We keep ours in a plastic bin from Wal-Mart. I keep each type of block in a baggie to avoid having to dig for what they need. It did not take the kids long to start really helping with the clean up. We keep the algebra decimal inserts in the box they originally came in (only big kids get to use those) and the big hundred blocks just stack on top of each other. We fold up our block clock poster and put our decimal street lapbook in there so everything is all together. Blessings

Good, I was getting worried why I had not received mine

My kids loved the movie. The only thing about it that bothered me is that the male characters are, for the most part idiots. I have a family of all boys and so I guess I am a bit sensitive on that end, but movies and tv shows always seem to make men out to either be wimps or morons. My oldest who loves science was excited to see Einstein in bobblehead form. At least they did not Einstein an idiot!!!

Your hubby is trying to find a job, right? You have no plans to try to mooch off the government; you are trying to make sure that in a bad economic time, your family does not suffer while your hubby is jobless. There is nothing wrong about that. If anyone tries to give you a hard time, it is their problem, not yours. Hope that things take a turn for the better for you.

I would suggest changing if you feel she is not getting what she needs. I am not making a promise that your daughter will fall in love with math and decide to major in math one day. All I think is if you have doubts about what you are using, make a change. If you are worried about hitting a wall then maybe you need avert that wall. My boys are head and shoulders above their friends in math. They are using MUS exclusively. That is good enough for me.

:lol: The same thing happened recently with my son, only it was the general science book. I never thought I'd have to say "No, you cannot read your SCIENCE book right now."

We do stick to a main time frame most of the time, but we do change things up bit sometimes to accommodate dear old dad. My husband sometimes works day shift, sometimes works night shift and is off other days. When he is working night shift, we sometimes get a later start than normal so that we can spend time with him in the morning before he goes to bed. On the week where he is off during the week and works the weekend we have been known to do field trips during the week and make up school on Saturday. But for the most part we try to stick to a regular schedule.

I know a lot of people on here do not seem to like it but Math U See is GREAT for a parent who hates/is not good at/otherwise does not enjoy math. There are DVDs that you can watch alone and teach to the child, or watch along with the child. The actual teaching portion can vary from 5 minutes on something easy to me spending 20-30 minutes helping out on a not so easy lesson. One complaint I hear from people is that it stays "too long" on one subject. I have not found that to be true. We are going to start Pre-Algebra, so we do not have experience in the high maths. What I have seen of it we love. Our kids are ahead of the non-homeschool kids around here and do very well on testing. HTH

You would be surprised how quickly they can pick things up. My K son last year would answer the questions in the question and answer flow if his brother was not paying attention and did not answer immediately. He learned all the jingles, too. :)

My kids used pages that we printed off a yahoo group called Notebooking2Learn. We liked them better than the notebook pages from Apologia because they were more colorful.

I would probably not talk to the teachers about it. I would contact the school board. The teachers would be likely to say things like how they DIDN'T say anything out of the way. Let the school officials know that the lack of professionalism in their teachers coupled with the fact that your child was being punished for being sick (not staying out for vacations or something, but a SICKNESS!!!) has led you to make the choice that your child/children will not be a part of that school system in the future. The school board may or may not actually do anything, but at least you could try. Blessings' Kelli

Coming from someone who has worked at VBS in several churches.....it depends. Some churches are very strongly opinionated about getting new members to bump up their registered members list. They stress the "ask Jesus into your heart" so much that kids that kids really think repeating a prayer makes them a Christian. Other churches see it as a way to really stress the importance of the Bible. Some churches see it as a way to introduce their church doctrine. If it is a church where you felt comfortable sending your kids for preschool,I would not worry about sending them to VBS. I think that VBS started out as a good theory, but has gotten out of control with everyone doing what "feels right" rather than looking at the Bible and doing what God commands. (You know the whole parents teach your children thing-they just think that that a week or two in the summer is going to produce strong Christian families)

As a Christian family, we usually do the same. When I come across something in study materials that says "_____ faith believes____" I like to have something to reference to see if my source is accurate, or exaggerated. If I am going to defend my faith to someone who believes something different than I do, it helps to know what they believe. That way I am able to point out our differences or similarities.

I just noticed that your kids are the exact ages as mine! TOG might be a good fit for you, too.

When I first started homeschooling, I liked the hands-on of Konos, but I also liked the academics of Veritas Press. I finally made the decision to go for Konos. It is VERY teacher intensive. If you choose Konos, you will be doing LOTS of planning, lots of deciding how to do suggested crafts and projects (there are tons of suggestions, just no materials lists or instructions), lots of browsing bookstores and libraries to try to find books.(they only update their book lists when a new edition of a volume comes out) Trying to contact their customer service is a pain, too. The best way to get their attention is to go to their yahoo e-group, where their true colors sometimes show in the form of insults toward their customers. By the end of the year, I was burned out, frustrated, and all out ready fro something else. I found something that was a compromise of academics and hands on with Tapestry of Grace. Hopefully with prayer, you can find something that is a good fit for your family. Blessings,

Our local school has dances for elementary ages (grade 4 and up , I believe) and a "luau" for the younger crowd. The last year our kids were in ps we went to the luau. It was everybody in the gym, most of the kids wearing hula skirts and leis (that the parents had to 4 times the retail value for), no a/c, LOUD rap/hip-hop music blasting, and the kids running around like maniacs. My oldest son informed me that is what PE was like. From what I heard, the dances for older kids were no lights, loud music and more making ou than actual dancing. (this coming from kids at church, not school staff) Needless to say, we will never participate in a dance for kids. They have to deal with so much junk as they are growing up, it would just be nice to let kids be kids for a while.

Hulu allows you to watch tv for free. I second the Netflix recommendation. We use Netflix for entertainment and educational purposes. Hulu introduced my kids to I Dream of Jeannie. We spent about two years without cable. We thought it was just going to be great when we got it agin, but to bw honest it has been a bit of a disappointment (except Fox News)

TOG really isn't science, just history/Bible/lit/art. Yes, you are using different books for different age groups. That is so each child is learning on their level. Would you really be able to teach a 1st grader with the same book as a 12th grader? The difference in using TOG compared to something else is that you are only having to prepare for one time period/subject at a time rather than having one child in ancient history, one in Civil War era, and one in WW2. I know there are a lot of people who talk about it being better for the older crowd, but my younger ones are loving it! They have picture books and short, easy chapter books. There are a lot of hands on options for the youngers, too. I wish I had known about TOG when my oldest was younger so he could have done it all the way through school. The younger years are building blocks for the older years. By the time my youngest son gets to high school, he will have a strong foundation of all time periods to build on.

wow, how nice of you!! we'd love it!!

My husband (an ordained minister) has never expected his own family to address him as Brother/Pastor/Reverend Mark. There is just something different about family. Maybe that is just us, but I do think it is rude to call a family member out, especially in front of others. Just my opinion.

Here is a link to some information from John MacArthur. There is too much information to put into a comment, plus he says it more eloquently (and less offensively) than I could Hope this could be helpful to you.

We are the same way. Our older two kids started out in public school. We saw one school district that was willing to make sure their kids always received the best education, and one who struggled to make "No Child Left Behind" goals. With ministry and family health issues it is too hard for me to put something together on my own. Our homeschool budget for 2009-2010 ran around $2500 for three children. That is far less than we would spend for tuition at a local private school for ONE child, so I feel like we are getting a bargain. When you consider that many of the things being purchased this year will be used again(some even twice)it becomes even more of a bargain.

How exciting for you!!!

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree: We are almost finished with 100 EL and I am soo glad!! My five year old started out gung-ho with it and then his excitement turned to boredom. He would sit and play with his foot instead of reading what was on the page. It has gotten better now that we are reading longer stories and we are so close. I never had him do the writing portion. We have been working on handwriting separately by having a "letter of the week". We have still been trudging alonf simply because I did not know what else to use since he already knew so many sounds and spelling rules.