Here is a link to the student text on the Christian Book Dist. (CBD) website. Click on "Additional Views" and you'll get a pop up with views of several pages. And here is a link to the same for the Student Activity book. Hope this helps. Blessings, Lucinda

Hi Aengus, I'm chiming in now, although I've followed the thread with interest since you first posted. I am a Mac user and would LOVE to have a tool for recording and keeping grades, generating report cards and attendance, and ultimately creating transcripts from high school. If you add these to your list of capabilities, then I will be one very happy hs mom! Blessings, Lucinda

This is what we do as well. Dd has been writing in her own planner for the past 2 years. I personally believe that writing out the information by hand is an important skill that should be learned and practiced before using a computer spreadsheet. In high school I'll teach her about spreadsheets and give her some office type computer training. Blessings, Lucinda

In the majority of other cultures in the world, families share a bed together. It's our American culture that has made it so controversial. I read up on this when dd was tiny because she needed to be with us at night and my other children had all slept alone. The more I read, the more I was convinced that co-sleeping is normal and natural, despite what so many others claim here in our country. One writer even stated that because we push our little ones away and insist that they deal with fears and insecurities alone in their own beds, we shouldn't wonder why they don't want to come to us when they need us later as teenagers. I've always remembered that. It's not just a matter of leaving the door open, but being available 24/7 to your dc. Just some thoughts to consider... Blessings, Lucinda

Okay, this is more of a textbook answer, but I think it has merit. We are going to use Runkle's Welcome to the Wonderful World of Geography next year. I'm suggesting this because it's designed for older students that are 6th grade through high school, but what if you used it as a spine for your older students and brought the younger ones in at a simpler level? The Activity Book has supplemental information in it, but from what I can see it looks excellent. Runkle's does not include cultural studies, but you could easily supplement with the Internet and library, and perhaps even add some lapbooks for the younger, hands-on students in your group as you study each region/country, especially in the activity book. The other suggestion would be to go with the Trail Guide to World Geography or the Trail Guide to U.S. Geography through the same publishing company. There are multi-level lessons included with the course, and lapbook kits available as well. Both of these options are well organized, inexpensive and would be a great supplement for a year off of history. I believe that even with the Classical method, a year in a textbook for one subject is totally all right. We don't have to be rigid in order to give our children what they need. Just my thoughts fwiw. Blessings, Lucinda

Thanks for mentioning that. I had a vague memory of that article as well, so I went back and found it. Here it is, on TWTM site list of articles. SWB explains it all very well. Blessings, Lucinda

That's just unbelievable! I got a nasty comment awhile back on my blog too, and it was so hurtful, so.... unnecessary. Why do people have to be so devious? Just because they CAN? Well, just remember that it's really their problem and not yours. Blessings, Lucinda P.S. Yeah, delete the darn thing.

If that happened to me, I'd be shopping for another farm to buy from. Our CSA gave us generous amounts and a great variety. Blessings, Lucinda

We were part of a local CSA for a few years and I LOVED it!! We paid $85 per month between February and the end of November and got a very good variety of produce each week. I loved it that we knew our farmers and actually visited the farm a few times. It was good to know that our food was grown without chemicals and hormones, wasn't trucked or flown from another state or country - thereby saving fuel and pollution to the environment, and that we were supporting local business. The last point was quite important since we believe that buying local is the best way to spark the economy. Another great joy we found in being part of a CSA was in planning our meals around what was available. It was a valuable lesson for all of us, and it was fun to creatively work with what we received each week. I learned to like that much, much more than planning a meal and hunting down the ingredients at the supermarket. When we had to drop out of the CSA it was a hard thing to do, but we were forced by circumstances rather than because we changed our minds about it or were unhappy. I will gladly go back to buying from local farmers through a CSA once our circumstances change. Blessings, Lucinda

You are all entirely welcome! Blessings, Lucinda

I have sold all of my used curriculum through this forum and on homeschoolclassifieds.com Whatever is leftover I put on Bookmooch.com or Paperbackswap.com and get points instead of $$. Blessings, Lucinda

I'm glad it helps! I think if I were putting together my own this year, I'd be using it too! Blessings, Lucinda

I am sending you a pm, Chris. :) You WILL get through this, you really will! Blessings, Lucinda

I just ran across this resource on the Homeschool Classifieds website and thought of those of you on the boards that are looking for templates for your planner. They have a weekly assignment sheet, one-page and multi-page calendars, sequential weeks of numbered days lesson plan page, Bible reading chart, etc. Just very simple, but I thought it might be useful to some. Blessings, Lucinda

No, I don't think it is a prerequisite at all. In fact, ALL is designed follow FLL4. One of the PHP customer service reps told me that ALL is presented right at grade level, and that a student should be able to start it at grade level without a problem. She said that ALL does a lot of review while also introducing new concepts. Gathering from what she told me, I think that if your dd is going into 5th grade she should do just fine. I know that some of what my dd is going to have in ALL is going to be repeated from R&S 5, but that's okay with me because it will include other things that R&S 5 didn't have. I'm also thinking that because it is done in SWB's style and methods, my dd will get the structure down as we move on with the series. Blessings, Lucinda

I am replacing R&S with WWS & ALL. My dd is actually going into 7th grade, but she completed R&S 5 last year and I'd like to follow SWB's methods from here on. As I shared in another thread I've decided to go over to SWB's writing and grammar program with a goal of teaching to mastery over a four year period. Honestly, it would be overkill to do more than one writing and/or grammar program the same year. WWS & ALL are complete grammar and composition courses on their own and are designed to be used together, although they could be used independently if you have one or the other that you prefer partnering from elsewhere. Hope that helps. Blessings, Lucinda

You may have the basics covered already, but I thought I'd mention that SOS has courses for 7-12th graders for each state and that they are designed to cover standard state requirements. I thought they look good, and for a very reasonable price. Here is a link to them all. If you check out the course descriptions, there is a download that lists the exact projects that are included. Blessings, Lucinda

I am not sorry in the least that we did R&S5. It is a very thorough program, although I did skip much of the writing assignments and used TOG writing lessons instead. My dd wasn't all that thrilled with R&S, but she did learn a lot this past year. We were looking to filling in some holes that were there from previous grammar curriculum we'd used, and R&S did a great job for what we needed. Now having said that, I think that if I were in the same situation as you I'd be very interested in switching over to ALL at the same time I begin WWS too. If you think your dd would like it better, it may make all the difference in the world to her. It's my understanding that the complete downloads will be available this fall and printed books in Dec./Jan. or thereabouts. There are samples available for both now, so you may want to download from the links I'm providing. Here is the link to WWS samples, and here is the link to ALL samples. Both samples contain quite a few weeks worth of lessons so you could actually use them to get started until the final downloads are available. Blessings, Lucinda

I pulled our dd out of ps the summer after 2nd grade and have never looked back. We are about to begin our 5th year, and I feel that we'll most likely go all the way through to graduation. Blessings, Lucinda

Roxanne, I wanted to hit the LIKE button on your last post, but there wasn't one. So I'll just type a big, "Amen, Sister!" instead. LOL!!:rofl: Blessings, Lucinda

Thank you, Roxanne! As I read your post I breathed a sigh of relief because I think you are right! Even as I attended our local homeschool conference this weekend I searched high and low, not seeing anything that would be a good fit for us for grammar. I was sure to look through R&S 6 again too, and I realized it really isn't what I'm looking for. So after all that, I think I just may go ahead and stick with my plans to do ALL. Blessings, Lucinda

I'm really in a quandry. We used R&S 5 for 6th grade to fill in some holes and lay a strong foundation. My plan was to move over completely to WWS & ALL for 7th grade this coming year, but my assumption was that it would be released with all four levels. Now that I know that only Level 1 is available, I'm wondering about grammar for dd. After doing well with R&S 5 this past year, wouldn't it be overkill to put her in Level 1 of the new program? Then when she's in 8th grade, she'd only be at Level 2 of ALL. :lol: I just don't know what to do! Maybe I should have held on to that R&S 6 that I just sold not long ago. I'm actually thinking about buying another set to use just for grammar and pair it up with WWS for composition. Any ideas? Blessings, Lucinda

We are also using TT PreAlgebra for 7th grade. We went from Saxon for 3rd grade, to MUS for 4th, then landed on TT for 5 & 6th. It made a huge difference for dd and for me as teacher, so we are sticking with it. We will continue to use TT through high school. Blessings, Lucinda

Your points are so true, and I accept what you are saying fully! Life IS precious and we should never take it for granted. My own dh was working last month and had a stroke while driving a 53' semi, but he kept driving and finished his day not knowing what had happened. He is recovering from it now and is doing well despite speech issues, but his CDL has been pulled because of the medical situation. We don't know what he is going to do next, and our life is in a flux -- but I thank God from the bottom of my heart that he (and possibly others) didn't die that day. It happened when least expected, and it's a miracle that he is still with us. We cannot, cannot take life for granted. It is a gift from God -- every single minute. Blessings, Lucinda

:grouphug: Praying with you, Katie. I will continue to lift up your mom, you and all your family as you go through this. Please continue to keep us posted. (BTW, your mom has done a fantastic job raising you and grounding you in faith. I can tell by your posts. You have really blessed me!) Blessings, Lucinda