Thanks for sharing this. I couldn't recall for certain who had written the post, but I read something similar posted here recently (it must have been by Janice) and it really made me stop and think deeply, and re-evaluate priorities, and change my course of action. I am very grateful that she shared this with us. I am planning to use this summer to begin educating myself. I am going to get a high school/college Latin text and teach myself Latin. And I am going to begin reading some of the books my dc will encounter in the rhetoric stage.

We do spend quite a bit on curriculum, but I know we could do a good job with much less. And this year I am going to try to move in that direction. We use the public library a lot, but I think we could use it even more extensively and exclusively for some subjects. For instance, this year I bought an Audiomemory Geography Songs Kit for geography. But it really didn't work out too well for us, and we have ended up using a National Geographic Beginner's Atlas from the public library for geography. For science we purchased the NOEO Biology Kit, but looking back, I think we would have done just as well to buy a few experiment kits and check out library books on the topics covered. We use the library for most of our literature selections, additional history reading, read-alouds, classical music cds, videos/dvds about history or science topics we have studied, additional science reading, etc. Sometimes I get sucked into buying things that we don't really need. I purchased Handwriting Without Tears preschool workbook, teacher's manual, CD, slate, and wood pieces for ds. The workbook has been great and has gotten much use, but the other stuff wasn't really necessary. I could have used a bargain store slate with a smiley face sticker, the teacher's manual isn't necessary (but could be useful for a classroom teacher), the cd bombed with ds, and the wood pieces have sat in the cabinet most of the year. My advice is to start with the basics and then add more if it becomes truly necessary. Use the library for as much as you can, and if they just don't have anything appropriate for a subject, then consider purchasing curriculum. And try to buy non-consumables when possible that can either be used by younger siblings in subsequent years or sold to fund next year's purchases.

I used to use empty plastic cylyndrical containers for holding markers. I think it was empty frosting containers, actually, minus the lid. But maybe you are much healthier than we are and don't own any used frosting tubs!

When dd was 4 we brought her home from preschool to, at her request. I taught her to read using The Reading Lesson by Michael Levin and Charan Langton. We started it when she was 4.5 and did it very slowly. When she finished it at 5.5, she was reading on a second grade level.

As for the stickers, we put all of ours into a plastic domument holder thing that you can get at a discount or office supply store. It's a portfolio sort of thing with a string attached to the envelope flap that fastens around a plastic disc on the folder. It doesn't take up much space to store on a bookshelf or cabinet. Or you could just make your own by stapling together the sides of a manila file folder. Craft supplies are mostly in plastic totes, with smaller items organized in ziploc bags within the totes.

Our dc are too small to go stay with dh at work all day, but he has invited them to come meet him for lunch. He works an hour away, in the city, so this will be a treat for us. :001_smile: We'll probably make a field trip day out of it and visit a museum afterwards. He has worked in this job for two years, but we have never had a chance to see his office or meet anyone because we live so far away. He was going to take them up to his office for a few minutes to show them where he works and introduce them to his coworkers, but, as is typical, he has a meeting right up to lunchtime and a meeting immediately following lunch. He's actually lucky that he will get an hour for lunch tomorrow. He is supposed to get an hour everyday for lunch, but he is much in demand and often ends up being scheduled for meetings right through lunch or having only a few minutes to grab something in between meetings. :glare: At his previous job, before we moved, we only lived a few minutes away from his office, and he was the bureau chief in charge of the 70 people who worked there. We occasionally met him for lunch and he would often take the kids in after lunch for a few minutes to see his office and let his co-workers ooh and aah over how cute they were and how much they had grown. He allowed all workers to bring in their children for Take Your Child to Work Day, and there was a committee of workers who volunteered to organize activities for the kids. My kids were really small (18 months and almost 4), so we only went for the lunch hour. They ordered pizza for the whole office and the kids got to eat with their parents. They even had karaoke after lunch. It was a lot of fun for dd. The whole day was rather chaotic for dh, though, who was trying to conduct business while lots of kids of various ages roamed about the building.

I want to use the summer to lay a foundation in Latin for me, since I have never studied it, before trying to help dd learn Latin. I am thinking about Henle and Lingua Latina. Will they complement each other well? Is one unnecessary? Are there better alternatives? I am planning to buy them this week. Thanks for any recommendations.

:iagree:I just read Crime and Punishment last year and I was really pulled into it. I went on to read The Brothers Karamazov and found it to be very gripping, as well.

I chose "other" because I don't budget, but I also don't just buy, and buy, and buy, either. We've only been doing this for two years, but our pattern so far has been to make a large purchase sometime in the late spring or early summer, usually using tax return money. Prior to making this purchase I do a lot of reading, researching, and thinking until I have compiled a list of the curriculum and main resources we want to use for the upcoming year. I order our curriculum online. In the late summer/early fall we make a medium-sized purchase of supplies that we can just pick up at Target (e.g. pencils, glue, paper, markers, paints, etc.) And throughout the year we buy additional items as we need them. For example, dd flew through the first level of spelling, so we had to purchase a second spelling book in the fall, and and then a third one in the spring. She was getting bored with print and wanted to try cursive, so I ordered a cursive workbook. Sometimes we'll need something for art or science, usually just something that can be found at the grocery store. And recently I decided that the only way we were going to make it through SOTW was to get the audiobook version, so I ordered them. Usually, these purchases are somewhat spread out and don't cost a huge amount of money.

Each show features a different theme from a work of a classical composer and includes exposure to various musical terms. The shows also include fine works of art, and sometimes expose viewers to scientific, geographical or historical information (caterpillar changing to a butterfly, monarch butterflies yearly migration, Niagra Falls, pyramids in Egypt, etc.) My ds loved this show when he was a toddler/young preschooler. As long as they are set in a context of greater learning, I think they are fine. I wouldn't want it to be the only way in which my child was exposed to classical music and fine art, but it worked well for us as entertainment. I can't think of anything that seemed negatvie for my family.

Thanks. I didn't realize that there was MSG in it. I'm not sure if I'll even use it now; maybe I'll just put one cube in. MIL recommended it when I asked how she made her delicious chicken noodle soup. I guess I should have read the label before I bought it.

I've never used bouillon before and don't want to use too much and make it too salty. Also, when do I put it in? Thanks.

Thanks for sharing. I haven't had an art class since junior high, either! I hadn't thought much about the process that artists go through to make art; I simply assumed that I am not gifted artistically. It's terrific that you had such an encouraging teacher. I've been wanting to take a pottery class for years, but somehow I'm always afraid that I won't be good at it. Maybe I'll give a try!

You were right; it was mostly about bears! I appreciated your info.

Thanks for the tip! Maybe we'll be going next summer!:001_smile:

We are contemplating making a trip to Yellowstone National Park our family vacation this summer. I know ds and dh would absolutely love it. They are both outdoorsmen who love being out in nature, and it would seem like such an adventure to ds, although I'm sure we would have to drill, drill, drill into him the park rule that visitors can't take away nature or culture objects (rocks, flowers, artifacts, etc.). He has a growing rock/fossil collection, and one of his most prized possessions is an old Native American arrowhead. I think he might be really frustrated that he couldn't take neat rocks, as it is his custom to search through *any* kind of rock/gravel that he finds *anywhere* and take with him the most interesting finds. I know he would be so excited to to see Old Faithful, because he went through a volcano & geyser phase last year in which we checked out every volume on volcanoes and geysers from the juvenile non-fiction section of our public library. I think dd and I would enjoy it, as well. We both like to go hiking and enjoy nature, as well. And we would both be interested in seeing the geysers, too. So, here's the big issue for me. I am so afraid of being attacked by wild animals while we are there. I just know we would end up on one of those documentaries on tv about wild animal attacks. I mean there are bears, and wolves, and bison, and coyotes, and lots of other wild animals out there. And dh would like to camp in a tent for a few nights of our stay. I'm just really freaking out thinking about it. We would follow all of the rules, of course, and not do anything foolish, but I'm still very scared. Can someone convince me it's safe? I've read the statistics on how many bear attacks there are per year vs. how many visitors there are per year, but I still know that out of the millions of people who visit, I could be the one person who gets attacked.

Are there typically many resources for classical homeschoolers in the vendor's hall? I've also heard that it's possible to get a vendor's hall only pass if you don't wish to listen to the speakers. Do you know if this is true? Thanks.

I started my dd in Level 1 last fall, even though she is a natural speller. I have to admit that when I received the Level 1 book and materials packet and started looking at the word cards, I was really apprehensive about how useful it would be to dd because she already knew how to spell all the words! But, this program is so much more than just learning the list for the week. The knowledge she gained from Level 1 was really vaulable. So, I would recommend starting at the beginning, and letting your child work through it at whatever pace is most beneficial. Dd started Level 1 in September and finished it in just a few months. She just completed Level 2 and is about to start Level 3 this week.

You will be in my prayers.

No, but we live about three hours away and we usually visit your area sometime during the summer to go to King's Island.

We recently listened to The Tale of Despereaux on cd. I loved it!

I read Black Like Me last summer. Isn't it a powerful book?

Heather, he's soooooo cute!

Okay, first I'm not sure whether you are in Ohio, as your boardname sugguests, or in Pennsylvania. So, I can only respond as a hser who happens to live in Ohio, and if that is irrelevant, you can feel free to disregard it.:001_smile: In Ohio, the Ohio Revised Code requires that homeschoolers affirm that they will provide instruction in certain subjects, but I can't think of anything in the law which stipulates how much of a textbook should be covered in an academic year. I have certain goals for how much we would like to accomplish throughout the academic year, but I don't necessarily base it on finishing a certain portion of every book. For some subjects, it becomes apparent in the middle of everything that I was unrealistic in my expectations and that covering part of the material in more depth will be more beneficial to my child than cramming the whole thing into one school year. When this has happened, I plan to finsih the rest in subsequent years. This has happened in subjects such as geography and music. For core subjects (for us these are math, grammar, writing, and reading) we haven't ever really gotten behind, but if we did I would likely continue working for a few minutes everyday until I felt the child had made sufficient progress for the year. But then I am planning on working for a few minutes each day with dd this summer, anyway, just for continuity. We did get a bit off track in ancient history this year. We were trying to use SOTW, vol. 1 w/ AG. We did make it through about 14 chapters, but we never really hit our stride. So, finally, I purchased the Ancient Civilizations History Pockets from Evan Moore to get us jumpstarted, and I just ordered the SOTW audiobook so that we can listen to the book while we are driving to activities. And I have checked out from the library some good documentaries for children about ancient civilizations. I had to rethink my approach and re-evaluate what it was that I wanted my daughter to take away from our ancient history studies this year. Was I really looking for a notebook full of narrations for *every* section we read, and a map and coloring page for every chapter, or was I hoping to expose her to ancient history and introduce her to some of the civilizations and cultures that have come before us and helped to shape the world we know today? Was I looking for a neat little tangible package to show our evaluator at the end of the year, or was I seeking to lay a foundation of knowledge and whet her appetite to learn more? There came a point where I had to let go of the notebook dream because it just wasn't happening, and forcing dd was just going to turn her off to history. Sometimes I really freak out mentally about having to show someone a portfolio of our work at the end of the year and get them to sign off so that we can continue hsing, but I've had to really separate myself from that mindset recently and allow myself to reinfuse our lives with the love of learning. Good luck to you!