We just started homeschooling a couple of months ago and she doesn't fully understand it. She is very bright and was in the top of her class at ps but she had not begun learning grammer yet formally. My ds 7 and dd 8 are using FLL from the 1st grade lessons because she hadn't learned what a noun was yet. Could she still start WT's?? She likes to write creativley. When do you stop Reading as a curc? I am basing much of our lesson's on SWB suggestions in TWTM and for dd it doesn't seem to be clicking.

My dd is having trouble with this and getting very frustrated with it. How did you help your little ones grasp the idea of narration?

www.edhelper.com and www.enchantedlearning.com both have a lot of pages you can print for free. I like enchanted learning because they have coloring books to print out and they also have a section for just preschool. It's one of our favorite sites, I actually broke down and paid the $20 membership to have access to the whole site. Even without it though there is a lot of pages that are free. HTH's!!

We are really enjoying Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons with my ds who is 7. I also own and have went through The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and plan to start my 4 year old out with it in a few months. I have heard great things about Pathways but I haven't ever used it myself. It really helps to know what your child's learning style is before choosing one I think. I bought several before discoverying this. I HTH. Oh and I know that some people use Explode the Code to supplement or go along with the primer.

Explode the Code is a phonics curc and Handwriting without Tears is a handwriting curc.

They told me not to change it for a couple months I believe, it's been quite awhile. I changed mine from a ring to a stud though after a couple of weeks and didn't have any problems. If you had it pierced with a stud I wouldn't see any reason why you couldn't after a week maybe. I would say when it's not feeling as sensitive as it does for the first few days or so. I would def have it pierced on the right side if your right handed and on the left if your left handed for quicker changes between stud and retainer.

I have been floating around, asking for advice and I haven't even introduced myself. Hello everyone, my name is Dana. I am from Quincy, IL, which is located on the belly button of the state, right on the Mississippi. My husband Andy and I have been married for 9 years and have four great kids. We are a new homeschooling family. We had always considered homeschooling as a schooling option but it wasn't until we moved out into the county we felt it was the only option for our family. My husband is a contractor. We have owned and opererated a construction company for 7 years. We finally were able to build a house of our own last year. Through research and the advice of others we believed the schools here would be even better then in the city. To make a long story short, that was not at all the case. We started really exploring homeschooling and it didn't take long for us to realize it was a no brainer. I have always been a stay at home mom and I can't remember being happier since my two youngest were too young for school. I love spending all my time with them. Even on our worst days I can't imagine it any other way. I very much look forward to getting to all of you.

The retainers are almost completley unnoticiable. A friend of mine had to use one for work and I couldn't tell she had her nose pierced when I was right in front of her. I had mine pierced when I was 16 and had it in for almost a year. I am 28 years old now and you can still see where it was. One month after I took it out I could still get a stud through it but then after about 3 months it was closed forever. I look at it sometimes and for a moment consider having it redone then I remember dh didn't like it then and I highly doubt he would now,lol. HTH!

Did your dd get into the cards and the online game? I was a little leary of this but thought it sounded pretty neat. I really want to read them myself now. I love a good mystery :).

I am glad to hear that some dd's are also enjoying these books. I really thought my dd would really enjoy it as well as ds. I want to get them some books that they aren't going to just throw to the side after a couple days. I have one with a short attention span and one is had to impress, lol.

Anyone have any kiddos who enjoy these books? Also what are thier ages?

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini If you loved the Kite Runner you will LOVE this book. I did anyway. What I am reading now and almost finished with, The Road by Cormac McCarthy I think is going to be in my top three. I spent a lot of time rereading some books I had read in the past and really loved. The Reader was one of then by Bernhard Schlink. I decided to reread it when I had read somewhere they made a movie based on the book. Kate Winslet playing Hana. I had read it a few years ago and felt compelled to reread the book before the seeing the movie. Still waiting on the movie. I love a good book, there's nothing better :D!

I believe they had those at Target.... They had several different ones but I am pretty sure I saw that one there too. They also had a big book of Magic in books at target and I also saw several book kits at Borders too. HTH.

Look on ebay for a good inexpensive telescope. You def need to go with a refractor telescope. They are so much easier to use for both you and your little ones. We had a big reflector one and it didn't work as well and the kids had a hard time using it. Here is a great site that really helped us when we decided to buy a telescope. http://www.opticsplanet.net/how-to-buy-a-telescope.html We got a $500 set up for $150 on ebay. I did my research and we really got a steal and there was plenty more if you look. HTH!

Is there really a Little House on the Prarie coloring book? That would be a great stocking stuffer for dd!