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  1. My 12 year-old uses Dimensions. She really likes it. The stuff she is doing right now is basically Algebra 1, though. I'm not sure about the lower levels. We've never used those, because they're very new. We did use lower levels of Singapore, though. It's fairly cheap. It's simple - workbook/textbook. The number of problems is pretty manageable (that was the issue we had with Saxon). It's a solid program. Both Singapore and Dimensions are fine. I think Singapore is probably easier to find?? Also, there are more "extras" that you can buy for Singapore, like their Intensive Practice books.
  2. *sigh*. I hate posting this, but I can tell you what we did. I may delete it, I don't know. Maybe it's helpful (heck, not sure it's helpful, either! Lol). The person dh shares a tiny office with tested positive for it back in April. This person kept coming to work until he/she got the positive test results back and THEN they called in sick. Ugh. Dh was contacted and told about the exposure. All 7 of us promptly self-isolated. Mass panic ensued in Evanthe's household. We sent dh off to get tested, which was awful in and of itself. We had to basically beg several places to get him tested, because he didn't have any symptoms. Finally, an urgent care center tested him, but we had to pay for it through our insurance. We didn't isolate dh, because we figured that well, by this point, we were all living in such close quarters that it didn't matter. A couple of days later - me, dd18 and dd15 got sick. Out of us 7, only 3 of us got sick and it was only girls. No boys got sick (strangely). Also, the little ones didn't get sick. Dh never had any symptoms. I tried to do as much reading as I could online about what kinds of cleaners kill coronavirus...what the symptoms are...how long the symptoms last...etc. Everything online was mass hysteria and just junk. People giving advice when it was clear they didn't have a clue what they were talking about.... For example, I tried to search for specific cleaners that kill Covid and the first thing that pops up is an article and gruesome picture of mass cremations. Yeah, NOT freaking helpful, People. Every article was basically "you're all going to die". Oh, and your kids are going to die, too....and your kittens and puppies. There's no hope for you!!!! You're going to turn into a zombie! I started having severe anxiety attacks - usually starting in the evening when I was putting ds5 to bed. I figured the best thing to do was stop reading about it/stop googling it. It became clear early on that there wasn't much help for us. So, I don't know if we actually had covid or if we caught something else and it was just a weird coincidence that we got sick at the same time dh was exposed. But, we treated the situation as if we had covid. We completely self-isolated, dd18 stopped going to work, we told everyone and warned them, etc. We tried to do the right thing. Here's what I did with the best knowledge and resources I had at the time (UGH): I cleaned the ever-loving cr@p out of my house. We wiped down every surface in the house. We daily wiped down iPhones, iPads, computers, Kindles with Clorox wipes. I even steam cleaned the carpet. I dragged everyone's bedding downstairs and washed it. I was constantly disinfecting and wiping down bathroom surfaces. One article said to disinfect surfaces 3x a day, so I did. My house is usually very clean, but I started spending 2-3 hours every morning cleaning it. Only certain cleaners kill covid, so make sure you have the ones that kill it. I read somewhere that it does not like sunlight....so we opened all the curtains in the house. I put everyone on vitamins. D18 and I had it the worst, so she and I took vitamin D supplements + vitamins. Oh, I was giving them vitamin C supplements, too. We ended up ordering a bunch of vitamins online when I first found out he was exposed. We had a (sorta) plan in case we needed to go to the emergency room. When we googled it, it said you can't just show up at an ER, you're supposed to call first. So, we had a hospital picked out and their phone number, just in case. I tried to keep all of the kids going and very positive. Like we still did school - except one day, when dd15 was too sick to do schoolwork. Dh ended up testing negative, but we didn't get the test results back until we were basically well again. Whatever it was lasted about 3 days and it took almost a week to get his test results (I think it was 5 or 6 days). So, we don't know if we had covid or if it was coincidence. About the anxiety - this really took a bite out of me. Seriously. About 3 weeks later, some of my hair fell out in the middle of my head. ☹️ And I had these three weird streaks of white hair coming out of my roots on top. I had to order hair dye from Amazon and color my hair. I looked awful.
  3. From the announcement in Texas yesterday, it looks like our classes will be in-person. It said they can even open for summer school June 1st.
  4. Wow, what is she majoring in?
  5. Houston, we have a problem.... I got all excited and we started My Father's World Kindergarten almost 6 months early. You can imagine...I was excited, he was excited. He's a late spring birthday kid, so we literally started before he even turned 5. Well, I'm looking at the calendar and it looks like we might actually be finished with MFW K this fall - like around September... 😱 So, if you've used MFW....how bad is the jump from K to 1st? If he's finished K, could we do 1st? I did hear before that it is a huge jump. He's only going to be 5 and would be just starting Kindergarten if he went to public school. He's following along with K just fine, though. He's starting to sound out CVC words, but he can't really write yet (he's left handed and he can't quite nail down which hand to use, which ends up being awkward and I'm just not pushing the writing yet). Other than that, I've actually been supplementing with a few things, because MFW K has been easy for him. He REALLY enjoys it, through. As in, he asks to do Kindergarten all the time (and at weird times, like 9:00 at night or when I'm cooking dinner). If you did 1st, how long did it take? I'm assuming it's more seat work than K.
  6. True! Mine has to take all the pre-nursing courses for the first two years and then the actual nursing classes the last two years (she wants to get her BSN). I really hope they all get to go in-person! Labs don't feel the same with everything online. Go away, Coronavirus!! Shoo!! lol
  7. Me, too. And it's so much easier to go to the Writing Lab, Math Lab or advisor appointments when it's in person.
  8. Yeah, I am really worried about that. My daughter already registered for the fall semester (this will be her 2nd semester of college). So far, she's registered for English 2, Psychology, US History 2, Biology with Lab and Sailing 1. If they don't let them go back to school in August, we're going to have to drop biology and sailing. A lab science online is going to be junky. (And I'm saying this as someone with a biology degree). She's going to replace it with something else and try for biology in January. ☹️ Sailing counts as a kinesiology course and obviously, you can't do that online, either and it's not offered during the winter/spring semester. So, yeah, it will be very disappointing to have to drop those and put something else in there. A lot of people dropped out of her classes this spring when the classes all switched online. She also decided to take the summer off, because she hates online classes. But, I had to have a talk with her about the fall. I don't want her not going back or delaying her school anymore, because she doesn't like online classes. She promised she wouldn't....
  9. I'm late to the party, here, but I lost 22 lbs since Christmas. Most people keep saying that they've gained weight over the lockdown, but I actually lost a lot. I don't "feel" like I lost 22 lbs, but when I look in the mirror, my clothes do look like they don't fit right. My weight loss wasn't really from a diet. In December, I was really sick. I dragged myself to the urgent care center with blood pressure of like 210 over something. They wanted to send me to the hospital, but I refused. The doctor told me to go get a physical asap. I did get a physical within a couple of days and they found out that I was actually diabetic. So, I had been walking around this whole time diabetic and didn't realize. Lol. Figures. Anyway, no more sugar + diabetes medication + joined a gym (which I can't go to right now, though) + walking resulted in me losing 22 lbs so far. I'm still losing weight slowly, so I would be ok if I lost another 20 lbs. *shrug* I noticed before that when I lose weight permanently, it takes a really loooong time. If I lose weight quickly through a diet, it just flies back on overnight.
  10. It was fine for us. I can tell you what my oldest did and how it turned out. She did: Saxon Algebra 1 Saxon Algebra 2 Mathusee Geometry (because she felt like the geometry in Saxon was not enough for her) Life of Fred Statistics Khan Academy SAT prep She tested into the highest math possible at the college, so she only has to take one math class for her Bachelor's and it was Statistics. She just finished the course with a 97% average in the class. At one point, she had like 130% average in the class (something ridiculous). I think she and another guy had the highest grades in the class. Anyway....ds17 is doing: Mathusee Algebra 1 Mathusee Geometry Mathusee Algebra 2 Life of Fred Statistics ACT Math Prep book Ok, he hasn't started college yet, but he's actually getting almost all the ACT math questions right so far....I mean, we're only doing one question a day and then if he does get it wrong, we go over and solve the problem. But, so far, so good. We like Mathusee. *shrug* I do TEACH it, though. YKWIM? I did teach Saxon, too. We have a big dry erase board in our schoolroom and I literally go over every problem they ever miss on the board. Sometimes, I teach entire lessons on the board from the textbook if they're not understanding it. So, our experience may have something to do with the way we homeschool, too. I'm not sure... Editing to add: dd15 and dd12 are going to make it through Calculus. They are math superstars, but dd18 and ds17 were kinda into other stuff. YKWIM?
  11. You're going to make me look at that again, aren't you? 😂 Like I needed another curriculum....
  12. I've been seeing lots of articles like this lately - and not just about college, but public school, too. Edited to add: the laptops in place of their heads is really bothering me! 😂
  13. Yeah, I think so! And in March, after spring break and the college switched to online only....my daughter's classes dwindled to almost nothing. Everyone dropped out. Her art history class had FOUR people left at the end. Her kinesiology class was the same - like 4-5 people left at the end.
  14. Are you looking into long-term actual homeschooling....or just stuff until school starts back up. That would help to know, so you could get more responses.
  15. Yeah, this is what I was going to do this year. It was going to look kinda like history unit studies. I had a hard time putting my ideas into a plan, so I ended up buying Beautiful Feet in a panic. I'm glad I bought BF, because now our library has been closed since March, so I guess, in hindsight, my panic worked in my favor. lol. But, normally, putting things together myself would've been fine. I did that for years. So, my thought was....say we wanted to study the American Revolution....I could choose some non-fiction books about the American Revolution (Landmark books or DK books or anything that looked interesting) and then choose a literature book that was either written during that time period or took place during the time period. I could add Drive Thru History and maybe some documentaries or movies. Then, I would have history + literature. And it would be simple. I've done this before, so I know it works out great. I just was weird about it this year and ended up buying BF. I have one kid that just started college, 4 kids who are still homeschooling and a 5 year-old who is extremely needy. So, I probably caved in and bought BF because I was overwhelmed. But, yes, I agree with the fewer topics/spend more time versus the "cover as many topics as possible". My kids don't remember anything when we do a sweeping study of 3 gazillion topics, either. It feels like a waste of time.
  16. I hope your new house works out well for you guys! And my closet looks like that on a daily basis, even without moving. 🤔
  17. All l have to say is - you just moved again?! Wow, you guys move a lot. We really need to move, but aren't in a good position to move yet. We school year-round, but even I'm feeling a little burned out right now. This spring was really hard on everyone. I don't know what we would do if we weren't doing school over the summer. I mean, what do normal people do all day without homeschooling?? 🤪 I'm afraid the kids would be nuts. You can't really go anywhere right now, either. So, museums and zoos are out of the question. *sigh*
  18. My 17 year-old will be finished in December (we're calendar-year schoolers), but he won't officially graduate until May, so he can play one last year of high school football and track & field. So, he's working on his senior year now, basically. I'm going to do pretty much the same thing with him that I did with his sister. Finish school in December. Spend spring semester applying to the college, taking the placement tests, going to all those advisor appointments, registering for classes, buying his books, buying a laptop, etc. Here's what he's doing now to December: Beautiful Feet's Ancient History and Literature Apologia Marine Biology Life of Fred Statistics (we haven't started this yet - also, he's working through all the LOF high school books for a big review) ACT Prep (he's probably not taking the ACT, but this will prepare him for the college placement tests anyway) German - mostly reading books/stories at this point Creative Writing - playwriting, short stories, etc. PE - together high school varsity football His year is actually lighter than the younger kids'. He's kinda done, if you know what I mean. lol Oh, I forgot to add - here's my timeline for myself. I'll just do the same stuff I did with dd18. We were pretty happy with how that turned out. November/December - finish up his transcripts. Print out 3 bazillion copies and sign them. Put signed copy in envelope and sign over back (for admissions office at the college) November/December - put together a folder for him with all of his paperwork: awards, copies of transcripts, booklists, curriculum he's used, extracurriculars and sports, volunteer work, etc January/February - build his scrapbook on Snapfish (I did this for the oldest and sent copies to all the grandmas) February/March - build his diploma and order it (we used homeschooldiploma.com last time and I'll just use that again) April/May - go shopping and put together a gift bag for him, along with his folder with all the paperwork/transcripts in it May - have our graduation party
  19. I don't think anything you plan to do at home with homeschool curriculum is going to look like their public school curriculum. My sisters' kids go to public school and they're stuck at home right now, too. My sisters asked for recommendations and after looking at homeschool curricula, they said it just looks so different and foreign to them that they weren't sure they wanted to use it. Oh, and most homeschool curriculum pride themselves by not following common core (other than Singapore math, I think they have a CC version, but I'm not sure). Do you want to follow TWTM? You can buy a copy on Amazon. It's got everything mapped out! Would it help if I listed what my 7th grader is doing this year? You don't have to do what we're doing, but it might help to see another person's line-up. *shrug* Math - Dimensions Math (basically Singapore math) English/Lit - Sequential Spelling, Creative writing, random literature that I think she would like (she's reading The Wind in the Willows right now) Bible - the Strobel books - Case for Christ, Case for a Creator, Case for Faith History - Notgrass America the Beautiful with readers, map book and We The People (original source documents) Geography - Beautiful Feet's Geography through Literature Science - homemade weather station for labs, The Weather Book, Real Science 4 Kids Physics, Physics Workshop (she's having a light science year, because we're focusing on history) I think that's basically everything. When I plan, I basically start writing the subjects that I want to cover for the year on a piece of paper. Then, I start scouring stuff like Rainbow Resource, Cathy Duffy's Reviews website and blogs for curriculum ideas. I always check the big websites/books, too: The Well-trained Mind, Sonlight, Beautiful Feet, Notgrass....to see if we want to try any of their recommendations.
  20. Wow, if you can read The Hobbit in another language, you're doing GREAT!! I read somewhere that even if we don't use a language for years, we form neural connections in our brains that can be easily revived (or reformed) if we get back into it.
  21. Awww! Selkie, they're so cute!! The dog in the top pic definitely has Catahoula markings.
  22. Since we're sharing pictures....there's one of the brothers (the naughty one). They're crazy, but good-looking. lol
  23. I thought we were the only lunatics to have Australian shepherds!! 😂 They are crazy. They were bred to run like 11 miles a day or something insane like that. They are very high-energy and very, very smart. We have two brothers from the same litter, which in hindsight might've been a bad idea because they are inseparable (they literally cry when they're separated). They're red Merles. About 4 1/2 years old. They're supposed to live a really long time like border collies (our last border collie made it to 16). Ours are REALLY good with other animals. In fact, we're emergency fosters for a dog rescue and we take in dogs who have been abused/abandoned and our Australian shepherds just treat each new dog like they've always been there. They'll play with any dog. A bunch of rescue dogs have been socialized by our Australian shepherds. We have 3 cats, 2 bunnies, 2 elderly guinea pigs and a hamster. They don't care about them. In fact, the hamster escaped once, wandered the house while we were asleep and the dogs just ignored it. We were like, "Whew! I can't believe you survived the night, Mr. Hamster! Lol." They bark at freaking everything - just warning you. I think they were bred to bark when they complete a task and boy, they let you know. One of ours basically "talks" in a way that sounds like a human talking. He says "I love you" - no kidding. It's hilarious. Ours are still extreme high energy. We have 5 kids, so they fit right in, but if they're bored, they can be very destructive. They were very destructive puppies. They basically sat and ate my TV stand one night while we were sleeping. They'll eat books, bookcases... One of ours has separation anxiety, so when our entire family leaves to go somewhere, we have to dog-proof the house. He'll tear stuff up, because he's upset we're gone. Like I said, they also cry when they're separated (there's a term for that in the dog world, but I can't remember what it was). They are incredible with kids and cats. Ours sleep in my daughters' bedrooms and the cats sleep next to them. Every stinking night. lol. One of them sleeps with the Siamese cat (who is an evil creature who knows how to turn doorknobs and open the pantry door) and the other sleeps with the calico and Turkish van. So, they have their spots/routine at night. But, yeah, dd18 takes them on car rides, they go to the dog park...they actually know what street you turn on to get to the dog park and they'll look out the window and start crying. They're really smart. Oh, bad habit - ours tries to correct/be in charge of our younger kids. You have to be careful and don't let them do that. They were bred to be in charge of other animals, so they'll try to herd your kids. One night, we were all watching a movie in the living room. Two of the kids left the movie and went into the other room. The two Aussies got hysterical and tried to herd the kids back to the movie. The dogs were like "Ahh! The movie's not over!!" My teenagers thought it was hilarious. But, yeah, you have to stop those behaviors if you have kids. I am wary when dd12 tries to walk one of the Aussies by herself, because this particular dog will try to take charge of her and the leash and we don't know how to stop it other than...she just can't walk him alone. His brother lets dd12 walk him just fine. It's just this one dog that does that. We also have a chihuahua and a Swiss Shepherd (she was one of our foster dogs and she's unadoptable, because she was so horribly abused, so we just kept her) and the Aussies get along just fine with both - even with the Swiss shepherd's weird quirks. One of the Aussies (the bratty one who won't let dd12 walk him) constantly plays with the chihuahua. Like the chihuahua would have a nervous breakdown without that particular Aussie. lol Anyway, good luck! (You'll need it - bwahahaha)
  24. Thank-you for typing all that out! Can any of you guys recommend good places to buy books in German? Online, unfortunately/of course. Anytime I search for a German book on Amazon, it's very expensive and it's from 3rd party sellers. I realize that may be the best I can do from Texas.
  25. OK, now this is seriously interesting, because one website is saying that the German language became more standardized because of the Luther Bible translation.... (I have way too much free time on my hands - lol)
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