This time of year is the worst because you can still wear both warm and cold weather clothes. I think we're in for HOT weather from here on out so after I finish putting up this week's clothes the cold-weather stuff will be hanging until fall! :)

all those "guests" are not actually people. Most of them are web-bots out fishing for info for google and other search engines...

We stream netflix through our ps3 which is also a DVD & BluRay player. We have DirecTV but hardly EVER watch it. Usually only if the weather is bad and then it'll go out if it gets REALLY bad, so DH has installed a new set of antennas that get us through even the worst storms with weather coverage! But for daily viewing, Netflix it is! :D

I don't see any Shakespeare! :)

Alpha Omega is affiliated with Switched on Schoolhouse (SOS) which is all on the computer. Not sure if it's online, or DVD(?) We use the LA materials from K12 and really enjoy them. They offer online classes for upper middle (I think 6th for lit/LA but history & science may be online for lower grades--not really sure)... but it is an internet based charter school so it's basically online public school at home. Have her check with her state, some of them cover all books and materials! (not in AL, unfortunately! :() I just ordered K12's LA5 today as we'll be finishing up the LA4 course in a week or two! :D DS has REALLY enjoyed it this year so we're sticking with it! :) HTH! :)

You can see the programs we dabble with in my siggie. Hands down the best math for DS3 (will be four in August) is Singapore Essentials K. He loves it! He also *really* likes playing with the cuisennaire rods for Miquon but we're not fully implementing the Miquon program with him yet. It looks GREAT for the K-1st age group though. :)

Interesting!!!!! I'm trying to get as much mileage as possible out of our workbooks so I will either pull the pages out if they're perforated and put them individually in page protectors in a 3 ring binder or I use 2 page protectors to protect 4 pages at a time in whatever workbook we're working in. That's plenty for my littles for right now but my littlest likes to write on the opposite page while my middle-man is doing his schoolwork so I try to put page protectors on all the pages we'll be working on that day and maybe the next. Something that has been a huge help to us... we were using dry erase markers but my ds is a lefty and kept erasing his work as he was writing. We decided to try his dry erase crayons and those were the ticket! The crayon is just waxy enough not to smear or erase, but still comes off cleanly when we erase it with a dry erase(er). :) Maybe that can help someone else too! :D

I think that says a LOT about a curriculum, honestly! I was having an internal debacle about Language Arts and just realized today that what we've been using has really worked well for us. The part he didn't like was the writing and I think he'd be that way with ANY program. All the other components were SPOT ON so I placed our order for K12's LA5 earlier today!!! :D I also ordered the 5A materials for Singapore since we'll be finishing up 4B in a couple weeks. We finished SOTW2 last week and will continue with SOTW3 (sitting on my shelf) after we take a short hiatus to complete our timeline work from the very beginning since we haven't been keeping up with a timeline (and listen to the audio CDs up to through the end of SOTW2 since we just got them...) I'd just like to see what other people use and continually go back to... :)

Here are the ones we used. I liked the grid paper w/ multiplication facts for my ds--the grids help him keep his problems in line so he wouldn't make as many mistakes. :) http://donnayoung.org/math/math-paper.htm

I printed out some pages from http://www.donnayoung.org that had the mult. tables around the outside edge, like a border. I let ds (then 9) use them until he got them. Now at 10 he knows them forwards & backwards! :D It was a little harder to use than just looking at a table (because you had to read through the tables to find the one you're looking for) so I think it actually helped entice him to just memorize the dang things instead of having to read through and find them everytime. ;) See if you can find something like that! :)

I think it could easily take up a full calendar year if you let it. It's a lot for a 9 month "school year". We go through the schoolyear and do the reading (we love the audio books too--IMO they're a must-have unless you can pronounce all those crazy names efficiently yourself!). As we read a chapter a week we do the accompanying narration (we use notebooking pages), mapwork & we usually do an outline using a non-fiction book or encyclopedia, etc. During the summer, we're going to go back and do a timeline from the begining of time as we listen to the audiobooks only. So far we've done up to SOTW2 (completed it 2 weeks ago) and we're going to do this before moving into SOTW3 then we'll just add timeline into our weekly activities. HTH! :)

They can also be induced by the sun. Usually my first good dose of sunshine of the year leaves me with a canker sore and/or fever blister. :( My mom's the same way!

You might really enjoy the Classics for Young Readers books that K12 uses. You can get them independently through http://www.christianbook.com, here: Volumes 1 & 2 These have great literature selections for each grade, 1-8. I'm about to buy the box set of readers for my crew because we've enjoyed the ones my ds is using for 4th grade so much that we wanted to continue using them until we complete the series. I'm even going to have ds(10) go back and read the 2nd & 3rd grade stories to his brother & sister, just for fluency practice & exposure for all. It's just a great, leveled, collection of children's lit I want to have available to my kids! :)

Horrific! Praying for the families affected tonight.

When's the Wedding? :)

I don't think Jefferson County Schools will go tomorrow; there will be a select few of them that do not, that is certain. I imagine Birmingham City Schools will be in session. There was damage near Metro B'ham, but I think it was Fultondale/Pratt City areas. Do those cities have school systems? I'm not familiar with those areas. HTH!

:grouphug: My older son's father died at 28, when DS was 8, so I can sort of sympathize. I'll be praying for you and your sons.

Thank you! :)

Praying for ALL the families affected by these storms. 3 of our neighbors had their homes destroyed this morning. They are all going to be total losses (this was in the 5:30am set of storms). Praise God we slid right between the two huge tornadic lines in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham this afternoon. We're in McCalla, directly between T'town & B'ham. So many of my family and friends have been affected tragically by these events. Please pray for them! :grouphug: Thanks all!

We used K12 this year for LA4 and I have come to LOVE their literature selections so much that I'm buying the box set of readers for grades 1-8 so DS(10) can continue using them and also, my littles will get to use them too! :) I found them sold independently through http://www.christianbook.com Maybe look into these? You can also find the books and teacher and student guides on amazon. Hope this helps! :)

We're using Singapore Essentials K, Miquon Orange & Red, and MEP Reception. MEP is probably the least complicated and easiest to "teach", my ds prefers Singapore Essentials and really just plays with the C-rods rather than using the Miquon Lab sheets at this point.

This website has some cute felt board characters that you could use on a feltboard, or what we did is magnetize the characters and they work well on our magnetic white board. You an also put them on Popsicle sticks and make puppets out of them! :D

I created an album with some of the pre-k activities we enjoy. I think it will be helpful!!! :D

Oh we have SO much fun with preschool stuff!!! :) We love doing the worksheets from ‎http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/ Her pre-k curriculum is wonderful!!! :) We do alot with my littles but ONLY because they have been wanting to "do school" since they could talk, since big brother does school everyday. I've had to like, explain that it's saturday or sunday, and we needed a break! :D For DS(3.5--turns 4 in August), he uses ETC (just started B last week) and plays around with Miquon and the C-rods. He also LOVES Singapore Essentials K Math. Other than that we have lots of learning board activities and he loves online programs like http://www.starfall.com (LOVES the MORE Starfall subscription!) & http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/ Hope this gives you somewhere to start if you want to do something with him. My ds also loved the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD for early phonics--and now he likes the LF Word Factory DVD. My middle guy is also slow with speech development but he is making huge strides. He also hasn't napped since he was 11months old so I totally hear ya on the highstrung! He sometimes will wake at 8 and stay up till 11pm--NON-STOP. I've just learned I HAVE to keep him busy or otherwise occupied, or he gets frustrated and will act out. He's relatively a mellow fellow though, so long as he has something to do. :)

here too. I think the issue is being worked on. :)