Thank you for posting about your situation, Starrbuck. I will, as I'm sure many others reading this thread will, pray for you and your dear family to find a home very soon. At least the little ones find their security in the comfort of parents and siblings, and they are resilient....but still, things will be much better when you find a home again. I'm going to pray that God gives you an amazing, wonderful Christmas that you will look back on for years to come as you remember how faithful He is. Blessings, Lucinda

Thank you, Free! I'm blessed to hear how God has provided for your family this year. Sometimes its so hard to receive, but there are some valuable lessons to be learned from it. May this be the best Christmas ever! Lucinda

Thank you Rose, and I will pray for you as well. God must have something amazing for your family up ahead or He wouldn't give you this testing of faith. Stay focused on Him this Christmas, and know that He is with you every step of the way. :grouphug: Blessings, Lucinda

My dh is going through a seasonal layoff and is drawing unemployment, and last week was a waiting week without a paycheck. We've been through this kind of thing before, and know we'll get through it -- but it quite honestly takes prayer to stay away from depression this time of year. I am making a focused effort on keeping traditions going -- especially for the sake of my dd. We are baking cookies, playing Christmas music and we have a tree. I have not shopped for gifts at all so far, and am not sure I'll be able to do much next week either. My family might just get cookies for Christmas! This isn't a whining post, believe me. We are making our mortgage payment, have lights and water and food to eat. Things could be much worse. I'm not defeated by any sense of the word, as my faith is firmly holding me together. I pray scripture over our situation and trust that the Lord is taking good care of us. And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:19 I am just curious to know if anyone else is facing a tough Christmas this year. If so, why not share so we can encourage and pray for each other? Blessings, Lucinda

Come to think of it, I used to have an M.D. by the name of Dr. Blessing...and he was genuinely a wonderful doctor. I think I'd rather be his patient than your neighbor's. :001_smile: And speaking of doctors, I had a doctor back in the mid ninties by the name of Dr. Pepper. No joke! (He was a wonderful doctor as well, and you know -- he was always kind of perky now that I think of it.) Blessings, Lucinda

Which is exactly the point I've tried to make to you both in this thread and in another thread about TOG. There are several choices for you, dear lady, if you take this idea and run with it. :~) Blessings, Lucinda

:iagree: I think this is a wonderful point. You are the teacher and have control over how the material is presented. As you become more experienced with hs'ing, you learn to do this more and more. Unless you plan to just read a "canned" script for every single lesson you teach, then you will learn to gauge what information to slide in from your own Bible readings or lessons, or what you might choose to present in a different way than the curriculum does. Also, the early years are ideal for the memorization of scriptures, and studying general facts from history, hearing beautiful literature read alouds, etc. All of the programs mentioned are excellent resources for this. Another thought is this -- how much theology do you want to give your children when they are just at the grammar and logic levels? Most kids aren't ready for deep theological considerations until they are more into the rhetoric stage. I personally feel that there are some aspects that you could customize into a general Christian curriculum as you see fit, then move over to the deeper stuff when your dc are older. Blessings, Lucinda

Wow! Lots of stories about names here -- I had no idea what I'd be starting when I posted! I still think Russell Sprout is a strange name for a kid, even if he does grow up on a vegetable farm! As I've read through this thread I'm reminded of three other strange names I've run across in my life, not all of which were the fault of the parents: There was a set of twins that were baptized with me when I was a kid who's names were Pixie and Dixie. Shhheeeeee! (Anyone else remember the old Huckleberry Hound cartoons?) I went to school with a kid named Merlin Dickey. His mother's name was Virgie and his sister's name was Vickey. :tongue_smilie: One of my childhood friends' last name was Quick. When she was older she married a guy with the last name of Rice. I'll never forget reading the engagement announcement that had "Quick-Rice" under their picture. Thanks for all the laughs, friends! In a lot of cases you really do need to laugh, otherwise you'd have to cry. Blessings, Lucinda

Yes! Funny in itself, but even more so because his parents are vegetable farmers and that actually GROW brussell sprouts! :lol: Lucinda

This is absolutely true -- I'm not joking. A young couple we know that are farmers just had their first baby. People all during the pregnancy referred to the baby as "sprout" and we thought it was cute. Little did we know, but they actually gave their newborn son the name Sprout as a middle name. And to top it off, his first name is Russell!! I am just shocked that this very educated and intelligent couple would give their dear baby a name like this. I respect their choice certainly and wouldn't dream of criticizing them, but I keep thinking about it and still can't believe it. I grew up with a last name that was easy to joke about and it was painful. I'm afraid this guy is really going to be teased if anyone ever finds out his middle name. I feel soooo sorry for him! What do you think? Blessings, Lucinda

Love, love, love my Harmony needles from Knitpicks. They're just right in every way -- even the beautiful colors as I look at them while I knit! Blessings, Lucinda

After keeping up with a demanding pace of hs'ing plus teaching part-time at a school as well as to my own private art students, I am feeling just exhausted lately. Maybe the cold weather of the season adds to the mix and makes me feel like wanting to hibernate. At any rate, I'm so tired this weekend that I am planning to stay home from church in the morning and devote the whole day to rest. Is anyone else really bushed this month? Is this normal for December for hs'ers? Blessings, Lucinda

I haven't purchased one single gift yet. Dh is on a seasonal layoff, and so money is very tight. We have to focus on the mortgage, utilities, gas and food money, etc. first, then purchase gifts with whatever might be left after paying bills on the 20th. Our dd and grandkids are the priority of course. Blessings, Lucinda

My dd wasn't crazy about Calculadder drills while we were using them either, but at the same time they did help her a lot during 3rd and 4th grade. I bought them for her at the encouragement of teachers at the Classical school where I teach part time. Students at the school have to pass each level within the time limit or they cannot move up to the next level. It is strictly enforced there, whether kids like them or not -- and students at the school really excel in math. I just figured that kids don't like medicine either, but we give it to them for their own good. :tongue_smilie: Blessings, Lucinda

So far, we have not encountered a problem with theology associated with TOG. There is a definite Christian worldview, but it is more general from what I can tell. We, ourselves, are more Wesleyan/Armenian and it has not been a problem to us at all. Do remember that the spine of the curriculum is history and everything connects to that. If theology is problematic, it can easily be adapted to fit the needs of your family. I'd encourage you to try a free 3-wk sample and find out for yourselves how it works. Blessings, Lucinda

Yes, not so long ago, it was me on the other end of a situation like the op has described. My husband was out of work and we were facing a very lean Christmas. We asked people to please not buy us gifts, but do you know what? Our family bought us gifts anyway, and they showered us with love at a time that we really, really needed it. We had made the request because we could not possibly buy gifts for our family as we had in the past, and they understood where we were coming from. What mattered to them was that we were surrounded by family, and knew that there was hope and that we were cared about. They told us they weren't going to withhold gifts just because we were facing a crisis at Christmas time. Their expressions of love and care still inspire me when I think of it today. We weren't offended, upset or mad at these people for not going by our request. Our family was blessed by having the opportunity to just be generous, and we were blessed by the warmth and love we felt. If any of you have been in this situation, you might be able to relate to what I'm saying. Maybe in a case like this there just isn't a pat answer that covers all situations. Perhaps the answer varies from one family to the other as well as the relationships that are within it. Blessings, Lucinda

I agree with this poster....Also, sometimes people say not to give them gifts in this situation because they don't want to feel guilty about receiving someone's generosity. I think that in our culture it is often very hard to be on the receiving end. We not only feel guilty, but we are not in charge of the situation. I had to learn this lesson myself the hard way -- at Christmas time. If you gave them their gifts and warm expressions of love during the Christmas season, you just may be blessing them two ways. One, they will still have gifts at Christmas and be blessed by them, and two, they will gain some experience in learning to receive a blessing. I personally think that is important for us as Americans. Something to think about. Blessings, Lucinda P.S. I wrote something along these lines in my blog last night!

Tell them the truth. They are old enough to understand. Perhaps it would also be a good time to get your dc involved with charity works or introduce some new traditions that will bring added meaning to Christmas. Blessings, Lucinda

I am SO, SO in agreement with this post! Try to resist the ideology that says school has to look a certain way in order to be legitimate. You will have a chance to work with your dc in a more focused way once you are past this transition, so try to relax and do what you can do for the time. It will be worth it in the long run, and your dc will not be pulled back and forth between hs and ps. That can be much harder on them than just sticking things out with you right now. Be encouraged, this too shall pass. Blessings, Lucinda

My 10 yo is also an avid reader. She has an amazing vocabulary for her age -- something I get feedback on (from various sources that are not connected) all of the time. She loves to write and is a very good story teller too. BUT -- she is not a good speller. I personally think it is normal at this age, and that is why we teach our dc spelling. Blessings, Lucinda

I love your suggestions and really appreciate your input. So far, I've been concentrating on getting "with the program" and setting the right pace, etc. while I make sure dd gets all of her assignments in a realistic time frame, etc. But I will hold on to your suggestions for sure. I like the idea of adding the rhetoric literature selections to my own reading. That is a wonderful idea. Another thing I love about TOG (and the Hive as well) is the great community we have. Isn't it great to bounce things off each other this way? Blessings, Lucinda

This was a topic on my blog recently. Click the link below and take a look. Blessings, Lucinda

Ruthie, I have opted to purchase the resource books one unit at a time. We will keep the ones we want to keep, and sell the others as used books after our year is complete. I'm going to hold off on doing this because sometimes you want to go back and re-read a book from another unit you've gone through that same year. Anyway, I have gotten them so far from Amazon because I have Prime. We don't have a library in our town and to use the library in a nearby cities would cost us more than an annual membership for Amazon Prime. I've also heard great things on this board about Bookshelf Central, and I think I might try them sometime too. If you order in advance and don't mind waiting longer for the shipment, BC will ship Media Rate and it is pretty cheap. Another thing I'm doing is getting books here and there through Bookmooch and Paperbackswap. I've got all of next year's books posted on my wishlists on both sites, and I've already got at least a dozen of the books collected and waiting on the shelf for Yr. 2. This will save me money too. So for us, its a mixture of new and used books, and its all a joy. We love the beautiful books that arrive in time for our new unit, and place them lovingly on the shelf where they are ready when we need them. This is yet another thing about TOG that we really appreciate and love. Blessings, Lucinda

Yes, I agree on this choice. I'd also like to add The Perilous Road by William O. Steele and Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder. All three are great books that I believe will fit your needs if you use them as read alouds and have family discussions. Blessings, Lucinda

My dd and I completed Unit 1 of Yr. 1 last week, and we are now on to the next unit. I wanted to share this post with the Hive because I'd like to encourage others that may be considering using TOG at some point. I heard about this amazing curriculum here on TWTM forum, as there is a large number of TOG families here. When we first started TOG I had some mixed feelings -- both excitement and nervousness. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I had what it would take to be a good teacher using the curriculum. I'm a college graduate with a fairly high GPA, but because I see Marcia Somerville and the developers of TOG as VERY smart people, I have to admit that I had a fear of failure. Little did I know that my fears were not necessary. The good news is that TOG is quite user friendly and easy to use. It took me a short time to develop an ability to gauge the right amount of information to cover each week and adjust everything to the right pace. Once we got that down, however, it started to be a breeze. Once we realized that we could move along faster or slow down if we wanted to, it made all the difference in the world. As for the curriculum itself: I love, love, love the Teacher's Notes! Not only are they useful for me in teaching, but I am learning right along with my dd quite often. It took a week or two to get the hang of the way they are laid out, but once that happened it opened up a whole new perspective for me. We have found that the amount of reading for UG is very realistic for my dd to handle. In fact, we are adding SWB's SOTW from the alternate reading list to our regular list, and it has been perfect. I had never used SOTW before, and as I read along with dd, I am so impressed. I love SOTW!! All of the choices of books for TOG reading are wonderful, and my daughter is literally eating them up each and every week. I've been particularly amazed at her interest in encyclopedia type reference books! I was concerned at first that she may get bored, but this has not been the case at all. We are using WA's and enjoying it as well, especially since my dd learning to develop her ideas in writing at Level 6. The graphic organizers are new to us, and we've found that they are a great help with pre-writing exercises. I love it that WA is a reference that covers all the age levels and helps me adapt particular types of writing to my dd's level of understanding and ability. Sometimes we are alternating WA with WS for variety and it seems to be working. (This was something I planned through what lI had earned here on the WTM forum too.) If you asked my dd, she would tell you that there are two things she likes the most about TOG. One, she loves the way everything fits together in units. She loves the connections between history, literature, writing assignments, geography, worldview and Bible. Secondly, she loves the hands-on projects with a passion. This was something she had missed from her earlier public school experience, but since finding TOG, I have been able to nurture her creative side along with her learning as I give her projects that keep her hands busy. Some children really need this, and TOG does it beautifully. We do have art class each week, but the hands-on projects within our TOG units are something that she really loves. I could probably go on and on, but I'll leave you with one last thought. Quite seriously, I believe that God directed me to this wonderful curriculum for my precious dd's education. TOG is ideal as a tool for molding character and building knowledge. As I answer to the call to educate my child at home, I am very thankful for having the opportunity to use this rich and wonderful curriculum. I may at some point send my dd to the private Christian school where I work part-time, and if that day comes I know she will be more prepared and ready for it because of the time we are spending with TOG and the other great curriculum choices I've learned about here on TWTM forum. You guys are really the best! Blessings, Lucinda