I think I am getting the perfect gift for my birthday.... It's that perfect blend of completely superfluous, yet useful. It's shiny... it's sleek... it a little noisy, but not too much. It can make my life less hectic and actually save time (like 27ppm)... Out with the old, in with the new! What is it, you ask? a laser printer :001_smile:.... Don't you agree?

I think you can buy Lial's BCM on the used market fairly cheaply, if you look for an older edition, which is what I did. Or check out: www.paperbackswap.com They will sometimes have textbooks for trade. HTH, Miriam

We are currently using Lial's BCM. I have never seen Abeka math, so this is not a comparison. Ds used MUS up til this year. We are substituting Lial's for the Pre-Alg. Lial's is student-friendly, it does not require a teaching session. I answer ?s when he gets stuck, but generally, there are good written explanations and examples. He does only odd-numbered problems, because those are what are included in the back of the book if the Solutions manual is not purchased. Ds is now more comfortable with word-problems and he has solidified basic math principles/formulas this year. HTH,

20 years here... Most days are filled with a steady contentment with him. Other days there are minor irritations. I have great respect and gratitude for him because we have a history together, of losses and joys, and he has maintained respect through all. I do think it is very important to have "rules of engagement" which we started from day 1 of our marriage. That is, there are boundaries even when arguing. We made a covenant with each other and we take that very seriously. That said... the catch is that I married someone with the opposite personality as I have, which challenges me... some days I appreciate it, some days... not so much! The other thing that keeps me going is that I know that he is the only man for me, that God put us together, and He meant it for good... and it is good most of the time.

My dc liked "The Trial of Old Drum", a dog story

I, personally, would want to curtail public activities more for his sake than others. His system is already weakened, so I would not want to expose him to other contagious things while he is already fighting something. Just my personal policy.

Your craft items were stolen? Go figure.

I am ashamed that I left knitting, crocheting, embroidery out of the poll. Obviously not one of my strong points. I would guess that it takes patience, which has always been my downfall. I am a "must see it complete before I quit"- type person.

I would think that digital scrapbooking uses alot of ink to print each page, doesn't it? Is printer ink archival?

Thank you for sharing your various interests.

I would be a bit hesitant to put a topical steroid on the face for very long, it does "thin" the skin tissue and make it more fragile. I had eczema on my hands from handwashing frequently from all the years of my nursing career. After a short time, I noted that my hands were becoming like an old lady's hands, due to the steroid use, even once a day for a prolonged period. I changed to the weakest ointment I could thereafter. This is just a friendly word of caution, because my MD never discussed the effects it would have. I guess he assumed that I wanted treatment, since I had requested his service, but that may be for another thread :001_smile:.

I set up a poll in another thread, if y'all wouldn't mind voting. I'd love to see where the Hive's creativity runs.

What are your hobbies? Just following up my previous post with a poll, if it works, that is. Feel free to choose more than one and include what you may have done in the past.

Yes, I concluded that it is what the camera or pc sets up as the first frame of the video, I guess, but I can't seem to persuade the media player to recognize the video behind this "thumbnail file".

The software automatically installed when I connected the camera to the pc. How do I load the video to the gallery, exactly (asked sheepishly, as this may very well be obvious to everyone else)?

With summer approaching and therefore the hope of free time, what do you Mamas (and Papas) do for hobbies or crafts? Just a curiosity question... I have scrapbooked on and off for years, but I am intrigued with beading jewelry. I am hoping to experiment more with that.

Another vote for Winter Promise, maybe American Crossing, or American Story 2, depending on the time period to study. Or the multi-age combination of All American 1. Save money by acquiring the books used or from the library and buy only the WP exclusives from the website: www.winterpromise.com

Sounds like the impetigo my ds had on his face. OTC Triple antibiotic cream cleared it up for us.

This would be a fine reason (for me, anyway) to start frequenting estate auctions. That is where we found our pretty corner cabinet. It is a glass front cabinet, but it is in the schoolroom.

I am so frustrated right now with my computer... I have an HP pc with Windows Vista. We bought ds a digital camera (a Kodak Easyshare) for his birthday. He took lots of pics, of course, and a few videos. However, the video format was .thm which dear windows media player would not recognize. I tweaked alittle and happened to change them to .mp4 files, which doesn't work either. This wouldn't be terrible, I guess, but my JVC Everio digital camcorder stopped communicating with dear computer a few weeks ago also! Sometimes I wonder if my dear computer is conspiring against me...? OK, there are converter files for the thumbnail pic at the start of the video, but how do I know what is safe to download? Is file converter software what I need? Any trustworthy software sites? Computer is almost current wtih updates, but I went back to Adobe 8.0 b/c 9.0 was extremely sloooow for pdf printing. All this talk about a Mac and how well it works, makes we want to go out and just buy one. Do any of you MAC users ever have these problems?

This is what bro is saying. They used Sonlight K-8 with SF for math, which was several years ago as his dc are now in college. This is probably what bro is referring to.

I took our oldest ds and he enjoyed it. Seemed pricey, however, as an introduction to music and play. He, of course, loved the playtime. He was uncomfortable with the dancing, maybe because there was only 1 other boy in a room full of girls. We never took 2nd ds. I could see the value of early music introduction, but not convinced that we couldn't do similar activitites at home. Of course, I forgot about doing these things by the time 2nd ds came along. Then I was too busy!

When it comes to homeschooling, we must remember that we should not be trying to imitate school at home, but should be teaching our children with a learning lifestyle, making their academic learning a priority, but not in the context of a "public school at home" type of environment. This completely goes against the purpose of homeschooling. (IMHO :001_smile:) :iagree: We have used MUS for oldest, but younger ds may require something different. I had SF mentioned to me, and unknowingly discovered that it is not so much written for homeschool, but that Pearson publishing is often directed toward public school textbook printing. I posed the original request to find out if this might be a "sleeper" product, ie: a little known product (I didn't know anything about it, anyway) with big returns. I have homeschooled dc since Kindy, so I don't even know the ps publishing company names.

Thank you for all your help. I was just looking at ALL my options. I will most likely continue on with MUS and/or Math Mammoth for 4th grader and Saxon Algebra 1 for 7th grader as planned.

Thank you for your summary and for enlightening me on this forum's history, Spycar. Now I know why I have not heard of SF on this forum. I may need to look elsewhere to satisfy my curiosity.