I'd check into different kinds. Would a rolled-up baby blanket (rolled lengthwise) and stuffed into the gap do the trick? As for the wooden rails on your bed- are they decorative? We had a bed where we could take the wooden rail off and it didn't affect the bed frame because the rails were just decorative. This allowed the crib to be pushed closer and no gap.

:iagree: I've lived here three years, and the price has not fluctuated much in that time. Not like in the US where it changes seasonally, or with holidays, and often in large amounts. It goes up and down a bit here but not nearly the fluctuations you get in the US.

I *think* you can buy grass seed in the pet section of Wal-Mart or a pet store, in the cat section. (To grow for your cat if you have an indoor kitty.) When we did this project I got some from my FIL who I knew had one of those large bags.

Don't forget that teachers are often teaching the same subject, same age over and over again. They get to practice! There is a lot of curriculum that is scripted and easy to use, you will find whether you like this or not as you use it. In time you may stick with the scripts, you may find you want to go a different direction. It gives you somewhere to start and may also give your dh more confidence in the idea of homeschooling.

:bigear:

Ooooh, I just discovered there are videos too...(for Jesus Storybook Bible).

I have both of these, the Encyclopedia of World History has about 100 pages or 1/4 of the book is prehistory. The Encyclopedia of the Ancient World has no prehistory and is much more in-depth, more in-depth than we needed. Both of these books are 400 pages. The one we use the most is this Internet-Linked Ancient World, it is the exact same as the ancient history section of the Encyclopedia of World History, but it is just ancient history and no prehistory. It's 96 pages. It's a larger size with fewer pages and that is why we tend to use it more. (There is one called Medieval World, I'm assuming it is also the exact same as what is in the Encyclopedia of World History.) :iagree:Of all the books we have my kids love the Good Times Travel Agency books the most and look at them over and over again, even my younger two who aren't reading just love them. There is also one for Ancient China but it is harder to find, and there are a few others covering other time periods as well. I think that MSB Ancient Egypt book is a chapter book, one of Ms Frizzle's adventures.

As for what to ask for...tell them you want the binding cut off and all of it three-hole punched! In the store I go to I heard them call it having it guillotined so that is what I ask for now. If you are using one of the major chains you may be able to find the price on their website, I can do that for the one I use. Do you want them spiral-bound? They can easily do that for you instead of three-hole punching (as long as it isn't a huge book).

Any major office supply store should do this. I'm in Australia now, but when I lived in America I remember going to Office Max for things like this. It is inexpensive and makes life so much easier!

There have been many rec's for bible storybooks. For curriculum, I love Telling God's Story (Peacehill Press). It starts with Jesus. And then keeps going with Jesus. :) At some point I plan to use the Who is God series from Apologia. For daily learning of Bible stories we use Grapevine.

:iagree:Absolutely love, love the illustrations!

Depends what you mean by geography. For learning where countries are on a map we memorise and label maps. We started with the easier continents (fewer countries). For physical and cultural we use Expedition Earth, spending a couple of weeks per country.

:bigear: Once upon a time I read about rinsing in hydrogen peroxide, I'm curious to find out more.

Here all the public schools (in the entire state) operate on the same schedule with 2-week breaks between terms. Private schools keep to a similar schedule though maybe not exactly the same weeks off but generally overlapping with the public schools. So we deal with this not just at the beginning of the year, but between all the school terms too. People asking if we are going away during the break, people asking what the kids are up to, if they are looking forward to holidays, etc. And I get just as many questions/comments..."Bet you can't wait for school holidays to be over." Because we all know how hard it is to have your kids at home all day for two weeks. :D

This! This is where I blow my budget!!!!!

Hmmmm...I tried a box curriculum my first year and gave it up after maybe 10 weeks. After that I just pulled out the bits I could use and added other things the best I could. And now it sits on my shelf just in case I might want to use it again for one of my youngers. The next year I knew to go a different route! That was my biggest blunder, my other misses have been smaller things that also sit on my shelf but I don't feel as guilty about since they didn't cost as much. I'll eventually resell them.

We use BFIAR here. My 2.5yo loves, loves it! My 5yo is happy to do it, and even my 7yo joins in on the activities. My first resource for activities is Delightful Learning. She blogs about all her rows with pictures and links to resources. We don't read the book everyday, and some days I let youtube do it for me if there is a video of someone reading the book. It's really flexible, we spend a couple of weeks per book. I also use the preschool packs over at Homeschool Creations, she has many for the BFIAR books, there would be activities in these that would suit the ages of both your kids.

:iagree:Our rest time is rather late, usually 3pm. But my kids go to bed at around 9pm so it works for us. We do read-alouds and science/history/various projects straight after lunch. I tend to crash, too, so I have to keep going until that rest time. For us, rest time is on your bed and quiet for an hour. No toys, but they can read or draw. This is daily naptime for my 2yo, my 5yo sleeps not every day but 2-3 days a week, my 7yo usually does not sleep unless we've had a crazy week he might fall asleep. And I lay down too, with my 2yo until she falls asleep. This is a great break for me, I usually read a book and get a mental break, so needed! After rest time we are done for the day.

I just hate that all the categories are gone. If I choose vocabulary it gives me everything on the site, not just the dollar deals. The best filter I can get is 0-$10. Doesn't help. Remember all the categories that used to be down the left side? By subject would help so much! I've never had any issues with buying from them before, but I'm skipping this time. Maybe they will have their new site ironed out by the next go around.

I want to supplement RS with some word problems. I have one of the Kumon Word Problem books and I like it but don't love it, I'm looking at the Singapore books. Do I want Challenging Word Problems or 70 Must-Know Word Problems? I've not used any Singapore before. Thanks!

:iagree: Clean house? Mommy time? What is that? Oh, that's right...something I'll have when the kids all move out. :tongue_smilie:

Glad you did...I didn't know he'd died, when I saw the post I thought it must be his birthday or an anniversary of something. Thanks OP for posting, great resource!

Be it through chores, jobs, allowance or gifts...for how long must they save that money? Does it go into a permanent savings account that they aren't to use until a certain age? Or are they saving for a certain purchase? Are they required to save it for a certain amount of time? How does it work in your family?

:bigear: I'm having this problem too. We completed an Olympics lapbook and I've discovered my son loves lapbooking. We've already started another one and we've got more in our future. But if we spend every afternoon on interest-led lapbooking we'll never get any history or science done. How to fit it in? I want to encourage him in this so I really want to work it in to our day.

Are you doing activities with RSO, GTG, and SOTW? That will help some. Watching related youtube videos always helps with my kids. We use or have used much of the same curriculum here, but for first grade I didn't do all of them. Maybe ease into the year a little, adding subjects as time goes by instead of starting off the bat with all of them? Or slow down...for example take three weeks for a GTG country rather than two (or whatever you have planned). Get a good routine going and then add to it. We have a good routine going now but it has taken time to get to the point where we can do it without too much complaining.