1. My first job was McDonald's when I was 15 and still in school, they worked me nearly full time hours, though I was considered part time and paid me $4.25 an hour. 2. I've breastfed my kids for a combined total of 66 months. I'm still breastfeeding the toddler. 3. I owned a trailer outright when I was 18. 4. My favorite job was a little mom and pop pizza shop, even though I only got paid $5.15 an hour (then minimum wage in my state). I worked with my boyfriend (who I'm still with and is the father of my children) and got free food. While on the job we could eat as much as we wanted. :) 5. I dropped out of high school when I was sixteen. Not because I couldn't have graduated, but because I was done moving and switching schools at least once a year, some years more. My mom was moving to a different state and I had had enough. I didn't want to start over again. So I moved in with a friend and her parents and got a full time job. 6. I have a sister I have never met. She was stillborn, but I still think about her and what she would be like now. 7. I love the True Blood series and the Dexter series. Boyfriend and I borrowed the tapes from the library and watched them together. 8. I currently eat cheapatarian, which isn't quite vegetarian, but the healthiest I can eat cheaply. 9. I can't eat gluten. 10. I walk way more often than I travel by car.

I like the Kumon workbooks for the littles.

Oh yeah and it'd probably move along faster if I'd stay off of here, lol.

Planning here too. I needed to reorganize and clean up the school room first, then figure out our schedule, now its down the nitty gritty, lol. I have the first two weeks planned out (that's ALL!). This year with a 4th and 6th grader (and a preKer) is taking sooooo much more preparation. I'm also trying something new this year by writing up a daily schedule for each big kid to follow, that way it is easier for them to do the work that they do individually without much help from me. They each have a binder that will have a week's worth of their work in it (tabbed and organized) along with 5 daily schedules for the week in the beginning. This way if they want they can easily work ahead so long as the current day's work is complete. It will also help them see what is in store for the week and make it easier to keep track of ongoing projects like reports they have a week to complete. I hope anyway :tongue_smilie:.

I voted 4. Four in our school room with school books, school supplies, and children's books (which is also the dining room). BUT there are also 2 bookshelves in the family room with not currently in use school books and photo albums on them, 3 bookshelves in the living room with our adult books and library books, one bookshelf with video games in the living room, one large plastic shelves in the hallway with board games, and 2 bookshelves in my bedroom with craft supplies. Also in the play area (which is half of the family room) there are 5 half sized bookshelves with my preschooler's toys and learning fun stuff. She also has a workbox/bookholder deal in the dining room. This will hold preK fun for her this school year. Used to hold blocks, toys, and books. So lots of bookshelves for storage around here. I love them. :)

Just thinking ahead about options.

Hi, I'm wondering if there is a standardized test aside from testing for the GED that shows high school equivalency? Thanks!

I don't consider having credit cards having money. I currently have credit, but no money. And yes I will say I have no money. Dh recently lost his job and is making a LOT less. He is not bringing home enough to pay our bills, barely our mortgage and gas for the vehicle. Yeah. Everything else is going on credit. Yes, I appreciate the predicament we would be in if we had no credit, but it doesn't change that we HAVE NO MONEY. It is not good, not good at all. I cancelled the cable and downgraded the internet. We pay $20 a month for internet and $8 a month for netflix. These are literally the only things left we could trim out. That is the total amount we spend for entertainment each month. If it isn't free and very close to home, we aren't doing it. I've never done Starbucks or vacations and I see them no where in my future. I'm not even sure how much $ we'd have to have before I'd even consider those things okay. Probably at least twice as much as dh was making before he lost his job. We were just barely able to squeak by then. That would give us a bit of savings and wiggle room, I assume.

Staples is advertising rewards of $6 rather than their usual $2 per recycled ink cartridge if you spend $50 in HP ink until Aug. 20th with a limit of 5 ($30). I've been working on printing all the papers for the coming year, so this is going to work out great for me.

If you use google to search for free study guides you can find a lot of free guides online, usually pdf, for popular books. I'm using quite a few this year.

Not so great here. :( Last year my tomatoes did wonderful, very high yield. This year- Some sort of fungus. Not sure if its leaf spot or early blight. Not good, not good at all. I'm so close to crying.

If your three year olds are ready for small toys- SMALL TOYS!!!!! my 3 yr loves anything small. Small animals-random, pet shop, etc, legos, marbles/marble run, play money/coins, play jewelry, lacing beads, google eyes and crafts. Also play food (any-wood, felt I prefer) or kitchen/cleaning supplies and baby dolls with accessories (though she needs help dressing them).

Get her excited about cutting it by showing her pics of princesses with short hair-google images, yay! Then cut it along with the daily drama. Thats what I did :).

Me? Time. Reflection. Time.

Thanks! :) I chose not to order the dvd last time, but we now have netflix and I plan to watch the episodes next year. It is great that they are offering this book. My kids are very visual and will love this.

I set my toddler up with a book bag with different activities in plastic baggies. Some of these would not be appropriate for a little one that puts small objects in their mouth. Here are some I think weren't already mentioned- 1. safety scissors like my first fiskars with construction paper 2. construction paper 'books' with stickers 3. squares of dark paper with pieces of chalk 4. squares of scratch paper with scratch stick 5. bag of buttons to admire and sort 6. pipe cleaners to bend and mangle, lol 7. construction paper cut into shapes, glue stick and paper 8. foam shapes and a foam sheet to arrange the shapes on (no glue here so they can be reused) Also I made a three ring binder for her because the big kids have one too. I printed file folder activities on cardstock and put them into page protectors. Also I printed letters to trace and lines to trace and put them in the page protectors. They can use dry erase markers on the page protectors, as long as you don't let the marks stay too long because they will stain.

:lurk5: I'd be interested in this as well. I just bought Human Odyssey and have started incorporating into our year for Ancients. I'm going to be trying to write up plans for next year and I'm rewriting plans for this year somewhat as well, but it is slow going. :001_smile:

I lucked into 2 volumes of Art History by Stokstad on paperbackswap. :) Not sure if there are more there but if someone has credits and wants to it wouldn't hurt to search!

Well, my advice in a nutshell, don't worry, don't stress. 1st grade is very young. Let her use an abacus, number line, linking cubes, or counters whenever needed for now. Its okay, really. Manipulatives help young children see Math.To build memorization of the facts I suggest using 6 sided, then ten sided dice. You specify addition or subtraction, she rolls and answers. If she answers incorrectly say the answer, she repeats it and have her roll again. Also use cards to play games. Here are the rules to two games to get you started. Also print off free worksheets with a smaller # of problems that focus on only one fact at a time(3+1= ,3+2= ,3+3= ,3+4= , and so on up to 3+10). I'd only do this after she is showing some success with that # so as to not cause frustration. I also find with Math it is important to give them the strategy to use what they do know to help them figure out what they don't. Such as 5+6= , she doesn't know the answer. But if she remembers that 5+5=10 she can use that fact to help her as 6 is only 1 more than 5, so the answer will be 1 more, which is 11. Also here is a video on Math Mammoth that may help. I haven't watched it, nor used it, but that's only because my kids are beyond that now. I have however watched her video on structured multiplication facts drill and I am using her method right now and having success.

First and foremost, don't stress over it! :) I decided before this school year started to take my dd, who is 10, back what I considered several years in Math and I am soooo glad I did. Having the basic facts completely down and fully understanding basic concepts of multiplying/dividing/borrowing/carrying is absolutely necessary before moving on in Math. She was frustrated and confused and just not getting Math. I bought base ten blocks and place value discs for manipulatives. These have helped a lot. We are using Singapore 3A/3B and it is great! I also use Miquon and the free MEP Math year 2 for review and to show different approaches. I just pull these out as I want. I bought the pdf files of Miquon from CurrClick and told myself I have three kids who will be able to use it so it is worth it even though I am only picking and choosing from it right now. There is a video on Math Mammoth showing structured drill for multiplication and this is the process we are currently using for multiplication facts and it is working where many other ways have failed. I'm super happy that she is making so much progress and she no longer hates Math! :) As for reading, I advise to read, read, read to gain fluency. I would set him a goal of reading one chapter or 10 pages from a book each school day. Preferably a book below his current reading level. Something easy, something fun. Bunnicula, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, books he would read for pleasure. This will give him confidence, the ease will gain him fluency. Also read to him at his level and above his level, books like Time Cat and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Lastly have him read aloud to you at least a paragraph a day from a book either below his level or at his level. This will help you see progress and also help him work on being able to read aloud more fluently. This can be from his required chapter or from the book you are reading aloud to him, just ask him to read a paragraph to you. For writing definitely give WWE a good try. The beauty of the program is the shortness and simplicity. You are there watching as he writes to guide him, to keep him from completing mistakes and gaining bad habits. I can't speak much about Spelling, but we are using Sequential Spelling and loving it. I'm not sure if it would be the best choice for a struggling speller, because both of my children spell well. I do recommend it though. It is short and sweet and easy to implement. I like that the children immediately self correct if they do make a spelling mistake. I know a lot of people use All About Spelling so maybe that would be something to look into. If you want links to anything I mentioned just ask, it would be my pleasure! :) And I agree with others that Logic and Latin can definitely be put on hold until the 3 R's are solid as rock. Latin and Logic just aren't as important for the Grammar Stage. I would do Latin roots before Latin language at this point if I were you, or nothing at all.

Dd is 10 and in 5th this year. Here's what we're using- Math- Singapore supplemented with Miquon and MEP for review Science- Noeo Science as a guide, I bought Physics 2, Chemistry 2, and Biology 2 and we are doing units from all three rather than a full year of each, we're also working through Scott Foresman's Science concurrently History- Ancients, combining History Odyssey and using the SOTW activity guide for questions and maps. She is currently narrating, but will soon be transitioning to outlining. She will also be starting our own version of the Book of Centuries after Christmas break. This will be somewhat combining the timeline and History notebook into one. I plan to have her do summaries mostly for this and outlining will be a skill we work on the side. I bought a workbook for outlining skills for her to work through LA- Simply Grammar and she will ease into FLL 3 sometime before the end of the school year and continue it into next. I also have basic workbooks for sentence diagramming for extra practice or review as needed. English from the Roots Up for vocabulary, Writing With Ease, Sentence Composing for Elementary School, and for fun she is working through the Young Novelist's workbook Spelling- Sequential Spelling Literature- She is to read a chapter a day from a book within our home library and I am still reading aloud to all of them. I am currently reading Redwall and A Christmas Carol aloud. She's read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Nim's Island, Ribsy, Ginger Pye, The Hundred Dresses, and more this year. She is also reading the Warriors series and has started the Seekers series on her own time. I'm content with her enjoying literature right now without requiring any analyzing or reporting. Art- Artistic Pursuits and Meet the Masters, we all look at the art from the location and period we are studying in History and Draw Write Now Foreign Language- Song School Latin, I bought Minimus to use next when we finish SSL, she also wants to learn Spanish so will be starting Spanish for Children soon

Can anyone recommend an easy to read, brief, perhaps pleasant and conversational book for me to read as a refresher on World History? I think it would be soooo much easier to teach History if I didn't feel like I was learning most of it alongside them. TIA!

Thanks! :) Yeah, I'm not sure where my head was at earlier, lol. I was looking for a quick answer before we started History, but I needed to go back and read through my books before I understood what was going on. This is what I get for having a not so great History background myself and trying to combine multiple curricula and sources, lol. It was simple to see though once I flipped through the books, then I was able to use the map with our lesson. I'm glad that by the time my little one is older I will feel like a veteran at this with more knowledge to work with. I need to find a good History book for myself to read through in spare time (what's that?) so that what I'm teaching will be fresh in my mind instead of blind leading blind!

We're studying Ancient History, specifically the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. In SOTW it clearly states that Shamshi-Adad of the Assyrian empire never conquered Babylon as he knew of Hammurabi's strength. It also states that after Shamshi-Adad died Hammurabi conquered Assur. We're incorporating History Odyssey into our studies. I'm looking at the mapwork assigned for the Assyrian Empire, map 8. It has the Assyrian empire shown as the whole of Mesopotamia, including Babylon and all of where Babylonia would be, as well as part of Egypt. What am I missing? This seems to be in conflict with what we just read in SOTW 1 and also with the map we completed from the SOTW guide's map for the chapter. For right now I'm skipping the HO map because I'm not teaching from a confused state, but can someone enlighten me what I'm missing?

Free coloring pages for Songschool Latin on Headventure Land. 104 pages, over 6 MB pdf.