Amazing Race!! It's the only reality show I really love. Greys Anatomy and I might watch Survivor again.

Thank you!!! My dd LOVES cats so this really caught her attention.

My sister lives in Paradise! She is thinking about homeschooling, but will most likely afterschool. I'm in Central California, Manteca to be exact. I know there are some groups in Modesto and Tracy but I haven't had the time to find them yet.

:bigear: I would love to know the answer to this as well. We are just now starting with a 9 yr old and 6 yr old and I am having trouble trying to decipher what their learning styles are.

Thank you for all the comments! I usually sit with him and we discuss the first few problems, and then I tell him to do all the problems he can by himself while I work with his sister. Then when he is done I come back to him and we go over it. I am in the same room with him so if he has a question he can ask me. I think I will try sitting with him for a few weeks and go over every problem with him until he adjusts. He definitely has problems staying on task when it comes to math. Even problems that he says are "easy" take him forever because he is in la la land. Ok, I have my plan. I will take a week or so and play some fun games with him to help with the basics. It will be easier for him to do the math when he doesn't have to stop and think about what 7 times 8 is, etc. Then I will take a few weeks and go over each problem with him step by step until he feels more confident with this program. I really want him to love math! If he is still struggling after the two or three weeks I will drop him down to level 3. By the way, this site ROCKS!!!!! I have learned so much in the few months that I have been coming here. Every single time I have a question, I will do a search and 99% of the time I can find my answer :thumbup:

This is my first year homeschooling and I have one in fourth and one in first. My ds always, always struggled with his math homework from PS. He always hated it and would save those pages to finish last. I would talk to his teachers about it and they would always assure me he was doing fine in class and they didn't understand because he was always bringing home high marks on tests. Fast forward to now and we are doing MM, with a few pages of Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners for extra practice. They both LOVE the Skill Sharpeners (my dd loves animals and its filled with cute animals to count). However, when it comes to the MM my ds is struggling with even the basics. I don't know if it's just a concentration issue or what, but it took him 2 hours to finish 2 pages of work. Those who have seen a page of MM know, a page does not have that many problems. I thought, well maybe he just needs to go down to level three and we can start there. Then in the mail I got his STAR results from last year and he got 600/600 for math, and it says he is in the advanced category. :confused: How in the world can he get 100% on his test, yet still not have his basics memorized? What in the world can I do differently to get him to not take 2 hours to do math? I love math, it was always my favorite subject in school so I don't really know what to do with him. We ordered some manipulatives to play with that will hopefully help. I really can't afford to hop around from program to program to see what will work, but on the other hand I don't want him to struggle. Sorry for the novel, I am starting to second guess myself with everything and it's only our third week of school.

My favorite smoothie isn't really green, it's purple. I use frozen blueberries, one whole banana, a couple handfuls of spinach (usually around 1 cup) and a small amount of soy milk to blend. The kids love it in the morning, and since it is purple because of the berries they drink it up.

Do any of these brands that are good have Iron? I know someone mentioned the Whole Foods, but we don't have a Whole foods near us. We were using the Flintstones, or the generic but the kids wont eat them anymore. My dd needs Iron as she is always anemic.

We have both. Tile in the entryway and laminate wood floors in the kitchen, dining room and family room. I really like the look of the laminate, and the fact that it is softer on the feet (and other body parts when the kids fall). The only drawback to the laminate is that contrary to what we were told, it DOES scratch. We have some really bad wear marks where the computer chair sits as well. Will you have rugs that you can put in the living areas? That would make the tile not as cold and hard.

:bigear: I am in the same situation! This is our first year of homeschooling and my ds is in fourth grade. He hates writing and has never had any form of dictation or narration in PS. For now we are doing WWE and once a week I will have him choose a story from Story Starters to finish. I am on the fence with WWE, I like it for my first grader who only went to K for PS. Writeshop Primary sounds like something we may like!

We just had our first official day today! I have a 4th grader, a 1st grader and a 2 year old. I feel like we did ok, but the lessons didn't take as long as I anticipated so we were done really fast. Is that normal? Anyway, here is what we are doing for now: DS 9 years old: Math Mammoth 4 MCT Grammar Island Writing with Ease 2 (he has never done any narration or dictation in PS) All About Spelling (zooming through level 1 so he knows all the rules) Story of the World 1 Elemental Science Earth/Astronomy Lots and lots of reading! Artistic Pursuits DD 6 years old: Math Mammoth 1 First Language Lessons Writing with Ease 1 All About Spelling Story of the World 1 Elemental Science Earth/Astronomy Artistic Pursuits Lots of reading! I just realized we don't have a handwriting curriculum and I don't know what to do for that. I think I would like to try a separate Geography as well, maybe Map Trek?

:seeya: I'm here, lurking in the shadows and getting all sorts of good information for our first year!