2 of my kids have an ikea tabletop (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80251141/) with walmart bookshelves under each end (https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ameriwood-3-Shelf-Bookcase-Multiple-Finishes/17480009)... LOVE LOVE LOVE this! My younger two each have this walmart desk. I put them back to back and in between built a rack to hold bulletin boards facing each side... https://www.walmart.com/ip/Student-Writing-Desk-with-6-Fabric-Bins-Multiple-Colors/17188421 On each side I have a 4 cubicle shelf to hold more of their curricula/books... You can see some pics of the desks in our homeschool room tour {youtube link in my sig}...

Congrats!! That is awesome and always SUCH a great feeling!

I don't mark next to correct answers. Next to incorrect answers I put a red X ... At the top of the page I put the total correct answers over the total possible. Then give a grade. I try to add comments, stickers, smiley faces, etc... at the top depending on the work. My 10y/o has been on the gymnastics team since she was 4. She understood gymnastic scoring from around that same age. The first time I graded her work and she saw 100% she cried. She was so upset that she didn't get a 10. A 10 is PERFECT! I still grade her papers like that. 9.6 is a 96%. 8.4 is an 84%. LOL!

I do work hard but not necessarily to keep from becoming overweight. Although I like my scale where it is and work hard to *keep it there* (maintain). I lost a lot of weight after my 4th child and worked hard to get to where I am. I love to workout. Love it! I wake up super early every day to run. I run hundreds (literally) of miles/month. I run marathons (Boston... LOVE) and I'm an utra-runner (won my first 100 miler last July). I run 2-3 times/day when possible. My morning runs are rarely less than 10 miles (only takes 75'ish minutes to run 10 miles). I also love strength/weight training and have a sweet set-up in my garage (and spend 45-90 minutes/day working out in there). Did I love running when I first started? LOL, no ... but over time I fell in love and it became something I can't live without. My neighbors ALL around me think I'm crazy though. :( They ask lots of questions but nobody close by works out from what I can figure out. I did see one neighbor jump on his bike the other day. Loved that! Most of my afternoon/evening runs I will see MAYBE 6 other people out (rarely running, mostly dog walkers or older people walking). This town is not active at all and it's not super small (20,000 people). I would LOVE to see people riding bikes (also rare) and sidewalks filled with people running, walking, rollerblading, etc...! I have actually had people stop me at grocery stores, the mall, a gas station and ask if I'm "that girl that runs all over". LOL! :huh: I eat so that I am able to run and workout. My meals are planned so I get enough carbs/fat/protein (I do not count calories at all). I spend quite a bit of time every Saturday doing some basic meal prep for the upcoming week. My children are all active and eat healthy (for the most part, lol). It's just become a normal lifestyle for us. However, because I get up so early and my weekends are filled with long runs we do miss out on parties or events frequently. It's just what works for us...

I wake up at 3:30/4 in the morning and hit the streets for a run and then workout in my garage (strength training) and that's MY time. Once everyone is up I'm with my kids until bedtime. I'm a single mom so it's just me and the 4 of them pretty much every single day.

It always looks likes so much more written out ... it doesn't feel like that much though... LANGUAGE Abeka Language A; EM Daily Editing (5th) Abeka 5th grade Reading; EM Daily Reading Comprehension (5th) Spelling: ABC's & All Their Tricks + Natural Speller + AAS: Rules/Exceptions + Weekly Word Lists {include weekly activities}; Scripps Bee spelling words English From the Roots Up Literature Reading List Cursive: Copywork (poems; Presidents; important historical facts; bible verses, etc...) WRITING Focus: Exposure to quality language through read alouds, audio books and reading/memorizing poetry; Writing skills (word choice, grammar, mechanics, proofreading, etc...); Writing process (prewriting, creating a draft, editing, publishing); Writing progression (sentences, paragraphs, essays); Write poems, letters, scary stories, fairy tales, finish the story, reports ... Journal: Daily entries (I have many various writing prompt books that I refer to for ideas). This year I have done a lot of the actual writing in her journal as she tells me what to write (as needed we review using correct grammar, spelling, more colorful words, etc...). MATH Abeka 4th (using now, move to 5th) MM (currently in 4A) Fun Math: AoPS Beast Academy; Singapore Challenging Word Problems; Zaccaro CRITICAL THINKING CTC Building Thinking Skills; Mind Benders; Perplexors We have a huge assortment of logic games + continue learning how to play chess HISTORY America The Beautiful w/older siblilngs (+ projects and books geared more specifically to her age)CIVICS (already started and will work throughout the summer/fall. All 4 of mine are working through this together so she obviously needed to be included) Uncle Sam & YouGEOGRAPHY (Homemade using tons of various resources/books) Areas of concentration: location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and regionsSCIENCE Apologia Elementary {she's working through all of them so whatever she picks next} History of Science Told Through the Lives of it's Greatest Inventors EXTRA BIBLE - Discover For Yourself Series FOREIGN LANGUAGE - Getting Started with Latin MUSIC - Getting to Know the Worlds Greatest Composers; Listen to classical music; Piano Lessons ART - Atelier; Getting To Know The Worlds Greatest Artists POETRY - EM Read & Understand; IEW Poetry Memorization; Poetry for Young People PE: Tumbling Team; Dance; Soccer; She runs and does some CrossFit with me too :) Which I love!

Whoops! NM!

Rylee (just turned 10) will be starting her 5th grade year in June. She spends 28 hours/week in the gym and is constantly flipping everywhere and walking around on her hands. LOL! Note-taking and chapter outlining to be incorporated throughout many classes MATH: She's anxious to start AoPS Pre-Algebra (her goal: start beginning of 6th grade year) Abeka (finish 5th grade; move to 6th) Math Mammoth 5B (6A; 6B) Hands on Equations; Challenging Word Problems; Zaccaro Challenging Math; CTC Balance Benders LANGUAGE Abeka Grammar & Composition (7); Analytical Grammar Abeka Literature (Of People) Literature Book Basket (still coming up with list... will include assortment of non-fiction, award winners, classics) for book reports, projects and to use with study guides Copywork (cursive... bible verses, history facts, presidents, etc...) Writing With Skill 1 English From the Roots Up Using Scripps National Spelling Bee word lists along with additional books for more word lists + rules & exceptions SCIENCE Apologia General Science 2 Science Projects (her choice) Book Basket: Inventors; Science Encyclopedias; Various Science Books HEALTH Abeka 5th GradeHISTORY Notgrass America The Beautiful Book Basket: Famous People; Non-Fiction to go along with time period being studied CIVICS & GOVERNMENT Notgrass Uncle Sam and You Book Basket: Presidents GEOGRAPHY Homemade study (includes locations; how to read maps/symbols, current events, memorizing all capital cities of all major countries, physical geography, climate graphs, etc...)FOREIGN LANGUAGE Latin Prep 2 Getting Started with Spanish ART/MUSIC/POETRY Atelier Art Piano Lessons/Voice Lessons (with me) Art of Poetry; EM Read & Understand Poetry Artist/Composer/Poet Studies BIBLE Discover 4 YourselfCOMPUTERS Typing - speed/efficiencyCRITICAL THINKING/LOGIC Building Thinking Skills Dr. Funsters Think a Minutes Mind Benders Red Herring Mysteries Lots of games ADDITIONAL Coding (scratch); Robotics; Bridges/Tunnels; Photography + Movie Making; Calligraphy; Cooking/BakingPE Gymnastics (L8) Tumbling (Advanced) With me: Run; Strength training/circuits (CrossFit inspired); Yoga/Flexibility Swimming at the Y (homeschool class) Learn rules of various sports/games; Study 2 athletes (her choice) and write a short report to share with the rest of us

Definitely more structured here. I don't know how to do it otherwise. Kids are up at 6:45 ... all 5 of us are ready for the day (including breakfast and chores) by 7:20. We do morning group time and we start individual subjects at 8. We stop for lunch/play @12 (kids normally use this time to read on a book), start again at 1:30 and are done for the day at 4. They talk. I have music on. I hate quiet rooms. LOL! But they are to focus and get their work done. My oldest two always have additional work that needs done after school hours. All 4 of my kids go to bed at 9:30. They can read for an hour ... lights out at 10:30.

We definitely do art supplies, science kits, books of their interest, learning toys, etc... as Christmas and birthday gifts. I don't necessarily wrap up curriculum though. I don't think they would be overly excited about that and it seems like a filler to go under the tree or something. However, 2 years ago my oldest wanted books and a study on horses for Christmas. I bought the WinterPromise Equine Study for her and all the books and she was beyond thrilled! I am considering something like that for each this year too. My son likes to study history so I'm considering some books on specific time periods, hands on type activity books, some toys or craft kits or models to go along with it, etc..

Awesome!!! Sounds similar to my 7 year old. She uses Singapore IP + CWP, Math Mammoth (currently 3B) and Beast Academy. She knows her math facts inside and out but also knows the "why" and has managed to make my head spin a time or two as she explained her reasoning, lol. She does Abeka 4th grade math for fun (because she loves to sit and work on math and I needed a math book to just give her to work on that she could do with little instruction in the car, at the other kids practices/games, etc...). She also is working her way through the Key To... series (fractions, decimals, percents), Zaccaro books and Hands on Equations.

My goal is 10. Last night I fell asleep at 10:30 (after the Eagles/Giants game). But some nights (a lot of them) I'm falling asleep on the couch at 9pm (which I don't like but I can't help). My 9y/o is on the level 7 gymnastics team and her practices last 4 hours so she's not even done until 8:30 (M-F). We live like 4 minutes from her gym (main reason we live here) so when my other 3 kids activities are over for the evening they can be at home and eat (everyone eats dinner in shifts around here), finish up chores and shower. When Rylee gets home she eats and showers and then pretty much everyone goes right to bed. They all can read until 10 and then they are to go to sleep. Most nights I'm asleep before them though.

Oh my... I definitely hit the $900/child on curricula/supplies/additional learning materials. We didn't even need much going into this school year and I still managed to spend more than that. And I have $150 worth of books/materials sitting in my rainbow cart that I'm going to get ordered this weekend. This is not including gymnastics team, tumbling team, swim team, football, dance, guitar, drums ... eek, it all adds up SO fast!

Depending on the day, my alarm goes off between 3:15am-4:30am 7 days/week. I'm done by 7am... shower, eat and ready for the school day to start at 8. I'm definitely one of those "I go crazy if I don't workout" people. LOL! My family always jokes that my life is kids & homeschooling and working out. That about sums me up! LOL! :) I run marathons, ultras (won my first 100 miler this past July) and am training for my first 140.6 IronMan. I run between 100-120 miles/week. I LOVE to run! LOVE. IT. My alarm goes off, I might push snooze once (5 minutes) but then I literally jump out of bed, change my clothes, brush my teeth, throw my hair in a ponytail, grab my flashlight and hit the roads... every single morning. I rarely run less than 10 miles in a morning. And I also rarely run less than 2 times in a day. LOL! At lunch I get in an hour workout... I either run or strength train. And then of an evening during the kids activities I get in a run or bike ride or go for a walk with a friend. I bike 3 days/week, swim 2 times/week and do serious strength training 4 days/week. Everyday I get in squats, lunges, deadlifts, box jumps or step-ups (depending on how my legs feel), push-ups, pull-ups and tricep dips after my morning run and bike or swim...

* Analytical Grammar; IEW Fix-It * Mosdos - Pearl * Various Literature reading (1-2/month) * Megawords * Wordly Wise * English From the Roots Up * WWS 1; Creative Writer 1 * The Art of Poetry * AoPS Pre-Algebra * CTC Understanding Algebra; CTC Understanding Geometry; CTC Algebra Word Problems * Key to Algebra * AoPS Competition Math * Building Thinking Skills / other various logic books * SOTW + Outlining - TWTM style (all kids do this together) * America The Beautiful; Uncle Sam & You * Country Study - homemade * Apologia Biology * McHenry Elements * Python for Kids * Latin Prep * Rosetta Stone - Spanish * Artistic Pursuits; Atelier Art Football, swimming, drums

Definitely NO!

I do all my planning, printing, filing, organizing and buying in the summer. Weekends I deep clean my house and make sure all bedding is washed, laundry is done, clean out my car (lol). I am very picky about what we eat (I run marathons and ultras and am training for my first 140.6 ironman. Nutrition is a crucial part to my training) and do all of our meal prep over the weekends. I run/bike/swim/strength train from 3/3:30-7 every morning before school starts and by the time our school day is finished and picked up we are out the door for late afternoon/evening activities. I just don't have the time for cooking, cleaning and making sure laundry baskets stay empty throughout the week so that is really important to me to get done over the weekend. Planning for the upcoming week of school takes me maybe an hour or two on Sundays (while watching football, lol) but that time is usually spent putting together some centers/hands on type stuff.

I enjoy it! But I LOVE dressing my kids. LOL! My boy doesn't have hand me downs as he's the only one. My two oldest girls (12 and 9) are now *basically* the same size (10/12... my 9y/o is a competitive gymnast/tumbler and one solid muscle). But they can't share clothes because they are built differently and my 7y/o is so tiny she's wearing 4/5t's... lol! Whatever doesn't work for the current season I sell/donate. I don't store clothes except for the season we just came out of. I also don't pass shoes from kid to kid as that has never worked either. I have gone through all the totes (6) of fall/winter clothes with them, we've done quite a bit of shopping for the things they don't have.. but since the weather can't make up it's mind we haven't officially changed over closets yet. Maybe this weekend or next.

It adds up... Rylee is my most expensive and I feel bad that it's not *equal* between all 4. However, I offer them all the same opportunities to do things that they are all interested in. Rylee is on the competitive gymnastics and the competitive tumbling teams and those two activities are just pricey. I really try to push cheaper activities though... Alexis: Guitar, Swim (team) - she also Runs and Bikes and participates in youth triathlons (I run marathons, including Boston, and train for triathlons so I can train her for these events), Horseback riding (weekly lessons), Dance, non-competitive (ballet, tap, hip-hop, jazz), Youth Group, Circuit/Strength Training (@home, CrossFit style - scaled) Austin: Drum Lessons, Football/Basketball/Baseball (through the YMCA, seasonal), Fishing Camp (twice/week June - August, free through the park district), Awana (September - May), Circuit/Strength Training (@home, CrossFit style - scaled), Martial Arts (through the Y, 8 weeks for $35) Rylee: Competitive Gymnastics (+ weekly private lessons), Competitive Tumbling (+ weekly private lessons), Dance, non-competitive (hip-hop, jazz, tapp, ballet, pom-pon), CrossFit (weekly private lessons with two local coaches who are competing this weekend at the Central Regional CrossFit Games), Piano & Voice Lessons (@home with me) McKenzee Grace: Dance, non-competitive (ballet, tap, hip-hop, jazz, pom-pon), Tumbling (pre-team), Awana (September - May), CrossFit Kids, Martial Arts (through the Y, 2 months for $35), Theater camp (a little pricey for the week but she LOVES to act)... We also do lots of library trips/activities, our park district has "movie in the park" nights, we joined Kids Bowl Free for the summer...

Thank you and yes we LOVE Dr. Seuss! :) A little old for my oldest... but I'm making it work for my 1st grader this year ;) LOL! We are going to change the theme before school starts next fall and I'm already a little sad ;) :(

All organized onto tons of shelves in our school room. The kids keep their books at their desks/shelves. The rest is put on various shelves sorted by if it's being saved or used and then by subject/grade. Here's some pics of our school room setup... Our School Room! #obSEUSSed

Thanks :)

I have lots of pics on my blog of our homeschool room :) Our School Room! #obSEUSSed

I understand this! My 3 oldest kids have bdays January 3, January 30 and February 6... lol!!

I have most of my Christmas shopping done for my kids. However, my youngest daughter is 6 and all she wants is "science stuff".... lol! Easy enough, right? I've found kits and science supplies to set up her own little "science station". Each of my other kids are getting a box of new books and I am going to put together a box of science books for McKenzee... but I'm not sure what to get for her. We already have tons of books ... I hope to find a whole set on a whole bunch of different science topics. Stilll looking though...