The PC cookie sheets are wonderful. I use them multiple times a week for all kinds of things. I really never even use my stoneware any more because the cookie sheets are so good. Everything I have from Pampered Chef has held up for a long time.

Your daughter's story is very similar to something that happened to my friend a few years ago. She went to the first chiropractor and he also recommend three times a week for over a year to treat her injury. She felt like it was a scam and got a second opinion from another chiropractor. The second chiropractor had a totally different philosophy which didn't involve anywhere near as many appointments. I would definitely get a second opinion, because there can be a big difference from chiropractor to chiropractor.

I recently read an interesting article on which learners can benefit from diagramming. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/taming-sentences/?_r=0

Linda Edler has beginner dance fitness videos on Youtube. Her beginner video 1 is the easiest and is a good way to see if you like Zumba without spending any money.

Another vote for getting Partnership Writing. I also have TWJ and have read it at least three times, but it was only after doing PW that I really went back to TWJ and pulled out some of the activities to use with my kids. I don't know if TWJ is as essential now that Julie is so active on Periscope. I think she does a great job of explaining the BW lifestyle through Periscope and has really answered so many questions I had even though I had read TWJ. I am also hoping that Faltering Ownership will eventually be available on HSBC.

We have done Jot it Down and Partnership Writing. I would recommend using PW with an older elementary writing club. You could take the projects in JID and expand them for older kids, but I am not sure it is worth the effort. If the kids are truly in the Jot it Down phase then a writer's club is going to be pretty difficult to pull off unless you have a lot of parent helpers.

I have been having many of the same thoughts lately. It is hard to be homeschooling for a long time and wonder what happened to the person you used to be. I think that this mid-life struggle is real for all people regardless of their situation. I spent a great deal of time talking to a friend the other day that has a lucrative career and is utterly miserable about missing her child's life. Her husband is not supportive of her being a stay-at-home mom and she feels completely trapped by her life even though she just received another huge promotion. I shared with her how I feel that I have given up my entire career to homeschool my kids and even though I love it, there are definitely trade-offs. It made me realize that none of us have a perfect situation, but hopefully you can find peace with whatever season you are in.

I have been getting a Ouidad carve and slice haircut for years. It is the single best thing I have ever done for my curly hair. I have a loose curl pattern and the Ouidad cut gives me so much more curl definition. I never straighten my hair anymore because I am so happy with the way my hair looks when styled curly. The cut lasts about six months, but I do get a small trim at the three month mark. My hairstylist says some people can make it the whole six months without a trim. I have never had a Deva cut so I can't help you compare, but I am one satisfied Ouidad customer.

This is true for us as well. We usually only school 4 days a week.

This is also my personal experience. I used to be a librarian in an elementary school before staying home with kids. Several years ago my local school district let go most of the librarians and replaced them with paraprofessional staff. Many of my friends were old enough to retire, but others were left scrambling for jobs. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of jobs in the public library and the salary was pitiful. I would be very leery of going into this profession unless you really specialize (law or medicine).

I just watched a great YouTube video about dressing a pear shaped body. Erin Busbee is a stylist in her 40s and she offers some great tips for dressing different body types.

Another vote for Guest Hollow. So many great ideas and it is free.

When working on building fluency I always recommend selecting books that are below the child's reading level. It is a great idea to have repeated reading of the same text and then to gradually work for the child to read with inflection. This is so much easier to accomplish with a text that is not a struggle for the child. If you work on this for the next several months, you should see a big improvement in your child's fluency. I also have seem significant strides with fluency between 1st and 2nd grade. Most kids really mature a lot as readers in 2nd grade. Hope that helps.

I think deciding what type of wand works for your lashes is a great place to start. Definitely look for a mascara that has a similar wand shape to the mascara you have been using. My favorite mascara is Mary Kay's Ultimate Mascara because it works wonders on my short, straight lashes. The drugstore version that works best for me has the same type of wand and it is Maybelline's The Falsies. Several people on YouTube have raved about Covergirl Supersizer Mascara, but it did nothing for my straight lashes and I think it is because the wand was totally different.

Have you listened to any of Julie Bogart's talks on Periscope? Her saved scopes are at katch.me/bravewriter. I would start with The Enchanted Education that is at the bottom of the list. It was one of her first scopes and it really helped me to change my thinking about how we are doing school. All of her scopes are good and are encouraging, but also challenging. The latest scope with Sarah Mackenzie was also excellent. It might be worth a listen to see she can give you a glimpse of the homeschool that you dream of, but are not sure how to accomplish.

The Homegrown Preschooler by Kathy Lee and Lesli Richards is my favorite book I have ever read on teaching preschool. It would be a great resource for your presentation if you have time to get your hands on it. http://www.amazon.com/The-Homegrown-Preschooler-Teaching-Places/dp/0876594518

I had three in RS at a time. I feel like it is actually faster and easier to teach in the upper levels. I don't know if that is because I was so familiar with the approach at that point or if it is written to become more independent. I actually think the fact that it is scripted is a huge advantage. I just open the book and go. If I need to make something I do it when they are working on something else. I don't play games will all of them everyday, but I will pull out a game if someone is struggling with something.

I am also surprised that this terminology is still being used today. It was the rage when I was teaching 15-20 years ago. It was already on the way out when I left the profession 10 years ago. I get the impression from teachers in my area that The Daily 5 is the current thing. I purchased the Daily 5/CAFE book from Half Price Books in the last few years just so I could feel like I was keeping up with what was going on with literacy instruction.

I have found Guest Hollow's free history curriculum to be a great resource for teaching American History in upper elementary. After years of SOTW, I was ready for something different. We use some of the ideas from Guest Hollow, read a lot of books from various lists, and we try to watch great videos that we can find. We are watching Liberty Kids right now and the kids are loving it. http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/americanhistoryindex.html

I started with the book and it is a great resource loaded with activities and ideas. You can definitely just get the book, but it will be a little bit more work to pull everything together. I had no intention of buying the curriculum until I downloaded the sample month. It was so easy to use and my kids just loved it, so I decided to get the curriculum and spread it over two years. I don't think you can go wrong with any of their products.

I am such a fan of all the materials at The Homegrown Preschooler. It gives me great ideas that I can use with my 3 year old while the other kids are doing school. I also rotate the kids so sometimes they are helping her and then other times I am doing activities with her. It has been so much fun that my older kids actually ask to do some of the activities. It has totally changed our dynamic with my preschooler during school time. She seems to love it because she feels like she is doing school with the big kids. http://www.thehomegrownpreschooler.com/ They are also on Facebook.

You should look up the passing score for the STAAR test you are giving. Often the passing standard is shockingly low like less than 50%. The state has been saying for years that the passing rate was going to be significantly raised, but the scores have been so terrible that they haven't raised them as they thought they would. My personal opinion is that the test must be too difficult or confusing. I was going to give my daughter an elementary test until I read the test and decided that it was purposely confusing and misleading and not worth our time. We did used Stanford 10 for standardized testing.

I purchased my LC from Marshalls. It was only a little bit more expensive than the pot carried at Sam's. Of course, I wasn't able to be picky about the color, but that was fine with me. I absolutely love my LC , but it is very discolored because I used it several times a week. It is one of my best purchases ever.

My daughter is in level 5 and we are really starting to see progress. She is not a natural speller and it has been a long journey. One thing I decided was that she needed more time with the review cards. Once we started that, we saw a huge improvement in retention. The other thing that is finally happening is that she can now tell if something doesn't look right even if she doesn't know how to fix it. I have just come to the conclusion that for some kids learning to be good spellers takes a lot of time. My daughter may never be able to spell the way a natural speller can, but she is making progress.

I have also been binge watching. It is so fun because several of my local friends are doing the same and we have had some lively discussions. Julie definitely has a way of being so encouraging and reassuring. I think anyone could benefit from her periscopes, even if you are not a Brave Writer family.