I bought the 1, 2, and 3 mile last year about this time. I did the 2 mile for a week or so then did the 3 mile almost every day for 3 months and lost 16 pounds. Sadly, over the summer and fall I gained almost 10 pounds back :( but I've just recently started up again. I am doing the 3 mile every day...I really like the DVDs; it's the first exercise program I've stuck with for this long. I did also watch what I ate, but I didn't starve myself by far. I'm excited to find the 4 mile because the 3 mile is 45 minutes, so if I can get another mile in for the same time I'm all for it!

My daughter was doing Saxon as well and grew to just hate it. She wasn't having any problems, just hated doing it. And I wasn't even making her do it all; was cutting half the worksheets out and not doing the drills every day. I switched to Singapore and she LOVES it. I'm not certain I love it, but it's working and she's doing well, so for now we'll keep it.

1) My children made the big and little dippers (big pointing to Polaris) with their Heart to Heart cereal this morning) 2) They made a Valentine's mailbox and filled it with Valentine's for each other. 3) My son (5) did as well as my daughter (7) on her math flash cards! These are the things I love so much about homeschooling!

This is a problem some people in our supper club have as well. What they do is most of them have a dining room or kitchen that they have a table in and then they set up a dining table in another room (usually a family or living room). Each couple picks a number to determine which table they'll be sitting at. So far it has worked out nicely. Everyone gets the formal sit down meal, and the smaller groups enable nice conversation and makes it easier to get to know people.

How about Roald Dahl books? Some are easier than other others but my 3rd grade dd has read through all of them and loves them. Good luck!

Two separate responses. First, I went through this with my daughter when she was about 5. It wasn't necessarily that she got to a difficult place, but she just really started fighting against reading. I spoke to a few homeschooling teacher friends of mine and they both suggested to just back off for a few days and read aloud to her. When I went back to it, she was much more receptive. My son, however, is doing blends right now. I found something called Progressive Phonics (http://www.progressivephonics.com) online and they have extensive amounts of free downloads. One of the free downloads are books teaching blends. The way it works is that you introduce a blend, then you read a few pages of short stories including words with those blends. There are words for the parent to read and words for the child to read, so it's not a ton of reading, but it really stresses the words with the blend. My son really likes these stories! And I've noticed that he'll say the blend and then sound out the rest of the word, so he's really getting it. We do regular reading out of an old reader afterwards and he's translating that knowledge to his other reading. Hope this helps some.

We haven't begun a formal writing "curriculum" (my daughter is just 8) but I found a great book to spark an interest in creative writing. I think there are things in there that would interest your son enough to write. The book is called "Games for Writing" by Peggy Kaye and I'm sure you could find it in your library. That's where I found mine, but I ended up buying one because there are so many fun writing assignments.

I seem to remember reading something about the older versions of SOTW being preferred, but I can't find the original post anymore. Can someone tell me if they think this is true and if so, why? TIA, Whitestavern

We recently did the switch. My daughter was working through Saxon 2 this year and just got to the point where she HATED doing math. It was making her hate any part of school. It would take forever. She got it all; wasn't having trouble, but just hated it. And I only ever had her do one side of the practice sheets because she was getting everything right. I like the program, so was hesitant to switch, but felt I had to do something. I looked at Horizons and Singapore and actually bought both so she could see them as well. Don't know what she based her decision on, but she chose Singapore and we went with it. She know LOVES math...will ask to do that in bed at night instead of read. She will teach "math" to her dolls using the books. For this level, I think it gives plenty of practice. If a child was having difficulty, then perhaps you would need to supplement. But Singapore has lots of additional practice books. She basically teaches herself, using the textbook. Once in a while we'll discuss it so I can really confirm that she gets what she's doing. I'm not sure how far we'll go with it, but we are both enjoying it very much right now. I don't use the teacher's guides, but at some point when things get harder, I probably will.

My son, 5, does this all the time! Finally I told him if he wants to comment or ask a question, to just put his hand on my arm. That way when I get to a good stopping point (end of sentence or paragraph) I will let him speak. It's working out well so far.

My son also has trouble with that. I just found a "trick" to teach. Show them that a little b can fit inside a big B. If it can't fit in a big B, it's the d. Hopefully this will help!

About all I have used from your list is the Games for series. I wasn't crazy about the reading one; nothing just ever really applied to what we were doing at any time. I love the math and writing books though. There are a lot of fun games. You might try getting them out of the library (most have them) and reviewing them before you buy. Since she's in school, I'll suggest two fun reading programs I used for both my children (so it doesn't seem like she's really doing school again after school). The first is Simply Phonics and the other is Progressive Phonics. You can google these for more information. I believe both have really good samples you can view to give you an idea. It's been a fun way to teach reading and both my kids are great readers now. SOTW is a lot of fun, especially if you incorporate some of the activities with your reading. Best of luck!

I am currently doing Year 2 with my 2nd grader and Kindergartner. So far so good. You might want to hold off on history until the following year and then start with Year 1 for both of them? I agree that some of the material as you go further is for more mature ages so if you want to start with your first grader next year, I'd do the other one separately.

I really like Burt's Bees Carrot Cream. But Eucerin is good and Clinique and I know people who really like Cetaphil??

My 7 year old daughter loves all the Roald Dahl books, and I could see a boy loving them as much as a girl. What about the Encyclopedia Brown series too? Other than that, we're strictly girly stuff here! Whitestavern