I am looking for some resources to either pull together my own Botany unit, or a pre-packaged unit appropriate for grades 5-7. I've checked out Apologia's curriculum, but hadn't planned to spend a full year on the subject. Can anyone recommend any favorite resources? Also, if anyone's familiar with any good books/resources [for kids] about herbs, that would be great. We'll be planting a medieval herb garden as a special project. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing this! :)

I'd vote for the Boppy pillow also, or a good sling, although that might be a more personal thing because everyone's tastes are different. I used my Over The Shoulder Baby Holder sling nearly around the clock with my kiddo's.

We're doing the Middle Ages in the Fall & I've looked at your list a couple of times, but don't think you have any gaps necessarily. That said, I'm not familiar with the main books that you're using, but it looks okay to me. I've been using the Truthquest History guide to plan for next year & it's been immensely helpful - it gives a very solid outline of topics to cover.

Like WendyK, I tend to buy things little by little as good deals come up whether we need it now or not - for example, I've got stuff that I've purchased for US History, even though that's two years away (not curriculum, but supplemental books & such). I don't buy much used, but if it's something we'll need soon & it's a great deal, then I might. Also, I work from home part-time & up until my husband was laid off a few days ago - my income was solely for fun stuff - all our curriculum, books, educational toys, games, field trips, etc. Bookcloseouts.com is another great site for bargains! :)

I'm not sure if any of these would be exactly what you're looking for, but here are a two ideas from my bookmarks: Geology Cookbook: http://www.uky.edu/KGS/education/cookbook.htm Layer Cake Geology: http://www.beloit.edu/sepm/Earth_Works/Layer_Cake_Geology.html And then these two: Gelatin Experiment (Conducted over 4 days): A. Make and pour the red gelatin in a glass pan. This represents the core (outer and inner) of the earth. Refrigerate. B. Add a layer of orange gelatin. Represents the hot liquid that can melt rocks. (mantle) Refrigerate. C. Add a layer of lime gelatin with chopped fruit. Represents soil, mud, and rocks in the crust. Refrigerate. D. On the fourth day, review the experiment/layers and eat it. Milk Chocolate Movement: Using any type of candy bar that has several layers, take a plastic knife and make 2-3 cracks across the middle of the candy bar. The cracked chocolate layer represents the plates of the earth’s lithosphere. Stretch the candy bar, pulling it apart just a little. The exposed caramel represents the new material that rises to form new crust (divergence). Then, push the candy bar back together. Add pressure to form “mountains”. Then, slide one chocolate “plate” beneath another (convergence). Continue to push and pull to observe the movements of the plates and the effects this has on the surface of the earth. Have students draw/record their observations.

Wow, Melinda ~ I LOVE your ideas! Any of them would be absolutely wonderful!

Wow, this is very much me too! When I'm overwhelmed by the house and have no money to shop, I'll generally read instead.

If DH doesn't find a job quickly, we will indeed be facing a move to India (we wouldn't be in Mumbai however) so thank you for the link Kate!

Another option you might ask about is an allergy blood test. It's not quite as sensitive and the results aren't as "instant," but it is an option. This is what the Dr ordered for my son since his skin is so extremely sensitive.

I'm so glad you posted this! I've been seeing ads for local honey lately with "great for allergies" on them and I could *not* figure this out, LOL.

We've been having the same problem this year with one of the boys, not so much the runny nose, but he's had a chronic allergy-related rash this Spring. His pediatrician gave us samples of Xyzal (levocetirizine dihydrochloride) 5 mg & it works fantastically (Benadryl and the others did nothing for his itchiness). Wal-Mart sells it under the Equate brand as allergy medicine in 10 mg tablets, but you have to look for the chemical name. We just halve the tablets & he takes one each night at bedtime. You might check with your Pedatrician though, DD has severe year-round allergies and had no luck with OTC allergy meds either & now she's on an inhaler (despite not having asthma) and nasal spray (Nasonex) and it keeps her pretty clear.

I haven't read everyone else's responses yet, but this is a subject I have very mixed feelings about. Initially I felt I had to pay that kind of money since we had planned to start homeschooling next year, but then for a number of reasons, had to pull the kids out at winter break - so had zero time to plan adequately. Having a plan was a lifesaver, but I very quickly learned I didn't like the plan, so I switched to another curriculum. While I'm fairly happy with it, I never use it as is, and instead am simply writing my own plan - based on bits of this and that. It is easy enough to do once you have an idea of how it should flow, but it can be very, very time consuming. I tend to be such a perfectionist about it, it takes a ridiculous amount of time to get the plan together. Now, I am now dealing with a rather debilitating illness and am back to square one - I have zero energy to plan (also, this affects my concentration and memory, posing an extra planning challenge!), but am still not happy with using the curricula we have "as is." It's quite a dilemma. Really I need to just suck it up & use one of them, whether I'm happy with it or not, because if I overdo it on my good days, I pay for it dearly - so it's really not smart to spend all day planning when I'm feeling ok. I don't know, I'm still trying to find the magical solution here, if such a thing exists. Sadly, the planning is what I love most about homeschooling, so it's really hard to give that up. Back to the original question though - were I to continue at this rate, or get worse, I suppose it would be absolutely worth every penny to me to have something completely pre-planned. Quite frankly, it would be the only thing that would allow me to continue homeschooling.

Ali - I can only speak for "Planet Earth" but the images are just absolutely fantastic - the filmmakers went to incredible lengths to get some of the footage and the end results are utterly amazing. We own the box set and have seen the series on T.V. repeatedly, but my kids still can't get enough - it's really just a great show and so very interesting (I would say it far surpasses other shows of that type).

Oh they're precious! Makes me miss having baby goats around! :)

Wonderful news that everything was normal! Hopefully the impacted sinus cavity is the culprit, but if that turns out not to be the case I know of something that you should ask about. I've been going through the same nightmare myself (daily dizziness and headaches) with the same result (normal CT and MRI), so I fully understand how scary and frustrating it can be. I was recently diagnosed with pseudotumor cerebri - literally, "false brain tumor." It occurs when the pressure inside your skull increases, due to an excess of cerebrospinal fluid. It's not something that many neurologists are familiar with - and while they typically say that it's found in women of childbearing age, a search online or of any support group will quickly show children who have it (sometimes very young children) and men as well. I'm not passing this info on to scare you by any means, I just know how frustrating it can be to try and pinpoint a diagnosis for something like this (and how awful the dizziness and headaches can be!). You'll both be in my thoughts and prayers!

Ours is finally up as well!

Thank you all for the suggestions & Helena - I love that you've been able to establish peace when it's most needed! For us, the lack of school seems to have the opposite affect - the kids run wild...even when I give them work to do, if I'm not sitting right there, they just won't do it, no matter the consequences. I guess they know if I'm not feeling well, I won't feel like staying on them until it's done (or enforcing the consequences!). It's just so much work & I am completely wiped out these days. And I swear they try their best to take advantage of me when I'm feeling my worst. Now DH may be taking a job out of state this weekend, so I won't even have him around to help, which is a miserable thought.

I know there are others here who are dealing with chronic pain and/or illness, so my question is for you. How do you manage homeschooling during especially difficult times/flare-ups? I was recently diagnosed with Pseudotumor Cerebri (chronic intracranial hypertension) & while we're quite certain that I've had it for years, it has gotten especially bad - unbearably so - recently. What this means is that I'm dealing with daily pressure headaches (intense headaches, like my head is in a vice!), a stiff/sore neck & memory/concentration issues. This has had quite a negative affect on our homeschooling, to say the least. I'm hoping that the doctors will eventually be able to get my symptoms under control so that I can function, but until that happnes, I need some ideas on how to get through school every day. Even though we're new to homeschooling, I'm passionate about it and can't bear the thought of sending the kids back to public school (private school is unfortunately not an option). My number one problem is that my kids are not exactly self-motivated (dd is very much so & has actually asked to be given work to do on her own), everything is a battle. We are managing to get through math daily and history most days, also science this week (though it has been very hit & miss overall, I'm trying to include more of it in history)...but language arts has been a real problem area. They have CLE Readers they can work independently from, but for grammar we use R&S, which requires too much teaching & lots of wailing on their part and with a massive headache, I just never seem to want to deal with it. Spelling has been another struggle as we've jumped around experimenting with different programs, but haven't found a fit yet. Oh we also have IEW Writing, but again, it's very hit & miss depending on how I feel...I also feel like I really need a back up plan, for the days I feel like doing *nothing* - even though most of our work can't exactly be done independently - any suggestions would be helpful! I know the kids are learning everyday & thriving, sometimes it amazes me...but at the same time I feel like such a failure, this is not how I envisioned our school year would go! :tongue_smilie:

We were very active in Weim rescue up until a few years ago & had two that got into chocolate and ate roughly a bag of candy each. They suffered no ill affects & the vet wasn't the least bit concerned (I guess in part because they are such big dogs!)...I think the wrappers passing through was probably the most distressing part for the dogs.

When I got re-married last year we had several people ask if we'd received their gift, because I had been late in sending out thank you's & they wanted to make sure it had arrived! Another person chose to ask my Grandparents if we'd received the gift...Either way, it was mortifying & I've never been late with thank you cards since! That said, I would go ahead & ask (through family if possible, or via the couple directly).

I feel like we're pretty behind too, however, my kids were in public school through December so maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself to get through a "full year" when they'd already had roughly half a year of school. Like a previous poster, I had three herniated discs in my neck & found out I needed surgery right *after* I withdrew them from public school, so that put an immediate kink in my homeschooling plans! The recovery has been long & rough & it seems like one thing after another has come up to interfere with school, which frustrates me to no end. My plans for this year were rather ambitious though, so I think I need to re-visit them this weekend & see what we really need to accomplish and what can wait. We do plan on schooling through the summer also.

She needs to be sure to use non-acetone polish remover - regular polish remover would damage the acrylic. Once removing the polish, she can re-paint them in a neutral color, but she won't be able to cover the blue with a light color. My only other suggestion would be to have the nails professionally removed once her real nails have grown out underneath and put a strengthening topcoat on them (over whatever polish). Removing them at home usually mutilates the real nails unless you're *very* careful because they grow out much weaker than they would without acrylic tips. I got acrylics at around her age and had them off & on for awhile and to this day my nails don't grow properly and are weaker than they used to be (my Mom had this same problem from them) - so I wouldn't encourage her to keep them *too* long!

Ours is up, we did an especially cool egg dying project!