Luna, do you mind sharing where you got your copy of 4th grade copy of Daybook Critical Reading & Writing? I don't see it on RR (they have some grades, not others). Thanks!

Congratulations!!! Setting the goal and making a plan are half the battle--good for you!:party:

No advice here--just lots of :grouphug:. I know how it breaks a mom's heart when someone is mean to her baby!

Check out ifloor.com. They have lots of products, and lots of how-to advice about all things flooring.

Mathstart series Let's Read and Find Out series Little House series Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel Cowboy Sam

It's not every dad who appreciates the importance of cow shopping--you are blessed! :001_smile:

If you'd consider online programs, Headsprout is one I've used and liked. It's not a total package, at least it wasn't for us, but it got us started down the road to reading.

I think it would depend on what shape it was in. If it was in great shape, finish intact and no wobbling, I'd pay $200, maybe more (I'd pass on the mattresses--I watched a 20/20 on used mattresses, and I'm scarred for life). I've never heard of a triple bunk, but I wish you lived nearby--with 5 children I need some creative sleep solutions! :001_smile:

Journey to the Center of the Earth

I'll take a shot at it, although I haven't used these products, so this may be completely off. :tongue_smilie: Usually "big books" refers to books that a teacher would read to the class, holding them up for all to see the pictures--thus the need for a large size. Not 100% sure about the transparancies, but these are probably for classroom use on an overhead projector, and would be transparancies of student worksheets. You may want to just call the company for further clarification, but I bet you won't need half the stuff. Hope that's at least a tiny bit helpful...:001_smile:

Thank you anyway!:001_smile:

What exactly did you receive for the cost? Did you feel that it was worth the expense? Thanks!

Homeschool Buyers Co-Op is offering a discounted deal for this, and I'd like to know more--anyone familiar with it? :001_smile: Here's a link: http://www.history.org/history/teaching/eft.cfm

I had three easy kids, and then I had your son's slightly older twin. He's now six, and he's just wired a little different. Happily, he's gotten better as he's gotten older, but I really think it's just maturity rather than any discipline strategy on our part--and believe me, we've tried a few. Because it's so annoying, if it wasn't something involving pain we have him go to his room until he can be cheerful. Or he sits on the step and he isn't allowed to talk. But most of the time it's because he's hurt himself, and he's mad and wants to blame someone. Then I just ignore the blaming, and say "Wow, that must really hurt you. Let me see it? Oh boy, let's kiss it!", etc. That usually distracts him, until he can be calm, and then we'll talk about his unreasonable blaming. Good luck! I'll be lurking to see if anyone else has a better answer!

Sort of a kitchen gadget--my bottle sterilizer. My other babies were breastfed, but my preemie couldn't/wouldn't, so I was ultra careful, ultra sterile...for about a week. Then I stuck it in the bottom oven that I never use and it's still there, collecting dust. Baby is now 1yo, and seems to have survived the unsterilized bottles just fine. :tongue_smilie:

I'm a great planner and organizer, but considerably less-great at execution. Here's what I (try to) do: Over the summer is when I plan out the year. I use Homeschool Easy Records (HER) to enter in my lesson plans for each subject. It's given me a great deal of flexibility to see what we've done, what we are going to do, and what needs tweeking as far as pacing, etc. If I choose to use the same curriculum for another child, I just import the lessons plans. Next year is the first time I'll be able to do this (my oldest is two years ahead of the next one), and it will save me some work with at least a couple of subjects. :thumbup: I spend about an hour on Fridays preparing for the following week--organizing assignments, updating my records, printing stuff out, etc. My kids each have a clipboard where I put their assignment sheets, and any printouts for the day. I have a folder where I keep the printouts for the week, and a clipboard with a copy of each kid's assignment sheet to check off as we complete things. I love lists, because I'm too scatterbrained to get things done without one. As far as where we keep our materials: we have a school room, and the kid's have four desks from IKEA that we have attached to eachother--it looks sort of like a boardroom conference table. I like this because it gives us a very large surface to do projects on (it's around 118"x60"). As part of the desk, each child has a large cupboard and 2 drawers. Here are our desk components: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00109514 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40109512 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10071172 They keep their books inside the cupboards in two bins like this: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/product/productImages.jsp?productItemID=845,524,441,761,192&imageAttribute=ATR_prd_cnt_image_large&FOLDER<>folder_id=2534374302090185&ASSORTMENT<>ast_id=1408474395181113&bmUID=1212770723494 The drawers are used for pencils and other odds and ends. I'm happy to share my planning and organizing ideas with you all--I glean so much from everyone here, it's nice when I have something that might help others!

After 6 years of homeschooling, I finally bought a laser copier--yay me! :D I no longer have that "dang-I wonder what this is costing" feeling every time I print something. I think it works out to about 2 cents a copy, which is pretty cheap (50 copies for a dollar!). So now I print like a crazy woman--free ebook? I'll take it! Teacher's Tool Box? Sign me up! Definitely a printer dork...:w00t::blink:

HUGE fan here, too. May I put in a plug for listening to these on tape or cd? The narrator is Barbara Rosenblatt, and she does a tremendous job bringing the characters to life--especially Emerson. Delightful!!! And after listening to the first one, I found out Barbara is an American--you'd never guess in a million years because she reads with such a posh British accent.

Jessica, you've inspired me and so many other moms here, I can only guess that your anonymous comment came from someone new who doesn't know your generous spirit. I, for one, go to your blog at least once a week to get ideas, and it's obvious that you put a lot of time and thought into your homeschooling. Until everyone is ready to design their own curriculum and plans from scratch, we need to encourage more moms to take the plunge into entrepreneurship--not everyone is independently wealthy with the luxury to do work for free. "The laborer is worth his (her!) wage." Some of my favorite products have come from other homeschoolers--good luck with your new venture! :hurray:

Colleen, it's clear to me after reading your posts that you are a reasonable, rational, compassionate woman, and in order for you to react the way you did this man must have really stepped over the line. Trust your instincts!

I like the history scribe products. They are SOOOOO affordable, and they have lots of stuff besides history. Plus, free downloads every month.

My personal opinion is that higher quality supplies are easier to use--you don't have to press as hard, the colors are deeper and richer, and the whole thing is just more satisfying, which of course makes the kids want to do more. IF you can afford it, I do think it's better to spend the money on brands like Prismacolor and Lyra. If you can't, then I suggest you go with the best that you can comfortably afford. Just my .02! :tongue_smilie:

I'm inspired--I've been working on stuff this weekend, and the more I do, the more I realize I still need to do. Sigh...I'll read your post once in a while to remind myself how good it will feel to be done!

My mom has used these for the last two years to teach my children (currently ages 6, 8, 9, and 11). We used the bugs one and the space one. As others mentioned, they seem to be very teacher intensive with the prep work. Each kid gets a booklet, they go over them, and do some sort of experiment or observation to go along with the lesson. The kids seemed to enjoy it, but some of the info was over their heads. For us this is mainly a supplement, and a fun way to spend time with Grandma. For example, right now I have a baking dish full of sand, water, and steel wool sitting on my computer armoire, so we can write down observations over the next two weeks to help us understand why Mars is red (I'm assuming it's going to rust?). We are switching to something else next year, btw. I think there are other programs out there that do a better job. You are right to look elsewhere.

For us: Good quality colored pencils, sculpey, high quality crayons, watercolor pencils, watercolor paints, watercolor paper, sketchbooks, and if you can afford it, some artist quality markers (I think these are ridiculously expensive, but my kids love 'em). Some Dover coloring books are nice, especially if you can get subjects that go along with what you are studying. Also, art books for project ideas, instructions, etc. (You can preview library books to see if there are any you'd like to own). As for shopping, Dick Blick has good prices, but so does Rainbow Resource, and sometimes RR is less, so I always check both places. If I can think of anything else, I'll post later.