"Do you want me to put you two into an arena and let you fight to the death?" My 2 boys were fighting and bickering all through lunch. At the height of it, I just blurted this out. (We had just finished studying gladiators a few weeks ago.) They both stopped their bickering and looked at me. My 3year old then said, "What's an arena?"

To the OP, if you are concerned, just send in more than once receipt with homeschool purchases. Their website does say that dated curriculum receipts can be submitted as verification. I just purchased the Creative Suite a week ago with two receipts. Also, as a "just-in-case" measure, I submitted a pdf copy of the summary of my state's homeschool laws on which I added notes and highlighted the parts that back up why I am qualified to homeschool and why I am not submitting a letter of intent as part of my verification (my son is young enough that I don't need to submit one to the district yet). My documents were accepted and I received my serial numbers and the downloads within a day. If you have problems, contact their customer support. Good luck!

I love the idea of the kids having their own book of masterpieces. I'm going to be starting this in a few weeks... can't wait!

Thanks for the ideas! It sounds like it's easy enough to rearrange RSO to fit in with the schedule in ES. I think my kids will like the mixture of the two programs. I think the key with science (and with homeschooling in general) is to stay flexible to the kids' interests, right? Even so, I try to have a general schedule for my own sense of order. :)

For those of you who are using both Elemental Science and RSO, what does your week look like? How do you schedule both together... Do you do science every day? Do you alternate between the two? Do you do both in the same day? Do you try to line the topics up or just follow each book separately? How long does the science portion of your day take? Sorry about all the questions. I am planning on using Elemental Science-Bio for Grammar Stage and RSO Life- Level 1. Any advice from those who've done this before would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

If you want resources for songs and finger plays, timberdoodle.com sells a "Music Box" that has a whole collection of them. It's a little pricey though, so you may want to just look online if you only need a few ideas. I've seen a lady on YouTube do some too. Her channel is called "CullensABCs". Hope this helps!

A lot of people posted that TOG was overwhelming. Did you find this to be the case? Did you have to do a lot of planning beforehand? I really liked the materials and activities that I saw for the rhetoric stage, so I was thinking of using it later on. Maybe I should take another look at what is there for LG again...

My older child was vaccinated on schedule, but for my second I decided to not do some of the shots and then spread out the others that we did decide to do. He did not receive more than 2 each time. Ask your pediatrician if they can work out an alternative vaccine schedule that is more spread out. I agree that the load can be difficult for such a small baby to handle all at once. It may help if you spread it out by at least a few weeks... My son got his at least a month apart. If you feel your pediatrician puts too much pressure on you that you feel uncomfortable, then you may want to change pediatricians. When you look for a new one, interview them and ask if they would allow for alternative vaccine schedules.

What a great and inspiring thread! One of the things we do is surround our kids with books, and try not to buy too many toys. We tell stories, pray, sing songs, go on outings and spend a lot of time together. My dh works early hours and is home by early afternoon, so we have tons of family time together. I wish I could say that I'm always setting a good example though. My biggest struggle is trying not to raise my voice. I was raised in a family where there was a lot of yelling... I'm trying not to pass on this sin to my children. I am humbled and inspired by this thread to be more consistent in giving my kids a positive example to follow. My kids are still young, so it's not too late... Keep the pearls of wisdom coming!

I agree that seeing it is more important than reading it. Seeing a performance brings Shakespeare to life. Reading it (without having seen it) may lead to frustration if a student who is new to Shakespeare gets too caught up in trying to figure out his language. That said, to get the most out of Shakespeare at the higher levels, I would watch it, read and analyze the text, and act it out. I also believe that the reading of Shakespeare should be done aloud... Hearing it makes a difference in understanding it too.

You can do a quiz about how well the guests know the couple. Another variation that my bridesmaids did for me at my shower, is to quiz the bride about how well she know her groom and how he would respond to some questions... It takes some planning. First you would ask the groom some questions (where did you first meet? Where was your first date? What quality of hers do you love the most? What do you thinks her favorite color?) There can be some tougher questions too... (if you were to describe her as a color, which color would she be?) So, then at the party, if she gets it right, she gets a point, if not, a penalty or minus a point.

This is what we have done so far... -Switch out our shampoos, facial and body soaps, lotions, detergents, and cleaners for ones with natural ingredients and without sodium laurel sulfates, parabens, perfumes, and other chemicals. If it has too many ingredients, especially ones that we can't pronounce, we don't buy it. -start using non-fluoridated toothpaste -get a water filtration system that will remove fluoride as well as the other contaminants from our drinking and cooking water. - no more microwave use, we reheat by steaming - no more hairdryers - instead of Tupperware, we use glass for food storage - Eat organic. More salads and green shakes than meat, (eat more raw foods than before) - cook using lower heat in stainless steal cookware - avoid overly processed foods and opt for whole foods -avoid white flour products and white rice ( processed and stripped of nutritional value) - choose cotton over polyester in bedding - no more sunscreen... Try to boost vitamin d levels with supplements and sun exposure - look up natural home remedies first when there is an illness - get a naturopath pediatrician who won't push antibiotics or certain vaccines on our kids. I'm sure there's a whole lot more we can do, but baby steps has brought us here so far.

So many great ideas here! I'm going to have to bookmark these for sure! The hard part is choosing one to implement... Then again, if after a year I decide to change to a different system, I'm sure my kids will welcome something new at that point.

My ds5 has been listening to Hide Em In Your Heart as part of HOD-LHFHG and he really likes it. Each song is preceded by a brief introduction and a child's recitation of the verse. The tunes themselves are short and catchy. Since it worked well, I bought vol.2 to do later on as well. I haven't heard the others, so I can't comment on those. Hope this helps.

I think I will first try what you have been doing lately-- 3 days of MM and 2 days of MEP and the next week: 2 days of MM and 3 days of MEP. Plus Miquon daily... We'll see how it goes and adjust as necessary. I like the idea of having the teacher manual on the iPad. Thanks for giving me a time reference. I'm glad it won't take the entire 45 minutes that is on the lesson plans. That's great advice! I have to keep reminding myself that this is the benefit of homeschooling-- we don't need to finish in ___ time, because everything should be individualized. Thanks for all the advice, guys!