I have a counter space on top of my dishwasher. I bought 8 stacking file bins. I have a bin for each subject. Some people use file bins that hang on the wall. I like that idea. For the rest of my books that I am not using right now I have a shelf and I use magazine racks. Too much floppy stuff to keep them upright without support.

I tried to breastfeed for 3 weeks with my first. I switched to formula. For my second I tried for 24 hours then switched before I left the hospital. The hardest part was the pressure from all the nurses. I don't remember being that uncomfortable. I think I was sore for a few days then it seemed to let up gradually. I was never able to produce enough milk though so I have never really experienced the whole leaking and swelling with milk thing. As for the formula. I may be in the minority. I didn't sterilize anything. I used playtex drop ins so they had a new liner every time. I use bottled water because we have a well and it just made me feel better. I eventually switch to the tap. I will sometimes put the nipples in the dishwasher but that can make them gummy and gross after a few washings so I usually just wash with soap and water. I used Similac. You can only make one bottle at a time. After 1/2 hour they go bad. I have never heated a bottle in my life. I just use the room temperature bottled water. Similac makes a premade formula you can store in the fridge that is good for 2 days or so. My kids never liked it because it was cold. There is a little scoop in the formula. Fill the bottle to the right amount, say 6 oz. then scoop in the formula. 1 scoop for 2 oz. water, Very easy. They make little formula packets and containers you can put right into the diaper bag for travel. Also if your hospital has the newborn tiny bottles grab as many as you can. They are great. The formula is pre-made and they come with a brand new nipple each time. To answer your question better. I think because you know you aren't breastfeeding before you go in your milk may not come in as it does when you are breastfeeding. Make sense? Get some rest in the hospital. The nurses can help you now by bottle feeding. ;)

I have friends who are mormon and the husband is a geologist. It always interested me in how he reconciled creation with the fossils. He believes that the Earth is millions of years old but also believes in the 6 days of creation. For him the 6 days are not measured by 24 hours but represent time periods. I thought that was a clever way of looking at it. The reason I posted this question is because I like to explain to my kids how different yet similiar peoples beliefs are. Someday they will find what feels right to them, what makes sense to them. Right now the are fascinated with dinosaurs and what happened to them. Thank you for your replies.

Again, not starting anything. I don't know very many religious people and I always wondered where the dinosaurs fit into history as far as creation goes. I have heard that some people don't believe in dinosaurs at all. Do most people believe dinosaurs were alive the same time humans were?

I like combined brother/sister birthday parties with lots of kids as long as it is not at my house. They can be expensive but going to a Bounce U or Chuck E. Cheese is worth the extra cash if you don't have to deal with all the set up.

Homemade toothpaste is disgusting and will make the baby puke. Yes, dad will be mad that you made a beaver dam in the drainage ditch. He just raked out all the leaves this past weekend and in the spring the ditch is there for a reason. Zeus's golden apple (made from paper mache) will shatter if used as a baseball.

There are frog kits you can order online. Maybe they sell frog food. I have considered getting one of the kits but I have heard frogs can last years. Our local educational supply store has a frog that is 17 years old. I would let them go in the pond if that is where the eggs came from. Otherwise you could be raising frogs for awhile.

My 10 year old has had OCD symptoms too. Her therapist suggested we nip it in the bud before they snowball. It started to interfer with our daily life. We went through this thing where she tells her OCD monster "NO!" when she catches herself doing things. sounds weird but it took the pressure off her and helped a lot. I catch her doing things but not with the frequency or intensity as before. She is an even number girl. Just today my husband took my son to the doctors and I had just her and the baby. It was an odd number of people and she commented on it, where as before we wouldn't have been able to leave the house.

My daughter loves bacon and she would eat it every meal. The other day I told her she had to wait until after she finished her math to get some bacon. She was procrastinating. her: "Why can't I have the bacon now?? " me" "After you finish your math you can have 2 pieces." her: "That doesn't make any sense, do your math and you get to eat a pig!" I can't wait until she is a teenager.

With the intro/Pre-K program you get worksheets, a clock, shoe lace board for tying, CD and tapes, stickers for each little section, the jolly trolley placemat to move your little trolley as they complete each section. It's cute. My son likes it. If you started now you could finish by the end of the summer and then start the K for next year. The big difference with the pre-K is that they don't do anything with letters until half way through the program. The K startes right away with letters and writing. I haven't used the next program yet but I have it and it looks fun. The music is what my kids like. I took the mat out of the K set and my 2 year old likes to "do school" with the 5 year old. They each have their own set and sing along. I should also mention that the CD's are completely different. The pre-k has color, shape and counting songs. The alphabet song, counting backwards and zero song. stuff like that. The K-1 program has phonetic songs to help learn to read. I also received in the combo program a video that really helped explain how it works. I guess it just depends on where your child is. My 4 year old needed the counting and shapes. Most kids at 4 know their colors, shapes and how to count and are ready to start working out the reading part so the Pre-K would be review and might seem a little boring.

I never had a problem with the first two but my youngest has the most sensitive skin. He sleeps well and if he poops at night he will have a bleeding rash by morning. He never wakes up when he poops. TMI anyway, I use pampers and pampers sensitive wipes. When he gets a rash though, I can't even use cream because it stings so badly. Everything I have used sends him screaming. I have recently taken to using just vaseline on his bottom. Everytime he is changed. It seems to help prevent and at least is something I can put on during the rash.

I am using the pre-K right now and I am trying to plan for next year so I hope I can help. I ordered the combo Kinder and Level 1 from Amazon for $200. Half of the pre-K stuff is visual discrimination, sequencing, colors and shapes, stuff like that. I found it a bit young for my 4-5 year old. We are into the letters now. Basically just the sounds the letters make. The next box goes over the letters again. A bit more in depth. They start writing the letters too. It is a faster pace working through the alphabet in about 16 weeks or so. You can slow down if you need to. Then they start the reading parts which right now I am a bit confused about but hope it will make a lot more sense when I start using it. My 4 (now 5) year old is the kind of kid that really takes his time with things. He usually seems behind but then makes great leaps forward on his own. For us the pre-K program was a good intro to a little bit more structure with the homeschooling. If your child already knows colors, shapes, left and right, seasons and sequencing, it may be easy for them. This stuff is not covered in the kinder kit. It jumps right into letters and then reading. We needed a more gradual approach so it is working for us right now. I hope this helps. I have a hard time organizing my thoughts and writing them down.

I think 5 is young. Are they suggesting you need to do something and do they have experience with young children? My 10 year old was recently tested and had to go back 2 extra times. I am going to guess she may have other issues going on as well which is why you are having her tested. I don't think there is a lot you can do except talk to her about what is going to happen. In case she has some anxiety.

You know how they say "I was a better parent before I had kids". That was me. I would have been staring at you in the zoo. Now the shoe is on the other foot. I now have a kid who has sensory and bi-polar issues. I have more empathy when I see kids acting out. You never know what the family situation is like. It can be very hard especially when the looks come from my in laws. They still don't "get it".

I think there was a segment on TV about purity dances where the daughters go with their dads and are given purity rings. It was a little creepy. This sounds nothing like that though. I think it's great. I would buy her a purity car if it meant she wouldn't have sex till she was older. You should be proud. I like the idea of buying something from a regular jewelry store. What finger do they were it on??

I was just having this conversation with my husband. My mom just came back from a cruise and she gets VERY motion sick. Planes, cars. She doesn't get sick on a cruise. It was a big boat. She said a lot of people wear patches and the only time they saw a lot of people sick on a cruise was when they went through really bad weather. She wears a patch.

http://www.amazon.com/Homeschooling-Patchwork-Days-Share-Families/dp/0965130304/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206728864&sr=8-2 This is a book I bought that helped. For free I can tell you mine. -Wake-up by 8AM -Eat -10 year old goes and reads her independant reading for the day while I make breakfast for my 2 boys. 2 and 5 -Start with some workbook stuff like Growing with Grammar or Phonics, I am usually cleaning up the kitchen and doing dishes. -Start the Math lesson while I get the boys dressed and change very wet diaper. -Two days a week we have outside classes at this point so off we go. -Back for lunch. I make lunch while they run around and play. -After clean up the oldest practices her trumpet and I start the 5 year old with his Sing Spell Read Write and Math. The baby likes to join. -We will have a clean up of rooms if everyone is fighting and crazy but if not I will have the older finish up with her Math. -By 2pm the baby goes down for a nap and I can start either Science or History. We also do spelling at this time because the house is quiet. I also will read a book to the two older and have them narrate. We usually end school around 3:30-5:00. Depending on how people are working. -We have dinner then off to Karate classes. I hope this helps.

Being spring Wal-Mart has their seed displays up. I would grow green beans.

My daughter 10, has always had a hard time with close relationships and this is out FIRST year homeschooling. My son is 5 and has always been home and finds friends easily. Someone else said it and I agree that loners are loners whether they are in PS or homeschool. In my opinion school social status is not indicative of real world social skills. School is a bubble where pretty girls are popular even if they don't have the brains and boys are popular if they are athletic and shave. In the real world you have more of a social pool. I think a lot of mothers have a hard time having a social life outside of their family. Homeschoolers or not. I have to work at it myself, everyone is so busy with their own stuff. Work, school, husbands, sports, music lessons, running a household. When I told my husband I wanted to homeschool he said, "Then they will be weird!". If drugs, sex and hating your parents is what they would have to do to be considered normal I would take weird in a heart beat. A good heart and a great relationship with parents IS weird now a days. It's OK to be weird. I actually prefer it.

I third (or fourth) the graph paper. We use graph paper for division as well. Her inability to write neatly was the major problem in getting the larger multiplication problems wrong.

I have tried many charts and this is what works best for us. I hope I can explain this well enough. I have a large white board with grids made with electrical tape. They make thin colored tape. I made a list on the computer of all the chores I wanted done with pictures so the little ones who can't read could figure it out. I have the pieces laminated I stuck velcro tabs on the back so they could be changed around as needed. I sort by kid but you could sort by days of the week on the top then kid on the side. Sometimes we have stuck the pieces in a bag so they had to draw their chore for the week. Hope this helps.

"Do your children have friends??" Uh, yes. I find that everyone is concerned until I tell them she takes a public school class for music. Like that will cover the "socialization" issue. Ironically my daughter tells me she hasn't made any new friends in music class because they aren't allowed to talk in class. The new one we get from concerned friends and family is... "What are you going to do when homeschooling is illegal?" Our Myth Busters: We don't belong to a church My kids aren't particularly well behaved :001_tt2:

I make my own and put it in a 3 ring binder so I can add and remove. I use the planner at Donna Young as well. Someone suggested getting it bound which is a great idea. When I do that for other projects (like e-books) I go to Staples. You can have a front cover of clear plastic and a back cover of thicker plastic spiral bound for $3 dollars or so. Very sturdy. I just wouldn't use comb-binding.

Maybe he waited too long. That's why I love summer. They can just drop trou and go. My only rule, not on people.

I bought a Sunbeam at Wal-Mart for $43. I don't use it everyday. Maybe 3 times a week. I have had it about a year and no problems.