I'm looking for something basic to explain/describe local/state/national government to my 6th grader. I don't need a whole program. Just something we could review over the course of a few weeks or month. I was trying to explain the different leaders/offices but I think if he see some charts or lists it would help him. Thanks

We are doing the CAT5 (abbreviated version) test this week. The time limits are killing me. DS is missing the last 2-3 questions because of the time limit on half the sections-grrr. I had him do the questions/problems because I wanted to see if he could do them, he could. He just needed more time to work them out. I didn't have him mark them on the sheet though. He's so auditory that he has to read many of the questions aloud and that is slowing him down. What is the point of the time limits really? I can see not taking hours but 18 min for 20 math problems that you have to write out on paper seems like a really short time frame to me. I don't think I could do it! :confused: I'm already not looking forward to the results... :glare: Thankfully, it will only come to me, I don't have to turn it in to anyone. But Dh gets really hung up on the results so I can see him getting upset if the results are not up to his expectations partly because DS just didn't have time to finish.

Oh yes, they "wheek" for their food :) We have 2 that are very loud and one that is quiet. Good thing is, they follow our sleep schedule so they are not up all night wheeking.

Have you ever tried D Mannose powder? http://www.healingtherapies.info/d-mannose.htm I always get UTIs when I'm pregnant. Really bad ones-like needing shots to cure them because 2 rounds of antibx won't cure them. With my 3rd child the midwife suggested D mannose. I took a tsp 3x a day for just a few days and it worked. I was surprised to say the least. I thought maybe it was just luck though this time around. With #4 I had a different midwife but she suggested the same thing and I started taking it at the first sign and I never got a UTI! I have suggested this to my mom and a friend and they have been shocked at the great results. You can get it at health food stores. Might be worth a try :) ETA: Hope it's not a stone-yikes!

We have 3 females. Love them to death. They are not pets for little kids. They are good for older kids but really need daily care. First, be sure your kids really want them and that YOU really want them when your kids lose interest ;) They are very social animals and need lots of attention to stay "tame" and easily handled. They should be handled at least once a day. I would strongly encourage you to ADOPT, not buy from a pet store. You can find one on craisglist or petfinder.com very easily. There are tons of animals needing adopting and many pet store pigs are often ill and not well cared for-argue with me all you want, it's what I've seen. Whatever you do, DO NOT take their word for it that they are 2 females or males. Figure out how to check and check for yourself....you have no idea how many stories I've read "I swear they are 2 females" and then 3 mos later there are babies everywhere. IMO, females are easier to care for than males. Males can get smelly when they are older and have something called "boar glue" (can you guess what this is??? ;) ) and it's a pain to clean up when they smear it on their cage floor. We don't use bedding, we use a fleece cover with a pad underneath-it's great! We scoop the poop once a day and change the fleece/pad once a week. We have a litter box in the corner with hay, we have to clean that out 2x a week. (They poop/pee the most where they eat and they eat all the time.) We do not have any smell and it's so much cheaper to use the fleece than bedding-which can get costly! They need good GREEN hay 24/7. I say "green" because I've seen people think that straw is hay-um, no. This is a great site with lots of good info: http://www.guineapigcages.com/index.htm But you should note, they are hardcore piggie people and will criticize anything you do not according to their "rules." I find it best to read, but not post much. Great cage info at the above site too. We have a 2gridsx5grids cage for the 3 girls. So much cheaper to make one than buy a crappy pet store cage. They should be kept indoors. I know a lot of people in Australia keep them outside, but in the US they are an indoor animal. http://www.guinealynx.com is another great site for info

Thanks everyone. I'm looking into it some more :lurk5:

Haven't used it but I've looked at this too and really like many of the books used. Whatever we end up using, I can see using some of these books for sure.

No! We didn't regret it at all and would build again. Our builder was a guy that just did a few houses a year (he was retired) and we did check in almost daily on things. This was good because we did catch a few things that he was going to do differently (because it was easier) but one of us was there to stop this and proceed as planned. My DH also did a lot of work to cut costs-such as roofing, electrical, and we did all our own painting, staining, and trim work. He had his dad help with plumbing too. This work saved us 10s of thousands! I agree with the others, do as much planning as possible. Look at all possible plans, what could go wrong, what could go over budget, etc. Build what you REALLY want. Don't skimp on something that you'll regret later. Find a way to make it work. It's ALWAYS more expensive to fix it or add on to it later. Good luck

I've always thought Oak Meadow looked like a good program but we just never tried it. We are more relaxed in style and have incorporated some "waldorf-ish" (I know any Waldorf people are cringing at this) components into our homeschool in the early years. Now that we're hitting the middle grades I'm looking for something with a little more structure to keep us on track but not necessarily a daily schedule. We use a mix/match selection of programs now, which is working for us this year (TT, GWG, Writing Skills, Word Roots, world history text, map skills, and variety of reading). But I feel like I want it tied together a little better in the future. I've read some good reviews for OM middle grades and high school. I've looked at their info on-line and it looks like a good mix of lit and text when needed. If we haven't followed Oak Meadow's curriculum earlier, will it be harder to start in 7th grade? Thanks for any thoughts.

Hey-we're both in Iowa :seeya:

You don't have to totally cut history out for a year or 2. You could focus on geography but still add some historical fiction relating to places you are studying. You could listen to some books on CD like Little History of the World by Gombrich or greek mythology or there are some awesome Teaching Company (Great Courses) audio programs. I suggest audio just because they are so easy to listen to in the car or as you are doing other things. I dropped the ball on history this year (best laid plans!) and instead, my son is just reading a world history text. But we've been listening to Story Hour CDs and other history CDs in the car and the kids are learning a lot. I think focusing on one yr of geography would be great-not so sure about 2 yrs though. I think she might get burned out on it. Instead of 2 yrs of geography, You could do a cultural anthropology type course that would cover some history and geography. Have you looked at Runkles Physical Geography? It's a one yr course and has good reviews here. We are using this for 8th or 9th grade. I don't have any ideas for US geography because I'm in the same boat. I'll have a 7th grader this fall and I don't feel he has a good enough education in this area. I remember in school doing blank US map worksheets and filling in states and capitals while reading basic info on each state. Dull, but it worked for me. I'm thinking of doing something like this for the fall that he can work on independently-but just for one semester.

The free lapbooks mentioned are a good resource if your child likes that type of thing. Be sure to get a good insect field guide and magnifying glass and bug jar. My kids use this one a lot: http://www.amazon.com/Insects-Spiders-Audubon-Society-Pocket/dp/0394757920/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305555439&sr=1-1 and it's small, so easy to handle for smaller hands here's another one http://www.amazon.com/Insects-Audubon-Guides-Christina-Wilsdon/dp/059005483X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1305555367&sr=8-4 Find some fun books on insects at the library-fiction and non-fiction. Let him pick them out. Take some pictures of things he finds and then have him make a booklet out of the pics. Don't get too bogged down in activities, just get outside and explore :001_smile:

Hope all is well! I remember when we were building a house and DH had not come home by midnight. This was before cell phones and no close neighbors to where he was. I thought for sure he fell off a ladder and was laying on the floor. Finally, at 1am I could stand it and drove out there (only a 25 min drive) and he was there working away. He knew it was late but had no watch so didn't realize how late it was. I was so mad but also glad to find he was safe. Hoping your DH is fine and makes it up to you big time!

I guess it depends on what else you are doing. If she's motivated enough and capable, sure, she could do it. You could alternate days for science so she's doing it everyday, just the different programs on certain days. But depending on the other work load, she might get a little burnt out? Or maybe not! You can always try it and stop one of the programs and save it for next yr if it gets to be too much.

Beautiful Feet Geography is a nice program with the Hollings books, perfect for the grammar stage.

Yes, most places that require testing would probably only accept the full battery test since it is the more "accurate" measure. I'm not required to test and haven't tested in a few years so that's why we're doing the shorter test. Mainly doing it for practice and DH is curious. ;)

I'm pretty sure E is the same as the "survey" edition which is the shorter test. This shows the CAT E content: http://www.setontesting.com/content.php This is the same as the CAT5 Survey Edition that I am giving to my kids next week. It's basically an abbreviated version of the full battery. So it's only about 2.5 hrs vs 5-6hrs.

I sometimes check the WTB listings if I have just one thing that is a bigger ticket item like TT or something. But if I have a bunch to sell, I just post it all on the FS board in hopes that someone will buy more than one thing and save me an extra trip to the PO and the extra postage. The few times I've contacted people on the WTB they either wanted to pay much less than I was selling for or they didn't get back to me. So I haven't had the best luck there. I think I've sold 1 thing through that route.

When you buy the course through them they send you an e-mail with additional resources. I got a huge list of links and a huge list of books-more than 20! I don't know that he suggests one specific book, however, the lecturer has his own book so I suppose that would be good start. http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Astronomy-Millennium-AceAstronomy-Virtual/dp/049501303X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305240807&sr=1-1 You could always e-mail him perhaps and ask for a good spine to suit your needs?

We just got this course and only listened to a few lectures so far but it's really good. Not too over my head at this point ;) and the instructor is very likeable and has a good voice. I've read lots of good reviews from other homeschoolers for this one too.

Lucky you! :001_smile: They have packs of construction paper but in the colors you actually want-like green, purple, pink, and blue for example instead of a bunch of black and brown. Their prices are pretty good IMO and the paper is heavier than cheap construction paper. They have this cool tie dye paper that we love. They have lots of sizes too which is what I like. They have different types of lined paper, graph paper, timeline books, etc. You name it, they have it! They have tons of blank books in all sizes and shapes. My DD loves these so I always get tons of these. They have some with pictures on the covers and these make great b-day gifts. They have tons of activity, drawing, painting, etc books. Prices are usually about 10-20% off retail I think. They have "make your own" game sets which my son loved. Overall, their prices for the paper, blank books, and "make your own" items are cheaper or comparable to the best prices I've found elsewhere or RR. The book prices may be cheaper elsewhere, but not by a lot. You'll see when you go to their area-it's like a kid in a candy store for me ;)

Enjoy! Wear comfy shoes and clothes, take a water bottle and few snacks, take a backpack or sturdy shoulder bag, DON'T IMPULSE BUY! ;) Pace yourself in the vendor hall.....pick a route and follow it around so you can see everything. Don't IMPULSE buy :tongue_smilie: Can you tell I've fallen into this trap once or twice? If Miller Pad and Paper is there-stock up! :001_smile:

Have you looked at the Winterpromise programs like the Animal Worlds? That might be good since they have the schedule and lots of lovely books. http://www.winterpromise.com Peak with Books is similar to FIAR but with more contemporary books http://www.amazon.com/Peak-Books-Childhood-Resource-Balanced/dp/0766859487/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305209880&sr=1-1

You know about all the used boards right? I've seen the BF geography and the Trail Guide to World Geography on the used boards quite often-almost daily on vegsource.com and I bet homeschoolclassifieds.com has them too. You can usually get the guides used pretty cheap and the BF guide is often around $8 used and then the other books could be checked out from the library. Do you have a large homeschool conference near you? Even if you couldn't attend the conference maybe you could just go to the vendor hall and check these out? Good luck!

Expedition Earth looks good too and fit all the ages: http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Expedition-Earth.html