We have purple tomatillos in our garden...I need something to do with those....

I give my kids a number of toys - 10 or 20. They have x amount of time to go pick up those toys. Then they get to do what they want, 30 minutes or so later they have to do another set of toys. A pile of legs or other small thing is one toy! I have also done 30 toys is x minutes of wii or tv. Give your kids a number and then tackle the movies which may be the quickest task. Take a break. Move on to laundry when movies are done. By the time tou get through your two jobs the kids should have picked up enough toys to get you into the playroom safely ;)

We take first day of school pictures. For kindergarten, we went outside and posed in front of the house then we came inside. Last year we posed at our desks amd took pictures doing school work. The day PS started....we went bowling. Now, I will be unable to bowl this year so I will find a different activity to do for our "not back to.school day."

Thanks. The kids were upset, but Aidan was most upset that his baby brother never got to see him.

Today we brought our sweet Matthew home, our other kids have come to hang for a few.hours and then will spend one more.night with Mema and papa. We got here here before the kids. We walked in to find that our dog was by the back door, he did bot greet us when we came, is passed away sometime after 9 pm last night. He had heart and kidney failure and lung problems as well. We knew It was coming, but I hoped we would have a few.more.days. :(

https://www.facebook.com/chepyl I could not upload a picture from my phone, but I am linking my Facebook profile, I will try to get a.picture up tomorrow. Matthew was born at 10:03 pm on August 9th. We had a successful Vbac, he was 9lbs 11oz, 21.5 inches long. He is already nursing like pro and I feel great! It has been a long day, but I cannot sleep ;)

Having a baby today! Praying it all goes smoothly with my Vbac. It is my second Vbac, and this time, I got some pain meds :) I will have pictures soon!!!

I was not very productive...one load of laundry and the kids to gymnastics...I was about to start dinner and here we are...

I love volley ball, but I have seen enough! All they have played on the network has been volleyball - beach, men's and women's indoor, water polo, swimming and now track and field. Other things have been on, but they dont get the same coverage. They show these games In full, but show snippets of gymnastics and the many other events!

I am glad I could provide some entertainment ;)

Are you doing all of MWF ECC? According to the description it includes science and Bible. If you are doubling up on subjects that would make the day really long. If you feel you still need separate Bible and Science, can you do alternate days to at least cut back a little bit?

:svengo::eek: I have a hard enough time painting my 4 year old's nails, and she wants them done!!

We use the tests as worksheets for review. It has helped cement important ideas in DS's head.

I did grammar with my six year old last year. We did most of it orally. It was easy and my son did great with it.

I wear them as shirts all the time. In 112* heat, I am not putting another shirt on! :tongue_smilie: I don't wear just a cami to church or out to a nice dinner, but shopping or to the.movies or fast food....it is a shirt.

My house mom in college had a dog that wore diapers. We had no yard to walk the dog in. But she just used regular baby diapers. I know people with rabbits in the house, I had just never heard of keeping a chicken in the house.

I woke up from a nap to that on th news....I thought I was still dreaming!

I just saw a clip on the news about people with chickens as pets.....they were showing a chicken in a $13 diaper!!! Really???

My high school did PE as a 45 minute class 5 days a week for one full school year, about 180 days. They had to change clothes twice in that time. So, about 30 minutes of activity = 90 hours for a credit. We could also earn a credit playing two seasons of sports (one sport two years or two different sports). I did volley ball. 2 hours of practice a day for 3 months, approx 60 days = 120 hours (game days there was no practice). So the PE class was really the easier option :glare: Around here, now, everyone does one year of a 45 minute class. So about 90 hours of activity.

It will be different depending in the kid and the age. DS goes to bed by 11 and is easily up by 8 every day. He has never needed as much sleep as dd. She sleeps for 12 hours each nigjt if left on her own. If in bed by 10:30, I can wake her at 8:30 for a max of 3 days. Then she needs a full 14 hours to recover.

I think it is good to take one kids at a time out for a special activity. I have taken ds out for ice cream and dd has had special shopping trips. They need that one on one time, even in a movie.

:party::party::party:

I used Spelling Plus and the dictation book for my first grader last year. It can be your handwriting, writing, and spelling all in one. We did a list of words one week and did dictation the next week. The dictation includes work on spelling and basic grammar and punctuation; I emphasized his penmanship with dictation. We did SOTW and that had enough geography for first grade. We had done continents in Kindergarten. I liked RS4K science because there was not much to it. It jad good information, but 10 chapters and labs made it easy. We added other fun little things here and there. We made an edible cell with a giant sugar cookie, we have a lot of gardening going on, but he got the basics of biology with little time. We were able to really memorize the info since we took a year on the short book. More is not always better, sometimes it Is just more. For firat grade, with two little ones; lots of reading together and playing games will make life easier. We drilled math with bingo, yahtzee, and monopoly; dd played along with some help and DS learned his math facts.

Hair grows back. It would only be that short for a few weeks. With really short hair you have to cut it often to maintain it. I would let her do It. It is a hair cut not a tattoo.

Lots of support! I have a great Homeschool support group, most of dh's family Homeschools, friends and family understand why we do it. I could not do it without a good support network.