I want to buy the SOTW 1 activity guide for this year. Does anyone know if they do a back to school sale? I will happily wait a week or two if it meant I saved some money. Thanks!

Post on their FB page and ask them how it's going. When I did that last year, they told me it should be out this fall. It obviously didn't make it. They then updated it to say it should be out the 2013-2014 school year. So maybe they can tell you if it's still an option or if they're pushing it out further.

Elemental Science Physics is what I would do. Designed for 4/5 grade, lots of fun experiments, but meaty too. Right up the alley for boys. :)

Call around or start your own troop. I'm the leader for DD's GS troop. Our Girl Scout troop is open to siblings, except for troop meetings. (You're thinking what DO siblings get to do then, right?) Well, siblings come along on camping trips. Sleepovers. Service projects. Park dates. Literally everything EXCEPT the once a month troop meeting. DS is joining Cub Scouts this year too and his Den *encourages* siblings to come to everything but the den/pack meetings. They have 2 camping trips a year and a sleepover trip and entire families are welcome to come - the Den Master says his view is "The more, the merrier!" So I would call around and see if that option doesn't already exist. And if it doesn't, start it yourself! I guarantee there are other people in yoru same situation. And both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have national policies that allow for the inclusion of siblings.

I committed to 50%. I already about our math for this school year, but I'd like to look at MM. So I'm really hoping it makes it to the 50% off since I'm buying it without being 100% sure that we'd even ever use it. :)

That is NOT a good price. Michael's has the tempera paint for 1.99 a bottle. I just bought some last weekend with a 20% off coupon, which made it 1.59 a bottle. The oil pastels - I got a 45 ct. set for 6.99 at Joann's on Saturday. If you buy them with 40% off coupons (you can find them online, on your iPhone, or in the newspaper) and Joann's will take 15% off everything for teachers (clearance, sale, regular price) and Michaels takes a similar percentage off for teachers as well. Both stores recognize homeschoolers. Joann's has a card you get...Michaels you just tell them that you homeschool. :) I would think you could get all of that stuff in a couple of shopping trips for way less than $100...

We're just finishing up CLE LA 3. It goes into more detail on the names, although that's always bugged me and I just crossed it out and wrote the labels. :) Grade 3 uses the terms adjectives, action verbs, and helping verbs. I'm impressed with it and just ordered LA 4. (We've been using it since 1st grade.)

Does Christian Light Education ever have free shipping codes? Or any sort of promos? I have $100 worth of stuff to order and free shipping would help a lot!

This is what I use. It's aluminum free. (Note this is for a 4-pack of them. I got it at my local grocery store for <$5. I was very very hesitant to try it because I live in Texas where it's 105* for weeks in the summer, plus the humidity. I've tried other natural deodorants and I always ended up stinky. This stuff works!! I used it all through last summer and even in the heat of the summer being active I didn't stink or even have to reapply. The trick is that your armpits have to be WET to apply it. I put it on right after I get out of the shower. I actually have a little spray bottle and just spray a couple of sprays of water, put it on, and them I'm good to go. Oh, and it lasts FOREVER. I've had the same one for over 9 months.

CLE?

True story: Last week I went to buy a mouse for DS's snake. The mouse costs $1.08, including tax. I gave the cashier $5.08 because I didn't want to get any coins back. The cashier gave me back $3.92. When I asked him for the rest of my change, he looked confused. I told him, "I gave you $5.08. The snake costs $1.08. You owe me $4, but you only gave me $3.92." He looked from the cash register, to my hand, back to the cash register. Then he shrugged and gave me 8 cents. The next day we went to another store and got jipped on change again. And I realized why I never pay with cash anywhere anymore.

8 weeks or later is ideal. I wouldn't personally worry about 7 weeks though.

:grouphug: I can't imagine what this would be like. I'm so sorry. Have you gotten any indication that they might consider sending her back?

We're using CLE LA 3 right now. They got rid of the marks in 2nd grade if I remember correctly. I really like it and feel like it's rigorous, but not excessive at all. It is very independent, at least for my daughter. We spend about 10 minutes going over new material, she does the We Remember on her own, and then I grade it and give her feedback. A lot of people say that the writing portion is light and recommend supplementation. We didn't use anything else this year, but I do plan on supplementing for 4th grade.

I've never seen it on sale, but it's very easy to find the TM used and you can often find most, if not all, of the LU's used as well. I think I paid $25 for CLE LA 3 this year. There's a Yahoo group for CLE where people sell stuff. If nothing else, buy the TM used and then purchase the LUs new. It's entirely possible that it does go on sale too and I just haven't paid that much attention to it. :D

I'd always planned to switch from Horizons to Saxon at 5/4, but decided against it after doing a side-by-side comparison in person because Horizons appears to cover things much earlier than Saxon. I know a lot of people rave about how great Saxon is, but I just was not impressed. I think it's quite common for people to switch either at Saxon 4/5 or 6/5 so I don't think you'd have any problems switching at this point.

Anyone? :)

CLE is open-and-go and from 4th grade up teaches directly to the student. It's not meant to have the teacher right there hand-holding. In my experience (we've used CLE since 1st grade), even the lower grades don't require a huge amount of time on the teacher's part. I probably spent 15 minutes doing LA with my daughter in 1st and 2nd grade and then would have her do the "We Remember" section on her own with just coming to ask me questions as needed. It's also quite rigorous from what I've seen. Hope this helps!

We used it last year. I didn't like it. It don't think they need to have a college prep course in elementary, but this was too easy and my kids just couldn't get into it. And I don't see DD remembering what we did last year as much as she remembers Biology (which wasn't Elemental Science) from the year before!

Here's what I'm thinking for 4th grade. I'd love some thoughts about it. LA: CLE LA 400 Reading: Kolbe Academy Elementary Lit Guide Writing: Write On! Math: Horizons 4 History: SOTW 3 Geography: Galloping the Globe Science: Either Physics as outlined in WTM or Magic School Bus Science Spanish: La Clase Divertida 2 Latin: Big Book 1 (continuing from Song School Latin and GSWL) German: Das Neue Deutschmobil 1 Art: Meet the Masters We also do Classical Conversations at home. DS (1st grade next year) will be tagging along with DD on everything except LA, reading, and math. I'm especially looking for feedback on Reading and Writing since I've never used either of those texts before. I wanted something to help teach literary elements and a basis for discussion, which is why I was leaning toward Kolbe. And I was looking for an introductory writing program which is why I was looking at Write On! I'm not sure about teaching 3 languages either, but next year will be DD's 3rd year of Latin and 2nd year of Spanish. I originally chose Spanish because it's a useful language to know in this part of the country, but I've studied German, lived in Germany for a while, and I would love to pass that on to her. Both DD and DS have been asking for me to teach them to speak German too. Thanks for reading and feedback!

Horizons Phonics teaches starting blends. In depth. (Maybe a little too much depth for my taste, LOL!)

Yes, easily. It doesn't talk down to the student and it's easy to understand, but WOW is there a lot of info packed into every page of it.

We used ES for Space and I wasn't happy with how easy it was. We're doing RSO Chemistry this year and I *love* it. There's much more depth and it's explained VERY well.

This week I read Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan. It's non-fiction about a woman who ends up with a specific type of encephalitis and descends into madness because of it. Doctors think that she's bi-polar or schizophrenic until one doctor finally realizes what's wrong and treats her for it. Amazing story. Sad, but wow. I read it pretty much all in one sitting because I couldn't put it down.

Yes, I feel like it's complete and that DD is/has gotten a thorough foundation in LA from it. A lot of people feel that you need to use a supplemental writing program with it. We don't, but DD *loves* to write and we do a lot of writing with other subjects. It takes us about 15 minutes of review and introduction of whatever the new topic is. When we get to the We Remember section, I let her do it on her own while I work with her brother. That part takes her about 20 minutes.