Every.single.day. Gym shorts and tshirts. What's with that? If we need to go somewhere, they have to go upstairs and change. Oh good, more laundry too.

If only our swim instructor had given me a reply to "I can't find my book, pencil, . . . "

Our swim instructor would not let the boys say "I can't" or "it's too hard." They could only say "I'll try" or "please help me." I try to remember to say that too, it does help.

I just want to tell you that if you are able to get someone to prescribe something for your husband, drug companies will often give you the meds for free or very low cost if you can't afford them. I know someone who needed a bunch of meds while in college (no insurance) and they gave this person coupons or a card, I think, to use for payment at the drugstore. It was not difficult to get, I think the doc signed a form and they sent it in. Hope things get better soon!!

Wow, that is amazing!! You must be so proud. Go MOM!

You may be getting friend requests from other family members soon. Once you are friends with someone fb suggests you to their friends. I think that is how most people get connected. You see their name as a friend of your friend and many times you just don't know someone has a fb account. So unless you have time to look people up, you just add people as you see them. Families. Yikes. :grouphug:

Two reasons which are always given to justify abortion are rape and incest. I think we would all agree that becoming pregnant as a result of rape or incest has to be one of the most difficult and heart breaking situations a woman could experience. But I was thinking about this and if you believe that abortion is the ending of a human life, that means that rape and incest are the only crimes in this country for which children are legally punished (with the death penalty of all things) for the crimes of their parents. So for me it comes down to either it is a human life or it isn't. And if it is, then it always is, not sometimes, a human life, even when it is difficult, heart breaking, or inconvenient.

If you have an iphone or ipad, ibreviary is a life saver. Makes it seem so easy!! Love, Love, Love it.

I have one of the older boys home for one more week. So maybe I should use this time to work on some of those virtues they seem to have misplaced. Any suggestions? I have the rest of this week and next.

Lately we have not been able to finish even the bare minimum of what I plan, let alone what I would like to do. It seems whenever we are working together someone is interrupting, complaining, talking when someone else is supposed to answer, needing a drink/bathroom break, forgetting their book or pencil or anything you can imagine. It is exhausting. One of my older boys is home on break and I told him about this situation and he offered to work with the boys on their Latin. I was in another room, hoping to have a little time to work on our long neglected photo albums and I could hear the same thing going on and I could hear my older son beginning to get frustrated. It took them forever to get through the lesson and by the time they were done everyone was exhausted. We are working together for a lot of our subjects this year so I have to find a way to make them cooperate with each other and with me. I think I have the work planned out pretty well and I set rules and make sure supplies are available but right away, someone starts pushing the train off the track, pretty soon it is lunch time and we have barely gotten one or two subjects completed. The day drags into evening, I don't get anything done that I need to do besides school, and the boys don't seem to care that they are missing out on all of their free time. I know that school often hits a rough spot around Christmas break and the midway point for the year. And whenever the older boys are home on break, the younger boys seem to think they are on break too. I need some advice for getting control back. Do I need to follow a schedule more closely? One problem is consequences are difficult for classes we are working together in because I can't just keep moving and make them finish their work later. Dragging the work into the evening isn't bothering anyone but me. Can you tell me what works for you to keep things running smoothly, especially if you have any 'difficult' students? I feel like I should stop teaching their regular classes and just have them focus on being disciplined, perseverance, obedience, joyful attitudes, orderliness, preparedness, etc for a while. I don't think we would be much more behind than we are now.

I have a question for anyone using All About Spelling. Once you move a card into the mastered divider, does it get reviewed again? If so, when?

I have one boy who will use 4th and one who will use 6th grade Easy Grammar books and I am thinking I should try to coordinate so they are both doing prepositions, etc., at the same time so I teach both at the same time. The subjects are not in the same order though. I wonder if I should just use one grade for both. That would definitely simplify things. We already do most subjects together anyway. Hmm. . . I need to see that 6th grade book. I wonder if I help the 4th grader if he could use the 6th grade book. Does anyone do this?

It seems everywhere I have been able to find info on Easy Grammar, people just say what you said, Brownie, do 1-2-3 pages per day. I was asking b/c I wanted to put the assignments into a planner ahead of time. I could just say do 2 pages per day but my boys do better when there are more clear parameters, if you kwim. I am surprised b/c it is such a widely used program that I couldn't find something already laid out and save the time of doing it myself. We used it several years ago and it was set up in lessons, I think 180.

It doesn't sound like anyone has tried the combined binder/flashcard approach?

I am considering Easy Grammar 4 and I see there are 238 workbook pages. How are they supposed to be divided up? Can someone who has Easy Grammar workbooks tell me how this works? I guess I need to see the books but I am hoping someone can tell me.

We have been having some success with memory work this year and we are using flashcards that came with some subjects and binder size papers for others. I am considering putting it all in a binder together, maybe using some type of pockets in the daily, odd/even, day of the month dividers, so flashcards and papers are together in one place. Maybe baseball card pages or scrapbook divided pages? Have you done this? Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks Susie, I am going to look into your suggestions today!

We just got the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia. My boys, 4th and 6th, want to go through it, reading and skimming as they like, and add books as they are interested. I am a little nervous about this b/c I was thinking we would study one area of science this year, then something else next year, etc. Does anyone do this? What do you require from them as far as reports, sketches, or whatever? I guess one of the reasons I am concerned is I am wondering if this is enough for my 12 year old. I noticed in the index that the first chapter is about the earth and so I pulled out some eyewitness books on weather, hurricanes and tornados, and a magic school bus book about hurricanes (my 4th grader still loves MSbus!) Are there lists of living books and movies that have suggestions for different areas of science? And what would you recommend for experiments? I have looked online but it is so hard to tell if they are worth the money. Are there experiment kits you have been happy with for middle school? How long would you follow a plan like this? When do we need to "use a real science curriculum"?

We have Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing and I have searched the user manual and the website and I cannot find a list of the lessons anywhere. The closest thing I have found is a curriculum map with 25 categories but there are supposed to be 430 lessons. Does anyone know where I can find a list? There is a progress over time screen but it doesn't break down into lessons. I need to be able to track lessons to make sure they are being done regularly, and not just the typing games!

I have Critical Thinking, 1 and 2, and also The Thinking Toolbox and The Fallacy Detective. Can anyone who has used these tell me what I should start with and/or what you liked or disliked about them? I am not sure what to use or in what order. Thanks!

Wow, thanks for all of the suggestions and showing how you make your schedules work for you. I am going to sit down and read through them when the boys are doing some quiet reading and see how I can make things run a little smoother. You ladies here are always so generous and I love to get a peek into other peoples homeschools. It is so helpful to see how someone else handles something when you are struggling with some difficulty. Thanks again!!

I am wondering how others schedule their classes. We are having a difficult time fitting everything in. Although we are trying to do a lot, I think the problem is not so much with the amount of work as it is the schedule and discipline. Do you schedule each subject for specific times? Do you stick to those times? Nothing seems to take the same amount of time each day. If you finish a subject early, do you start the next subject or do the kids get a break? But then I have to hunt them down again. I am considering making a chart with math-5 blocks, history-4 blocks, science- 2 blocks, etc. We are having a difficult time with changing schedules and so instead of saying science is Tuesday and Thursday, we just need to do it twice per week, whenever. Has something like this worked for anyone? Whatever we do, I think a large part of the problem is not having set times for school to begin, and the boys wandering off whenever they get a chance. We also don't have set times for lunch or breaks so it seems someone is always asking to get a drink, snack or go to the bathroom. Then I am hunting them down again. It seems we need a whole lot more structure, which is not my nature. I could use some suggestions.

Thanks for telling me about the online community. I went and took a look around the public forum, which is small. I am guessing you are referring to one of the private forums? I didn't want to subscribe if that is not the right thing since it is 80/month. Is this the right one?

OK, I have received my order. Now what? How do you do this in your home? Thanks!!

I just saw Shurley this morning at my local HS store for the first time. It looked interesting but I was wondering how it might work for two grades. Can anyone tell me how long it takes to go through the lesson with each child? I have a 4th grader and a 6th grader. I am glad to hear that it is working for you, paris! I am also glad to hear about the study skills, I didn't know about that.