My kids (K and 1st) LOVE DWN and ask to do it every day. It's very low-key compared to other school things we do; I don't really correct their drawings or their handwriting that much, so it's a positive-feeling experience all around. I think it's helped them with a sense that they can break pictures apart to draw them. We're also taking a Monart class which does much the same thing. My daughter was thrown for a while with the font DWN uses for copywork. The lowercase "r"s are especially wonky. You could probably make your own versions with an online handwriting site and some drawing books from your library. Ed Emberley has some great books that many libraries carry. FWIW, I got our set on Zullily of all places for 50 percent off. It looks like it's frequently on sale.

I don't use bags for most things, but even when I did, I'd never do it for bananas. I'm not eating the peel, and they are so neatly grouped in their bunches. Would you put a cantaloupe in a bag? A pineapple? A watermelon? Now that I'm feeding a small army, though, we buy the prepackaged 5 pounds of bananas at the warehouse store.

I don't want to hijack a conversation, but I'm still curious about the "regional" attitude. The aggregate data suggest that the fertility rate isn't *much* higher than 2.5 children at the highest end of average. While there would be an inverse relationship between housing costs and number of children, I don't think many use cheap housing as motivation for having many children. Does a high cost of living suppress fertility? Probably. I don't think, however, that a lower cost of living increases fertility that much.

I Googled around and found this, too, but the highest birth rate on this map is 2.48. I understand it's an average, but I'm really curious about this notion of "it's regional" as an attitude rather than a fact. My husband teaches college statistics,and I'm always on the lookout for ways in which popular conceptions of data are true or false. "It's regional" sounds anecdotal.

I'm curious when you say "varies by region" - what regions do you mean? Where are people having lots of babies?

Those days work for us only when we sit down right after breakfast for our work, and we do only the basics (LA and math). I find that we skip read-alouds that day, which makes me sad for the little ones.

I agree that the scale of warfare is so much greater in the modern era, but my kids have been troubled by the photographs (as opposed to illustrations) in the modern history books we've encountered.

My husband is in charge of getting our television to watch, and he's lately turned to weird foreign shows because we're out of the series that the library carries. Anyway, we've really, really liked Borgen, a Danish political show, kind of like the West Wing. Also, we enjoyed The Returned, a French show about dead people who return to a small town. The problem with foreign shows is that I can't really knit/plan/write/computer while we're watching.

Thinkfun has another fun solitaire game, Tip Over. We found it at the thrift store, and it's been a big hit. We also ask our son to play games against himself with a specific goal in mind. For example: play mancala such that all marbles end up on one side, or play Connect Four such that you use every piece but don't win. My degree is in economics (with an emphasis on game theory), so I love mixing up rules for games.

Not a thrift store find, but last year our local college library liquidated its education curriculum collection. It was a goldmine! I walked away with hundreds of books, including an entire set of Singapore math, Latin curriculum, plus cool odd things like history transparencies and sandpaper letters. Really, awesome stuff. If we'd gotten there the first day, we could have had more art kits, science materials, music materials...

This is our experience, too. It didn't help that our school space was a darkish room, while the main living space is always in the sunlight. And even though it's a pain to pick up every day, I pick it up every day. When we did our things in the school space, clean up was neglected.

Do you have active mold now, or is this preventative? Definitely keep the window open all the time. A fan is great, but the window helps, too. We've tried a bunch of things to get rid of mold at an old, dank house we used to live in. Natural solutions, full-strength bleach, all sorts of treatments. What worked best for us were mold and mildew sealers. This was recommended by our allergist. I have no idea how they work, nor really what they're made from, but they're much less harsh than full-strength bleach! http://www.allergyasthmastore.com/products/mx-3-mold-mildew-sealer.html

I make something very similar to this for our lunches, depending on what vegetables I have on hand. The kids ate it without enthusiasm. Then, I added a few pieces of bacon...so, so good. The kids request it now.

In my experience, teacher-critics of homeschooling do so from a position of defense. They see: you're homeschooling, not school-schooling, because something is wrong with schools. And the teacher-critics I've come across are really dedicated teachers who give so much of themselves, that when they see eager, happy families opting out of the system, they see it as a negation of the effort they've put in at the public schools. A smaller group of teacher-critics wonder how you can replicate school at home: the group projects, the extracurriculars, other parts of school they see as part and parcel of education, which you may see as incidental or replaceable. For the most part, I don't engage these critics. I'll answer direct questions ("do you use a curriculum" "socialization?"), but I don't try to sell them on my point of view, because I don't necessarily want them to sell me on theirs. I have one or two responses to the "why do you homeschool?" question: the kids have a closer relationship, my son has some special medical needs, it offers us the freedom to travel to visit family across the country.

We're experiencing this now. It's hard, for everyone. Home life is unpleasant. My solution for now is to get him out of the house as much as possible, especially to do physical things: running, mowing the lawn, going for a walk. He has little patience for our son's needs, and his frustration and anger sends the others out of control. I truly believe he has a low-level depression at work, but he'd never admit to it. I hope it works out for you. It's hard to be the parent.

We go to school performances, mostly because of cost, but also because I'd rather not go on the weekend, and going at night is such a crapshoot behavior-wise.

We have a science unit in our co-op that is really "hands on," with lots of experiments and projects. It's not my favorite class, though. It doesn't add that much to our school experience, and I'd almost rather it be a different topic altogether. There isn't an overarching theme, no knowledge building on previous knowledge, nothing furthering their nascent idea of the scientific method. I'd be really attracted to a science class that integrated BFSU or some other gentle, non-workbooky curriculum that moved forward.

My kids (K and 1st) love Draw Write Now. They ask to do it every day. They even like the copywork.

Oh! A day and a half extra isn't at all enough... We just moved from Philadelphia and miss it dearly. It's a funny little city that I hated at first, but it grows on you. I second all of the above; they're all great choices. Lunch at Reading Terminal Market is a great option when out in the city. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is pretty amazing. My kids loved their armor room. Children 12 and under are free - it's a steal!

so sweet!

I'm working on an Easter story play set for my kids - little peg people with different sets to act out Holy Week. I'm also making Saint Patrick and snakes, for that holiday. For my little girls, I'm cutting fabric for their Easter dresses, and I'm starting to knit their spring sweaters. Hmm. I probably should add something else. That doesn't sound nearly busy enough :)

My inlaws are in a very precarious financial situation. We found out about it only by accident, but they're nearing retirement with an enormous amount of credit card debt (on top of a lifestyle that outpaces their current income - phones, cable television, car payments, vacations). I'm not sure how it's going to work for them, but it's clearly not a good situation. Anyway. It sounds terrible, but I really resent the looming feeling that we're going to have to help bail them out in 5-10 years. We're already so frugal and make so many sacrifices financially. I wouldn't help. My family and our little ones come first. I don't want to set a precedent of poor financial choices being borne by the younger generations.

We're in a similar situation (homeschool charter in CA), and I am trying to figure out what we should do moving ahead. On one hand, the materials support and extracurricular classes are a benefit, but our program is poorly run and I end up having to fight for what I want or need for the kids. I appreciate having some accountability, as it is a motivator for everyone at some point in the week, but I resent submitting samples or programming lessons so that we can check off a box. Really, though, the kids would be sad if we stopped going to art class, and they really like the friends they've made. I think we'll stick with it until STAR testing resumes, then we'll go full-time with our not-in-charter-school friends.

Definitely icky, but we did this as a read aloud after my latest little one was born, so my very first thought was: what an easy labor!

I forgot this one. Definitely one of life's great mysteries. Why is OK that the musicians of Bremen get to live in the found house with the robbers' spoils, but the robbers were villains?