My kids are going to be in 5th grade and they have finished LC 1 and we are going to start First Form. If we were going to take a break from Latin, I would just use the flash cards from LC and review vocab, conjugations and declensions briefly on a regular basis. We are going to continue with some easy French this year. We do it in the car only with a cd, so no pressure. We went to France last year and it was a lot of fun, so even doing 10 lessons in the car helped us with the language there. Hope this helps.

We just bought some maple flooring for our remodel and now I have been checking the reviews of it and I am nervous. If you have it Bellawood floors (solid hardwood) , could you share your experience? Lumber Liquidators had it in stock so we bought it and brought it home and now I am wondering if we should just return it if possible? I am hoping not to because we got a good deal!

I have twin boys and when one of them was six years old he was the same way with AWANAS (crying). For him, he was too young to go to AWANAS because he just didn't feel comfortable. His brother continued to go and then my other son started the following year and he was fine. Part of the reason that I homeschool is because I was the same way as a child. I didn't start feeling comfortable in school until I was 9 years old. I am fine socially now and both of my sons are as well. It has taken some work to find friends for them, but when they are young it really is more about a) who you (the parents) are friends with and b) what kids live close by in the neighborhood. I don't know if this is common but many of the kids in our neighborhood all go to different schools anyway. I think getting to know a mom or two with kids of your daughter's age would help and also finding a long-term activity to give her time to develop relationships. AWANAS and a homeschool co-op have worked well for us. As far as after school play, it reallly has to be kids in the neighborhood many times for us just because of the convenience. Even though we have a decent number of kids in the neighborhood, my sons only have one boy that they play with on a regular basis because everyone's schedule is so busy. I think it would be the same if they went to school. My husband is very confident and outgoing and he has always said (before he even knew me) that he felt that many kids really aren't ready to be away from home all day at school until around 9 years old anyway (that is just opinion -- no scientific basis for it!). We keep our options open every year regarding schooling but so far homeschooling is working for us.

I just say that socialization is part of the reason that we homeschool. We can get more academics done in a shorter time and that leaves more time and energy for the extracurricular stuff like sports, music, church group and we also participate in a co-op. It is a relatively short answer but informative and polite.

You did the right thing. I especially agree because you would have been teaching your daughter -- you definitely need a break from each other if only for the learning and growing experience she has from being on her own in the that setting.

That gave me a good chuckle this morning! Thanks for sharing!

I love the Pocket Naturalist Guides. They are a laminated cardboard foldout for $5.95. I just bought one at Cabela's for our area called: Rocky Mountain Butterflies and Moths. It packs quite a lot of information into a portable, affordable format. You can also get them on Amazon. I did a search for "pocket naturalist guides". Sorry that I couldn't figure out how to link it here. I have really been excited about butterflies this year and am hoping to identify some. Good luck with your project!

I did this with my kids when they were younger and it worked out great. They still talk about it. I would drop them off after our homeschooling day and they would have a snack with the other school age kids, an activity and then free play outside when the weather was good, or board games inside. It gave them a chance to play sports for fun with other kids and also board games. It was a Christian school/day care and they had nice relationships with the teachers as well.

Actually swimming might be a good option for us -- thanks for the idea -- I will look into it!

Thanks for the comments. I forget about the coaches jobs -- duh! :). Also most likely it wouldn't be all homeschoolers on the team. We have already told one team "no" because of evening practices but I hate for my kids to miss out on moving up with their basketball skills and I was hoping for another option. Darn! I guess we will just stick with the recreational leagues for now. Thanks again for the info.

I hire for our business and I agree with having someone review the spelling and grammar on both the resume and cover letter. A lot of people call resumes C.V. now for curriculum vitae. I agree also with creating it in a standard format rather than trying to make it stand out. Make sure you include dates of employment on your resume -- some people don't or include list of skills and obscure the dates by mixing them into the information. When I am hiring I like to see that people have been consistently employed. Taking time off for child rearing is fine, you can reference that briefly in your cover letter so that it explains why you weren't employed. Also set up a standard email address if you don't already have one. Cute email addresses unfortunately can be a turn off for a potential employer. Better to stick with unoriginal for the email address. Finally, I think it would be a good idea to include a list of references with your resume. I am not sure if this is standard practice but some people do it and I like to see if it is anyone that I know and also if they are supervisors versus friends or co-workers. One co-worker is okay, but I wouldn't include any friends as references and use supervisors or "higher ups" as much as possible. This is just based on my experience with reference checks. If you can list the supervisors as references (not all of them just 2 or 3) I feel much more comfortable selecting a candidate for an interview because I feel that they were probably good employees if they are confident that they will get a decent reference from supervisors. Another point about the cover letter -- do your research on the company and express that as well as your excitement and interest in the job. That definitely makes a difference to me --it shows initiative and positive attitude. Hope this helps and good luck with your job search.

Is this reasonable? My kids are in 5th grade and we are learning that in order to progress in basketball they will have to join AAU basketball or similar but I hate the thought of having practice every evening. With homeschooling it would be so great to have an early morning practice so that we can still have dinner and evenings as a family (except for games of course). Has anyone done this or is this unreasonable? Thanks.

I like the idea of trying to keep the doll and asking for a new one. Asking you to pay for return shipping is ridiculous. I ordered a set of dishes from QVC and one arrived broken, so they immediately shipped out a new set and told me to keep the old set, so I definitely don't think it is unreasonable to ask for that. AG dolls are sold at a premium and top customer service is a reasonable expectation. I would also tell them that you are going to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I just looked them up and I think that you can do it -- there are a number of them including a direct mail company. File a complaint if they don't resolve it.

I have severe health anxiety and have finally concluded that antidepressants (Celexa now) are the only thing that help me on a consistent long-term basis. Cognitive Behavior Therapy has also helped -- it is very important to find a good therapist though. I also take Xanax as needed but you have to be careful about taking it too frequently or for very long at one time. It is addictive but also causes side effects which then exacerabate the anxiety. (trust me, I have experienced this). Regarding your symptoms, is there any chance that it is a side effect of medication that you are taking, even the Xanax? I have a friend with the same type of anxiety who was taking Benadryl to help him sleep and he ended up with weird symptoms which were a result of the long-term use of the Benadryl (they disappeared as soon as he stopped the Benadryl). You absolutely have to stop researching medical stuff on the internet (sorry to be so adamant -- again speaking from experience). I can't even read medical articles in magazines. If you really feel like you need to look something up, I think it is better to have someone such as a spouse do it for you. Hope this helps -- I feel for you!

I have an older cousin who has a very restricted diet -- she only has a handful of things that she can eat. When she comes to visit she brings her own food, which is usually just pears and potatoes. No one seems to think much about it although we do wonder sometimes how she manages on such a restricted diet. I think that people are much more aware of food sensitivities nowadays and I think bringing your own food makes it easier because then your hosts don't have to worry about what they are feeding you. I am happy to accomodate others with food restrictions but on the other hand I feel relieved on their behalf if they bring their own food because I know that they can completely relax. I am allergic to peanuts so even though people know about it, there is still a little question in my mind when I eat things prepared by others. I think it is acceptable to tell them you are just bringing your own food if you come for a meal or an overnighter because of food sensitivities.

I didn't read all of the responses, so this may be a duplicate comment/question. If you are homeschooling them, I think that they should work at different places because they are probably together a lot otherwise. If not, I think it is fine for them to work together but in my opinion 14 does seem young for that sort of job. There is plenty of time to work when she is older, and for me the transportation issue would be a pain.

I just read the original post to my dh and he asked me to quote his response: "I spent 11 years under the yoke of a dysfunctional marriage. Helping someone avoid the emotional and financial cost of a situation similar is worth risking a friendship. It is objective counsel and if it is truly a friendship, understanding and respect will prevail". Nobody in my dh's family said anything to him when he got married, even though they had serious reservations about it. I don't know that I really agree with my dh's comment, because at this point I think that it is too late to change the groom's mind, so it will possibly just make you look bad if you say something. I would be curious to know how many times saying something actually causes someone to change their mind at this point. My dad wrote a letter to my uncle (his identical twin brother) about a marriage that he disagreed with and it didn't result in any change.

I pay $35 per hour for two children (they are at the same level in math). The tutor is a certified teacher with a master's degree.

I am allergic to peanuts and sensitive to soy. One thing that I pack for my own lunches are bean burritos that I make with tortilla, refried beans and cheese. I make them individually and wrap them in plastic wrap. I like them hot or cold, so it doesn't matter if I can warm them up. I like brown rice in them too, but I think that would be better warmed up if you put in the rice.

We split ours with another family and it worked great. We had to go to the farmers' market weekly to pick it up, so we picked ours up every two weeks and the other family picked theirs up on the "off" weeks. The produce was so fresh that it lasted for two weeks and we ate more vegetables and more variety than what we would typically select at the market. My husband now loves garlic scapes and I like swiss chard.

He is a pirate in Treasure Island and the director requested that unless the kids are super sick they should still perform. I am okay with that but I am wondering what would be the best medicine to give him so that he feels as well as possible for the performance. He is very sniffy and blows his nose a lot. I was just thinking Children's Tylenol. I don't usually give much medication for colds, so I am not sure what is available. Thanks!

One of my sons loves Legos and the other son likes them. Their Lego sets belong to each of them individually but they still combine sets to make new builds. The son who "likes" Legos sometimes sells his sets on Ebay if he can make a profit. In order to do this, he pays the one who "loves" Legos to assemble the set -- he can recognize virtually every piece from every set and he has A LOT of Legos. So we have Legos all mixed up, but an onsite expert who can separate them if necessary :)

Katie and the Big Snow. I loved the words and the maps.

If you take any medications, it might be a good idea to check into the side effects on those (doctors don't always know about these). I have had mystery symptoms and later determined that they were side effects. I have also known several people with serious symptoms who had been to a number of doctors before it was determined that they were experiencing side effects from medication. It can be prescriptions or OTC.

This looks great. We just started http://www.multiplication.com games today, but really need some division refreshers too.