CostCaptain.com is a Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller. They carry both the new Office 2007 suite and Windows Vista and sell to academic institutions and home-schools may qualify as well. To determine your eligibility for an academic price from CostCaptain.com, visit Microsoft’s Education section under Are you eligible for Microsoft academic discount pricing? If you can prove eligibility based upon Microsoft’s requirements, you can buy the software from CostCaptain at the academic rates.

Their products are 100% genuine, they boast friendly customer service, and have gift certificates available for holiday or back-to-school gifts.

Prices for Microsoft Office 2007 start at $129 and Windows Vista Upgrade prices start at $89. They also offer volume discounts for 5 or more, and they have a secure checkout.

If you are a home-schooler in need of software, visit CostCaptain.com and browse their products and see if you qualify for academic prices.

This week’s history lesson was about the westward expansion of the United States and the Oregon Trail. I remembered playing the computer game “Oregon Trail” way back on a Commodore 64 (Yikes, I’m old!) Before, that, we used big rocks and a chisel. Anyway, internet being the wonderful thing that it is, I hopped on and downloaded the game. (Which, in and of itself, is very cool, that I can do this while living out in the sticks.) Olivia and Madeline are in love with this game – it’s so very interesting to watch them. This is their first game of this kind, and to watch the game play and logic that is involved is amazing. But, what really gets me about their playing, is the food issue. We played together the first time, and Olivia & I realized that we needed to go hunting or starve and lose the game. She LOVED the hunting! She would shoot anything that came near. Then Madeline would get upset if Olivia shot a rabbit, and so Olivia would avoid those. But anything else was fair game. She got frustrated when she ran out of bullets; and was undecided when offered a trade of food for her gun. She did not want to give up her gun. It was so funny to watch this, since she’s never been interested or talked about guns or hunting. But, the funniest part was listening to my sweet animal-loving-vegetarians laughing and yelling that they “needed meat! Let’s go hunting! Shoot that! Hurry up, you need to reload! Cock your gun!” Ironically, every time Olivia has played, she’s died of accidental gunshot wounds.

Olivia has decided that she wants to go to public school, after being homeschooled for the last three years.  She wants to be ‘normal’ and go to school, plus she can be with her friends all day.  I am just a mixed up mess of emotions:  worried, disappointed, anxious, relieved, and a little bit sad.  We’ve really been struggling with homeschooling over the last month, and last week was so awful that we decided that we needed a change.  After realizing that she can’t go just for one day, we agreed that she would go for the entire year, but if it was really, really, unbearable, she could come back home.  Read the rest of this entry »