Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach. I have yet to find a book that speaks to the heart of teaching and being present inwardly and outwardly in the act of teaching as effectively as Palmer does.

http://nevernotlearning.blogspot.com/ We're secular homeschoolers in New Mexico, hs'ing for just slightly over a year and a half. Curric wise, we have used lapbooks and unit studies in the past and we're trying to do some different stuff this year, but prepared to go back to the old way if we need to. Please feel free to comment and visit the blog!

I use it for everything! I buy school books, supplies, gluten-free flour, streaming video...It's well worth the $80 in my opinion!

Oddly, I am. I don't know why, but I kind of like William and Kate, and I hope that they have a chance to raise this baby as normally as they can.

It depends on what's going on. On a regular day, we're all in by five. Dh gets home from work about then, and he's almost always too tired to go anywhere. If we *do* go out, we try to get home by 730. If we have baseball tickets...whenever the game ends!

It's overcast here, and my sinuses are protesting in the form of a raging sinus headache over my right eye. I'm also the worst parent in the world because I wouldn't let DS go see World War Z with his friend. So, I'm about to go take a couple of serious sinus pills and take a nap, and leave cranky ds to watch Batman the cartoon.

He's a packrat because of childhood emotional issues, I suspect. I purged hard this past weekend, and even he admitted that the space looks much better and much more open. The problem is, all the stuff I purged was mine, not his! If I dare touch his stuff, there'll be a firestorm. There are also family issues at work here; some family members have an emotional investment in keeping us, in their eyes, 12 years old. So they keep giving us junk, and encourage Dh and ds to scatter it throughout the house. And then there's guilt-tripping if we get rid of the junk. If we actually have a house that looks properly adult and grown-up, we're not 12 anymore, and they can't control us. Ugh. I hate this clutter because it's emotional manipulation at it's finest.

I forgot: Flash drives Colored printer paper Binder clips Printer ink Dry-erase markers and erasers Index cards Colored file folders for lapbooking

Erasers Post-It flags Three ring binders Folders without brads Letter trays

Love, love, love this room! This is kind of how I'd like to do ours if we'd had the space!

My kid's best friend just came back from vacation and invited Darth over for a playdate! I can declutter and organize tomorrow with no one to interrupt me! I got the bookcase cleared out and the toddler table and chairs moved today, some books on the shelf, and some supplies put into a new place.

We've made some progress too. Darth's little table and chairs are going to be taken out to the garage today, and the bookshelf behind it cleared out for more storage for his books and reference materials. I'm also trashing the battered bins that his loose crayons, markers and such are in and reorganizing a shelf of the bookcase to store paper, markers, colored pencils and construction paper. I think I might try to get office trays to organize the papers and cups for pencils and markers. I need to clear clutter before anything else though, and that's the most important part. I'm really not the most clutter-free person on the planet :svengo:

I would also recommend Quinn Cummings The Year of Learning Dangerously. It's funny, pretty candid, and is actually really helpful for parents struggling with anxieties about doing the right thing for their children. I know a lot of people panned it, but it also struck a chord with some others.

We divide the curriculum up into separate portions of about $75-80 each and then purchase one per month. If we have a little extra money, we'll buy more. We just got our last two packages today thank heavens!

There are a few biographies of Elizabeth Blackwell available: http://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Blackwell-Doctor-Childhood-Americans/dp/0689806272/ref=pd_sim_b_25 http://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Blackwell-Americas-First-Doctor/dp/0736896600/ref=pd_sim_b_7

I buy quite a bit from amazon used and have always had good service. If you buy enough, then something like Amazon Prime might be a good option for you. There are many used book sellers whose orders are fulfilled by Amazon, and with Prime it's free shipping.

Oh, I forgot the maple syrup! Soooo much cheaper than in the stores, and good quality. We also get some clothes, books, batteries, movies, crackers, breakfast cereal, chicken stock, canned oranges, tomatoes, and pineapple... yeah I agree with the previous poster who said it would be easier to list what we *don't* get at Costco! :hurray:

This describes me to a t. I *want* to have a minimalist household, but I can't seem to achieve it. :confused1:

I read them all when I was a kid! Read multiple times in fact. We're starting the first book as a read-aloud this fall for DS, and seeing if he likes it.

They're in the cold case near the eggs at our Costo.

I hate planning. Hate, hate, hate it. I just need to get the rest of the books! Part of them should be here today, the rest tomorrow. I'm actually excited about that but not so much about the planning that I'll have to do afterwards.

Ugh! I need to do this! We still have stuff from when ds was a baby-- 9 years ago! We need desperately to declutter, but dh is a packrat and I'm not sure how to get him on board with this.