I have accounts with Capital One and use their mobile check deposit service all the time. Easy-peasy.

No ideas, but I'm right there with you with a grouchy 13 yo boy who "hates" school -- and never did up until a few months ago ... :(

It's been a bad month here, too. My youngest has been sick most of that time -- he's just getting over pneumonia. It's been so cold that it's hard to do anything outside and there are germs everywhere so we all have cabin fever. Kids are fighting, to the point that I'm ready to put them in school. Ugh.

I also have a medically fragile child. He is just getting over pneumonia and has almost died from it in the past - he even needed a ventilator and was sedated for weeks. I'm severely limiting his activities outside of the home. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I'm not a secular homeschooler but I found TGTB Language Arts difficult to use because it's an all-in-one and assumes even development across the language arts. I tried with three kids and struck out every time. FWIW, I also use CLE and even though that's an all-in-one, too, it doesn't cause quite the same issue, at least to the same degree. TGTB includes reading and literature (as well as grammar, spelling, art and geography) in its program and CLE has reading as a separate program so I can customize as needed. Also, the reading in level of 2 of TGTB was very basic compared to CLE's 2nd grade reading.

My son may possibly enter public school for 8th grade next year. We have a state requirement to give a standardized test every year; I've always done the CAT because it's the most convenient and frankly, the cheapest. :) However, I'm thinking that a more thorough test might help properly place him in classes next year. Recommendations? Iowa/Stanford?

Thank you. I've been beating myself up over not seeing it earlier. I appreciate your kind words. :)

Yes, there are still some phonics in the 2nd grade level but it's not a major portion of the program. After using All About Reading and The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading as well as a year of First Language Lessons last year, CLE LA 2 is fairly easy but ramps up quickly.

Yeah, big shake-up here. I tested my kids and found some gaps that I'm trying to fill by making some curricular changes. BA was not a good fit for my 5th and 2nd graders. They liked it well enough, but they weren't retaining much. So we're back to CLE and planning to stay with it for the foreseeable future. Their reading skills are well above level but spelling is just at grade level so I'm going to put some additional focus on that.

I've used both CLE LA and First Language Lessons and for kindergarten, I'd pass on both. I tried CLE LA for 1st grade and it was a miss -- it was too tied into their phonics program and there was just too much writing. FLL filled the gap nicely for 1st grade. We also used Writing with Ease for 1st grade and that also went well. I do love CLE LA starting in 2nd grade for ease of use so we have switched back to it.

Yes. My medically complex kiddo has been sick for three weeks, meaning little to no sleep for me as I play the role of night nurse in addition to my day job of mom and teacher. My DH was out of town all week on business in a warm climate. It's below zero here and the kids are fighting like crazy and not being cooperative for school. My brain is toast right now and I don't think anyone really knows or cares how much I do for everyone. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

My daughter wanted a school uniform in 1st grade so I bought her a school uniform-style pink polo and skirt. She loved it. :)

I'm finding the same thing. As much as I love Beast, my kids need the consistent spiral of CLE. We're using the Beast method for multiplication right now and that's helping. Haven't even started division but I'll look into the partial quotient method. Thanks for your feedback. :)

I've been working on long division and multidigit multiplication with my son for a couple of years and he just cannot understand the standard algorithms. He has great mental math skills but has some sort of mind block when it comes to these topics. We used CLE for grades 2-4 and then switched to Beast. Beast teaches these things in a different way and that has helped some, but testing has shown me that he's really lost ground on other areas of math this year. I'm planning to go back to CLE for the spiral factor but in the meantime, I need to remediate multiplication and division because he's way below level on these areas. Any suggestions for supplemental resources that might help? Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I bought the Bible for my daughter and it's set up similarly. We did not find a way to do this so eventually stopped using it.

Did you weigh at the same time? I always weigh a few pounds less in the morning.

I now combine Beast Academy with Math Lessons for a Living Education. MLLE is quite a bit lighter but it covers things Beast doesn't. It's easy to switch back and forth and still get everything in. I never could manage that with CLE because there were so many lessons and each one was so long.

I use the Good and the Beautiful Science for 2nd and 5th grade and we've enjoyed it -- but I do supplement for the 5th grader. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

It's been below zero for several days here and we're all going nuts.

We are very happy with Derek Owens' prealgebra. Prior to finding it, we used CLE for years and then tried AOPS and Math Mammoth but none of those three were the right fit for my 7th grader's prealgebra year.

We do something similar. My two middle kids get their specials at a weekly all-day co-op. We do a little bit of art and music appreciation during morning time as well. We do also attend a PE class once a week, but it's late afternoon, so generally after we're already done with school.

Jumping into an all-in-one like CLE at the fifth grade level would be tough from a grammar perspective, I think. With regard to the G&B, she'd probably test into a lower level based on the grammar alone. Maybe you could do some targeted grammar work the rest of this year with the goal of moving towards an all-in-one next year?

When you say that she's great and reading and writing but shaky on grammar, that makes me wonder whether an all-in-one is really the best for for her. I've used both CLE and The Good and the Beautiful as all-in-one but eventually moved away from both because my kids were at different levels in the different areas of language arts. It made more sense for me to separate out reading, writing, spelling and grammar so I could meet them their levels and either slow down or speed up as needed. That's hard to do with an all-in-one. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Well, I have one in ps early childhood special ed preschool and one taking a class at the middle school, so we basically follow the district schedule.

Move on. This is not worth the potential hassle and stress.