I am considering applying for a position where I would arrange for the host families (4 weeks, in the summer), hire a teacher to teach English/cultural classes, and plan the activities. Another position is for a whole school year. But the student would be enrolled in a local school, it would entail finding host families and checking in with the student, acting as a liaison. Both of these are with well established long running programs. Does anyone do something like this? I'm not even sure of specific questions I should ask the companies. I am thinking about doing both. They seem like they would mesh well with still being able to homeschool my kids. Also, I have spent time living in a foreign country (6 years), my husband and I were both exchange students in college, my husband's family had an exchange student stay with them for a year in high school, and we had an exchange student stay with us for 6 months last year. All this just to say, that I feel really drawn to the job which is not something I can say about the others ways that I can make money while still being able to homeschool that I have found. So I really want this to work, but at the same time I am trying to be realistic. Anyone do or have done something in the past that would care to pass on pointers, or things to consider? Thanks.

My parents have a 3 bedroom house, and three kids, spaced out over 12 years - I'm the oldest. I had my own room, as soon as I moved out - as in that very day - my younger sister moved into my room and my brother stayed in the room that they had shared up till that point. I pretty much took all of my personal belongings with me except maybe for a box or two in the garage. The furniture was my parents and they kept it as I didn't need any (moved into a sorority house). When I came home I slept on the twin bunk in my brothers room, or on the couch. It was not really that big of a deal at all. The one thing they did that as a parent I 'get' but as a 'daughter' still makes me a bit sad, is that about a month or two after I moved out, they let my sister and brother each pick out a kitten. I am allergic to cats. That makes me feel kind of annoyed, even today because both cats are still there even though sister and brother both are out of the house. But I deal.

Voted - yum

Banking, international finance and economic development . . . at upper levels, languages are a huge help.

I have thought about doing something like this. I think the first place would be to look at your state regulations for private schools and in-home daycare. You would then know if you fall into either category, or things that you can/must not do if you don't want to fall into a specific category. Also, is this going to be 'on the books' or 'off'. And if it is all going to be legitimate, then you really need to follow all of the rules. For me, where I live, I would probably structure it like a drop-off daycare, or like a 'mother's day out' program. Where you need permission slips, health papers, all that good stuff. But not serve food, make people bring their own and have a designated place if they want it to stay away from the health department regulations (which I find INSANE for a school or daycare and I do not think they are healthy). I thought about having specific 'lessons' where it would be up to the child/parent if they wanted to participate (but not my own kids ya know) but nothing mandatory and nothing that was ever suggested as anything more then enrichment for what ever kind of schooling the child was in. What has stopped me so far is my HOA, they want NO home based businesses at all, and I have not asked our landlord because we are not really that serious about it. SO far I have only done child minding on the one off type basis, cash only, informal market.

I grew up only locking doors at night - and can remember one time my mom was MAD because she got locked out of the house. Now I pretty much only lock the door at night and if we are gone. I have been trying to remember to lock the door when we leave during the day. Just last week we accidentally left the front door wide open all day long while we were gone. Opps. I live in Western Washington. Yes, crime happens here, I am aware of that.

Good Luck - my husband is in the middle of studying as well, he takes his mid Feb for the second attempt.

This is why I am really hesitant. I feel that if I am going to have to deal with the eye rolling and the 'but I don't want too' that it should at least not be over something on the computer . . . I try to keep them off the computer and the screen time in general. I did talk someone into signing up so that we get another two weeks to try it out before committing some money - so hopefully they will grow board of it during that time frame. Or I can figure out how to keep the other stuff going as well as use it as something to do outside of 'school'.

Hmmm, having a 'dusk' feature seems nice as well. Any that someone likes and would recommend that have the wake up and the go to sleep and the nature noise alarm?

Bird songs do sound much nicer then 'beep beep beep'. Thanks for the suggestion.

I have a 6 and 4 year old. My 6 year old has been doing the Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading (at lesson 57) and Explode the Code workbook (book 2 lesson 4) and First Language Lessons (lesson 60). I also have Spelling Workout A that we have not used at all. I am just wondering, they both really seem to like playing it on the computer. She is currently on lesson 72 which is about as high as she could go in with the 'reading test'. I feel that it would be a lot of money to do reading eggs for both of them (and only one is NOT an option) but I am not against it if I would be able to drop things that they do not like so much. She really does not like to do the OPGTR, at all. Rolls her eyes, slumping in her chair, does not want to read a line, etc. etc. Puts me in a bad mood as well. She is OK with Explode the code, but does not like the pages with either lots of reading on them or lots of writing, in other words, only likes doing half of the lesson. Do you think if she was going through the lessons on Readingegg - that I could drop the OPGTR and ETC? Will she still learn all the phonics and not just 'sight reading'? This is my main concern. I am a little concerned about her handwriting, but I am thinking that we would still be doing the First Language Lessons - and I would just assign the more detailed copy work, and we already write letters and she likes to write stories. So I am not so concerned about that. I am correct that I would still need to do the FLL - right - that readingeggs does not cover that. So does readingeggs, FLL, writing letters and stories, along with her reading out loud and me reading to them all the time sound good? Am I missing anything? Any reason why I should squash readingeggs.com and not do it?

We need to get a new alarm clock - we also live where it is dark many hours of every day in winter and black-out shades are a must in summer - that said - does anyone have a recommendation for a sun alarm clock? Preferably one that also has a radio or some other noise 'just in case'. My husband needs an alarm for work and he really would prefer to just get enough sleep to wake up on his own, but that does not seem to be happening at the time he needs to be up by. Any good ones?

Thanks for the update - I am so happy to hear that he is making better choices and things looking to be turning around.

Seriously look into the security of the storage facility you are using. And the locks that you have as well. I will never again pay to store things where you don't have to put in a code to get in AND OUT. Clear bins are nice as well so you can kind of see what is in things at a glance. I'm not sure why you are moving, or differences in rental unit prices, but where we live, the difference in cost between a 10x10, a 10x20, 10x5, and 5x5 are pretty substantial and I would down size as much as you possibly can to try to get into a smaller unit.

how much does a new one cost? As a general rule, and this totally depends on the item and category, but I try to not pay more then 50% of current new price when I buy used.

I agree that there needs to be an 'other' - but I chose full price. But really, I don't pay full price very often. I find that most things, (exception food), we don't really 'need' but we just 'want'. And that we can 'make do, and do without' till a more reasonable price comes along. However, things like food and tp, I do stock up and buy in bulk, and if something that I know for a fact I am going to use and is not going to go bad is on a huge sale, then yes, I will load up.

Glad to hear the store is going to fix it for you woohoo!

Mine are very obviously siblings, and they look just like me as well. We get comments all the time about how much we look alike, we all have pretty red hair, and my son got blue/green eyes as well.

(((Hugs))) I'm so sorry for your whole family. I will confess to only reading a few pages of your previous thread, but I did read some of the back story. And my family has dealt with the military including my brother being 'recycled' in basic training that my sister and his fiance did not even know about till they showed up at graduation (which to his credit he told them not to come a few days before) and he was no where to be found till several frantic phone calls later. I could only read a few threads because it was so so so sad to me. Even now the whole situation makes me want to cry. But in yours sons defense - why would you not think he would go stay with a friend? He can not stay in the barracks over Christmas, he has to go somewhere. Hopefully this is one of the other recruits and it will be a good experience for him to be with their family. I personally have welcomed soldiers (and their families if they were deployed) into my home over holidays, and Christmas is a big one. And from the other side, it is quite possible that the other family thinks the whole situation is horrible and that they fully intend to welcome your son as one of their own and think that 'you' are the 'bad guy' who won't let him come home and have kicked him out. Ya know? I'm trying to not be mean or rude or anything, but just that there are three sides to every story - his, hers, and the truth. They have only heard 'his' and we have only heard 'hers'. (((Hugs))) and prayers to you all.

No way would I do 'cry it out' in a nursing 10 month old. I would not do it with a 10 month old nursing or not.

Thanks for those ideas.

Mt kids are 6 1/2 and 4 - we have had a subscription to starfall.com for the past year. It expires in 2 weeks and I do not want to renew it because they don't really like to play on it anymore. I asked the 4 year old twice last week and he turned me down. So I am looking for 'cheap' or free alternatives or 'next step'. I would like it to be something educational but at the same time offer them come choice in what they want to do. They currently have been playing uptoten.com and I am not that fond of it. Not enough to not let them play it, but well, it just seems strange to me and not really educational. The older is starting to read a little bit, we are at lesson 57 in the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and she is doing book 2 about halfway done in Explode the Code. Does ok with 3-4 letter words, 5 letters starts to get hit and miss, and then starts to freeze up at 6 or more letters (airplane, because, started, etc.) which seem to be in all the 'I can read' type books that are not phonics based. In math she is doing basic one digit addition/subtraction and starting 2 digit. The 4 year old knows most of his letters and numbers up to 20ish if counting one at a time. I am hoping for something that they can both enjoy and get something out of. Any ideas?

My kids are about the same age - we have quite a few days like this - I feel good if we get two 'school' days a week. I make a point to look for 'teachable moments' and give questions thoughtful answers.

My 6 year old currently has the doll house of my adult dreams (that we got for a steal off of craig's list), and is currently asking for another one because she wants 'neighbors' - I excited you are going to give it to her.

I would need to know a lot more about the people in this choir, adult/child ratio, how much 'free' time that was unstructured she would have. For instance - would they have an afternoon in Paris to do whatever she wanted without supervision simply be back by X time OR would it be an afternoon in Paris on a guided tour, an hour to refresh and re-group for a performance at X time??? Are they staying in homes of people? How many group members go to a single house together? Or are they at hotel/pensions and what about a curfew? Also, what do you think about the other people in this choir in general? Are these people you would be ok with her doing something like this in your home state? I wouldn't say no at this point, but I would request a ton more information before saying yes.