This isn't exactly in you age range, it's for a little older kids, but I just love "God's Great Covenant" series by Classical Academic Press.

I've been stuck on Isaac for a while. Our second DS is Jonathan, and I still love that name.

It's pretty neat, but I really wouldn't use it as a purse.

I feel your pain. I'm sitting at my computer right now, working on curriculum. I have a 2 year old under my chair and a 4 year old on the couch arm right behind me. I've cleaned up a lake of pee-pee in the kitchen this morning already and just barely managed to get her to the potty on time to avoid a poop incident (which is no fun since she loves fruit, plums especially). It's tough here in the trenches. You've gotten good ideas. I try the same things. My only time of real peace is during nap time.

Well, I've never had to worry about that because the minute my kids get a new pencil, the eraser is bitten off. We always use a hand-held eraser that I keep in my pocket or it would get lost. (Sigh).

Breathe! Breathe! Ok. You're fine. Yes, you probably have some very real concerns, but you don't need to panic, just evaluate. I'm sure yu are where you should be, but just stop and think about where your child is. Is he at or around grade level in most subjects? Are you covering all the subjects you should be, in a pretty thorough and systematic way? If the answer is "yes" then you're fine academically. Does he have friends? Or at least is able to talk to people? Can he go into a store and buy milk? Can he order at a restaurant? Well, then he's probably ok socially. I know, it's easy to get into a tizzy. Sometimes I feel that way, but I chalk it up to the brainwashing that goes on on public education, that they are the only ones who can do a legitimate job educating our children. S, when I panic, I go through my mental check-list and realize that we are fine.

We are Presbyterian and our church teaches that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. We (dh and I) are not truly Reformed, in that we are credo-baptists as opposed to paedo-baptists (we believe in baptism upon confession of faith and not as an infant) although our church does not teach that baptism saves. It is a sign that a child is part of the covenant community.

This!

I watch my friend's 4 year old for a couple hours in the morning once a week. That probably doesn't really qualify as "in-home daycare" but it's enough to know I wouldn't want to do any more of it. He's a reasonably good kid and entertains himself, but... he's another distraction for my kids, which I don't need. I do it because it really helps her out and it earns me my "mad money"!

We have never had a lot of luck with air mattresses. They do tend to lose air for some reason, at least the ones we've gotten. We stopped using them and just use the thin foam pads. They don't provide support, but at least you don't feel every rock and stick under you.

Start with the Ancients. Story of the World is geared toward a little younger child, but it's such a great curriculum I'd use it, if I were you, and then supplement with a few more books and projects.

The week that ends July and begins August. We will have had a 7 week summer vacation and that's enough. I like to take weeks off periodically during the school year.

It's nice, isn't it? We're on summer vacation now and the kids are home (no VBS till next week), but they're outside a lot and I am getting so much done. I'm on top of the laundry, cleaned off my dresser, doing some baking this morning, potty training my youngest... I have to say... it's tempting to not homeschool. I could get used to this lifestyle.

I was one class short of a minor in chemistry. But I was taking 20 units per semester to graduate when I wanted to and the idea of taking Quantitative Analysis on top of that...... uh ......no! Although I do sometimes think it would have been cool ,to minor in chem.

Typical of Target. They get their swimsuits out in February. I remember once trying to buy a sweatshirt for my kids in January and they didn't have them anymore. I love that store but it is not the place to buy seasonal items during the season.

I use it in baking. If I'm trying to cut the sugar, I'll use half sugar and half powdered milk. In my baked oatmeal recipe, I use no sugar, only powdered milk and sweeten with stevia.

Awww, poor thing. I was the tallest girl in 8th grade and had to walk down the aisle during graduation with Jimmy who was the tallest boy and the biggest dork in school (and of course if I walked at graduation with him, I was destined to marry him, right?). I thought I was going to die. But, I didn't die. And I didn't have to marry him. And by the end of my freshman year in hs, I was of average height. Tell her there's hope.

Ice cream. No contest! Moose Tracks, to be specific.

I did. Back in my single days. I did all the time. I moved to São Paulo, Brasil on (sort of) a whim to teach at a missionary school. Came back after a couple years, moved to the Bay Area of California, then got tired of that and moved back to the Fresno area, which is home. I loved doing that. Now, I have too many other people to be responsible for. And DH is NOT the "just pick up and move" type of guy. :) so, here we stay.

Has anyone ever read the Makers of History series by Jacob Abbott? I downloaded the bios of Hannibal and A the Great on Kindle (for free) and they seem to be pretty good. We'll see how DS likes them. I just realized this thread was about fiction. So much for paying attention.

My kids all did well with A Beka phonics. We are doing Spelling Workout now and they're all good with that. The only thing, actually that they are all different on is math. DS1 does Singapore, DD does A Beka and DS2, well, we're still working on a good fit with him.

I look just like I do in my avatar. No mystery there. But, my life has alway been an open book. Sometimes I wish not so much. I need to learn to be more enigmatic.

I'm not really a book list person, but of the stuff we've read this year the kids have liked: Island of the Bue Dolphins By the Great Horn Spoon (absolutely loved that one, all of us did!) Blue Willow (one of the sweetest, emotionally deep children's books I've read in a while) All of the Narnia ones The Secret Garden

This year we did 195 days, though one day a week was co-op, which I counted as a school day, though we didn't do our curriculum. This is the first year our homeschool support group has done co-op, and I didn't know what to expect. Well, having 20% of our curriculum time knocked off, we got behind, so even though we did 195 days, we still didn't finish our curriculum and the boys have 3 weeks of math to do. I schedule about 200 days, which gives us lee-way. I try to go above 180 days, just to feel superior to the public schools, lol.

Grocery store. Walmart.