This is me too. I started to notice changes in my mid-late 30s (turning 40 this year). Carefully tracking my period helps - I know when to expect those episodes and send myself for a timeout. Other things I've noticed - weepy & emotional (usually a few days after the anger finally subsides), panic attacks at night (which I had no idea were tied to changing hormones - I thought I was going crazy), and the most recent - my period is much lighter and is a few days later than usual every time. Evening primrose oil helps, especially with the panicky episodes. I've made some other changes recently (gluten-free because of food sensitivities, which also resulted in less sugar since I'm not baking as much, and I started taking magnesium) and noticed that the emotional outbursts aren't as unmanageable. Not sure if that's tied to the dietary changes or not but I'll take it.

I second this recommendation. DYT isn't just about having a makeover, it's about understanding how you present yourself to the world (and it will also help you understand other people - it's made a big difference in my family relationships).

We loved using Magic School Bus Chemistry lab following the WTM method for recording experiments and definitions. Here's a link to how we did it: WTM & MSB chemistry.

I'm hosting a week of giveaways on my blog. I just wanted to let everyone know - you're welcome to come by and enter! There are products from Classical Academic Press, Compass Classroom, Home School in the Woods, Pam Barnhill, and Harmony Fine Arts. Homeschool Fun Giveaway Week

We've been covering two books a year with no troubles. First 2 books in 5th grade, 2nd two in 6th, and now dd is working through 5 & 6 this year (7th grade). DD did AAS first, I'm using this as a follow-up to solidify her spelling skills. It works well for us and she does it almost completely independently.

We do a 4-year cycle - 3/4 through our second cycle (daughter's in 7th grade). I know that we can't cover every single historical event so I plan each year as an overview and then my daughter chooses the topics and events that interest her most as we work through my larger plan. It's working well for us. I don't think we're going to do a third cycle in high school, though. I'm toying with the idea of more focused history topics (and covering government/civics) combining literature and historical events.

We're using MegaWords as a follow-up - my daughter needed a little more work with multi-syllable words. Other than that, we just keep a list of 'trouble' words and periodically go through those.

Right now - The Mysterious Benedict Society.

We used the Magic School Bus chemistry lab and followed the directions in The Well-Trained Mind - writing up experiment pages and definitions. We followed up with Ellen McHenry's The Elements after we finished. I shared a summary of our year on my blog - http://thesunnypatch.ca/chemistry-for-elementary-students/

We only used it for one year - for us it just wasn't enough daily practice and it moved from one topic to the next fairly quickly without the review that my daughter needed (we used the 6th grade set).

Thanks! Love PC products - my skin has never looked so good.

Here are a few that may work for you - Dump Recipes $5 Dinners has some healthy options Saving Dinner freezer plans are really good too (first two links are affiliate links - I really like their products)

I have a 5th grader too - we're doing TC this year and I plan to move to WWS 1 in 6th. I think TC has been a great transition year for moving from WWE to WWS.

We've used FLL (all 4 levels) and now we're using R&S (and using CAP and TC this year too). Either of those programs would work great.

I want to say our order was here within a week (and might have even been a few days)... I can't remember the exact number but it was fairly quick. (Shipped to NY.)

I think it looks like a solid year. I like Isabel's idea of combining them all for Bible.

We did use WTM methods for the elementary years - it was really good for us! First grade we covered human body, plants, animals - those are the plans we used for each topic. Second grade I tried a curriculum for earth science and it was just too much but for space we used a MSB kit and the book recommendations & format in WTM and that was much better. Third grade we used another MSB kit and followed the format/book recommendations in WTM. Fourth grade we did physics same way.

My daughter is definitely one to cuddle and discuss so I think that will work for us too. Thanks for the tip about forming a group to study AoA - I'll have to mention that to a few friends with kids the same age. Thanks for the help!

We're doing some logic games and puzzles this year (5th grade - blast off with logic series and red herring mysteries). Looking at programs for next year. I was thinking about Fallacy Detective & Thinking Toolbox for 6th then The Art of Argument and other CAP programs for 7th and up. Is there too much overlap between the different books or does this look like a good progression?

Well, we're in our first year of logic (5th grade). I don't provide too much instruction. My daughter is using the Blast Off with logic books and we're discussing a few Red Herrings each week. Think we'll be doing Fallacy Detective & Thinking Toolbox next year before a 'formal' program.

I have a dreamer/dawdler too (she still is and she's in 5th grade!). The work looks perfect for her age (we used almost all the same things at that age) and shouldn't take more than about 2 hours a day to complete. That said, I had to help and coax my daughter to stay on-task. And at that age I'd expect to be at-the-elbow for all of her work. What about breaking work up into 20-30 minute sessions and offering some sort of reward for completing a certain number of tasks within that time period? Candy, play time, a special video, cuddle time with a picture book, anything to get her motivated.

We used WWE, FLL, and AAS for those years. It doesn't need to take long - just a few minutes for each subject each day.

I really like the Sonlight science kits for younger kids. We didn't buy everything - just the DVD, experiment book (Usborne experiment books in the early years, I think), and the consumable and non-consumable science kits. My daughter had a great time with those - the experiments were age-appropriate and the DVDs are lots of fun.

We finished FLL & WWE within the school year but were slightly off schedule with SOTW. We did finish all 4 books by the end of 4th grade. No idea about SW (Spelling Workout?) - we never used it.

Every child is different and need more/less work with spelling. If his spelling skills are transferring well to other subjects/writing then I think you're doing absolutely fine. If I'm remembering correctly my daughter did 1&2 really quickly in first grade, we slowed down a bit in book 3, and hit book 5 by the middle of 3rd grade. We slowed down after that to one lesson a week. We'll be finishing book 7 this year (5th grade) at a pace of one lesson a week (about 3 times a week, 15 minutes each session).