The nice thing is that you can order just one unit to try it out and it doesn't cost much at all to sample it that way. It's open and go and rich! If you don't like it after you try a sampling, at least it won't nag at you anymore. LOL I dunno, we love it so much I can't help but gush!

Check out Moving Beyond The Page. We looooove it.

How about this... One friend on FB posted a pic and it was white and gold for me. Directly under her pic another friend posted the pic and on the SAME SCREEN with both pics in updates ...one of top of another on the screen...one is white/gold, one is blue/black! Right now, as I look at my screen, one of each LOL

I haven't dug too deeply into this site but I have printed off a thing or two that I specifically needed with one or the other of the kids: http://http://goodcharacter.com/MStopics.html

My kids are working through the computer programming areas, and math. DD is making her way through the Alg 1 concepts, and DS is almost finished with the Pre-A concepts and has also started Alg 1. You can assign them anything to do that Khan offers. The math is a supplement to their Saxon work. They love it because they earn medals and other things as they improve. I schedule 1.5 hours of math per day and if they finish their math lesson early they get to do Khan with the remaining time. OF course their math lesson has to be well done and neat. They get to do it about twice a week. i love that Khan emails me what they've done and where they stand on their goals.

here, middle schools have 7th and 8th grades. Elem goes through 6th. When I lived in Cali (central) it was the same, but DD grew up in the Cali central valley and Jr. High was 7th and 8th. LOL Where I grew up, elem was through 5th, middle was 6-8. Such variety in the terms leads me to believe it's just a regional thing.

He is just urging people to think of learned habits and their health because one does have something to do with the other. And it's not hard to start a small garden, even if it seems so unlikely. I have gardening sites updating me on Facebook where people are showing pics of very small places with tons of food growing with very little time and effort. I totally envy them! He makes sense to me in a lot of ways. I feel pretty lucky that I grew up in a family that grew a ton of our food, raised hogs and chickens to eat and ate carefully. I also garden and work at a farm in exchange for local goodies. We make living this way a priority. It has NOT always been this way. OMG when I used to coupon, I stockpiled so much junk and we ate it and felt horrible but I didn't know why. For YEARS. Some posts in this thread are a great example of why he says the things he says... b/c so many of us are so far removed from where the food is really coming from. Once you're far removed, it's hard to see why it's important to reconnect for some. And the reality is that most of our circumstances will not allow us to change that. Sometimes it results in packaged, dead food in regularity. And that is bad for us if it's constant. He is saying, with some knowledge and desire to improve things, even just a LITTLE bit, changes can happen. I don't agree with everything and certainly cannot do everything he says is important (not do I always agree) but it's thought provoking. Our health is very important. Ingredients are very important. How important? We all get to decide for ourselves. But I think he is one of MANY voices out there right now that is trying to get us to stop and think about what we put in our mouths.

my kids are exploring this via YouTube lessons for the time being. But, they are enjoying it so much they were asking about more of a program to go further. We have nothing local, so I'm wondering if any one knows of a program to purchase, or even something online other than YT?

The sales i need tend to be in the spring for the bulk of what I need. I'm have all of the curriculum companies I'm interested in on my facebook feed and when they have coupon codes or discounts, I'll buy then if I need to, year round.

DD is in Saxon Alg 1 and she isn't using one..yet. She was in public school in 5th and 6th and when she came home to school in 7th, she was having such a hard time because I didn't allow a calculator. The public school's supply list included a calculator! And they handed out worksheets and never asked the kids to write a problem down, either. About 4 wks into her 7th grade I found a copy of the multiplication facts.... zero through 15.....taped to the back of her SAxon book! She said her teacher handed it out to students in 6th! I couldn't believe it! It took her nearly 6 months to actually work without pausing b/c of these bad habits and become strong her number sense, multiplication facts, etc. I STILL have calculator angst remembering that. I know it's reasonable to give her one coming up but only if the material allows it and I don't think that will be this year.

Thanks everyone! We also welcome discussions with the kids when choices/values/opinions don't match up with ours in our studies and we do not hide those things from their examination. Truth is, I don't know if I agree with his economics or not. I just wanted a math book without any further distractions...for lack of a better word..for DS whose bump in the road is pretty big at this point. Thanks for all the input. Our Beginning Algebra book is on it's way!!

We enjoyed Pandia Press's History Odyssey's Modern Times, Level 2. What I liked about it is that it made my dd stop and think to apply what she was learning. Often, she picks up things quickly, applies them and moves on right away. She couldn't do that with this curriculum. She didn't love it but I think it did great things for her and worked her brain in ways she wasn't used to. The book describes that if done in entirety, it counts for one history credit, 1/2 geography credit and IIRC, 1/2 language arts credit. It is also literature based so she was reading some books that would have been on my book list if she hadn't used them here. The only con I see is that it is a LOT of work and we expected to cover it in a two years period of time. And, I didn't see this as a con, but some might: you have to source your own literature used in the course. I believe the specifics of that literature is on the website somewhere? Anyway, I though this was a great program!

Yeah, nothing curriculum wise is changing! lol I also attribute some of this, with my kids, to needing more exercise. I did just sign them up for an art class, "Drawing and Sketching". It's $5 per kid for 2 days. Can't beat it... I mean there's not much else I can do and I know that my kids are naturally demanding. But still....teens complaining about something. Guess I should get more used to it. lol

I'd like elaboration on the mom working thing too. I think he knows that most people can't eat completely as he encourages, but it gives them a GREAT starting place and food for thought (pun intended! LOL). I started sourcing our food differently years ago while not realizing that I didn't have to do it all at once. I realized it pretty quick tho. ONE positive change is a big deal and a great thing. To say this has little merit b/c it's too hard to do sounds like some think it ALL has to be done. I used to say and think this way. One step at a time is all it takes. And one person making us think is sometimes all some of us need. So that's how I see him..not someone I take everything as value from, but he definitely makes me think and helps me see the possibilities to change things important to my family. I don't see anything elitist about making positive changes of any kind in our lives and I see Michael Pollen as someone whom I can take encouragement from FOR THE CHANGES THAT MESH with my life. Any change is a sacrifice, mostly a sacrifice of time, in my kitchen. Where I don't think I can make a sacrifice, I don't and maybe I go in another direction. You may be able to make the sacrifices I can't but I dunno, I'm not the sort of person to categorize it because it's unlikely for a certain group to implement. When I hear the elitist POV, my mind goes RIGHT to the farmer I work next to (in exchange for local veggies, we work 50 hours a year). The person working in the dirt, making no money, only doing so for the concern of people and the SYSTEM...with a humble attitude and work ethic made of steel... that is the opposite of elite to me. I get it... so, so many don't have access this way. But the elitist POV is only correct in my mind for a PORTION of those who want to eat this way. Most everyone I know who care about the system and the people live the most humble, lowly lives but they eat in the most healthy way I've ever seen as well. I mean, the lady that sits under those cow udders to provide me with raw milk?? My dictionary defines elite as: people with the most wealth and status in a society. That doesn't line up for me! Oh wait, it also says, "the best of a class" and I see these people as eating the best of anyone I know, so maybe in a stretch, it works. LOL

This is me! LOL The part of my brain where music might happen, never happened. LOL But I enjoyed Lady Gaga's performance. My DD plays the viola and is in symphonies and such, and she had a comment or two on the notes Gaga was carrying, or not. I was clueless as to the quality and gave her HUGE HUGE props for attempting to follow in such big footsteps, especially since JA was RIGHT THERE. That's a big, big deal.

realmilk.com is another I have used these sites quite a bit to find ways to improve out foods, but to be honest, in our current location, every connection we've made has ended up NOT being on these lists. What ended up happening is that I made one connection at a farmer's market for organically-raised produce, then I picked the farmer's brain for local places to get the other items I needed. I realized that there is a network between the farmers of ...a lot of different products... and they are happy to encourage you to go to their friends as a new customer. So, my egg, milk, organic veggie farmers...none of them are on these lists, but they are out there. I told this to my sister in San Diego ..where you'd think there'd be no lack ... she checked the lists for sources and while there were sources, the ones on the list charged a LOT more. So she kept searching and asking questions of the farmers she's come across and now, the sources she uses have not been on these lists either. But she used the lists as a jumping off point. I'm guess I'm saying there's LOTS more out there than the lists but they are a good place to start :)

lol duckens, I said something pretty similar but didn't get into the specifics before she decided she'd just do some brainstorming of her own and get back to me with clarification on what she is talking about. LOL

..... I finally got this today from DD14. She homeschooled when she was in grades 2-4, then she went to public school in 5-6 and last year as she entered 7th, we began to homeschool her. DS12 came home to school as he hit 7th as well, this year. Supposedly allllll of the curriculum bores her to tears, she is bored here at home doing her school work and there is nowhere in the house to do her school work that excites her, and WOE IS ME... that I don't have the extra curriculars in place that her public school friends have. She wants wood shop, fashion design, auto hobby..something (wait..what?) and a long list of other changes. Then, DS chimes in with the electronics class he wants (as his Snap Circuits big-daddy 750 kit sits next to him) and other extras. DH offers to take them into his 5 car garage full of tools and build anything they want, they already get under the cars with him, and he also offers to build a small rocket, complete with scientific explanation, etc. etc etc ETC. Sigh.....well, they turned all that down. I know part of it is their age, I know part of it is the winter doldrums, I know that part of it IS the lack of kids around while the nitty gritty work is being done, I know they miss a classroom setting, I know it's the hormones...and a lot of other things, probably. But it was extremely discouraging. OMG..the lengths I go to JUST in our homeschool setting. I know I'm "preaching to the choir"..huh? I do 'coffee shop hops" with the kids where we go to coffee shops to do the school work, we go the park sometimes when the weather is good, they take all sorts of art classes when available in town, they both take music lessons and sometimes we go on base (military) when they offer classes/sports. So I don't think I need to add anything, but maybe shake up a little? Maybe just asking for commiseration? (((pout)))

LOL i really feel that way, but just joking to show how different we all are! I had a neighbor with muscadine vines and I was ALWAYS sneaking over there to eat them. Let's see what else...........raw oysters, anyone? Raw sushi? OH I KNOW...kefir?? lol That outta do it........

i hate the MLM of ...well most anything MLM lol but I especially hate the fervor it creates around EO's b/c they are helpful for some things, but not all, but you'd never know b/c peopel are repulsed by the fervor, the selling, the expense, etc. I do use an oil on my attention-challenged son with very positive results. And i seem to use Eo's daily for one reason or the other. Sometimes just to mix perfumes, even. But I have my personal favs from all sorts of companies. And, IRL, I tend to not make it a part of my daily conversation b/c around here there are over zealous people who are ruining it.

I really like this, and DH and I do it. We like to make the kids feel heard. But my 'well trained minds' have figured out a thousand ways to bend, twist, justify and debate *any thing*. This morning it had to do with placement of the highlighters on the table :/ So my walk away method happens after some of the listening. And then, there are things I do not engage in whatsoever. Whining is an automatic disengagement. If they've been given an answer, that's the end of it. Well...for me. Never is it the end for them. What's funny is I see them turning towards one another using debating and logic skills. They even pull out logic books and quote from it to prove a point. LOL And, I try not to get too worked about any of this because after all, they need these techniques in adulthood and they are merely trying to practice here where it's safer, so unless it goes directly against something we want to happen around here, I observe and engage where possible (i.e. not when I've already said no, or when whining).

I do not play music, but music definitely moves me and is very powerful to me. Imagine my shock that my two children are very musically talented and are chosen for special performances in our city. When they are on stage, I'm a puddle. I have to record it just so I can see it later fully. DD's next concert is in March... I already cry over it. LOL Anymore emotion sneaks up on me when, in one moment I'm feeling great, and the next Let it Grow from the Lorax comes on and I can't hold back the tears?? We recently went to a symphony where the woodwind section played Let It Go (Frozen), quietly at first, then up to a crescendo and the end was explosive. Crowd went crazy, I had chills head to toe and was sobbing. DH leans over and says, "Was it good for you?" :mellow: Commercials, movies, books, etc...not such a big deal for me right now. Music = ugly cry for some reason.

I was wondering which edition I should get....wondering what the difference was from the older books are where the companion book is separate, from the newer, other than the combining of the books. Otherwise the same? Someone offered me a gently used set of the Beginning Alg book, the companion book and the Zillions of problems book for $55.

I've recently posted about Ds's math woes here, and am now looking into different programs to try to motivate him again. We've looked over several programs, and as I thought he would...he's zeroed in on LoF. I think Saxon is the wrong math program for him but math is his gift, so I"m trying to find a good fit in another program. I think once we get some things ironed out regarding operations and putting the work on paper correctly, he will really excel in math. I let him tinker with some other math sources and he is doing algebra 1 work when it's not Saxon. I want to try LoF but keep reading that before trying the Algebra books, we really need to do the Pre-A 2 book, just to get an understanding of these methods before trying any of the higher LoF maths. I don't mind doing that, but I'm not liking what I'm reading regarding the Economics integrated into the Pre-A 2 text. Is there a way to do just the math in that text and skim over the econ part? Is getting the Pre-A book really a necessary step before trying out the Alg 1 book? Since this is his 2nd year in Pre-A I really hesitate to put him through ANOTHER Pre-A book. My instinct is to just go with the Alg 1 book....but if prepping him w/ the PreA book is really necessary, I would consider it, I guess.???

Great! That does help. thanks!