We spend between $300 and $350 each month to feed a family of four, although the kids are pretty young. I refuse to skimp on produce, so I can sympathize on that one, but maybe some of what we do may be useful. 1. Homemade bread/muffins/cookies/oat bars. This saves us so much money and I like having control over the ingredients. I don't touch HFCS, so I find making my own stuff to be a sanity saver. 2. Homemade pizza with local mozzarella cheese. Yummy and so inexpensive, plus I can even sneak leftovers on as a topping. 3. I do let my kids have cold cereal, so long as it's store brand cornflakes or oat rings, which I can get for a buck a box. They eat them either as-is or with fruit or cinnamon sprinkled on top. I like to make up big pots of oatmeal a few times a week which makes for a quick hot breakfast if we microwave individual portions. Other weekday mornings we tend to have toast or muffins. 4. For weekend breakfasts we usually have eggs/quiche one morning and pancakes the other. I always make enough pancakes to reheat for at least one other morning during the week. This week I put chocolate chips in the pancakes, which made me pretty popular around here:001_smile: 5. We are dairy addicts, but I have really had to limit the variety in this area to stretch our budget. I buy ALDI plain nonfat yogurt and stir in fruit, nuts, honey, etc. If your kids like it really sweet, try stirring jam in instead. I love cottage cheese, but rarely buy it now that it has gotten so expensive. I can get local cheddar cheese for $3 a pound, so we eat lots of cheddar and less of the other varieties unless I hit a great sale. 6. I do make beans/lentils/split peas a few times a week. Lentils are nice tossed on salads this time of year, and I love almost any soup made with legumes. I add curry to a lot of things, as well as various hot sauces, so I always think of our bean meals as being pretty flavorful. I also use tofu much more than I used to, especially crumbled into things that I once used meat in, like stir fries and pasta sauces. 7. As for produce, I buy only what is on sale, plus lettuce. I can get red leaf lettuce pretty cheap, so I buy plenty of it each week, then build salads with whatever is a good deal (and I can't wait for my garden to start helping out a bit here!). We have salad every night, and dress it simply with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and sea salt, so I never spend money on dressings. I stock up on whatever fruit is in season, and freeze what we can't use right away. I actually love it when the store is selling super-ripe bananas for a dime a pound -- I peel and freeze them, then throw them into smoothies. My dd will not eat watermelon, but loves watermelon slushies, which are nothing more than frozen chunks of watermelon whirred around in the blender. 8. I buy the meat that is on sale, and that is what we eat. I would rather eat a little bit of good meat than a lot of meat that I don't trust or enjoy. I feel like we get quite a bit of protein from nuts, beans, and dairy products, so I don't worry too much about meat, although DH likes it for dinner every night. I have learned to use canned salmon where I would have used fresh in the past, and the kids now eat tuna in place of cold cuts. 9. I keep the pantry stocked with rice, pasta, and potatoes, and aim for at least half of our starches to be whole grains. I would personally prefer to up that percentage, but DH was raised on white bread and white rice, and I find that he is much happier when I don't push this one too far. 10. I am very careful about snack foods. They add so much to the grocery bill and disappear so quickly! Aside from treats I bake myself, we usually have dollar store pretzels, ALDI peanuts, and an assortment of dried fruit on hand. I keep veggies cut up and the kids like spreading peanut butter or cream cheese on them. I hope something here is useful. I really think I'll be trimming even further the way the economy is headed.

They aren't great, but they are probably pretty harmless. I disliked them when my dd wanted them as read-alouds because I found the short sentences very annoying to read. Now that dd can read them on her own, I am liking them more and more.... the chapters are short enough to keep her from feeling overwhelmed, yet the subtle cliffhanger ending of most chapters makes her want to keep reading. The history is a bit light, but might be a nice way to capture a child's interest about a particular place or era.

I could never get myself to enjoy Red Badge of Courage. I loved reading other fiction about war and other nonfiction about the Civil War, but that one book was just miserable for me and I have zero desire to reread it. I'll be in real trouble if my kids end up disliking Dickens or Austen, though!

When I was in graduate school for my MAT in Early Childhood and Elementary Education, we had to take a course in teaching elementary science and math (one of the few classes I have found at all useful out in the real world of teaching, btw). One of the course requirements was to pass a sixth grade math test, and we were allowed to take the test as many times as necessary. It was shocking to see how many soon-to-be teachers struggled with this, and some barely squeaked by. I had always considered myself to be more of a humanities type person and not so great at math, but I gained a lot of confidence in my abilities after watching those students struggle. I had never taken much higher-level math, but I actually understood the basics, rather than just having memorized a bunch of things that I had never had a chance to apply.

My ds, who just turned 3, has been listening in on books with us forever, so he has learned to be a bit less wiggly over time. He especially enjoys the I Spy books as well, and will concentrate on those for long periods of time. Other favorites of his include Caps for Sale, Abiyoyo, A House for Hermit Crab, The Tiny Seed, the Little Critter books, Byron Barton's books about dinosaurs and trains, Where the Wild Things Are, and almost any simple nonfiction about bugs.

I schedule for three weekdays and then a general category of "weekend," for a total of 4 days a week. The other two weekdays we use for playdates, park days, library and museum visits, and outside lessons and classes. I try not to introduce new concepts on the weekend, but use it for review, fun activities, and nature exploration.

Thanks to everyone for all of the great ideas. I really like the idea of just streamlining language arts for 1st and then seeing what she needs as we progress, but it's reassuring to hear what others are doing.

I'm curious to know how those of you who combine phonics and spelling do it. DD will be doing mostly 1st grade work next year, and I had planned on starting SWO. However, she does very well with the spelling-oriented exercises in ETC (we are in Book 4 right now), and I was considering making her weekly spelling lists based on what she's working on in there instead. I like the idea of saving the money and limiting the number of workbook pages she has to do each day, since she is already enthusiastic about writing in general, and I'd like her to stay that way! I'd really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on this.

I really enjoyed it. My kids are young enough to need pretty constant supervision when they are outside, so I sometimes push outdoor time aside to finish up all of the things I "need" to get done indoors. This book helped me reprioritize.

We were using ETC and Phonics Pathways at that point. She was making progress, but she was not really enjoying herself very much. I backed off the PP and we tried Headsprout since she really enjoys using the computer. At around that time she also got very interested in writing (her fine motor skills made a big leap), so she actually started looking forward to ETC. Now we can't keep her from reading! She reads anything and everything in sight, and consistently wants to do "extra" pages in ETC (we just started Book 4). She will turn five next month. So I think that it's possible to back off a part of what you are doing and just modify your approach. Now this dd is also a child who complains about anything and everything before we begin, and then always ends up doing well and asking for more, so I have no sage advice on dealing with that sort of a personality:001_smile:

I have to admit that my 4 year old loves to write, but she much prefers to write about what interests her. For copywork I usually give her a sentence from whatever chapter book we are currently using as a read-aloud, then have her listen for that sentence while we are reading. We just finished up Prince Caspian, and she really got excited about the sentences because they were "sneak peeks" at what we would be hearing at bedtime.

We used ETC and Headsprout this year. I would say the ETC was essential and the Headsprout just made things more fun. Now dd has about 7 Headsrout lessons to go, then we will just use the library's summer reading program in its place this summer since she's reading pretty well independently. The ETC we will continue through the series (we are just finishing up book 3 this month).

I'm curious as well. These look great, but aren't cheap.

I've been having the same problems. I've given up a few times, but it never seems any better when I try back.

We had an incredibly successful year. Since dd is only 4, we started out calling the year K-4 and not sure how quickly we would progress. We took a very relaxed approach all fall, just reading aloud and slowly working through Singapore's EB 2A and ETC 1..... but then she suddenly wanted to do much, much more! In December I went ahead and signed her up for Headsprout, which was a big hit -- I'm fairly certain that her reading would have taken off around that point no matter what we did, but it gave me a little break to do something fun with my toddler while she got to do something she enjoyed a great deal. We flew through the next 2 ETC books, finished EB 2B and most of PM 1A, and she began cursive. We did science classes all year at a natural history museum, supplementing with lots of hands-on exploration and nonfiction books. We also read through the first several Oz books as read-alouds, along with lots of poetry and shorter chapter books. We learned the names and locations of the continents, did a fun unit on Antarctica, and read fairy tales from around the world. She also continued with ballet and tap, with a recital coming up next month. We are going to continue the ETC and Singapore Math through the summer, spend lots of time doing read-alouds and independent reading for our library's summer reading program, and keep a journal about our gardening experiences this summer. Then we will officially begin first grade in the fall!

I began dropping dd off at dance and tumbling classes when she was 3, although this was at the community center where dh works, so I'm not sure that counts! I also use the drop-off babysitting there for both kids at times, probably started when they were 1 and 3. Last fall I began dropping dd off for homeschool science classes at the natural history museum not long after she turned 4. That was hard for me the first time, but seemed easy for her! Parents can take these classes with their kids, so the room was full of adults, but I can't join in until ds is a bit older. Now that I know the teacher there I have no qualms about dropping her off.

We practically live at the library.... but not the local one. If we were limited to the local one, we would be stuck. We travel to a nearby city with an outstanding library system twice a week, and usually make it to at least 2 branches each month. My kids walk straight to the holds shelf when we get there since they know there is always something waiting for me there:001_smile:

Pre-K definitely does not have to look like "school" (unless that's what the child wants!). My main goals were to work on fine motor skills/hand strength through lots of crafts/playdough so writing would be easier when we started K, and to work on attention span by gradually lengthening read-alouds. This translated to tons of time doing art activities and reading, which looked nothing like school, but laid an incredible foundation for a successful K year.

I remember hearing an older relative comment that he only read nonfiction back when I was a teenager, and I remember thinking that sounded just awful. Now I almost never read fiction myself:001_smile: I read tons of nonfiction, especially almost anything on linguistics, comparative religion, education, social policy, life sciences, and literary biography. When I do make the investment timewise to sit and enjoy a novel I usually am glad, I just find fiction to require much greater concentration.

After starting in the fall not sure if we would spread K over 2 years or make it through in 1 (dd is young for K), she just made amazing progress and her fine motor skills took off so that she actually loves doing lots of writing. K for her looked/looks like this: Phonics/reading: ETC 1-3, Headsprout Early Reading Math: Singapore EB 2A-2B, and PM 1A Handwriting: Began Zaner-Bloser cursive at her request this spring! She does one or two sentences of copywork (printing) each day as well. Social Studies: DK Children Just Like Me (not a curriculum, just a lovely book we learned a lot from), learned names and locations of the continents Science: Lots of nature exploration and classes at the natural history museum, plus field trips to the zoo, science center, and botanical gardens Music and art we covered with lots of hands-on experiences, as well as concerts and museum/gallery field trips. She takes a weekly ballet/tap class and spends lots of time and energy playing with her little brother (I figure some of their roughhousing ought to count as PE :001_smile:).

That being said, I can imagine a school district getting upset if they thought you were changing grade levels to avoid including standardized test scores in your portfolio for a year they are required, but since that's not the case here, I wouldn't worry. There's a lot of useful info on this sort of thing on the Ask Pauline website. HTH

As soon as they announced the challenge, my DH cracked up because I could win this sort of challenge at least a dozen ways! Tonight we are having homemade pizza and a salad, which will come in at about 4 dollars and leave us with leftovers. I do a stir-fry using tofu marinated in all sorts of yummy Asian flavors, whatever veggies are in season, and tossed with whole wheat spaghetti. I also make big pots of cuban style black beans (sometimes vegetarian, sometimes with ham or a piece or pork shoulder tossed in) and serve them with brown rice and salad. I make shepherd's pie with any sort of meat and veggies I have around and use up extra mashed potatoes. A big hit this week was salmon loaf made with portabella mushrooms. It made a big loaf, so we had it one night with a mustard glaze and couscous, and another night with a soy-ginger glaze and brown rice. I make crustless quiche full of veggies and lowfat cheese on a regular basis. Dessert around here is usually fresh fruit, either on its own or diced and stirred into plain yogurt. I think the hardest part of the challenge was doing the shopping at Whole Foods -- I don't imagine many of us shopping on tight budgets are getting much of our food there.:)

My dh does not have access to a microwave, which makes it hard to keep things exciting. We have salad almost every night at supper, so I don't like to overload on that, either. He gets a sandwich most days, either pb&j or lean cold cuts on homemade bread. I try to throw in something with extra protein on the days I know he's going to the gym, usually hard boiled eggs, cubed low-fat cheese, or cottage cheese. I also try to throw in some pretzels or crackers for snacking, as well as any cookies I have made. Fruit is whatever is in season and/or on sale, which has been oranges lately, although he also likes apples and grapes. I usually fill a bottle with either unsweetened iced tea or juice as well. Two days a week I am out of the house all day with the kids, and I pack a lot of the same sorts of things for us. They also like dried fruit, and I make up little bags of "trail mix" using whatever I have on hand in the way of dried fruit, cereal, nuts, and usually something sweet. The kids really like tuna or cream cheese and jelly for sandwiches.

My dd (now 4 1/2) has really confounded me by seeming to advance by leaps and bounds one moment and seeming stagnant the next. Some days she won't read a basic reader to me; the next, she's reading things out of the newspaper over my shoulder. Today she got mad at me for not looking up a website for her and wrote me a note -- "my Mom is Ruwd." So I know she can read a bit and write a bit (even when it's not too polite!), and I think the main thing when they are young is to keep it fun and exciting, and more about the joy of learning and less about feeling like work is involved. They will have lots of years for hard work ahead! Read aloud A LOT. Sound out words everywhere you go, play rhyming games, read poetry together, and add in chapter books with few or no pictures at an early age so they learn to derive some satisfaction from words alone. I don't think there is a magic age or a magic program, just follow your child's cues.