I do not have time to do yard sales. I give most things away. The things that are in excellent condition, I give my 11yo daughter to sell on ebay. She takes care of getting it shipped (gives her dad the item with the address because he owns shipping stores). We split the money. She is ebay queen around here. That way, she makes some money for herself and I get rid of things I don't need or want.

Chaos does not double with 2 boys, it grows exponentially! I can't even talk about what it does with 4. That's why my hair is gray.

My fourth son is 10 - and he's right there. Having had three go through this before, I know it will pass. Relax, he will get his brain back when he's about 11 or 12. THEN, about 13 you will feel like an alien has taken over your son's body, and that will last until about 16 or 17. :)

My son also starting talking about the military when he was very young. He was an excellent student, very bright. He could have gone to college and done very well. When he graduated from high school, he announced he was joining the Marine Corp. We asked him to wait through the summer, pray about it, think about it, etc. He joined on September 18th. A few months later he was off to Iraq - the hardest 7 months of my life. We are not a military family and I would have to say we discouraged him, but he told us he felt "called" to join the Marine Corp. He has excelled there. He received a medal in Iraq for basically reorganizing the way they do supply. He found a much more efficient way. He is up for Sgt. at 21 and in on a general's staff now. He is also taking college classes while in Japan, and in the process of writing at book at his English professor's urging. He gets out in 18 months, and I have to say I will be SO glad when that day comes. I would not have chosen this for him - but once he joined, his dad and I have supported him completely and we are very proud of him.

Have you looked at Media Angels? Here's the link: http://store.mediaangels.com:82/catalog/index.php?cPath=50

I've been using Easy Grammar for years and somehow feel like it's not enough. Maybe because my kids breeze through it. My older boys only used EG and have done well in college classes, so I'm not sure why I feel that way. I'm leaning toward doing as suggested above next year with my younger three and use both R&S and EG.

BTW, the requirements to hs in Florida are different from NC. I moved to NC from Florida 7 years ago. In NC you are required to test each year and to send in attendance records. The high school requirements are also slightly different. I would do as recommended above and go to the HSLDA website to find out details.

I usually spend $25 on a gift for a party. I try to buy things that would be appropriate for a b-day when I find them at a really good price, so I have a really nice gift for the $25. I wouldn't worry about your gift not being "enough." That's not what birthdays are supposed to be about. There is an interesting trend going around here among my 9th grader's friends. They have a BIG party with lots of people and specify "no gifts." He has lots of friends and goes to b-day parties a lot, so I like this!

We skipped Saxon K and went straight into Saxon 1. That would be my recommendation.

I have a ds who is in college. He is a history major and prolific poet. I also have a ds who is in the Marine Corp and is in the process of writing a book. We used Easy Grammar and no formal writing program. The wrote a LOT. I took prompts from their history or science readings for their writing assignments. Having said that, I think they are just naturally good writers. My 9th grader is not as enthusiastic about writing and I have had to work harder with him. I think my younger three are doing well, but my first two just LOVED writing. I think reading The Great Books was an asset to their writing as well.

I think it's different for each child. My girls 8yo and 11yo are quick with their handwriting and it is pretty and legible. My boys are a different story. My 9th grader is still doing handwriting sheets periodically - just so I can hopefully get him to LEGIBLE. Only one of my four boys has a neat handwriting. I have to say that my husband's handwriting is awful and theirs looks just like his - except my one with the really neat hand. Most things are going to be done on a computer these days anyway, so it's not extremely important. My husband has done well in life, in spite of his handwriting.

It would be possible to do for one 8yo, but I don't think I would want to put the time and effort it would take to put it together for my four kids all on different levels. With all the resources on the internet, I'm sure that it could be done with lots of time to pull it together. That being said, if I HAD to do it, I would use: http://www.amblesideonline.org/ and the library This link has a list of free homeschool sites in every subject: http://lotsofkids.com/LOK-Homeschool/Articles/homeschoolpenny.htm

It must be more expensive where I live. I really checked around for a while and the least expensive price was $25.00 an hour. My house is about the same size as yours and it takes 5-6 hours to clean. I don't know if two hours of just organizing would be enough. It seems like you would just get started (maybe everything pulled out - even worse) and it would be time to quit. Maybe you should consider four hours every other week in order to actually get a big job finished. Just a thought.

My son and his friends play outside a lot. We are lucky enough to live on a piece of property where they can explore small streams, take a walk up the trail on the mountain, explore in the barn, etc. Sometimes we have a kickball game in our pasture. They also like to jump on our trampoline. I know that's not the safest thing, but we've had it for 12 years and no one has gotten hurt yet. Aside from that, Nerf gun wars are big with these guys.

Maybe the rooster didn't like the idea of his friend the cow being tied up and messed with.

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We are studying the states this year. I chose to go by regions and found a book called The Map Book that listed facts about the regions, blank region maps and a page for each state. I also am using The United States of America, A State-by-State Guide by Scholastic and U. S. Map Skills by Instructional Fair, Inc. We begin by reading the facts about the region, then read the page in the Scholastic Book on the particular state for that week, finally we do the worksheet in the U.S. Map Skills. When we get to the last state in the region, my children fill out the empty region map from memory and take a test on the capitals of those states. We also review past state capitals and regions on a U.S. map.

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I would have done it for sure. Good for her.

I agree - learning to learn is better than memorizing bits of knowledge. My now grown 21 year old son thanked me at Christmas for not just teaching him facts, but helping him LOVE to learn and how to do it on his own. It really does pay off in the end.

Just north of Asheville. We're originally from Florida, and have been here for 7 years.

My daughter was born with one right between her eyes. It got really puffy when she cried. She is 11 now and you can't even see it.

Thanks gals. She's definitely not reading it.

I just finished reading through the book in preparation for my son to use it next year. I started Don Quixote but think I'm going to move along, as it's not my type of book either. I don't feel too bad. In one of C. S. Lewis' books, he says he wrote "Never Again" on the back page after he finished reading Don Quixote!

We usually get the kids small gifts and some valentines to make for exchanging with their friends. My dh and I will exchange cards and we usually get each other a gift. This year my dh had to be in San Diego on business until today and I needed a new cell phone - so he got a trip and I got a cell phone. I have a son overseas in the Marine Corp, so we made him valentines, sent him some goodies, etc. One year I had a Valentine's party for my girls. All the girls wore pj's and we had a hair, nail, and make-up station. We had lots of Valentine desserts and made a craft. It was a lot of fun and my girls loved it. I would love to do that again.