http://www.andwiththemorn.blogspot.com/2012/03/desk-apprentice-and-what-our-day-looks.html On FB a friend of a friend was asking me a bunch of questions about homeschooling, then a bunch of other people started asking more, so I made that blog post to give them an idea of what I do. You can probably skip down to the pictures. What I do is have everything we need on a day to day basis in the Desk Apprentice. All the workbooks are stored in a milk crate. One of the hanging files in the DA has five manila folders in it, each labeled with a day of the week. Every Sunday, I go through the workbooks in the milk crate and pull out enough for the coming week. So for WWE, I would pull out the four sheets and spread them in the file folders. For MUS, I'd get enough worksheets for two pages a day. I would write down in my lesson planner all the assignments to help me keep track of how much we needed to do. As he finished something, I would highlight it in the planner. The actual paper was put in a different hanging file labeled "Completed Work to Be Filed". If he didn't get to something, say he only did one MUS sheet, the second one would be moved to the next day. Every Sunday when I'd go through and add the new assignments for the week, I'd gather all the completed work, hole punch what I needed to, and file them in the appropriate section of his 3" 3 ring binder.

She's 14 months? If you need to wean her, do it with no guilt. Celebrate that you made it 14 months! :party:Like that.

More good advice. I think the tantrums will definitely be at the top of the list of things to work on. I think the timer will help if I talk with him about it ahead of time. Also, I will cut back on the MUS pages and do them on the whiteboard bc he thinks everything is fun on the whiteboard. More good advice, thank you! I do appreciate your help so much, especially trying to tailor it to me! :001_smile: Thank you. The WWE thing, after he burst into tears, I held him on my lap and let him cry for a few minutes. I told him it wasn't worth a fight and I wasn't making him quit because there was something wrong with him. I said we had done enough school work and it would be best to stop doing something fun, so I let him pick something fun. He picked the scissor work, so we cut some paper and called it good for the day. So, looking through my planner and reading all the advice, I think I can nix the WWE and FLL for now. We'll keep doing AAS at a slow and steady pace. We'll nix geography, although I'll see if I can make some puzzles for him to play with on his own. We'll keep the math, but do it on the whiteboard and we'll try not doing all the sheets. I'll see if four is enough for him to understand it. Science, I'll scale back to the two times a week and we'll read on the couch instead of the school table. Cuddling on the couch is always nice. Maybe I'll let him decide during the day when he wants to do the coloring page and scissor work. Still not sure about the read alouds. I am usually feeding Chuck while they eat. I could probably let Pigby listen to an audio book on my mp3 player while I'm trying to get Digby to sleep. I could probably do a read aloud before bed. Maybe it would get Digby to stay in bed. I'll have to tweak this one a bit. Thanks everyone!

*grumbles grumbles grumbles* Since you made me do it :tongue_smilie:

Wow, so much good advice here. I'll give the timer a try and I'll explain all the expectations beforehand. He's generally my easy going one. But yes, I am exhausted. My middle child is a handful and a half. The napping thing is because we moved him out of the crib and if I don't stay with him, he'll just run around and play. It's even worse at bedtime. But Pigby and I are working on his attitude. I think it's getting better in general, I think he's just hit a wall in how much we're doing everyday and he's rebelling. Or at least that's what I think is going on. His attitude the rest of the day is getting better.

Thank you for your help, my responses in red.

Isn't it possible to put a freeze on her credit reports so she can't open anymore lines of credit? If she can do that, tell her to do it. It won't fix the problem, but could help keep her from digging a further hole. As to fixing the problem, I probably would suggest (in a nice way :tongue_smilie:) that she gets a job to help fix it. I don't know much beyond that though. In dealing with people, change doesn't seem to happen much until she really wants to. You seem unsure as to if she is really serious about it or not. I suppose only time will tell, but she's the only one who could fix that.

I'm feeling very frustrated with myself. I had found a good routine for all the basics, then I added in science and geography and am very overwhelmed. Not to mention the fact that Digby is a psycho-toddler :willy_nilly: and Chuck is starting to walk :svengo: The new routine I had planned for was to do schooling on Mondays and Tuesdays, take Wednesdays off for cleaning and errands and do school again on Thursdays and Fridays. Here's all the stuff I had thought we could accomplish: (Daily) Devotional-Consists of a song, memory work, reading a chapter of scripture (we usually alternate reading), and reading a few paragraphs about our gospel doctrine. Math-I usually plan on two pages of math from MUS, but lately he's been fighting it and only one page gets done. I am ok with this, but he pitches a huge fit if I make him quit early. Language Arts-WWE 1. He was doing pretty well until he wanted to learn cursive. Now he wants to do WWE in cursive. I tried to help him, but he just doesn't have the solid foundation yet. I try to show it on another paper, but he needs a lot more practice on it. Again, I'm fine not doing it, but he pitches a fit when we don't. FLL-We usually just do one lesson a day and it used to be the last one he wanted to do, so it was skipped frequently. Now he's asking to do it so he can get out of math. Which I would be fine with, but if I had to pick one subject to cut, this would be the first to go. HW: We just practice cursive letters everyday with pages I printed off StartWrite. He always wants to do more, but I make him stop when he starts getting sloppy. I figure that's a signal his hand is getting tired? :confused: Again he pitches a fit. AAS: I was trying to catch up with his ability but still go through all the rules. This meant I was doing A LOT of spelling in one day. He kind of balked at that. So instead of doing 1 step in 1 day, I've broken down each step into the four days. This seems to be going a lot smoother for him. He still fiddles around with the tiles :smash: Science: He loves science. He wants to do it everyday. Since it's not one of the three R's, I have it scheduled for twice a week. I would be fine skipping it for now, but apparently it's his favorite. Geography: It's scheduled for twice a week, but we never even get to it. I'm also making him do a coloring page and scissor work (I draw lines on a piece of paper and he has to cut them) every day. He likes these. Read alouds aren't really happening right now and I feel like such a failure. It's hard to read when the other two are running around screaming. We do all our seat work when baby girl is taking her nap. I can't really get much done during Digby's nap because I have to lay down with him to get him to sleep. Anytime I bring out the timer on my cell phone, Pigby freaks out! He hates the darn thing. Please help me figure out what to cut. There's just too much. He's not enjoying it anymore.

if my husband ever asked me to submit to him, I'd be asking him for a thorough and detailed account of how exactly he was submitting himself to Christ for me to consider it. As it is, he has never tried asking me to. Whenever we dont agree on something we compromise somehow

Math: MUS Alpha and Beta Spelling: AAS 2 & 3 (maybe 4 if he flies through these two, I'm not sure) Writing: Cursive copywork and WWE 1 in print Grammar: FLL 1 & 2 Science: Elemental Science Biology and Earth and Space History: SOTW 1 Art: :confused: Music::confused: PE: :confused: We started our curricula in January, so he usually moves up a level then instead of September. We just move up whenever we happen to move up.

What happened for us was he was cruising through OPGTR and doing MUS Primer. He got to the point where they recommend starting first grade with the science, history, grammar, etc. This was about a year ago. So we added in history because I :001_wub: history. After a few lessons, I could tell he wasn't ready. He wouldn't sit still, he wouldn't listen, he didn't like it. So I shelved it. He was five at the beginning of September. Technically he was doing mostly first grade work but I hesitated on calling it first grade instead of kindergarten. Mandatory reporting doesn't start until they are six. So I decided that this year would be our practice year. I would work on finding our routine, getting school done, finding what works and what doesn't. I started out with the basics: math, spelling, reading, grammar, writing. It wasn't until March that I was in a good rhythm to add in science and geography (I ended up thinking a year of learning about the countries of the world would give him a good foundation for history). He loves science. He doesn't love geography. I don't know if there's a maturity level that I was looking for. But I do know that more than just him being ready, I had to be ready as well. And I'm a slow and steady type of person. I know that adding too much at once would just burn me out.

Llama, Llama Red Pajama

:party: So glad that he's got some good friends and that he is being a good friend in return.

They are 4.99 at mine. All the ones at the grocery stores are at least $8.

Oh yeah, gas is also cheaper there than anywhere else in the area. Also, you can phone in an order for a HUGE pizza and it's only $10!!!! $10 for a ginormous pizza with all the toppings (it's the same price for cheese or pepperoni). So much cheaper than fast food on those days you have dinner emergencies.

The Gerber prefolds from Walmart lasted through my last two children. I don't think they would be good for real diapers, but they were cheap enough and holy heck were they amazing burp cloths. I was super impressed!

Yes you will be able to use your membership at any location. Things I buy that are cheaper than Walmart red peppers, carrots, apples (the big 10# bag of red delicious), spinach, spring salad mix, onions, potatoes, ground turkey, milk, eggs (5 dozen for only $5ish), cottage cheese, sour cream, frozen fruit, tortilla chips, tortillas, tomato sauce (huge #10 can), chicken base. Things I buy that are not cheaper than Walmart or Winco but are better quality so I buy them at Costco anyway: Chicken breast, ground beef

I would hide it. Keeps them from thinking they can just take it. Keeps you from having to say no in case they ask. In any case, I'd hide it just to avoid a scene.

http://www.mamajenn.com/MamaJenn/SpellingPrintables.html About halfway down that page is a PDF download for the spelling phonogram tiles. I did that instead of buying them from AAS (long story involving a mix up in the order). I cut them out and laminated them. Maybe you could use those for your second set? Or print out four :tongue_smilie:?

I would go ahead and do it. I was tempted to call this school year Pigby's 1st grade year since he's working mostly at a first grade level. I held back to keep all my options open. I think it would be easier to graduate him early if I had to. Adding in an extra year or trying to cram things in before he graduates would be harder. And so far as the "shame" thing goes, I would just teach her to laugh it off a little when asked. "Oh yeah, my mom decided it would be better to call me a sixth grader on paper, but I still work on level." Or something like that. I don't think there needs to be any shame in it. (admittedly my only experience is with a 6 year old. feel free to disregard if you must)

I use the regular lasagna noodles and never boil them. it always comes out fine. I dont even know why they have the no boil kind because you certainly dont need them

:party: Have fun!

Enter in some change. Instead of an even $10 or whatever, enter in $10.26. Most people only enter an even dollar amount

I am still nursing. I'll call the doctor tomorrow. Thank you.

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