We all love it! It's absolutely everything that I needed!!! The kids had no complaints and finished in a very timely manner. They all seemed to really like the structure. Maybe it was a relief to them too?:lol: This way they know what is expected of them and they aren't waiting on me for anything! Love that!! This was the first time in a LONG time that my house was quiet this morning! Everyone was working IN THEIR ROOMS! :w00t::w00t::w00t::hurray: The other GRANDE change I made was going to scholaric.com and using it to quickly lesson plan their lessons. Last year I used excel but it took me days sitting down and working thru their books, lessons, and creating the various spread sheets for each child. With this program, I did it all in less than an hour! I'm just so thrilled right now. :tongue_smilie: Special thank you to "hunter" that kept me on track with what I needed and kept me from purchasing another 'pretty' curriculum that would no doubt sit on myshelf undone b/c it wasn't what I NEEDED! I'm thankful for the wisdom you ladies offer me- daily!!!!!:grouphug:

Lol- are we related?! :D I hear ya sister! I just threw my hands up last week and bought all new curriculum. I was tired of the work load ON ME. I just needed a break. No more building, creating, discussing school work. I just wanted them to get it done. I have a two year old now and just couldn't seem to find enthusiasm after a ton of interruptions. So, I just switched to something that would keep our school on auto pilot for the year. I don't feel guilty at all. It's exhausting some times. I was also wanting to watch movies, sleep late, organize, and I am also a knitter! :lol: So, I can completely relate to where you are coming from. I don't know the solution for your situation, but I'll give you a big :grouphug: and tell you it's ok to go sit and watch a movie with some :lurk5: if you want!! I get it! :tongue_smilie: Hope you figure out something that works for you!!!!

Sounds to me like you've done everything that you can. You've had the house thoroughly inspected by professionals, you've had it blessed, and now you are doing your own investigation into their rooms by sleeping in them at night. I'm curious as you did seem to find one solution to the 'noise' that you might find others. Of course, I realize that both you and your husband have had 'very real' physical situations happen to you both. I can only hope that will not continue. I would be very curious for an update. I certainly hope this problem is solved. You do seem to be very capable and not reactive about the situation which is admirable. :) I'm not sure many others would be so calm under the circumstances! Please do keep us updated on how things are working out for you and your family!:grouphug:

Yes!!

I am going to try to get it organized tonight and start tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. :) I'll keep you posted on how they like it. I have a sense of relief about me. At this point, I'm just glad to have a 'doable' plan. ;) thanks everyone!

I just gushed at the boxed on my front door step. I can't understand how curriculum has that affect on me, but it does. LOVE to see boxes with good books inside. :) I' can't wait to familiarize myself with all the books and see how they work for us. I have hope again! sigh.... such a good feeling~

I've been really encouraged to get back to cooking more from scratch and trying to get my number down a bit too. I think I can do better. I've been encouraged!:D

I usually quite after a quarter of the year and I realize it's just either not getting done, or we aren't doing enough to really benefit from it. At that point, I have to be honest with myself and say we need to find something that we can USE! So, I guess that would be about nine wks. If it's not moving along after that period, I have to analyze the 'why'. Of course, it might be my fault or life circumstances, in those cases, we just try again another quarter. Life happens... :) Good luck!

[ No- I do to. I guess they think we are dumb! I also love their 'deals' for fashion- lol! I shop at goodwill lady! lol! I get the name brands, look new, for a few bucks! can't beat that! QUOTE=joyfulheart;3560761]On this subject, am I the ONLY one who get's really annoyed at media? Watching the morning news, and they have a special on budget cooking for good meals... And they cook meals that cost-- according to them-- $20-30 for a family of 4 for ONE DINNER MEAL, and are SOOOO proud of themselves! And they are using really exotic ingredients too-- alligator! What the heck??? I get magazine articles like that too. Only $4-5 a serving! woo. LOL How about $5 for the total meal??!?!? That would be budget!

You ladies are awesome! This might be a good time to piggy back with our best frugal idea!! For me, at the moment, the best thing I've done is buy my diapers online at amazon. I joined (for free) their mom's program *subscribe and save* where you can buy an item, set the time frame for delivery, and it comes every_____often. My huggies (don't normally buy brand name) are something like 23.00 for a case! I believe the case is something like 140 diapers size 4. I thought it was good enough for me, for now. I use to cloth diaper, but I had to give it up! :) Too many kids, activities and NO time! Also, I subscribe and save with my favorite laundry soap- Charlies soap! Look it up. You only use a tablespoon- love the stuff! Works great on everything! And, I guess this would really be relative to the person- family size, ect...but, I can just about grocery shop at Costco. I have four boys now and a husband. They can eat. Anyway, my mile is just around 3.20, creamer is 2'sh for a HUGE container, eggs are 3'sh for 18...I stock up on our dairy, some things like maple syrup, ect. Plus, I just love their coupons! I can get real deals with those. So, what do you guys have to share????

So, I'm seeing the most important variables in grocery budgeting are: 1. personality- whether or not you will cook more, or less 2. age of your kids- I have bigger boys and they never stop eating- ever! 3. taking out processed/convenience foods. Is that right?

You go momma! Wow! I get you. I do the same thing. You spend most of your money on convenience foods. Like you said, pop tarts, cereal, and snacks- drinks. Since having my fourth, I've been really bad about cooking everything. *sigh* I need to get back on track! :D

I'm just being really curious here. I am wanting to know how much you all spend on your monthly groceries and for how many ppl? Most of my friends do not really have a budget. They buy what they want when they want. My family is a bit, well, really frugal. :001_smile: We have no bills, car payments, just a house payment, and I do have a cell phone b/c we have NO landline. No TV bills or anything. So, we really don't spend more than we need to at any given time. We save when we can for the times that we need it. Groceries seem to be really the only variable in our budget where we have any flexibility.I just want to gage how we are doing. We spend around 800 a month for a family of six. I will admit that I could really do better with this amount of money, but I don't. We do eat out and order in with this grocery budget too. So, in all fairness, this is all of our food money for the month.:bigear:

I really agree with this poster. I do not take these things personally unless someone actually insults ME or MY CHILD personally. This seems more like a stereotypical generalization to me. Not anything I would really think too much about, but I don't really think too much about what others say about my choices as a homeschool mom. I figure they have no clue what is involved and usually that is confirmed by their comments. ;) And, that's ok. I'm fine with other ppls opinions. It's not for everyone. I'm not sure that the leaders mean anything negative. It's kind of hard to tell from your post. It just sounds like they don't really understand homeschooling. Personally, I would let it go b/c you didn't say anything at the time. But, from now on, I would make a point to stop and 'say' something when the opportunity presents itself. If you get a call like the one you just mentioned again, I would stop her in mid-sentence and make a point of letting her know that your daughter WILL be participating in ALL activities. You have no problem meeting them at the school for _____ activity. If your daughter is left out of an activity and you find out after the fact, I would make sure that they understand that is absolutely not ok, and at that point, I would decide whether to give them a verbal warning or take it to the next level. However, I would give them the opportunity to redeem themselves b/c it sounds like you really haven't expressed your feelings about what is actually going on with your daughter. Once you've expressed yourself to the leaders, you have every right to call them out on any situation you feel is inappropriate. It just sounds like this might be a bit of a misunderstanding/communication. HTH!:grouphug:

Bethany Faith Delana Faith Samuel Howard :)

We only have limited experience with the PP guides, but my son was not a fan. He used them in a co-op. For a boy, I think he thought it was exhaustive, 'busy' work answering the multitude of questions. But, I thought it was a great way to really keep them on track with their reading. I like that it taught them to really think about metaphors,similes,genres, and more. I just think that it was too in-depth for us. He dreaded doing the guides! HTH

Thank you! I will. :) I just found out that they were on CBD. That is wonderful!!!

Thanks to everyone that has helped me with this difficult transition and decision. You ladies are invaluable to me! Because of so much of your help and advice, I thought I might should post my decision on here! I appreciate everyones comments. All the pros and cons of the diff. curriculum has kept me on focus and from making more poor choices.;) Since I am purchasing only for the last school semester of this year, I've decided the smartest choice for our family would be PACES. I'm excited!! I'm only ordering enough to finish this year. During the summer months, I plan on looking over my plans from years past and look over what I liked or did not like about PACES. I will then have to also assess whether or not I can move in a direction that will allow me to be more hands on or if I'm still in a place that needs to be less parent directed. I really like the idea of starting next year off with a new program (if I can be more involved) like Oak Meadow or Memoria Press for the littles. My oldest son is most certainly going to do the BJU DL....unless something else amazing reveals itself! :tongue_smilie: Thanks again!!!!

I appreciate you sharing this. I hadn't thought of that, and would not have until I actually opened them up and read over them with the boys! That's something to definitely think about. Hmmmm...just when I think I've made a decision!:001_huh:

Melissa-the link was perfect! That's exactly what I needed to see! Thanks for sharing this link!!

Hunter- there is no serious rush, but I am excited to get going on our 'second' semester with a plan that will work. I want to try to have a sense of completion at the beginning of summer. I'm going to go ahead and go with Paces this year. I'm committed to doing it. I will re-examine after this year and see if it is working or not. I sure hope it will!

Ok...I'm starting to think that I might be chasing my tail a bit here. :) But, in looking at the online boxed curriculum, I'm also pondering LifePac. I have all the Paces in my shopping cart, but I haven't been able to look at their curriculum in as much detail as I can LifePac. Now, I've never really been impressed with life pac. I looked at it many moons ago, and once tried it for LA a few years back, but it didn't work for us. I'm wondering how others have felt about it. My mind set is very different right now. So, I'm not looking to be blown away by the curriculum at this point. I just wonder how it compares to paces? I wish I could really get a good look at the Paces curr. but I can't get a good feel for it. It looks fine....just curious, as my order is going to be in the 'hundreds' of dollars for three kids. :confused: Anyone have thoughts about comparing these? I noticed homeschool buyers co-op had life pac 10% off yesterday!:001_huh: :bigear:

Hunter- you are just too wise for me! lol!! I love it, and you are absolutely right. I get it. I get it!!!! Buy the paces and use as boxed, and then, add in my classical, fun stuff! Ahhh...perfect! :) My plan is forming in my head. I can see it now! Thank you! By the way, I am an AS graduate....many moons ago! Back when homeschooling was reallllly unpopular lol! I took College prep and graduated. I felt very prepared. It's amazing to see how much has changed with their school! It was a great experience, and I was VERY motivated. :) I am off to look over paces...again! Thanks so much!

Hunter- I hear you and you make perfect sense. I was looking at Paces yesterday, but I could not get a feel for the curriculum. I wasn't able to view sample pages or anything like that. I will go back and see what I can 'see'. I have a niece that used Paces and did quite well. I've heard of it often; but, I seem to not be very attracted to it. I think it might be a part of the whole wanting to be creative in homeschooling. I'm not sure. I'm afraid it might be to dry for my little guys and make them HATE school work- worksheet after worksheet. I don't know. I like the idea of having the worksheet aspect for some of the day, but I really enjoy the idea of them having great books to read too. I've found that they do not really enjoy the reading books with most curriculum- CLE or BJU have not been big hits with my little guys. Do you think that Oak Meadow is too challenging to consider? Maybe a bit too creative to be functional for my purposes? Memoria Press definitely looks challenging....not sure... I might be trying to have my cake and eat it too here. I'm not sure. I'm on all new ground and trying very hard to compromise. :001_smile:

Ok, so I've narrowed it down a little. I am holding off the Calvert b/c we are entering 8th grade and it doesn't make much sense to go that route if they aren't going to offer classes beyond 8th. For my oldest, I'm leaning toward BJU DL. They are much more affordable than anything else that i"ve seen. I really like Oak Meadow, but their high school courses are VERY expensive. 875.00 per class?! Not sure about that....but, very impressed with them in general. So, the boxed curriculum might be a good fit for the little fellas this year. I am seriously interested in: Oak Meadow Memoria Press So, can anyone help me make a decision between these two?? Again, looking for something fairly independent. I understand that it won't be completely. I want something that I will be happy with most everything in that BOX. :) I am giving up a lot of my control here..lol. I do not want to have to piece together anything. So, it would be most important for me to see that they had strong- reading, writing, grammar and math programs. I will still continue to incorporate MUS with whatever math program I use in either of these programs. (just b/c I have made the investment!) Thanks for your help! I've learned sooo much about some very interesting programs out there! :)