I love "Children Just Like Me" and still have our copy. It really is a superb book to go through. If you want stories of Christians and missionaries in the countries you'll study, you will need "Heaven's Heroes" or "Missionary Stories with the Millers." I did not use Considering God's Creation at the time because my children were 7 and 4 1/2 at the time. Otherwise frankly you can just pick-and-choose from your local library if you have a decent one. If you look at the sample chapter here: http://www.geomatters.com/files/samples/GTG-SampleLesson.pdf, you can see how they weave in some resources like "Children Just Like Me" and the missionary books. Speaking frankly, Galloping the Globe really didn't provide me though with a lot that I couldn't have gotten from Enchanted Learning and searching the online catalogs of the two libray systems we have access to. There are many, many more children's books on the countries they cover than are listed. I usually checked out as many as I could find both fiction and non-fiction that were age appropriate, and then culled out the best ones. At the time I had a membership on Enchanted Learning that gave me nice maps and flags that were easier to print out than copying from the book too. So it's a resource, but you can go beyond it too.

That one had pages of stuff, and I saw several things I wanted. Unfortunately by the time I could actually get on to order (their server was overwhelmed), all but one of the items was gone. The year before I did really well though.

It's so very rare that elderly people plan for the difficulties that those left behind will face when they're gone. My MIL left funds for her funeral and travel expenses for those who had to come, but we filled EIGHT long construction dumpsters getting the house cleaned out. Most of the furniture was damaged by insects or water and had to be ditched. Frankly in some areas we had to make hard decision in the interest of our time and sanity that made some of the relatives involved very angry. We couldn't make cleaning out my MIL's house a year-long project of going through every little thing. We did it in two weeks, and that was that.

I'm to the point that I don't buy anything with marks inside now unless it says specifically something like -- "the first ten pages were done in pencil" or the "the first chapter has highlights but it is clean the rest of the way." Several years ago I bought a college text that said "some highlighting" and almost the ENTIRE BOOK was highlighted. It was so distracting!

I keep a tentative spreadsheet that goes several years ahead, and a running list of things I need for the next year because I buy mostly used or discounted. When I sell things or have a little money at the end of the month, I buy from my list. I never buy more than a year in advance though. I almost have everything I need for next year already, and will probably start thinking about the year after that in late summer. Next year will be our 8th year homeschooling. Where has the time gone?

I was the membership chair for our homeschool group for four years, and I used it to keep everyone's info. I ran directories, reports, mailing labels, etc. etc. Things changed in the group last summer, and I turned the entire database over to someone else who unfortunately hasn't made use of it. Of course it helps that I teach Microsoft Office at the college level, but there are many online tutorials. Just type "Access Tutorial" into Google.

My son and I just weren't clicking anymore with math, and I came to see that he really, really needed to be teaching himself more on things. For some reason any kind of division blew his mind and brought him to tears every time. So we gave up halfway through RightStart E when he was in 4th grade. He was in a real crises over math -- his confidence was really down. Anyway, I took him all the way back to the first Light Unit (there are 10 per year) of CLE Math 4 because they dive right into division with remainders and 4-step division in the second light unit. I set a timer and had him do 45 minutes of math a day, which was sometimes more than one lesson and sometime less. This fall he'll be caught up and starting CLE Math 6. I haven't really addressed yet what comes after CLE Math 6. We're in Classical Conversations which uses Saxon for 7th and up, but my son may be ahead of the level his class is using by then. Thankfully CLE goes easily into Saxon either way, so we'll figure it out then.:)

We switched to SWO when the 4th grade R&S Spelling book blanks drove us both crazy (they were extremely small and the pages were really crowded then). R&S has since revised their books, but I also wanted a workbook for the higher grades (they use texts for 6th and up), so we've stayed with SWO. They're both good IMHO, but more Bible content in R&S obviously! When we were practicing phonics, I just had them read to me versus doing spelling (both of mine were also allergic to the pencil when they were learning to read). We must have read all the levels of the Bob Books and every easy reader in the library a billion times...

I'm one that delays spelling if they're still working on phonics. For my children we delayed spelling until they were reading easy chapter books on their own. I figured that really getting phonics down was more important and a better use of their short attention spans. Since then it has been pretty painless, and they're both very good spellers. With both I started with Spelling Workout B or it's equivalent (my older one had R&S Spelling 2). For my older one, that was at the end of 2nd grade, and for my younger one, it was halfway through 1st grade.

I've used B through half of E, and IMHO it's fine in the three areas you cited as being weaknesses. When we used it both of my children consistently scored in the 90th percentile on their standardized tests, and that just doesn't happen if a program is especially weak in a particular area. It's approach is different, and as you go up there is a lot of drill with the timed sheets and IF (notice caps) you play a game every day. I thought it was fine on word problems. I also never supplemented with another program. We did switch though because I work more now than I used to, and it wasn't working for my oldest any more. In particular, E seemed like scattered topics, and he also needed more independent work in general. Now we use CLE math and I'm happy with that too. Frankly if was not for the time involved, I probably would have kept my younger one in RS through level D and then switched, but she has a great foundation with just RS B.

I have a friend who just finished SWI-C with her high schoolers and is starting SICC-C, and she has borrowed my TWSS DVDs several times this year to watch some of the units she didn't quite get. She hasn't watched the whole thing though, so I'm not sure that you really need it absolutely at hand. If there's someone you can borrow it from here-and-there, that would be ideal.

I frankly would be fine with a regular mattress, but DH is disabled and battles chronic pain. For him, a Sleep Number bed is the ONLY bed he's truly comfortable on. We tried a Tepurpedic, and he didn't like it because he "trapped" him and he jerks and moves all night (we sleep in separate beds for this reason -- two full size Sleep Number beds).

Literary analysis is not a strength of Sonlight IMHO. It seems to get better in the upper cores from what I've heard, but I can't say that from personal experience. I'm using CLE reading with both of my children, and it does bring in these types of things in a very low-key way. They use short stories to discuss characterization and such, and my children have been fine with reading both their Sonlight readers and doing their CLE reading. Because we had done zero literary anlaysis before and because I expected some resistence, my older one (5th grade) will actually finish all of the 4th and some of the 5th grade program this year, and then will finish the 5th and do the 6th grade program next year. I also just got Teaching the Classics today (found it used -- hooray!), and I hope to bring that in for some of the Sonlight books this summer. We're going to do lighter school this summer with pretty much just Sonlight history/lit, Latin, Spanish, and math, so that will give me a chance to watch the TTC DVDs and apply them. HTH!

Several years ago I took a series of classes in web development and got my CIW certification. This summer it will be either web scripting or Java. Being a professor means continous education, unfortunately (or fortunately if I have to work full-time someday!).

Handling the mother/teacher balance is frankly the toughest part of homeschooling for me. I am not just a teacher in the classroom that sends them home when the day is done. I live with these children! Frankly I am a demanding homeschool parent and I do push my darlings in certain areas, but I also have a lot of fun with them and we have a very loving relationship. Achieving that has taken a lot of hard work. The tendency among homeschool moms is to go one way or the other -- too demanding to the point that homeschooling falls apart and so does their relationship with the kids or too relaxed to the point that the home is happy but the kids aren't learning much. If you can get a balance where you have high expectations and love, you'll do well. Every homeschool has bad days of course, but you have to maintain an overall direction in both your academics and mothering that is positive. I have several friends who are sending their 10-12 y.o. off to the classroom in the fall because they lost the balance. That's been sobering to me!

I've been a part-time community college professor for nine years now, and my classes have students from 15-60 years old. There's really no "standard" student now. Community colleges are designed to take people where they are and take them as far as they can go. We have plenty of remedial programs and free tutoring. One of the math professors actually didn't start college until his early 20's, and he began at the original campus of the college system where he now teaches.

My aunt did her graduate work at the Santa Fe one and remains involved with them as some kind of advisor, and I know several people who have sent their children there over the years. When I was in college myself in New Mexico I had several friends through Intervarsity who were students there. Personally, I wouldn't send any of my children there. If I had a child who wanted a great books school for college, I'd pick a Christian college. In fact if either of them wants a more liberal-arts oriented major, we'll be looking at only Christian colleges.

We order ours in April so that we can let the butterflies out a few days after they hatch to be "free." You can keep the butterflies for awhile, but frankly they don't do as well confined indoors.

We've been homeschooling for seven years and have never had the money for piano lessons (and in fact I'll probably sell the piano this year), and have had to really limit even our field trips because of gas prices and entrance fees. My children went to a farm several hours away for an educational program in the fall, and I've saved and we're going with a homeschool group to the circus in April. That's it for field trips in 2007-2008. We do belong to a co-op and do one sport, but that's it on our budget. My head just spins at all that some families do, but our only debt is our mortgage despite a lot of financial setbacks over the last few years. We have a very loving, close family, and our children are doing very well academically. They above their peers in both public and private schools available locally, and are frankly more confident and articulate than they children they play with who go to a classroom. Sometimes the intangibles win!

He wants something very flavorful without a lot of ketchup on top. He likes onions and garlic a lot. Thanks...

I've been playing around with Dutch Oven recipes for a while, but didn't own the real thing. Mom gave me $50 for Christmas, and I found a really good deal online at Amazon. There's a small scratch on the lid, really nothing that the rest of my cookware doesn't have. And, It DOES MAKE a difference, trust me. Everything I've made since is better in it. I want more!

I've found some of the "best of the best" that way. For some reason, offering to help with cleanup gets to people's hearts...

From what I've seen, most grade school children write in "themes" unless they're truly creative writers or have constraints placed on the assignments. My son wrote a variations on the same dinosaur story for years whenever he could write what he wanted. Now that he's a lot more diverse, but he's also had over two years of IEW.

They call the Air Force guy a "homeschooling dad" because he bought $100 of math books from Costco and Sam's Club. There's no mention of taking the kid out of public school. Gosh, I wish that homeschooling were truly that easy. Go to Costco and buy some books. Mmmm...I agree that every parent is ultimately in charge of their child's education, but buying some books doesn't make you into a homeschooling parent. According to the State of Virginia, you aren't a homeschooling parent until you file the paperwork with your local school system. Maybe I'm sore though because we've been at this for seven difficult years...!

I wish I had been a little easier on myself and my oldest especially in the first years. Just like starting any new "job," it takes awhile to get it, and you will get better over time. I've also learned that there's no shame in sticking with what works if its getting the results you want and if it's working for you as the teacher. Don't assume that the newest is truly better, or that what others on this board will fit your situation. Honest assessment of you and your children should always overrule as well. Some of us aren't cut out for certain choices.