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Advice, prayer, Book Samaritan, AAAAGHGHGH!
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ok, so a lot of you have probably seen me mention we’re in a rough spot – family business, now living with parents, very little income, blah, bablah, blah. so i’ve been hanging on, trying to trust God to provide our curriculum. as the end of August creeps closer and closer, I’ve been fighting panic more and more. My Dh and I have gone over and over our list, pruning, pinching, cutting back, and deciding which resources were an absolute requirement in order to JUST get started in September. So. what I had resolved to do was send a request to Book Samaritan with my list (sent last week on Tues), and I’d order the math, some SCM downloads, etc. Bare bones. Well, then I see that it could take a month or more at this time of year for the Book Samaritan volunteers to get a box out to me. So I just sort of sat on it in prayer, trying not to feel flustered. Then two nights ago, my precious DH asked me again, “What do we need still to get going for school?” I told him the amount. He hands me a debit card and says, “Don’t spend it all.” When I ask him where the money came from, what was he talking about he told me that he sold his guitar so that I could do school. So when I got done crying, I started to realize, oh dear, we’ve sent out a book samaritan request, and now i have enough money to get just what I need to start…um, what do I do?
Do i wait for my Book Samaritan Box, since I have no way of knowing what they could actually provide from my CM style resources-needed list, and then fill in with the $ from DH? To me that seems like a long time to wait…it could be mid to late September – and I really don’t want to feel pressed and rushed during the year, and then wind up running late into June or whatever. Aghgh.
Or, do I go ahead and order what I need, and whatever comes in the box that is useful I use, and I send back or pass along whatever I can’t? I’d hate to order stuff with our ridiculously limited funds and then find that they were able to send it to me!
What would you do? Has anyone used Book Samaritan? How much CM stuff can they provide? How long does it really take this time of year? Please pray for us…our financial situation and living arrangements and all we’re dealing with just makes a small decision like this one loom so large. It feels very overwhelming.
Hanging on in Him,
Amy
Amy, that is tough. I’ve never dealt with Book Samaritan, but I do have a couple of ideas. One thing to remember—YOU SET YOUR SCHOOL YEAR. So maybe this year instead of working Sep 1 through May, this year you do Oct 1 through June. Nothing bad will happen if you school into June. Move things around a little. It’s OK. You can start your school year whenever YOU want.
OK. When did you send your request? Ought they to have received it by now? If so, there IS a contact page. You might try contacting them and telling them of your special circumstances. Perhaps they could tell you a few things they definitely cannot provide you, and you could then just go get those items, and find out more details later, but maybe you’d have enough to get started.
Do you know any other homeschoolers you could borrow from? Perhaps there are folks here you could borrow from if what you needed was known. You can do this. Deep breaths. We know about what it’s like to be a small business owner in this economic climate; we had to duck out of ours last year (still owe money on it too). God is mindful of you and your needs. He doesn’t always manage everything we WANT but He is pretty good on need.
Sending a prayer along with ideas, hope something can help.
I agree with Michelle, we school year round mostly, but in the past we did not and we started and stopped school when it suited us, as long as we did enough days it was fine. So I would do what Michelle suggests and start and finish later – the world will still turn and you have a little more time to sort things out. God bless and don’t worry. Linda
Amy, How old are your kids. And what is it that you are in need of? Maybe some of us can help out too. Are you going to be able to get all you need through Book Sam? And on the debit card?
Let us know!
Also if you don’t want to wait to start – are there some things you need right away and others you don’t need for a while? You could buy just the few things you need immediately and wait to see if you get the others
You sweet people! My kids are 8th grade DD (13.5 yo), 4th grade DS (9 yo), 1st grade DD(6.5 yo), 2 preschool aged sons (4 & 2.5).
My wishes were to do SCM mod 1&2 (one as bible, one as history, and in so doing, squeeze 6 mods into 5 years for my oldest DD). I have the family handbooks, letters from egypt, boy of the pyramids, the golden goblet, in the days of noah, the big picture bible timeline, the oxford book, and a child’s geography. (thanks to another SCM member who donated for a small shipping fee). I still need everyting else, which is:
the numbers, exodus, and leviticus Commentaries, then and now bible maps, Adam and His Kin, One blood, famous men of greece, The child’s story bible, growing up in ancient greece, Archimedes and the door of science, Hittite Warrior and Within the Palace gates.
I had planned to do Math U See for my older daughter, Pre Algebra. I just ordered the student book for her with some of my DH’s guitar money. I am borrowing the TM & DVDs from a friend, but she’ll need them back next year and I live in fear of having to replace the DVDs – i mean, i have toddler boys! lol.
I had wanted to do some queens materials: Language Lessons for the High School Student 1 (got my others from a friend and a damage sale in January), A Walk with Aunt Bessie for my DS9, and Learning Spelling through Copy work A for my DD6. i’m guessing that since these are consumables, I won’t get them from Book Samaritan.
There are a few SCM downloads that I really desired to get for our year: Hearing and Reading, Outdoor Secrets and Companion for my littles, the picture study Portfolio of Velazquez, My Century Book.
I need to order my DS9’s math from Math Mammoth; he’ll do the 4th grade complete curriculum – I’ll prob order the two semesters separately, b/c they are only about 16$ each.
My final desire is the scrape together the money for latin for Children and song school latin from Classical Academic Press. I loved Latin in high school, and think it’s important. However, given our circumstances, that one will probably go on the back burner until other supplies are acquired. Funny, latin’s what I am most excited about this year; phooey!
I have no idea what Book Samaritan can/will provide from this list. Then just do their best to fill what you need. But I’m not asking for textbooks and basics, you know? And some of it is consumables, so….i don’t know. The money Dh got for selling his guitar would be enough to get the basics of math, LA, maybe the Queens stuff, and the SCM Mod 1 & 2 resources I need for the first month of school. after that i’d have to pick and choose. there might be enough to purchase some, but not all right now of the SCM resouces. I might wind up using the free book of centuries, even though i love the look of my century book.
so that’s where we are. my poor DH and my dad (Dh works for my dad, hence, the difficult family business situation, which adds to the difficult living arrangements…) are trying to pack up their office to move to a smaller less expensive office space in about 10 days and since my DH maintains all the technology, he’s stressing about how to make that happen, and he’s going back to school, thanks to federal and state grants. plus he’s very involved at our church and he needs to fix my car (i’ve been housebound for almost 3 weeks) and fix stuff around here, and my mom is sick and still working, and and and yada yada yada BUT out God is a GREAT GOD and He is not as my BF reminds me, “up there wringing His hands, wondering what to do with Amy and Dan!” So, if you all could pray for my Dh to keep his head up, keep trusting, and for me to not freak out. School is the only thing I am organized and controlling about in my life, so this is a real test of faith for me…ugh.
thanks, sweet ladies, just for being an awesome source of encouragment, advice, information, and such a great sounding board when I need to vent. This is an amazing community!
In Him,
Amy
Well Amy I have Adam and His Kin. If you want it, PM me! So you are doing Ancient History, then? Sorry I have been doing American History. Also, are you doing any character study? If so, I can see what I have.
What a good hubby you have!
What a sweet hubby!
I’ve been gathering my L4C one piece at a time, per month; all used on Amazon. The only thing I haven’t been able to get used are the DVD’s, where the best price is at Chiritanbook. Another option is the Far Sale pages at Well Trained Mind Forum.
I think Librivox has Famous MEn of Greece available (I’m almost positive)
Which Story Bible is it? It may be free at MAinLesson or Google.
What is your library like? HAve you searched thier database to seee what they have?
I only have a second, but the SCM MY Century Book seems a luxury item to me. You can download her Book of Century timeline pages for free; plus there are other formats for free at Notebooking.com. There’s another one, but I can’t find it right now that has the columns from left to right. I’ll try to find it later; it was even posted her about a year ago.
Here’s some free images of public figures for your timeline, just scroll down:http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/timeline.html
Picture Study you can also pull together without the Portfolio (if I were choosing what to buy or not in terms of importance). Picture study is so easy to do with just free sources and bios from the library and notebooking pages for free online to record written narrations (if that’s what you want to do).
I’m sorry I don’t have anything else as we haven’t done that period yet-we’re also doing it next year and I’m getting my history books at the library.
Rachel
Amy,
I have an extra copy of the Vos Child’s Story Bible. If you’d like it, just send me a PM and I’ll send it to you!
~Anna
Check your PM’s, too, Amy, I think there are also some of us who offered things that way. You may need a little time to sort through all the helpful stuff you get offered.
I am about to send a list of a lot of books about 40 or so from the 2nd through 12th grade you can have – I have sent them to Sonya to look at – some are from the modules others are books that could work, so I sent her the list to ask her. Linda
You all are amazing people! What an amazing God hug! Thanks for the ideas, the help, the encouragement. I am comletely humbled and blown away…
Rachel – thanks for the links and info…
Amy
i’m really sick today.
but was reading here while waiting for friend so can go to doc
note about book of centuries.
i downloaded the free one…
then turned it over and printed it again on the other side of all the pages…(made sure it line up right and everything)…
that way i have four pages per 100 years instead of two…I have a young artist who will need space to draw…and I am using both sides of the paper…
just an idea…i looked at the purchased one…but the free one really fit our needs better…and i have four pages per 100 years…big deal to us–really looking forward to doing our family book of centuries.
oh, and i used nice thick paper…like cover stock not card stock…so not the thickest…but went through printer fine…and i did it in like ivory…and it is beautiful…put it in a 3 ring binder…a heavy duty clear view one from walmart…and made a fancy letter cover sheet and spine label for it…and ta da…we have a fantastic book of centuries.
sorry so little in the way of help.
praying for you and yours
jo
p.s. have been finding used sources on amazon…sometimes as low as 1 cent or 50 cents plus 3.99 shipping.
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