Could the older girl stay after her mom goes if you offer to drive her home the next day? Honestly, in that situation, I'd be tempted to plan lots of very active things for the younger ones to do during the day to tire them out then quietly suggest the older girls pretend to go bed at the same time as the younger girl then have their time to chat after she falls asleep.

This year we have a classroom. It's a great room and we really enjoy it. There are school style desks for the older kids, a round classroom table for the younger ones, an adult sized desk, a chalkboard, and lots of open shelves and cubbies for books and materials. It's in a room that was supposed to be a formal dining room. The room is near the front door and is fairly open to the rest of the house; no doors and installing doors or baby gates wouldn't really be practical. The only problem? Every single kid who walks into the house goes right into the classroom. They start drawing over our lessons on the chalkboard, taking things off the shelves, pulling curriculum books out of the desks, etc. They often want to spend the whole visit in the classroom 'playing school' and don't want to take no for an answer. I've learned that, for our family, the classroom must be kept as a place that is organized and used only for work. When it's used as a playroom schoolwork becomes a struggle until we're back in our routine. Not to mention I don't want curriculum written in, workbook pages done by someone else, books rearranged, earmarked art supplies used for general play, adult use supplies taken (post its, sharpies), or lessons on the chalkboard needing to be rewritten. I feel like a wet blanket during every play date or get together. The kids are annoyed they can't play in the classroom and I'm annoyed I have to 'guard' the room whenever a kid drops by. It's especially bad when one of my kids has a friend stop by while another is in the classroom trying to work. I've put together a bin with school type stuff they can play with freely in another room or outside. Small chalkboards and chalk, old workbooks, paper, pencils, etc. but they never seem interested in playing with it. Just wanted to vent my frustration! It's getting to where I don't want to allow friends inside the house. Even when kids come with thier parents and the mom stays to visit it's a problem. They think it's so cute that their kid is pretending to be in school in our 'make believe' classroom. It's a REAL classroom, not a playroom!

Could you suggest some activities for the older girls? Even if they just take a walk it would give them some time alone. If the mom insists the younger girl tag along say you're not comfortable with the older girls being responsible for her and if the mom decides to go along too allow the older girls to change their mind, stay home, and pick something else. Eventually the mom should get the idea that the older girls are just trying to do something without anyone else.

We've used tt3 and I do think it's behind other programs which has resulted in us having to play catch up in order to get ready for standardized testing. Not sure if it is an issue in higher grade levels but it is enough of a difference that I'm going to have to be careful they don't get behind again. FWIW, we have another child niw starting tt3 - an average in math second grader who can comfortably use tt3.

We're not in as rural an area but it's 20-30 minutes to get anywhere worth going, another 30 minutes to get to a area with a larger population, and around 3 hours one way to get to a city with good choices of things to do. We defiantly don't make any of those drives everyday,it just wouldn't be worth the cost of gas or the time. I try to plan one big outing every week or two with one or two smaller trips during the week. We've pretty much exhausted the nearby activity options and the library isn't very good so many of these outings are just errands to stores. We do have kids in the neighborhood,including other homeschoolers, so finding playmates isn't such a big concern; we just sometimes need to get out of the house for a change of scenery.

We've decided against purchasing the app but will be keeping an eye on it. Our reason is that the price for one or two students feels too high. It would be a good deal if many of our kids were using it but we don't need it for everyone. We will definitely reconsider if the individual licenses are offered via a coop at a reduced rate or if the pricing structure is changed to offer license packages for more than one but less than five students. For now print books that we can use without time limits, hand down to the younger kids, or resell make more sense for our family.

American Girl series of books?

No but I also don't check every single answer either. It's become pretty easy to look over a paper to see if they are getting it. If not we sit down and I pick out some that were missed to go over. I don't really stress about a few simple mistakes here and there.

I'm finding the pricing a bit confusing. Why would two five student packs need to be purchased for two kids? Is that assuming they will be using it for many years? Is there an option that would be more economical for a family that does not need the app for five students or for multiple years but would like more than one child to use it for one year? (I know paper programs are more expensive but they can be either tried out for any length of time for the price of a workbook or are non consumable and able to be reused or resold without time limits) When you say the program can be used for more than one child but may not be as useful does that mean two children can use the same 'one child' license but it just won't be quite as useful for the child who takes longer to complete the work? Is there any way to skip ahead if a child really isn't understanding a section and would like to move on then go back or are the sections locked until the app deems the work was done to a certain level? If so, is that level 100% understanding or something else? Thanks for answering all these questions!

One more question.... Many of the prices listed in the app store description read as 'level 1 for one student' or similar. Does that mean each individual level costs $15 per student or $30 for 2-5 students? For example, if two kids used it for levels 1-4 would we have to pay $120?

A few questions: When I look up the app in the App Store it gives the price as 'free' but your post says $15 for one student or $30 for 2-5 students. Which is correct? Is there a price for less time or fewer students? I'd like it for two students but would rather not commit to buying 2.5 years of access for each of them. Are screenshots available anywhere? The descriptions says 'offers in app purchases'. Does that mean my kids will be allowed by the app to make purchases? Does the five day trial require payment information? In my experience 'free trials' of that nature are often difficult or impossible to cancel. What is involved in canceling a five day trial?

We limit it and almost always combine activities. With a big family where most of the kids are still little it's just not fair to everyone for myself and four of the kids to sit in a crowded waiting room (or in the car) for an hour or two so one of the kids can go to an activity. We live too far from everything for drop off activities to be possible and evenings are reserved for family time unless there is a special single event type activity. When the kids are older and I'm not having to chase a toddler or pace with a baby in a waiting room or on bleachers then all the kids will be able to do more activities but for now they'll be just fine with one or two. To 'make up' for the relative lack of activities during the year the older kids get to go to sleep away summer camp for a couple weeks in the summer. It gives them lots of social time, sports, misc. activities, swim lessons, etc. to hold them for most of the year.

We're using sonlight core d plus their science package this year and I'm not sure what will need to be added. Definitely math and spelling but not sure what else. Is additional work in grammar needed? What else? Thanks!

We used to have a big school style one but it didn't work any better than the little one. It's a westcott brand battery powered one from target. It was maybe around $5 and has been sharpening well on the same set of batteries for a year. Definitely keep colored pencils out of electric sharpeners, the wax in them will slow down the sharpener and cause it to overheat then stop working.

Memoria press? If so, it's the one I was going to suggest too. Lots of repetition but it's still good.

We have the colorations brand from discount school supply. It's inexpensive but I'm not sure on the shopping cost if an order is under the $79 free shipping minimum.

We sometimes have similar problems. Some days are better than others so when a day when everything is clicking comes up we will often do several days worth of work. The younger kids (our kids are 4th grade, 2nd grade, 4, 2, and 1) watch more tv than they should but I'm ok with it right now. The oldest likes to stay up late so we often do schoolwork that is best done one on one in quiet at that time, reading and independent work is more often done by the older kids in their rooms during the day. I have the classroom all set up thinking the older kids would work at their desks while the younger ones quietly entertain themselves with some special toys and other items reserved for only that time. Uh, yeah, it didn't really work like that! When they're in the classroom they're making noise, getting into things, or both.

What brand is it? We have some Elmer's that were purchased a couple years ago and are sill good. They've been left in the original packaging and have been stored either in a closet or on a bookshelf the whole time. We do live in a humid climate but the house is climate controlled. Maybe keep them in a ziploc bag?

'Pay what you are able' seems just as subjective with an added layer of guilt. Am I able to pay $500 for a workbook? Yes, I am. Am I able to pay even more than that? Yes again. I could take money out of savings or max out my credit card. Am I going to? No way. Do I like being made to feel bad if I don't give a publisher every penny I am able to scrounge up? No, I don't. I didn't buy anything and haven't looked (we have to pay for gigabyte for Internet so downloads don't make sense for us) but I thought of this sale as a way for publishers to show off what they have for sale while potentially getting paid a percentage of what they would otherwise charge. The income potential from people who downloaded one item, like it, buy more at regular price, or tell their friends about it could be significantly more than the value of the downloads people bought for a penny. There are also many people who bought items for a small amount who otherwise wouldn't have made the purchase at all. Selling 100 digital downloads for $50 is just as much profit as selling ten copies for $5 each if those other 90 people would not otherwise have purchased at all.

Ours has the same sale but it's limited to two and you have to spend $5 on regular priced items before they allow you to buy anything at the sale price. Everything else is so expensive that it makes more sense to save the gas money and hassle and buy the glue for $1 somewhere I'm going anyway. The hoops you have to jump through are getting ridiculous. To get a good deal on copy paper you have to give them all your personal information to sign up for a store reward type card, pay an inflated price upfront, limit your purchase to one item, fill out a rebate form, mail the form to them along with the original receipt, and wait for store credit for part of the price. Maybe it would be worth it if it was closer but, honestly, all that time is worth than $5.

Haven't checked Walmart because I really, really don't like shopping there. It's not an issue with finding anything in particular, I just like to stock up when prices are reasonable. Things like paper, markers, crayons, and glue sticks are used quickly so it makes sense to pick up extras when they're on sale.

The local schools here start in a few days so the school supply sales are wrapping up. Every year we've been able to pick up some really good deals but this year there were no deals worth going all the way to the stores for. The few super low prices had strict limits, like one her household (not per person) or just two with a $5 purchase (of way overpriced regular priced items). Are the days of 10 cent notebooks now days gone by?

Not sure if this is helpful but we have the pre level 1 physics laboratory workbook, purchased about a year ago. It goes experiment by experiment and has 5-15 pages for each experiment. The upper corner of each page says 'experiment 5' or whatever the number. The pages themselves are general workbook pages about the experiments; there are places to draw pictures, questions with answer lines, and so on.

You don't really have to but, IMO, it would get confusing.

That's it for $123? Unless the price of tempera paint has gone way up it seems rather expensive for what you get.