anyone???

My dd does not like marks in workbooks for wrong answers to correct, so I love those colored sticky arrows to mark any wrong answers. I just put one by the answer that is wrong and she knows what to correct. I can easily just recheck the arrowed answers and neatly put it back on the stack to reuse. I even color code some-yellow is spelling errors, red is punctuation,etc. Gina

Thanks to everyone for all of the great resources. I am leaning toward The Bible Study Guide for All Ages. I like the timeline, background info and their statement about not giving their opinions and staying non-denominational. I still have a few others to look at but seeing all of the positive responses on BSGFAA is very encouraging in my initial thoughts.:001_smile: Gina

Our almost 9 yo dd has been doing copywork and dictatation for over a year now and it just is not working for her. We have been stuck on the same 4 dictation passages for several months now and still keeps making the same mistakes on easy words (leaves, began, etc). I am ready to move on, but to where, I am not sure. We tried AAS prior to that and she just did not retain the rules or apply them. She is good at memorizing so I wonder if she would do better NOT following a rules based curriculum. The only rules I ever learned were "i before e..." and "drop the e and add ing" and at one time I spelled very well. I have looked at some programs and thought A Reason for Spelling may be a possible choice since it gives her many ways to practice the words and hopefully memorize them. The other one I have thought about is Sequential Spelling. I also have Megawords, which I use with 10 dd with success but dd9 is young for it (recommended age is 4th grade to start and she is around early to mid 3rd grade). Any thoughts any of these or something else to use? Thanks for any insight. Gina

I am looking for a Bible curriculum for our 9 and 10 yo dd's that reflects our beliefs as closely as possible. We are conservative, New Testament church believers. We will practice courting (not dating) when the time comes for marriage, modesty, and the usual biblical values. We do allow TV and video games are but very limited in our choices. I want a non-denominational Bible study only, without a particular slant-just the facts please, not an interpretation of those facts. Something that provides historical/background info along with the biblical events. If this helps, I am not interested a reformed theology, Baptist, Mennonite or any of the Abeka/BJU type studies nor do I want application/character training (already have that covered) but if it is included that's okay. I just don't somehting that talks about dating and hanging out at the mall kind of stuff. We do read through the Bible as a family and discuss it, but I want something structured and at their level that we could do during school time. Thanks for any suggestions. Gina

OUr dd had the same issues when she was younger (still does if she eats the wrong things) so I eliminated everything. For the first few days I gave her rice bread, chicken and rice. A few days of a nonbalanced diet will not hurt. Within 2 days her rashes were gone so I added a new food every day or two. We found that she was sensitive to ALOT of foods so just eliminating a few things would have never shown what she was allergic to. The big things are artificial color and preservatives. The surprises were celery, raw carrots, Kraft ranch dressing and mayonaisse while other brands do not bother her. We knew she had severe peanut and tree nut allergies along with many environmental based on skin tests. The environmental allergies do not really cause her discomfort beyond sneezing and runny nose but the food allergies bring on the rashes and itching. This is just to give you and idea that allergies are not always what you would normally expect a personto be allergic to. I highly recommend trying this approach with your dd and at age 2 it is pretty easy to control her diet. I hope you find the solution:001_smile: Gina

Well, I guess he's just one of those people who is bitter about life and there is not much more you can do but pray for him, as you already mentioned. I thought he was an old crotchety guy. I pictured him like Mr. Bleakman from the Clifford shows/books and maybe he could be won over but I guess that is TV land and not reality. Maybe you could ask his wife why he seems so difficult (imagine living with him!) Build what you can to separate your yard from his and try to avoid him. You could also tell him the next time the dog is barking at him, "Sorry our dog is barking, but she just found another pile of your cat's poop in our yard again, that really sets her off!" LOL I hope you can find peace with the situation. I still don't know how anyone could love a golden retriever. Gina

Well also have a golden about the same age. They are the sweetest dogs on the earth but not everyone feels the way we do about dogs and goldens. Your dog may be picking up on your feelings toward the neighbor which is causing it to bark at him. Our golden only barks when she feels there is a reason to be concerned or is really excited. Try to make friends or at least feel friendly toward him so that the dog may feel that way too. It not be so much that he is not friendly toward the dog but that you do not feel friendly toward the neighbor (understandable so) and the dog feels a need to protect or warn about the evil neighbor. The neighbor sounds like he wants some peace and quiet while gardening and the dog (and possibly the children) are interrupting that. He is obviously a passive aggressive type who does want the confrontation but does want his quiet and is willing to pay for it. I would probably do the same thing if a dog's barking were annoying me (and I love dogs). I would really try to be friendly to him and maybe have the children interact in a quiet way with him. Have them ask him about gardening and if he would teach them about his plants. Ask his wife his favorite dessert and make it for him. Say hi to him when you are outside, apologize if the dog is barking and let him know you will take it inside or for a walk. Ask he would like to pet it and get to know it (preferable after the food has been given). You may find that he is not that bad of a guy if you try to be friendly. Offer to help him with a project , whatever you can think of to be neighborly without crowding him. He may a stressful job or other difficulties in his life and gardening is his way to relax. Children and dogs can be disruptive when you just want to go out to your garden and relax. Try to see his side of it and although he does not sound very flexible try to be respectful. Good luck:001_smile: Gina

I had a copy of the catalog with a 10% discount that I threw away. Now I want to order something so does anyone have the 10% discount that they could share? Thanks! Gina

You may want to contact the author. She is very helpful in placement and answering any and all questions. We just started 4 recently so I am not sure if skipping would be a problem. Gina

We are on our second golden retriever. She seems to know the worst places to get sick. A few weeks ago it was over a vent so it ran down into the duct work and it is never on the non-carpeted floors. I constantly sweep up hair but it helps to have wood floors and vinyl in her main areas instead of vacuuming carpet all the time (the tumbleweeds of hair are a different story). I don't think I could handle the drool though, fortunately she does not have that issue. I never feel like my house is clean and if it was 5 minutes later it's all hairy again. It's a tradeoff in which you have to really love your dog or you just don't mind hair, mud, vomit, dirt and whatever strange things and smells they bring in. When we only had a dog it was not so bad but children and a dog, cat and turtle have led me to wave my white flag years ago:lol: Gina

I met General Mills III . No, he was not from the cereal company.

We use R&S orally and add Meaningful Composition along with other LA components. However we are not classical homeschoolers so we do not follow the style taught for writing by the classical method. Gina

We are currently using 240 Vocabulary Words 4th Grade Kids Need to Know (or whatever grade). It is not very challenging but is good for our needs this year (ages 8 and 9). Next year will be switching to Dynamic Literacy to step it up a bit. I also bought an electronic dictionary and have them look up words while they are reading that they do not understand. We use Megawords for our 9 yo for spelling. I never really thought of it as vocabulary but I guess it does that too ;) Gina (Hope the links work since I never tried it this way before)

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CQLA (Character Quality Lang. Arts) has a March sale: $59 (reg $79)

:lurk5: That is exactly what I am searching for too (for 8-10 year olds though). Gina

I bought an electronic kids dictionary with spell correction. The method of searching was frustrating and usually was just skipped in daily writing. Now they will actually look up words when they don't know the spelling or meaning. We do still practice dictionary skills with an actual book but it makes life sooooo much better for everyone:thumbup: I was taught the "best guess and search method" too but it is not very time efficient. That is the only method I know so I guess I am not much help to the OP.

oops!! wrong post-Sorry

:iagree: Our dd gets it all over too and this wipes it out in one or two applications. Gina

We used Bigger last year. It seemed we were changing alot and and eliminating quite a few other things. None of us liked the main books used for history although we enjoyed many of the extensions so now we just use book lists for our history. The activities were hit or miss for us. The science was perfect for us! :iagree: Gina

This is the info Donna sent about MC and CQLA. She also said that MC comes mostly from Green and Blue. "If you want any other language arts components (copy work, dictation quiz, spelling, grammar lessons, homophone lessons, usage, editing, vocabulary, etc.), you should get CQLA during the sale, even if you do not use all of it. The Green will be ready to send out in a month or so (but you can order it during the sale), and the Blue is ready to go out now. These are the two most recently-revised ones. The MC IS the writing portions of CQLA--but they are not clearly just per level. For example, the MC 4 I is some of CQLA Pre A and some A; the 5 I is mostly A with a B or two lesson thrown in; the 5 II comes from A and B; etc. In a nutshell, however, I would consider the following equivalents: 1. MC 4 I--Level A grammar (the only MC with grammar lessons) and CQLA Pre A writing 2. MC 4 II--Level A mostly 3. MC 5 I--A and beginning B 4. 5 II--some A; mostly beginning B 5. MC 6 I--B 6. MC 8 I--C Hope this helps. Thanks, Donna Reish " Now to sort my thoughts on this. I hope it helps others too:-) Gina

Another question...Does MC include the writing from ALL THREE color levels or are they similar enough that only one color level was used? I guess another question for the author. I do not like calling so I hope she responds to my email. Gina

I emailed the authors so if anyone is interested I will post the reply when I hear back from them. In the meantime if anyone knows please share:001_smile: Gina