I like History Odyssey. But, I like having the lesson plans all laid out for me. I think the book lists for each lesson are excellent-however, sometimes some of the selections are out of print. That can be frustrating. My kids seem to be enjoying it. My ds does not like the numerous outlining/writing assignments (he is using level 2). I do like them as he needs the practice. You can download a fair selection to try before you buy. I would recommend doing that and seeing how your kids take to it.

I love AO's extensive booklists. I try to incorporate other aspects of the Charlotte Mason approach into our days such as the short lessons.

The fact that the dog attacked a cat does not indicate that the dog will be aggressive towards humans. Animal aggression is different from human aggression. Plus, it is true that all terriers were bred to catch small game rats, squirrels, moles, etc. If the dog is not well trained it will attack small animals such as a cat. However, I would call animal control and request an investigation. Any dog that is allowed to wander without a leash is a concern especially one that just killed the neighbors pet.

In the fall my 5th grader will be doing the following: Language Arts (vocabulary, grammar, composition, literature, and spelling) Latin and/or Spanish History (Early Modern) Science (earth science) Music and art appreciation Phys Ed

I sau court and courter, kwartz and kwarry. Native Long Islander.

my ds (12) thinks they are stupid and wants no part of them. My dd (10) loves them and has a decent collection that she has mostly purchased herself. I can usually find a small package at Shoprite for $1.99. She and her friends trade them and wear them and admire them. It seems to be no different from the sticker and/or stationary craze of my youth.

My husband has has his own IT company and is currently working on his Masters. On a good week he only works 60 hours. We go weeks, sometimes months without a lot of quality time. Some weeks we communicate mostly via email. But, that works for us. He is exhausted most of the time and does not want to go out. Our quality time usually consists of us watching a tv show or a movie in bed after the kids are tucked in for the night. It isn't easy for me to stay up that late. I am really a morning person but I make the effort to be awake for him. Recently we had a few days in a row when we sat down in the living room and talked to one another about stuff. It was nice.

We are going on 18 years of marraige and we don't do dates. When the kids were little we didn't like to be away from them. We both worked full time and time with our kids was precious. If we told them now that we wanted to go out to dinner for our anniversary and leave them at home they would be highly offended since we always included them. We talk together after the kids go to bed or when they are out with friends. I don't need the hoopla of a date. Although we have plenty of friends who think we need to go out by ourselves or away for the weekend without the kids. The truth is, we like our kids. We like being with them. The time we have them all to ourselves is so short. In the blink of an eye they will be grown and living their own lives. DH and I will have plenty of time to date when that day comes.

Haven't gotten to drug abuse prevention in a hard core way yet but for general sex ed we love It's so amazing, and the follow up book on puberty It's perfectly normal. I found the books give a good overview.

Obligatory other. On school nights they are in bed between 9 and 9:30. Normally asleep by 10. When they get up. Anywhere between 6:30 and 8:30. My dd does not seem to need as much sleep as my ds. If they are not up by 8:30 (and that is really unusual) I will wake them up so we can get our day started. The other day I let my ds sleep until almost 9:30. He seemed to really need the sleep. I would have let him keep sleeping but we had somehwere to be.

Same here.

I love sauteed Kale: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/sauteed-kale-recipe/index.html It is also pretty good in a smoothie. Here are some recipes for the kohlrabi: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/kohlrabi/

I felt the same way. I do leaf through it on occassion to get some ideas and then alter the recipe to suit our tastes.

When my kids tll me they are bored I hand them a dust cloth. They can usually find something else to do.

You did the right thing. There is nothing wrong with taking control of a situation that is making you uncomfortable. This is routine for them not you.

It was a typical fluff piece made to present the radical unschoolers as whackos and school the only place you can get an education.

It averages to 5-10 a year. It depends on what is out and if Dh and I determine that it is big screen worthy or wait for netflix.

Yes, they qualify as chocolate chip cookies. They are not a chocolate chip cookie I would gush over but it is a cookie with chocolate chips in it.

Are we married to the same man? It is a daily struggle here. I toss things when he is not around. Not meaningful things. Stuff like his fraternity sweatshirt are off limits. We have a closet in the basement that I put stuff in. If he does not go into that closet to get the items for one year they are tossed. I got caught leaving one of his shirts behind when we were on vacation back in the early days of our marriage. The shirt was "Good for fishing." I told him he was the only person I knew with 20 good for fishing shirts and he wears the same 4. He left the shirt behind.

My dd has a June birthday (and is also turning 10) so we have a 2 hour party with lots of water games. The dollar store is great for inexpensive water stuff. The kids get sopping wet eat some grilled hot dogs and ice cream cake and then you call it a day. I make the ice cream cake. I crush a package if oreos and line the bottom of a pyrex dish. Then I take softened vanilla ice cream and layer on top of the oreos. Then a layer of whip cream and pop it in the freezer until serving time.

I used it this year with my 4th and 6th graders. They both really enjoy it. We are continuing with it for next year. For writing we used Writing Strands this year. They enjoyed it but I can't say it was love. I am looking for a different program for the upcoming year.

I suffer from chronic on-time disorder. My dh does not. I hate being late; He thinks 15 minutes late is still on time. 17 years later this still drives me batty. It drives me batty in homeschool gatherings as well. The "homeschoolers are never on time or don't bother to show up" problem is rampant where I am. If I am going to be late or not show up I call. I have hosted events and have had people say they would come and they don't show or call or send an email. That is just plain rude behavior. I have learned to deal with it. Punctuality is my thing. I can not change what others do. I can only change the way I react to what they are doing. I do have a core group of punctual fanatics like myself and that helps my stress level.

I love my rice cooker. I have the Aroma one from Costco. I put up a big pot of rice on Sunday and then we have it for the week. Burritos, add some veggies for a side dish, add some to soup, add some salsa for spanish rice. I resisted it for a long time because it is really not that big of a deal to make rice but I can't imagine my life without it.

We do an assortment of water games for my dd's birthday: Sponge tag - Cut up a bunch of those giant car sponges and the kids have a blast tagging each other with them until they are soaked through. Water Balloon Toss - I create groups of 3 or 4 kids and they stand in a circle. They toss the water balloon to each other and when a round is completed everyone takes one step back. The circle keeps widening until someone misses the balloon and *splat*. The group who does not break their balloon wins. Water Balloon Fight - Spend hours filling water balloons for 3 minutes of fun. My kids really like filling water balloons. I find the fun does not last that long and they really don't like having to clean up all those bits of water balloons. We replaced this with the sponge tag. We also do the fill the bucket one that a pp poster mentioned. Water fight - I go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of those foam soaker pump things and let the kids soak each other down.

When mine were little they used the Tom's of Maine Strawberry toothpaste. They loved it and it made the brush your teeth battle go away. They used to complain that my toothpaste was too minty. Now they use whatever I buy.