I'm often up later than my family. :( I am a night owl who wishes she were a morning lark! I had some success with getting up quite early in June - I need to try my method again. (It was something I found online.) Anyway - I'd better go to bed! :)

Testing my signature... and wondering about the post numbers and titles. In other words, when will I stop being "just visiting" - LOL.

You may have seen it elsewhere on this board, but I have printed some of the free forms from http://donnayoung.org - she also has some nice articles about planning. I'm about to start myself, and I totally identify! I get overwhelmed very easily, so I'm trying to not overdo things to start with... :) Best of luck to you! I'll be watching this thread too!

I'm looking at doing Drawing with Children as well and have been having the same mental debate myself. :) I plan to see if they're at JoAnn's (if I can ever get into town again! :willy_nilly: trying to adjust to our move to what is essentially the country) where I can use a 40% off coupon.... I do have to say, to the benefit of the prismacolor ones, that I had a set I got in probably 1994 or 95, and didn't take particular care with, and it is finally now (after all that time as well as nearly 5 years of being used by my children) dying and needing replacement. So at least in my experience, they last a long time and work very well. Do they NEED the quality at this age? My frugal side says no, but part of me remembers how frustrating it was at times using inferior tools as a kid ... hard to decide. (And even if I decide to go with those, are they "wide" or "narrow"? Do we need another set of a different width? Yeah, I'm probably overthinking it... :) ) ETA: OOPS. I'm very embarrassed to say that the set I said I owned that I was looking at getting replaced? Is not prismacolor, but Pentel. Akin to the set below, but a little smaller. Whoops. http://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Tipped-Water-Based-Markers-Assorted-PENS36036/dp/B001E6F108/ref=sr_1_29?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1220298243&sr=8-29

Another option (free) - http://www.mycorkboard.com - I used to use this a lot but haven't tried it on my new laptop. I believe you can record voice messages to use with the alarms as well.

Thanks so much for the suggestions, everyone! I must check out the library (we just moved, so I haven't been there yet). :blush5:

We'll be starting our first real year of homeschool in a week or so! I'm excited and slightly anxious, all at once. :) I can't seem to find the Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia (Amazon wants $30-60 for used copies, um, no; I may look at the used bookstore once more if I can get into the city before then), and have the DK First Animal Encyclopedia instead, as well as a couple of "older" animal encyclopedias and Zoobooks, library, etc to supplement. My concern is for the experiments - I can see from the KF First Body book the type of the thing that is talked about in WTM, but the DK Animal Ency. doesn't seem to have anything like that. (I'm not super hot on its organization either, but ah well.) Any suggestions for resources for the animal experiments? The simpler the better, for me :), but I don't want to skip them entirely. Thanks everyone.

Here too! About to start homeschool for the first time... we're in Cochise County, AZ... would certainly be happy to meet anyone near here. :)

Still in Arizona, but we moved to Cochise County, near Benson. Anyone else down here? I need some encouragement, I think... :)

Hey all. I'm new here -- in Tucson as well. :)

Just a note -- hope it hasn't already been said -- my father in law has been known to make his own powdered sugar -- he just puts regular sugar in the blender. You could probably use a food processor for the same effect.