I am also posting this in the High School forum in hopes of getting some BTDT advice. Dd (5th grade) is 2/3 through Latin for Children C. We will finish up not long after the holidays. I might stretch it out a little with some more review and games. Either way, it is time to start figuring out the next step. Our long-term plans include homeschooling through graduation. I would like dd to start learning a conversational language in high school. Because I do not speak anything other than English, this will have to be outsourced, either by community college or some sort of home-based course with someone other than me in charge. This may or may not work out so our default plan for the high school foreign language requirement will be Latin. She likes it so might continue Latin AND another language. Meanwhile, in preparation for that day, I would like to continue Latin. I have poked around looking at the different options and don't feel like I can gather enough info to determine what programs would be a good fit. Here are my basic requirements: 1. Geared towards a student who has mastery of the material in LFC A-C. Some review is OK but not too much or too slow. Dd gets bored with review quickly. 2. Is directed to the student and has either a recorded (DVD/CD) component or direct correspondence with a teacher. I am hanging on by the seat of my pants with LFC. Dd masters it much quicker than I do and I cannot keep up with the vocabulary. At this point, I am able to help her with the program but that day is coming to an end soon. 3. Is secular or mostly so. I don't mind religious references but do not want a program that is very religiously based. Based on the above, what are my options?

Yes! My kid never wore a disposable. Not one. And not because I was some 100% cloth-crazy person but because I never knew what her disposable size would be and never had a need to buy any. We did cloth on airplane vacations, camping, etc..... It never occurred to me that it was "hard." We always needed a laundry-mat for our own clothing anyway so why so hard to throw in a load of cloth? It just never seemed to be a big deal. We never used anything fancy, just prefolds and basic covers. I figured, If my mom and my dh's mom did it....not to mention every other mother for centuries....without washing machines....I could. The whining and excuses I hear now..... Whatever. :glare: I really do get that it is not easy for some people but so often I just want to do the "unpopular opinion" thing and say "get over yourself." It is not rocket science. That felt good. And a little evil......

There are certainly colder places. Much colder. What we have here is a very loooonnngg winter, very old (drafty) housing, old infrastructure (frozen pipes), and a population with a very low average income. That is a lot of negatives. But it breeds a culture that embraces the weather and a hearty make-do attitude. I personally love it. :001_smile:

We would seriously go broke if we tried to heat to 72 degrees. I am not even sure our furnace could do it. We have never tried..... We do bump it up to 62 when we have houseguest from out of town. For perspective, our city requires (and reimburses) whole streets of houses to keep a faucet running at a trickle for weeks on end in the coldest months to keep the water lines from freezing.....

Haha! Yeah, it is crazy. On the other hand, we nearly melt when it is above 70 degrees. Seriously. If the temp stays above 60 degrees at night, I cannot sleep. No one has AC. Not even businesses. I cannot speak for others who live here, but we keep our heat down at 55 day, 50 night, not just because it costs too much to go higher but also because it makes being outside harder when you are used to warmer temps all of the time. We spend a lot of time outside, both working and playing, so being "hardened off" from the get go is better in the long run.

10 years old and she is my only. I waited to see the OB for the first time until 22 weeks so maybe that is why. It never even came up.

Yeah. The price. There is that......

Lord of the Rings Which I have never actually watched or read.

You wear the boots. For an hour, it is not so bad. For an entire evening (3 plus hours) dinner party, it gets uncomfortable. I find it uncomfortable just in a restaurant myself. Luckily I almost never go to one. ETA - I almost always have on bib snow pants too. Many people wear them daily here. At a party or visiting someone's house, I take them off. But at a restaurant or short visit, I keep them on. It sounds silly, I am sure, but quite normal here. We also wear hats and scarves inside most of the time. Most people do not heat their houses above 55 degrees.....

A Thermomix. Last I checked, you cannot even buy one in the U.S. but that does not stop my yearning for one. http://www.thermomix.com/en/home/ For years, I have wanted one. Badly.

To clarify, don't you only need one if there is a risk factor? What is the purpose for a normal, low-risk pregnancy?

Maybe I am just old, but does everyone have an ultrasound? I never had one.

Our local culture dictates that one takes their shoes off inside houses. During winter (6 months), always. During summer, it varies based on house but is assumed to be off unless told otherwise. I have never asked someone to take their shoes off. They just do. The internet guy who came to fix our modem earlier this week took off his shoes. All service people do. Or they put those bootie things on. But it is also custom to always bring slippers or "inside shoes" with you. Many people have a basket of slippers in varying sizes for unprepared guests to wear if they want. I am not going to wear my knee-high arctic boots all night at a dinner party. That would be uncomfortable and silly. Not to mention messy. Occasionally we have been to a house where we are told to keep our shoes on. I cannot stand it! Not only do I feel horrible about the puddles and mud our boots make but I also grosses me out to see kids playing in the grossness left by our boots. This is almost always a newcomer to the area and they figure it out pretty quickly. We all have very pretty socks. In my own house, it is OK to wear shoes inside during dry summer but not at all EVER during winter. And we do not have any carpet.

Interesting that you bring that up.... I live in one of the snowiest places in the U.S. and there is a sizable and rapidly-growing segment of the population that bikes (car-free) year-round. There are special tires and gear for this purpose. It is not for me...I am a fair-weather biker...but I suspect if I wanted to be mobile and a car was not an option, I would find a way to make it work.

San Francisco. The one with the "murders" and stuff. Maybe Jay-Z too....I am a little unclear.....

I have to say I am a bit shocked about the idea of SF transit being unsafe. I have used public transit all over the country and overseas many many times and find the SF system one of the most safe-feeling and comfortable systems I have ever used. Especially the buses. I have ridden them alone and late at night without ever feeling unsafe. I live and grew up in places with no transit so it is not like I am super-savvy or anything. The very first thing we do when we get to a new city is to check out the public transit. And then feel envious that we do not have it at home. I also have been to Amsterdam and loved the bike culture. It never got boring to watch the way people transported kids, cargo, and even furniture on bikes. It gives me a little shred of hope for the future. We might all whine and have big tantrums when our SUVs get to expensive to drive but I suspect we will adapt....eventually.

Yes, of course. I am not saying my being bugged is rational. Ha ha!

My laundry is on the line. Including undies. It has bugged me for years now.....

Something funny about this topic..... I have not run into anyone IRL that finds charity gifts to be awful....whether to give or receive. But every year, it comes up in message boards and there are always a handful of people are are really opposed and VERY vocal about it. It seems to be a very hot button for some people. I have seen it described at being a Love Languages issue or people reluctant to let go of the childhood thrill of opening that much-wanted toy. The think is, I really do not know of any adults IRL life that wants more stuff. It seems that charitable gifts are a great way to continue the gift-giving tradition and honoring the spirit of giving and kindness without adding more stuff to people's overstuffed houses or feeding the consumer machine. I get that some people do not like them. And I get that they can be given for the wrong reasons (just like tangible gifts). But for many people, it is the perfect solution to a common holiday dilemma.

That is a risk when giving any gift. I doubt teachers are sending out wish lists. So anything you get them might not be something they want, right? I am guessing teachers are probably the most appreciative of non-tangible gifts. How many mugs, stationary packets, and cookie-mixes-in-a-jar can a person use? I have asked my own teacher friends this question in the past and they would actually be happiest with no gifts at all. But if they cannot stop the annual flow of knickknacks and junk food, charitable giving and gift cards they can use to purchase classroom supplies (which is really charity also) are preferred. I ask for donations to my supported cause as gifts every year. That is really what I want. I have a small minimalist house, have all of my needs met, and wish I could give more to causes I support. And I give it as a gift if I know the recipient would welcome it. Even if I do not know for sure what specific causes they support, there are gift cards out there where the recipient chooses the charity the money goes to. There are very few adults in my life that want physical gifts anymore. Most people are dealing with clutter and too much stuff. Consumables and charitable giving are welcome for most of the people on my annual list.

Thanks all!

Thanks all! I am guessing many probably skip Primer C, which might be why it has not been revised and almost seems to be an afterthought. I am now wishing we had gone to Latin Alive. I assumed dd would need to complete all three years of LFC before starting LA. I will definitely get a dictionary. Doh! To add confusion to the thread....I have more questions. I do not yet really have a plan for Latin after LFC. Will she be bored if we go to LA1 next year, as a 6th grader? For those using LA, do you plan to follow up with something else afterwards or do you consider LA more of a terminal program?

Bump.

Dd is 10 yo and is on Chapter 10 of LFC C. We like the program well enough. There is something we have noticed happening more often in Primer C and are wondering if these are all mistakes in the curriculum or some by design. Sometimes in the History Reader and even more often in the Workbook, words will be used in translation exercises that have not been covered yet. This is common in all of the History Readers and as long as the word is found in either the glossary or notes, dd is fine. But there have been a few words in the Reader that do not show up anywhere and dd is left to guess. This is also happening the the Workbook. Words are used in exercises that have either not yet been covered (so CAN at least still be found in the glossary) or are simply missing altogether from the book. Even more frequently, a word that HAS been covered is translated in a way that dd has NOT learned. Like in Chapter 10, the word "exspecto," dd learned it as "to expect". The glossary lists it only as "to expect." But the answer key for the translation lists it at "to wait." I don't even know if that is another valid translation of the word or a mistake in the key. To me, if it is a valid translation and the student is expected to know that, it should have been covered when the word was introduced or at least listed as a valid translation in the glossary. Are we supposed to have a Latin dictionary? I did not read that in any of the curriculum notes but may have missed that somewhere. Another issue is actual mistakes in the answer key. I am no Latin whiz, but often the errors are glaringly obvious. I found an error here and there in Primers A and B, but it is far more frequent in Primer C. This would clearly not be "by design." I am only holding my own because I have been learning along with dd but can imagine this would be a really big problem for people who are using the program with more independent learners. It is quite frequent. Anyone know if a revision is in the plan for Primer C? I would like to be able to recommend this program to people but am concerned about how difficult it could be for people to use the last primer.

I know I am not explaining it well.... I have a classical background, nothing else, so I know I am not using the rights words. She does understand simple chord symbols and recognizes when she needs to change. I think she has started to hit chords/keys she does not understand and that is where I am hoping to find a way to help her out. We live in an area where we are quite limited in musical lesson opportunities.....especially the type she is starting to enjoy the most. I found the Jaybuckey.com site (it needed another e) and I am sure she will have fun with it:) Thanks!