[Can you see yourself in an auto-pilot car?]

I'm a control freak and wouldn't want to give up control of the car. Everyone else should get an auto-pilot car though! :)

[What is your biggest expense?]

Food. We have allergies which make food purchasing very costly.

[Were you homeschooled?]

No.

[UPDATE in original post: In the ER with ds and I'm so worried they won't find anything wrong]

:grouphug: Sending good thoughts for successful surgery and quick recovery.

[Fighting with sensory kid over swimsuit]

Would he be willing to wear underwear underneath the "too big" suit? It may feel the right size if the undies make it comfier.

[Update on DD]

many hugs :grouphug: to you and your dd. I am so glad to hear there is some good news.

[What do I need for song school latin?]

You don't need the DVD, but I found that it helped with pronunciation by hearing the word repeated a few times in context, not just in song. My Ds loved the monkey videos on the DVD and I appreciated the word root portion. I wouldn't say it was essential, but it was important enough that I bought the DVD for level 2 when we moved on to that level.

[Introducing Matthew Alexander]

Congratulations!! :party:

 

He's such a cutie!

[In Tears Because I'm Locked Out of my Computer]

So relieved for you!!!

[Is there an app for this?]

Something like Flipboard could work for that. You choose categories of news that you want to read. I am able to get local news on mine and I also select topics like homeschooling, astronomy, education, cooking, beautiful photos, etc. If something big happens it usually shows up in at least one of my topics, but things like a bus accident in another country or doom and gloom articles don't tend to crop up in the categories I have chosen.

[All About Reading, Pre-reading...yes/no?]

I too am debating if AAR is worth the money for us. With ds1, I used the Reading Lesson ($20) and he learned to read in just a few months. We then went right into AAS, which has been very much worth the money.

 

Ds2 is now 3 and we have been doing AAR pre reading over the last few months. He already knew his letters and their sounds thanks to the Leapfrog videos. He has learned rhyming from AAR and he does enjoy the craft letter pages. But could we have done that much less expensively? Yes. Ds' favourite part of AAS pre is the zebra puppet, and we bought that separately. I am leaning towards getting The Reading Lesson for him and knowing that we can get AAR if it turns out we need a much more incremental program.

[A Von Trapp family wedding--just had to share]

That was a lovely write-up.

[FDA Updates Instructions for EpiPens]

Thank you. I had not seen this yet.

[Do you track the books your kids read? What systems do you use?]

I created a printable off of the bookshelf idea you found on Pinterest.

 

You can download it for free here.

 

I loved it when I saw it so I had to make it!

Thanks again! I filled it out this morning with some of the books Ds read this year for Grade 2. It looks so neat!

 

[Do you track the books your kids read? What systems do you use?]

I created a printable off of the bookshelf idea you found on Pinterest.

 

You can download it for free here.

 

I loved it when I saw it so I had to make it!

Thank you so much!! I loved it too and plan to use yours to record our reading.

[Sweetest graduation]

This class' average age is 93. I'm sure this program kept a lot of these seniors going by giving them a goal and a purpose. The video is so sweet. I love seeing people excited about learning, and this shows that it is never too late to start!

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/elderly-education-classes-riverton-valley-view-villa-1.3635934

[Science for 1st grade, K5.5 and 3 yr old tagging along?!]

REAL Science Odyssey Biology would probably be a good fit. The experiments are pretty easy but also fun. I like the lab sheets because they encourage the scientific method of making a hypothesis and then recording results and answering a few questions about what happened.

[What is "out there" for elementary science? Anything "in a box"?]

REAL Science Odyssey has worked well for us. It is completely secular and covers many of the same topics as BFSU.

[MCT ibooks questions]

While everyone is here... I would love to know if anyone has the Mud trilogy in iBook form, and if so, if you can change the text size to a larger font size. I purchased Mud in iBook form a year or two ago specifically because I struggle with small print due to a visual impairment. The text, however, was not adjustable. I returned the iBook and the customer service rep (apple, not MCT) sent what was probably a standard email saying they would work on the problem.

 

So I'm curious if the text can now be enlarged or not.

I have the latest version and the text is not adjustable.

[For those who like their math curriculum...]

I got:

 

Score for Beast Academy: 15

Score for Math Mammoth: 6

Score for Math U See: 0

Score for Mathematical Reasoning: 9

Score for Miquon: 11

Score for RightStart: 11

Score for Saxon: 3

Score for Shiller: 9

Score for Singapore: 11

Score for Teaching Textbooks: 0

 

 

We use Beast and it works well for us. We used Miquon prior to that and it worked too.

[Your favorite balance bike?]

Ds got an Evo Beep Beep when he turned two. It is very sturdy and well-built. He loves it.

 

Older Ds had an Early Rider bike when he was little. It was wood, so not what you are looking for, but it was also an excellent balance bike.

["I can't think because my hand is too stinky."]

You are not alone! Ds has a whole collection (at least 8) of liquid soaps so he can get the right scent at the right time. Sounds are an issue too and he has a set of those industrial type noise blocker ear coverings. The sound issues have greatly improved over the years, but the scent ones have intensified. I just keep buying him new soaps and it keeps him fairly happy.

[First 2 Levels FREE Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization]

Thank you!

[A Year of Playing Skillfully reviews?]

I'm interested too. I recently ordered the Homegrown Preschooler book, but it hasn't arrived yet. I would like to know how much more is in the curriculum vs the book. Are most of the activities in the book but they are more scheduled in the curriculum, or are most of the curriculum activities new?

[NYC for one day: what should we do?]

We did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the different districts. It was very interesting and we were able to see a lot of the city and get out when we wanted (you can get on the next tour bus that goes by).