My quickest real estate sale was on an empty home! Make sure its clean, clean clean. Fresh paint, rugs cleaned, appliances and bathroom spotless. Some nice smelling potpourri in the kitchen and bathroom will be easier than candles. I stress on clean because when a house is empty you can really focus in on imperfections. Good luck on the sale;)

For your voice to go so quickly it sounds like your larynx irritated or has inflamed tissue (I'm the ENT nurse..lol) Don't talk, not even whisper. No salt, aspirin or caffeine. Gargles won't work because the larynx is to deep in the throat. Get a steam humidifier in your room and drink lot's and lots of water or decaf tea, no cold drinks only room temperature or warmer. Good Luck! When you shower, breathe through your mouth.

I found this link Tick in KY. We have them in the woods. I have found 4 already and we are still having frost at night :confused:. I put Vectra 3D an the pup & I had him vaccinated for Lyme disease. I use an all natural bug repellent on the kids, I need to reapply it more often although it's better than deet. Good Luck!

I had bought AAS, after using SWR for 4 years. I had SWR trimmed down to about 15 minuted a day so when we switched to AAS I lasted a few weeks. If I had used the program from the beginning I probably would have loved it. All that to say, I bought 2 sets of letter tiles. I am selling them for $4.50 a set. They are already cut up (that took a long time:) ). Just an FYI

All of my children use BJU. My oldest did BJU/Singapore and is now doing Lials BCM my ds has done BJU/MUS and my little one did BJU K/Singapore EB. They took the IOWAS ITBS last week, I should get results in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how they do:001_smile:

Sounds like Spelling Solutions a better description here.

My curriculum choices are in my sig. line. I taught Singapore, SWR( 15-20 minutes 4 x a week) and Shurley English. I did ShurelyEng. 3 days a week , the other 2 days Mon. & Fri. she did Grade 3 Daily Grams ( 2 days worth). She read her history reading and we did discussions on Thursdays. I do science in the afternoons 2 times a week and I teach ALL the kids at once.

Mine is the one sold by Tobin's lab it's the , Microscope, Stereo, High Power Turret the clarity and magnification is wonderful. I love that is goes to a high power 30x so easy for the kiddos to focus and easy view with the 3-way illuminator. Yes, you can put whatever you want under it, no slides. I like to place a petri dish on the bottom so the bugs dont crawl off the viewing glass or poop on it :001_smile:.

Using a compound microscope is not that fun for younger kids. I mean it will be neat to see things at a cellular level ( I personally loved this in nursing school). But, you will need to prepare slides or use already prepared ones. You will not get the 3D viewing you would get with a stereo-microscope. They are great for bringing in bugs to look at, leaves, splinters in little hands,rust, snow flakes on black construction paper and everything else. You will not get a "cellular" view as you would with a compound microscope, but that is not needed until labs in HS. You will however need the stereo for dissections at the HS level. We have both and honestly the compound sits on the shelf and the stereo gets looked into almost every day. I was just noticing the age of your kiddos and if you want them to use it on their own the stereo is so much easier because they will not need to prepare slides for everything which takes some practice. I am sure you have researched it, I purchased the compound first and after a few months the "fun" wore off. At a used curriculum sale, I picked up the stereo and it's been by far a better investment. Good Luck in whatever you choose :)

That's seems like the hardest part:001_huh:. I am "left brained" and I have found the hardest part is letting her color, doodle & talk through school work. She retains so much more when I let her. The math cards for the multiplication are amazing from Dianne Craft, they have a story on the back with the numbers embedded into a picture so the kids can do what they do best, think in pictures! It was also very helpful to know that the intelligence of a "right brain" thinker is not measured by standardized testing, they actually do much better with an IQ test administered by a qualified proctor. On average "right brain" thinkers tend to score higher on IQ test than " left brain" thinkers ( I won't tell her older sister that though). Albert Einstein was a right brainer! Well, I wish you luck in morphing your teaching style for your "right brainer" ;) I am sure you'll do fine.... although I still cringe when she doodle's on her page :001_unsure:

I was having the same problem with my youngest. I attended several of seminars by Dianne Craft and they were amazing. It describes all the issues I have been having with my little dd. I bought math cards by Dianne Craft, and I am looking into purchasing one of the math programs she recommends either Touch Math or Cloud Nine. I looked at the program you mentioned looks a little like a "right brained" program. Good Luck!

Love shoeboxes, I take a polaroid of whats in them and tape it onto the front, makes it easy to find :)

All Apologia's at the HS level.

Perry, I have not used it. I think some may have on the High School board.

it looks so nice! My dd will be doing GS next year what addition is the schedule for? Also, I am tempted to download the other schedules are they for current editions? Thanks!

You mentioned you really wanted Foerster's and they do have a DVD ,Foerster's Algebra 1 with a Home Study Companion − Algebra 1 by David Chandler I did not know if you saw this.

I used Classic Year 1, my oldest was in 1st at the time, I was a micro manager, over scheduler, I had their entire school year curriculum planned from pre-K to 12th grade, even for my then 3 yod...lol I started using TOG, and I got through the year, but it was hard. I did waayyy too much and I was exhausted at years end. I jumped ship to SL K and Core 1. I enjoyed the much needed break from scheduling and I really enjoyed the readers as did my kiddos, but (always a but), my ds had a hard time sitting through readers. So with that ,the following year I tried MFW Adventures, I figured it was like SL & TOG, reading and hands on, it should work right? Wrong, my oldest ended up really excelling and jumped 2 grade levels in 1 year..argghh. Adventures was to "easy" for her and I needed to add,add and add more books. My son got bored with the redundancy of the state sheets. I went back to TOG this past year, we did Year 3 and it was PERFECT! I could go up as much as my oldest needed, the reading was just right to keep my ds and Ker dd engaged. My son loved the geography, who knew? My oldest loved the dialectic book list and I laid off the over planning. I looked at Year 4 and it's a little "heavy" for what I'd like to cover so we are listening to SOTW 4 for this summer in the car and we will jump into the Re-Design Year 1 in the fall. After leaving TOG I never thought I would be back but it really suits our family well and I feel like I found those comfortable old shoes I love.

BCM and I got the text,solutions manual and DVT's for under $35. It's quite comprehensive and we have found a few areas she needed a little more practice on. I am currently working through NEM 1 so we can start it in the fall. I want to stay 1 book ahead of her and I am able to create a TM for when she gets to it. Good Luck!

plans, and it was much easier to use. Drawing With Children Lesson Plans

We go outside and dribble a basketball around cones, play dodge ball, whiffle ball, kick ball, soccer, swim at the Y, tennis and hike. I also sign them up for town sports. This time of year is a little different as my dd made it to the Division 1 soccer league and she has 3 practices and a game weekly as well as my son having baseball 3 times a week. We just love sports!!!!!! It doesn't have to be anything organized if that is not your thing. Nature walking and scavenger hunts in the woods or your neighborhood works well to:)

I have to agree with you TOG is very "global". I find that this works well for those with children that eat up books and move through work very quickly. You can always find something MORE for them to do. But for other children (like my ds) it is waaayyy to much for him. Something like MFW would be perfect for my son, easy goals, quick crafts splattered throughout, but I find it to basic for my 4th/5th grader. I love how TOG gives me the tools to teach History well. I do read ALL the white pages and several Rhetoric level books to educate myself....yes I was one of those that loved school. I print out a copy of the books(schedule pages) 1 set for each child. I use a black sharpie on my sons assignment on what I don't want him to do. Seeing ALL that info is overwhelming for him. I keep it simple with just a few check-boxes for him to check off. I redact books I don't want him to bother with, vocab words and anything else I don't want him to bother with. On the other hand I don't touch my daughters. She finds a thrill in trying to read every book even LG ones! She always wants to tackle the toughest project and this allows her to do that. At the end of the day we can all talk about what we learned at different levels. I stopped looking at it like what "I" needed to. Other than making sure supplies and books are available my kids have taken ownership over what they need to do. I threw micro-managing out the window because I realized ALL those countless hours I spent making myself schedules, checklists, and planning out the rest of their school lives , changed. Something new would come on the market, someone would get sick, life happened. I do still hold tightly my household/menu schedule but when chicken is on sale instead of a roast that week sometimes my carefully planned menu changes too :) All this to say, I love TOG I can wrap my brain around it, I use it differently for each child as well as myself. Not sure if I helped much, but I hope whatever you decide it works for ya.

Thanks Mike, I have since dropped TT and I am currently using BCM (Lials) with my 4th grader. We are moving very slowly, I plan on getting ALEKS to supplement this for her. I'd like to give her a year of review before starting Singapore NEM 1 ( I am working through this myself). Thanks for the review , looks like it will work well for us.

They have a chart on the site , if you have a child in the Apologia Science rotation, they have a suggested reading list for your younger child so the Module Topics match up better.

If not then I guess it doesn't matter, but if you planned on doing General Science in 7th and Physical in 8th then you could follow the TOG reading sequences they give for your younger child.

I really liked them, if had I found them earlier I would have used them for my oldest. I did get them at Timberdoodle for $35.