Not a curriculum, but something that may help the OP out, is the book Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution by Ken Miller. Ken Miller is the biologist who is one half of Miller/Levine Biology, and he is also a Catholic. Finding Darwin's God is a nice middle ground between those two opposing sides, and he makes a strong argument for accepting science and still keeping your belief in God.

I also got 115,500 people in February. What does the workbook say?

My sister did the same thing, way back when she was 8 years old. My parents just said 'ok' and let her eat everything BUT the meat and didn't say anything at all about it. After a couple weeks, she forgot and had some pepperoni pizza. :D Chances are, if you don't make a big deal about it, she'll forget about it in a week or two. Maybe sooner since she's five ;)

I started doing that exact same thing several years ago. I chose Saxon because I was afraid of math, and plus they had a placement test. I appreciated the hand-holding Saxon provided and am much more confident in my math skills now. I think Saxon is a good choice if you are intimidated by math, but if you did through pre-calc in high school, it sounds like you just need a refresher? You might try just picking up some study guides at your local library (Algebra the Easy Way, Geometry for Dummies, things like that) and see how much you remember. Some libraries have some pretty cool stuff that you can check out - ours has both AOPS and Life of Fred, which makes for very helpful reading when I get stuck! :-) But if your library has nothing, any decent text that you enjoy going through is a good choice. It's pretty easy to find used copies of Lial's, Foerster, and some Dolciani books.

Getting ahead on my math assignment and/or prepping my dungeon for my Saturday night Dungeons & Dragons game. It's been a slow day at home, I'm not really missing anything. I suppose I could do some laundry.

Try the melatonin before you get the Ambien - it's cheaper, no side effects, and you don't get dependent on it. My 12 YO has used it when she's had some bouts of insomnia, and my DH uses it when he travels between time zones.

We absolutely get flu shots for all of us every year. One year my husband thought it was too much trouble to get his shot - he ended up getting the flu in February and was sick for three weeks. None of the rest of us caught it, despite being in daily contact with him. No vaccine is 100%, of course, and I would not RECOMMEND hanging out with sick people just because you've had your shot :-)

All our stuff is mismatched - we have a lot of Asian looking dinnerware, and so the mismatched stuff looks good together. I think if you have a theme for dinnerware, you don't have to match exactly.

You could do Saxon. It's not exciting, but it's pencil & paper & gets the job done. Also, there are several companies that make explanatory DVD lessons if you find you are having trouble. You could do Lial's. It's also pencil & paper & also a popular choice. Older editions and teacher manuals are easily found on Amazon or anywhere else used textbooks are sold - our local Half Price Books usually has a couple.

I suggest good, heavy stainless steel - go to your local restaurant supply store and get what they have there. It won't be cheap, but it will last FOREVER. Many people don't know that restaurant supply stores will usually sell to the general public, but they often will. Their smallest sizes are generally a large size for a normal household :-) I bought a stockpot from a restaurant supply in college. It still looks brand new, and it gets used all the time. It's heavy and easy to clean. I don't think they have an actual brand name, but they usually just have one kind.

Actually, there is labeling, and a special symbol the food must display - from the MN dept of Health - "How can I tell if my food has been irradiated? By law, foods that have been irradiated must be marked with a special logo (right), and labeled with the words "treated with radiation" or "treated by irradiation." Irradiated spices do not need to be labeled if they are used as ingredients in other food products." The symbol doesn't show up in my cut-and-paste, but you can see it at the link below - http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/radiation/moremdh/irradfood.html#tell Now I don't know if this applies to ALL packaging, or if things that are usually re-packed in store (like meat) are still required to have the labeling, but it's a start.

I SOOO want their Dirt Soap for my 6 year old!!!! :D

I have worked through both myself as an adult math learner. They are pretty different. 4th edition was originally meant for public schools, and Saxon doesn't seem to support it well for the homeschool market. Not only are there no DVDs for 4th edition (except for the Geometry book), but the homeschool solution manual has several errors in it. 4th edition covers more topics, moves at a faster pace, and has more varied story problems, but requires an involved teacher because of the errors in the manual, and also some questions were not phrased clearly. Also, 4th edition uses calculators a lot more. This was not generally a problem, but towards the end of the course, virtually ALL of the work with quadratics relies on a graphing calculator, none of it is done 'by hand'. From lesson 96 on this is a huge problem, so pretty much the last quarter of the book. I would suggest skipping those problems and doing a chapter on quadratics in a better text instead - I used Foerster's. That said, I'm using 4th edition with my DD this year, largely because of the explanations. The explanations of how & why the math works are so much clearer to me with 4th edition. There are a lot of questions that require you to explain why a problem works the way it does, and it really increased my understanding. I would however suggest you use 3rd unless you (or someone else who can help your DD regularly) is familiar enough with algebra to be able to spot the incorrect answers in the manual. If you do decide to use 4th edition, be prepared to make alterations - it's not going to be 'pick up and go' like 3rd edition is. It is a more challenging text, but it is also flawed. Hope that helps!

This is why I started homeschooling - dear stepdaughter came home from school with a split lip. A boy on the bus threw a full can of pop at her. When I called the school to complain, they told me it was the bus company's problem and there was nothing they could do about it (this is considered one of the best schools in the state, BTW, wealthy suburban district), but since I brought it up, they would talk to the kids involved. The boy freely admitted that he threw the pop, BUT here is the crazy part. Since my stepdaughter had instinctively thrown up her arm to deflect the pop can from hitting her, that was considered 'responding to the incident', which was a no-no under their zero tolerance policy. So while the boy got suspended, stepdaughter ALSO got sent on an out of school suspension. OOOOOkay. Well, I try to teach my kids to follow the rules, since MOST of them are there for a reason, so I just explained to her that yes, this is stupid, but it is the rule, and it was a rule we were familiar with (although we never imagined it would be implemented in quite this manner). So they give you a piece of paper with the street address on it of where she is supposed to go for her out of school suspension. DH gets there. It's juvenile hall. I wish I was making this up. Out of school suspension were to be served by putting the school child IN WITH THE JUVENILE INMATES for the day. Thank GOD DH had the sense to go right back to the school and tell them they were going to have to find another solution. (Keep in mind all she did was raise her arm in order to NOT be hit by a pop can, she never struck anyone or made a move to, even the boy who threw the can said so.) The school said can't do that, you have to take her back to juvenile hall. DH called me and said, "We're going to homeschool her starting now." I said, "What? What's homeschool?" :-) Fortunately, once the school realized my DH was completely serious, they offered her in-school suspension instead and she just spent a day sitting in study hall, which was still stupid but at least not dangerous. But after that I got ready in case anything else happened, and the more I found out about homeschooling, the more I liked it, and when my DD and DS were born, I had already made up my mind to homeschool. Keep in mind, too, my stepdaughter is 32 years old now, so this was nearly 20 years ago. I should HOPE this kind of thing doesn't happen anymore anywhere, and I KNOW it no longer happens at our local district.

Is it reading in general you are trying to develop, or her reading aloud skills? My son, also 6.5, reads to me about 5-10 minutes a day and is just worn out by the end. He loves books and loves to be read to, and will spend a couple hours a day of free time just looking at books on his own and reading what he can of them. His reading skills are good, but reading out loud is really a couple different skills combined, and that's always harder for ones this young. I love the free reading idea, and I wouldn't suggest you cut out the reading aloud, it does develop important skills, but I think that's a pretty long time for most kids this age. Maybe you could present it as a deal - something like 'You do your reading aloud without attitude or whining and we'll stop at 10 minutes'? Something like that so she doesn't start thinking she's in charge ;-)

Pasta with broccoli and cheese Scrambled egg burritos w/ cheese & salsa Egg drop soup w/ fish, soy sauce, and whatever bits of veggies are available (you cook the fish in the soup, so I keep tilapia or shrimp on hand in the freezer for this) If I have more time but just no inspiration, I throw canned beans & rice together in the rice cooker with whatever seasonings sound good, try Mexican or Indian flavors, sometimes throw in a can of tomatoes, sometimes make toppings to throw on at the end like olives, cheese, green onions.

Another couple options - Westfield and Noblesville are JUST north of Carmel and Fishers respectively (literally, it's difficult for people to tell where one leaves off the and next begins), also have excellent public schools, are not as expensive as Carmel, and would just be another 10-15 minutes commute time for your DH. Both are family friendly and safe. Also, if you end up anywhere on the north side, head up to the Westfield Public Library and talk to Tammy Marquam in the children's dept. She is both a librarian and a homeschooling mom, and maintains for the library a very extensive and up to date list of every homeschool co-op, class, support group, or other opportunity for homeschoolers from downtown Indy to northern Hamilton County.

Well, you can make notes and highlight on a Kindle. Not sure if that would cover everything you are wanting to do? You can't write any symbols in, or cross anything out, or make drawings of any sort, but you can highlight (or underline, depending on which kind of ereader you have), and then make a note. Not sure how to do it on an iPad, check your user's manual, but you can do it from Amazon's website if you open your Kindle book in their Cloud. Not sure if that's the info you are needing? Hope that helps!

:iagree: Except I still manage to get in exercise, but it's 30 minutes, and if I don't manage to get it in BEFORE the kids wake up, too bad for me! Seriously, if you are feeling time crunch, and the extracurriculars are taking 2-3 hours a DAY, that is the first place I'd cut. Next, turn the computer off or at LEAST turn off the monitor / close the laptop and move it either where the kids can't see it/reach it, or if they are older and sneaky, put the computer RIGHT NEXT TO YOU. Shopping and most cleaning can happen on the weekend. If you keep up with the dishes, vacuum a couple times, wipe down the bathroom a couple times, and do a load or two of laundry a day (depending on family size, of course), you should be able to squeak by. Remember even the littles can pick up their own rooms once they are trained and help with simple chores!! Crockpot, freezer cooking, etc. too :-) And it WILL all get MUCH easier after you get in a routine for a couple months, stick with it!!

I don't know about some of their reading level scores - Of Mice and Men is 'easier' than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? And Lord of the Flies is a fifth grade book? I TOTALLY agree that Twilight, The Hunger Games, and such should not be considered high school level academic reading, but their rating system really seems skewed - Elie Wiesel's Night is a 4.8, while The Lightning Thief is a 4.7? Are they looking at JUST the reading level, the words used and sentence structure employed? Because content-wise, there is no way on EARTH I would give Night or Lord of the Flies to a fifth grader unless I wanted them to have nightmares! I wouldn't consider giving either of those to my 7th grader - we're just starting to touch on difficult content later this year when we read To Kill a Mockingbird and Red Scarf Girl, but Night and Lord of the Flies are way beyond those in content.

Well, I don't know why if this is why everyone who does that does it, but many Jews believe that the name of God should never be erased or marked out, so if you are writing something that COULD potentially be erased or deleted in some way, you shouldn't write God's actual name, and so they substitute G*d. Or I suppose if someone is swearing, they might see that as a 'dodge' to avoid 'really' taking the Lord's name in vain? Other than that, I don't know, but there's a couple reasons at least.

ROFL!!! Well, my 6 YO has been known to crash my shopping cart in the grocery store because he was flirting with 'the big girls' and not watching where he was going, so I can relate!! I wouldn't worry too much about it. They don't know WHY they are so fascinated yet. Just have the usual age-appropriate talks with him for now, the rest can wait. Puberty is not going to rear its ugly head next week for your son, don't worry.

Are you telling us your husband is a nudist? :D Also, I will have to come in my Goodwill clothes too! Y'all will be very thankful that I'm not coming in the nude tho! :lol:

You might check & see if your local library has them before you decide, ours does.

Yes I have! :-) It's a little more complex than Settlers of Catan, but if your boys like Settlers, this is certainly worth a go. The idea is to be the first player to bring your offerings of rock to the ziggurat for the gods. To do this, you have to move around the board and explore, which lets you either create more tribesmen, create mana (to build the offerings), or there are also special powers that can be available. There are different strategies to win - one time the winner might build up their tribes, another time the winner might build up their offerings of rock. But because the tiles you find when you explore are random, you don't know what you will get, so you have to be able to take advantage of opportunities as they come up and not get 'set' on one particular plan at the beginning (this I have seen as a problem for new players sometimes). It's not a long game, about an hour once you have the hang of it. The tiles are interlocked like puzzle pieces, which sounds like a good idea but in practice it's a bit fiddly to fuss with. The rocks for the offerings are actual rocks, which is a nice touch BUT it does get some rock dust in the game. Hope that helps!! The game designer is the same guy who did Carcassonne, he's been around awhile and made some really solid games.