We've just recently begun observing the Sabbath more closely. When I was growing up, my dad was the minister. We would always have a big Sunday dinner and not do much else. Often we would be invited over to parishioners homes for dinner. Now, DH and I run a business out of our home. If we aren't careful, we can be working all the time. It's been extremely beneficial to us to take the day off and relax. We aren't to the point of it being an absolute, but it is our goal. God knows that we need to have that time to relax and reflect. It's not always possible, but I think we should do our best to observe whenever possible.

I would love to join your group. I'm not a big poster, but have been around since the old, old boards.

We don't have a schedule per se. I have a plan book that lists everything that has to be done on a given day. The kids choose what they want to do and set to work. If they need me to teach something, they come to me for it. I check through what they've done throughout the morning and go over any issues. They take a break midway through the morning. When all their individual work is done, they take a break, or if it's later, we eat lunch. After that, we do the together things like science, history, art, geography and latin. Then they do any assigned reading and piano practice. We don't go nearly as long as most of you seem to. I think I would go crazy if we worked all day. One of the best things about homeschooling for me, is the fact that we can get so much done in just a few hours.

Perhaps this is the case with some families. We've found that we have more time to be involved with the church and volunteering, than if they were in school. I purposely am not involved in Awana, children's church and youth group, so that the kids are with other adults. I want them to have other adults to listen to and learn from. As to a male influence, homeschooling helps the most with that. Hubby is a firefighter and we have a computer repair business. Both professions allow for lots of time for DH to spend time with the kids. I think anyone needs to be aware that generalizations are never good.

I put mine in when they were 1st and 4th. I was overwhelmed and couldn't get over the bad attitude I had. Homeschooling wasn't the only area that was overwhelming, but it was the one I could do something about. My oldest was both bored and overwhelmed. He was way ahead in most subjects, but the volume of busy work was overwhelming for him. We have testing in our state that they spend weeks preparing for. They stopped learning for almost 2 months in order to prep the kids for this stupid test. He did very well, but it was still a waste of time. After 2 years, I was ready to bring them home. My now 6th grader is behind where he would have been, but on track for where he needs to be. My now 3rd grade daughter is behind in math, but otherwise ok. Conclusion? I needed them to be in school, so it was good from that standpoint. However, I learned that anything I am doing at home is at least as good as what they are doing at school.

Long ago I decided to organize my recipes. I have a 2 inch binder, although I think I'm going to get a new 3 inch. It's divided up into sections that work for me. Appetizers, baked goods, chicken, beef, you get the picture. Yours would look different. The dividers have little pockets in them. If I print out a recipe to try, it goes into the pocket. When I make the recipe, we decide whether it's a keeper or not. A keeper goes into a sleeve protector and into the binder. I toss what we don't like. I have no desire to have a computer in my kitchen. It would get ruined. For me, it has to be a hard copy.

I had to go back and count how many I listed. I guess I'm in the larger list category. Our list is quite similar this year, so I can tell you how it goes for us now. We start at 9 am most days. Most things are done fairly independently. The things that are the most variable are math and writing. If they take longer or shorter than usual, it adds to our day. Most days we finish with independent things by 11 and then do the together things that include art, geography, history, science and latin. Not everything is done everyday. There are days that we are still working after lunch, but most days we're done by 12. My kids tend to be pretty quick I guess. YMMV. Don't try to compare what you're doing to anyone else. It isn't fair to either of you. Choose what you feel is important and go from there.

This is still very preliminary, but... Math: Foerster's Algebra History: SOTW modern with lots of extra reading and outlining Kingfisher Science: Apologia A and P Grammar: GWG 7 Writing: WWW 7 Literature: Memoria Press finish up books from 6th and start 7th Bible: Explorer's Bible Study Art: Artistic Pursuits Latin: First Form Latin Spanish: Getting Started with Spanish Geography: World Geography and You Logic: Finish Building Thinking Skills 2 Music: Clarinet and Piano lessons and band PE: Soccer with travel team

Getting Started With Latin and Life of Fred have been the most fun for us this year.

We're doing GSWL this year and I was looking at First Form Latin for next year. I'm still undecided though.

I"ve used WWE and WWW. WWE was wonderful to a point, but I felt that it didn't go far enough into actual writing and that got to be a problem. With WWW, it seems to be rather useless in the younger grades. I am however, very happy with it for my sixth grader. It's teaching him how to break down his writing and fill in the gaps. He both loves and hates it. It's definitely stretching him.

Is anyone considering LOF for Algebra and beyond? We just finished Singapore 6 and are working through LOF pre algebra. Wondering if it would be feasible to go all the way though the books, or if they need something more to beef them up.

Whole chickens take forever to thaw. I always give them at least 12 hours on the counter to thaw. I bet the center is still partially frozen.

My husband and I have this ongoing discussion. He loves Outlook, I hate it. You do not need to change your email address. You can go directly to the site and get your mail there. For instance, DH has a Comcast email that he uses, so he can go to Comcast.com and get his email there. I personally use my yahoo as my main email. There are several in the same vein as yahoo. It's a free email address and you can link other accounts to it. My yahoo box also gets all of my comcast and gmail emails. If you still want Outlook, they do still offer it, it's just not part of that particular package.

It depends on your child. I have always used just the program with the Extra Practice books occasionally and the Challenging Word Problems daily for my son. My daughter just doesn't fit with Singapore, so we sadly moved onto another program. I think Singapore is a fabulous program on it's own though.

My son went to PS for 4th grade. Their goal was 50 in one minute. Not all the kids got it, but many did.

Both of mine had that click, however it isn't always the case. If he is decoding correctly, then I wouldn't worry.

You have to follow the directions exactly. As others have said, if you want less sugar, you need to use a low sugar pectin and recipe. The sugar adds to the acidity and thus the safety of your food. Your peaches may be fine. Sometimes I find that I get some sediment in the bottom of jars.

It's really about what works for your family. We homeschool in a sort of year round fashion. DH has a business that has slow times in january, may and june. As a result, we work on school when we can and take times off when it works for us as a family. It may be months before we have any real break, but then we have a blast doing family things for however long we feel is good. You don't want to burn you or the kids out, so taking a break can be wonderful. It just doesn't have to look like anyone else's break.

We are going on to AoPS pre-algebra. You could also look at Jacob's, saxon, Lial's or a host of others. It depends on what your end game is for this child and how much of a math kid they are. I just went through the whole process to figure it out. We're going to start with AoPS because my son is very math oriented and if it works out, the series will take him through high school with a challenging and complete math program. Keep in mind, I have not used any of these, we're just finishing up Singapore 6 as well.

Thanks everyone. I have always supplemented with Extra Practice as needed and CWP daily. Today we worked on a Costco book that I had gotten her for fun. As much as I love Singapore, I'm really thinking that with the amount of tweaking it would need for her, we would be negating a lot of the positives of Singapore. It's moving far too fast for her, with far too little review and practice. I'm of the mind that I shouldn't have to tweak anything that much. I showed her samples of a few different programs online and gave her a few samples. She does seem to like the look of more traditional texts and likes the workbook style. It's funny, I thought my only issue was going to be figuring out where to put DS after he finished Singapore 6 in January. I feel like I'm back to the beginning of homeschooling. Finding a good math program was my biggest anxiety when we first started. Thanks for all the input!

I'm trying to figure out what to do for math for DD8. I homeschooled my kids until DS was starting 4th and DD was starting 1st. We had to put them in school for several reasons. This year we were able to bring them home again. DS always did well with Singapore and is now finishing up 6. However, DD is having a very difficult time with Singapore. I suspected this would be the case, but it's now very much a reality. She doesn't seem to have a very good base to build on, despite my working with her while she was in school. She also seems to need much more drill than Singapore provides. It's just simply moving too fast. Now I'm at a loss. After using this program for so many years, I'm not terribly sure what is out there these days. I'm looking at Saxon, but I've always felt that was overkill. Maybe she needs overkill, I'm not sure. Anyone?

I agree with starting small. Figure out what you like to eat and only grow those things. Save experimenting for later. Tomatoes and peppers can be purchased already started and are relatively easy to grow. Lettuce and other greens are super easy and very rewarding. Potatoes are quite easy, as are most root vegetables. The bonus with root veggies, is that you don't really have to preserve them. Just store in a cool place. They keep for quite a while by themselves. Don't overdo the number of things you grow the first year. The biggest thing you will want to work on is your soil. Healthy, rich soil takes time to build and is the foundation of everything you will want to grow. Start a compost pile. I keep mine going even in the winter. There are so many books. Square foot gardening by Mel Bartholomew is a wonderful book. I also like Four season gardening by Elliot Coleman. A great all in one book for gardening, preserving and the urge to have animals is The encyclopedia of country living by Carla Emery. I would also start reading a few good garden related boards. The one at Baker Creek Seeds is fabulous, as is Garden Web. There are so many great gardening blogs to help you along the way as well. I like Daphne's Dandelions and The Modern Victory Garden. Both are written by seasoned gardeners who love to help out a new gardener. Be aware that gardening is addicting! I find seed catalogs even more wonderful than curriculum catalogs.

We go on a loop schedule of sorts. I have a large planning book that I put both kids in. On the left, I have the week number, so that I know how many weeks we've completed. Then my kid's initials on each of the days. DS on top, DD on bottom. I list whatever books they are reading for school under their names in the Monday spot. Along the top, each cell is labeled with the subject and under each subject the cell is broken down with DS on top and DD on bottom. Things like history and science are done every other day. It's not a MWF or T TH thing, because we don't always do a full week. This way they both get done. In the front of the book I have a list of all the curriculum for each child used throughout the year. I also have a list of all books they have read during the year.

We're having a great year so far. However, there are always a few that don't work out. Misses: Explorer's Bible study the kids just felt like it was so much busy work and no joy Artpacs No substance Hits: Most of these we've used for years. Singapore math with CWP GWG WWW Building Thinking Skills SOTW with activity guide Artistic Pursuits