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Thanks for asking this question. I'm going to show my husband everyone's replies when I present him with my wishlist for next year. :D I try and keep it around $500 a year for curriculum, and I buy used as much as possible. I also make copies of consumable workbooks so my younger son can use them too. That doesn't include sports, zoo and museum memberships, field trips, 4-H, piano lessons, etc.

I am having a similar problem with my almost 11 year old. He is highly distractable and fidgety. I chalked it up to him being a boy. I thought he would outgrow it. And he has terrible handwriting. I cannot read most of what he writes. And I attributed that to him being a left-handed boy. I thought with time his fine motor skills would improve. But this year I am homeschooling his 6 year old brother too, and I see a marked difference in these areas. My six year old son has neat, even handwriting. And he is much less fidgety than his older brother, and has a longer attention span when it comes to seat work. So now I too am wondering if there is something more going on, like a learning disability, and I just didn't realize it. How do you know when your child is outside the bounds of typical development - when they actually have a problem that would benefit from intervention?

Thank you for the reminder to think twice about leaving my nearly 11 year old son home alone, even if just for a very short time, under what seem to be safe circumstances. I'm glad your family is safe and sound tonight.

Well, I plan to read all of Jane Austen's novels this year, but haven't started any of them yet. I tend to read mostly non-fiction. Right now I am working on: Boundaries by Cloud & Townsend (I'm having MIL issues) Homeschooling at the Speed of Life by Marilyn Rockett Hold Onto Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Neufeld & Mate

I'm a little envious of all of you who only attended one elementary school. I attended five different schools K-5th. Glenmont Elementary (OH) K- Mrs. Lymon 1st - Mrs. Koontz Winterset Elementary (OH) 2nd - ??? Kenwood Elementary (OH) 3rd - ??? Lynn Road Elementary (NC) 3rd - 4th - Mrs. Gregory and Mrs. Marshall 5th - Washington Elementary (OH) 5th - Mrs. Cushman I wouldn't have a clue what the principals' names were, except for the one at Glenmont Elementary. That was Mr. O'Brien. One of the reasons I homeschool is because I didn't want my kids to have to switch schools all the time like I did.

This is why I had two sons - so I don't have to sit next to my husband anymore when he is watching football. I'm happy to be here working on lesson plans while they are in the other room. Now, if it were hockey, soccer, or ice skating, I would be watching too. I'm not competitive when it comes to sports, but am ridiculously competitve when it coems to board games and cards. I won't even let my six year old beat me.

but we don't use it. It is in the basement - far from the kitchen and laundry room - which doesn't work for me. Plus it only has one tiny window - which doesn't work for any of us. So, our formal living room has morphed into our school room/library. We also work at the dining room table, and in the family room. I can easily keep an eye on both boys while I work on dishes or the laundry.

I'm getting a list together in preparation for the Cincy convention (so I won't have to pay shipping). I make an excel spreadsheet too, so I can make sure I am getting the best possible price. And it helps me to stick to my budget and not buy too many extras.:)

I would love to put my hands on this at a convention. Sounds like it could work well for my up and coming second grader.

Are you going to have a booth at the HEAV convention, and if so, will WWE be available for purchase?

I'm having the same problem. How did you fix it???:confused:

I have tried gif and jpg files, all less than 100x100 pixels. I jsut tried again with my Norton firewall turned off. I can't figure it out. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I am trying to add a photo to my profile, and I have sized it smaller than 100x100 pixels, but every time I try and upload it, I get a message saying the file upload has failed. Any idea what I am doing wrong???

They sell a wooden fraction "puzzle" that is great for teaching equivalent fractions. www.alabacus.com

We also started typing in 5th grade because a) my son was in a writing co-op with weekly papers that had to be typed, and b) because his handwriting is still barely legible. He hates to write, but complains less when he can type instead of writing by hand. We also use Typing Instructor Deluxe for Kids.

I really enjoy researching and choosing curricula, so we are pretty eclectic too. I have learned though that I am better off tweaking someone else's plan, than creating my own from scratch. Currently we are using Sonlight Core 6, spread over two years, so that my first and fifth graders can use Story of the World Ancients together. My 5th grader does the Sonlight reading, while my 1st grader uses the SOTW activity guide. TOG is really tempting me, but I am not sure if it would be worth the price after I was done tweaking it.

My ds10 struggles with his math facts too. Using the online drill at www.mathusee.com has really helped him memorize his facts. I can choose what facts he needs to work on, and then we set the timer for 30 minutes, and he does the drills. Somehow, typing the answer into the computer helps him so much more than oral drills.

and I own quite a few of the Evan-Moor history and literature pocket books, but we rarely get around to using them. My kids do draw and color often on their own, plus we are in an art class that meets twice a month, and they build things out of Knex, Legos, and Magnetix. So, they are doing hands-on things - they just aren't mom directed or curriculum driven.

My oldest will be in 6th grade next year. This is what I have planned so far, but I have to say, TOG looks very tempting, and I may go that route instead. Math - Math U See Zeta or Teaching Textbooks 6 Science - God's Design for Heaven and Earth History - 2nd half of Sonlight Core 6 with SOTW 2 Writing & Vocab. - IEW Medieval Based Writing Lessons Spelling - Sequential Spelling? Grammar - Growing With Grammar 6 Literature - Sonlight Core 6 Logic - ??? Latin - Latin for Children? Spanish - Spanish for Children (if CAP gets it done in time) Geography - Evan-Moor Daily Geography Practice 6

I will be there Thursday and Friday.:)

Our co-op is using GTG with 3 six year olds, and it is going very well. We also don't use the spine books they suggest. We get whatever informational and lit books the library has for the country we are studying.

EEuuuwwwww... can we skip the "mortuary bees" level???