I would recommend hiding in the bathtub as well, but if you're house is like mine there really is no place to hide. Maybe you need to go for a long walk through the grocery store. When I was a kid, my mom used to grocery shop at 11:00 at night. As a kid I thought she was crazy, now that I am an adult I think she was brilliant.

I had them early with 2 of 3 pregnancies. The third I had placenta previa so I may have had them, but I was so worried about other stuff I didn't notice.

Try Tennessee. Cost of living is low, and eastern TN has mountains and snow.

I love setting the timer to clean. I get tired of cleaning the same things over and over, but with a timer I do not feel like I will be stuck cleaning all day, again. Sometimes I plan something I actually enjoy for 15 minutes in between thirty minute work cycles. Lately we have had family, minus dad who is working, 10 minute cleaning frenzies. It is amazing what we can get done.

Where I live we have consignment stores and consignment sales that are seasonal. I have sold clothes and toys at both and have paid for the next season's wardrobe for my daughter (shopping at consignment stores of course).

I am a runner and make smoothies every day. Yes, green ones. The ninja did not work for me. I use protein powder, fruit/veggie juice (V* 8 fusion), a banana, oj from concentrate, and spinach. The spinach did not get chopped enough, and we felt like we were chewing on our smoothies. I took it back and found a blender that had the ice crusher (most do) and it has worked great. It also made them creamier than the ninja did.

Seems like that award is pretty easy to earn

Simple Solution from Hollywood Feed is a cat smell miracle.

We have a similar problem, and I think the answer is new every day. Some days the nonschoolers go outside, somedays the older ones go into another room, but most days the older listen to me read green eggs and ham to the younger for the thousandth time while they simultaneously pretend to be studing Latin. THe deal is, school is done when school is done. If it takes you four hours, great. If it takes you eight and you still work on it all weekend, I guess that is life. I will say that is what happened to my oldest last week and she was much more motivated to get her work done this week. Sometimes the eight hour school days bother me more than they bother the kids. For us, there has to be life in homeschool. I do not want to be my kids jailer, so we do have distractions, and then we get back to work. It is chaotic, but it is also fun.

We use math trainer (free online) or multiplication shoot out. We record her results every day and try to beat the previos day's score.

We tried it all, including duct tape, and it did not work for us. What worked for us was beetle juice, no seriously, beetlejuice. It has to be applied by a nurse practitioner or md but it is amazing. We tried duct tape, apple cider vinegar, and freezing it off in a md office, nothing worked. Beetlejuice caused it to blister and fall off with no pain.

I run or walk 5 times per week, sometimes with friends Good for my sanity and my weight.:)

When I first purchased shoes that addressed the fact that I overpronate they hurt quite a bit. Maybe even for a couple weeks. Since then I have been wearing the same brand of shoes, and my feet never hurt (unless it is time to buy new shoes)

Brining absolutely makes the turkey juicier . We do it every time we cook turkey. It is a pain to brine and then dry overnight, but it is worth it.

I have upped protein for my active kids, but it is hard for me to tell if it is helping or not. I put protein powder in their pancakes and milkshakes and try to make more food./snacks instead of having them just grab stuff. I switched to the fruit/veggie juice, and even the fruit/veggie fruit snacks if I buy them. I wish i could tell if it was working. I think it is. I also added vitamins. I will think I see a difference and then they will be so tired. Could be sinus/allergy like it is with me, not enough sleep... Who knows. What I do know is that I feel better about the food I am giving them now. Hopefully that counts for something.

Sounds like a lot of change is happening in your household. I would personally recommend focusing on getting each child up to grade level with reading, writing, handwriting, and math. I would let them listen to history and/or science on audio when they were practicing their handwrting or doing chores, etc. (SOTW has an audio version :) I wouldn't worry about reading difficult books, just books they like that are challenging enough and hold their interest. To get them to love reading as much as you do, you are going to have to find books that they like. I wouldn't do a list of must reads just because they are expected; if your kids hate what they read it will take them longer to read it and make learning so much more difficult. Find a wide variety of books and have them read a lot. If you can get them reading on grade level, history and science can be caught up in no time, but to do it all simultaneously might actually be counterproductive. To try Latin right now seems overly ambitious. As far as handwriting for older children, I would buy or make a chart and let him practice the letters while journaling. Some people do not even teach cursive anymore, they say it is becoming obsolete. If you have to make a choice between soso cursive and printing, or good printing, I would choose good printing. Good luck!

Despite all of my best intentions, promises to myself, and good beginnings, assembling the resources needed for these science experiments never happens. I always reason that I can get the stuff cheaper on my own, but the question is, will I? Unfortunately, for me, no. The experiments are the things that make science interesting, right? So, the kit is worth every last penny, as long as I remember to use it. :)

Mental math is very important. It is worth slowing down and supplementing with another curriculum like MM to reinforce and/or learn mental math. I tutor junior/senior high school students, and if you cannot do mental math it makes the more advanced stuff so difficult and time comnsuming.

Mammoth math would be a great supplement to reinforce concepts while giving you both a break from Algebra. A lot of people love Kahn academy (free) for math explanation. Plan B: Do you have a homeschool friend that loves math and hates English? Barter. It may be worth it to get you out of the laundry room. :) Believe me, we have all been there.

I love Analytical grammar, but I am using it with a 7th grader. I think it could be started in 6th grade, but 2nd might be too young. I looked at shurley a lot and wanted to use it, but I just felt like it would be too labor intensive. AG has been great. She works independently and feels very confident in grammar. I plan to use junior AG with my 4th grader next year, and continue AG for another year. After that, they say she has completed grammar other than some reinforcement and review for high school.

MM would be great with RS. MM is great for independent work and would reinforce the mental math RS teaches. MM has enough problems for reinforcement but not enough to be considered dry busywork.

We have had similar results with MM. Challenging but does not provoke my child to sobbing fits in which she is convinced she is horrible at math (daily occurence with Singapore). Anything to reduce the drama.

Have you looked at Junior Analytical Grammar?

I have used all three of these programs and prefer Math Mammoth. Well, actually, as an adult and a math tutor I loved Singapore. I loved the way they taught and understood where they were going with their teaching strategy. Unfortunately, I am not the one being homeschooled, and my daughter hated it, especially toward the end. It is not a hand the student the workbook and let them go kind of program. The word problems are difficult, very difficult. I did not like math u see. Math Mammoth is a good program that will challenge kids without frustrating them. My daughter can work through it with minimal instruction.