My kids (albeit younger than yours) did narrations with History Scribe the past two years. A few sentences, either written themselves or dictated to me, and a picture helped them remember the facts they learned. In some cases, my fourth grader got into how an event made her feel, what other options the people could have chosen, etc., moving from the "what happened" to the "why," and that sparked some good discussions. Also, we read a lot of picture books along with the spine (SOTW or other), and that helps too, so you might look for historic fiction. Perhaps he would enjoy drawing scenes of the stories he's reading?

My rising second grader's writing is between these two posters' children's writing, with or without lines, I would say. The attached picture is from a few months ago, and it has improved since then; I think it is pretty good for a boy. (It is neater than his sister's was at the same age, but he's just kind of more meticulous in general than she is/was.)

My 3.5yo is currently in a Graco MyRide 65, and he has a while to go in it before he outgrows the straps/height. (Actually, he will probably need to pass it down to his little brother before he actually outgrows it, since the baby will need it when he's about 15-18 months.) My 7yo was able to fit in the MyRide until he was close to 6. I got that seat for its rear-facing capabilities (the 3.5yo was RF'ing in it until he was 3), but if I hadn't wanted that, I would have gone with the Graco Nautilus, first with the harness, later as a booster. My 3.5yo still falls asleep in the car a lot, so I wouldn't be comfortable with him in a booster (and in my state, it's illegal anyway). We have a secondary seat for the 3.5yo in DH's car, and we needed something smaller for it; we went with the Evenflo Maestro, which also has a harness and later converts to a booster. I really like it as well and think it would also be a great choice. (Fwiw, the 3.5yo can buckle both seats but cannot unbuckle the crotch part of the MyRide; I'm not sure about the Maestro, because it's been a long time since I've ridden in that car with the 3.5yo.)

If I had to leave my house, for whatever reason, especially if I was doing it without DH, I'd go to my parents' house, no question. They'd expect it and would want to be our soft place to land. The other advantage is that my ILs live near my parents, so the kids could have both sets of grandparents nearby. I sincerely hope that even if things went horribly wrong between DH and me that my ILs and I could be civil to each other for the sake of the grandchildren. (I currently have a close relationship with my ILs and really can't conceive of a situation where they'd take DH's side to the extent that they'd forego seeing their grandbabies. If DH left me for another woman, or did something so illegal or dangerous that I had to move our children away from him, I'm pretty sure my ILs would still want to do right for the children. If I left him for someone else [hahahahaha, I've been with DH since I was 14; I wouldn't even know how to find someone else], well, that would probably make things difficult with my ILs.)

Unless they're very anti anything Christian, the Clarksons' Educating the Wholehearted Child is such a great book. I always just tell people new to homeschooling to read anything they can get their hands on, until they find themselves being drawn to certain things over others; at that point, they can delve more into specifics like TWTM or Charlotte Mason or whatever.

For breakfast, I eat eggs/omelets or sauteed zucchini slices topped with whatever soft goat cheese has been on sale. And often half coffee, half milk, with liquid Stevia for sweetener. Sometimes I make a casserole with cheese, eggs, and mashed cooked cauliflower, and that's a nice change from straight eggs. I generally feel really good on that breakfast. We have salad many nights for dinner, plus a green vegetable, and a main dish, usually meat of some type, occasionally a bean or egg/cheese based dish. Sometimes sweet potatoes, and mashed cauliflower makes a decent sub for mashed potatoes. For lunch and snacks, it's usually cheese, nuts, smoothies, fruit, fresh veggies. Cottage cheese packs a lot of protein too, and if we have salad left from the previous night, I'll eat that too.

Van Gogh Monet Mary Cassatt Seurat Georgia O'Keefe Picasso Pieter Bruegel Michelangelo Winslow Homer

:iagree:Yes, this. I nursed a couple of my children a very long time (my DS2 self-weaned at not quite 3, when I was pregnant with his baby brother, and he was the earliest to wean so far), and I'm absolutely 100% for extended nursing, but I think they really went out of their way to make that look weird and provocative. I see it the same as if they'd taken a shot of a mom nursing her newborn, totally topless in a crowded mall or something -- just not something that is done, because it's just not necessary.

We homeschooled a fourth grader and a first grader this past year, with a 2-3yo and an infant along for the ride. Happy chaos. :)

We have the cards from "English From the Roots Up," and we go over one at dinner every so often. I read the word (a Greek or Latin root) and tell which language it is, and then the kids see if they can name words that have that root. There are a bunch on the back of the card, so after they have a chance to think, I read the ones that are listed and break them down into their meanings. It's especially neat when there are both the Greek and Latin words for an English word close together.

DD's name was just one we liked, and I wanted a Biblical name for DS1, so we picked one we liked. It happens to be a President's name, and DD's name happens to be a First Lady's name; those are complete coincidences. Those two names were easy. With DS2, we couldn't decide on a name at all, and it took five days after he was born to name him, but his name is so perfect for him. It happens to be a President's name as well, though it wasn't really intentional. So when we were expecting DS3, I thought we needed to pick a Biblical Presidential name so he wouldn't feel left out (of our girl choices, one is Biblical, and both are First Ladies' names); the pool was pretty small, especially for ones that weren't already used in our families somewhere. But it is a good name for him, and I like it. (He's Zachary; DH thought it was fun to have a Z for an initial.) :) All of their names are very traditional, top 100 sorts of names. DD's middle name is my grandmother's middle name. DS1's middle name is DH's paternal grandfather's first name. We chose both of those long before we had any children. DS2's middle name is just one we liked that goes with his first name. DS3's middle name is one I really wanted to use, because it's DH's middle name and also the middle name of his other grandfather (which is what he went by). If we have another boy someday, I want to use my dad's first name as a middle name, and for a girl, my middle name (which my dad chose for me).

I got a Canon Powershot SX 130 last fall, and I really like it. It's a great camera at a very reasonable price.

I guess it depends on what it is. Sometimes I have them tell Daddy about the history lesson, or science lesson, or the book we read, or whatever. Sometimes we do a worksheet to reinforce things, especially if it's a subject required for our portfolios. Sometimes we'll discuss the topic a few times. Sometimes I'm not too worried about it, because it will come up again. Sometimes we do a project. Sometimes we use flashcards or oral repetition.

My 3, 7, 10, and 30-something-year-olds ALL enjoyed the chaos and BOOM from "Backyard Ballistics!"

Another vote for "Backyard Ballistics!" The biggest boy in my house (that would be my husband) got it for DS1's seventh birthday and has had fun tinkering with its projects (and the kids are impressed). ETA: A warning -- one of the reviews does say that certain projects are illegal in some states, so do be sure you check about those.

I've not transitioned one as young as your dgs, but I transition my toddlers to snuggling up with Daddy when I'm pregnant, so that's where I'd start. Also, is she comfortable putting him on his tummy?

Agreeing with what everyone else said -- get an epipen for her. Also, she should let people know that she's allergic to shellfish if she's ever in the hospital or having tests done. I'm fuzzy on the details right now, but I remember a friend who is allergic to shellfish nearly being given a test that had used iodine in the dye, and that's bad for shellfish-allergic people.

Semi-update: Thanks for all the suggestions! I have been told that a local farm stand has a glass case with bees in it (with an exit to the outside). That should be safe for DD, and it should let us observe the hive.

It all sounds delicious! The only things I would add would be some protein snacks that didn't have any sugar included with them -- cheese cubes or slices, deviled eggs, deli meat, nuts (I know trail mix has nuts, but it also often has chocolate or dried fruit, and some people really need a big chunk of protein). That would help with gluten free offerings and could potentially be vegetarian and/or dairy free too.

This is my warm weather plan; it doesn't always happen this way, but this is the deal for which we aim. -Breakfast, followed by poetry and something related to Christianity (might be a Bible storybook, or right now, we're reading the Mr. Pipes books about the origins of hymns), while everyone's still at the table. -Getting dressed and morning tasks (everyone participates in these). -A walk or just some play outside time, before it gets to be too warm. -Boys play for a while so that I can do math and Latin with my daughter. Then she works on her independent work, and I work with DS1 (and I'm trying to get some time in there for DS2 as well). At whatever point is convenient for me (usually dictated by what our baby needs), we do history together.

Oh my goodness, so scary! I'm so, so glad your little guy is okay. :grouphug: for you, mama.

We've been a bit all over the map (literally, haha), and I pretty much unschooled history for the first several years, which worked super, super well for my DD. Our more formal history has looked like this/will probably look like this for her: 2nd -- early American history (from earliest explorers to start of Revolution) 3rd -- medieval (based on interest) 4th -- American history from Revolution to late 19th century (this current year) 5th -- ancient 6th -- 20th and 21st century American history (including parts of SOTW 4) 7th -- early modern history from a global perspective (SOTW 3) 8th -- modern global history (the rest of SOTW 4) 9th-12th -- depends on her needs. I'd like her to hit ancient again in about 9th grade, with world/European history, US history, and maybe government/comparative government, for other years. It will depend on if she wants to take AP exams or if she wants to take some community college classes. This child is very interested in history.

At one point, I want to say that you could have gotten Picturing America for free. I'm not sure if that is still true or not, and I haven't actually seen the program, but it's a collection of American art. Maybe something like that would work? I believe you can also print public domain paintings yourself, and it's not too expensive to do a few of them. Our co-op does picture study as its opening class, and it's been wonderful, but if you don't have a co-op, perhaps there are a few other parents who would share the cost of printing the pictures with you, and then you could share the prints around. My children enjoyed this book last year, and it has large paintings plus details; our library had it, so maybe yours does too. http://www.amazon.com/The-Trail-West-Exploring-History/dp/1587284421/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1336256319&sr=8-5

Sometimes I read between bites. :) Usually, though, I finish eating before the children do, so I'll read while they finish. If it's breakfast, and we've had eggs, my breakfast was probably ready first, because of the order in which I need to cook everyone's different preferences, so I may have eaten mine while the children's were cooking. I'll read as much or as little as seems to be appropriate; sometimes they're not into a lot of listening, and other days, they can't get enough, and we've got nothing pressing on the schedule, so I'll read a ton (which is how we read about ten chapters of The Westing Game in one sitting, and how we read The Silver Chair and The Last Battle in about two days each).

I would ask the parent/have the child ask the parent. The only exception would be a situation in which I was very clearly in charge of the other child(ren) and had already discussed food with the parents, like if I was baby-sitting, or watching the nursery at co-op, or with the neighbor friend who comes over to play with my kids sometimes (but I have already checked with her parents about food allergies).