Late to the party today! Selkie, I am glad you all are safe! Sounds like a scary storm! Ds is at the pool and going home with a friend this afternoon. I've done a pile of deskwork! Dd and I are headed out to run errands and go to her orthodontist appt. Dinner is taco salad.

Congratulations!!

Woohoo! Dh sold my van. He got a little less than I wanted for it, but enough to pay a medical bill that is looming. Thankful! Also the immigrant family who bought it really need a vehicle with enough seat belts and space for all their littles. I hope it will be a blessing to them!

Good morning! Not much tackiling here. Church - be early Relax in the afternoon Go to SIL's for dinner. Remember to take nephew's birthday card! Watch the new NG show about the Apollo Missions on PBS, if we get home early enough.

Got my nephew a birthday card while waiting for the kids to arrive. Kids are clean and fed and have shared camp stories. They had a great time! As far as I can tell, the only thing missing is ds' nalgene water bottle. Laundry is running. Dinner is done and the kitchen tidied. Dh is playing Chris Rice hymn arrangements on the piano - lovely. Next up: Listen to Close Reads? Or just read.

Cleaned both bathrooms, including washing the shower curtain liner. Quick trip to Walmart. Put gas in dh's car. He is forever letting it get down very low. As in 0.20 gallon. Why?! Moved laundry Cleaned out my dilapidated recipe folder and refiled the keepers in new folder. Reset the table for dinner Snack! Next up: AHG stuff Chop veggies and cook rice Tidy up my school things and staging area. Check on church clothes for me and the kids. Do not want any surprises tomorrow morning because we need to be early.

Budget Fresh Start was less onerous than I expected. Hardest part is getting dh to pay attention to details and make decisions. On to ordinary Saturday chores...

I love VBS! I am glad you had a good week! It is exhausting! The last few years I have been teaching K or 1st and they are fun, but squirrely. Fun to have my kids teaching and helping.

Good morning! My kids come from from camp this afternoon and I am glad. I have missed them! But I am hoping to get a couple of things done before then. Fresh Start on YNAB. Get new budget set up. Clean bathrooms Ask Dh to vacuum. Finish white laundry that soaked overnight. Pick up kids! Dinner is chx stir fry and potstickers.

Jean, I 'm right there with you on giving up, temporarily, unsnarling a financial thing. I have totally messed up our budget and I think I'm going to have to start over. My account totals in YNAB are correct and match the bank, but the budget is whacked and I cannot figure it out. Going to try a fresh start tomorrow morning. I have all the information that I need to do it, I think. For now, time to grill and enjoy the evening. Dh is still not home from playing golf with church friends.

I've been out and around. Happy to be home in the AC now. Will do outside things like walk the dog and grill dinner in and hour or two when it is a bit cooler. Done (in addition to things on my morning list) Gas in my car. Called dental insurance and the orthodontist to sort out a claim error. LM because the ortho isn't open today. Unloaded groceries Double checked entries for the next two swim meets Put veggies in marinade and got chx out of the fridge for grilling later. To do: Drink more water. Feeling a headache coming on. Laundry More deskwork - I made some mistakes this morning bc YNAB isn't right. Sigh. An excellent bookeeper I am not! But there is some satisfaction in figuring things out and having everything correct. Read and relax.

Good morning! Well, sort of. I just discovered that we have no coffee and that dh left the breakfast sausage on the counter all night (instead of putting it into the fridge). Argh. Deskwork - bills and budget Early lunch with mom. Grocery trip for a few things Walk the dog Work on school stuff? Last full day of peace and quiet! Kids get back from camp tomorrow afternoon. Dinner is grilled chx and veggies. Make zucchini bread? We got a couple huge ones in our box this week.

Dh and I had a really lovely dinner at a local chef-y, foodie restaurant. Great food, great service and a leisurely paced meal in an attractive, comfortable place. Not at all loud and not over air conditioned. One of the nicest dates we've ever had.

I just started back at the beginning!

Welcome to the Hive and to homeschooling! I second taking a step back, thinking through your goals and motives, researching various home education philosophies and approaches. Read! Read here and find a few books. The Well Trained Mind is a good place to start. Also Susan Shaeffer Macaulay's For the Children's Sake and a more recent book, Teaching From Rest by Sarah Mackenzie. Cathy Duffy's books, as pp have said, are great basic introduction. When getting down to details of curriculum, choose math and language arts (composition, grammar, spelling, literature) first. Then do content subjects like science and history. Have fun with content areas and enjoy being homeschoolers - let your kids pursue their interests! Ask the what they want to study! Don't worry if you make a mistake (or three) and choose something that doesn't work well. We've all btdt. Seconding My Father's World if you're going to choose a boxed set. Way better that the ones you've mentioned in a host of ways, imo. But know that kids are rarely exactly "on grade level" in all areas, so be prepared for it to be a poor fit in some skill areas. Do placement tests for math. A caution: No matter how bright and motivated, it's an extremely rare 4th or 5th grader who works mostly independently. Especially when you are new to this and haven't established a routine and figured out how it works for your particular family. Prepare to be very hands-on!

Got sidetrakced into some AHG work.

Good afternoon! Loungey morning here with lots of random little things, but no real work yet. Done: Got insurance coverage on new vehicle Called or texted with several friends and mom RSVP'd for an event Made dinner reservations Next up: Make lunch Make beds Work on History for Dd Nope. AHG work instead Put things-that-live-in-my-car into my Subaru. Nice to have them out of the rocking chair! Update YNAB? tomorrow! Dinner is out at a chef-y, farm to table restaurant. Belated anniversary date, a gift from my mom. Woohoo for interesting food and no cooking or cleaning up.

Yes, an old thread! I replied because a new poster directed a question about an umbrella school to me.

@fairfarmhand Nice to *see* you here! Did y'all get hail later this afternoon? Crazy hot, then a huge storm here. Cool and nice now. @Margaret in CO Ds' troop t-shirts are that synthetic, moisture wicking fabric. So comfy and they don't shrink. They came back from camp with black gunk on them, but an overnight soak in Oxyclean fixed that. Went out to dinner with Dh to an Italian place (his parents gave us a giftcard). Food was just ok, service was poor because they were busy and shorthanded, but it was still nice to not cook. And to have a leisurely conversation without interruptions. We have another free meal to use this week and will choose a better restaurant. Helped Dh put out the trash and the huge branches that came down from our tulip poplar in a storm last week. The stick truck comes this week. Next up: jammies, read, maybe have a little ice cream

Headed out with Dh to buy the Subaru Forester.

Thanks! I have seen the transcripts from our umbrella school and they are dull, but very clear and readable. If Dd ends up with any significant number of non-vanilla, unusual courses, I may opt to write one myself. Otherwise, the umbrella school one will cover our bases, I think. I am keepng records of books, curricula, assignments, etc. and sowly reading through Lori D.'s giant pinned threads on the high school boards!

Today is another quiet one, so far. I am at home by myself. Dh left early for Bible study, errands and work. Not sure if the car purchase is going to happen today or not. I got a good bit of AHG work done yesterday and my tutoring job has not put a student on my schedule yet, so today I can focus on Dd's English and History. Not lots left to do on the English, except a bit of scheduling and rereading some more literature books. I have not been a very detailed lesson planner so far in our homeschool. We are mostly just do-the-next-thing people. Do I need to change that for high school? I do spend some time every other weekend during the school year double checking where we are and making sure I actually know what the next things will be. Other things for today: Call mom Walk the dog Vacuum Go out to dinner with Dh?!

Jean, I am so sorry about Cinnamon!

Pm'd you.

Your state should have infornation about what species are endangered in your particular place. Conservation organizations almost always have "Get involved" or "How can I help" pagrs on their websites. Nature centers and state or national parks near you will also have good information. For scouts, my dd had to research this and make a presentation.