I have four kids, my youngest just turned 6. I didn't want to burn him out on school or push him because he was so young to me. We planned to do FIAR along with 100 EZ lessons this past year. FIAR took a lot of planning for me, and honestly with the 3 older kids I didn't always get my planning done, and I let it slide. So last year while he did get some "school" he didn't really get enough to be ready for 1st grade or where I think he should be. It's my fault. So this year we are repeating K with a boxed curriculum. I am really heavily leaning towards MFW, I have heard glowing reviews of it, and think it's really what will work for us.

:iagree:This is exactly why I did not like them. I have four kids, and having to run copies irritated me. I would have much preferred to have an ebook, but like you it was not available when I ordered mine.

I used Los Banos Story of the USA with my 4th grader last year, and it called for the Native Americans History Pockets to be used. A lot of the activities in the book were not all that appealing to her, although my younger ones who sat in on it really enjoyed them. I did modify some of the activities for the kids to make them more age appropriate. If I did use them again I would use them with a younger child, not an older one. On the other hand, like a previous poster said, there is a LOT of information in them, and they are an excellent resource as far as information goes.

Last year our co-op had three core classes. They did Prarie Primer for the younger students (K to 3) where the kids read the books at home and did the activities at co-op. The 4th through 6th graders did IEW, they watched the videos in class, and worked on the writing assignments at home. For Science the elementary students did Apologia Astronomy (they are doing Zoology this year), and the older students did Apologia General Science or Apologia Biology. All students K through 8th grade did Mystery of History, which is what I taught. I thought all of these translated really well to a co-op environment. With Science and History the chapters and teaching were done at home but reinforced with activities in class. The Mystery of History however was a little too much for the younger students, it worked best for our 4th grade and up students.

Ours is Walnut Ridge Academy. I use it primarily for paperwork, when dealing with companies, and whenever we need to sound "official". I did let the kids help to pick a name, we came up with a bunch of ideas, and then voted. A lot of the kids ideas were based on our street name, family name, town name, stuff like that. I felt that by having them help me name our school it would give them some ownership over the name.

We participated in a co-op last year that used Apologia. The kids were given reading assignments to complete at home, so each family had to have a copy of the book. In class the kids recapped what they read and did the activities.

In 2005 we made the decision to place my grandfather in a hospice unit at a hospital. The nurses were wonderful, they worked as hard as possible to make my grandfather more possible, they brought in counselors to talk to the family, they helped my children make clay imprints of my grandfather's fingerprints for keepsakes, and offered grief counseling for the whole family. During one of the many long nights when I was at the hospital by myself one of the counselors spent two hours talking with me, she was such a bright point in a horrible situation, as we had just lost my uncle a few months earlier. It was hard dealing with so much death in such a short period of time. I am sorry that you are going through such a rough time and my heart goes out to your family.

Ready and waiting.....

I cry all the time when I read. I get really emotional lately. I think it has a lot to do with being a mom myself and then losing several family members over the past few years. Like one of the previous posters said my kids barely realize I am upset though because they are so engrossed in the book.

I am interested to see what others say about this. I have been considering this same thing. I have Mystery of History that I used with my younger kids. I am thinking I am going to use MOH but supplement with books from the Well Trained Mind, and assign some more in depth tasks.

Here is the link to the homemade incubators on Backyard Chicken. We have been debating whether or not to make our own incubator. We have a styrofoam cooler we brought seafood back from Florida in, and it's just screaming to be made into an incubator. We have a Little Giant incubator with a turner in it right now, but we would still like to make our own just to say we did it. Keep us updated and let us know if you decide to do it. I'd love to hear how it turns out.

I am Stephanie. I have been lurking on the boards for a while, but never really got involved. I have four kids, two boys 5 and 15, two girls 8 and 11. We live in Indiana.

We used MOH this past year. It is very easy to add stuff in and the yahoo group files section is wonderful. MOH is set up to do three lessons per week, we added in videos, books, crafts, games. It is really easy to expand on their schedule.

We have tried 100 EZ Lessons twice now and are so frustrated with it. My youngest is only 5 so I am not pushing reading right now, I figure it will come in time. However he loves Hooked on Phonics, especially the computer game part of it, I guess it makes him feel like a big boy . We also use Explode the Code, actually we are on Get Ready for the Code right now, and he also likes watching Leap Frog Letter Factory, which is a great movie for teaching phonics sounds. And if it makes you feel better read President Woodrow Wilson didn't learn to read until he was 12.

:iagree: We have had to cut our homeschool budget as well.

Wow! Thank you. I had no idea that this even exsisted!

I read the comments to and couldn't believe how the responders were blaming the student and his parents. That is truly outrageous!

Hi! I'm in Salem, Indiana which is Washington County.

We have encountered a lot of negative stereotypes of homeschoolers. I have young kids and do my best to shield them from it because I don't ever want them to think homeschooling is wrong. We have talked about how some people think homeschooling is crazy. My own grandmother said something to me not to long ago about how she always thought that homeschoolers were either hippies or religious freaks (sorry if this offends someone) but she has been meeting more and more people that homeschool that are completely normal. I think I came up with some sarcastic remark about it being nice to know she considered me normal, but I knew it was her way of saying she didn't think homeschooling was as bad as she had previously thought.

I just wanted to thank you for all you do. We are using your American History program currently and I absolutely LOVE it. Your hard work has really been a blessing for my family!