When we moved to our current town, I started using the local, raw honey and DS was able to get off of allergy meds and stay off 4 yrs now.

FB (very active), IG (very active), Pinterest (a time suck I don't seem to have time for) and Twitter (only for entering contests).

I was so shocked when I wrote this that I was just expressing my shock. But I guess I wondered what others knew about the older books and value. I am pretty sure I have the student edition and I realized it would be of lesser value but the price of the student edition is still about $40 to $60 more than I paid for it. We are moving and I'm just trying to liquidate and wanted to sell off old curriculum. I threw up a few of the prices I came across as a sampling of what I found. Prices were all over the place, even for the student book, making it difficult to price when I try to sell it. I'll just pick a low number and go with it. lol I don't care what the value is, I just need to get rid of about 1/2 of what this house is holding. lol

Yes, currently in one of these myself. But the health and safety of my dd's friend is greatly at risk by her behavior, plus ...well other huge negative consequences. Like you, I have made sure I know the truth and Ive waited 8 months to finally blow this whistle. The ripple effect has been huge and now my dd is being discredited in ordér to smoke screen the whole thing. Eh....5 other adults knew everything and didnt have the strength to do the right thing. Often the good guy is the bad guy...thats just the way it is. I say do what you know is right and hold your head up high as the chips fall. Friends that you may loose in the process may not have been worthwhile friends after all. Honor your own conscience and integrity and you will be happy you did. Good luck!

I agree, shes not ready. Just think how she will drive when you arent with her. This is very serious in my book since driving can be deadly if not handled properly. She needs to understand the seriousness of it and adjust her attitude. My daughter would loose this privilege on the spot until later once she'd matured some. They just know it all at this age, huh?!

The hotels along I-15 are safe (either side of the interstate) and a few have restaurants very near to walk to. I always travel there with only the kids and always feel very safe most everywhere. There is a nice place to walk downtown that has some shops that would kill some time but there are no motels within walking distance that i know of. I would probably google the hotels there and call to see if they have a shuttle service and where to. Montana is a very safe place overall. :) But theres not much to do in Helena itself.

I have this book and was just looking up it's online value. Could this be right? $53-70 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dolciani+swanson+graham+algebra+1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Adolciani+swanson+graham+algebra+1 $198?? http://product.half.ebay.com/Algebra-1-by-John-A-Graham-Mary-P-Dolciani-and-Richard-A-Swanson-1992-Hardcover-Teachers-Edition-of-Textbook/137582&tg=info $129-$153 Abebooks...lost the link.. I know there's a 1992 text for significantly cheaper, but it is not this cover. Mine is this blue color in the pictures. Anyway..don't know what to think.

I have this book and was just looking up it's online value. Could this be right? $53-70 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dolciani+swanson+graham+algebra+1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Adolciani+swanson+graham+algebra+1 $198?? http://product.half.ebay.com/Algebra-1-by-John-A-Graham-Mary-P-Dolciani-and-Richard-A-Swanson-1992-Hardcover-Teachers-Edition-of-Textbook/137582&tg=info $129-$153 Abebooks...lost the link.. I know there's a 1992 text for significantly cheaper, but it is not this cover. Mine is this blue color in the pictures. Anyway..don't know what to think.

MBTP is project based, lots of hands on and the LA is my favorite subject by that company. I used the entire 11-13 level with my 7th grade DD last year and now my 7th grade DS this year.. It is deep and rigorous but is for a gifted 11-12 yr old. My DD didn't have a problem with it. We didn't use anything else for LA at the time that we used this unit. MBTP units tend to take us around 4-5 wks to do if we do all the activities. I don't know if you need to get other MBTP units...it depends on what else rounds out your year and if you have enough curriculum chosen. But the nice thing about MBTP units is any ONE of them could be a nice supplement to anything else being done when just buying one or so at the time. However, MBTP is written as a stand alone curr and is very full and takes some deep thinking in spots. I personally found that we had ALL we ever needed and didn't need to add to anything. My DD would have probably been overwhelmed if I added anything to it, actually. In the curr book, it states that one lesson and everything in it should take one hour. So, lesson 1, day 1, lesson 2, day two, etc. It is said to be written to last 3.5 weeks. However, we have NEVER done any MBTP in that short of time. Each lesson can easily take 2 hours or more so we tweak out anything I feel they have already mastered, or anything I consider 'busy work'. The one gripe I have with MBTP is that the authors had no concept of how long a lesson was going to take a child, any child. So we just stop when we need to stop and pick back up tomorrow. We don't stay within the bounds of doing allllll of a lesson in a day. We do an hour of each subject and move on, no matter where it puts us. HTH

I placed my spring fling order 3/21/14 of last year. I haven't heard anything for this year yet. I read about it on the FB group "Differently Schooled Using MBTP". It's for anyone who orders "Full Year" curriculum. If you choose a full year of a full level or if you choose all of Language Arts for a level, as long as it's a full year's worth of something, it's usually 10% off. But it's actually 10% off of your entire order, as long as that full year choice is being purchased, too. If you sign up for their newsletter, it's announced there, as well as posted on their site.

No rules here. I size things up to see if they can do any school at all, just a little? Sometimes they work through it. Very sick? We declare a sick day and they can do whatever makes them feel better. Hormonal issues included. It happens so very rarely that I can be pretty relaxed about it. Mental health days actually happen more often and I'm pretty free with those as well. Happens about once a month.

I find that it is unique per company. Just from what we've used, MBTP has a spring fling, Pandia Press seems random (they are on my FB feed so I just wait for them to announce a discount), Elemental Science seems to do a later summer % off, etc.

We've done a ton of this type of education as well. Devices stay in living room as well. Worked for one kid, other kid ..nope. We are using Funamo at the moment b/c you can set it up as uniquely as you need to...super buttoned up, or super relaxed, or in between. One kid definitely needs a bit more monitoring. Just putting feelers out for a variety of options and get some perspective on others' rules and what has worked, or hasn't! lol

along with the suggestions above, I make sure they get enough social time, fresh air (so difficult right now), Vit D supplements, fish oil, and...time. Nothing worse than suddenly not being capable of doing something you KNOW you're capable of, and having someone breathing down your neck putting pressure on you to do something you seemingly aren't able to do at the moment, adding to your own frustration and confusion...... I learned this the hard way b/c I mistook their fog and lack of progress for all sorts of other things and in the end, their crazy amt of sudden growth, need for more sleep and hormones were taking a toll on them. For a while I leaned on him/her at different times, way too hard when they first started into..pre-puberty, really. Now when I see these signs, as long as they are working diligently, i don't say a word about whatever work they end up turning in. It's very hard for me because I have quarterly goals, and my personality panics when we get behind. But they don't care about goals when their groggy and crampy and can't focus. It just makes life difficult here not to relax about it. I also just call school off if one of them wakes up and it's really bad. We leave the house and get a mental break by finding something fun to get into.

I have a crafters tote bag like THIS ONE full of every conceivable pen/marker/pencils/erasers/glue sticks/dry erase markers/scissors/post it notes, etc etc. It holds a massive amount of stuff. It comes out in the morning and stays next to me. I never have to get up for anything this way. Each kid has a 3-4 inch Case It 3 ring Binder...referred to as their Main Binder. It has all subjects but math inside. In the accordion section are their text books (spiral MBTP books aren't that thick). On the rings are dividers for each subject. In front of the tabs is just blank lined paper! If there's anything on top of the blank paper, it needs my attention (grading) or theirs (graded, now correct and/or file!) Every morning they look to see what was checked the day before, correct what needs it, then they file it under the correct subject tab. They also have a math binder each, set up the same way. Only math materials go here. Each kid has their own small planner where I indicate daily what is to be done. It stays in their main binder. I mean, through the day it floats around if they float around. But if I need it later while grading, I betta find it in the binder! lol They are completely responsible for eveyrthing associated with the binders and planner. Keep everything in correct tabs, hole-punched, text books stuffed back into the accordion section. If they can't find something I shrug and ask why it wasn't filed. If they can't seem to find it, it's either a zero or they can redo it, taking away from some of their screen time. I don't touch the binders except to grade the work..and they also get a binder grade as well. Big responsibility years here. SO, when I need to plan or grade, I grab my craft tote and all 4 binders. I settle in to somewhere comfy. I have a tv tray that's the perfect height that stays next to my couch. I pull it near to me and set my computer and fav coffee drink on it. Binder in use on my lap. Flip through the work in the front of each binder, use materials from my tote to grade. Take planner from same binder, flip through text books to write assignments down. File text books back into accordion section, place planner back in same binder, zip up. Grab math binder, grade, close. Grab 2nd kid's binder, unzip, grade, assign in planner found in binder, close back up. Same for math binder. Type in grades on computer in front of me on TV stand as I go. Tuck supplies back into craft tote. Tell a kid to put binders/craft tote back into closet. Shove TV tray back, relax finish coffee. Printer is wireless so along the way I click PRINT when needed. Collect all printed pages at the end. The printer is in a small study about 10 steps from couch where all additional school supplies, atlases, drawers full of science materials, reference materials, etc., live. Printer is on small card table next to the Mom basket. I toss printed stuff in mom basket. the next day, I get the papers and give to the kid needing it and they need to file it where it goes in binder, for coming work. In reality I go through the binder checking/tv stand process once a week because checking middle school work daily is just not something I have time for more often than that. Since I'm around for math, I do get my eyeballs on that alongside the kid daily and my oldest checks her own daily so the once a week thing for math is just to enter grades and make sure the binder is in order. This system is super efficient, I never get up till the end, everything is literally in one place and there's no mess. I used to have an entire basement dedicated to being a school room and in the end, all I really needed was a place for the extra, non daily stuff to live till needed, a craft tote and binders!

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We do each test so I can keep track of what she is retaining. I would feel uncertain if I didn't, even though the material is always spiraling. The test have ended up showing up some interesting stuff that the daily work hasn't shown me so I really appreciate them quite a bit.

I had similar problems with DD last year using Saxon Alg 1/2. I searched loads of threads here and asked questions. I was told maturity could be a big reason, and I read that quite a bit too. Sure enough, looking back, I see more clearly that my DD was in a fog, hitting puberty, trying hard and just not getting things to connect. We had a solid year of math struggles over dumb little stuff that was super confusing because she knew the math. It was so frustrating. She had a huge year of growth and this year she picked up Alg 1 and has done fantastic with no more sloppy problems. Granted, everyone is different and this may not be the issue for you, but it's a possibility?

Had a convo with a friend recently that got me wondering what other moms do, if anything, to control their kids' internet activity. I'm not really talking about how much time per day, but how to prevent them from accidentally (or intentional) wandering onto a site they shouldn't be on, do you have hours that the devices should be off? How do you enforce it? How to make sure the content is appropriate to your values, etc, etc. Also, the mom referred me to the Funamo app. Does anyone have experience or a review to offer about that app? Suggestions or reviews of other similar apps?

I secretly prefer when DD has read the book because it really shortens the lessons. lol It happened to us a couple of times and she just referred back and refreshed her memory where necessary. There is so much to be done in addition to reading the books also.

the MBTP science in the 11-13 level is super deep and thorough with lots of projects, experiments, jars of growing stuff. lol Be sure to buy the science kit so you don't have to source stuff. I haven't used it, but how about Elemental Science? We use the Chemistry for logic stage and like it. http://www.elementalscience.com/earth-science-astronomy-for-the-logic-stage/

I wonder if this is different per level. While there is a supply list in the front of each unit book, we never look at it and it's not necessary to gather them before getting into the lessons. A quick flip through that unit should tell you what, if anything is needed. For instance, DS is starting new units tomorrow and all I need to gather for him is his timeline binder and some art supplies we keep close anyway. There was a time that I thought I needed to fully gather things up and in the end, I often didn't use the materials b/c we chose to do the other activity option that didn't call for supplies anyway. So I wait till the day of since most days involves just their notebook and literature book.

We just didn't set the Wii U up to go online or interact with anyone. There's lots of fun to be had without that being added for the time being. DS proved to be very untrustworthy online a short time ago and that was the condition to getting the Wii U. It's not going to give you access to online games or online, period. We don't use it for anything like Netflix or the internet, so he just plays his own games on it.

Hmm, I'm confused, I think... DD is currently in Modern History Level 2 and in the beginning of the book it explains that if all the work is done, you can count a full history credit, and IIRC, 1/2 a LA credit and 1/2 geography credit. I'm pretty sure the Level 2 books are this way. And, some of the material asks for pretty mature thinking that even at 14 she is not capable of yet, so I do tweak a thing or two. So ...yeah, we are considering it high school here. Ok, found it...copied from the teacher guide: Final Course Grade and High School Credits Earned: HIGH SCHOOL CREDITS EARNED If grades are assigned and appropriate grade levels are achieved, high school credit for this course may be assigned as follows: Geography – ½ Credit World History – 1 Credit Language Arts – ½ Credit

thanks everyone!