I just received mine a few weeks ago-- just as beautiful in person! And I love that there are different options available for purchasing it. You can, for example, purchase the binder alone and print out the pages yourself if you want. I can't compare with other timeline books, but we have a wall timeline that I'd loooove to use, if only our current house had a single wall long enough. It doesn't. :-( I did consider accordion-style books that can also be opened up to full length, but decided that they were too expensive and (like the wall timeline) too big for our space to really be opened up much anyway.

We just started Bio 2 w/ DS5 (yes, 5) even though he's so much younger than the recommended age. The primary reason I chose level 2 was that it started out w/ microscopy, and microscopy interests me. Selfish, I know! But there's nothing worse than a bored teacher, and weather (which bores me to tears) is the kick-off chapter for Bio 1. :-). Besides, it made perfect sense to me to start the study of biology with an examination of the building blocks of life, the cell. And it's been a huuuuuge success. We did modify the NOEO plans for the first couple of weeks because they are primarily book-focused and I wanted to get my son out on the field and into the "lab" (okay, our basement, where we keep the microscope) right from the get-go. We collected pond water, found "water monsters" living in it, put drawings in our science notebook, and DS is hooked. He begs for science now. We will probably expand our microscope study beyond NOEOs plans, and am sooo glad we went with Bio 2.

Canvas bins -- love them! And lots of adorable colors to choose from. Martha Stewart (Home Depot) makes some with label slots now, but if you get Closet Maid (Target) which has no label slot, you can use Martha Stewart reusable chalkboard labels (got mine at Staples) and liquid chalk pens to make your labels. ~$6/bin; and they fit beautifully on bookshelves. They've been a lifesaver when it comes to organizing school stuff in my teensy little space. PS- had a few C&B bins which I didn't like; they collapsed too easily.

Ditto on the eval; it could open doors to really helpful resources. Meanwhile, have you tried cursive yet instead of manuscript writing? Its much harder to reverse letters and is recommended for those with dyslexia. My gut tells me that it would be wiser to hold off on typing for now, though; the written product might look nicer, but if there is an underlying cause for the reversals, it could mask the problem and won't do much to help overcome it.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory read by Eric Idle-- we all loved it, including my Kindy and PreK-ers. (Though we borrowed it through the library, not Audible)

I had originally planned to just use several usborne encyclopedias as a spine for 1st grade Bio, writing narrative pages on what we read and drawing from Janice Van Cleave lab texts for hands -on ideas. My problem? Prepping labs. I just never have the time! And if its not ready it won't get done. Then discovered Noeo science, which organizes readings from resources like Usborne's encyclopedias into lesson plans, provides reproducibles for notebook pages and lab sheets, and also (best part) provides lab kits that really do come with everything you need for each lab except some very basic household items (like paper towels). So we're using Bio 2 as it starts with microscopy (something I was excited to do) and it's been a huge hit with DS. (We began this spring to take advantage of warm weather.) I like that it's easy to adapt Noeo to my own ideas and plans (I'm a control-freak), but loooove that I have labs all set and Noeo's plans as a guideline. Has made planning and implementing so much easier. And since it involves writing/narration, my son is getting additional practice in those areas too.

So helpful! DS, our oldest, is starting 1st grade and I haven't felt confident in choosing curriculum for Latin as I never studied it myself. I settled on Song School plus Classical Conversations memory work (pardigms) to start off with-- would you recommend then that we try LFC around grade 3, rather than LC? It sounds like LC might be too redundant if we already covered paradigms.

@calming tea- an excellent resource is available at ibri.org (The Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute). The site is compiled by IBRI's members (scholars with degrees in both the fields of Biblical studies and other fields-- primarily science). It's a bit challenging to navigate the website itself but the articles, reports, reviews, and resources it contains are gold. Most items deal with science/Bible topics, and the contributors are scholars (theologians, scientists, professors in higher education, etc) who are committed to truth as revealed by their particular discipline, and are also Christians committed to the complete reliability of Scripture. Most contributors (possibly all?) hold an old-earth creationist position. The materials seem primarily geared toward an adult (college and graduate) audience, but are certainly valuable and accessible to homeschooling parents and their high-schoolers. Highly recommended!

So impressed and inspired by your resolve to get started with your new routine....now! That's great! I'm usually a fairly disciplined homeschooler, but when mornings start to get sluggish, I stumbled by accident on a trick to jump-start us: get up and get out! As quickly as possible, grabbing breakfast to go if we can, I get my Kindy and 3 preschoolers out of the house. A short walk, a nearby park, the post office, or even (if the weather's not cooperating) a van ride to grab myself a coffee at the drive-thru (with the kids singing along to their memory songs on cd, just to redeem the time). Somehow just getting out of the house energizes us all for the day, and we hit the schoolroom as soon as we return (usually by 9) to take advantage of that energy. It really works wonders for us! (And on a sluggish rainy day, the latte for me is especially motivating) :-) Of course, it might be a bit tricky with your sleepyhead, but if your DH is still at home to hold down the fort, perhaps you and your early bird could benefit from an outing, just until he kicks the movie habit. Might ease the transition this week. Best wishes!