You could bring those vinyl window clings and just put them up when the children are there to play and take them down when you are ready to leave.

Just wanted to offer this tip when you make the soap. I use our food processor grating blade for the bar portion. Then I put all the ingredients in the processor with the chopping blade to make it a good powder consistancy. This works great; all the pieces go in the dishwasher, and there isn't any residual soap taste! Good luck.

Try this website; it came up with two other alternatives. Also, in the past we have stayed in corporate apartments. http://www.extendedstayhotels.com/ http://www.corporatehousing.com/

Peoples' Pharmacy recommends Milk of Magnesia which seems pretty innocuous.

We give an allowance (starting at age 5) to teach how to handle money. Chores are framed as responsibilites that come from being part of the family and living together. Additional money is occasionally earned outside of the home doing neighborhood jobs.

Here is a brief summary from the best, science-based book I've found on the subject of gender differences; Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax. On a personal note, one look at the Halloween Costume section for little girls in the circulars will let you know how society wants them to perceive themselves. I was very disturbed this year by the highly sexualized dress-up for 5 yr. olds. Summary Forget everything you think you know about gender differences in children. Forget "boys are competitive, girls are collaborative." In recent years, scientists have discovered that differences between girls and boys are more profound than anybody guessed. Specifically: The brain develops differently. In girls, the language areas of the brain develop before the areas used for spatial relations and for geometry. In boys, it's the other way around. A curriculum which ignores those differences will produce boys who can't write and girls who think they're "dumb at math." The brain is wired differently. In teenage girls, emotion is processed in the same area of the brain that processes language. So, it's not too difficult for most teenage girls to talk about their emotions. In boys, the brain regions involved in talking are separate from the regions involved in feeling. The hardest question for many boys to answer is: "Tell me how you feel." Girls hear better. The typical teenage girl has a sense of hearing which is significantly better than a teenage boy. That's why daughters so often complain that their fathers are shouting at them. Dad doesn't think he's shouting, but Dad doesn't hear his voice the way his daughter does. These differences matter. Some experts now believe that the neglect of hardwired gender differences in childrearing may increase a son's risk of becoming a reckless street racer, or a daughter's risk of experiencing an unwanted pregnancy. Since the mid-1970's, educators have made a virtue of ignoring gender differences. The assumption was that by teaching girls and boys the same subjects in the same way at the same age, gender gaps in achievement would be eradicated. That approach has failed. Gender gaps in some areas have widened in the past three decades. The pro-portion of girls studying subjects such as physics and computer science has dropped in half. Boys are less likely to study subjects such as foreign languages, history, and music than they were three decades ago. The ironic result of three decades of gender blindness has been an intensifying of gender stereotypes. For parents, Dr. Sax provides concrete guidelines regarding the tough issues of discipline, sex, and drug abuse, and other problem areas. For educators, Dr. Sax offers practical suggestions to help break down gender stereotypes and help all children to reach their potential. For everybody, Dr. Sax offers a provocative analysis of how gender influences every aspect of our lives.

With our history studies, I aim for an hour a day and usually hit it 3-4X a week. With our fun books, we manage about 1-2 hours in the afternoon a couple of days a week. Both my boys, 10 and 7, are good independent readers.

Very boring ones, the same every week - which is why I learned to cook!

Oh, I forgot this - my husband vetoed the idea, but I think it's great. My friend's children get to pick one food they never have to eat. They can choose to change it every so often if they like.

When my boys were small, I used to put everything that was part of the meal on their plate, including dessert, because I didn't want to ever make food a reward or a punishment. We gave them very small portions of everything. Once it was all gone, they could ask for more of anything they decided that they liked. Oh, I guess, except dessert. We had a rule of "one treat a day".

I am posting on these boards to accrue my required 50 posts so that I will be eligible to sell our extra books. Why is this strange? I've never posted anything before.

Just curious, but why are you testing? I know this is a philosphical choice, but seeing the number of children you have - testing just seems like one more box to check off. If you are content that they understand the material, I would relish the discussion and drop the test. Another approach would be to let them take the tests with an open book for the next few chapters so they can see how the questions originate from and relate to the material they've read.

I pass along some of the sagest advice ever received from a vetran HS Mom. Don't argue with your boys, don't argue and don't nag. This is so hard, but really amazing when you commit to it. State whatever the expectation is once and then move on. Arguing simply sets you in opposition with one another and does not allow you to teach. This issue is about control, character choices and proper conflict resolution. At this age, the unwanted behavior comes from heart issues that need addressing beyond consequences gear for "getting him to do what you want". You might consider reading Age of Opportunity by Paul Tripp, as well as, The Young Peacemaker.

Rather than give the dog the whole lump of meat, you could shred it in the food processor and then just put it in a big bowl.

I second the recommendation for mathaletics.com. It has been the catalyst to getting those facts memorized. We use MUS and love the program; however, there is a pure memory factor to early math that all the understanding in the world doesn't address.

Congratulations, we are going to complete ours as well using MUS. The finish line is drawing near for the year, weary and worry not!

I use an Excel Spreadsheet and list out all of the weeks across the top for the year and then numerous rows for the boy's subjects. It took about a week to plan during the summer, but has been fabulous all year. I have HST, but have never been able to figure it out!

I was amazed to see which books remained on the shelves three days into our local library sale. Numerous history books, atlas', scores of reference material, the two entire sets of Great Books of Western Literature. It goes to show what isn't being read as most of our sale comes from donation.

Time to just be family

I find the proof of value is answering the question "what lessons did I keep six months later; is there any lasting change?" On a recommendation, I read this whole book; and there is nothing different in my life today that remains as a result.

We started TOG Y1 in the fall and it has been wonderful. IMHO placing Egypt before creation has the most benefit for Diadactic and Rhetoric level students. My boys (10 & 7) understood that we were "flashing back", but I don't think it was very significant for them. The TOG reasoning is that students make all of these wonderful connections between the culture of Egypt and Joseph - Moses. Well, grammar students aren't at the "connections and links" stage yet. If I were to do it over, I would have started with Creation and done weeks 4-6 and then 1-3.

http://www.howjsay.com/ Best website for audio pronunciation. It's getting me through all of those Ancient Greek and Roman names!

The smell disappears in 10 seconds.

It will be just another part of the discussion when we do human anatomy next year. Your comfort level will be their comfort level.

I wake up early, but get going SLOOOW!