I have been 95% Paleo for 15 months now because of Fibromyalgia. I will never go back to "normal" eating. The Paleo Diet has saved my life! My kids eat 80% Paleo. I still let them have some gluten free snacks here and there, and some cheese a few times a week. Hubby has been 95% Paleo for a month now and has lost some weight and feels better over all (he doesn't have any health issues). Here is a typical daily menu for us (a family of 4). Breakfast: 2 eggs, scrambled for the kids and hubby with some fresh fruit. 5 slices of nitrate free bacon and some stirfried veggies for me Snack: fresh fruit or gluten free baked snacks for the kids fresh fruit, a RAW bar, or coconut yogurt for me Lunch: a large container of organic spinach with nitrate free turkey meat, atrichoke hearts, sliced cucumbers, olives, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette. The kids and I share this. Snack: fresh fruit or a gluten free snack for the kids Sunflower butter straight from the jar or a package of Livin' Spoonful pizza flavored crackers with tuna on top Dinner: any recipe from "Everyday Paleo" or "Paleo Comfort Foods" cookbooks. I usually make 2 or 3 times the recipe so I have left overs for hubby's lunch the next day or to freeze. We get 100% grassfed beef from www.JandJgrassfedbeef.com, organic veggies from our CSA www.JROrganics.com, and organic veggies and other organic or gluten free items from www.azurestandard.com. I think with everything, we spend about $750 a month on groceries. Plus another $200 a month on eating out :(. But I will say, that when we cook, we very rarely waste anything since all the recipes are soooo yummy! Given my health issues, and all the food allergy issues (my son, my daughter and I), eating Paleo is the best for us. I went from taking up to 4 Vicodin or Percocet a day, to no narcotics after just 2 days of the diet. I have lost 26lbs with just the diet alone and have kept it off. I no longer have that afternoon energy slump. I can now be active with my kids all day long. My pain levels are at a manageable state. And I can actually enjoy life now. I tell everyone who will listen to me about the Paleo Diet and how it's dramatically changed my life for the better. I challenge every I know to try the diet for 2 weeks. If you feel better, stick with it cuz it only gets better. If you don't feel any change, by all means go back to eating all the "normal" food you ate before.

We have gluten, wheat, oat, barley, peanut and tree nut allergies with my 5 yo DD. For my son it's Gluten. We let the kids eat a few pieces of safe candy during the festivities, then we sort through the loot at home and trash any not safe candy. Skittles, Starbursts, Nerds, Smarties, and a few chocolate candies are safe for us. For parties, we just bring our own treats. Better to be safe than sorry.

I sort of do this for my 2nd grader and Kinder. We use Tapestry of Grace as our guide. We do lots of read alouds to cover reading, comprehension, geography, history, and bible history. We do have a separate math program (my 2nd grader like Teaching Textbooks and my Kinder like Singapore Math). Since we don't do science or art at home, they generally take co-op classes or do field trips to explore those areas in a fun environment. For my kinder, doing a subject by subject schedule would work well. But for my 2nd grader, a project or themed schedule works best for him. So we have blended the two styles together.

I did this last year for my son who is now age 7 and in 2nd grade. I am sorry I don't remember the name of the one I took. I just googled Learning Style Exams/Tests and took one for him. It was free. I answered the questions based on how I knew my son would answer them. Most of the questions are geared toward adults. But the results were pretty spot on. It definitely gave me more insight as to what types of curriculum/programs that would and would not work for my son. I learned that he is equally an Auditory and Visual Learner. The test pointed me towards a more reading based style of curriculum and either video or computer based programs. This years academic time goes MUCH smoother than last year. I am so glad I did the test and found curriculum and programs that work for him. We use Tapestry of Grace Year 1, Teaching Textbooks Math 3, Explode the Code, and A Reason for Spelling. We don't do official grammar or writing yet. He just isn't ready for it. Plan to tackle it next year.

We have a co-op class for K-3 and we did cuneiform writing on clay mini tablets in class last week. The Mom leading our class that week printed out the graph with all the cuneiform symbols on it, got some Crayola Clay, and toothpicks. The kids rolled out their own clay forms and then etched in cuneiform symbols that spelled out their names using the toothpicks. Very simple and easy to do. And the kids LOVED it!

I just got books 2 1/2 through 7 on Ebay. It was all one lot with free shipping. It ended being about $10 cheaper than the other places when you consider shipping.

We use TOG Year 1 with my 7 yo son and 5 yo daughter. We do a mix of UG and LG. I have the printed copy. I like being able to flip back and forth. But I am thinking about getting DE for next year. We also participate in a co-op class. I started up the class at our co-op and we meet weekly and just do some of the student activities and plan a few field trips. Last week was our first class and it went well. This will be my first full year using TOG. We used it for the last month of school last year and both my kids loved it. I love it because it is a reading based curriculum that I do with both kids and because it is flexible enough for my ecclectic style of teaching.

My 7 yo son (2nd grade) does about 45min to 1 hr of seat work 3 days a week. That includes Teaching Textbooks Math on the computer, Explode the Code Series workbook, and A Reason for Spelling once a week. But he is my child that cannot sit still and HATES doing repetitive work or worksheets. My 5 yo daughter LOVES to do worksheets and zips right through her Get Ready for the Code workbook and Singapore Math 1A workbook 3 days a week. My rule for worksheets is 1 page per year of age. So my son gets 7 sides of a page and my daughter gets 5 sides of page for Explode the Code. For Math my daughter gets 5 sides of a page for Singapore Math. My son has to do 2 complete lessons of Teaching Textbooks Math 3 every week. That's the only "seatwork" we do. We mostly do read alouds, take turns reading, or hands on activities.

My friend used the Explode the Code workbook series with her son last year. He loved it! I will be using it for my daughter who is age 5. We will be using the A, B, C and precursor books for her. I will be using books 2 1/2 through 7 for my 2nd grade son. He can read just fine but struggles with writing. He saw his friend using the books last year and was interested in them. So we will be using them to get him acclimated to practice writing...just don't tell him that ;).

I have been eating Paleo for exactly a year now. I will never go back to eating "normal". I started it because of extreme Fibromyalgia pain and all of the other issues associated with Fibro. After 5 years of trying to treat it naturally, my pain was getting worse. I was on some sort of narcotic pain killer for about 3 years. I had been nut free all of my life, Gluten free for almost 3 years, Dairy and soy free for 2 years, egg free for 1 year and yet my pain was getting worse. In order to eat fully Paleo the only things I still had to eliminate were rice, potato, corn, and beans. Once I started the diet my Fibro pain reduced significantly. Day 2 of the diet was the last time I took narcotics :). Now the only time my pain flares up is when I cheat on the diet, I dont get enough sleep, or the weather significantly changes. I went from having 3 or 4 good days a month to having only 3 or 4 bad days a month. In the first 3 months I lost 15 lbs. After that it has been a steady 2-3 lbs a month. So far it totals 25lbs. I am actually skinnier now than I was when I first got married almost 12 years ago. I have more energy to do things with my 7 and 5 yo kids. I finally feel like I have my life back. I can now make plans for the future and not worry about having to cancel at the last minute.

Amazon for gluten free dry goods Azure Standard or organic produce, dairy, chicken, and gluten free items J & J Grassfed Beef for 100% grassfed beef.

I would let it go...then go and buy yourself a new kitchen gadget if you can. I also eat GF, CF...actually I eat completely grain free, dairy free, mostly egg free, nut free, legume free, and corn free. I follow the Paleo Diet. My four new best friends are by crockpot, my cuisenart, my juicer, and my pressure cooker :). Maybe you could buy a new grinder and make yummy gf breads? Cuz trust me...most of the gf baked goods out there taste like cardboard :(.

I have been Paleo for almost a year now. I haven't heard of anyone who has gained weight on the diet. I have heard of people having issues with eating too many nuts and their system not agreeing with coconut oil, some of the veggies, and eggs. Have you gotten yourself food allergy tested recently? I have always had food allergies so I thought I was doing good with my annual tests. Then I took a really indepth test recommended by my naturopath and boy were there a lot of food allergies and sensitivities that I didn't know about that never showed up on my doctors allergy tests. Once I eliminated these offended foods, the weight just dropped off. My "unknown" food allergies and sensitivities were wheat, oats, gluten, dairy, eggs, certain types of shellfish and soy. My known allergies were certain kinds of beans, anything in the orange family of fruits, peanuts, all tree nuts, chocolate, and apricots. Anyhow, it's definitely worth checking into. As far as the feeling restricted on the diet...I hear ya on that. It definitely is hard sometimes when you are too tired to cook, or everyone around you is eating something yummy that you can't have. Like another poster said...change it up a bit. I have 4 Paleo cookbooks that I rotate through and I pull free recipes off the internet. Other days I just make up my own recipe with whatever I have in the kitchen. My fave cookbook is "Everyday Paleo". I also follow Nom Nom Paleo on Facebook, as well at PaleoOMG, and a few other FB-ers. For me this diet is a full lifestyle change necessitated by my autoimmune disorders...Fibromyalgia and Food Allergies. When I cheat on my diet, I am in pain from head to toe within 20 minutes and the pain can last for days at a time. I had been on a strict Gluten free and Casein free diet for several years and my pain got worse. The Paleo Diet is the only thing that has worked for me BUT I have had to tailor it a lot. I cannot tolerate any dairy (even the clarified butter that is ok for Paleo), nuts of any kind will put me in the ER with anaphylactic reactions, and eggs give me severe diarrhea. So what do I eat? Here is what my daily food log looks like: Morning: SP Complete Dairy Free greens and protein shake with whatever fruit I have on hand. Snack: Sliced fruit with 1lb. of nitrate free turkey or chicken sandwich meat wrapped around. A few handful of salted sunflowers with cherry flavored dried cranberries. Lunch: Leftovers from dinner or a quick stirfry Snack: Nitrate free bacon and fruit Dinner: Any Paleo Main Dish Recipe with lot of veggies added into it. I love to make soups, stirfry's, crock pot meals, etc. because I can stuff a lot of extra veggies into it. Snack: Dinner left overs or sunflower butter and fruit. For the gassiness: Have you tried steaming or sauteeing your veggies? That should help reduce the gas effect. Or adding them into a soup instead of eating them fresh?

Thanks for the suggestions ladies! I have looked at them all briefly. So far I really like First Language Lessons for my son. Can anyone recommend any good programs that have color pictures in the workbooks?Keep the suggestions coming please.

Writing is just the one area where he struggles. It is worse than pulling teeth for me to get him to sit down and write a full sentence at one time. I know it's mostly his age and that he is a wiggly boy. I just want ideas on how to help him get beyond the frustration of writing...even if it's just writing a few words a day and then growing that into writing sentences. In Kindergarten he attending a public charter school and they did lots of worksheets which were boring and the whole situation became very frustrating for him and he put up a mental block when it came to writing because of it. It took me half of this school year to get him confident in himself enough to do copywork. So now I am looking for ideas to encourage him to start writing simple sentences on his own. That is my goal for 2nd grade. That is why I thought Explode the Code would be good for him. Just writing a handful of words everyday and reading the brief illustrations in the workbooks would be entertaining for him and hopefully get him comfortable with writing more and more words without even realizing it. Then once he is comfortable with Explode the Code, I would move on to writing sentences. Does that all make sense?

What writing program would you veteran homeschoolers recommend for a 7yo incoming 2nd grader who struggles with writing and composition and spelling retention? He can read highschool level books and can retell the gist of the story, although not in great detail. He CAN write, but doesn't have the patience to actually sit down long enough to write a complete sentence. Worksheets BORE him to death. He loves any work that he can do on the computer. He is great at Math and LOVES Science. He has trouble coming up with ideas of his own and writing them down. I was thinking of starting him on Explode the Code just for the grammar and spelling. I like that the worksheets are short without too many problems on them. And mix in some Beyond the Code to challenge his writing. Currently we do spelling lists where I write the list of words and then he copies it on a dry erase board and spells out each word orally. About once a week I have him copy out bible verses that I write into his journal. I write on top and he copies on the line below it. Are there any other writing programs that you would recommend for an Audio/Visual learner like my son? Thanks! Sandra

I am thinking about buying this used through another homeschooling Mom friend. I compared the book list for Lower Graders and Upper Graders that she gave me and none of the books are listed on the TOG site anymore. She has about 1/4 of the books that she used back in 2009. I have no idea what the rest of the 2009 version list of books looks like and if they are readily available at my library or if they can be easily purchased used somewhere else. For $200 she is selling me the curriculum, writing aids, map aids, loom cd, teachers cd's, "Dad" cd's and a few other extras. So I know I am getting a good deal but will I end up spending lots of money finding out of date books or printing out tons of pages from the TOG website for the new pages for the new replacement books? Would it be better for me just to buy a newer version? My kids are 7 and 4 1/2. I am very new to TOG. We used HOD for a few months this year and found it very slow and kind of boring for my kids. We were using the K-3 version of HOD. Maybe I needed to get the next grade up of HOD to challenge my son. TOG looks very interesting to me as I love the history chronology, bible history, and all the reading. Thanks in advance! Sandra