We are relocating next month! There's always a random job in some part of the country that my husband can temporarily transfer to, but this is the first time we've actually done it. Being homeschoolers we ARE portable, so I figure, why not? This one is a little closer to home so its not quite a big adventure, but the alternative was him driving up every two weeks so we just decided to go with him up there.

I get in the shower. How does one "take" a shower? Of course getting in THE shower sounds just as silly to me, but its what I do.

Awesome, thanks. I do have the Geography Bundle from Confessions of a Homeschooler too. I'll bookmark MFW for when its time.

We're big fans of DK books and use them daily. Although we use the Usborne World History and Geography Encylopedias I don't use them so much for science. (mostly because we have a huge DK collection)

Is it unreasonableto do a 50-state long-term study? Has anyone actually completed it? My oldest (4th grade) is really into geogaphy and knowing facts about different places. This year we're doing an extensive colonial history and our own state history study, but next year he wants to do a state study similar to what we're doing with our continents study this year. (doing one continent a month) I assume we'd be spending one week on each state otherwise we'd be spending years on it. :scared:

We just introduced this a couple weeks ago. LOVE IT. As someone else said, don't be a slave to the schedule. We quickly discovered that our morning time was best right after lunch before we head into "quiet time".

Before this year my MIL was doing science enrichment with my children so I've really not had to do much in that respect. Now I have a k, 1st and 4th grader that I need to provide science for (a weak area for me). My oldest is using Seton (grade 4) as a spine and I'm providing enrichment for him, but I'm sort of at a lost for my youngest two (who work side by side) I would like to follow the well-trained mind cycle for them in both history and science, I'm just not sure where to begin. Year one is animals, human biology and plants but pulling it all together is getting kind of overhwelming. We have plenty of living books here as well as a few animal encyclopedias but I'm at a loss as to what I actually should do with them. Neither are readers at this point. (1st grader has some delays)

We are definitely planning to go through a realtor. There are a number of houses within our budget - none furnished but we have enough that we could take stuff and not leave my sister empty-handed. Homeschooling is the one thing I am really nervous about. My hope is to get a year lease... if we got stuck in an extended stay it would be for the summer months and I would probably go back and forth between "home" and new location...

Wow - this makes me feel better about it. Its interesting reading everyone's take on this as far as what to leave and take. We're probably going to have to purchase a few new things - we realize that. We do want to leave things furnished for my sister... What did you bring in the way of school supplies? I feel like we're going to be isolated for a while so I would rather bring more than less. I figure I can always get a library card, but some books we just can't do without and I think my kids will appreciate having that familiar stuff around them.

My sister will need the house furnished for her, but we have two couches, an extra table, etc. The only issue I forsee is having enough beds when we do come back and stay with the kids. She had an apartment at one time so still has kitchen stuff to supplment what we take with us.

New locale is within driving distance (3.5 hours) and I do have plans to come back once a month to check on the house and take care of appts and all that. We'll be renting a u-haul.

We are moving for one year. We are keeping our current house (my sister is moving in) and renting either a small house or condo in a new location. The new location will be fabulous in the spring/summer/fall for exploration but will be the pits in the winter. I am not sure if we're renting someplace furnished or not. There are many furnished houses due it being a vacation locale, but if we move into someplace furnished we'd have to move out June-September into an extended stay or something which would not be fun with three kids under 10. So, what are the essentials? What would you take with you for one year? What can you live without? We have never done the transfer thing and I don't adjust well to change at all.

We frequently take library breaks... we are actually just back from a year long break,and I'm still in the honeymoon phase... "why did I ever stop?" My kids are in the sweet spot - everyone still enjoys the trips... and finally all of my kids are walking/talking/pottying. Makes for easier library trips. Our library is also right near a very nice urban city park (as urban as my town gets anyhow) that the kids have a lot of fun exploring and playing in. My city library and the library the next town over are the same driving distance for me, so I frequent both. I do my "business" at the city library, but the library the next town over has an awesome children's section - its small, but the books are super well organized and I feel like they are easier to find and get back on the shelves if we spend a morning there reading. I'm in MA and it has the BEST library system. I have yet to be unable to find what I need. If I can't get it in my local system that has at least 3 dozen libraries linked, I can get it from the state ILL. We could get by without netflix if we chose to (I appreciate netflix though because we get videos faster). One thing I love about our local library is that it does a canned food drive in November, which they sometimes extend to December and they forgive late fines. Lost materials still need to be paid for, but the fines are forgiven. Last fall I fixed all but one of our accounts and then recently I went in and fixed my own (which I had lost materials on). I'm vigilant about our library books - they all stay in the same spot so thankfully lost items don't happen very often. I think libraries can be an awesome resource but sometimes breaks are necessary just to avoid the stress. I prefer owning our own reference books - I get them all used on Amazon if I can't find them through the thrift stores.

I don't think you are being unreasonable at all... I only have half the "school-load" that you do presently - same activity schedule and doctor's appointments minus the drive time you struggle with. My time at home is precious - I totally get it. I initiate a lot of planning on our end so that family doesn't feel like I'm constantly saying "no" all the time. This year I went from having a lot of flexibility to not much at all just because I now have 3 doing school instead of just the one. I think it is possible to have relationships with grandparents minus the "spur of the moment stuff". If your kids were in a b&m school you'd have even less time so they need to get past this.

All three of mine have them and LOVE THEM. Wait for a sale and if you can swing it, indulge them. They aren't my first choice for a sensible gift, but I have to say they are the most USED toys they have. I'm actually SHOCKED about how loved they are. Make sure you keep a needle and thread handy... sometimes they do get holes and its a DISASTER when the fluff comes out ;) They each have 2 (one year we gave them to them and then they received some as gifts unexpectedly) and they are all loved. FWIW at 11 years old I had a pillow person and I was CRUSHED when it got lost in one of my ADULT moves...

We are pretty rigorous with our curriculum and my MIL does a lot of science/math enrichment activities so I don't feel like we "need" the actual coop activities at this time. My kids are also on the younger end so its hard to find things that interest all of them. We tried out a few different homeschool groups until I found "the one". It ended up being faith based and I like that we're all like-minded. We get plenty of diversity during a weekly park days (when we get there) and our sports activities, so its nice to have ONE group where we are mostly doing the same thing. Diversity is great, but its hard and I wanted our main social group to be easy. Its more of a group rather than a coop. We do have a theme each year and do one group class a month. For me its more of a social thing... this year its all medieval activities. Its SO SO SO low key and I think that's exactly what we need.

This is so sad. Is there a parent or booster club associated with this group?

You should be able to teach Piano Adventures on your own no problem to get started. :)

I will say that I was so grateful to the mom who actually spoke up our weekly park days when my son was being the aggressor to some older boys. He was 8 and the boys were maybe 12ish? He was not as violent as you describe here (not bullying but playing rough to get the older boys to pay attention and chase him around - something he enjoys) He was being too aggressive about it though and I was completely oblivious because 1: he was playing with big boys so I assumed they would speak up (when in fact they were trying to ignore him) and 2: I had my hands full with my 2 younger ones, 1 who is SN and I have to watch closely. It wasn't an easy thing to hear but I certainly appreciated the mom taking the time to point it out. I was obviously embarrassed but at least I was aware and could address the situation. I will say I wish she had told me on the onset instead of waiting two weeks to tell me because she wasn't very patient when she finally spoke up. Again - I'm glad she had the courage to speak up, but she came across pretty harsh because she was "fed up". I don't blame her. What I am saying is, please don't put off telling the parent because it just snowballs. Yes, you might get negative reactions, but if it could just help one parent (like me) then its worth it. Admittedly, I'm the first person to avoid conflict in that type of situation. I'm generally the "remove the kids from the situation" mom. I was so upset after the fact (over my son's behavior and then at the tone that was used when it was addressed) that I avoided park day with that particular group for a few weeks which I think could have been avoided had it been addressed on the onset. In hindsight, the biggest issue in that group was that there were no kids his age to play with so he was being a twit out of boredom.... I'm not trying to excuse the behavior, but I'm glad I identified the source of it. We've since found a (smaller) more age appropriate group that all my kids are thriving in.

I used BJU for 2 years for Language Arts. Its was very frustrating - I had the teacher's manuals for everything - the only one we really enjoyed was Reading because the stories were cute. I was SO SO SO tempted to switch to DVD because it was just overwhelming. In the end I ended up returning to the Catholic Church and switched to Seton ;). Religion aside, I'm so happy I made the switch. The teacher's guides for BJU were designed for classroom use, not homeschool.

I have mostly looked online for advice about curriculum. We are rigorous compared to some which is frustating because I really don't feel like we are. I posted on FB once about looking for math recommendations for my 6 yo kindergartener and I had homeschool friends breathing down my neck because *gasp* I was doing something more than counting beans! The best advice I got was from my public school friends (I have some teacher friends) that took the time to review my options - I think they were genuinely curious and in the end I took THEIR advice! I have found my Catholic homeschool group to be much more rigorous and inline with what I'm doing, so that was a refreshing connection I've made in the past 3-4 months.

I have the Usborne Encylcopedias, but also wanted to add to the list the DK Eyewitness Encyclopedias the "First" series... They have space, atlas, animals, human body, etc. I refer to these all the time.

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to work on My Father's World. I had a difficult time teaching HWT and he jsut wanted NO PART OF IT but likes the "extras" I think you right that maybe I should wait and see where he's at in July/August and for now continue on with what I'm doing.

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to work on My Father's World. I had a difficult time teaching HWT and he jsut wanted NO PART OF IT but likes the "extras" I think you right that maybe I should wait and see where he's at in July/August and for now continue on with what I'm doing.

I'll be homeshooling my first kindergartener this fall. My oldest already came home reading and is talented in math so basically he teaches himself most subjects with guidance from me. My upcoming kindergartener on the other hand needs a little extra push. I'm not comparing the two, rather just stating facts. Because of his birthday we have to report him in our state (MA) He turns 6 in December. I'm pretty sure we'll be doing Saxon or Singapore Math with him, but I'm unsure where to begin for reading/writing. We did not like the HWT program. He's a reluctant learner in pretty much everything so we've taken a very relaxed approach at home for prek... Mostly just lots of reading aloud, some puzzle books and a lot of free-form arts and crafts. He can color in the lines, but the minute I ask him to do it neatly he immediately decides to scribble. He can write his name and "copy" letters, but its copying - I'm not sure he knows how to "write" them if that makes sense. He has it in his mind already that school is hard... sometimes we last 5 minutes sometimes 30... maybe every other day or so. He does not recognize all his letters and numbers, so I've been reading a lot more alphabet books and trying to incorporate letters into our games, but its slow going. I need someething for him that is very hands-on. As I have been observing him this year he really soaks things in when his hands our playing with something. For example, we were doing lesson on sink/float with all the kids yesterday and he looked like he was in his own little world playing with unifix cubes, but when we asked him a question(takes a minute to get his attention) he knew the right answers. In our family structured works best so I guess I'm looking for a structured program that's hands-on for the childs and also slow and steady at the same time. Open to any and all suggestions... but like I said structured works best for us, even if its snails pace.