we've been doing Bible study for all ages for about 2 years now and my girls love it... they are ages preschool to 7th grade

we've been subscribers for about 2 years or so, we pay $15 per month & get both brain pop and brain pop jr. I believe we subscribed under the "family" plan. It is pretty cool isn't it? I love looking up their videos to go with what we're working on & we all love taking the "quizzes"!

There is a huge jump in the Primer book. My preschooler has been fine with Primer as far as counting, etc. The next step is place value and ya, she's not there. So we are using other materials for the time being til she's ready to resume. Math U See is an amazing program, I've used everything from Alpha through Epsilon and this year are using Zeta and Primer for the first times. We love it & are still constantly amazed by it. Right now I know my little one needs some time with number recognition before we move on. We're using some little workbooks we got from dollar tree to focus on certain numbers, counting them, writing them, recognizing them, sequencing them, etc. There's no hurry :)

Been there!! The major budget change really affected what we gave to others because we were determined not to lessen it for our kids. It was hard but we opted out of the "silly santa exchanges"that we did with brothers/sisters, and cut way back on what we gave grandparents (but they understood). Fortunately we do a gift exchange with the cousins so instead of buying for all 15 nieces & nephews, we just buy for 4 and we buy at the lower end of the allotted spectrum. It is so hard tho to be the one to give something inexpensive! Last year my husband's siblings pitched in to give grandpa a new laptop, we couldn't, it was too much, so we gave grandpa & grandma a basket full of awesomely home baked gingerbread, sugar cookies, nuts, etc. We worked hard on it!! My kids are easier - we put our full money emphasis on them because that's where we feel it should be. They want a lot but they know to only ask for one thing, then they are surprised by the other cool things they get that they didn't expect :)

This is just our 2nd "first day of school" homeschooling & we want it to be special too. Last year we took first day of school pictures at the park first thing that morning: my oldest by some pretty trees, my skater by the skate park, and my other 2 on the equipment. Then we went out to breakfast (we never do that - so it was a big deal). This year we'll do the same (we start tuesday). Then we'll come home and they'll each have their new schoolbooks on their tables to look at (they came in the mail weeks ago & as much as they were dying to see them, I said, not til the first day of school). I'll also have out their new school supplies and a few new desk items for them. We do go "back to school" shopping for new shoes & a few clothes. I don't buy a lot of clothes tho because the season changes in just another month here and we'll get cold weather clothes then. My kids all came out of public school so they still remember & appreciate that back to school shopping - although now I'm leaning more towards, new soccer shoes since soccer's starting, or a new karate shirt, etc. We'll also do a little school work that day, we'll read our science lesson, do our bible study for all ages & write in our journal. Best wishes for a great first day!

I'm considering First Form Latin for my 7th grader, she has some experience using Getting Started With Latin. Any comments would be appreciated if you have seen it or tried it. I'm also thinking about Prima Latina for my little kids any feedback would be helpful, thanks!!

I taught Kdg & Preschool for 8 years, but have only been homeschooling for 2 years so I don't know the program you are using, but wondered, is blending introduced in a fun way? My pre preschooler didn't know all of the letters or sounds but learned to read using I See Sam books. (free download, just google it & you can watch free lessons & print the books). I taught her letters in a different sequence - letters used most often in words little kids read - so her first letters were s, m, t, a, i, d...you can make a lot of words with those few letters. I taught "see" as a sight word & "I", then to read the books we just used what she knew about letter s, a, m, i & d to be able to read. Those few letters give her the main characters, Sam and Mat. I can't tell you how excited she was to "read" and how fast it happened! :)

I remember putting tshirts in the freezer for a bit

I had my first at 29, my 4th at 37. My first was 8 when my last was born & they shared a room for about 2 years & have the closest and coolest bond now. I could not plan who I had when & how old would be the "right" age when they graduate or whatever. I had several miscarriages and all 4 of my healthy kids started out with preterm worries, I am so grateful for them! I have to add, that my kids are all constant playmates for each other, yes my oldest might not want to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with my youngest, but she can turn it on for her :)

I started MUS 2 years ago, with a 4th grader & we watched the dvd lessons together. They are awesome because you can pause, or replay them as needed! This past year with my Alpha & Beta students we also watched them together - I just didn't have enough time to watch each lesson ahead of time (and I didn't really need to) & that way we could also talk about the lesson & practice it that very moment. We got into a good cycle of watching a dvd lesson per kid about once a week, sometimes twice a week - the other days they practiced what they had learned, they tested, etc. As far as I know there isn't a dvd for Primer but you won't need it until you get to decimal street, and that lesson is on Alpha & Beta too I think. My pre-preschooler did a lot of Primer last year, but we held off on decimal street - she won't be ready for that for a while :) One thing I did before I began with my oldest was that I read the teacher's manual to get a feel for MUS. What I've learned since then is that the way things are taught is so different than how they are (how I was) taught in school, but they make so much more sense!! For example, when my oldest was working through multiplication in Gamma, it also introduced measurement because measurement equivalents require you to know multiplication, for example in working on the 4 facts, she also learned that 4 quarts makes a gallon, 4 quarters makes a dollar. Made so much sense to me because I'd been taught things as separate. Anyway we started with MUS 2 years ago when we began homeschooling our oldest. She was then a public schooled 4th grader and when we took her out of school we started all the way back at Beta, because that is what she needed. She completed Beta, Gamma, Delta & Epsilon in 2 years and is now starting 7th Grade in Zeta. We started our younger children with Math U See even tho they do not all learn the same way, it so far, has worked so well for them too and we are looking forward to beginning our new math books soon. Good luck and don't worry, enjoy :)

being a former kindergarten teacher, I know that RoseArt crayons are cheaper, but also break easily, the colored pencils do too. While they are cheaper in price, I wouldn't recommend buying them to last a school year.

yes, we use home school reporting online ($20 a year) and it has a portfolio option so I log in stuff like that & at the end of the year print out a pretty cool formatted "resume" of the year. I also log things like these into subject areas: Aquarium, Zoo, SeaWorld, Beach, Planetarium & Planting/Seeds = Science; History, Spending time with Grandparents or anything local history = History/Social Studies i also believe that everyday is a school day because we are always learning :)

my new neighbor (I just moved here) mentioned that we have a "bear problem" omg!!!!!!!!!

yes, we started way back, at beta with my 4th grader (when we took her, our (#1)st, out of public school mid year) and went through beta, gamma & delta in 2 school years, so 3 books in 2 years. We started Epsilon at the end of 5th, (had some interruptions - moved twice during that school year) and restarted Epsilon in 6th. Epsilon took us that entire - very long - year - and we are reviewing this summer in fear of having to go back over it. :) She'll be starting Zeta as a 7th grader. I had hoped we'd complete Zeta this summer, but we moved again! Yes, that makes 3 times this last year, but this one is final - at least for now. My younger kids pretty much started off with MUS as soon as they came out of public school, and they are coasting along (we took them out of public school when they were (#2) mid year 1st grade and (#3) after completing Kindergarten and (#4) has never been in public school - began Primer at age 3.... So my upcoming 3rd grader will be starting Gamma, my 2nd - Beta, and my upcoming preschooler has completed Primer, so she would be ready for Alpha (but she is not ready for any decimal street activities yet).

nope, don't know what that is, but enjoying your excitement :) I bought school supplies today & ordered new books!