Teaching Company courses if she can get those. Liberty's Kids if they don't already have it.

Remember that the home schooling "experts" are not necessarily math education experts. There are some people who bemoan their own math skills and then love a particular program because they can be successful with it. I think you will find other opinions here because there are a lot of parents who are quite comfortable with math and may prefer an approach that is not Saxon. I used to teach high school math, so I am very comfortable with the subject and know how I like to teach it. Saxon's spiral approach would drive me batty. But I love how Singapore teaches kids how to think mathematically. I am not bashing Saxon at all or the people who choose it because it works for them. I'm just trying to say that just because someone writes a book about home schooling doesn't mean they have the definitive answer about how to approach a particular subject area. But their suggested approach may be a good starting point for someone who knows less than they do.

If you have a printer still under warranty, using refilled cartridges voids the warranty. They can cause damage to the printer. If you think about what a print cartridge goes through during it's first life, the print head is just not going to be in great shape to go through it all again and again and again. The printhead is a computer circuit. The ink is highly corrosive. Damage happens to the printhead. If you ever get streaky printouts, that is from a clogged nozzle on the printhead. So I wouldn't be eager to buy a cartridge that's been through a lot already, especially if my printer is new enough to still be under warranty. I try to get new cartridges when Office Max has their "20% off everything you can put in this bag" sale (one last week). But don't stock up--the expiration date on ink cartridges is real.

I was actually craving pumpkin pie, but if that's not available I'll go for plain ol' apple pie with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.

When I was 30, exercise alone was enough to lose weight. And it didn't even have to be a lot of exercise, just as long as I did it 5 days a week. Then I had to watch what I eat. Then I had to exercise longer (30 min instead of 20). I would suggest tracking your calories. I will maintain at around 1800-2000 calories. I need to be down around 1500-1600 calories to lose. Some people say that is a lot of calories, but it really isn't all that much food when you count out every calorie. Some people can diet and eat a lot less than that, but I was always looking to establish healthy habits that I could maintain indefinitely (eg lower sugar, more fiber, more veggies, limit sweets, etc). When I lost weight in 2007, it was about a pound a month on average (many months of nothing, some months with more than one pound). But no yo-yo-ing--when the pounds dropped they stayed off. The key is to just stick with it, day after day, month after month. That's why I focus on what healthy habits I can adopt long term. Now in my mid-40's, I definitely need to focus on diet more than exercise when I want to lose weight.

I think it is really pretty easy to pick up technology skills. Harder to learn how to think. We'll focus on that, and expect that dd will be able to learn to use tools to help her as we did.

Using it this year in 5th. We take a break from Singapore every month or two and do some LoF. Dd has already studied fractions in Singapore and Horizons, so it is easy for her to do on her own and she enjoys it. I love the questions he asks--they are not just "drill and kill" fractions questions--they're great for broader mathematical thinking. Anyway, 5th grade has been perfect for us. We'll do decimals and percents next year.

We are on our second cycle of using Biblioplan. I started using it before all of the new support materials were added, and I still just use the reading schedule. I chose Biblioplan for a couple of reasons. I prefer its method of studying history chronologically by culture instead of SOTW's strict chronological schedule. So you study Egypt for several weeks, then on to the Nation of Israel, then Greece. With SOTW you will hop back and forth to Egypt for instance as you move forward in time. Particularly for younger kids, I prefer to stay in a particular culture for an extended period of time. I also liked that Biblioplan included biblical history. I think the whole process of studying the Nation of Israel between Egypt and Greece emphasizes that biblical history IS history--not just myth or stories. I love Biblioplan's book list. For our first time through, I loved that there was a K-2 level (all picture books), where say Sonlight or Veritas Press would be geared only to older children. I loved using Biblioplan for years 3 and 4 also because SOTW is too light on American history. Now I will freely admit that if you are trying to cover both American history well and world history, you will be spending a lot of time on history. But that's okay with us. I just couldn't see studying half of one chapter of SOTW for America's Civil War. We got a much richer experience by using Biblioplan. For our second cycle I looked at the possibility of going to ToG. But it was so expensive, so complicated, the book list did not include some of my favorites from Biblioplan, and my daughter did not fit well into one of their categories (upper grammer vs. dialectic). I finally decided that we enjoyed Biblioplan so much the first time that we would use it again. My kids are older, so we'll hit a lot of books that we didn't do the first time.

I finished The Phantom Tollbooth which my dd is reading as an assignment. It was fine, but not really on my list of favorite childhood books, as I know it is for some people. I am now reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology which I started last year but got bogged down. We're just starting Ancient Greece in history, so maybe I'll be able to finish this time. 463 pages...definitely need to pick a shorter book next.

Review 3 at the end of the book? 4 pages? I would assign it over 2 days and dd agreed that would be reasonable (she also does some work in Horizons each day, so too much for 1 day here). A typical workbook exercise is 2 pages, so 2 days to do 4 pages is reasonable. But her reaction may mean she is having trouble with some of the concepts.

I found mine at Ross last year for $10. It's been a great purchase! And the best method I have found to get the pizza from the peel to the pizza stone in the oven is to put parchment paper on the peel and slide it into the oven with the pizza. I tried cornmeal and just never got very good at sliding the pie off the peel. And the cornmeal smells weird as it cooks! You can remove the parchment paper after a few minutes very easily.

This is one of the perks of home schooling--set the schedule to what works best. My kids sleep until 8:00--the elementary school bus has already come and gone by then. Why should I get them up earlier? When they are awake and feeling good, they will learn better. If they need to sleep later when they are teens, why not? Adjust the schedule to suit their needs. When they need to be up early for something, they can do it. But I don't see why we need to do that on a daily basis.

Our first was born with a serious birth defect and will always need a lot of care. We have a slightly higher chance than most at having another with a birth defect. Having a disabled child has been a huge blessing--every family should have one! But I don't think I have enough resources within me to handle two disabled kids. Having my next two kiddos was very worrisome and stressful for me, but I had enough faith that we would make it through all right (eg enough faith to handle any outcome). I don't have enough faith to face that risk anymore, especially as I age and risks increase. So we're done. I would love to have a large family, but I have what I can handle.

Do them all! Okay, not for everyone, but we're actually doing that this year. We do not do all of a Horizons lesson because we just use it for review/standardized test prep. So it amounts to about 1/2 lesson per day. We do 1 Singapore lesson a day. After a major unit we do the challenging word problems, about 2 pages per day. Then after one or two units, dd gets a break from Singapore and does a section of Life of Fred Fractions. It will take us all year to do the one book. But she is enjoying it and I think likes that break from Singapore. I think we'll do the same thing next year with the LoF Decimals and Percents book.

If you use CPO, what do you order? Can you get by with just the student set (text and investigations manual)? Can you do some of the investigations without all of the classroom equipment? Does the interactive DVD add much?

Just finished Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (Time Traveler's Wife) for our January book club pick. I enjoyed it. I will be counting the kid lit that I read--I need to keep up with what I assign my 10 yo! So I have just started The Phantom Tollbooth. I need to read The Children's Homer also.

We are using the Home School in the Woods materials this year. We did a fold-up timeline during our first cycle of history and I wanted my 5th grader to do a nice book-style timeline the second time through. Something nice that she could use as a resource in high school, or even college. I ended up buying their timeline pages on CD and I purchased good quality binders at Office Max. If you have multiple kids, this is cheaper than buying each a printed book. Also, I can let my 2nd grader have her own book and it doesn't really matter if it's not perfect--I can just print more pages for her when she is older and able to do a neater job. Shipping is also very cheap if you are only ordering the CDs. Getting the binders adds quite a lot to the shipping charges (I had them in my cart for awhile while I was trying to figure out what to get). It will take a little training for your dd to learn how to get the figures on the right pages. I think the CD came with the suggested placement guide--very much worth it, but you'll still have to show your dd how to use it!

Okay, okay, I'll try again. I only got 28 books read last year. But that was probably more than I would have read without the challenge. I was doing pretty well until about May...

We just replaced our old treadmill with one with speakers and a place to plug in an ipod. Yay! So dh plugged in my ipod to test it out and it started playing a Latin chant. Not quite right for getting the old body moving! I'm looking for suggestions for good songs with a strong beat that would be fun to listen to while exercising. Songs from before 1990 would be a plus (we may actually have them in the house for one thing). I know I'll be downloading the ABBA Gold CD my dd got for Christmas (my sister and I used to sing all of those songs when we were kids and she got it for my music-loving disabled dd). What are your favorites? Thanks!

We moved to a single level house from a split level when it became evident that our dd would never walk. I love having a single level and would highly recommend the ranch. Pros 1. Can age in place. Should never need to move due to mobility issues of any family members. Even a temporary condition, like knee surgery, will be easier to handle in a single-level home. 2. Everything is easier on 1 level--laundry, putting stuff away, talking to kids in another room. 3. Family is a little more close knit with everyone on same level. 4. We probably need to paint this year--can do it ourselves. 5. And I can clean all of the windows myself. 6. Heating/cooling works well with 1 unit. 7. All of our space is usable space--no square footage wasted on stairs. 8. We can easily sell our house if we need to, even in a tough market, because there is always demand for single-level homes. It's what retired folks want as well as those of us with mobility issues in the family. Where we live, builders have built very few single-level homes in the last 20 years (I think they make more money off of two-stories), so there just aren't enough to meet demand. Cons 1. Single levels are more expensive per square foot (at least here). That means if your budget is $200k for instance, you will be able to buy more square feet if you go for a two-story.

We don't go to the theater much, and then it's pretty much kid movies. So pretty easy to rank them: Tangled (loved it and will buy it on dvd) Voyage of the Dawn Treader (liked it and will buy it on dvd) Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (did not like it and won't watch it again)

The If You books (eg If You Lived in Colonial Times) might be a little old for K, but you might try them. My dds loved them. My older dd was 3rd grade, so my youngest must have been in K when we did American history and she followed along okay. You don't have to read them in one sitting. And then as your kids get older they'll pick them up and read them on their own. Not a book, but you might also find your kids are old enough to enjoy Liberty's Kids (dvd series on the American Revolution). We learned so much from that.

*I* was excited to finally understand what a gerund was. I don't think I ever learned it. I think it actually helps dd to hear me so excited about finally understanding the difference between the different types of phrases. That's now our favorite part of the 4-level analysis.

I always had trouble getting pregnant and didn't want to be disappointed with a negative test. So I waited to test until I would be 5 weeks pregnant (3 weeks past conception). But for kids 2 and 3, I kind of knew before the test from physical symptoms that I recognized.

The Lego Hogwarts Castle present actually has my name on it ahead of the kids' names. I wrap it, so I get to fill out the tag however I want! They get to play with it after I build it. At least that's how it worked with the Lego kits in the past...maybe at some point they'll want to build!