At this point in my life (with a young one still), I would not want to go back to work full-time. Though dh would love to be home instead of going to work each day, I am pretty sure he would never ask. But, we are both teachers - he's a high school teacher and I'm a former elementary teacher. We also both have Master's and have taught as adjunct faculty at a local community college. I have made it very clear that I would never go back into the elementary classroom again. Given that he teaches in one of the highest paid districts around, and full-time pay at the local CC wouldn't come close to what he makes, I can't see us ever swapping places. But, I do want to teach part time again somewhere in the future (I was going to email my former department head when I found out I was pregnant with dd). I don't even see me wanting to do a swap like that though even if I had *liked* my job before I stopped working. I really enjoy being home (though we both knew going into things that ultimately that was what I wanted to do and dh has always been supportive).

It was hard at first when we went dairy free (the whole family; we were already gluten free). But, three years later and it's just a way of life. Like others have said, Daiya cheese is a good substitute (we just had "alfredo" sauce tonight), Earth Balance for butter, and we love almond milk (Whole Food's brand is the best in our opinion, followed by Silk's almond milk - all unsweetened/unflavored). I want to make our own this summer when I have time to think. ;) Dairy free has made a difference for us and is worth it, but I can't lie and say I don't wish I could just have some "real" cheese or sour cream (we don't substitute that one as I have yet to find something that is either soy free - we very low soy - and/or free of any artificial ingredients - we are also Feingold).

We are aiming for 3-4 days of math, copywork, and read-aloud (plus they will have time, usually before bedtime, for quiet reading). Ds11 will be working through LoF PreAlgebra 1, ds9 will continue working through SM 4B, and ds6 will do some Miquon. Ds9 will be the only one that will need lessons from dh or I most of the time (we treat LoF as an independent supplement unless he asks for help). I'm making copywork books for them (finished the one for the older two), so they'll just have to turn to the next page, and we'll do a lot of audio books so we can all relax. In between, we'll have fun with field trips and such.

We are looking to be driving through Chicago this summer and are wondering about the following areas (we stay at Residence Inn type places because with food allergies, we cook our own meals): O'Hare Schaumburg Bloomingdale Naperville/Warrenville Lake Forest/Mettawa We will be coming down from Minnesota and heading towards South Bend, IN, eventually onto Ohio, so we don't want to stray too far off of I-90 (I think that's the right one), or if we do, have easy access back to it. Any suggestions? :) Thanks!

We use Thorne because they have the correct/methyl forms of B6, B12, and folate. I have always been very pleased with their products.

I can't answer for Tablet Class or AoPS, but I can say that I began ds11 in SM 6A following SM 5, and stopped him rather quickly to out him in Lial's PreAlgebra. For my son, there wasn't enough practice with the concepts in Singapore. He is doing well in Lial's (pulling a pretty solid B average) and does LoF on the side (finishing Decimals and will start LoF PreA in a couple weeks). We will finish Lial's during 7th grade. I don't think skipping SM 6A/B h hindered him at all, and at least for him, it might have been a bit of a detriment as he just seemed to be done learning from the Singapore series.

What worked for my oldest when he was seven and struggling was a mix between All About Spelling (we went quite slowly in the beginning) and Hooked on Phonics for readers. I didn't bother trying to line them up, but rather would work slowly through both - he heard it, wrote it, practiced reading it. It took a while to get him past the sounding out c-v-c words, but now in 6th grade, he's pretty much a grade-level reader.

:grouphug: I am so sorry. We have also had great success with GF (and CF), but it is a pain, especially when I was temporarily off of all nightshades. I felt like eating was seriously depressing. I second the idea of Feingold; that is easier in the bigger picture and made/makes huge differences for my middle son especially (a lot of anger/rage/oppositional stuff when exposed to anything artificial; we found out that even a minute amount is bad when I tried to give him some children's Advil and he took less than 1/4 teaspoon and reacted). From our experiences with Feingold, GF, and CF, it was about one month for systems to completely reset, but after a couple weeks, we could tell things were moving in the right direction. It's the same if anyone is exposed to something on the "illegal" list - about 30 days to fully clear but the behaviors start to calm down a bit by week two or three.

I have not tried that (probably wouldn't work with mine for certain subjects as they need daily instruction, especially with math), but what I do try to do is have independent work that is meaningful for each child and then teach them separately - but, I only teach one subject at a time. So, during our "math" block, I will give ds11 a lesson, for instance, while ds9 and ds6 are working independently or with dd. That may mean they are doing penmanship, typing lesson on the computer, reading a book with dd, or something else. Sometimes ds9 will have a review exercise in his math, which means he can start his work right away too. Then I move on to ds9 and do the same while ds6 is doing another piece of independent work or reading/playing with dd or doing a math app on the iPad. In all, our math block takes about one hour, but I'm teaching the older two kids for about 15-20 minutes each. Ds6, at this level, can do most of his work while I'm there to field any questions as he's finishing Singapore 1B. Later, after we've done some work together and taken a break, I'll do a different subject. This is where I would be able to potentially block schedule it - during content area. Next year we are going to use CHC's lesson plans for history and science, so I'll have to have some one-on-one time with each of them, but for my sanity, I'll probably alternate days with subjects and students instead of having them do both history and science every day as CHC plans it. I'm not 100% sure how it'll look, but given that they give one week of history for the text (at 5th and 7th grade) and one week for other history activities, for instance, the plan is to stretch the chapters over 2 weeks, giving me time to spend a couple days each week with each older boy while the other has "independent" work that day (reading the chapter, answering questions at the end). Ds6 will have to be fitted in there somewhere, but his "Tour the Continents" looks like a 1 day a week thing together. So, a very long, and somewhat convoluted answer is this: for core subjects like math, I have to see each kid each day unless they have a review lesson. I make sure they have independent work while I'm teaching someone else. For content areas (history and math, for instance), the goal next year is to schedule ds11 M & W, for instance, for a "meeting," ds9 on T & Th, and then do ds6's social studies on Fridays. That's all theory though. ;) Up until now, we've tried to do content areas together, but the boys are getting more spread out as they get older and I feel better separating a bit. By the way, I have my older two combined for writing, spelling, and Latin. Ds9 has always been a bit advanced and ds11 struggled in the beginning, which helps. Do you combine your 2nd and 3rd graders in any subjects, skill or content? Can they do any of the Seton or CHC materials independently? Can you block schedule the content areas but teach subjects like math daily, alleviating part of the problem while still making sure skill subjects are being taught/reinforced daily?

I love her new hair-do! She looks fantastic!

We used ATFF when ds11 was 9, if I remember correctly. Ds7 (at the time he was 7), joined in. They enjoyed it, and it was pretty easy to implement (though we didn't use the rubrics/checklists). This year they are both using Serl's ILL (now ds11 and ds9). We are only about 8 lessons in to it (I don't like waiting to start something new until the new year begins :lol: ). I am really liking it. I've read through almost the whole book (I bought the hardback on Amazon but then bought the PDF workbooks). So far they have done a written narration based on a story about the baby Moses (I changed that lesson ever so slightly), made up a couple of their own stories based on a prompt, written statements, questions, and commands, and worked a bit with the dictionary (I realized they have never learned that Ä is "long a"). I introduce the lesson, we've talked about outlining (planning their stories), we've discussed the use of time words (first, next, after that, etc.), and I've introduced the idea of transitioning between paragraphs (in their stories). It is definitely a well-rounded program that includes grammar/syntax and dictionary skills as well as a variety of writing exercises (copywork/dictation, narration, original stories, etc.) There are also some lessons coming up where I'm going to have them do a little research with the encyclopedia before doing their writing (for instance comparing an animal from a list of the cat family with the household/domesticated cat). For your 10 y.o., if you are looking for a solid writing program, I'd recommend ILL. It's gentle but very thorough (again, based on my going through the book/PDF workbooks).

With the current ages of my children (four kids between 2 and 11), no I would not do it, even if it was something I really wanted to do. It just wouldn't be feasible for us. That said, if my youngest was 7 or 8, making my older two teens and (hopefully!) capable of holding down the fort presumably while everyone else was still sleeping, then yes.

:iagree: We are actually using Lial now (started with Dolciani) but I only assigned/assign odds. There are more than enough problems (in either book) for my 11 year old that sometimes I don't even assign all the odds.

I agree with Tara - Latin, to me, gives you much more bang for your buck. We are doing GSwL right now and then will go onto LfC A (there's DVDs that teach each lesson and my kids like Chris Perrin, who does the videos). (We did LfC A just over a year ago, but it was too much too fast for their ages, so we stepped back with GSwL.) Another option, if you do want to keep with Latin would be Lively Latin; I have not used it but have read many good things about it. Is there a way you can keep Latin studies for him to do independently/semi-independently (especially via a program like LfC A or Lively Latin) and start teaching him Spanish as well? I just feel strongly that learning the Latin will help so much with not only your ds picking up Spanish, but the other Romance languages should he wish to learn more than one. (Plus we have learned so much more about the English language and grammar through our Latin studies than we did with English grammar programs). With Latin we can actually "see" the grammar because it is inflected.

In years past, when we'd have loose-leaf things, I'd take them to Kinkos either each semester (if there was a lot) or at the end of the year and have them spiral bound. Workbooks are put under their beds in bin. They can keep or throw away (so far they are all keepers).

Am I the only one whose first thought was "Phoebe's Grandmother's recipe?" (Friends) I think I have forever linked chocolate chip cookies to that episode. ;) I used to love the Nestle recipe before going GF; now I'm still on a hunt for the best GF recipe. But, I will echo what others have said: chill the dough before baking, especially if it's a warm day.

One of my boys' favorite is "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." We took about 4 weeks to memorize it (basically from Thanksgiving until Christmas) and they "performed" it for family. My older two (6th and 4th) just memorized "America for Me" by Henry Van Dyke. It should only have taken us about 3 weeks, but I got a bit inconsistent for a couple weeks there, so we worked on it for about six. They just started "O Captain, My Captain," which I figure will about two weeks. I'm trying to find poems that are at least 3-4 stanzas long and a bit more substantial than what they have done in the past (a lot of Robert Louis Stevenson). And like happypamama above, I plan on having them learn non-poem pieces like the Preamble (and we do Bible verses for memory work as well).

My girlfriend and I used to read her books when we'd want to get freaked out (maybe they aren't as freaky as I remember them as I'm kind of a scaredy cat ;) ). They aren't classic literature, but I also don't remember anything about them that would be inappropriate.

I agree with kiana. I don't think that is a good idea at all and that you should look at your priorities in terms of subjects. Here, religion, math, and literature are our top three subjects. On tight days, sick days (sick enough not to feel great but not sick enough to be in bed) we only do those three. If anything gets bumped of those three it is usually literature (read aloud). So, I would look at everything you are trying to do in a school day/week/year and prioritize them, drop what isn't necessary at this time, and then restructure your day. I am currently only teaching math to three, but I also do daily "school" stuff with my dd (Down syndrome) which includes reading, math stuff, physical therapy stuff, etc. So, essentially I am schooling four. Maybe the programs we are using aren't as teacher-intensive as Saxon (I've never used it), but I give each kid a 15 minute lesson or so (a bit longer at times for ds11 who is doing PreAlgebra). While I work with one, the others might be doing something independent (their assignment if they already were given a lesson), typing, playing with their sister, etc. Our math/independent work block takes about 1 1/2. I make sure to start with one of the older two boys who need a full lesson. Ds6's math is still just open the workbook and discuss the topic/concept together while he works problems. To me, math is a subject that needs almost daily input and not just drill/skill work. I know if we even do only four days a week for too long my boys start to get rusty. As it is, we continue to do math through our "summer break" just to make sure they don't forget key concepts. I don't think doing 6 months of instruction and 6 months of drill will help them build a strong math foundation to see them through the high school years.

My boys have fun with it, but they go in spurts. My oldest, especially, will use it the most, but if you averaged how much time he spends on it, it'd probably be less than an hour every week or two. It's not mandatory, and they do not have free access to media in the first place (iPads/computers/etc). So, when they have some free time, they will go and watch videos of experiments, sometimes get inspired to do something, and then upload it. I think ds11 has about 12 things uploaded in a variety of skills. He has earned a couple badges for doing at least three per skill. Yesterday ds11 spent some time responding to some comments he had received since the last time he was on there. For us, it's just a fun site/app that occasionally gives them ideas for fun "experiments"/activities they can do on their own and share. But, overall, it's just fun and extra around here; it is definitely not part of our curriculum or structured school day. And yes, I would (and have) recommend it to others.

Does the added security include the "prove you are not a robot" part before you are allowed to post? I responded to a thread and then pretty quickly responded to another post within the same thread (forgot to add something before I hit post the first time). Before the site would allow me to post, I had to enter the random strings of letters/words like what you find on blogs (I'm sorry I don't know the technical name).

You already mentioned the two I was going to recommend. :) I need to keep working through TWSS but I've watched TtC nice through and plan on watching it again (and again). It is fantastic and finally convinced me that I can do literary analysis.

We have that bed frame in white as well as the matching dresser. Our closets are built in and also Swiss Coffee white. Our walls are a pretty sepia like color and our bedding a pale bluish color. Ilike the contrast the white furniture/closets give to the walls.

I used to teach Island to fourth graders. It was "appropriate" in content (though some found it sad/depressing), but I think the story would be better received/understood by older children. I had kept it on the shelf for my boys; we will probably read it next year when ds9 is in fifth. As for Around the World, dh just started that tonight as a read aloud. He's excited and thinks it will be a great story for the older two (ds6 spent tonight with me; usually when he's reading a book geared more for the older two, I'll read younger books to ds6). I agree with Susan and Lori D.; I think some books are better kept for older kids even if they "can" be read by younger kids.