California is hot, dry and liberal. But, I do love living here. I don't live in the LA area, we live in the middle of the state, in farming country. But, there's short winters, nice autumns and springs and we manage to make it through the summers without losing our minds. We've just very thankful for air-conditioning. I hope you enjoy living here.

Well, I've been using A Beka totally for Kinder with my boys and I like it. It's very user friendly. Although you have to be careful not to become a "slave" to it. I'm will be using A Beka's phonics/language arts and math program next year, but I wasn't altogether thrilled with their science book, or their history/social studies. Too lightweight. I ordered BJU's Heritage Studies 1 and am teeter-tottering between that and doing SOTW 1. I really like BJU's curriculum, it's much more in depth than A Beka's and I love that it has a lot of geography and map studies, but I am a firm believer in tea

When I was teaching science in Christian schools I used a lot of AIMS (Activities Integrating Math and Science) from Fresno Pacific University. It uses simple things and the kids loved it.

I'm sorry, I have no advice. My now-three year old has been "interested" since she was 20 months old. She'll pee-pee when I tell her to, but she takes no iniative, has no problem playing in wet underwear (or p**pie underwear, for that matter) and I really hate cleaning that up. When it gets a little warmer, we're going for the ol' naked from the waist down trick and see what happens. I can't find her size in diapers that frequently anymore. She's wearing a size 6 now. My boys were so much easier. My oldest boy - we just set him on the potty, gave him a stack of books and as much punch as

I use Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. It's amazing and very in-depth. I've learned a lot since using it.

"For the Children's Sake" and "For the Family's Sake" are great for inspiration. I also talk to my friends whose kids are in public school. Sometimes I even listen to Sean Hannity's "Man on the Street Thursday" and listen to all the lame answers these people have, who have no idea who our Vice-President is, or where Iran is and I think, "This is why I'm home-educating! My children will know these things!":)

My daughter is lactose intolerant and I could always tell if she had some because she'd get bad diaper rash and it would smell acidic. She's pretty sensitive down there anyhow. She gets yeast infections and then these other weird infections that I went to the dr. for and he pretty much said it's like acne (it was little pustules) and would come and go. And it does. Strange. I'll be so glad when she's potty trained. She just turned 3 and has absolutely no interest.

Nothin' wrong with A Beka. Besides, I'd be curious to know how many of us really are super hard-core classical homeschoolers. It seems to me like a lot of hybrids anyhow. You have to do what works for you!

I'm going to stick with what TWTM does for science this year and see how that goes. I just can't afford to buy more "curriculum". There's a ton of stuff on the internet for experiments and I taught jr. high science for years, so that's right up my alley.

We drove from California to Kansas and back a 2 years ago with a 4 year old, a 3 year old and a 15 month old. It was a great trip. I did map everything out and reserved hotels in advance. The good thing about that, was we knew we had a room waiting for us. The bad thing, we had to make certain mileage, and we couldn't go off on tangents if we wanted to. Although with kids that age, it was probably better that we knew we had a room waiting for us. My sil took that trip once (to see the relatives) and was driving around the Oklahoma panhandle at 10:00 at night looking for a room with 2 little

I got these froggy counters from Rainbow Resource. There's a couple of work books that go with it. Those are always fun. I also use the froggies just to do the A Beka math. A Beka is not hip on manipulatives. So, we do all our addition sums with the help of the froggies. It helps my boys a lot! I also got some pattern blocks and coordinating workbooks from Rainbow Resource. They like that for a change of pace. And there's always Candyland and some of those games that reinforce math concepts.

I'm buying now, too. I like to plan and think ahead for a while. My brain is like a crock pot - I need to throw everything in and let it sit a while before I'm ready. I also buy my phonics and math from A Beka and if you order from a book display you get free shipping. That'll be a $35 savings for me if I can get my buns over there next week.

Chelle took one of mine. Dry pinto beans and lots of yogurt containers. A sink half full of water with the faucet running on low and a bunch of tupperware always works, too.

I think it depends on the person. If you're the average run of the mill person, jack of all trades, master of none, you might go through many different careers. I started out in the nursing program in college, switched to teaching and taught school for 11 years. I'm home now with the kids, but when they're gone, I'm looking into ornamental horticulture. I think the ones who pick one career and stick with it are people who either have very strong passions or are very gifted in a certain area.

I will have a first grader next year and will be doing SOTW1 and have no plans to do a timeline. In my "professional" opinion (yeah right!) I'm not sure time has real meaning to young children yet. They aren't teaching number lines in math yet, and a timeline is really a number line. I'm going to concentrate more on "place". My boys love maps, we're doing A Beka's "Children of the World" right now and they love it when I get out the map, so we're going to focus on "where" things happened this time around and "who" they happened to, rather than so much "when" they happened. We'll pick up mor

We're doing A Beka Kindergarten Math, and while I wouldn't say we've hit a wall, I know we aren't ready to move on yet. So, we take time off - do review work, do manipulatives, I've got pattern blocks and a work book with that, play Candyland (for colors). I'm not sure what your content area is in 3rd grade, but are there projects you can do to reinforce? Such as doubling recipes for fractions, or something like that? When I was teaching school, we were always in the doldrums at this time of year, so I'd take off and do a mini-unit on something totally different.

I can't add much to what everyone else has said, but I feel your pain! I am curriculum obsessed, especially at this time of year. But I'm like this with everything - if I have too many choices I go crazy. This is why I like eating at In 'n Out Burger - the only choice you have is cheese or no cheese. Lol! It's history I'm going back and forth on right now. I'm just going to have to decide on something and go with it, I think.

I'll be doing pretty much what TWTM recommends for 1st grade. Phonics/Math - A Beka History - SOTW volume 1 Science - Kingisher First Encyclopedia of Animals We've been doing a lot of singing and poetry in kindergarten anyhow, so we'll continue to do that.

I've gotten stung several times and never got a vax. My son put a "dead" wasp in his mouth last summer (don't ask me why, he's a boy) and it stung him and his lower lip swelled up something fierce. The swelling went down in a couple hours and he was none the worse for wear.

and then I read this thread and realized... I am not. I have some vague, general ideas, and sometimes I get some good ideas about fun units, like about spiders or something and plan that out, but I generally plan one week at a time. I never know what's going to come up. I like to be flexible and I hate having to redo all my plans.

It's not terribly glamorous, but I cook my brown rice in Swanson's Vegetable broth and it gives it a really good flavor.

I have had 5 years of allergy shots and I have no idea if they've helped or not. I tested positive for everything they tested me for, but I wasn't in horrible shape before I went in. It's a long story. So, I'm quitting them. It's a hassle. The closest allergist is 45 minutes away and I was going twice a month. With gas prices here in Calif. and just the time spent, I couldn't do it. So, we'll see what happens as I go off them. What helped me most was Allegra-D. I think part of my problem, too, is I have chronic systemic yeast infection and E. Barr virus, so who knows what the heck is making me

We vacation in Santa Cruz every year. The aquarium in Mont. is great, but it is pricey! Just drive out on the peninsula to Asilomar, it's gorgeous, there are tide pools. It's just gorgeous. You can take a boat tour out on the Bay from Fisherman's Warf. That's always fun. Gotta get the clam chowder and sour dough bowl, fried calamari. If you want to drive toward Santa Cruz, there's the Roaring Camp Railroad up in the mountains near Felton. Last year we hiked around Big Basin, which has a lot of redwoods, etc. That's in the same general area. Capitola (near Santa Cruz) is a darling little beach

Narnia, definitely Outlander. I was Claire in all those books. Oh, they were so good!

I haven't have a lot of experience with bullying, but one thing I've seen is that if they are stood up to, they back down. Generally. I was a timid shy child growing up, but I was never bullied, except for once on the bus. I was in the "bully's seat". But, there was no other place to sit. He told me to move, I looked him in the eye and said, "No, you can sit with him" motioning to his friend in the next seat. Everyone else was yelling, "Sit down, sit down" so we could go home. He was ticked off, but he sat elsewhere and never messed with me again. Also, when I was teaching, a bullying victi