My daughters still play with theirs all the time - they are 7 and almost 9. I wish I had gotten a nicer wooden one, they have played with it so many year! I got it when they were 3 and 5.

When this happened to my daughter a few days after she had a tooth worked on (a pulpectomy I think) - she woke up with a swollen face, fever, and a lot of pain. I called her dentist's emergency line - it was a Sunday - and they called her in an rx for antibiotics because she had to be on those for a few days before they could deal with the tooth. They saw her a few days later to take care of the rest of it. I would at least call now to see if they can call you in some drugs to get a head start on it - when it starts to hurt it sucks.

I personally wouldn't want to do it. A weekend away while the kids stay with family, sure, but 10 days? That's rough on a four year old especially. Maybe you could compromise and offer the split trip option, where you fly home early or take the kids with you.

Just started a new ipod playlist: Pentatonix Carol of the bells and Amy Grant's Breath of Heaven... weird! Need some more!

Please do keep us posted. I really do think that while some thing I generally don't like about CC, I could see doing it in a community with people who were very enthusiastic and who I really got along with. I know families who love it and thrive with it. It doesn't sound like that's quite the situation you are in at the moment. Will pray.

For a 6 year old I would still be helping as needed - not doing stuff, but reminding as needed. I have mine tidy up their rooms at night generally, just generally picked up, but life will get in the way a few nights and it will get overwhelming fast. So I will swoop in and help at that age, no biggie. Does he know where to put the pull up? That's something I would check in the morning - like "hey bud, you folded up your pj's? check? throw away the pull-up? awesome!" That sort of thing. I did this kind of thing with my older girls and they are now faily good at keeping their stuff picked up, although they still need reminders sometimes. My 5 year old likes to collect cardboard for future building projects, so every few weeks we have to do an intervention with that...

I have several little ones, do similar to what you list, and what gives is housework and extra outside stuff like church activities. If I have to drop schoolwork, usually I would drop art and science, because those are subjects that my kids will sort of naturally engage in on their own throughout the week without my help, although I do like to provide structure as well. If all else fails, and the little ones are going nuts and I'm pulling my hair out I have my basic list of what must get done - for us its math facts, math lesson, FLL/WWE, and their instrument practice. I don't have to tell them to do their independent reading, but if I did, that would be on the list too. So that might be helpful for you to have your own list of absolute basics, so that you can feel that you can effectively prioritize schoolwork on crazy days - because with little ones around, there will be those days. But it really is just a season...I can really say that now that mine is coming to an end! And one other thing... remember at the end of the WTM how SWB says that the one thing you can count on with homeschooling is that your housework will suffer? I second what has been mentioned about clearing out clutter and such - but my hunch is that you're already a person with a lot of systems in place for that sort of thing. The reality is that with a bunch of little kids, its nearly impossible to keep everything really clean and picked up. Or at least, its time consuming in a way that is impossible when doing WTM with a 2nd grader and Kindergartener and little siblings. You might have to be okay with a little mayhem for a few years. They will be bigger soon, and able to take more responsibility for their mayhem. My house is reasonably tidy....but not what I called "reasonably tidy" before I had 4 kids 7 and under, if you catch my meaning. You have to allow yourself to shift your definition of tidy enough. As far as everything else, keep in mind that homeschooling is a demanding lifestyle - its okay to say no to things.

Of course it was one I already have - durn! I really do love their cds - I think I actually found them from someone mentioning them on this forum - passing on the love... also try the Power of Encouragement, that's my favorite (although they are all really great).

Just to throw out there - I have a friend whose kids do a sort of private hybrid Waldorf thing where a bunch of families have hired a Waldorf teacher who holds class three days a week from 9 am to 1 pm. The parents then supervise the kids the rest of the time in completing other assignments (although it is Waldorf, so quite different from a WTM plan). She pays I believe about $200 per child a month for this, and there are something like six or eight children in the class, if that helps you. To me $800 seems very reasonable for what you are thinking about. I would consider what you would pay for private school tuition (per kid) as a starting point and then plan to go upwards from there.

Off topic a bit, but I got a chance to read through your blog Literary Mom and I'm an INFJ too - fun stuff, very nice to read your musings... :)

Canoe! I'm from Atlanta, and my brother and sister-in-law used to work at Canoe, its a great place, my favorite for special occasions. I also love Fellini's Pizza for a casual lunch and Mary Mac's for Southern cafeteria-style. The Flying Biscuit is fun in Decatur. If you go to the northern suburbs, like up to the Stone Mountain area, and want to try some great barbeque, a place called Spiced Right in Tucker is the BEST around - my parents go there for take out just about every week and I hit it every time I go home. Have a great visit!

I have dear friends who are enthusiastic CC tutors, but I here I am (see above list): 15.) You like The Well-Trained Mind better than The Core. and 16.) You lean a little more Charlotte Mason. - these just do not co-exist well with CC, and I could see that clearly going to open houses, reading through their material, and talking to tutors. I do wish a bit more respectful but critical discussion was out there for homeschoolers looking at CC for the first time. I know in areas like mine, it can seem like if you are not an unschooler, little other option for a community of like minded home educators exists. In my case it was better to see what I could start up on my own than to put huge amounts of money toward something that didn't really support my educational philosophy.

Free download of their Seeds of Praise Album (12 tracks): http://www.seedsfamilyworship.com/seeds-of-praise-free-download-though-thanksgiving/ We have most of their albums and use them for scripture memory. I don't like many of the scripture songs out there so was very happy to find Seeds. They also have cards you can print out from their website to help with that if you are using a box or flash card system.

Mine read them all the first time at 7 - it really weirded me out and I wanted her to stop after the 4th, but my husband was totally against keeping her from reading them. So I just kept an eye on her, asked her about it frequently, letting her know they might get a bit scary. The only time that she got freaked out was the scene when Dumbledore takes Harry to go destroy the horcrux in the cave and the zombies (I know there's a more correct term, sorry) come out of the water. Yikes! She was reading it in bed at night and came and sat with me for a long while. But she wanted to move on, and did. She was sad at times when character died at the end as well. She's read it through again since (she's 8.5 now). I know she probably didn't really get a lot of the "boy-girl" stuff that was going on either. I think it depends very much on the child - she is generally not bothered by scary or imaginary things the way her little sister is, for example.

This made me think of this lady's post from last year that I liked: http://modernmrsdarcy.com/2011/12/the-minimalists-guide-to-stocking-stuffers/ I think I spend about $35 per kid but since much of it is practical I don't mind as much. I don't want a bunch of junk that's going to be thrown away. This year my 8 and 7 year old girls will each get a book and a small craft kit, plus fancy hair bands, a littlest pet shop or lego minifig, a pack of cute thank you notes, a nice water bottle, an itunes gift card, and a few different interesting packs of snacks (dried mangos are favorites here, for example). My little boys will get similar things tuned to their ages. I used to give underwear and toothbrushes but can't get away with that anymore!!!

I don't think you are being unreasonable at all. We don't live near family, but still have to guard our mornings to make sure we get what we need done. There are lots of great opportunities all the time that is any of us don't have time boundaries we end up running all over the place and never getting our core work done. I'm sure if our family was close I would do the same as you are doing - as it is I don't answer phone calls or texts during the morning (my morning anyway - even though my family are all on the opposite coast so three hours ahead of me). It seems like they've taken all that talk about the joys of the flexibility of homeschooling a bit too much to heart, and middle school is a lot more time consuming than elementary! Sorry its been such a pain....

That was weird, my three year old DID come out of nowhere...and was in fact mesmerized.

The main thing for us with programs like this is usually cost and also how much time commitment is expected, so that would be great to be very up front with. Sounds like a great school - wish there was something like that close to us!

Um, yeah...What watch out for that Stonehenge one...!!!

Just pick whichever one has books that appeal most to you. All of these free online curriculum are great resources, but they are all just booklists. The heart of the Charlotte Mason approach it the methodology, which you can do with really any books you like, as long as they are good quality and interesting. If you are just starting out with Charlotte Mason, I would recommend Catherine Levison's A Charlotte Mason Education, as well as the Simply Charlotte Mason All Day Seminar for a great overview.

Prime would probably save me money over the long run because of all the extra books I buy to get to the free shipping cut off... "Oh darn, I have to buy more books!"

Thanks for the notes on the SENG conference jenbrdsly- I'm hoping to get to next year's since its close to us. I really found The Explosive Child helpful for learning to deal with meltdowns- its worth reading definitely. A few others are Raising Your Spirited Child and Parenting Children With Intense Emotions. Living With Intensity was to me not as helpful to me as far as pragmatics, but excellent for helping to really get behind the eyes of my child (and husband for that matter). Some of Best Friends are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers has been great for finding books that help my daughter work through various issues - its a guide to using bibliotherapy with gifted children.

Doing week two of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred - 3x a week, that is. Adding an early morning walk/chat fest with by best homeschooling friend once a week ...hoping we won't get mugged since its so dark in the morning now...

That makes my day! I so wanted to go this year when I read through the presenters, but just couldn't work it out. We are less than 2 hours away from San Jose, so yippee!

If you actually read the article in its entirety, it is not at all judgmental of anyone having children older. It is simply a fact that it is a worldwide trend and that there is solid evidence that it is producing children with more issues overall. If approached as a simple medical issue, steps can be taken as a society to encourage and make it more appealing for couples to have children earlier (if possible, of course couples who meet later don't have this option).