I consider my life at home and my children my "work" and I dress accordingly. If I dress frumpy, I feel frumpy and then I act frumpy....nothing gets done. So, I generally will dress in nice fitting pants or a classic style dress. I do wear jeans occasionally if I know we are going to go to the zoo or the park or something similar. The ONLY time I wear sweatpants is if I am sick and know that I am not going to get off of the couch on purpose. I wear a little makeup everyday. I enjoy feeling feminine and ready for the day. I do have my hair colored but only because I went gray in my early 20's. shhh....mum's the word! I keep it cut chin length and easy to style in the mornings or I pull it back in a neat pony tail. Manicures/pedicures..no. I do my nails myself and like to paint them but I don't have it in the budget to have them done. Exercise...I walk at the park but honestly, that is about it. Running after my son everyday is exhausting and I do find that walking at the park gives me some stamina that I need.

Ugh...my son was at this point last year in PS. I was sooo frustrated. I tried working with him at home but he was so stressed out after school that it was impossible. At the end of this year he had only improved to a first grade level (2 years!) This summer, I worked really hard with him using Phonics Pathways and he has improved dramatically. Knowing that he doesn't have to return to school this fall has decreased his anxiety level a lot and he is now reading books for pleasure. The school system had an IEP in place for him and reading/decoding/fluency were always on there. However, when it came to actual resources to put the goals into place, there just wasn't the funds to give him the actual help that he needed. He was sent to a resource room with other students 1/2 hour a day and was in a regular classroom with 25 other students. He didn't have a chance to get the individualized instruction that he needed. On top of that, they were learning at a 2nd grade level and he had no clue what they were talking about when he was struggling with CVC words. I could have gotten an attorney and fought the process but then it would have just made things tough on my son and they would have had to send him out of district for the resources that he needed. In our case, it was just best to bring him home. He is happier and learning. If you aren't getting results for your daughter though, you need to make sure that 1. it is written in the IEP. 2. if its not, get the IEP amended 3. if you need to go to the superintendent to make sure they are following the IEP, do so! 4. If all else fails, hire an attorney. They will do whatever it takes to cut costs and unfortunately the children get caught in the middle. You are your daughter's best advocate.

Other; Saxon Math 3

I would like to buy Tangle for my son for his sensory box but if I order it from the special needs company, they will charge $10 for shipping. That is more than Tangle costs. I swear that I saw a post from someone that they found it at a "Dollar Tree" type store. Does anyone know of stores that carry this? Thanks!

I enjoy seeing everyone's school rooms! :)

I don't know and I need to start thinking about it. :confused:

lol!!!!

Such great posts! What a wonderful question! For me: I finished our lesson plans and have everything filed for 36 weeks! For someone else: lots and lots of prayer and encouragement for a friend.

:iagree:

Another vote for Visa-Vis here too! :)

This is a great book! When I am planning my lessons, I look through the table of contents to see which sections would apply to the lessons we will be working on. I use the sheets to add to our notebooks as we go through the lessons. Since I file ahead each year, I make copies of the pages that I'm going to use in advance and then they are ready when we get to that particular lesson. Evan-Moor's products are awesome and my son enjoys using them.

I have to have time to think during the day also or I just can't function. I get up at 5:00 to have time in the morning before my son gets up; usually between 6:00 and 7:00. Quiet time in the afternoon is a must! He is too old to nap but he must be quiet NO TALKING! I send him off to his room to play with Legos or to read. Even though I get up early, I do tend to stay up after he goes to bed to get a bit of time to myself at night, generally till 11:00. Luckily, I don't require much sleep and my need for recharging outweighs my need for sleep.

I would have to say no. I have two at home (21 and 18) and while I love them to death, it is time for them to find their way. We spent marvelous days together, evenings talking, and time just being. :)

Wow...so sorry to hear that! That is going to take some serious chocolate therapy!

I love the Target dollar section! I find all kinds of things there! ;)

Put it in my cart at Amazon. Thank you for telling us about it. The book sounds great!

I have to wonder just how many of us use chocolate to cope?? ;)

I believe Critterfixer hit the nail on the head when she claimed that learning environment has as much to do with the culture of the family than the actual space itself. Last August, we moved from a four-bedroom house with a finished basement to a three-bedroom apartment. If anyone can relate to space issues, it's me. There are five of us along with a German Shepherd living in tight quarters. I have still managed to cull out areas for my son as well as our homeschooling supplies. Are they big? No. But they make do. Some of them I have to put away at the end of the day and some of them blend in with the environment of the home. But learning is part of our lifestyle. We don't stop just because it is 3:00. We may pick something up at 9:00 before bed. I have had to be ruthless in the de-cluttering of our home both when we moved here and again this summer. If we haven't touched it in a year, it was gone. Once I went through everything, then all of our belongings were grouped by like-items. Everything has a place and generally speaking a container in that place to keep it organized. We don't use dressers which gives us a lot more room in the bedrooms. Instead, we have shelves and bins in the closets. I use workboxes and keep everything for the workboxes as well as manipulatives for daily work on the floor of my pantry. We school mostly at the kitchen table so the workboxes are kept next to my desk in the kitchen. Binders are kept neatly on an end table in my living room. I store resource books on a bookcase in the living room as well. I enjoy doing centers with my son, so I make them on tri-fold boards and fold them up at the end of the day and store them behind the couch. If we are doing an experiment or something in the center, I use a small, but wide table that folds up and set the center on top of it for the day. My son has sensory needs so his sensory area is in a corner of his bedroom. There is a mini-trampoline that can be folded up as well as a therapy ball and a basket of small items for hand-held sensory input. He also has a corner with a bookshelf completely devoted to books for his delight. Chapter books, science books, history books, Bibles, etc. Next to his bookcase are a couple of pillows to cuddle up with to read to his heart content. I also keep his CD player and headphones here. The linen closet in the hallway holds science kits, art supplies, games, basically the items written in my lesson plans that we will be pulling out at some time in the future. I know that if I need it, I will be able to find it here. Of course, regular linen closet items are here as well but I was able to condense it down and I use the floor as well. I also have a lot of space on a shelf on top of my washer and dryer that I use to house some bins of items that I do rotate. Since he is older and I don't need to rotate toys, I do use them to rotate items based on theme that we are studying or holiday for the centers. Basically, if I have found a space, I have found a way to use it and incorporate it into our homeschool. :)

Thank you for the recommendation for Super Seatwork Skills. This is exactly what I have been looking for to use with my son! I had totally forgot about Mary Pecci's materials. I also have a game that we play called Prefixes and Suffixes by Smart Kids.

I used LLATL when my older children were little. Yes, the Blue Book is a complete phonics program. It was a wonderful phonics/reading program with a lot of hands-on games incorporated into the learning. The program does have a Student Workbook with sheets for the sounds of the letters. But there are also activities to go along with the day's work. I didn't add ETC to it but I think that it would be an excellent supplement. As far as the other books I believe that you can just follow with each one after completing the Blue book. However, they are graded as follows: Blue (K-1) Red (2) Yellow (3) Orange (4) Purple (5) Tan (6) Green (7-8) Gray (8-9) I hope this helps! :)

I'm just starting to set up my blog and have lots to add but here is my link. Right now I have entries with my workbox setup. Will be adding my centers later today. http://creativeadventuresathome.blogspot.com

Hi There! We are using History Pockets this year for my son entering 3rd this year. He is ASD so would be considered more like late 1st or 2nd. There is quite a bit of information in the History Pockets and it is more than coloring and pasting. There is information to fill-in some of the pockets and more-so for the 4th-6th grade pockets. We decided to wait before using the upper-grades but they are interesting. If you go to Evan-Moor's website, you can view all the pages of the books on their site. That may give you a better idea of what they have. History in the Woods CD's are wonderful and I have nothing but good things to say about them. However, they are quite involved and take a lot of teacher prep if you have younger children. With the ages of your children, you may want to wait a bit on those unless you really like to do a lot of the work yourself and have the time to do it. ;)

Hi There! Well I know for sure that you always need the 3" binders, dividers and page protectors for any of the studies that we have done with MFW. Notecards are usually handy too for Bible memory as well. Composition book for Apologia? I think it depends on where and how you want to keep your children's work. I always liked the composition books for spelling and compositions as well as Apologia. Some people just use notebook paper and put it in the binder. Perhaps if you make a list of the subjects and then what method you will use to keep the work. Then you will know what you will need.

Me too :)

Do you have a Rainbow Resource catalog? I made my lists from there.