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Funny, this is the time of year I always start thinking about food and wanting to revamp our eating habits! We get tired of the same-old, same-old. Anyway I just got a new book called 'Family Feasts for $75 a Week' by Mary Ostyn (sp?). It has lots of great ideas for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners ...

This is a great question, and I would love to read replies to this as well. I have one child that is just naturally more content at home. He loves playing with legos, making paper airplanes, playing with cars outside in the dirt, etc. and is just really good at entertaining himself. He groans when w...

I use post-it notes but I love the removable tabs idea! I think I'm going to try that. I may even have some around here. I think you can get them at any office supply store, or even Walmart.

We struggled a bit with this book in the beginning too, especially with my 8yo--my 11yo has done better with it. I think part of it is the writing style is just so much different than most books we read today. I seriously considered swapping it out with something else, but now I'm glad we stuck with...

For us, it is definitely a budget issue but I don't buy any book that I can get at our library except, of course the spine-type books that will be used over a long period of time. I also don't have a lot of storage space and that is a consideration as well. We go to the library every week anyway, so...

Also a former SL user here. :D I'm not bashing the curriculum at all, as we have many fond memories of books read from our SL cores. However, one benefit I'm finding from using HOD Bigger this year is that since we aren't bogged down with SO much reading, I am able to spend so much more time making ...

Great job!! We are loving Write with the Best here too!

Rebecca, I'm sorry your son is struggling with Bigger. I completely understand--I was concerned at first about doing Bigger with my 11yo, but I have found that with the extensions (especially with requiring the extra written work) that it is *plenty* challenging for her. I did add in Write with the ...

That is so neat! We are enjoying the poetry in Bigger this year too. In fact, both my dc say it is one of their favorite subjects. :D Who knew? We've read poetry before but they have never enjoyed it like this. I think reading the same poem each day for a week, and focusing on a different element ea...

Julie, Thanks for sharing your schedule, that was really helpful! I so need to set up something like that. Lunch always catches me by surprise every day ("it's that time already??"). Can you tell me what Chicken Fingers are? Sounds like something my kids would like and I'm wondering if you have a re...

Thanks for the links, Carrie. I do think the Eggleston books are good books--which is why I'm pressing on. ;) I think that the author's style just takes some getting used to, especially for the younger ones. I will say, we started with the other Eggleston book recently (Stories of Famous Americans?)...

I have a similar problem with the book used in Bigger. My dd (age 11) gets it just fine, but my ds 'glazes over' when I'm reading as someone else mentioned. I'm hoping it is just a matter of him getting used to the style, because I do think it is a good, worthwhile book. We have been working on narr...

Hmmm, I wonder if you used the wrong side of the waxed paper? Ours was very faint too, but it did show up after the watercolors were applied. I read a tip on this board awhile back that suggested using a white crayon instead of the waxed paper. Maybe that would work better? My dd, especially, really...

I don't know about going a 'step back' since this is my first year with HOD, but my dc are almost the exact same ages as yours will be next year and we are doing Bigger. It's going really well. We love the books, and it is really quite rich in content for my 11yo, especially when you add in the exte...

Well, we've only done the Biography unit so far and the two books we read for that were pretty short. So we may not be able to get two books in every unit! :wink: It's just so hard to decide because all the books look good, and I don't want to miss any! We probably will do Seabiscuit since my dc bot...