My youngest is starting K this fall, and they'll be grades K, 1, 2, and 3. :) She's young for K, not turning 5 until mid-November, but she's very very excited to be doing what the older kids are. She begged me for workbooks of her own last year and has already completed Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code, as well as Earlybird math A. She's been tagging along with Five in a Row lessons for a couple years now, but she's getting a lot more into it lately. I think this will be a really fun year for us.

When I was 9 and my brother was 7, my mom read the entire Lord of the Rings (long poems and all) to us. She'd usually, but not always, do it in the evening before bed, and she did it as a "tea party." She'd set up a tray with a tea set, tea and milk, and a little snack like animal crackers. We'd then sit on the floor together somewhere and have our tea picnic-style as she read. The combination of the tea parties, the comfortable time spent with my mom and brother, and the amazing story (which we both quickly became invested in) went together to form my most cherished childhood memory. I wish I'd thought to ask him when it was still possible to do so, but I think my brother would have said the same. I remember as we progressed further in the story, we began pestering her to read to us in the mornings before school because we were desperate to find out what happened to poor Frodo and Sam. My mom had an awesome Gollum voice too. As we got toward the end, she'd let us take turns reading pages. Once we completed it, I reread the LotR on my own. After that, I felt confident in my ability to read any book whatsoever. I just recently started reading The Hobbit to my kiddos, and I'll probably start LotR as soon as I think the youngest can follow along with the help of a few explanations and discussions along the way.

I read this book with my kids in 2009, and they also initially had a solemn, sober reaction. I had some mixed feelings about it at the time, mainly because I was caught off guard, I think. But they seemed to be handling/processing it well, and I decided it was probably a good idea to help them begin to have an understanding of the topic. We read and discussed Charlotte's Web shortly thereafter. Within a few months of reading those books, my brother died unexpectedly at age 29. I was so glad I hadn't tried to hide the topic of death from my kids. It's an illusion to think we have much say over when it will enter our lives. That was such a difficult year for our family, and I'm glad I'd already begun to give my children the tools for how to process it when I was calm and able to focus entirely on them, rather than when I was shocked and grieving.

What a wonderful relationship you had with your brother. I lost my brother in 2009, and I've been thinking about him all day today. Couldn't not reply to your post. <3

My youngest daughter was diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism about a week after her birth. Her numbers were very bad, and the pediatric endocrinologist concluded that she was either born without a thyroid or with a completely nonfunctional one. She started out going to the nearest children's hospital (a few hours away) every month but now that she's four, she just goes every six months. Our pediatric endocrinologist there is wonderful--very attentive and on the ball, and much better equipped to handle R's condition than any local doctors we have seen. This was initially very scary for us, because the thyroid hormone is so essential for growth and development, particularly in the first years of life. R's endocrinologist told us about one case she'd seen where a boy with congenital hypothyroidism didn't receive treatment until age 12, and he only learned two words and reached the stature of an 18-month-old. But with one simple daily medication, normal growth and development are easily achieved. It's really amazing. R is 4 years old now, and her physical and mental development have been completely normal. Her doctor comments every time on how advanced she is. (At our last visit, shortly before her 4th birthday, she'd already begun to read.) We had a big party for her 3rd birthday, because that was the magic age where the thyroid hormone stopped being so essential for mental development. It's still very important for physical growth, and we feel so lucky that the medication that enables this for her is so inexpensive and readily available. (She takes levoxyl, and we've never wanted to change it, since we were told it's better to stick with the same one.)

My kids are using both programs and it's working out great for us. I printed out the Math Mammoth pages and put them in page protectors and then binders. It doesn't take long at all to go over the SM lesson and do the workbook pages, and then I have them do a MM lesson. I let them use markers, and then wipe the page and put on a sticker when they are done. If they're feeling like it's too much writing, sometimes I'll sit next to them and let them do the MM verbally. Either way, they get extra practice and reinforcement, and it's worked out very well. (FWIW, if I had to choose one, I would choose SM. The kids like it better, and I love the way it presents the material. But I think MM is great too, and we benefit from using both.)

I was having some of the problems described (being returned to my shopping cart instead of forwarded to paypal, having my shopping cart's contents vanish, etc). I was eventually able to get it to work, but I changed three things about what I was doing, so I'm not sure which fixed it. In case it's helpful to someone else, here's what I changed: * I switched from Firefox to Safari. * I purchased small amounts at a time, in multiple transactions (it was kind of a large order, and I thought that might be causing problems). * I placed my order in the evening when there was presumably less traffic on the site. I'd recommend people keep an extra shopping cart tab open to refer to in case they lose its contents in the checkout process, and that they move their items to their wish list if they aren't ready or able to check out yet. It is a pain, but now that I've got our books and loaded them on our iPad, I'm really happy with the purchase.

Yes, her family is still homeschooling. I agree, she's a wonderful, amazing woman, and a real inspiration.

I'm not a Charlotte Mason expert, but I've read the Charlotte Mason Companion and found it very helpful. There are also a couple articles on the Well Trained Mind website that discuss the differences between the CM and TWTM approaches to classical education. Those helped me a lot last year, in deciding what approach would work best for my family (I use elements of both). http://www.welltrainedmind.com/charlotte-mason-education/

My husband is great at informally teaching the kids in his area of expertise (computers and programming), takes the lead in some areas of physical fitness (he takes the kids jogging in the morning before his work, takes them to soccer after work, etc), and he is also very good at taking advantage of learning opportunities when they come up in everyday life. Once in a while, I'll ask him to sit with one of the kids and help with math or some other assignment while on his lunch break so I can get something done, and he's happy to do that. But he wouldn't be well-suited to planning or conducting regular lessons. If I try to talk to him about curriculum, his eyes quickly glaze over. LOL

We just finished reading this last night! My 3yo, 5yo, 6yo, and 8yo all greatly enjoyed it and even chose to dress up as Wizard of Oz characters for Halloween (scarecrow, lion, Dorothy, and tin man! So cute, & perhaps the last chance I'll get to enjoy seeing them in matching costumes). We watched the movie tonight, talked about some of the differences between the book and the movie, and sang some of the songs together. The timing of this read-aloud choice has been excellent for us, because a couple weeks ago, my husband, our 8yo, and I got to ride in a hot air balloon while the younger kids watched. The kids all paid VERY close attention to that portion of the book, and I'll bet they'll internalize the science lessons that came along with that better too. :) Other big read-aloud hits in our house have been Charlotte's Web, Trumpet of the Swan, and Wind in the Willows. Next up is Little House in the Big Woods.

I think a lot of this differs from state to state, or even county to county. I'm in CA, and here's how it's been for me. 1. Here you can request an age, but the younger you ask for, the longer it will take to get a placement. I agree with you that it would be best to not go above the age of your youngest, and I agree with the previous poster that even a very young child will greatly impact the lives your other kids. 2. I'm not sure about the church/religion issue, as that hasn't come up in our case, but here we are not allowed to have any children (even our own) sleeping in our room with us. We also had to rearrange bedrooms. We'd had our 7yo, 5yo, and 3yo sharing one bedroom, while they used the second room as a playroom, but the requirement was no more than 2 kids per room, and no boy/girl combinations. We now have a boy room and girl room, with 2 kids in each room. 3. We had to sign a paper saying that we won't be using physical discipline with any children in our home. (In our case, that wasn't an issue, as that's not the approach we want to use with our children.) 4. We are allowed to travel within the state but would need to get permission to leave the state. 5. We are allowed to use whomever we see fit, but anyone who will regularly be caring for our foster child has to get a background check done. 6. Sorry, I'm not as much help on this one. My circumstances were a little different, as I became involved in foster care when my young nephew was removed from his home. He's been placed with me for most of the year, and we're in the process of adopting him now. 7. Here, once parental rights are terminated, adoption is encouraged, and they prefer not to disrupt the child's current placement. The process involves a home study (which we've already completed), and waiting through a 60-day appeal period. 8. I think this differs a lot from case to case. In mine, of course, I already knew the people involved. (My brother, who'd had full custody of my nephew, died last year, and my nephew's mother wasn't able to care for him properly once he was returned to her. Dealing with her and her family has been the most difficult, complicated part of this whole process.) I think in cases where you don't already know the people involved, you might still end up interacting with them when dealing with court-ordered visitations. 9. We technically aren't allowed to homeschool, but we WERE allowed to enroll the kids in a public charter school that allows us to design our own curriculum and teach at home. That has been working very well for us.

Two boys, neither is circ'd.

Oh, just saw you said you're not looking for yoga. These kids yoga DVDs aren't all meditation and breathing exercises though, lol. Lots of silliness, movement, & opportunities for getting energy out.

My kids (ages 3, 5, 5, and 7) love the Yoga Kids series. We have vol 2 (ABCs) and vol 3 (Silly to Calm). You can get both of those in one boxed set for $13.49: http://www.amazon.com/Gaiam-Kids-Yogakids-Fun-Collection/dp/B000AYELBK/ref=pd_cp_d_1 And here's vol 1, which we don't have yet, but plan to get: http://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Kids-Ages-Marsha-Wenig/dp/B00062DKMM/ref=pd_bxgy_d_text_b