Don't have a 10 y.o. but my 9 y.o. son: Makes his bed and cleans/dusts his room Empties his hamper when needed Empties the trash Sweeps the bathroom Fills the chicken food Feeds the dog Sharpens pencils (this is a weekly chore in our house) Puts away his laundry Picks up the yard (toys) Helps with meals (prep, table setting and clearing, dishes, etc.) Sweeps the porch Helps pick up the house every day after lunch and before dinner Now that I write it all out, it seems he's doing more than I think! But all four of my kids do quite a few chores, I couldn't survive any other way!

I would consider Core A as well. The problem is, if you stick with it, the Cores jump a lot in ability level. I'm doing Core B with a first grader this year and wouldn't have wanted to start any earlier. Sometimes I even think I should have started with Core A for him- and he's quite a bright kid. Other than that I think you're all set. We tend to just do 3R's here too, but I think next time I have a K'er I will do Core A with her.

I have used it off and on- but more "on" lately (kids are 11, 9, and 7). It does seem very scattered, especially with the grammar, but I've heard people say that it kind of makes sense in the end and does build toward something. I am buying Core E next year so LA will be included and I plan to use it, but I don't know if it will stand-alone or need to be supplemented. They have supposedly improved the grammar instruction, so it may be okay alone. Guess I'll have to wait till I have it in hand and look it over. I will say my kids have enjoyed many of the little writing activities. This week they copied Benjamin Franklin quotes, made up their own in his style, and prepared to write a short paper on Benjamin Franklin. There is very little instruction on how to write the paper-just a suggestion to have the child focus on one or two aspects and to include an interesting first sentence. Honestly though, at these ages, I think it is appropriate. I don't plan on doing really "formal" writing instruction until later on- so the lack of writing instruction per se doesn't bother me. I'm more interested in them having fun with it and if they enjoy writing I feel like half the battle is won!

I'm using it this year with a 7 y.o. and used it last year with an 8 and 10 y.o. Very age appropriate for all. We prefer secular and this book is no problem for us, I may have to edit a line here or there as I read but that's it. It's one of our Sonlight books and that's where we bought it from.

I got the Mirena after my 3rd. The insertion was tolerable but somewhat painful. I had it in for about six months and then I had them take it out again. I loved that my periods were practically non-existent while I had it, but I did not love the spotting that went on pretty much all month long. I also feel like it made me moody/irritable. My sister has one though and she swears by it. We decided to have a 4th, and after that dh had a vasectomy. Much easier that way!

Congrats! Chickens are so much fun. We have a barred rock and 2 buffs in our flock and they are the sweetest of all the breeds- the kids can pick them up and carry them around and they don't seem to mind at all.

Glad he's okay. My kids freak out if a chocolate chip drops on the floor and the dog eats it, but my mom's 10 lb dog once ate a whole bunch of chocolate cookies (meant to be our wedding favors...grrr..) and she was absolutely fine.

That is one gorgeous horse. Love the markings on him. My horse crazy daughters would swoon over him :001_smile:

I'm excited to hopefully do Sonlight for an entire year. We tried it for the first twelve weeks of this year, switched to something else, then came back. Next year I am looking forward to just going straight through with it.

Mine is in my sig. Thanks for starting this! Looking forward to finding some new blogs to read.

We do a lot on the screen porch and I will let the kids who are doing independent work go out in the yard as long as they can stay somewhat focused. I set myself up on the porch to do read-alouds and one on one work. It's great.

I bought the Core tips for B and D for this year. They are mostly a set of links to coloring pages, videos, extra activities, etc., with a little encouraging paragraph to go along with each week. I haven't found any broken links, but then again, I almost never used the links. I'm not planning to buy future Core tips..I thought it would be fun, but it's hard for me to fit any extra stuff into our routine and so the tips just ended up making me feel guilty!

We use Sonlight and it seems to work out to about two read-alouds per month, for both the 11 and 9 yos and the 7 yo.

We have a Bosch. We've had for a few years now and it's still going strong. Now that I say that it'll probably break :glare:. But I do love the Bosch. No problems, ever- and the dishes are very clean just about all the time. We had a Maytag before that (terrible) and a Whirlpool before that (which worked ok considering that it was ancient).

Our copy of The Spooky Old Tree has been read to shreds! I personally love The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Pressure, because it's a good reminder to not get over-involved in things...one of my "trouble" areas;)

My 7 y.o. does copywork a couple times a week and twice a week he dictates two short (like a paragraph) papers to me, which I write down. He is a reluctant writer. I just started having him write the title of the paper himself before he dictates. Next step will be to have him write down his first sentence. But mostly, I do the writing and he tells me what to write.

I keep meaning to do this too! I actually read them all as a teenager and loved them so much! Hopefully I have forgotten the endings as well.

I have three currently doing school, plus a three year old. It usually takes us four hours to do everything but I've had to make some compromises/tweak some stuff: We aren't doing formal grammar or spelling this year, except that the first grader does spelling on his own with a workbook 3x a week. For writing, I just ask each kid to write something twice a week about something we read about. They pick. We are pretty relaxed about this. They do this on their own while I work with another child, except for the first grader who dictates to me. Read-alouds- I do these first thing, for about 45 min. Anything we didn't finish I fit in later that morning, or I read at lunchtime. Math-I try to have everyone working on a math lesson at the same time but we are using Rightstart which is pretty teacher intensive so that's not always possible. Any "waiting" children are doing their own lit/history/science reading from books at their own level. Then, at the end of the day we just take a few minutes to discuss these and look things up on the map. Experiments are what tends to throw us off here, but those can get pushed to Friday if necessary. Latin- I cut way back on this. Each of my older two does one page of Lively Latin twice a week. They mostly do this on their own, while I read with their brother. We keep the regular subjects and most of the readings to Mon-Thurs. Friday we use as a catchup day, plus we watch Spanish and try to do an art project.

We're reading the Borrowers now, but mine is 7. I don't think he loves it, but he hasn't asked me to stop either. It does pick up a bit towards the middle. We have given up books that didn't work in the past. I usually encourage them to stick it out for three or four chapters first. I'd rather keep the fun in reading, especially at a younger age, than risk killing a love for reading by insisting we finish something.

Definitely try giving them something to do while you read. I still do this for my 9 and 7 y.o.s when we have a longer read-aloud going. They build with Legos or something while I read and as long as they can pay attention at the same time I don't mind. You might also try experimenting with the time of day you read-maybe after lunch they would be more willing to sit quietly? Or during lunch even, if you can eat before or after them.

I haven't really read much about the changes at SL, but I have used or am using Cores P 3/4, P 4/5, Core B and Core D with no trouble at all in a secular way. Next year I am looking at Core C and Core E, and again, there are a few things I will omit, but for the most part it seems very do-able in a secular way. I like having the schedule, I am an overplanner also and never seem to follow the plans I make anyway!

I've used OPGTR and the BOB books with three so far- success with all of them, and very simple.

P 4/5 would be great. I did it with my younger boy, he was 5/6 at the time and it was perfect. I did get many of the P 3/4 books as well, for his younger sister, but we didn't treat it as a Core, we just read the books when she wants to. We didn't buy the IG for either Core for ds, but I am going to buy P 4/5 IG this year because my little one wants her own "school" and I'd like to have something laid out that her siblings and I can take turns working through with her. I save quite a bit too, by not buying everything from SL. Many of the books are cheaper at Rainbow Resource or on Amazon, though it certainly is easier to order the whole box from SL. I couldn't find where it said what age your kids were....I do agree that anything structured isn't necessary at this point, but I have four kids myself and can see why you may want something to work from, to add a little routine in and keep the kids engaged. Sometimes it is easier, with multiple kids, to have something planned out for you, as long as it stays fun and doesn't feel like an obligation. So if you have the $ I wouldn't hesitate to get P 4/5 and maybe even P 3/4. The books have been very popular with my kids and well worth the money.

We did SL for about two years, then I quit for four months, and now we're back. So not a long break, but enough time for me to realize I like it more than I thought I did. We left to do more of a Charlotte Mason/Ambleside approach, because I felt like I was just going through the motions with SL to get those boxes checked off. It felt too jumpy to me, like to many books were being used at once. Anyway, long story short, we experimented with a very relaxed style for awhile and then realized we (yes, even the kids) missed the structure and reading all those books. So I went back, and I've only been back to it for a week, so by no means an expert...but it feels different now. I am not viewing the guide as a long list of things I have to get done and getting all stressed out. Instead we are just reading along in the books, still using the CM method of narration instead of using the included questions....and I am really excited to continue. I think a lot of my problems with SL were just in my attitude towards it, I would just see all the lists of reading and get freaked out if we were "behind" (which we always were). Now I am giving myself permission to take longer than a year to do a core and just trying to stay relaxed overall. Hoping it'll stick this time and we'll keep doing SL. The kids are really enjoying it as well. One thing that helps this time around is I'm encouraging them to do something else while I'm reading aloud. They can build with blocks or Legos, or knit, etc. As long as they can narrate when I'm done. They LOVE listening to the readings this way. We're using Cores B and D btw.

I'd recommend the Melissa and Doug play food too. My dd has the birthday cake set, the pizza party set, and the cookie set. She loves all of them, they are the one thing that gets played with every day.