I am not up all the way like a ballerina, just leaning more on your toes than flat. Also, think high heels. I wear a lot of heels on shoes because you are up on your toes in them.

Stuart Little in his car Charlotte's Web, the web itself with Charlotte in it Some Eric Carle type animals (maybe the Caterpillar) Make way for Ducklings

I like : Curious George carried away by a balloon Christopher Robin marching with pooh, piglet, tigger, rabbit and eeyore to go on their expedition Madeline and the girls in 2 neat lines The cat in the hat and the goldfish in it's bowl Peter Pan and Tinkerbell A big Mother Goose I don't know how you'll get them to flow nicely though.

Is your son autistic? Are his feet flexible? These are things to look at with toe walking. That said, sometimes it is just habit. Would it help you to know that I toe walk still. I ran cross country (MVP) and played sweeper on our soccer team. It did not effect my physical abilities. I am not autistic and my feet are flexible. It has do to with sensory issues. I don't like my feet to touch stuff and I dont care for shoes. A lot of sensory issues can just be a sign of giftedness.

Have you had a complete physical done recently? You said you are drinking plenty of water but are you also using the bathroom frequently? If not, you should drink more water. Do you exercise, I heard that can help? The swelling could be related to a health issue or be a side effect of a medication you take.

How about How Great Thou Art? We have enjoyed their program more than any other art. We did Little Annie and Joseph and the Canadian Goose. I was looking at God and the History of Art for next year.

This is my dh totally. He expects the kitchen and livingroom floors to remain crumb free at all times. I should sweep after even a snack. Somedays I would sweep 5 times! I also do at least 2 loads of laundry a day and clean the toilets every morning. I am responsible for cleaning the whole house, taking care of the kids, homeschooling them, cooking all meals, paying all the bills, keeping the car spotless, and going to college myself. It is doable, but not a fun way to live if forced to do it. I know it is wrong that anyone should have to be reprimanded like a child and put down if all those things don't get done everyday. I think this is the real problem, that there is a sense of entitlement. That for working 10 days out of the month you deserve to sit on your butt and have everyone serve you. I think the wife should cook and clean if she stays at home, but the dh should come home and help. He should be actively involved with the house and kids. It is not possible to change things or make a person like this see the truth. And shame on women, but there are one's out there who sleep with married men and then will cook and clean and put up with the crap so they don't have to be alone. :glare: Sorry, rough day today for me. The house did not pass the white glove test for the last 3 days because I have had 3 final exams to study for and take while homeschooling and watching kids and cooking. I let the laundry slip and the floors get a little dirty.

I have nothing but clay either! A good trick is to make raised beds. I have 6 long, raised beds that I tilled and filled with manure and topsoil mix. The garden turns out beautiful. http://eartheasy.com/grow_raised_beds.htm It does sound like you already eat a whole foods diet. I would look at portion sizes and what kind of exercise you get now. Also, just because it is healthier doesn't mean that it is low in fat. If you are eating homemade icecream everynight, it is probably more fattening than store bought since I use lots of eggs and fresh cream in homemade icecreams.

I love cooking too, but somedays it is hard when you have nothing that can be whipped up in less than 1-2 hours. I agree about paying way too much money for things. I met a lady who had a cure for paying crazy money for meat. She raises rabbits and eats them. They are organic, free-range. She told me all the virtues of rabbit meat over chicken. We have a pet rabbit, so I cannot imagine how my children would feel about eating Fluffy. :tongue_smilie: We do eat deer though. Dh goes hunting and he gets all the meat processed for us. We got half a cow for free this year because dh fixed a fence for an older man. In return for him fixing the fencing along his 30 acres he gave us half a cow. A friend of mine drives 3 hours to another state for raw milk. That is too far IMO. It just cannot be worth all that. I must admit I did it myself 4 times. Now I do buy local milk that is minimally processed and consider that good enough, plus it is only 20 minutes away.

2nd Grade Literature choices include Jungle Book and Pollyanna. The history choices were sometimes hard. Peeps was a really tough book to read. My favorite year for Book choices was 1st grade. Some people do not like Thornton Burgess, so that is your preference. I know that HOD uses these books as well. What HOD and MFW include are activites. There are not a lot of planned activities in most of the LBC guides. In the K-2 guides there are some good things but not a ton like HOD. One of our favorites from Grade2 was 3 Billy Goats Gruff and other stories. The guide actually had us making story maps and other fun things with this book. It was listed under Storytelling as a subject. If you need your hand held when it comes to school everyday, this won't work for you. You can easily get overwhelmed. Even the activities don't really tell you how to do them, it is up to you to print something or plan something yourself. If you have seen their samples you can see things in Nature study like pick a topic in the Nature Handbook or read this chapter. If you go with them you really need to make your own supply list to keep before the school year begins. That way you can keep track of what you need.

I looked at Easy Classical a few times. Just from knowing Apologia I would say it looks meaty enough. This past year I did Apologia Astronomy with my 6th grader. I added in notebooking and reading books.

Compared to MFW or HOD the biggest difference is that LBC is not really scripted out for you. They just tell you how many pages to read for each week and it's up to you to figure out the rest. They do have a planner you can print out to help you, and they also give recommendations on what days and how long to do each subject. If you want to add projects and/or reading comp. you have to come up with it yourself. That said I do really like it. You might need to add to the L.A. depending upon your preferences. If you have any more specific questions I can try to answer. I own K,1,2,4,5,6. We completed K,1,4 and 6.

I would warn you that once you start down this road things that can get really crazy. :tongue_smilie: You'll start off buying from a Store like Whole foods, but You'll end up buying Heriloom seeds for your own garden. Then you'll buy canning supplies so you can put away all your veges. Then you wind up buying a whole cow or half a cow because it is free range organic fed. This requires having a seperate deep freezer. Then of course you'll need a grain mill to grind your own wheat and other grains to make homemade breads. You'll have to find a group or a store that buys 50lb. bags to save money. This leads to checking out fermentation and before you know it you'll be also making your own yogurt, sour cream, butter. Once you start on the Dairy you'll read how much healthier raw milk is, so you'll drive to another state where it is legal to sell/buy raw milk. Finding raw milk leads to hearing about the benefits of eating all food raw. So, you'll check out a place Like http://www.purerawcafe.com/ . Then, you'll decide maybe you should scrap everything you've ever done and start eating raw. Finally, the whole thing overwhelms you and you've run out of money so you end up shopping at Aldi's again buying $0.45 Macaroni-n-cheese for the kids. :D

Mine are 4-11. We are going to Disney next week! :D One year I took the kids to the Outer Banks. I loved it much more than Florida Beaches. You can rent a house on the Ocean for 1 week for less than $1000. We also Love Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. There is tons to do, but it does add up cost wise.

Thanks, this makes me feel better. I already do these things. Both boys do a lot of chores and help around the house. When I come home with groceries they automatically go out and grab bags even though dh doesn't. My oldest used to grumble and say it's not my job but I have told him we are a family and everyone helps. So, I am on the right track. I do dates with both boys and have them open doors. I remind them that girls are sensitive and ask them to be careful with feelings.

In the other thread about a dh's expectations I saw a lot of common things that are said it my house. Things like "babysit" your own kids and the house being the "housewife's responsibility." Since he filed I no longer put up with most of it, but I did for years. I won't go into details, I just want to know how to teach boys differently. What goes wrong that some boys grow up to be such selfish men? I often wonder how to raise boys who don't treat their wives this way. Boys who will stand up and take responsibilty. Boys who become men who are really involved in their children's education and up-bringing. How do you do this if they see the opposite happening at home? What are some things you can say or do without putting their dad down?

I have LBC Grades K,1,2,4,5,6 if anyone has more specific questions. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I am going with WP Animal Worlds next year and their LA. I needed something packaged and written out. I like Montessori materials a lot. You don't hear much here about that.

You could piece this together instead of buying the package. This would save you a couple hundred. Quite a few of the books are available on the Kindle, this would save space. I think HOD would be great for someone who is not home a lot. It would be easier than other curriculums.

Yep, C.Diff. I've had it 3 times. The first time I was hospitalized with it. The next 2 weren't as bad, just had to take quite a few drugs. It is supposedly next to impossible to get it more than once though. I argued with the GI the 3rd time. I knew what I had, having had it before, and he didn't believe me. He tested for it just because I insisted. You should have seen his face when he had to come tell me it was positive.

My dh has similar expectations. Out of 10 good friends, my house is cleaner than 8. That wasn't good enough for him though. He wanted it white glove test clean. I simply told him that wasnt possible for me. I cannot take care of 3 kids, cook, clean to that degree, homeschool and take online college classes. I asked him what his priorities were and try to focus on those. He wants the floor spotless. I like to make beds and I keep my kitchen spotless because that's a priority to me. I sweep right before he gets home and after the kids are in bed. I also mop every other night. My kids do a lot of chores too. My 3yo empties the silverware from the clean dishwasher, she feeds the pets, she makes her bed, and she helps me fold laundry. My 7yo makes his bed, helps clean the rabbits cage, cleans up the toys out of the livingroom and schoolroom, wipes down the counters, and puts up the dishes too. My 11yo vacuums, cleans bathrooms,does dishes, can help cook meals, puts away his own laundry, keeps his room clean. I agree with the idea to declutter. If you have too many toys get rid of a lot. I gave all mine a basket and that was all the toys they could keep. I have a couple sets of baskets from IKEA in different parts of the house. I also had to honestly look at where I was spending all my time. Really I only sleep 5-6 hours so that leaves 18 hours that I'm awake. I was spending hours reading novels and also on the computer. If I make myself clean first, I still get time to do more relaxing things. Also, I can sneak on here after I give the boys an assignment. I get at least 10 minutes here and there. Someone else mentioned FlyLady. One of her great ideas is to set the timer for 15 minutes and clean. Try that. It works.

I'm going with Winterpromise for next year. I am going to have 4 different people helping me homeschool my children, so I wanted something all written out for me. I needed something I can just hand over on those days. I got their LA and their Themes. I am adding SOTW for my 3rd grader. My 7th grader is doing Exploration Education for Science, which is planned out already as well. I usually piece together from several different resources, but I dont have that time available right now to make lesson plans.

Apologia reminded me so much of college textbooks. I just want them to love science and find it fun. I went with EE over Rainbow because of cost. Also, I like that it is on the computer so it is more independent. For 8th I might go back and do Rainbow. So, that would be 8th and 9th. Then we could move on to Spectrum for 10th. I don't know what to do for 11th and 12th if I go that route, but I have some years to figure it out.

I mix up one part quinoa with one part brown rice. Add garlic and thyme to taste. We love it!

I used Writing Skills last year and I liked it. It doesnt have a lot of grammar, more like a review. So, it is up to you whether or not you want to supplement. If you have done quite a bit of grammar I would skip it for the year.

I went with Standard. The only difference between the standard and advnaced is the amount of paperwork. THe experiments are the same, I asked. The advanced has them doing full lab reports and the standard fills in the procedure for the lab reports. They still have to answer the hypothesis and results, just not write out the entire thing.