I read while my kids eat breakfast & lunch. I usually then try to eat later, once they start school/playtime. I won't lie, though, I miss a lot of meals!

We do tons (see my sig). My kids are still young, so school only takes an hour or two. They have plenty of free time outside, then an afternoon rest, and then we have an organized extracurricular every afternoon (usually about an hour). We are home by 5 or 530 most days, and DH doesn't get home until after 6, so we still are able to eat dinner most days. I would think it would be too much if it interfered with school, outside playtime, getting enough rest, or eating dinner with the family. As it is, we are able to do it. It helps that most of these activities are about 5 minutes away. The kids would love to do more! I do make myself limit it to one activity per day though. :)

It seems like everyone loves A & B, and the first part of Level C, but then they quit liking it partway through C, so they switch to something else.

I usually count on it taking 10 days after the close of the group buy to ship, and another 5 for shipping, so I am looking for the Atelier box around the middle of the month. They almost always get here faster than that, but that way I'm not irritated about waiting longer than expected! :)

We do CC. I went through the Foundations guide last summer, and found easy picture books/readalouds to go with as much of the info as I could. I read the related stories in the week before they heard the material in class. My kids were interested in and easily remembered the info they had previously learned about. They were completely uninterested in the rest, though they memorized most of it anyway. (I didn't teach or review any of the Latin or grammar.) It doesn't necessarily need to tie into your other studies. It really doesn't take that much time/effort to provide a little background info, and what they have memorized and learned a little about will be that much more interesting when they get to it in their other studies.

I bought Levels 1 & 2, and am really debating buying Level 3!

I had a grand plan in the beginning of introducing topics via Miquon, then following up with RightStart. Aligning was a humungous time sucker that didn't last long. Then I tried scheduling 2 days a week with Miquon, 2 with RS, and 1 with MEP. That didn't work either, b/c we are on the road A LOT. My plan after that was to work in RS until we got stuck or to a good stopping point, then switch to Miquon and work in that for a while. Again, didn't work due to being away from home so much. Now, we just do the next thing, without paying any attention to aligning topics. If we are at home, we do RS (b/c it has so many manipulatives and therefore is a pain to take with us). If we are in a therapy office, we do Miquon. (I can tote a Ziploc of rods pretty easily.) MEP lives in the car, and gets pulled out when I need to fill some extra time, but isn't completed as regularly as I would like. This seems to be the system that is working best for us at the moment. I think you are just going to have to try some different things to find out what fits you and is feasible. Do you have the time/inclination to line up the topics? Are your kids strict schedule/plan kind of people? Would they prefer to stick to one thing for a period of time, then switch? Or do they prefer variety, and might like to do a little of each weekly? Are YOU a strict scheduler? Would you prefer to let your kids choose what to do each day, and then just tell them that they can't get a new book until they have finished BOTH of the old? Etc. etc.

Anyone? I wrote this post a year ago, and find myself considering it again this year. I truly will not be able to make it all the way through OPGTR. I just need to outsource this and be done with it.

I couldn't figure out how to go in and modify my order? I'm already in the group buy, but wanted to add another level. If I enter a separate order, will I incur another $12 shipping charge that I wouldn't incur if I could modify the original?

You are right - it changed back to 4/30 as the final deadline. :)

It's now 25% off!!! I thought the cutoff was 4/30, but it looks like it is actually TONIGHT at midnight pacific time.

No need to wait! They don't charge until the deal is finalized!! We are up to 38 people, and a 20 percent discount! Only 13 more to get to 25%!!!

Retail Price:$155.00 Current Group Price:$131.75 Current Quantity Ordered:25 Conditional Orders:25 Current Group Savings:15% We are at 25 people!! Need ONE person to get to 20% off!!! https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/atelier/?c=1 I am so hoping that most of those conditionals put it at 20% - if so we would go right to 25% off!!!

anyone?

Ah gotcha! That makes much more sense than what I was imagining!

It's a MAJOR problem on another forum I frequent for parents of triplets & higher order multiples. We have noticed it pops up even more during the tiems when school is not in session. They join, make up these wild stories, and ask for advice. "I'm 50 years old and was raped and got pregnant with sextuplets. I'm single and have never had kids before." The stories are often horrendous. Most of the time, they just enjoy the attention, but every now and then, someone's hard luck story results in the newbies who don't know any better mailing them tons of baby clothing & equipment to help out, which inevitably just gets sold on Ebay. I truly don't get why they do it, but a LOT of people apparently feel otherwise.

Core B is VERY high for kindergarten. We did P4/5 for kindergarten with my older 6/ almost 7 year olds, and it was perfect! We ditched their language arts almost immediately - it was terrible. We really just used Sonlight's schedule for readalouds. Other than readalouds, you need: - phonics - handwriting - math If you get to other stuff, great! If you don't, that's fine too! You don't usually start spelling until they are reading well (I think most people start in 1st grade).

During CC's 3 day Parent Practicum, my kids will be in the Geo-Drawing Camp for the first time this summer. The name is certainly intriguing, but I'm having a hard time picturing what they will be doing based on the description. Can somebody explain exactly what they will doing? What knowledge would be helpful prior to starting? Names & approximate locations of continents & oceans? How to hold down a ruler & draw alongside it? (That could be a challenge - why do my kids find that so hard????) What else? Other thoughts / comments about Geo-Drawing Camp?

I will say that I LOVED the book! Three of my kids have some issues related to premature birth, and two of those struggle to learn. That book really encouraged me to stay the path. Keep working rigorously at the child's level. It showed me that I didn't have to truly separate teacher and mom - I can be a strict, but loving teacher/mom combo. Loved it, and took a LOT of inspiration away from it.

Check out this post from Novafan: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193160&highlight=timeline+strand&page=2 The cords are awesome! I saw one somewhere like this scientific discoveries, musical periods, etc. I just can't find it anywhere! I'd love to have one with the true world history event timeline overview at the top, then the other categories on separate lines below. I just know as soon as I start it I'm going to find that awesome one and want to start over!!

I used to babysit for this family who had a French mom & a German dad. The parents spoke very limited English, but the kids were enrolled in English preschool/school. At 3, the kids weren't speaking anything. At 5, they spoke, but it was a jumbled mess. They would often ask me for stuff, but the sentence would be part French, part German, part English. No sense of subject/verb agreement, tenses, etc. Then suddenly at like 7, they spoke beautifully in all 3 languages. Switched to the appropriate language depending on who they were talking to, verbs were correctly conjugated, etc. I watched all 3 kids go through this exact same progression. Don't give up yet! :)

Use mealtimes for reading aloud. I seriously had the HARDEST time getting my kids to pay attention, until they were a captive audience! I also "bribe" my kids with the readaloud/history/science stuff. "Let's get this math done so we can find out what Mrs. Piggle Wiggle does next!" :) My biggest challenges so far (finishing kindergarten) are listed below. I would love advice about these! - phonics. It seriously is the most excruciating thing I've ever done. I thought I would hate the history & science, and love the skills, and it has been the exact opposite. If I survive phonics, it truly will be a miracle. I have a friend who sends her kids to public school for kindergarten & 1st, and homeschools after that, just so she can avoid teaching reading. I now understand exactly why! - my house has surpassed messy and is now at the point where I need to be on Hoarders. It was acceptable prior to the kids finishing preschool, but has steadily gone downhill ever since, and is truly just overwhelming at this point. - overplanning. I just have SO MUCH I want to do, but I make myself quit every day when they are starting to lose focus, and so I *never* get to a LOT that I would love to.

ACK! I wasn't expecting this at 5! My kids know they were born via C-section b/c I have an ugly scar (emergency), but another kid felt the need to tell them mysteriously that there are TWO ways that babies can be born, and they are very curious as to the other way. Of course, right after that, they wanted to know how babies got IN to a mommy's tummy. Book recs?

Someone, somewhere, posted a timeline idea that I am kicking myself for not bookmarking. I have searched and searched and searched to no avail. She had her "main" timeline, with major historical events. Below that, she had another strand with famous artists & musicians, so you could see what else was going on in the world as that person was composing. Below that, she had another strand with something else - scientific discoveries or famous scientists or something along those lines. There were 5 total stands I think, each with a different point of focus. Does this ring a bell to anyone? Hopefully somebody else bookmarked it and can help me find that again! THANKS!

If you were trying to do all 4 volumes of Story of the World in 3 years, how would you condense it? - divide evenly, so you did 1 1/3 ish volumes a year? - do volumes 1 & 2 in one year, then 3 in a year, and 4 in a year? - some other division of volumes among years? Is the quantity of material roughly equal among the volumes? Or are some heavier and couldn't be condensed? Which volume is the lightest on material and perhaps easier to condense?