I hope this doesn't drive you nuts Drew, but you can get information on food storage from our church web site: Provident Living: http://www.providentliving.org/welcome/0,10803,1653-1,00.html Food Storage Calulator: http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7498-1-4070-1,00.html There is a food storage center in your area where you can purchase and get your bulk items canned (possibly easiest if you visit the Bishop or know a church member in one of the churches in your area): http://www.providentliving.org/location/map/0,12566,2026-1-4,00.html More ideas: We do have an extra freezer even though we are a fam of 4 and don't need it. It is handy for freezing things from our garden. More importantly, we have all the necessary canning equipment (and fire/grill set up) in case we need to can everything in the freezer should we lose power. The equipment is also handy for our garden excess. If you can get a freezer second hand - and the canning equipment (or a dehydrator) it is helpful. We have a hand crank grinder and get our wheat ground and sealed in bulk at a local food storage center. You can also get in on a good local co-op in your area, or get a plot in a community garden. Or...start your own shipping business. All you need is a truck driver and farm contacts. The driver picks up items from the farm and brings them to your garage for your own distribution to your own co-op members. You can often get a manager's discount at grocery stores if you purchase a whole flat or box of fruits and veggies. Once your food storage is up and going (it takes about a year to accumulate) you can track it using an Excell program. We aren't that detailed, or accountants that get into that "thing" but it can be done. I'll try to track down a weekly shopping list that tells you what to buy each week of the year to build your food storage. It goes something like this: Week 1: 4 cans of soup per person; 1 bulk box of baking powder; 1 20# bag of flour Week 2: 1 bottle of ketchup; 1 30# bag of rice Week 3: 1 bulk box of matches; 4 cans of soup per person; 1 box of dried soup... The eating is so much healthier when you're at the bottom of the food chain! Its just so hard to store and sometimes, cook with creativity!

((((hugs and prayers)))) Could be a tear in the placenta. Get it checked out ASAP.

http://savetheinternet.com/ This site has information about how Comcast is part of a larger body of telecom communications companies (Qwest, AT&T, etc.) that are trying to tier Internet usage. If they succeed, their Internet users will need to choose an Internet plan. Each plan, or level of usage will be determined by Comcast (or other telecom companies). Your access to the Internet will be determined by the plan you choose - some plans will load pages slower, some will block pages, and the highest priced plan will allow almost total access to all web pages. Some plans will allow you to use Google and Amazon, others won't. It's bad news for small business because larger companies (Wal-mart) can pay "fees" to Comcast to load their pages first and fast. It's something we all need to watch. Google is fighting this proposal. You can still choose to go with Comcast, but you might want to become familiar with, and monitor their ulterior motives.

It stinks when what we see, differs from their choices! I have sympathy for you. Here are some positives to focus on during your transition: She is able to prioritize what is important to her at this time. She realizes which talents she owns while being aware of those her family supports. She may finally have the courage to move beyond parent/family/mentor dreams and wishes by being able to assert her desire to take a different path - one that meets her current life interests. Piano provides life-long self fulfilling and sharing opportunities; dance can be limiting later on, financially, and on her body. She may still enjoy dance via other opportunities including: teaching, opening her own studio, or managing a dance company in the future. Giving her distance also gives her time to figure out how to move ahead in the field, but by going in a different direction.

Taking a salt bath helps pull toxins out of you pores so others can seep out and not build up inside - it helps clear the way for your WBC's to go in and attack the virus. Fill your tub as high as you can, and as hot as you can stand. Pour about 5 cups of rock salt in (water softener salt is fine). Rub the rock salt on your skin until it dissolves, then soak in the hot tub for as long as you can. Towel off, then warm yourself under 5+ blankets until you sweat. When you can't stand sweating anymore, rinse the salt bath residue and sweat in a warm shower. You'll feel relaxed, and refreshed.

We've done Spelling Workout from the beginning - but you will have to choose what works for you (no program is a "be all, end all program"). I had a terrible speller and thought SWO was not working early on. I realized the benefits of the program, but decided to supplement SWO with AVKO's program. AVKO was a great help in that it taught by word families (cat, rat, sat... begin, begins, began, beginning...) and gave my child confidence in spelling big words early on. We now only "do" SWO. Spelling Workout not only teaches spelling, but, vocabulary, proofreading/editing marks, logic and has a creative writing prompt in each lesson. It is well worth the effort to "kill 4 birds with one stone" by working through it for only 20 minutes per day. We did SWO A - D in 1 - 4 grades, then doubled up by doing E & F in 5th grade and will finish G & H in 6th grade.

Read, read, read! Mom, read Jim Trelease's book, "The Read Aloud Handbook" - and read to your children. Make sure everyone has a library card! Watch movies together (classics, classic Disney, National Geographic, PBS shows, etc.), color together, work in the yard together, listen to music together, listen to short stories on tape (myths are a great start)... As you do so, you will learn the interests, learning styles and comprehension levels of your kids. Then you can begin to apply those interests to your curriculum choices. Early on, dedicate a large chunk of time (we did 4 hours) to spend at the library. Go to the largest library in your area - and let the kids roam the place for the day. Bring coloring materials for your young child to draw while you read to her. As things wind down, re-engergize everyone by asking staff if they have a library/Dewey decimal scavenger hunt that older kids can complete (and learn about the library). See what you can check out (movies, CDs, microscopes, telescopes, etc.). Let your kids find a quiet spot in the library that they might like to use as a study space. Learn how to navigate their catalogue online from home. Learn how to check out materials using interlibrary loan. Tour the library grounds (our libraries have orange groves, wandering chickens and peacocks, and preserves to wander about). The best thing you can do is to call ahead, and work with a librarian that can dedicate a chunk of time help you on your day out. As kids de-school after a few weeks, bring them to a local teaching store and let them pick out a couple workbooks, games, posters, books, teaching tools, etc. If they choose workbooks, do not push to get them done! Let your kids work on them of their own free will. The idea is to help them realize they can learn around their interests. You can casually teach using books on tape. The Story of the World series or any CD by Jim Weiss would be a great place to start. You can check them, and others out through your library. When you feel they are ready, start with math and grammar (Rod and Staff has enough to teach grammar and writing, and the repetition of writing out the exercises will help with spelling). My best to you and yours on your new adventure!

For a quick study in Latin and Greek roots and derivatives: English from the Roots Up (2 books). You can also learn a fair amount of roots by doing a quick study course in Medical Latin or Law Terms. You can find these books in the reference section of your local bookstore.

Renaissance fairs give a good feel for the era (even though it's late medieval). Museum exhibits featuring medieval objects, clothing, furniture and art. Keep in mind that the Middle East/North Africa was flourishing as Europe fell into decline. Look for those exhibits, and those of South America as well. Viking exhibits - especially in Canada. Online tours of castles and churches.

Here are my steps: 1) Start with a big teachers planner and put in the dates each week. 2) Mark off holiday time. 3) Get out all the curriculum, and list the name of each book on a planning sheet (plain paper). 4) On a planning sheet, put the total number of lessons for each "book" (Rod & Staff = 120; Saxon = 130 plus 12 Investigations; SWO = 36, and so on) 5) Go back to your calendar and figure out your start date and end date; count the weeks between, then subtract weeks you will be taking off. 6) When you figure out how many weeks you want to do school, divide that number by each lesson number (example: 120 lessons divided by 36 weeks). This number is how many lessons you need to do each week. NOTE: If you have 42 lessons and only 36 weeks, you know you'll need to double up on lessons a few weeks. I recommend doubling up early on in the year when you are "fresh". 7) On your planning calendar, write in each subject (English, Spelling, Math, History, Geography, etc.) and begin to fill out lessons for each day. Keep in mind that some weeks you'll do "everything" and others, you will be able to drop a day of English or Math to get everything to work out to the end of the year. This also builds in time and flexibility for illness, field trips and stretching out challenging lessons. Once this is done, I use it as a "master". Each week I go over the weekly work with my children, and have them write out their own schedules (2nd grad and 5th grade). We also put an approximate time (you can go by the times listed in WTM). This helps my children realize time management. Some days they are up early to work because they have afternoon activities or play with the neighbors planned - some days they sleep in and work through dinner. They also cross check their schedule with school half days and holidays so they can flex time AND play with friends. HTHs!

We love the Hakim books as well, and living history/science books listed on Penny Gardner's Charlotte Mason site: http://www.pennygardner.com/

25 of 37 (August - May, 4 days per week, time off around holidays)

We made a timeline for each WTM history era (ancients, middle ages, early modern, modern). They are made from manilla folders placed end to end and held together at the "seams" by heavy duty packing tape. They fold up accordion style and can be stored in the original folder box. When they are unfolded, we drew a line with a mark every 4" for each 100 years (you can choose to do them all with larger markings).

Anything by Christina Rossetti!

Look into Singapore Science. The program is structured in units. We did the WTM rotation for four years and found too much was lost between years. I like Singapore because it dips in and out of the four WTM areas (life, earth/astronomy, chem, and physics). It also suits my two vastly different learners - one is a hands on take apart/experiment guy that enjoys doing the SS workbook and science experiments, the other is a living history reader gal that enjoys the SS workbook but goes off to read more about science in other books. HTHs!

Pokemon plots here...loads of sound effects written in, and elaborate pictures added to each story... To add variation, we now have a seven minute creative writing time, and a seven minute writing time on a topic from history, science or literature.

1. We began formal book reading once the phonograms were down, and sight recognition of familiar signs and advertisements happened (Home Depot, McDonald's, Target, etc.) 2. For "formal" reading we primarily used: Teach Your Child in 100 EZ lessons and Bob Books (the first set only) 3. My son was terrified/blocked with reading books from the library, but he enjoyed reading the ABeka reader series. He felt like he was reading chapter books even though he was really reading short stories. DS is in second grade and still reads from the ABeka readers. He only recently, began to enjoy library books. He is currently devouring a book about pirates that reads at a considerably higher level than his ABeka books.

Lively Latin is very, very good in teaching Latin and integrating grammar in a gentle manner. It can be used easily after LC-I.

I have a fifth grader. We've had amazing success with all the recommendations in WTM. This is what we will be using next year: Rod & Staff 6 Spelling Workout G & H Lively Latin (second book when it comes out) moving into Henle Latin For writing, we have done seven minute compositions each day for the last two years. Writing Strands sort of follows this format - sort writings each day - but the books were viewed as silly by my DD. The seven minutes MAKES the child focus on topic and paragraph development. When we first started, all I could get was a paragraph. We are up to three or four paragraphs each day now. Whole papers can be written using this format if each day (or series of days) is devoted to a particular area (note taking, outline, intro, body, closing, bibliography). I've read D'Angelo's book on the progymnasmata, and apply many of the different writing styles to our seven minute writing times. Having a strong background in grammar, spelling and vocabulary (through Latin) has been priceless.

Latin's Not So Tough level 2 would review all of Prima Latina and a bit of Latina Christiana. It's a fun series. LC I is not that hard to get through either...it's very gentle!

Use a variety of online ones! Our kids live in a portable, handheld world. Teach them early, how to navigate the web. Libraries and colleges are investing in WiFi so they can cut down the costs of expensive technological equipment and shift the responsibility to the student. Libraries do not stock phonebooks, tax forms, census info and other traditional documents (including reference books) because the information can be found online now and printed as needed. All it takes to run a classroom these days is a handheld or laptop hooked up to a classroom visual display device.

Nebel's Elementary Education? It's a great book to go through during the logic stage. He has a web site and I believe a Yahoo group as well. Here is the Amazon "Look Inside" link" http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/102-5913657-4061700?url=node%3D75&field-keywords=nebel%27s+elementary+education&x=0&y=0