I am blessed to live in an area where the typical family has 4 kids. Most have theirs space further apart than we do, but 4 is 4. I think most people in this area don't go to college and they started their families in their early 20s. Maybe that makes a difference? Before we moved here, only families in my homeschooling circle had 4+ kids.

I love ours! Dh put cheap white trim around it so we shouldn't have errant marker marks on the walls. If you buy at Home Depot, they will cut it down if you don't want 8x4. The littles use washable crayola markers on it.

I don't agree with this at all. 15% might be a lot of money, but to me, it's a minimum % for retirement. I wouldn't stay at home if we were unable to save adequately for retirement. Retirement without savings would be an unbelievable burden to my entire family. That being said, we have been undersaving for two years now. Dh took a huge cut in pay, and we are just now recovering. I've been able to tolerate it because we oversaved until this bump in the road, it is a temporary situation, and dh is working toward retirement with the Air Force reserves. If we can't get back to at least 15% by next year, I'll be looking for paid work of some kind.

:lurk5: Giving you a bump. I'm formulating my 3rd grade plans too. My thoughts aren't that much different than yours: Math - RightStart C Language Arts Copywork for grammar/spelling/handwriting Sonlight Readers WWE 2/3 Religion - Faith & Life 3 Science - Nature Study History - American History (using Seredipity??) Geography - ? Other IEW Poetry Memorization CM Composer & Artist studies Continue public school PE & music (if fits with schedule) Piano lessons

:iagree: Exactly what I do. I pay the current month credit card balance on the last day of the month so my balance is 0 at the end of the month. I enter my daily transactions in Quicken, so I always have $ in my checking account for the payment.

I use spiral bound barebooks. The kids decorate the covers themselves.

I think we are a math oriented family, well I am :D. The others should be too, right? I selected a strong math program - RightStart - for the fundamentals. We only spend 25 min/day on math lessons for my 7yo, but she is definitely learning how and why numbers work. I don't see her use rote memorization or other shortcuts yet. I think being mathy is a way of thinking, not necessarily how much knowledge you have. So, I strive to develop curious minds that see questions and mysteries. I view life as problems to solve, and I present things to my dc that same way. I worked in finance before staying at home, and I think my success was due to in part to ability and fundamentals but mostly in how I viewed numbers and relationships between events. My kids are finally getting to the point where we can play strategy games. I see game nights as a big part of my dc's math and science education. I'm looking forward to others' responses.

We use credit cards for the cash back and have never carried a balance. At the beginning of the month I figure out a budget (that dh concurs with), and then I track our spending frequently. I use Quicken, and I watch the daily spending like a hawk. We do pull out a little bit of cash for blow money, but that's less than $50/month. She can still use her credit cards. She has to find a system for tracking how much they are spending daily.

It doesn't really matter as long as they both get paid off, right? I would determine who is less on board with getting rid of the debt and do it his/her way. I pull my dh along, so I try to bend to him a little. Also - once you don't have a car payment anymore, you won't want to go back! We paid for our last two vehicles with cash, and it felt GREAT!!!

We do two types of copywork every day. We use WWE for copywork and narration. Then, she also copies two easier sentences every day. I use the easier sentences to teach spelling, grammar, and handwriting. This system is working very well for us.

So far we have been able to put anyone under 1yo in their own room, and that has been fantastic. That's almost a must for us. My oldest three shared a room until the oldest was 7yo. Then they were split by gender. Now the boys share and the girls each have their own. I personally love them sharing, especially when I hear them whispering after the lights are out. However, our girls are exactly 6 years apart, and I am thinking that none of us will want to share with my oldest when she becomes a teenager. If it's possible for the girls to have their own rooms, we will probably continue with that. If they end up sleeping together anyway, I would highly encourage the bonding. I always wanted a sister, and my girls definitely have that sister bond right now.

I 3rd RightStart math. I'm going to cry when I have to switch. We are also loving WWE and our copywork CM style. I've been using the day-by-day dictation free from google books and teaching grammar, spelling, and handwriting with it. My dd loves it!

I am still trying to figure out how to make a planner work for me. I've been eyeing the Levenger sight for a long, long time but not buying since it seems so expensive. For those of you who use a Levenger notebook as your planner/catch-all (there are some of you out there, right?), what do you like about it? What doesn't work for you? What would you recommend? I dream about a size perfect for throwing into my purse and yet big enough to actually write in. Which hole punch would you buy? The desk punch seems so expensive.

Along with all the other great recommendations, I wanted to mention the cat.chat CDs. There are six different CDs - Lent & Easter, Advent & Christmas, Mary, the Mass, Angels & Saints, Jesus - which are very educational and extremely entertaining. The music is fantastic. My kids love listening to them over and over and over. I think your 4yo would love them as well. http://www.catchat.ca/

Well, I could easily outearn dh, but I've been out of the workforce for 4 years and my professional contacts aren't in this geographical area. So, the answer varies depending on why I'm going back to work and if we are relocating. We have the same life insurance $ on each of us - enough to support our current lifestyle through death for the remaining spouse. If dh dies, I'll continue with the status quo. If I die, dh will stay home with the kids and homeschool them. :) He was a SAHD for three years before we switched roles, and he was wonderful at it. He would probably need to hire a cleaning lady though. :glare:

My list is very similiar. Here's where we are 1/2 way through 2nd grade: Beginning RightStart C Beginning WWE2 Preparing for First Holy Communion in April Progressing through SL Advanced Level 2 Readers Continuing copywork (grammar, spelling & handwriting) Rowing FIAR books 2-3/month Continuing IEW Poetry Memorization Continuing nature study Continuing composer and artist studies Continuing public school PE & music Focusing on handicrafts this spring - knitting and gardening Most importantly, my dd has developed a love of learning and our family relationships have never been stronger. :) Second grade has been wonderful!!! :hurray: Her formal lessons are about 1 1/2 hours/day.

My best answer is that all of our formal schooling is completed while my 1yo naps. My K gets 15-30 min and my 2nd grader gets the rest of the time. 2nd Grade - Formal RightStart Math ~ 25 min WWE ~ 15 min Copywork (grammar, spelling, handwriting) ~ 15 min Religion ~ 15 min Silent Reading (SL Readers) ~ 20-30 min 2nd Grade - Informal FIAR Public School PE & Music IEW Poetry Memorization Nature Study Read Aloud

One we did that I really liked was have the backseats of our van shipped (when we only had 2 dc) so I was able to carry more stuff with us. The other suggestion from me is to have everything in your house in the right spot when the movers arrive. They pretty much pack room-by-room. If your toddler takes your can opener out of the kitchen and stashes it in a bedroom, you'll have a difficult time finding it packed in with bedroom stuff. :001_huh: If everything is in the "right" spot before packing, it is so easy to put your house back together at the other end of the move. The packers aren't supposed to use your plastic storage totes as shipping containers. They WILL remove all contents and repack in various boxes. If you have all your baby clothes sorted and stored by size now, they won't be when you arrive. :smash:

Sadly, I don't have any words of wisdom for you. Your daughter sounds exactly like my 5yo ds. I sign him up for activities, and he's very excited about them until we get to the doorway. He was in swimming lessons for two successful weeks until they switched his teacher. No more swimming for us. :glare: Since he will participate in activities with me, I expect that he will mature out of his anxieties. I hope, at least.

For those of you with longish country driveways who also get a lot of snow, what do you use for snow removal? This is our first winter in the country, and we weren't prepared for snow removal. We've been blessed by others so far, but that won't continue for the entire winter. We have a snowblower attachment for our lawn tractor, but that's a joke where we live. Dh tried using it, and it broke under the volume of the snow. :glare: We then bought a 4-wheel drive truck and we considered putting a blade on it. Our concerns are 1) the blade and equipment would cost double what our truck is worth and possibly not transfer to a new truck when this one dies and 2) I think we have too much snow for a blade to be the best answer. Everyone else seems to have tractors and blowers which work fabulously. A tractor would be nice for when the truck gets stuck too. Right now dh either shovels himself out or our neighbor rescues him. If you have this same type of situation, what do you use for snow removal? I'm looking for equipment, size, age, etc. Any creative solutions would be great too. We've been looking for someone to pay to clear the driveway, but we haven't found anyone yet. :glare: If it matters, we live near a tiny little town on the MN/SD border.

May I ask what your 2nd grader does independently for an hour? My 2nd grader does her silent reading while I work with my Ker. Other than that, she doesn't have any independent work. I don't want to give her busy work, but maybe I'm missing something? The only thing I can think of that most others would have is math worksheets, but we use RightStart so I teach the entire lesson every day. Her math worksheets are few and far between.

A poll of sorts, but mostly such information gathering. Do you start with the youngest and go up, start with the oldest and go down, or some other alternative? How has it changed through the years? I am currently starting with the littlest and working my way up. We school while my 1yo is napping. I first read books to my 3yo. Then I do math, phonics, and handwriting with my Ker. Last is my 2nd grader. If we are doing well with time, I do our FIAR lessons between the Ker and 2nd grader. When my 1yo wakes up, we wrap up for the day.

It depends. My kids have participated in a homeschool PE class, and now they are in PE at the public school. My kids are very active, and they don't need any incentive to move. I put them in public school PE to meet other kids and to learn about various sports. I must reluctantly admit that the public school PE experience has been much, much better. FWIW, my kids are young, so I don't know what an older kid PE class would look like at the public school. As an adult, sports are often a conversation topic for ice breakers or small talk. I want my kids to feel comfortable participating in those type of conversations. If your family is into sports - playing and watching - at home, then you most likely don't need a PE class. We don't do much of either, so my kids have to learn the lingo somewhere else.

:iagree: My brother and dad did their thing until my brother was at least 25. I rough house with our kids. It's how my boys bond best. My 5yo is tough enough that I can just barely handle the two of them, though. My roughhousing days are numbered with him.

We are using the Level 2 Advanced book list right now. I like having the comprehension questions, but most I like knowing that dd is reading good books and that they gradually get more difficult. I have found now that dd is reading at the correct level, the SL schedule is about 20-25 min/day for my dd.