Those are so neat! I love love love the Little Red Riding Hood one.

Don't get so excited about a house that you overlook things you'll later regret. We *almost* bought a house that I realize now we would have ended up hating. God was watching out for us on that one.

Yep :) If you want to access the internet in another way other than wifi you'll have to have a data plan. Hope that helps!

You can find eveything you need on the internet. There's tons of info out there. The basic premise is no processed foods, dairy, or products from the agricultural revolution (wheat, oats, I'm sure there's some others) - so lots of nuts, meat, veggies, etc. If you look around there are some websites that have recipes for baked goods using almond or coconut flour. :)

Use butter! It will taste better. Personally, I would sub the 1 cup of water for 1 cup of coffee. You won't taste the coffee flavor but it makes chocolate taste MUCH more chocolate-y. :D

I'm pretty new to homeschooling, but we are going to be doing a full year approach. My son is in 1st so he's still pretty young & he tends to forget things if we don't keep trucking along. We're doing HOD right now and I find the schedule to be very easy -- so maybe only 1hr a day of actual sit down book work. I'm planning on only taking a few days for Christmas and then probably only actual holidays after that, no summer break so to speak. However, DS is pretty sensitive/emotional so we have usually a day a week that we take completely off so he doesn't get too frustrated with his work. Also, we usually take 2 vacations a year (a week each) and won't do schooling during those. I'll continue this type of schedule until he realizes he's not getting as many breaks as PS kids and then he and I will have to work something out ;)

Have you tried changing disposables (if your Dh doesn't agree to cloth)? My ds would get horrible rashes from Pampers but not from Huggies. Every time I used a few Pampers on him he would break out in those awful raw spots. I hope the prescription helps her.

I guess I'm just worried my kids will lack because of it. Much like the last post, we live out in the country - about 30+ min from league sports so our options are limited to begin with. I think I just wanted to know that I'm not alone... that my kids will grow up well educated, rounded, and socialized with just several activites under their belts. New homeschool mom fears ;)

I was so overwhelmed reading how many activites most children are involved in. I have two sons - ages 4 and 6 and a surprise bundle of joy (a girl!!!) due in March. The boys are not involved in any organized activites at the moment, but we are in the process of finding a new church (Sunday school, wed. night choir). We are also planning on letting them try out t-ball in the spring and we will have both involved in tiger/cub/boy scouts when the time comes. That will probably be it unless they decide to do 4-H or a sport that really inspires them. They will also hunt & fish and learn all about farm life being home with us. I'm not up for driving one child to one place while dh drives one to another and for our weekends to be taken up by our kids activities... every single weekend. I'm not bashing people that have their kids in a lot of activities... in fact, I'm envious. I just really don't think I'd be able to deal with it. Sometimes I feel like I'm alone. Does anyone else have the same track of thinking that I do? Am I completely off base? (Just to be clear, I'm talking about organized sports, activities - not hobbies that your children do at home)

Thanks for all the ideas and advice! We just received the HOD curriculum today and I have a feeling he'll enjoy listening in since it stays on each subject for a relatively short period of time. I don't plan on starting him in K/1st (kind of what I'm doing with my older son) until the fall that he's 6 - so about 2 more years... should give him plenty of time to mature!

I just started homeschooling this year - 6 yr old ds and 4 yr old ds. We kind of pieced together the last couple of months and I have focused almost solely on my older son. My 4 yr old has learned letter sounds (according to SWR) and is slowly moving on to multi-letter phonics. We also do a math worksheet or two from the Singapore Kindergarten A book as well as various other workbooks from target. Where I'm having trouble is that he is completely different from my other son. He has NO attention span... I mean like a minute or two at most unless it happens to be something that catches his attention and then it may be 5 minutes. His fine motor skills are not to the point where he can start writing letters without frustration... but he's not a crafty kid. He does not enjoy coloring/crafts for the most part. If I can get him to do an art project once per week I'm lucky. He is the kind of kid that is constantly running around doing different things, hardly ever stops (even to eat), VERY stubborn, etc. He's a wonderful kid and I love him SO much but I don't know how to teach him! My other son is up for anything - workbooks, crafts, reading... whatever. He hardly ever complains about anything. He's very laid back (like me) and so I'm finding it a breeze to teach him. What do I do about my 4 yr old? Just give him time to be a boy and work on essentials (phonics, letter formation, etc) as he's willing? I don't want to push him because he'll push back and will refuse to do things. Does anyone have any recommendations/ideas for me? eta: I just ordered HOD Little Hearts for His glory with workbooks for both boys. It seems like a good curriculum for young kids, but I'm not holding my breath that my younger son will be involved that much (though I'd love him to be). He pays the most attention while I'm reading so I though if anything would work a curriculum that is literature based would... we shall see! :)