section pulled out and then another section...the leg of the L was actually the perfect size for my DS8. So all five of us had plenty of sleeping room. Full kitchen..which we only used to keep water in the fridge...but nice to have. Oh, and FREE Wifi!! So many hotels in the area charge for Wifi, which is not what I am used to. While we were not in the room much during the day, I knew once we got back at night, we'd all want to sit around and relax with iPads, etc. So free Wifi was a priority to me...no way was I going to pay $12.95 a night for Wifi! They serve a huge breakfast, more than the regular continental stuff..and weekdays, Mon-Thurs, they serve an actual dinner. We never ate the dinner, but walked through the lobby and they were serving cheeseburgers and different sides. All included in price! It recently has been renovated so it was really nice and practially brand new. One block to the Pentagon City Metro....which has a CVS right next to it...where we bought a case of water for our room. Huge mall across the street..didnt' bother with that. Costco around the other corner. We were super happy with everything. I didn't want a hotel that was not within a block of the Metro...most hotels offer free shuttle to a metro stop..but I've read horror stories of people having to wait for the shuttle...I don't have the patience for that! Here's a tip for you. Because I am ultra cheap, I was aghast that I would have to pay for parking at a hotel I am staying at. I went to www.airportparking.com...I think that was it....anyway, the same hotels that I was considering are there, and they only charge $7.00 per night when you book at this website..as long as you are not actually staying at the hotel...so non-guests could get cheaper rates (I guess the concept is it is for airport travelers to park there and catch a shuttle to the airport). I booked a parking reservation for $7.00 a night at a hotel a block down from where we stayed (and it was a Embassy Suites...very nice hotel too, their secured under ground parking garage). So we checked into our hotel, unloaded luggage, etc, and then DH went and parked the car at the hotel a block down,and walked back to our hotel. The day we left, DH went and got the car, and came back to our hotel. So I paid $7 a night instead of the $21 a night my hotel wanted to charge.

FastPass is essentially an appointment to come back to a particular ride/attraction/event at a certain time to avoid a long line. For example, the regular line for Ana and Else (Frozen chicks) is 3-4 hours each day. If you get a FastPass, it says to come at a certain time, say between 2p-3p, and then you get to go in via the FastPass line, and may only have no wait-10 minute wait. There are other popular attractions that will have similiar long waits...the new Dwarf's Gem Mine ride....3-4 hours. There is no charge for Fastpass. One can start their day with up to 3, and get more as they use those three. So yes doing Disney without planning is do-able, depending on the time of year...and if you don't mind standing in line 3-4 hours for many rides/attractions. Of course, that time varies WIDELY depending on time of year. We only go in Oct-early Nov, or March-early May...and only during weekdays...and we've had visits were there was literally no wait for the rides we wanted to go on. We do Space Mountain, a roller coaster, 4 times by walking on, riding, and going right back on. If you went this week, you'd stand in line for 2 hours mininum. Fastpasses can be booked online now, at MyDisneyExperience.com...60 days in advance if you are staying at a Disney resort, and 30 days in advance if you are just coming to the parks (and buy your ticket in advance). One can still get Fastpasses at the park, the day they walk in, but you are going to get the left-over times..the times that no one else selected...and some attractions FastPasses simply just book up. You also will not be able to eat at any sit-down restaurants if you don't make reservations in advance. The most popular book up 4-6 months in advance. The others will be booked up within the month of any given arrival date. There will be some choices left, but not the ones you want...meaning I am in Magic Kingdom today and want to eat here....we won't have any availibility, but I could get you a restaurant at a resort (meaning you have to leave the park). Yes there are quick-service places to eat, no reservation required, and that's fine...but fast food meals get old after a few days, ya know. (I work for Disney dining, that's why I say "we", lol!) I would say DIsney is easy to do with no planning if you have older kids, children that understand the long line, children who won't get grumpy if they can't eat at the regular time, etc...but with the ages of OP...no, I'd not waste the money to go to Disney and not put in a bit of advance planning to get the best experience. Why bother going? ps. Disneyland is much easier to do than Disney World because it's MUCH SMALLER. It's like shopping at a convienence store/gas station versus shopping at Wal-Mart. Not in terms of quality, but in terms of the square footage. Of course, it's easy to get in and out of convenience store, there just isn't as much to get there.

You'd ultimately pay double the cost, and double the time. Many hotels charge for parking, even for their own guests...anywhere from $20-40 a day. Then you will pay for parking in DC....ain't no where free during business hours. Even weekends are hard to find unless you park several blocks away....and then walk....after you spent much time driving around looking for a spot. Traffic is horrifying at certain parts of the day, especially if you are coming from Alexandria etc...as so do all the commuters. We stayed in Arlington. We used the Metro, a block walk from our hotel. Our Metro stop was 3 from the Smithsonian metro. Literally 10 minutes or so, once we were on the metro. Paid a few bucks each (cheaer when you get the Smartpass card, like a plastic card). The Metro took us everywhere we wanted to go. It was a very easy process as far as getting to and from everything. The last day, we checked out of the hotel and decided to do one last stop at the National Mall area. That was quite the process....we realized we had been spoiled by the previous day of easy on easy off the Metro.

Forget the advice of "cut back on outside activities'...I get that, and I've done that various years in our HSing lives, and that is my main motto...but I don't see these current activities as optional for this year really. I'm keeping it at minimalist as I can, really. I'm trying to decide if I should schedule as many outside activities as a I can on the same days, thereby giving us the the maximum amount of days without required appointments, thus full days at home, or for whatever we want to do, or spread them out over the week, with the benefit of being able to schedule them later in the day so could still get most of our school work done each day. The thing with us...it never seems to matter how late an appointment is, we tend to still be rushing to get out of the house at the last minute...and I kinda hate the "let's get it done, we've gotta leave by a certain time today" pressure. So we have these that time/date is set: 1. Co-op: Mondays 9a-12p. I'm not all in for co-ops, have done them in years past and have gone some years with out them...but this co-op I think just might be the one for us...it doesn't offer a huge variety of classes just to be able to offer a huge variety. It's on a smaller scale, and kids of same age range/grade level range stay together to rotate through Art, Science, and History (American this year, so matches what we are doing at home). The teachers are professional, or at least highly educated in their specific class, versus mom's who just like to teach that subject. Plus we need to get out and meet some different homeschoolers...our hsing circle of life has become rather stagnant in the past year as the ones we've connected with have gravitated towards other activities/gone back to school etc, and we just don't see them as much. I'm really wanting DS11 to have a firm social network of homeschoolers as he approaches the teen years to avoid that teenager "cricket's chirping syndrome" that seems to come along as homeschoolers get to the teen years. 2. Homeschool P.E.: Thursdays, 12-2p Non-negotiable...neither of my younger boys want to participate in organized sports...which is fine on one level, but on another level, we've always been a organized sports kinda family...and one of my boys tends to be a huge couch potato...so P.E. is a must. Then I have these that time/date is flexible, based on what I request: 1. Piano. 30 minutes each, so an hour...but count it as 1 1/2 hours due to travel time 2. Speech Therapy for one/Vision Therapy for another. One hour each, but thankfully at the same place and can be arranged for same time. So my option is to request that one of these things be scheduled after Co-op on Mondays, or before P.E. on Thursdays (can't do after PE because we have older son's football games on Thursday afternoons). If I do it that way, I'd have Tues/Wed/Friday with no set appts, so home all day for school work. Only three full days of schooling, at least MY schooling plans, that makes me uncomfortable..not what I like. But I can pretty much count on not getting much school done at all on Monday/Thursday, except maybe a bit of reading, etc. Yes, I know I can officially count these days as school days, but I'm referring to school days in terms of completing the work I've got planned for the year. One issue I see though, that if something comes up one of these days, illness or any other life bumps that can occur, that requires us to miss, then we've missed a WHOLE day of things, not just one activity. My other option is to request these two things to be on different days, possibly afternoons 2-3pish. That gives us a good chunk of every day to get school work done...though I doubt we'd do anything after co-op on Mondays, and with P.E. at noon on Thursdays, that has us leaving the house at 11:30...so getting ready at 11a, so really only about 2 hours of school work...not a whole lot of time there. This is forever long...but I guess I'm looking for some help here....make more happen on less days, or less happen on more days? What do you prefer?

For the future, I'd get in the middle, ie collect old keys from old tenants (or take $25 from their return deposit to cover), and pass key to new tenant, again with lease term of "return mail key or be fined $25). So while I don't feel you are obligated to this new tenant, to change how it is moving forward, refund the $25 with a signed clause that the key must be returned. Or other scenario, charge $25 upfront, as part of deposit to cover re-key. It is unfair that a new renter may or may not have to pay that fee, without prior knowledge. I think you need to reconsider your future policy to avoid this going forward as a courtesy to your renters.

Three boys here...and one acted similiar to what you describe...not so much the "I hate you" stuff...he was quite the opposite, so intensely snuggly, always on your lap, etc. But the rest, with the physical violence if life didn't go his way, the competiveness, etc. He is also quite the manipulator. I don't think it's a boy thing, I think it's a personality thing. For mine, maybe he fact that he's a middle child has made it worse, "never quite as good as the older brother". (Older brother leaves quite a trail of goodness to follow, excellent athlete, excellent student, rather nice person in general...not that we EVER compare and hold older son up to compare, just how I think middle DS may perceive in his own mind)......yet not the "baby brother who always gets his way".....again not how life is, but perhaps how middle DS perceives it. For most of middle DS's life, since he was old enough to do his own thing, walk talk, etc....it's literally been difficult at times to think he's even being raised in the same family, lol....he'd do such things that we just never do, we just never allow.....where did he get this? Meaning hitting was never something he necessarily saw at home. Not willing to share, definately not how we practiced and emulated that value. He is also high energy, always on the go etc. he's 11 now, and a lot of that has been outgrown, but he's still him at the core. He doesn't hit, or do physical things, but now it's more of the mind games, the manipulation, especially against his easiest victim, his little brother. He still is not a natural at sharing. My other children would offer you a drink/bite of theirs before they took a bite....asked DS11 if you can have a little bite after he'd have some, and his first reaction is to decline.....with a little prodding, he'd agree to share, and then rip off a fingernail size piece. Just a small example into how his personality works. Weird thing is, he's also the most outgoing child I have. He makes friends everywhere he goes, other kids love him. What I see when I watch, he's much nicer to those outside the house.....he shares willingly...so somewhere our parenting job has sunk in, I guess he's just choosing when to use those values. Not to say all this to be negative about him, just to point out that his personality formed beyond the morals and value, and examples we set for him. Yes, we worked on getting him not to hit and not to do the other mean things, and most of those stop. He is actually a great child, and I think he'll turn out okay.....who knows, maybe those personality traits will help him be successful as an adult.

Nothing to do with you, and of course you should not have to refund a fee that you did not collect nor require. Perhaps the tenant is not aware you are not involved in the fee. For future purposes, I'd have that the lease agreement, the info that a fee may be required by the PO, paid to the PO, and that you as the landlord do not collect or refund that fee.

I agree with the zoo comments. It's a beautiful,way to spend a fall afternoon, for 2 hours or,so. You may be one of the only people there during a weekday. Fun park across the street, my children would spend more time at the park than the zoo, lol. Columbia, or any other zoo, would be better, IMHO.

Is this really a co-op or just a class? Co-op means other parents at helpimg, pitching in, sharing the load. In that case, it needs to be relatively economical, as we are all helping and I'm assuming we'd all bring in what supplies we could. I'd say $25 a month is reasonable, to help cover any supplies families can't bring in. If this is a CLASS, where I bring my child, check him in ,and leave him to you for 2.5 hours,while I idly sit on the sidelines talking to other moms, surfing the net, reading a book, etc, and have no responsibilities other than picku/drop off, that's a whole different bird. And that bird should cost more. The local Y offers that here for $85 a month , one day a week, two hours. Another place, called the Kroc center, it's run by the Salvation Army, but it is gorgeous, it's a wellness/fitness/church/comminuty center/tennis place (think multi-million all glass type of place, not a run-down place), charges $50 per month, again once a week, 2 hours. Both if these classes are run by paid professional type staff.

Oh believe me, I do avoid Ken Ham for the exact reason that you've mentioned. I actually had to sit and listen to him speak, as I was a volunteer at a convention, and my duty was to be in the theater he was speaking in, for general crowd control (apparently they were afraid people would rush the stage, lol). I was floored and flabbergasted at what he said. I am not judgemental on whether someone is too Christian, or not enough Christian...none of my business. You be what you want to be, and I'll be what I want to be...BUT that being said, BE WHO YOU SAID YOU ARE!! If you are Christian, and you advertise your curriculum as Christian, and even put in print that others should avoid you if they do not want to deal with a Christian....don't go around the corner, put on a wig, and tell everyone else you are secular because you know the kids over on that corner are secular....then turn around and come back to my corner and tell me you are a Christian...and back and forth, back and forth. I don't care what your beliefs are, stand by your beliefs. Whether John and Sarita disagree on their religious beliefs inside their home and marriage, none of my business...but when you approach me as a company, and that is what Sonlight does as they do major marketing, HUGE booths at conventions...they are just everywhere homeschoolers are, so they ARE approaching me)....when you do that, your company becomes my business. So Sonlight, which for years has advertised as Christians, and for years, said they would not back down from that POV....opens a spin-off company, acts like it's "this whole new thing that isnt' really related to us", and sells secular curriculum.........that is just foul. Can't swallow that. I can't think of a single Christian company, homeschool related or not, that has done that. I don't see Hobby Lobby opening a new store called Lobby Hobby, so they can avoid the hoopla that surrounds their legal woes due to their Christian views. I don't see Chick-Fa-La opening a new restaurant with the same menu items, maybe one pickle instead of two, to avoid their controversy. They stand by their beliefs while being gracious to the community, regardless if the community agrees. I doubt anyone who's been on the Sonlight forums would call the Sonlight staff "gracious". (And yes, I was a member there for a while after having bought a few things from Sonlight...not their curriculum, but other items). So the fact that people are making all this hoopla over Bookshark....yet they wouldn't have looked at Sonlight twice....you do realize it is NOT a new curriculum, right? It's a realigned curriculum. It's a changed curriculum. It's a reformatted curriculum. But it's NOT new!

I think I saw these things before on Sonlight blogs.