Definitely seconding Practical Pages, Harmony Art Mom and Jimmie's Collage (as well as Jimmie's new one, www.notebookingfairy.blogspot.com) We use these three for inspiration all the time! I also found that starting my own has held me accountable (very important since I have the attention span of a fruit fly, and we live in a province where I may need to prove that we actually do stuff) and it made me want to do more so that my blog wasn't too boring. Any feedback on what would make it better would be gratefully received, too...... www.theusualmayhem.blogspot.com

Try doing a search on www.harmonyartmom.blogspot.com; I think she has tutorials or links to them, so you may be able to find what you're looking for on her blog. My daughter loves using watercolour pencils in her nature journal and then doing the water part when she gets home again - we've had some very nice results.

Thanks! I'm always in awe of unschoolers..I am waaaaay too much of a type A to ever do it but the ones I meet are often really "together" families.

Confessions of a Homeschooler? I think it was this one I saw it on. Erica does GREAT preschool stuff! If not, maybe it was on Itsy Bitsy Learning?

Mine's www.theusualmayhem.blogspot.com We try to post school stuff, mostly, but other things creep in too.

Can't speak specifically about the geography, but we just received the History of Science and it's definitely a full course. My daughter is raring to go!

My son really enjoyed Zombie Typocalypse on www.wordgames.com!

Just a quick vote for the curricula at www.bfbooks.com; we just ordered and received their History of Science set and I think it will fit very well with our CM style. My dd10 is already asking if we can start!

Sending only good thoughts your friend's way - I think I'd have had a nervous breakdown by now! Hope this is the last and the great things are winging their way to her and her family even as I write.

Kwikimom - glad you were able to get to the doctor. Sorry to hear that they couldn't offer relief (you definitely have my full sympathy!) but very glad you're not in the hospital right now. Fingers crossed that things start to look up soon. Eddie

Sending well wishes and thanks to someone else in the same boat. I know it's sick, but it's great to know I'm not alone in this! PM me, kwickimom, if you want to moan and whine along with me at any time. Maybe we can keep each other off-track, lol. Thanks again everyone for the great suggestions. I took it really easy today and I plan to do the same for the rest of the week. On a funny note, we discovered the reason for the sudden-onset bed-wetting: turns out that each sibling, in an effort to take to load off Mom, has given their brother his bedtime sip of water for the last several days...except that Mom had already done it too. :lol:

What she said! :iagree:

Love this! I am going to take people's ideas of a) posting it on Facebook, and b) carrying copies around in my purse. Too funny, especially #19.

I hadn't given any thought to being hospitalized - yikes! Wouldn't have thought that could happen! Scary. Hubby just found me hanging onto the shower wall coughing up a lung and asked "Is it always like that?!" When I answered in the sort-of-affirmative ("Well, actually, no...I didn't throw up this time"), he called everyone who had plans with me and cancelled them; he has also booked some time off work. So hopefully I can actually get some actual rest. A daycare friend has offered to take the 3 year old daily for the next 2 weeks as well, so all I have to do is get him there and back. Thanks everyone for the support, advice and private messages - it's so great to hear from btdt people instead of the "come on you're a superwoman" family members! Much appreciated.

Hi everyone, I am a shy fan and avid reader of The Hive who has been trying to post more often. :) I really need advice, please! Here's the deal: We have had more than two months of non-stop illness at our house, mostly the kids but then a couple of weeks ago I caught pneumonia from one of them. Not surprising - I was run down from keeping all our comittments, schoolwork, extra laundry from the household barfers, a renovation...ok, you get the idea. I was supposed to rest completely, but the best I was able to do with our schedule was to cut down drastically...ie basic schoolwork, the usual tons of laundry, and meals. My husband works 70+ hours per week so he is almost never home. My 18 yo has been running backup for me with his siblings (10 and 3) wherever possible, changing bedsheets, etc. Even so, I ended back up at the hospital yesterday and have been diagnosed with a combination of some leftover pneumonia, asthma developed from the pneumonia making it hard to breathe, and beginning bronchitis caught from another of my children, causing me to cough all the time. I am on various meds and have been told in no uncertain terms to do basically NOTHING for two weeks. My question is, with all the committments that a 5-person family has, a pile of relatives wanting to do Christmas things, and a three year old peeing the bed all of a sudden every night, how am I supposed to just stop? I'm ready to cry, I'm so worn down. What will my house look like if I just sit around? Help! Any advice welcome! Please!

She hovers near the mailbox every month. :) It has helped her geography skills...and also (she is dyslexic) her word-scramble-solving abilitites as well, something I never thought she'd grasp. It's well laid out and there's an internet component which she really likes as well.

We're making beeswax candles and shea butter soap as gifts this year. I got the supplies at our local craft supply store (like Michaels); I think including scents coloring,and $ store glass jars, it came to under $25 and will make enough for about 10 good-sized gifts.

Bumping this up in the hopes of seeing more responses....it's one that we're condsidering doing for next fall.:lurk5:

Thanks so much Melissa, that's EXACTLY the kind of thing she had in mind. Much appreciated!

Hi all, I could use your skills and sources for this one. My daughter has been asking for a nice big poster of Mozart to put on the wall of her newly renovated room, which will be done by Christmas. I can't find one anywhere! I did have an interesting conversation with our local Staples copy lady and she said she can make us one if we can find a non-copyrighted image. Does anyone know of either a source for a poster (has to be shippable to Canada), or a link to a good image of Mozart that I can save as a file on my computer and upload to the Staples lady's files? Thanks in advance! Eddie

I love her stuff. We've been studying the human body and a lot of our activities have come from her site.

They're not bad, but how about the BrainQuest series? My daughter loves them so much that she requested to keep doing them even after we restarted regular math.