Here, that income would get you a very nice place -- large house, quite possibly several acres of land, likely in a not-too-rural location. Maybe not all three of those things, but likely two of them. Edit: okay, realtor.com says maybe not too large a house for that money, maybe 1800-2000 square feet. But that would be in town, maybe walkable, but at least close to stuff. If you went out of town a bit, you could get more land, although the house might need some work.

OneNote will do that!

I thought several of them were a nice blend of "warmth and comfort of home" and "still providing the necessary surfaces and organizational elements of a classroom." A lot were very pretty! (And expensive!). But if you look at pics on blogs like Elizabeth Foss's and Ann Voskamp's, their schoolrooms are very pretty and well organized too. As for the books, if you looked at my schoolroom, you'd probably conclude that we don't have very many books. To the contrary -- we have thousands, but we keep a select few in the schoolroom, namely the current books that we are using for our studies, a large box of board books for the toddler, and a pocket hanging thingy for about ten picture books. The rest live on shelves in our library, as the schoolroom would simply have to be too big to accommodate all of them. (None of my comments are meant to be a direct contradiction to yours, Margaret in CO, btw; they just piggybacked well onto your post.) I would love to see an article about tips and tricks for organizing homeschool materials, one that was maybe a little more down to earth than that article, but I did find it inspiring and interesting.

I prayed for you yesterday, that the surgery would go well and so would your healing. The offer still remains -- if you need anything, my kids and I will be happy to help in any way we can. My vent is FB and just the climate in general. I don't post controversial things, but I feel attacked from all sides, as a Christian but not the most conservative type. I feel too liberal for the conservatives and too conservative for the liberals, and I feel just like hiding away with my little family and not interacting with anyone about anything meaningful whatsoever.

I think cards and a family photo would be perfect! None of us were able to be with our grandparents on their 60th, but we surprised them with flowers on behalf of all six grandchildren and the few great-grandchildren. They loved it!

Of course you don't. My point was just that nobody in their right mind would think that letting random kids handle a gun was okay. I was just jumping in from the perspective of a second amendment supporter to say, "Don't assume all gun owners feel that way!" Just like nobody wants all homeschoolers tarred with the "lazy non-schoolers" brush, gun owners don't want to let a few nutjobs tar all of them either.

I figured I'd be married with a bunch of children. I think I'd wanted babies of my own since I was about two. I said I wanted to be a teacher, but that was because saying that I wanted to be a SAH mom wasn't socially acceptable, but teaching was. I don't think I ever really intended to teach in a classroom. I'm doing about close what I said I hoped to be doing. I suspect none of my middle school classmates would be surprised. I married my high school sweetheart, and I teach our houseful of children. I think I'd have assumed my bunch would have had a few more girls in the mix, but otherwise, I don't really surprise myself. Old farmhouse in the country -- doesn't really surprise my twelve-year-old self. My little girl even has the name I picked out for her long before she was even conceived. I think I'm really just a slightly older version of my young adult, teen, and childhood selves.

None of the responsible gun owners I know would consider it to be responsible to let random kids handle a gun at a soccer game or wherever it was mentioned. They take gun safety, especially with children, very, very seriously. If children are curious, they would carefully show an unloaded gun to the children, with parental permission, in a controlled way, and only after serious discussion about safety, treating every gun as loaded, etc. They would believe demystifying guns through education and careful treatment. They'd be appalled at the scenario that seems to have been described.

Well, first, if I really was anti vaccinations, I'd be looking for a doctor to sign the medical exemption. Barring that, I would first start with any that are actually required, and I'd do the catch up there first. My state has some that are required and some that are recommended, and I'd start with the required ones first, asking my family doctor which ones he or she felt were the most important. I suppose maybe meningococcal and other meningitis vaccines would be at the top of my list, if I weren't getting them all, and chicken pox, rotavirus (especially for an older children), and hep B would be at the bottom. And I'm personally not a fan of the HPV vaccine because I'm really concerned about its safety. I think it's just not well studied enough for my liking.

Around here, it is very easy to get a conceal carry permit, and many people have them. Those who carry responsibly, which is the vast majority of people who own guns, don't forget to check for signs. If a store or church has a sign prohibiting guns, they would choose not to enter that store, or they'd remove the gun and lock it in their car. Responsible gun owners know the laws and also know that they need to comply with personal requests when on private property. (It's not prohibited, as a blanket rule, fwiw, at least in my state, to conceal carry in a church; it would depend on the individual church.). I'd say they go about their day not thinking of it in the sense that they aren't going to be fiddling with it, but they also don't forget that they have them on. They do indeed consider their itinerary and whether they will be stopping at a place, or state, at prohibits gun carrying, and they will take proper precautions and know when they will need to put a gun in a vehicle or whatever. It's entirely possible that you might conceal carry while out for the day with your family; for instance, you might go hiking in the woods but make a stop at a National Park at some point, and until a few years ago, it was illegal to carry inside a National Park, IIRC. Whether I'd be upset if someone had a concealed gun in my home -- depending on the person, I'd assume that person did. And depending on the person, I might be more cautious about children jumping on the visitor and more cautious about making sure they stayed out of the visitor's sleeping space. But I also trust that any visitor we know well enough to have overnight also knows to treat guns with respect and care to keep small people safe.

Multi quote isn't behaving today, but green. . . Hmmm, that would be pretty too. Might depend on what I see at the store if something grabs me. And painting the one wall a darker cream -- I didn't think of that, but it could work too. Well, I see I have my work cut out for me at the store! DH told me to go ahead and pick out something. We have the cream already, whether for that room or some others or both. My dad will be here in a few weeks and will be around for a while, so I'm keen to get on this while he can help me (because my poor DH is just so busy and doesn't have the big blocks of time to paint) and my mom is here to be the extra hand with the kids. Plus, I don't need the schoolroom for our summer work; the kitchen table will suffice, but come August, I will want the individual spaces back. So the schoolroom can be July's project.

Okay, HO MA Level 2 is the only Level 2 I haven't actually bought yet (I will use it for DS1 in sixth grade a year from now), but this is how we work HO and reading: They read the novels as a different subject from History. Whatever time period they're studying in history forms most of their assigned literature for the year. So it might look like this: Day 1: Literature -- read a chapter of HO novel; History -- read pages from Kingfisher and do a map Day 2: Literature -- read a chapter of HO novel; History -- do summaries and add things to timeline And so on. If they get to the point where they need to do a writing assignment or project for History based on the HO novel, I have them stop doing History and double up on the novel, reading two chapters (or whatever we've decided on) a day until they have finished it. At that point, they will start a new novel for Literature (an HO one if that's coming up next, or else something from my list of what else I want them to read) and do the writing assignment or project for History. This has worked very well for us. Also, despite what HO calls a "lesson," I find that those are generally too much for my children to do in a day (although if you do history in large blocks and not every day, they might be fine), so I go through the printout of assignments and draw lines to indicate what I feel is a reasonable amount of work for them to do in a day. This has also worked well for us.

We have used HO for middle school, sixth and seventh, and we have used Writing With Skill 1 along with it. Yes, we do both. I really like the step by step stuff that WWS teaches; it has given DD a better understanding of how to do her HO assignments. That being said, I occasionally modify assignments from both programs. We skip some essays in WWS occasionally, or more often, we condense an essay or lengthy summary from HO into a paragraph or a couple of sentences. HO has a lot of really good stuff, but I do worry about some of the summaries and such becoming busywork. So condensing has worked well. No more than one full essay a week at this point. (We only school four days a week, and we do some days of The Creative Writer instead, so we don't always get a week of WWS done in a week.)

Depends on age. I really like the Susan and Richie Hunt books for young ones (3-7ish) and am going to try an Explorer's Bible study with my fifth grader next year. My eighth grader is going to work through the Simply Charlotte Mason book, Life in the Word, I think it is called. It walks you through different types of Bible studies, the goal being that you can then do those types of studies on your own. I think it'll be really helpful as she moves into young adulthood. I might work through it myself, actually. My kids have also really liked the Bible application lessons that have gone with Narnia this year.

I mixed up eastern and western in the part about the windows. Fixed them now! I have four delightfully fidgety boys and a delightfully energetic girl -- more calm for schoolwork is always helpful! I love the idea of cream with a blue accent wall. We did cream with a dark red accent wall in a different house, and it really worked. All the kids either face the eastern wall with the windows or have it to their side when they're at their workspaces. I could paint that one (the biggest wall -- it becomes a little alcove under the highest part of the stairs) blue, and then it would be a calming and unifying color for the busiest wall (it's the one where our books are stored, and where the toddler toys are, plus the wall maps). Then I could paint the other three walls cream for the neutrality. Yeah, I think I like that idea!

I want to paint my schoolroom and need help deciding on a color. There is a warm cream that I love, and it would look nice on the walls. I could use a blue for the trim. I could also opt for a light dusty or colonial blue. Things to note: -Natural light -- varies. It has southern and eastern exposure, so it's bright and cheery in the morning and needs some more lighting (currently it has three sconces on that eastern wall, which will stay, and a floor lamp on the western wall, which isn't really doing it for me and which needs to be replaced with some more sconces on that wall). No ceiling light, although it does have a currently defunct ceiling fan. -House was built in about 1830. Ceiling height is not tiny but maybe a little shorter than current average. -Floor is a red oak laminate, and it's in good shape, so we will keep it. -Eastern wall has two windows. Southern wall has one window plus an unused door that is half window. Western wall has two doorways into other rooms. Northern wall is open to the stairwell, although we may eventually remove that and just have a larger schoolroom, in which case, the northern wall will be closed except for a doorway into the kitchen. So, a lot of broken up wall space. I have maps between the windows on the eastern wall, and a clothesline for art projects between the doorways on the western one, plus some nature prints around the walls. -Accents that are likely to stay in the room are navy, deep red, or medium-dark wood. Curtains -- I just have cream lace sheers so far, but I may add curtains at some point, maybe. I think either color could work. Cream for the neutrality, or blue for the gentle bit of color?

Group work at some point. I'm still trying to figure out when the best time for it is, whether that's before we start any one-on-one time, or as a break in the middle, or after lunch. I also need to tend to my littles and do a little housework right after breakfast. This is approximately what I'm thinking for the year: Wake up, dress, morning chores Breakfast Kids clear breakfast dishes and go to start their independent work while I tidy up, clean up littles, switch laundry, etc. Group work (half an hour or so) Then rotating blocks where I work with one child at a time, while the others work independently. Lunch Check-in and discussion meetings with each of the older two children.

Oh, dang, Quill. You just made me cry. Sometime nobody's gonna shove Goodnight Moon and Hungry Caterpillar in my lap yet again, and I'll no longer be such close friends with Corduroy and Curious George? Now I am blinking back tears about not having to blink back tears when the Little Engine What Could (because that's what my 6yo calls it) makes it over the mountain and all the dolls and little toy clown cheer. That's going to be rough.

I get it. I still have little ones, but I miss my pigtailed little princess in her dress up clothes!

I'm grateful for all of the recommendations I've gotten from this board! All the books, and of course, OneNote! So many great things I wouldn't have known about. Thank you Hive and SWB!

Really?! Oh, that poor kid!

You did fine and had lots of good stuff to say! We loved having you as one of our speakers! DH and I were able to decide that we don't feel we are going with a diploma program, which has been my biggest question. Yes, they did tell me that as well, and I'm sure it does vary a lot, but it was at least reassuring to hear that they do routinely have basic gen ed courses transfer. They really upped my opinion of CCs, or at least HACC, so I feel like more options for our kids just opened up.

Baby-sitting my younger siblings, then branching out to sit for other families. As a teen, I also tutored kids, and one adult, in math. My first real paid job, as in actual pay stubs, was working in our school district's office as a summer aide, answering phones, making copies, pulling job applications, etc.

Yes, I was really glad to learn that last night as well. I also appreciated hearing that the local CC credits are likely to transfer too, and that both colleges represented last night recognize the parent issued diploma. I learned a lot!

Oh, Eaglei, I am so sorry for your tremendous loss. Continuing to pray for your family. . .