Hopefully someone else will chime in, because some months back a link to an inexpensive workbook was posted. I think this is one area where you can weave it into the rest of school by changing the difficulty level of the work and teaching study aids along with it.

My mom would splurge on a package of Carl Buddig lunch meat. For those not in the know, it is super thin sliced lunch meat costing less than $.50 when I was a kid. That single 2oz package lasted a week for school lunches, for 4 of us. One slice of meat, one slice of government-generic cheese, two slices of bread. The first time my husband opened a package and used half of it on one sandwich I nearly hyperventilated.

I have one who did a classical education through 8th, and a more traditional one in high school. He had no problems transitioning, and the classical background prepared him well for higher education. One of the tradeoffs (benefits?) we found was that, when the reins were loosened and he chose more of his own classes, he did not stray far. He moved into AP and DE classes by 11th, and though he missed out on more intensive logic and Latin studies, he gained in art, math, and technology. The youngest will probably be on a similar path, and I don't think it's going to serve him poorly, either.

Massachusetts is said to be restrictive. The school district makes the approval and interprets the law. AHEM is a great resource with sample letters and instructions on how to start. For my district, I turned in a LoI and curriculum plan at the beginning of the year and will send in a progress report at the end of the year. I politely refused to register at the public school by giving my consent if they would send me the part of the law where that requirement falls under. They decided it wasn't necessary after all.

I don't trust either person to come up with the answers. I hate to say this, but I read Rethinking School and I found it messy, muddled, and floundering with a lack of concrete advice for parents. What advice there was tended to be shoddy (like voting against homework because a 10 hour day is too long for children, but advocating afterschooling, or "encouraging" parents to teach their child to read before school when not all children are ready), and the passion that drove WTM was completely missing. It is a book in my house with a dozen highlighter tabs in it because of objections and contradictions. I trust DeVos less. Let's bring other people, other ideas into the conversation before attempting to hold one at a national level.

Same. In fact, I saw 2 movies in the theatre in a total of 8 years. I remember them both well - E.T. and Gorillas In The Mist. I still can't bring myself to pay for a movie often. We take our kids 1-2 times a year: the newest Star Wars flick and whatever Marvel movie is playing. If they go outside of that it's a rarity and something truly special. Most of the time we wait two months, borrow it from the library, and make popcorn on the stove. I applaud my mom's ingenuity in making a dollar stretch. Our clothes were hand made, our toys were often made at home, our food was home grown, bartered with friends, or at the worst, government-generic (like on Lost, white boxes with black lettering). We didn't have a lot and often it was secondhand, but we had enough to make us warm and comfortable - even a fireplace to use when we had to. I am not sorry for the childhood I had. I will never be sorry for it. And I'm not sorry for the years in my own children's lives when we were one paycheck away from disaster or using a credit card to pay for gas because the money didn't stretch that month. They were hard, and stressful, but I don't think I (or my kids) came away being worse for it. I think we're better able to persevere, be creative, and plod through difficult things because of these experiences.

I'd look for a writer's group and join with her. The most I grew with my writing was when I had other serious people to bounce ideas around with. One of those people went on to write screenplays for popular tv shows, but the rest of us were all passionate, too. However, if it was me in your shoes, I'd still work with her on technical writing skills - things like reports, essays, research.

I made loaded potato soup a few weeks back. It had green onions, bacon, and cheese in it. The 7yo, who likes all the ingredients separately, declared it was "too cheesy" and "too bacon-y" and could I make him just mashed potatoes, please? :glare:

DS7 uses hankies. Where we lived when he was a toddler had the expectation of carrying your own hanky and the market stalls always had dozens of different ones, even kid sized with characters. We bought a few for each person, but ds is the only one who still carries them. OTOH, I use cloth napkins at the table. I have been fretting about the price of buying new, but dh pointed out the use from our old ones - 7 years and still kicking. Albeit getting rather holey and raggedy, but still being used. We buy one roll of paper towels at a time and it lasts quite a while because we always forget to use them. DH and I both grew up poor, but we have vastly different experiences and approaches to life. I grew up with a Depression-era mantra of 'use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without'. DH with the idea of 'buy it now before you don't have the money later'. They've both shaped us into different people. But I also think a bigger difference has to do with our genders. I grew up with the idea of putting myself last, as did a lot of other women. We're apologetic. We don't take first, we take left overs. It's something that is hard to overcome, even when it is necessary.

I get it. Dh forced my hand at buying a new tea kettle. The old one nearly had a hole in the bottom and a melted handle, but I kept using it because the water wasn't falling out...yet. :laugh: It just didn't occur to me to replace it until I absolutely had to.

We loved Mystery Science. It's not watered down, and it makes the kids really think. Lessons that we did two years ago have stuck in my child's brain, and he's asked to restart it next year rather than BFSU since they've added more mysteries. I think I might get the second volume of BFSU anyway and try to match up the programs as much as possible, or use one to springboard into a subject in the other. We haven't used HU. I thought about it, but I got nitpicky when looking at the sample boxes. Most of the topics are done as well in the SOTW activity guide, but the bonus would be that I don't have to gather supplies. The downside would be that the boxes didn't always look complete, either, and I know myself and that I'd be supplementing each month.

Ugh. I feel your pain. Dh is now at a job where he is "essential personnel" (something must be manned 24/7). He has to go no matter what.

Try the Key To..series to focus only on what you're lacking. My .02 - ignore the state standards. Not entirely, but look ahead through the middle school standards and you will probably see they don't change very much through 8th grade, as the majority of students become ready for algebra. Some will take it in middle school, some in high school..it doesn't much matter. Compare to what it would be if you stayed the course you're on. FWIW, when my son went to PS for 6th I took the list of math standards for 6th grade and compared them to the s&s of what he'd done (MUS). He was missing a handful of objectives only, and most of those we covered in a small amount of time because they were just building on what he knew. A child who can calculate to the hundredths in decimals can see the pattern of how to go down to millionths. :) It may take a lesson or two, but it's not a new concept.

I am in agreement with HSmomof2 when it comes to classes. It has nothing to do with a teaching degree and everything to do with training - a lot of which comes after a degree. I seek out my own training in classroom management, teaching strategies, and child development. Not many hs moms I know in real life do the same. It's a lot more focus on plug-n-play curriculum. I don't think CC adequately trains their "tutors". I don't see any training, really, other than a very brief initial training to be familiar with the material. I'm not going to pay for that. What I do pay for when it comes to my own kid's classes has to do with how confident I am in the teacher's abilities. I send my kid to p.e. because the woman who teaches it has sought out her own training and is darn good at what she does. She has a focus and knows how to adapt and maintain control of a classroom while keeping the kids engaged and on task.

Chicken piccata is a favorite here. :) We serve it with linguine or fettuccine noodles, but I wouldn't be opposed to a nice risotto, either. The benefit of the noodles is that the sauce sinks down into them and it makes a really yummy dish.

This. I would get them both dorm beds, using the space underneath for a desk, dresser, and book shelves for each girl.

What draws you to it? We are secular hs'ers, but have no problem using a well done program from religious providers. I don't find TGTB to fit into that category. It's...done...but it's not something that would work well here, even if we took out the geography lessons. -the program assumes even development across all LA skills. -it focuses on stories that are not good and beautiful pieces of literature, but of simplistic and moralistic messages. -it uses popular children's books as an example of "poor" literature because of the themes or characters, not by the writing. I just don't like the message it brings to children and it's not particularly good at what it does try to teach, though it's not particularly bad, either. It's just meh. It's a good filler if you don't have other options, I guess. When I was trying to decide last year between this and ELTL I looked at the programs side by side. ELTL had more of what *I* was personally looking for: good books, poetry memorization, incorporated grammar, copywork. The worksheets for TGTB were tempting but my son would have hated them after a while - we ended up with a compromise of getting the accompanying workbook for ELTL. He asked to stay with our spelling program (Dictation Day By Day free ebook) and we added an Elson reader for practice reading aloud. So I guess we're using 3 different programs to do what TGTB does in one, but each one is customized to his level and the stories are much better.

I'm so sorry for your loss, Scrap. :grouphug: Today is laundry and organizing. I dumped out a bin of Things That Were Packed Just Right a few weeks ago and can't figure out how to get them back in again! :svengo: Therefore, each item has been looked at and decided if I really wanted to keep it. Ugh. It's all pre-k through 1st material we used and loved. I won't be having any more kids, but I thought I'd keep it all around for grandchildren. Or extra kids that come over. Or... I'm taking a break and going through it again in a bit. Maybe I can find more to cut. Or figure out how to pack.

I don't force any kid to participate. They're all given a warning, and if behavior continues they are excused to find their parent and go sit with them - even if the parent is teaching a class. I have that privilege because I'm not a paid teacher. I expect all the students to want to be there, or at the very least be respectful of their fellow students. If a child isn't able to show that commitment, they need to be under the watchful eye of their own parent for that week and are welcome to return when they follow class rules AND after I have talked to the parent myself to reinforce what I expect during class time.

I'm an optimist. I keep putting them back in the pantry/fridge until they expire or go stale. :D Maybe if I let them sit there long enough I'll like them. Or someone else will eat them.

1/14 - projected spend: $35. DS did fantastic on his test yesterday. Even dh was blown away by the difference in a week of concentrated balance and ab exercise has done for his skill. Unfortunately, when we went to remove his skates we realized he was skating on what appears to be pizza cutter blades. The front and back had been sharpened so much it was down to the plastic. Our first attempt was stopping by the used gear store downtown but only one pair in his size and they were worse off. We found the same skates online for $55, or in the b&m store an hour away on sale for $25. So while our original plan 3 months ago was to buy used, trade them in when they got small, buy used again...the plan changed somewhat. Hopefully these will last until he moves up a size...if his feet ever grow. :laugh: But we're getting better at knowing what to look for and his instructors are amazing, helping us along.

This is actually horrifying. She would have been better off writing a fiction book than trying to teach truth.

That's a good point. I find it frustrating that the GSofA leadership shoot themselves in the foot, though. They take money away from cookie sales by allowing the trademarked cookies to flavor supermarket specials- ice cream, coffee creamer, cereal....that money goes directly to corporate. I think troops have struggled more since the flavors are more widely available. I can walk right past the cookie booth and get GS Thin Mints granola bars, gum, and herbal tea if I want it. (and yes, I know Keebler has Grasshoppers and such, but it's different when GS is branding it)

It looks similar to what ELTL does with poetry, copywork, and the writing exercises. ELTL adds in novels and picture studies, and doesn't seem to go as deep with the questioning or exercises as ILL, but the samples look similar.

I feel so much for the girls who are out here right now. It's freezing! I don't understand why cookie sales aren't later in the year, like March. It would make more sense to sell them in the spring after people forget about their New Year's resolutions. :laugh: