This is so sweet, and just what I needed to read today.

I have three girls, my oldest is almost 6. We are just starting out, obviously, but I've been planning on homeschooling for years. My daughter is cooperative, learning a lot, happy with things the way they are, but has also always wanted to go to school. She is super social, very bright, etc. Really, really wonderful girl. Right now I am about 12 weeks pregnant. I have not been sick, and I hardly feel pregnant at all. However, I feel a weird sort of aversion to homeschooling. I don't want to read about it, I don't want to think about it, and I don't really want to do it. I take my daughter to soccer and see her light up around the other kids and wonder if I should just put her into school. I've never really thought of public school as an option, but now I think about it all the time! We live far out in the country, where there is pretty much one option for school. It's a small public school that is mediocre at the very best. Has anyone felt like this and snapped out of it later? I feel so sad. We aren't doing a lot, so I don't think I'm burned out. Homeschooling just seems so unappealing lately.

I'm going to be doing the Wee Folk Art seasonal curriculum with my 5 year old this year, and I'm really excited about it. It's similar to FIAR, but more laid-back. Plus, it's free. :)

I love the Tasha Tudor one, but my kids prefer Gyo's illustrations.

We don't keep cereal around, and I grew up eating it for breakfast every day. I looove it. I really prefer steel-cut oats to rolled oats. I buy them in bulk and put 1 cup in a medium saucepan with 1 cup of milk and 3 cups of water. I add a pinch of salt, a dollop of honey, and cinnamon if I feel like it. I put it in the fridge for the night, and in the morning I bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes. Really good, especially with sliced strawberries and bananas and almonds. I make our bread so we will often have toast + something else for breakfast. toast + eggs toast + a green smoothie toast + yogurt toast + fruit toast + a glass of milk toast w/ pb and banana on top I like popovers too, made with the barefoot contessa's recipe. I like to plop some applesauce and a dab of butter inside. I'm getting hungry talking about all this food, I love breakfast!

Ox-Cart man The Year at Maple Hill Farm Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm Roxaboxen

:iagree:

There are lots of great suggestions here! I agree with the person who mentioned audiobooks, especially if they will listen to the same story over and over. My daughter has picked up a lot of new words from listening to her favorite audiobooks. She'll also randomly ask me throughout the day (not while listening to a book) what a certain word means, and when I ask her to use it in a sentence she will quote the book she was listening to earlier. She has really loved Winnie-the-Pooh, Jame's Herriot's Treasury, Peter Pan, EB White books, and the Chronicles of Narnia.

Ohhh, but if you slowed down there would be fewer reviews on your blog. :tongue_smilie:

I've had my eye on the Amazing Pop-up Geography book for awhile.

:iagree: I really don't have any complaints either, and we are in Valley too. I'm mainly concerned with the changes for next year.

I was so excited when I checked online this morning and found my library has these. I requested the balloons book, the soda book, and the shadow book. Do you have an favorites?

We're going. I was wondering the same thing. I wish I knew what was going to change next year so I could make up my mind. I'm leaning towards not using CVA next year and the thought of no weekly and monthly check-ins is tempting. I'm pretty sure the hour check-in, whatever they decide to do for it, could make things rather miserable around here.

Yeah, my husband had some serious withdrawals. He really, really mourned that show.

Wow! Some of you get a lot done during circle time. Very inspiring! Thanks. :)

What does this look like for you? I have started circle time with my 3 girls (5 and under) and they really enjoy it. I'm just wondering what other people do.

I loved a lot of things about RS A, but I didn't love the spiral. I didn't realize it until I switched to MM and I felt so much more relaxed. My daughter was OK with RS, but she became more interested in math when we started doing MM. She is only 5.5, so we are going slowly. We do 1/2 to 1 page a day. I am much more comfortable with the mastery method, and we are using the RS abacus with the worksheets. We are supplementing with Miquon and math games. I much prefer having MM as a starting point, and then adding my own activities from there. I am so glad we used RS, and I feel like my daughter learned a lot. So did I! We are both happier since we've switched, though.

This is such a great thread! This isn't really a 1st day idea, but I love the idea of counting the first 100 days of school. I've seen a lot of cute ideas on blogs, and you would obviously start on the first day. Here's one post with a lot of fun ideas. I can't wait to see what other traditions people have for the first day of school!

This is random, but my girls (2.5 and 5.5) are REALLY enjoying the Families of the World series of DVDs that I've checked out from the library. We find the places on a map and read some books, do a geopuzzle and call it good.

We switched to Funnix 1 at that point and backtracked to about lesson 70 with great success. I understand wanting to finish what you started, but around here that would have led to a revolt. :D I'm glad we switched and my daughter had no problem reading the stories twice because of the way it is set up in Funnix. It was so, so much better. I don't think I will use Funnix with my next girl, but it did get my first reading at an early second grade level. She does need more phonics work though, so I we're working on that now. Good luck!

I was doing it with my 4.5 last fall and she did really enjoy it. I only lasted about 5 weeks though, as I just had a baby and I had a 2 year old that wasn't interested at all. I think K or even 1st grade would be ideal. I think a 4 year old will have fun with it, but she would get more out of it when she's a bit older. We did just get out the lapbooks that we made and my daughter remembered a lot and had very fond memories. It really is a wonderful way to start. I didn't love reading some of the books 5 days in a row. I might actually do this again this summer, but take it really easy and not worry about reading it 5 days in a row if I don't love the book.

Well, that's easy enough. :)

My daughter would be starting kindergarten this fall if she were going to PS. She knows how write her letters and reads at a second grade level. She'll be on the older side, as she turns 6 in December. What do I do for writing? Is a sentence of copywork each day sufficient for the whole year? I want to eventually move on to WWE or one of the vintage books from that long thread that has been floating around. What do I do until then?

Thanks everyone for the input! This has been so helpful, and I've requested several books from the library.

Here's the link. :) My kids enjoy this.