I am reminded of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. Remember the kids who wouldn't take a bath so they just let them get dirtier and dirtier? I think they spinkled seeds on the kids and the seeds sprouted. The kids learned their lesson. No nagging. Just consequences of their grossness. I know it's super obnoxious to you with the house being like it is, but it is their mess. Step around it, shove things out of the way if they are in your path, but don't clean it. And don't cook a whole ham for sandwiches, my goodness! You are not a doormat! When the girls go back to school, you can throw all their crap in their rooms and close the doors. Then you can tidy up the living room. Or for that matter, if you really can't stand it, throw all the crap in their rooms now. They can deal. They really need to stop being so uptight about the crap in their rooms.

I kept trying to think of something I have never owned. What about... no, tried that, what about... Anyway, I have never owned Saxon Math. My dd is a visual spatial learner and needs color and pictures and white space in her math. And I have a degree in math, and can't stand to look at the pages in Saxon. Too many words with my numbers. So that's one. Maybe the only one bwahahahaha...

Since the year started, we dropped BJU lit and a Classical Mythology Reader workbook, and we moved to Memoria Press lit guides on D'Aulaire Greek Myths and Trojan War. We just recently dropped Horizons math and are going with Mathusee. That was a shocker, but at least it only took me a semester to figure it out. :) We didn't end up using Megawords at all as my dd is better at decoding multi-syllable words than I thought. We dropped Abeka French and switched to Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn French. We dropped WWS and switched to Seton Composition. Wow. I guess we changed a lot. I keep thinking I have everything figured out. Until I don't.

Yes, I have one, but it's for me :) I store pencils and notepads in it, plus books for literature and whatnot I'll be needing throughout the year. My dd has a locker. We bought it at Sam's and then spray painted it the color of her choice (aqua and white zebra stripes). That's where she stores her stuff.

If I'm going to spend $10, I don't think it should be spent on junk. A small bath gel set is nice. An umbrella. A box of chocolates. A picture frame. A large tin of popcorn. And I've been to many white elephant exchanges. It's a mixture of nice small stuff and total junk. The people that receive the junk are never happy.

Yocki Mondu Reuben Dip Ranch Spinach Dip Fruit Salad Chicken Crescent Bundles Potato Skins It's an hors-d'oueveres (wow I'm sure I spelled that wrong) kind of Christmas.

Well, I can understand his confusion. It's a pronoun that is behaving like an adjective. I think he may know more than you're giving him credit for. It's just these tricky nuances of grammar that actually don't make a ton of sense. It's diagrammed like an adjective, so personally I think it's more adjective than pronoun. I like Seton for Grammar, but you also might consider a quick run through of MCT's Grammar Island.

Do you want just labs? My dd really liked Stratton House stuff at that age. http://www.homeschoolscience.com/# Do you want more of a workbook? I like the Galore Park Junior Science workbooks. Oh, I see they are discontinued. Hmm. You could read through the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Science and just delve more deeply into topics of interest as you see fit. For history, you could read Story of the World: Ancient Times. Or you could get Usborne First Encyclopedia of History and read through that. I just remembered: Berenstain Bears Big Book of Science and Nature is WONDERFUL. http://www.amazon.com/Berenstain-Bears-Science-Nature-Childrens/dp/0486498344/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449510179&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=berenstain+bears+science+and+nature+treasury

I only put food for others in those disposable aluminum pans from the dollar store. That way it's obvious they don't need to return them.

I think this group is a poor fit for your personality style. Based on that alone, I think you should drop it. It's not worth the angst. (By the way, no judgment. That kind of group would also be a poor fit for my personality style and I would drop it.)

I really liked Where is Thumbkin? when my dd was little. It has weekly themes for each month, and then activities for each theme. Art projects, "math" or "science" projects. Songs. You can buy a cd to go with it. It also has a book list for each theme, so I could get corresponding picture books from the library. Amazon carries it. Book: http://www.amazon.com/Where-Thumbkin-Activities-Songs-Already/dp/0876591640/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449083633&sr=8-1&keywords=where+is+thumbkin CD: http://www.amazon.com/Where-Thumbkin-Kimbo/dp/B00000DARY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1449083633&sr=8-2&keywords=where+is+thumbkin If you also want to do something more schooly, Abeka sells pre-k stuff. I like their cds especially and their "flash" cards.

I think PacWorks looks interesting and very do-able. If I didn't have my science-enthused husband, we would probably use those. Timberdoodle carries them, along with some science videos, like Biology 101. Christian perspective. http://www.timberdoodle.com/Principles_Theories_Precepts_of_Biology_p/570-biology.htm#samples

I like Seton Composition.

LL Bean

Brownies. Summer sausage and Ritz crackers. Chex Mix.

Okay, I think I have narrowed things down for 10th grade: Math: Lifepac Geometry (one more book to check, but strongly leaning toward Lifepac) English: Abeka Grammar and Composition IV, Abeka Vocabulary, Spelling and Poetry IV, Abeka English Literature (Medieval section) (supplemented by other stuff) History (Medieval): Spielvogel Western Civilization (Medieval section) and DK History of the World (supplemented by other stuff) Science: Dinosaur Paleontology (created by me with a variety of books) French: Galore Park So You Really Want to Learn French, Book 2 Git' Er Done: Power Basic American Government (supplemented by other stuff) I think that's it. Yay!

Thanks for this discussion. I keep looking at options, and nothing is as wonderful as SWB's stuff. Are you all planning on doing HOMW and HORW during one school year to match the 4 year history cycle or just one book per year? It is chronological, so I guess that's not a huge deal. I could still correspond literature appropriately. If you don't do tests for history, how do you do grades? This is my first year of having real grades, and they are solely based on tests. My dd is not much of a writer and I don't feel like I can grade those objectively anyway. Tests are my objective grade-giver.

Maybe it's "Are you done? Your dinner?" Sometimes I talk like that.

Horizons Algebra Seton High School Grammar SWB History of the Ancient World Seton Composition Galore Park So You Really Want to Learn French 1 Abeka Vocabulary, Spelling and Poetry III Hoagland Science of Biology Memoria Press D'Aulaire's Greek Myths Memoria Press Trojan War Abeka Health from a Christian Perspective

10 blankets. 10 copies of your favorite cd (I like Merry Mancini Christmas). 10 Christmas ornaments. 10 decorative dishes or bowls of some sort. 10 cute trays. 10 wooden salad bowl sets. 10 cute platters. 10 starbucks gift cards. I would do 10 of the same thing, whatever it is. Too bad about the food. 10 Whitman's Samplers would be nice.

Anybody else REALLY excited about using SWB's high school books and then feeling super overwhelmed by them? We are doing History of the Ancient World this year, supplemented by readings from Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History to give my visual dd some visuals. I had been giving tests every 2 or 3 chapters (multiple choice, true/false, and matching because that's how my dd needs them to be). Plus maps here and there. It's so much! 85 chapters! I just looked over our schedule, and there's no way we'll finish it this year unless I skip a lot of stuff. But I'm no historian. It's hard for me to tell what's important and what's not. So I'm ending up dumping all the India and China stuff. That helps a little, although I know that's not ideal. But 85 chapters! I'm also making some chapters "read-only" but still, it's A LOT. We like to enjoy our history and maybe watch some Horrible Histories videos once in awhile. There's no time for that. Ugh. So I'm feeling like it's not very user friendly. So I'm sadly probably going to drop SWB's history after this year. Sadness. So if you're reading this, dear SWB, maybe you can consider publishing a guide to what chapters would be droppable, allowing us to read only 36 of the chapters? And while I'm dreaming... maybe a book of tests that are multiple choice, true/false, and matching? I also have to say that the maps are not particularly user-friendly, so I got some other ones off the internet. Oh, to dream. Also, similar requests for History of the Medieval World and History of the Renaissance World. I would happily buy both books and teacher guides, if you could tell me which 36 chapters (total) I should read for our history next year. I like keeping to the 4 year history cycle. I puffy heart love SWB's way of telling history. It has made this history-hater into a history-liker, and my dd loves history. But it's too much.

I had mine removed in my thirties because they were causing me problems (mostly pain from pushing on other teeth). The recovery was horrible. Worst pain of my life for several days. My dd will be having hers out as a teen, when it should be a breeze.

Pork loin. Dh didn't feel like making a turkey this year. I have no preference, although all this pizza talk sounds really good.

Just a thought on the "before" thing... my visual spatial learner did not understand "before" until I made it visual. We had a number line posted on the wall. When I indicated that" before" meant on the left side (and I pointed because of course some kids don't know left from right well yet), and "after" meant on the other, the right, side, she understood. This would also work if you had a poster of the months of the year and indicated that "before" was above in the list and "after" was below (since months posters typically list them vertically). HTH!