I've been thinking about this all since I posted my reply this morning. One of the things that makes travel expensive for your family is your family size. Camping is less expensive, but, as you note, you need equipment and equipment costs money, so does it really, at least intially cost less? Probably not. When we travel, we rarely stay in hotels - for three reasons, one is the cost - I don't like paying the equivalent of $3,000 a month ($100 a night) for a room the size the guest bedroom in my house, especially when that's more than the cost of our mortgage for a house 10x as big. The second is, quite frankly, I'm a travel snob - before staying home I was a road warrior for my professional work and got quite used to the luxury hotels I'd stay in for work...since I don't want to pay $100 a night, I certainly don't want to pay $350+ for the hotels I really like! And third, I prefer space and having a refrigerator and the ability to cook if I want to. All that said, we often will rent a private home instead of a hotel - and it's often a lot less than one hotel room. There are sites you can look at to see what's available - homeaway.com, vrbo.com, etc. - they're all over the place. That's one option you can consider. The other is to see if there are timeshare rentals that might meet your needs for sleeping space - sites to look at include redweek.com and timeshare users group - sometimes you'll find units for really cheap for a week, and again, less than the price of one hotel room. I agree with what others have said suggesting staying in the US for travel for now. While I see your point that we're a global economy and having experience on an international level is a benefit, it's really IMO a bonus, not as necessary as you may think. What is good is to learn to travel - whether it's within the US or internationally - how to navigate a city, through states and towns, areas you've never been....that can be accomplished in the US - and if you wanted, Mexico and Canada. Being in Oklahoma, you're located in an awesome place to be able to get to a TON of places in the US by car (and Mexico and Canada) - driving can save you tons on airfare and rental cars or public transit upon arrival at your destination. From OK, I can think of no less than 3-dozen places you can go, from the Rocky Mountains to Death Valley, from the great plains to the deep south....all rich with things to see and do that are reasonably priced if you choose your time to go based on shoulder seasons (rather than off-season or high season) when the weather is great, but the crowds are low and prices haven't yet risen. These are just some ideas to kick around.

It's taken DH and I a long time to get to the point we are financially, and part of our getting here has been strategically using debt. Debt isn't always bad - what can be though is not knowing accurately how long it will take to pay it off - interest can easily turn something that was a reasonable price into something costing twice as much or even more. So, while ultimately only you can make the decision about whether to go into debt for travel and classes, my advice is to look at long-term costs to do so versus taking the same amount of money and saving it (as if it were a bill to pay) and then using the money for the things you want to do.....once you have the debt, you have the bill to pay.....if you're saving and something comes up, it stinks to miss a "payment" to yourself into your savings account, but that doesn't hurt your credit rating or ability to get credit if you need it later. For example (hypothetical), if you need $3000 to do an overseas trip and could put away $300 a month, you'd be able to take the trip in 10-months....if you put that $3000 on a credit card and paid $300 a month it would take you (on a 10% credit card) 11-months to pay off and will cost you $3,300....so you'd have to ask yourself if it's worth $300 to carry the debt and do the trip now, or is it worth waiting and paying yourself the $300 a month and do the trip in 10-months. The example changes dramatically when the $300 a month isn't feasible, now or the future - say you only have $50 a month you can earmark toward paying the debt - it'll take you 60-months to save it....but if you go into debt now to do it and pay over time, your $3,000 debt costs $4,150 ($1,150 in interest on a 10% card) and takes 83-months to pay off. That's the math you should do - what will carrying your debt cost you, not only in real dollars but in time?

The best way I've found to really limit spam is to maintain two email accounts - one for family & friends that you guard with your life, the second for online shopping, forum registrations, anything else, etc. My two accounts are both gmail. My personal account gets little to no spam and when it does, I set up a filter immediately to block it in the future. The second account, I don't care what goes in there - if I need a receipt or something, I can search the inbox for it, same if I forget a user name on a site I've registered....I don't sign into it very often.

When he gets there, DS will turn 12 in August and be in 7th in September.

I've gotten some stuff from CNS too - usually you can google for coupon codes for them! I think shipping is free from CNS if the order is enough $

I've done LEGO robotics with groups of kids - depending on your second grader, the WeDo set may or may not be too easy....what you might want to do is start with the MindStorms and see how he does with that with his brother and if the WeDo is a better fit, then spend the money for that. I've had kids as young as five doing MindStorms - it really depends on the kid!

If you want a kid height table, you can check places like Discount School Supply - they have tables by Jonti-Craft, Guidecraft and others that are made for schools, that wipe down clean even after things like messy arts. They have everything from adjustable height tables (that can grow with kids) to fixed height tables of different sizes. They also have fair priced chairs (although sometimes Amazon beats their price)....and they ship free with orders over $79. Sometimes you can find some really good deals in their clearance section.

I plan and keep records in a journal. Basically I plan the lessons for each subject in a word document - each subject has its own running list of chapters to do, activities, books to read along with, videos or DVD's to watch, and any supplies I'll need. I do the planning for the year this way. Then every two weeks, I cut and paste a list for the coming two weeks - two pages, each page for one week, that details what we'll work on. In doing this, I bring forward anything we're not going to finish from the previous two weeks and add in what we should be able to do in the two weeks. I do two weeks at a time since DS will often go ahead in some things and just stay on task with other things - so the two weeks of things to do allows us some flexibility for things he'll get ahead with. As those sheets are finished up, I place them into my datebook that I use as my record keeper since I have to record hours. On each day, as we go through the weeks, I just record "math 0.75, reading 0.50, spelling 0.25" or whatever the time was that we did things so I have the time record I need. The list serves as the content record I need. Anything on the lists that didn't get done I black out since it was added to the week we're moving on to.

This one is good: 1/4 cup sorghum flour 1/4 cup tapioca starch 1/4 cup potato starch 1/4 cup sweet rice flour ¼ cup sugar 4 teaspoons baking powder ¾ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon xanthan gum ¼ cup shortening (not butter) 2 large eggs 1 cup whole milk 1 cup yellow cornmeal Preheat the oven to 425° Combine the flours by sifting them into a large bowl. Add the remaining dry ingredients and stir. Cut the shortening into the flours, the way you would when making a pie dough. You should end up with walnut-size pieces in a sandy flour. Combine the eggs and milk in a small bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid. Stir with a rubber spatula until everything is combined. Stir in the cornmeal, whisking fast, until it is just combined. Do not overstir. Pour into a greased 9 by 9 by 2-inch pan. Slide it into the oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the sides of the cornbread are slightly shrinking from the pan and a toothpick comes out clean.

What's the weather like today? It seems on the news everywhere is miserably HOT - maybe a lot of folks decided to just stay in to stay cool and not be driving around in the heat this weekend? Can you try again next week? Can you do a CL post for every item during this week too, field the calls and emails and sell via CL throughout the week and use next weekend as the last dregs tag sale?

That's cute....and actually describes my DH too! :001_smile:

How old are your children?

DS is now second too and we're still doing reading daily - often on weekend days too! His reading skills keep progressing and when he reaches a better level of fluency, we'll adjust the schedule accordingly. I don't think it's too much to do reading daily with emerging readers. While I have writing scheduled M-F, we usually only do it 3-4 times a week since it's summer and we've lightened the load - but that's us and I really don't see a short stint for writing something daily as too much. Honest opinion - I'd drop grammar until reading skills improve. I'd modify this to twice a week until reading skills improve...that way you can still do a chapter a week, just a modified, shorter lesson plan on the chapter for now. Okay, she's way ahead here - my DS is too - for what it's worth, I reduced our math to focus on reading. We still do some math daily - a new concept a week, a page a day of problems.....but there isn't really a pressing need to keep up the pace that will have him so far ahead in years to come - to me, right now, the reading is more important than him plowing into 3rd grade math skills - so we're pacing slower right now....you may want to consider doing less math daily to have more quality time with reading skills. Sounds like a good plan. Honestly, I don't think geography at this point needs to take five days a week to do - what you could consider doing is make history/social studies three days a week (M-W-F) with one day geography and the other two your plan above, and instead of short 5-10 minute geo lesson, include it as a 15-20 minute lesson or longer if you have time. That way you have T-TH for science lessons and activities. One thing I found works really well with DS is that we don't do school each day straight through from when we start to when we finish - we do a couple of things in the morning, shortly after he's had breakfast....take a break.....we'll do a bit more before lunch or after lunch.....take a break.....and then in the afternoon, we'll wrap up whatever we haven't gotten to at that point, if anything. I also have found that we can effectively use playtime for learning by incorporating much of what is in his lessons into his play stealthily - at this age that's pretty easy to do and keeps the learning in active-play instead of all seatwork. For example, when he's playing with his legos and cars, I'll often play with him and as we're building, talk about the physics of what he's doing without making too obvious that's what I'm doing. We play a lot of educational games that he doesn't know are educational. We do lots on the whiteboard, in lots of different colored markers. We use car driving time to listen to SOTW on CD rather than me read the books to him - not only does he prefer this and ask for the CD in the car, it saves us time too because we're in the car anyway and can use that time to listen to something we'd need to anyway for the lessons and well, it saves my voice too!

Any Brazilian BBQ's around - the ones that roast the meat on those long skewers? mmmmm

:iagree: Yup! Talk to the local farmers, many practice very sustainable agriculture and are organic without being certified due to cost. A number of the farms we buy from are like that - they just can't justify the cost to go certified even though they totally qualify.

Some of those are super cute!

:iagree: The LEGO Simple Machines kit is great - they have activity books to go with the set too. That is a great start to lots of other building ideas you can do with basic LEGO bricks. In addition, with DS, we built a bunch of contraptions to understand the mechanics of various things like levers, ramps (inclined plane), etc. - lots of toys work well into these, like small matchbox cars, trains, etc. Then there is making parachutes for mini-figures, bridges for them to have to cross, etc. - or building contraptions to see what type protects an egg from breaking on a fall and why some work better than others. Snap circuits were a hit here for electricity....as was the potato clock and other battery contraptions we made. Lots of magnet things to do, like making your own magnets, extracting iron from cold cereal (fortified cereal), etc.

:iagree: LOL - last night when we were talking about it, DH asked me if I worried that our kids will be weird...I said, what, we're not weird - I mean, hello, we're homeschooling, that's not the norm! I certainly don't want our kids to be the oddballs who don't fit in anywhere, but I also don't see that as potentially a problem long-term - DS (almost 7) already is very outgoing and is, I think, really well grounded, comfortable in his own skin; basically has no worries about interacting with a wide range of ages, from younger than him to old folks and is totally, it seems, immune to peer pressure about lots of things....to me that's important long-term, ya know?

We keep our total food cost reasonable by making direct farm purchases for most of our meat (beef, pork, lamb, turkey, chicken), our eggs and some dairy selections. The farms we choose all pasture their animals, so are grass-fed and they are all organic, but only one is *certified* as organic. We use a CSA from mid-April to mid-Nov for most of our produce, but also go to the farmer's market during that time for specific needs that may not be in our box that week and we have our own garden too. During the season, I will often buy produce and prepare it for freezing and keep it in the freezer into the winter for our use (ie. green beans, chopped onions, aparagus, beets, broccoli, etc.) because the seasonal price is significantly lower than buying it in the winter. We also tend to eat seasonally - not as many salads in the winter since locally salads wouldn't be available, so we have more winter squash, root vegetables, etc. and much less of the summer options. I also make choices on what produce has to be organic versus what can be conventional (I won't buy GMO) - I really don't think I have to buy organic aspargus when conventional isn't sprayed heavily, but if it's close in price, I'll buy the organic - but I won't pay twice the price just to have organic aspargus. For other things, like strawberries, I'll only buy organic because the conventional is heavily sprayed and/or may have issues with soil quality and/or are imported from countries where standards are much lower for pesticides. I shop sales heavily for basics and use coupons where I can - I don't buy things we don't eat though just because there is a coupon - and I scope out coupons for things like produce, meat and dairy.....while there aren't a lot of coupons for organic, there are some really good ones if you poke around and look - at the moment I have coupons for things like Driscoll fruits (includes organic), Organic Valley half & half, Organic Valley Milk, Horizon Milk, Dole salad bags, Simply Organic Spices, YoBaby yogurt, etc. - when these things go on sale, the coupon lowers the price more -- or having the coupon helps if it's not on sale. It probably helps I like to cook, so we eat almost all of our meals at home, cooked from scratch with few, if any, processed foods in the mix. When making some things, like spaghetti sauce, I make a huge batch and freeze some so I don't have to make sauce all the time, but can make three-four meals worth once and then use it until I need to do it again. I tend to do this with things that freeze well - which helps alot with time too since it means I don't necessarily have to cook every night - some nights I thaw and re-heat! And, well there are just some things you stick with regular on because you like it - for us that's Hellman's mayo and Oscar Mayer bacon, shoot me.

Yesterday DH had his first encounter with the "what about socialization" question....and said he was really not sure what to say, what does that even mean? He was at lunch and his colleagues were all moaning and groaning about their kids' school stuff... One about how they were going to miss the first three days of school due to a vacation that they have scheduled and had scheduled before the new calendar was released and now the school is pissy they'll be out three days to start the year - this after last year getting a letter from the school that the kids had missed more than 10-days and any additional days, they'd be considered truant! Another chimed in about how they almost had truant kids the year before too, even though the kids were doing well, with good grades, it was difficult to take vacations due to their work schedules being what they are (getting coverage), so it happened that the kids missed ten days because a few were sick days on top of the days out to go away....couldn't see why that was a big deal if the kids were doing well. So the conversation went round and round, almost everyone piping in at some point and one of them said to DH he'll get it now that our DS is going to be in school too (all their kids are older). DH said, well it isn't something we've had to worry about since we're HSing DS - we take time off when we want when I can get some coverage scheduled. He realized all eyes were just on him....silence....then one of his colleagues asked how we homeschool? So DH explained that I do it mostly, choose the curriculum, do most of the lessons with DS and that he's doing really well and enjoys learning. Then, you know what's coming......"but what about his socialization, aren't you concerned about that?" DH said he didn't know what to say....so he started rattling off the activities DS does....and after lunch realized he had no idea what the person even meant by socialization. I've only encountered the question twice and I said to DH that what I usually do is simply ask what they mean because the socialization question is often a knee-jerk question because they've heard socialization is important and that somehow HSer's aren't socialized - when you ask them what they mean, most can't tell you because even they don't know. So I thought I'd share that and see what others respond with so I can share that with DH if he encounters the question again, because even I'm not sure what the heck that really means myself.

If his company pays for him, consider insuring him with the company plan. Then you and the kids will cost less on a private policy and you can add him too for less since that policy would be his secondary insurance, not his primary. AFLAC can be insanely expensive - check other policy options if you can like Northwestern Mutual,, AXA, etc. - they're often much less expensive and provide similar and sometimes better benefits.

This is why we opted for the HSA we now have - and this was the first year we've actually hit deductible (baby in January), which is fine since we've saved a considerable amount on premiums over the last few years and our paying the full deductible this year still is less than if we'd continued with the comprehensive plan we had previously. If anything happens to DH, the policy remains in force as long as premiums are paid on time - we're not dependent on him working to have insurance.

Our state requirement is 1,000 hours - but it isn't specified as "direct instruction," but rather "1,000 hours of instruction" and then detailed to include that 600 of the 1,000 hours must be in the core subjects (of that 400 must be in the homeschool location); the additional 400 hours are implied to be elective or core. The 400 and 600 core hour requirements are super easy to meet in a year....as is the additional 400 anything hours. Our school district calendar has 178 days scheduled, with 5 of those designated as snow days (if they're not used as snow days, there are other days noted that will be off if snow days are not taken in the winter) - so that's really 173 days. If 1,000 is divided by 173, that means that the equivalent "instruction time" in PS is 6.5 hours a day. School is in session 7-hours a day, so it seems they consider 0.5-hour of that day as non-instruction time if we're looking at equivalents. I don't even think the district would ever say they're giving direct instruction those 6.5-hours - they have set up the calendar with 6.5-hours of instruction a day, but there is no way it's all direct instruction. All that said, I have no desire to short-change DS by trying to fudge hours, but at the same time understand and appreciate that what it takes for him to have an equivalent (better) of instruction time does not require 1,000 hours of direct instruction in a one-to-one setting. We homeschool year-round using the July 1-June 30 calendar in the state regulation for hours calculation - so in the summer we'll easily clock at least 100 hours without any effort. From mid-August through whenever we finish up the year's work (which could be late April to mid-May) we'll likely exceed the 900 hours without much fuss - we'll go over the hour requirements. I schedule our day with class hours - for example, math is 45-minutes, so 0.75-hour, if we finish up before that, it's 0.75-hour - if we run over because DS needs more time, it's 0.75-hour....I count an overtime the same to keep the hours *fair* for those times we don't use the full 45-minutes, as balance to the times we do run over the time period.

Compare apples to apples. The plan with your DH work is a benefit - his $700 a month is not the full cost of the premium, but likely a portion of a much larger total, which may mean that while most expensive, it may also be the best overall policy option you have for healthcare expenses. What are the benefits on that plan and what are your other out-of pocket expenses? Does it include vision? dental? life insurance? comprehensive medical care? What, if any, are co-pays - for primary, specialist, ER, ambulance service? What, if any, are the prescription benefits? What is your total out-of-pocket annually if something horrible were to happen? What, if any, lifetime limits are on the plan? What, if any, annual limits are on the plan? Are there in-network and out-of-network differences? How much? Who are the in-network doctors? Are your current doctors on the network of providers for in-network? Is the hospital you prefer? What happens if you're traveling and something happens at a distance, in-state? How about if you're out-of-state? What about out of the US? Once you have those items listed out - then start comparing your options, you may find there are some HUGE gaps between what the $700 a month provides and the lesser expensive ones do. THEN look at your normal, annual use - do you use your insurance? how often? For what? Think about that and see what makes sense for how you use insurance. We opted to switch to a high-deductible HSA a few years ago and actually prefer to our previous insurance (same company - Anthem - just I think a better policy overall).

it does sound like a vocal tic - DS occasionally will get one going and it can be totally annoying, but it's hard to make it stop. What I've found helps him is to gently make him aware he's doing it, ask him if he's conscious of it, if he isn't, ask if it feels better when he's doing it (cause now he is conscious of it) and he'll usually say 'yeah'.....then, when he does it again, gently remind him of it and have him breath deeply, relax, breath, relax....remind him gently that when he feels it coming on again, feeling better is good - try breathing deeply to relax instead of the tic. Within a day or two, with only a couple reminders, DS usually stops as he becomes aware of it and does deep breathing in its place and then stops that too. Usually it happens when kids feel stress - even if we don't think something is stressful - so helping them relax may help alleviate it without undue pressure on them to stop.