Not usually. If it's important, I might ask questions for clarification and then say something like, "Hmph, that's funny, I thought _____." This stems from too many know-it-alls in my life, though, that I'm super sensitive to it.

Not in the path, I'm about 90 miles south. But we've been able to smell it all day. I can only imagine what it's like up there. Pray for the evacuations. A few people were lost in the fires west of here earlier this year because they just couldn't get out in time. Weather has been CRAZY in the whole state this month. We've had a few tornadoes touch down in the Denver Metro area, which is pretty unheard of. Flash floods, hail storms... not our usual June weather. And as much rain as we've gotten down here, up north where the fires are, it's been very very dry.

:iagree: Thank you for this. My sister had told me about this study/book and I couldn't remember where I'd heard it. I needed to hear this reassurance today, as well! :D

I chose the car trip one because, well, we LOVE car trips! We take at least three or four a year, and I think it's SO important for kids to really get to know their own country / state. Plus, I love Washington State, so you have a lot of beautiful scenery. It was a close tie, though, with Victoria Island. But I figure you guys seem to have done the "go to a place and stay for a few days thing" with the Sound so maybe this wouldn't be novelty enough. And, although I love Chicago, and we took our kids there last summer and did the Fields Museum and Navy Pier, etc, I didn't vote for it because of the train ride. Frankly, I would road-trip to Chicago so you'd have a car there. I hate being in strange places without my car. Even though we used public transit the whole time we were in Chicago, I still liked having my car there. I'm weird like that. I think it's also a lot cheaper to car trip than to train, so you'd have some more money to spend on outings. All of your ideas sound fun, I hope you enjoy whatever you pick!!

It kind of depends on the subject. For math, reading, phonics, spelling... we just move from one thing to the next. I'm a little more rigid with History and Science because those are the ones I'm more likely to fall behind on. My kids typically fly through math and phonics books, so we sometimes take breaks between them, but we slug through history and science pretty consistently- too many other fun things come up when your friends don't year-round school and our afternoons seem to disappear... I will say that I think your kids are young enough that you can sort of practice this year to see what works. But don't be afraid to change your mind. If you start off just moving along with the next thing and that doesn't work, take a week at Christmas and plan the next two months more rigidly and see if you like it. I think the beauty of home-schooling is that you get to change your mind as many times as you want.

Grades are a big deal around here, probably because of my kids' ages, and I use them as motivation. They worked really hard to get to start first grade this May, and it was a bit of a close call. ;) (Yeah, it totally wasn't...) We had to start talking grades because people would ask my kids and they never knew what to say. When they would answer "We home-school," they would then get mad that the person asking would look at me for an explanation. My son wanted to know why people didn't believe him, so we talked about what grade they are each in and went from there. The other reason we had to start talking grades because of Sunday School and football. My daughter has a late-November birthday but reads and does math far above her grade level. So it bothered her when all of her peers just a few months older than her went off to school this past year and she kept getting put in pre-K classes at Sunday School and VBS and Bible Studies and dance classes... My son was a summer birthday, and our district encourages holding boys back a year- and my husband agreed for the sports thing. SO- we had to designate the grades in order to get our kids where they needed to be. My son is a little older than most boys on his K-1st football team and my daughter is younger than everyone in her K Sunday School class. But it's just what we decided to do, for now, and both my kids know that grades don't mean anything.

I have the standards of my state printed out (we're required to have it on hand somewhere) and I went through it when I started my kids in K last year. Made my eyes cross. ;) But I would recommend at least having them on hand- my state offers them in .pdf on their DOE website. I also recommend the Core Knowledge/ Everything Your __ Grader Needs to Know. But don't actually buy the curriculum or planner- I did and it was a pretty big waste. I did like the activity pages from the student books and the projects in the parent's book, but the teacher's curriculum was just not what I thought it would be.

Here are the links I have saved in my Amazon profile: http://www.amazon.com/The-Usborne-Book-World-History/dp/0794524788/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339386159&sr=8-1&keywords=usborne+book+of+world+history http://www.amazon.com/Usborne-Internet-Linked-Encyclopedia-World-History/dp/0794503322/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339386247&sr=1-1&keywords=usborne+internet-linked+encyclopedia http://www.amazon.com/The-Kingfisher-Illustrated-History-World/dp/086272953X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339386290&sr=1-3&keywords=kingfisher+illustrated+history+of+the+world http://www.amazon.com/The-Kingfisher-History-Encyclopedia-Editors/dp/0753457849/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339386290&sr=1-2&keywords=kingfisher+illustrated+history+of+the+world I have the last one but they were out of the Usborne ones when I ordered. I ended up with the following one and I like it a whole lot. I don't know if I just got used to it, but when I saw my friend's copy of the two recommended Usborne ones, I actually decided I liked mine better. :D http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Ancient-World-Usborne-Internet-Linked/dp/0794511414/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339386247&sr=1-2&keywords=usborne+internet-linked+encyclopedia

You've had great suggestions so far. I would also encourage you to look at getting the audio CDs for SOTW, if you decide to try it again. We listen to the chapters in the car a lot, and that means we often hear the chapter up to 10 times a week, depending on how much running around we do. They are usually less than five minutes, so we often cover old chapters and new ones, too. I know my kids absorb things even if I don't have them narrate anything. A friend of mine actually plays the CD while her kids color the first time her kids hear the chapter, over breakfast on Monday, then she ends up reading it herself later that afternoon for the narration. I've thinking of doing this- it would let me wash the dishes at least one morning a week, right? ;) As for expectations- your son falls exactly in the middle, age-wise, between my two kids. I only have them narrate on the SOTW chapter once a week, then on another living history book later that week. I find that, between WWE, the narrations we do for science, and literature narrations, they are doing plenty. I would suggest, at the ages of our kids, the narrations aren't really there to prove our kids are absorbing. They absorb more than we know and we probably don't need to spend so much time looking for the evidence of this. (I'm talking to myself here... :D) I think it's hard for us with kids this age, especially when they're our oldest and we were public-schooled, to not know how to "test" them and what they are learning.

I don't find the questions apply that well to my young first graders. I prefer the narration questions in SOTW, which are more dependent on the passages from the SOTW book and the encyclopedias. I try to find what I can on the lists- TOG or SOTW- but I'm content collecting the call numbers and then visiting that shelf at the library if we cannot request a book ahead of time.

Quiet time, every afternoon. From 1-2, after lunch and recess, the kids go to their rooms and are QUIET. I also am very strict about bedtime. I've found that I start to run down starting at about 6 and by 8, I am just about done. I start getting irritated about everything. :D Once my kids go to bed, I go sit on my bed and do my Bible Study, read a book, plug my head phones in and watch a movie on the iPad... My husband knows that I get that first half hour for myself. After that I'm re-ready to join him. Any conversation we have before I have that time never ends well. ;) And, like others have said, it will get better when they're old enough to play together and entertain one another. Don't forget to draw boundaries. You won't be the last introvert they know and it's okay for them to learn about personal time and space. I wish my overly-doting MIL had taught my husband- we had to go to marriage counseling for him to understand that I'm not broken because I need alone-time every day. :D

Turmeric and Bromelaine are natural (from pineapple extracts) anti-inflammatories. I took them while pregnant for headaches, turned ankles, tooth infections... etc. It doesn't work QUITE as well as 5 aleves but, you know, my kidneys still thank me for it. ;) And I lived on caffeine while pregnant. My mom did for me, too. It's not something I'm proud of, and should I get pregnant I'd certainly want to cut it. But I'm alright, my kids are alright... I'm thinking one to get past the withdrawls would be okay. And, it goes without saying- drink lots of water. Dehydration headaches pop up in my pregnancies all the time.

Here's our first grade schedule: http://coloradostrongs.blogspot.com/2012/05/this-is-test-to-see-if-i-can-figure.html The key for us it to break up the activities within the subject. So, although it says we phonics for half an hour, it's 15 minutes in the workbook, then 15 minutes on the computer. Spelling is 15 minutes with the AAS tiles, then 15 minutes either doing a written test or reviewing key word cards (while running laps around the house.) We've done our spelling test outside in the driveway in sidewalk chalk, taken a picture, and posted it in our notebook. That actually made spelling 45 minutes that day. So although we may spend an hour total on math, we've done skip-counting while bouncing on a Bosu, a lesson (sometimes with manipulatives) workbook pages and then a game. For some reason, the game can last 30 minutes when everything gets old at 15.. ;) The other thing is that I schedule things that may only take 10 minutes, making them feel super smart or challenged to see if they can do one more page before the time runs out. Depends on the day. Also, what helped us, was to have this pretty set schedule. Now, we don't EXACTLY follow it- I'd say one day out of ten goes as drawn up here. But my son needed to know what came next, for how long, etc. Once we got the routine down, we stopped feeling so wiped out because we knew exactly how far along in our checklist we were. And, my last tip- DANCE BREAK! Finish one math page and he's flogging? Get up, turn on some loud music and DANCE. (You can close your curtains if you need to...) Don't sit back down to more math until everyone is laughing- and has a nice glass of water. For me, the point of year-round school is so that we can relax in our pacing. Although, so far, it hasn't made us fall behind at all.

We weren't co-sleepers (we stopped after six months) and we did varying types of CIO when my kids we in the second six months of life. So I won't give you any anecdotal evidence. But I do want to say- I've heard your same questions come regarding homeschooling. "Aren't you afraid if you're always there for your son he'll be a mama's boy?" So I just thought it was a little funny to see that question on these boards. :D There are varying opinions on all facets of parenting. Some of us can be described as over-protective in some areas while neglectful in areas. It's just a matter of experience and priorities.

I just want to thank you guys for this thread. We were given this set for Christmas and it's next on our list, after Wind in the Willows. But I hadn't read them as a child so I didn't know about Farmer Boy. Wouldn't you know, this set came with it in it. Yippee! (I was hesitant to start them for my son's sake, too...) ;) http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Little-House-Nine-Book/dp/0064400409/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1338753108&sr=8-2

What about menu planning and food budgeting? I wish I'd learned those things... ;)

I've become addicted to GoalForIt.com. I make my kids' chore and behavior charts there, so then I started my own checklists... The kids once made me a behavior chart- for grown-ups there's "no caffeine" and "don't yell" :tongue_smilie:- and it kind of stuck. So I have a behavior chart, too. I really like it when big weekends come and we have projects. My FIL is coming into town this week and we needed to get our new guest bedroom set up. I made a list of the things we needed to get done. It helped us stay focused. What's great about it is you can check things off on the website or print it off and use a pencil. Or stickers, if you're feeling festive. I'm just now starting to play with it to get more long-term regular things planned....

:iagree: Small group laws are different in every state, and they are all going through lots of changes with the onset of Obamacare. I can tell you that, historically, a company could not be turned down for insurance if it qualified as a small group. They could be charged the maximum rate based on underwriting but not turned down. Typically small groups are 5-49 employees. When I was in the business, carriers were pretty diligent to make sure that companies were actual companies, not your friends and children who, conveniently, waived coverage, leaving only yourself and your husband. I personally had a handful of clients politely told they were committing insurance fraud and were dropped from their policies. I would think, in the current climate, that is something they're looking at even more closely. So, unless you have 5 true employees (including yourself) and you double check this is true with an agent, I wouldn't even bother to go much further down this path.

I got them on sale, used them for two kids, then donated them to my sister. Well, all except the ones my daughter "decorated.: We didn't need them, either, but my kids liked them. I thought the stamp-pad thing was way cooler.

:iagree: I agree. I was just on this board yesterday befuddled by my over-protective, helicopter parenting neighbor. My husband totally called me out on it- I prefer the kids here. But it really is less about me trusting the others as the fact that it seems all of our friends and neighbors have only children. I hate sending over my two maniacs as people generally don't know what to do with them. Especially the ones that have one, well-spoken and well-behaved little girl. While mine is currently sporting a bright pink cast from falling while climbing up the hand-railing on our stairs. I'm afraid they'll never want to play with us again. :tongue_smilie:

Thanks, I just pulled it out of my rear. :tongue_smilie: But I did copy and paste it into a document I have on my laptop entitled "Things I Want to Tell My Daughter When She is the Right Age." I'm worried I'll forget all my wisdom by then. You know, because wisdom for other people's circumstances is always easier to come up with than wisdom in the moment. :D

;) Funny, both my mom and my sister have un-pierced ears, my mom doesn't wear make-up and my sister only rarely does. And she didn't start until she was in her late 20's. We're not LDS. My mom's dad decided girls who colored their hair, wore makeup or pierced their ears were "fast." My dad was in the army when they met and he fell for her because he thought she was just a more intelligent, less-airheaded girl because she didn't do all of those things. It's just funny how different people view the world. When I was in college, I got my belly button pierced before my ears, because I could hide it from my mom. I'm excited for whatever drama my daughter will bring on me.

For me it's a sense of style / preference thing. Similar to how I don't like certain hair styles or types of shoes or styles of pants. I don't necessarily think less of people who have them. But I do think it's a permanent declaration of style and I change my style too often to get one. Likewise, I think of people with tattoos have having certain styles and, if anything, I think I feel sorry for them that they committed themselves to a style they can never escape. If that's okay with them, so be it, it's their body. But I will probably warn my daughter from them for that reason.

:iagree: I've wanted one but our walls our so textured we've been recommended against it. :sad:

I'm working on blogging about it this weekend. I hope to have it up by tonight. But, to answer your question, for us it really is more like a journal thing. Ours are VERY basic, nothing fancy, and more for storing, less for presentation. I'm guessing as my kids get older, they'll take more pride in their work and then we'll look at fancy-ing them up.