I understand this of course. And everyone has to make their own decisions. But for our family, having the classroom interaction with other kids and the social factor, not to mention someone else organizing all the labs, purchasing the materials etc is invaluable to me. I personally stink at doing the labs. Having someone else help with this and having my kids be able to do the labs with others has worked out great for us. It is just annoying to me to have everyone discredit co-op classes as a matter of course. They can and do work very well for a lot of us:001_smile:

Usually there are daily assignment to do though right? I have heard you and others make similar statements before but for my kids co-op classes they have lots of work to complete and easily spend an hr a day on their course work outside of the once a week class.

I have been hsing for 10 yeas and have added a newborn 3 times. A newborn is easier than a crawling baby or toddler so I don't take much time off when a baby is born. Three weeks at the most unless nursing isn't going well. With a first grader you really can fit short lessons in around the baby and preschooler. Don't send her now. Just take it slow and easy and make it work. Also its a marathon not a race. Do light school in the summer or something and realise next year might be easier and you can make up anything you didn't get to. Focus on the skills and don't stress the content subjects. She is still little and there is lots of time to teach her every thing she needs to know. If you have a mom that is that supportive and you think will be willing to help you are very fortunate.!

I know! You are right for sure. I am figuring this out a little late... But I still think that if they had something that compared to a daily class they would understand and recall the info better. I mean of course there will be a lot of straight memorization, but some of the mistakes I have seen them make on the exams are definetly caused from a lack of understanding. They are trying to memorize and fill in the blanks, but when their memory fails them, they dont have the basic understanding to figure it out. I dont know if that makes sense or not. I am really glad the program is working for your son. I think it probably works for lots of kids. I think my kids needed a different approach and I am struggling to figure out how to get that for next year. Thanks!!

I know thats what he says(that the lectures are the meat) but we dont feel like that has been the case with biology. My kids have taken good notes and do all the review questions. I think if they were better test takers and better at memorizing they would do better. But we dont feel that they have really learned the material. What text is your friend using? If I were to do it again, I would use apologia or possible bob jones. I didnt think the text was going to matter much, but I think it did. Lots of people love dive, so it could just be us. I would say if you are going to use it, make sure you get a good text.

These look really good. Have you used them? Happy with them?

Thank you! That is helpful. I found Seton testing service which will send me the CAT and the spectrum prep books. I think I will do with that for now.

Can anyone recommend some test prep books? My kids are 15,13,11,and 9 and have never done any testing. The oldest are taking a biology class this year and have bombed every test. I think it is because I have not done tests all along with them. I should have but I digress... I am thinking about taking a few weeks of school this term and working through some grade level test prep books and then giving them a standardized test like the CAT. I just wanted a recommendation on a good prep series I could use for all of them. Thanks!

Yes. It claims to be lecture based and there is some lecture, but not near as much as we were expecting. Many, many weeks have had NO lecture at all and a good many more were under 20 mins. It does not compare at all to what a PS student would experience in a classroom every single day. (not that it was claiming to, but in just figuring out why my kids have not done well has made me think that if they were in a classroom with lecture and discussion everyday they would have been fine.) We have been very disappointed. Also, the lecture is just an audio of his voice with a visual of a smart board kinda thing, like they use on Khan I think. I really was expecting something more like MathUSee I guess where he was actually teaching. We have done it as a co-op and a few of the kids are doing really really well. They have been using Apologia or Bob Jones and I think the text did make a difference. I chose a regular high school textbook(Raven et al) and my kids hate it and say they dont get anything out of the reading. So they are left memorizing review questions for the test and then bombing the test because they dont really KNOW the material. :glare: This is not all the fault of DIVE, of course. But I am disappointed in the program.

What is available? We used DIVE this year for Biology and my kids have not done very well. Their grades are fine because the do all the assignments, but they haven't done well on the exams at all. We were expecting more lecture/teaching from the course. I am thinking ahead for next year and would really like something independent like DIVE has been but with more lecture/teaching. I can arrange for labs to be done with a small group.

I wasnt able to finish the whole thread so I hope this isnt a repeat. With my daughter, now 6, it was a yeast infection in her intestines. After repeated attempts to get help from the Ped, I took her to a natropath and she was the one who diagnosed it. She was getting it from me. Both my husband and I took a product called Candex and we had a new baby in 36 hrs. It was amazing. It could be, not also could not be, related to thrush on mama's n*pples or in baby's mouth. The product is at health food stores. My SIL weaned her very fussy baby to a bottle thinking it would help and it did not. So now she had a fussy bottle-fed baby.

Green smoothie

Injectable vitamin b 12 sublingual vitamin. B 12 Legumes/beans (google bean cure) GREEN SMOOTHIE(by far the most effective) daily,lots of spinach and a bit of kale as well as orange juice and frozen fruit. Don't add fruit until you have blended the teens and juice/water to liquid

It sens like all the weight loss threads are focused on low carb with most of the women esp saying low carb was their only answer. I have several compelling reasons for not wishing to go that route but I also really need to lose a bunch of weight. I would love to hear success stories from anyone who has done it with a plant based but small amounts of animal products included. Thanks!

This is helpful information as I am trying not to panic WRT NCAA. What about classes that do not use a textbook? Can we submit a syllabus or something? If this has been stated, I appologize. Will they take proof by way of SAT II subject exams? Thinking for a foreign language. If the child learns enough of a language during the course of hsing to pass the exam, does that count? Or do we have to list an actual textbook?

:iagree: that's what we do too. Curl up relax and read. While I lay the littlest ones down the older ones do their silent reading then i read aloud and then the middle ones read to me.

No way. We require covered shoulders and knees. No exceptions. Goes for me too:D

Thank you for all the replies. To address a few issues: my daughter only sits for family friends or people from church that we know very very well. As in been in their home more than a few times. The dads do not drive my daughter alone. Either the mom does or the oldest child comes along. This is what we did when we hired sitters too. I am 100% sure that she will never be driven home by someone who has been drinking. We are LDS and at this point she has only ever sat for LDS families again that we know well. If at some point she sits for someone else who Im not sure wont be drinking or would send the dad with her alone then we would of course go get her. But this would be for our comfort and not because the parents expected it. That's what surprises me. It is the ones who expect me to drive her.

I do see if very different than a regular job for many of the reasons already stated. And I do think I am doing the family a favor, even though my teen gets paid. Its not a lot of money( I get that the OP of THIS thread pays a bunch, but in my experience and circle, young teens dont get paid that much) and I also lose MY sitter for the evening. Not always, as she has an older brother, but tonight the brother was going on a campout so it meant I didnt have a sitter either. I didn't NEED her, or I she couldnt have done it, but I could have done grocery shopping if she had been home to watch our little ones. AND, she didnt get asked till about 11 this am. I am FINE with that as I also make last minute plans and Im happy for her to make a little money. But I still think it is odd to ask the teens parents to drive. I do not view teens babysitting in the same professional way that the OP does either. My daughter ONLY sits for families that we know well, have been in the homes, have the same/simular values. I would NEVER in a million years have her go into someones home that I did not know well. I am 100% sure that none of the families she sits for would be driving her home after drinking(we are LDS and all the families she sits for are as well). My husband, and none of the dads of the families we allow our children to sit for, drive female sitters home alone. Its not proper. I would drive while my husband stayed home with our kids while I drove them home. Except in the situations where I needed the help and asked for it up front. We live near the families that have assumed I would drive(less than 4 miles) and I really do not feel like it is my responsibility to get her there. I am encouraged that the majority agreed with me.

I have had this happen enough times that I am curious if my expectations are wrong. My daughter(13) gets called to babysit and the parents want me to drive her back and forth. We have always transported our babysitters and when I babysat, the parents always came for me. Now, I understand unusual circumstance, like a single parent and sleeping children. If it was like that, I would be happy to help as I remember situations like that from back when I had to hire babysitters, instead of having them built in. BUT, i always talked to the parents of the sitter and asked for a favor(my husband is out of town, the kids will be asleep when I get back, could you possibly come pick up your daughter for me?) That kind of thing. I am curious what is standard, because I admit to being annoyed that the parents want my daughter to babysit and also want me to drive her but I will get over it if I am the one who has weird expectations:D Poll coming.

First how do I install adobe flash? There are some videos that require it and I cant find it in the app store. Second is there a way to organize the books into folders? It is driving me crazy to have to scroll through them all. Thank you!

Yes, as far as I remember. But the times stated are A LOT longer than they used to be. Like 2-3 weeks instead of 3-4 days. My stuff doesnt even ship for over a week most times(in stock, from amazon and qualified for free super saver shipping) I am completely convinced they are doing this on purpose and I am "this close" to getting prime since I was spoiled, so apparently its working:tongue_smilie:

Thank you! Looks yummy. I guess I was picturing just slicing and eating it with crackers or something, but these recipes look really good:001_smile:

Yes, I was going to pull out my copy. I havent read it in a long time. When we tried to go full on NT, I felt fantastic, but we didnt have a consistent source for raw milk until now. Also, we never got used to the sour taste of oatmeal and such:tongue_smilie: we will soak them over night now, but not in whey or vinegar since we dont like the taste. But we have noticed better digestibilty just from soaking in water.

Thank you. They take turns going first, but the behavior is the same no matter when she goes. I actually prefer her going last because she wastes so much time that my older daughter gets started late. The teacher always give her her full time, even though we run over cause no one else is after us. But it is annoying. The plan was for her to get a 15-20 min lesson and my older one to get the rest of the time. That is not happening. I do think a stricter teacher could probably get control of her so I really appreciate SWM's insight. But I would like to try to make this work for a lot of reasons, and I really feel like my daughter should be obeying ME. I am sitting right there, helping with the lesson and observing and she is ignoring MY instructions too. Like I said, symptom of a bigger problem with her in general. She is a smart girl and capable of controlling herself when she CHOSES to which is why I want to do a treat or something, knowing she will cry and throw a fit, but probably behave the next time. But getting in a cycle of bribing seems like a bad idea too. Thank you again!