Bean Burritos 1 can of fat-free refried beans Shredded cheese Sour Cream Tortillas I open the can of beans and put it in a micro-waveable container. I add some water and gently mix it in since my dd likes her beans a bit runny. Heat in micro-wave for 3 min. I then take the tortilla, spread beans on it, top with cheese and microwave for 20 seconds or so until cheese is melted. Add sour cream and/or slasa. There are lots of great variations on this. You can brown ground beef with some taco seasoning to have meat for them. You can use taco shells, you can fry the corn tortillas and make tostadas or mexican pizzas. Tostadas: fry a corn tortilla Put it on a paper towel to dry spread refried beans on tortilla Add meat if wanted Add sour cream and/or salsa top with cheese and lettuce Mexican Pizza: Fry two corn tortillas Dry with paper towel spread refried beans and meat if wanted on one tortilla top with 2nd tortilla coat with juice from salsa Sprinkle cheese on top Heat in toaster oven for 5 minutes until cheese is melted You can add lettuce or sour cream Use pizza cutter to cut into 4 slices Hope these help.:)

For the question on Home Instructor's Guide. These are good if you need a schedule, teaching ideas, games for reinforcement, mental math pages and answers to the problems. Hope this helps. By the way we have used SM from Earlybird to 3a so far.:)

When my dds were little I felt good about our parenting decisions and like we had a lot of support because of La Leche League. But it has taken quite a few years of hanging around the homeschooling groups to feel like I have a good supportive community. My dh has always supported me, my MIL gave the nod of approval and so does the family members who opinions I respect. It has just been over the last year that I have been able to develop friendships with other homeschooling moms and we have built our own little support network within the larger network. So yes, I have support now and it is great. Before I found my friends I felt very lonely especially around this time of the year. I often felt like I was adrift in an ocean with no hope but knowing I was doing what was right for our family. Now, I feel like if I am having a bad day I can call a friend. This group has been very supportive but it is not the same as friends that you can talk to and hear a voice.

Our commitment is to homeschool all the way through. I have a general outline through the end of where we want to be but I am flexible and revamp my plans regularly. The big commitment is like Mom of & 7 said to take homeschooling as a serious endeavor and as not something to take lightly. I do think that if you are going to homeschool you need to commit to it. Whether that commitment is for 1 year (and keep them on ps standards) or for a long-term (follow your own course). You have to decided that homeschool teaching is your job/career and you need to make it a priority, set time/routines, have a plan/stuff that you do, and keep your records. If you homeschool it comes first before the housework, the nosy neighbors, the interrupting phone calls, etc. But homeschool is also flexible enough that you can take it on the road or to help care for Aunt Mable who bedridden. You have to commit to doing the work, getting it done and keeping the records that your state requires and once you get to Jr. High keeping transcripts and portfolios even if you don't think your kid is going to go to college.

My dd is working on PM 3a as we start MPAH 4a. There is some math that I have had to help her with. Because the book starts talking about mass, in the workbook there are a few problems that we've encountered in the beginning that deal with mass. The big one is where they have to add a string of one and two-digit numbers. The other math we've come across mainly deals with weight. As I went through the books to make my schedules up, I really only saw math in the beginning. Both books spend a lot of time on water (states of matter), water cycle and water conservation. If you dd is strong in math or you are willing to help with the math you should be ok.

If you eat the food you can then it is great. If you don't eat something that needs to be pressure canned then it may not be a good deal. Especially since the canned food lasts longer than frozen food. I would get the biggest canner though if you plan on doing a lot of pressure canning. We mostly do tomatoes here and only need to water bath them. :)

I looked at Classical Writing and Writing Tales and even showed the samples to my dd. Instead I read and took tons of notes from the books Composition in the Classical Tradition and Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition. They are by different authors and I was able to interlibrary loan the books. From my notes I am developing my own curriculum that doesn't scare my dc away from writing but makes it fun and enjoyable. This year for 2nd grade we are just doing summary or precis writing of Aesop's Fables. I read a fable on Mondays, she coposes her summary on Tuesdays and I write it down. On Wednesday and Thursday she works on copying it in her own penmanship from my typed copy. Next year we will be expanding the narrations and slanting them to reflect various viewpoints. If you are good at writing and teaching composition then the books above will be very self-explanatory and fairly easy to adadpt. I majored in English lit and found them to be a great all-in-one source for composition.:)

Hawai'i but then that is always our first choice. There is a site out there called Vacation Rentals By Owner that has great deals on houses and condos that you can rent wherever you want to go all over the world. I think London would be great too especially if you have a place to stay. Hope you have a great time wherever you decided to go.:)

Indiana We only have to keep track of that 180 days and no one is allowed to ask to see. We are supposed to give equivellent instruction but are exempt from that becuase we are private schools. We can also teach other people's children and I know several families who run day schools out of their homes. Great state to homeschool but I would rather be teaching my kids on the beach in Hawaii.:)

You need the text, workbook and activity guide for each semester. For levels 4 and 5 you will want the Higher Order Thinking Skills books as well. My dd loves this science. 3a/b is mainly biology but 4a/b is very meaty and you will want to make sure that your child is at least doing Primary Math 3a/b to do this science. Hope this helps.:)

We are planning a few of these. One is on money--we will do math with money, play store, read about the history of money, do dollar bill origami for art, and try out some science with money(there are a few experiments out there that you use pennies with.) Another unit study we are doing is on time. We are going to do math with time, draw pictures of time, read about the history of time and use time units for memory work. We are also doing a unit study on measurment, where we will read about Noah's ark, read about the history of measurement, try to measure out the size of Noah's ark in the backyard, and perhaps build a miniture houseboat. Hope this helps.:)

I read a lot and researched curriculum and homeschooling before I had children. Once I had them, I tried out various methods and such and really looked at the needs and abilities of my children. My oldest learns best with logic, facts and pictures. She is creative, has a short attention span and a lot of energy. She loves math, science and languages. My youngest is dreamy and likes stories. I think she will be my reader. So I looked to methods that would appeal to their needs, draw out their best and help them work on skills that they have problems with. So we use: Charlotte Mason for short lessons and ideas on good books. Waldorf for visual and artistic appeal and stories for math. Classical for rigorous math, science, grammar and language arts. Montessori for hands-on activities and manipulative ideas.

The American Girl book Meet Kaya has this as its main theme. The girl in the book brags then gets in trouble and ends up earning a bad nickname because of the bragging. It has about 4 chapters.:)

No, there are a few weeks in the summer that we do take off. We take off 2 weeks in May and another 1 to 2 around the 4th but otherwise it is homeschool as usual for us. I do have fun units planned for this summer though. We are doing a unit on time that includes math and history and another unit on money that includes math, history, art and science.

Not an afterschooler but saw your post on another thread. The best way to get to know this program is to get out a notbook and start writing. Just go through the lists and do the charts on your own. Every time I go through the lists, charts and enrichments I learn more and more about how to use the program. OhElizabeth who posts on the curriculum board does have a good guide on getting started and you may find that helpful as well.:)

Mine is up now. Last week I was sick but this week was a good week.:)

I like Spell to Write and Read. It is logical. There are 70 letter combinations that make a set number of sounds and there are 29 spelling rules. It is K-13. I used it to teach reading and will be able to use it to teach spelling to a college reading level. The drawback--you have to learn the program to teach it. But once you know it it is so easy to adapt to the needs of your children and it works. :)

Some books you may want to see if they have at your library or can borrow from friends. Holling C. Holling's books (worth buying) D'Aulaire Biographies (worth buying) American Girl Books if you have a girl between the ages of 6 and 10 :)

Same boat here. My oldest can but doesn't like to read. She does read Ricky Ricotta books and non-fiction books about animals and other science subjects. :)

I use copywork paper. For K/1st--I use paper with three sets of two lines. I make a letter and she copies below. By the end of 1st/2nd--I use paper with 2 sets of 3 lines. I write a short sentence in the top set of lines and she copies below. By the end of 2nd--we have moved to one set of 5-6 lines. I type up on a piece of paper and she copies on to her lined paper. That is where we are so far.:)

I can post links for Motessori resources that I have found online. http://www.montessorimaterials.org/ This site has a lot of free materials and links to articles. http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/ I love this site. It is like homeschool e-store but for Montessori. http://newchildmontessori.com/ I found this site through the Link and it basically a seasonal curriculum that you can buy. http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfsjy/mts/_link.htm This site has pictures and ideas on how to do Montessori. http://www.michaelolaf.net/ This one has articles on Montessori education. http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/ This is a great blog that has ideas on using Montessori and Waldorf ideas to teach math, the alphabet and grammar. Hope this helps.:)

My girls wait for the mailman and if he is delivering supplies for school they generally take it away from me and run off to look through it before I know what's happening. My oldest loves to look through math and latin books. My youngest loves any sort of storybook I buy. So no, I don't hide my stuff. Then again, I usually order right before we need it so it is usually something we are starting within a couple of days to weeks anyway.:)

If you want some folk and fairy tales from other countries the 398.2 section of most children's libraries is a great place to look through. We've found some wonderful stories there with beautiful pictures.:)

We used it and it really helped my oldest with letter reversals. It is a great program.:)

I believe in the state of TN that the only way you can homeschool high school is if you have a college degree.