I'm eagerly following this because we currently use MM (book 1) and I'm waiting for CLE 200-205 to come in the mail so I can look it over. My girls are both struggling with MM. It may be mastery, but I don't feel like they are mastering anything! The just he very frustrated with the sheer volume of problems per page (despite my crossing some out) and when a review from a previous lesson pops up they have no clue how to do it because it hadn't come up in awhile and they forgot. We are forging through the end of this book but I am definitely not planning on using it next year. Hopefully CLE will be a better fit.

2-3 hours with my two first graders. We do math, spelling, All About Reading, FLL and geography daily, and handwriting, writing and science 2-3 x per week. We add field trips on occasion as well.

Yes it is! Its been a beyond frustrating experience. I naively assumed that one has medical problems, Dr runs a few tests, treatment options are given, problem solved. Yeah, not that easy.

Also consider creating a free account with airfarewatchdog. You can input which cities you are interested in flying to and you'll get emails when the fares drop in price. When I know where I want to go, I stalk airline prices daily. When we went to Croatia years ago I checked for weeks. On a random morning the flights to Dubrovnik dropped by over half so we jumped on it. The next day they were back up. It pays to be diligent and flexible.

I've been all over Europe. I can assure you that in most of Europe the toilets are similar to what you find here. Even in Turkey we didn't come across any holes in the ground. Many public toilets are cleaner the ones I've seen around here, mostly because you pay a small fee to use them. As for flying at night, trust me you will appreciate it when you arrive unless you love dealing with jetlag.

So last year, after numerous negative tests, I was diagnosed with fibromylagia. I always questioned this but just let it go. Now, with new symptoms cropping up, I'm really beginning to wonder if perhaps I may have rheumatoid arthritis, not fibro. My symptoms are kind of all over the place (and many are digestive as I have SIBO, gastritis and IBS as well) but mainly its body aches although not widespread hence the doubt about fibro. My lower back and hips always ache, as do my legs and around my knees. Lately its migrated down to my ankles. The pain often wakes me up at night and I've had to severely modify my workouts due to pain and loss of flexibility. I also have neuropathy in my hands and sometimes feet. My hands go numb easily and often. Lately I've noticed a few painful, firm lumps on my thumbs and my wrist bones and thumb bones seem to protrude. I have weak wrists. I lose my voice often, and deal with bouts of fatigue. Testing has ruled out celiac, ankylosing spondylitis, lupus, MS, thyroid disorders and carpel tunnel. I've also tested negative for the rheumatoid factor, although I read that the test isn't always an accurate diagnoses/exclusion. I've been seen by a neurologist and a fuctional medicine doctor, GI and of course my regular GP. Just curious if anyone has RA and can comment? Thanks! Tracy

We just got back from 2.5 weeks in Europe (Switzerland, Alsace region of France and Bavaria) and used VRBO to book apartments with washer and dryers. That wasn't an issue at all, and we always book apartments in Europe because we want the room to spread out and access to a kitchen. Right now the exchange rate is low. That make as a huge difference over the duration of a vacation. A few years ago we were in Italy when the exchange rate was much higher and our vacation costs went up quite a bit compared to other Europe trips we've taken. Not trying to tell you not to go out west (although its a no-brainer to me) but it's really something you should consider because the exchange rate can go up again anytime. And with airfare so low... Our flight from Boston to Zurich was $400 pp roundtrip. ETA the flight was with Swiss Air, not a low budget airline. Very good deal! I would choose Alaska OR California... not both. That seems way more hectic than a Europe trip, especially with the long drive back.

I couldn't take it either. I dealt with a few months of terrible insomnia, which has never happened to me, and it took me awhile to finally figure out it was the Natural Calm. It seems to help most sleep better, but I wasnt one of them either. In my research I found out I wasn't the only one. I stopped taking it and within a few days my sleep patterns returned to normal.

I have adrenal fatigue. I don't have my numbers with me, but I see a functional medicine dr and he had me do the DUTCH hormone test. I take Adaptocrine which does help. I also took ferritin, Vit D and B's. I have a myriad of other issues and he and I were sure it was thyroid but my levels were optimal, even by his standards (most naturopath acknowledge that the current guidelines are a joke). It's frustrating when you just want answers.

I can't have milk due to a dairy intolerance. I typically use almond milk, but cashew milk is creamer so you may want to try that first. Also, I make my own nut milks. Easy peasy and it tastes sooo much better! It's literally just almonds (about a cup) soaked overnight in filtered water, drained and add to a blender with more filtered water. I add a date (or honey) and a bit of vanilla for added flavor. Blend, strain, done. Cashews don't even really need to be strained.

Super unmotivated! It's a gloomy, stormy day here, and we leave for a 2.5 week European vacation tomorrow. I would rather just curl up in bed with my cat, my book and a nap!

I haven't gotten negative comment but I've heard that tone of surprise by my MIL. We too are efficient workers. My girls have short attention spans. Our goal is to be finished before lunch. We start promptly at 8:30, take a short break or two, and are finished before noon, sometimes before 11. You can thoroughly cover a variety of subjects quickly with only a few kids. I'm quick to point out how much more they are learning since they get e one-on-one each day.

Not very long :( My twins were premature and spent the first three weeks in the NICU. I pumped and they were fed breast milk exclusively via bottles but my milk dried up pretty quickly. I never could actually nurse them, despite working with lactation consultants. I went on Reglan for 6 weeks to keep my supply up but after that I would pump and maybe get an ounce or two so I had to give up.

Thanks ladies! I love to cook, and due to my myriad of food sensitivities I make pretty much everything from scratch. And yum...I make curry all the time! I too make a weekly menu but I love fixing and forgetting as most of our activities are in the afternoon. And p.s. I do use said waffle maker and immersion blender. Just not too often :)

I've seen the IP mentioned everywhere !ately. Pinterest, blog recipes, facebook... So now I really want one :) Is it really that awesome? I have a cabinet full of kitchen gadgets that I rarely use (I'm looking at you, immersion blender and Mickey waffle iron) so I don't want to purchase unless it's something I will use on a more regular basis. Do you pull yours out often? Is it really that big of a time saver?

My children are fairly well-traveled, as we make travel a priority. We leave for a trip to Europe on Friday :) We just make sure we plan downtime for casual walks, playgrounds, and plenty of ice cream stops. We try to rotate busier days with slower pace days, and try to make sure we include mostly things that they will want to do. Nothing ruins a visit, for me, like my kids moaning and groaning because they dont want to be there. And I'm not ashamed to admit we pull out bribes when needed ;) OP, what an amazing opportunity! I'm insanely jealous! Sounds like you are doing great!

My easily-distracted, hard-to-get-focused daughters love AAS! They aren't overly enthusiastic about school, and never have been, so it's exciting for me when I find something they really enjoy. I was a little worried about all of the AAS components when I first purchased it, but it's really not that big of a deal. The teachers manual tells you exactly which cards to pull out and how to teach. My girls LOVE those (annoying!) tiles. And they are retaining what they learn.

Nope...I agree with you! I live in NC (not sure why the despise of the entire state, but I digress) and have visited Charleston many times. It's beautiful but I find it too big and busy to be considered charming. I much, much prefer Savannah, which oozes southern charm imo. I second Beaufort. Very charming small town about halfway between Charleston and Savannah.

I'm allergic to my cat, who coincidentally is on my lap right now as I type this :) I use Claritin and it works like a charm.

We did the same thing and it was about $30 per month. It really depends on how big of a storage unit you need and if you want climate-controlled.

We really enjoy it. And yes, it is secular, which is important to us as well. We have not yet paid for a membership. We've only done three lessons so far and I wanted to try it out before purchasing. And we already purchased RSO for next year. My girls, who don't have the best attention span, actually watch and like the videos. And they bring the lessons up quite often.The lessons are fairly short but they have extra activities you can choose to complete And The topics often open uo doors to introducing other resources. Last week we did one on volcanoes and watched a few documentaries afterwards.

Sometimes I used fruit enhanced sparkling water like La Croix.

Thank you all! Excellent information and really helpful. I'm excited to start (loosely) planning :)

If homeschool budget was endless, I would spring for regular equestrian lessons for my horse-loving DD. But yikes those lessons are expensive! And musical instrument lessons. And maybe someone to come teach math every day ;) We travel quite a bit, large vacations annually and local day trips and weekend getaways, but that falls in our travel budget, which we religiously budget for every year. We are leaving for a European adventure next week, but this is a large vacation for us and we saved for a few years.

Thank you both. Guess I will find out since its being delivered tomorrow. I do think she shows some signs of SPD, which have come to my attention now that we homeschool. Her twin has high functioning autism and spd so I'm aware of the signs. I'm ok with OT. I would really like to avoid the meds.