A trick I learned from someone here: make two fists with "thumbs up" and the finger parts to the inside. See the "b" and "d" shapes? Imagine the "e" in-between to spell "bed." I'd tell K "make the bed" and she could look at her hands and know by the sounds which end said "buh" and which end said "duh." She's definitely a visual learner, and this worked almost immediately. Thanks again to whoever mentioned this on the old boards!

We spent a few months on Galloping the Globe before starting SOTW1, to set a good foundation so they have a way to understand the history mapwork. So far, it's been really helpful (we finally started the ancients last month). I plan to do US geography with US history as we get to it in the history cycle, then do world geography again between finishing year 4 and restarting year 1 for the next cycle. Did that make any sense? It's the current plan, but may change when we get there!

I haven't used them, but Evan Moor has a daily geography workbook that looks good, and offers several choices of grade level. Weekly Reader has one also, but I've been pretty disappointed with their stuff - it seems way below the grade level it's marked.

Well, it only takes about an hour a day, but they don't go to any other school (except R's speech therapy 1/2 hr/week), so I voted full-time homeschooling.

My 3 & 5 yo enjoy the warm-up book. We do 1-2 questions most days, mostly for the 5yo but the 3yo can participate on maybe 1/3 of them. I think a 5th grader would be way beyond them, but maybe going through the book quickly would be a good intro to the rest of the series.

My 3yo has recently started speech therapy through the public schools. The lady who does the therapy is great, she goes to our church & I know her family, and R gets along with her really well and looks forward to her speech appointments. Yesterday, she told me there's a new standardized test (this is the first year) for 3-5yo - gross motor, fine motor, language, etc.. This is mandated by the state to track progress and, I assume, evaluate the staff's effectiveness. I don't want my 3yo tracked by the state! I don't know when I became such a paranoid wierdo, but there it is. I did ask her to look into some way to exempt us from this, but since it's a new test she has to check with her supervisor and I'm guessing exemption won't happen. This really is a dealbreaker for us (I know, paranoid wierdo ;) ). R really does have some speech issues - her receptive language is great, vocabulary is huge, but even I can't understand half of what she says. So far the exercises haven't been anything so spectacular, I could probably work with her myself, but I wouldn't have thought them up on my own. I wish I could get this lady to do a private tutoring, outside of the school system, but since we were referred to her by the schools that would be somewhat unethical, right? I don't know of any private therapy options around here, and don't know how to find them. Has anyone btdt? I have gotten all sorts of 'special education' paperwork already, with legal info here & there, but none of it really seems to apply (Michigan, if it matters). Any advice? Thanks!

I agree, setting up is pretty easy. Before you list something to sell, take a good picture of it, and search eBay for other people selling the same thing to get an idea what the price should be. Some things might be better off sold elsewhere (like individual books), others may be better combined into "lots" (like kids' clothes or books). They have a shipping estimator that can be helpful if you know how much something weighs. Don't ship anything until you've been paid. If you print the shipping label through Paypal you'll get delivery confirmation, which can be really helpful if any dispute comes up. HTH!

We love West Michigan for exactly that reason. Right now we have about a foot of snow - beautiful, lots to play in, but still manageable. We do get some very cold days, but most of the winter is still warm enough to play outside (if you dress properly). The summers get up to the 90s occasionally, but mostly comfortable 80s (except when it gets humid). I wouldn't want to live in the Detroit area again, but the rest of the state is wonderful. Of course, you can't find a job here at the moment, but houses are super-cheap because everybody is leaving.... :rolleyes:

Great ideas! K was so excited to get a box of pencils with her name on them for her last birthday. You can get them from Current or Oriental Trading at a decent price (I think it was about $3 for 2 dozen of asst'd colors).

Our homeschool group usually has enough people to get the "group rate" when we go places together. Other places offer a "birthday party" option at a lower rate (with minimum numbers), so we've done that too and just not brought a cake. :D If either of those work, you can take a few months to judge the interest/committment, and then go to the company to propose a regular deal. I've been pleasantly surprised how many people are willing to support a homeschool group with things like this.

Have you thought about a home daycare? I have a friend who does it, and makes enough to pay private school tuition (before she started homeschooling ;) ). It can be a hassle because she has to be home at certain times for pickups/dropoffs, but it also can be flexible - she just takes the daycare kids with her to the library or whatever. Combined with possible tutoring or other home-based options, it might be enough.

I had to cancel our homeschool group's craft day last month (it's at my house) because dd was sick. I felt terrible about it, especially the last-minute notice, but the other moms were very understanding and sympathetic. I think they appreciated the thought of not passing those germs around. We've been canceled on now & then too, and it is disappointing, but better sad than sick! ;)

I have tried to make more of an effort lately (I was a baby groundhog on Saturday :) ), but it is awfully tedious. Isn't that why we had more than one, so they could entertain each other? I definitely do better with board games than imaginary play, but I find their behavior is much better after I've taken some time to really follow their lead for a little while. I also learn more about them by being involved with their play, instead of reading or whatever while they play nearby. So I keep reminding myself the results are worth it!

R could clunk around pretty well last summer (a little short of 3) with the skates that go on over their shoes, and you can lock the back wheels to not roll backwards. We started out holding her hand until she was comfortable to balance on her own. My little daredevils enjoy rolling down our wheelchair ramp. We insist on kneepads & wrist guards, then they always fall on their bottoms.... :rolleyes:

Check your library. Ours has YogaKids (in the nonfiction human-body section), but my dc like to watch it but not do the poses. I'm glad I could find that out before purchasing!

I don't have any spiral bound, but I've started getting anything with reproducibles unbound and then 3-hole punch it and put it in a binder. I am SO picky about my books, it took some time for me to be comfortable doing this (to actually take a book apart :eek:) but after doing it to GTG and my SOTW AG, I've converted. It is so convenient - I can take one page to the library to look for recommended books, or I can take one page out to copy, or stick one page in my school box to refer to that day.... Office Max will unbind a book for about $1, and they do spiral binding but I'm not sure how much - you can sign up for their teachers reward card and get points for it too. I do the 3-hole myself so I can see that the holes aren't going to cut into the text anywhere.

I keep a handful in a pencil case in our school box (with the day's books & stuff). I keep more in a drawer for the kids to use whenever, and any strays are put back in there. My MIL has been known to glue a small strip of magnet to the side, to stick them on the fridge. My dad has frequently tied them to the phone with string (pre-cordless era). :)

We're starting tomorrow. Any advice? K is reading fluently and I have the CD, but I've never studied Latin myself so a bit nervous....

I've been wanting a laser too, but want to keep the all-in-one for color and for copying. How do you all make it work with 2 separate machines? I'm thinking space limitations AND computer limitations (only so many ports in our machine).

We have found a few series with short "chapters" and lots of pictures: Henry & Mudge (by Cynthia Rylant) Little Bear (by Else Homelund Minarik) Minnie and Moo (by Denys Cazet) George and Martha (don't remember) HTH!

We don't. The kids sit at their table in the dining room for school, and it works pretty well. They do each have a desk in their bedrooms (gifts from grandparents), but R's is mostly a storage dump and K uses hers for drawing during quiet time sometimes. I use the guest bedroom as my "staging area" - pile up library books, leave my planning binder open, workbooks, etc, in a bin. I have a basket that I bring out each day with that day's books & papers & project supplies.

I have a friend who does daycare, so if she has an available spot she'll take my 2 (I sometimes take hers on a weekend so she & dh can go out). So make friends with a daycare mom. :D Sometimes dh can cover it, especially if it's an office near his work - he has sometimes met me there, hung out with the kids in the waiting room for 45min, and called it his lunch hour. This was mostly when I was doing followup visits after LASIK, and knew exactly how long it would take. For my annual dentist checkup, I call our favorite teenage babysitter. It's only about an hour total (including driving), so not that expensive, and they can schedule me after she gets out of school. For haircuts, I take them with me. My stylist is on the end of a row, next to two big dryer chairs, and first thing in the morning the kids sit there and read or play quietly. Since it's only 30 min tops, they do fine and the stylist usually finds them a cookie afterward.

I don't assign daily or weekly chores, but I do expect them to do things as needed. Both are expected to clean up their toys, clear their place after eating, etc, and usually at least once a day one of them has to vacuum the dining room or set the table, but it's not "scheduled" - whoever I happen to notice at the time it needs doing is asked to do it. I also sometimes offer an extra job for pay - something bigger and less often, like scrub out the bathtub. So if you asked the kids what their "chores" are, they probably would say they don't have any. OTOH, if you asked some of the other moms I know here, they would say I force my kids to do a LOT of work! There's no reason a 3yo can't make herself a sandwich for lunch (mine does).

For the youngers (PK-3): http://www.learningpage.com You do have to register, but it's free. I also use the Evan-Moor e-newsletter & Dover e-newsletter because they send links to free pages each week.

I have tried to explain this, and will stop reading when she gets fidgety - she knows right away and stops, so I start reading again. That's why I'm hoping the other adults will exclude her from the class when she's distracting them. That way it's a consequence that makes sense, and might have some impact. At ballet, in particular, parents are asked NOT to step in for discipline issues, because they want the kids to focus on the teachers as authority there. Also, either I totally missed the hitting example in the L&L book, or have a different edition. I completely agree with you there!