I have very long hair; I could cut enough off to donate and still have long enough hair to donate a few more times. Honestly, there's no good solution. Eve on hardwood floors, we just have to clean out the vacuum cleaner every so often. Same with the drains; I clean it out every time I shower, and the pipes still get clogged. Just the way it is.

My DH has one sibling, a sister six years younger, and he talks to her on the phone maybe twice a year, if that. She usually calls him on his birthday. He sees her maybe once a year, usually when we're all at his parents' for Thanksgiving. They get along fine, no animosity; they just tend to be introverted and don't talk much. We'd get together with them more often if we lived closer together. I see his sister on FB and occasionally trade comments with her. I chat with my sister once a week or so, sometimes more, sometimes less, via FB, but we don't actually talk very often -- different life stages, different schedules. We'll chat via FB if our DH's are out/busy. We're 9 years apart, though; she's a newlywed, and I'm an old married mom of several, so we don't have a ton in common, but we enjoy chatting, swapping recipes, stuff like that. We chatted a lot more in the past few months, because she was planning her wedding, and she would bounce ideas off of me. I don't talk to my brothers or their wives on the phone either; one brother usually calls me on my birthday, but that's about it. Again, we don't live close to any of them, so we only see them once, maybe twice, a year, but it's a good time when we are together. I have to admit that DH and I tend to be extreme introverts. We just don't do a lot of "hey, how ya doing?" sort of chatting. I also don't hear that all well on the phone, so the only people I talk to very often are my mom and my MIL.

I have five (11, 8, 5, 2-5, and 5 months), so I know what you mean. Honestly, I don't know. I think it helps that my current 2yo is one of my quieter ones. Homeschooling older ones when some of my others were 2 would have been hard. My 2yo has a gazillion toys, Duplos, train table, etc. to entertain him, and he and the 5yo play together a lot. Or I read to them, when I have time (I aim for a little of that every day, even 30 minutes or so). But this 2yo will also sit and look at books on his own for a long time. I spent a ton of time last spring and summer printing preschool packs of activities for my little guys, so I can always pull out some of those to keep them busy. They're really for the 5yo, but the 2yo is happy if I have a couple of sheets he can "do" also. Busy bags, pattern blocks, chalk, fingerpaint, crayons, puzzles, all that sort of stuff -- I have a space at a table for both boys, and I rotate out activities for them. And yeah, sometimes the 2yo just dumps out a lot of toys, but that's life. I do have a lot of independent work for my older children, and we include the littles in picture study or science experiments or whatever. I often read aloud while they're all eating.

I need some quick and easy (and inexpensive) ideas for civics that I can use this year (3rd and 6th) and next (4th and 7th). Last year was easy, because it was an election year, so we talked about that and did a few worksheets. This is the kind of stuff that we talk about when/if it comes up naturally in real life, but I need something that will generate some paper for the portfolio. Maybe some sort of topic for a persuasive paragraph for my older child? I'm just drawing a blank about what would qualify as civics, other than "how the government is structured" kinds of things. Ideas, topics, even workbooks or worksheets?

I guess I kinda fit the stereotype. I drive a minivan (although with five kids, DH wants to trade up to a 12 passenger). I have long hair (insanely long, past my rear end), but I don't generally braid it; it's either loose or in a bun most of the time. I wear makeup only a couple of times a year, if that. I usually wear jeans and LLBean all weather mocs, but I did have a stage where I only wore long skirts for over a year, and I still wear them a lot when it's warm.

I watch for sales, and I have homeschooled with lots of free stuff (and I still do, when possible), and I borrow when I can (DD's math book is from our co-op's lending library), and I save stuff to reuse, but DH and I have concluded that sometimes we'll just have to spend some money for the right fit. (DS1's Singapore stuff for next year is going to cost $70, but he loves it, and chances are high that at least one little brother will use it.) It helps to have a bit of money available for unexpected sales; I buy most things in the spring, but I bought next year's science last week (50% sale at Mr. Q) and next year's writing for DD in December (PHP's 40% off sale), and I won't buy next year's history until September when HO has their 25% off sale). Even still, next year's total looks to be a bit over $300 for two kids (and a workbook for the kindergartener), but to buy it all new, from scratch, would be at least twice that. I almost never buy literature, and HO uses a lot of literature for history. However, we have a GREAT library setup, so that helps a TON.

We've used some of the books from the Poetry for Young People series. Also, the picture book R is for Rhyme by Sleeping Bear Press is good, and I am looking at using Art of Poetry from Classical Academic Press for 7th grade next year.

Our history program (History Odyssey) has dictionary work in it. Sometimes we've used general skills workbooks, such as BrainQuest, that cover those sorts of things. Otherwise, we hit them as they come up in real life.

We did that. Well, we did Middle Ages when they were interested in it, and then we did some US history, again interest-related, and then last year, we did ancients. This year, we are doing early modern, and next year will be modern, and then I am not sure. It doesn't seem to be an issue. Especially for younger children, I think interest in history is really important, so if they want to study a particular time period, I vote to go for it.

I thought that 2012 was the last year of the extensions of the Bush-era tax credits, including the $1000 per child tax credit, and that for 2013, the child tax credit was reverting to $500 per child. But when I filled in our tax paperwork the other day, it said $1000 per child. And yes, this was software updated for 2013, via H&R Block's site. Google reminded me that Obama did sign into law some sort of permanent tax benefits -- was the $1000 per child tax credit part of that? Just wanted to make sure that it is indeed $1000 per child and not $500 per child. Anyone know?

Well, I didn't get my wisdom teeth until my mid-20s (I think I had at least one child), and at 36, a couple of them are still not completely through; from time to time, they hurt a bit for a few days, and then I notice that I can feel more of them, so I think they have erupted a bit more. Doesn't seem impossible that yours could be coming in at 47.

Lori, your thread made me remember that I used this book with DD in 3rd (I think it was 3rd, not 4th; I think I was pregnant, not toting a baby, LOL), and it was a nice extra. We read each page and for about half of the letters, she wrote (with my help) her own version of that type of poem. It was a fun and gentle way to add a little oomph and challenge to the language arts package. I think I will do it with DS1 next year. http://www.amazon.com/R-Rhyme-A-Poetry-Alphabet/dp/158536519X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390336077&sr=8-1&keywords=r+is+for+rhyme

We hold hands and say something along the lines of thanking God for the food He has provided, and we also ask for His blessing or healing upon anyone we know of who especially needs it. We also offer Him thanks for any particular blessings He's recently granted.

Name the date, and I will bring books and stuff for y'all to look at! And the baby!

I read picture books to my little guys. But absent that, I clean, fold laundry, bake stuff, correct papers, knit. . .

Well, you know I am always hoping for Mom's Night with y'all! I feel like the grammar is gentle -- "here is the word for sailor; it's a person, so it's a noun; here is the word for poet, also a noun," and so on, but I also haven't compared it to anything else for thirdish grade, so IDK. Learning Latin gave DD some much-needed organizational skills, because as it progressed, she *always* looked for the verb first. I think she was halfway through third when we started it, right around her 9th birthday in the spring, and she has always been strong in her language skills. Also, languages are my strong area, so it was a big bonding thing for her and me (and continues to be, as we still are learning it together). I think waiting until fourth for your son could be very reasonable. Tbh, I didn't necessarily feel strongly about starting it with DS1 this year (and if he were a late birthday, I could have easily waited), but it made the two big kids' workloads come out even, so I gave it a shot, and it's working out well, even if we haven't gotten to as much of it as I would like (it's not my top priority). It could also be a fun mid-third-grade addition. We have done a bit of English From The Roots Up, and it's fun. The kids like thinking of all the words they know that have "photo" or whatever in them. We take a card at dinner and discuss it. Maybe that would be an option for you? And also, whatever Hunter says. :)

I like my very tightly filtered FB, but I have never had a smartphone and don't regret it. I hate texting and rarely use it. I do, however, like and use email a lot. So ymmv.

I am really liking the amount of grammar that my current third grader is absorbing just from doing WWE3 and GSWL. We started Latin in third with DD because she was begging to learn it, and now that DS1 is reading well, he is enjoying GSWL as well. I think it's an excellent book, but maybe it's just a really good fit for my family? Have I lent it to you? I can't remember, but if not, you're welcome to borrow it and see what you think (and if you hold off another year, you're welcome to use it when DS1 finishes it, sometime next year). I didn't do any formal grammar or punctuation with DD, and she uses them correctly in her writing and blew away those parts on the standardized tests. I hope the same will happen with DS1, but I may (depending on what his scores say this spring) need to do a bit more focused work with him because he just hasn't been reading as long as DD had by this point and may not have absorbed enough. Third grade is a step up in my house, because for my older kids, it's the first official reporting year. But I think my third grader is having a good year. He seems happy, and he's learning a lot. I think he's reasonably challenged but not overwhelmed. His challenges this year have been in terms of working independently (this one, he is my velcro baby, the one who never wanted to leave my side, so stepping up to be a big kid to do his work has been good for him), reading more to himself and not having me read it all to him.

Have you switched hand soap or anything recently? I tend toward very dry skin in the winter, and a ton of water really helps, as does lotion several times a day. But my skin improves quickly with lotion, and this sounds more like an allergy to something. I have had the dryness get worse rapidly with some soap changes.

I have four boys and a DH with names of people from the Bible (the first three boys are all parts of different Biblical groups of twelve AND the first names of US Presidents), four Hebrew in origin, one Greek, plus two of their middles are also from the New Testament. But what I would offer you is my littlest, tiniest boy's middle name: Grant. It means "gift" or "to bestow." This baby is a probable last blessing, very much adored and wanted, safely with us after a dramatic birth, a testament to God's power. Every time I think of his middle name (yes, we did get him a Presidential name too, albeit not a first one), I am reminded of what an absolutely precious gift he is, and what a gift we have in God's own Son.

That was lovely -- thank you for sharing! You could have been my mom. Back in 1982 when I started Kindergarten, my parents only knew "weird" people who homeschooled and not many of them at that. I wasn't unhappy in K, just bored, and my mother said she prayed and prayed about pulling me out. The answer was always "no," but later it was "yes" for two of my younger siblings, and my parents are two of my biggest supporters about keeping my own children home. It must have been so much harder in many ways; now we have tons of community support, the internet, e-books. . . Thank you for being a homeschooling pioneer, Ellie, and paving the way for the rest of us.

Thank you -- just what I wanted to know. I think I should read Of Other Worlds and Surprised By Joy before I assign them to her, but both sound interesting.

I like the Delta Dental plan available in my state, so you could see if they're available in yours.

At my university, the Honors College students got a lot of perks -- nicer dorms, priority scheduling even as freshmen, possibly special library privileges (can't remember), and a generally more personalized education. I know my experience was all around very different from that of the nonHonors freshmen. I hope that has not changed.

Thank you SilverMoon -- these are both really helpful lists. I am going to check out some of the other guides you mentioned; I like the idea of more discussion questions.