We wouldn't do well with that late a start. I'd probably wind up pushing off way too many things. I'm not sure exactly how things will pan out this year, though. We're all fairly early risers (usually btw 6 and 7, even in the summer), but I need a lot of warm up time and coffee, lol. I plan on having the kids do some independent work after breakfast, and then get a real start around 10. I think the goal is going to be to have the girls done by 3-ish and help ds with anything that needs a lot of assistance after dinner.

Oh, definitely! Of course, *I'm always the one who winds up wanting a blanket the most, lol. Regulating A/C and heat to please everyone is just impossible.

My sister has 2 pugs. Very cute, not exactly easy to train, size makes clean up relatively easy, prone to health problems due to their facial structure. I'm not anti-pug, but the health issues give me pause. And the snorting. Oh, the snorting! We adopted 2 mutts with a 7 year old, 3 year old, and 2 year old in the house. BIG dogs (one is mostly German Shephard, the other is mostly Rottweiler). We intended to get one, and stupidly fell in love with a second, lol. The age factor wasn't a big deal to *us*, because our kids were born rolling around with German Shephards. My inlaws breed them. Had they not had that exposure, it would have been a different story. The age factor *was a big deal to many rescue groups, and we had to do a lot of research and explain our experience in order to be approved. Personally, I think it's very important to that young kids start with a puppy rather than an older dog, so a respectable breeder can be a good way to go. For us, we focused on puppy rescue groups. I HATE puppies, but I wanted to know our dogs' histories. Despite my inlaws' breeding, I go for rescue. One, because animals are being put to death every day. Two, mutts are much less prone to breed-specific health issues, and generally live longer.

No school room here, mostly b/c we just don't have the space! Depending on what's being used (and whether the baby is napping or out and about), my kids are either at the dining room table, at the coffee table, on the couch, or in their bedrooms. My oldest keeps all of his books in his room. My girls' main books and all of my books/planners/folders are on the sideboard, lined up and stacked. Supplies like notebooks, filler paper, drawing paper, construction paper are in a cube organizer. Readers and supplements are in a bookshelf on our landing. Our small house has a very open floor plan, so I can see the kids everywhere but in their bedrooms. Honestly, I'm usually on the couch reading to someone or going over directions. Having a laptop is very important to me, because our only desk space is secluded from the rest of the house, and I just can't be tied to it with 4 kids running in different directions. School-wise, it works just fine for us. Company-wise, not so much! When we move, we are hoping for a designated school space, if only to keep the rest of our house from looking like a bomb went off in a library.

We took our first big road trip with a 5 year old, 1 year old, and 3 week old. It was *crazy*, but completely worth it! My sisters make the drive from Atlanta to NJ in 12 hours. It took us about 18 to get down there, lol. Yes, I laugh FIVE YEARS later! For us, the key was a well-stocked cooler and frequent stops. DVDs, Game Boys, books and coloring books ran a close 2nd. It also helped that we had a spare seat in the back of the mini van so that I could spend time back there with the kids while they were awake. We pack the van the night before, and load the kids in before the sun comes up, still in their jammies. That way, they start the trip with a nice, long nap. I gave them the gene for sleeping in the car.:) We did decide that driving straight through was too much for all of us. On the way back, we got a hotel room in Virginia, and we've continued to do that for all of our trips to/from GA. It gives the kids a chance to use the hotel pool and burn off some energy, and play some games that aren't exactly car-friendly. The drive isn't my favorite thing to do, but we haven't been overly tempted to leave any of the kids at a rest stop. Yet. Our trip this year was canceled, but we had some great plans for giving the kids maps to follow and landmarks to look for. I'm kind of sad that we missed it. The one thing I won't do (unless there's an emergency of some sort) is make the drive without another adult. To me, that's just way too stressful.

Best of luck to you, Joanne. Mediation has never been pretty for me and my ex, but we're starting to get better. I'm ashamed to admit that it's taken 9 years to get there, but homeschooling has been the biggest factor in that. I *have learned to have hope, how to negotiate, how to restrain myself, and how to be open-minded, even when dealing with the most difficult person I know (next to myself!) Wishing you the strength to get there much faster than I did!

I do look all the way through high school for my 5th grader, but we haven't actually planned things. With my 5 and 6 year olds, I'm not even sure I have the whole year covered, but I do have a year's worth of material on hand. My kids are so asynchronous that I just think it would be pointless for me to spend a lot of time making long term plans. I think about it now and then, to try to keep from being completely blindsided, but that's about it. I have a pretty good outline for our first 4 weeks of "official" school, but I'm pretty sure we'll wind up rearranging quite a bit. I'm making plans with my mother in law to take the kids for every third weekend or so while I sketch out another 4 weeks, based on the previous 3. I feel like that would give me a good balance of anal retentiveness and flexibility, lol.

I started to research homeschooling almost 4 years before I actually did it. Now, a year into our homeschool experience, I'm just beginning to identify with certain philosophies and develop our personal "style." The more you know... ya know? I definitely agree with ordering catalogs, and ordering them from every source, regardless of religious affiliation. We are a completely secular family, but we order most of our materials from Christian suppliers. Some of the things we buy are secular, some have religious content that we adapt to our needs, and some have sections we choose to skip. Secular Homeschooling Magazine (http://www.secular-homeschooling.com) often has articles on adapting certain curricula. When my girls were toddlers, I just read everything I could get my hands on. When they were preschool age, I began narrowing down the philosophies and methods that appealed to me. Now, in early elementary, I focus on learning more about classical/latin/WTM ideas. Kind of like my own little trivium.:D

As a transplant, I don't like living in the Poconos. Love the mountains, love the seclusion, love the country shopping, *hate* the lack of acceptance. We've been here for 3 years, and I don't think we would ever stop being considered outsiders.

I usually buy soy or palm wax tarts from wahms. I made some as gifts last Christmas, and I was just talking to my dds about making up a few batches later today. They're super easy and not too expensive to do at home... if you can resist buying every fragrance that's out there!

Well, now I really want a counter top over back-to-back cabinets in a finished basement with bookshelves, side cabinets, a comfy chair, chalk boards, good lighting, nice flooring, art supply storage... I'll settle for a new camera though. For now.:D

Dh isn't *active* in the kids' schooling, but it's okay. This time last year, he wasn't happy with the idea of homeschooling at all. Now he's very pro-homeschool in general. I'll take emotionally supportive over active! There are times I wish he would give me some feedback, but it's also nice to hear him say "I'm sure you'll choose what's best." And then it's nice to have his support when I decide something wasn't the best and want to replace it!;)

My son's pediatrician dx'ed him with Asperger's after a 20 minute meeting. That did NOT sit well with me! I didn't need a referral, so I just called up a child development center and told them I wanted a full eval for neurological disorders. I felt that asking the ped about Asperger's influenced his so-called evaluation. Through the center, J was evaluated by a child psychologist, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, a speech therapist, an educational psychologist, and some other child development specialist (I lose track, lol). They did their independent evals, and then got together to discuss the results before meeting with me to go over them. Because of the referral process, I would request a developmental pediatrician. They're most likely to have established relationships with all of the other specialists. As far as comparing kids... there are so many factors and nuances of factors involved. It's really hard to find 2 aspies who are very much alike. And some things are really hard to notice without experience. Like, J has always been happy to play with others. Still, he doesn't relate well to other kids. He wants to play games they don't "get", or he wants to make the rules, or he doesn't understand when they're teasing ("nice" teasing or "not-nice" teasing, and he certainly can't tell the difference between the two). It's like the difference between "Homeschooled kids are unsocialized" and "Homeschool kids don't sit in a classroom with 20 other children for 6.5 hours a day." You have to understand socialization to know what adds up and what doesn't.

Well, I have 4 kids! My main e-mail address is TooOfEach. I have 2 boys, 2 girls, 2 dogs, 2 cats... I like things in pairs :). The form of 'too' is in reference to feeling overwhelmed quite often! I used to use an email account with a syllable from each of my children's names, but once #4 came around, it got to be a bit long and silly.

I've been having a hard time stalling, too. DS can't really officially start until Sept. 2, so I've just been doing little bits and pieces of "warm up" work with everyone. Mostly just reading books and doing a little of the lessons we plan to skip.

Do I buy things that I don't want my husband to know about? Phrased that way, no. Do I want him to know how much I paid for the 12 hand-dyed, home-serged, organic sherpa/organic bamboo velour cloth diaper wipes that came in the mail today? Um, no. Not because I shouldn't spend $35 on whatever I want (I should. He does.), or that it ate into the budget for something else (It didn't.) Just because he'll make fun of me. :tongue_smilie:

I don't feel that it's *necessary at all, but I have kids who absolutely adore worksheets. DD6 flew through Calvert K, and did half of 1st grade last year. I would say that the first 3/4 of Calvert (and some of Saxon 1, I haven't looked very far ahead yet) are things my kids picked up through daily life. My daughter didn't really need any direct instruction until they started to touch on time and money.

I've never done REAL hypnobirthing, but I did use a combination of tips from hypnobirthing and the Bradley method, for babies #3 and #4. That, along with a really fabulous midwife, made for 2 great births. It was almost enough to convince me to become a Bradley instructor. Then I found out how expensive it is to become a Bradley instructor!

One of the very few reasons I look forward to moving back to NJ is their homeschool situation. That letter would annoy me so much that I would probably find myself responding with a letter about my right to *not inform the district of my status. Unsigned, of course, since signing would defeat my point, lol.

I accidentally ordered the 1/2" for my 5 and 6 year olds. I figured I'd let them play with it a bit and, it turns out, they write SO much better with it! Obviously, every kid is different, but it turned out to be a great "mistake" for us.

We're only going on year 2 (year 1 for my oldest), but we have several vague long-term plans in mind and I'm looking forward to seeing which ways we go. My oldest has a late birthday and started out in regular public school, so his "normal" graduate age would be 17. He's already a year "ahead" in math, and I'm guessing he'll accelerate pretty quickly in more subjects with the cyber charter this year. I'm hoping to take him out of the system completely in another year or two, so he can spend more time on the topics he enjoys most. I really have no idea what that kid has in store for me!

We haven't completely decided yet. My older dd is finishing up Calvert's 1st grade curriculum and my younger dd is starting Saxon 1. I like both of those programs, but I haven't decided whether to get them both on the same program or keep the status quo.

My 10 year old is using a cyber charter for his "main" lessons, but we'll also be doing The Latin Road and various logic books. Since I've decided to call my 5 and 6 year olds first graders, everyone will be working on the ancients together, and I'm *really looking forward to that. I haven't picked up anything for outlining yet, b/c I want to look through his school LA program before I buy anything else. Ds has always gone to regular public school, and I'm really happy to be bringing him home in this stage!

It really does! Simple words that somehow manage to elude me when I need them the most, lol. I appreciate all of the thoughts. I did just go over to Rainbow Resource and order the Countdown book (and managed to turn it into a $50 order @@) so we can play with that one a bit, too.

We've been able to keep them at bay for a few short periods, but *nothing* we've tried has actually eradicated them. We bought our house 3 years ago. Came to see it in very early spring (it was a completely empty vacation house). Didn't notice ants. Came again before putting in an offer. Saw ants. Sellers said they would call an exterminator. Came back before closing. Carpets covered in dead ants, still saw tons of live ones. Exterminator went back. I guess we were really in love with the house. We still bought it. Didn't notice ants when moving in. Since then, they've come back a million times. Tried herbs. Tried poisons. Tried vinegar. Actually, the vinegar probably worked the best, but it requires constant re-application. We've learned to live in relative peace with them, and we try not to think about what they're doing to our house. Obviously, we are not the smartest folks!