I have a 5th and 3rd grader, and we use Rod and Staff for grammar only - we don't do any of the writing assignments. They do the work orally and they use the workbooks. I don't have them write out any of the written assignments. I also started with IEW this year. That is our composition curriculum. It works for us to have two separate programs.

I was going to suggest putting an addition onto the house. Our last house had 2 bedrooms and 1200 square feet. We had a large back porch that we converted into two bedrooms and then changed one of the first bedrooms into a family room/school room. Fortunately, the space had a roof to work with, but we had to bring in concrete to raise the level of the floor, frame in and finish exterior and interior walls, add extra a/c ductwork, etc. But it was worth it. Really made our house a better fit for us and added resale value to it as well. My husband did most of the work himself, so that lowered the cost considerably.

She has covered keys of C, F, and G; flats, sharps, and naturals; whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes & rests; and some terminology such as allegro, ritardando, DC al Fine, legato, staccato, etc. Thank you! This is very helpful. Thank you ladies! I appreciate all the help I can get. I feel comfortable enough with my playing ability to teach my kids piano for a couple more years, but since I'm not a piano teacher, I don't have a lot of resources or experience to rely on for choosing materials.

It might depend on what your goal is for Latin. With my own kids, I want them to learn it but not necessarily be fluent in it, iykwim. I picked a curriculum that was heavy on vocabulary and light on grammar (it still teaches the grammar components, but it's not a major focus). We started with GSWL and have moved into Logos Latin.

I am teaching my kids piano. I started with Bastien piano books because they were recommended by a piano teacher (and they are what I used). However, I am considering switching to Faber Piano adventures. If you have any experience with the Faber books, can you answer my questions: What ages are the accelerated books designed for? My oldest is 10.5 yo and finishing Bastien level 1. Should I switch her to the Faber book 2a or the accelerated book (and if so, should I do accelerated book 1 or 2)? I'm hoping to find the series in a local music store to look through them, but I thought I'd ask for advice first. Thanks!

My oldest breaks down in tears over math periodically. We have found that when we do math early in the school day, we have fewer meltdowns.

Dp

We just got Seven Wonders for Christmas. It's been a fun game for the family. There's definitely strategy, but you can play without really understanding that level. My 10 and 8 year olds really enjoy it, and my 4 year understands the rules well enough to play with some assistance.

I don't have any advice, but I thought I'd mention: my mom has a five-year old boxer who used to be great with everyone and everything (except maybe cats because they were unfamiliar.). My mom frequently took the dog to a dog park so she could play with other dogs and get exercise, and they had a great time. Over the last year or two, the boxer has gotten "grumpy" in my mom's words. She can't take her to the dog park anymore because she picks fights with the other dogs. We had an older cocker spaniel that we would bring when we visited, and the boxer would be fine for a while and then suddenly snap or snarl our dog and attack - no biting, but definitely aggressive. We now have a bigger/younger dog and the two do better, but the boxer can go from playing enthusiastically to angry/lunging/snarling. We're attributing the behavior change to age, even though the boxer isn't really that old. She is still great with people, and we just take precautions. When my mom comes to visit, she brings her dog and the crate so that when her dog acts up, she gets locked in her crate to clam down. She has never been aggressive toward the kids, but we do encourage the kids to be gentle with her (not sit on her like they do our dog). Maybe other people will have helpful suggestions, but I thought I'd share that your dog isn't the only one.

My labor was in my back, so that's how I could tell. Braxton Hicks were in the front, real labor was when I could feel it in the back. I will second the person who cautioned laboring at home as long as possible since the ride to the hospital is long. Our house was 45 minutes from the birth center. My dd3 was born in the front seat of the car, caught by DH after he pulled over to the center turn lane. Even if our daughter had managed to wait until we got to the birth center, that was the worst experience of my life - trying to sit in a car during the late stages of labor was excruciating.

I have to agree that the trainer's advice seems a little ... premature, at best. The dog has only been in your house a week, right? This is a brand new environment, new people, and he just had surgery. It doesn't seem like the best time to make a snap decision. Again, he sounds very much like the pup we brought home from the shelter. He was definitely "reserved." If anyone approached him, he would pee out of nervousness. It was all so new to him. The person who helped us at the shelter recognized that he was a timid/shy dog and warned us that if we didn't train him out of it, he would never be good around people. What she recommended (and what we did) was bring him with us when we went to the park, to soccer practice, or a trip to petsmart. We had people over just so the dog could get used to people coming over to the house. It took some time for him to get used to people, but now he is a friendly dog - not so friendly that he obnoxiously jumps on people, but he is happy to sniff a new person's hand and get to know them. Really a pretty good balance. We actively watched him at first, we made an effort to "socialize" him (don't we homeschoolers love that word), and now he's a great dog that I have no concerns about with other people or kids.

I suspect it was stress to the new environment and establishing pecking order, as others have suggested. We got a dog from the shelter a few months ago. He was a 6-7 month old lab mix. On the first night, dh had to take the kids out of the house, so the dog bonded with me. The next day, I was on the floor, and the dog was in my lap. My 4 year old came up to me and the dog growled at her. We suspect because he was claiming his territory. I told him no, pushed him away, and had the 4 year old sit in my lap. The next time he sat in my lap, I had the four year old come up and sit in my lap too. We watched him very carefully after that, but he never did it again. Interestingly, he bonded first with me, then my dh, then my oldest child. It took him the longest to warm up to the other two; I suspect because they were closer to his level and he didn't see them as dominant. We had them give him his dinner and feed him from their hands as a way to bond them. He has become a GREAT dog with the kids. They are constantly laying on him, climbing on him, you name it, and he soaks up the attention. My guess is that it's a similar situation with your new dog as well and that with training, he can become a good family dog.

Awesome! Thank you ladies! I knew I could count on you. So, here is what I have: Birthdays are little milestones marking the divisions of one's progress in the journey through life. Please accept this little book as a token of remembrance of days that are past but not forgotten, and thus as another happy Mar 10th finds you enjoying pleasant associations, I trust many of the within quotations, though not my words, may be my thoughts clothed in the beautiful language of the poets. DW 3/10/06 (or 03) To Olivia E Shuey

Here it is!

Hi, I found this book of poetry in my collection of antique books. It contains an inscription from my great grandfather to my great grandmother from before they were married. I am trying to figure out what it says, and I need help with two words. Anyone want to venture a guess? Here is what I have (I need the words in parenthesis). Birthdays are little milestones marking the division of ones progress in the journey through life. Please accept this little book as a token of remembrance of days that are past but not forgotten and there as another happy (unknown) finds you enjoying pleasant associations. I trust many of the (unknown) quotations though not my words may be my thoughts clothed in the beautiful language of the poets. DW 3/10/06 To Olivia E Shuey ETA: I thought I had attached the photo. I'll try again.

Here's our story, FWIW. My son was diagnosed with strabismus at four and put in glasses. His first opthalmologist suggested surgery after 6 weeks in glasses because the glasses weren't fixing the problem all the way. We were very uncomfortable with that, and we found a new opthalmologist, whom we ended up loving. He understood our desire to try other methods before surgery, so for a year and half, he had my son in glasses and wearing a patch over his strong eye for a few hours each day. As my son was getting ready to turn 6, the doctor said that the glasses and patching were not correcting the problem 100%, and he was concerned about permanent vision loss in his weak eye and development of depth perception. By this time, we trusted the doctor and his decision, so my son had the surgery done. Recovery was quick, and it has made a big difference for him. He still wears glasses because he is slightly farsighted, but his eyes don't turn in ( with or without the glasses), he now has depth perception, and he uses both eyes. At his latest checkup (with a new opthalmologist because we moved out of state), he said that my son's eyes and vision were doing very well. We are very happy with the route we took.

What do you use and how do you like it?

I've read through a couple of your other posts. You are 14 and have just started the French Horn. I think you should focus on one instrument at a time. If you like the French Horn, stick with it for at least a year then consider adding another instrument. If you don't like the FH, then by all means, try another instrument, but I would do it as a replacement, not in addition to what you are already doing. Also, for trumpets, get and learn a basic B-flat trumpet. Save the herald trumpets for when you are ready to go pro. (This coming from someone who played trumpet, French Horn, and some trombone through high school and had a music scholarship for trumpet in college).

We started with Latin for Children (but discontinued using due to the tears it produced); then moved to Getting Started with Latin (loved it!) DD10 finished it last year, and she has moved on to Logos Latin, which I haven't seen mentioned much on this forum, but she is really liking it. There was a little overlap from what she already learned, but she is adding a lot of new vocabulary this year. Also, it provides more opportunity for independent practice than GSWL. It's working well for us. http://www.logospressonline.com/latin-1/

Seconding the vacuum suggestion. We have struggled with fleas at various times, and seriously, the most effective way to get rid of them is to vacuum every day.

We started using them a year ago for our regular banking - checking and savings. They have been very easy to use. We can deposit checks electronically, and the savings and checking accounts earn interest. Not that this would apply to your situation, but one of the things I like about them is that since they do not have any ATM locations, they do not charge an ATM fee and they even reimburse us at the end of the month any fees charged by other companies' ATMs (so, if I use a machine that charges $2.00, Ally will give us $2 at the end of the month). Their customer service has also been helpful the few times I have had to call.

This happened to me. I had a book that was literally saturated with cigarette smoke. I sprinkled baking soda in a box (you could also use a ziplock bag, but this was a big book). I laid the book in the box and sprinkled baking soda in between the pages randomly. I sealed the box and every few days, I opened it up and sprinkled new baking soda between the pages. It took a few weeks, but it did get rid of the smell. The baking soda was relatively easy to shake off when it was done.

I agree with the others who have suggested more read-alouds from picture books. I have a four-year old who is starting pre-K this year. She is definitely not as interested as her older siblings were at this point, so, like you, I am struggling to keep her doing the "official work." However, what I have found to be incredibly successful is to select a picture book to be our book for the week and I base lessons off of that. For example, we read One Fish Two Fish one week. We read the book each day and after each reading focused on a different "skill." One day counting - how many fish on the page? Two! Take these beads and show me two. One day colors - what color is the fish? Red. Good. Go find three red things from around the house. One day letters - find an A. What sound does it make. Find a B. The B says "b." One day coloring, etc. This was not the approach I took with my older two, and I have been surprised at how easy it is and how much I have enjoyed it. I really like the unit studies and lapbooks available on Homeschool Share. I don't use them every week with her, but they do give me some ideas. Last week, we did Blueberries for Sal, and I used some (not all!) of the printables. These included some line tracing exercises for writing-readiness, some placement words (put little bear beside the rock, under the crow, above the stump), and a memory game with cards based on the book which I used for her to play the game and to also retell me the story since she had heard it 3-4 times by that point. http://homeschoolcreations.com/BlueberriesforSalPrintables.html She learning, she's enjoying school, and she's being read to from good picture books (I select the books based on various literature lists I have) and save the princess books for non-school time. I do these things with her while the older two are doing more independent work like handwriting and spelling, and then the youngest is free to go play while I do more teacher-intensive work with the older two. ETA I just reread your OP. I don't know if these ideas are ones you said you hate. I definitely am not an artsy-craftsy person with the kids and I didn't think I would like the book-a-week idea. When my older was pre-K, someone tried to talk me into FIAR, and I thought that sounded horrible - same book every day??? However, like I said, I am liking it so much more than I thought I would, and it is working for her.

Neat! Are you involved in any homeschool groups or activities in the area? We're still pretty new here and learning what's available. (If you want, you can reply via pm so we don't hijack the thread).