I need my Downton Abbey.

As soon as I saw "Sherlock" was in it, I was on board. Honestly, I thought the movie was so-so. But, I love Benedict Cumberbatch, so I was very entertained.

I used Donna Young printables as well. Her website has a ton of stuff and you can pick and choose what works for you. My plan is to do one week at a time at first to see if we stay on track or not. I cannot see planning out 6 weeks in advance because if we get off the schedule a bit, I know that I would want to go and re-do the whole schedule.

I like FlyLady. I took her ideas and made them work for me. I think that, for me, she is saying that keeping your house organized is key to keeping your homeschool organized. Having said that, one of the reasons I am homeschooling is the freedom. Freedom to do classwork outside, inside, at the table, on the couch. Freedom to wear shorts, pants, jammies, shoes, no shoes, socks, no socks. If my son learns best sitting on the balance ball at the dining room table with no shoes or socks on, that is what we will do :)

When I took my son for his K physical, he asked the doctor so many questions about what he was doing (blood pressure, listening to his heart and lungs, etc.), and how it all worked, that the doctor finally took his pencil and drew a human body on the paper sheet and proceeded to explain anatomy to my son. After a 20 minute human anatomy lesson, the doctor proclaimed my son was definitely beyond K and that I should plan on looking into medical school.

My son has glow in the dark stars all over his ceiling and they stay glowing for up to 1/2 hour. They do sell glow in the dark paint. If you are set on keeping the canopy, maybe you can paint over the stars with the glow in the dark paint.

Love Sherlock!

Dr. Doolittle, Moby Dick, Swiss Family Robinson, Magic Tree House, Box Car Children, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

I wasn't planning on starting until the end of August; however, my DS is begging me to start sooner. Some of my books are on back order at Rainbow Resource, so I will wait and see when they are set to arrive. Hopefully we will be starting mid August.

I got a lot of good deals at Target last week. Spiral notebooks for .17. Crayola colored pencils and markers for .99. Binders for under $3.00. I got a great dry erase board at Hobby Lobby. It is about 24"x36" and on sale for $8.99. Plus, they were all 30% off. So, it was about $6.00.

I helped out often in my sons class last year. Once while they were supposed to be reading quietly, he came up to me with a note folded up into a little square. I unfolded it and it said: "Mom, will you please summer school me in negative numbers? Pppllllleeeeaaassseeee!!" I think I have the only child who begged to be summer school in negative numbers.

My DS7 is a non-colorer as well. Like PP's above, when he is asked to color an answer, he has always circled it. He does, however, love to draw. So, I encourage him to draw whenever he wants. He just doesn't color anything in.

My DS7 stopped napping at about 3 years old. He has always had problems falling asleep at night. And then he would have problems staying asleep. And then, he would still get up early. He has learned to express the reason that he cannot fall asleep at night; it is because he cannot "turn off his brain". According to him, he has so many things to think about, his brain doesn't let him sleep. Now that he realizes what the problem is, he is able to deal with it a little. If he is having trouble falling asleep, he tries to focus on thinking about one or two things that he did during the day. It is working. He falls asleep better and stays asleep all night.

My DS was the same way at 4. He loved to read, but was super sensitive. There were a lot of books he wouldn't read and movies he wouldn't watch. I bought all of the step reader books I could. He loved Thomas the Train, so I bought a bunch of those. There were some good level 1 and level 2 books for him. He is 7 now and is just getting over the anxiety over anything in peril thing. Now he wants to read the whole Harry Potter series.

I had suspected my DS7 was gifted since he was about 4. His pre-k teacher, his K teacher, his first grade teacher and many friends told me he was gifted. I was in denial. I finally had him tested a few months ago. I was shocked at the results. The test administrator was shocked at the results. After finding out how highly gifted he is, I did a lot of research. His level of giftedness explains so much about his behaviors; academically, socially, emotionally. I agree with what a PP said about them already "feeling different". I know that my son knew he was different than his peers. He tried to play with them. But it was like he was always on the outside looking in. He didn't really understand what they were playing and why they were playing it. He had one friend a grade higher who was highly gifted as well and they got along great. Unfortunately that child transferred to a different school. We are homeschooling this year. I am very excited, and so is he. As far as choosing levels of curriculum, we are all over the place. He reads at an 8th grade level. We are starting most curriculum at 3rd and 4th grade. I think it will be a cross between knowing my own child and trial and error.

Awesome. Thanks.

This is our first year homeschooling and my DS7 is super excited. He is looking forward to having more interesting subjects to study. He is looking most forward to taking a foreign language (Latin) and the science curriculum (earth and space).

This looks great. Thanks for the tip!

Here are some of our summer plans for my DS 7 He has a fun book called "Art 2 D2". His two favorite things... origami and Star Wars. Cooking. He loves to help in the kitchen. Writing. He really enjoys writing his own books. He has his own series going. "The Adventures of the Fantastic Four". It is the adventures of our family (DH, me, DS and our cat) I really like the post above with the PVC pipes. I might give that a shot. I think he would really like that.

I signed up. I am looking forward to it.

I am new here. I would love to be able to read the articles in the blog tour. What is the link?