I'm usually the perpetrator in these discussions. dc: "Mom, did you ever have shoes like these when you were little?" Me: "When I was little shoes hadn't been invented. We tied leaves or pieces of wood onto the bottoms of our feet. So, no." dc: "Wha-? No. Did you really? Really, Mom? C'mon, tell me. Really?"

When we are driving in the evening my kids love to shout out when they see Christmas lights or decorations. We left the house last week and my 3yo said to her sister, "Take an eye out for Christmas decorations!" We've been cracking up about it ever since.

I am definitely subscribing to this! At the end of last school-year and beginning of this one I was really feeling overwhelmed. I put the first parts of a routine in place and it has helped me a lot. I have a schedule on paper for school, a loose schedule for housework and my dc are doing daily chores. It has been going well for 4 months (even when it goes off track I am able to recover). Now I'm ready to take another step, so I am watching this thread and have the books on hold. Perhaps the break around Christmas and New Years will be a time to implement the next change(s).

We've been using the lapbook from Homeschool in the Woods, the Composer Activity-Pak. I don't know how they really intended it to be used, but I just use the timeline and go from composer to composer. A few days before I look for related books at the library and (if needed) internet links. It keeps us moving, I like that it is chronological, and there are something like 42 composers, so we will be in it for 2 or 3 years.

That photo is hilarious! Mergath - We do Meet the Masters and I'm pretty happy with it, but be prepared for the sometimes patronizing narration. Plus, since it is written for a class, there are sometimes odd questions that don't make sense in a family situation (assuming you are blindly reading along out loud, as I end up doing). It is all good, and we get it done, it just makes me grit my teeth sometimes.

So it sounds like you (and ds) don't want to do crafts, but would like to do more science experimenting (if it isn't too much hassle to set up)? What about buying some science kits related to whatever you are, or will be, studying? Outside of that, is there anything one or both of you does want to study? Perhaps dabble in a foreign language? A musical instrument? Martial arts? I assume Art would be too close to crafts? You are right, if the thought of craft-y stuff gives you the twitches, don't do it! :D Lots of people don't, but then, of course, they don't blog about it or talk about it. Those things are like a highlight reel of their homeschool. It is rare to see posts about meltdowns, or things that didn't work. It sounds like you have the basics covered, is he enjoying himself?

I don't have a particularly large family, but I do have a large pan (birthday present I think. sigh.) Anyway, it is SUPER difficult to handle with one hand, like if you want to pour that sauce onto a dish of pasta, or drain fat or liquids out. I don't know if there is a solution (maybe a set of good ladles?), but it is something to keep in mind.

Hahaha, a friend of mine bought these for her kids at BN, not realizing what they were! The ride home was ver-ry interesting. At first she didn't believe what they were saying (the dc are 3 and 5), then she tried one - snot! Yuck! Hilarious! (after the fact)

We're doing that. We are in SOTW2 and up to the colonies in American History. I've pulled together a few resources for American History and am planning to do that over 3 years, we just do it about once a week, very laid back. If your daughter is enjoying the books, why not do something like a loose-leaf timeline? That way you can do as much (or little) additional study around whatever books she is reading and you wouldn't necessarily have to "go in order". We liked the SOTW lapbook, if you like projects you could make a lapbook component that then later could be coallated if you wanted - that might give some additional, tactile review. Occasionally we talk about where the to history studies are relative to each other in time, but I haven't noticed any problems with confusion.

Oooh, I loved that book! You might want to poke around at the amightygirl site.

I read my dd2 2 picture books at bedtime and a chapter or two to my olders after. Usually I pick out the picture books. Generally everyone listens to all of them. I'll read the occasional book during the day if I have time. Sometimes I hear the olders reading to the youngest. She only wants that when *she* wants it, though. I carry her books and my books (including most books we check out for school) which helps me limit the number we bring home!

A lot of people use no curriculum, rather talk about things as they come up. If you want to go it on your own but would like some scope and sequence guidance you could look at almost any K program's table of contents or the "What your Kindergartener Needs to Know" book by Ed Hirsch. Another free (except for printing) program is CSMP. Also, you could do some work to figure out what math program you want to try for early elementary and go ahead and get it and see if you can start it now at a slower rate or use it to guide your own set of introductory lessons. Or even just buy some of the recommended manipulatives and play around with those. There are a lot of math programs available! Don't feel rushed to pick one. I don't think you can go badly wrong with anything at this stage. :001_smile:

We found an audiobook version at the library which was nice. That way someone else got to sing the songs and try to do 13 different dwarf voices.

Asking my dc to stop reading was something that I could never imagine saying before I had kids. Now, I realize it is all a balance. I call, and they know they have a couple of minutes to get to a good stopping point.

Great to hear that WWS will continue! Now, about grammar.....

I also started filtering it by whether the trip was related to anything we were studying or had studied recently. This is obviously a very flexible filter, but it gave me one more thing to consider before signing up. Even if the field trip is only half the day, we usually need some apart-time afterward to regain our balance. Oooh, you are moving to a different country! I think you will need to keep a few days a month open to explore there - museums, shops, neighborhood, countryside - think of all the things to see/learn!

I had a Pyrex pan shatter in the oven (NOT coming from the freezer, just from the counter) and when I called Pyrex they sent me a replacement. My lucky day. So, you could call first and ask, or you could call after and keep your fingers crossed. :001_smile: It is a good question though! It says freezer/oven/microwave/dishwasher safe, right? It just isn't clear if you can do them all in a row.

If your concern is money, try CSMP or MEP, both of which are free (except printing) and well-regarded. Those and a bucket of cuisinaire rods will get you pretty far.:) You don't have to follow them exactly (MEP more so than CSMP), but they will help with different topic ideas and approaches. Plus, with 2 other littles they will give you enough explicit direction to keep math going even when *you* don't feel up to it. ;) That said, with two more coming along after, it is hard to imagine you wouldn't get your money's worth from Miquon.

We're using it this year for level 2, half-way through, and I couldn't tell you how to cherry-pick lessons. I'm hoping to learn here. :001_smile: I did find an over-all topic summary in the "Scheme of Work". Since your boys are close, look at the scheme of work for year 1 and decide what level addition/subtraction (number bonds) you want them to work on. Then print out a few weeks work of the "Lesson Plans" for those weeks. THEN read them and see if they cover the topics you want. MEP will be re-presenting the material, perhaps in a different way, or with different focus. If you are looking for worksheets of practice problems you would be better off with a "build-your-own-worksheet" website, like those linked from the Math Mammoth pages. HTH

I haven't used Miquon on a regular basis, although I'm planning to next year-ish with my then-to-be 4.5yo dd2. It needs a bit of planning, not all the lessons involve worksheet pages (at least early-on) and some pages need a bit of introductory planning. I think the amount of direction given by you can easily be adjusted. The lessons I did over the summer with my two olders rarely "required" hands-on stuff - my dd1 needs more of it, my ds doesn't. The early books may slant toward more hands-on, but I imagine you could get around it (skip that part, skip that lesson, etc.) I'm skimming through CSMP K level with my dd2 now and it is nice for pulling out occasional lessons. And it is free, so if we skip some, or never finish I won't have that hanging over my head... You might want to look at MEP also. It is free (so there's that). I find it a bit tricky to skip lessons due to its spiral/incremental nature, but there is a reasonable amount of variety within the lessons and the focus changes each week. It sounds like your ds would be capable of starting with level 1?

For SOTW, they alternate who does the oral narration (nobody writes). My kids haven't had trouble doing narrations and by rotating it I'm comfortable that this is true for both of them. For WWE2 (if you choose it) we alternate who goes first and the other goes to the living room and thinks up theirs. Those I write down. Wanted to add that I like SilverMoon's idea. We fall back to that if someone gets stuck.

I pay someone to come speak Spanish with my children once a week. Maybe you could find someone to do a "literature" study with your child occasionally. They could each read part of a book, discuss it, explore vocabulary, read aloud to each other, talk about grammar, memorize parts, whatever you thought would be helpful. It could be a local high school or college student or another mother - in fact you might even be able to exchange time with you teaching their children whatever your first language is.

Oh, what a good sister/friend! I've had luck calling the small store near my parents, I spoke with the manager and offered to pay a taxi to deliver, but he offered to walk it over himself. Even if you don't have *that* kind of luck, if you speak to people in the area they might have similar ideas. I was talking to a florist who mentioned that a local woman made and delivered food near my grandparents so I could do that a few times. The internet is great, but you might also have luck on the phone. Remember when "Let your fingers do the talking!" used to mean calling, rather than internet?

Does she need more repetition or more challenge? If it is just repetition you might try some of the workbooks out there, maybe Scholastic or Evan-Moor have something? Grammarland is free out on Googlebooks (I think), someone here has made separate worksheets for it, but it will just go through the parts of speech, I don't know that it would give a lot more practice. The Sentence Family is available for purchase out in the internet. It gives a gentle introduction/review of the parts of speech and moves into diagramming. So again, not a lot of practice, just a different presentation. Kiss grammar is free and there are a number of posts about it. They don't do traditional diagramming, but it sounds as if there is a lot of work identifying parts of speech. You could also look at Michael Clay Thompson or Analytical Grammar. I know (even) less about those. :D Good luck!

I have a recipe for pumpkin muffins that calls for hulled pumpkin seeds and I buy pepitas at the Mexican grocery. Pepitas are so much larger than the seeds from our pumpkins - it makes me wonder how HUGE the pumpkins must be!