I voted OTHER because we, too, use Apologia General Science. Next year for 8th grade I was going to switch dd over to DIVE into Science, but she came completely unglued and told me she LOVES Apologia too much to switch to anything else. So, Apologia it shall remain! Blessings, Lucinda

Yes, one thing to consider is the type of neighborhood you live in. Our home is in a rural area, so anything goes out here. We have blue collar and white collar workers alike, and a whole range of property types up and down the road we live on. But in an urban/suburban area, you'd definitely need to consider what would be expected in like homes if you think you'll be selling in a few years. (Even saying that, I'm an artist and enough of a rebel that I'm afraid I'd still just put whatever I want on my countertops anyway. :D) Blessings, Lucinda

This past summer I installed ceramic tile on the majority of my counters, along with a beautiful butcher block on one 4' section. (I also have a custom designed backsplash with handpainted ceramic tiles dh brought me from Guatemala several years ago.) I love my kitchen counters! This is the first round with ceramic tiles for our family, and so far so good. But I have to say that I only used the tiles because they were available to me for FREE from my brother who is an interior designer. If I were purchasing new countertop for an updated or remodeled kitchen, I would go with a higher end formica or laminated counter top. Why? Because they look beautiful, last for years and are much more affordable. Prior to the ceramic tile, my kitchen had formica that had been in our 40's era bungalow for 50 years and they were still in perfect shape - just outdated in appearance. Blessings, Lucinda

I posted a similar thread a couple of weeks ago, and the consensus seemed to be to place the student at grade level. This works because Hake uses that spiral method of teaching with lots of grammar review of earlier concepts. I'm thinking that using this method will help fill in any gaps my own dd may have in her understanding of grammar. We have used several grammar programs over the past 5 years, including FLL 4 and R&S 5. We will have completed ALL's 20 available lessons by the end of this school year, so my plan is to go ahead and place my dd in Hake 8 next fall. Blessings, Lucinda

No, it isn't. I really like it though, so I downloaded it from an avatar site. Reading good books is another passion of mine. :~) Blessings, Lucinda

I really like the way these pencils perform, but they are very fragile. We've used them in the classroom, mostly for K-3 aged students, for over a year now, but they break so easily that we'll never buy them again. Blessings, Lucinda

Anyone? :bigear:

Just wondering....I'm curious to know if using the Kindle app or just PDF eBooks on a 13" screen is doable or bothersome to most people. Blessings, Lucinda

As an artist and art teacher to over 100 students each year, I have to say I agree with heather R. For young children, Prismacolor Scholars and also Crayola brand colored pencils (or watercolor colored pencils) are the best choice. Once your student is mature enough to handle with care, then I also recommend Prismacolor. That is the brand I use in my own studio as well. Blessings, Lucinda

I looked at the R&S 8 contents page and it looked like more writing and composition than actual grammar. I need a simple grammar program that will work alongside WWS. So far, Hake seems to be the most straight forward for our needs, so I'm leaning in that direction. Blessings, Lucinda

Of course none of us knows truly what's going on within Elton John's heart, but I've sometimes wondered if he and his partner aren't trying to make a political statement by doing this. Being so famous, and being a public spokesperson for gay rights, he is clearly sending a message out to the world. Or it could be that he is trying to make up for what he passed over for other things as a younger man. Who knows....but at any rate, even if I were incredibly wealthy like Elton, I don't believe I'd be having children at that age. It would all be for purely selfish reasons. For one, my child would have such a shorter time to have a relationship with me due to my age. And I'd leave my grandchildren without a grandparent....and those are just a couple of reasons I wouldn't choose to have a baby at that age. Blessings, Lucinda P.S. Somehow, visualizing 62 yo Elton with a baby on his hip and burp rag on his shoulder seems incredibly odd.

Redleaf, WWE and WWS are the writing programs written by Susan Wise Bauer (SWB). Writing With Excellence is for the lower grammar level, while Writing With Skill is the next in the series, designed for Logic stage writing instruction. Here is a link to learn more. Blessings, Lucinda

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:16-17 This is the only proof I need in order to believe that God loves me. My day-to-day needs being met, and my comfort, are not proof of His love. Although I know He has blessed me with much, I cannot base His love on what I think I need. The main basis of my faith is this verse from the Gospel of John, and knowing that the God who created the universe resides in me. As to feeling God's love -- I do feel His love most often, but being human I have moods and seasons that affect how I feel and perceive things. Sometimes I feel God's love, and sometimes I don't. But faith should never be based on feelings. Whether I am in a season of feeling His love or not, does not negate the fact that He does love me. In the same way, God's existence is not based on whether or not people believe in Him. God is, and God loves. That is enough for me to hold on to. Blessings, Lucinda

Same here. We will be going with Hake next year. This year we are doing a grammar review with FLL4 first semester, and we will do ALL during 2nd semester, take the summer off then begin Hake 8 in the fall. We will not be using the writing component of Hake, just the grammar. Instead, we will be doing WWS. Dd is really bummed out about no PHP grammar next year, but as long as we stay with WWS, she will survive. She said she thinks SWB's teaching has helped her more than any other we've used. She begged me to stay with PHP, so I'll take her to the end of what we have available. Blessings, Lucinda

It would matter to me what the last name is. I, of course, understand you can't post that....how about the number of syllables? Lucinda

We will be using Notgrass ATB for 8th grade. I searched and searched and finally hit on that one as the best choice for dd as a mid level US History study next year. Using Notgrass will allow us to take a lighter look at our history after having been with TOG and before heading into rhetoric stage, more in-depth study of the U.S. As to using Hakim and your question: I wonder if you could buy a SL IG for the Hakim books. SL is conservative and they use Hakim as the spine of U.S. History. I don't have direct experience with either Hakim or SL, but it might be worth checking into. Blessings, Lucinda

Here is another really nice Jesse Tree free printout. It comes with a beautiful book to print out for family devotions. I really love the website too. It's all very well thought out and presented. Happy Advent! Lucinda

We have had postcard exchanges on this forum in the past, and there have been both good and bad experiences. All I can say is that if everyone that commits to doing it follows through, it can be a really fun and rewarding activity. Unfortunately, some people don't follow through. One year I invested $40 in postcards and stamps and sent them to every last person on the list, only to get a dozen postcards from others. My daughter and I were really disappointed, to say the least. So a word from experience would be this: don't promise to send postcards to everyone unless you are willing and able to keep your commitment and actually do it. Blessings, Lucinda

Well said! I agree completely. Blessings, Lucinda

Anne, I could have written this post word for word! And hey -- I'm just about 20 miles SW of where you are, and it is raining BUCKETS!! Showers of Blessings, Lucinda

I did see some great possibilities on Pink Monkey. Thank you! Several of the links on the Spark notes site are not working. I haven't read any of their guides at all....the home page looks like a teen fan magazine. What's up with that? Awesome sites, thanks so much!! I definitely need help with poetry. I don't know about you, but my education was not all that great when it came to literature. I have learned more as a homeschool mom than I did all through my own years in grade school, jr. high and high school. College was a big boost, but I was mostly focused on writing, art and art history. Now poetry is something dd and I can learn together and appreciate. These resources will help us both tremendously. Blessings to all. Your input has been awesome! Lucinda

Where have you found Decoding Penguins? Who is the publisher or author? I've looked at several websites and can't seemed to see it anywhere. Found Teaching the Classics, and it looks really great. That might be on my list for high school if we continue on with home educating. Thanks for the tips! Blessings, Lucinda

There were several reasons we decided to pull our child out of public school, not just one. Here are the main reasons: 1. The environment of public school life was not conducive to the level of academics we had in mind for our child. The socialization (even in the primary grades) was not the type we felt was healthiest and best for her. (i.e. groups of girls with LOTS of drama, unhealthy peer pressure, exposure to far looser morals than those of our family, way too much emphasis on extra curricular activities, etc.) All of these things seemed to pull on our daughter at a very young age and take precedence over the actual education she was there for. 2. We wanted our child to have a rigorous education that would be customized to her own specific needs rather than a whole class-full of students at various levels of progress. 3. We want to exercise the freedom to include our faith and worldview into all subjects she is learning. Our beliefs and lifestyle aren't just on the fringe of our lives, it is at the heart of all we do and learn. 4. We wanted to draw closer as a family. As the teacher/mom, I love the closeness I share with my dd as we explore and learn so much together. This has been a rich adventure that I would not trade for anything in the world. 5. We wanted to have more flexibility. It is wonderful to have our own calendar and schedule to follow rather than someone else's. Also, homeschooling allows me to work part-time and still provide my dd with an awesome education. We can homeschool day or night, have a longer school year if we need to - or go year round, plan vacations whenever we want, take Grandma to the doctor or even work through snow days. We have learned so much during the past five years since we started. Homeschooling has changed our lives so much for the better! There is a ton of information and support available to hs families nowadays, and it has been proven over time to be a highly effective means of preparing young people for life. The success rate of homeschool education is absolutely astounding. There is really no reason NOT to hs unless you just lack the desire or conviction to do it. Blessings, Lucinda

I agree that dictation may be the key to helping your son. We have done dictation this year by using TWTM's recommendation to use excerpts from the literature dd is reading, or using material from the current history or science studies. I have used all three of these, and they work quite well. Have you watched youtube video of SWB dictating to her son? (This is Part I, and there is also a Part 2). Watching these was really helpful to me when I wanted to learn more about dictation. This, along with reading info here on this forum, and in TWTM book itself, has helped us tremendously. Dd's writing skills are showing a LOT of progress since we've been adding dictation to our weekly writing. Blessings, Lucinda

Since posting this last night, I have found a few of great sites for literature guides. I guess I should have done a bit more research before posting this thread....:tongue_smilie: But I thought I'd share some of what I've found in case this helps someone else. At first when I posted I had been using 'nameofbook literature analysis' as my key words in my search and came up with so many choices that I didn't know where to begin. (Hence my request for input.) Then I switched to the keywords, 'nameofbook literature guide'. and voilà - up came a number of choices that fit the bill for logic stage, but it was not so overwhelming. Some of the guides do have a bit more information than I really need, but they look very worthwhile to use, even in part. So far some sites I've found include Bibliomania and Glencoe (...thanks to Kfamily on another thread), which have some great helps - but they don't have the exact choices I'm looking for at this time. (They are still worthy of a bookmark though.) Then I came upon Core Knowledge, which covered two on my list and made me happy. Then I found Grade Saver, and there was what I need for Alice in Wonderland. Oh, and all of these sites are FREE, by the way. The only thing I've yet to find is a source for the poetry. Any suggestions? And I'd still love to get more resources for literature to go along with what I've come up with so far. Please do share if you have any great sites or stores that carry useful materials for analysis and/or study guides. Blessings, Lucinda