I purchased a china hutch kind-of-furniture-thing so my homeschool supplies could live in style in the dining room. My postman was friendly until I finally told him that all the boxes he'd been delivering were homeschool supplies and books; he has never acted quite the same since. If someone asks what grade my children are in I make the person asking figure it out. Interestingly enough I don't always get the same answer. I had a goat for awhile but DH made me keep her at my friend's property.

I pre-skim all books (a public school education taught me how to skim content so I could get the boring worksheets done as quickly as possible). Most of my daughter's library books have been all right but there have been the occasional book with disturbing content. For instance, in Return of the Black Stallion there is a section where "the bad guy" threatens to pull Alex's arms off. I knew my daughter would be disturbed by the details so I marked the pages for her to skip. Now if my daughter read a book a day I'd be hard pressed to keep up. I'd probably have to superficially skim all the books. Maybe read just the first 3 pages, 2 in the middle and the ending.

My daughter has really enjoyed Mark Kistler's online art lessons. She completed all the sample lessons (it took her and her brother at least 2 months) and still wanted more so I purchased a membership. The other resource I purchased for her was Klutz's Watercolor: For the Artistically Undiscovered. In addition we have several art reference books: The Usborne Book of Famous Paintings, 13 Paintings Children Should Know, Usborne Art Treasury (exploration of different media and styles) and Children's Book of Art. Lastly, I can sympathize with your art instruction difficulties. I live in a very artistic town and it still took me a year to find an art instructor for my daughter. It was frustrating because In my city most of the children's art classes involve craft projects during after-school programs, the upper level adult watercolor class refused to let a child attend and many private instructors had surreal, faintly disturbing art styles my daughter didn't like. It's been a difficult process and I'm still not sure I've found exactly the instruction my daughter needs. Next step is to ask the community college if they will allow a 10-year old to attend their drawing classes.