Contact your local children's hospital to see how your children can serve during Childhood Cancer Awareness month in September. The group could also organize a head shaving event to raise awareness and money for childhood cancer. https://www.stbaldricks.org/ We organized an event two years ago, and one 10yr old raised over $2000! This could be such a learning experience for your kids. Childhood cancer kills more kids every year than any other childhood illness, yet federal money for research for cures totals only 4% of the funds allocated for cancer research from the federal government. Most funds for research come from private donations. I will get very personal and tell you my son is alive today because of the research done by doctors who received grants through St. Baldricks. So, just an idea!

We are doing TC and are really enjoying it (we started mid 4th grade last year after finishing WWE3). We'll move on to WWS 1 in 6th. I've taken a slow approach to writing. My goals for the rest of 5th are for my child to write a strong paragraph, take notes from texts, and write his own narrations (we've done narrations for years, but I've always written them down. Now he'll do most of the writing).

Do you have access to Amazon? You could look at Kindle unlimited and see if they have digital books available that would fit your needs I think it's $10/month.

Thank you so much for posting this! I can't believe how much I've gained over the years from the generosity of people on these boards. Thank you!

I'm also researching new science and history for mid 5th grade. Rereading the sections in The Well Trained Mind about science and history for the logic stage really helped me focus on the purpose of these subjects at this age. It also helped me refocus in order to find the right curriculum based on the skills I wanted my child to learn by studying these subjects. The book lays out a very simple plan for science, with experiments one day, and analysis/report writing the second day. The plan for history is very simple, too, and I like the way writing and history can be done together. I found History Odyssey will work for us. http://www.pandiapress.com/publications Again, I would stress deciding what you want your child to learn by studying these subjects and then plan accordingly. We are focusing on note taking, outlining, making a timeline, using the scientific method, and analyzing sources.

I despise clothes shopping! I don't like to spend a lot and I'm picky. I went to 5 stores to find a dress with no luck. I tried Stitch Fix, but I couldn't justify the prices. $50 for a blouse I just can't do. Then it was frustrating to lose the $20 styling fee because I didn't buy anything. I finally gave in and tried online shopping with Amazon, but I only chose items that offered free returns. Then I read reviews about sizing, ordered two sizes of the same items and returned the ones I didn't like or didn't fit. It was like my own stitch fix without the styling fee! And guess what, I found lots of clothes I liked at reasonable prices! And now Amazon is starting Amazon Fashion for prime members. Order up to 15 items with no charge, return the ones you don't want, and you're only charged for the ones you keep. No need to check your credit card bill to make sure the refund was processed. And you get a discount, too, if you keep a certain number. Game changer for me! https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/business/amazon-shopping-retail-fashion.html?referer=android-app://com.google.android.gm

Yes. And it can last a long time. We're almost two years out and I still have major anxiety when things happen that trigger it. Sometimes it's not even a major thing, just something normal that causes anxiety. And it also depends on the illness. If it's something that can return, that is a whole other kind of stress. I never went to therapy, but I cut out the things that cause stress like dealing with medical bills, going to follow up appointments, and responding to dr. phone calls, etc. My husband does all that now. It has helped greatly. Being in a situation where your child is so close to death is unbelievably traumatic. For me it was a strange mix of acting normal and upbeat for my children so that they wouldn't be afraid, but then dying inside of stress and anxiety. It is extremely taxing. I did find support on Facebook, but even that I had to stop. Hearing from others who are in the midst of it triggered things for me, and it was like I was experiencing things all over again. Just listen to your sister. Ask her questions and let her talk. She most likely feels isolated. It is an experience that definitely changes you, and being able to talk about it is helpful. For me, sharing with others helps because I know they are listening, and knowing they've heard me makes me feel like they understand a little more, and that makes me feel less alone.

Please don't skip insurance. Maybe don't do this plan, but do something. You honestly never know. 8 years later, our insurance has paid over a million dollars for our child's ongoing treatment. Medical emergencies can bankrupt you in an instant. That on top of a medical diagnosis can be just a level of stress and anxiety that can be unbearable.

I wanted to love Bravewriter, but I just didn't. After WW3, I needed something open and go that would progress at a slow pace for us. I did lots of searching and settled on Treasured Conversations and love it! My almost 11 year old son really enjoys it, too. We have kept up with dictation twice a week and copywork once a week. These are usually sentences I get from history or science. It's a nice way for us to incorporate writing into those subjects without doing more writing composition. I will add that the writing that we do with Treasured Conversations isn't my son doing all of the physical writing. We progressed from me writing the outlines to him writing them, and each paragraph he writes is actually dictated to me as I type it. We will move toward him physically writing each paragraph, but I feel that we have plenty of time to get there.

Your thinking sounds in line with mine. May I ask which Latin program you chose? I'm having difficulty choosing what is next for my 11 year old. We've done SS Latin 1 and 2, and now I'm looking for something a bit meatier.

I'll just say that we love the Billy bookcases! We have 15 of the wide ones (some the tall and some the shorter)in every room of the house, including our bathroom! We have never had issues with sagging. They hold everything including loads of books, art supplies, towels, games, toys, dishes...everything! We've had many of them going on ten years now...They have held up so well for us, especially considering how inexpensive they are.

A bit off topic, but I'm experiencing a somewhat similar frustration with Costco. Turns out that the organic dairy farm where they get their organic milk is cutting corners. The dairy is charging more for organic but not following the guidelines. I'm being charged more for milk that really isn't organic. This was an eye opening investigation. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/06/527140037/just-how-organic-is-your-milk-well-it-depends-on-the-dairy-it-came-from

Honestly, the best thing about the group we belonged to years ago was simply the park day. Eventually too many things were offered, and the group became too spread out among all the activities. Then park day just stopped because no one was coming. It was disappointing because I didn't want classes and co-ops for my kids. I just wanted them to have some free time playing at the park with others.

Yes, but many illnesses can be spread before symptoms show, measles being one. I'm very pro vax and completely uninvolved in the local homeschooling community because of my position. Lots of non vaxers. I've always vaccinated, and my opinion has been strengthened over the years mainly due to my child's health.

We also school year round and have used Singapore since the beginning. Oldest is just finishing 4B. I use only the teacher guide and the workbook and have been fine with it. In the beginning, we used the text book, too, but I found it was just too much along with the direct instruction I was also doing. We do school four days a week, and the fourth day is always problem solving. There are plenty of word problems in the workbook to keep us busy. I use a few as examples we do together, and they do a few on their own. They are sometimes in line with the concepts we are currently learning, and sometimes they are review. Just for perspective, I taught 3-5th grades and feel my kids have a very strong math foundation and ability to solve word problems.

We read aloud together at bedtime, too. Kids are 4th and 2nd. It's still one of our favorites times of the day.

Have you tried using the Singapore textbook? They show lots of examples that might help you. There are YouTube videos of Singapore concepts, too.

Setting timers. Seriously. We set timers for lessons all day long and it's awesome! You can set an alarm to ring at a certain time or set a timer for a specific amount of time. You can have multiple ones going at once.

Agree with this. We didn't buy a foreclosure, but we did buy a short sale. It was ugly with outdated everything. We did pay for an inspection, but we couldn't ask for any repairs. At least we knew what we were getting. Older homes can have expensive issues. Over four years we've had to replace the roof and ac. We knew those were coming, though. We've also spent money updating things. We didn't do anything major, and we still spent a few thousand dollars. It just adds up, and even a few gallons of paint is pricey. Just know what you're getting into cost wise even with a house that is just ugly.

Somewhat similar feel. Beaverton is suburban, and Hillsboro always felt a little more small town.But living in Beaverton or in Washington county (still in Portland but different county) is very close to downtown Portland. And the max train is still easy to get from those areas, too. The southwest area was where we lived.

BTW, don't know where in Utah you live, but we had to stay in salt lake recently for two months. SLC reminded me a lot of Portland, but with fewer trees.

Lived there for ten years. Loved it! Was a teacher in the suburbs, Beaverton. Had to acquire a master's degree after a certain period of time teaching. Don't know if that's still the requirement. Paid well as a first year teacher, but I did already have the master's degree. No school choice when I was there. Kids went to the neighborhood school. Traffic can be odd, depending on where you live. Lots of two lane only roads that are major streets, and lots of bridges to cross if you live on one side and work on the other. Public transportation was great, though. I could take the max train to work and downtown. It was great! What kind of neighborhood do you like? Urban, wooded, more suburban? Many more urban neighborhoods on the east side than the West. West is more hills and woods. I did miss the sun, and that's why we left after ten years. I miss all the wonderful restaurants and urban neighborhoods where you could walk places.

I have started collecting uplifting stories. Each time I read one, I send the link to my email so that I can re-read them if I need to snap out of my funk and realize how good people are and how grateful I am. I have collected over fifty so far! Here's one that shows how great it can be to think outside of the box. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2016/08/11/this-city-has-given-over-900-jobs-to-homeless-panhandlers_n_11460564.html

I don't know which ones the PP was talking about, but we've used the videos at www.uswim.com (the over 3s ones), which are great. I used these to teach both of my kids to swim. No lessons, just these videos. They are awesome!

Some of our favorites for that age: Sunflower House Hildilid's Night Mooncake Moon Mouse Gregory the Terrible Eater Mr. Crank The Hungry Thing We Were Tired of Living in a House The Letters are Lost Dinnertime Pancakes, Pancakes The Gingerbread Cowboy The Hello Goodbye Window Gilberto and the Wind