Thank you for the update! Continuing to pray here!!!!

The Life of Fred math books are sold via paypal! :D

My youngest is using Abeka for math. I know I used alot of Abeka when I first started homeschooling. It was all I used for my oldest from Kindergarten through 3rd grade. The only thing I can think of is that there's SOOO much Abeka material out there ... AND their prices are fairly low for brand new items ... that it's hard to sell Abeka used.

I love it!!! :lol: We love going to the Outer Banks!! That one t-shirt reminds me of our last trip. We took our children to the Lost Colony. They're walking around and exploring everything and we sat down to have a soda and my 8 year old asked, "Did they ever find the colonists?" And my oldest son said, "No. That's what it's called the 'Lost Colony', not the 'Here it is colony'." That had us rollling!!!! :lol:

Do I really have to add it all up??? I don't wanna!!! :lol: My oldest -- $300 on curriculum for homeschooling / $800 for tuition and books for her community college classes / $700 for Tae Kwon Do lessons My second -- $500 on curriculum for homeschooling My third -- $300 on curriculum for homeschooling / $700 for Tae Kwon Do lessons My fourth -- $100 on curriculum for homeschooling (gotta love 'hand me downs'!) So....grand total is....$3400. *gulp*

I use textbooks for some subjects (especially math and language arts). I'm also using textbooks for science and history for my youngest. It saves me time and she enjoys them.

I would also recommend it as either supplement or review or even as something to use over the summer. My oldest is using the LoF books as review for the upcoming SAT exam in November. It's GREAT for this because of the heavy emphasis on word problems (which is what tripped her up when she took the exam this past spring). I plan on using them over the summer for my 2nd child (he's using CLE for math this year).

I like the fact that the pages are uncluttered, with lots of room for writing. Some handwriting books don't allow much space. The lessons are brief and to the point, until you get to the 5th grade book. Then they're writing in smaller spaces and they're writing more with each lesson. They also form the letters differently, and I believe it's easier for children to form the letters the way HWT does. I think Sonlight has a picture of the different writing styles of several handwriting programs, including HWT, so you can see the difference. (You can look in their products section. I think it's under language arts somewhere. You can also view sample pages there, too.) I've also used it for two special needs children, and I've had great success with it because it was written by an occupational therapist.

I'm homeschooling my 3 youngest, full-time, but my oldest is at the community college....she's really excited! :D

We're using Sonlight Core 4, which uses the Landmark History of the American People as the basic text. We also decided not to use SOTW Volume 4, after using the previous 3 volumes. So I was stumped for what else to do, other than SL 4, so I ended up purchasing The Trail Guide of US Geography, so he can learn the states and their capitals, etc. He loves drawing and maps, so it should be a great addition!!!! I'm so excited!!! We should be starting it next week!!

I've used HWT for my three youngest children and I love the program!!! If you start with the 2nd grade book, Printing Power, I believe it is, it's not babyish at all...and then he would have an entire year to work on printing before cursive starts with the 3rd grade book. I love it and, at $6 a book, it's not overly expensive.

Just wanted to give you a :grouphug: I'm reading all of these 'off to college posts', knowing that I'll be writing one of my own next year!!! :crying: I'm sure your daughter will have a great year!!! And Wellesley....WOW!!! Great job, Mom!!! :thumbup:

My boys watched the entire thing....with popcorn!! :lurk5: They really enjoyed Ted Kennedy's speech. They looked at him, trying to picture him being young, once, like the pictures they've seen of his brother, John. Jim Leach....the boys thought he sounded like Kermit the Frog...which had them giggling at first....but they enjoyed his speech. My 8 year old fell asleep during Michelle Obama's speech, so I just carried him to bed and sent my 14 year old upstairs, too. :)

When your boys pop popcorn :lurk5: and hunker down on the couch to intently watch ....... the Democratic National Convention!?! Never ceases to amaze me!! :D

We got ours at Best Buy! We called and asked them when they get their Wii shipments. They gave us the date and we were there when the store opened that day (along with 20 other people) and we walked out with our Wii!! (That was August of last year....so if you want one for Christmas, now is the time!! They'll become harder to find the closer you get to December!)

Howdy!!! :seeya: Welcome!! I've been homeschooling for 13 years and I have two children with special needs. Glad to meet you!! :)

I can relate completely!!! My 14 year old Aspie had a great year last year and I tried to use a high school level curriculum with him this year and it bombed!! I had hoped that he would be able to do 9th grade work because he did so well last year. Nope! I realized that he needs more time working through things at a middle school level. So I re-vamped his curriculum completely after the first week and he has new history, science, and math programs. Today was his first day with some of the new material and he couldn't be happier -- we're waiting for the rest to come in the mail. (Everything is geared toward a 7th-8th grade level). After talking it over with my hubby, we decided that, if it takes him 6 years to work through high school, that's fine with us. If he chooses to go to college (be it a 4 year one or a community college), they'll take him at 20, just as they would if he was 18. It took alot of the pressure off of him and me. I would sit down with your curriculum, and your daughter and hubby and have a little brainstorming session and see what you can come up with. :grouphug:

We've had satellite internet for about 2 years now. It's all we can get here in the boonies, too!! (No cable TV or internet here -- nor do we have anything through the phone company, like Verizon) It's MUCH faster than dial-up!!! I would estimate that it's at least 4-5 times faster than dial-up. However, it's not as fast as the cable internet that we had when we lived in Maryland. The only complaint that I have is that it won't work if it's raining or even cloudy. If the signal can't get through, you're out of luck until the weather clears (so we keep AOL as a backup, just in case, but we buy the cheapest package available...because we rarely use it) The cost is worth it for us because I don't have to spend such a long time online! With dialup, it would take 30 minutes, just to check my mail! Btw...we have Hughesnet...used to be DirectWay (same folks who bring you DirecTV)

CONGRATS!!!!! I love babies!!!! :party:

I write my lesson plans out for the entire year over the summer, so I know what to do each day. I plan the next year's curriculum out during the current school year, just so I have some broad idea of what I'm planning on doing. Then I can make adjustments. I might see something here that sounds really good...or I might have a student who's struggling through a certain curriculum, or with a certain subject, and I might look for something else for them for the next year. Even if I plan it all out on paper, I know things may and will change, so I don't purchase anything until after the current year is over, or almost over, so I don't buy something that just sits on my shelf (as I've been known to do in the past!!)

I would call your local highschool, ask for the guidance / counseling office, and ask when they're taking PSAT registrations from homeschoolers. Our local high school starts taking them the 2nd week in September (after they have all the students settled in place after the mayhem of school starting). I then just took my check over there (I think it was $15) and they placed her on the testing list. Then that was it! I just dropped her off at the high school on the appropriate date and at the appropriate time.

I would do it!!! I love to take long car trips!! (We have an 8 hour vacation trip coming up in 6 weeks and I can't wait!!) Do you have a DVD player in your car? I love those on long trips!! Or pick up some fun children's music CD's to play in the car. Make sure to take along picture books ... crayons and markers ... snacks and juice boxes or water bottles ... stuffed animals ... little toy action figures / little animals or horses, etc. Stop every 2 hours to stretch their legs and take them potty and enjoy it!!

My youngest is an early bird!! She usually wants to do school, even before she eats breakfast! But that's just her. She's usually up and started by 8. My other three children are nightowls and they would revolt if I started their school day at 8 in the morning! I try to have them up and started by 10 or 11, though -- or I feel behind all day, if that makes sense.

:grouphug: right back at ya!!!! My oldest starts her 2nd year at the community college tomorrow and we have a college application to complete and a graduation in the spring to plan for!! Where did the time go??? It seems like just yesterday she was using the Abeka preschool books!! :crying:

No. We don't do allowances here. Chores are done because they live with us and we feed and clothe them. :D Chores are feeding the pets, cleaning their rooms, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the floors, washing the dishes, helping with (or doing their own) laundry, and helping with cooking meals. We offer money for some jobs ... ones that are out of the norm, such as stacking firewood, powerwashing the house, weeding the flower beds, washing the cars, etc. ... and it's usually $5 - $10, depending on how long they spend doing it. We pay our oldest for babysitting IF the dh and I are going out on a 'date night', but we don't pay her if we're going errand running / grocery shopping, etc., because that's just part of what she does for us in exchange for our paying for her community college tuition! :)