What if a 7th grader has become successful in self-motivation to independently work on school and is done within a few hours? This is a good thing... so how do I graciously add assignments to challenge him toward doing more? I work part-time, so I have often encouraged both dc toward doing as much as they can independently. Well, lately, my 7th grader has been successful at completing tasks in such a timely manner that he is done by mid-morning! BTW, he does the work well, he likes to do a good job. A typical day/week is as follows: Critical thinking- logic puzzle/game MUS Prealgebra- 1 unit/week (he will complete in 3 weeks, then we will do LOF) Grammar- R&S English 7- 1 lesson/day Wordly Wise grade 10- 1 unit/week IEW middle ages themed lessons - 1 lesson/week Caught Ya for Middle School- every other day Spelling wisdom dictation- every other day Rosetta Stone Spanish - 20-30 min/day Bible- Royal Ranger tracClub + memorizations Fridays- SCM inductive Bible study Science- WP Human Body- 2 days/week Discovery Streaming videos thrown in to the mix History- WP QMA as per schedule, added weekly written reports,quests/projects on Fridays Added SOTW volume 2 reading Independent Reading - 45 min/day Read Aloud Piano practice- 30 min/day He will be going out to High School by 9th grade, so I want to prepare him well. Break it to me gently... Is this too light? I told him today that we may need to do more writing as narration of what he reads. He took it well, but commented that it feels like a punishment. TIA,

Thank you for the links. I will check these out!

We did the Winter Promise Children Around the World program 2 years ago. We made a passport and notebook/mini-book page for each country visited which had the capital, official language, money, and religion, I think. A friend has a blog of preschool/early elem level resources for her Galloping the Globe study which you may find helpful for printouts, etc: http://homeschoolcreations.com/Geography.html HTH,

What are you using for Bible study for the 4-6th grade crowd? I have recently discovered the SCM site and would like to find an inductive-style Bible study for the 4-6th grade crowd like Sonya Shafer has for the 7-12 graders. Does this exist anywhere? What do you use? We have the Explorer's Bible study, just starting to use, but ds doesn't like so much... Older ds LOVES the SCM Bible studies. Is there anything similar? We are Mennonite-turned AOG members, so would appreciate a Protestant point of view...

Maybe this would be good? Dare to Repair your Car

I've found that it is the color combinations that make great scrapbook pages, ie: using a background paper in a color that accents or emphasizes the colors in a photo. The embellishments are not needed after that. Color, title, photo, journaling... and that's it. I use solid colors all the time, and the pages look more cohesive, less "busy". It takes less time to cut paper of different colors/shapes than all the planning of which embellishments/ stickers go where. If I have the "perfect" sticker, then I use it, but I don't spend the hours planning the perfect page anymore.

Thank you for these links! I have been searching for Season 2 online without success.

In our house, Santa is just an added Christmas bonus. We treated him like a fairy tale from the start. We never led our dc to believe that Santa delivers gifts. We have ALWAYS emphasized that Christmas celebrates Jesus' birth. All the other things, like the tree, Santa, etc. just add to the MERRY part of Christmas.

Using WinterPromise Human Body curriculum for 7th + 4th grader here, with a few supplements/tweaks: 7th grader- WP 7th grade Human Body & Forensics grades 7-12 program book list + God's Design- Human Body, DK The Human Body, Blood & Guts, Human Anatomy Coloring Book 4th grader- WP Human Body & Forensics 4/6 program + Human Anatomy coloring book

I feel like I am missing something... Do you continue on with the story examples and try to add onto the suggested story every day as you work on the Caught Ya sentence? Or do you just work on the Caught Ya sentence, copy the test and plan the spelling list reviews as desired? This will be supplemental for us as well. I think it is a fun supplement, but I must need to read the intro more carefully to utilize this book. I was hoping to have the story continue for more than a single summary. TIA,

Has anyone used this book, or others by Jane Bell Keister, as a grammar program? I'm thinking of adapting it for a supplemental fun grammar study for my dc. I have the original Caught Ya! book, which is a teacher resource for the program. It does not have the complete stories included. Is there a copy of the fun stories anywhere, or am I to add to them on my own? I've looked online without success. TIA,

Thank you for the sugestions. I should also have mentioned that I'm looking to downsize the scale of the camera. Avoiding the old dilemma of which camera to take is attractive to me.

Thank you for the suggestion. My problem is that I invested substantial monies ($900) into a digital Canon point- and- shoot and a separate HD hard drive digital camcorder 4 + 5 years ago, and the camcorder software is no longer working. Therefore, I am trying to avoid the same scenario in 4-5 years and just be happy with "adequate" and not "best", since I cannot afford the investment required every 4-5 years. So, now I will try to combine the 2 and sacrifice some things for the price I'm willing to pay every 2-3 yrs ($300 or less, mostly less). I certainly WANT that camera, the Canon Rebel 2Ti, but that is above my price point and I fear a replay of my current problem, namely, kids growing up with no videos to document their accomplishments! I'm currently looking at the Canon Powershot elph 300. Reviews say that it takes good pics and video. Anyone here agree with that?

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I'm now looking into black Friday deals for these!

Thank you, Sue. I appreciate your review as well. My younger ds also does well with MUS, they both prefer the video format and straightforward workbooks. Thank you for reminding me of the elephant in the room, the hormones do indeed rage some days! My ds is NOT the same boy he was last year, when he worked thru Lial's BCM on his own with few mistakes. He missed the video-teaching, so we went back to MUS for additional review and I thought it would go faster as round 2 of review. We'll just keep on keepin' on.

We are planning to send him to a private HS for grades 9-12. They start Algebra 1 or 2 in 9th grade (after giving a test), so it would be nice to keep him on grade level for this particular school. It is possible that we could do Algebra 1 in 8th grade. Thank you for the gentle reminder (which I bolded).

He is doing Pre-Algebra as a 7th grader. It is not a complete Honors curriculum. The MUS adds an extra 2 pages of Honors level math problems to each week's unit.

I have an old Canon digital camera with movie capability, and looking to upgrade, because the videos are blurry, probably not enough MPs. I also have a 5 yr old JVC digital/HD movie camera with compatability issues with 2 movie memory cards. I'm ready to throw in the towel on the movie camera. Now, I'm looking for a combo camera. How many MPs do I need for a good video? What model is your favorite? TIA,

We get ours from www.Vitacost.com which has several brands.

Looking for recommendations and/or whether changes are needed or not: Background: 7th grade ds has used MUS from beginning, with success until now. Last year he did Lial's BCM for Pre-Algebra practice. I planned on doing fall semester as MUS Pre-Algebra, then start Foerster's Algebra this spring. The problem: Ds cannot get the Honors portion of MUS and we cannot double the pace in our schedule as hoped. What to do?: Do I finish the course without doing the Honors sections? Or do we continue them, which essentially means going over all Honors ?'s together? He can do the Pre-Algebra main course well, just not the Honors. How important is the Honors section? I hoped to be farther along by now and am frankly partly grieving that my ds is not the Mathy kid I thought he was. Our plan for him is to enter HS in 9th grade to do Algebra 2 by then. Would really appreciate success stories from those who have completed MUS programs. I am worried about the math curriculum for younger ds and am planning to supplement with Math Mammoth, since 2 programs MUST be better than one, right? TIA,

Didn't read whole thread, but generally would recommend that all of the circumstances around the event be known to all involved parties, which includes the info re: the hiking and running following the fall. Then the involved parties have the opportunity to do the right thing.

Thank you, everyone, for the many suggestions, off to investigate these titles...

I believe so, I looked at several. It had recipes for tofu, mochi, etc. which I'm not quite ready for yet.

To clarify... My idea of Made from Scratch could be different from others' ideas... I'm looking for recipes which have few to no ingredients from a can. Currently, I have to cook from several recipes for a single dish. Many cookbooks ask for "Cream of..." soups, so I have to interrupt the process to find my printed recipe for "Homemade Cream of ..." soup or" Homemade Taco seasoning", etc. and prepare that stage before continuing. I would like a collection of recipes with the seasonings and/or soups, etc. included in the recipe with easy-to-follow instructions. Compiling the grocery list is a nightmare as I plan menus from too many recipes. Hope that helps, ETA: You ladies are so fast that my clarification is now after your prompt responses, thank you so much for your quick replies!