Very fun. Thanks for sharing. The link above didn't work for me. This link might help others. http://www.lampstandbookshelf.com/ZC/index.php

You could use SOTW, but if you may want to look at a different curriculum that would allow you to more easily handle the age diff. (TOG comes to mind, but I know there are lots of others) Not trying to turn you away from SOTW - my kids loved it. But, it's not geared for the older ages that you have, so I think you might end up making things more difficult for yourself trying to make it work. PP gave a great solution, though, so clearly it can work. I'm just less organized than the average bear and like things all together.

I had forgotten about Old Fashioned Education. I like that one. Looked into the Latin program. I've tried two other Latin programs and just can't seem to get into it. More of a modern languages gal who longs to be a Latin scholar. :)

In honor of the Olympics will you share your homeschool gold medal winners? They can be best homeschool book, best curriculum, best organization book, best keep you sane book, etc. I'll take the easy one: Gold Medal - The Well Trained Mind - I use this book constantly. This is the book I lend to friends who are interested in homeschooling. When I'm in a slump or we hit an area that causes trouble, I reread sections (and usually realize that if I'd done as they suggested, I wouldn't be having that problem.) When I'm planning for the next year, I'm right back in it looking at the reviews. Also at the podium - MUS and IEW. Both are fantastic!

Tee hee. Now that's funny. :lol:

I know people love the workboxes and I like the theory, but just couldn't get my head around 36 boxes in my hs room. Ahhh. Others (much more creative than I) clearly had the same problem and came up with diff. ideas. This site has several real life interpretations of workboxes that might help you out. I know it helped me. http://www.squidoo.com/workboxes

Best book we read - Two Miserable Presidents. http://www.amazon.com/Two-Miserable-Presidents-Amazing-Terrible/dp/1596435194/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266419346&sr=8-1 It was funny, but brought people and situations to life. I thought it dealt well with the causes of the war and with the difficult decisions that were made.

365 Balsamic vinegar- regular and the white kind. So good!

bump.

My son is so like that too. He's 2 and just loves to write letters and numbers, writing words and doing math. I had him in preschool and they told me that I should discourage him from doing that - in fact that it was hurting him educationally. I get their point that he should be engaged in more imaginative play, etc, but why would I stop him from doing something he loves just because it happens to be academic? I just make sure he has lots of other activities and I def. try to play and read with him as much as I can. Question right back at you - I see you use Miquon with your little guy. How is that going with him? I was considering it for my guy, but I don't know tons about it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it or other good hands on math programs for kids. I agree with the PP who suggested a microscope. We have two from Rainbow. Inexpensive, sturdy and all my kids love exploring with it - even the destroyer hasn't broken it yet. http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1266351751-1451220&subject=11&category=3313

So my questions: what makes a citizen? What is it specifically that ps is doing that hs is not? What do we want all citizens to know, do, have read, etc? What ought an American citizen know, do, be that is different from other nationalities? I agree with the poster who said that we are segmenting in our society with little binding us together. In fact, people are quite willing to snap and snarl at anyone who may possibly disagree with them. Unfortunately, our current society seems to enjoy focusing on what is divisive, rather than what we have in common.

Wow. Sounds like you had a rough childhood. I'm glad you are changing things for your family. :) My parents are wonderful. They did spank and I deserved each spanking. They did have a rule - only 1 spank. That was for discipline. If you hit more than once, you're just trying to get out frustration. (not trying to offend others who don't believe that, just sharing my family's rule) I've used that rule with my own kids. That said, my parents didn't spank that often. They earned our respect by being wise, kind, loving, giving, etc. They gave us freedom, spent time discussing all sorts of topics with us, challenged us intellectually. We wanted to have them approve of us and our choices so we were always pretty good. Wish I knew exactly what they did. I try to parent the same way they did, but I do not do as well, darn it. Happily, I have loving, forgiving kids who overlook my parenting errors.

Get rid of stuff now. You don't want to pay to pack it, move it and then take the time to unpack it. We're mid-move now (in temp. housing, most stuff in storage) and I realize how little I really need. Will just give some boxes away w/o opening when we get in our home. As far as getting boxes - Craig's list. You can usually get tons there for free or very cheap. Some moving or storage companies will sell some at good prices (some will gouge you, so know your prices). Go to a strip mall and start asking. Most companies are happy to give you boxes free if you'll pick them up at certain times. Grocery stores always have tons and are usually happy to give them away - be choosy. Don't take ones that had produce in them. Go for the ones that held paper products, cleaning products, etc. No bugs that way. Office supply companies often have copypaper boxes - great for books since they are small but sturdy. Check prices of boxes vs. rubbermaids. We bought tons of rubbermaids on sale at Walmart - cheaper than cardboard and reusable. Packing - I use towels, tablecloths, pillows, etc. to pack as much as possible. Why pay for packing material and more boxes when you can use what you have to pack anyway? I'm not as organized as the PP, but I do try to pack a few necessities boxes - linens for beds, pillows, etc, towels for each person, kitchen items for a few day, etc. Basically everything you'll need to have for a few days. When you get to the new house you know which boxes to unpack first and then you can be more relaxed unpacking the rest.

My SIL taught me that if you lose it, they win. That stuck with me. Now I feel like I've lost if I lose my cool, yell or even get visibly upset. I don't like to lose, so it doesn't happen as much anymore. I have a few tricks that I use to give me a chance to chill: 1 - Excuse yourself to go to the bathroom -no one will follow you and you can use the time to relax. 2 - take a long sip of your drink or a bite of food- a family favorite and especially helpful when someone has said something upsetting directly to you or you've just come back from the "bathroom" 3 - Pass the bean dip..with a big smile and a sweet tone of voice. Would love to hear others' suggestions.

Not that I've seen but they do have clearance and bargain books.

Can't answer as we're going into Zeta, but am curious why you are switching. Plus, I wanted to bump this up.

Lots of great all in ones make it easy. I got those for dh and the church nursery workers to use. Work the same as disposable. They can be expensive though. (Bumgenius and bumkins are popular) For the majority of the time, though, I used cloth flat diapers with a diaper clip and a plastic cover. Super simple to use and cheap. Search google for reviews on cloth diapers. There are tons!! 10 minutes of searching will help you be much more comfortable with them. Check this one out: http://www.diaperpin.com/howto.asp

So sorry to hear this happened. That is horrible. However, don't let it diminish your generosity. Just because one person is desperate and does the wrong thing shouldn't stop you from being the kind person you are. Plus, you never know how God could use this in her life. I keep thinking of Les Mis and Jean Valjean. Even if she doesn't change, don't let her bad behavior change you. Not trying to preach. I've been there before (very similar) I got mad and decided no one would do that to me again. Hated what I let it do to me, kwim. Much better to be wise (def. learn and be careful) and generous. Kudos to you for being a good, loving, generous person. So sorry that this bad thing happened to you.

Bag of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel. No meat (except eating what your husband is grilling for dinner tonight) Rest. Don't walk into walls. :) If there is bleeding, blurred vision or swelling that persists, go to the dr. Don't take chances with your vision. If not, ice should work.

We are currently potty training my 2 almost 3 yr. old. Like yours he seems to have little interest in it anymore. I just don't have the energy to do what we did with the older ones (Cold turkey - just underwear. Effective but ugh) We've been making him try at regular times - before bath, before bed, right after waking, right after meals, etc. One of my older boys has really taken the lead here. He gets 2 yr. old on the potty and stays there with him encouraging and entertaining him. Slower than the other method, but seems to be working and is way less stressful. At some point (soon) though, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and just put him in the underwear. It will keep both of us more focused. Hmm, may have to go buy wine before that happens. :)

For your 8 y.o -I know some people swear by All About Spelling. A good friend used it with her 8 year old who was a struggling reader(she started with the first book and went up from there) and said it did wonders. Haven't tried it, but thought I'd pass it on. We use Megawords and I think you could do the same thing with it. Take heart - her son (10 y.o) is now a voracious reader. Seriously, she can't keep the kid in books. One other thing she did was get him started in series books at the library. Anything he was interested in (that was not inappropriate) She didn't worry about the fact that they were pretty fluffy, she just wanted him reading. With mine, we just read books aloud together. I read one sentence, he read the next. Moved onto I read one paragraph, he read the next....one page...one chapter... Took about a month, but then both were very good readers. Have you tried the high interest/low reading ability books? My kids did the Wonder Stories and enjoyed them. http://www.mariinc.com/workhigh.html Also, if you search on high interest low vocabulary you will get tons of recommendations for reading books (not workbooks). Wish I could help you with your older kids. We use TOG and R&S and love it, but we're not middle school yet. Very interested in hearing what suggestions you get. I've heard good things on the board about Rex Barks: Diagramming Sentences Made Easy. http://www.amazon.com/Rex-Barks-Diagramming-Sentences-Made/dp/1889439355 Don't think it's the complete answer but it might be a good resource.

My kids loved the gaol. They got to participate in a few throwing demos (e.g. throwing axes at large wood figures, etc.) Hands down the best for them. They also loved the calligraphy demonstration. The actor was great and the kids got to try it out and he wrote their names in beautiful script. Ghost walk - mine were about your kids ages when we went. We left the little one at the hotel with dad and went on the ghost walk geared for kids - not very scary at all. Games on the green - walking on stilts, stick and hoop, etc. Papermaker and binder - amazing to see how books were made. Post office was also a big hit. Who knew sealing wax was so cool. At the very beginning when you walk in there is a farm with a well. Kids spent 20 minutes talking to the actor there and using the well. Have you checked out the itineraries they have on the their site? Might be helpful to you. http://www.history.org/visit/whatToSeeAndDo/historicArea/itineraries.cfm Have fun!

Wow!! Ok, how do you do it? Your family is exact same split as mine and I'm almost double yours - and I'm trying. I only buy on sale, bulk, cook from scratch, etc. We go through a ton of produce and husband is practically a carnivore, so we have meat at every dinner. Those are our big budget busters. Still, though, we split a cow to keep meat costs down, buy produce on sale or local farmers (in season) so I can get better prices. Seriously, I'd love to hear more specific advice/tips you frugal mamas want to share.

These may not be new to y'all, but were new to me. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/677/01/ - online writing lab for 7-12 grades, but you could use parts of it for younger. http://www.mathstories.com/ - math word problems http://www.mathsisfun.com/ - all sorts of math learning General learning sites http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/ http://www.yourchildlearns.com/ Book suggestions site http://bookseer.com/

I just read something that sort of dovetails. I am trying to do more of the encouraging/supporting and less of the criticizing. Fwiw, I'm trying to do more of this type of supporting or "keeping" however you want to describe it with my kids, too. "In fact, the longer couples are together, the easier it becomes to not only see each other's flaws, but to mercilessly criticize them. This eventually leads to low tolerances, short tempers, minimal patience, and a woeful lack of marital bliss. As a result, those gifts of unconditional love, respect and admiration that were once offered so freely become gifts that we are not so willing to offer at all... As I recalled some of the critical comments that had rolled off my tongue so easily, I became overwhelmed with regret and disappointment. I had fallen into a bad habit of tearing down my man with my words, not fully realizing the toll it was taking on him. Most importantly, I began to realize the powerful influence I have on my husband and marriage by simply choosing words that encourage, instead of discourage... As women, we have the power to build up or tear down our husbands every day, merely by the respect we give and the amount of faith we let him know we have in him."