Mandylubug, If you are interested in food storage, here are several links. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we have a lot of resources available for beginning to build your food storage and preparedness in your home. We recommend starting off with a 72 hour kit, which would provide food, water, and first aid for the members of your family for 72 hours. FEMA recommends this timeline, because it typically takes a little over 72 hours for aid groups to reach a disaster stricken area. We are encouraged to build up to a 3 month supply. It really helps, not only with natural disasters. My DH's family lived off of their food storage when his mom lost her job when he was a child. Good luck on your efforts! There is a LDS cannery in Tucker, Ga that is open to the public and has extremely good prices on basic necessities. http://modernsurvivalonline.com/lds-cannery-planning-a-visit/ Here is the order form, prices are for members and non-members of the church- http://providentliving.org/bc/content/providentliving/content/content/english/self-reliance/food-storage/home-storage-center-order-form/pdf/home-storage-center-order-form-usa-english-2014.pdf?lang=eng https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage?lang=eng

I'm swamped with the school year so far, but just wanted to pop in and say thanks for all the help I've gotten! I finally took the plunge and we start our day with circle time (brief scripture memory, daily work etc) followed by an hour of read aloud time. The twins are a complete mess and very active, but we muddle through. About half the time they go down for their nap early. ;) The boys used to practically have one foot out the door for outdoor play at 45 minutes, and now they sit and do playdough, legos, color, water tubs etc for the whole hour I read. I've always wanted to do this, but was so overwhelmed at the logistics of it all. I also (foolishly) worried about my 2nd grader, would she fall behind in her other work? Anyway, we are in week 6 and it's been a rousing success. Thanks for the advice and encouragement!

They resolved the issue, customer service was amazing. Just another reason I love them! :001_tt1:

I bought a "used" copy of SOTW Activity book 2 from a friend. (She bought but never used it, instead decided to go with the pdf print outs) The book is missing chapters 9-14, instead it repeats some earlier chapters. This lady is completely trustworthy and would be horrified to find out she sold me an incomplete product. The book goes from pages 1-48 to 17-48 then picks upon pg 81-end. Has this happened to anyone else? I will take care of it by just purchasing the pdf's but wondered if this was a common error.

Thanks, everyone! I've been starting off the school year with the kids and these suggestions are very helpful. We've been doing more read alouds this year. I've chosen to focus on reading aloud, and reading aloud good, living books. I give the kids puzzles, Legos, rice bins, etc to quietly play with while I read selections from a stack of books. This has gone really well and I hope it continues! So far the twins have been mildly cooperative, I hope that continues. ;)

I'm being drawn in by Charlotte Mason's ideas and teaching methods. I love the concept of educating the whole child for their whole life experiences, not just prepping for college or a "big test". I know there is more to her ideas, but I'm just getting my feet wet. How does a real life Charlotte Mason methods work in your home? I don't see how I can form all those good habits. The story with the little boy and forming good habits to shut the door make me feel like this will never work. I am not peacefully sitting in the living room waiting for my own version of little Johnny to forget to shut the door, so I can calmly rise, call him to return, and perfect the action every. single. time. We have a bustling household. And in the time it takes to change the babies' diapers and put them to bed, the older kids could have, in an endless set of permutations, opened up every room in the house and then run out to play in the backyard. Immediate reinforcement isn't possible. And this bucolic world of nature study seems out of reach. I'm so busy keeping the babies from wandering in the street, the boys from drawing an unacceptable amount of blood from each other (a certain amount is expected, lol). Babs could be blissfully drawing or observing something. Maybe I'll send her out by herself... :) Is this do-able at all with my stage in life? Is it possible to pick and choose parts of her methods to implement or will I lose the essence of her teachings? Thanks!

My DH is a ps teacher, and has no desire to ever be a principal. He says NEVER,EVER,EVER. He sees a principal's role as overseeing the entire school, managing programs, holding the vision for the whole school, being the public face, and the liaison with the county board. My DH says he's fine with being called the financial backer, investor, or Sugar Daddy. Any of those work for him. ;)

And yes, I hate the principal title given to dads!

Farrar, that's how my DH is involved. I try to tell him that being the financial backer and my cheerleader is very significant! I asked him to help DD find a project on DIY.org and help facilitate it, because he has mentioned wanting to be more involved in the past. He was overwhelmed at the suggestion (he has an incredibly busy work schedule coming up), and I said no biggie. Her schedule is great and I only suggested it because he had mentioned wanting something he could do. But he feels guilty about saying no. (And that's something we both are working on!) He is an involved and loving father. Being homeschooled myself, I have no idea what PS dads/etc help with. But I figure my DH's involvement is on par with others. I'm hoping to provide him with examples to reassure him.

I'm curious. What kind of involvement does your DH/SO have in your homeschool and how, if applicable, does it differ from their involvement when your kids went to public school?

You are in our thoughts and prayers. You can do this!!!

I know the test is recommended for 3 grade and up. I'm thinking about opening the club to K-3 because my kids will be K and 2. Will the activity packets and materials offered by Excellence through Classics be over their heads? Im not necessarily looking to have them take the NME, but might offer it next year when dd is in third if she continued with her interest. By the end of first grade, she's read and re-read d'Aulaires Greek Mythology all on her own. She needs help pronouncing the names, but I think she's given herself a great start!

Through this organization? http://www.etclassics.org/pages/the-national-mythology-exam My kids are NUTS over Greek mythology and it looked like fun. Any experience?

So, now we have the option to get a discounted rate at a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. Gah! Just when I thought I had chosen a place. This vacation planning is making me woozy. Everyone is saying "Hurry! Hurry! You want to go during spring break and it will all be booked TOMORROW!"

My Dh and I want to go snorkeling for our 10th anniversary next year. But it needs to be within driving distance! After researching places to snorkel in Florida, it seems that West Palm Beach is a great place. The Keys aren't an option for us, unfortunately. All my friends are recommending Clearwater/Sarasota area. Those places seem to have great beaches, but aren't known for their snorkeling. What says the hive?

Can he understand the sentence in context when you read the book to him? From what you have stated, it sounds like you are asking him to do two complicated tasks at once. Task one is basic reading/decoding. Task two is listening/comprehension. Ask him to do one at a time. Right now, just be happy with the reading. In my opinion, when his reading gets more fluent, he will have enough "brain power" left over to listen and comment on what he has read. When my DS reads, aka decodes the words, he asks me to re read the sentance, because he often didn't "hear" the sentence he read. He had focused so much on individual sounds, he couldn't see the forest for the trees. HTH!

Thanks for being "ornery". :) Your comments really helped! Yes, there was a large difference between the math problems, math concepts, and math computation section. The math problem score was 75%. Math concepts was 53%. Math computation was 25%. As far as grade levels, I would just do a first grade math curriculum with her, possibly going back and redoing Miquon Orange, but keeping her progressing to 2nd grade. Her reading is extremely good. She just finished Matilda, and has read and reread D'Aulaire's Greek Myths. Her reading total on the ITBS was 93%. Science was 91%, all the other subcatagories were in the 70-80 range. If you don't mind sharing, what helped close the gap between your dd's math concepts and computation, and what seemed to be the issue?

Thanks, guys. The encouragement and perspective really help. I just went to the source (Little Miss Babs) and asked her if she liked her math work. She made a sour face and firmly shook her head "No". I asked her what she would like instead. She told me "Easier questions and more games". Well, I can do that. Let's see if it helps her in the long run!

Having her tested this year was really important to my husband. He is incredibly supportive and encouraging, he just wanted to see %'s. No matter what she got, he would still be supportive of our homeschooling journey. Just wanted to throw that out there. ;) Babs is my oldest, my guinea pig. Overall, Babs did really well. 78% on the complete composite. But her math computation scores were 25%. This was the timed section of addition and subtraction questions. :001_unsure: She completed all the questions, but wasn't very accurate. I encouraged her to go back and review her work because she still had time left. She saw no need to do so. :001_rolleyes: (We didn't do any test prep. I hate the idea of taking time off of REAL work to do test prep. I know having low math scores stems in part from this being her first exposure to standardized testing.) I KNEW her mathematical comprehension and confidence were low. She still really relies on the Cuisenaire rods to do all of her math work. She is only 6 (7 next month), a young first grader. She is only six...I'm repeating that a lot. We have been using Miquon; she has completed the Orange book, and half of the Red. When she gets stumped with the Miquon, I go back and spend time reviewing concepts with Singapore. So, in first grade we did the second half of Miquon Orange, followed by Singapore Kindergarten B Book, then the first half of the Miquon Red book, followed by most of Singapore 1A. We also use Education Unboxed games, which she enjoys. But I'm already seeing her get stressed out by the problems in Singapore 1A. Sometimes, when I verbally ask her questions like "What is 6+2", she will respond "4". She will have used the manipulatives and everything. She just can't remember the difference between + and -. I calmly remind her that + means putting numbers together so the result is larger, and minus means finding the difference between two numbers and the answer will be smaller. This doesn't happen all the time, but enough to really drive me BATTY. A question like "What is 10+4" might get the answer "8". No reason, she just threw the answer out there. But she loves the game Go to the Dump, and knows all the number combinations for ten, and will tell me things like "8+2=10, and 9 is one more, so 9+2 must be 11" I feel confused. Sometimes, she shows complete ineptitude. Other times, she shows really creative mathematical thinking. Is this due to normal immaturity or am I not teaching things clearly? Or is there something I'm missing? At this point, I feel like scrapping everything and starting at the very beginning. Go back and redo the Miquon Orange book. She would love it. She loves easy math problems. :tongue_smilie:

Yeah, I'm the crazy lady in the parking yelling, "touch the car, everyone! TOUCH THE CAR, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" Everyone has to have a hand on the van while we are loading/unloading. We don't get out much. It's not good for my blood pressure. :)

We tried a read aloud compilation of short nursery rhymes, poems, songs and stories. It went much, much better! Of course, the babies were in bed and the 3yo is sick in bed with strep, so that might have helped us out a bit... :) But my 5yo son was much happy with lots of short snippets than with a longer story. We read from a picture book about Egypt when the 3yo was awake, and my 5yo was finished after 15 minutes. But he listened to about 30 minutes of the short story collection. I'll work on building up to longer stories but this is working now to keep his interest! Thanks!

That sounds exactly like conversations I have with my 5yo son. :)

No ideas, I'm in the same boat just ((((hugs))))

Thanks for all the great suggestions! I'll give them a try this week. :)

I try to have my LO's know the days of the week, months of the year, address, phone number, full name, birthdate etc. They seem to forget the info at their earliest convenience so we review a lot. :)