We do an indoor/outdoor approach to nature study. Indoors: we read seasonal books, and think about things we might see in our local environment in season. This is where we learn stuff like life cycles, biomes, and the roles certain animals/insects play in nature. The very important part here is that everything is seasonal. I consider this the planting ideas phase, giving them things to notice when outdoors. Outdoors: We do NOT go looking for certain things. I tried this one year, and it failed miserably and left everyone disappointed and annoyed. Instead, we just look around for things we may have read about during our indoor studies, or things we find interesting and can read about later. We try to go out for a specific nature study walk 3x a week, but this is most often on our own property, including in the garden, the driveway, and near our own animals. The key is making it not difficult to do so it gets done. Each time everyone brings 1 specimen inside for later study. Back Indoors: We study and draw the specimens brought inside. If desired I'll check out books about them, but often we just look up in an encyclopedia or online and call that good enough.

We don't really use leveled readers. I don't know if its because they use sight words, or are often character theme based (Star Wars, etc.) but they often include very difficult words that don't seem to line up with their reading levels. For the learning to read phase, we do use a lot of library books, but also keep a few collections of high quality easy reading books. We start with BOB books, but quickly move to Little Bear, Frog and Toad, then Magic Tree House (which can last forever! That's a solid year+ of reading material for learning fluency). I'm sure we have a few other I'm forgetting. A key for my house is that I will *not* read these books to the kids, nor any level readers from the library. If they want them read, they have to do it themselves.

MEP.

I haven't tried this yet, but for this year I'm planning on combining, but then extending with the older kid. I'm doing 5th and 1st together. So we will start with stuff on the 1st graders level, that is mostly just fun and review for the 5th grader. Then I'll send the 1st grader off to play, and tackle the same subject but on a higher level with the 5th grader. 5th grader will also have higher level independent readings. No idea how it will work out, but that's the plan as a way to combine, but on very different levels.

I am trying to design my own 5th grade Ancient History this year, and while I know it's doable, it is also a struggle. For me the hardest part is balancing the amount of reading, as I have a very fast and eager reader, but I'd hate to assign a lot of reading that he ends up hating. We are using spines like the Kingfisher Encyclopedia and the Oxford University Press Ancient History series, and I'm lining it up with SOTW as I am also using that with my first grader. I find it easiest to tie everything together in a spreadsheet, week by week, and work from there. Here is mine so far if it helps: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/152fsn8ma3n6Sto-ngkY6rAQq7d5JyM1pX_52rkzR9Bw/edit?usp=sharing

We did SSL 1 & 2 and the retention was really really low. We are now working through GSWL and 3 years of flashcards for vocab and hes just starting to remember all the words. We still listen to the CD's fairly regularly. However, my 4yo knows most the latin words in SSL 1&2 now as well so there is always that benefit of intense repetition. Even with the low retention, SSL made latin a "fun" subject so I don't regret doing it at all. I do wish we skipped the workbook and just did the DVD/ CDs/ flashcards.

We are in RS E and rarely use the abacus. Somewhere in the middle of B we dropped it for the most part. I will pull it out to show a new strategy if there is a lesson on it, but it's rarely used after that. RS is great even without it. If she likes doing in "in her brain" Beast Academy could be a really good fit. It is difficult, but worthwhile. We do both BA and RS they complement each other well.

Thank you! This will help a ton.

Could you share how this lines up with SOTW? I’ll be looking to do the same thing in two years hopefully.

I would look into University of Maryland University College. It primarily serves military overseas and is designed with that type of student in mind. Also very easy to transfer credits to other University of Maryland schools (College Park or Baltimore College) both of which would look good if the goal is med school.

We use both RS and BA. This year we finished up RS C and BA 3, and will be skipping RS D, doing RS E and BA 4. I think they complement each other wonderfully. BA is hard and makes the kids think differently. It's full of puzzles and difficult questions. But it's not great at teaching algorithms or incremental lessons. This is where RS comes it. It's ability to not just teach an algorithm, but to teach the why behind the algorithms is wonderful. It's repetition and mental math teaching is far greater than BA. In terms of time, sometimes RS is just way to slow. We condense lessons, do 2-3 lessons in one day picking out the highlights, or just plain skip things he knows. We are skipping an entire level because between BA3 and RSC, he's covered all the material in RS D already.

I've kept and often use these lists made by another board member for books for accelerated readers. We've had good luck using them so far. https://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/AJ9YYU9EDTNHJ

24 weeks here and I deal with it by not having another option. It's not like there is any way to stop it, so not dealing isn't an option. I've had extreme morning sickness all 3 pregnancies so far, and it's the largest reason I've waiting 4+ years between kids. I'm a mess while pregnant because of the morning sickness. I pretty much don't go in the kitchen. Family eats terrible, but still eats and they will survive. My 4yo knows not to bug mommy when she's vomiting. It's terrible, but it's just reality so you deal. Things that help in the first half of pregnancy are laying down, cold air, and quiet. The later half of preg is different for me because the vomiting is caused more by extreme heartburn than nausea. In this stage sitting halfway up is most helpful as laying down all the way makes the heartburn worse. Carbonated drinks help.

Sounds normal to me. My just turned 4yo doesn't recognize his name or draw shapes yet. He knows his shapes, but his drawing skills are still at scribbling level. I don't see anything to worry about yet, kids develop differently and 4-5 seems to be an age with tons of new skills to develop.

Normally, I would say adults in the small bedroom. However, something no one else mentioned that would be a dealbreaker for me is leaving kids alone in a room with a balcony. Between crazy toddlers and adventurous preteens I would never feel safe with that situation. The other concern would be whether your youngest would end up in your room/bed anyway for a while even if he was technically in the big room with his sisters. Obviously this would vary by family, but something to consider if you go to the small room and still end up with 3 people in there.

We combine RightStart and Beast Academy. The level for RS is a year lower than that of BA so it’s a bit easier. We do 4-5 lessons of RS a week and 3 days on BA. So far it’s kept us on schedule to finish in a year without taking a summer break (which we don’t for math). We aren’t tied to the schedule though. If RS lessons are really easy we will do 2-3 a day. If BA is especially challenging we won’t do RS that day. So far it’s been working great.

We have a shelf for “fun schoolâ€. Books that are challenging, games I find valuable for his learning, puzzles, etc. Having a shelf has helped me curate the selection he has. He also has approved “school†apps - stuff like scratch, prodigy, elements, maybe BrainPOP. Included in this is writing journals (he loves to write) but if it’s for school time I require that each page has a full sentence. Piano playing is always allowed as well. Usually he has an hour a day of this, but often chooses to stay with what he’s doing for much longer. This is almost always the last part of school for us and functions as a nice transition period.

I’ve struggled with this my whole life. Still do. None of the “rhythm setting†solutions has ever worked for me, and a sleep study found that my biggest problem is my body has a 30 hour cycle. The only thing that ever worked for me was necessity. When I had to work at 5am I’d getup, though I was half asleep for the first few hours at work. When I had babies I had to get up, but that often meant doing what was necessary and laying half asleep on the couch. As my kids grew, I started sleeping in more. My solution - farm animals. But, now my oldest is taking over morning chores (his choice) so I’m back to sleeping in. My newest solution - another baby coming. Not that I’d recommend that.

It’s not really hard to teach. A few pages will leave you puzzled, just skip those. I bought the teacher books but never used them.

I’d highly recommend one or two miquon books with some C rods. The books are around $9 and you can get a nice set of the rods for $15.

We switch to two separate duvets a few years ago and it’s been wonderful. We both sleep so much better. No blanket fights and we can each customize the amount/warmth/weight of blankets.

Not any specific book, but Barnes and Nobles has beautiful illustrated classic books. I’d honestly just go and browse, they are usually at a table in the middle aisle, and see if anything catches your eye. We picked up a wizard of Oz one a few years ago and it is gorgeous.

Does he like knickknacks or clothes based on his gaming interests? If so I’d check out thinkgeek.com

Gloves and soft hats go in coat pockets, hung in front closet. Wet shoes in front of fireplace. Sometimes wet coats/gloves/hats hang on blanket rack in front of fireplace.

My family has always done potatoes in the toe as a kind of ‘coal’. The size of the potatoe says how naughty you were. Done all in good fun. Otherwise it’s fruits and candies and maybe a few $1 items.