Mine is up. Nothing much this week. The last couple of days have been not so good for me.

According to Where's my refund ours should be deposited by Nov 19th so we'll see what happens.

If you started immeadiately after finishing 3 I would have him take any tests (1 a day) until he reaches a point where he get's less than 80% or so and have him pick up the lessons there. I believe if you go to the Saxon website it says something to this effect in the FAQ's. Remember the publisher is most likely assuming that the kids would have had some sort of long break in between levels (summer vacation) so the beginning of the book is a review to make sure the kids are getting back into things slowly. HTH

I also think they are cool. My kids would love them. We're a military family and a lot of the places it's just not possible to be out all the time. We've lived in WA where much of the time it was either raining or the ground was so drenched it was like a swamp. We've lived in WI where like a pper said during many months it's so cold there's no way the kids can be outside playing for more than a few minutes. We've lived in Fl where we then had times where it was so hot out that you couldn't be out for very long for fear of heat stroke and dehydration. My kids also love to imitate me while I work out, it's fun for them. So I say why not kids "exercise" equipment. Like another said, it's not much different in my book that a toy ironing board, toy kitchen, etc.

I definately switch my style up depending on what the subject and the lessons in it. For Math I definately teach it as that's my strong suit. For Grammar it's what you define as tutoring although I still view it as teaching. For phonics my dd uses a computer based program which I only log in for her, then her ETC which I'm there to help when needed. For history and science I'm teaching again by presenting the lesson to them. I'm also starting to make my own program up for American history for next year since I didn't like what I was seeing out there.

Daisy, I so understand the "front porch" With dh in the Navy we are always someplace that's so busy and the hustle and bustle is getting to me. I always thought I was a "city" kid and come to find out in my old age (I'm going to be 34 and my kids say I'm SOOOOO Old LOL:eek:) that I crave the life of quiet open spaces. I was watching a show about prairies last night on Discovery HD Theatre and there were beautiful flowing hills, covered in prairie grasses, lots of prairie dogs and buffalo. It was gorgeous. As I laid there watching it I thought "man I like to stick a house right there" LOL Maybe one of these days (dh has 7.5 years left to go before retiring from the Navy) we'll get that ranch or something. I'm not sure why but homeschooling has really helped me see how much I crave having a ranch or something were our closest neighbors are a few miles away.

We've moved many times with our Shar-pei lab mix. My dh is in the Navy so we move and travel ALOT. My dogs always ride in their kennels in the car on long trips. I find this keeps them calmer. My dogs love their kennels and sleep in them at night at home too. I've only left the dog in the car while we eat if it's cooler weather. So I'm not much help there. I drove from FL to WI in Jun of 2006 and it was too hot to leave the dogs out there. We now have a pug too and he's even more of a concern in the heat (short face thing) I also didn't have dh with me so the kids and I did lots of drive throughs, not the best food in the world but it had to be done. I usually have found that many hotels will take pets but make sure you ask first. Some will only let a pet in a smoking room which doesn't fly with me. So we use Motel 6 mostly. We've found that many holiday inn's and Best Westerns will take them too. My biggest tip, don't let the fact that it looks a bit fancier fool you, many of those places will take pets. On time we were at a Holiday Inn and dh didn't ask about the pets, got us a room and then proceded to walk right into the lobby with them. Only to look at the staff in a look of horror to say "You allow pets right?" They just laughed at him and said "Yes it's not a problem" We got lucky though. Many hotels will charge you a $150 fine if you have a pet in a room and they don't allow them. HTH

We had a pretty long list of them, but 75% of them were listed for 1 address, which was the City Jail which is about 2 miles from our house. There were none listed within a few blocks of us though. I guess for me I figure they are out there no matter where you live so I just don't let my kids out alone except for in our fenced back yard. Yes there are gates but the kids can't open them and they never go out without me unless our dog is out there, and she's not going to let anyone near the kids. Plus even if I'm not out there I can still see them from where I am in the house.

We use lined paper but I get mine from Miller pads and paper. They have excellent paper that's a nice bright white and they have many different sizes of lines depending on the grade. I also bought spelling list paper that's like the regular lined paper but cut down in width so it's perfect for spelling tests. My kids love it. My son especially likes the story journal I believe it is. It's blank on top and lined on the bottom but spiral bound so he can write his own stories and illustrate them too. There website is http://www.millerpadsandpaper.com Kel

Well I move way too much. My dh is in the Navy and we move about every 2 years now, in the beginning it was more often. We've been married 10.5 years and have moved 8 times. I always have a moving company (the Navy assigns one so I don't get to decide who) but I always make up labels of different colors so that I know immeadiately which room the box belongs in. We just moved this past Nov from FL to VA. We took off the 2 weeks before and the 2 weeks after the move. I also took much stuff with us in a Uhaul as some things I just didn't want to send with the company because we've had our stuff go missing for a few weeks in the past. I made sure I took all our school stuff, a few pots and pans, enough dishes for us for 1 meal (I washed them a lot before we were fully unpacked :eek:) My biggest tip: Enjoy the adventure of it. If I didn't learn to relax and enjoy the adventure I would be bald by now :D

Was it a free one. I know that http://www.ourlosbanos.com has an American History curriculum that's free and uses lots of living books, some activity books like History Pockets etc. I didn't know about it so I actually went out and bought a bunch of history pockets, the DK children's encyclopedia of American History and a bunch of books I thought the kids would like in the subject area and am making up my own schedule a little at a time. Good thing I have until Sept. to get it done :p

I have the same bags as Holly in FL and I LOVE THEM! I bought 10 originally and we use them for groceries as well as for when we go on vacation for things like towels, sunscreen etc for the beach. I also have reusable cotton bags for my produce. We're military and what prompted me using these canvas bags was that the moving company the Navy hired to move us once packed a 20X20x16 in. box full of nothing but plastic bags we had saved for when we had yard sales. That was the end of plastic bags in this house. The commissary baggers love my bags as well because they can hold as much as a typical paper grocery bag but they are sturdier so they can handle lots of heavy things that would normally require double bagging.

Well let me preface this by saying that we've only gotten about 4 months of schooling done since we started this year. We are military and had to take off all of Oct. and most of Nov for moving. We also had lots of the "sickies" in Sept, luckily we started Aug 6th so we're not behind really. The one thing I learned is that we are afternoon schoolers. We hate getting up early and the kids don't do well then so now we start school after lunch and we're done by 4pm. This also allows me to make appts or run errands in the late morning which works well for us. I've also learned that when I get frustrated because something isn't "getting through" that we should take a break and then regroup in about 15 minutes. I've been working on being more patient and it's amazing how the learning just happens then. We've also found that doing Math, LA every day is key but that alternating 3 days of history one week and then 3 days of science then next works best for us.

I'm also a person a day laundry girl. Monday is oldest DS, Tuesday is DD, Wed is youngest DS, Thurs is DH and I, Towels are Friday, Sheets are Saturday. That way I'm doing a max of 2 loads a day. I also clean my house this way. A room or group of smaller connected rooms a day.

We're up, no pictures yet but I'm bound to have some to add by the end of today.

:D ME!

but mine is finally up a day late, I guess that makes it Not quite wordless, not quite Wednesday.

Not as much as I should but I'm trying to make it a routine. I have been consistantly doing 2 days a week at the Y where I'm on the treadmill 20-30 minutes with 15 minutes of weights afterwards while my older 2 are at Homeschool PE. I plan on steadily increasing until it's a real habit.

They do make them with a hole on top but I love the one I have. The pencil goes in from the front but it's a heavy duty one with multiple pencil size holes which is nice since my dd was using the big horse leg pencils last year. Even if you don't need the different size holes this baby is a work horse. We only have to empty the shavings every month or so and it sharpens wonderfully. The sound changes so you know when you've reached maximum sharpness (is that a real word :)) Here's a link for it http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?&langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&productId=13821&cmArea=SEARCH

I don't remember the name of the principal at the school I went 1-4 at but remember it changed 3 times. K was College Park (greendale WI) 1-4 was Canterbury (greendale WI, we moved just out of area for the other one) 1st was Mrs Kunz 2nd was Mrs Golumbeski 3rd was Mrs Graf (and my aunt was the teachers aide) 4th was Mrs Jacoby then we moved to Muskego WI and I don't know the name of the 5th grade teacher but it was a weird year because there were a few too many kids for 4th and 5th grade so we were in what was called a Split class Half 4th grade half 5th grade. Then it was on to Baylane middle school (Muskego WI) 6th was Mr. S that's all I remember because that's what we called him 7th and 8th we changed classes every period just like in high school and there's too many to remember High school was Muskego HS I remember Mr Baker who was my Geometry, Computer and Pre Calc teacher That's about it because he was the only one that made class fun. The weirdest thing for me is actually about dh. His highschool Biology teacher was none other than his dad. I told him there's no way I could have done that, just to weird for me.

I know many don't like computer based systems but my dd loves Click n kids online phonics program. We tried OPG as well as headsprout (another online program) and like Click n kids the most. OPG was boring for her, headsprout was ok but I didn't like that if I didn't think she'd gotten the lesson I had to call the company to have them reset it back a lesson or 2, with Click n kids if I don't think she did well enough to move on I just go to the student list and put her back a lesson or 2. I also like that the subscription is forever. Once she finishes the 100 lessons I can delete her and put my next child on (if you need 2 kids at once there is a $10 charge I believe) also when we're completely done we can give our subscription to another family free of charge, it's kind of like a pay it forward thing. HTH

I can't speak to the lit pockets, but we love history pockets and the theme pockets. I'm using the Theme pockets for January right now to do the Penguin pocket book while we read Mr. Popper's Penguins for our read aloud. I'll use the Seasons one in a month or so for science. I have used the Ancient Civilizations HP for my kids and they really like it. I've actually made an american history plan for us myself for the next couple of years which will use 6 different History Pockets. I love that EM lets you see each book page by page it really helps you get a feel for them.

I used Evan Moor's building spelling skills last year for 2nd grade and am using SWO C this year for my 3rd grade ds. I have SWO A on hand for when my dd is ready. We're working through ETC now though which she loves so we'll stick with that for a while.

I have my list in an excel spreadsheet with the best online price and place I found that price. I'll print it out and take it to the local homeschool store where they sell mostly used curriculum and see what I can get for less their then I'll order the rest from my list at where I found the best price. I'm just waiting for the tax refund to come in so that I get my school budget. I actually have a seperate checking account for it so that the school money stays safe and seperate from the rest of the budget.