I had a very old stove when I first was married. After a very short period time the only thing that worked was one burner. I received three crock-pots for wedding gifts!!! They came in very handy! My crock-pot became my best friend!! I had bought a cookbook full of meals you can make in a crock-pot. It's amazing what you can make in a crock-pot!!! Meats, soups, veggies, deserts and more! I lost that book after we moved and I would love to have it again! :001_unsure:

Egg sandwiches are always a hit. (on English Muffins are best):D Plus, brown rice with shredded cheese on top and a salad. It's an odd mix, but it works in a pinch!

It's way past my bed time! :closedeyes: Just don't tell my kids! Then, they will think it's ok!! ;)

Yes, my oldest learned better with the Mad Libs then from her English book!:lol:

We must have 180 days logged for the school district. We start logging those days in July/Aug. until sometime in May (depending on # of brakes we take) After we have our 180 days completed we continue with math and reading. (The other subjects we do not continue with.) It helps to keep the kids on a little bit of a schedule. Plus, it helps to keep them fresh for the next school year. But it still gives them a feeling of summer brake. It has worked for us for 3 years and counting. :001_smile:

:iagree: I totally agree with that! All my kids are soooo much happier with less! It forces them to be creative and find things to do together.

Hello everyone!! My name is Jennifer and I live in PA. I've been married to my wonderful husband for 11 years this September. I became pregnant with our first daughter only one month after we were married. 11 months after our first was born our second daughter was born. That was a start if a trend!! Next was a son followed by another son. Our next 3 children were all girls. We are now expecting another daughter, she is due in Aug. That brings us to a current total of 6 girls and 2 boys. I'm homeschooling the oldest three; 4th grade, 3rd grade, and 1rst grade I started homeschooling our oldest daughter when she was 5 and she is turning 10 in July. So, it's been five years, it doesn't seem that long! It was a hard time home schooling at the beginning. Now, things are much better. I owe a lot of that to my husband's helpful spirit!!

Children are creatures of habit. Your kids have gone from a structured school day to free summer days. It may take them sometime to get into the independent creative stage. Once they do it will be fine. Any little change can affect their ability to be creative and active, you expecting soon may also hold a small part of that. When I'm at the end of a pregnancy my kids get less energetic. I think it's because I'm less energetic. Try giving them ideas of things to do like, a scavenger hunt, write a poem about the spring flowers, make outdoor tent with blankets, make roads out of sticks/leaves to ride bikes on, find a four-leaf clover, obstacle course or running games. Something that might help shake them out of the groove they are in and that might get the imagination flowing. Hope that helps a little. Congratulations on the end of your school year! And good luck with the kids and new baby!

I started organized...but now we messed it all up!! Some how we skipped two boys!:blink: We have: girl, girl, boy, boy, girl, girl, girl, and new girl in Aug. My kids were heart broken when we found out the new little one as a girl!! But they felt that way after the last baby girl and today she is their little angel!!!:Angel_anim:

My favorate is: That which does not kill you makes you stronger. ~Neitzsche I feel like I need a reminder of that every day!!! :) Some others I like: It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. ~Chinese Proverb You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life ~Winston Churchill When I want to read a novel, I write one. ~Benjamin Disraeli You must be the change you wish to see in the world. ~Mahatma Ghandi Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them. ~Leo Tolstoy

Like Tap, tap, tap......We have paid off all debt, aside from our morgage and we put all of our extra money into retirement funds or our savings. We use credit cards constantly but pay them off monthly. We live simply and shop at yard sales and thrift shops. We save $ when ever possible. And if we stay here where are, we would be saving $$ each month. My husband has a good paying job, but no real means to advance as side from a minor raise once in awhile. We have considerd moving to a new area for a few reasons: 1. With baby #8 on the way our house is just getting really small with bunkbeds and cribs sweezed in our 3 small bedrooms. 2. We live across the road from a high school. The teens hang out at night and love to do property damage!! I'm starting to feel unsafe. 3. The area we live in is getting built up and much busier. MD people love PA! So my home town is not the same as it was when I was a kid. MD people say PA is cheaper, but do to so much crowding in our area, the price of houses are higher now then ever! So those of us that were here since we were young are finding it hard to afford the more expencive homes. We have checked in to buying a new house in our area (just 3 months ago), but since the prices of houses have gone up so high we couldn't afford to buy a house much better then what we have now. I would move somewhere else cheaper in a heart beat, but our problem is that my husband would have a very hard time finding a job somewhere else. So here is where we stay for now.

I don't know much, but he's a comedian. I heard that he homeschools his kids. I think he has 3 kids. (not the ten you see in the video.) I've heard of him before, and yes, he is very funny!!:lol: Here is his web site: http://www.timhawkins.net/

Sounds interesting. But PA would never do something that "nice". I think they try their hardest to make you want to put your kids in the school system!!

I personally can't speak for the book 100% since I only read a small part of it, but the little bit I read sounded really good and I planned to use it when I got to world history (after we finish American History) My sister used it this past year with her 8 year old daughter. They both liked it, but they used it along with another program. They didn't use it as a complete subject.

That sounds a bit like the K-12 government program. They give you the books, supplies and a computer, but you have to check in with a teacher every week and you have to use their books. I have a friend who does that. She lives in PA, like myself, and she didn't want to do all the paper work that's required of PA home school reporting. Personally, I thought it sounded even more scary, but I've grown use to the whole idea of PA's crazy home school laws.

Watch out in MD!!! I have a few different friends that live in MD and the laws are all different depending on the county. My dh and I talked about moving across the border to MD, but you don't know what one county wants over another! A little bit like PA's school districts ~ PA is still the worst! I hear FL is bad, too.

I'm moving to Texas or NJ!!! LOL!!:001_smile: Wow!! I can't inagine that!! Thanks, everone for all the info!

I never would have considered the program if I didn't have the ability to look at the books and DVDs my sister has. The $$ is a huge reason for that! But if it works for me, I can use it for all the rest of my kids and that makes it worth it to me. I just hope it works, I've tried a lot of programs I didn't like!!

Sorry to hear that you have so much trouble! I had a bit of trouble at first, but I stood my ground and now they don't say a thing. Doing all the requirment seemed crazy when I first started, but now we have it down to a routine. It seems fine to me now, but I don't look forward to the day we would move. I'll have to deal with that struggle of a new school district. Best of luck in your dealings with the school!

Thanks, but I think I'll go with Adoremus.com, I have a 10% off code. Have you used it or did you just see it on their catalog? Thanks again!!:001_smile:

Just wondering.....What is the law for homeschooling in your area/state? I live in PA.... We need to hand in an affidavit at the begining of each school year to your school district stating you are not a criminal and will follow the homeschool laws. Create a book log, daily log, and portfolio containing infomation on what you did with your child, as well as, samples of the school work from throughout the school year. Standardized test are taken in 3rd, 5th, and 8th grades. You pay an evaluator to evaluate the child and write a letter to the school district. That letter needs to be handed in along with the other items I listed above. The school district reviews all of it and approves or disapproves the material. Then, you receive all the items back. This is done for each child you teach, starting at the age of 8. What is required of you?

Have you seen thier web sites? www.thephonicsroad.com www.thelatinroad.com They have samples on the web site. One thing I liked is that each lesson is on DVD to help teach the teacher how to teach! I can't find anything I like better, and I can't seem to find anyone that can give me more info. So I guess I'll go with it for next year and give it a try. My only fear is that it may be to time consuming for a large family setting. Plus, it's expencive!! But most of the materials can be reused. The cheapest place I found to buy it is: Adoremus.com -$199.00 + free shipping and they often have discounts of 10% off. My sister is useing it, she LOVES it, but she is only teaching one child. Old Schoolhouse mag. gave it a good review. I hope it's as good as it sounds!

I feel very out of place, but the number of kids I have has often made me stand out. I'm very conservative and many people question my ways, even among Catholics I feel that way. I'm sorry to say that I question Harry Potter. Some of the under laying symbolizm can be questionable although the stories themselves are entertaining. When dealing with any story the moms and dads need to be totally sure that the child understands the wrong and right in each idea that is going on in each story. Many storys are good stories, but need to be explained to the child. Many parents I know don't take the time to help their children understand the ideas in a book, but I'm sure you do.

This coming year I would like to try "The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading" -Level one for my K and 1st graders. As well as, the "The Bridge to the Latin Road" for my 4th and 5th graders. Both are written by B.Beers. I heard they are good. I'm excited that the "Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading" teaches some Latin along with English, Spelling, Phonics, and Reading all in one!! Anyone have any info. on those curriculums?

It's wonderful to see so many Catholic home schoolers and wonderful to meet you! :blushing: I would love to have that perfect Catholic curriculum that covers all my needs and teaches using our wonderful faith, but I've not been overly happy to date. I hope I don't offend anyone but: CHC has good Catholic books, but I felt that their science and social studies involved a lot of prep work. I just don't have the time each night to put all the time into getting the materials together. I also felt that the Spelling, English and Phonics were too easy. Seton is also wonderfully Catholic, but I didn't feel it was set up for someone with a large family. Each child has their own workbooks for each and every subject. I personally like to combine levels when ever possible(English, science, social studies, etc.) Also, much of it seemed like busy work with no real teaching/learning. Don't get me wrong, both CHC and Seton have wonderful Catholic material!!! I use parts and pieces from each. One example; I use Seton's American History (How America Began) grade 4 to teach all of my children and it's Catholic!! Also, CHC and Seton have some wonderful Catholic readers. Math: I use Math-U-See and we all love it!! (Christian based) Science: I use God's Design, I like it because I can adjust it to any/all grade level. (Christian based) Vocabulary: My kids have a notebook where they right down words they see/read that they don't know. Then they look them up. This coming year I would like to try "The Phonics Road to Reading" and "The Bridge to the Latin Road" By: B. Beers. I heard they are good. I'm excited that they teach Latin along with English, phonics, and reading all in one!! Only problem, it is not Catholic, but at least it teaches Latin. Anyone have any info. on those curriculums? I would love to have the faith in each and every aspect of my teaching, but I feel that to get the type of education I want, I settle for other books and try to add in our faith in other ways. My husband is a Bible wiz. Our kids know the Bible in-side out and up-side down. They have a Bible study each night. We do use the A Year with God -CHC. and have had a Saints day party for the past 4 years! We love to read saint stories. Also we have a Cathoic quiz/game/activities book called Faith Facts for Young Cathoics. They are fun ways to learn the faith, along with our regular catechism learning. :Angel_anim: