I'm sure they are here somewhere, but I can't find rules for posting. I couldn't get a search to work, so mistakenly thought all the old posts were deleted. I reposted thinking this was a fresh start. Could someone please point me to the new rules? We have over 20 years of stuff to clean out!

To Mom_of_Eight Thanks for the reply and link!

We wash ours as others have described - and also toss them if they had meat in them. In nice weather, we hang them outside on the line to dry. :-) Haven't tried this, but we have a friend who washes them in her washer with kitchen towels and cloths.

Thanks. We have too much stuff in ours. I'll check this out.

Thanks! We studied ancient Greece last year, and our group reenacted an ancient Olympics.

Ours would not have been able to on first reading. We have one child who would have persisted until she got it or asked for help. The others probably would have just moved on...

We take weekends off. I usually have some planning to do, and older kids might have unfinished work from the previous week, but we plan for weekends to be free. Highly recommend it! We went to a home school seminar many years ago with Gayle Graham. She suggested picking broad goals each year for each member of the family in four areas. I don't remember her exact word choice, but they are: academic, practical (life skills), physical, and spiritual (or character). My husband and I plan time together in the summer to discern these for each person in the family, and it has been a big help to us. E.g., Child A might have these goals: academic - math, practical - doing laundry, physical- swimming, and character - responsibility. These broad goals helped with detailed planning, adjusting schedule when life happened (if only one subject can be covered that day, it should probably be math), and with staying calm about problems we saw in other areas (if Child A tripped over her feet in every family ball game, we could remember we were working on swimming that year.) :-)

I would recommend checking colleges she is interested in to see what their requirements and suggestions are for an audiology/speech major. One suggestion that jumps to my mind is an advanced biology course in human anatomy.

I've had good experiences here over the past 4 or 5 years and hope to be posting some of our 16 years worth of stuff here soon!

Getting there to shop with you!

Our children and my husband love being read to, but I prefer reading something for myself most of the time. Guess who does the reading aloud around here. :-)

Thanks for all the replies. Daughter considering it is looking at English speaking countries right now, specifically Scotland (St. Andrews), Wales (Aberystwyth - which I don't even know how to pronounce!) and some in Australia. She is a physics major and is trying to make sure she can keep up with her required classes while abroad. She has a tuition scholarship we would like to retain!

I know this is a bit beyond homeschool, but this daughter was homeschooled! :-) She is considering studying a semester or even a year abroad in college. Anyone have any experience with this recently?

We also used Home Training Tools and are happy. They were very helpful with selection. On a vaguely related note, we had way better luck with dissection specimens from Carolina Biological Supply.

Just plain fruit juice works well. We also like plain or vanilla yogurt mixed with fruit - especially berries. Another favorite is mashed,ripe bananas with either blueberries or mini chocolate chips mixed in. We make this one a lot as we always seem to have overripe bananas!