Check out NOEO Science. Ive used their Chem 1 and Physics 1 and it's very nice.

I highly recommend Latin for Children. We started in third grade and it's been great.

Has anyone used these? http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1295646231-298460&subject=12&category=3427 I'm thinking they look like they fit the bill for WTM's 5th grade critical thinking, and they seem like they have a lot of variety. This is new territory for us. Is this the right path, or am I totally missing the idea?

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1295745197/ref=sr_pg_1?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A!133142011%2Cn%3A2245146011&page=1 Here is a list of free classics for the Kindle. When you buy a Kindle through Amazon, it is automatically linked to your Amazon account. You basically click to download a book on your computer or in the store through the Kindle itself, and it is automatically downloaded to your Kindle. It's very convenient and very simple. I've got about 25 books on mine, and have only spent about $10 (on 3 of them). I suggest you get the Amazon leather cover for it (about $30?). It's designed for the Kindle to snap right into it using the little holes on the side of the device. Third party covers (I believe) use elastic bands to hold it in, which doesn't seem as secure.

I don't know how much you know, so apologies if it seems like I'm talking down! The cheaper model needs to access the internet through something else, like using a wireless network (occasionally available for free in public places, or in your home if you have a wireless network set up), or by plugging the device into your computer. The 3G model can connect to the internet all on its own, anywhere you are, unless you're really out in the sticks where you don't have cell phone coverage. Considering having a cell phone that can browse the web costs almost $100 a month, having something that can do (admittedly simple and black and white) browsing for free, it's definitely worth the extra cost. I don't own a cell phone, and I've used it quite a few times to look up directions, operating hours, etc.. In addition, you can browse the Amazon store and download new books from anywhere, without plugging into your computer, or finding a free wireless spot. Hope that clears it up a bit.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks this showed poor judgment on TLC's part. They may not be regulated by the same standards as non-cable networks, but that's no excuse. All families are different, but I think a large enough part of their audience would have an issue with a mention of sex with latex dolls during an early afternoon show aimed at women in their early reproductive years who are very likely to have young kids around for them to want to be a little more considerate.

Caraway seeds.....1989 I think I win. Or...my husband wins. He was in college when he bought it. I was in 4th grade. He's also got curry powder from his grandmother that may well outdate HIM, but he can't pin a date to it.

:iagree:with pretty much everything above. I let my daughter watch a lot of things other people maybe wouldn't. But if I were to draw a line, that sex doll ad would have definitely crossed it. I think it shows a lot of disrespect for their audience. Regarding the show itself, yeah I agree with you there. I don't even know why I watch it (probably because I'm TTC and I've just got baby on the brain), but I do let my daughter know that I don't agree with a lot of the things they show as "normal", particularly their very clear anti-breastfeeding stance.

I occasionally watch TLC's A Baby Story in the afternoons. Today, at about 1:45 this afternoon, my daughter and I were watching it when they aired an ad for another show, My Strange Addiction, which featured a man who has a weird relationship with a life-size doll. At the close of the commercial it showed the man carrying the doll into another room saying "The sex is going to be fantastic!" Now, I'm no prude, but I'm thinking this is highly inappropriate for early afternoon tv when small kids could be watching, as my daughter was. I wrote to TLC about it (not that I believe they care what any one viewer thinks), but what do you think? am I overreacting?

Why did you start HSing? I'm sure we must have discussed it at some point, but I don't remember it. It was always known that we would homeschool any kids we had. Neither of us thought that the schools provided a decent education, and we despise the social atmosphere. All around us we saw kids whose personalities were shaped by their peers and the "eat or be eaten" environment and we wanted none of it. When you started, how long did you plan on HSing and has that changed? All the way through high school. This hasn't changed. I would not be open to my kid(s) attending a school of any kind. There would have to be some really exceptional circumstance to change my mind about this. What is your favorite thing about HSing? If I had to pick only one thing, it would be the quality of the education. Probably tied for first place would be seeing my daughter grow up as an individual, able to enjoy her childhood and not being forced to grow up too fast. What is the hardest part of HSing? The only hurdles we have seem to stem from my daughter's occasional moodiness (hooray for pre-teens!) and my own impatience.

Saxon teaches this as well. I had been taught to borrow from the hundreds, then the tens. Seeing it done this was was a real revelation. It makes so much sense! To really reinforce the concept, try frequently reffering to 200 as "twenty tens", or 203 as "twenty tens and three ones", etc.. It really helps my daughter see how all those number groups fit together..

I saw it today as well, and I have to say I'm on the fence about it. From a parent standpoint, it's harmless. Nothing that could be considered offensive to anyone. There was a small plotline where Lucy wishes to be beautiful. It goes absolutely nowhere, doesn't fit in with anything else in the story, and makes her look needlessly shallow. I'm not sure why they put that in there, but it was a little annoying that the one female character, in the midst of being kidnapped by monsters and forced to do their bidding (and again in the middle of a horrible, life-threatening storm at sea), can only think about wanting to be pretty. From a movie standpoint, it was so-so, I thought. I'm not a Narnia fan (having only read two books), and I haven't seen the other films, so take this as you will. I dislike the movie because I see it as a very thinly veiled Christian allegory set in a cheap fantasy story. I don't mind the Christian part, it just lack ANY subtlety. I read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and the whole thing just screamed out "HEY, THIS IS JUST LIKE THE BIBLE! DO YOU GET IT YET?" The fantasy world it's set in just seems so unimaginative. On the plus side, the movie clearly had a nice budget, and good effects. I really think the 3D was unnecessary. It added very little, and made some parts look incredibly unrealistic. More like a pop-up book. I'm always kind of annoyed to have to wear glasses on top of my glasses, especially if the 3D doesn't do much more than add $3 to the ticket price (and then they have the nerve to ask for them back!). One thing that annoyed me, content-wise, was the boy, Eustace. His voice made my skin crawl, and they went a bit overboard with using him for comic-relief. It really detracted from the tone of the rest of the movie. Also, I don't know if it's my theater or the movie, but Aslan speaking and some internal monologues had some serious low-frequency buzzing going on. On the whole, it was an okay movie. It's certainly not bad, and while I say the story felt rushed, kids will appreciate the fast pace. I'm sure Narnia fans will like it a lot. I'm not a fan myself, so I'll just say it was alright.

We have used all sorts of things to top the tree with. Including, but not limited to: A normal looking angel my mother sent A lopsided paper star, colored with yellow marker and outlined in black A white angel beanie baby bear ("Halo") A Transformers toy (Bumblebee, cause his doors look like wings) in robot mode, with a paper halo And this year, a white Pegasus Webkinz with a halo made of yellow pipe cleaner. I think it's my favorite so far.

That makes total sense to me. Not because unschooling naturally produces unruly kids, but because there probably is a lot of overlap of families who choose to unschool, and families who are more permissive and lack effective discipline. If your school life is totally unstructured, it's likely that your parenting stye is as well, I should think.

Middle Language Lessons seems like a good title to me. I'd avoid the word "second" because it sounds like "second grade" or "a second language". Further Language Lessons would also work well, I think. Either could be followed by Advanced Language Lessons. oooorrrr...... First Language Lessons (1-4) could be followed simply by Language Lessons (with a 5-8 added). For high school level you could finish up with Advanced Language Lessons (9-12). It lacks pizazz, but it's simple to understand which you need. Please do hurry, though! We're finishing up FLL4 in January! =)

That's been my rather limited experience, anyway. We've never really gone out and done social activities with other homeschoolers before, but for the last several weeks we've been attending a weekly ice skating get-together at a local arena. Usually there are only a couple of kids there (sometimes it's just us), and they are kindergarten age. My daughter had fun, but would have rather had kids closer to her own age to play with. Last week she met another 9 year old girl who was just so nice and polite and got along great with mine. My daughter gets along with just about everybody, but if often put off by kids who don't know how to react when a new kid walks up to them, introduces herself, and asks to play. She said that she was bringing some friends this week and this morning there were about a dozen kids there! Most of them were between 9 and 12, I'd guess. This was my first experience seeing other homeschooled kids in a large group. I was really, really impressed! There was no rudeness, no excluding anyone, no shoving/rough play, no picking on the littler kids, no yelling, no swearing.....it was really something. My daughter had absolutely no trouble fitting in, and she just seemed to glow out there like she never does when playing with the kids at the playground. So, even though nobody here was probably there, thanks to to homeschool families everywhere for raising such great kids! :D

Pros: 1. Confident in child getting a quality education 2. Lack of influence of peers and pop culture 3. Stronger family bonds. Cons: 1. Can't run around and do things that interest me with much freedom. Constantly have to worry about if the child will be bored and make sure we get our school work done. On the flip side, if I wasn't homeschooling I'd probably have a job so I wouldn't have much freedom to run around anyway. 2. Lack of friends, though this is more due to our personal choice to not engage in many social activities. It hasn't resulted in my daughter being anti-social or unfriendly, but she's starting to express a desire for friends, so it's something I'll have to address. 3. If she doesn't like a subject, or doesn't want to do her work, I'm the one that has to deal with the bad attitude. This is probably balanced by the fact that public schooled kids are apt to whine just as much over homework. Of course, the pros far outweigh the cons.

Our family is walking in an American Heart Association heart Walk tomorrow morning, to support my daughter's Taekwon-Do instructor, who is doing it in honor of her mother that she lost to heart disease. If anyone cares to sponsor us here is the page to visit: http://heartwalk.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=333778&lis=1&kntae333778=E3D85393E73A462F9688C498FBAD5BDB&supId=306598319 I hope this doesn't count as an ad of some sort! Thank you so much!

You'd have to look at it first, of course, but since you're doing FLL 1 and 2 in first grade, the jump to 4 might be too much for a little guy. 3 and 4 are very different from 1/2, with a lot of pencil work and more complex rules to memorize..

I found it to be a bit of a repeat at first too....but it does get into new stuff, and it also covers familiar concepts in a much greater depth. I love FLL because of all the repetition. My daughter is VERY confident in her grammar knowledge because of it. Covering the same ideas over and over, each time getting a little more complex, is a great way for her to learn, which is why she also does well with Saxon Math. I'm sure it's not such a great fit for everyone, but it works wonderfully for us.

I guess I'm the only party pooper who found this to be pretty insulting. I get that the blond woman is taken to ridiculous extremes for the sake of humor, but why put things like breastfeeding and cloth diapering in such a negative light? Guess it just hit a raw nerve or three.....I don't like people who just try to do the best for their kids (in reality, not this video) to be made the butt of the jokes.

Have you considered refilling your own? It can be a little messy, but it saved TONS of money. Once you have the syringe (or whatever other supplies you need for your brand) you can pay $8 for 4oz of ink, which is a fantastic deal. I go to inksupply.com (after quite a bit of shopping around).

My daughter has gotten a lot of homeschool envy from the kids at Taekwon Do. One day I remember one of the more melodramatic boys complaining about upcoming state tests and saying "I wash there was no such thing as school and that you could just be homeschooled forever!" A girl said, "Someone here is homeschooled!" To which the first boy said "You're so LUCKY!" Yesterday the same girl, who is always asking mine what she did in school that day, asked my what we had done. I said, truthfully, that we hadn't done school that day but had gone ice skating. The look in her eyes was pure shock and amazement. Ice skating on a school day! And during school hours!

This thread has been very enlightening. I myself have great problems containing my emotions when I'm upset, and I'm sure that's what's led my daughter to become emotional when things aren't going her way. I'm going to make a concerted effort to model better behavior myself, and I've already had a conversation with her about the need to better control ourselves, and to let out our frustrations not in a way that negatively affects those around us. Thanks.

We just got back from seeing Legend of the Guardians. If you want to see this movie but are worried about content, this may help you decide if you want to see it. Violence - This movie has some really epic battle scenes. They're intense, loud, and potentially scary for small or sensitive kids. That said, though the owls fight use metal talons, there is not a drop of blood. Even when an owl gets fatally impaled on a stick, it's implied and not actually shown. Language - There is no foul language in this movie at all. I think they say "heck" once, but that's the extent of it. Sex - One thing I loved about this movie is that the resolution did not include the typical "hero gets the love interest" scene. Does EVERY kids movie have to include a romance? Kids don't care about that! There isn't even a love interest to speak of. That isn't for lack of important female characters...but nobody makes googly eyes at them. I read somewhere that Legend of the Guardians was "Lord of the Rings but with owls", and I am inclined to agree with that assessment. It's absolutely gorgeous (I saw it in 3D). It is very action-oriented, it never drags or gets boring. I highly recommend this movie. It may be too loud or intense for really little kids, but older kids (and adults) will really enjoy it. Also...stay for the first part of the credits, it's really pretty.