Is this book appropriate for a just turned 9yo? If not, what age should I use it for. Or can I just use some chapters, and wait until she is older for the others? I have the book, but I am never sure what age to use it with. Thanks for any help. Linda

I'm Linda. I have been married to dh for 25 years and been homesclooing for 18(?) years. We have 4 children -- one son (23) who has graduated from college with a degree in EE, a daughter (almost 20) who will get her associates degree in a few weeks and then transfer to a 4-yr college, and two at home that I still teach. They are both girls. A is almost 16, will be in the 11th grade next year, loves to sing, and wants to major in nursing. K turned 9 Saturday and is finishing 3rd grade. She had her first voice recital (sang Sisters with her sister) and was baptized yesterday. Our weekend was full. I mainly lurk on the boards and post just occasionally -- I have been doing this for 3 years now. I am trying some WTM methods with my youngest since she seems to thrive on it, but I did not know about it until I found these boards.

That works if you are parallel parking, but this was at a mall. It was not parallel parking; she just wanted the spot she just missed and didn't care who she hit to get it (or not get it but try to bully).

Well I am not the youngest but greww up trying to win my parents' approval. It is so hard to change that as an adult. How about: Mom, I cannot change plans at the last minute. Four children require quite alot of planning so that everyone's needs are met. Our family already has plans for the weekend and we cannot make a change at the last minute. Give me more notice next time and I will see if it can work into our family plans. But Mom it must be what we consider best for our family as a whole, so my daughter will come only with me. I will not let one grandparent take my children without me being there because the goals of our family is so different than what they want. I want our girls to be giving, serving, and happy with who they are in Christ. This grandparent wants success in the world's eyes (boyfriends aat young ages, popular at the expense of everything). Hope this helps.

Some people will do anything for a parking space. One lady went past what was a prime spot (at least for her). My son was behind her and stopped because she stopped. The lady proceeded to back up into my son's stoped car! I guess she expected him to move so she could get the spot. He had a rental for a week while his car was being repaired. Her insurance tried to blame him since the rear of her car hit the front of his, but he had witnesses to say she backed into his stopped car. I think there was also a couple cars behind him so he had no where to go.

I did three phonics programs with my youngest also, so I know something about wanting to do it all! My suggestion: Pick one as your main program and do it at a regular rate, such as 3-4 days a week. The other day or two use the second and third program. If you go through the summer (which I recommend at this age) they should both all get done fairly quickly. Don't try to line up what they are teaching. Teach the new when it come up and use the other program for review. I hope this makes sense. Linda

I can see why what your mom said hurt. My neighbor said the same to me when I was pregnant with my third. I was homeschooling my son for first grade (so he was 6 or 7) and had a 3yo girl. I continued to homeschool. Now that third baby is about to turn 16. My son graduated college with an EE degree with a 3.9 GPA and had gone through the honors college. He also went on full scholarship based on his SAT scores. The little three year old is getting her associates degree in a few weeks with a 4.0 GPA and will go to a 4 year university next year with all her tuition paid. Oh and I also added a fourth child to the mix. That was not said to brag, but to let you know that you are doing great. And it can be done with a newborn at home. Your daughter and son are still little and they will be fine. Homeschooling is your decision (and your husband's); they are your kids. Only you can know if it is right for you. (And if your are a Christian, let me add, that God will let you know if it is right for your family). Enjoy your little ones. They grow up so fast.

Well, I live in the DFW are and we did have some hail, but not much. I don't think there was any damage to anyone in the area. My daughter at home alone and did say we had lots of hail here. I was at a co-op class with my middle child and there wasn't that much there and it was small. But my daughter at home was out at the 1994 major hail storm at the Mayfest celebration (and only five at the time) so to her any hail is just downright scary.

Thanks. I actually can add, but was typing fast because dinner was already late and I should not have been on the computer at all! Linda

If this is the secon edition: you have the two end triangles with a base of 4 and a height of 5 ,so area is .5bh=(.5)(4)(5)=10 sq. in. next are the two sides(rectangles) with sides 8 and 6.3, so area = (6.3)(8)=50.4 sq. in. last is the base (another rectangle) with sides of 8 and 4, so area is (8)(4)=32 sq. in. Adding all the sides: 10 + 10 + 50.4 + 50.4 + 32 = 152.4 sq. in. Does this help? Linda

My third grade girl would have said it the way your daughter wrote it. Of course the finally would have been said dramatically with a huge sigh. Linda

I have had this and did not use it. I wanted to--for all four children. But it requires Mom to sew the body parts and the child to put them on the body form. It's a great idea, but I never had the time to sew the parts! I used the book My Body for my last child. The child colors the paper organs and you glue them to an outline of their own body. Quick, easy, and it got done. Linda

Jean Thank you! All I can say is wow. I've never seen it broken down like this. It all makes sense when you do it this way. So write the basic paragraphs, make a skeleton of them, and use that to tie the paragraphs together. It seems so simple now. Even I (a math major) think I can do this now. Thanks again Linda

Jean Your answer was very helpful. I showed it to my daughter and she understood that starting the paragraph with a quote was not a good idea. I've been trying to wrap my head around all this. Her assignment rubic said that there had to be a transition sentence at the end of the one paragraph and a topic sentence at the start of the next. the paragraphs I showed was the description of Mr. Hyde and the one which compared the dual nature of the character to the dual nature of man. I see wher the quote was a problem, but at the end of the first paragraph I think she hinted at the two natures being one, which lead into the second, or would that not transition? My two older children are natural writers, so I have a hard time teaching this one. As I said, I can teach the math and science all day, but writing I have no idea what to do. I am trying not to stifle her natural style while at the same time trying to get the writing to be acceptable. Does that make sense? If you would like I can try to PM you the entire paper so you can see what she did with the entire thing. But I don't want to take a lot of your time. I'm sure you are busy. Thank you for all your help. Linda

Thank you for your input. This is actually just a few paragraphs of a five paragraph paper. I wasn't clear in my first post, so I have edited the original post.

Would you please look at a part of my daughter's paper: Mr. Hyde, the evil character in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is the friend and benefactor of Dr. Jekyll. Whereas Dr. Jekyll is ninety percent good, Mr. Hyde is one hundred percent evil -- when you are in his presence you can sense, almost smell his wickedness. He is described as pale and small. Mr. Utterson dislikes him for this “Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish; he gave an impression of deformity without any namable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice.” At first Mr. Hyde is tolerable to be around, but, as time wears on, his evilness increases until he murders a gentleman and seemingly disappears. Even though everyone recognizes the complete evil that is Mr. Hyde, they fail to perceive is that he is the utterly evil side of Dr. Jekyll. “O God!' I screamed, and `O God!' again and again; for there before my eyes - pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from death - there stood Henry Jekyll!” Mr. Lanyon, a colleague of Dr. Jekyll, does not realize what Dr. Jekyll is doing. Though everyone loves Dr. Jekyll and scorns Mr. Hyde, they do not realize that these two characters comprise the dual nature of one person. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a very compelling book about the sinful nature of man, how a good person could become wholly evil and how trickery exists in anyone. Robert Louis Stevenson believes that there were two natures, evil and good, in one body “This, as I [Dr. Jekyll] take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil.”The separation of one being into two parts – the good Dr. Jekyll and the evil Mr. Hyde—provides no solution to the problem of sin. Dr. Jekyll never actually finds a way to eradicate the problem. Robert Louis Stevenson also believes that over time sin can, and will, control your life. “And at the very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering... I began to be aware of a change in the temper of my thoughts, a greater boldness, a contempt of danger, a solution of the bonds of obligation ….I [Dr. Jekyll] was once more Edward Hyde.”Even though, at first, Dr. Jekyll believes that he can control the sinful, evil nature embodied in Mr. Hyde, he eventually recognizes that the sinful nature starts to control him and slowly eats at his conscience, killing everything that is good. All that is left is the completely evil Mr. Hyde. With no way to rid the evil, death is the only answer and Dr. Jekyll, sadly, dies at the end of the book. Robert Louis Stevenson sees no answer to the problem of sin and evil. She was downgraded because she had no transition sentence between the paragraphs and no topic sentence on the second. She tried to ask what the problem was (her e-mail was not worded well and taken as disrespectful) but was only given more points off for questioning the grader.:tongue_smilie: No answers there. She would really like some help here to figure this out. I do fine with math and science and cannot help her here. To me, it looks fine. By the way she is 15 and a 10th grader. At the end of last year I could not get a cohesive paragraph out of her so this is a great improvement. Thanks Linda Just a note: This is the third and fourth paragrph of a 5 paragraph paper. It is for a Starting Points class. Part of the first paragraph states: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a twisted and tragic story by Robert Louis Stevenson deals with the essence of man. As we compare Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, we can discover Stevenson’s worldview of man to determine if it is a Biblical worldview. Stevenson looks at the duality of man, a good nature and an evil one.

Can you please explain what you mean here. I've looked at both Saxon and R&S and to me they do explain addition and subtraction. They use manipulatives. If I take 5 beans and then take thre more, how many do I have. Count them and you have 8. That is all addition is. That is all there is to understand. And both these program explain this. By the way, I used Saxon through Calculus twice now, and had both kids do well in math. My son graduated with an EE degree almost a year ago and did it with high honors. He had to have understood the math. Linda

My youngest is in third this year and this is what we are doing: Reading: BJU 4 Math: Saxon 54 History: SOTW 2 with AG Geography: Complete Book of Maps LA: KISS Grammar, PLL, Editor-in-Chief, Spelling Power, ACSI Spelling 4 Science: space study in a co-op Building Thinking Skills 1 Vocabulary: finished Wordly Wise C and will start LC I for Latin/derivatives soon Also: Piano, ballet, AWANA, and art class It looks like quite a lot, but we usually finish before lunch.

I don't actually test until high school (or at least 8th grade). I do give the tests in Saxon Math and make her take them without looking back in her book, but we then correct them like her daily work and I don't put a grade on it. This has worked with all my kids so far. I have one working on his masters in EE with a 3.9 ungrad GPA and one who is getting her associates degree this year who has a 4.0 GPA. I don't think no tesing in grade 4 will harm them at all. Linda

The book answers with pi because multiplying by 3.14 for pi is actually rounding pi, making the answer less exact. I've been working on English papers all morning (so my brain is mush because this is so not my strength), so I can't remember the exact term, but pi is irrational wich means it cannot be written as a neat fraction or a terminating decimal. To answer with anything but a pi in the answer is rounding the answer. Hope that helps. Linda

I've had two children go all the way through Saxon Calculus. If you complete Advanced Math there is enough geometry in Saxon for the SAT. My son made a perfect math score after using just Saxon and a SAT review book for practice. I did not have to teach him anything else. My daughter also did very well on the math portion of the SAT. Linda

I gave the placement test to my daughter this past summer as she was finishing 2nd grade and she placed in level F! I could not believe it, so I did the end of level test for levels A-E and decided that I would place her in level E. We are now almost half way through level F and the only problems she has had was the state names for level E. Except for that list I should have gone with the placement results. My suggestion is that you should go ahead and test where they say. I told my dd that I did not expect her to get them all right and we just needed to find out where it was best to teach her. One more correct word would have had me testing for a level G placement so she really should have been in F just like the test results indicated. Does this make any sense? Linda

It took me awhile to find where they did this. The book should have sent you to both lessons, but, of course it did not. I have not done this book in some time, but thankfully I could find it on my shelf.

I just went and looked in my answer book. Look at lesson 47 for this. It is inthe first half of this lesson. Linda

Just to reassure you: I just went through this less than a week ago. My doctor said that 90% of the time a painful lump is not breast cancer, but a cyst. I'm surprised that they did not do a sonogram instead of or in addition to the mammagram. From what I understand the sonogram is much better at determining if the lump is a cyst and not anything more serious. Maybe they are being slow because it is more of a precaution? Linda