Except for away games and tournaments, we never have to drive more than 20-25 minutes for our kids' activities.

I started leaving our oldest home for 15-20 minutes around the time he turned 9. Now I'll leave our two oldest (10 and 8) home for an hour or two during the day, and have left Ds5 with them a few times. None of the three have any behavior issues.

For the last 4 years, we've done school mostly in our home office, which is on the second floor. It's furnished with a few bookshelves, a large L-shaped desk that Ds10 and I share, and a very comfy loveseat. Our play room is also on that level, so it's made it easy for me to keep an ear on my little ones while homeschooling Ds. This coming year, I'll be homeschooling all three of our older boys, so I expect we'll have to spread out more. I'm not sure exactly what that will look like, but I intend to keep the office as our "home base", and still do the majority of my teaching there. We're going to move the loveseat into the master bedroom so that we can fit a small table in the office, and we'll probably make use of the desk in the boys' bedroom. Fun kindergarten stuff will probably take place in the playroom.

With Ds10 (language & speech disorders, dyslexia), I'm really excited to see his reading continue to improve, and to enjoy some great books with him. Within the last 12 months, his reading has jumped up more than a full grade level (from 1.4 to 2.5! woo!) so I'm hopeful that we'll see similar progress this year. I'm also looking forward to getting him writing more, partly because I think everything he writes is adorable. He's excited about the reading, but not the writing. Ds5 (language & speech disorders) will be in kindergarten this year, and I'm looking forward to doing some of the fun preschool/kindergarten activities that were too young for Ds10 when we started homeschooling, and too easy for Ds8. He's a really pleasant, easygoing kid, so I think we'll have a fun year.

We have 5 kids, ranging in age from 2-10, and hope to add one more within the next few years. We built our house before #3 was born, and it's working really well for us so far. Our house is 4200 square feet. Upstairs, we have 4 bedrooms and an office. We use the office as a school room, Ds10 and Ds8 share a room (bunkbeds), Dd3 and Ds2 share, and Ds5 has a loft bed in the largest room which we use as a playroom during the day. We have 2 extra/guest bedrooms in the basement, and will likely move two of our older kids down there when they want more privacy.

Wow, thanks creekland! I'm in the Midwest, but will keep an eye out for meet-ups closer to home or when I'm on the road. :)

Hello everyone! I've been lurking on this forum off and on for several years, but have found myself on here so often lately that it seemed silly not to join in. :) My name is Maura, and I'm the very proud (and very tired) mom of 5 children, ages 10, 8, 5, 3 and 2. I've been homeschooling our oldest since 1st grade, and kept the 8-year-old at home for kindergarten before sending him to public school for 1st and 2nd. This year, I'll be homeschooling all three of our older kids. I look forward to chatting with you all!