If they looked very clean I would not, but otherwise I would soak them in the tub, wipe them down, or run them through the dishwasher. Yes, I run plastic toys through the dishwasher in a mesh zippered bag, the kind you use for delicates in the clothes washing machine. Use the top rack. If Legos are looking sticky, grimy, or dusty, it's an easy way to clean them, but any stickers will be lost.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. We are taking a break from reading lessons right now, and if we need to backtrack a bit in Jan., that's ok. The advice from knitmama and Lissande to make reading aloud the priority is what I need to hear, but hard. If we read while the baby is napping, there goes the chance to get anything else done. But while he is awake, he'll want to be held, get into mischief, or try his hardest to eat the book we're holding. Not to mention that if I try reading a chapter book, the toddler gets bored and tries to interrupt. I'm telling myself it's a season of life and things will get easier when they're 2,4, & 6. We read at bedtime and a little during the day, but probably only doing 30 min. of reading rather than the full hour we used to have. (A book my daughter and I are loving right now is Pioneer Christmas. I recommend it for fans of the Little House books.)

It worked so well for me that I can't help but think of it as the "right way". But the trouble is knowing where to start. I bought the newest edition book, but the teacher's manual is out of my price range. A scripted lesson lays out my work so easily... Neither of us hate 100EZ, but we don't love it either. As they introduce words with "ir" and "ai", it's bothering me that the phonogram was not properly introduced.

So I'm teaching my 5 year old to read, and wondering how long a break we can take without regression. What do you experienced homeschoolers say? We've been missing some days' lessons since the week of Thanksgiving. Sick baby, Thanksgiving, the struggle getting back into routine, sick baby again, toddler just came down with stomach bug, doctor appts for me, and now I might be having surgery before Christmas. And I'm also trying to do fun Christmas things, like crafts and cookies. We've already stopped handwriting and Five in a Row, hit and miss with math and memory work. Would it be ok to quit, start back up the 1st Monday in Jan? Or should I take a deep breath and keep trying? Also, what I'm using is 100EZ, but I don't love the way they're teaching some sounds. I'm half tempted to stop for a bit anyway, and make some Writing Road to Reading/Spalding phonogram flash cards. ( It's how my mom taught me to read, but I needed something to open and go on 5 hours sleep.)

I'm doing book A with my 4.5 year old now. We usually do 3 single side pages a day. Yes, it is very easy (except the drawing bits for her). But I find that limiting the pages gives her more excitement to do it the next day. Stopping before she's reached her limit works well for us. Also, she has done some math pages on her own for her daddy. "Which flower is different, Daddy?" "Can you point to the bugs that are in the same pattern?" So even though she knows this stuff, she is thinking about it more and creating her own problems. I love this age!

Our family favorites include A Chair for my Mother, Frog and Toad, Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch McDuff Ladybug girl Owl babies Blue Moose anything by Jane Hissey anything by Virginia Lee Burton Usborne beginners nonfiction books Some that my kids LOVE that have gotten old for me Angelina Ballerina Breyer horse books Curious George Clifford The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge This last one is a great book, but just after my son's 2nd birthday, he became obsessed with it and wanted it read 5 times a day. He still loves it, and loves lighthouses. I can read it with my eyes closed.

Houndsley and Catina by James Howe MacDuff by rosemary Wells

So I'm usually just lurking here, but have to comment on this one. I have a 2 1/2 year old boy who has never slept well. The world's worst napper back when we tried to do naps and has a hard time falling asleep. More recently, he just couldn't fall asleep til about 11 pm or midnight. Well this summer his big sister had evening swimming lessons, and he fell asleep on the way home half the nights. Huge difference when he got that full night sleep. I went to the pediatrician to talk about it, but he blew me off with "He'll get the sleep he needs. He's doing fine on this amount of sleep." Like I'm some silly mom who just wants a break and can't tell my toddler to go to bed. It's not that I'm just inconvenienced by his difficulty sleeping, it's for my son's sake. He does better than most little kids would do on 7 or 8 hrs sleep, and seeming to be functioning well. His big sister and baby brother would totally melt down on his former sleep schedule. Also this summer he was diagnosed with PDD- NOS, on the mildest end of the autism spectrum. Googling autism & sleep showed that many parents with autistic and ADHD kids are using Melatonin. We started with 1 milligram of liquid melatonin every night, now reducing to .75. It's like a miracle. He is nodding off 45 min to an hour after he takes it. He is now getting about 11 hrs of sleep ( no nap). He is doing so much better with 3 or 4 hours more sleep. He stumbles and falls less. He speaks more clearly. He has fewer tantrums. (But he IS still 2 and stubborn ;) ) Unless you had something better to compare it to, you'd say that our boy on less sleep is just how he is. When he had his evaluation, going on only 6 hrs sleep, he tested high on verbal abilities and very high on visual problem solving. BUT he's doing even better now. Before, he could do a 25 piece puzzle. After a week of good rest, he was doing 50 piece puzzles in 15 min! We've also noticed a difference in his creativity. I just want to say how much sleep makes a difference. My son still sleeps less than his peers who get a full night a 2 hr nap. but i'd hesitate to say that a toddler getting 6-8 hrs just needs less sleep. It's worth trying melatonin, or herbal remedies, trying new routines, checking for food intolerances.

I second the nursing tank tops, and regular shirts loose enough to pull up. With my button-up shirts, I often wear a pashmina shawl for cover up. I get the cheap nursing tanks from Target, and there are some nicer more expensive options out there too. I've had some nursing shirts passed down to me, but it's not worth the hassle.

She did turn 4 in Nov., so I'm planning for next fall. Part of the planning is because with a new baby, I'll have less time in the summer to plan. But also because of this: Other people- "So what school is she going to?" Me- "We're planning on homeschooling." Them-"What curriculum are you using?" Me-"Uhhhhh...." It's not like she's required to be in K in the fall, but I think she's ready to learn to read. I do also have to remind people of her age. Since she's tall and well behaved, they think she's a year or 2 older. But there's the expectation that I need to be doing more in preschool too.

Hi, I live near Conyers and was looking for the same thing. I know there's a Walton county yahoo group, but it might be too far away. I'm not looking for a co-op for my kindergartener, but I'll check out the others.

Thanks so much for all the help. I didn't mean to take so long in replying. It is sooo hard choosing curriculum; you never really know how it will work til you've tried it, and by then it's too late. I'm thinking we will try Singapore Essentials, as it looks cheap and easy. Saxon K also sounds good, but is more expensive. And saxon didn't work for me (shudder) so I hesitate to use it. My daughter's fine motor skills are not so great right now, as she hates to color and do craft time. So anything with a lot of writing might be too much. She also does not seem to have a math brain. I'm really hoping she will be ready to write by fall, but if she isn't, we will start in on reading anyway, as she is more than ready for that. By the way, is it normal for a 4 year old not to write her own name, tell time, count money? At Christmas my SIL expected her to know this. She thinks I'm a lazy parent.

The Red Badge of Courage is a good one. It's a classic, but short and manageable for 8th grade. I also remember that Hawthorne's short stories are heavy with symbolism.

I'm sure you all get a lot of posts from confused people wondering how to start kindergarten, and this is another one. My daughter will be 4 turning 5 next fall, and I want to do a low key kindergarten with her. For phonics/reading, we may do Writing Road to Reading (which is how my mom taught me to read!) or Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons. Also maybe pick up a few cheap used readers if the books we have won't do. For science we might do once a week studying animals, plants and trees, the solar system, etc. and trying to do field trips when I have the energy. (I will also have a 2 year old and 5 month old.) We're already doing scripture memory, and Bible stories at bedtime, but if I found something like basic theology for small children, we might do that. For math I don't know where to start, or if I could be structured enough without a curriculum, but I don't want anything too intense. I remember my mom teaching me counting money and telling time, and then moving on to some miserable math curriculum. Any math ideas? And what else do kindergarteners need to know?