We start the middle of August so that we can take the whole month of December off. Math and reading we keep doing over summer. For the first day of school I make the children German school cones....the real name escapes me at the moment. These are filled with school supplies, special books, art supplies, and some treats. One year every one got a new star wars t-shirt. They love the cones. A picture for Mom. :001_smile: We also do a sort of stagger start the first 2 weeks to get us all back in the swing of things.

Mine start learning Latin 2-3 grade. My plan is to have them continue this through middle school; equivalent to 2 years HS Latin. My littles (2 & 5 this last school year) chanted right along with my older ones during review time. :) After Latin we will then do Greek for 2 years. My husband is from Mexico...but doesn't speak to them enough in Spanish:glare:. I do speak to them some in Spanish so that their brains will store the info on the same side of the brain as English. We will probably "study" Spanish in HS as well....the Latin study and home Spanish will come in handy then.:) I plan to incorporate the CM method of language learning this school year with Spanish to increase their word vault.

I'm not sure about K....but Mater Amabilis has planned curriculum for British students. The Island Story book I remember from the list. It might give you some ideas as the K student gets older. I would think that just some basics would be good for K. Maybe a Dover color book, color a flag, explaining the idea that they have Kings and Queens. Maybe husband could give you 3-4 British holidays to celebrate during the school year. Some fun words or sayings. Maybe some meal ideas. I just saw a CD on British History (has a lot of books on it for $30). I will see if I can locate the piece of paper (from a homeschooling conference).

I would have worked a lot harder to let go of my type A, anal retentive, perfectionist personality!!!! There are so many things (science, art, projects) that I didn't do with the first 2 because I couldn't do it "exactly like the book said" or "how it was supposed to work in my mind's plan". Go off an explore a rabbit trail....but we are supposed to have these things done by week 13. I would have used a lot more Montessori and Charlotte Mason with my older 2. Definitely more behavior training in the toddler years. Actually let the children touch and use the art stuff I gather rather than it just sitting in the bin because of the mess it will make or I am missing one thing on the list (that perfection thing again). Expand my "outside of the box" thinking skills which my children could then learn. Enjoy the journey more!!! There is so much more to homeschooling than the curriculum.

I want to go play at Jessica's (BramFam) house. Legos organized by color....my daughter and I would be in heaven. My 3 boys, however, have a big plastic box with a lid in the oldest's room. The medium size Legos are in the littles room in an Ikea shelf unit in the plastic tubs with lids. The big Legos went away. The only things that don't work are the Lego building boards. They are in a pile in the closet. I love the "sheet rule" idea....that would work great in our house because the upstairs carpet is dark green and many a foot has been injured from the small Lego pieces lurking in the carpet!!:glare: If a child wants to keep a Lego creation...they have to clear space of the shelf in their bedroom to keep on display.

This might already be posted....I couldn't read all the lovely posts. I have taken my SOTW activity books (and others that I want to use as non-consumable) to Kinko's and they will cut the binding off and 3-hole punch it very cheaply. They can be put into a binder the year you are using them, then stored easily (put a couple of rubber bands on it) in a file box. The cover stays with the pages and a timesaver when the books are thick. This allowed me to save on copies as I was able to adapt to the child (one always wants color pages, one only the maps, etc). For copies that we don't get to, I just put them in a file folder with the book and save for the next child. On the subject of letting things go in regards to books you don't finish; a wise homeschooling Mom said "It isn't as important that you do each subject perfectly, just that you did them at all." That keeps my heart feeling warm and fuzzy when we fall behind or I don't get to all the extra supplemental books from the library. I don't have to do it according to the perfect plan in my head. I just keep to keep moving forward and doing something.

I have the tummy thing....I have never seen or heard of that book before....but the picture on the cover is enough to make me scoff!!! My first child was born by C-section, 10 lb 9 oz. I worked after and lost weight....but my stomach continued to bulge out. There were 3 of us at work that had babies 3 months apart (although mine was hands down the biggest) and their tummies weren't like mine. It was like my tummy turned into a half-filled ball. I went to the Dr a couple of times and was told it was just because I had a big baby, keep working out, blah,blah,blah. 2nd child completely seperated the stomach wall. I was told it was dangerous to be in a car accident, etc because there was nothing but skin holding my belly in. She was born 3 weeks early, C-section at 9lb 9 oz. After her, my tummy looked like a wreck and really bulged out.I went to a different Dr and it was not Mommy Tummy....it was a huge ventral hernia. I had surgery when she was 4 months old but it didn't hold on the sides (they cut out all the paper thin muscle in the front and stitched it back together). I've had 2 more C-sections, continued the big baby thing and now have a really big ventral hernia again. I haven't lost any my weight....so I am not doing the surgery again until I'm at a better weight. Sit-up type exercises make a ventral hernia worse!!! So all my time at the gym made it bigger. Men can also get ventral hernias and look "pregnant". I feel your pain....my 6 year old keeps insisting I have a baby in my "big tummy" that I am keeping for a surprise. An easy way to tell if it is a ventral hernia...when you do a sit-up....and your shoulders are barely off the ground, your stomach will push out in a very irregular shape and be a bit hard to the touch. Also, the part that is mine that is the hernia, it doesn't sag like leftover fat or the stretched out skin, it keeps more of the pregnant belly shape. And, when you push my "pregnant belly" in....it bounces back more like a ball that's losing it's air. I don't know about anyone else, but my fat doesn't bounce back to touch; my finger just sort of sinks in.:001_smile:

I'm scared to check on my wishlist.....I too had the list of books I wanted there. I want to sleep tonight rather than hunting through all the blogs I got the books from. :tongue_smilie: Sites going down.... one of the reasons why I like paper and pencil!!! I allowed myself to get sucked into the safe feeling techonology trap once again.

McAfee.

:iagree: We use prayers the children are supposed to learn by age, and then similar to above. I have also picked quotes from their Shakespeare readings. I am trying to have less "books" to buy, so they use the same memory work for their 10 min of handwriting practice. 2 less books per child per year.....makes our budget happy.

I didn't have time to look at the program in depth; I was curious as well but the site is a little much. It is 2 sessions during the school year. I forget how many weeks each session is. It isn't long enough, IMHO, to be your entire school program.

The anatomy book is at a lower reading level for a 7th grader. We are doing Astronomy over the summer with a going into 4th grader and my going into 7th grader is a bit bored by it. Although the Anatomybook looks like a lot of fun. I wouldn't skip the General Science since it covers such a wide range of topics.

My children enjoy MTH...there is just enough science and/or history to spark their curiosity.

I have my children use the McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons in Reading during the year to help them practice the art of taking a timed test. If you are unfamiliar, it is a 3 minute test to read a section and answer 8 questions. These come in different reading levels. Has the numbers and the bubbles to fill in. I do this to just help them be used to "testing". We too live in WA and use the CAT. Since I am not good about doing written tests in general, this is a low pressure (and not time intensive) way to practice the skill. The only other test we do regularly is their spelling tests. :001_smile:

My son started reading these at 9; he is an avid reader.

Having a farm full of animals isn't looking quite so good to me now.:tongue_smilie:

I remember my cousin who was 5 years older lent me her Heart album. Homemade blue jean purses. 501 jeans....the only kind to wear (that might be regional). Off the shoulder dresses with spaghetti straps. We had one of those huge console TVs. speaker...TV....speaker. The lid lifted up on one side on the top to play records. The other lid was the volume radio. Going down to the store to get the newest 45 single.....you had to buy those plastic tab things to make it work on the record player. Big. sigh. Andy Gibb. I had a scandalous poster (according to my father) of him in his best disco outfit and his hairy chest showed. Oh that a hairy chest showing were all I needed to worry about these days!!! Pong. The movie Grease. My boy cousin my age an I used to do all the dances and sing. A dime for the phone booth. Sock hops on Fridays during lunch at our middle school.

I don't let my children (oldest 12) answer the door unless it is one of the neighbor children or a relative. They look out the window to see who it is. Even though we have 2 no soliciting signs....we still get door-to-door people. Although we don't live in a "high crime" area......you just don't know. There were a run of drug related day-time home invasions/robberies in the city next to us. And a girl was recently on the local news because her house got broken into when she was home sick from school. Maybe instead of an alarm sign....I could design a "single income/hs family...nothing good to steal. No flat screen TVs. Old computer. No Ipods or expensive cell phones. Lots of garage sale treasures found here sign.

On topic: It is really annoying to spend $$$ only to find out you need to spend more. Especially if you ordered it then have to pay s&h plus that horrible handling fee. :confused: There ought to be a law....obviously if you are ordering from a catalog they are going to have to "handle it". I wonder if I could institute a Mom handling fee. I handled the dirty laundry once to sort (plus an extra one if I have to pick it up off the floor), another to put in the washer, another to put in the dryer, another to get out and fold.... Off topic: I have a cold laminator from JoAnns. I have a big one and a small one. I use them a lot. If you watch the sales you can use your 50% off coupon to buy the laminator or refill cartridges. JoAnns also gives homeschoolers a teacher discount card. :001_smile: It isn't thick lamination, but it is clear. When I priced the thicker pouches at walmart it was cheaper to go the JoAnns route. The children can also use it since there is no heat.

I know you were looking for something to buy, but one thing I switched to was having the children copy sentences I wanted them to learn from their lessons. So prayers that they are supposed to be learning by age, Bible verses, lines of poetry or quotes from Shakespeare. I don't switch the copywork each day as they need to have the selection memorized first. So it isn't a lot of me work. :001_smile:

Totally rude and completely inappropriate and you were right not to tolerate it.

PS - yes, your 2 year is old enough. If they are old enough to get it out, they are old enough to put it back. Just takes you putting in the initial time investment to train them. __________________ Megan :iagree: It is funny how we view cleaning up differently than taking it out to play. :001_smile: But if they can take the toy out of the box, they can put it back in. The earlier you invest time in the clean it up part.....the sooner they learn not to make a huge mess. You can also try limiting the amount of stuff you have out until they get the clean up part down.

It is unfortunate that the unruly children were "the homeschool kids" because it does tend to stick in peoples minds. Our field trip groups have very strict rules about behavior because of this tendency to quickly label hsers as bad news if even only a couple of children are being unruly. Of course, the museums, plays, etc. don't ban public school field trips for unruly public school children. :tongue_smilie: I'm not sure why that is.

We are not a full schedule year round....but I do not like to have the summer totally free. We start our year in the middle of August, this allows us to take off the entire month of December with no schedule adjustments. June, we don't end up getting much school done. That is CAT test time, the Curriculum sale I organize, HS conferences and used book sales....plus I teach 1 week of VBS. I have the school age proper children continue reading & math plus this summer we are squeezing in some science. We have lots of outdoor time (get some extra CM outdoor time in if the rain ever stops) and camping trips. I took summer off last year....but found it was more challenging in August to get back in the swing of things. And there did need to be a little review time to get the brains back in gear.

It is so sad to see the innocence of children being further eroded. That the children think it's gross while the adults rationalize it, telling. And even more puzzling why the parents of those elementary children are not confronting the fact that the school is taking away even more of their parental rights. Being a parent (and I'm talking about our rights) has become such a contradiction in our country. We are financially responsible for the choices our children make until they are 18....but we are piece by piece losing the right to raise them in a responsible manner. School boards are elected....those parents should make their voices be heard. Schools will use this like a court case; if it stands there, others will follow. Frogs in the pot of water, stove on mediumhigh heat.