We are converting dh's office into a schoolroom/lego builing room in a few weeks. Dh is leaving a huge storage cabinet that has tons of shelves inside. I keep looking at it longingly - dh just laughs at me and rolls his eyes... :D Most of our curriculum and books will fit in there. I also have a smaller storage cabinet that I will use for art supplies, science equipment, etc. I have a medium size desk for the desktop computer, and a filing cabinet that I will use for planning. (darn that filing thread!!) I plan on getting 2 folding 6 ft banquet tables - one for lego building and one for work space. We would have our laptops on the work one. I would like to buy a book basket for our current read alouds and personal reading, and some maps for the walls, maybe a globe. Dh will probably be leaving one or two whiteboards, but if not I will buy one. I have a small portable printer, but hopefully will leave one of his larger ones that prints double sided. I would like to have some kind of comfy chair for reading, but I think it will be too crowded. I'm having way too much fun planning!

DE only here. I think it is so much easier to navigate than having the printed. The print version looks intimidating! We didn't experience the "fog" when starting, and I think that is because the DE interface makes TOG much more manageable. I'm also not concerned with reselling TOG, just the books that we are using with it.

Wow, that's great!! Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Ds has always become moody (often anger leading to sadness) while hungry, so we've always made sure to keep him from getting hungry. We have recently increased his Abilify dose, and with that increase came a huge increase in hunger. Now it is hard to keep on top of the hunger, plus he is starting to gain weight. We have been seeing benefits from the Abilify, including a decrease in tics, and when he is not hungry, a decrease in moodiness. He has been coping much better with life in general. When he is hungry though, it's a Jekyll/Hyde situation. He has even been violent at times. Anyone else experience this? He would be like this anyway without the Abilify but it's a lot harder to stay on top of it, and it's almost negating the good he has experienced with the drug. I'm thinking that a call to his ped. may be in order - perhaps some bloodwork should be done? Any tips for handling the extreme hunger these meds can cause without ds gaining more weight? He never lost the weight he gained from his last antipsychotic.

Ds is definitely more like your son. It drives me crazy when we spend $80 on a set, he builds it and plays with/admires it for a week, and then rips it apart to build something new. I'm more like your daughter, lol! Thanks for the link. I never think to check the education site. I really like the large stackable bins. Lot's of planning to do...

Wow, I love the Lego building table in the first link! I can't do that, but I love the idea of the rail around the top. I have to show dh that so he can do something similar to the table we have. I'm always helping ds look for dropped pieces! Some great ideas here, thanks!

Sorry, couldn't resist! In my defense, I just spent a long weekend with my niece, who is a major drama queen.:001_smile: Guess some rubbed off.

Our pediatrician knew ds had it more because of my symptoms than his. It lasted for a long time, too. I was starting to think I had Lyme or some other disease!

of his home office, that is!:D I will soon have a school room/lego building room for ds and I. I have 2 6 foot long tables that I was going to use for desk space and building space. I will need some sturdy inexpensive shelving for books, so I would love some recommendations. Also, if anyone has some good ideas for storing lego bricks for a large collection. We have about 6 large bins of bricks, but it's hard to find pieces with them all jumbled together. Ds is very serious about his legos and designing different models. I would like him to have a good setup.

Those paper airplane kits are so annoying. Ds hasn't been able to make one of them work. The paper is too heavy. I would pick the most basic airplane and work on that. Do it a few times every day until he gets it, not all in one day. It may be more of an issue with remembering the steps rather than fine motor. Ds often looks for youtube tutorials when he has trouble with things. (like transforming a Transformer:glare:) Perhaps he can find some airplane tutorials. If it's any consolation, ds couldn't consistently make a paper airplane until a few months ago. He still has trouble with shoe tying, and can't ride a bike no matter how hard he works on it.

What is the best remedy for itching? Ds has 35 really large bites, and he is going nuts! He is an aspie with lots of sensory issues, and this situation is very hard for him to handle.:crying: He is getting some relief from Solarcaine, but it doesn't last very long. Also, what repellant works well without any horrible smells? I prefer natural, but since our last one failed completely I'm thinking even chemicals would be better than this amount of suffering he is experiencing now. I had thought about the clip on ones I've been seeing. Anyone use these? I don't know why my son got so many when the rest of us only got 1 or 2. Poor guy has been in tears off and on all day.

We've purchased 2 from Salt of the Earth. (link in previous post)They are very well made and are in new condition after 2 years. They wash beautifully in the washing machine, and we hang them over a chair to dry or on our deck rails with plastic underneath. Took about 2 days with flipping to dry completely. They have a good fabric selection, and while somewhat pricey, I expect to have these blankets for years.

I hate when supermarkets do this type of thing. One week, a certain cut of beef will be $4.99/lb. The following week, they will have a buy one get one free sale, and the price will be $9.99/lb. :glare: Or they will advertise something as 50% off, and double the price from the week before. Just how stupid do they think the average consumer is??

I believe Startwrite has some italic fonts.

LfC doesn't have the feel that it is for younger children, KWIM? I started it with ds11, and he likes it. The dvds have a mix of ages with younger kids, but ds has never mentioned anything. They certainly don't talk down to kids in any way. Check the site for samples of the books and videos. The chanting may help her. We play the audio everyday. It's quick and helps with retention, so it's not like studying. Lively Latin is another good choice for keeping things interesting. We like it, but I really wanted dvds. Too much on my plate right now.:D LA looked like too much for ds at this time. Perhaps you could print out a few sample pages of each and let your daughter take a look? I wouldn't mention what age each one is recommended for and just see what she thinks.

:bigear: Good topic! I'm taking a few weeks for some general planning, and I know we need to work on these areas.

We have used the Ancients one for the lower grades, and some of the ones from the upper grades that were on teacherfilebox.com when I subscribed. Ds enjoys them as long as I help with any cutting. (he has some fine motor issues) Instead of making a pocket like in the instructions, we use pocket dividers and have them in a history notebook along with notebooking pages and TOG work. It's a nice thing to show off to relatives.:001_smile:

In general we try to get the lit done in the beginning of the week to be able to do the SAP after. The history readings I usually spread out over the week. I don't do anything with the vocab except hand ds the words and definitions to look over before he starts reading so he is familiar with them. The mapwork we usually do at the end of the week. I've heard of some doing mapwork as they read and come across the required locations. We do any Worldview readings in the middle of the week to discuss on Friday if we are on schedule. We often do not do the history in-depth reading unless there is a good deal of interest. Ds picks one or two hands-on per unit to do, and we do some notebooking, not on any particular day - just when we can fit it in. Ds is working at UG level, so we are not doing a timeline this year. We often add extra time for a week plan, anywhere from 1 - 5 days. I plan out each week plan as a checklist so that if it goes longer than a week I am not rewriting plans. Sometimes it's best to just jump in with TOG - you will start figuring out what works best for your family.

I just noticed them a few weeks ago, but they may have been there a while. I wish they were available on Audible!

I hope it is still at that price on Monday. I have about $15 in rewards to use, and I must have a coupon somewhere! And why have I never seen these before? It's exactly what I need.

Dh is a pretty easy going boss, and he allowed it up to a point when we had an office - family matters and such. Anything over 20 minutes worth altogether for the day he would start having a problem with. He had a real problem with IMing a few years back. He ended up banning it, but if his employees had kept it to a minimum he would have allowed it. It used to be funny (and annoying) walking through the office - you could see AIM screens minimizing as we made our way through the room. And they really thought we didn't know.:confused: If he wanted to, he could have read every single word they typed on the computer. Now he only has independent contractors working from home, so they could be texting all day. If he notices a drop in productivity, he may give a few warnings, and then they are gone.

I think it is the most important book I have in my homeschool library. While I don't follow it exactly, I refer to it often. When I feel like I am straying from where I want to be I break it out and give it another read. WTM and the writing lectures from SWB are my must haves. I wish I had this book before ds was school age. I never would have put him in school in the first place.

I have a set very similar to the first one below, and I love it! Handles do get hot, but it's never been an issue - we often go from stovetop to oven and automatically use potholders anyway. MIL had a Cuisinart set when we moved in (lower end one), and everyone uses the Calphalon.

That's awesome! :party: I'm starting up again on Monday. I took off while we were away for a few weeks and haven't managed to get back on track yet... And thanks for the reminder about Dottie's site. I haven't been on there in over a year.

VBS is designed to be a lot of fun. I could keep that up for a week, but all year? Have you checked out workboxes? We never kept up with the workboxes, but I got a lot of ideas from the book for fun hands-on learning.