We will be starting our third year. My oldest son is 23, and he told me he wishes I had homeschooled him. He sees how my two youngest are thriving. He has already decided that he will be a SAHD and homeschool his children. His girlfriend in fine with the decision even though they don't plan on a wedding for another 2 yrs, and they have no children. I am so proud of him.

This is exactly how we work too. No pre-planned lessons other then any unit studies I would like to do. I record in my planner as we go.

In the Math, yes. My daughter is in the middle of Math 100 and the only thing that might have anything religious sounding would be the word problems, which you read to your child and is only 2-3 sentences long. Very easily made secular.

1. Great Wall and Terra Cotta Warriors (my daughter is Chinese and I want to take her back to see it) 2. Yellowstone (before it blows us all to bits) 3. Niagara Falls 4. Grand Canyon 5. Europe (My older daughter and I are going on a homeschool group trip to London, Paris and Rome in May!) Things already accomplished: 1. My older daughter went to China when we adopted our younger daughter. 2. Last November we went to Mexico to see the Mayan Ruins first hand. Both girls LOVED the trip. 3. Our school name is "White Sands", because we love the feel of sand between our toes. We have been on the beach in Mexico, Cayman Islands and next month we are headed to Bermuda.... all because we homeschool and we can go on off-peak times!

Yup, me too! LOL

I call it Man-aise. My husband has pointed out for seven years that I say it wrong lol..

I'm another fan of DWN. My 6 yr old daughter is on Book 3 and just loves it.

I have a five day schedule, but we don't just work M-F, so my planner just says "day 1" or "day 2" and so on. I also don't schedule by the hour. For those that schedule say Math from 9-10am, Reading from 10-10:30am, if your child finishes before the allotted time, are they allowed to have free time or do they go to the next subject? What happens if the time is up, but they are not done with their work? I am wondering if adding a time allotment will help organize our day a bit more, or if it will push me further behind.

I listed a bunch of HS books for sale on CL and had someone say she wanted the entire lot. Never showed. I also listed a bunch of stuff HS boards, and would get an email saying "I want xxx", but then never follow up. I don't know why people want to waste their time and mine.

The appraiser we used for our house did a "drive by", he never got out of his car.

I have gmail and have not had a problem with it. It's not my main email though, I use the one from my service provider for anything important. The gmail I save for groups and other things that might send out spam.

I am using Horizons Penmanship grade 2 to teach my daughter cursive. She is picking it up quickly.

My daughter is entering 1st grade and we will be studying States and Capitals. I ordered CD's that teach with silly songs and I printed out worksheets/coloring sheets from schoolexpress.com. I have SOTW but I am going to save it for next year, I think it's a little over her head right now.

My daughter is starting 1st grade and we are going to start off with learning the States and Capitals. I downloaded informational and activity sheets on all the states from schoolexpress.com. From there we will work on world geography. I have Galloping the Globe and informational/activity sheets also from schoolexpress.com for that too. I have SOTW, but it seems a little above her head at the moment. I bought CD's that go along with it and we have listened to it twice (at 11 hrs for the set!) on our 12 hr drives while moving. She really enjoyed listening to it, but I think she will do better working on that next year for 2nd grade.

I use magazine holders. I got them at Walmart ... http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bankers-Box-Corrugated-Cardboard-Magazine-File-Letter-White-12-Carton/15074386 I use one holder for each subject. I write the name of the subject right on the front. Takes all the guess work out of flipping through piles of books. Here is a picture of my shelves with the magazine holders organizing my books.

I make and sell mama cloth pads (not at the moment though, things are packed as I am moving). My daughter uses them too. The only time I will use a tampon is when I go swimming and sometimes at night when my flow is at it's heaviest. Once you get over the "ick" factor you won't go back to disposables.

MUS- My daughter liked the Primer, but by the time we got to Alpha her eyes would glaze over. She preferred to play with the blocks like they were legos instead of paying attention to the lesson at hand. CLE Reading- I love CLE Math and LA, but the reading was horrible. I have never heard of a "schwa" before and I had a hard time teaching this to my daughter. AAS- Looked like a really good program but my daughter was just lost. We switched to Horizons spelling and she loves it.

I have the same ones that Samiam linked, except mine are a rainbow color. The drawers sometimes slip off the rails, and I have had to tighten the metal frame more than once. They are on rollers, but to roll it across the carpet it feels like it will bend in half. I bought a set for each of my daughters, and my older daughter refuses to use them. She does not like them at all. My younger daughter uses hers and as long as the rack stays in one place and she is careful to put them back on the rails properly they work fine. If you put something too heavy in it they will fall off the rails. But, they do look nice :) That said, I would not buy them again. I would get the solid plastic drawers that do not ride on rails.

Due to medical issues on my part, my DH had a vasectomy. Two months later we put in our paperwork to adopt a child from China. Along with our three older children we now have a beautiful little girl who just turned six. We adopted her from China when she was 20 months old. My DH says we are done now... I just can't convince him that five really isn't too many. But, we have applied to become foster parents, so I will still get my little kiddo fix!

I don't put a time limit on anything other then when we start. This year we will start at 9:30 am and break for lunch around 11:30-noon. In that time I hope to accomplish Math, LA, Spelling and Writing. My daughter is six and can do Spelling and Writing by herself so that gives me time to get lunch ready. If not, then we will pick up whre we left off before lunch. After lunch we will work on History or Science, Music, Art or what ever else I have planned. Our day ends around 2pm but a lot of times it's even earlier. My older daughter (almost 16) works independently and is very good about getting all her work done. I don't have a timed schedule for her at all, she knows what she has to do and she does it. There are times she will wait until afternoon, or even after dinner to get her work done.

I just got back from hitting up the thrift store and Goodwill store by me. I have lost 18 lbs in the last 20 days on the hCG diet and now my clothes are starting to fall off me. I have lost a total of 38 lbs, so most of my clothes are still a size 20-22. I am now into a 16! I have to maintain this weight for the next 6 weeks before starting back on the hCG so I thought it was time to get some new (to me) clothes. I normally shop thrift and Goodwill, so that is nothing new. I'm hoping to be down another two sizes by Christmas, and that is when I will splurge and buy myself an awesome dress to wear for the holidays.

I have them on the wall now, but when we schooled in the kitchen in our other house I had placemats with the alphabet on it. I kept them on the table and my daughter saw them all day long.

I'm on day 7 of P2 and I have lost 13 lbs already. I honestly do not think anyone with less than 25 lbs to lose should do this diet. It's meant for those who have a lot of weight to lose. I can tell you with 100% certainty that homeopathic hCG WORKS, and works well.

I could be wrong but I believe the hcg diet is for those that need to lose 25 lbs or more.

I wanted to bump this thread up and see how everyone is doing. I just ordered my HCG from Alldaychemist.com and hope to start the diet in 2 weeks. I have read Pounds and Inches twice and I am mentally ready. I have a friend that has been using hcg and is doing very well on it so I am going to give it a try.