Thanks:) I only asked because this is the sort of thing on a list that makes me toss a science program out the window. I have never seen a snail where I live so I suspect we do not have any....and certainly not during the 6 months of the year that we are under several feet of snow! Which is when we do school, of course. Nor do we have a pet shop. Closest one is a two-hour drive.....through that snow. If it is just one skip-able experiment, I can deal with that, but as soon as a supply list gets even slightly difficult, I run for the hills. I would love love LOVE a complete kit. I cannot tell if they plan to bring it back or if they will have kits for the other topics in the future. Otherwise, I am really drawn to this program. As is, aside from the snails, if I have a complete list that I can collect before we crack the first chapter, I will still be OK. And it looks like it does. Sorry to keep bugging you on this....are there other animals or "perishable" ingredients that might be difficult to obtain?

I am starting to work on plans for next year when my dd wil be in 5th grade. I am not normally this forward-thinking, but I am nervous about moving from the grammar stage to the logic stage. Planning make me feel better:) Dd also likes to know the grand plan. She has been asking about next year and I really have not had much to tell her yet. Dd has been homeschooled from day one. We have been using Latin for Children. We are on target to finish Primer B this year. I am looking for two pieces of advice: 1. What logic stage Latin curriculum have you had good experiences with? And what was you own Latin knowledge? I am learning along with dd. She is definitely "winning" the race so I suspect that I will continue to be involved but will need to rely heavily on the curriculum. 2. If you used LFC, or another three-year program, would you recommend finishing up Primer C before moving on to the next step or would you just move on? My impression is that many programs will begin from the beginning anyway so I am unsure of the value of finishing up the third year only to start all over again in 6th grade. However this is my only child and I will freely admit that I really know nothing about all of this! Especially Latin.

I still want to know where you get snails......

OK, where did you get snails? What do you plan to do in the others years that do not have kits?

Thanks. After looking at the site more, there was only an experiment kit for Biology and it is "not available" so I guess that answers that:) Anyone use the Logic Stage series yet? I am very curious. So far every single science curriculum we have attempted has been a failure because of the materials needed for the experiments. We live in a rural area and it is really hard to get the stuff we need, even basic stuff. I don't care if it is expensive, I would really like a kit that just has it all so I am not running around and trying to improvise.......

It is funny because I remember thinking as a teen and younger adult that surely by the time I had kids, science would have found some magic cure. Science let me down!

I do have more questions about this. I am looking at the Classic Series for next year (5th grade). For those that have used it, can you tell me the following: 1. How many days a week do you use it and how much time is spent? 2. Are the selected books easily found in a typical small-town library with interlibrary loan? Is there more than one book recommendation in case we cannot find one? 3. Does the experiment kit include everything needed for the experiments?

I am also interested!

My 9 yo dd has started to have some minor acne issues. At this point, it is mild and not bothering her. However, my dh had HORRIBLE acne as a teen and I had it pretty bad as well. It was hugely embarrassing for both of us and we both have permanent scarring. Neither of us had any sign of acne until our teen years however. Both of us were "late bloomers" and it appears dd will be as well (late to get and lose teeth, develop, etc.....) so I am a little baffled about the acne showing up this early. There are no other signs of puberty and I really don't expect to see any for a few more years. So far we have been encouraging to keep her hands off her face (with little success) and to wash her face with honey during showers. I am wondering if there is anything else we can start to establish as patterns or good habits to help her down the road. Both dh and I were prescribed harsh chemical treatments as teens. Not only do I think they were ineffective, but they also contributed to the embarrassment as they often left faces red, itchy, and dry. Dd has a very good diet. She does not eat much junk and drinks lots of water. So, any magic protocols that could save my dd from her genetic destiny? Or is she just doomed?

My 9yo dd is halfway through LFC B. We are finding that we need to take a break and go back and review as some of the vocabulary and chants are not "sticking." We use the History Reader with the curriculum for translation practice. That is a little bit too challenging so I do help her quite a bit. During our "regroup" time, I would like to include translation practice that is simple enough for dd to do on her own. I do not know Latin, so I am hestitant to make up practice sentances to use as a supplement. I went throught he entire LFC site hoping to find what I was looking for, but had no luck. Anyone know where I could find some simpler translation exercises with an answer key that would be appropriate for a child using LFC B? Something to help her practice declining nouns and conjugating verbs to understand sentance structure. Preferrably online.

I am really wishing I had made a plan when we first started. Hindsight is 20/20, eh? The thought of making flashcards for everything we have covered so far is daunting. The Anki option looks interesting except that dd does not have access to a computer on a regular basis. I have made time for us to discuss this tomorrow. I am thinking of cancelling regular Latin lessons until Christmas and just do a thorough review, creating some sort of memory aids for the things that seem to challenge her the most. But I am also going to try not to sweat it too much. It is really me who messed this up. Even if it is not all 100% memorized, she will have a good basis for the next step. LHC has redular review chapters and she always aces those. It is a year later that words are slipping out of her brain.....

I spent a good amount of time thinking about this last night. I have another question. When kids get to the next stage of Latin, out of the children's curriculum and into the more rigorous curriculum, do they go back to the beginning or start off with the assumption that they have the basic declensions and conjucations memorized? I ask, because I am now wondering if we should start all over again from scratch or just work on strengthening memorization as we continue on. If I know she is going to see this again from the beginning, I am more inclined to do the latter.

This is brilliant! Thanks!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for chiming in. The above was what my first inclination was, but I have been accused of going "overboard" with "academics" so I wanted to bounce it off of others before we go back, regroup, and get some of the past material more firmly in her (and my) head. I think I have identified that memorization in general is a challenge for dd. She struggles with memorization in other subjects as well. She can easily and quickly commit things to shorter term memory....a month or two....but things seem to slip out afterwards. I am guessing that more work in this area will only help even if it is a little painful for a bit.

How is that for a title? My 4th grade 9yo is working through Latin For Children B. We did A last year. This question is especially for people using LFC but advice from anyone doing Latin with a grammar stage child would be appreciated. I did not learn Latin growing up but convinced myself to do it with my dd because I feel it helps with Language Arts and will be an aid in learning other languages later on. It has been going well. We like LFC and so far my dd has a good attitude about Latin. My original plan was to begin another foreign language next year (5th grade) while continuing Latin. LFC includes a weekly history reader with semi-complicated translations to apply what they are learning. I understand that in a classroom setting, this exercse is meant to be done in groups with a lot of help. In our reality, my dd really struggles with them. I allow her to look up words, which she needs to frequently due to forgetting past vocabulary or simply because it is a word she has never seen before. However, I am also finding that she is not following the most basic of rules and must be reminded every single week. Like finding the verb and determining tense. Or finding the case of each noun to determine its role (and therefore order) in the sentance. I am really holding her hand here and it seems to be getting worse as we progress. Again, this in theory does not concern me too much as I know the reader is really not meant to be a totally independent exercise. What is worrying me is her lack of retention. When we get to these forgotten steps, she often cannot recite some of the older chants. Especially pronouns, 3rd declension endings, and irregular verbs conjucations. Past vocabulary is also a problem. Anytime we go to review old vocabulary words more than a few weeks old, she often has forgotten them or gotten them mixed up. So that got me thinking.... What is the goal here? In the grammar stage, should I expect full retention as though she is learning a conversational language she will be expected to use in real life? Or is my goal more like the first swipe at history, exposure, practice, and general familiarity? I am toying with stopping LFC and going back to try to hammer everything into memory. But I don't want to do that if it is expecting too much of a 4th grader or if that is not even the point of Latin at this stage. Which got me thinking about adding a language, probably Spanish, next year. Am I setting us up for a retention failure? I thought memorization and retention was supposed to be easier for younger kids. Won't this just get worse as she gets older? Please share your goals so I can better form my own! Thanks!

I live in a very very cold climate and our roads are horrendous for about five months of the year. It is not "if" you will have an accident, it is "when." We are constantly slipping off the road, slipping into each other, and sliding into inanimate objects.....you get the picture. It is rare that any of these accidents happen at high speed as it is very rare I drive over 25 mph during winter. But even at 25 mph, if I get hit head-on at 25 mph by another car going 25 mph, that is a 50 mph hit. I am about the most careful driver that one can be but there are many many times when I am not in control of the situation. We do adhere to the no-puffy-coat recmmendation. Adults too. We are in coats for half of the year and that is just far too many risky hours to be compromising the effectiveness of our seatbelts and carseats. It is easy enough to have fleece jackets, blankets in the car, and our bigger coats slipped off while buckled. Is it cold? Yep. Inconvienent? Yep. Do I hate it? Yep. Is it really a HUGE deal? No. I don't remote start the car. We do have to sit in semi-misery until the heater kicks in. But that is the deal. There are tons of things that are miserable about winter (and lots of good things too) and we just deal. For me, the risks outweigh the hassle, so we deal with the hassle. I have two engineering degrees and always get amused at these threads where people try to deny the rules of physics. It is what it is. Poofy clothes means not-tight-enough straps. True for seatbelts too. Adults have a bigger chance of slipping out of a seatbelt in a poofy coat. Even more common will be the seatbelt not being in the proper position during a crash resulting in more severe injuries. That is true. No crash test needed. We know for a fact that a loose or improperly posiitoned belts, be it a seat belt or a child car seat, raises the risk of malfunction. It does not take a physics degree to figure out that poofy clothing results in loosened straps and/or inproper placement of straps. What we all do with this info is an individual decision. I don't think a parent that knows the risks, has weighed them, and decided differently than me is a bad parent. I make parenting decisions that others would consider unnecessarily risky. I am cool with that. In this case, for ME, I feel the hassle is worth it. I have no problem with others deciding differently. But. Don't try to tell me that there is no increased risk because that is false.

Yeah. I am with you on this and will be adjusting. My questions here were the first step in figuring out how to adjust. The time we are spending is still not on track for the day's lesson. Some of it is willful foot-dragging and carelessness on my dd's part....she tends to pull this stuff when presented with material that does not come easily to her. Math seems to be the trigger subject this year for that behavior. I know it will subside somewhat when she learns (again) that she will learn math even if it is hard. My job right now is to draw the line between a behavior issue and a true content issue.

This is more for my own curiosity. How much time per week are you spending on 4th grade math. I ask per week because we only cover math four days a week. And did you see a big jump is struggle from 3rd grade to 4th grade? I am noticing a HUGE jump from last year. I scheduled 45 minutes, 4 days a week and it is taking more like 1.5 hours! Last year, it was closer to 30 minutes. I know it is early in the year, we are getting into the swing of things again, and Dd's math does not start with review (new topics). She seems to be having more difficulty grasping the topics this year versus last year. We did "math lite" over the summer so it is not like we started up from nothing. We are using Singapore 4A if that matters.

The fact that you recognize the issue suggests to me that you are not clinically a hoarder. However, I am not a professional. ;) But my mom IS either a real hoarder or a very good impersonator and is 100% unwilling to acknowledge that she might have a problem even though she is a single woman with a 4 bedroom house that no one can walk around in..... I have some of the same tendencies, I suspect because I grew up with my mom. I did recognize them pretty early and started "working on" the issues about 10 years ago. It is possible to recognize and change your patterns. I have taken some tiny steps at times and some huge leaps at other times. I now think I have the issue beat. Be patient with yourself. :) It really took a good 5 years to even fully break my habit of acquiring things that were either a good deal, impulse buys, or something I thought I "might need someday." I now never ever go into box stores. Yes, the stuff might be cheaper there, but for me personally, I spend far less overall if I just never go in one even if I might be paying more for the items I actually do purchase. Target for me is like waving a beer in front of an alcoholic. Luckily Target does not just appear at parties:) I have total control over my exposure to it. Most of the battle is stopping the flow into the house. I do have a little trick that helped me when I felt conflicted about getting rid of something "useful." I think of Goodwill as my personal storage unit. When i have things I cannot use right now, I take them to Goodwill. Some of those things are things I debated donating because I might use them later. BUT, I can always go back to Goodwill and buy the item later if I need it. Yes, I am paying twice for that item, but at greatly reduced price the second time. I consider it "rent" to store that item. And if I never need it again, I did not have to invest the time, space, and money to store it for the rest of my life. A pretty good bargain I think.

I agree that most professionals work outside of the traditional 9-5. I was only refuting the implication that teachers are somehow less than "full-time" because they might only have 5.5 hours of "contact time." I believe they are on par with any other professional in the area of total hours worked. Now, if they are disputing that they should have to do this, then I agree completely that they should be treated like any other professional. I am only pointing out that 5.5 hours of contact time does not mean only 5.5 hours of "working." To be clear, I am not defending the actions of these teachers, nor do I feel I even understand both sides well enough to even have a valid opinion. I was only addressing the single point of contact hours versus working hours.

I totally get that and agree. I was just pointing it out because it had been implied earlier in the thread that they only work 5.5 hours a day. Which is not true.....in most cases.....there are slackers in every profession.

I don't have a huge opinion about this. But I do know many teachers, including teachers in CPS, and none of them work a 5.5 hour workday. That might be their "contact hours" but every single teacher I know works far far more than an 8 hour workday once prep, grading, mentoring, volunteering, and self-education are factored in. I have a close friend who is a teacher and she puts in 12 hours a day and spends most of her summer prepping and self-educating.

Don't most airports have luggage carts in the parking lots? That would be my first choice. Wear baby and put everything on the cart.

We do all work at our dining room table. Small house, no room for a dedicated desk or space just for school. My dd is 9 and has trouble sitting comfortably at the adult regular chairs. She sits on her knees, which makes her toes fall asleep, then fidget, fidget, fidget. She is too short to sit normally and still write comfortably. I tried putting our spare booster seat on the seat. That helped a lot, but it slips off the seat easily since it is not really meant for this purpose. Pillows slide off too. I don't think dd would be OK with a baby "highchair" type seat. She would be perfectly happy to sit on the floor or couch, but the lack of formality tends to distract her. Anyone have this problem and have a cheap solution?

I turned my very carsick-prone child right at 1 year and 20 pounds. I did not know any better. Had I known what I do now, I would have had her RFing until the seat limit. She was, and still is, miserable in the car and I doubt what direction she was facing at 1yo would have made a lick of difference. I WAS able to see her and communicate with her better FFing, which is why we turned her the minute we legally could. But again, we did not know any better. I would not do that today. I try very hard not to let guilt and the most recent safety "fad" take the lead in my parenting decisions. However, this is one area that after careful examination of the available research, I have to agree that RFing is the best practice in almost every circumstance in which it is possible. That same examination lead us to harness our dd until she was 8 (older car, no shoulder belt) and then move to a car with shoulder belts but a high-backed booster, which she still rides in at 9. I also need some sort of "booster" because my seat belt cuts across the neck. However, none is available that I know of. I had a showdown with a friend of dd's just yesterday because she refused to sit in the booster I had for her in my car. She is under the legal age in my state to go without (7 yo) and I was not moving the car until she sat in the booster. Her mom was called to pick her up. And her mom was miffed because she does not require her kids to sit in boosters. Tough cookies, mom. Find another carpool buddy. Driving is BY FAR the most dangerous thing we do with kids. The threat of injury or death is quite significant. And oftentimes we have little control over an accident (other drivers, bad weather, road obstructions, vehicle malfunction, etc....). Any thing, even small, that I can do to lessen the risk is worth it IMO. With all that said, I do not judge other parents who have also weighed the safety pros and cons and have come to a different decision. Until I stop seeing 2 yos without car seats sitting in the front seats of cars going by my house, I think we have bigger fish to fry.