Mine's a photo I took of a rose in my yard . . .I just resized it to be the required size :)

I have been, but only because my dad has gotten a little obsessed with buying covers and covering his books (I introduced him to Paperbackswap.com and he's been going crazy - lol). I'm not sure where he gets them, but could ask. I do like them and they're easy to use.

Boy, can I relate! When my ds was that age, we tried so many different things and nothing made any long-term improvements in his behavior. I was ready to run away from home because every day was such a battle (many days were all-out-war!). Spanking did not work - it only made him more angry and reactive. Ds does have some sensory issues that have gotten better over time, but his extremely strong-willed and contrary attitude is still there :rolleyes: When he was about 4 1/2 I got the book "Transforming the Difficult Child." I'd read a lot of other books, but none of them had a real framework to work from, just suggestions and ideas on what to try (which we had already). This book has a whole system (token economy). It was hard to implement at first, but things could not go on the way they were, so I was willing to give it my best shot. Long story short - it has worked very well. It teaches self control (which is very important for ds), and makes the system the "control" instead of just mom telling him not to do something. The website has a book excerpt: http://difficultchild.com/

During the weekdays, dh and I get up between 6am and 6:30am. It's a little later on the weekends, but not much. I make my kids stay in their rooms til 8am, just so I can have 1/2 hour to 45 min of peace by myself before I have to start my "official" day :)

I use Library Thing, too (what a great resource! it's kept me from buying more than one copy more than once :D), and we currently have over 1200 books. I just ordered a bunch more for school next year and some general reading ones.

We buy flour, oats and wheat in 50# bags and I store them in 5 gallon buckets in our storeroom in the basement. I got most of the buckets from bakery depts in grocery stores (many will give them to you free, some charge $1 or $2). Most of the lids I've received with the buckets still fit tightly, so I've never bother with the gamma seal lids (I think that's what they're called?). When I was baking more, I'd also buy my sugar in 50# bags and store it the same way - and never had issues with it becoming one hard lump (and we lived where it was pretty humid).

I budget $50 per month for homeschooling costs for 2 kids (6 1/2 and almost 9). This includes any curriculum items, as well as building our own home library. Ds is a voracious reader and will read books he likes over and over (and the library isn't close or convenient to run to a couple times a week). Occasionally, I'll spend a little more than what's in the budget, but it's not often. This doesn't include piano lessons, which we just started, that will run about $40 a month.

We don't have a game system, just a PC that they have some games on (and can play some online games). My dc are 8 and 6 and have a 30 minute time limit per day (excluding Sundays, just because we try to spend the day as a family). We also use a token based economy, so they also must have credits they can spend to play. My ds can be a little obsessive about his gaming, so that's one reason for the time limit. (And all schoolwork and piano practice must be completed before computer time.)

I'd probably cook them . . .they may have some freezer burn, but it's not going to make you sick or anything. If they tasted really freezer burnt after cooking, then I'd throw them out, but that hasn't been an issue with our chest freezer. We did throw out some smoked turkey legs (don't know how old they were), because after trying them, they just didn't taste good (and it may have been the smoke and not how long they'd been in the freezer).

Are the bagless ones you're using the ones with the filter inside the canister (where the dirt goes)? Because I'd agree with you about those being really bad to clean out! My friend had one, and the filter was just nasty and there was no way to get all the dirt out when you emptied it. I've got a Dyson, but the filter isn't inside the canister, so when you open the bottom to let the dirt out, most of it just falls right out (I take mine outside to my big garbage cans in the garage). I do tap the canister some to get the finer dust that collects inside, out, but unless I've got the garage open and it's windy, it's not that messy. Before the Dyson, I had an old metal Kirby, and removing the full bag and replacing it was so bad! Dust flying everywhere, and then when I'd turn it on the next time, there'd always be a big poof of dust that was left in the cloth outer bag.

I put the pattern side up (right side up). I *never* fold over my sheets to view them (with pillows with shams, etc.), so don't see any need to have it so the pattern could be seen that way. And my kids are doing well to get their beds made with the sheets/blankets actually pulled up and straight (instead of half of them hanging off one side), so it's really not necessary there . . .

I started an Idaho thread down below a ways, but I'll post under yours, too! :) My thread got buried . . .lol

We've been using Singapore, and really like it (well, don't ask ds - he hates writing out any problems!). But I had been hearing about MEP on the Ambleside list I'm on, and thought maybe I'd check into it - that maybe some different problems and such would be a nice change for my kids. So we've been working on both now - switching off between the two, and I like MEP quite well. And it's free, so besides the cost of printing the pages out, I don't have to buy anything. So if you're looking at trying some other method to see how it works, this might be an option. http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm There's also a Yahoo group discussing using this program: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mep-homeschoolers/

Well, I don't think you'd have to approach it like that . . .I think you could plan it out so you're sewing the squares together and making strips of squares and then just turn those strips diagonally to make them all on end. You'd have to plan it out because the edges would be very short rows, while the middle would be a very long row. But then you could join the strips, matching up seam lines, and trim the edge squares to make triangles (so you have straight edges along the sides). Make any sense? I think it should work. . .I could be wrong, though :rolleyes:

We also do most of the exercises orally . . .I think it would add up to a lot of busywork writing otherwise. I do assign writing in R&S a couple times a week, but it's usually just part of the lesson.

Here's a link to my favorite quilting site - the page I linked is how to calculate yardages: http://www.quilterscache.com/StartQuiltingPages/startquiltingtwo.html But the entire site is great - she's got tons of free patterns and lots of information on how-to's :)

Idaho :) Anyone else??

LOL - thanks!! :)

Me neither . . .

I'm not sure if this will be helpful or not, but here's a link to MEP (Mathematics Enhancement Programme), created in the UK, and available online. I don't know if it's being used by many schools there or not. http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm

We buy Organic Valley milk in a gallon jug ($4.99 here), and OV eggs. Dh is the only one that drinks milk as a beverage occasionally, so we don't go through a whole lot of it. I do use it in cooking and making ice cream :) We haven't switched to organic cheese and butter because of the cost, but I do buy Tillamook cheese and butter (I've read that their cows are grass fed, which is better than grain fed).

We use Kid Natural . . .my ds is pretty picky about how his vitamins taste, and hasn't had any complaints about these. I typically order them from the Vitaminshoppe, but found another site this morning that has the larger size at a really good price. http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/en/browse/sku_detail.jsp?id=HL-1073 http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/hfit/kidnatural.html

I've made peanut butter cookies with organic peanut butter and they're just fine :) I'm not sure that there'd be any big difference in baking with it - the other peanut butters may have some added fat and/or sugar, but I've never added anything else besides the organic peanut butter.

We do copywork everyday, mainly because my ds really needed practice and *hated* writing anything (he still dislikes writing, but his penmanship has improved so much!). I don't tie it in with anything - I just find it easier to have a 3-ring binder with their copywork pages in it, and they do the next one in there each day. I got the program StartWrite and it's been a really great help.

I don't know if this has been posted somewhere else, but on forums like this I like to use the "New Posts" link at the top - it will pull up new posts since you last visited and makes seeing what's new easier. (Of course, if it's been a long time since you last logged in, you'll get tons of new posts . . .) But I prefer using that feature to checking under each separate board.