The house we bought has a lower level - not a basement per se, and roughly 1/3 is below grade on the NW corner, the rest is 100% above grade. In the area that is below grade is our playroom, sports gear closet and mechanical room with the furnace, water heater, etc. We moved from the east coast, in an area I don't think ever had tornados that I can remember - hurricanes, sure, yes - torandos, no. So, we had no clue why the lower level was designed the way it is. Turns out the closet we use for the sports gear is in fact a tornado room - small, 100% below grade and least likely to be crushed if the house were to fall since the ceiling (we learned) and framing is reinforced. Ooops. Turns out the room we use for the playroom is in fact the space the owner-builder created to use to store anything that might be needed should a tornado destroy part of the house - it too is 100% below grade and reinforced. We still just use it for a playroom. The mechanical room, also reinforced, has shelving and such to store food, water, whatever - and we do have some things down there, just in case. We do live in an area that is very prone to tornados and we do hear the sirens going off a number of times each year......but we're in the lowest risk area due to the serious bluffs and hills around us - about 15 miles north of us is the real tornado area, flat as a pancake for miles. Not that it's impossible for us to get a tornado here - just really remote, highly improbable that our area will see one touch down here....but still, nice to have this house and it's rooms built the way they are. When we talked to the original owner-builder he said he had the house built to fall to the NE - the path most tornados take - if hit by a tornado, so that the torando room areas (small room, playroom, mechanical room) provide protection from being crushed to anyone taking shelter down there. Sounds good in theory - really don't want to ever have it tested!

Recently my sister visited with my neice and nephew - she wanted to know when I was going to enroll DS in school, basically said the play school thing was obviously fun, but when was he going to start getting his real education? -------------- On another note, two fathers in DS's cub scout den asked me what I was doing in homeschool with DS since it was obviouse to them he is miles ahead of their boys in math and science...not only that, but they noted that both boys were bored in school, especially in math. I wasn't sure what to say, especially since I really don't want to dog the ps to them since we're the only homeschool family in our pack that I know of - so I suggested they read WTM and consider afterschooling as an option to consider to challenge the boys more.

If anyone is interested, the price dropped to $12.99 on Amazon today.

Khan Academy has SM 3a and 3b - it's available to download on iTunes U also.

I use Collectorz, Book Collector on my computer, it synchs with my phone & iPad so I have the database anywhere anytime; I got a hand-held scanner on their website - LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

I've done long road trips with DS (now 6) dozens of times. Going SLC to Redwoods, I'd look to wake up in Salt Lake City, head to the children's museum - Discovery Gateway - after breakfast (ake 8:00, breakfast 9:00, museum 10:00-noon)....wear her out at the museum, have lunch and hit the road. So, pretend you leave around 12:30 PM. I'd drive to Elko (I-80 West) rather than Battle Mountain since Elko has the Railroad Park you can have some fun at for an hour or so - if you left SLC at 12:30, you'd arrive Elko around 4:00. Elko also has, if you prefer, a gold mine tour, a folklife center or recreation areas. Have dinner around 6:00, then hit the road again by 7:00 - your daughter should be tuckered out again! From 7:00 to midnight I'd push to go to Carson City (south of Reno). Sleep, have breakfast and start the day with the children's museum there (can you tell I like CM's when I travel? if you do this - get yourself a membership somewhere you can do reciprocal admission - so you pay only for the membership and not admission every time you stop at one!) Anyway, in Carson City there is the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada....play there, have lunch and hit the road by 12:30 again. 12:30 head out and you should be to Redwoods by dinner! For a three year old, in the car, games that don't require anything mroe than imagination can include: Find the color car or truck - make it a game where you're all looking and taking turns to pick the next color to find first Singing songs, making up silly songs I-Spy with all playing with her Things to have on hand include: Colorforms Magnetic White Board with markers, magnets (no choking hazaard ones) iPad with age appropriate games, books (it reads to her) and movies - or a DVD player or other device to watch something for the longer haul areas Lap desk with lip along outside and small toys she likes to play with Crayons and paper, coloring books, etc. One of the things I used to do when traveling with DS was to have small little gifts for along the way --- something new, that he'd never played with, wrapped up and just pulled out as needed ---- would keep his attention for a lot longer than something he played with a lot!

Right now our schedule will begin to wind down around May 18th - I'll have met the hours requirement for my state, so we'll offically be done for the school year - we'll take May 19-30 off since it's a planned vacation block for DH. When we get back, we'll start a lighter schedule June 1 - September 6, although we won't officially start second grade until July 1, the start of the new school year for record keeping in our state. Sun-Sat: Daily Story Reading, 30-min (we do this even on vacation) Mon-Fri: Phonics, 30-min Math, 30-min In weeks where DS has no camp scheduled we also do: Tues-Thurs SOTW 2 (CD) - we'll do just a listen through the entire story, then start again to do activities and such in September; ~30-min Mon-Wed-Fri Science, 30-min (probably more since DS loves science) Summer activities this year include: Memorial-Labor Day: MWF swim-stroke clinic Memorial-Labor Day: MTWTF swim team practice or meet June-August: Cub Scout den 3x a month June-August: Cub Scout pack 1x a month June: WTF 3-day Cub Scout Camp June: FSS 3-day Cub Scout Camping June: M-F one week Science Camp July: M-F one week art camp August: M-F one week Science Camp

:iagree: We started the year off gung-ho about SOTW 1 - and DS loves it, but he's young and to always have to do history, week in, week out at this point - wasn't working as well as I'd hoped. I love history myself, but sometimes one just needs a breather, or wants to stay and learn more about a particular time period or place.....so we're now on a track of very flexible and it's working out way better for us overall. We're almost done with SOTW 1 (use the CD's and this is actually the second listen though - the first we did without doing anything else, just listened to the whole thing first, over about a month, then started again for the activities, mapping, supplemental books, etc.) and will do it all again with SOTW 2 starting in July!

We use zinc or titanium oxide based blocks when we need to use something, otherwise, if we're not going to be out in full sun exposure for more than an hour, with no shade for relief, it's nothing but tan - and vitamin D production. No one burns here though, so YMMV depending on skin tone.

I'm a bit biased, I have an iPad, so I'll recommend the iPad - I gave my neice a Kindle for Christmas and she loves it, so I've seen both, held both and used both....and the iPad is still what I'd recommend, especially if you want to really have another great media to use with homeschooling too - that is, not just use it yourself. The Kindle App for iPad is seamless, you'll be able to read any books on it that you can and would on the Kindle. It doesn't have the eInk technology, but it's a nice large screen - and one you can add a matte screen protector to, so glare can be eliminated (unprotected, the screen is very shiny glass). Beyond the iPad and Kindle App there are hundreds of possible apps you'll like yourself and you can also use for your kids - lots of educational apps, games, and other things like calendars, calculators, etc. So if you want a wider range of possibilities, go with the iPad.

Health benefits? Shaky....unless you count using whey to consume enough high quality protein each day. Why use it? Satiety is a big one for many, since protein can blunt appetite, especially when consumed with fat, not carbohydrate, due to the release of PPY and CCK in the gut. Protein also has a thermic effect in metabolism - you expend more heat (energy, calories) metabolizing protein than you do carbohydrate or fat. The thing is you can over-do protein when using powders - and have a negative effect, namely GI distress (gas, diarrhea, cramping), so how much to use and how often is important if you're going to make shakes or add whey powder to recipes to increase protein content. Do I use it? Sometimes - not much, but if I'm pressed for time, or not really in the mood to cook myself something, I'll make a shake with protein powder, plain whole milk yogurt and half & half (to keep fat content up and carb content lower) with some flavoring if the whey isn't already flavored.

I'm in MO too.....here is a quick breakdown of the requirements, as I understand them: July 1 through June 30 school year 1,000 hours per year 600 hours *must* be in Core subjects: Reading, Language Arts, Social Studies, Math and Science 400 of those hours *must* be in the homeschool location Additional 400 hours required may be in Core subjects OR electives; electives are any subject not defined as core, and include PE, Foreign Language, Religion, Art, Music, etc. In MO we have to maintain: A) A plan book, diary or other record indicating subjects taught and activities engaged in B) AND a portfolio of samples of the child's academic work OR other written credible evidence C) AND a record of evaluations of child's academic progress D) OR other written, credible evidence equivalent to A, B and C Option D allows more flexibility, but is subject to interpretation - A, B & C are straightfoward and clear what is constitutes "credible" if one were challenged for proof.....but, almost everyone I know in my area goes with D, combining A & C into one and keeping workbooks, pages and such along the way, but not a formal portfolio. I had questions when I started this year and have been told, from other HS'ers in my area, that simple hours alone, with just the subject - nothing else noted - is unlikely to be sufficient, that notation should be made about what was done....for example, in math - that not only did we do math for 30 minutes, but that we worked on textbook pp 22-25 + workbook pp 18-22......or for Social Studies, we did History & Geography for 60 minutes and worked on Asia --> Ancient China --> SOTW Chapter + Mapping + read two Chinese Fables + whatever else. I've tried a bunch of different things to keep track of hours, what we're doing - Homeschool Tracker, Homeschool Skedtrack, a datebook, word document, excel spreadsheet.....and still haven't figured out what I like since tracking hours stinks.....but I've found the easiest to keep track of work and hours at this point, for me, is just a simple Google Calendar - I do my planning in Word documents - but set up our schedule in Google Calendar and make notes in it as we go along now of what work was done - pages, worksheets, chapters read, books read, etc. The pro with it is that it can repeat throughout the course of the year the main subject in the time slot I choose.....the con is that it doesn't keep track of hours - I still keep that manually, just in a datebook that goes July 2010 to December 2011....I'll stop using that one on June 30 and start a new one. Cumbersome, yes - but manually I can keep track of Core vs. Elective and tally as I go total hours.....and if needed, reference back to the Google Calendar if anyone needed to know what we did on any day this past year.

This is where things can get very sticky with the IRS. A "casual" sitter is not held under the mimimum wage laws - and is defined as a student, or somoene working intermittently, occasionally, or irregularly and less than 20-hours a week when caring for the child. When one isn't a student, works regularly or greater than an average 20-hours a week, they're under the mimium wage laws....unless they're a licensed daycare - then the minimum wage does not apply because it is held that multiple families, with multiple children in care will meet the mimium requirements for wages to be paid, and that you're self-employed and no longer under mimimum wage laws - but to do that, you have to be an established business - sole proprietor registered with the state or LLC or corporation of sorts. Unless your arrangements are off-the-books, which puts you both in a very risky position for "evading" taxes, namely medicare withholding, she's required to withhold your FICA and match it for the employer portion, filing a form 942. If she doesn't and you report your income, which you're obligated to do, she'll then be hit with interest and penalties if she hasn't done this at least quarterly as required of employers. Once she withholds FICA, she's also going to need to withhold federal and state taxes too and file those when due, unless your arrangement is that you are going to be responsible for paying your federal and state taxes, which you'd note on your W2 by checking the exempt box and doing it yourself on your 1040 if you owe. If you go the company route, establish yourself as a business entity, you then become obligated to pay and match your FICA, and pay your federal and state taxes - which makes the hourly average pitiful if you're looking at accepting $150-200 a week since 15.3% of it alone is going to go to FICA employee side and FICA employer side that you now are obligated to pay yourself....along with paying for a business license, insurance and other things to be a business. At $200 a week, that works out to $10,000 a year if you work 50 weeks...from that: $10,000 -$765 FICA, employee -$765 FICA employer side Estimates: -$50 business license -$250 liability insurance -$100 state filing fee to maintain business Pretend you owe no state or local due to low income and your deductions Amount left = $8,070 $8,170 / 50 weeks = $161.40 per week

DH and I met and married following previous marriages - I was 36 and he 41 - he has an adult daughter, I had no children. Growing up I figured two or three children....when DH and I talked about kids, we thought three sounded like a good number, maybe four. DS was born shortly after I turned 38...over the next four years I had five losses that took its toll on me, so we stopped trying; for some reason or another I could get pregnant, but it wasn't sticking. Then earlier last year I felt I was running out of time and wanted to try for one more, we did and it worked - I just had baby-DS in January, at 44. While I'd love to have one more, at my age, the odds are pretty slim (although many women on both sides of my family have had healthy babies into their mid-40's) - whether it happens or not, I am totally content with our two boys!

:iagree: Leave the art as something art-y, imaginative, and hone the skill of following directions with other areas like copywork...perhaps instead of making art directions firm, in stone, word it in a way that allows for creativity and imagination by wording in a way that says something like 'the suggested colors to use are..." that way the dc have more leeway to color freely, then in other areas, like copywork, the directions are firm and to be followed.

I purchase a lot from Discount School Supplies and we'll be doing the human body soon, so I picked up the Giant Paper Kids (set of 12 - $6.99). They have free shipping if you order a certain amount in one order. We'll use them to create various body systems on the cut-outs....respiration & circulation, five senses, skeletal, muscles, digestion, brain & nerves, etc.....using paints, yarn, markers, crayons, and such. I plan on using the See Inside Your Body Flap Book, Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body, Rock & Learn Human Body DVD, and Young Scientists Club: Magic School Bus Journey Into the Human Body Kit....projects will also included making a model of the brain, cell, and an eye with play-doh. And DS will watch a variety of videos on DE Science and Streaming once I can sort out which to assign him and when. We also have on hand various science encyclopedia-type books with good sections on the human body to include where needed.

While it doesn't have Christian influence (so far as I know), you might want to look at Kingfischer Atlas of the Ancient World, Medieval World, Exploration and Empires, and Modern World (or puchase the World History all-in-one volume with the same contents in one book).....it combines the geography and history into a single source/spine to use, so you're covering both history and geography without much fuss. It's not as in-depth as Story of the World with its Activity Guide, but could work well - you'd just need to come up with project ideas and activities to do along with the book.

:grouphug: Anyone who casts you as heartless and mean because you cannot do this - tell them to do it themself and see how quickly they have an excuse why they can't, but you must! Seriously - lots of people want to criticize, but are unwilling to walk the talk either. Don't let other judge you and what you decide is best for your family! That said, if she's indigent - that is doesn't have any money other than her SS/SSI income, medicare will pay until she hits the max and then medicaid kicks in - if she already has a 'cade' something or other insurance, odds are she's qualified to go to a nursing home under medicaid payment. She might not want that or like that, but it is what it is and she's aged herself into a corner by acting in a way to get pity (so it seems) and attention. I wouldn't feel obligated to take her in if she's painted herself into a corner and now expects to just move in with you. The social worker at the hospital can help you all figure out the options, but you aren't obligated to take her - they will find an option that will work with her coverage IF she's truly unable to go home to her own home.....that's the kicker I can see here, that she's truly not sick/disabled/unable, but that she's attention-seeking and won't qualify because she really can be on her own, she just doesn't want to be!

My state requires hours, not days, of attendance each year. The school year, by statute, runs July 1 to June 30 - so any school - public, private, homeschool, can start recording hours for the new year on July 1st. All hours from the previous year need to be met on or before June 30th. Your state should have a school year defined somewhere for you to know when you can start keeping track of hours and when you stop for the official school year. I absolutely record any time spent during the summer months on things that are educational!

Yahooooey Looooey! Doin' the happy dance for ya! :party:

Awesome plan! Thank you for sharing it....lots of great ideas!

:iagree: I already have a copy of this and plan to use it to make sure we don't have gaps in the years to come. It's excellent.

I set up a "Collection" in "Google Docs", within it are word documents by subject that I add and remove links from....I like it since I can access from anywhere, and the websites are hyperlinked to go to directly from any computer or device I click from....but I also bookmark sites in my Favorites on my main computer too, under one main folder, Homeschool and then subfolders by subject, within the subfolders I have some additional subfolders where needed, for example: Homeschool --> General Info --> Blogs --> History --> Ancients --> Middle Ages --> Math --> Language Arts --> Writing --> Grammar ...etc

Those salaries are paid with taxpayer dollars, they're public-sector employees, that's why they're public information.

:iagree: DH is self-employed too, and we do an extension every year - both for the K1 and the 1040...CPA does the taxes, corporate and personal, I just do a preliminary of our personal forms for my own peace of mind and then compare to what he comes up with since he handles the corporate stuff all year, which I have no clue what's what, just read the statements monthly - LOL!