I also had a hat, in 1998! I need to unpack my pictures...

Since I killed this thread, I feel like I owe it a 'bump' hehe. :leaving:

I'm new to the board, and this is our first year of HS. I am guessing that 'my kind' will be on MORE as we try to figure things out once we actually start putting all the ideas in our heads into practice, lol. I foresee lots of questions in my future, but I'm so excited to get going!

Great ideas! I wonder if index cards would work instead of cutting poster board? I'm gonna find out! lol Thanks!

Poem Hunter You can search for poems, lyrics, quotations, etc. There's a forum, a quiz, and e-books. You can save your favorite poems in a folder, too. Looks to be very handy! I just signed up and I'm adding to my favorites for copywork/memorization now. :)

Not sure if this is what you mean, since I'm not familiar with Startwrite - but I use this page to make my own copywork pages...I got so frustrated with the handwriting worksheets that never turned out the way I wanted, so I was really happy to find one I can make work! There's a trick to it the way I do it, b/c I don't have him trace the letters, just write them on the line below. Here's how I do it: 1. I choose these options - Title, your choice Author, your name Page Orientation, Landscape Print Zaner-Bloser Letter size, Very Large* Line pattern, Dot Only 2. Then you put a short sentence in the first line. THEN PUT A FEW SPACES IN THE SECOND LINE. Another short sentence, or continued sentence from Line 1, in the third line. THEN PUT A FEW SPACES IN THE FOURTH LINE. and alternate words/spaces until you get it like you want. *I choose Very Large, but the font actually gets smaller the more letters you put on each line. It shrinks to fit, in other words. I've only used this a few times practicing for our upcoming first year, so I need to sit and figure out how many characters fit on the page in the size I want them to be. HTH

Can I partially hijack this post for a second? :) I am kind of in the same boat, but think we have decided on "semper doctrina" - which I HOPE means "always learning" - can anybody verify this for me? We are a military family, so that is where semper came from, but is doctrina the right word? I tried looking it up on the free online translators, but having no Latin experience myself, I couldnt decide from the choices, which one would be best. Doctrina had the best flow, though. I love the idea of a logo like the one you linked to, also! I will have to get DH to draw something up for us. I just had the best idea to send periodic reports to the grandparents on official letterhead stationary or maybe even *gasp* a REPORT CARD! hehe Ok, hijack over. Sorry. :)

A few things we do here (also a military family, so I get the married single parent thing, hehe) are: - incorporate playtime into the chores like a previous poster mentioned. My oldest LOVES a feather duster, or a spray bottle of water and a cloth...we have tile floors and I can send him on a mission to 'spot mop' - then I go around with a magnifying glass looking for spots that 'escaped' him...this is more his idea than mine, lol. I'm not really picky about his cleaning. He's 6, but he's really getting good at cleaning, and making his bed, etc. I do make a point to say out loud how much he helps me. Not always TO him, but definitely within earshot. Like when DH comes home, I'll say "You are NOT going to believe what DS1 did today! Go have a look in his room. Don't pass out, though, b/c you are really not going to believe it!" (Then he makes a huge deal about how clean his room is or whatever we're bragging on him about...) Usually DS1 will add in something about how it was pretty hard, but he didn't even sweat! (he's a natural comic, hehe) - set timers for cleaning and EVERYBODY helps (you can get a ton of stuff done in 15 minutes when you have extra bodies racing around to 'beat the clock' and it's kind of fun! Scream now and then about how "TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!!") - errands are another way to incorporate learning and games - we play abc hunters, and look for letters in street signs, billboards, storefront awnings/names, license plates, etc. since they're captive, hehe, it's a good time to imagine/pretend. One of our favorite games (warning: extremely silly game coming up!) is for him to say "Moooom, I drank all your water (or ate all my breakfast, or lost my favorite shoes, whatever...) What are you going to do to me?" and then I might say something like "I'm going to throw you in the garbage!" and he replies "Then what??" and I'll say something like "Then I'm going to roll the can to the curb and wait for the truck!" (Then what??) "Then the truck is going to dump you in the back with the rotten food and dirty diapers!" (Then what??) "And then they're going to take you to the landfill and plop you in a pile of stinky socks!" and on and on until finally the vultures eat him, throw him up on the street, and somehow he ends up back in one piece at home. Then I'll "break his Transformer.." and it's his turn. You really can learn a lot about things while you play (like where the garbage goes, lol.) Oh, and sometimes we might do math instead. :P "If I have 8 swords and I swallow 6 of them..." (I'm learning boy-speak as I go, hehe.) - I sometimes do his bath immediately after dinner instead of near bedtime. That way, I can keep the baby in the high-chair a few extra minutes while the oldest is washing up, and I can clean up a little in the kitchen. Oh, and since I cook the meals, he clears the table. :) - I'd find a teenager to cut the grass, if I could swing it. I have an 11 month old, and I just don't see me leaving him in the house or the yard while I try to get that done. We rent and they pay somebody to do that now, but who knows what the situation will be at our next station...maybe somebody in the neighborhood? With regards to your DH's clutter issue - when he's home, see if he'll take the kids so you have time to tidy up whatever you didn't get to OR vice versa. When he's not home, well, what he doesn't see won't bug him, right? Granted, this is our first year of homeschooling, so we'll have to learn to work around that soon, but these are some things that help me get "playtime" when it seems like my list just gets longer and longer every day. And, it probably helps that I don't sleep much. I seem to function pretty normally on 4-6 hours of sleep so I can afford to stay up later and get things done, if needed. You know, important stuff like computer time. :P

I love my Odyssey, too! We got a great deal on it as a lease-return. If I couldn't have the Honda, I'd choose the Toyota, though. Either one. Good luck in your search. :)

I use butter instead of oil/margarine in the pan first, then in the eggs I add water instead of milk or cream - but I also use the Magic Bullet to mix them better than I could with a whisk. The only thing I usually add is salt/pepper and near the end, sometimes shredded cheese.

We rent. This is not our furniture, but the kitchen is the same. We just have different barstools and dining table/chairs. :) We move around quite a bit (military) and although it's kind of smallish, this is my favorite kitchen we've had so far. I just wish the window over the sink faced the back yard instead of the neighbor's stucco.

What if you took some of the seating furniture only, and moved that to the smaller room. Keep the tv in the big room and also move the school stuff in there, too. The tv doesn't have to be prominently displayed - you could even put it on a dresser in the big closet, and use it for educational videos, maybe. If you did that, you'd automatically have drawers/organization built-in to the closet for MORE school stuff, lol. Then the (new, smaller) living room, could be a throw-back to the sitting rooms/parlors of old, and be used for conversation and company, etc. since you never used it before, anyway. It wouldn't be too small, it'd be 'intimate' lol.

We just got Bedknobs and Broomsticks yesterday. :) And I *think* the older version of Wonka is called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder is Wonka). The newer one is called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (w/ Johnny Depp as Wonka). I like them both for different reasons, but the older one is my favorite. ETA: Just saw your last post about movies from literature. Did anybody say Stuart Little yet?

:iagree: I was going to say the same thing. I have this in BOTH feet. :( I finished PT for it not long ago, but I'm not up for surgery at this time, so I'm still in pain. The stuff Elaine talked about is exactly the kind of stuff I did in PT. Instead of a frozen water bottle, though, they injected water into a tennis ball, somehow, and froze that...seems to pinpoint the pain a little better, I guess? The doc told me to keep a tennis ball by the bed, and in the car (but not loose on the floor boards, obviously) and before my feet hit the floor, I was to roll it out on the ball. That really does help. I had my heels wrapped 2x week, too, and also wear inserts I got from Target pharmacy. They're OTC, but they help so much! My feet are flat, no arch at all. A good heel massage, electric stimulation (I called it shock therapy, lol), and laser therapy also helped very much but other than the massage and inserts, that's not stuff you can do at home (unless you have a REALLLY cool science project day, hehe.) Good luck with it. The only thing that made mine go completely away was the cortisone shots, and even those only lasted a week or so, but ahhhh. That week was nice! The shots were not so nice, but the results were. :) I've been brought to my knees a couple times, it really is an unbearable pain. I was told no more flip-flops and I live in South FL - the HUMANITY!! :p

My husband had crazy hours for a little over 2 years. It will wear you out being a single married mommy - aside from all the other stuff. I tip my hat to all the single moms out there. The downside of being single and married, though, is you get to do DH's laundry on top of everyone else's too! lol (not that I'm good at keeping up with the mountain of laundry anyway...) I agree with the other posters who suggested you delegate some work to the kids, at least housework, if not yard work as well. My 6 year old can help a ton around the house. I also simplified our menu since DH was rarely there to eat with us. We had more meals that looked like a raw fruit/veggie and cheese plate - no cooking! (we also had our share of mac and cheese and frozen pizza w/ bag salads. lol) And maybe it's me, but when we had a dog, I liked for him to make noise when other ppl were around. The best burglar alarm is a barking dog. ;) If he's a jumper when people come over, crate him or put him in another room. Coffee is mandatory, though. Gotta have that coffee. Sometimes I don't get to it until noon or so, but it helps. :)

STOP! Hammer time! (scoots across the floor) Now I have that song stuck in my head, lol.

Must be the moon, lol, I started the same project last night. :) I only did through chapter 3 b/c I have to put the books on hold at the library, and we're allowed to keep them 3 weeks. I also only wrote the projects that I thought my son would enjoy the most. Here's what I've gotten so far - I saw a blog that had copywork on it, too. I want to say it was Smooth Stones Academy, maybe? (lol, I guess we were posting at the same time! I love your blog!)

Sheesh, with all the ridiculous "duh" warning labels on things, you'd think this one would be worth the ink! I've never heard of the green being toxic, either! Thanks for the info!!

We have a Dylan and an Oliver - and my grandfather was an Everett, too, lol. Oliver wasn't even on my radar, but I was looking through the PBK website, for a baby quilt, and the one I ended up getting was called "Oliver" - it grew on me. They have some nice names on their site. I think some can be kind of trendy, but it's another resource, right? :P

Cool. We should set up a park date once we get settled in! I'm interested in hearing about the ART your kids are doing. It's amazing!

We love the Nature's Own Whole Wheat (regular, not sugar free...but will look into that one, too.)

I got one of these in February and love it! I can't bake bread. I can bake cakes and such, but no way on the bread. I finally got fed up and threw in the towel. So now I let the 'zamboni' handle that. I can never remember the actual name, lol.

I learned that my 6 year old wants to be a plumber when he grows up "because it's gross and that's cool." :D

I posted earlier that we live in Weston. Well, we just moved...to Pembroke Pines, lol. I'm homeschooling a 6 year old this year, but also have a 10 month old. Weeee!:tongue_smilie:

We use the medical terminology for the most part, BUT - when DS1 was about 3, he asked if his testicles were his batteries, lol. So we have that little inside joke, and he's in the stage where it's funny to say other stuff like wiener and tenders (thank you Kung Fu Panda) - but if it came down to a 'serious matter' like if he was hurting or talking to someone outside our household about it, he knows the correct word for most things. Oh - except we do normally say butt-crack instead of the gluteal cleft.