We just moved to CO. The weather is insane here.

Everything has sugar breast milk, fruit, veggies etc...all have some amount of sugar in it..this can not be babies "first sugar" episode.. All sounds a little fishy to me!

We are not near the coast, she was born in FL though. She plans to go to college in FL as well. She is taking Chemistry via co-op next year but wants to do a full course of Marine bio at the same time. I like others, have had a hard time finding a course suited to her advanced skill level.

I'd go with the placement test. Dd11 placed in 8/7 but I put her in 7/6 because 8/7 was too challenging (read: mature) Well I then decided I dislike Saxon and went a different way!

I think different factors plan in such as family size, medical concerns, behaviors etc. For example we have one diabetic child in the home, one child with GP & CVS, one with behavior/mental health issues. So if Diabetic child wants a snack she needs a shot, if GP/CVS child eats too much or the wrong thing she gets very sick, if behavior/mental health child gets the wrong food/snack given to him it's melt downs and messes (yes he will throw food) Then we have the monkey see monkey do 4 year olds. One of them started a trend of "I don't like this" to get out of eating healthy dinners and then given a snack. (Which I put a big old stop to that quickly) In our situation I just have to be the snack police, carb police, sugar police...etc.

Dd14 is planing on going to college to become a Marine Biologist. She has already taken Biology 1. We are Christians, however I have been teaching secular science as it's her career track. She already has a very strong foundation in Marine Biology so I am looking for an advanced course for her 10th grade year. Any suggestions?

For those who give your kids "free reign" do you set any limits at all? For example I let my kids have a afternoon snack around 1:45 because dinner is at 5p. So I don't allow snacking past 2p. I have had issues with the 4 year olds not eating dinner because they had a late snack and didn't want to eat so I had to make that rule. I also don't allow snacking after 7pm (not only is it bad eating habits but usually means I have to clean the kitchen again lol)

Yes, we require the kids to ask. With 11 and one diabetic (type 1) we kinda have to monitor things. 16 year old just doesn't care for this reason we have the "parent shelf" so anything I don't want him to have free reign on goes on it. He at least respects that rule.

I don't do a formal math program till 2/3 rd grade. We do a few pages of MEP and lots of math games, file folder games, manipulatives etc. We just recently started doing Evan moor daily math problems to get my 2nd grader into a routine of "daily math" with out a formal math program she can add, subtract, tell time, do money math, fractions, geo. and some multiplication tables. It's worked out well so far.

I have it a bit easy having a somewhat medically fragile child, I can use the "she can't handle all the exposure to the germs, so we just decided to bring the whole family home for school and it's worked out well" that is partially true at least but sometimes sparks questions about her health and I don't like to discuss that with the average Joe. That is more so something I say to family/friends (many of which are PS teachers) When talking to total strangers at say the park or store. I usually just say something along the lines of working at our own pace, needed 1 on 1 attention etc.

I actually just moved across country and took only what fit in my van, I don't recommend it but it was a good decluttering lol. I like to do the 3 bin system. I take 3 bins one for trash, one to donate and one to keep. I go back through the "keep" bin and try to get rid of more. I do this room by room till I am done. Then I do clothing last. I keep 14 outfits, 7 pajamas in rotation everything else I bin up, donate or stash in closets.

Such a sad society we live in anymore, prayers to the victims :(

We had spring break last week and honestly I really didn't want to start up again. We are essentially done with our 2012-2013 school year. Just finishing up some odds and ends. I won't be getting new materials until September so I'm trying to plan for a enriched + review summer (we school year round) Last week we had beautiful weather and today we have a snow day (the PS kids will be with me all day) so we are taking the day off except for our reading and our EM daily work all of which will take 45 minutes if that.

Hmmm...I think I was the crazy neighbor lol. One of our first houses as a married couple was a duplex the neighbors constant yelled and screamed at each other. One day I really just wanted to know what they were fighting about and it turned out he was watching porn 24/7 (yes the glass on the wall trick worked well lol) I did call the cops once because she was screaming "get off me" and I heard stuff breaking. Two houses ago we had basically an elevated concrete slab of a porch. No cover or sides to it. People thought it was perfectly ok to sit on the edge of our porch and hang out talking to neighbors. They where loud and swore constantly and my front window was inches away. I got so fed up after millions of times telling them to move on. I got up early one day and squirted mustard all over the side where they sat. One kid had the nerve to tell me I owed him a pair of $60 jeans. I constantly got into it with a 14 year old girl (who also was a mother) who lived in that house with her Grandma she SCREAMED at me one day for parking in her grandmas "spot" it's off street parking only, and I would not of parked in that spot had someone not been in mine. It was insane. I was so happy when they moved out. Living in a new state now I'm kinda glad that most of the population does not speak English lol.

My 7 year old nephew (who lives with us) is bi polar, ADHD and has SPD. He goes to PS and is in SN classes and takes meds to "manage" his mental health. He has an extremely hard time in school and after schooling is very much needed. He has rage episodes where if something is "to hard" he has a total meltdown. It is to the point where I have to make copies of his homework because he almost always rips it up and throws it everywhere. It is extremely difficult but we have been advised NOT to pull him from school because he has always been in daycare/preschool/school and change is VERY hard for him. I often have finished the school day before he gets home so that is a bonus. This will be our first summer with him and we school year round so I'm very worried how it will all play out. He is very behind grade level in all areas and I have the hardest time getting him to do anything at home. It's totally overwhelming at times. I have no good advice for you. I wish I did. All I can say is if you can get help through the local schools it might be worth it to check out any special services they have. There is a little girl in his class who goes to school 2 days a week and HS 3 days a week her mother told me it was the best thing she could do for her and her other kids. This is her 2nd year doing it and it gives her SN dd more structure and allows her more time to focus on her full time HS kids.

This is a touchy subject in our house. My dh and nephews (who live with us) are very addicted to the Xbox. I hate the thing and I try to set limits. Especially on my youngest nephew who has many issues. I would consider taking away ANYTHING if it seems like a true addiction! As far as computer gaming goes its not a big issue here but social media is. My daughters are only aloud on with permission, loose supervision* and never if it is interfering with our school day. Dd11 was banned from social sites for a month because of a girl drama issue. * loose supervision to me means that I hold the passwords and the rights to read messages, check walls, and unfriend people who are posting inappropriate things. I don't hover and watch each keystroke but routinely I skim messages and walls to keep things in check. We have not had many issues and my girls have been amazing when things did pop up they always come to me if something feels wrong. (Proud mama moment/brag lol)

It's mostly needing some space. We currently have two families in one home. We have 11 kids and 4 adults here. I am the only one who is home most of the time my dh works as do the other set of parents so most of the "parenting" is on me and their is a certain level of "oh she can do this that or the other thing" becuase I dont work outside of the home(very little respect that i educate my kids, do homework/after schooling with their kids, cook 2-3 meals a day and clean up after 15 people) We have lots of distractions in our daily work and space is an issue. We also only have one computer. So I thought a room with a computer for each child a few hours a week we could do our spelling city, typing, etc with out having to take turns. I will also have dh with me so if our 4 year old gets bored he can take her to the childrens room or something else. Dh's schedule is changing in a few weeks he will be going to four 10 hour days and off on Tues/wed/sun the only days I am home alone with just my kids are Thursday and Friday. So I have a thought of using dh's off days at the library and doing school at home Thur/Friday. Basically the more time I spend outside of the home, the less crap gets piled on to me and I can't be expected to "babysit" all the time if I am not here. My kids education has not suffered but my patients has. Sorry I didn't mean to vent that much, but 2 solid hours of school with out interruptions sounds amazing to me right now lol

School is done other than math with dd11 which we will do around 2p Dd11 & dd14 are cleaning up from lunch and watching myth busters 4 year olds (dd and niece) are watching a movie with dd7 Dh gets home from work around 3 and we have errands to run. We are expecting 12-18 inches of snow tonight into tomorrow so I'm trying to figure out how tomorrow will work with the PS kids home too. It is very hard to get through schooling my 4 with the 7 bonus kids home too. I try to do educational games that I can get everyone in on.

My eldest doesn't need them but my 11 year old does our insurance pays 80% we have to put down 10% and the rest can be made in monthly payments. Not sure if the youngest ones will need them at all.

That is high to me. I just did 3 summer outfits each for 6 people and shoes for 3 of us for $32 (plus I had a biology text book and two readers in there) I love thrift stores, a lot of what I buy is high end clothing some NWT even. Last year I did a $5 bag sale (they where standard 13 gallon trash bags) I stuffed my bag really good. I did all our winter shopping for 6 people in two bags. $200 I could likely do the entire year for 6 people plus shoes. I don't have to shop at thrift stores but I love it. It takes time I go over everything with a fine tooth comb, I look for little to no wear and tear or staining.

So so tempting to reserve the room for just me and do just that lol. Maybe I'll pin it all on dh and stay home and nap. We reserved the room from 10:30-12:30 so I'm thinking we will eat breakfast and do our regular morning routine which is our journal, dol, math word problem of the day, bible verse. Then hit the library and do spelling city...then, I don't know what lol.

Hugs, my niece is type 1 (she lives here part time) and its been a wild ride to keep her regulated we are hoping she gets to a stable point to get a pump it breaks my heart to see her in pain :(

We are new to the area and have not connected with any local homeschoolers. My 11 year old dd is a social butterfly and is really wanting to find some local friends. I also have 4, 7 & 14 year old DDs who I'm sure would love some new friends too its just not as important to them as my 11 year old. We would love to possibly meet up with other homeschooling families or groups near by. I am open to suggestion.

Apples to apples is really fun you can do large groups with it. A few weeks ago we had all the teen/tween cousins over (12 kids in total I think) and we had 8 adults too we laughed till we cried.

Reserved at the library for 2 hours that is A. Sound proof B. has 4 computers with Internet (can't print though) C. Has couches as well has two round tables w/chairs D. You have this room for 2 hours a week and could extend up to 6 hours E. it's a library so we can grab books, and such to improve our time I also can go into the computer lab and print things if I need too. How would you utilize your time? Currently we have 1 laptop & 1 iPad so we often rotate our time and have so many distractions in our school day from my 4 year old niece, dogs, phone calls etc. I don't mind bringing some of our books, pencils etc. but not wanting to cart in a bunch of stuff.