My 6 modd has had a persistent rash since we began using cloth diapers. At times it has cleared up some, but for no more than a day at a time and then it is back. It clears up completely when I switch to disposable over 1-2 days. I am using Charlie's soap to wash the Bum Genius pocket diapers. Every few washes I add some oxyclean to kill bacteria. There is not a difference in the rash whether I have used the oxyclean or not. Please help! I want to make these cloth diapers work, but can't stand that she always has the rash which sometimes gets raw and weepy which I really don't like. Thanks ahead of time!

Hi! Our umbrella school has changed to the TerraNova 3rd Ed test this year from the Stanford Achievement Test. Where can I find comparison information about these tests or does anyone know anything about the Terra Nova test? I believe we used the Terra Nova when I taught public school and I didn't believe that it was a good test. How does it compare to other tests? I have been thinking about testing my kids with ITSB on my own anyway, but just haven't taken the time to find out what i need to do to go about it. I am wondering if it is worth us taking the time to take the Terra Nova test with the umbrella school. It is optional for their grade levels this year. I appreciate any information you have! Thanks!

Maybe I should post this onto the curriculum board. Switching now. Thanks!

Hi! Our umbrella school has changed to the TerraNova 3rd Ed test this year from the Stanford Achievement Test. Where can I find comparison information about these tests or does anyone know anything about the Terra Nova test? I believe we used the Terra Nova when I taught public school and I didn't believe that it was a good test. How does it compare to other tests? I have been thinking about testing my kids with ITSB on my own anyway, but just haven't taken the time to find out what i need to do to go about it. I am wondering if it is worth us taking the time to take the Terra Nova test with the umbrella school. It is optional for their grade levels this year. I appreciate any information you have! Thanks!

I'm sorry. Did I understand madcharity to say that being in prison was "nothing to hide"? I usually enjoy mostly lurking on these boards, but I can't get past this one. Thanks for clearing this up, if I am misunderstanding.

A couple of ideas . . . baked potatoes or baked beans.

Oops. This sentence "I want them to be joyful, curious people and my anxious" should read "I want them to be joyful, curious people and my anxiety about planning and curriculum was not fostering that."

I don't know if this will help or not, but I could relate to so much of your post that I felt compelled to respond. I have a 5th and 2nd grader this year, and I would say that for the first 3 years of homeschooling I had a high level of anxiety about it like you. I obsessed over curriculum and planning every evening as well to the exclusion of my poor husband! Actually, as I obsessed I even would tell other people that I enjoyed all of the preparation and planning. In some ways I did, but in other ways it wasn't very healthy or balanced. After the anxiety kind of coming to a crisis point, I realized that a lot of my anxious planning was not serving us well. It made me so uptight about doing what I had planned that the kids and I were not enjoying it and growing in it like I wished. I want them to be joyful, curious people and my anxious. Plus, I just remember telling myself and my husband "Normal people do not have curriculum-shopping as a hobby. They do something that is considered fun and enjoyable." While I don't think I always have to be like everyone else, I think there was a lot of wisdom in looking at it this way for me. I began to force myself to take a Sabbath each week from looking at curriculum and preparing, and look only until I found what I felt like we needed and could REALISTICALLY accomplish. The other thing that I think helped, which may or may not be an option for you, is that my kids attend a 2-day/week tutorial now that covers Science, History, Latin, Art and some Language Arts. In some ways that is a lot of pressure off of me. I hope this helps you to not be so anxious, because even though you are probably enjoying some facets of homeschooling the anxiety can be taxing and counterproductive.

I used to have the Rightstart Math games book! It would be perfect. I might still be able to borrow it from a friend. Great idea. Thanks!

My daughter needs some serious time for concentrating on her math work. We haven't finished her third grade work (Math Mammoth), plus she would like to get ahead some to be where the other kids in her tutorial are. As long as I feel like she is ready for that I am fine with it. So, next week when my other child is in another all day camp I have decided that she and I are going to do "math camp". Mainly I plan on us working through several lessons each day. We enjoy being together and she especially will enjoy the one on one time, so I think it will be fine, but it would still be nice to have some fun surprises planned to keep it interesting. I have thought about planning a couple of different math games to take a break and play and taking our things to Starbucks or Panera to work for a couple of the afternoons. If you have any other ideas of ideas for our math camp, I would love to hear them! This board always has such fun and creative suggestions. Thanks!

My fourth grade daughter reads a ton, but I think she reads so quickly that I am afraid she misses a lot of important details. I had suspected this for awhile, but she has started taking little online quizzes on some of her books and isn't doing that great. Any ideas as to how we should go about working on this? We have never had a formal reading program. She basically just reads on her own. Thanks so much. I can research programs or books on my own, I am just not sure where to start with this one. Amy

Hi! My dd will be in 5th grade next year and I feel like her writing needs to be taken up a notch. THis will not come naturally to her, so I am looking for a program that will teach her explicitly how to do it. In looking at IEW I am considering ordering the Ancient History Based Writing because it will correlate with our history studies for next year. My question is, do I need to order the TWSS DVD's for myself to be able to teach the program or do I just need the teacher's guide that accompanies the Ancient History writing book. I have heard that the yahoo group is helpful as well, so I will check that out. Thanks so much!

I am looking at this program for next year. I will order the TWSS DVD's for myself. THen I would like for my 5th grade daughter to use the Ancient History Theme Based Writings. I also like the idea of her hearing Mr. Pudewa teach the lessons on DVD. My question is will the SWI DVD's accompany the Ancient History Writings program or not? Thanks so much. From the website the program is a little difficult to understand, though I love the concepts it teaches and feel like it is exactly what she needs. Thanks again!

I will second the wooden blocks especially for a boy. We got them when my son was 2 yrs old. He is almost 8 yrs old now, and those blocks have been used for something almost every day in between!

I am ordering CD's to go in Easter baskets. We have a couple of the OT sets and Acts of the Apostles. Do your kids have any favorites of all of the CD sets that you would recommend? So far, all that we have listened to have been hits, but just thought I would ask to hear if there were any standouts. Thanks!

If you are visiting Jamestown, you have to read Blood on the River. Even if you aren't visiting Jamestown, it is a great book, especially for boys. I first saw it recommended in a Veritas Press catalog.

Hi! We are heading to the Bahamas next week and staying at the Atlantis resort. We are super excited about the warm weather and just relaxing. A couple of questions I was wondering if anyone could answer . . . I see lots of activities on the website, swimming with sharks (in a tank, I assume) and dolphins, waterpark, etc. but I am not sure which of these activities cost extra and which are part of your stay. We are interested in the "free" activities. Our budget is stretched enough just getting down there! How do I find out what we can do without extra cost? Food? Great places to eat? Are there stores to buy small meals? Can I pack some things in our bags or is that a problem with customs? Anything else we need to know? It seems like we will mostly be in the resort, and not see much else of the Bahamas. Is it safe to explore outside of the resort? Any interesting local attractions? One more question . . . The highs there next week are in the 80's. Is that warm enough to swim comfortably? I know my kids will swim no matter what, but it still sounds a little chilly for swimming to me. Thanks so much!

Thank you so much for all of your encouragement!! It really means so much. I will remind myself of your words each time I start to worry. Sometimes I think it is just the early pregnancy hormones that are making me worry more than anything. My husband hasn't been thinking any of these things at all. I think the first trimester yucky feelings can make me feel less enthusiastic about just about anything. Thanks again for your kind words of encouragement!

Hi! I mostly just visit here, but whenever I have something important to ask this is where I come! I hope that is okay with those of you who are regulars. Our kids will be 8 and 10 this summer, and we recently found out we are expecting! We have talked and prayed about this forever, so in one sense I know it is the right thing, but now in another sense that I didn't expect, I am having a lot of worries about how this is going to change our family. How are the kids going to react when they find out? Once the baby is here, will they enjoy it or struggle with how it changes our lives? I am 38 now, so the risks of having a child with special needs are higher, what if, what if, what if?? I just need some encouragement that this is going to be okay. I know this is a little bit of an unconventional way to grow your family, but I also know there are lots of others who have BTDT. I also wouldn't mind hearing things that you honestly struggled with in adding another child to your family when your kids were older. I think it will help me feel more prepared. Thanks so much!!

On Netflix I see Lewis and Clark: Great Journey West by Nat'l Geographic and Lewis and Clark: The Journey. Is one much better than the other in anyone's opinion? The ratings are virtually identical on the site, but I trust the hive opinion much more! I will be watching with my husband and our two children, ages 7 and 9. Thanks so much!

In addition to what has been said, I would also say, you don't have to wait to do testing to give yourself a realistic picture of where your child falls in comparison to other students. The Iowa Test of Basic Skills is a test used by many college prep private schools. There are definitely others that know more about testing, but I believe when reporting scores they give you a comparison with your student and other private school students taking the test, not just an across the board public school comparison.

Hi! I am interested in forming a math counts group at our homeschool tutorial. I am aware that homeschoolers can now only compete as individuals, but my question is primarily about ages. Our tutorial only goes through grade 6, and I noticed that the program is actually for grades 6-8. My questions are, do kids younger than grade 6 ever participate? And also, could we form a group of 3rd-6th graders that just meets regularly for math enrichment using math counts materials, but not be competitive? Of course, I know we could, but has anyone else ever done that? This is new territory for me, so I really appreciate the responses of anyone who has been involved in this program before. Thanks so much!

We love homeschooling because we can choose curriculum for our children that we think they will learn the most from; because of all the free time the kids still have to play, be creative and read; and because it allows us to stay more connected as a family. In other words, our lives aren't revolving around a school schedule or what everyone else at school is doing. I don't know if any of these reasons are similar to yours or not, but I thought it might help to remind you of why you decided to go this route. For us, having a two-day a week tutorial has been our saving grace. The kids and I enjoy our three days at home together, but then they enjoy being at school with the other kids on the other days. I also enjoy the fact that they are accountable to someone else on those days other than me. I know that not all areas have something like that available, but it might be worth seeking out. I know for me, when I see my children having time to pursue something they are really interested in, even when it just seems like "play", I am happy that we have made this decision, because I feel like they are realizing who they really are at an earlier age than I ever did because I was so busy watching what everyone else was doing around me at school. Hope that helps! And don't worry, bumps along the road are normal and sometimes it takes years to really hit your groove. Blessings!

Thank you, thank you for this post! My dh is a physician and way too often in hsing circles I feel like his work is underappreciated. He doesn't make an outrageous income compared to many doctors, because his speciality is not procedure dependent. He is consulted and uses the knowledge that he gained during his years of training in med school, residency and fellowship to make a recommendation of treatment. Years that our income was quite a bit less than most people we know, by the way. Most often his diagnosis does not require an expensive procedure for which he would be reimbursed greatly, but he does it because he really does care about his patients and about finding ways to relieve suffering in their lives. His practice driven by his faith and yet, so many times in the circles we are in, he is seen as the enemy for recommending vaccines or being a part of a profession whose knowledge base is quickly disregarded when people don't like what they hear or feel they aren't getting the right amount of attention. I know there are uncaring physicians out there, but I would hope that homeschoolers who love learning would respect the knowledge of a professional who has devoted themselves to a discipline, like medicine, and actually realize that they do know what they are talking about more so than those of us who have not received the same training. Internet research does not count as an education! I have needed to say that for a long time! Thanks!

I second the suggestion of Silence, and I will add All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot or something by Wodehouse for humor. Happy reading!