There are a lot of cool things in CW. The Rockefellers' house is really cool. It's going to depend on your children (and in my case, the husband, LOL -- he spends a lot of time in the carpentry shop) -- the boys liked the blacksmith, and DD went to the milliner's shop about fifty times (okay, it was only about five, but in two days). I vote for seeing as much as you possibly can, but do check the times carefully. Some things will only be open like 9-1 or 1-5 or closed on a specific day. So if you can take some time to organize the list, that will help you to make sure you don't miss anything.

I'm so sorry for her loss -- such a tragic thing. The usual stuff that people do for new babies, like meals or errands, would be nice for her. She may not have an infant to care for, but she'll still need to recover, physically, and her mind is likely to be scattered too. You could ask her if she would like you to take down baby furniture or anything like that before she comes home. She might, and she might not. My SIL, when her baby was stillborn, asked my parents to take the crib and all down so she didn't have to, but otoh, for some parents, that's part of the grieving process. I wouldn't assume either way, but if you're close, you could ask. As hard as it might be for you, ask if she'd like to talk, or if she would like to share pictures. Let her talk and cry, and just hug her and tell her you're sorry. Use her baby's name; acknowledge that her baby is real. Especially down the line, in a few months, in the years to come, remember her, and remember her baby. We acknowledge my niece's birth date every year and let her parents know we're thinking of them, and we light a candle for her every October 15. It really seems to mean a lot to my brother and SIL that we remember their baby.

Does your library offer Mango? If so, that's a free way to try out some different languages. My DD has studied Latin for a couple of years and will continue to do so. She did a bit of French but didn't love it, so next year, she's going to try something else. She's expressed interest in both Italian and Chinese, so I'm going to have her play with Mango to see if either (or both) of them click; she does seem to pick up languages fairly easily. My son, who is 8, will start Latin this year, and probably one other language (he's also interested in Italian -- I think they like the way I, who took some Italian in college and loved it, pronounce the words), via Mango. If Italian doesn't click, I may suggest Spanish. I would love them to learn Greek and Hebrew, but I'm going to have to leave those for them to pursue on their own free time, as I want them to do Latin and one modern language, at the very least, because I think that is important in today's world.

I'm trying to decide between the Critical Thinking promo code, or one of the Evan-Moor books (and with that, I can't decide between the Asia one for my rising 6th grader, or the ocean one for my preKer). ETA: Decided to go with the Evan-Moor ocean book for my preKer, if for no other reason than he will enjoy that I got a book just for him. :)

That's what I did. I originally bought the small teacher's book, but then I realized that finding my own passages was just way more work than I really had time for, so I happened to find someone selling the workbook for a good price and used that. If I'd wanted the student pages, I could have downloaded a new set from the Peace Hill Press website, but I opted just to use our own paper because it was the right fit for my son. I haven't seen WWE1, but WWE2, 3, and 4 are all set up pretty similarly, so I'm assuming WWE1 is as well (and the PHP site probably has samples on it).

At this point, if your DH can't come to games, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If he's never able to, so be it, especially if he's otherwise enthusiastic and supportive. (The only thing that would concern me at all is if you had boys and he came to their games but not hers.) Dragging around a baby and another child is lousy, I know, but if the activity is otherwise important, well, that's what we do. That being said, I don't think soccer at 5 is really that big of a deal. I would see no problem with waiting at least a year, until your baby is a little bigger, or even longer. Or skipping it completely. I don't think team sports are strictly necessary. I think there can be some good things gained from them, but there's so much more to life than sports. I really think the biggest thing is that you encourage physical activity of some sort. I tend to lean more toward the "life fitness" sorts of things -- biking, swimming, hiking, walking, simply being outside. Some of that is because financial and other issues make a lot of formal sports difficult for our family, but it's also part of my overall philosophy; I don't want my kids to think that they HAVE to be on a team/have a uniform/etc. in order to be active. I want to instill in them a lifelong love of *doing* and being active, things they can do on their own without a full team and lots of equipment.

I'd talk to friends in the area if you can. We just had a chance to try out a local martial arts studio that several of our friends have raved about, and we were really impressed. I liked that I could view class easily through big windows, and the owner/head instructor himself took the time both to talk to me and to work with my kids and the other newbies. The instructors were good with the kids too, no yelling or anything worrisome. I just got a generally pleasant vibe from the place. (Otoh, DD took ballet for several years, and we tried out one studio that we really weren't impressed with; the teacher tended to bark at the kids a lot, and DD just wasn't happy. The other studio we used was very different, very family-ish, used positive ways of motivating the kids, etc. She was very happy there, and I was very happy with it, although finances got in the way.)

We have about two weeks left of work this year (and our evaluator signed off on our portfolio this week, so we're just finishing up some math and history) and then a month off, but I have house/organizing/get ready for baby stuff I need to do during that break, so I've been working on planning for next school year bit by bit for a few months. I have all of the materials (and they're on the shelf where we keep current materials), and plans, and everything. I'm down to little stuff that needs to be done, like making the science review cards and putting together some stuff to do with my preKer. I know I will make changes throughout the year, and I'm okay with that, but given that this is my first year needing to have complete portfolios for two students and the first time I'll have a newborn and a barely-2yo (my others are more spread out), AND I want to make sure that my sweet middle child, the preKer, gets some focused daily attention from me, I'm really trying to overplan, rather than underplan. It's easier to have a list of things ready to go and choose not to do some of them than it is for me to get anything done if I haven't made solid plans, especially for the extras. A lot of stuff IS "do the next thing," but sometimes the next thing also means having some materials or library books available, or things printed. Doing the overplanning now means that it can be "open and go" later. And planning early gets me the best deals. Okay, and it's fun to plan and make lists and all of that!

CNMs can do homebirths too. It just depends on the state. (My second birth was a homebirth attended by a CNM.) If you want the most options, you want a C*P*M/DEM, but really, you need to talk to the various people and see what they can/will do. A lot of midwives will do well-woman care, so that can be a good way to get to know them. And so much is just variable, period. My first was almost 9 pounds at 40w6d; my second was almost 10 pounds at 41w1d. (I was the thinnest when I got pregnant with him, and while his labor was my second shortest, it was also my hardest, not necessarily because of his size, but because of his position; he was very far forward on my pubic bone, and it hurt like the dickens to get him off of it and under. Otoh, my first, who was completely posterior, was my gentlest, although longest, birth, because it was slow and gradual.) Then my third was 9lbs. 5 oz. at 40w5d. So we didn't expect #4 to show up until about a week past his due date, and we expected him in the 9 pound range. Ha! He showed up at 38w3d and was just barely 8 pounds. (His birth was the fastest -- 4 hours of labor and one push.) Do what you can re: diet and health and all, but sometimes, it's just luck of the draw.

Eh, science is hardest for me to get to as well, especially experiments, but it's also very likely to come up in daily life -- they saw a rattlesnake (and got out of the way quickly!) while hiking with DH one day, they got to see ultrasound in use both on one brother's heart and when we saw our preborn baby, they get curious about a plant or bird they saw, etc. We don't do a lot of formal experiments, but they know a lot about the natural world. That being said, I do want to remedy that for next year, because I think at least my DD, if not my 8yo DS1, could use a bit more direction about the scientific discovery process. So we're going with Mr. Q's Chemistry next year because it's all laid out for me. At your kids' age, though, you might just try raising ladybugs or butterflies and keeping a log (just a calendar with drawings or photographs of the creatures' development) and adding some supplemental books.

I think there are a lot of ways to feed imagination, and I don't think stories are strictly necessary for that. Kids DO tend to enjoy them, but if your husband is happy to read them, and you take them to story time, or whatever, I think it'll be fine. Reading non-fiction to them can still give them the richness of language (though maybe not the exposure to dialogue, but they'll get that when they read to themselves) and exposure to facts and sentence structure and all of that. For imagination, you can give them open-ended toys (like cloths to turn into flags/blankets/whatever, dolls, blocks, etc.), expose them to art, give them playdough/paint/etc., and so on. I think hearing the language and seeing books of any type as a Good Thing is what will make them want to read the most. Fwiw, my husband really was never too big on fiction. To this day, he really prefers non-fiction. And he reads *constantly,* scholarly, challenging stuff. He's always got at least one book, if not more, in the works, plus an ongoing audio book for his commute. And he's a gifted writer, who is very, very creative. Lots of imagination.

If the younger child is naturally mathy and the older one is not, I would definitely use different programs for them, especially with such a close age difference, so as to avoid any competition. My DD and my DS1 are three grades apart but very different in their mathiness, so I have them in different programs (Saxon for her, because it works, and Miquon/Singapore for him, because it works for him).

Thank you so much! I think having the explanations right there will be helpful to her. I'll look for that series.

The problem with a no-dating policy (which I support, in theory) is that sometimes you really just can't control things. Sure, you can tell the kids they can't go to the movies together or whatever, and that they should focus on their schoolwork and all, but sometimes things just happen. My parents are very conservative, no-early-dating people; I wasn't even allowed to think about attending boy-girl parties until I was 13, and one-on-one dating wasn't even supposed to happen until I was 16. Yeah, well, I started high school and met a boy at an afterschool club (a geeky club, at that!). We weren't looking for it to happen (he really didn't even talk to girls when we met, much less date any); it just did. And in some ways, it was a very good thing. It took any concerns about "OMG, I don't have a date for the dance, and all the other girls do" off of my plate. (It did throw my parents for a loop, because while I know they were glad to avoid the serial dating and breakup thing that many teens go through, a relationship that becomes very serious very quickly and that absolutely does have *marriage and forever* written all over it has its own set of complications.) Probably having him go off to college two years after we started dating was a good thing, for me, academically (although miserable, emotionally), because I kept myself busy with dual enrollment college classes and afterschool clubs (which netted me a college degree in three years instead of four and a hefty scholarship, all of which meant we were able to get married sooner, and with smaller student loans, I was able to stay home with our baby when she arrived a few years after that -- choices I made at 16 paid off big-time at 21 and 24 -- but it took focus and determination). I would say that the OP just needs to make sure her son (and his GF) are keeping their focus on the future and academics and goals and all of that, but other than that, there's only so much you can do. I have no set dating policy for my kids as of yet; we'll just take it as it comes.

Is she the same year in school as he is, or will one of them graduate and go off to college before the other? I know from personal experience that that is very, very hard (although probably easier now with social media, email, cell phones, etc. than it was 20 years ago). It's not impossible, but it's hard. I wouldn't put a lot of pressure on them either way; it might become a long-term thing, and it might not. I wouldn't assume it will or that it won't. Most teen romances don't work out, but some do, and it's not fair to the teens for adults to tell them constantly that "it's not a big deal," "don't get serious," etc., because the reality is that it might last, and kids need parental support. But at the same time, no matter how much you might like the girl, it might not last, and that's okay too. I'd invite her over and include her in some family activities (my ILs treated me like a third kid from pretty much the time DH and I met when we were 16 and 14), but try not to get too attached to her. ;)

CDs sometimes, occasionally tapes (I have an old vehicle). Mostly, I use a Sansa Clip (and DH has a Sansa Fuze, which is also good) MP3 player, but if the iPhone does MP3s, that would work too. Since my van has a tape player, I have a little device like this, which connects to the MP3 player and lets it play through the van's speakers: http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Cassette-Adapter-Apple-iPhone/dp/B000FVDD30/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1368113171&sr=8-13&keywords=vehicle+tape Another option is a radio transmitter, which is what DH uses because his car has no tape player. We prefer the tape player adapter, though, as they've been a better deal for the money spent.

DD (rising 6th) read Lamb last year and liked it. I want to use the Coville books with at least my rising 3rd grade son next year, and I thought I'd have DD read a full play alongside of us. Of the Coville books that our library has, DD says she liked "The Winter's Tale" from Lamb and is interested in reading it. It's not one I've read (though hopefully I can remedy that next year), so I want to know if there's anything particularly inappropriate in it for a 6th grader. Also, is there a decent modern translation of the full play (not a summary/story) that she could read alongside the original? There's not a NoFear Shakespeare version of that one, unfortunately.

My daughter didn't like it at all; it is too silly for her. This child does not care for silly or cutesy, at all.

My rough plan for next year is approximately four pages of Singapore one day, then four pages of Miquon the next, and so on, alternating. Some days, it's only two pages, and some days, it's six; it really depends on how arduous it is and how long it takes. May or may not add the HIG stuff in there -- maybe do fewer pages plus some HIG stuff, or maybe do the HIG stuff on the Miquon days. I don't have the IP but might get it at some point. I think we'll do the CWP after we finish the A and B levels of Singapore, before moving on to the next level.

DD started reading a lot more when I got her a cheap e-reader. It doesn't do Kindle books, but it will do EPUB and public domain stuff, which is often more of a challenge. She would have gotten bored with Little Women in paper (and probably would have skipped to the end to find out how it ended, which then would de-motivate her to finish it), but e-reading makes skipping around harder, and so she encouraged herself to get through it. And then she loved it and was so proud that she finished it. My kids also will earn extra screen time for finishing books -- the longer the book, the more time earned, so that's motivation in itself to read more challenging stuff. (Starting books is not a problem here; finishing them and/or challenging ourselves to read slightly harder stuff is the issue.) And some of it just took time.

My Mother's Day gift won't actually be delivered until August (seriously, I really like babies, so another one to cuddle is a pretty good gift in my book), but the only thing I want this year is not to have to do dishes or cook. We might go out to eat, but I don't even care so much what we eat, as long as I'm not in charge of it or the dishes for it.

That looks like a lot of fun, and the worksheets you made are gorgeous! If you haven't seen it, you might enjoy reading "The Scrambled States of America" by Laurie Keller; it's hilarious!

We're not super rural, but we're 20-30 minutes from anything, so there is no such thing as a quick trip. Mostly, it's taught me to plan, and to be judicious with outside commitments. An hour-long event becomes a two-hour event, and even a couple of errands rapidly eats up a large portion of the day. Weeks when we have to be out of the house several times leave us feeling exhausted (and we still have the usual laundry and dishes and cleaning to attend to as well), so we are very selective with what we choose to do outside of the home. We have developed a number of little things that help us plan, because it's not worth the time and gas to run 10 miles each way to the library to return a few books. So I have my google calendar set to email me to remind me to check on books that may be due once a week. My husband (who drives through a reasonably-sized town on his commute) calls me on his way home to ask if there's anything he needs to pick up at the store/library/WalMart, but I also do keep a freezer stocked with meats, veggies, etc., so if there's a reason we can't get out, at least we won't starve. I keep a mental list of errands that need to be done, so that we can hit several stops in one trip. It does make for a very long day sometimes, and we're just used to loading spare clothes/diapers for the babies, schoolwork, drinks, snacks/lunch, etc., etc. into the van for the out days. We try to plan some fun stuff in the middle of errands too, like small treats or stopping at the library or park, so that it's gentler on everyone's spirits. This may not apply to you, OP, but we had to realize that commuting costs (both money and time) factor heavily into life; 90 miles round-trip just takes a long time and gets expensive, no matter what. That does tend to grate on all of us a bit sometimes. But living in the country is great! It's quiet and peaceful, and we could have a garden and chickens (and hope to do so at some point). Even with the hassles, I do feel like our quality of life is pretty good here. :)

5th, but only because the local school that my kids would attend if they weren't homeschooled starts middle at 5th grade.

Money, and the concept of owing it, made sense to my daughter. I remember my dad teaching it to me using red and black checkers; one was positive, and the other negative, and they canceled each other out. With DD, we also talked about how negative means opposite, so two negatives mean the opposite of the opposite, so they cancel each other out; that also made sense to her.