I agree. I used third grade last year with my dd, and I thought it had a ton of writing. I liked the program, but I found it very time consuming.

((Hugs)) I understand. My ds just turned 8, and is just now finally, after three years of instruction, starting to get to the point where he can read a story or a word problem without having to sound out every word. I know what it's like to feel like a failure because when your child is homeschooled, everything falls on your shoulders. It's hard not to beat yourself up. (I'm very good at that.) I hear you about the people who brag that their kids taught themselves to read at age 3, etc. It's not easy to listen to those comments.

What a sweet little boy!! Congratulations!

Sounds a lot like my dd who just turned 10. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, hours before dance class, I told her to check her bag to make sure that everything was in it. Five minutes before we were about to leave she informed me that she was missing a tap shoe. Needless to say, she was late and I was less than thrilled.

Sleepless nights, you said, " During the noun units, you can solidify your verbs knowledge before you start them up again later. And then you can solidify nouns while you do verbs again. The second conjugation verbs at the end of the book are very easy, so you've just got to make it over the hump!" I'm glad to read that because my dd is preparing for the Units 1and 2 test right now, and we're looking forward to moving on to nouns, which she has already studied in her previous Latin program. I think keeping track of all the verb forms is hard. DD can rattle them off in Latin, but sometimes has trouble remembering what each tense means in English, especially imperfect, pluperfect and future perfect. I'm the opposite. I know the English, but sometimes confuse the different endings in Latin! I'm glad to hear that FFL gets easier after Unit 2.

I would think MM would work just fine. Why not do a little bit of it this summer to test it out with your dd before you decide whether or not to buy CLE again? FWIW, I have used MM, but not CLE. Sue

I think you should return it. I'm pretty sure you can get it free online. You could also try Yesterday's Classics.

My eye dr. made me wait until my eyes had stabilized, so that my prescription wouldn't change right after I was fitted for the contact lenses, but this was in the days before daily wear lenses were affordable. I was 15 when I got my contacts. I agree with what a few other people said that as long as your ds doesn't have trouble putting the lenses in, why not try them? You can just buy a few pairs to start and see how it goes. Sue

You can buy FF Latin lesson plans from MP for $3. You would have to call them directly, though.

Just read your post. I had "one of those days" today. Glad I'm not alone! Sue

Just read your post. I had "one of those days" today. Glad I'm not alone! Sue

Have you called Seton to ask them? Here's my $.02. What if you look at the problems that Melissa got wrong to see if you can spot a pattern, give her extra instruction and practice with those types of problems, and give her the test again after she has completed the Seton book? Seton Math is pretty challenging. I can't imagine that Melissa will need a whole year of 5/4 after completing it. Hope this helps! Sue

Thanks again for all the feedback. It has been interesting to read all the responses. I don't know yet what the group will decide. The other thing that makes voting on this issue feel strange to me is the fact that I'm not even involved in the planning of this event and I don't have a child participating. I can see both sides and I am willing to vote either way just to reach a consensus. I also brought up the suggestion that a few of you mentioned about having the child attend as a guest, but recognizing her in a special way. Some of you asked about costs and I'm not sure how they are handled. My guess is that everyone brings food to share and contributes a few$ towards the cake and decorations. Ellie, I think you made a good point when you said that this will come up again and we might as well make a decision now.

Thanks for all of the feedback. The group is an organized group with dues, volunteers, etc The graduation ceremony honors both high school seniors and eighth graders. The child is an eighth grader who used to be part of the group. She has been attending a brick and mortar school for the past two years. I haven't sen her in about three years, but I'm pretty sure her family still pays dues.Her mom asked the two ladies who are organizing the graduation if her daughter could graduate with the other kids. One of the moms, who also has an eighth grader who goes to school and won't be participating in the graduation, said that the girl was welcome to attend, but that the graduation ceremony was just for the homeschoolers. The mom then asked the other organizer who brought the matter to the five of us. We are members of a "board." One of our jobs is to solve conflicts that come up, so when someone brings an issue to the team, we have to discuss it and vote until we reach a consensus. It feels kind of silly to be voting on something like this, which in the grand scheme of things, isn't a big deal, but a member brought it to our attention, so we have to. If I were organizing the graduation and the mom had asked me, I would have thought it was an unusual request, but I probably would have said yes just because it obviously means a lot to her, but since the two organizers have already said no, I think we should go with what they said. The member who disagreed made it seem like it would be wrong of us to say no, and that was bugging me because I don't think it's wrong to have reasonable guidelines and expect members of a group to respect those guidelines. Hope this clears things up a bit.

to participate in a homeschool graduation? This scenario has come up in my local homeschool group. A few of us are charged with making the decision and we have to reach a consensus. Three of us are of one opinion, which we all think is quite obvious. One of us, who has the opposite opinion, thinks her point of view is the obvious choice. The fifth person hasn't given her opinion yet. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. Thanks, Sue

So sorry to hear about your dd. My 9 year old dd was diagnosed with migraines 3 years ago. I can relate to what you said about being out of commission for an entire day and about not being able to predict when symptoms will occur.. It must be so frustrating for you and your dd. This may sound crazy, but there is such a thing as an abdominal migraine. It might be worth researching it if you haven't already. Sue

That's how it was when I was a child. We had assigned seats in the cafeteria and we could talk quietly. If it got too noisy or if too many kids were fooling around, we'd have "silent lunch." We had to raise our hands if we wanted to get out of our seats, even if it was just to throw away our trash. After lunch we lined up with our class and we were escorted out to recess by the teacher on duty. I never really gave it much thought because that was how it was always done.

My favorite comfort dinner is roast chicken with mashed potatoes. My favorite comfort snack foods are dark chocolate, and almost anything salty. Pretzels dipped in dark chocolate are great! I don't like licorice, but my dh does. I think he prefers red. Hope the sun comes out where you are tomorrow. It was sunny but chilly here today, but it's going to be cold and rainy (yuck) later in the week.

IKWYM. I gave my kids very vague explanations when they wanted to know why we changed our plans today, and even why the Red Sox postponed their game. I had to tell my oldest what was going on, especially when she heard that dh was in lockdown at work, but I managed to keep my younger kids in the dark.

I'm watching the press conference right now. The police commissioner said that the man who discovered him actually went out of his house, walked over to the boat, lifted the tarp and saw the suspect. Yikes!! How scary is that??

Thanks!She enjoyed her birthday. :)

Thank God they got him. It has been a scary day. It was surreal to wake up this morning and see the news. I know some people from Watertown and plenty of people from neighboring towns. In fact today I had planned to go to one of the towns where people were being urged to stay home. Obviously I changed my plans. My dh got to work today only to find that the entire office was in lockdown. Also, today is my dd's birthday, so I was trying to stay upbeat while still keeping up with the news. l was fortunate to be able to leave my house and go about my day, but I kept thinking of all the people I know, just miles away who couldn't even open their font doors! I have to go put the birthday girl to bed now. Then I'll probably turn the news back on.

Glad to hear that you're well.I want to offer some encouragement. When we were growing up, my sister and I had our share of nasty stomach bugs, but our parents, who cleaned up after us many times, never caught it. I hope you're as fortunate as they were. Sue

I second the recommendation of Lively Latin. It's painless.

Does anyone else have this problem? I have a Kindle Fire, and sometimes when I type a word it disappears and I have to type it again. One moment the word is there, and the next moment it's gone. It's happening now as I type this post. I've had to edit several of my posts here because of this problem. The Amazon website doesn't have any advice on how to fix it. Do any of you know how? Thanks, Sue