:thumbup1: Excellent choice!

We've seen good results with my ds using this. http://www.see-n-read.com/seenread.html

I did my own thing for 7 years. It's exhausting! Now, I use more scripted materials. I pre-read it then put it in my own words. I'm super thankful someone has done the work ahead of time for me. It makes our day go quicker and I don't have to worry about missing anything.

I'm part of two, but not super active in either. Most have activities every Friday and most Tuesdays. There's no way we can join them all, so we pick the best ones and skip the rest. There's also a monthly mom's meeting, but I've never gone to it. We have another group across the river that occasionally has "open" events and we join those 1-2 times a year.

Buying new, that sounds reasonable for 5th grade- that's why I don't buy new. For 4th grade, the only thing I'll buy new is his math workbook and one other book that I haven't been able to find used.

Our ds started with Alice. He also worked on advancing his drawing skills and learning advanced levels of Photoshop, movie editing software, etc.

Our oldest was in ps K-6. He rarely had homework, even for his tag classes. It was assigned, but he nearly always finished at school. All 3 of our high schools are on block scheduling. Works great for some classes, not at all for others.

We use and LOVE HOD! This is our 3rd guide. ETA: I've found everything used for Little Hearts, Beyond, Bigger and now Preparing (except Young Christian's). If I find a great deal on a book used in future guides I buy it. I color code all my books according to guide, so they stay grouped together. :)

My ds looks up words from his history lessons, writes the definition and uses it in a sentence. Works great, takes little time.

Not taking a year off, but I'm spreading Bigger and Preparing over 3 years. This allows us time for outside the home interests (field trips, 4-H, music lessons, time with grandparents, gym days, days spent watching creation videos, etc). It'll also keep him from hitting CTC too soon. ETA: We still do reading, math and devotions everyday. I just spread out the other stuff.

If we'd had a girl her name would have been Hosanna and we would have called Anna or Annie. My favorite grandma was Mary Opal. :)

When I worked for the school system 10 years ago that's how it was. They were usually allowed a few minutes of talking while everyone was seated, then it was quiet time. kids were dismissed by table. We moved our oldest from the magnet school he was in for K/1 because (among other things) they had zero talking at lunch, 15 minutes to eat, 15 minutes of recess, and you had to eat everything on your tray or miss recess. It was a "principal" thing, not a school thing, but still crazy.

Beautiful!!! Ds agrees.

We use Timez Attack and the skip counting pages from Confessions of a HSer. I laminated the pages and he practiced them each day as they were introduced.

Our youngest ds's birthday was yesterday. :) Our kids get to pick all meals on their birthdays, no school, only most basic chores, and we still do cake/ic even when we already had it at the party. I also like to do things like hang a birthday sign on their door, put balloons on the table, etc, anything to show them they're special.

We used choroplast (corrugated plastic) for the bottom and up a bit on the sides. I liked the side toward the wall to be higher, so they didn't kick bedding out. A sign shop cut it for me. Score the corner lightly to bend. Zip tie everything together- loosely for the lid, so it'll be like hinges. We loved our C&C cages! Lots of room, easy to clean, not super $. This site has excellent info! http://www.guineapigcages.com/index.htm

I'm watching episode 11 as I type. :)

I use Scrapbook Max and My Memories. I prefer SBM for ease of use, MM for what you can do. I can get you a coupon if you go with MM. My ds uses Photoshop.

It's youngest ds's birthday. He's requested baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn and biscuits. We'll have that with his Minecraft cake and ice cream. :)

Both our boys love graphic novels. We avoid the icky ones like we would any book. Youngest ds turns 9 on Monday, he's getting the graphic novel style Bible. :)

My MIL bought us a blender because that's what we asked her to get (fixed income and we needed it). I don't think my mom gave us anything. We paid for the wedding, rehersal, everything.

Sure. I'll gladly care for them as babies too. :)

I charge $25 a day for 5+ hours. I include basic preschool- have lots of learning tools available, tons books, we sing, talk about life as we learn counting, letters, bake cookies, etc. The moms know I have other things going on (school for my kid, care for a 10 m/o, etc), so they know some days we get a lot done, other days they "just play". Save receipts for everything!!

Thank you! I was able to get two audio books for school for $1.98. :)

Mine are almost 11 years apart, so they're a lot like onlies. School time is school time, so I've never worried about them not having kids around. They have and still have church activities, we attend group activities a couple times a month with some other hs'ers and the youngest has 4H and hand chimes (once a week, opposite weeks). Oldest likes to get together for lunch or coffee with friends, younger likes to go to the skate park or similar. However, it's not a lot, twice a month or so. Honestly, the biggest problem is not allowing our kids to do what many other kids are doing. That would happen no matter where they went to school.