AH! I have to chime in here and say, I think there is a lot more trolling out there on the other used curriculum spots than here. I had a lady argue with me when I turned down her offer on one of those sites. I had a WTB add and she contacted me. It was obvious she didn't know squat about curriculum or pricing, and I really think she's a used book seller using those sites for profit. That's fine and all, but she was EXTREMELY offended when I told her I would only pay X amount for it in Like New Condition. I do a lot of buying and selling on those sites, but I'm much more leery than I am here.

I'm currently reading Charlotte Mason's works, and I am so convicted that I am to blame for the lack of peace and joy in our school. Our habits are all bad, we have no time to ourselves, or for family, and all I do is throw work at them and say, "GET IT DONE!" I was already leaning towards going back to a CM homeschool, but this thread has convinced me! As for scheduling, I love Managers of their Homes. When I use it, life goes well. When I don't, well look at my year!:glare: Blessings! Dorinda This link on CM's principals might help others. It's helping me!

:iagree: Sometimes, I didn't use what I'm selling, but then I justify my price by saying, "New, never used." I think you have to look at it from the seller's point of view. There are people willing to save ANY amount, and HOD does not offer free shipping (at least they didn't the last time I checked). So, If a seller kept her books in great condition, putting them away as soon as they were done, no writing in the TG etc, then she is well within her rights to knock $10-20 off and try to sell it. It will still be $30-40 off HOD price once you figure in shipping and taxes, and someone is willing to pay for that. They get a "Like New" curriculum, and they still get $30-40 off. Win/Win HTH! Blessings! Dorinda

I agree, however it doesn't follow state standards, there are no textbooks, and I'd have to figure out the credits on my own. I'm one step closer to walking that road, it's just unconventional. That's hard for a left brained think inside the box kind of person.:tongue_smilie:

I don't know, but here are a ton of discussions on these boards with lots of theories. For my kids, at least I'll know we did our best, but I wish there was a concrete answer out there.

I'm at a loss for next year. I have MOH Vol I because I bought it to use with my younger dd. My older DD was supposed to be in VP Scholars, but we pulled her out for various reasons. She is brilliant, so smart and loves to read. However, her interests lie elsewhere, and that's why I'm considering Ambleside again. We have gone CM 3 times in our homeschool, and it has always worked. Then I ramp it up, so to speak, because I'm VERY stuck on traditional school = good college experience. Now, I'm not so sure. She loves to sew, it's all she wants to do, a CM schedule would allow for that. She loves art, it's all she wants to do, a CM schedule would allow for that. It's just so hard for me to give myself permission to deviate from the traditional school model. I've done a search and many of you are making it work. Do you have any suggestions? Advice? We would probably try year 7. Thanks! Dorinda

The cards are key people, and events in history that VP feels are important to know. Each card has a picture on the front, and a discription on the back. Also on the back of the card, is a list of main resources that have more information about the topic on the card. So, for example, if you're reading about the Concentration Camps, the card might say, "Kingfischer pg 12." The memory cd's are all the cards set to music. Very bad music, but music none the less. They also have the presidents and the 10 commandments. My oldest has had to memorize the cards for the class she's in this year, and she balked at the cd's. When she realized that even bad music made it easier to learn, she gave in, and quickly memorized them.:lol: If I understand what you're talking about, the homeschool CD's are the Lesson plans and worksheets for you to teach the program at home. We are only missing the first two sets of cards, and I'm kicking myself for not keeping them years ago. I'm going to re-purchase them for next year and use them with Mystery of History. I think they're very helpful and a great jumping off point. Plus, you get some art study in because they try to use famous art or actual photographs of the events and people. HTH! Dorinda

We used Primer and Alpha, and this year we went back to MUS for my oldest (Epsilon). It truly is the way she learns. We tried pairing it with LOF, but LOF was not a hit. We have decided to just stick with MUS. We were thinking about using Math Mammoth over the summer for review, but only to keep the concepts fresh. As for whether it's a solid program or not, there are so many discussions on this board about various math programs that your head will spin if you start searching for them. I think "solid" is in the eye of the beholder. for my youngest, she HATED MUS and does just fine in a traditional math program. My oldest does not. She needs one concept at a time, with no other distractions. Will she be prepared for College Math? I have no idea, but then again, most college freshman are having to re-take Algebra and Geometry in college anyway. What I do know is, this program is at least giving her a fighting chance and presenting the concepts in a way that she understands and it gets done. It's not for everyone. I don't even watch the videos with her. When she was in Alpha, it drove me crazy the way Steve taught addition! I couldn't stand it! As time has gone on, I've learned to appreciate the program for what it is, a different approach that works better for some people. I would have your child take the placement test for a better idea of where he should be. The placement guide is spot on, and the MUS reps are very helpful if you have any questions. I hope that helps! Blessings! Dorinda

When I've gone truly CM, (no boxed or pre-packaged curriculum), the whole idea was to keep it simple. As a matter of fact, I have had to go full on CM 3 times in our homeschool, and those are some of our fondest memories. I've been pondering it for next year. Have you read, "A Charlotte Mason Education?" This book is a must have for getting started. It is like the Cliff's Notes for CM. You'll finish it in a day, and there are schedules in the back that show how CM ordered the day. Everyone was done by noon or 1:00 and it is a VERY simple schedule. HTH! Dorinda

:bigear: Yes, I'm begging for replies. :D Schedules, ideas, offers to sell me your deserted island?

That's extremely helpful advice. It gives me a jumping off point. I like the idea of setting goals for each week ahead of time. That helps me to reason with her when she's feeling well. I can show her that I she gets X AMOUNT of work done today, she won't have to do it tomorrow. She's on grade level for math, and it comes easy for her. Writing, not so much. I'm going to brainstorm on that one. Thanks! Dorinda

My youngest dd has multiple food and environmental allergies, and so it was no surprise when we ended up in the ER 3 weeks ago because she suddenly broke out in a rash/spots (big oval ones) from head to toe. After multiple Dr appts, they determined it to be a virus and thought it would clear up in a week to 10 days. This week marks week 4.:glare: We went back to the Dr yesterday, and they drew blood to test for Parvo B19 (Fifth's Disease) and Mono. It's looking more and more like Fifth's Disease, but that's not all good news. I mean, it's good news because if it comes back positive, we know it's not something more serious or another unknown allergy, but it's bad news because that means we are facing an indefinate amount of time with this illness. I am beyond exhausted. I feel like I have a new baby in the house. Some days she has all the energy in the world, but she doesn't want to do school because she's so tired of being cooped up. Other days, she has no energy, all she wants to do is sleep, and she doesn't want me to leave her side. Truthfully, I don't want to leave her alone with her sister because I feel that's unwise in her current condition, but I can't even run to the store for milk right now. As for school, she has fully missed 17 days this year and that doesn't include the days where we just did math or read a book and I counted it. I don't care about history and science, but what do I do now? We were going to go through the end of June, but I just want to quit now! And what about my oldest? She is done with VP Scholars next week, and I was going to keep her going. Do I put her on the same schedule? Math, Read a book, call it a day?!?! ACK!!!!!! I've been doing this for almost 8 years, you would think I would have this all figured out by now. Do I let my youngest dictate our days based on how she's feeling? Maybe I should take the rest of the month off and start back up June 1st. Maybe I should move to a deserted island and live off the land and the sun the rest of my life. Maybe I just need another cup of coffee. :willy_nilly: Dorinda

For us, the answer was NO! When I pulled out the books after Christmas that year, my DD threw herself on the table and said, "NO MOM!!! WHEN ARE WE EVER GOING TO GET OUT OF EGYPT?!?!?" I called DH and he agreed saying, "If you wanted her to understand how the Israelites felt, I think you've accomplished it.":lol: Anyway, it's just our experience. You might love it. The lesson plans were excellent though. No prep time and tons of things to choose from. I will say though, VP's one downfall is recommending too many books. It is very hard to choose which books to buy. I wish they would just wise up and sell a packet. Blessings! Dorinda

This is awesome! Going to use it over the summer. Thanks!

The only problem I have with all the online programs is you might lose info from child to child. I looked into HST Online, and I think I remember reading there was no way for YOU to backup the info. HST + has has a huge learning curve, but now that I'm reusing lesson plans I created 3 years ago, and I didn't have to keep it in paper, I'm reaping HUGE rewards! I don't know if you get the same payback from the online programs. Blessings! Dorinda

:lurk5:

For me YES! You can turn the brightness of the backlighting down. My DH sets his way up, but mine is turned down. HTH! Dorinda

Now through Mother's day.:D

We have both in our house and I much prefer the Kindle, if nothing else for the customer service. Barnes and Noble constantly mischarges me, and then makes me go through my bank to correct THEIR errors. Amazon lets you download free books with no hassle. If you have a gift card, they automatically go to the gift card first and then your credit card on file. Barnes and Noble ALWAYS charges at least a penny to my credit card BEFORE charging my gift cards. The same for free books. The charge can be anywhere from 1-5 cents. When I called customer service, they say this is allowed because there aren't REALLY free books in the world. They claim they still have to pay copyright fees to carry the free books, and that's why I see a 1cent HOLD on my card. They claim the charge should drop off because they are a great company and absorb the cost and never actually make the charge, however, my bank shows that they charge it, immediately, period. Twice I've had to file a dispute through my bank and both times Barnes and Noble had to refund me the money. Pain. in. my. patootie! Now, if I give them and actual credit card instead of my debit card, B&N has assured me this problem will go away, but I don't want to give them my credit card. I don't want to use my credit card for frivolous book purchases! ANNOYING!!!! As for everything else. I really like both my original Kindle reader and my Fire. The fire actually makes it easier to read cookbooks and informational books that have graphs and data etc. It also helps that I can clearly see the book covers instead of just the names on the Fire. I am turning out to be a very visual person when it comes to books :) I also like that you can change the background to sepia so it's not so backlit. I also like games and other apps, but that's just me. I use my original Kindle less and less. HTH! Thanks for letting me vent about B&N!:D Dorinda

I use salt, mayo and ketchup. Lots and Lots of Ketchup! I do miss the German curry ketchup. Sometimes I try to recreate it :)

:bigear:

Thanks ladies! That's all very helpful! I love those "Complete" books too. Off to check everything out.:auto:

No, you're not able to do that, but what I've done in the past is just give everything a block hour of time. So, Math 8-9, Reading 9-10, etc. I have to admit, I spend a lot of time creating a schedule complete with times and I never use it :lol: I print off the daily assignments every day for my kids and they use that as a check list. I wish every day ran on a schedule, but it just never works that way. If I get everything checked off that assignment sheet, that's good enough for me! HTH! Blessings! Dorinda

Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe by Todd Wilson It's exactly what you're looking for! Funny Encouraging Easy read Set up like a devotional so you could easily do a book club with it. Enjoy! Dorinda

I have to admit, I'm really interested if you have any bottles of Renew! PM me! :D