I use cayenne pepper for sore throats and used it while pregnant in three pregnancies that I recall.

Daytime activities are not working for us at this point in our lives. What can I involve my children in that occurs in the evening? I am aware of scouting organizations (i.e. Girl Scouts, American Heritage Girls, Boy Scouts, and Trail Life USA), 4-H and Awana. What else am I missing? It doesn't have to be an official organization. Other activities or volunteering opportunities are all of interest to me. I welcome all suggestions, because even if it is not a good fit for our family at the time, it might be later, and it may be helpful to someone else instead. :001_smile:

Glad to see I'm right and dh is wrong! :laugh: I don't use TP any longer, though. A bidet and soft cloth wipes to dry off suits my fancy just fine.

From what I see, the program appears to be something one would only do for a short semester of an entire school year, so she'll probably do just fine in the long run. If she's a strong writer, she'll pick up quickly, I'm sure. :) That's okay you don't have any BTDT experience with the main AG program, but I think it's neat you'll be doing it with a co-op. I hope you all have a very successful two years!

I'd go back to when I was five years old, so I could hear the voice of my parents and feel their hugs again. My memory of each of those things have faded over the years and I yearn to get them back. Plus, that was before my life went downhill fast, so I'd love to go back to live in mental bliss of just being a kid and enjoying life with my whole family.

That's a great example and just what I was looking for! I'll keep that in mind for my own students. Good on your son for being able to do that on his own! :thumbup: I don't see anything wrong with waiting until middle school years to teach grammar, unless it is necessary for some sort of testing in your state. I don't remember learning grammar until middle school and only the basics in elementary years. Without SE, I honestly think I would have pulled my hair out trying to teach my kids grammar in younger elementary years. SE jingles just make it so easy, I don't see why not. I'm using IEW for writing at the moment. It's been working for us, but I'm always open to something else, not necessarily better, but I like exposing my kids to various ways subjects are taught by different people. There's always something to be learned from someone else. I've made book reports a pretty big deal lately, but I don't have much direction for my kids except the basics. That program might be a good fit for us, whether I decide to go with AG or not. :)

Not trying to put you on the spot, because I know I forget examples as soon as someone asks me for one, but if you have an example of the bolded and underlined, I'd appreciate it. :) I saw one of the "perks" is that you can finish grammar in just three years and only in seasons, but my kids really enjoy SE. SE has jingles and my kids have always enjoyed singing them, because they make a complete show of it. The jingles have really helped classify the sentences in a way elementary students can understand. That's something I've always loved about SE, but some think that's the worst part. ;) One of my kids love the jingles so much, he sings them in his spare time, and makes up dances. SE has made grammar stupid-easy for my kids, so I can't imagine waiting until sixth grade to teach him grammar, as I'm seeing AG say one could do. I think my upcoming sixth grader is slowly starting to get over the jingles, though, so that's one of the reasons I'm looking into what else there is available. I'm also interested in the diagramming aspect, because I always learned to classify sentences the way it's taught in SE, but I've seen diagramming show up on achievement-based tests. I want to make sure my kids are ready for either method. It would appear SE6 is the tail-end of all one can possibly know about grammar, and my experience with it has been that it's quite thorough, so I wasn't sure if AG was about the same, behind, or ahead of SE6. It appears to be roughly the same if they are covering everything in a three-year span. I know you don't have experience with SE. I'm just verbalizing my thoughts here. You wouldn't happen to have any experience with AG's, "Beyond the Book Report", would you? That looks intriguing. Choices, choices! Too many choices! :laugh:

My kids use Shurley English for elementary years and I'm very pleased with it, but I'm debating if I should make a switch for my sixth grade student to have something different. I'm looking at the example of AG online and the format seems different from SE, but not much different in terms of material being taught. Would anyone happen to have experience with both? Would you be willing share how they compare and how they are different? Pros and cons? I'd also welcome hearing from those who have experience with AG, because I'm completely unfamiliar with the program other than what I can view online. Many thanks to those who reply! ETA: I'm also open to other programs if you have one you think is great. Feel free to share.

I used to get packages on a weekly basis, but I'm proud to say my last order was in January for a college textbook and items have been very sporadic in the year prior to that. I've been a good girl already. ;) I've been using the advice to put everything in a Wish List or cart for at least one month and if I find myself still needing it a month later, then I can buy it. I've been doing this for the past year and I'm shocked to see how very little I've bought during that time because I simply waited one month. Maybe you should try that. :coolgleamA:

I'm down with the ice cream cone! I can find any reason to get one of those, including just getting up in the morning! :laugh: As for being born, every birthday my kids are reminded that this day should be my day, because I am the one who endured the pain, suffering, and soon-to-be sleepless nights so they could live. I should be the one getting pampered, but alas, I will be the humble Mommy that I am and let them enjoy the day for themselves. ;)

I did it with my eldest, because we were just starting out in our homeschooling adventure, so it was simply something to do. Looking back, it was silly to do and nothing about it made me want to do it with the rest of my children. I also did not buy the cap/gown, but a nice outfit that could be worn again. I don't have any problems with co-ops that do school pictures, yearbooks, and graduations for high school students. I do think it is quite silly to add Kindergarteners to the graduation, though. They can be part of the school pictures and yearbook, but the graduation part is overkill. I'm also the person who thinks most ceremonies are ridiculous and pointless. Cap and gown's are even more dumb. Why can't people just wear a nice outfit for their graduation? Why do we all have to look collectively the same? It's ridiculous.

All the Baptists said, "Did she just offer wine?" :ohmy: :laugh:

I think your son might benefit from a straight forward approach to writing like IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing). Basically, he learns to write by copying a text almost word-for-word and changing a few words with his own found in a thesaurus. My son, who sounds very much like yours, has done very well with IEW and it has helped him eventually learn how to formulate his own thoughts. He can now write book reports with little effort and that's a big deal, because I require book reports in exchange for Wii U playing time. ;)

When we first started with WyzAnt, we were very serious, but weren't aware of this requirement until just before our first tutoring session was scheduled. I wonder if others just starting with WyzAnt are as unaware as we were, unless WyzAnt has now made it more clear.

We've used WyzAnt and found a couple amazing tutors. It's really easy to figure out who is worth their salt and who isn't by simply reading their ad. I don't bother with tutors who don't take the time to post a picture. WyzAnt also tells you the average time it takes them to respond to an inquiry and I pay close attention to that. Some tutors on there are just trying to make a buck and think having a few classes in something makes them an expert. We don't bother with the tutors who are a Jack of all trades, master of none. Narrowing down what we want and don't want in a tutor has made it incredibly easy to find a tutor worth their salt. We've had great success so far. That's not to say someone with a few classes in a subject couldn't be a very helpful tutor, because we had one that was like this, but their description gave me a good feeling, so I went with it. She turned out to be really great and made difficult concepts easy to understand. I'd say she was an exception, though. I have also had some luck with University Tutor and finding people with a website, advertising their services.

Ultima Replenisher - I add Natural Calm magnesium, liquid chlorella, and Great Lakes gelatin (green container) to mine when I do workouts. Edited: I did not mean liquid chlorella. I meant liquid chlorophyll. Sorry about that!

Homeschool Spanish Academy?

:crying: :grouphug:

I'm adding those to my list of things to look into. Thank you! :thumbup:

Why is this bad? I'm honestly curious. It costs money to ship things and I know many Africans take immense pride in being able to buy for their family, not take hand-me-downs. Some will even refuse to take free items unless they work for them in some way. These people also have the same joy people here do in being able to transform something old into something "new". I guess I see it differently and can see the positive aspect.

Thanks so much, Farrar, for explaining all that for me! I really appreciate the insight and will have to look into that more. I think I'll have a better idea what you're saying once I have the materials in front of me to compare everything! I laughed when you said there wasn't any need to be a curriculum hoarder, because that's a weakness for me. ;) At this point, though, I think it may very well be worth investing in the various materials everyone has suggested. I have a local homeschooling bookstore that I'll be near tomorrow, so I'll stop by there to see if they have any of these materials you and others have suggested. If they do, I'll have my son look at them and see what he thinks. I'll be going to the library, too, and I'll see if they have any good math books for his age. If math is my son's thing, then I'm willing to invest in him going full speed ahead with it. :) A few of you mentioned how your children like to talk their math problems out and this is exactly what my son does, too! It is relieving to know I'm not the only one with a child like this. Letting him be the teacher really lets him exhaust this outlet he seems to have a need for and he loves it! He also needs to walk around a little and use his hands a lot to completely express his thoughts. I think it's adorable to watch. As I read everyone else's experiences here, I'm starting to look back and realize my son has probably been bored with MUS and Saxon all along. He is always trying to discover new math tricks and I guess I've never taken the hint that he needs something more mentally challenging than the same thing day-in and day-out. I'm looking forward to helping him fill that need. I'll be keeping MUS and Saxon around, because I have an older child with whom this combination seems to be her thing. Guess that's why my son perplexed me so much. She doesn't like how he does math problems and tells him so. :laugh: Gevs4him, don't be sad! I hope this post encouraged you to let your son think how it works best for him and find some new ideas to foster that. I know these ladies have helped me do that and I'm so grateful for all their input! Maybe now is a good time to talk with him about how he processes math problems and let him do it the way it works best for him. :grouphug:

Sweet! I'll keep letting him do it how it works for him until we run into problems. :thumbup1:

Whoa, slow down there. You just threw a wrench in my thought process here. :laugh: Okay, so why is Saxon and MUS not good for his way of thinking? Please elaborate. :o I have Edward Zaccaro's book on word problems and really like it, so I'll buy his PCM book, too. (That's the author you're talking about, right?) I'm not familiar with Miquon at all. The little bit I can review looks like a colorful version of MUS and Saxon in some ways. How is it different, if I may ask? I agree that I thought it was cumbersome to do it his way with large numbers, which is why I was concerned about higher levels of math. I'd be curious what the other ladies think about what you said.

You posted while I was writing my other post. That's good to know! I'll still test my son, but I'll probably end up buying both SM1 and SM2, because I have a younger son (5yo) who is anxious to start his own math. :)

Alright, you all convinced me that I should give Singapore math a try. The workbooks are relatively cheap, so why not? He is sick today and sleeping right now, but I'll have him do a placement test when he's feeling better. :) I look forward to seeing the method it uses! I think MUS has both weak and poorly worded math problems, but I really do like how Mr. Demme explains things with the manipulatives, so we stick with it. If Singapore is strong with word problems, I will order some workbooks right away just for that alone. Evil word problems are good for the mind. B) I struggled with them as a child and now make it my mission to make sure my kids understand them. I agree with your son, Saxon is tedious in many ways. I keep it around for a well-rounded math education. We do a lot of the problems together on a white board and my kids love that over doing it on paper. I let them be "teacher" and tell me how to do the problems. This is how I discovered my son's way of thinking. He taught me something in the process, I'm realizing. ;)