It's a 2level house. There's 3 bedrooms (1 is master) up and 3 bedrooms down. The house is being restored after a fire last year. We were able to make a few changes, one was adding a large bedroom in the downstairs. Before, I had little kids up and big kids down. I hated it. This time I want all the kids (and their mess!) together even though the master bedroom is upstairs (with a crib for the baby). My husband claimed one upstairs bedroom for an office. I'm undecided about what to do with the other. There's a large storage closet in the downstairs which I'm going to put school stuff, art stuff and out of rotation toys. If we do work boxes, I could keep them in there too. I'm thinking right now to set up a large table in the part of the downstairs we fondly call "the cave" because it's got no natural light on that side. On the bedroom side, there's lots of light. The entrance to the laundry room is also in the cave. During the renovation, we did add extra lighting, so hopefully it's brighter now. The only drawback is that I wouldn't be able to close a door on it. I guess I could add a curtain or room divider with a baby gate. Thanks for helping me think this through!

I just did this irl. Sort of- minus the kidnapper and I bought these things. We had a house fire last year and lost pretty much everything. So her are the things I re-bought very soon after the fire: DS1 - AoPS algebra History of the World - Ancient Literature to go with Ancient History WWS1 Vocab - classical Roots Littles and DD - SOTW without activity guides FIAR and Before FIAR Words Their Way Teach your child in 100 EZ Lessons I printed a bunch of easy readers from Readinga-z.com and got lots from the library Lots of math manipulatives Lots of Puzzles Miquon Orqnge Singapore 1st grade I had a lot of Mr. Q Science on a thumb drive that was not in the fire so we've been using that. Arabic is web based so that didn't get destroyed. We replaced 2 iPads and a Laptop; I'd definitely bring those. Not sure that would fit in a carry on Suitcase. Maybe a carry on suitcase and a backpack if we didn't pack the puzzles?

Definitely cleaning the house. I'd want a 2-3x a week house keeper. At a minimum. Daily would be better. No contemplation necessary.

I think if you could answer this, (or better yet solve this!), you could retire immediately!!

The more I think about it the more I change my mind! I have to pick paint colors for the bedrooms this week :/ My options when we move are: - 10x10 bedroom near the kitchen. It has a 1/2 closet. - part of the basement - a bigger bedroom, but I would have to move kids to the small 10x10 bedroom. But then the kids bedrooms would be on different floors

Awesome!

We are sick, BOO! DD was sent home from school on Monday with a fever. She's not completely well yet and meanwhile everyone except DS1 has gotten this nasty flu. Fevers, whining, a lot of sleeping and a LOT of tissues. Did I say whining? Oh please let us get better soon! This week I was supposed to work Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I called in sick today and I'm sure I will tomorrow too. If I can get well by Saturday, I may try to go because DH will be home to watch the kids. The bad things about that is I'm going to have to find the time over the next few weeks (with our already cram packed schedule) to make up the hours I missed!!

*hugs*

That's an awesome setup!

I LOVE the giant map!

Lol! Don't be sorry!! Thanks for the info!

You already answered my question!

I just looked at the pics on your blog! I love your homeschool room and playroom set up!! One question though: how do you keep the 1 year old from dumping everything on the low shelves? I have a 1 year old too and we are struggling with this so much. I love to have kid centers and things laid out for the PK/k kids but it doesn't work well with a roaming toddler!!

I like this idea. Do you keep the materials for each subject in different places in the house?

Do you wish you could close the doors on your homeschool space when not in use? In our new house I could do a homeschool room in a 10x10 bedroom, a section of the basement, or put the 3 little boys in the small bedroom and use a larger bedroom. I'm trying to think it through.

Do you have a dedicated homeschool room? Care to share pics? We're moving in a couple months and may have space for one.

Freezing milk solved the problem of "hmmm, we're out of milk so I have to go to the store." We also go through a tremendous amount of milk each month.

I do send DH after 2 weeks for eggs and fresh fruit and veggies. I have a freezer in the garage to help. Oh and I freeze milk.

Another vote for you can't possibly do it all. Cooking is the thing I really struggle with so I streamlined cooking/shopping and that has helped a lot. I made a weekly meal plan and when I stick to it, it's easier. There's no thinking involved. I shop once a month. For example, I know that for spaghetti nights for 4 weeks, I need 4 2 lb boxes of noodles, 8 jars of sauce and 8 lb of ground beef plus salad veggies. Same with pizza night. Every month I buy 12 frozen pizzas (3 per week). Fish night is 5 lb of fish, 2 onions, rice and 2 bags of frozen veggies x 4. The first time I did monthly shopping, I about had a heart attack at the checkout. BUT shopping for the month was done which meant I didn't have to do it again for 4 weeks which is huge. Grocery shopping was taking up a whole morning a week from our schedule. I want one of those vacuum robots Jackie was talking about!

Ok, Texas is out

Cali is definitely in the short list. We moved away a few years ago when the economy there crashed. Is it doing better now?

It's a high of 54 here today. I'm a little surprised it's so close

What are the services like there?

True, but I can daydream about it! Irvine is nice

I would have loved this college for me!