I'm on board with the others who said to do the self-paced NTGR if he likes the computer and you want history done quick, fun, and painless. However, If you are looking at HOD for combining subjects and working on heart issues then my suggestion is to do Bigger. It sounds like it would be a good fit with his skill level (the dictation fits, time to develop his writing, still in the right age range) and what you are looking for (Strong Biblical focus, Proverbs study). This would also take care of your science, poetry, and anything else you want HOD to cover for you. My daughter is doing VP self-paced OTAE this year and Beyond. She really loves the VP history! However, there are parts of Beyond that we both really love (story time, poetry, projects). It might seem like overkill, but next year we plan on using HOD Bigger and NTGR. HOD helps us work on the heart issues. Obviously, there are many devotionals and other ways to work on these, but God keeps leading us to HOD. It is when we sit down with our HOD guide that our best heart discussions tend to be initiated. I feel called to HOD and she sees VP history as fun computer time. Either way you can't go wrong.

This is the first year we have to file an affidavit and it requires that I have a name for our school. I thought about it all year and never came up with anything and here I am still STUCK. I plan to homeschool long-term and don't want to pick something lame that my kids are going to be embarrassed about putting on an application when they're older. We like _______ Christian Academy. We thought about Classical, but we're really more ecclectic.... and there are several with the name Classical Christian Academy. hmm. We don't want it to be too long or too stand-outish but I also don't want it to be where there are 20 other schools named that in CA. We thought about Liberty or Heritage but they seem pretty common and sound like they are linked with other schools. We wouldn't name a school after where we live as there is nothing grand about it. I welcome suggestions. I might be having a harder time naming our school than I did with picking baby names.

When I was younger, my sister and I each took a big black garbage bag and cut out a hole for the head and arms and painted in big white letters M&M on it. :lol: I made my daughter a neon green fleece glow worm hat with yellow yarn out the top a few years ago which was pretty easy.

I highly recommend gymnastics for children. Even if they don't have a natural ability for it, it helps with so many things. That being said, not all homeschool gymnastics classes are equal. Think about your goals and your budget and observe some classes. Some are glorified "play dates" with the kids running around and jumping on a pad.. and for some that meets their goals. Some people desire that their kids get that type of play and have a fun first exposure. I personally couldn't justify spending the time or money on that because it was not one of my goals. However, my oldest two (just turned 6 and 4) are in a wonderful homeschool gymnastics class that is quite structured and they work on flexibility, strength, coordination, following directions, self-confidence, and trying their best. The owner also trained where I did as a child so I am confident with the type of instruction. Also, my children only do floor which is fine, especially at this age, as I don't see them going professional in the future.

Thank you!!

ENTJ Extravert(22%) iNtuitive(38%) iNtuitive Thinking(25%) Judging(22%) You have slight preference of Extraversion over Introversion (22%) You have moderate preference of Intuition over Sensing (38%) You have moderate preference of Thinking over Feeling (25%) You have slight preference of Judging over Perceiving (22%) I'm not sure if my indecisiveness on curriculum (meaning needing 3 different things for every subject:001_huh:) has anything to do with my personality, but for any ENTJ's out there, I'd be interested in knowing what you use. :D

Shannon, I ended up buying http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFC9325CW-Wireless-Printer-Scanner/dp/B0067PTW3I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347083832&sr=8-1&keywords=brother+printer+9325 from Costco this summer when they were having a sale. It works well for my needs but it has its limitations. It scans nicely onto a thumb drive and the copy feature works well. The printer says it’s out of ink early after only a few uses and then it won’t allow you to print anything. There were reviews online that warned about this issue, but on the Amazon review someone linked the directions on how to change the printer settings to work around this issue and it easily fixed the problem. The toner cartridges are expensive but I believe you can just buy the toner online and refill the cartridges and that looks MUCH cheaper. I have not experimented with doing this yet so hopefully it will work. Originally, the printer was easy to set up to our network. However, recently it says the printer is asleep or offline. It’s been like that all week even after my husband reinstalled the drivers so I haven’t been able to print from my computer.:confused: I don’t know if this is a printer issue or just our networking/ internet issue; likely it’s the later. It has duplex printing, but it is manual in that you have to print odd pages first, then flip the pages over the correct way in the feeder before printing the even pages. For a printer at this price point, it should have automatic two-sided printing. Brother has an app we downloaded onto our ipad so we can print from it. It was a pain the few times I tried to use it so I haven’t fooled with it much since. Maybe somebody more techy than myself would have better luck. Now I’ll just save things into my “dropbox†and print from my computer if I need something. I like the printer fine and it seems to be closest I could find to meet my criteria, but I’m disappointed nobody’s figured out yet how to make something that can overcome these glitches. HTH

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

:iagree: This would make an awesome signature. I have finally caught up on reading this thread and I love it! I would have to put an :iagree: next to more than half of what was posted. Thanks for all the wisdom!

EXACTLY This!:tongue_smilie:

I've only used free printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler but I did consider using their LOTW. There was a recent discussion regarding purchasing LOTW and one person said they used http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/tag/Preschool/ as their main curriculum and supplemented with the LOTW since there was so much there. 1plus1 is all pieced together for you and it comes in themes and it's free.

Sorry I can't really answer your question since I've actually been struggling with the exact same thing this summer. Everything is ready to go for Beyond, but I'm just not sure if it wouldn't be better to piece together my own. We're already covering every subject in a different pieced together way and I don't think I need two curriculums but I can't let go of HOD. Now, about combining kids, I would think about eventually combing DS and younger DD instead of older DD and DS. I'm planning on eventually combining my DS (almost 4) and younger DD (just turned 2). In our family, my first two are so far apart in skill that it would not make sense to combine them, which I've heard can be typical with an advanced first child/ girl. My 2nd (a a bright boy, but later bloomer than my girls), and 3rd being a girl makes it ideal to combine them later. Just a thought.

1. Don't skip snack time! DD loves snack time and works better if she can look forward to a special snack. Snack time improves her attitude. It is also a good time to read poetry, devotions, or our read-aloud. 2. I can't do anything that looks remotely interesting with the youngers without dd (almost 6) abandoning her work to join. :glare: 3. If older DD had an abacus, then little DD (just turned 2) also needed an abacus (or coloring page, or whatever older DD would have). 3. Keeping nap/ quiet time sacred saves my sanity. All must do quiet time. 4. If I want DD interested in something, I have to pretend it doesn't have anything to do with her schoolwork. I check out library books about the subject and leave them around the house. She finds them and reads them on her own and then tells me about the neat book she just read. :tongue_smilie: 5. DD does better if I set a timer on how long to do her work with a good attitude so she has a goal and we don't spend all morning on one subject. 6. All work needed to be done by lunch if it was going to get done that day. 7. School starts and 9 is done by lunch (with breaks and snack of course). 8. Take short breaks. If too long, she doesn't want to come back. These breaks are a good time to do something with younger ds or dd. 9. Have materials ready to go or I lose her during prep. :auto: 10. I have much less patience when I don't get enough sleep. My attitude most affects the kids attitudes. It is worthwhile to stop school for the day to address discipline issues than to push through anyways and let them get away with poor behavior.

I was thinking that if your children were able to do independent work while you are working you can save the more teacher intensive stuff for the days that you are home and still cover plenty. Here's some suggestions for independent work they can do while you are working: -Computer Programs: Dreambox for Math, Spelling City (free) on the computer to practice current spelling words, online class (we are using VP history self-paced this next year). -Free reading is always good. -Sometimes Evan-Moore or Scholastic has good workbooks for other things you might want to work on such as Grammar or Geography. -Puzzles or Games they can play with each other that develop certain skills -You could have the kids do flashcards or give them lists to memorize and quiz them in the evenings or the next day. -Have them pick something interest led and on the days you are at work, they do research, read books, and draw pictures of what they've learned in that area. -Dover coloring books have pictures of paintings from famous artists. Have them color pictures from one of those on that day to sneak in some art appreciation. They also have other educational coloring books. -Download Music for them to listen to either for music appreciation or that helps them memorize facts, timelines, etc (we do this with CC). -Have them listen to Audio books (SOTW).

I had not heard of of it, but it looks nice. I did a brief search and found it at CBD which has sample pages. http://www.christianbook.com/nature-drawing-journaling-lessons-through-natures/barry-stebbing/9780971787452/pd/635635 I also found a review of it from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Homeschool_Reviews/5202.php HTH