Not all pre-algebra programs are mostly arithmetic. MIF 6 is just 1/3 of their middle school sequence and it covers expanding/factoring/solving algebra equations & inequalities, graphing linear equations, etc. Plus probability, statistics, geometry ... All of that was covered in Holt's middle school sequence as well.

We are going to London in February too! I haven't booked a place yet. We usually use AirBnB, but they look just as expensive as hotels, and not really any nicer.

I was just working on this today!! I ordered the three "So You Really Want to Learn History" books which are geared for ages 11-13, I believe. I lined up the stories in Robert Lacey's Great Tales from English History 1 with SYRWTL History 1 (the only one That has arrived so far). You can order the textbooks from book depository and the stories from Amazon. It looks like it will be a really fun year-ish. I ambitiously hope to get through all three history books in one year, but they are meant to each take 1 year. I can email you the lineup if you want to pm me your email address. ETA: The books are out of print, but I was able to order from Amazon.co.uk. I doubt many sellers would ship to the US, though. So that might not work, sorry!

I tried combining my 10th and 4th grader for French, because they are both starting from scratch, and it was too contentious. The 10th grader felt like the 4th grader was boasting any time he said anything. The younger one learns easily while the older has LDs, and he was sensitive to being overtaken. I quickly split them up.

This is my son! Exactly! Took forever to get any phonemic awareness (at 16 still struggles to syllibicate long words). Apraxic - graduated speec therapy but is still unclear. CAPD diagnosis. Struggles with following directions, even written (like recipes). He is a WONDERFUL person, very sweet, generous, & helpful ... but these issues really impact him. He will be living at home a long time. Not sure what will happen after he graduates.

I took quotes from The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, in which the main character often refers to the pithy sayings of her school's founder. I typed them into the form on https://www.zaner-bloser.com/products/fontsdemo/index.html, and printed them out. I cut them in strips and will put them in a jar, so my son can pick one each day to copy. He finishes his cursive workbook today, so he is excited to start the quotes! You could make your own system with small poems, famous quotes, etc.

I like the Mrs. Cubbison's stuffing. I think it's just seasoned bread cubes. But I use broth made from the turkey neck, lots of butter, onions & celery, herbs, bake it in the oven ... and we like it. I guess I could cube bread and let it dry ... but why?

Lactase tablets from Costco are pretty cheap. :)

You can't taste it, but you might notice if you left it out. Or you might not. I wouldn't buy the sauce if you'll never use it for anything else (but a dash is great in scrambled eggs too). You can get a tiny bottle for a couple dollars.

I revise my suggestion. That Instant Pot recipe is better than the Alton Brown one. I made both and 3/3 of us agree. I only had Colby jack cheese, so I used Dijon mustard and twice as much tobasco sauce to increase the flavor. Then I added chopped, crisp bacon and that really sent it over the edge. The kids kept saying, "Thanks, Mom!"

Well, I was a fast reader because I skimmed. I could have answered plot questions fine, but I was missing all the description. Most of the plot was in the dialogue, and that's what I paid attention to. That is fine for Trixie Belden and Ramona Quimby, but doesn't work for everything. As an adult I have become a much slower reader. I back up and re-read constantly, either to enjoy a part again or because I realize that I've skimmed. As the books get more difficult, skimming leaves me lost. I wish I had learned to slow down and read every word as a kid.

I just had a mom highly recommend the Bunnicula audiobooks as her family's favorite. They used them on a long car trip too.

Around the World in 80 Days narrated by Jim Dale is very entertaining! I've bought everything Jim Dale narrates. He does the Harry Potter series too. :)

Couldn't you add up all the grams of flour, and then divide into 3 parts: two for the canister and one for the bag? One third of the total is 3061 grams.

Alton Brown's Stovetop Mac & Cheese is the BEST. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/stovetop-mac-n-cheese-recipe-1939465 I like this better than recipes that use a roux. It's very creamy and you don't have to bake it.

Wow - I had even looked at the Pandia Press website to confirm. On their History Odyssey page they only show ancients & medieval for level 3. Now when I look at the menu I see they have a separate page for American History. Good to know (well, actually, I shouldn't look because I don't want to start questioning my plans!).

We did a family vacation to Costa Rica last year, and that would make a great couples trip. Alaska Airlines now flies to CR, via Los Angeles. We live in Europe now, and all of our recent vacation plans have involved visiting different cities - well, we did a 9 day trip with 3 days in Prague, 1 in Bratislava, 1 visiting caves & castles in central Slovakia, and 4 in Budapest. For us, our daily life is fairly peaceful, so if we want to vacation we want to GO somewhere, not get away, kwim? Camping or renting a remote cabin just doesn't interest me anymore. We haven't done a couples trip yet. We could probably ask friends to watch the kids for a weekend, but the kids are good travelers and dh and I aren't exactly sunbathers or clubbers ;). The stuff we like to do is the stuff they like to do too. Sometimes when we're on a trip, we will leave the kids home in the evening and go get dinner & wander around together. For a weekend trip, I would go to a quaint town or Amsterdam. Maybe Brussels since it's so close. If I was going to plan a week-long couples-only trip, I think it would be to Ireland. Dh has always wanted to go. We've done a couple of "treasure hunts" where you pay $50 or so to be given clues that lead you around the city, exploring the less-touristy side. Those are fun. Maybe they have one of those in Dublin.

My 4th grader is using: 180 Days of Writing 5 for composition. It's really helped him get over his writing reluctance, because I let him be silly in his writing. It includes lots of stylistic practice too, like writing with metaphors, idioms, concise language, etc. I never see this mentioned on the board, but it fits our needs really well. So far the topics have been picked out for him - like describe a house with useful inventions you've created, argue for or against trick-or-treating, instruct someone in the process of voting for president. The focus is on the writing, less on the content (which is fine with me right now). Grammar for the WTM - we just started this, and I think it will work out very well for him. If he hadn't done much grammar before, I would just do Growing with Grammar which goes a little slower. Zaner Bloser 2C for cursive. He is nearly done, and he will do 3 next, or else do copywork using quotes from The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place that I typed out on ZB online. He doesn't need spelling.

Wait, are you talking about not liking K12's Human Odyssey textbooks for the middle grade world history? That is different than Pandia Press's History Odyssey. History Odyssey doesn't have an American History program, but K12 has Amerian Odyssey for high school. If that's the one your kid likes, I'm glad - I have that in the queue for next year. But we loved Human Odyssey 1-3 too. Nevermind, I stand corrected! I didn't see it on their website.

This may not have the same appeal to you in Florida, but I make a lot of soups. I love my instant pot! Soups seem to fill us up well, and they aren't that expensive since each serving has less meat than if you put it on a plate. My kids eat everything, though. Each one started out picky, but grew to like everything by the time they were about 8. So I would encourage you to keep making good food, and not limit it to what they like now. Just ask them to taste what you make. chicken noodle or chicken spaetzle chicken tortilla chicken gnocchi ham & lentil (kids' favorite) chicken & white bean w/ green chiles minestrone cream of celeriac (celery root - it's a pureed soup) butternut squash & apple black bean taco soup made with ground beef We also have pasta w/ meat sauce, ratatouille with a bratwurst or kielbasa sausage, "taco pie," chicken enchiladas ... We usually have leftovers for lunch, but we also like: quesadillas with refried beans & cheese, plus I like mild green chiles on mine toaster-oven "pizzas" with flatbreads or pitas Grilled cheese sandwiches w/ tomato soup The Instant Pot really makes cooking easier - you don't have to start so early. I'm making beef carbonnade right now ....

I would enjoy the easy math year. Lord knows that doesn't happen too often! My son is on the last chapter of MUS geometry, and it's nearly effortless for him- but we have so much going on, and he has a lot of work in other subjects, that I am ok with it being easy. He is about to start algebra 2, and the work will ramp up again. I hope he can appreciate this break ;).

I just started it with my gifted 4th grader. He did Growing with Grammar 5 last year, so he isn't going into this cold. So far, so good. The scripting feels very natural to me.

I find MIF way more thorough than Singapore, with a lot more problems (this is a good thing!). You can sign up for virtual samples of the MIF program, and then you can view the TMs. It takes time, but you can go through the TM lesson-by-lesson and mark where the days are divided. The first page of each lesson will say something like Pacing Day 1: pgs. xxx-xxx Day 2: pgs xxx-xxx On the TM page for the practice problems, in the margin it says Assignment Guide Day 1: All students should complete 1-13 and 20-21 Day 2: All students should complete 14-19 22-23 provide additional challenge Now, these problems refer to the textbook problem set, but it is easy to find the comparable problems in the workbook. But it gives you that daily schedule to do these pages out of the textbook and assign these types of problems. I have used 1A-6A so far, and we generally do a whole lesson a day even though many are designed to take 2-3 days. I just keep going until I see fatigue. The textbook has an abundance of explanations and examples - I don't use them all if my son can understand the concept quickly. This was more common in the lower grades - now that we are in Course 1 (6A) we are slowing down and doing every example. The problems in the workbook follow the order of the examples in the text. So sometimes I work halfway through the text lesson, and then give my son the first set(s) of problems that coordinate with what we've covered. Or sometimes we just cover the text one day and do the problems the next day. I almost never cross out problems though. I think all the practice is excellent. We use the workbooks for the problem sets, and I use the textbook problems for review or extra practice. In Course 1, there is no longer a workbook, but the Extra Practice workbook works perfectly. For me, the visual presentation of Math in Focus is 1000% more appealing than Singapore PM. And remember, MIF is a newer, updated version of PM that is designed to be easier to teach. I find that the workbooks provide plenty of challenging practice - no need to buy lots of supplements like in PM. In the lower grades I supplemented with 70 Must-Know Word Problems, but in 6A every dang lesson is packed with word problems, so I am just thrilled with all of the application. My 9 yr old happily spends 1-2 hours a day on math, and at least half of that time we are solving the problems in the text togther, thinking of all the ways we could approach the problem and often solving it several different ways. I plan to stay with it through 8B, but finding an algebra I like as much will be tough!

Wow, I can feel the relief and hope in your post. This could be such a big step forward. I hope it all works out. Please keep us posted. I'm also so glad that K was able to get her sleep back on track and head off a crisis. Does she have something like Clonidine or Benadryl she can take when she needs to sleep but can't wind down?

I am going through the saaaaame thing. I talked to my dd last night about her not doing some things she really needs to do. I told her I wasn't upset or disappointed, but I know it is easy to procrastinate. Then I shared with her a couple of things I was putting off, and we agreed to each do the things we were dreading. It was funny; she said, "It's easy for me to think,'Jeez Mom, just do it!'" Yes, it is easier said than done. She texted me a bit later to say she had done one, and I did the same. I still have to do my other task, which I will do right now. For most things I wouldn't push, but these are health things that can't wait. And she generally accepts a nudge from me with a good attitude. I just have to be careful to not sound like I'm scolding. I did suggest she write down a few of the other not-urgent things she needs to do, but I am not saying more (yet). She lives in a different country so I am not up in her business, but she knows I will always worry if she is taking good care of herself.