Before you decide to put her to sleep . . . I was thinking about the digestive problems and the senility and other issues you mentioned, and those COULD all be due to nutritional deficiency/toxicity. I know you're working within a budget, but there are several books on holisitic/alternative cat care that tell you how to treat your kitty's health issues with nutritional supplements. I know I successfully treated our kitten's illness in short order by giving her ground-up Vitamin C tablets and cod liver oil according to the dosages in the Holistic Cat Care Handbook (think that was the title), available on Amazon. I didn't even have to buy it, as the "look inside this book" feature has the dosage chart as one of the sample pages. What kind of food does she eat? So many pet owners have been horribly deceived by commercial pet food companies who bill their pet food as "healthy" when in fact it contains indigestible meal, nasty meat byproducts (like chicken beaks and feet), and other horrifying ingredients. (Type "pet food" into a site like NaturalNews.com for more on this.) You may want to try changing her diet completely to an all-natural food (We used Nutro Natural Choice from PetCo, but there are lots out there at pet stores), mixing it into her old food little by little until she has adjusted to the new food, along with adding supplemental Vitamin C, fish oil, and possibly some wheat grass/supergreens powder from the health food store to help detox her system. Check the holistic cat care book for dosages. I know this is not really in response to the question, but I hear how much you love her and just want you to consider every remedy before you have to make such a difficult decision. :grouphug:

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like the old version might be better for timeline & questions if I'm not planning to buy the Companion, right, since those parts would now be in a separate supplement with the new version? One nice revision it sounds like I'd like is following SOTW more chronologically (spreading out the Eastern history throughout the year rather than gathering it into one unit in Year 1). Although I understood BP's wanting to try to maintain continuity with cultures, for us the whole Ancient East all bundled into one unit at the end just made it hard to connect to anything else we'd learned. I don't know if that would be an issue, though, with Vol. 2. We're not using MOH, so that probably wouldn't be a reason to spring for the revised version. So I guess we're maybe okay sticking with the old version? Unless there's something else in the new version I've missed? Thanks so much for the helpful replies, everyone!

I'm wondering what the key differences are between the old Biblioplan guides (copyright 2001) and the new revised ones, especially if anyone has compared the two Year 2 versions. I found a really great price for an old one, but I'm wondering what I might be missing out on in the new revised version. I looked on Biblioplan's web site, but I can't find any mention of what the exact revisions were. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance!

As far as the word "gentleman" goes, it has been incorrectly used for some time as a way to say "male adult" while being polite. You know, like when participants in a panel discussion are taking questions from the audience and say, "the question from the gentleman in the gray suit there in the rear," etc. But the main point of your rant I have to disagree with, as others have, on the grounds that he's only suspected, not convicted. Is no one shocked or even cognizant that there's no such thing as innocent until proven guilty anymore? In this case, it sounds like he was caught red-handed--from the media account, that is--but unless we were there and saw what happened or are on the jury and have seen credible evidence (and even then the amount of evidence suppression, corrupt/racist/lazy cops, lack of due process, and other corruption going on is staggering), he is NOT a jerk. He's Mr. Smith. Or "the man suspected of X." Or "the person alleged to have committed the crime." Or even "gentleman" (though the former English teacher in me cringes) if that's what every other as-yet-innocent man gets to be called. Having said all that, if it's definitely proven that he IS the man who indeed did this, then by all means: "jerk" or something stronger is in order.

Umm . . . I guess I don't know, either! Can you clue me in about when it should be buttoned? :) I'm very interested in this thread, myself. My sons are still little, but I realize that I need to be thinking about how to teach these habits NOW. Too often I expect kids to learn subtle things like this by osmosis, I'm afraid, and don't realize I didn't teach it until I'm dismayed to see them NOT DOING IT. (What? You didn't come pre-programmed with that?) Oops. :blush:

Genetic testing is not the same as having the baby (the tissue that your DIL passed) tested for chromosomal abnormalities. This costs only a few hundred dollars, and with insurance, can cost as little as $50--insurance does cover it if a doctor orders it (which they will if you ask). I've had two of the babies I've lost tested for chromosomal abnormalities; your DIL needs to keep the baby in a container in the refrigerator and get it to the lab at an OB's office ASAP. She should request chromosomal analysis and specify that the lab NOT put the body in formaldehyde as they do for most testing (this will ruin it). (Trust me; the lab ruined the body of one of our precious lost babies in this way and we never found out what caused the miscarriage because of their negligence.) She may not choose to have this done, but it brought a lot of peace of mind to me. The chromosomal analysis tests to see if there were any chromosomal abnormalities like Down Syndrome, Trisomy 13, or other conditions that can pinpoint the probable cause of death. For two of our babies--our son, whom we lost in the 2nd trimester, and our daughter, whom we lost at 10 weeks--we found out that they had chromosomal defects so severe that if they had been born, they would (in our son's case) have had severe Down Syndrome and (in our daughter's case) a rare defect that would have been "incompatible with life," the doctor said--resulting in certain death before her first birthday. Having this knowledge that my precious children--at least two of them--would have suffered pain and hardship had they been born and were spared that to go straight to Heaven has been a great comfort to me. When I begin to feel angry at losing them, I can remind myself that my suffering their loss is far preferable to having to watch them suffer here on earth. Another benefit for us was getting to find out the gender of the baby and choose an appropriate name. Of course, this may not be meaningful to your DIL, but then again, she may not know it's available and affordable. It helped get us closer to a place of closure. It's a very personal thing, of course, but I think every grieving mother should know that it's an option. My heart goes out to your DIL, and she will be in my thoughts, as I know firsthand the deep pain miscarriage causes. The best thing my mother did for me was just to listen and be there--no small thing!

Well, this thread is too fun to resist. Here--briefly--is my man in one of my favorite pictures of him on a trip to the Ozarks a few years back with older son and one with our daughter. Sorry they're sideways; I can't seem to fix them. ETA: Time to take down!

Well, my husband and I are fans of the new "Dr. Who." :) It's great, campy fun and I can't think of anything objectionable. There's absolutely no sexual content whatsoever or any profanity that I can remember. (There *might* be a "d----" I guess but if there ever was I can't remember it. Nothing else.) The Doctor, a "time-lord" (time-traveling alien species in human form) travels from one era to another, and there is sometimes gross stuff (the flatulent Jabba-the-Hut-type aliens were probably my least favorite, but a teenage boy would love that :)), but generally it's just the Doctor saving humanity from one alien threat or another with the aid of his companion, a pretty girl who's usually sweet on him in an innocent "isn't he wonderful" kind of way but nothing sexual. I wouldn't be a bit concerned.

Congratulations on the new little one!!! I can't help STRONGLY advising you to leave your 4yo with your friend, tell the friend you have a check-up with your doctor (if your friend starts to ask questions, just explain that you have some personal stuff you need to discuss with your doctor), and tell the 4yo that "this is a grown-up doctor, not a kid doctor, so only grown-ups go." That's what I've told my kids (ages 6, 5, and 3) for all my prenatal appointments, and they've been just fine with it. Just say it casually and in an off-handed way. The reason why this is VERY important is that--and this probably won't happen to you!!--you never know what can happen. My last several pregnancies that I mentioned all ended in miscarriage. For two of them, I learned the baby was dead during the sonogram when the sonographer couldn't find a heartbeat. This kind of emotional experience is something you don't want your daughter to even slightly risk having to witness. Anyway, sorry to be a downer in a happy post! But honestly, I just think you can't be too careful. If she comes along, someone or something will tip her off, even if all goes well. Besides . . . seven more months is like two years for a 4yo to have to wait! :D

If you're doing American history, I second the Beautiful Feet suggestion. I wrote my own schedule for a U.S. History overview this year for my K/1st graders using the Beautiful Feet books but also adding in a few other living books to flesh it out to cover Native Americans through the Civil War (I threw in a unit on pioneers and Lewis and Clark). If you're interested in my schedule, send me a PM and I'll send it to you. It would be easy to do the Beautiful Feet but add in hands-on projects from the Laurie Carlson series of books and do weekly narrations/notebook pages. If you're starting the 4-year history cycle, I'd just get SOTW Vol. 1 and go through it. With the Activity Guide, which you definitely want, because it's so great to have the book suggestions and maps and notebook pages all laid out for you. For science, we're doing the God's Design for Life series. (It's young-earth Christian, so if you're secular, you might want to look at something else.) We're not trying to do all three of the books in one year; it's just too much. I'd do just the Animal Kingdom book and do one lesson a week, or double up with the Animal and Plant kingdoms if you want to pick up the pace. You would want to supplement with books from the library, but that's easy enough to do, and I like that these books are laid out in a 35-week format with projects and quizzes built in. Easy. (Also, if you want to do the Animal Kingdom book from the God's Design series, you can PM me if you want and I'll send you my schedule for that with coordinated book suggestions for each chapter on a K-2 reading level.) HTH!

Thanks, Ladies, for the great ideas! I like the look of The Littles; I also looked up a couple of the Bulla books that look about right. I saw Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie on the SL list (Thanks, Pongo, for pointing me in that direction!)

I'm hoping someone can lend some advice here. I'm trying to plan out a reading schedule for my slightly advanced 1st grade reader. She finished up the last third of her kindergarten year reading Frog and Toad, Mouse Tales, Little Bear, Owl at Home and all the usual 1st grade readers. Over the summer she's been reading the Henry and Mudge series, Amelia Bedelia series, and I Can Read and Ready-to-Read Level 2-3 history/science readers. So now I'm not sure where to go next. I had her read some of the sample pages of one of the Childhood of Famous Americans books off Amazon, and it was a little difficult . . . not because she can't decode the words or know what they mean, but because her fluency is a little choppy so that she doesn't read it in appropriate phrasing for it to make sense, KWIM? Chapter books like The Courage of Sarah Noble and The Matchlock Gun still seem to be pushing it a bit. (Or maybe they wouldn't be by Christmas?) Tentatively, I've got her scheduled reading picture books at the start of the year (like A New Coat for Anna, The Emperor's New Clothes, A Chair for My Mother, etc.) Then on--I guess-- to the I Can Read Level 3 books, which mostly seem to be historical. (Fine except that the historical periods are mostly Revolution and beyond, which we won't get to until Christmas in our history overview, since we're starting out with Native Americans, Explorers, and Colonies. What to fill in with?) She's heard multiple times most of the picture books that make all the classic lists, like Blueberries for Sal, The Biggest Bear, Curious George, Madeline, the Beatrix Potter stories, etc. or else I could just have her read those, I guess. Bottom line: I want to challenge her, but I don't want to go so quickly that she misses out on some good literature for this age group jumping ahead and maybe doesn't have time to develop fluency and reading strategies properly. On the other hand . . . I don't want to do her a disservice by staying in this early reader books all year instead of moving her along appropriately and getting her ready to read Stuart Little and the like next year. Right now I've got, in order starting with the beginning of the school year: picture books mentioned above I Can Read books Level 3 Nate the Great Flat Stanley Then I bog down. Am I making this too hard? Please jump in with suggestions where to go from here. Thanks in advance!

Katie, thanks for the other thread. I'll check it out later this evening. (I'm supposed to be making dinner right now . . . :tongue_smilie:) Kristina, I'm so excited by your suggestions! I really liked the idea of woodworking, but this summer my husband tried to make a birdhouse with ds, and he mainly just would kind of watch, do a little sanding, get bored, and wander off. BUT, I didn't think about looking for kids' books and outfitting him with appropriate tools. I can't wait to look at the book you mentioned! Ditto the other book suggestions . . . you're a goldmine! (You're the second person I've heard mention the Made by Me book; I've got to check that out.) (Weaving? I'm intrigued. Can you tell I'm not that crafty?) And Karen, thanks for passing that on about Home Depot. I'm going to look into it. That would be a GREAT thing for dh and ds to do together. Thanks, ladies. I'm feeling more energized already. Any other ideas welcome! :bigear:

I'm hoping someone can throw out a few ideas here. We're adopting a more CM-style approach this year with my 5yo ds and 6yo dd, including nature study and handcrafts. I've planned to teach dd sewing in the first semester and crochet in the second semester. Then on to knitting (she's seen me do it and wants to learn) next year. But . . . what to do with ds? I know, I know, boys can sew and crochet, too. But I was really wanting something more gender-specific for him, 1) because he likes to distinguish himself from sometimes-bossy not-much-older sister, and 2) my dh is not as broadminded as I am about boys doing needlework. :D All I could think of was woodworking, but he's still kind of young for that. Any ideas? Anyone? Thanks in advance!

The series by Mara Pratt is great, and as mentioned, you can read it for free online at the Baldwin Literature Project (http://www.mainlesson.com). It does go just through the Civil War, though. If you're looking for a great narrative with wonderful color illustrations throughout that goes through the 1950s and is a "living book" rather than textbook, see if you can lay your hands on The Rainbow Book of American History by James Daugherty. It's perfect for a sixth-grade reading level, and it's superbly written. It reads like a novel, and the illustrations wrap all around the text and seem alive. It's a great overview, and the tone is neither overtly Christian nor leftist/politically correct; it's Christian, I guess, in the sense that most books were that were written in the 40s or 50s. It's out of print, but look for it on one of the used book sites for about $20. There have been several threads on the boards here about this title, too, if you want to do a search.

:iagree: with Elizabeth. I think as a teacher you wouldn't be pleased with CC's approach and that it wouldn't be that supplement to your own instruction that you're looking for. VP Scholars is definitely a more scholastic approach with the instructional support many people are wanting.

While doing a search on an entirely different topic on the boards, this thread about Classical Conversations came up: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62701&highlight=drawing+children This is a thread from back in the fall that talks about review games played at CC and was hugely eye-opening. This is the kind of info I haven't been able to get from info meetings, and really gives you a "fly-on-the-wall" perspective on what classes are like. If I'd seen this months ago, I wouldn't have been so confused! I can see that, if this is a representative picture of what typical tutor groups look like, CC would definitely be one of those love-it-or-hate-it things, either "Oh my gosh! That is what I'd be paying for?!" OR "Oh my gosh! That is so awesome and energizing! My kids have got to get in on that!" depending on what you're looking for. Either way I think it help you get a picture of what classes are like.

:iagree::iagree: I couldn't agree more. If she hates history, then it hasn't been taught right! Lots of kids hate history because it's taught as a series of dates, or dry events, or as lots of loose units with no real connection to each other, or as projects that kids don't want to do. :) With an enthusiastic teacher--you!--and history told as an interesting story, I'll bet she'll change her mind, and be all the more eager to start Ancients next year.

Chris in VA has some good ideas for you! You can always cover American history informally. There are some really good narrative-style books of history stories for children free online at the Baldwin Children's Online Literature Project (older books in the public domain) at http://www.mainlesson.com. Having said that . . . that's not what we're doing for first grade this year.:D Because my son is starting Kindergarten this year and my daughter first grade, it just didn't make sense to do separate history programs for each of them. They already said they wanted to learn each other's history ("I'm going to listen to yours anyway!"), so it would just take up extra time that should go toward the three R's. So I decided to do an American history overview for them both this year and then start them both in SOTW for 1st and 2nd. Maybe you'd want to do that if you have another reaching school age soon.

Well, I'd say nothing:tongue_smilie: . . . unless that's the core of their curriculum, KWIM? There's that whole school of thought out there that says that memorizing little tunes and jingles of unrelated stuff is actually what should characterize the whole of the grammar stage education, for heaven's sake. It's that idea that I was trying to address. I kind of see of it as a matter of emphasis. IMO, that's fine for an add-on--why not sing it instead of that annoying Disney tune they heard somewhere!--but the bulk of the "school time" should, I think, be spent in meaningful learning.

Wow, this is a great perspective. Especially the emphasis on Scripture memorization! Thanks for the reminder. :)

Have you looked at Biblioplan? It schedules both SOTW 4 and Streams of Civilization 2 for Modern History, as well as readings from History of US and supplemental books. It believe it doesn't schedule the SOTW 4 readings in order, but rearranges them to be less choppy. Or you could just use the Streams of Civilization for the spine and leave out the SOTW readings. Here's the link to the description, Table of Contents, and sample lesson plans: http://www.biblioplan.net/AmWorld1850/America1850.htm

Well, IMO, NO, there's no point to a first-grader memorizing the bones in the body. It's developmentally inappropriate because in most cases, 1) that first-grader hasn't even had an overview of all the body systems before zeroing in to focus on the names of the bones, therefore the knowledge is learned out of context and doesn't have a lot of meaning for him as it would if the proper foundation had been laid, 2) most first-graders need to begin by learning the more tangible science topics first--plants, animal kingdom, magnets--because it's more difficult for them to visualize scientific concepts that they can't see when they're barely six. Now having said that, I'll say that I'm NOT saying that memorization is unimportant; on the contrary! For all the reasons listed in the excellent articles that a previous poster posted the links to, memorization is extremely important. But unlike one prevailing view of memorization, I think that what is memorized and when is very important. Here's my belief on it: To stuff kids full of facts in random order and outside of any meaningful context for them is to deny their "personhood" and treat them as mere containers to be filled with "stuff" to store away later for the day when they finally hit the Logic stage, become "whole" persons capable of understanding what they've memorized, and then can use it. This belief is in opposition to the often-quoted explanation, "They don't need to understand it right now. They'll just learn it and put it into context later." ?!? As Charlotte Mason rightly pointed out, this philosophy underlying this explanation views children as though they weren't fully-developed people, made in the image of God and able to think, reason, and YES, engage in abstract thinking even at very young ages! Many of us are so inconsistent when we insist during the school week that young children can only think concretely, but on Sunday teach them their catechisms, fully expect them to understand the concepts of grace and repentance that we're teaching them, and eagerly watch for signs of inner understanding of ideas like sin, compassion, mercy, etc. I don't believe Dorothy Sayers ever meant for her relation of the parts of the Trivium to developmental stages of a child's life to ever be taken to the extreme that some American classical schools and home schools have. She merely pointed out that grammar-stage students are particularly suited to memorizing facts--not that they are incapable of so-called Logic or Rhetoric skills such as comparison, evaluation, etc. How we teach children during this stage reflects what we believe about them. Are they fully-formed human beings, capable of profound understanding and of acquiring and "digesting" great ideas themselves? Or are they "empty vessels" to be filled--for us to "input" information and them to merely "spit it back"? (And frankly, I can see the temptation to stand a small child in front of the grandparents and let them spout Latin conjugations, kings and queens, etc. at age 7 to be impressive and make Mommy proud, especially as we homeschoolers often feel the need to "prove" ourselves to others. At least, I struggle with that! :001_huh:) Sorry for such a long post, but this is a "crisis" I've recently gone through myself, and I wanted to share my two cents' worth, if it helps!

Spelling/Reading Comprehension Spell to Write and Read, continuing with List K and the McCall-Crabbs Test Books for reading comprehension Grammar First Language Lessons 1/2 (condensing into one year) with audio CD Writing Writing with Ease 1 and beginning 2 Reading Independent reading: titles drawn from 1000 Good Books List and Honey for a Child's Heart as well as easy readers to coordinate with science and history topics Read-Alouds: Heidi, Little House in the Big Woods, The Matchlock Gun, Johnny Texas, Charlotte's Web, one other that I can't decide yet Math Singapore 1B/2A History American History Overview that I'm putting together myself using living books (mostly D'Aulaire biographies, Dalgliesh titles, and chapters from the online Pratt, Eggleston, and Lawton texts at the Baldwin Project) and a weekly project/craft--the following units: Native Americans Before 1860, Discovery/North American Explorers, Colonial Life, Revolution/Constitution, The New Country: Growing and Changing, Westward Expansion, and Civil War/Slavery Science God's Design for Life, 1 chapter per week, supplemented with living books from the library, videos, and nature walks each Friday Music Choir/Basic Theory with a co-op Appreciation using Themes to Remember, Book 1 Art Artistic Pursuits, Book 1, done at half pace with Come Look with Me: American Art Christian Studies still undecided, although I know we'll be memorizing the Children's Catechism. We went through the Child's Story Bible by Vos this year and loved it.

Thanks, Linda, for taking the time for such a thorough response. You've really answered a lot of my questions, especially by confirming the focus on methods of memorization rather than content. That's a big thing to understand; now it only remains to balance the disadvantages of introducing out-of-context content against the obvious advantages of having kids learn new techniques of memorization in a positive peer group. Thanks also for the overview of the grammar and writing portion. Angela, I think you're right that I was missing the philosophical distinctive in CC with my original questions. In a way, I'm starting to think that CC is like the co-op that isn't what you expect from a co-op, in that it doesn't "teach" academic subjects like you would expect, but rather memorization techniques using academic subjects. (At least in Foundations, I guess.) Thanks for all the input!