what I am doing is SOTW from 5th-to 8th grade and spielvogel al a WTM for 9th to 12th I bought History of the whole world, bit haven't worked out how to use it yet. thinking of just getting my son to read each chapter as it relates to speivogel. MelissaL

there is a great book called" where do I come from" ,it might be out of print. It has great cartoon type pictures, and explains it very simply my mother used it with me when I was little, and I have used it with my children. I have always loved the picture of the Sp##m with a top hat. otherwise watching a nature video that shows animals being born, and saying something like " that is how baby people are born as well. MelissaL

since homeschooling I find I don't get much exercise at all. so I have put a little on, so this is what I do. I try not to eat between meals, have a smaller dinner plate, so it looks full etc. I am not overweight, just have that look of having had lots of children, that flabby stomach look. so the latest thing I am trying is wearing a corset to pull the flab in and I feel marvelous, all my clothes fit better, I feel better about how I look, and one other benefit is I feel full. not hungry at all, MelissaL

we are using Marvis Beacon, it is still available, and can be bought very cheaply . I got mine from an E-bay shop. MelissaL

I found Abeka to be very American, so American in fact that I couldn't use it, I have no problem with Rod And Staff. it seems to be pretty universal in it's grammar. Very Bible oriented in all lessons. MelissaL

lettuce is really easy to grow, and if you do successive plantings, it is easy to supply enough lettuce for salad every day . if you have room, corn is good. but the best veggies for a small garden are beans, tomatoes, radishes, zucchini, cauliflower and lettuce.Onions take 9 months, so use up a lot of room and are only suitable for a large garden. we have a large veggie patch, a little bigger than a tennis court. we grow all the vegetables we need for the whole year to feed a fammily of 7, with 4 growing hungry boys. Because of where I live, we can grow veggies all year round, though we have frosts in the winter.

I don't catalogue my books as a library would, but I do have them organised. I have the fiction organised in history years, ancients, medieval, etc. on different shelves, all encyclopedias in one bookshelf, and reference books in their own bookshelves. MelissaL

I second fallacy detective, I only skipped 1 or 2 things that were too christian. also critical thinking by Anita harnadek is OK, though I found my son wasn't ready for it until age 14. we spend about 15 minutes twice a week doing it. we do all the lessons orally , as a discussion. MelissaL

my children are half Canadian!!!;) my husband is Canadian, I am Australian, We live in Australia:001_smile: MelissaL

we school year round, with no holidays, that way we can take a day or two off when life gets in the way, like last week my 14 year old had the whole week off to help my husband rip up the old kitchen, and lay a new floor. etc. etc. .... this way we fit everything into a year fairly easily. the only problem with schooling year round is the children aren't in any particular grade, , as soon as they finish one book, the go straight into the next.. so they are are all over the place as far as grades go. MelissaL

what about 20000 leagues under the sea by Jules Vern? I did it as a read aloud for my children. MelissaL

be very careful taking Castor oil, I have heard it can make you bleed heavily. MelissaL

hi, my 8 and 10 year old read aloud to me every day, The 10 year old is a poor reader, and has Dyslexia. He reads 2 pages to me and then I read 2 pages, this way he feels like he is moving through the book . I do the same with my 8 year old. she is a good reader, just enjoys having me read to her> MelissaL

history is combined, the older ones just do more. science is at different levels, it is just the way I started. I have combined the younger ones science. I find doing 3 different sciences each year is all I can cope with. MelissaL

I went 3 weeks over with my 4th, and then I had to be induced !! and yes she did grow bigger... have you tried raspberry leaf tea? I don't know if it helps you go into labour, but it makes the labour less painful. MelissaL

hi, my year 7 schedule looks like this reading for a minimum of 1/2 hour assigned book penmanship rod and staff grammar spelling workout piano practice 20 per day German - Rosetta stone typing- mavis beacon Saxon math fallacy detective SOTW4 science how the earth works Latina Christiana 2 drawing on the right side of the brain once a month. he seems to cover all this fairly easily MelissaL

I remember my room being messy when I was growing up. My mum came in with a rake, and said everything that she could rake into a pile was going to the rubbish! I never had a messy room again! I think I hadn't even noticed how messy it was until then. MelissaL

I use the list in WTM. MElissaL

all the aprons look like they are from the same pattern. why don't you buy the patern and make some? it might work out cheeper. MelissaL

Saxon math is a text book, so can be used over and over again, so is rod and staff grammar. I also use other books as text books to reduce the expense. I also photocopy some pages in workbooks so they can be done by multiple children. I know some people have issues with doing this, but I spend over $2000 a year on homeschooling books and this is one way I can keep it down a little. MelissaL

hi, I love history encyclopedias, I have 6 of them, my lest favorite is the usborne. history at our house is SOTW on Wednesday, I read it aloud (we are doing book4), then we do the outlining, and time line pictures, then on Thursday I read all the relevant pages in all the history encyclopedias to the children, they write up about the information and then do the map work. my children's ages are from 14 to 4. I also try to keep all the children's reading books tying into the history period under study MelissaL

we have our own house cow, I never Keep the milk for more than 2 days, I know it can be kept a lot longer than that, but I get 15 liters per day, and like the milk fresh ( we keep a few pigs to cope with all the surplus). I keep cream for 1 week, it turns into butter faster if it is a few days old. as for pasteurizing the milk, I think that it is a good thing if the milk is from a large dairy , and gets transported all over the countryside. if you have a healthy cow, and milk with everything clean, than it isn't necessary. MelissaL MelissaL

I put mine into a bed when they were old enough to climb out of the cot. My 4 year old just asked me the other day why I use to lock him up in jail when he was a baby! MelissaL

I didn't have a tradition wedding dress. I had a full length floral dress that I still wear. I am pretty pleased that I still fit into it after 15 years and 5 children!!! MelissaL

if you would like a book about Australia for 9th grade up, "For the Term of his Natural Life" by Marcus Clark, about the penal colony in Tasmania- very interesting, and based on true account. first published in 1870 MelissaL