I'd consider us to be somewhere between "interest led" and "mama controlled" for science, and I'm more interested in getting them to go "oh, wow, cool" than memorizing specifics. I try to round out a topic with some projects, some videos if applicable, and some good books, plus a few worksheets. We watched bird videos and read the Burgess Bird Book when we studied birds. We take our Peterson's First Guides along on walks and hikes; DD knows a lot about identifying plants because she found them interesting. We made jello cells (gross but cool) and did a few worksheets and watched videos of how the circulatory system works when we learned about the human body last year. We are raising ladybugs this year and keeping a log of their development; DD really likes drawing them at different stages and colors. We'll do a few insect reports and read some books about insects, plus maybe a field trip to see some bees, and we'll do a few worksheets to cement things (and prove that we did them). If they don't remember every detail, that's okay. I think of science in the early grades as just getting to know things -- they might not remember exactly what mitochondria do, but the next time they encounter it, they won't be starting from complete scratch. When we're interested in a topic, we check out a bunch of books, and I look for projects that are doable. We want to try some of the activities from the book Physics Lab in a Housewares Store, for instance, and I'll probably pull out some factual books to go along with those. But also, they will find their own little rabbit trails, and we'll support those -- this week, for instance, DH got DS1 a bunch of books about WWII fighter planes, because he was interested in those (after a trip to Eisenhower's Farm in Gettysburg), and DD was so interested in how genetics works in forensics that she checked out a bunch of books about forensics, DNA, etc. herself. I could see doing more projects related to those topics if she wanted to. We aim to do science once a week, so that we don't feel pressured to hit a certain amount of stuff, and so that I have more energy to set up projects without having to get through all the other subjects that day. We'll see how that goes this year.

I don't really think she overuses them, though that's a good idea to keep in mind. She's just much more of an auditory learner, I think. DH is the same way; he listens to hefty audio books in the car and soaks them in, whereas I'm not at all auditory, and my mind wanders listening to any audio books. We've tried a variety of things, and I think the answer is that she's going to prefer to listen to literature rather than read it herself, and if we take away all audio books, she'll just self-limit her exposure to literature, which I don't want. I like that idea a lot, and she does seem to like using the dictionary, though she doesn't necessarily think to look up something before she writes it. I'll give that a shot -- have her look over her work and look up anything she was uncertain about, and then I'll look for any others and have her look them up. Thanks!

I do think that part of it is not being used to the classroom mentality. I find it hilarious when I ask my kids something at the dinner table (usually as a prompt for them to tell DH what they learned about in history or something that day), and DD has figured out about raising her hand, whereas the boys still blurt things out. But that is fairly recent; she's 10. Maybe you could try something like that at home -- ask a question and tell them that you will call on the one who is to answer -- so that they get practice in taking turns answering and such. I also think some of it is just the age, and I agree with the PP who said silly is better than sullen. Maybe that enthusiasm can be handled in other ways, like giving them productive jobs to do. Also, since they're all together, they may egg each other on. Any time I take just one of my three older children somewhere, that child is so calm and quiet; when they're all together, 1 + 1 + 1 definitely is more than 3, and they'll feed off of each other's goofiness. I also suspect that since they're triplets, they may garner more attention than other children -- not that it's a bad thing, but all of their actions together may get lumped together as "Mrs. Jones's children," and seem like more craziness than "Mrs. Smith's children" when Mrs. Smith only has one child in the class, if that makes sense.

For a variety of reasons, I do not want to add a formal spelling program, but I think my DD, 5th grade, needs a bit of work on spelling of complex words. She does read but strongly prefers audio books to print ones, so she's getting the vocabulary and all from those, but she's not seeing the printed words much. I've been keeping a list of the words I'm seeing misspelled in her work and am wondering what the best way to work on those is. If you don't use a formal spelling program, what do you do with words your children misspell? I could have her copy them 5 times each or so, once a week. I could also go over them with her, a few at a time, spelling-bee style, each day. Just wondering what the rest of you do.

We all swam on swim team, so it was indeed a family event. But my brothers played soccer and baseball, and I remember going to a fair number of their games. I don't think my parents made me go to every single one, though; actually, as they got older, my mom didn't even go to every game, especially not all of the out-of-town ones (though my dad generally did). Rarely did I go to their practices, like really rarely. It seems a bit much for kids to have to go to every single game for their siblings; I enjoyed going to a few now and then and cheering for my brothers, but going once or twice a week would have made me bored and resentful (I also detested being outside in the sun as a kid). I think my parents struck a good balance there. When DD was taking dance lessons, I tried not to have to bring everyone else along. They couldn't see her anyway, and it wasn't the most interesting place to wait. If they had to bring stuff to do anyway, they might as well stay at home with DH, so that's what they did. They enjoyed having some "boy time" with Daddy (frequently involving youtube videos of trucks and such), and I got some time with the baby during DD's class, and then DD and I usually went to the grocery store and had a few minutes to ourselves (including a fairly long car ride where she didn't have to share my attention with everyone else). Currently, DS1 is in speech therapy once a week, and I bring everyone along; it's kind of a pain, but we don't have another option. Now, for recitals, or once a year things, or occasional games, yes, I make them all go, even if they don't want to. I do think it's important to cheer on their siblings and to "be there" for them. But a 12yo missing even half of a dozen ball games in a season, while enthusiastically cheering for his sibling at the other half, would not bother me at all. ETA: I also do feel that my children have a LOT of time together. We live in the middle of nowhere and don't have opportunities to play with other children very often, so it's siblings-siblings-siblings all the time. Mostly that's fine, but I feel that it's okay to let them have some time away from each other/time doing separate things too. When they get back together, they act like they haven't seen each other for a million years -- it's actually kind of funny how overjoyed they are to see each other (and that's the older ones with each other, not just with the baby; I understand that the baby is the Biggest Exciting Thing Ever).

I named DD after the Little House books, so I was so thrilled to share them with her. :) A Little Princess was another of my favorite books (because the heroine has *my* name), and I was a little bummed that DD liked it but didn't absolutely love it like I did. She started Little Women but got bored partway through; I hope she reads it when she's a bit older and loves it as much as I did. (However, I expect that she'll identify more with Amy, whereas Meg was my favorite.) And she's too young now, but Gone With the Wind is one of my favorite books, and I hope someday it will be one of DD's too. As a family, it is a Big Deal when we start reading the Winnie the Pooh books again, so that each new child can enjoy them. DD loved them; so did DS1. We're in the middle of reading them to DS2, and he loves them too. It is so much fun to reread our favorites!

I wish my DH wasn't gone 60 hours a week, because it's really a shame that he doesn't have more time to do more of the homeschooling; the two of us together would be a fantastic pair, very complementary to each other. DH uses math regularly, but very specifically (carpenter math); he's good at it, but I'm better at math and am really comfortable teaching it. We both love history, but we like different aspects of it; I'm more likely to find projects and living books for history, and DH is more likely to get into a philosophical discussion about some historical topic. We both love literature and sharing good books with our children; I'm a decent writer (but an excellent speller), while DH is a terrible speller but a very gifted writer. I detest pretty much anything science-y at all, and I wish I could turn it all over to DH, who enjoys science and tinkering and experimenting and all of that. Otoh, I love languages, so it's fun for me to go over Latin and French with our daughter. I feel like I do a pretty decent job of covering all of the subjects, but I know there are some DH could do better. I could do the math, history, and languages; he could do the science, writing, and music. Maybe someday. . . Interestingly enough, our daughter is very strong, linguistically; she reads easily and loves history and Latin. She doesn't speak math, though, but DS1 and I do very much. DS1 is a slower reader, but he likes tinkering and such. And then there's DS2 -- he's a whole different kettle of fish -- we're not going to be able to keep up with him in a few years. :)

Not sure about ones you get from the library -- I think you probably can't store those, because like paper books, they're only lent out for a certain period of time, and then they expire. That's my understanding, anyway. If you download them from librivox.org, or if you buy them from somewhere, yes, those you can store on the computer as long as you want. I have a bunch of books from there, and I just put a few of them on the mp3 player at a time.

I'd get at least 4G. 4G will hold some pretty lengthy books without running out of space too quickly. DH has had some lengthy books on his; I'm not sure about Harry Potter, but some of DH's longer books have been bigger than 1G, so 4G or more is more comfortable for him in terms of how often he needs to get new books. 8G is nice if you want a big selection at once but probably not necessary if you're mainly doing audiobooks and will listen to one complete book before moving on to another one.

I would find that very annoying. I'd suggest that she politely tell people, "No, my name is AnnaClaire" until they get the hint. My oldest son is Andrew; he's never been Andy. We never introduced him as Andy, and he prefers Andrew. (I don't mind Andy, but I wanted it to be his choice, so I started off calling him Andrew.) Nobody ever shortens it to Andy. (Otoh, my younger sons are Benjamin and Zachary, and I shorten them all the time, LOL, and so do other people. I guess, to me, Andy isn't really any shorter to say than Andrew, but Ben and Zach are significantly shorter than the full names. I think it has a lot to do with personality, too; my middle son is so a "Ben," happy-go-lucky and laid-back, but my oldest son is more serious and grown-up, definitely an "Andrew" more than an "Andy.")

Smoothies, popcorn, kale chips, cheese, nuts, vegetables with dip, bananas or celery with peanut butter, homemade zucchini or banana bread (or muffins).

We have a Sansa Fuze and a Sansa Clip and love them both. They're both very affordable and easy to use. I tried the Coby ones; they were terrible -- couldn't bookmark, couldn't organize things. My 10yo uses the Fuze and Clip just fine. Of the two, I would probably recommend the Clip; it's smaller (and therefore a bit easier to lose), but it uses a regular USB cord to charge it, which is convenient, because several of our other gadgets use the same one. The Fuze uses its own type of USB cord, and they are not compatible. (I also think the Fuze is more expensive than the Clip; we had a Fuze and loved it, but when we wanted a second mp3 player, I think the Clip was cheaper, and actually, I think I like it better, because the menus work with an up-down button, rather than a dial, like on the Fuze.) Amazon has a set of speakers that are about twelve dollars that work really well with the Fuze and Clip, and you can buy a transmitter for using them in the car too. We've gotten several audiobooks from Librivox.org.

I have DS3 (almost 13 months, not walking yet) on my lap a lot, often nursing. We also have the schoolroom set up so that it's completely safe for him; he can play on the floor and be near us. I haven't been wearing him much this summer, because it's just so hot, but I do use an Ergo a lot to put him on my back. Sometimes I hand him things he's not really supposed to have, like pens or rubber bands, and he thinks he's getting away with something and will play with the ilicit toy (but I can keep an eye on him to make sure he's safe). Usually, he's happy to play on the floor for a while in the morning, so he plays while I work with the older children, and we read history when he is ready to nurse to sleep. Sometimes DS2 (almost 4) plays with him, and the oldest two (10 and 7) also like to take turns with him, so that might be an option -- have one of your big boys entertain the toddler while you work with the other, and then they can switch. Maybe taking the toddler outside would be a good option? I think sometimes it just depends on the child too. My younger two boys are generally happier to play on the floor near me than my older two; my DD always wanted to be doing Whatever Mommy Was Doing, every second, and my oldest son was a velcro baby who didn't want to take a step from my lap until he was close to three. Sometimes kids are just like that -- it will pass. :)

"A Visitor From Heaven" -- Twila Paris "Hello, Goodbye" -- Michael W. Smith "Into The West" -- Annie Lennox, from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I'm so sorry for this loss. :grouphug:

I don't think it was out of line for your child to ask, given that this is a relative you get along well with (so presumably you know this relative fairly well). I think the relative's answer was a little rude, though, even as a joke. I don't think asking for a condiment is rude; it wasn't like the child said, "Ew, I hate carrots, yuck!" I would not be at all upset if my child had asked a grandmother or aunt for ranch. Maybe if it was a friend we didn't know well, but not a relative. As a hostess, I would not have been at all offended if a child had said that. (Well, "ew, I hate carrots, yuck," from a child probably wouldn't have offended me either.) I wouldn't probably be offended if an adult had asked that; I'd assume that they had different tastes than I did, and I'd either find some or I'd smile and say something like, "I'm sorry, I don't have any today."

You don't *have* to send it in at all if you don't want to. Your affidavit can just say "I attest that my child has all of the required medical and dental checkups, or has an exemption blah blah blah." And/or you can include the exemption form. I think you're supposed to have it done before beginning homeschooling, though, if you're not exempting yourself from it. Look at askpauline.com for the exact information.

Officially? (As in "he gave me a ring, it was announced from the pulpit at church, and we set a date.") Just under 7 months. (He proposed in January; we graduated from college in May, and he had to do a summer internship, so we got married in early August.) Unofficially? About six years. I think he first asked me to marry him when I was about fifteen, and he was seventeen. We'd been together almost seven years when we finally got married. We just celebrated our fourteenth wedding anniversary and will have been together twenty-one years this fall.

:iagree: I tell new moms, "read your baby, not the book." The same goes for husbands too.

I am a cake person (actually, I like the frosting the best), but my husband is very much a pie person. I think that there are only two people whose opinions really count at this wedding -- your daughter's and your FSIL's -- and so if your DD wants pie, I think you should have pie (though it's nice that there will be cupcakes for people who want them). Guests don't get to be offended by that; they get to say, "thank you for inviting us to share in your special day, and what a delicious pie!"

The very expensive one is my favorite, as it was very true to the book. I hope you're able to find it for a reasonable price!

Ruth was DH's grandmother's name, so it's always been a possible middle name for a girl. I love Julia Ruth and Caroline Ruth.

I am scheduled to teach a four-week class in Renaissance history for our co-op this fall, for about 9-11 year olds. I'm hoping to use the SOTW 2 activity guide to plan a few projects, but I would like to have some sort of book that they can read ahead of time so that they're somewhat prepared. SOTW 2 would be fine, but not everyone has it, and I don't want to require that they buy it; there are about ten students in the class, and the local libraries don't have SOTW. So, anything you can recommend that is free, like from Gutenberg or the Baldwin Project that would be interesting and informative like SOTW? Alternately, is there a way to get a small license to copy parts of SOTW 2 for classroom use? I don't mind going to that trouble, but I'm not comfortable doing it illegally.

These are the labels on my workboxes (DD 5th grade, DS1 2nd grade, DS2 very excited preschooler): DD -- General Skills DD -- Reading DD -- Math DD -- Foreign Language DD -- Writing DS1 -- General Skilss DS1 -- Reading DS1 -- Math DS1 -- Writing DS2 -- General Skills History and Geography Science Specials Mom's Inbox (Okay, that one doesn't actually have a label, but the children know that that's where they put anything that they've written on, so that I can check it later.) General Skills for DS2 is just crayons, paper, a book or two, and some early learning activities. For the older children, it has different stuff on different days -- logic puzzles, health/safety worksheets to cover our portfolio requirements, stationery on days they need to write a thank-you note or something, BrainQuest and Comprehensive Curriculum workbook pages (to reinforce skills and to cover grammar/spelling), etc. Specials are things like religious biography, art, music, etc. We do those together. We also do history and science together, though I might assign DD an extra book to read to go with history or science. Memory work and typing don't have workboxes. I also haven't managed to get to those yet this year. :) (We also haven't added writing, science, or specials yet this year.) I stack each child's workboxes next to his or her workspace each day. They can do reading independently and general skills too, though sometimes DS1 needs help with a word or two. When it's each child's turn to work with me, one-on-one, that child brings all workboxes that require my attention to my desk. Sometimes I just keep the ones that I know need my help at my desk in the morning. We do the together subjects whenever it's convenient for me, depending on what the baby's doing. If he's happily playing on the floor, I usually use that time to work one-on-one with someone; if he's ready to nurse, I'll move to the rocking chair in the same room and read history (or science or whatever) while I nurse him. That gives the older children a bit of a break from their independent work. We try to do bigger, messier floor projects while the baby's napping. :)

DH has used prednisone to treat poison ivy; he's highly allergic to it, and prednisone jump-starts the healing process a lot. They also gave DD prednisone when she had an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting, again, to give her body a jump on healing. In both cases, they had to taper the doses down as they ended it. I do think I read that it can cause mood swings and irritability, but if you need it, that's a small price to pay.

I'm freezing peaches this year. They are so, so yummy when they're fresh and local. I have a half bushel in the fridge (minus a few that have been eaten), and I hope to freeze quite a few for smoothies (and pie!) this winter, if we don't eat them all before I can. :) I'm also freezing veggies, but I think that probably doesn't count, since I bought them frozen and just stacked them in the freezer. :) (Stocked up on bags of them the other day, in case prices skyrocket due to this year's drought.)