Maybe she'll grow up to be a vet. ;)

On fit day there is a pie chart at the bottom of my page, but I don't see one saying what would be ideal. So I don't know if I'm doing good or bad. I've entered what I have eaten today, plus what we'll have for supper in a couple hours. At the end of the day I should be at 1257 cals, and the % from the pie chart are 42% fat, 30% carbs (these are all from fruits and veggies, none from grains), protein 28%. So is this good or bad? I'm clueless here.

a corn dog with onions, cheese and bacon? This won't be the popular answer but... mmmm.... that sounds good! :D Not healty, but good

If you're looking for something free, there's some good activities here http://www.dltk-bible.com/ I used to use their materials when I taught the beginners bible class.

If you're using the highlights AG units, how do you schedule the work. I bought it because my girls love the AG books, but they go thru the books a lot faster than they can get the work done. IT seems like a lot of work anyhow, if you do it the way they suggest. But it would take them a couple weeks to get thru all the work for one book, and only a couple days to read the book. So I think we're just going to pick and choose activities out of each book instead of trying to do it all.

Yeah, that's what I meant by introductory material. I wasn't looking at it and couldn't remember off the top of my head what it was called. They are finishing up their times/division tables.Will be done with them next week. I want to review with them so they wont forget until we get back to doing MEP. Will the supplemental material be a good place to start?

Is there a scope and sequence for the material? Trying to figure where to start with this. Or would it be easiest start with the 3rd grade introductory material?

Oh, that's awesome! Thanks for the great review!

Sorry about rambling, but I could use some suggestions for next year. I"m thinking about a few different things for this coming up year. It will be time for me to buy books soon, and this is the only chance I get to buy books for the year so I spend a lot of time thinking it out. I have to make sure we get all the good we can out of our hs'ing dollars. My kids will be 5, 8, and 10 when you new year starts. The 5 yo (4 now) is learning his vowel sounds and we've recently started PP, he needs to learn numbers but is doing MEP reception and we're working on it. The 8 yo has reading difficulties. The 10 yo is just a normal 10 yo. I want to include bible, because I think it's important that they know the bible.... but we're not including it for religious reasons. If that makes sense. So I don't want anything doctrinal. I do want them to learn some verses and values. I've looked at Memoria Press materials for this. Could you all tell me about them? Is there something that might suit our needs better? I'm considering getting WP Sky and Sea and adding in the IG for younger kids. Then they could all do school together, it might simplify things. But I'm concerned about the cost, and if we are actually going to like WP. Am I going to get it and then wish I hadn't so much money on it? I've also thought about going back to Oak Meadow. We used it for a couple years. Actually, we all loved it for the most part. The only thing was dd2 needed stronger phonics, and we needed an actual math program. I didn't know enough at the time to realize I could add my own phonics and math to OM. So we dropped it, and unschooled for a while. We just this year went to a structured program, because I felt like their minds needed a little more training than what they were getting. But what we're doing now is a little too structured. We like loose. OM was good for keeping it loose. ( at least preK- 3rd were, hoping 5th is also) We like arts and music too, and loved that about OM. My concern here is: I was just looking at it and saw that it covers history up to the civil war. Which is exactly what my 10 yo is doing right now. She's not going to want to do it again. Her sister is doing ancients (which I believe is what waldorf teaches in 5th), so dd1 is also sitting in on the stories for ancients. So I don't know. Maybe we could do Norse Myths or something. But if I have to sub the math and the history, and fiddle with LA is it worth getting OM? Maybe I should wait and try it again later. Then, I'm also considering finishing up what we're doing in LA right now for the 10 and 8 yo's, but swapping a couple things around to suit us better. Getting TT for math, and doing SOTW2 for history, and for science doing Real Science Odessey Earth and Space. If I do that I have to get something for the 5 yo. I need to get him the R&S ABC books sometime. He needs to work on his fine motor skills. He needs a handwriting program-- I want to do cursive first. And math. Need a math program that's lots of fun. I've been looking at the suggestions for Timberdoodle's preK and K packages. Some of that stuff looks fun. I don't know. I didn't do much with my other two at that age. But he wants to do school. And I'm afraid of either getting him things that are too hard, or getting him something that isn't enough. He needs something that's just right, but will grow with him.... because he's going to take off soon.

:lurk5:

I'm in MS, about 30 miles from Starkville.

There is a secular Ambleside Online yahoo group. If you join the group you can print out a list of secular books by year for Ambleside. They might have some books listed that would help you.

You could donate it to Book Samaritan. They blessed our family by sending us some very nice materials to use this year. :) Oh, and yes, paperbackswap! I love finding good homeschool material on there! I found a book this week to go with our history studies. If you have a homeschool group with a library, you might consider donating it to their library.

Aw... Thank you! :D I don't know for sure if DH is going to get this job, but he is definitely considering moving us to that area. He has family there and is thing about moving closer to them.

There is a pagan school that offers a pagan curriculum and umbrella school coverage called Goddess Moon Circles academy.

Anyone here in Alabama? DH is looking at a job in Mobile. I was wondering what the homeschool laws are there if we should happen to move. Where we are now, all we have to do is send in a form to the attendance officer by the Sept. deadline, and we're good to go till next year. We were wondering how that differs from what we'd have to do in AL.

I disagree also. My 8 yo ld child still does this with letters and numbers. She sculpts letters and numbers, like she's drawing a picture. It doesn't matter which way it's facing-- it's still the same picture. Like if you draw a dog, it doesn't matter if the dog is facing left or right, it's still a dog. I monitor her work and I explain to her that if she wants letters and number to be what she wants them to be they have to face a certain way.

Oh great! I love using my crockpot. I didn't get home in time to do it today, so we'll have it for supper tomorrow.

I have a turkey breast thawed out to cook tonight, but no idea how to cook it. I've never cooked turkey before. Can I put it in the crockpot? Or do I put it in the oven? Do I have to put anythign on it?

I'm looking at getting Teaching Textbooks Math 4 sometime in the next couple months. We like the looks of the samples and took the placement test. What do you guys think of it? Is it OK for a kid who doesn't really get math?

Yeah, the mini computer was what was blowing my mind. If it's not essential, we could skip it, then I might could figure the rest out. My kids are just about finished with MEP Y2. They've worked really hard and are doing great with it. I'm very proud of them :) But I think it's time we step back from that for a few weeks before going on to Y3, and do something else to give them a little break. Something different is nice sometimes.

Has anyone used this math program? I saw it in another link and now I'm curious about it. I've been looking at the materials, but I'm not sure I understand it.

Mine drinks rice milk too. She's allergic to dairy and soy, wheat and gluten, all nuts and peanuts. It's tough when you're allergic to dairy and soy-- because soy is used as a dairy substitute-- and soy and gluten/wheat-- because soy is used in gf mixes. So there's not many substitutes you can buy for the things you miss. Oh, but she can have eggs. So we eat eggs.

I sooooo feel your pain! My 4 yo didn't sleep thru a night till here recently. He was diagnosed with asthma and we put him on breathing treatments. Made a world of difference! He still wakes up a lot, but at least I get a few consecutive hours most nights. I'm almost human again LOL Hang in there mama (((HUGS)))

aw, so young to have some many allergies. Poor guy. We can't do avocados, bananas, or mango because of latex allergies. And fruits and veggies are a hit and miss thing because of cross reactions with other allergies. But we can do rice and potatoes. We're trying to develop a taste for quinoa.... we're not crazy about it yet.