My thought also. Worth checking out.

Hahaha, this thread is cracking me up! When I was pregnant, I carried in front and got pretty large. At the grocery store one day a lady asked me how far along I was. When I told her 7 months, she looked amazed and said, "Are you sure??" :001_rolleyes: No, lady, I'm an idiot and so is my doctor... ETA: Oh, this one happened just last week. There was a yard sale in our neighborhood, and I was walking around by myself looking at what was on offer. One rather pushy lady, trying to sell her son's Cars bedding to me, asked me if I had grandsons?! WTH, lady - I mean, I know I'm tired, but really?! I don't look that old! I just looked at her, kind of laughing in shock, then she changed her question to whether I had sons. News flash, lady: if make the assumption that is more complimentary *first* next time, you might make a sale!!!

As an Aussie ex-pat, trying to teach my kids the US Standard measurements drives me crazy!!! The poor children have to listen to me rant about how much easier it would be if everyone would just switch to metric already, every time they ask me a question like "how many fluid ounces in a gallon?" or whatever. Metric is sooooooooo much simpler!!!! /rant off/ And that's not really helpful to anyone, is it... :leaving: Poor kids!! I expect the kids to try to memorize the relationships, but I'm not sweating it if they don't. There are so many ways to deal with not knowing these off the top of your head - charts on the fridge, google on the phone, and what-have-you.

So many great suggestions! Thank you!! I think I'm going to try him out with Fix It! Grammar, as the format of correcting/identifying grammar concepts within a story is similar to how TC works, and I think doing it all "in context" helps him a lot. Thanks again, Hive! :)

Hoping someone has some good tips on this! I've been using R&S for grammar for my dd, who seems to be doing pretty well with it. It doesn't seem to gel for my ds (almost 10), though. I have been working through "Treasured Conversations" with him the last part of this year and the grammar is finally sticking for him, using this. Can't say he enjoys grammar :laugh: but at least he's getting it - and enjoying the stories! And he's not fighting me about it. :hurray: I'm wondering what I should move on to for next year? We tried "Growing With Grammar" with both kids a couple of years ago and retention was next to nil, even for dd, so I'm not keen to go back to that. But I'm hoping that somewhere...out there...there's a grammar curriculum that's gentle, clear, not too dry, but effective... Thanks for any help!

Thanks, those are some helpful leads!

I'm an Aussie ex-pat, and we're diving into a unit on Australian history at the moment. The kids also have a writing assignment on a person of their choosing from Australia's past. I'm looking for a good encyclopedia of Australia, and wondering if you have any recommendations? I picked up the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Australia second-hand, but I have to admit that I'm rather underwhelmed by its content, and it's just not a good fit for our kids at this stage. Is there another volume that would be good for late primary/early high school level? I really just want a good comprehensive spread of facts and figures that will be useful as a reference book. Thanks for any help!

Great idea! I grew up in a family of 7 with one bathroom. The key was that the bathroom only contained the shower, tub, and sink. The toilet was in a separate space next to the bathroom - a WC, if you will - so it was available when people were using the bathroom. We never knew any different, and it worked fine for us.

Since you're selling, see if you can find a realtor who will foot the bill for staging the house for you. Ours did this - after we cleared absolutely everything out of the house, she came in with various bits of furniture and decorations and made it look all pretty. Made our lives a lot simpler. Just a thought. 😊

Another OOP recommendation would be the "Book for Kids" by C.J.Dennis... Lots of fun poems, not only for memorising, but also for reading aloud, to accompany "Triantiwontigongolope". One of our faves is "The Ant Explorer". Most of it is available online now, though you can probably find a print copy on Ebay if you really want a physical copy. There are many wonderful, simple poems in "The Harp and Laurel Wreath". We used that extensively when memorising poetry in the younger grades. (You'll find it useful continuing through higher grades, also.) ETA: links Good luck and have fun with the poems!

Thanks so much, everyone, for reassuring me that this is definitely a reaction to the antibiotics. Her rash got a bit itchy at night, but not awful, and after about three or four days it's all cleared up, thankfully. We won't be using that class of antibiotic again.

My DD (11yo) was prescribed amoxicillin on 12/22. She's been taking it regularly since then, but woke up this morning with a rash which is now from head to toe. We took her to the doc (not one we know well) who said that she's reacting to the antibiotic and to stop taking it. She was almost finished anyway. My question is, is it likely that it would take this long for a reaction to occur? I was really surprised to hear that the doc thought it could be the stuff she's been taking for over a week already. And she's had it before, too, in her life, with no reaction. One thing that does make me wonder is that last night, I gave her some OTC multi-symptom cold medication which was a new bottle/new brand/new flavor/slightly different mix from the last OTC "multi-symptom" stuff she took. Of course with my brain I had forgotten about that until we were back from the doc so I didn't mention it to him. So now I'm really questioning whether it's the antibiotics or the OTC medication that's caused the rash, especially with the time frame - although I realize that an antibiotic is probably far more likely to cause this sort of reaction than a garden-variety OTC medication. Has anyone BTDT with a "delayed" allergic reaction to medication? Or have experience with reacting to something after taking it for over a week? Thanks for any help!

Here's another option, if you can afford it - we did this getting my 2 cats from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other. We found a company who shipped the cats for us. We gave them the date we wanted the cats to arrive at our destination, and they picked up the cats from us and kept them in a boarding kennel until the date/time of their flight. Then they were put on their flight (in crates) and we picked them up at the other end. It gave us enough time to arrive ourselves and catch our breath - get things a little set up for them, at least - before they arrived. The cats were fine, although exhausted. I think they slept for about 3 days after they arrived, but part of that could have been jet lag, too!

Thanks so much for all the tips! You have all been so helpful and encouraging! Ooh, thanks for the links for librivox ideas! I've been struggling to think of books to get...which is weird for me, because I usually have book lists coming out my ears, but for some reason my brain just isn't functioning too well these days! :tongue_smilie:

Great ideas, thank you! Physical maps will definitely be in the car - my kids love them, too.

At the moment we're looking at about 4 weeks, give or take a week. It is a big country! :) Thanks so much for your ideas! Math games on the tablet or phone will probably be the way to go - the electronics weigh a lot less than the books! :) Audiobooks are definitely something I need to stock up on. And thanks for the reminder about buying books at the places we visit - my dd still re-reads a book about volcanoes that we bought at Lassen NP several years ago. Yes! Journals! Thank you - that's what I needed to hear. Opportunities to write - only if they want - and to stick in tickets and maps and what-have-you. Way more fun and flexible than notebook pages. Great ideas - thank you! And no, I don't think we'll be going through Death Valley. Joshua Tree NP is on my radar though (I've always wanted to go there!) and I believe that will be plenty hot enough! (And I'm adding binoculars to my packing list right now...) Of course, I don't want to make it "work" for anyone. Blah! I just want to make sure that we all get the most out of it. Thanks for all the insights and tips! Your conversations sound wonderful and inspiring!

We are thinking of taking a long road trip...soon-ish, hopefully in about a month. We will be going pretty much right across the country, southerly one way and more central/northerly on the return journey. We have lots of sites and points of interest that we want to visit, but I am wondering if the Hive has some helpful tips on "making the most of it" in terms of schooling. I tend to be a bit of a box-checker when it comes to school, and I would like to feel comfortable that my kids are getting something more out of this trip than just seeing places, taking photos, and being bored in the car! I know this trip has loads of potential in terms of learning history, geography, science, etc, and I really want to maximize those opportunities. Should I be having them work on notebooking pages about the places we go, or use something else? Take the math books so the math doesn't all fall out of their heads? Find books about our different destinations?? Make little unit studies based around places we plan to go?? I'd love to find ways to enhance the learning but not suck the fun out of the trip, which we are hoping will be quite an adventure for all of us. The bummer is that both the kids tend to get car-sick, so I won't be able to use all those hours of driving having them read and write stuff... Thanks for any hints and tips! (And prayers for our sanity!! :lol: ) (The kids are almost-9 and almost-11, and rising 4th and 6th graders, respectively.)

Step back and tell yourself some honest truths - if you are already maxed out, you are obviously not sitting around twiddling your thumbs, so you are obviously not a self-centered curmudgeon! Make a list for yourself of all the things you do for others - and that includes people both inside and outside your home - and then remind yourself, "I am giving a lot already! I am just not called to give in that place [friend's project] at this time, and that is alright because look at all this other stuff I am doing!"

Being an Aussie, I have always used "Mum" for my mother. Since I have an American MIL, I can call her "Mom" - and I don't feel like I'm usurping my Mum's prerogative. :) (I love my MIL to pieces - she's just the world's best, and always treats me like her own daughter. :wub: ) Using names was very different with my FIL, though. My own father died suddenly about 3 months after my wedding, and I could never bring myself to call anyone else "Dad". I loved my FIL dearly, but always called him by his first name.

:iagree: We used Reflex for a year, and now we use flashcards. Both have helped a lot, but the main thing is that they are done every. single. day.

We had AAS and I quit on it after two levels. It's a good program, but I just found there were too many bits and pieces for me. I passed it on to a friend who loves it. We tried R&S but it didn't fit us either (although I love and use their English series.) We are now doing spelling using word lists off the internet and a method based loosely on Spelling Power, and it's going really well. The kids both got a solid foundation in Saxon Phonics 1 & 2 before we started any separate spelling program, so it's not hard to help them figure out words they miss, and why they should be spelled the way they are.

Another happy user of Got Junk here. It was desperation for us! We had a bunch of stuff left over after our move here, added to the random stuff the previous owners "kindly" left behind after we told them we didn't want it (massive metal desk, anyone?) Not cheap, but totally worth every penny to get our garage space back, and all we had to do was point to stuff and say "Take this!" Just a note on the Got Junk people - I was impressed that they put aside stuff that was still in decent condition for donation or consignment, so they were obviously not just mindlessly sending everything to the landfill.

Not that I'm any expert, but this was really helpful for me. The endings you learned are correct. TWTM has added the -a- that connects the "stem" to the personal ending only in the first conjugation, present tense.

Given your title of Advocatus Diaboli, should I say, Vade retro??? ;) I went and looked at MCT, and it does look nice. My weakness is that I feel like I should use all. the. curriculum. All of it!!! Especially the shiny, colorful stuff!! Or my kid will Miss Out!!!!!! :laugh: (Don't worry, I don't act on that - my kids, and my pocketbook, would both rebel, and I would probably go insane!) I will keep on with what I have for now, for sure. I know he's getting a sound program, and I do believe he'll grasp it better over the next year or two. But now there is something else filed away in the back of my brain, should the need for a change arise in the future. Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your replies! I needed the reminder that yes, of course, R&S will be repeating the important stuff again...and again...and again...over the next few years. Thank you, you have helped calm me down about this, and I think I will just keep on keepin' on, and let time do its work.