The "Story of" CDs are a bio of the composer, along with selections of the music. The Classical Kids CDs are stories set to the music. Check out a review of them here: http://www.thecurriculumchoice.com/2009/07/classical-kids-cds/ My kids have enjoyed them both. I agree with BoyOBoy that the "Story Of" Cds are a bit drier in presentation, but my kids have learned a lot from them.

I didn't think I was a huge fan of poetry either, but I'm learning to like it more. I felt a need to do more this year. We're using Ambleside Online, and they have poetry recommendations for each year in the early years, and then each term in the upper years. Since we haven't done much previously, we're using their Year 6 anthology, and it's been great! We read a poem per day. I look up a short bio of each poet, and if I don't really get it, I try to look up the poem too in case the girls have questions about it. We also have a small CM co-op, and we're studying Tennyson this term. We did Emily Dickinson last term. You might take a look at AO. They've made some Kindle books of their poetry selections and it certainly makes it easy, to just follow their poets. If you really just can't stand it, I agree with trying fun poetry like Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky. Edward Lear is another really fun one. Robert Louis Stevenson is also good for youngers. My sister in law sent me a great book called "Talking Like the Rain" that has great kid-friendly poetry in it, too. And, of course, don't forget Mother Goose! My girls weren't thrilled at the idea, but they are learning to enjoy it. They get a kick out of reading that most of the Romantic poets seemed to have been a bit crazy, for example. :laugh: They're making connections, and that's all I wanted from it for them at this point. They are 6th and 7th grade, so we're also starting CAP's "The Art of Poetry." They are less thrilled with that, LOL, but I think it's going to be good.

We moved to NC from MI when dh got a new job, and it saved our marriage. We both grew up in Michigan, and if we had stayed there, we would not still be married, I don't think. Every time we've tried to move back, the door has been firmly closed. His parents are very toxic to our marriage. We do all right with them just seeing them a few times a year, but I don't know that I'm ready, even 14 years later, to move back to the constant stress they would add to our lives. Raleigh was OK; I don't care for where we live now. We moved here 3 years ago so he could work for Apple, which was a dream of his, and I'm happy we did that for him. I would rather live somewhere else, however, and if I could move back to MI near my sister, I would do it in a heartbeat. Like I said, though, God has closed that door many times for whatever reason and I trust him. I don't like it, but I trust him. :)

I'm so sorry, Luanne. Both of my mom's grandmothers lived well into their 90's. They were both lovely woman and it blessed me so much to have known them. Not just a vague memory, either; I saw my Great-Grandma Witchell every week for years on piano lesson day, and she always had her famous sugar cookies waiting. My Great-Grandma Palmer was a neat lady, too; very into geneaology and published several books on her family. I didn't know her first husband, who would have been my great-grandfather, but her second husband, George, was a wonderful man and treated all of us like his own. My own grandmother passed away a couple of years ago; she was in her late 80's, I believe. I still miss her so, so much. Even at age 41, I feel too young to have no grandmothers left.

I would guess a financial advisor - someone who can help you crunch the numbers and see what you can afford. If your neighborhood isn't bad, and you want to travel, I'd do that. Can you do an online mortgage calcluator to help you figure out what your payments would be in a new house, and compare it to your current budget? When we lived in Raleigh, we had a nice little house in a VERY convenient location. It was perfect for the 4 of us, but when Schmooey came along, we were getting REALLY cramped. We didn't move, though, because we could not beat the location. Now that we live somewhere else, in a bigger house, I love having more space, but I wouldn't have changed what we did before. Have you made a pro/con list for both options? I really hate moving, so I wouldn't sign up to do that unless I had to.

We have a 2010 Sienna, and I have really liked it. It has had some interesting quirks, but overall, it's a great van. We chose it over the Odyssey because it has more headroom, and because the interior felt less claustrophobic to me.

I have tried to figure it out a couple of times, but it's not remotely intuitive and I have given up. The other issue I have is that it's a PC program and I try to run it in Virtual Windows or whatever on my Mac, and it just doesn't want to play nicely with me. I'd love to have a computer planner. HST+ makes me want to throw things. Dh said he would figure it out for me but hasn't had time, so I am going with Excel plans and the Ultimate Homeschool Planner for me and the Student Planners for my girls. I am pretty sure I will be happier.

I don't know why MFW K gets lots of bad reviews - I used it with both my girls and LOVED it. I think it's the best K program out there and it's a great value! I loved that it was all integrated, and it worked so well all together. My girls both went into it knowing all their letters, and Schmooey does too, but it was a great review and really built their confidence. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's a great program. I am in a bit of a dither about what I want to do with Schmooey this fall. The girls and I finally jumped into full-on Ambleside Online, and they love it. We've finally found our homeschool groove. I was afraid to try it for a long time, but I am just thrilled with it! So... do I do a Year 0 with Schmooey? Or do MFW K because I still have all the books? They've just redone the TM and I can exchange my old one and get the new one for 1/2 price. Oh, that's so tempting. They've updated the book list and put in weekly schedules! The thing is, I have more books than anyone ever needed for the old TM and I made all my own weekly plans which I still have in Excel so I don't need the new TM. I should probably save my $ for other fun things but I really, really want to see the new one. :lol: I may go to the book fair at the conference in May and see if I can take a look. I'd like to see how the new student pages will work with the old TM. I am hoping that my girls will want to work with him some on the science things. I think the MFW K math is plenty, but I have Professor B and am considering getting Funtastic Frogs simply because they look like a lot of fun. I will really just have to see what he is able to sit and do, because he is not a child who is known for sitting still. He's such a boy. :D I do plan to read poetry with him and some other things that Ambleside recommends, just because he really likes to have me read to him. The real issue is that there are too many things to do and I am having a hard time choosing between them. He is NOT going to let me teach him ALL THE THINGS just because I want to, LOL!

There are lots of printable options, if you Google. Butterfly life cycle booklet Butterfly Garden book - free to print, real pictures from a butterfly house of all the stages of the life cycle, very beautiful! Butterfly life cycle wheel Frog life cycle printout Frog life cycle wheel I also found simple life cycle puzzles at a teacher supply store. Lakeshore Learning has a Life Cycles Sequencing Kit that I think is really cool. Rainbow Resource has a mini bulletin board set that includes frogs, butterflies, horses, chickens and sunflowers that looks great. They also have "chartlets" for different life cycles; I have the frog and maybe another one, I forget, and we enjoyed those, if you have wall space. I loved doing these with my kids! I'm so excited for Schmooey to start K this fall and we get to do it all again. :)

I have the Scotch one too, and I love it! I also have the Xyron cool laminator, which is nice. The hot laminator (Scotch) makes things that slide nicely/are slippery. The cool laminator (Xyron) makes things that are tackier, so they don't slide as much. The nice thing about the Xyron is that the lamination stuff comes in rolls so you can do a lot at once without messing with the sheets, and you can get different cartridges, like magnet backing, to go with it. It's expensive though; the cartridges run about $40 I think but you can always use a coupon at the craft store.

I know I took Trig and I remember random things from it. All I remember about Algebra II is "i" and thinking it was very strange. I could have taken calculus, but I would have had to go to a different school and give up band, which was not an option. :D

I haven't tried them yet either but I REALLY want to. :lol: I was just over here looking to see if anyone had used the Wonders of Old timeline from Knowledge Quest, because they have some on their scratch-and-dent sale for cheap. I guess I could get the KQ ones and see what I think, since they are inexpensive, and get the AAC ones if I don't love them. The AAC look like the ultimate timeline to me - exactly what I would love to use. You're right, though, they are pricey and I hate to spend over $200 for 2 of them only to find that we won't use them. Argh!

And another vote in my book for a fake tree! Ack! I found this link: Debug Your Christmas Tree Basically it says that nothing harmful is going to come in on your Christmas tree. Most bug require humidity to live, and there isn't much in the air at this time of year, so they should all "dessicate" within a few days, and they won't have food either, so they won't live long. They say DO NOT spray aerosol bug sprays because those are flammable. If they are creeping you out, vacuum the little critters.

Thank you so much, again! The issue with contacting the child again is that none of them seem to have email, and phone contact has been difficult. I did ask them if they could try to get more information, and that will have to be up to them. *I* am drooling over the games myself so we may end up with Muggins as a family gift for Christmas! :D

These are great! Thank you so much! Any other suggestions are still welcome. :)

My inlaws are here, and they're trying to put together gift lists for some Angel Tree kids. One request was for a math learning game, appropriate for an 8th grader, that isn't for a computer, because they don't have one that works. Any suggestions? My dh suggested the Math Shark, but I wasn't sure an 8th grader would want that. I was thinking of a nifty board game or something along those lines. Any suggestions? TIA!

Timberdoodle has the Citibloc set of 1000 on clearance: http://www.timberdoodle.com/Citiblocs_1000_Piece_Wooden_Building_Set_p/393-259.htm It's $235, and qualifies for free shipping. Came over here to research this stuff and thought I'd share. :)

Have you asked the TT folks? They might have a good suggestion for you. The only thing I can think of is reinstalling which is not good since it will delete everything!

Thanks, ladies! I found some lovely padded envelopes that will work nicely for most of them. Not sure how to do the boxed set of hardcovers, but I will ask dh tonight. :)

I just signed up and am thrilled that 4 of the books I listed are already requested! Actually, 7, because one of them is a 4-book set. I want to mail them so they get there in good shape. Would you not think I would know how to do this? Most of them are hardcovers so I can't just wrap them in the wrapper and send them off.

This is great advice. When we are ready to get another dog I will remember this.

We adopted our 5th cat from the local animal shelter and we love her! She adores my girls, and tolerates the rest of us. She's become the playmate for my Siamese, who otherwise pesters the snot out of my other cats who really don't appreciate his jester-like antics. When we adopted our dog, we got him from a local rescue. That was a great experience. We told them what life with our family was like, and they recommended some dogs to us. We met them and chose one. It was great. I was a neophyte dog owner, and had no idea what I was doing, and they gave us a perfect dog. I have not yet felt confident enough to adopt a dog from a shelter. I am not good with "issues." I hate to say that, because it makes me sound mean, but it's the truth. We ended up giving our other dog away before we moved, and he is VERY happy with our friends. We're not ready for another dog yet so we don't have one right now.

I wish I had known about Charlotte Mason from the beginning, and followed her philosophies all the way through. We finally took the plunge into full-on AO this year, and I am THRILLED. The girls are the happiest they've ever been with school with the possible exception of K when we used MFW (which I LOVED and may use with Schmooey as our K/Year 0 year because I have all the books). Other than that, I wish I had found a math curriculum and just stuck with it. I've spent far too much time trying to figure out the "right" math and all along I just needed to be a better teacher. I think we've finally got a winning combo for my oldest with TT & LOF. My younger dd I think will do well with CLE, but she's the kind of kid who would do well with anything. For my youngest, who is just 4 right now, I will do living math/LOF and see if we need any supplementation. IMO, the best thing you can do is ground yourself in as thorough knowledge of CM's principles as you can so you can get all the pieces in place. We're doing well this year but I am not getting in copywork like I should and composer study is still missing.

In the midst of all these knowledgeable people, I will put in my plug for the Brock Magiscope. Rainbow Resource sells packages with varying lens options. If you want to keep it simple, this is your microscope! It's tough and very easy to use. I started looking at microscope options and read lots of reviews and suggestions here. It made my head hurt and I must confess that I don't know what an abbé condenser is or why on earth I might need one. :lol: It happened that mom2legomaniacs was selling her Brock, so I got it from her and I am thrilled. If you're not amazingly science-y, as I am not, I think it's ideal. It says it can take you all the way through high school science. I know mom2legomaniacs was upgrading to a more complicated scope, but she is into that stuff.

I will always be a Michigan girl. I have lived in NC for 14 years now, and it will never be my heart's home. Of course I would rather be with dh and kids wherever they are, but I still hope to get back to Michigan someday. I miss my sister so very much, and all the rest of my family is there too. I grew up next door to both sets of my grandparents and I am sad for my kids that we live near no family. Plus, really, once a Great Lakes lover, always a Great Lakes lover. I just cannot get used to this ocean thing. :D