I had no time to add anything fun...LOL!! Seriously though, I'd make sure you have colored pencils or crayons or whatever you want for illustrating the Bible notebook and coloring the timeline pieces. We used colored pencils, but I found the Crayola ones to not last and be a big pain to sharpen. So, I'd invest in some better quality ones...Prima or whatever that brand is called. We are going to do that this year. ;) Also, for making the clay pots and something else...I did not prefer making own clay. I bought Sculpty. You might think about something like that. MFW 1st is an AWESOME program! Enjoy it!

I like ZB, so I got it from them and paid the shipping even though I'm rarely willing to pay shipping on anything. (At least not more than a couple bucks.) My kids really like colorful, engaging pages. The teacher's manuals are crazy $$ because like someone above said they are for schools. However, I like to have manuals...things other people find "self-explanatory," I don't. :( So, I got a teacher's manual from ebay for around $5 total including shipping. It is a slightly older edition, but it still correlates and gives me the info I need. As I get more grade levels, I'm planning to get more teacher's manuals from ebay. Also, I've seen several student workbooks on ebay and here and other places used curriculum is sold for cheap. If you want to use ZB, you can probably find it for a good price. :)

:( I'm really sorry. I'm sorry they didn't get this sorted out previously when they made it unavailable for this same reason. I hope you can get it in good working condition later on. Personally, I would be willing to pay full price for it. So educational and fun at the same time! (((((hugs)))))

I saw that many people had that issue in the reviews, but just to give you hope, I bought it (for slightly more at $34 or so) and my set has no issues at all. We've watched at least one episode off of all of the disks. Amazon even stopped selling it for a while to check out the issue...I couldn't get it during that time and was sad but of course didn't want a defective set either. They started selling it again and I decided to take a risk. I'm glad I did. I would send it back again and try again. Call Amazon and talk with them, but I would try one more time because there are definitely sets that are good. I'm sorry you are having trouble with yours. :(

I've returned kids clothing that didn't fit, gifts that people didn't like or already had, and some dishwasher detergent that was HORRIBLE and made all my plastic (like my kids sippy cups and such) taste like soap. But, I don't return things I've used, KWIM. They don't do exchanges, only returns. They might only do 90 days for those, but you know Costco...they'd ignore that and take it back anyway. We'll see. I probably won't return it. Thanks for your help!

I'm really not either. My BIL abuses it like crazy and it really bothers me. (He practically uses Costco as a rental store. Well, not even that because he doesn't pay a rental fee. He gets all his money back. :glare: ) I try very hard not to even almost abuse it. I might use it in the this case because the more I think about it, the more I realize I really am unhappy with it and it was definitely not my intent to just borrow it. LOL! I'll have to think about it.

Paper...we get it at Costco and I only buy in the 800 pack, not 500. I was going through about 1 every 3-4 months, but we are using a lot more paper now. So, I'm going to get the boxed reams next time we need it. So, I guessed at 400 pages per cartridge because I'm guessing we are going through about half our package of paper. It might be more like every 6wks, possibly even 8wks. I haven't watched very closely, but I do know it's much more often than previously. (Maybe we should go back to our old printer! We got this because we wanted a copy/scan/fax/print.) When we bought this printer, I wasn't really worried about how many pages it printed. We weren't printing that much. Now, it seems like I'm constantly printing something for someone. I'm not sure why I wasn't thinking about this when we bought it. I also discovered it doesn't really like to print on card stock. I've never had a printer not take it before, but I have to push the paper in one at a time to get it to take the card stock...frustrating. So, I guess bottom line is we really aren't that happy with this printer. Next time I'll definitely research it first. Live and learn. :( (I am tempted to get the laser printer.)

The cartridge I buy says it yields up to 550 pages. It is $24 on Staples website. My husband buys them at Wal-Mart. I thought he said $30...maybe it's more at WM. ETA - same price at Wal-Mart.

We have an HP 4620. Yes, we use the XL. It definitely does not get any where near 2500 pages...maybe it gets 400. I know my Mac is set to B&W draft, but my PC probably isn't. I use them equally. I can't imagine that changing my PC to draft is going to make that much of a difference. I do keep going with my ink cartridges until the paper comes out white. LOL. I don't understand what the difference is. I've heard others say the same as you with their officejet. It just doesn't seem to be our experience and it's costing us a lot of money. We got it at Costco....I bet we could still return it since we aren't happy with it. I would feel badly doing that though. We've had it for about 6 months.

Laser printers are much cheaper to print with, correct? We have an officejet and I'm rethinking it because we are going through at least 1 ink cartridge a month and they are around $30 each. Ugh! I want something cheaper...would this be it? Thank you!!!

That's a good point about movies you would watch but not read the book version at all for whatever reason. Personally, LOTR is not something I would read. I've seen one or two of the movies...it's not my thing in book or movie. So, that is a good point. I guess I was really thinking specifically about movies that you will definitely be reading the book version of at some point. For us that would be books like, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Charlotte's Web (which my kids have seen as a movie already and I regret allowing it...but I didn't realize then, now I know). There are others of course, but those come to mind. So, books we wouldn't read, we would still see the movie and thus, would see it first. ;) Boscopop - I had no idea Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a book! Although, most movies start as books don't they. :)

Book before movie always in our house. I actually like that the movie doesn't live up to the books. It reaffirms how wonderful books are and how much better it is to read than watch. :D I read someone here say something like, you can never unwatch a movie. Once you have that image in your mind of what a character looks like, according to the movie, you can never get rid of it. Part of the magic is lost for the book because you can't use your own imagination to "create" the character or setting in your mind. It is always going to be what the movie makers envisioned. I wish I could unwatch several movies. I was disappointed by some books because I had the vision of the movie, which I'd seen first, so clear in my mind. Charlie and the Chocolate factory is one. I didn't like the book very much because I'd seen the movie so many times (the Gene Wilder version). My son really didn't like the movie and regrets watching it. It was so different and seeing Charlie steal the Fizzy Lifting Drink, which was out of character of the book Charlie, was very upsetting to him. "Charlie would never do that!" he said. There were other portions he didn't like as well. Other movies, I saw the movie after reading the book and now I can't get back my original image of the book. I'm sad about it. :( We are going to be very selective about which classic book movies we will let our children see. For us, definitely always book first.

I would document it like the above poster said. Then, I would never get together with this family again unless it was a group thing and it couldn't be avoided. If that were the case, I would watch my children and hers like a hawk. I have 5 boys...mine are younger with the oldest being 7, almost 8, but that is WAY beyond boys being boys. I cannot imagine how you must have felt and how scared your son must have been. I know my son would probably have some emotional fall out to deal with from that. He is very sensitive. Hugs to both of you! And, to the younger brother. :(

Welcome OP. I have a 2nd grader and twin K'ers along with twin 3 year olds and a 9 month old. I'm usually not very good at coming up with these on the fly....Plus, my kids love non-fiction. We love the author Carma Wilson. She has many of our family's favorites....Mr. Murry and Thumpkin, The Frog in the Bog, Hogwash and many, many others. Others: Be Nice to Spiders King Bidgood's in the Bathtub The Very busy Spider The Happy Lion Little Bear Caps for Sale Too Many Pumkins....I love to read anything about pumpkins. I have no idea why and my children think it is very funny. LOL! For my kids, they haven't enjoyed a lot of chapter books yet. It took my oldest till he was 7 to really get into them and the 5 year olds aren't that into them yet...some, but not as much as my older. My older son, almost 8, does enjoy them now. We've read Charlie and Chocolate Factory, Little House in the Big Woods, The Jungle Book....I can't remember any others even though there have been some.

Well, you and I could hang together because I do the same. Sometimes I think I'm frying brain cells researching and thinking SO much about the choices I'm making or have made about curriculum. Sure, I'll have something good to teach my kids, but my brain will be to tired from choosing it to actually teach it. :tongue_smilie:

I don't remember what I learned in early elementary...and not much later either....what does that say about my education, or my memory? :lol: At any rate, I can't go by that.

You guys are SO much faster than I am. LOL! I agree with you. But I use my curriculum as a jumping off point and I add or remove or change as needed when I recognize all the things you mentioned above. I'm not seeing how that is different from anyone else who uses a curriculum, boxed or not. AmySue - I don't know of very many in the lower grades. Sonlight includes LA, but you can buy just the other portions I think.

I understand what you are saying. I'm obviously not making myself clear. I am the poster who said that and I stand by it. I don't know what material is appropriate for a K'er or 2nd grader to know. By that I mean that I have never taught any child before, not even my own when it's my oldest and therefore, I have no clue when a child should start grammar or spelling and when they do, I don't know what a 1st grade grammar should cover. Does a K'er need history? Science? Spelling? Advanced chemistry? :p I don't know if a K'er should be able to write 1 sentence or 20. So, when starting out, I need someone to help guide me as to what should be expected. You seem to be assuming that because I need to start with some guidelines, I can't adjust those to my child once I see my own child's progress. Of course I can. I can speed up or slow down. I can take the history science topic and dig deeper if we need more. But, I need to know what to actually teach and have a jumping off point. Should I teach my K'er that water can be frozen, solid or a gas or should I teach them the formula H2O and all that entails? If I'm teaching my 2nd grader grammar, do I teach them nouns and verbs only or are they supposed to learn diagramming? I'm sure there are some wonderful moms with no training at all who know these things, but I do not. To get an idea of what is appropriate at what age, I use MFW. They guide me and I tweak it to fit my kids as I see in practice how they do with the material. How do I choose MFW? I'm sure the same way you choose your stuff. I look at the method (after having researched the various methods) and think about whether I think that will fit my child and family. I look at the content and decide if it's something I want to teach. I research and get reviews on it. I look at the samples to see if it is something that looks like it will work for us and interest us. Especially, I pray about it. Then, after months (yes, months, even years since I am already researching years ahead) I take the plunge and order. When I receive, I look it over and read the entire manual and some flip through the books and other items included. Then, I tweak or add anything I think I need to. After we actually start the program, I adjust as need to fit my children. As I said above, I don't go with everything the recommend. I research what they suggest...but it's a starting point and helps me to know what subjects are needed. I even take some elements of the program and substitute them for something else that works better for us. I did that with both math and science in 1st and I'm doing it with science again in 2nd. (Math isn't included in 2nd with Adv.) So, yes, I absolutely use them to help me know what is appropriate to teach in 2nd grade, but that doesn't mean I blindly follow them. I use it as a guide and I tweak and adjust to fit my child. Isn't that basically what anyone who buys any curriculum doing? If you buy FLL1, you are trusting the author tell you what is appropriate in a 1st grade grammar program. Of course, if it's too slow, you speed it up. If you don't like how many noun lessons there are, you skip some. And, ultimately, if you decide it doesn't fit at all, you scrap it and find something else. Unless you design your own grammar curriculum with no guide, you are trusting the author of whatever book you use to tell you what is appropriate to teach at that level. You use it with your common sense and adjust as you go along and as you see a need. What I do is no different, IMHO. Hopefully, I'm making sense...I have a 9 month old crawling all over me and several other kids just being tired kids around me. ;)

Well, how do YOU know what is appropriate for YOURS? The question applies no matter if you are choosing boxed or separate. I assume I know the same way you do....I work with my children daily and I take their needs into consideration when I choose the curriculum. :) And, as with any curriculum, boxed or separate, I adjust as needed. As I said above, if it's too little, I add to it and if it's too much, I scale back. You can't compare this to taking a child to PS and dropping them off to learn with whatever curriculum, tailored to the average child, the teacher has chosen having never met the children she will be teaching. The person who is teaching my child each day (me!) is the one choosing the curriculum with my specific child in mind, not someone who has never seen my child. Once the curriculum is received, YOU are working with your child one on one and can tailor it to their needs or completely scrap it if need be. None of that can be done in a B&M school. Every child uses the same thing chosen by the teachers for the average student and whether it works or not, the child has to stick it out. So, someone else who has never seen my child would not know what is appropriate for my child, but they are not choosing...I, the mother and teacher, am choosing which to use based on what is appropriate.

I was keeping quiet but.... The reason I trust the "box" is because I have no clue how much history, science, lit, spelling or whatever is appropriate at each grade level. And, I'm still learning what subjects are even needed at each level. (ETA - I only found WTM a few months ago.) I have ZERO education experience and knowing doesn't come naturally to me. So, I like having someone tell me what is appropriate for a K'er or 2nd grader. That doesn't mean I blindly follow, but it means I like the guide. So, having a company that already has that experience and has researched it really helps me to know what is expected and appropriate at that level of education. Of course, if it feels like too little, I add. If it feels like too much, we scale back. I use my common sense...or mom sense. But, I have a guide. That said, I use MFW, which some consider a boxed curriculum and some don't. I think it's semi-boxed. ;) I choose my own LA and math...they have recommendations, but they are not included and not required. (In K and 1st, they are included and I would pretty much consider that boxed, but you can still substitute things and tweak...I did.) I love MFW, but I don't trust them blindly either. I researched their methods and resources before I decided to go with their packages. I researched their recommendations for math and LA's before deciding to go with some of them and not others. I add a few things here and there and for 1st and 2nd, I've dropped their science and added in something different. Yes, I tweak...a good bit actually, but having that guide and the schedule is extremely helpful and frees me up to take care of my 6 little kids rather than researching everything out there or planning my days. Using a "box" gives me confidence that I'm teaching the things that need to be taught and at an appropriate level because without it I'm not sure what I need. Without a box, I would probably do too much because I would be too nervous about missing something. As I gain experience, I'm more confident in my ability and have learned to tweak as needed. I could even go completely box free at this point, but I don't want to. I like the way MFW puts things together. The key is learning to make your boxed curriculum work for you and be a guide rather than you working for the box and feeling the need to follow it to the letter. Me and the semi-box work well together. :D

Good question...I'm not sure of the answer, but I would think you should. Hopefully someone who has done that will answer. :)

Ours is a man...so, not the same location. I was tempted in the early days not to use their form just because it was theirs. ;) But, it was too easy to pass up. Now that I see they are asking for info not required, I'm back to wanting to make sure I stay far away from them and their forms. :glare: I ended up scrapping the forms from the county and using the one from HSLDA. I liked it better because I could type into it. (I don't like filling things out...I have awful handwriting.) I'm going to use that. :) I don't like LA either. But, I don't really like English...too broad. I put spelling, grammar and lit instead of LA or English. :thumbup:

Wait...I stand corrected...I wasn't looking closely. The one from the county asks for the child's name and birthday. I just realized the HEAV one and HSLDA one says age and that HEAV specifically says you don't have to give their birthday....Guessing I should use one of the others. Bummer, now, I have to fill out a new one. Why should we not give their birthday? Thanks everyone! (I tend to be a rebel too, but this was so easy and I didn't realize the difference till now.) ETA - Those Sneaky Sneaks! I now notice that it also asks for grade level, but the others don't either. Obviously, I should have looked more closely. This ranks right up there with telling me I am "approved" and "some have had to change their position." :willy_nilly: Religious exemption is calling my name! :001_tt2:

So does HSLDA....they are both almost exactly the same and almost exactly the same as the one from my county website. I have been using this one because I found it first when I started HS'ing. It really seems fine to me and is almost exactly the same as HEAV's and HSLD's...is there a specific reason I should not use the schools? I don't want to if I shouldn't, but I don't see why not since I already have it all set up from last year. (And filled out and printed for this year.)

Thank you! I would like to go ahead and send this. Easy Peesy! I just use their form because it's basic and easy. I don't feel like making my own. It doesn't ask for anything I don't have to give. It specifically says the curriculum description is "limited to a list of subjects to be studied" (which is in my OP also). That portion was added last year, because I do have a copy of everything I sent the previous year, so they do seem to be keep up with the law. If it asked for something not required by law, I would use my own form. :D I HATE this! I get the same thing and it drives me bonkers! We qualify for a religious exemption, but choose not to take it..for now...but getting this letter always makes me want to just take the exemption so they can't think they have any authority at all. Grrrr.... Now, I need a chill pill! Oh and I hate the letter they send in June-ish reminding of evals and notices for the following year. Ours says something like, "We are happy to have many parents dedicated to homeschooling...yada, yada. Homeschooling is not for every family and some have had to rethink their position, yada, yada..." That ticks me off.... :thumbdown: