The Children's Blizzard is a good, but sad read about a particularly bad storm in the midwest during that time period. Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey focuses on how women viewed traveling the Oregon Trail and other western routes.

This is the first year we've been able to have a real garden and I'm beyond excited. Trying to reign in the plans and start small, but it's so tempting as we've got plenty of room to go big. Hopefully we'll be able to start planning in earnest in the next week or so.

It looks like they are going to stream the debate. Anybody feeling creative? You could liven up the debate by making one of those keyword bingo games to accompany it. (Or maybe a drinking game instead. :coolgleamA: )

This. Plus I have family members who are like hoarders except with houseplants. Just not interested in encouraging that at my house.

I absolutely have unschooler tendencies. I think our best educational experiences have arisen from our unschooling moments, but as a pp mentioned, unschooling every subject can be very draining on the parent and budget. In reality, our schooling is a combination of classical, Charlotte Mason, interest-led (the unschooly part), and opportunity-led with even a little school-at-home thrown in at times. The kids have input as to what topics they want to delve into further, what languages they want to study, what electives they'd like to study, etc. This year I'm also having my ds11 plan an interest-led project. By opportunity-led, I mean that we take advantage of the flexibility homeschooling affords to participate in as many unique opportunities as time and energy permit. For instance, we've spent a great deal of time on WWII after hearing a Holocaust survivor speak. I don't want to discount any great educational opportunities like this just because we happen to be studying ancients this year. Our zoo offered a polar animal class, where the kids were able to pet and interact with penguins during a feeding. Again, this has nothing to do with the official science topic of physics this year, but the opportunity presented itself and we jumped on it. All of these sidetracks to cause us to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get through a planned out subject, but my hope is that we are creating life-long learners who crave new information and will continue their education long after their schooling has ended.

You definitely want ds to get used to wearing a cup when he's sparring. It can feel a little funny, but he needs to practice with it in so it becomes second nature. (Kind of like wearing a bra. :laugh: ) Get compression shorts and the cup at any sporting goods store. Different brands are shaped differently (some are wider, longer, etc.) so it might take you one or two purchases to find one that fits him correctly. And if he ever complains about having to wear it, just have dh cup check him while he's wearing it. It's amazing how much they protect the package. ETA: And no underwear under the compression shorts, at least over here. Things get too bunched up.

This should be interesting. One of my friends mentioned they are thinking about streaming it. I'd be up for that. Debate at Creation Museum TV’s famed “Bill Nye the Science Guy†will argue the case against creation and for evolution as he faces the founder and president of the Creation Museum, Ken Ham, on February 4, 2014, in the museum’s 900-seat Legacy Hall. The museum, which has drawn two million guests in six years (including 20,000 visitors at its recent Christmas Town programs), is located in Petersburg, Kentucky (near the Cincinnati Airport). The agreed-upon topic for the 7 PM debate is “Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?â€

I met a family much like this. While chatting with a mom of a dozen kids, we started asking her how she handles teaching all of them, especially as they get to high school. She looked at us like we were crazy and said that she didn't need to teach all of them. Only two were boys, so she only had to give them a high school education. The 10 girls were just expected to basically sit around after 8th grade, waiting to get married. Didn't know what to say. Still don't.

As the kids all share rooms, we have a no toys in the bedrooms rule - only books, clothing, and a small box of 'special' objects. Doesn't take much to tidy their rooms. Now the basement, where the toys live, is a completely different issue. Still haven't found a workable solution for us other than closing the basement door.

That's what we do as well - sand buckets or some other kind of needed container. Although growing up we did have one Easter basket that we used every year. I still have it. For Halloween, we use reusable grocery bags. Those buckets just don't hold enough candy and little ones tend to spill the loot.

Agreeing with others that a brother laser printer is the way to go. We have this model that duplexes (love!) and is wireless. We do the vast majority of our printing on this one, but since I've been needing the ability to scan and copy, we also purchased a Canon Pixma recently. So far, so good. To save room, we stacked them using a cheap wooden shoe rack (minus the middle shelf).

I was a scientist in my former life, so that is one area which I'm very particular about. I would have walked out of that workshop as well. The NSTA one is looking more drool-worthy every time I look at it - might just be the winner for the year's conference. Thanks for all of the suggestions! Keep 'em coming.

I've wondered the same thing. The workshops look to be very high quality, with lots of hands-on demonstrations. There is the rather pricey registration fee, but the conferences do last 3 or 4 days. There are also math (NCTM) and history (NCHE) teacher conferences. I wonder if any homeschoolers have ever crashed any of these.

That sounds amazing! Opportunities like that are just what I had in mind.

I attended my first homeschooling convention last spring and left underwhelmed (and annoyed, truth be told). As has been discussed here many a time, there was too much lifestyle and too little education for my taste. Last fall, I attended Plum Creek Literacy Festival, which has a day for children to meet with some quite well-known authors and illustrators followed by day of workshops with these same authors and illustrators, but also education and reading experts (like the Book Whisperer). The classes were obviously targeting classroom teachers, but many of the techniques were very applicable to homeschooling. They sung the praises of read-alouds, banishing boring readers in favor of real books (read multiple times), poetry, and even singing as ways to increase literacy. I left feeling refreshed and ready to attack the new year. The difference in the two experiences was striking. So now I'm wondering if there are any other non-homeschooling specific conferences that might be worthwhile to attend. A quick google search turned up children's literacy festivals around the country. Is there anything similar for history, science, math, or other topics?

I haven't read her book (thanks for the reminder!), but I heard her speak at a conference and I really liked what she had to say. She just loves books. One thing I took away from her talk was not to be in a big rush to give up picture books for 'harder' books. Her blog, twitter, fb page are great ways to find recommendations for newer children's literature. Also curious if anyone incorporates her ideas...

IIRC, that is pretty much what the developer of KONOS had in mind. Something about thinking about teaching like driving a bus. Everybody gets on at the beginning, when you're discussing things in more basic terms. As you progress on your trip and things get more complex, the younger ones 'get off the bus' so to speak (aka go play with playdoh or legos) allowing you to finish the trip with the older ones. I do something much like you're thinking about. I plan for where I think my 11yo is functioning. (I say plan, because he's one of those kids who gets hung up on a topic and just devours it...for about two weeks. Then he's done. I have old high school and college texts on my shelf for when he wants to go deeper as I can never predict which ones will catch his fancy.) The whole crew gets dragged along as we go. I continually find that the younger ones pick up more than I would have anticipated. I teach math and most of language arts separate, but I group as much as I can. (Yes, I love to plan, too. My husband makes fun of me that I have lists of my lists. :lol: )

One member here said something that has stuck with me. She said that she needs a routine, but that a schedule just makes her anxious. A very subtle difference, but I get her meaning. With a schedule, it often feels like you are a slave to the clock, are always behind, or just can't fit it all in. One thing goes wrong and the schedule just goes out the window. A routine speaks more to a pattern of behavior. It doesn't help much with the details of the day, I'm sorry to say, but it helps me in how I think of our time. (Even if I do spend an inordinate amount of time trying to fill in the perfect daily spreadsheet.)

In my state, CPS has removed children from the home for 'excessive absenteeism', defined as missing more than 20 days/year. I know of one cases where most of the absences were due to medical issues and the student was an honor role student, yet she was still placed in foster care. Of course, CPS also didn't follow up on a case where the mother called and asked for help as she was hurting her child, deciding to let him stay with her and giving the mother no help. His decomposed body was found months later in her bathtub. You just never know with CPS and the courts.

Miracle, one of the movies about the 1980 hockey team, is available from amazon for $5.

Agree with you on Bridesmaids, but I just loved her in Gilmore Girls. (Heck, I loved almost everyone in Gilmore Girls.)

I don't get the infatuation with designer purses. Coffee is nasty in all forms - including desserts. Bacon is barely tolerable.

Thanks! I can't take the credit - I got the idea here a couple of years ago. I'd post a picture, but I have to remake it as the last one was thrown out (did I mention the destructive 3yr old?). But, depending on the orientation of the page protectors, you can get 3-4 on each wing and 9 or so on the main portion of the board. So you could fill it with up to 17 full-sized pages. If you wanted to cut them in half, you could obviously fit even more. I used double-sided tape to attach them, but velcro would work just as well.

We're changing up some things, too. I have kids 11(6th), 8(3rd), 6(1st), and an active 3yr old. Hopefully these changes spice up our day a little, while still getting all the requisite learning done. I'm waking the 6th grader up a little earlier than everyone else, both because he needs to get in some cardio (bribing him with watching the Daily Show while he runs -current events, right?) and to allow for a 30 minute teacher conference where we'll get the bulk of his instruction done so he can do his independent work as time allows. I'm reviving the breakfast board we used to do - one of those three-paneled presentation boards with page protectors attached. I usually put country/state maps, greek/latin word roots, Vocabulary Cartoon page, picture study, all those little extras that don't take too much time but I never seem to fit in. For some reason, the kids really love it. And if I remember to fill it each night before bed, it doesn't take much prep time either. I might get some of those "This Day in History" tear off calendars to add to the conversation at breakfast (and lunch). We thrive on getting out of the house. So we're going to try to fit in as many outside experiences as I can handle. For example, they've requested more road trips, so we'll be taking a day every month or so to drive somewhere within a three-hour radius and check out everything that area has to offer. The kiddos enjoy watching documentaries while we're driving to and fro (they actually pay more attention to them in the car than at home where there are more distractions, plus I enjoy the silence :laugh: ). To fit in all these activities we're doing a modified loop schedule, with math everyday and everything else cycled through. I'm putting together a basket for the preschooler full of books and activities to keep her out of our hair. Each older kid will have a folder explaining their 'assignment' for when they are on toddler duty. They will read her a book (read-aloud experience), help her with worksheets printed from enchanted learning or other sites, play games like Candyland, etc. Hopefully this will buy me an hour where I can work with the other three on their individual assignments. The 6th grader is chafing at the extra time he's been having to put in to complete his assignments. (aka "Why do I have to do work while they're playing?" He knows the answer, but doesn't like it.) I'm taking a leap of faith and putting him in charge of some of his learning. I'm giving him an hour chunk of time each day (during which I'll be working with the youngers) to work on an independent study project. (Reminiscent of the gifted projects the kids around here do in public schools.) He'll have to meet with me to plot out his goals, and as long as he's meeting them, he gets to keep his hour. If he doesn't, that hour becomes mine again. :coolgleamA: Complicated science experiments will have to wait until the weekend when Dad is around to corral the youngers. Preschooler is definitely in a destructive phase. Fortunately, the kids are used to schooling at night or the weekends as needed. If they weren't so flexible, it would make things a lot harder. I'm interested to hear what everyone else has in mind!

Agreeing with those who said that educational neglect would need to be paired with another kind of abuse before I'd step in. The only way I'd involve CPS is if I felt the children would be better served being removed from the family, because once legal entities are involved you better be prepared for the worst case scenario. There is no guarantee they'd 'just put the kids in public school.' A more likely result would be foster care (based on how courts are treating excessive absenteeism in my state).