We sold our home last year and my kids Had a lot of electronic time so I could keep the house clean. It was a rough time and stressful for me. Especially when we asked for a day's notice and people would want same day less than an hour. We did a lot of decluttering to begin with. I went through each room and made boxes for storage, give away and throw away. This helped a lot to keep clean. Having the nice organized boxes helped a lot too when we moved into the other house too since it was easy to unpack then. I made sure these boxes were very clearly labeled as to what was in them and where they belonged. I trained the kids to make their beds daily in the morning and clean. I did room checks each morning to make sure all laundry was put away properly, toys away, etc. since most of the morning was school time for us, this kept the rooms clean for me. Each night, I cleaned the kitchen and made sure the main level was cleaned before bed. This kept the house as tidy as I could and then I tried my best to vacuum, wash Windows and dust before a showing. This happened most of the time, but not always. Even with a pristine home and being on the market at the right time, we sold after we had moved out. Had I known that, I would have saved the stress and moved out and then put it on the market. It was empty and we did get some very low offers and just waited for the right one.

I've been taking reading slowly with my newly turned 5 yo and he is doing well. He's able to blend well and is behind to read without sounding out, but the rule breakers he just doesn't remember!! It's driving me nuts. I'll show him the word, have him say it, practice it a few times and literally less than a minute later he can't tell me the word. How can I help him remember them?

I think it was rude of her to scold you. It's your kids and your choice. Would it be nice if you waited until you got home to trash them vs in the church, yeah. But really oh well. Ours usually end up staying in the car until we clean it out and then they are trashed too. The talking about SS is a big yes for us. I'm not in the classroom and even when I a, I want to see what my kids got out of it and honestly make sure correct doctrine is being taught. I trust our church and teach SS myself, but I want to make sure what they are being taught is correct and if it's not I correct it. Eta- I personally feel convicted to talk to talk about SS lessons with our kids, but I really don't expect other parents to do it at home and I'm pretty sure most don't.

I feel like FIAR really is a curriculum you'll either love or hate and it all depends upon your and your children's personalities. My kids LOVE having the books read over and over to them. The love the familiarity and finding new things in the books as we learn. I LOVE planning, finding all the extras to add in to the lessons and extending them, so for me it's also person. It really suits us. Another thing I've loved about it is that I can make it as simple as just following the ideas in the TM or add as much as I want and my kids are still learning. Some books we read daily for two weeks to extend the lesson, others we read 2-3 times during a week. This year I am using it a second time for pre-k and we will continue it for K with a pre-k tag along next year. One thing I've done that has helped us tremendously is pre plan each unit when we have the time and then make little kits (kind of like the Ivy Kids Kits) with all the supplies and things I'll need for it. So I print out all the lapbook items we are doing with it, have the file folder already in the kit, all art supplies that I'll need, etc. So during the school year, I just pull out the kit and we are ready to go. There's no prep needed on a daily basis really which is what causes me not to do the extra fun things (especially since this is a middle child I'm using it for). I also splurged a little bit in getting a couple of Ivy Kids Kits to help me when I just don't want to plan and the kids still want the crafts and extras. If it's something you think your kids and you would like, I'd see how using it works best for you as it seems everyone does it differently and that's okay! I always have to remind myself when looking at the beautiful blogs that things don't always go as beautifully as depicted. There's life and kids mixed up somewhere in there too!

We are excited to have another one in kindly next year! Reading- He will continue along with AAR at which ever level he's at. He's currently working through level 1 Handwriting- continuing to use LOE'S cursive program (I forget the name) FIAR and ivy kits for his main studies Tag along with older brothers with winter promises air, sky and space Math is my only undecided for him. He's almost done with mus primer right now and I'm trying to decide whether he moves on with mus or we begin using mm or something else for him.

All the ones I listed were. There were more that we didn't do either because of lack of time and they were also free I believe.

Yes! We loved staying there! I felt that it was less busy than other resorts since people that may got to resorts to check them out, don't always want to go out to AK because it is further. So the lobby wasn't always packed and there weren't usually people from other resorts for the events they held. We loved the room (stayed in a one room with kitchen and washer and dryer! A must since we had young ones. I think it was a Disney Vacation Club room we were given at check in). My kids loved walking through the resort, watching for animals as we walked by the windows. They have quite a few things for kids. A few I remember were the movies at night, you could get the night vision binoculars to check out animals at night, smores in the evening, there was an opportunity to bake and decorate cookies, a scavenger hunt throughout the hotel looking for things that related to Africa, in the lobby there were different presentations each day about the countries the animals were found in and when we were they, there were actually people native to the countries presenting (my kids loved this! We were studying geography that year so they were able to learn a lot more!). My kids were even taught to play drums and other musical instruments from the countries. That's all I can remember as it was a few years ago, but after staying there, we did say we would be staying there again if we went. The quick service restaurant on the site was good too. We weren't able to do the sit down since we always got back too late. We liked to pool as well. We didn't have any issues with buses, but also had a car, so we drove some days too.

Thank you for this! I briefly looked it over and it also has good suggestions! Thankfully our children, as far as we know, are not anaphylactic and don't have any airborne type of allergens. That would be very scary and I wouldn't be taking them either!

This is all great info! Thanks! The last time we traveled to Europe it was without kids and allergies so I didn't need to think of this. Thankfully DH is able to speak German fluently so we wil be fine there and I'll take some of the suggestions in mind when planning our travels. Staying in a place we can make many of our own meals will definitely help, but I know since we will be out a lot we wil be at restaurants. Plus hey, it is vacation!

We are hoping to go to Europe this summer as a family. Between us and our kids we have a couple with a gluten intolerance, two intolerant and one allergy to dairy, another to soy and an intolerance to rice. Any hope of being to eat without issue while in Europe? We will most likely be in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and perhaps a few other countries Inbetween as we travel. Any tips? I'm trying to prepare in advance.

Yes, we were eager with the first and excited to be starting "real" school. I now give the same advice and my others who are also close to the cut off did not get labeled early. Here we do need grade levels in a way since that is how they are split at church, co-op and other classes.

My oldest has a birthday that falls a couple of weeks after the states cut off. So when he was going to turn five, we decided to call it K, even though he wouldn't have gone to K until the year after. We were eager to start, all our friends were going to K, so we did it too. So we've always labeled grade levels. Fast forward to today. He's in "4th" grade and I feel is less mature than his peers and since so many have chosen to red shirt vs start on time or early it's more apparent. Academically we have always worked at his level so at home it's not a concern, but rather in group settings like co-op, church and classes. Academically, he probably is more at a 3rd grade level with some areas. I'm beginning to regret starting early and calling it K and am thinking about having him do 4th grade again next year for social reasons vs academic. Is changing things now going to harm him? Should I just continue along with the path we've started? We've moved recently and are beginning a new co-op, so renaming a grade level now won't be known to a social group, just him and old friends.

We loved this bakery when we Were there as we have allergies other than just gluten and they were able to accommodate all of them. We were also able to order in advance and pick them up. Well worth it! The donuts were so good! And such a treat after being gf, df, super and dye free for years As other have said Disney is great with the gf and any other allergies. Just note to speak with the waiter (who usually sends out the chef) at all meals. Just because it's noted doesn't mean they've looked at that and will accommodate without request. They were so good when we did speak with them. At buffets they pointed out what we could eat and even made specific meals just for my kids with multiple allergies. Sit down was much easier than the fast food. We did 1-2 sit downs for this reason a day. The resorts are great about it too. We stayed at the animal kingdom and they made specific meals there for my kids and were less expensive than the parks so we typically ate a meal there before going back to the parks. At the counter service they had a menu for us to look at and prepared it separately, but I preferred sit down at the parks and counter service at the resort. It much much quicker at the resort too since it wasn't as busy.

Following since I'm in a similar debate right now

I am working my way through it and yes there have been things I've learned. But for some reason I was under the impression, I wouldn't need to buy additional dvd programs if I had TWSS so that's what is throwing me off. I do plan on finishing TWSS and we will just move on to SICC when finished!

Thanks! That helps a lot. Had I known that I wouldn't have purchased TWSS too. Oh well I guess we move on to SICC next year then.

If I have twss can I watch that myself and then skip sicc? Is there anywhere that gives a scope and sequence to know if I would hav pe the skills to teach it on my own?

We wil be finishing up swi a this year, so what comes next? When looking at the theme books it appears to just start over? Or b any different?

I'm looking for a free online program for kids learning scratch. It would be for my 7 and 9 year olds

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Another for One. Many of the games we had wer backwards compatible and with them phasing out it the 360 it makes more sense.

We found when we went from unlimited data to very low data that the kindle fires are data hogs!! So without unlimited data I wouldn't recommend it. It could have been that my kids had freetime unlimited but they used so much data we had to turn off the wifi for them and then many games didn't work.

Thanks for letting me know! I'm all done shopping but I'll add it to bday wish lists for next year then. They love ticket to ride!

We got pandemic as a family gift since we all play games together. I just got DH a dominion expansion for his bday but since my boys are starting to learn how to play we may grab another. They've also been asking for ticket to ride Europe but since I'm assuming it's the same as USA but Europe I'm holding off. I want something new. I'm contemplating tsuro too since that's one even our youngest can play with us

Yes! I may! And thankfully my husband supports it 😀 I'm also way too into planning. Why is planning and drooling over the curriculum so much more fun and easier than implementing it?