We love peach salsa. I grill some salmon and serve the salsa on the side or right on top.

Without a doubt my favorite recording is Sean Bean's King Arthur. We are also a big fan of Benjamin Soames's Greek Legends cds.

:iagree: I whine about this chore all the time. I'm glad I'm not the only one. My husband can't understand why I don't mind cleaning toilets but moan every time I have to unload the dishwasher. Don't mind loading it, just unloading. I delegated the flatwear removal to my son and as soon as I trust him with my plates, he can have that job too. :D

It has been many years since I've seen this but I seem to remember prostitutes and maybe they were dressed, well like prostitutes. It also takes place during the French Revolution and it does show some of the street violence during that. The ending may be a little disturbing for a 9 year old too. I would prewatch it to get a better idea.

This is a great question and I look forward to hearing what others have to say. One thing that I am very happy with is the emphasis on memorization during the early years. This has worked out very well and has given them, I believe, a greater understanding of history. I heard a teacher saying that rote learning is out and not a good way to teach. I completely disagree with this. My kids memorized the kings and queens, presidents and major wars and as we worked out way through history, those names and wars meant something, then, and they were able to place them in a mental time line and basically just remember the facts surrounding those people better. It has become a joke in my extended family that my kids are little historical encyclopedias. One thing I wish I had spent more time on was the recommended narration. I don't think I really understood how I was supposed to go about it in the early years and I made it too complicated and was trying to do it for too many subjects and burnt out quickly. I wish I had stuck with it for maybe just one subject and not been so detailed, if that makes sense. I could go on but I don't want to turn the post into a book. ;) But I will say that so far I am well pleased with WTM's philosophy in the grammar stage.

I think they are very good books for new readers or reluctant readers. My two reluctant readers have read them all and it is nice that they were learning history at the same time. There are not many beginner books like that. There have been many times when my kids have said some historical fact and I've asked where they had heard of it and they said, "Magic Tree House!" I would also recommend Pope's Adventures of Odysseus series.

When my son broke his arm, we spend almost 3 days at CHoP waiting for surgery. The only thing that would keep my morphined son quiet was watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on their DVD player over and over again. I felt a little insane by the end of the visit. I think you have to be highly medicated to enjoy it.:w00t: It was funny because every doctor, nurse, etc that came into the room would stop to watch it for a few minutes, and they all made the same comment, "I like Johnny Depp but this is weird." They all recommended the original and said it was much better, less creepy.

Shakespeare. Much Ado About Nothing, I agree. I do not understand the fuss about Shakespeare. It is torturous for me to read his comedies as they all read like a cheesy sitcom. That said, I "made" my ds and dd read Lamb's Shakespeare. They liked most of them. Go figure.

My midwife always reminded me that everyone is different and it is hard to predict when Flo will make her return. I nursed exclusively all 4 of my children until they began solids at 6 or 7 months old and got my period at 7 weeks postpartum. Every. Single. Time. It was annoying. So, yes, I think there is a great posibility that your Auntie has come for a visit.

(((Said as gently as possible))) Honestly, if what you said is accurate and not just pregnancy hormones talking (because for me, they always see everything as dire!) I think you are doing your children a disservice and you really need to reevaluate just why you are home schooling. You said you have a little one coming, and I think trying to make up so much lost time with a newborn will be very difficult. I don't think it is very reasonable for you to suddenly expect yourself to get organized if you haven't done it yet and are about to have a baby. I am just trying to be honest with you. Perhaps it would be wise to start looking into either an online homeschool, public or private school.

My girls loved Shirley Temple movies at that age.

I think the only music I listen to while running is Beethoven's 9th. LOL I am currently running to The Teaching Co's C.S. Lewis lecture. I don't know why but I tend to bore easily with music and I can't seem to find the will to push myself when I am bored.

When my dd was 6 or 7 she went from reading The Magic School House books to reading Pippi Longstocking. I think Pippi is a great book to make the transition from little chapter books to good novels.

I loved The Thirteenth Tale. My dh has been away camping with my three older kids, and it is just my 4 year old and me. I'm having your weekend of cleaning, organizing and reading. :D I'm reading William Steig's Dominic to my dd, and I'm personally reading Finally Feminist.

GREAT article! I printed all 19 pages and took them to bed last night and stayed up till 1 a.m. reading it. I was "in the dark before the day yet was." ;)

Bridget Jones a modern classic? Oh, yes, Fielding's prose is right up there with Austen. Hard to tell them a part, really. ;) Of that list, I think I've read two but I've seen the movie version to about ten or more. LOL They were all depressing movies, which reminds me why I rarely read modern books.

My kids really like the "How to" art books. You can probably find most of the books at your library if you want to check them out first. They are very colorful and the little kids seem to love them. They are not my favorite books to read aloud, but I can't say I really enjoy reading many preschool age books. :001_smile:

My son starts 4th grade soon. This is the first year I asked him to help in the selection process. Basically I made a long list, I told him a bit about each book and he circled the books he thought he would like. We have: The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson The Reb and Redcoats by Constance Savery The WInged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare Faerie Gold by Kathryn Lindskoog I am looking forward to hearing what others have chosen. I will probably need a few more.

Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that. She led such an interesting life filled with quiet beauty. She will be missed.

Just a quick reply to some things I noticed in your original post. You said you are getting roof work. My recommendation is not to do any gardening around the house until this is done. Just completely rule it out. They will destroy everything around your house while doing the new roof. Recommendation #2 would be to hire a landscape architect. This is really not too expensive and for a couple hundred dollars they may be able to give you a basic plan that you and your dh can work with. Always start your work with the hard lanscaping such as paths and then move to plants. Recommendation #3 is to can the mint, or at least grow it only in a pot. You will thank yourself for this when you don't have a yard completely taken over by mint. Recommendation #4: It sounds like your dh is very busy but would like gardening as a hobby when he has time. A very wise gardener once gave me excellent advice regarding this. She said that you should spend one weekend preparing a garden. At the end of Sunday, stop. What you have been able to do in those two days is realistically all that a sometimes hobby gardener will have time for.

Good for you! We used to shut our satelitte off for 6 months and then turn it back on for 6 months. The last time the 6 months was over, we decided to keep it off for good and I am so glad we did. I will warn you, though, in my case anyway, it does take a few months before they "recover" from their used-to-being-entertained mode. But it is so worth it! Oh, and a house without television does tend to be a little, um, noisy, especially with boys. It may be a good idea to have art supplies and a huge stack of library books on hand for them. :001_smile: Good luck!

That is the oddest thing I've ever heard. I think you see him way too often. ;)

I have 4 kids who are about the same grades as your children. Mine will be this coming year 4th, 3rd, 2nd and K. For me a schedule is key. I sit down Sunday night and write out our weekly schedule. It's also important to set realistic goals. I know I've heard Latin for an hour a day but when you are teaching 4 different levels of the same subject, well, it's not possible. We start off the day doing all the subjects that we do together like history and science. These are often the subjects that get pushed to the back burner and I really didn't want that for us, so we do them first. For the other subjects, I've had much success with the staggering schedules. If you are working one on one with your K on phonics, have your older kids do work that they can do on their own. It can be challenging to do when they are in these early grades and rely on mom for guidance, I know. For me, it is important to have the day totally mapped out. If I try and wing it, the day is very unorganized, subjects are forgotten, I'm trying to do math with three kids at the same time, and it makes us all crazy. Your oldest son sounds very much like mine. I think it is typical big brother behaviour. Drives me nuts too.

I generally do not like reading books in a series because I do not like to wait. I read the Harry Potter series only after the last book came out. I watched the LOTR movies only after the last DVD came out. My husband got me hooked on Stephen Lawhead's series Hood. I want to kill him. I didn't realize it was a series when I read the first book and now I've been waiting for a year for the third book to come out.:glare: My 8 year old dd loves series books. She is currently reading Sister's Grimm #5. I've also read a lot of classic series books to the kids: Pippi, Narnia, Anne, etc. Outside of Narnia, I think I get tired of reading series books and I try to convince them to read the next book on their own so we can move on to something fresh. :001_smile:

We've never camped out there, but last Father's Day, we went out to Lurray for the weekend and saw the caverns. It was a retro good time. We stayed at a Day's Inn with a pool, which is about my speed. LOL Also, check out the activities at the National Parks where you go. They have astronomy nights where you bring your telescope and enjoy the stars. Have fun! The Blue Ridge Mountains are beautiful. :001_smile: