It has been a while since I have read BH and there are some similarities, but I would say there is a slighted darker element to TN. Each story has them needing to get out of a (potentially) scary situation: getting rid of the aunt before she poisons the mice, escaping the hamster cage at school before they are taken to the pet store and getting off the island w/ the feared rats. Again, we didn't find it scary or upsetting, but there is a subtle element of danger. BH was more sweet and IIRC, the problems were just that, there wasn't that element of danger present. HTH!

Thank you thank you thank you for sharing this! It was a wonderful read. My littles are young, but I do realize time flies and before you know it you are there. I am filing this away for future reference and while I try not to plantoo much for the future, I do keep the end goal in mind. Thank you for sharing the wisdom and insight!

We read it last fall and enjoyed it. The breakdown is as a PP said, funny. My children, who are fairly sensitive, we not at all concerned about the neglected children aspect. It is not presented in any concerning way. The last book does have the mice trying to escape rats on an island. At one point they get the rats drunk on chocolate liquors, just a head's up if that type of thing may be of concern to you. All in all it was a sweet story. I will say we read through them and I was ready to finish them by the end. We were alittle exasperated with General Marchmouse. Happy reading! :)

I just mulled this over last month. They both looked so good! In the end I choose Real Science Odyssey b/c I wanted science to be experiment heavy. I really wanted hands on w/ living books. ES had that, but it looked like a little more narration and I just didn't want that for science at this point. Also, as I was looking I was able to get a pretty good feeling of RSO w/ the chunk she let's you download and all I could get from ES was narration pages. I like that I can add living books or not. If we don't add them for a subject we can still do the experiment and it's all good. So far it has been good, but we haven't really been in full school mode, so it isn't happening regularly. They both looked really good and it was a tough choice. ES may have all of the elements I liked about RSO, but in the end I just couldn't tell for sure. HTH!

Language Arts WWE finishing 2 and then 3 MCT Island level AAS Daily proofreading exercises (AM independent work) Self elected reading from a a bucket of books I choose and daily sentence or two of what he has read in his notebook Read alouds Math MEP considering a little MM supplement for some tricky areas Math 4 Today (AM independent work) Science Real Science Odyssey Earth and Space History Basically put this together using Guest Hollow's American 2 as my framework Art/Music/Poetry We'll be studying Van Gogh, Matisse, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock and the book Art Fraud Detective, Jazz, Blue Grass and folk, Songs from the Underground RR and traditional African American songs, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack Prelutsky, Emily Dickinson Handwork Building a small covered wagon, knitting, cloth dying He will be doing a class on Mondays from 8:30-1:30, some field trips, lots of bike riding, playing w/ friends, reading, listening to tapes, logic games, games w/ mom, building stuff with immense amounts of masking tape and cardboard and Legos.

When you take a week off do you just take a complete break for that week and then resume? Or do you have your kids do a little bit of work? How do you typically use your week off? Just vegging? Catch up? Field trips? I have planned this year in (basically) 6 week chunks w/ a week break following each week and am curious how others use that off week.

Drats. A few friends and I are supposed to read this and I specifically said I was fine as there wasn't graphic violence. :( I do not do well w/ those images put in my head.

another :iagree:

Exactly! And I always tell new homeschooling families...you can't do it all! We have a pretty amazing homeschool community w/ a couple of coops and oodles of classes. It is so easy to be caught in the trap of doing all these great activities that you forget the school part of homeschool. (and I realize that for some people all of those activities are the school aspect, I'm just a I need to be home to school kind of girl!)

I suffered from eczema when I was young, it went away for the most part and then came back w/ a vengeance when I moved for college down south. It was so bad at times when I was in college. I once had a professor ask me if someone hit me or hurt me b/c my eyes and face were so torn up. :sad: It was that bad. It seemed to get a little better, but seemed exacerbated when I got pregnant. I did allergy testing b/c I was certain I had food allergies. I turned up with a slight peanut allergy and allergy to celery. :001_huh: We did find I had a number of environmental allergies-trees, pollens, grasses, dust mites, it was a long list. Basically, the Dr. told me there was one month out of the year that I wasn't allergic to something. We moved again in the same state, but to a place w/ a bad allergy reputation and my skin revolted. It was terrible once again. I tried numerous creams, lotions, elimination diets. The naturopath had me do a 2 week elimination diet. Then you add one food back at a time and watch for reactions. The diet wasn't terrible, but I am an adult. I am not sure how it would be for a kid. I did no eggs, dairy, wheat, citrus, sugar, soy, nuts, corn and something else. She also had me start taking cod liver oil. After 2 weeks there was a very slight difference. We tried some homeopathies and I finally gave up and took a Claritin and it cleared up. Seriously, it was like night and day. I take Claritin as needed in the spring and summer. I also use a very thick lotion every time I get out of the shower. It is some Baby Eczema cream and is the first thing I have ever used that made a difference. I am so sorry you all are dealing with this! It is so hard and uncomfortable. Mine also has a huge emotional component and once it spins out of control it is very heard to manage. Little one just woke up...gotta run! Oh, big believer in (good) cod liver oil too!

Thanks for your thoughts Jean. I appreciate it! Maybe I should have put this on the K-8 board?

I have giving a lot of thought to this the past couple of days as we start looking toward fall and our schedule falls into place. I am really trying hard to figure out what the balance of activities outside our home looks like. Last year my two bigs participated in a class a very good friend did out of her home one day a week from 9-1:30. It was a Waldorf inspired class w/ about 10 children total. We also participated in a Science co-op that we have been doing for about 3 years w/ 5-6 families for 12 weeks each semester. They occasionally did a Friday class at the above named friend's farm, about 1x/month in the Spring. Our Science class is starting earlier and taking a longer portion of the day, basically making it difficult to accomplish much of our school that day. So, I am looking toward next year and stressing big time, which I am prone to do anyway. I am really feeling a lot of stress about getting our school completed. I am having a tough time figuring out what the balance is between being out of the house and thinking about what to give up. My kids have made it very clear they do not want to give up the class w/ my friend. They don't really want to give up co-op, but my son said that was the one he would ditch if he had to pick one. I guess I feel like co-op is our core group of families and to a big extent my homeschool social outlet and I am hesitant to give it up. They will only regularly see one, maybe two of the families from co-op if we give that up. The other class is different kids and a drop off program and while we do community activities as a group they are not families I would probably choose. The co-op families very intentionally came together, so they are all families I feel a connection to (not to mention we have know each other for 6 years or so). However, b/c it is a co-op I have to teach and prepare for my weeks (as well as lead a little something for the little littles, I think it works out to about 6 or 7 weeks of the 12 b/c we have 5 families going into this year). My friend is planning on doing regular monthly field trips 1 Friday a month, as well as a Friday at their farm, so if we dropped co-op we could participate in those activities if we wanted, however keeping co-op would make those not an option. Adding field trips was one of the things I put on my list for next year, so that is a plus. AGGG! I know this is long and so rambly...sorry! I think I know the answer, but I don't want to give something up and then regret it. But when I think about how I want my homeschool to look and my memories with my children, it doesn't include me running all over town. I definitely don't do some of the things I want to do b/c I feel like the days we are home we need to get the school stuff done. I know my kids are young, but I do feel like being out of the house too much makes it really hard to settle into a routine and makes for a grumpy mom. My oldest may or may not have some learning quirks with reading and spelling, so it is important those subjects are done regularly. I think I have pretty realistic expectations as far as work load etc. for my kids and their ages, but I am definitely the one of our group who does the most, so it is hard for my to gauge. (Like several of my friends do no history, we are a history loving family so we make time for that. Or the don't do any regular spelling) Maybe I feel stressed b/c I do do a lot and I should just scale back on subjects, then we wouldn't have to give anything up (that's mostly rhetorical, realistically that's not an option) Agg, I just don't know, but I need to make some decisions soon! :confused: If you made it this far you definitely deserve a gold star! :001_smile: What do your outside commitments look like? How do you determine what is enough or too much for your kids? Oh and I should mention my two dds did dance last year in the late afternoon one day a week, so we will probably do one physical extra like that.

Umm, we don't! LOL At some point I tried to organize them in some type of color or size fashion, but you know my boy didn't want that...I did! So, now they are upstairs in his 'man cave'... his closet. It is his room dedicated to Legos. It is a narrow, but long space and has a slanted roof, as it was previously part of our attic. Before getting his own room and space for his Legos, we used an extra large under the bed box to store them. They are still in that box theoretically, but he really prefers them dumped out on the floor. :svengo: They stay confined to that space (mostly), so I try to stay out of it. He has so many and he really likes to rifle through them. He definitely likes chaos, but as long as I am not seeing a million pieces on my floor I a m ok. In the past his room was on the main living level and we definitely had more issues with the Legos. I have swept and pitched my fair share, but I always gave fair warning that I was sweeping and he needed to clean any stray Legos up. Now that they are located on a different level and in a contained space that no longer seems to be an issue.

:iagree: I haven't finished it yet, so my opinion could certainly change, but I am not finding it as compelling as TWTM. Right now I feel like I am more slogging through it, not "I can't wait to read some more". I don't like the emphasis on memorization and I am a little turned off by her tone in the first section, much of what a PP wrote. I don't know it feels a little condescending to me or something. I am looking forward to the latter part of the book and thinking I may find inspiration there.

Yes, we have an unusual last name and someone w/ my dh's same name (first and last) lives in our community and is in the same line of work. The randomness of life I guess. Honestly, I wouldn't spend any more energy on it. If you were curious enough to wonder what he was up to and then Google him you must not have all bad feelings about him, you know?

Not the front door and I actually don't like to answer that one either! Anyone who really knows us knows we use the backdoor and if it is a friend my littles will answer it, but I am usually right there in the kitchen with them. Absolutely not on the front door. We live in a very safe little town, but right on the main street and I don't feel comfortable answering the door when I don't know the person. It just feels like I am putting myself in a vulnerable situation. I have never liked answering the door to someone I don't know.

We have a manual one attached to the wall in the school room. It is *perfect*, close to my kitchen, lasted longer than the electric and we always know where we can sharpen our pencils!

Yes, another thank you from me! I used your American History 1 last year and am looking forward to 2. I made some modifications, but sooo appreciate you doing all the hard work!

This is so me, minus the pets and proximity to things, but the thought of taking my 4 children anywhere by myself always gives me pause. Really, it just feels like too much and stresses me out thinking about it.

My oldest is a very auditory learner, but this also translates to highly distracted/bothered/irritated by noises (big and small) and it does interfere with his learning. His 4 year old sister is a bundle of energy-noise, jumping, bouncing...basically a bundle of distractions! LOL I am getting my son headphones from Lakeshore Learning like this: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca%7CsearchResults~~p%7C2534374302100793~~.jsp I am a former special ed teacher and had very good luck with these for my kids who were distracted auditorily in blocking out some of the noise and allowing them to concentrate a little better. (and that is a poorly written sentence, but several someones are having a melt down, so I must tend)

We have answered questions as they have come up. They have gotten a bit more specific and we have handled those with frankness. We have the book It's So Amazing on the bookshelf and he has gone through that several times. We often ask if he has any questions and I have suggested that my dh make himself available for any questions (and of course he is, I was suggesting making it explicitly known to DS). So, I guess we will just keep revisiting it w/ (hopefully) age appropriate discussions. :lurk5: (for my daughter)

My son got it for his 9th birthday from Mama. I told him long ago that I would read it to him when he turned 9. :) We have read up through #3 and he generally reads them behind me, after we finish one he'll read it himself. All of his friends are 9-10 and have gotten into this past year...reading voraciously!

I am undertaking this project right now! Ours is a beautiful creamy yellow called Cozy Cottage. Not only do I love the color, but I think the name is perfect for our room. :) I think it will really compliment the natural light in the room and be a calm, neutral color that inspires us to do our best. That's my fantasy, anyway! LOL

Mine is all prepped to be painted, just waiting for some motivation to strike! I love having a dedicated space and love looking at how everyone organizes etc. Thanks all for sharing.

Here's what I am planning for 4th: (and I am feeling like a total slacker after reading some of the replies! eeep) All components of MCT Island level and Music of the Hemispheres AAS Level 3 Finishing WWE 2 and starting 3 Megawords for the syllabication practice We'll also use Write 4 Today grade 3 for some independent morning work. We've never used that (although have used the Math 4 Today), so we'll see how that pans out. If it is a dud we'll use something else that is short, quick and independent for practice in editing and general language.