Oh, this is so very true. I know people who speak many, many languages and have a very high IQ. Common sense is not so common with these people. A great saying I heard once was:

Yes, I use the planner everyday. I input math, science, SL books, etc. I LOVE it. I even add chores once and a while for the kids. :D I can go in and check off what each child has finished or worked on and it keeps a running total of what was worked on when. I can print off very detailed reports at the end of the year. It is a great blessing.

We are on week 18 and it has taken us a week per lesson...but I am going to two weeks from here on out. My 11 and 9 year olds are getting behind in vocabulary and I think more time spent "simmering" on each lesson will help. I could keep to a week a lesson, but I don't want it to be so hard they begin to hate it.

Have you seen www.simplycharlottemason.com? I use SL, but I do it very CM. I just got done watching an all-day seminar I ordered from that site and it covers so much. If you use their planner you can input as many or as few books as you like and schedule how you would like your child to complete their lessons. I have some chapters narrated, drawn, or completed. They sell wonderful books for prepared dictation that go through 12th grade. I looked at LBC, but I like the SL choices better.

I thought the same thing until we spent a year on astronomy. It was easy to teach and the kids still remember things so well, and that was 5 years ago. I got bored too, but the kids didn't and I guess that is what counts. I am going back to it again for my youngest.

I have just finished getting my third boy to reading fluency stage and I have to say that following their lead has been the biggest lesson I have learned. Pushing can be a lot of stress on a little person. They all had blending become easier at different ages. One of my boys read wonderfully at five and another was nine before he could read anything on his own. If it were me I would just slow down and read lots of story books. I nearly killed my eldest child's love of reading by moving at the pace I knew he could handle, but didn't appreciate.

I don't have to scrounge for good books. Period, end of story.:D

I just LOVE LLFTVY and am using with my 7 year old boy. He loves it too. If you choose to use it, it is helpful to understand how to use it properly. At first it looks really simple, but as my son can attest, it can be deceivingly so. He has to do every lesson perfectly and if even an i is not dotted he must do it all again. This has made copy work into a great spelling program for him. We add in a handwriting book and some additional copywork/dictation from SL readers and that is our LA program. I think it would work well with WWE. We dropped that though a while ago as I have a different interpretation of dictation and narration. I understand where the author is coming from, but I don't mind-long winded and detailed narrations at this young age. Still, I think the two could work well together, especially if you do not add additional copywork from another source.

I loved them both, but I still had to supplement with real books because I am a CM follower. Bedell was extremely easy to use and I would have stayed with it except we are not baptist and it has a very baptist doctrinal slant. I had to modify too much on the fly. The history is more provincial in nature also. SOW was great, but again, you have to add the living books. I didn't like the LA because I had to modify it too much for my CM taste. I really did like the prayer letters. We still do parts of SOW, but I couldn't get into a groove with the whole thing.

I don't know if you have ever seen Queen Language Lessons, but my 4 year old just LOVES Language Lessons for Little Ones. I know it is supposed to be for language, but really it is more "artsy" at this age and allows them a lot of pretend play along with thinking skills. She has drawn lots of pictures to go with the lessons (inside the book) and it has made a really beautiful book of memories. Yesterday she drew herself swinging on our tree swing as part of her lesson.She adores the picture study, telling stories about the pictures, and the poems. It is a workbook, but much prettier and definitely more creative. She decorates each lesson with stickers.

I think Prof B is a great supplement--or complete program if you want it to be. My kids have used parts of the lessons to expand on things they were having trouble with. I bought the cds for K-6 used and really like having them.

All my kids are using these books right now and I love them! They have short, targeted lessons and take very little time. My kids had LA burn out after using Shurley for a while. I have decided to wait with heavy grammar until 6th or 7th grade. These books are perfect. No other curriculum has had my children willingly write a story. If you are of the classical mind they will not be meaty enough for your taste...maybe, but it you are going for the CM approach it probably will be perfect. I round it out with handwriting workbooks and studied dictation from their Sonlight readers.

I have both... I have continued with LLFTVY over PLL for a couple of reasons. I am a true CMer and I really believe that short lessons are best, BUT the student must give his full attention and his very best work. This workbook really has short lessons, but with this approach it has worked very well for us. Also, it is a workbook. I really like having a nice book to save that shows what they did for picture study and it is also scattered throughout with drawings my son did to enhance his lessons. It's very sweet and I like it a lot. PLL is a great book and a good value, it really comes down to what you want. PLL has more memory work than I would like, since my children already do substantial bible memory. PLL was also a bit too much for us because we also do latin and handwriting (A Reason For Handwriting). My seven year old gets all these lessons done in about 30 minutes with little breaks between each book--just right for him at this age. I tried PLL several times over the years, and there is really nothing wrong with it other than it didn't fit us as well as I would like. Others would tell you the Queen books are far too light. It really depends a lot on your philosophy. My older boys are doing the elementary books and I love those too. With latin and handwriting I believe it is very complete. I like the seasonal approach to grammar anyway along with bits scattered throughout their dictation lessons. I prefer to beef up instead of strip down lessons if I feel the need to---makes me less obsessive. :001_smile:

We are enjoying Piano for Life and Simply Music.

I see the class is coming up and I want to do that, but I may be traveling for the last two weeks of it. Is the content of C/D class inside the Writer's Jungle too or is it extra information? If I could learn more by getting TWJ it would make it easier, but if the class is a lot different than I will try to make it work--any ideas?

I used both last summer, and after previewing all the DVD's for both, I decided that I liked LC much better. I wanted to really like LfC, but LC has and continues to give me a better understanding of Latin. I like Leigh Lowe and her approach and my boys like her too. We watch the DVD on Mon and then they copy the lesson and do the workbook on the following days. I wish it had fun jingles like LfC, but not enough to switch. LfC has a lot of extras that can be a blessing, or a curse. I wanted to do about 20- 30 minutes of Latin a day, but LfC was taking us much longer. LfC is great for some, but I just appreciate how in-depth the LC DVD's are and feel more confident about it. We are not Catholic, but I really like the Lingua Angelica program. Nothing like Gregorian chants to mellow out wild children. :lol:

Favorite Math: MATH U SEE Favorite Bible: BALANCING THE SWORD/ THY WORD CREATIONS MEMORY SONGS Favorite History: SONLIGHT Favorite LA: OLD SONLIGHT LA Favorite Phonics: MONTESSORI EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE (MECS)

I was diagnosed with Meniere's 13 years ago. I was mowing grass when it started. Since then I take an antihistamine and sudaphed daily (year round) to keep pressure off my ears. No doctor would say that allergies were related to Meniere's--shows what they know! Also, be sure to take really good minerals and calcium--plant derived if you can get it. I like AlgaeCal. Those tiny little bones in your ears can get bigger when your body tries to rebuild them when minerals are lost. They are the first to lose strength because of their size. This causes the inner ear to get crowded and lose blood flow. Re-mineralizing it helps to get them to rebuild themselves correctly. Citrus bioflavanoids and high doses of vit c really help too.

So true. That baby was thankful, no doubt about it. And really that is all that matters.

I have 192!! We do school on Saturday and I started July 1st. Yeah!!! I'm only required 140 by my cover school, but we just keep going year round anyway. Basically, from now on I reduce the load a bit before jacking it up again in the middle of summer. :party:

I would by everything sonlight had for each core. It would be nice to get everything and not freak out.:tongue_smilie:

Me too!!

When I first married my husband, his grandma had his grandpa in a box on a shelf. Years later she, too, was cremated and both were buried together in a joint plot. I liked that . My mother died eight years ago and she wanted to be cremated. She mentioned that God says we will return to dust--why not do it faster? I am a Christian and believe that God will put me back together at the Resurrection anyway--and in the better form. I never liked the idea of a coffin anyway--I am claustrophobic and the idea creeps me out more than burning up.

I really enjoy Whey-Low when I want to cut sugar in recipes. It is a blend of sugars, but the way your body utilizes it eliminates the blood sugar spike somehow. You really cannot tell at all in recipes. www.wheylow.com I also like xylitol, but it causes everyone in my house to have gas (it is supposed to kill off candida).:eek: Outside of that I stick to the honey I buy from a friend.

We are very similar to you: Wake up Breakfast (20 minutes) A Reason for Handwriting (15 minutes) Math u see (15-30 min) dd plays with math while her brothers work Latina Christiana--copywork, cards, or worksheet (20 minutes) SL LA Dictation/Grammar younger (20 minutes) SL LA Dictation/Grammar older (20 minutes) alternately working on ETC or readers while other group is working Work on writing projects --IEW or mini-report, (15 minutes) Read alouds before lunch (30-45 minutes) then...more read alouds after supper for an hour. This is while doing two Sonlight cores too. So that is a total of 3 1/2 to 4 hours including extensive read aloud periods. I don't anticipate it taking too much longer until they are more independent with things like science labs or research papers.