I've been wondering about this too..

Agreeing with the others than 1 hour can be plenty! I don't time what or when we do our activities, but as far as actual seatwork, we do maybe 20-30 minutes.... then there is a ton of reading (usually a minimum of 3-5 books a day lately) and arts/crafts (which always seem to take my DD *forever* since she gets so engrossed in it...she's doing some 3 Billy Goats Gruff activities right now and we're going on about 30 minutes of that but I'm NOT pushing it...she just loves it!). :)

I love the library because I can look up books that we'll need for the next week or two, reserve them online, and pick them up within a day or two when they've got them ready for me... then I have an "outgoing" stack and a stack of "in use" books.... we try and make it to the library about 3x a week as a habit so we don't have all the late fees we had prior to our "system".... We have a billion (exaggerating obviously!) books here at home and the kids DO love them.... but I am not organized enough on my own to be able to say, "Oh, we're doing fish this week...let me go get 20 books about fish off of the shelves!" I would have no idea where to start. ;)

Art/craft supplies and projects (velvet pictures with markers, anything with paint or glitter, cut and paste activities, etc) Dolls of all types Wooden blocks Dress ups

Kumon workbooks! My kids are doing the cutting and pasting ones ;)

Well I'll say that I voted for GW in '04..... but was a die hard Obama campaigner this time. I'm driving around in a van with an "Obama Mama" vinyl decal on it... and I live in a VERY VERY conservative west Texas town so it's even a little bit fun to be more liberal. ;) I consider myself an independent, but since having children, my views on things have changed CONSIDERABLY. I'm a crunchy kind of mama too - cloth diapering, environment-loving, tie dying (seriously, I love the process...it's so relaxing), mellow music-loving, cosleeping, extended breastfeeding, natural homebirthing, stand up for what you really believe kind of mama. ;) I need to move to Austin or something. LOL

I think ours is up to 40 items per person with up to 5 of those being media if you wish (DVD/book on tape/etc)

No charge at ours, but there is a 20 book limit on how many you can reserve. You can even reserve a book from one branch and request to be able to pick it up at the other branch. :) They email you (or call you if you don't have emails set up) and you have 3 days to pick up the hold.

The only outside schooling we do is PE ;) AKA free play. hehe Sometimes I'll let them go wild with sidewalk chalk and I'll request certain things get drawn or written (to reinforce lessons) or sometimes while they hop on stepping stones, we'll do counting or the alphabet or something.... Our weather is rarely mild enough to school outside on a regular basis until about October :)

our bed is fairly open, but my kids love the independence of their own bed. They usually end up in our bed if they're sick and that's it... That said, I do cosleep with my DC as infants. My DD got her own room and toddler bed at 15 months, my son at 14 months and I expect the same for this one

We use our dining room :) We have a shelf set up in here with all our books and supplies and I use my kitchen countertop/bar area for library books ;) We use the kitchen table for our activities and lessons (or sit on the floor in the living room for reading or reading lessons... kind of kid choice on that! hehe) We do have a room that we COULD use as a school room later on down the line, but for now this works out VERY well for us!

I'm not sure as far as the books meshing, but we've never used flashcards with my DD on a consistent basis... if she needs to see something written out, I'll use a small whiteboard or if it's a concept I want to drill her on each time, I stick it on a post it and stick it in the book to mark where our next lesson is (for example, I drill her on -ang, -ing, -ong, -ung and -ank, -ink, -onk, -unk... so those are just written on a post-it and tucked in the book so I can drill before getting started on the lesson).

gmail facebook a local mom's group christianmomsforum.com a local homeschooling group babycenter.com (september birth board and homeschool group) thehomeschoollounge.com

check out sparkpeople.com! I love that site - they have great articles, videos, podcasts you can do, email tips, and tons and tons of groups to join based on all sorts of diet/workout programs! I lost a lot of weight using the sparkpeople.com fitness and food trackers, tae bo, walk away the pounds, and loved the 30 day shred!

just one - for 7 1/2 years so far ;)

21 and had been married for 3 years

Mixed experiences here, as well. We have dimmers and it's nearly impossible to find dimmer compatible bulbs at the stores I've looked at.... The bulbs have been fine in our bathrooms, halls, kitchen, etc, but our bedrooms and living room and dining room are apparently hard on bulbs...

The Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD is WONDERFUL!!!! My 4 yo DD learned all of her letter sounds within days! My 2 yo son has learned about half of the letters this way and has an interest in the sounds just from the exposure with his sister. Also, just exposure is good! The Enchanted Learning website is great for some activity ideas, and so is this one: http://www.dltk-kids.com/ OPGTR can be used with 3 or 4 year olds :)

Great question! I've been eyeballing this set :)

sounds like a great plan and a well rounded week! :)

To answer the PP, we are at home most days.... but even on the days that we go out, DD doesn't like a bunch of idle time. She begs to do school stuff. Most of our school is child-led as far as when she does it and which order she does her assignments...except our OPGTR lessons. I try and get her to do that one when she is most attentive. :) Our "studies" are very relaxed so schooling 5 or more days a week isn't a ton of work - a lot of it is fun like reading a book or doing a dot to dot

Both of my DC use blunt child scissors from the regular school supplies.... we never used the really juvenile types or the ones that are just plastic with no blades ;)

We do 5 days or sometimes 6 if we didn't get to it all during the week. I'm pretty relaxed with it and DD loves doing school every day. I try to make sure we do at least 3 pages of ETC and 4-5 lessons of OPGTR during the week and we read between 2-4 books a day based on the units we're learning about in the curriculum. Other than that, I adjust as needed :)

I found an email from them saying that it would all ship this week of the 8th :) I am anxiously waiting! :)

ooooh i'm liking this idea!