I would love to have my daughter try this!

http://www.myspellit.com/ This is the list we use for the regional spelling bee.

This is all the spelling my DD does. She actually makes her own pronouncer's book from the spelling bee list. Each week she picks 4 words and writes down their pronounciation, language of origin, part of speech, definition, and uses it in a sentence.

I just want to echo what Dory said about offering to teach a specific subject or skill to the child. I would love it if a friend of mine wanted to take one of my children for a class that takes a lot of teacher preparation (art, science experiments, literature) or a skill that I don't have or takes time to teach. You could offer a 4-week class, and see how it goes.

We have done different things to try to stick with the WTM science cycle... For the Biology year: For animals, we start by studying different habitats. The first time through this I used habitats found all over the world (forest, savannah, arctic, desert, ocean) and the second time I did it with my younger ones, I chose habitats found in the United States. We then used construction paper and markers to make these habitats on a large display board. Each day that we did science I picked out a book at the library on an animal. We read the book and answer some questions like, Where does the animal live? What does it eat? What are its defenses? What is something interesting about it? We may or may not put this information on a notebook page. We then printed off a picture of the animal and placed it on the habitat board. Sometimes we would have to add to our board - like a tree for a bird to perch in, or rocks for an octopus to hide in. If we made a notebook page, the animal picture could be glued on there as well. For plants, we worked on a lapbook and made models from cardboard and construction paper. I think I googled "plant unit study" and got lots of ideas. For the human body, we worked through My Body by Teacher Created Resources. For Astronomy and Earth Science: Just books about space during the day - creating notebook pages if there was time. Then stargazing at night using the binoculars and resources recommended in the WTM. This was so much fun! Stargazing as a family has now become a frequent activity. For earth science I used a Dinah Zike book as a spine and just read and made notebook pages. For Chemistry When the kids were small, I really bombed this year. We tried the Atoms and Molecules book, but it was too much writing for my little guy and I didn't know I didn't have to do all that! When they were older we enjoyed The Elements. When that was finished the older ones did Carbon Chemistry and my younger ones did Atoms and Molecules (only doing some writing) and then random chemistry experiments that I found on the internet. For Physics This year we started with Physics Experiments for Children. We got a little bored of that and are finishing by reading a page in the Usborne Internet Linked Enclyclopedia, writing a sentence about what we learned, copying any diagram, doing the "See for yourself" and following the internet links. One two-page spread takes 3 days.

I had the same trouble with my 14 yo ds this year. I ended up buying a gold panning bowl and a pound of "paydirt."

We have made playdough for cousins.

If you are doing this to teach them how to read (which it sounds like you are) then I think you are not reading enough. They should probably be reading close to 15 minutes a piece, but it could be spaced out. I am doing a your page/my 3 pages with my 7 year old and completing 1-2 MTH sized books a week. It is my favorite stage in learning to read!

My 12 yo dd wears jeans and T-shirts. She wears a womens size medium and it is difficult to find shirts that are not low-cut, but I definitely would try to avoid it.

I use a basket on my bookshelves. If it is used frequently (or is very small) it goes in the basket. If it is only used for certain lessons (like the fraction chart) it stays in a box put away in the basement. The box is easily accessible if I have to run to get something in the middle of a lesson. One thing that really helped is getting a box to hold coins; the small cards that show the ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands; and the ones and tens of the place value cards. It is something like a craft organizer box. It is easy to grab and go. Everything else just stays in its original bag or wrapped in a rubberband.

Good luck! So sorry you are so uncomfortable. Your baby is so precious!

We are currently doing the Civil War and my 7 year old is not getting much out of it at all. The readings are long and hard to follow (they describe important battles.) because of that, he is not able to do a lot of the other activities (writing a newspaper article, and the narration on his lap book) because he is just confused. For him, the cutting and pasting is just busy work. My older ones are really loving it and getting so much from it.

It is so nice to reach that point in teaching our children when we feel like we actually know something and can teach without a purchased curriculum. It is even nicer when we learn this before all of our kids have completed the subject!

I am using RS B for the fourth time. I have the older version without the calendar. I agree with the others who have said that it seems like you are jumping around, but it really is leading somewhere. If your child gets it, don't do every problem. You can even say, "Wow! You are so smart! The author thought you needed to practice that 4 times and you got it in your first try!"

My youngest is doing copy work in a composition notebook I found at Walmart last year. There is a space on top for a picture, and then ruled lines. I write a sentence, he copies. Very simple. Drawing a picture keeps him quiet while the older ones work.

My 4th grader will memorize over the course of this year: 6 poems 20 history sentences (from Classical conversations) The Gettysburg address 12 science facts about physics The location of the US states, their postal abbreviations, and several US landmarks The US presidents Important phone numbers and other information We spend 15-20 minutes 4 days a week on this. We also review information from previous years.

This is my second time through STOW 4, this time with my 3rd and 4th kids. We are skipping the questions all together and just doing a narration and drawing a picture.

We didn't do anything the first time through SOTW, then I learned about Classical Conversations. I use their history sentences on my own with my kids. I had to buy or borrow all three cycles and then rearranged them into chronological order to fit the time period we are doing in SOTW.

About 5th grade. (our school day starts at 8 with lunch at 1. School after lunch is very, very hard and tends to be hit or miss here - not scheduled and organized like our morning time.)

We have both the 3000 and 1000. The 1000 is fine, but my ds was very excited by the extras in the 3000 kit, such as the cooler goggles and the bunsen burner.

I have struggled with this with my youngest. For his K year and this year I only require him to stay in the room as I read. Sometimes I will make up an extremely easy question for him to answer.

My kids love to play the game 99. It is played with a regular deck of cards. We play similar to this http://www.cuppacocoa.com/math-game-99/.

I agree-very easy to teach. I learned grammar along with my kids. About the writing...just to make it clear...enough instruction is included in the book, but not enough practice. A child should use the instruction from the book to improve the writing they are doing in other other subjects (such as history or science).

The length until mine came back increased with each pregnancy. Started at 13 months then up to 18 with the last.

I didn't do Facebook until about 3 weeks ago. My main reason: I thought that people would post all the fun, happy moments. Times that they wanted to brag about themselves or their family. I tend to struggle with contentment and "grass is greener" syndrome. I didn't want to feed that attitude of mine. I signed up for FB because I thought I was missing out on what everyone was up to. I found out I am not missing a thing. No one that I have friended posts anything but recipes and articles. I checked it yesterday for the first time in a week. Besides all the recipes, articles, and quotes, I found out that someone spent the day knitting and someone else went to Branson. Nothing that I needed to know or has enriched my relationship with them.