If you're trying to help her organize her thoughts for more clear writing, have you searched for graphic organizers online? There are tons of free ones out there. We use those with IEW and WA, but I think they would help with any choice you make. (hint for faster searching - do an image search from google. Then you don't have to pull up each site.) As silly as it sounds, using graphic organizers really helped my kids get their thoughts out on paper in a coherent manner.

I haven't ordered this cd, but I did hear him give a talk on this subject at a convention. It sounds like it's very similar. In the talk, he did not mention implementing music theory. He discussed how different types of music affected brain development. Very thought provoking, but not really a curriculum guide. Hope someone else has ordered that specific cd and can give you more info.

I've used murphy's oil soap diluted on a very dry damp mop with good results. Bona may or may not work also. My floors were finished but are 60 yrs old with finish worn off in many places and both have worked. Have you contacted the landlord to find out what he/she recommends?

:iagree: Love zennioptical. Got glasses and prescription sunglasses for 30 bucks.

Go Fudge!!! (However, I have to say I love the Evil Villain Scale!!!) Great movie. Big applause around here for your son. Thanks for the fun movie and the great suggestion about camp. Just signed my boys up.

:lol: I love that line. I like to think of my dark place as a whirling vortex of panic. Don't want to take credit for the student workbook idea - I got it from lots of different sites. Here's one - http://homeschoolblogger.com/karenciavo/category/tog-workbooks/ FYI - Mine is not as professional as hers. I just printed, three-hole punched and popped in a binder. But I did love the idea and my kids are enjoying them. Few other good links about scheduling from some brilliant ladies here at the Hive - http://lifeofthegilbertgang.blogspot.com/search/label/organization http://triviumacademy.blogspot.com/search/label/lesson%20planning http://web.mac.com/rivendellpress/Rivendell_Press/_TOG_Schedule.html

I could have written your post. This is our 5th year hsing but our first with TOG and there is a learning curve. We've been going about a month and it gets easier. One thing I spent a bunch of time on - making a student binder for Unit 1 for each of my kids (UG and D). I made that binder my planner. I put everything related to each week in there - weekly sheets, SAPS, geography maps, vocab lists, graphic orgs for writing, coloring pages ('cause yeah, we love to color) even pages with online games for activities (like plate techtonics). This has given me my sanity back. Now we can just follow the pages in the binder. I'm still with you on being overwhelmed, but I thought I share this as a way to know that you are getting the core work done. Another hint - look at the blogs of wonderful people on this site who share tons. I've spent a lot of time there learning. Looking forward to reading your other responses.

:lol::lol::lol: Can you give him some standardized tests on your own and see how he does? That could help you see what's going on. With mine, they sometimes pick the first obvious answer in a mult. choice test instead of working the whole problem.

Bump. Am always interested to see how people make TOG work for them (and shamelessly steal their ideas). FWIW -We tend to do what MGK described, though I am also considering rearranging to give us the weekend for reading.

Bumping with another site - sheppardsoftware.com Games, quizzes and other online activities.

My kids adore brainpop and we all love Steve Spangler's experiments. Robert Krampf is another good one - thehappyscientist.com I am on the experiment of the week email list and it is great. Easy, cheap experiments right in your inbox. Great thread.

Gardener hug to you. My cukes did nothing this year. Happily, I planted way too many tomato plants, so I'm doing alright there (until the melons and squash take over the whole garden) Yes, you can cut the bottom leaves off your tomato plant and it will root all along the buried stem. I've had lots of success with that. As far as second plantings, I'm starting my seeds for the fall harvest. Never tried a second round of summer crops. Would love to know how it works out for you.

It is sad how much I look forward to these sales. I LOVE getting the new school supplies. Whee!!! Now I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

Will you be selling your house? Best thing I did was have a realtor come look and give me a to do list. I hit the most imp. ones first, but since we ended up having a few extra months, I was able to get most of the list knocked out. Made a huge diff. selling the house. Other than that, you're on the right course - lose the junk. We tried to donate three garbage bags of stuff a week. Managed to do it for a few months. Amazing how much crap hides (or doesn't hide) in a house. Be ruthless with your books and clothes - if y'all are like my fam. you have way too many of them. I thought I'd done a good job but I still have 10 book boxes we haven't even opened and all of our ridiculously many bookcases are stuffed. For your kiddos - do some research on the new place. Find some cool things to do, see, etc about the new place to get your kids (and you) excited about moving. Oh and find some cool plants that you could grow in the new location, too. You could also keep some of the seeds from your current garden to plant in the new one. Garden - hmmm, our zones are diff, but my watermelon and cantaloupe are ripening - so probably another 3 weeks til harvest. Our peppers and tomatoes are bearing fruit but also need to ripen, again prob. a couple weeks. Corn - I don't grow it after living surrounded by corn. So, I'd say in a month you should be able to have a fair bit o' produce.

My kids love camp and VBS, too. I asked them a lot of questions and one of the things they kept bringing up was that they liked the schedule. I'm so not a schedule person. However, I worked with them to make a schedule and shazaam, they like it and don't fuss nearly as much. We added in board game time, card game time, crafts, tennis with mom, etc. Shockingly, my kids' schedule is more demanding than I would have made, but we do a pretty good job keeping up with it. With less complaining, we find we have loads more time for fun.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: Poor thing. :grouphug: I've been there myself. Great idea to bring the ice cream into the mommy time out room. Brilliant!!! FWIW - ice cream for dinner would make me mom of the year here. My no-cook, it's freakin' 100 degrees outside meal - pizza salad. Salad greens, tomatoes, peppers, other veggies of your choice, chopped pepperoni and shredded mozzarella. Takes all of 5 cool minutes to make and no heat. Recommend you make it while sipping an ice cold gin and tonic for optimal cooling effect.

I wouldn't sell the cars for the reasons mentioned above. Instead, I'd look at where to cut the budget elsewhere - food, clothing, entertainment. Keep track of all your receipts and see precisely where your money is going. Rethink your usual buying habits. You'd be amazed what you can cut and how much you can save. Put that savings directly into paying off debt. Then look around your place -anything you can sell? Hobby that you can make some extra money doing? Then you have two reliable cars and a sleek budget. If you add the hobby you can get paid for, well, you're well on your way to that trip to Europe. :) Think it's great that y'all are trying to be debt free. Very worthy goal!! Yay for y'all!!

I can talk myself in circles on this topic. If you indulge me and let me ramble and maybe y'all can provide some insight. I keep books all over my house and talk about reading and am not suprised that my kids read a lot. Studies show that kids who grow up in homes without books have trouble learning to read. Actions and choices have consequences. So, I do believe that an authority (school, teacher, nurse, parent) providing condoms will cause kids to view condoms and sex in a more permissive way (not the right term, but I hope you get my meaning) However, PPs are absolutely right - kids who are determined to do it will do it, regardless of if the school distributes condoms or not. Some kids are gonna take Nike's advice and just do it. With or without a condom. Obviously we'd all prefer fewer STDS and unwanted pregnancies, so with one is preferred. Since that is the case, what should be done about it? There, I'm stumped. I think there are some fundamental questions that have to be answered before we can even try to find a solution. What is society's role in solving this problem? For that matter, what is the problem exactly that we're trying to solve? Is it teen pregnancy or STDs? I think that's what some of the posters are saying. Others seem to be saying that the problem is teens doing it at all. As a society do we want unnmarried teens doing it? (I'm assuming for the sake of argument, no one wants elementary kids doing it) I don't think we as a society do agree on the answer to that question. Until we do, we won't come up with any solution that will please the majority of people and more importantly, we won't come up with an effective solution. I guess I agree with the PP who said that distribution of condoms is a band-aid that doesn't address the root of the problem and hasn't been proven to even be an effective band-aid - not that there will ever be a study that both sides agree is legitimate. (Hey, I guess I agree with another PP who said statistics lie. As an econ major, I concur. That's the fun part about statistics.)

LOL!!

Oh, can you be my tech support, too?!!! (just what you wanted, right) - I've gone thru apple help. I've tried to reset it a hundred times. I've tried to charge it on three diff. computers and using my car charger. No dice. It just gives me an error screen telling me to visit apple help and then goes back to very low battery. I've searched those errors on line but still haven't found a lifesaver for my poor little ipod. If you have any other tricks or ideas, I would love to try them.

ROFL!! I think I have already made it thru the first 4 stages of grief. May have to start crying to see helps. :)

Sadly, despite my best ipod cpr, my lovely old ipod has died. I need to buy a new one, but I really don't know much about them. I need to be able to make playlists and select them (for work) so I can't use a shuffle. I'd also like to be able to use my itunes library, 'cause it's a pain to reload all that. We do also use the ipod for audiobooks, but I think all mp3 players can play those. Do I have to get another ipod? Are other mp3 players as good? Any shopping advice you can share is greatly appreciated. TIA

AHhh, after melting in the 100 degree heat for my son's swim practice, this sounds amazing. Am putting the ice cream tub thingy in the freezer now. Tomorrow will feel like a spa day with a frozen coke - with lemon of course, to make it healthy. :)

We don't use schedules. I love them, but we never stick with them. My job schedule is too unpredictable and life just happens. Instead, we use checklists. On one page, I list all subjects. Next to each subject, I put hash marks if it needs to be X number of times per week (e.g. Spelling ___ ___ ____). I leave room before the name of the subject to record the chapter. If certain activities need to be completed, then those get listed separately (e.g. Math: Watch dvd ____, Worksheets ___ ____ ____, Review ____, Test ____). At the bottom of the pages, I make a bunch of lines to give me a space to write a couple of paragraphs about what we accomplished. This works well for us and allows me to see at a glance if we accomplished our goals for the week. If we didn't, we finish on the weekends.

Was she really a best friend? If so, is this harsh email just lashing out because of hurt feelings from the fight? I'd take time to think about what kind of friend she is. If she is a really good friend in other areas, just connect with her once you've both calmed down and take education off the table of allowed subjects. I have a fantastic friend who does not support hsing. We don't talk about it and it's really just fine - it's a non-issue. She is still one of my best friends and I would be sad if I lost her friendship because of this one area of disagreement. However, if this email is indicative of how the entire relationship is or if she can't let it drop, then follow the advice from others. You don't need that.