Sherry beat me to it. Like Sherry, this is the only one that has consistently worked my core without causing undo stress/repetitive motion injuries/aches and pains. Each exercise is illustrated with step-by-step photos and commentary. The three levels are great--you can work your way up and mix two levels if need be. There are also things like facial exercises (I had never thought about my face having muscles!) which add to overall toning. Definitely check it out.

I've had fabulous success with the NoS diet (http://www.nosdiet.com'>http://www.nosdiet.com'>http://www.nosdiet.com'>http://www.nosdiet.com) just because it is truly a lifestyle way of eating. The basic "diet" gives you a framework for eating: No sweets (except weekends and clearly outlined special occasions) No seconds No snacks (increased snacking HIGHLY correlates with increased obesity) Basically, 3 meals a day of moderate eating. You choose what you want to eat. I read (in a different book about women's nutrition) that every "extra" bite you mindlessly eat (snacks, snitching while cooking, serving, clearing meals) averages 25 calories a bite. Some are more, some are less, but on average, 25 calories a bite. When I started NoS and stopped mindlessly eating (the heel of bread no one else would eat, the last of the ranch dip and veggies, all good food, seldom junk food, etc), I immediately: 1. lost weight, 2. gained an appetite, 3. enjoyed each and every one of my 3 meals/day, and 4. improved my meals (which were already pretty healthy) because I no longer fooled myself into thinking I would have fruit/veggies as snacks later. At first, I just made sure I ate enough that I wouldn't be starving before the next meal. Now, 2 years later, I roughly follow the 1/2 veggies/fruits, 1/4 grain, 1/4 meat/protein foods on a plate for our main meal. I'm not strict about this, but I do eyeball it and evaluate when I fill up my plate at meal time. I've lost 40 pounds and am still slowly losing, despite being 50+ years old, short (5'2"), with thyroid problems. I'm thrilled to pieces! :001_smile: And, the info is all free. The main site: http://www.nosdiet.com explains the basic good eating habits you want to build, but be sure to check out the NoS forums, especially the testimonial forum. Someone just posted losing 60+ pounds in one year following the principles of NoS.... Best wishes for good success....

We read the entire series out loud. We didn't want anyone to miss out. They are great stories. But don't look at reading the WHOLE thing. Just read the first book. Pick up the next when you are ready. I really can't remember how long it took... probably several years (but not nonstop--we read other books, too!) because I didn't have the complete set. We had to wait until the next book (or two) was bought. That was when the oldest kids were maybe 9. I've since then reread my favorites out loud to the younger crew who were too young to remember much the first time through.. I love those books.... HTH,

I feel your pain. We live overseas and have to drive to another country for the kids to take the SAT. One year the facility was under heavy security (USAID facility) and it took more than 1.5 hours just to process the kids into the building. We've never gone back to that location.... But I digress. Well, if the schools your son is applying to are the least bit competitive, he really ought to take his SATs this fall. Especially if merit aid is offered and you think he has a chance to qualify. Scholarship money is limited and goes quickly because schools use it as an enticement to get top mark students. A good guide is to use the deadlines for application--he should have taken his test BEFORE the deadline passes. If the school deadline is Dec. 31, he should take it this year. If sometime later (I've seen some schools accept applications until March/April), then no rush. Also, note that sometimes the College Board people mess up and don't send the scores like they should. (We had that problem with our son this year--the school accepted our word about his score and he was admitted to the program of his choice), but it took the College Board more than three MONTHS of repeated requests to correctly send his score.) Our son is going to a big state university and the SAT people send scores going to large colleges out by disk..... we didn't know Ds's final financial aid packet until just a few weeks ago.... HTH,

I can feel your pain. Several years ago I lost 50 pounds by being very "careful and watchful" of what I ate. Then a couple of stressful years hit and I couldn't (and didn't want to!) devote the time/energy to keeping track of what I ate. Slowly, all that weight was regained.... sigh. *However*, I have (in the past 2 years) made two "simple" (not easy, just not "complicated") lifestyle changes and have lost forty pounds (and can wear the same clothes as when I lost 50!). I qualify for the National Weight Registry because I have successfully kept it off (and am still slowly losing). I tackled the two prongs of good eating/good health: food and exercise. 1. Eating: I began (and continue with ) following the NoS diet approach to eating. This is not so much a "diet" in terms of telling you what to eat/not eat, but learning GOOD EATING HABITS. The beauty of this is that the longer you ingrain the habits, the easier it gets--so when life hits hard, the habits keep you--I am able to maintain during holidays, month of guests, etc. Another way of looking at it, is that you are learning "maintenance" skills and that is the hardest part of any weight loss success... I could say a lot more about NoS, but instead I will direct you to the website. It is worth reading. http://www.nosdiet.com Also, while there, poke around the NoS diet forums. If you want, you can look in the "testimony" forum and see my 2yr Progress report (same user name as here). 2. Exercise: Due to age and various injuries, I cannot engage in heavy/vigorous exercise programs. I can, however, WALK. So I have made that my exercise of choice. I bought myself a pedometer and it has been one of my BEST health-related purchases ever. I followed the advice to get a baseline of steps: what I averaged in a day without making any effort to get in extra steps. I was shocked to discover I averaged only a paltry 3,000-3500 steps a day. I made the commitment to slowly increase my steps (+500/month) in everyday life. Eg., I've learned to take the laundry upstairs instead of always getting one of the kids to do it. At the same time, I began to choose to walk more to accomplish errands. (We live in a city where I can safely walk). Lastly, I invested in a few walking DVDs to get my step counts up when the first two prongs (daily life, errands) just aren't going to be enough. The first year, I managed to increase my average to 7,000 steps per day. Now, in my second year, my daily life "baseline" averages around 5000 steps/day. To get more steps in, I go on errands and/or use a DVD. This month, with the nice weather we've been having, I've averaged over 12,000 steps a day. I plan to make at least 10,000 steps all winter.... If you decide to use a pedometer, there is a great tracking site here: http://www.10000steps.org.au/ You can join challenges, record your steps, see all kinds of averages and benchmarks with just a click of the mouse...... I discovered this site in April of this year and it was a thrill (childish perhaps, but a thrill nonetheless) to see that I "earned" a Million Steps certificate by mid-July..... Anyway, I hope you check these out and glean what you can. The best plan is the one that works. These have worked FABULOUSLY for me; perhaps they will for you. HTH,

We used nearly all of the books recommended in Lightning Lit's World Lit 1&2. I bought the actual guides as well and was glad I did. There is some terrific info in there about cultural differences/values, history of lit. in various countries, additional reading suggestions (with comments on questionable material), suggested projects (lots of these....), plus the typical comprehension questions, lit. analysis points, vocabulary notes, writing assignments. I wouldn't/couldn't have tackled modern world lit without the guides.... Other books well received that haven't been mentioned yet: The Material World The Hungry Planet Women in the Material World These are big, coffee-table style books that look at how families all over the world eat, sleep, work. We live in Europe and have traveled some and the photo shoots were spot on for the countries that I'm familiar with.... We also read, as a family read-aloud, 360 Longitude which is one family's chronicle of their 52 weeks circling the globe @ 2004. This does not tread deeply into any one country, but was (again) very accurate in its protrayal of what you'd experience as a visitor in each of the places visited. A good way to get a whole-world survey.... If you have any interest in having your son learn actual locations of countries, we had great success with the geography games at http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.htm There are many levels, from click-and-point to a given country all the way up to having to take a particular unnamed country, resize and rotate it, and put it correctly on an unlabeled map. Talk about challenging. My teens loved it. (Much better than the geography coloring books I bought them...) HTH,

Living overseas, I often only have reviews/internet samples to go by when deciding on a curriculum purchase. HOWEVER, I also make full use of the board by asking detailed questions of posters, either as a posted message or PM. If posters cannot give specifics of why/how something helped and how it was different from other programs, then their review is essentially meaningless. But in my experience, many people have graciously given me honest feedback and I, in turn, do the same when I can.

If you *only* own TOG1 from a previous purchase and have not used it, then that is where you should start. No sense throwing more money after a program that has failed to prove its worth for you. (Not saying TOG is worthless AT ALL, just that you haven't gotten any value out of it yet). If you own both TOG1 *and* TOG3, here are some questions for your considerations: 1. Do you already have resources for either year? Think about starting with the one that will require the least work to gather resources. 2. Do you, your husband, or your children have a particular enthusiasm for either historical era? That can be a factor in tipping the decision. 3. If neither of the above considerations help, you should just probably start at Year 1 and get the benefit of studying chronological history from the beginning.... Your 7th and 5th graders will be old enough to appreciate and learn from the flow. HTH,

Abeka's Jr. High Science Program (7th&8th) covers General Science in two years, as does Rod and Staff. HTH,

I certainly think that Abeka History and Science can be used in a self-teaching manner. The books are colorful and reasonably engaging--much more so than CLE and/or SOS in those subjects. You might want to pick and choose: CLE for math/English, Abeka for History/Science. I loved Rod and Staff for Bible beginning in 5th grade--it is a 4 year sequence that covers the main points of the whole Bible with doable exercises and memory work. The questions/learning expectations grow with the child so the 8th grader is learning at a deeper level than the 5th grader. Also, there is a yahoo group run by Joanne Calderwood who is a big advocate of self-learning (past 3rd grade or so) and she used Abeka texts almost exclusively (minus math--she used Saxon 54 and up). The children also read 1+ hours a day from good book lists. Her kids have done very well (one with a perfect SAT score). Very inspirational. Google search her name and you'll come up with several encouraging articles concerning independent learners. Also, while she used mainly Abeka, she credits her children's excellence with the self-learning model, not the particular curriculum. HTH,

Thank you for posting this. I also have a daughter (young soon-to-be-10th grader) very interested in psychology and the workings of the mind. What books would you recommend as a good foundation? I am not thinking of a structured "class", but something that might both an engaging and informative introduction to Psychology? The only thing I've found (I am limited to online searches--live overseas) is possibly Dave Myer's Psychology text... Thanks again for your insight on how to approach this....

Why not just start South Beach again but skip the painful 2 weeks part? The main diet plan provides the good eating habits for losing and keeping weight off and you know you can do that since you've successfully followed that way of eating before.... Just a thought,

Thank you, Jann! I was a math/comp sci major so Saxon's "bent" as you put it has always made perfect sense to me... And I hadn't realized that the notation with the word problems using subscripted variables was unique. Again, made perfect sense to me. I agree with the science applications which is one of the reasons why *I* like it. My kids are familiar with chem/ratio math problems before they even get there in science. Practical math, in my mind! Thanks again,

While I certainly wouldn't call Notgrass History "very ambitious", I do believe it is "college-prep" worthy. (FTR, I have Notgrass World, American, and Gov't). While the textbooks themselves are less dense than a BJU textbook, the addition of the primary source readings and other meaty books definitely increases its "college-prep" worthiness. The previous poster mentioned that the other readings are more worldview-oriented than history-oriented. I agree and think that is a very good slant to incorporate into a high school level history program.... My children have gone through the history cycle twice before high school and *don't* need a program to "learn history facts" so much as a program to "make them think about the meaning/outcomes/consequences of choices" to be discovered/pondered through a study of history. Also, I consider Notgrass to be a (meaty) history credit only.... We will be using Greenleaf Press Anc. Literature guide to round out our English credit this year... Lastly, FWIW, two of my children have gone on to college. I sat in on my daughter's freshman honors colloquiem (sp?) which consisted of three professors team teaching World History/Lit/Art. It was a fabulous, challenging class. All the background schema the professor expected the students to already know regarding history had been well-covered in MOH 1 and 2. That experience helped me to see that it is more important for our high schoolers to have the big picture and ideas of history than the nitpicky details. (Not that these are mutually exclusive).

I put my son in Saxon Alg. II after completing Math Relief Alg. 1 and Jacob's geometry. However, keep in mind that my experience is an "experiment of 1" while Jann in TX has worked with many students... Here are some thoughts: 1. I agree with Jann in TX that it is a good idea to have a Saxon Alg. I text on hand. In fact, it might be better to switch to Saxon. Alg. I for the rest of summer. You can generally pick up used texts for a good price or perhaps borrow one from a homeschooling friend. 2. Have your daughter take Saxon's Alg. 1 and 2 placement tests. I had my son do this and discovered he needed help with exponents (negative) and one other topic. He was able to do about 10 lessons from Saxon Alg. I and a few of the later tests and then was ready to move on. You may find that your daughter lacks some of the geometry concepts that Saxon expects the student to know--Saxon Alg. I incorporates *some* geometry, mainly area/circumference/volume/surface area problems. 3. The first few weeks of Alg. II, my son averaged 80-85 on his tests. As he got used to working a Saxon lesson, his average improved to 90-95, with the occasional 100%. He had a very good year of math and enjoyed the journey. So, it *can* be done. 4. You mentioned the purpose of the class was for outside accountability. When I switched my children to Saxon (at the high school level), I had a definite purpose in doing so and committed to it because I believed Saxon's approach would be an advantage for my kids. I wouldn't put a child into Saxon Alg. II unless I was committed to staying with Saxon for the rest of her high school career. So, if this class is a one time only deal with Saxon, I might find a different way to hold daughter accountable.... PS to Jann in TX: I know you've repeatedly stated that Saxon teaches with a unique vocabulary, notation and methods. Can you give me some examples of what you mean? I'm not familiar enough with other materials to know what is unique to Saxon and what is not....

Our story: I used Saxon for my oldest beginning with Saxon 54. I didn't like the lack of "chapters" and facts drill (in those first editions), but nothing better was readily available back then (she is now a college grad working in her dream field). When I discovered Rod and Staff math, it was love at first sight for me as a teacher. I switched all my kids over and we used R&S through 7th/8th (depending on the student). Then I used Saxon Alg 1/2, Alg.1 and up because 1. I needed a high school sequence, and 2. those are the "original" Saxon books that produced great results for many. My two oldest did well with Saxon (even though I still have personal issues with the lack of "chaptering"/organizing of new material). But when my third child did not do well with Saxon, I went on a hunt for a different approach and ended up with Math Relief (Alg. 1 and 2) + BJU Geometry. That worked for him--the step by step, *linear* building up of concepts is just what he needed. I had my fourth follow in his brother's footsteps. After working through Math Relief Alg. 1 and Geometry, I saw the first cracks in Child #4's math foundations; while he understood algebraic concepts in a general way, he couldn't "do" the math. He needs a program that works concepts until the point of automaticity. He just does. So I switched him to Saxon Alg. 2 and after a slightly rocky start, he has thrived. Child #5 is also following a Saxon sequence for high school and while math is not a favorite subject, is enjoying the challenge of mastering the material. Pros: Clear cut lessons and explanations. Available DVD helps. (I have Art Reed's DVDs. They are only used occasionally) Five word problems every lesson. I love all the chem/coin/mixture. problems. Enough exercises to learn/overlearn the material. Combined Geometry. After having some of my kids use only Saxon and some use an additional Geometry text, I really think Saxon has enough geometry in it which simplifies life for a busy high schooler. Solutions manual with steps listed. How we use Saxon High School Math: 1. My children must do all the lessons. I don't care if they work the practice problems. 2. They must do all the exercises (no evens or odds here). When finished, I get out the solutions manual and they tell me their answer. If they get one wrong, they rework it. I have the solutions manual and so can give them hints if they are stuck. I may have them say their steps outloud, so I can compare what they are doing with the solutions manual. Usually reworking step-by-step solves the problem and they don't need any hints. It is rare for them to get more than a couple wrong per lesson, and even those are usually careless mistakes. 3. They take a test every week as scheduled. They like test day as it makes for a much shorter math day. I grade the tests pretty strictly (not a lot of partial credit given). This motivates my kids to be **very careful** with signs, reducing, and what not. To compensate, I throw out the three lowest test scores per semester when figuring their grade. (This is really to appease them--it makes no actual difference in their ultimate grade--They routinely score in the 90s). I don't keep grades for daily work--Saxon is designed to show what they *really* know on the tests, not the daily homework.... I've made my peace with Saxon. It is not perfect, but it is a good, challenging high school math program when used as designed. HTH,

We saw it yesterday, but my youngest is 14.... I thought the violence shown was more "swashbuckling" than "blood and gore." I found more unsettling the vipers and hassassins scenes--they were soooo creepy; a young (14yo) friend of ours would be uncomfortable with those scenes. (FTR, my kids weren't.) Overall, an entertaining flick. HTH,

Two suggestions: 1. A couple of years ago I bought a Cooking Light annual cookbook pretty cheaply at Costco. I've enjoyed many of the recipes in there. The annual is a whole year's worth of magazine content in one convenient volume. Since they print a new annual every year, you could probably find one pretty inexpensively. 2. Poke around the Eating Well website. You can sign up for a couple of different weekly newsletters which will highlight different recipes/recipe collections on their site. I've been finding a new favorite every week since signing up four months ago. And best of all, it's FREE. http://www.eatingwell.com HTH,

Jumping in here.... I've used BJU (US, bought and returned 3rd ed. WH) and Notgrass (American&Gov't, WH this coming year) and here is how I compare them: Both are challenging in their own right. BJU's texts are dense, a *full* program if used as written (ie., using the student activity pages, study questions, tests). Each chapter includes lots of facts, so much so that I think the big picture can be lost.... Notgrass's main texts are not as dense-the info is more focused--but the addition of the source book raises the difficulty level quite a bit. I personally like the weekly suggestions for writing projects as a means of "feedback/learning" vs. BJU's tests. IMO, the literature reading and weekly bible lesson (on Friday) round out the history program and don't earn any credits beyond that. Since I wanted to use my history texts as a spine, I've ended up going with Notgrass because I've found it to be more suited (for our family) to accomodate add-ons. HTH,

I happily gave up snacking when I began following the NoS Diet ("No snacks, no sweets, no seconds except on days that start with S"). I've discovered that I truly enjoy *good meals* when I have a healthy appetite undiminished from nibbling. (I also lost 35 lbs the first year and continue to lose slowly now in the midst of my second....enjoying treats every weekend...) I've also been amazed at how much I can eat at my meals and still lose weight (and I'm 5'2", 50, and hypothyroid). I read (different book) that every bite, on average, is 25 calories. Just cutting out mindless pre-dinner tasting saved me hundreds of calories per week... If interested, the best place to find out more is to visit the NoS website--lots of info on the home page--and visit the NoS diet forum (linked on the NoS site). Plus, you'll get the support of lots of people trying to conquer the snacking demon.... NoS website: http://www.nosdiet.com HTH,

Well, two of my children (dd, ds) scored a perfect 800 on the Critical Reading section. They are light-years apart in terms of personality, interests, love of reading, etc. I personally was surprised at their high scores because we definitely do NOT teach to the test. So, I attribute their good scores to the following: 0. Being good test takers. Some kids are, and some aren't. That's just how it is..... 1. Reading intensive lifestyle--starting from read-alouds as babies, and a semi-literature approach to history. We have done almost NO reading workbooks (eg. think of the workbooks that go with BJU reading, for example). We have mostly just read and (minimally) discussed some of their readings. 2. Continued vocabulary study throughout high school. We don't start a vocab program until 7th grade or so and then every child takes a small part of each day to work on a vocab program-when they finish one workbook, they start another. I also foster a love of words--we use the dictionary at least once most days..... 3. Specific SAT prep beginning a couple of months before the SAT. I've successfully used the one put out by The College Board people. I've recently heard of a website dedicated to test prep--specifically the SAT and GRE which looks worthwhile to investigate further. It can be found here: http://www.majortests.com/ HTH,

Well, since no one else tackled this, I'll give you my 2 cents, FWIW. First, just know that BJU Geography will be a *full* course with plenty of work. So you need to be careful about over-enriching. Second, the books you listed all seem like good reads, but not particularly conducive to being broken up to follow BJU's chapters. Also, three of the books listed (Verne, Twain, Herodotus) will be dated in terms of cultural geography, so I'm not sure how valid it is to expect your ds to learn "facts" from them. Your BJU text will have plenty of facts! I suggest letting those books be pure enrichment. Books that I *do* think can be easily broken up and are culturally relevant include: The Hungry Planet, The Material World, and Women in the Material World. We live in Montenegro (former Yugoslavia) and have traveled through much of Europe and the photo spreads/family info was right on for the countries I personally know about. We use a lot of the stuff shown in the Bosnian spread (Bosnia is also a former Yugoslav Republic....) which delighted my kids! I am not familiar with Michael Palin's book so I may be suggesting a duplicate, but one "travelogue" that we are reading is 360 Longitude--One Family's Trip Around the World. A family of four saved up for years and took a year to travel around the world. This is not an exhaustive look at every part of the world, but a record of highlights/meaningful moments/adventures of their travels. Again, those chapters that deal with many of the places we've been were right on target with our experiences. While not ideal, you *could* read this book by general region. Also, I splurged and purchased Hewitt's World Lit Lightning Lit courses. These works are all modern day works set in Asia, Africa, Latin America. The course syllabi have a schedule for using BJU Geography following their literature. Even if you don't want to do that, we've enjoyed many of the suggested texts and have some new favorite authors. (Loved Malgudi Days, for example). You can see which books are included by browsing Hewitt's website and then checking Amazon reviews. That's what I did.... Best wishes in your decision,

If you are really considering using G. Foster's books, you might check out Beautiful Feet's (inexpensive) guide to American and World History (Jr. high). The only books pertaining to World History are Foster's books: World of Columbus, John Smith, Geo. Wash, Abe Lincoln. The other books scheduled are mainly Bio's of American persons. I used this guide (loosely) when I had younger children studying American History and wanted something more beefy for my older (6th-8th) children. The guide includes some questions, a few writing assignments, some map, vocab, etc--to be used or not, as I desired.... One thing: the guide only covers history up to the Civil War.... For your consideration,

At this link: http://www.konos-canada.com/highschool/index.php you can find a very small sample from HOW I. Click on the link that says "4 sample pages". Also, when I was first looking into it, I wrote KONOS directly and they kindly sent me some extra information....along with a sales pitch, of course. I don't have it on this computer else I would pass it on. But, it is certainly worth a try. I think if I was deciding between TOG and KONOS for *just* a high schooler who was motivated by projects, I would lean heavily towards KONOS. TOG is an excellent program and while there are "hand's on" components for the upper-levels, they are primarily directed towards younger students. You would get many more choices of "projects" each week with KONOS. Plus, excellent GB studies and directed writing instruction. Of course, TOG has strengths in other areas--combining ages, reformed perspective, many more assessment tools, and just *more* of everything--history, philosophy, geography, literature. Best wishes in finding the right balance,

The first thing that popped into my mind for your daughter is the original KONOS *high school* volumes. They were the inspiration for TOG... With the KONOS world history volumes, some GBs are touched on (Jessica Hulcy was an English/Lit major), and there is lots of flexibility with projects galore. With some diligent internet searching, you can find a sample week or two. Since your daughter is motivated, it just might be the ticket. The second, out-of-the-ordinary choice that occurred to me is to take a look at TRISMS--it is a skeletal look at world history and cultures (wider and broader than Omnibus/TOG's western civ. focus) with suggested topics for students to research and write. I don't think it necessarily includes GBs, but a good, independent resource (like Greenleaf Press' Anc. Lit guide) might be enough. But KONOS World History Vol I sounds like it might be a good match for your history-loving, hands-on daughter.... HTH,