We start our school year as close to July 1 as is reasonable (because that's when my state allows me to start counting days); this year, it falls on a Monday, so it or the next day should be our first day. Then we plan for breaks throughout the year; this year, we're planning for three weeks after our baby arrives (with more if we need it), the full week of Thanksgiving, two weeks before Christmas and one week after Christmas (three full weeks off), and the weeks before and after Easter. Plus, our anniversary and all birthdays and DH's few holidays are days off, and we'll have some Fridays that are co-op days/park days/field trips, so they'll count as school days but don't count in my lesson plans. We aim to finish for the year by Memorial Day and will have off between then and July 1, about five weeks. We will probably log over 180 days, but we don't necessarily get ahead of grade level by doing that; we just like the flexibility. Although I have planned to do math every day, for instance, there will be days when it just doesn't get done, and that's okay; we'll still have plenty of time to finish the amount I want to finish. Some of our subjects will probably not take us the entire year to complete, and that's also okay by me. Around March and April, when the weather starts to get nice outside, we'll appreciate having some subjects drop off our list because they're done. (Right now, my kids are finishing math and history, plus some reading, and then they're going outside for large parts of the day.) I tend to plan loosely -- that is, I have daily lesson plans (some of them are just "do the next thing in the book"), but I know that I will have to move some lessons around from time to time. But basically, summer is hot here, and our activities are pretty limited, and winter is cold. But spring and fall are heavenly, so we aim to do the bulk of our work in July, August (most years, not this one since our baby is due mid-August), January, and February, so that we can take breaks at other times and enjoy them. There will be impromptu "school's canceled; spend the day outside" days in October and April, I'm sure!

Well, I'm not intending to do formal spelling at all and not much formal grammar with my sixth grader next year, because I want them to be done more in an as-needed way, in writing, particularly cross-curricular writing. We'll be doing a more formal writing program (WWS1) daily, or close to daily, though, but that's a weaker area for her, whereas grammar is a stronger one. Logic will be once a week or so; there's only so much time in the day.

I have bought a few things from amazon third-party sellers, and I've been pleased. I've bought used, and nothing's turned out badly. I look for "shelf wear" or something like that, and I like if it specifies no torn pages or whatever. I got a Saxon 7/6 paperback text and answer key for a total of $18 shipped -- I accepted "used, good condition" for it and was perfectly pleased. Maybe a couple of spots in it where someone made a note or two, and the corners are a bit worn, but for the price, and for its purpose it's been more than fine. I do like large sellers with plenty of good feedback. And if I have a question, I want them to answer it. I wanted DD's next Latin book, which is a worktext, so it was important to me to know that it had no writing in it, but gently used otherwise didn't bother me, and it's a $30 book, which only lasts us about half a year, so I didn't want to spend a lot. I got a steal on amazon, and they emailed me within a day or so to say that there was no writing in it. Honestly, it looks pristine and brand-new.

Update: thanks so much for this suggestion; Figuratively Speaking arrived a couple of days ago and looks to be exactly the missing link in our LA program!

Yes to this. We'll have our baby in our room for a while, and possibly the toddler too. Then, at some point, we'll either have four boys in two connecting rooms (currently, the older two boys share a room and are anxious for DS3 to come join them), or we'll have three boys in one large room (the only room that can hold a twin and a bunk bed) and two girls in another room (not really sure how that's going to work, since they'll be very far apart, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it).

I use my 19-year-old Jansport backpack that got me through my senior year of high school, college, and my first job. It's still going strong and holds a lot. :)

Oh, and the Museum (Military Air Command or something like that) at the Dover Air Force Base in Dover, DE (middle of the state) is very cool. My 4 and 7yo boys were really interested in it last fall (my 10yo girl too), as was my 30-something boy. ;) Depending on how much time you've spent at the beach, Cape Henlopen and Rehoboth Beach are pretty cool (southern DE). We actually prefer Cape Henlopen, as it's quieter. Lewes is a cute historic town over that way, and although we didn't get to see it because the timing didn't work out, there's the Zwanandael Museum in Lewes too. (We grew up over that way but just finally got a chance to take our children to do some of the touristy stuff last fall; we had a great time hitting a ton of things between Dover, DE and the eastern shore of Virginia.) And the Outer Banks of NC is just wonderful.

Also, Williamsburg, and if you are heading over to Delaware, you could head down to the eastern shore of MD and VA and go to Chincoteague and Assateague too.

Gettysburg, definitely, but not this summer; they're predicting 4 million people here this summer for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg is a cute little town; it's not made for 4 million people. I'd go to Philadelphia or Lancaster instead.

I picked up one at BJ's today, and wow, that's cool. I'm easily impressed, I guess. Now I'm looking for what else I can laminate. :) My 4yo is convinced that the machine is his, because I told him I wanted to make a little calendar for him to put dates and such on. He's going to love the little activities I'm printed out for him to try.

We've finished over 180 so far, but we have about three weeks left before we'll finish the work we have left to finish, which is only a couple of subjects still.

Lodge cast iron, and it's worth taking the time to season it properly over and over, because after a while, it's perfect, even for eggs. We use one of our skillets at least once, often two or three times, every single day, and the only time we have eggs stick is when we have cooked a couple of batches of eggs and don't add more butter before doing scrambled eggs or omelets. Even then, anything stuck on washes away easily.

We eat lots of oatmeal (well, the kids do), and we all eat a lot of eggs. Sometimes (the kids don't eat it, but I do) I saute slices of mushroom and zucchini and cherry tomatoes in butter, and when it's all cooked, I top it all with mozzarella cheese. I like zucchini slices topped with goat cheese too.

Ooooh, even better! The cheaper one gets good reviews too.

Cool, like a puzzle, then. I was looking at the Purple Cows one, as it seems to get good reviews here and at amazon, and it comes with several pouches to start, which the comparable Scotch one does not.

I think I'm going to get a laminator. Questions: 1) I can put multiple small cards in one pouch, right, and then just cut them apart pretty easily? 2) Do home-laminated pages work well with dry erase markers, to reuse practice sheets for my preschooler? I haven't been very impressed with using page protectors for that purpose; they just seem to crumple and wrinkle too easily.

Combine where you can. You can probably do social studies and science with your older two together, and the little one listening in when he/she is able. The deal with our littles is that they are welcome to be a part of things or not, as they choose, no pressure either way, but if they choose to be with us, they have to be quiet and respectful while we're reading out loud. (Coloring, drawing, playdough, mealtimes -- those help keep everyone quiet and listening.) I use a lot of picture books too; for instance, we did Story of the World Volume 1 this year, and I supplemented it with picture books for reinforcement for the younger ones, and independently-read chapter books for my fifth grader. If you can have a few things that are independent for your third grader, that will help. With my second grader this year, I would go over math with him and then let him work independently until/unless he had a question. My day went something like this this past year (and I expect it will be fairly similar next year): -Everyone ate breakfast together. As I finished, I read something to the still-eating (and thus still-quiet) crew -- poetry, a Bible story, maybe a history or science book or chapter, something from our hymn study book. Sometimes a couple of things; it just depended on the day. -The 4, 8, and 11 yo's cleared their dishes and brushed their teeth. The 8 and 11 yo's started some independent work, usually reading, while the 4yo found something non-distracting to do. I did set out early learning activities for him a lot of times, but often he just wanted to look at his books or play with his trains or something. During this time, I cleaned up the kitchen and got the baby ready for the day. -I took some time with each of the older children to do the Mom-intensive subjects with them. If the other older child ran out of things to do, he/she could go play for a bit (or work on the computer typing program we have). -I tried to have some time to do stuff with the 4yo, even just reading picture books, but it would depend on how long things took with the older kids. -At some point, I did the group subjects, whenever I had a chance. I would pick the most important subjects to you and get a routine going with those first -- maybe one or two subjects at a time, adding more when you feel that the expected routine is solid for the first few subjects.

I had a 2000 Expedition that I loved (until it was totaled in a rollover accident). Really great vehicle. Handled very nicely, athough like someone else said, a little rougher than a minivan. When it died, it had about 150K miles on it and hadn't needed a lot of work, athough a few minor things were starting to wear out. (There was an issue with windshield seals leaking with that vintage that then caused some issues with the wiring, but it wasn't a super expensive repair.) Plenty of room in the middle row, both for bottoms and for legs. The biggest issue was that with the third row in use, the cargo space was terrible. I only had three small children at the time, and it barely held a week's worth of groceries. My minivan holds a week's worth of groceries for seven people easily. Other than that, I loved it and would still be driving it happily if it hadn't died.

Yes, I definitely would not have looked at Mr. Q without a tablet. I happen to prefer holding a tablet to a paper book, because it's easier on my hands, especially since I'll also have an infant in my lap/sling and probably my toddler too, and I like reading from the tablet, but I dislike reading from the computer screen.

My kids really liked Seeker of Knowledge, but I don't know anything about the rest of them.

We're also going to try Mr. Q's Chemistry next year (3rd and 6th); I was impressed with its price (I got it on sale) and how it lays everything out for me and doesn't use lots of unusual things for the experiments. I also thought it had a lot of "meat" to it; DH, who is much more science-oriented than I, was also impressed with how much it covers. If you don't have a tablet or e-reader, though, beware that the student plus teacher books are about 900 pages total.

We take off from Memorial Day until July 1 (although they'll read and do whatever free writing/art/etc. they feel like doing). July 1, we'll start back with our new year's worth of work; we don't do a light schedule in the summer -- the opposite, actually. This year, we will be taking off a few weeks in August/September when our baby arrives, but otherwise, it's regular school during the summer. We'll make time for swimming and other outdoor activities too, though.

You can spend any amount you want, LOL! There's everything from very expensive curricula to free. Some things to consider: -How much extra cash do you have? Don't give up food to buy expensive programs, but if you have the cash, and you find the right program that just happens to be expensive, then so be it. ;) -How much extra time do you have? You will generally pay one way or the other, either with money or with time. I have more time than money (although not much of either, LOL), so I can take the time to put together my own programs from free/cheap resources, or to search for good deals online. -Do you have a homeschooling community that shares books? (We have a lending library at our co-op, so two of my biggest resources for next year are going to be completely free for me to use, which is a huge benefit to me. I do a lot for our co-op, including maintaining the lending library, so I do trade time for that perk, but it's worth it.) -Do you feel that you need some hand-holding in terms of laying out daily/weekly schedules, or do you feel that you can put that together yourself? (Again, may go back to how much time you have.) -How much are you able to get from your libraries? -Will you be able to combine kids in any subjects? -What is the best thing for your child(ren)? That being said, I spent between $200 and $300 total for two kids for next year. The bulk of the stuff was for the older child but will hopefully be used by at least one more child down the line, if not more than one. They have very different math needs, so although the older one's math materials were free, I bought the next level for my second child, as well as the next level of the writing program for him (since we didn't use that one for our older child), but then I'll be able to pass his stuff down to the younger kids or sell it. I have a great public library system, though, too, and that helps a lot. ETA: If you really want all the details, I'd be happy to provide you (or anyone) with my list and how I acquired it, just for example purposes; shoot me a PM anytime.

I vote for getting rid of it. Unless your daughter has said how much she loves it, don't save it for her -- let her choose her own pattern if she wants china. I do like the idea of keeping some as a tea service, though. (That being said, I don't even have china; I didn't register for it because we thought it was a little silly to have part of an expensive set that we couldn't afford to complete, when we also were just starting out and needed basic stuff. However, a few years ago, I started collecting handmade pottery from a particular artist, and that I love. It's not quite as fancy and formal as china, but it's more *us.* I do use it sometimes, usually for company or nicer meals, and it IS completely dishwasher safe. However, we don't currently have a working dishwasher, so we hand wash everything. I do like that it is obviously special, and it does automatically dress up the table.)

Okay. We have an iPad and a desktop PC at home. Both have Dropbox set up on them, using my Dropbox account (call it account A). No problems; I love it, and it's seamless and easyeasyeasy. So, DH has a totally different computer at his office (nowhere near home), and he wants to be able to access files from that computer, using Dropbox and our desktop PC, so that he might someday be able to work at home. I'm all for that, but we don't want his account and mine mixed -- I want to keep his work files separate from my files, and vice versa. I tried downloading another Dropbox program to the desktop, and it doesn't seem to be working. Is there a way to do this at all?