We probably spend 4-5 hours a day on school. We read aloud anywhere from 30-60 minutes, she hasn't really found her love of reading yet so I only require 15 minutes at this point. Chores - maybe 30-45 minutes. We do morning chores (bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming, lanai- one area each day) together and then she's responsible for her room, her laundry, and taking out the trash. She's very social so when school is over or kids come home from school she's usually outside playing, we also take a walk almost every day. She has plenty of free time and easy access to crafts in our school room. Sometimes she just likes to draw on the whiteboard or make cards for people (if she's not outside playing) During the week we try to limit non-education tv and video games to after baths and dinner, so it works out to maybe an hour each day. She also takes piano and jazz, and will be starting hula and water sports class at the end of January, all weekly classes.

I use it exclusively for my planning and tracking. I guess the way I look at it is like a big binder. Each child has their own "binder", within the binder is a tab for each subject and an agenda tab and then I put notes, pictures, list curricula and books under the proper tab. I use a table to make a weekly agenda and then just print those out every week for them to check off as they go. I have done a little bit of color coding and stuff, but honestly when I make things too complicated I tend to just stop using it. It's easy and thus has been a great method.

I've had to wake mine up before, but usually they get up between 6-7 on Christmas. I'm an early riser anyways, so I anticipate being up with my coffee before 6 and just waiting for them.

I do not like snakes, but that is so cute! :)

I don't know, we have the same problem. I am very seriously considering getting rid of a lot of our books, but as far as projects go, my kids are older and they choose to keep one occasionally but they don't have a fit if I throw it out. Sometimes I'll use them as a display for awhile, do you have a spot you can hang things that you can change out fairly often?

Yay! We didn't have BEAST week when I went in, but it is quite something when you are getting so close to the end, and they start to treat you much better when you've completed the combat portion of basic. Hope he's doing well. Do you know where he's going for tech school?

http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm

We used to own one, but I'll answer these the best I can. I don't have any digital pictures of her though. 1. What is your cat’s name and age? Her name was Willow 2. Please describe your Munchkin cat’s appearance & personality: She was a short-legged tabby, she was very hyper and wound up a lot, occasionally mean. 3. When did you first know about the Munchkin cats? I bought her from a pet store in 1999, I had never heard of or seen any before her. 4. When did you first get you Munchkin? Where did you get it? See #3 5. Can you attach a picture of your cat (optional)? N/A 6. Does your cat require any special care? Does it have any back/leg/hip issues? She had no medical issues 7. How do you feel about the controversy over breeding Munchkin cats? I have not heard of this. 8. Do you have any advice for potential Munchkin owners? They are very cute, and odd looking, for some reason that makes people want to mess with them, I think that's why she got a little mean, but some cats are just mean, so who knows. I would ensure that no one messed with her. 9. Would you own another Munchkin cat in the future? Probably, but I would not purchase one from a pet store. 10. Do you have a favorite/funny story about your Munchkin cat? She would scare herself if she saw her reflection, and then raise her back and hiss at it, she also really liked to wrestle, with our other cat or our rabbit.

I'm in Hawaii, so my estimated delivery isn't for another 2 weeks. :( But bumping for more!

I crocheted one with some cheapie leftover yarn, it works well and I just wash it with our towels, it does stretch out a bit though.

Oh man, I just ordered two for myself. How fun!

I wear toms and flats with boot cuts, I would wear heels too but I have bad feet.

Thank you. I just meant isolated from my family, in fact this is the first place I've lived as a spouse where I've made a few friends and have great neighbors. :) We are part of a couple homeschool groups too and just went on a field trip this morning. My dad is very ill though so being so far from my family is rough, but it was the same when I was active duty too, so it's nothing new. We are actually really enjoying it here but I do love seasons and will most definitely be ready to go when our 3 years is up. :)

We moved here (Oahu) in January, we live on Hickam. We tried the public school for 2 months and that was a no-go. We are really enjoying our time here but will be ready to leave when the time comes. Get a Costco membership and Amazon prime. I buy everything from Amazon, their prices are great and shipping is fast and free. The commissary is similarly priced to the the mainland, but certain things are much more expensive. The produce sucks, we have ours delivered from a local farm and it's much better. We are Air Force and hops to the mainland are not the most difficult thing to accomplish if you have a flexible schedule (yay homeschooling!). Pros: It's beautiful, there is tons to do The weather is always nice, we spend a lot of time outside Cons: No seasons :( Isolated Terrible traffic

I'm thankful for my family and that dh is back from his month long work training on the mainland. I'm thankful that we are taking the week off from school. I'm thankful that ds seems like he is really going to enjoy playing football this season. I'm thankful that even though the baby has been fussing/teething for two days that he's peacefully sleeping/nursing on my lap right now. I'm thankful that the VA finally finished my claim (22 months after I filed it).

When I was just barely pregnant with my newest baby I texted what I thought was my dh but ended up being my neighbor because he had texted me that morning and so was the default, something along the lines of "Ugh, I'm so fat and bloated, none of my clothes fit". This is a guy whose kids my kids played with but I had barely ever spoken to. It was mortifying. :blushing:

This exactly. I cancelled it like 2 days too late to get my refund. :glare:

I love this and I'm not even Christian.

That is so sweet! :wub:

I am crocheting a minion costume for the baby, dd wants to be a mermaid (I offered to crochet a beautiful sparkly tail, but she wants a store bought Ariel costume :001_huh: ) and ds wants to be some version of a grim reaper. I'm almost positive ds has been the grim reaper a couple times now, I think he just likes getting the scythe.

I agree with the article, I have noticed a crazy trend in my neighborhood (which is an extremely safe military base) where parents don't let their children play on school days. :confused1: It makes me so sad because I would think that's when they need to get outside and play the most, after a stressful day of sitting and listening and doing what they're told. I think play is almost equal in importance as academics and encourage play every day, especially outside. We also only do one or two extracurriculars at a time. Being able to just be a kid is so important. I have fond memories of free-ranging. My husband thinks I'm crazy because I'm always ranting about the neighbors that don't let their kids play during the week, for the life of me I just cannot figure it out. As far as infant care goes, I also agree, we bedshare part-time, babywear, breastfeed, all that stuff, because I do believe that it is best for babies to be near mom or dad as much as possible.

We moved here about 8 months ago and other than my neighbors I haven't made many contacts even though I had signed up with a couple hs groups. This week I have really put myself out there to find some friends for myself and some more for kids. I tend to be a bit introverted and a homebody, so this was a big thing for me. Turns out I've had a great time and so have the kids! :)

Maybe I should add a caveat to what I said earlier... not long ago I had some family visit and 2 of those family happen to be teen girls, we live in a touristy place and they were excited to see everything so we went somewhere almost every day. Every single time they would start this process called "getting ready" we were looking at 3 hours. It blew my mind and upset me greatly because we couldn't start our day until these two girls were "ready", they don't wear fake eyelashes, but they have to have a full face of makeup and curled hair and whatever else one would spend 3 hours doing done even just to go to the beach! I've never seen such a thing, even in my very vain youth it might have taken me an hour to "get ready" and had I taken that long my parents would like have left me, but instead 8 people sat around waiting for these two princesses to "get ready". So instead of seeing it for the fashion trend it is, I see it along the lines of those constantly taking selfies and obsessing about numero uno all the time. Our culture is becoming more and more obsessed with ourselves to the detriment of caring about anyone else. But truly, the makeup in itself doesn't indicate any moral decay of society.

It might be regional but we used "hella" all the time. Like something was "hella cool" then it would be like really cool. Unfortunately, I still know far too many people that use this word. :huh:

I am a makeup junkie, I love it, I have tons of it, and I wear it almost daily. BUT I hate the current fashion of looking completely fake, it makes me sad that this is where our society is right now. I like to look like a human and as much as I love makeup I make the effort to continue looking human. I don't want to model myself after a barbie or bratz doll or whatever. I hope my daughter will have the desire to look like a person too, but I really hope that the natural look comes back in before she starts wearing makeup.