I do happen to have a schoolroom right now. That's not to say that we always do our work in there, but it does help to keep our materials in one spot. There's an art table and free-access art supplies in there, with a rope (and clothespins) across the wall over it, for finished projects. There is a small desk tucked back into a little nook; it also has a hundreds chart over it, and a set of shelves for CDs, puzzles, and preschool learning activities next to it. (DD often uses the desk for her work, at her choice, so that she's not distracted by her brothers' general noise.) We also have a table where the boys work; it has a basket with markers, pencils/pens, scissors, tape, glue, and pencil sharpeners on it (in addition to duplicates of those items that are on the art table), so that we don't have to hunt those down all the time. I also prop applicable science or history books on that table against the wall, to encourage free reading. Maps, charts, genealogy trees, etc. go on that wall too, generally. I have a comfy chair (big enough for me plus at least one kid) in the room. And last, we have my big huge desk. It's sporting a computer, a globe, and our big wooden crate for our current school materials, and our reference materials. I also spread out our workbaskets on this desk, and then stack them up on it as we finish. I keep my office supplies, math manipulatives, extra notebooks and folders, the kids' pencil boxes for taking to co-op (we have a lot of sets of pencils and scissors, LOL), and art supplies that require my supervision (nice watercolors and such -- stuff I want used in careful ways) in the drawers of that desk. Oh, and next to the desk is a small table that holds a wooden file crate -- one folder for each month for DD and one folder for each month for the boys, plus a folder for my planning notes. I am huge on having a set place for everything, keeping it organized, and having multiples of anything that might tend to wander off so that there's no breaking of concentration to go find something.

Lots of water, and coconut oil for moisturizing. Frequently. If you have electric forced air heat, it may be very drying, so you may want to consider a humidifier. Also, I have heard that slathering your hands with lotion and then putting gloves over them or something at night can help; I haven't done the gloves, but I have done the heavy slathering at night.

I like my island a lot, but I don't have much other counter space, so it's really necessary. Ours does have seating for two on one side, and I used it often when I just had two children, but now, it's pretty rare that we use them. I'd probably opt for more cabinet space instead. In our previous house, we put a TON of cabinets, which was so, so nice. Some of my favorite features were the skinny cabinet for cookie sheets and the like, and the bank of nine drawers, some of which were really big (like, big enough for two crockpots and then some). I have linoleum right now, and I hate hate hate it. It's a style that is really hard to clean; my Pergo and hardwood floors vacuum, sweep, and mop up nicely with a string mop, but the linoleum has all these little textured spots, and it really needs me to scrub it on hands and knees with a cloth in order to look good. No quick mops. We've had Pergo and DIY hardwood in kitchens before, and while you do have to be careful that they don't get super wet (so you might want a rug in the sink area), they did work well, and they cleaned up nicely. I know nothing about tile at all though. Trash -- sits in a small corner of the kitchen and gets taken out pretty much every day. We also set recyclables on one small part of a counter, and DS1 takes them out every morning as well. (If we accumulate a lot in one day, we might take them out a second time in the day.) When we lived in a house where taking them out was less convenient, we kept two covered trash cans, one for trash, and one for recyclables, and we took them out when they were full (or if there was something particularly icky in them). My advice is to get as much counter and drawer/cabinet space as you can afford, more than you think is necessary, if possible. We also found that getting extra-tall upper cabinets was not significantly more expensive than regular height cabinets, and we got a good extra amount of space with them. We put in a LOT of counter and storage space, and it was SO nice. (It's been four years since we moved, and I still miss that kitchen!) Also, we put in a dedicated spot for phones, chargers, mail, stuff like that, accessible but not in the main cooking space. It had extra outlets too. Very, very useful. If you use things like tall mixers often, consider that when choosing how far down your upper cabinets will come. I currently have my mixer in a less-than-convenient spot, because that's the only place it fits. Have fun!

I'd be quite annoyed about the tobacco use, frequently in front of the children. I would probably discuss it with *someone,* whether it was the coach himself or the people in charge of the league. I feel that that would be as inappropriate as frequent smoking, drinking, heavy swearing, name-calling/belittling, discussing his sex life, or encouraging extreme dieting -- all things that are not applicable to the game and which do not have a place in his relationship with children. Would I switch teams for the tobacco use? I guess it would depend. If my kids started showing signs of developing that sort of "hero worship" mentality that can sometimes happen with coaches, then I might. (I think that's probably more likely with boys and male coaches, or girls and female coaches, but maybe not.) If my kids were openly talking about how disgusting it was or something, and they and I were otherwise happy with the coach, I'd probably just agree with them and stay with that team. All that being said, the icky vibe would totally do it for me, tobacco or no. You have instincts for a reason -- even if you're being overly cautious, listen to your instincts. Maybe your kids are too naive to notice that something's not right (which isn't necessarily a bad thing or a sign that you've failed), and maybe he's too slick. I believe I have read that pedophiles tend to "groom" children bit by bit, so that they don't realize there's something wrong. Can you talk with other parents to see what they think? (Not that that really matters; even if you're the only one who has the icky vibe, that's still valid, and your job is to protect your kids.) Maybe there's someone in charge with whom you could share those concerns? Even if you switch your kids to a different team, if he's truly icky, other kids may be at risk.

I don't think that kind of short notice is typical of most guests. I think you need to have a good talk with your DH. If need be, write down your thoughts and let him read them first, so that you're calm and able to stick to facts. Perhaps your DH is getting more notice but is afraid you'll say no, so he waits until last minute to tell you, because it's harder to say no then. In that case, let him know that you're happy to accommodate his friends, but MORE notice would actually be helpful. Does he actually realize the effects this is having (ie no Christmas tree)? Perhaps showing him the numbers would be helpful. If his doing this means that the family budget is sacrificing, that may need to come from any of his personal spending money, if he has any. Maybe that would help him to realize he needs to give you advance notice so you can budget. Maybe he does feel like he can't say no, in which case, you need to work together to find workable solutions. Maybe he just doesn't realize what a hardship this sort of thing puts on you, in which case, a lot of statements like, "I felt. . . " and "this is the effect it had on our family. . . " might help him understand. Ask him what he can do to make these things easier on you. If he really won't meet you at least partway and find workable solutions, I would calmly say things like, "I'm sorry, but my schedule is too full this weekend to watch dogs/entertain people/drive kids around," and then stick to it. Let him deal with it.

That I don't know exactly; it's just something I read once a while ago, and I thought the OP ought to be aware of possible concerns so she could look into them further. Quick google finds: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/structures/98079/runoff.cfm http://www.stormh2o.com/september-2006/lead-stormwater-runoff.aspx http://www.michigan.gov/documents/MDOT_MS4_MDOT_Hwy_SW_Runoff_Study_91946_7.pdf (I really didn't read those very thoroughly, the last one at all, so the OP may want to do so to see if it's really a big issue or not. The top two seemed to indicate that lead and other heavy metals are concerns, but that was just with a quick glance, so I could be wrong.)

I think I'd be looking into things like lead coming from the highway into your soil and the like. I don't know details, but I remember reading something about playgrounds and preschools located right near highways having higher levels of lead exposure. If that was the case, it would be a huge problem for me.

Same here, unless they're very grubby from being outside, or have been to the toilet. But run-of-the-mill germs from around the house, or just from being outside -- eh, no big deal. (My ILs, otoh, are crazy about this. They wash before every meal, have a super-super-super clean house, use antibacterial everything, etc. My FIL is very frequently ill. I know some of it is from defective sinus structure, but I'm never sure which came first -- no exposure to everyday germs so he didn't build immunity, or he's prone to illness, so MIL keeps everything really clean so he doesn't get even sicker.) I agree with you, except where I think our diets are indeed deficient. I know many people don't get enough vitamin D through sunlight, even if they eat well, because most foods are poor sources of vitamin D (and I'm not a fan of fortified foods). And at least for us, quality fish is not something we're able to eat frequently -- it's expensive and not really that all available, given the limited fish that is safe for pregnant/nursing women and small children. So I feel comfortable with cod liver oil and vitamin D3 supplements. (And iron for myself during later pregnancy, because I have trouble getting enough iron-rich foods in to keep up with the extra demands.) But general vitamins -- I tend to listen more to our bodies and see what foods we're craving, figuring we need whatever nutrients are in those, and that a variety of foods will get us a good variety of vitamins. :)

I agree with you there. Not saying that you couldn't do a great job on the floors, but I think a professional job is really going to shine, y'know? This is probably not the time you want to teach yourself a new skill. :) Not to mention your time and hassle, especially if you're trying to do other things yourself as well. Getting a second bit seems like a good plan too.

Our kids don't get sick very often, and I don't know why. We eat well, but far from perfectly; we sometimes do cod liver oil and vitamin D, but not regularly enough; we play outside a lot but not so much in the winter, etc. I also am super cautious about treating things when they are sick -- I let fevers do their job (though I'd treat if they were dangerously high), I let a cough run its course (unless it means someone can't sleep), etc. Some possibilities: -Very limited exposure to chemicals -- I'm cautious about personal care products, plain soap and water (nothing anti-bacterial), no chemical cleaners, nobody around us uses chemical lawn products, we have well water, and I'm thinking our air quality is probably pretty good too. -Exposure to things like playing in the dirt and with animals regularly. -We drink raw milk and eat some yogurt/kefir/cheese/fermented foods, and we try to eat pastured meat products and bone broth. The kids do like a variety of foods, including vegetables. -I did/do breastfeed for a long time, I don't start solids early at all, and I hold off on commonly allergenic foods until at least 12 months, 18 or more for some things. Maybe that all lets the gut immunity build -- I don't know. -I tend to wear my babies/young toddlers when we're out, which cuts down on how much extraneous touching they do (toddler can't chew on the cart buckle if he's on my back), as well as how much other people can touch them. I think the biggest one, though, is that our opportunity for exposure to germs is probably fairly small. We do occasional playdates, co-op activities a few times a month, and DD has dance class once a week, plus the usual errands, library, etc. but I think that's fairly limited. Not a lot of very close contact with other children, sharing toys, that sort of thing. And DH works in a very small office, so he doesn't bring much home.

Soaking them in something acidic overnight is supposed to help break down the phytates to make them easier to digest. That takes several hours, which is why I do it before they're cooked. I've done it with both rolled and steel cut oats; those measurements were for rolled, and I think the proportions for steel cut are similar, but it's been a while. I just set them on the counter. Not sure about Greek style yogurt, but I am guessing you could use it. (I'm hardly an expert though, so maybe someone else will chime in!)

I'd talk to the real estate agent first, to see what is most often preferred in your area and price range. But barring that, I'd probably go with the hardwood. It sounds like it could be pretty similar cost-wise, actually, and the matching rooms will look nice. Plus, depending on how long it takes to sell, it's easier to keep hardwood looking nice for a while than to worry about accidentally dirtying the carpet (at least IME). I think, especially for a master bedroom, lovely hardwood plus an area rug is going to have an elegant polished look. I agree with the PP who said if you do carpet in those rooms, do it in your DD's room too, so it all matches. I would totally not worry that only the lower level has carpet -- that seems really reasonable and expected. (Our former house was a split-level -- we had sturdy family-room carpet in the lower level, hardwood on the main level, and a "fluffier" carpet in the upper level, where the bedrooms were. Didn't look strange at all.) I also agree that a buyer who prefers the hardwood may well find it hard to justify ripping out perfectly good new carpet for hardwood that needs work. (Uh, we're there ourselves; our 1830s-ish house has what is probably original hardwood under Pergo flooring. The Pergo is okay, but we'd love to see the HW eventually and restore it and all; however, in four years, we haven't yet convinced ourselves that it's worth ripping out the Pergo that was brand-new when we got it and which still looks fantastic.)

Oh, that's a bummer. I have heard that a lot of library systems have cut down or stopped their inter-library loans, so that may be the case with yours. I'd still ask, though. For soaking oatmeal, I use about 4 cups of water, 2 tablespoons or so of yogurt, and 2 cups of oatmeal. Stir it all together, and let it sit overnight. (I cover with a towel or plate as well.) In the morning, stir, transfer to a cooking pot, cover, bring to a boil, and simmer until cooked. They may cook faster than you're used to.

That's what I have noticed about most TF eaters as well -- they tend to eat lower carb, even soaked/sprouted carbs. They definitely seem to focus their calories on good fats and proteins, and carbs are very low-priority. I think it makes sense too -- if your body needs to burn something for energy, it will burn the easier-to-burn carbs first, leaving the fat to turn to weight gain. But if you eat lower-carb, your body will start burning the fat first, ending with weight loss (or minimal gain). I'm not a scientist, but that makes logical sense to me.

NT has some good points, I think, the most important of which is the emphasis on eating real foods. Eat a lot of grains or don't, eat a lot of meat or don't, eat a lot of added fats or don't -- whatever works for you, your body, and your lifestyle. But eat real food -- get the best quality food you can afford, don't buy artificially low-fat foods, eat foods as close to their natural state as possible, etc. That's the message I took from NT. It can look like an all or nothing sort of thing, and NT can be a bit off-putting. While I think their basic directions are pretty good, some of their recipes are a bit strange, and I have heard that there are better traditional foods cookbooks out there. As a history enthusiast, I did find the information about how traditional societies lived and ate and preserved their foods to be pretty interesting. I would vote for getting NT from your library, but you could also google for traditional foods suggestions. You can start with small steps -- soaking oatmeal is a pretty good one, as it just involves setting up the oats, some water, and something acidic (like yogurt) the night before, which doesn't take long. I have always cooked a lot from scratch, but yes, moving to a more traditional diet did up our grocery bill. We didn't drink much milk before switching to raw (because we didn't like it); now we go through a couple of gallons a week (and it does taste delicious too). Grass-fed meat is more expensive than conventional, though worth it for our health (and we didn't really notice that we ate less once we switched to the better stuff, so ymmv). On the other hand, oatmeal and eggs, which is what we eat for breakfast most days, is cheaper than cold cereal (and more filling).

I've been leery of my crockpot for just that reason, so it's been a while since I've used it. I have been using my cast iron dutch oven in place of it, just putting it in the oven at a low temp all day long. (200-300 degrees.) That seems to work pretty well.

I absolutely love my Sansa Fuze! (Amazon has hard plastic cases for them that are very inexpensive and which will protect them nicely from damage.) I use it with Rhapsody and have also put on CDs and audio books, all with no trouble at all. I would definitely recommend the Fuze.

I'm thinking that maybe teaching spelling and the rules of spelling and all is helpful for one subset of children. For others, I think it's not useful. I spent years acing spelling tests in school without studying for them, won spelling bees, and just generally have a good reliable sense of whether or not a word looks right. Sure, I read a lot, though not always the most challenging stuff, but I think spelling just comes naturally to me. I don't think having spelling lessons really did anything for me at all. My husband, otoh, is brilliant, absolutely brilliant, near perfect scores on the English SAT, an incredibly gifted writer, reads voraciously (and reads challenging stuff too), gets accused of using words too big for other people to understand, etc. And he cannot spell. He went through the same school system I did, so pretty much the same spelling books/tests/etc., and it just never stuck. He just doesn't have that sense of whether or not a word looks right (though he can always phrase a sentence better than I can). I proofread all of his important e-mails, letters, etc. for him. It wasn't until the last year or so, in his mid-thirties, that he decided he really needed to make himself remember how to use "it's" and "its" appropriately (he does do a lot of contract-writing in his career, and I'm not generally able to proofread those for him). I think spelling lessons in school were pretty useless for him too. Now, my mother says that she does think they were helpful for my also brilliant, but very math-oriented, younger brother. For him, learning to apply the rules of spelling was helpful. So I guess my answer is: it depends on the child. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing spelling lessons if they're helpful for your child, and I don't think there is anything wrong with skipping them if they're not needed either.

Oh, you could easily spend weeks visiting historic sites around the mid-Atlantic area! That would, IMO, be an excellent time -- warm, but probably not too hot yet. It can potentially be quite cool at night for camping, so plan on packing warm nighttime clothes, mugs for hot drinks, etc. Here's a recent post I wrote about Revolutionary War/colonial sites in the area: http://welltrainedmind.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2320185&postcount=5 Other fun places -- Gettysburg! Lots of neat historic stuff around there, plus there is a good driving tour (you buy a CD and it tells you where to drive) of the battlefield. It's about 3 hours from Philadelphia, and you can cross through the Lancaster area too if you drive between Gettysburg and Philadelphia. PA's just packed with amazing historic sites; here is a site that lists several of them: http://www.paheritage.org/pa-trail-of-history.html (If you find that you want to see several of them, look into the membership.) Loads to see in Virginia and DC too. The Smithsonian museums are free. We enjoyed touring Mount Vernon, in northern VA. Baltimore is fun too; you could go see Fort McHenry. (I'd probably do the trip in about this order -- whatever in North Carolina, whatever in southern Virginia, Williamsburg area, up to the northern VA area [2 hours from Williamsburg, IIRC], DC, up to Baltimore [40 minutes or so from DC], then up to the Gettysburg area [about 1.5 hours from Baltimore -- or skip Baltimore and go straight up through western MD from DC to Gettysburg -- a couple of hours], across eastern PA to Philadelphia [3 hours plus stopping at various sites along the way], and then continuing on to New Jersey, New York, and Boston if desired.) If you've got a particular focus -- a favorite time period, a particular interest in battlefields or architecture or historic life, or whatever, ask, and I'll see if I can offer more specific ideas. But the huge amount of historic stuff to see is one of my most favorite things about the mid-Atlantic area. :)

Hi all! A friend from my homeschool co-op recommended this board to me, and so far, it's been fun and helpful. I'm down in the south-central part of PA with my growing collection of munchkins. I can't come up with a good description for how we school -- it's a little bit of all sorts of things, mainly trying to fit in everything else around our historic clothing and craft interests. :) (Waves to Emilia -- I didn't know you were here!)

One of the JoAnn's near me (there are three) gave me a fit about applying for a homeschool discount coupon, because I had no official HS ID. Our support group created one though, so that would be a good option. Staple, otoh, just asked me to create a name for our school, no ID needed.

If that's what a specific food bank requested, then yes, I would donate foods that we didn't necessarily eat. We have not purchased single-serve convenience foods, like Spaghettios, but sometimes food pantries are looking to send easy-to-prepare foods home with children whose parent(s) is/are working long hours, or the families receiving food may not have proper storage and cooking facilities. Given the choice between a child on his/her own eating nothing and eating convenience food, even if it's not what I would consider to be nutritious, convenience food would win. Now, I'd far rather donate money so that a food bank could purchase bulk amounts of staple foods, or fresh produce as needed, or whatever, so that people could get the best possible food, but something trumps nothing.

According to their website (historyisfun.org), they are planning to offer the discounts in Feb./March as well. (The original Jamestowne settlement is kinda neat too, though not very big, and they don't offer the homeschool discount that I know of, but it was pretty inexpensive anyway.)

Here in PA, your daughter would be in 4th grade, starting 5th grade as of this coming fall. Actually, here, if you have your paperwork in before July 1, you can start counting your days from July 1. Many people do this, myself included. My DD is almost exactly a year younger than the OP's daughter, and she's finishing 3rd grade this year, will be in 4th as of July 1.

2-3 hours, depending on how cooperative everyone's being. DS1 can be finished in 10 minutes with his seatwork -- a couple of workbook pages for writing practice, a Bible verse, and a reading lesson with me, and he's done. DD has a Bible verse, copywork/handwriting practice, usually some math, some reading on her own, short Bible study, and maybe a couple of workbook pages about grammar, spelling, or something. It's usually about two or three things that require writing a day. She can be done in under 30 minutes if she's working and not fooling around. We also have poetry, history, science, literature, and other rotating things (picture study, music study, etc.) that we do together, plus whatever project or hands-on activity is for that day (usually related to art, history, science, or possibly handwork -- today we worked on assembling a castle). A lot depends on everyone's moods. 3 hours seems excessive to me for this age; under 2 for the almost 9yo would suit me fine, but it's also not 2-3 hours of continuous work -- she gets bored while I'm helping one of the boys, or she starts staring off into space while doing her math, or some such. :)