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!

We found it depends on the reader. Our kids all enjoyed them by age 12 or 13 but, for some of them, we used audio books.

We have always taken summers off and have enjoyed the long periods of unscheduled time. As they got older, they got summer jobs.

I need to look for those! Ours are growing to the size of baseball bats - seemingly overnight.

Guidance Manual for the Christian Home School offers some help in that area. Our local college offers testing services to help with career planning and interest/skill evaluation. You might want to look into that.

Thanks. Going to check it out.

Wow, Regena, that's quite a list! We did something similar but nowhere near as organized. We kept maps and a globe out. For the early grades, whenever we read something for school or for fun that mentioned a place, we found it on one of them. If the kids were intrigued, we got some more books on that spot and read about it. When we drove or walked someplace, we talked about direction, landmarks, etc. As they got older, they began to use maps. We got a good local map and had them use it as we drove to lessons, church, anywhere. They loved treasure hunts. Start out with simple ones in your house and yard using directions, pacing, and landmarks. Graduate to map treasure hunts as they are able. Details varied with age, but the basic premise was that if they could give me directions to a place so we got there within a set time limit, they were rewarded with a treasure related to the destination. Ice cream stores were their favorite, but we did bookstores, dollar stores, parks... Weekly Reader has some inexpensive booklets we found useful: http://www.weeklyreader.com/estore/p-937-map-skills-for-today-grade-1.aspx Another resource we liked was The Ultimate Map and Timeline Guide

Website for the biology program is http://www.scienceforhighschool.com/biosamples.shtml We used it last year. Our older 2 used Apologia, but this student learns better when he digs for himself. I also liked that it covered the human body since he is only going to do one year of biology. It was a good choice for him.

We have a citronella collar to discourage barking. It sprays a whiff of citronella when the dog barks. We don't have her wear it regularly because she would be miserable but rarely have to actually use the thing. The first spray was very effective. If she is barking excessively, we just pick it up. :001_smile: http://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/96/6.6.96/barking.html

Anyone have any input on Do Hard Things by Farris? We're thinking of reading it with our 17 yo son. We used one last year called Boys to Men, The Transforming Power of Virtue (Catholic authors) that was excellent and would like to keep the discussion going!

Broccoli with grape jelly. Yuck.