Anyone know of any Free Shipping or Coupon Codes from Classical Academic Press ? I want to order LfC A and I would love to find a savings coupon code if possible. Thanks for any help you can give me !

I want to use Latin for Children A this year with my 3 children who are in third through 6th grade. I was wondering if I MUST have a student text and activity guide for each child or if I can use one text and activity guide for all 3 of them ? I figured maybe I could use those clear plastic sheets for them to write on and wipe off their answers and then circulate the student text between the children. The student texts are almost $23.00 each and I would have to by 3 of them and 3 activity guides is really out of my budget. What do other moms that use this curriculum do ? Do you combine children and student texts and activity guides or do you get each child one of their own ? Any advice you can offer me would be so appreciated !

We recently purchased this weather station Click here: Amazon.com: Davis Instruments 6250 Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station: Home & Garden it is pricey, but it had such great reviews and we wanted it for our meteorology program. My 11 year old son really wants to be an engineer someday, so we are working very hard in the math and science department. His main interest right now is weather and meteorology, so I wanted to find him a well made and serious weather station that would be great for a "budding weather enthusiast". It is fantastic !! We are really loving it for school, each morning we record charts and graphs of the weather using the data from the weather station. We then compare the recorded charts from week to week. It also has another component where the information from the weather station can be downloaded to a computer and the graphs and charts recorded on the computer for you. But that program cost an additional $150 dollars for that and we are having such fun recording it ourselves, that I am not planning that purchase at this time. My kids are all having a really good time with it ! We are reading weather related books, watching weather videos (storm chasers is fantastic ! ), using the weather station and charting weather which is all teaching my children all about various weather elements and weather tools and their purpose. They are also learning so much from just charting weather and understanding how weather works. This has made weather really exciting to learn for our whole family ! Again, it is pricey (we actually found it cheaper on another site for almost $60 dollars less where we purchased it; however, this site shows reviews of the product), but I saved up the money from our homeschooling fund and my selling on ebay fund to afford this purchase. I am very pleased with it, the kids are learning so much and my husband is having a ball with it, so I would purchase it again in a heartbeat !

I don't think you can invest too much into your children, my God given duty is to raise them up for HIM. To bring HIM glory. For HIM, not for Me, but HIM. Whatever I do, I do to the best of my ability. I give it my all, my 100 %. Whether it be my children, my marraige, my home, my homeschooling, my faith, I put everything I got into it. I have two adult children, a son age 26 and a daughter age 22. I gave them everything I had as a parent, I put my all into them and they came out quite well if I do say so myself :001_smile: But they are not perfect, there is many things I would have liked them to do, or not do, but they are who they are. Now I am working on raising four more young ones, I am putting my all into them too. I know there will be dis-appointments, I know they are not going to be perfect or do everything I wish they would do, but I love them so very much anyway. I have a great sense of purpose in what I do everyday for them ! 100 % everyday !! When my life is over and The Good Lord calls me home, I only need one thing to make me happy and to know my life was worthwhile. I need to hear "'Well done, my good and faithful servant". That will be my greatest reward, to bring HIM glory in all that I do.

I am 44 years old. I am much more confident in myself, I have learned to laugh at my mistakes and just to let things go that used to upset me. I also really love myself now, warts and all, I am totally comfortable in my body (even after having packed on all those extra pounds) and in who I am as a person. I love spending time alone, doing my own thing, enjoying being with just me and never feeling lonely. I am proud of what I have accomplished in my life, I look forward to my future years and I no longer fear aging. I love and enjoy my life, I love what I do (homeschooling and raising my family) I love who I am, I live everyday of my life with gusto and grace ! I have learned to accept my limitations but also to reach for the stars without fear of failing. I try something new to do all the time, I am constantly growing, learning and educating myself. I have made peace with my mother (one of my greatest accomplishments, because I did not have a good childhood). I have forgiven her, even though there was never an apology extended. I have learned to meet her where she is and not to expect more then she can give me. This has helped our relationship grow and I feel we have become quite close in the last years of her life here on earth. I have created wonderful relationships in my life with my husband, children, family and friends. I cherish them and I have learned to not stress the little things. I no longer fear death, I used to terribly, I was afraid of dying and leaving my family behind. I worried constantly that without me, they would all fall apart and their lives would be ruined. This feeling filled me with anxiety and worry daily. Now, I understand that The Lord has a great plan for my life, when HE calls me home it is because my life here is done. HE has a plan for my children too. I do not have to fear for them, they will be fine, HE will be there to guide them on their path. This realization has helped me to get over my anxiety and fears of dying and sickness, it has helped me put my life into perspective and to learn to give up always having to be in control. I have learned to walk with God everyday, I cherish my time alone with HIM, HE is indeed my closest and dearest friend. :)

Tea, lots and lots of Tea ;)

I'm so thrilled for you !!! Benign is the most beautiful word in the English language !!!

My living room has become our "homeschool room central" with a huge whiteboard over the sofa and 4 classroom desks in bright fun primary colors that we picked up from an old Catholic school and repainted. The living room walls are filled with tons of bulletin board classroom charts, posters and cut outs on the human body, the solar system, plant photosynthesis, the rainforest, Important U.S. History documents and shelves filled to the brim with lots of books, curriculum and educational toys and manipulatives. Our living room also has those giant 5 foot tall Collosal posters of William Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in each of the four corners. The living room also features large 24 inch inflatable insects (bee, grasshopper, ant, ladybug and dragon fly) suspended from the ceiling as well as the entire inflatable solar system. I also have this Click here: Amazon.com: Davis Instruments 6250 Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station: Home & Garden sitting in a corner of our living room which allows my budding meterologist children to record and track all the weather outside everyday onto weather charts and graphs. Our hallways, bedrooms and dining room (now a library) are all filled with tons of bookshelves, homeschooling posters and bulletin board cut outs in various educational themes. But my biggest giveaway that we homeschool would be our bathroom, which is filled with large laminated posters with themes such as "Parts of Speech", "Factoring", "Prime Numbers" and "Spelling Rules". Not to mention that Periodic Element Shower Curtain I got from thinkgeek.com. :lol: In our house, we live, eat, sleep and breathe education everyday !:001_smile:

Shopping for curriculum !! I am a true curriculum junkie, I could shop forever !!

I budget $1000 a year combined for my four children. I reuse and pass down whatever I can and I only purchase curriculum after a lot of thought and very careful research. Actually, the $1000 is very generous now, years ago I did it on so very much less. I buy tons of my books and homeschool resources at yard sales, used book sales, library sales, thrift stores and The GoodWill. That way I can save tons of money and provide my children with a very rich library full of books & educational videos/dvd's for only 25 cents to $1.00 each. That $1000 also counts towards any educational games, toys or manipulatives I purchase too. I purchase most of my educational games, toys and manipulatives very cheaply at our local GoodWill for very little money. I have found such wonderful things as Snap Circuit Sets, Playmobil Sets, Lego Simple Machine Sets, Puzzles, Games, Puppets, Science Kits and Knex Educational Sets for less then $2.00 each in great condition. So that adds up to about $250 per child per year, not too bad compared to what I used to spend for my oldest two children on Catholic School years ago. This does not include any extracurricular activities or field trips. We do homeschool bowling league which will be an additonal $200 per year combined for the four of them. I also do two or three field trips a year that cost about $50 per family, but most of our field trips though are free. I stick to a budget, that way I don't go over and I stay on track with Dave Ramsey's financial program ( we are on baby step 6). If I need something extra that wasn't expected or realized, I sell some of my extra items or put something on Ebay to earn the additonal funds needed.

For my first and second graders we just finished memorizing the following: *All the Presidents of the US in order *The 9 Supreme Court Justices * Our Current Administration: President: Barack Hussein Obama II, Vice President: Joseph R. Biden Jr., Secretary Of State: Hilary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of Defense: Robert Michael Gates, Speaker of the House: Nancy Pelosi, * Our local state Governor and Senators * The Planets * The 5 Great Lakes and the definition of a Great Lake * The Continents and the definition of a Continent * The Oceans of the World * 100 Latin words * 24 Great Paintings and Artists (we use laminated Art postcards for this so my kids can see the paintings and learn the artist and the name of the famous paintings). * 25 of the Elements from the Periodic Table * Nursery Rhymes and Poems * Bible Verses This summer we are going to continue with The Elements, Latin, Bible Verses, Nursery Rhymes, Poems, Artists and Paintings and add in Kathy Troxels Geography Songs

My name is Sheila and I am the very blessed 44 year old mother of six children and wife of one husband. My husband is a landscaper/groundkeeper for a local college. He is patient, dedicated, supportive and wonderful (also very easy on the eyes). He never gets upset if the house is in disaray or supper is late because I am distracted by homeschooling projects or ideas. He comes home from work and pitches in with the housework, cooking and the kids wherever is needed. The man is truely a saint, I don't deserve him (but I'll keep him anyway <smile>). Two of my children are grown and living on their own. My oldest son (public schooled) is 26 and living in South Carolina and working as a chef at a large beach resort. My oldest daughter (graduated from homeschooling) is 22, married and is just finishing her junior year of college for Early Elementary Education. My youngest four children are 11 y.o boy, 9 y.o girl, 7 y.o boy and 5 y.o boy. They have always been homeschooled. We are using TWTM curriculum pretty exclusively. I have been homeschooling now for 13 years. I intend to continue homeschooling until they are all off to college and I can then partake in my fishing retirement plan. :lol: We live on an 11 acre farm in PA and I enjoy gardening, reading, baking/cooking, simple living, thrift store/yard sale and used book sale shopping . We follow Dave Ramsey and The Lord (not in that order) :001_smile:

After reading "Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire", I decided to really start playing with my kids, making wonderful memories and teaching them through play. I always did joke around with them, played board games with them, we have great fun with math manipulatives and educational toys through play, but I never really just "played with them" for the sake of creating closensess, bonding and meaningful moments. Since reading Rafe Esquith's TLYHOF I decided to start really enjoying my kids. I took his suggestions and we are now playing baseball and learning all the in's and out's of how to really play and enjoy the game. We are taking it one step at a time, because I am so not a sporty Momma, sports take a lot of coordination which I seem to be really lacking in. :lol: But we are having so much fun with it ! The kids are having a blast and they are extending to me grace in the fact that I am learning right along with them. Rafe talks about baseball teaching team work and good sportmanship, something I want my children to have because these values will someday cross over into so many other areas of their future lives and relationships. The kids are also learning to work together, it carries over into other areas of our lives, there is less arguing and fighting between them during the day, instead they are learning to work well together, be part of a team and helping and encouraging one another. The older children are helping the younger children not just with baseball, but now also with their schoolwork and chores. It is giving them a closeness they didn't have before with sibling rivalry, on going competition and constant one-up manship. Now they see each other as an integral part of "the team". It is awesome to see a simple game creating such a lasting bond and such peace and harmony in our household and with our homeschooling. This week we have been simply working on hitting the ball with the bat properly. We are using a plastic bat and tennis balls, because Rafe talks about how children not used to playing baseball are often scared of the ball in the beginning. Using tennis balls helps to take away that fear of getting "hit" with the ball, so they actually watch the ball and don't move away from it or close their eyes when it comes near to them. It is working, my kid's are enjoying the "art of hitting the ball". It will take a few weeks, heck it could even take a few months ( I have little ones), but we have time, plenty of time to really master this task of just hitting the ball with the bat. We will take it one step at a time like Rafe recommends. We will break the game down into teaching segments, batting, catching, pitching, fielding, keeping score, etcetra.....master each step and learn the entire game inside and out before actually ever playing a game. He said he spent 6 months on teaching his school children all the in's and out's of baseball before he ever let them play a game. By the time they played, they were all really adept at playing well. I figure over the years, after putting in those "10,000" hours of baseball practice, we will have mastered the game and I will probably have a couple of professional players on my hands that will be looking forward to heading off to the big leagues and those exciting money making baseball careers ! ;) In the meantime, we are creating lasting family memories, strong family bonds, values and dedication and they are all getting to know another fun side of their Momma. :001_smile:

I love coleslaw too ! It is one of life's little pleasures for me. :001_smile: I am ashamed to admit it, but my favorite of all coleslaw is not homemade or anything fancy, I love, love, love KFC's coleslaw. So much in fact, I have been known to be very obsessed with it throughout several of my pregnancies. My husband had to make many a late night run to calm my coleslaw cravings. :lol: That could be why I gained so much weight with my last two babies. :glare:

Yes, but don't forget, the mansion with servants are only happy to be with you because they get paid for it.;) I have a daughter who is 21, she is still going through the selfish and "it is all about me" stage. I can totally relate to your rant !

After reading the unsanitary laundry thread and posting about how I seperate almost all my laundry into individual catagories with seperate hampers and even seperate clean baskets to unload the laundry from the dryer, I realized I may just be really anal. :lol: I never considered myself anal before in that sense, I am pretty relaxed in most ways. I can let the breakfast and lunch dishes pile up in the sink until after supper some days when I am busy with homeschooling projects and experiements. I have also been known to leave clean baskets of wash unfolded for several days until I get to them to fold and put away. But, I do seperate all my children's toys into individual catagories and totes. All the toys are kept in clear plastic totes for easy viewing. Lego goes in lego totes (each divided in it's own catagory and theme pirates, aiport, zoo, etc), Barbies in another tote, calico critters in another, wooden trains in another, lincoln logs, baby dolls, action figures, dollhouse toys, American Girl Dolls, playmobil sets all individually seperated by theme and boxed. Every tote box is labeled with the name of the toy that is contained inside. All the tote boxes are then stacked in one room for easy access. We only take one toy out at a time, so it keeps the playroom neat and tidy and easy to clean up in a hurry. I do the very same with all my homeschooling curriculum, manipulatives, educational homeschooling toys, homeschool games, musical instruments and projects. Every item is seperated, boxed and labeled according to grade and subject. Then all the boxes are stacked on a giant 6 foot tall wide wire shelf. The children can easily get out their school supplies while working on each subject and then put each item back when they move onto the next thing. I find it keeps the curriculum in good shape to be passed down to the other children and also it keeps everything from being a mess all over the place. I used to run an in home daycare years and years ago and I had become very organized to keep everything neat and clean all the time because parents were constantly coming in and out of my home to pick up or drop children off. The organization carried over when I became the mother to six children. I'm not a germaphobe nor am I OCD. I'm not uptight nor does it bother me to see messes at anyone else's home. I am a very relaxed person in almost all areas of my life. I just like things kept organized because it makes my life easier in the long run. Especially with having a large family and their constant upkeep. I just wondered if any other homeschooling moms take other parts of their lives (besides laundry :tongue_smilie:) to these extremes of keeping everything catagorized and organized ? Or if I am just alone in this. :001_huh:

In our house we do bath towels and wash cloths together with hot water and bleach. My clothing and my children's clothing is all run together on cold except undergarments which are washed seperately on hot. Bedding is seperate and washed on warm, unless someone is ill then it goes on hot. Small floor rugs like in the bathroom and kitchen are run seperate on hot. My husbands clothing is washed seperate, he works outside for a living and his clothes get really dirty, so they are washed by themselves. He prefers to do his own laundry, so I am not quite sure if he washes on warm or cold. He always has done his own laundry since we first married 13 years ago, he was just raised that way. It actually is a real blessing for me, one less person to do laundry for each day. Dish towels and cleaning rags are all run on hot with bleach and seperated from the other laundry. Oh and yes, we have seperate wash hampers for each of the above catagories. I also use wash baskets just for clean clothing when they come out of the dryer that we do not ever put dirty items into. I guess I am pretty anal about these things <smile>.

We are from Pennsylvania and our family has used the same evaluator for the last 9 years, so we are very comfortable with him. I never go over anything "schoolish" with the kids ahead of time, I do however remind them to use their manners, talk loud and clear so they can be heard and relax and smile. Our evaluator is great with the kids and he makes the evaluations very easy to do.

Does anyone know where I can purchase a well made set of Civil War Soldier Figures ? My boys want to act out the war while we read and study The Civil War this summer. I am hoping to find a set that is well made but won't cost me and arm and a leg. Thanks for any help you can offer me on finding some well made soldiers !

Not in our case. Homeschooling has actually really strenghtened our marraige. I feel really appreciated, my husband is my biggest supporter and cheerleader and is constantly bragging about all I do to homeschool our children each day to all his family, friends and co-workers. His daily encouragment really strenghtens a bond between us, I know what I do is really important to him and my children. Not to mention, my husband loves to come home and find out all the new things our children have learned that day and he gets all excited when they show him everything we do. These special times result in some really interesting night-time talks between us as we share about great ideas we both have on what we want the children to learn and work on next. Oh and we also share those secret looks and smiles between us when we run into family, friends or aquaintences that are "homeschooling critics". Those secret looks that we share between us is a signal and reminder to both of us that we have somebody else on our side, somebody else who understands and that we swim against that tide together as a team. No, homeschooling has been a HUGE blessing to our marraige and family !

We have a banner with "There Are No Shortcuts" in our homeschooling schoolroom. We adopted it as our homeschool motto. It is what I repeat to myself and the children when things get tough or days get long. I got the idea from reading the awesome book "Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire" from Rafe Esquith. I cannot recommend that book enough !

I just thought of another adorable use for these shelves in my home ! I need something to hold my HUGE cookbook collection. This shelves would be so cute in my farmhouse kitchen and holding my collection of cookbooks. I can even hang my pretty pots and pans underneath the shelves. I can't wait to hit Ikea, thanks for so many awesome ideas ! Of course, now I have to pick up that curtain wire thingy too, I can use several of those around my home, one for art projects and one for timeline cards. Great ideas ladies !!

I have boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, boy. My number 6 broke the order. He was also my first c-section baby.

Thanks for the idea ! I just moved my 3 younger boys into the spare bedroom and I needed to come up with a nice decorating theme. I had all this blank wall space on four walls and I needed ideas to fill them up in an educational theme. I was originally planning to use a historical timeline to run around the center of the room with coordinating posters, artifacts and such. Now, I think I am going to run the classical history timeline still through the center of the room on all the walls, but add the ikea bookshelves directly over the timeline and then use coordinating books at each of the timeline events. Such as, in ancient history, put in all our pretty cover books on ancient civilization and egypt etc. This will be so great for the boys at night when they pick out books to read before bed with their booklights. I can then still put up the giant 5 foot tall posters of the egyptian tomb and roman soldiers I picked up at the Educational & Fun store last weekend. Thanks for the great idea !! My husband probably won't be as thankful (he has to install everything) :lol: but I am thrilled with the idea !!

I am going to be spending an enormous amount of my "retirement" time on my little boat fishing and reading. In between that, I will continue with my gardening (freezing and canning), cooking from scratch, thrift store shopping and living frugally. We enjoy living simply and it allows us the freedom of not incurring debt and being able to do more with less. We follow Dave Ramsey's plan. We put money away monthly into future savings, even though we live on one moderate income. We scrimp and save, do without and wear it all out so that we can live better later. We have no cell phone service, no fancy satelite or cable, we eat at home, we live like no one else now, so later, we can live like no one else. We are currently working on baby step 6, paying off the mortgage. We should be done with that step in 5 to 7 years, which puts us right on target for baby step 7 (living like nobody else) by the time I retire from homeschooling. My husband is two years younger then me, he will be 55 when I retire from homeschooling at 57. He will have his 25 years in with his job when he turns 58 and will be able to retire if he so chooses, he will then join me on my daily fishing excursions. I was always raised and taught to live simply and it is how I am teaching my own children. From the time I was little my grandmother taught us "you have a today without, so you can have a tommorrow with". I am looking forward to our future of "living like nobody else". :001_smile: