I do think the readers are necessary although it's been a while since I used the blue book. But if your 5 year old is reading well I'm wondering whether it would worth considering the red book instead. You can find the placement test for the red book here. https://www.commonsensepress.com/red.htm The blue book is nice but it starts by assuming your child can't read. It is also quite time consuming for the parent. If my child was already reading I would keep working on those basic skills until she was ready for the red book. (JMO)

I'm never sure if I should or not. On on the one hand I like to say thankyou to anyone who has taken the time to answer my question but then I wonder if I'm just adding to that employee's inbox clutter and wasting their time having to open my email to see what it is. Normally I err on the side of being polite and saying "thanks" :001_smile:

bumping up ....

Not if they have trouble digesting Galacto - Oligosaccharides. For some people, IBS can go beyond the mild discomfort or embarrassment normally associated with eating beans.

Interesting! I was googling homeschool curriculum and non-profit and came across this article: http://www.educationrevolution.org/store/corporate-homeschooling/ (also here http://oakmeadow.com/corporate-homeschooling/) It is written by the person who founded Oak Meadow and describes his decision to make Oak Meadow a non profit. I was interested in this quote: "Many other homeschool organizations have started, grown, and been sold to large for-profit corporations since we began, and the number of heavily-capitalized for-profit educational corporations seems to be increasing daily." I wonder which organizations he is referring to. I remember Rebecca Avery selling Weaver to Alpha Omega.

I agree! I would love to eat more beans and lentils but they don't agree with me (to put it politely :001_smile: ). I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I don't know anything about business or marketing etc but I often wonder about the companies that write and produce homeschool curriculum and the recent "homeschooling trends" thread has awakened my curiosity. I'm particularly interested in how things have changed in the homeschool market over the last few decades. Just a few random questions.... Who were some of the companies who first produced curriculum specifically for the homeschool market? I guess it varies a lot but just how big or successful are these companies anyway? How many employees? How has new technology changed the homeschool curriculum market? Are there any companies that have closed shop? I can't think of any. Is there more secular material available? I use both secular and Christian material but it seems like there is still more Christian products available. I have seen quite a few people asking for a secular K - 12 version of ACE (or similar) and I often wonder why no-one has developed such a product. I get the impression that some companies started producing curriculum for schools but gradually started selling to homeschoolers too (eg. BJU, Abeka). Is that right? Do homeschoolers have more "buying power" with these companies now? Have they become more responsive to homeschoolers' needs? Any other insights?

I bought it on a bit of a whim and it hasn't arrived yet. Now I'm wondering how I will use it since I don't think it's divided into daily lessons :001_smile:. Any tips appreciated!

Thanks Holly .... I just bought the notebook pages. Great value for less than $1 :001_smile:

I'm thinking of using SCM Middle Ages Guide for my oldest (15 y.o.). It is designed to keep the whole family in the same historical period so it combines readings suitable for a "family study" with additional reading lists for the different ages. It looks very well organized in the way it does this but I will only be using it with my high school student. Do you think it is up to high school standard? And if I'm not using it with younger children, should I be allocating my high schooler's time (and my resources) to the family books? Here's the booklist. I won't be using it for bible so I haven't included those books. Family books: Famous Men of the Middle Ages, edited by Rob Shearer Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation by Rob Shearer Castle by David Macaulay Cathedral by David Macaulay Ink on His Fingers by Louise Vernon The Man Who Laid the Egg by Louise Vernon (The story of Erasmus.) The Beggars’ Bible by Louise Vernon (The story of John Wyclif.) Thunderstorm in Church by Louise Vernon (The story of Martin Luther.) The Bible Smuggler by Louise Vernon (The story of William Tyndale.) Reformation Time Line from Rose Publishing Around the World in a Hundred Years by Jean Fritz Christopher Columbus by Bennie Rhodes High School Books (grades 10 - 12): The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff Men of Iron by Howard Pyle Voices of the Renaissance and Reformation, edited by Rob Shearer (A collection of original source documents from famous men who lived during the Renaissance and Reformation). The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson The Second Mrs. Giaconda by E. L. Konigsburg The King’s Fifth by Scott O’Dell

I want the book to be read aloud while my child is following along on the kindle. Can whispersync do this? And if this is possible, does the audio come from the kindle or would I need another device? TIA :001_smile:

:thumbdown: Now I'm not feeling so confident about the Ikea's 25 year warranty.

We were talking about renovating our kitchen and DH mentioned that he likes the look of the IKEA Hallviken sink. It is a black quartz composite. Does anyone have experience with this sink or any other black quartz composite sinks? I've only ever used stainless steel sinks.

:lurk5: bumping ....

were these Bravewriter online classes?

ok, thanks for explaining that fb comment .... I get it now :001_smile: Thanks too for your review. Such inconsistency between teachers/ courses would be a big problem for us. I will have a look at Bravewriter. I'm actually seeing quite a few bad reviews for time4writing. It's a shame because it looked just what we needed. :(

I can't link to the comment directly but scroll down until you see "visitor posts" on the left. Hunter's comment is currently displayed as the second one ... click on the "1 comment" link in that box to see time4writing's response. In the meantime, it has occurred to me that whoever does the admin for the time4learning facebook pages got confused which page he or she was on and answered as though they received a comment about the time4learning curriculum.... that's only way I can make sense of it!

I know not everyone likes the time4learning sites but we did some of their courses during elementary and I thought their language classes were pretty good - not 100% perfect but on the whole they were comprehensive and well presented. Anyway, I'm now looking at doing a time4writing course for my dd (9th grade). I like the look of their course description, the format, the length of the course, the teachers' biographies etc but their response to a post on their facebook wall is making me pause. https://www.facebook.com/Time4Writing/?fref=ts It's their response to a comment made by "Hunter". I'm guessing it wasn't written by one of their teachers so I suppose I shouldn't critique it as a piece of writing (right?) but doesn't it seem to say that the parent is the one that should be grading or offering suggestions because it's a "curriculum" not a "school"? That seems to be the opposite of what their website says and opposite of what I'm wanting from an online writing course! I'm not sure if I will end up ditching my plans to use them just from one facebook comment but I'm now looking around for other courses. Any reviews of time4writing at the high school level? Any recommendations for something similar? Maybe write@home?

Can you share a bit about your experience as an admin? How much time do you spend on it? Any hints on how to make it work? TIA!

Love these ideas - thanks!

I'm probably being sentimental but when I reflect on my homeschooling I think the best years was when we did unit studies .... FIAR, Weaver, and homemade studies built around Hands of a Child and Homeschool share resources. I will have kids in grade 9 and grade 5 next year. I think my youngest would benefit most from unit studies but I'm even considering changing things for the oldest too. (not sure about whether they would combined or not). Is it even possible or advisable to adopt a unit study approach in high school? How would I start to research this approach? Or should I just accept that my unit study days are over now that we are facing high school and middle school? :001_smile: (please let me know if there is a better place to post this question. I wasn't sure which forum would be best).

So glad there was no such thing as blogging when I first started out. I would have made such a fool of myself :tongue_smilie:

I understand why a lot of people dislike LLATL but for some reason I always come back to using it! I actually look back fondly on the tan book and all the levels below. I'm not so keen on the green and gray books (haven't used the high school levels). I agree with Hunter ..... it does get the job done.

:grouphug: and hope you are feeling better now.

Thanks everyone! We have gone with "Ask" as recommended upthread.