I don't want to pretend everything is impossible for me, but that hasn't been an option in a while. Our weekends in the winter are shot between skiing and church. DH's job is construction management so the construction seasons are crazy but every 2-3 years things get especially intense so for the last 4-5 months he has been going to work before I wake up and coming home between 8-11pm. He says it might be better soon but I won't count on it until first snow fall :) (in October!) I might actually have to hire a babysitter just to do something for myself. True! Thanks! I hoped posting here would be a good idea. It really helps to even find one person who completely understands. Getting more involved here is probably a great idea. We don't have a huge amount of cultural resources and only one university, but there are probably more things I can do.

Thank you! Maybe I will just sorta pick up 1b as well ;).

I think I am using the word friends more loosely than you. Since I live in an intentional community, most of my "friends" were just sort of here when I got here. And I do like them. I am blessed with many kind people as I said, but I miss conversations with "meat". It is hard to describe so I am sure I am doing poorly. I wouldn't turn down a conversation on physics but it is nice to be around educated and intellectual and people even if you are both in different fields. That sounds so snobby. I can't seem to put my finger on the --thing-- that makes it different, without also being rude to there variety of valuable relationships. Perhaps I do have a lack in that I don't have time away from my kids to do volunteer work or join a group of any kind. DH works a lot and I my youngest is under a year. DH is definitely what I would call an intellectual peer and I am incredibly thankful for that. I'd go nuts if not. Since I married and had children quickly then moved very very far away, I don't have many college friends anymore.

Thank you so much for the insights! I didn't realize it might not be a full curriculum. We are pretty serious on our math around here so maybe I will just settle myself down :) I did purchase 1a standards edition with the hig and cwp so I can check it out, though with my 4 year old in mind. At the rate she is going she might need it by spring.

I feel really obnoxious asking this. Please forgive me if I offend anyone. After some difficult discussions lately, I have realized that I am blessed to have friends, but not peers, in my life right now. I am an introvert. I hate the process of meeting new people and the time it typically takes to develop a real friendship. But I am also tired of that social kind of loniness that happens when you are taking to someone and you realize your brain is operating about twice as fast as theirs is. I don't need to find someone with the exact same interests and I don't necessary want to sit and have a deep discussion on advanced physics but I would love to have a friend who doesn't think it is weird to hear that you were curious about something so you grabbed a college text and studied for a few weeks. Someone who sees the value in keeping your own brain fed while parenting tiny people. Does that make sense? If it does, how do you handle it?

Yes, RightStart B is too hard for a young 4 year old unless you are very familiar with the program and limit your year to the first 30-40 lessons max. You have A so I don't know why you would think about not using it.

I would recommend Assimil New French with Ease. It is inexpensive, and comprehensive. It has paced and contextual grammar information. It will develop an amazing accent in both of you. There are further levels in the same style if she completes the first one. Most curricula spend more time learning ABOUT French than how to speak it. You can both take some tutoring sessions on iTalki as well, as you work along and end up at a nice conversational level in a few years.

I don't know why I never considered Singapore, but I had read a bit about it and never given it too much thought. I use RightStart with my oldest and love the way it teaches math, but not the day to day work. My 4 year old daughter (doing K this year) is very workbook-y so I decided to purchase Essentials A & B for her after reading a review. I *love* it. It is so orderly and perfect. Now I am getting the curriculum itch and wondering if I should bring my 7 year old over. He will be doing 2nd grade and is pretty quick with math but RightStart feels like such a slog right now that even starting back in 1A sounds easier than sticking with this curriculum for a few more years. Any advice?

I just had baby #4 in October of last school year. No, I didn't get done everything I had wanted to. I did get plenty done though. I would simplify your curriculum and figure out what is most important to you. We aimed for reading and math every day, with Story of the World and a handwriting page in the afternoon. I had a long list of literature (my own plus Ambleside Online) that I wanted to get done all Charlotte-Masony but it just truly didn't work out. We needed to keep to the basics and I feel good about what we did do. I would still like to do a lot of that reading but there is lots of time. If I could have done anything differently it would have been reading "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" before all the morning sickness hit. Having less "stuff" just makes life with littles so much easier.

Gosh I just tossed my kids' :-p Oops. I think we only have one national park that has the junior ranger program and we go there all the time so I figure they can do it again. Good to know there are some display options if we ever travel and visit other parks. We do have a National Park Passport, but again just visiting one National Park means it sits on the shelf and collects dust.

I have really liked "do the next thing" curricula because of the planning. For math, I just take the number of lessons and divide them up into trimesters so I know where we need to be by Thanksgiving, Mid Feb, and the emergence of summer weather :) I do the same for anything else that can be divided up that way and then schedule reasonable amounts of readings (always less than I think we *should* do). I break that up into what needs to be accomplished for the week and we work from that weekly schedule. I have an 8 month old, 3 year old and 4 year old underfoot so if we can get ahead we do. Something will always come up and I like to build in a little buffer for myself. I know it usually takes me 14 weeks to complete what I thought was a 12 week plan so I just plan for THAT now.

We just started with Nancy Larson and are doing science 1. Can't say whether I love it or not yet but it sounds a lot like what your are looking for.

It was about two months before I felt ok about school again and 4-5 before I felt really good about our schedule. That is with a first grader, pre-k, toddler and the new baby in the house.

That is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you! Whatever I was googling wasn't turning that up.

I don't have a state requirement but I do have a charter school requirement for our allotment BUT if some new state requirements go into place I will be opting out of state testing and testing on my own. I do believe it is a valuable skill and worth practicing at least once a year.

I have level 1. It is all co-branded so everything says "Atelier Arts Attack". I am not in love with it all. It is not bad but I don't see my kids building any skill so this year I am trying Creating A Masterpiece. I just saw it at my homeschool convention and the work children were doing right there was miles and miles above the Atelier projects. Granted, it is more expensive but that isn't a factor for us (allotment). You should check it out.

Is there a list anywhere of the Jim Weiss recordings that are recommended in the SOTW Activity Books? I just went through my Volume one page by page and found them, but I would like to order the books right away with volume 2 if possible. And if anyone has recommendations of good audiobooks besides the Jim Weiss ones that correspond with volume 1 or 2 and are appropriate for a 7 year old, I would appreciate the suggestions! Planning on doing as much as possible on audio this year. Thanks!

That shouldn't be too hard. You need a low table, child sized cups, a small pitcher for water and then your snacks set out in a manageable way. So one day might be ants on a log and you would "give a lesson" on putting a precut piece of celery on a plate, picking up a spreading knife correctly, spreading peanut butter on from left to right, counting out raisins and placing them on left to right. Google album pages on hand washing and grace and manners lessons.

Do you have OPGTR? I would just flick through and start with whatever lesson she doesn't know. The readings are so short if there are a few blends she needs, read those pages. Check in around lesson 75 where it hits hard and soft consonants with long vowels. I agree that you can do 2-3 lessons a day until you hit where you need to be. My son had a reading explosion where it all started to click and we have been doing 2 lessons a day for a month now. It only takes 15 minutes total to do that so if she has more focus than my wiggly guy you will be caught up quickly.

With kids of different ages, you just set their work out and be certain the younger knows he/she can't do any work without a lesson. I went to a Montessori school as a child, have done Montessori at home with my 2-6 year olds and have teaching experience in a faith based Montessori program. I love Montessori. I really do. That said, it is super hard if not impossible to get the flow and all the benefits in a home environment. There are supposed to be 40-60 kids in a 3-6 year old class room and many things work because the children see other children doing them. If all you really need is something to keep your child busy, by all means look up Montessori works, busy bags and every other idea and do what looks good, but if you want the true Montessori experience it is a LOT of work and supervision. Research Montessori "albums", learn about the the three part lesson, read some of Maria Montessori's books, and pick up Elizabeth Hainstock's book Montessori In The Home.

Can I highly recommend the next book you buy/read be The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up? It is not a judgment -- it blew my mind when I read it and changed the way I handle our stuff. Now I absolutely know when to keep something and when to thank it for its time with me and send it on its way.

I <3 planning threads!! So far we have decided on: Math: RightStart C (at least half for this year) Phonics/reading: OPGTR Writing With Ease 1 -- hoping we can handle this by the fall. Handwriting is a real weak spot. History: Story of the World 1/2 and Activity books -- realized I liked SoTW late this year so we will finish up 1 and move on to 2 but since we school year round it should be ok Science: Nancy Larson 1 (again, late curriculum decision so starting now, finish in fall and if we like it move on to level 2 or switch again) French: Tatou le Matou 2 Music: piano lessons PE: MiniMites ski lessons and some sort of marital art has been requested. Art: ?? Looking for something creative, not artist study but I don't know what yet. Needs to be complete and suitable for a perfectionist with not so impressive fine motor skills. Did I forget anything??

Pricier non-consumables like binoculars and telescopes have set rules but they are something I can get and do not need to return. Since it is so late in the year I need to sick with things that already match our plan though. I had a baby this year and didn't plan it out well so some things that would have been reimbursed aren't going to be or we'd have spent our money already :)

Ohhh! Thank you. I hadn't seen that and it looks awesome. I do have some rules I need to follow, but I have about $1000 left to spend (yikes!) so that looks like it would be really fun if we get the OK.

I have most of my allotment left over this year somehow and I want to buy a few things for my first grader for science. He loves his snap circuits, is really into engines and how things work. Bonus points if it is not messy and triple points if one bump from my toddler won't ruin it. I will take any suggestions from workbooks through models but if you can be really specific I would appreciate it. I have been reading reviews on Amazon for model engine kits and geology kits and it seems like there are so many junky projects out there. I don't want to be disappointed. Thanks!!