Not a book, but the PBS series Colonial House was a great look into daily life at Plymouth. It's a reality-type show where modern people live like 17th century colonists. I found it fascinating, and my middle schooler enjoyed it too. We were able to get the whole series on DVD from our library.

We used Christian Light and had an easy transition into Saxon. Definitely use the placement test to make sure you start at the right level when you're ready to switch.

Just have to say, I SO agree with this. DD doesn't mind the videos but I have quit even staying in the room when she has them on, they irritate me so badly. The discussion is just... painful. DD keeps a running count of how many times the one teacher says, "Um"... I'm shocked that supposedly educated adults aren't any more articulate -- especially when they have the benefit of editing. As to the OP: yeah, the TG will do you. We just have the student book and I haven't found it hard to answer the questions/evaluate dd's answers, but might as well buy the TG and have the work done for you (wish I'd thought of that, actually). Don't bother with the DVDs.

I remember asking my little sister's Spanish-speaking friend to translate it. She was about 6! :svengo: I thought she was just shy. Guess not. :blushing: (She didn't tell me what it said.)

Proactiv isn't cheap, but it has done wonders for my dd's skin. I was concerned about scarring because her acne was so bad. Now most of the time she barely has any blemishes.

We use this series: https://www.amazon.com/Sex-New-You-12-14-Learning/dp/0758649576/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520084916&sr=8-1&keywords=sex+%26+the+new+you That particular book is for 12-14yo boys but there are different levels, starting from preschool all the way through late teens. One set for boys and one for girls. We own both full sets (since we have one of each) and I've found them to be very easy to use so far.

You know, I thought it was just mine. Until I was at a hotel over the weekend and needed to emergency-iron a blouse that got wadded up in the suitcase and... exact. same. screech. :eek:

At least in Algebra 1, the practice sets include a couple of problems from the current lesson, followed by problems from previous lessons. Each problem is marked as to which lesson it is from.

Ugh, my dad used to refuse to turn on the a/c until the 4th of July. We live in the South. It was miserable. We ran our a/c last night for awhile. It's unseasonably warm here, but still February. Suffice it to say, we don't like to be hot!

Once I argued with the boards over whether or not a certain actor appeared in North & South. Turns out everyone else was discussing the (apparently very popular) BBC series, while I was suck on the 1980's American miniseries about the US Civil War.. Oops. :blushing:

Thank you, Farrar, for your excellent thoughts! This is very helpful. This assignment came from WWS 2, under the topoi "definition in history." It was supposed to be an excercise in describing and defining a specific subject -- in this case, dd chose the topic "children during the Industrial Revolution," which coordinated with her history studies. As far as the assignment goes, I think she did carry it off well. But your insights bring up a question I keep returning to more and more lately, and that is: Should we continue with WWS or move on to something else? I do think that WWS lays a solid foundation for persuasive writing, but I also think it's possible that it's a more tedious foundation than dd really needs. I'm frankly not sure where to go from here. WWS has not, as yet, addressed anything close to a thesis. More like little vignettes of various types that down the road can be combined into a more intricate piece.We have done in addition a few literary analysis papers, and some 5-paragraph essays -- which I hate. I found them so stifling when I had to write them in middle school. Like dd, I was very much an intuitive writer. But I am unsure how to make the transition from summary-type work to thesis-based writing, other than using the 5 paragraphs. I have a degree in English. I certainly know how to craft a thesis and develop the arguments to support it. But I have far less confidence in my ability to *teach* writing than I do in my ability to write, which is why I've relied on WWS, despite its clunkiness. I would love to do our writing more "on the fly," but I'm terrified I'll miss something important. Lots for me to think about and research. Thanks for sharing your expertise!

Meant to circle back to this earlier and I forgot! Thanks for the ideas! I could see her being very interested in some of those topics. When it comes to transcripts, do you list those pre-high school classes, and if so, how? Does it look strange to show middle school classes on there? We may tackle a high school level science next year too. She's begging for chemistry.

Thank you. I needed that. This is really what I want for her. The thing I HATED about high school was the pressure to do more, more, more just to look good to colleges. We just didn't know any other way then. Now I know better, and I want to do better. My hope is to help her craft a high school experience that really lets her explore and develop her passions. If that means one good extracurricular and no AP's, so be it. I don't want to manufacture classes and activities just to impress some admissions officer we'll probably never even meet. Of course, I don't mean letting her do computer programming 12 hours a day, like somebody said. Part of exploring your interests is having enough of a basis in the various disciplines that you can even determine what your interests are, IMO. And that's part of being a well-rounded person too. But there's my ideal world, and there's the real world. I'm trying to bring the two together. I'm pretty sure there's a way to do that, I just haven't quite put my finger on it yet. To me, college is a goal, but it's not THE goal. I don't want high school to become all about getting into college. I want it to be part of a journey to becoming an interesting, educated adult who knows how to take an idea and run with it. College is part of that journey too. Does that make sense?

Yeah, no athletes here. :) I'm not sure "selective" is really on our radar. I think it's possible she could get into one (maybe, I really don't know) but even if she did, she would need major scholarship money. So she would have to be extra competitive. No one here, including dd, is interested in accruing massive college debt, even at an Ivy. Right now, she is attracted to smaller schools. As long as she is getting a good education, that's fine by me. I am nervous though. AP, dual enrollment, designing our own stuff or jumping through the hoops -- it's overwhelming. Seems like a lot of decisions to hang on the current musings of a 12yo. What if she changes her mind about wanting to shoot for Duke or Stanford?

**Swoon!** These are exactly the kinds of things I have in mind! I've been waiting years to get to this point. I know lots of people are interest-led in the early years, but my kids always seemed interested in most anything at that age. It's only as they've gotten older that dd has started to want to dig more deeply in certain areas. I have degrees in history and English literature, so I think I can do a good job with those. I hope dd will be as excited about choosing her path as I am. 8FillTheHeart, I was so hoping you'd chime in. I've read your book and found it very inspiring! I'd love to hear about unique courses others have designed if anyone wants to share.

It's super hard, but if you're sure you're up to the challenge... :D 1 lb kielbasa, cut up 1 lb fresh or frozen green beans 6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut up (or you can use whole new potatoes) Dump in the Crock-pot with 13-14 oz. chicken broth (about a can) and 1 T-ish seasoning salt. Stir and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Kielbasa with green beans and taters. In the Crock-pot, so it will be all ready when I get home from the gym!

Experienced mamas, I could really use some help. It's my first time posting on the HS board. We're just starting to think about high school for dd12, but as I try to build a big picture of our goals for these last few years, I find myself wondering exactly how much freedom we're going to have to pursue topics of interest to her. She is definitely college-bound. And obviously that requires a certain amount of hoop-jumping to meet the minimum admissions requirements. For some subjects (e.g., math), the pathway is pretty well-defined (although she will be through algebra 2 before ninth grade, which presents its own issues, but that's another conversation). But for others, there seems to be more leeway. For example, four units of English would traditionally include a couple of years honing writing skills and working on various genres and literary devices, followed by a year of American lit and one of British or maybe world lit. What if she'd rather study, say, epic poetry? Or Southern American writers (Faulkner, O'Connor, Welty, etc.)? Can we do that? I would love to give her a high school experience that takes full advantage of our ability as homeschoolers to follow her interests. But the last thing I want is for it to jeopardize her chances at getting into college. Will a unique, personalized course load help her stand out as a student, or will it hinder her? Should we save our exploration for electives? Just to be clear, I'm not talking about "relaxed" homeschooling or unschooling here. I fully intended for all of her courses to be rigorous and challenging. I'd just like to tailor them to her interests while still ensuring that she learns what she needs to know.

DD12 used CLE from 3rd-6th, and ds7 is currently finishing up 1st. We LOVE CLE. Love it. The LightUnit format is so easy to use, and the kids feel like they're making progress each time they finish one. Finishing 10 short workbooks is much more motivating than looking at one huge textbook! The lessons are simple and very short. There is a lot of review, but I personally think that's important for mastery. It works for us. We would have kept on with it for dd, but she was ready for pre-algebra, and I knew we would be switching to Saxon for high school. We made the decision to go ahead and make the switch for pre-algebra so that she would have time to adapt to the Saxon format before the difficulty level ratcheted up. She has done great with Saxon, but it is much different than CLE, even though much of the underlying philosophy is the same. I fully intend to keep on with it for ds well into middle school. The other nice thing about CLE is it's super cheap. You can get just one or two LightUnits and try it out. If it doesn't work, you haven't lost much. Be aware that the first LU in most grades is all pre-tests reviewing the previous year, so you might want to start with the second LU.

My BIL (DH's brother) is getting married in June. It's his second marriage, but the first for his fiance. It will be very small, only immediate family on our side. I would like to throw a bridal shower for my SIL-to-be and invite DH's aunts and maybe his female cousins. DH's parents are divorced and I am really the only one who could get away with inviting both sides of the family. But since they won't be invited to the wedding, I can't decide if it would be ok to invite them to a shower. I suppose we could do an engagement party instead, but that means a much larger guest list, and I'm not sure we can afford that. I just hate for our family not to do something special to welcome her.

I am really struggling with putting a plan together for next year. We have finally reached the stage where she is ready to start having some real input into her education. Which I am super de duper excited about!!! But I am torn between wanting to maintain the rigorous classical education we've given her so far and backing off a bit to allow her more time and freedom to explore and find new interests. Not sure yet what 8th grade is going to look like for us...

I'm with you on this and it's actually quite timely as we are thinking about what to do with dd as she gets ready to enter high school. She will certainly be capable of handling university-level work in high school but I don't see a real advantage in graduating her early and sending her off to college before she can drive. But I want to challenge her. I am intrigued by your story about your dd -- I didn't know it was possible to take for-credit classes at a university without having graduated high school. I'd love to know more about this if you have the time/inclination to share your story or suggest another resource. Feel free to PM me; I don't want to derail the thread.

Nope. Not even a phone number. They have to do it all online. And it's on him to PROVE that they made a mistake. The two companies were huge before and now it's one monstrous behemoth. The old company was at least fairly organized.

Well, he just got paid. About 25% of what he's owed. And they still owe him from previous months when they screwed up his commission, which supposedly was going to be fixed this month. Sigh.

So this is the second time dh has been through a major corporate merger. I'd hoped it would be better than the last, but sadly, no. First, he had to, for all intents and purposes, skip a week's pay in order to get his payday in line with the new company's. He will get that money back in the end, whenever that is, but we're already starting the month short. Then he was finally paid, but only his salary. He makes a decent salary but he also earns commission, and we rely on at least part of his commission to cover monthly expenses. In the past, he's been paid salary and commission in one check. Nobody seemed to know when commission would be paid. Finally HR said January 26. We already had to take money out of savings to cover bills because that's so late in the month. Today is January 26. We woke up, and no commission. He texted some coworkers, and it looks like they were paid, although mostly in the wrong amounts (less than they were owed). He got nothing. We are lucky that we have savings and can weather this until it gets straightened out. But really. Why do companies roll these things out when they clearly have NO CLUE what they're doing? Why does it all have to happen at once? Is it really worse for Payroll to have to process two sets of checks for a few months than for your employees to have to scrounge around because you didn't pay what they EARNED and you PROMISED? We have learned to live on commission, which is a nightmare in and of itself because it's never a straightforward calculation, and the company will take every possible opportunity to screw you. DH spends a good 2-5 extra hours each week trying to make sure he's paid what he's earned. Even then it's mostly a losing battle. But for the love of all that's holy, AT LEAST PAY HIM SOMETHING! The last merger resulted in him being laid off, so I guess this time around I should just be happy he's keeping his job.