Cape Fear for me...Robert DeNiro was the most disturbing character ever! I also saw portions of Apocalypto on a flight to London. Just because it's fairly accurate doesn't make it any less distrubing! I also remember as a kid watching a made-for-TV movie by the rock band KISS. They played superheroes trying to solve some kind of mystery at an amusement park. Very campy but I remember having nightmares after watching that one. What a wimp!:scared:

MATH: Math U See Gamma LANGUAGE ARTS: SWR for spelling Growing with Grammar 2 Writing w/ Ease (yeah!) continue HWOT Cursive HISTORY: Story of the World 2 w/ AG -literature to go along history time period SCIENCE: Easy Classical's Science: Animals, Human Body & Plants BIBLE: Explorer's Bible Study FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Prima Latina *coop for art & other extra curricular stuff!

If you're happy that homeschooling works for others but it just won't work for you because you'd be butting heads with your strong-willed child constantly and they would never listen to you... I must have missed this internal memo before I decided to homeschool :D

I must have missed this the 1st time. I will definitely take a look. :thumbup:

Anyone...anyone...

Sigh...I'm still trying to figure out my plans for science next year. You would think that having a Masters Degree in Forensic Science would make it easy but I just can't seem to get it together! I've recently checked out Easy Classical.com's science program and it is intriguing. I will have a 2nd grader and a kindergartner this coming school year so I had a few questions. First, were you happy with the program overall? Secondly, is it necessary to purchase all the books listed for each "unit?" Lastly, what "unit" did you begin with? I was thinking of starting with the human body, animals and plants. I've considered Real Science 4 Kids pre-level programs but they're only 10 week units. I like the fact that E.C. Science is a full 36 week program. Sorry if this is a repeat thread...I tried to do a search but I received hits for any thread that had "Classical" or "Science". I guess I need to figure out how to refine my searches more.

Sorry...I meant to begin a new thread

Where do you find which other famous people are your type? No other ESTJ's on the board so far...

Am I the only ESTJ on the board so far? As I've gotten older however, I gravitate from and E to an I. I just don't have the energy to be that extroverted anymore (or maybe its the homeschooling!)

Has anyone taken a good look at both these programs? From what I've seen, they're very similiar. Both have a weekly schedule (which I like) that seems to use SOTW as it's spine (which I really like.) Both also seem to lay out Blble lessons along with literature selections to accompany the time period you're studying. I'm specifically looking at the Middle Ages lesson plans. Any feedback on either program? I'm always hesitant to buy something when I can only see one "sample" lesson online. We really like SOTW so it would be nice to have the "extras" laid out in one resource.

The Dragon Slayer's Academy by Kate McMullan series is a big hit at our home. There's quite a few in the series. I believe the first book is titled The New Kid at School.

I began with Cursive First with my 2 sons. They were doing ok but all the letters have beginning and ending strokes and my 2nd son was begninning to have some trouble. I decided to switch to Handwriting Without Tears cursive program. It says it's for 3rd graders but my 2 boys are having no difficulty with it. HWOT's style is much more upright with less beginning strokes. We're only about 1/3 of the way thru the workbook but I'm please with this style so far. I'm not familiar with the other 2 methods you mentioned but I would say HWOT is more modern...not as slanted, more upright w/ fewer loops and strokes. Hope that helps.

I knew the Hive wouldn't let me down :hurray:

I'm trying to remember the title of a book about one of the first forensic profilers in 18th century England?? It's a fictional book that was written a few years ago. It was very popular and may have been a series. I also think someone mentioned it on a thread here a few days ago. It had a very simple title, maybe 2 words like "The....... Ugh...I can't remember the title and it's driving me crazy :confused:

Mama's Fish House...I can't remember exactly where it is but it's famous on the island. It's a little pricey but both the setting and the food are incredible (and I'm not even a fish person.) There's great golf in Waimea and Laihaina (spelling?) has the best luau on all the islands. Luaus can be a little corny but I've heard from many people that this one is excellent. I'm jealous...we don't get to Kauai until September!

I was reading something recently encouraging the teaching of the metric system from early on (I'm assuming they meant the grammar stage.) The writer was discussing the difficulty many students have when they reach advanced math & science because they do not have a strong foundation in the metric system. She strongly encouraged parents to teach the metric system from the beginning. I realized that I hadn't ever considered when to begin metrics. My son is almost 8 so I wanted to check with the Hive and get your feedback. What have been your experiences w/ teaching the metric system? When did you begin? Can younger students understand the concepts or will they be confused with learning 2 systems? Finally...what program did you use? Thanks for the input!

We found the Dragon Slayer's Academy by Kate McMullan. They're light-hearted books that are a lot of fun. It's a series so there are about 20 books and are great for boys. He also really enjoyed James and the Giant Peach. I either real these aloud or we alternate reading paragraphs.

I heard from someone recently that there was going to be a new Mini coming out that had an extended back end for more room. I don't know the details but you could obviously check with the dealer. We bought one of the new Minis when they first came out and it was a blast! It was red w/ white racing stripes and the Union Jack on the top. Just be careful if you buy a Cooper S...it's the turbo version and it's very easy to get it up to 100 mph...it's a blast to drive but a ticket waiting to happen :auto:!

We're going w/ WWE for writing, SWR for spelling and GWG for grammar. I just wish WWE would come out already!

I did actually buy the wider-lined paper for just that reason. I noticed there's no schedule in the TM so do you just have the kids do a page/day in the workbook? I'm a bit of a scheduling nut so I get a little "anxious" when it's not laid out :scared:

I just purchased HWOT Cursive for my older son and I want to teach my kindergartner at the same time. The curriculum lists it as 3rd grade material (which is probably arbitrary) but I was just curious how well other K'ers fared. Also, about how long does it take before the child gets a good grasp of writing in cursive?

My husband is a big guy...big barrel chest, broad shoulders and honestly a bit of a gut. He had a serious snoring problem and it was driving me insane! Men didn't even want to share a room with him if he went to a men's retreat. I'm also a light sleeper so I went to bed first, put the earplugs in and hoped I'd go to sleep before he came in. My husband finally made a serious commitment to get in shape so he's been working out pretty regularly for the past 2 years. He really focused on strengthening his core abdominal muscles and I swear...the snoring has gone away! :party: He hasn't actually lost that much weight (about 15 lbs) and he's still a big guy but honestly, the snoring has stopped. It's a Christmas miracle!!!

A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock I have not read many books by F. Rivers...some of her other topics just don't interest me but this particular book along with the 2nd book in the trilogy are excellent.

I've found that if a parent already has a bias against homeschoolers, they will jump on any excuse to criticize. I've seen it many times where parents will mention the one hs child that can't read or who is socially awkward but are blind to academically struggling or "left out" kids they see every day at their kids public schools. I'm not saying all ps parents do this but I do know some who just don't like homeschooling because it's "different" and goes against the norm. We have a large homeschool population at our church and I've found that the ps kids interact with the homeschoolers pretty well. We have a pretty large church however so that might have something to do with it.

I was reading a thread from a few days ago discussing cursive programs. I having been using Cursive 1st with my boys for a few weeks now and it's going ok. They're really excited about learning cursive but we've hit a couple of snags. Cursive 1st teaches that every letter has a begining sroke and my younger son is having a little trouble beginning this stroke correctly. Secondly, I'm not a huge fan of workbooks per se, but I almost wish that this program was in workbook format just to make it a little easier to teach. After reading the HWOT comments, I'm wondering if this would be an easier program to use and teach. My one concern is that some of the HWOT letters do not have a beginning stroke. I'm just wondering if I switch, will that confuse them too much. We've only learned about 1/2 the letters in cursive but as I've said, they "all" have beginning strokes. I don't really have a personal preference of one cursive style over another. I just want something fairly easy to learn and to teach. I do have all boys so I don't want to throw too much at them and "confuse their little brains" :confused1: