I've tried several, but I just need something simple to implement and simple for dc to understand. An overview of what we do: I have a list of priority chores that I like to have done each day/week. Realizing I/we can't do it all, I've just chosen areas that for my own sanity I need to be clean and presentable. Those chores I give to the dc and we rotate each month. Each dc has that specific/those specific chores for the entire month. I used to print sheets for each dc but it gets tedious. I know, I'm lazy. Anybody has a system that really works? My dc seem to "forget" what their chores are w/out a chart, but I'm tired of printing out 5 different charts plus a MAIN chore chart so everyone can see what everyone else is doing! TIA for any tips. Oh, and how do you handle a dc who consistently doesn't get his/her chores done ON TIME and WELL DONE. I have one dc who is always doing what my mom called a half-"donkey" (you know the 3 ltr word that is supposed to go there!) job and need constant reminders to do it.

serve w/ Bernaise sauce (our favorite). Very yummy. We've also baked salmon with lemon and herbs and served w/a lemon/dill sauce. Dh loves bbq salmon (not my fave) and then, of course, here in the MD/PA area, Old Bay seasoning is a favorite for most seafood.

to take about a week completely off except for read-alouds, ind. reading and some workbook type stuff they can do on their own (I'm due beg. of April w/ #7)). Week 2 will be light (just basics) and then hopefully week 3 will be back to normal. Unfortunately I feel we can't take too much time completely off b/c we must get in those blasted 180 days per PA regs (by June 30). My midwife always suggests that I take a week completely off to adjust to the new baby's schedule and simply recuperating. Even w/ a normal, uncomplicated delivery your body needs that time to rest. Good luck to you!

As previously mentioned, there is just so much time in the day and I'd rather my dc spend it doing something that will be beneficial to them later. Unless they plan to go on and be historians (which would be fine with me!) or history teachers, I can't see the point. OR, they land a spot on Jeapardy or some other quiz show! Memory work is fine, but I just don't see they "why" to memorizing the Pharaohs (sorry SWB!) except to say you did! Just my humble 2 cents!

yes, they are 2 VERY different curriculums. For us, MOH took the top position only b/c the smaller lessons/bite size pieces were easier to "digest" for my 2nd and 4th graders. My 6th grader enjoyed listening to the audios of DW as did I. I often used DW activity suggestions for my 4th and 6th grader to liven things up a bit. It's not hard to combine since her Yahoo group has the 2 curriculums "jived". For a 6th grader, I would say try Diana's curriculum exclusively for a while to see how the "fit" is w/ your dc. It is a bit tedious to try and do both or pick and choose. Diana's material is certainly not too intimidating for a 6th grader. Having not looked at MOH 2 yet, I can't really give an opinion, but I do know that Diana has just finished revising her RRR books.

will hopefully deliever this baby at home as well. My first was a c-section (unnecessary but I was inexperienced), next 3 at home, 5th was another c b/c he just wasn't decending (bad position) and I was just pooped. My choice for that c-sec. 6th was another planned homebirth, but I gave up and wanted an epidural. Vag. birth, but in the hospital. My midwife and I are talking about how we can prevent another hospital birth. I REALLY don't want to go to the hosp. again. My suggestions: Get a good midwife. Read lots of books (Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way, and google natural childbirth for other suggestions). Take a course in Natural Childbirth (Bradley method). It is a 12 week course. Find yourself a doula you are comfortable with. Essential if you ask me for first time homebirthers. She's there just for you, to help you through labor and delivery. Try renting a birth/labor tub. Even if you don't want to deliver in the water, it's GREAT for easing labor pain. I'm very anti-hospital for births. My last 2 born in the hosp. was just horrible for me and I regret giving up and going. My midwife was certain if I had just persevered both could have been home births. My 1st home birth and first vag. delivery was a 9lb. 10oz. baby and pushing took more than 4 hours. Of course, I was in my 20's then...not my late 30's! Anyway, good luck and email me if you have any questions or need a midwife reference. My midwife knows midwives all around the country.

Change is good!

I was just washing a load of whites (underwear, dirty socks, stained white shirts, etc.) and thought, "Geesh, I hate washing whites!". Funny time for this post to be here! I also hate cleaning the bathroom (toilet esp...4 boys, each doesn't have great aim, you get the picture!) so I have dd11 do it. She doesn't mind. Hmmm...DISHES would be my LEAST favorite of all. No dishwasher and so the older 3 kids alternate months w/ dh doing them on the weekends. Heehee. I only have to wash about a sinkful a week! Oh, dusting would rank pretty high up there as well.

Planning on going light tomorrow since dh is off for MLK's bday. Any resources for a quick study on MLK that you know of online? Library is closed and I did not prepare in advance :( TIA

A friend's 5yo has Eczema and her dr. told her to switch her to all organic dairy. She says it has helped tremendously. You might try switching to organic dairy and see if it has an effect on the baby. I'm guessing you are nursing? Not sure if it would have the same effect on a nursing baby.

Jessica...thanks so much for all the cool websites!

You can email me...I think I'm set up to receive emails from list members. If not, just let me know on board. THanks so much!

It's creation-based, but I suppose you could pick and choose your resources if you don't want creation-based. Here is the link: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/dinosaurs.php Okay, I don't know if that linked or not, but copy/paste if not. It's a short 8day study and I guess you could add as much as you wanted. HTH and look below at my post about the dino unit study in case anyone answers!

I did find one unit study online which looks great and includes a lapbook. Anybody here ever done a dino unit study or just a dino study? Any resources you could recommend online or off? I'd prefer Creation-based, but secular is okay b/c I can edit. TIA

We are using her material w/ MOH this year and dd11 really enjoys DW audios and activity suggestions. MOH works better for my youngers, but Diana's material is a bit more "meaty" for the Ancients I think. She has a yahoo group (Sharing D Waring).

Gee mom, why do they have to play all this old timey music? I just stopped, mid-bite and stared at her and said..."Old? This isn't old! I grew up listening to this music!" And she repeated, "Yes, like I said, old timey music!". Wow, I never stopped to think but that music is to her like my mom's old 50's music was to me! Love Shack, Push It, Ghostbusters, I Wanna Dance W/Somebody, etc...who woulda thunk it would be called "old timey" music! Do you feel old?

people type it in the search engine. Include brand name, size, condition (NWT if new with tags, etc.) and a good photo of the outfits. You will probably get a better auction audience if you sell small "lots" of clothes instead of individually. People appreciate getting a better "bang for their buck" as far as S/H is concerned. Large lots of clothes turn me off only b/c I may or may not need all they are offering. BUT, I love auctions for 3 or 4 outfits at a time. Combine similar outfits of ones that can be mixed and matched. Show photos of the different possibilities. If you just have dresses, individual auctions for each one might be okay. Packaging: I always packaged my clothes in a Priority Mail padded mailer with the clothes wrapped in tissue paper and sometimes included a dryer sheet to make them smell nice :)

The Case for Faith (it will really get you thinking!), The Case for Christ and I think he has one called the Case for A Creator although I'm not positive. It's new. Just search your library for Lee Strobel or Amazon or Barnes and Noble is having that 25% off sale now until the end of the wekk :) Also recommend another Josh McDowell book called More Than A Carpenter. AND, I love Max Lucado as well. Good luck with your searching...I was once where you are and it is an exciting place to be, really. Oh, and I found that simply reading the Bible was a good place to begin! Check out Answers in Genesis website for other resources and recommendations for books to aid your search!

A bit of history...got this computer about 5 years ago (it's a Dell). 2 years later it caught a virus and was basically unusable. We kept it and used the computers our cyber school loaned us. Since then, dh had a computer guru friend of his wipe out the hard drive, clean it basically and reboot all the programs. Basically, we had a new computer. For a months of so, it was fine. Now, it takes forever to boot up, forever to get on Internet (we have cable ISP so it shouldn't/never did take long to load pages), programs crash, I can't open files, etc. We have a current virus protection and I've run scans just to be sure...everything is A-ok. I've run Spyware programs, etc. Any ideas as to what is going on? Need more memory? I don't know. Any help is appreciated. TIA

Check w/ your local district. In PA, the districts are obligated to loan any and all curricula to hsers to use for the year...FREE. Also, check sales boards, eBay, library sales and utilize your local library to its fullest. Our library has many writing helps, math textbooks, etc. See if your local homeschool groups are having any sales (usually in summer). Ours had a homeschool yard sale and I got many texts for under $5 last year. Also, as said before, post WTB ads and explain you need them for a budget price...many are willing to part w/ books cheap to make room for new curricula.

He's an albino (red eyes and pale fur) and very, very active. After the initial period of getting to know each other, ds is able to hold and pet the little guy with no problems. Easy to care for, maintain and fun to watch. We like to put him in one of those plastic balls and let him run around the living room. Dd2 goes crazy watching him. So funny. Anyway, I think a hamster is a great pet for a young child (maybe 8 and up). Buy one as young as you can b/c they don't live long past 2 years.

My dd11 does R&S5 and also struggles in writing. She does R&S 3 days/wk and some sort of writing 5 days. On the days she does R&S she also does an exercise in Ancient History Based WRiting Lessons. They are rel. short. The other 2 days/wk we do letter writing to friends/relatives and some other fun writing act. We're trying to start up a family newsletter written almost entirely by the kids. In answer to your question, I don't think that taking some time off would hurt him, but perhaps just splitting your week up btwn writing and grammar? Maybe do 2 days grammar and 3 writing?

My dd11 has been asking to do Spanish for some time. Since the goal w/ Latin isn't actual conversation, I've decided to start her and the other dc on Spanish now. My dh had 2 years of Latin in hs and did well with it (even w/out any background). We have Prima Latina and LC but I've been told my youngers are even a bit old for PL. We might use LC in a year or so, but I think (and this is my my own humble, non-expert, non-experienced opinion) Latin can wait until hs. Many here would disagree :)

and sooooo frustrated! It took me half dozen attempts to even get to checkout (site froze up). When I did it took another half dozen attempts to get the coupon code entered into my basket. Well, after some more challenges, I was able to complete my order. I ordered Ebooks. I was able to download 2, but the other, although the site says it is available, will not download. I keep getting a server error. I've emailed the company my frustrations and hopefully will get this resolved. Keep trying (make sure you have an account first) and if you can't get it to work, email the company about your problems. Let them know what books you want to order and explain you can't get the coupon code to work. Hopefully they will honor the sale price tomorrow since you notified them tonight, KWIM?

what I've come to realize is he will have another opportunity to read/have read-aloud these great historical fiction books that accompany whatever time period he is studying now. We are doing Ancients. My ds6 doesn't want anything to do with History and that's okay...for now! Ds8 will do History with us but can't tolerate the read-alouds. We are listening to the Cat of Bubastes on audio now and while dd11 and ds9 are just riveted to the tape, ds8 could care less! Ah well. I figure in another 3 years, when we revisit Ancients he will either a) be old enough to read the books himself or b)be willing to have them read to him. AND, if not...perhaps History and historical fiction just isn't his "genre" of choice (oh blaspheme! LOL!). This kid has a logical, mathematical brain. Perhaps your dc will come around in a few years and if not I doubt he/she will be scarred for life if he/she doesn't read this book or that one. I know...I shudder at the thought as well, LOL!