We do chores daily, like taking out the trash, washing dishes, and collecting dirty laundry to be sorted out by the laundry room. For cleaning the bathrooms, vacumming rugs, sweeping hardwood floors, and bathroom cleaning we do that once a week. I like to do it Friday mornings instead of focusing on studies but depending on our week we sometimes have to do it on Saturdays. I will say that we I also clean as needed, if I see dust I clean it or if food gets on the floor of course we sweep it up but intentionally we tend to clean once a week. I don't allow my kids to keep out toys, every night they have to pick them up. My older 2 are allowed to keep out lego creations as long as the little pieces are picked up and the creations are off the floor. My toddlers toys are cleaned up every night. Of course, depending on your household you could assign chores certain days or for certain children to do. In our family it just works better to have 1 cleaning day and do most of the laundry that day too. Sometimes, I do loads during the week, like for towels or play clothes or sheets but I perfer to do one day of cleaning and it works good for us.

No matter what way you go, make sure your kids are doing lab reports. Formatted nicely, typed looks the best. If you decide to go the non-hands-on labs I would consider adding some drawing into your lab reports, it can add detail and can look better. You can scan them in and place them in the part of the lab report you want or add them them at the end referencing them in the lab report. You may want to also consider doing a different type of lab report for each high-school science class. One style for biology and a different style for chemistry.

How do you feel about your choice to homeschool? Not great but ok most days, because it's important to my husband. Are you happy you started homeschooling? Years ago "Yes" but with kids doing middle/highschool work and a tot most days I am not so happy. Are your children happy to be homeschooled? They love it, except for the work that doesn't come easy to them. What do you feel is your favorite part of the school day? least favorite? Reading Aloud. Just sitting and waiting for them to complete their independent work. What is your favorite part of the school year? least favorite? The beginning if I have everything planned in advanced. The ending around testing time between March-July, I never feel we have done enough or that the scores are good enough. What is your favorite subject to teach? Your children's favorites? History. Science that is textbookish (so we have given it up). How do you feel inside when you tell people you homeschool? I feel like a hypocrite cause it's not my conviction and sometimes I think it's no the best for my me, my kids or my husband's business. I also feel when I get weird or dirty looks that I am less then human and some freak. This exact moment in time....what are you feeling when you look back on your day (or yesterday if your day hasn't started yet)? We are doing good and I am really glad we are skipping middle school work for math and jumping to highschool and that my husband is teaching 2 mornings a week/watching our tot while I work.

I have issues when our church plays Katy Perry before service.

Good idea...I found through research and success stories stick under 1200 and eat more if you feel light headed if you can do that 80% of the time the pounds will shed.

I count calories and have lost 14 lbs in less then 2 months. I use to weight lift and walk 20 miles a week plus mow about 1 acre lawn, eat 5-6 mini meals a day and would hardy loss a pound. I stopped lifting and walking...I walk about 1-3 miles a week around the playground, park, or a dvd with my tot, nothing else.My goal is to stay under 1200 each day, some days I only eat about 1k. 6 out of 7 days a week I am pretty faithful some days going up to 1400 calories but not over. 1 day a week I try and not count and eat whatever and how much I want.

I switched to a sleeping mask, I hate taking pills...might be an idea. Recently, we also got darker curtains and shades, they really help me sleep longer.

Counting calories and lost 14 pounds!

Aug 1st was my first reply but then I realized it's a Wed this year so...either we'll start June 30 or Aug 6th. We are year-around schoolers but I am thinking of trying to get the bulk of our studies done more traditionally Aug-May since my kids have liked not doing this summer compared to last year when we schooled each week May-June-July-Aug...I think my older 2 (pre-teens) are starting to like time off and are willing to put in long days/weeks when the weather isn't so nice and life isn't so busy.

AE (American Eagle) $24.95 flat front (you can get them online). You can get them online. They are great... I wash them in cold water and dry low to keep them in good condition.

Talking tools

We are doing a lot of the same stuff but I am changing up our routine. Also at the request of my 10yr & 9yr we will be *hopefully* starting a 2nd Lang. The 10yr is set on Latin, thinking about doing Latin for Children. If I go with that I may see if my 9yr wants to tag along even though she is thinking of learning German. If she wants German (since she's not sure) I hate to invest a lot of $ so we'll do Muzzy online (level 1&2), if she likes it and wants to stick with German then we'll get something more formal. For routine, we school in the morning 5-6 days a week, yr around instead I want to school in the morning 4 a week (unless taking day off), 5 day is for cleaning, run errands, special projects/field trips and 6 day if hubby works then we do schooling if not then we take day off. I would like to add 2-3 days per week after lunch for one-on-one time when my husband will be home to play/watch our tot (14 month old). For myself I want to get any work done on the computer completed before we have breakfast or after dinner but before our family worship time at night. Right now I just try and work it in but i am getting behind in paperwork and I keep track of my husband's business files and contracts and maybe even blogging again (tried last year but didn't stick with it).

One idea that has worked with my son to transition him from adding with objects to adding on paper is "circle math". Simply put if the problem is 1+3 then by the 1 the child draws 1 circle and by the 3 the child draws 3 circles and then adds the circles up. It may require scrap paper if the workbook/sheet doesn't have a lot of room. I did this with my son and daughter for problems up to 30. Just a thought.

We did homeschoolshare's unit/lapbook and it was great! A nice overview. I have a teacherfilebox (EvanMoor)subscription and used some of the printables along with it. Our library had the magic tree house inside the human body book & dvd; it's a great addition to any human body study. Good Luck!

I've struggled with the question of "how long" do I make my daughter practice/write cursive. After a lot of discussion with my husband and looking at the facts of living in the 21st century. We've decided that 1 strong year of formal cursive is all we'll do. So far we are about 1/2 done. For us it made sense to go with Abeka (I wouldn't say it's the best or worst) and I don't require perfection just her best. I don't grade each assignment. Instead, we use a check +, check, & check - system. For grade purposes it translates into A+ (excellent), B (good), C (could use improving but nice try). The pressure is less for her since my daughter can be somewhat of a perfectionist. We opted for "Writing with Phonics 2 Cursive" it's the second grade main handwriting/writing workbook. I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner. We did a simple workbook by TeacherCreatedResources called " Cursive Writing" (link provided). It's very basic and a little different then Abeka but a nice starter for learning cursive. I really wanted to do Copywork Cursive from Memoria Press. But since we haven't started Latin I decided not to get it when we do get to Latin I may add it as part of Latin instruction. If you want something meaningful and our thinking of adding or have started Latin consider Memoria Press copywork book.

I have never done many curriculum all at once, however I have used a lot of different curriculum's for different subjects espciecally for history, science, and handwriting. In the past I have mix and matched from traditional publishers like BJU/Abeka/Rod&Staff with Vertias, Memoria, and well as Evan-Moor & Scholastic Guides. I have switched different curriculum's when they were not working for my kids or for me as the teacher; I try not to do this too often. It's hard to stick with just one publisher/curriculum there are so many great ones to choose from. This year with a new baby on the way I am not supplementing as much as I normally do. I have pretty much picked a curriculum/publisher for the core subjects like reading, math, and Lang. Arts. I am trying to only do 1-2 curriculum's for history & science so I don't have as much planning to do. Again, I have to stress if it's not working for your child/you then by all means switch but if it's ok or you/your child like it then stick with it until the end and go with something different when you are finished. Just my thoughts...

Do you mean Explode The Code?

I agree the blocks were to toyish for us too. I also really wanted a mixture of oral/written math and an emphasis on Algebra in elementary math. Also, I wasn't that pleased to hear from a rep from the company that students using the program know their math but are not great performers on state tests, nor do they always finish within the time allowed on time tests/drills. Personally, I wasn't impressed with the upper level math texts and how little they covered in terms of SAT/ACT math. Nor at the time we looked at the program about 4 years ago we didn't feel it would be a great help for our children to go on to college level Calculus and Linear Algebra. Of course, things could have changed and they may have updated the program but we instead have used Abeka, Horizon, BJU, and Rod/Staff (traditional classroom style programs) and have adapted for our kids. I think it depends on you (the teacher) and the student if MUS will work or not.

We have used the new edition for 3rd grade BJU math and it was a great buy. It includes a cd with extra worksheets & drills. Plus for 4th grade and under the new edition worktext is more colorful and more "real" life word problems. For the middle-high texts I have only previewed them at a local store and they looked better laid out and more student friendly then the older editions.

It's a great resource. I downloaded mine from achieve.org as a PDF. It takes a while to download. We haven't used it a ton but I plan to use it more this year. I would like to use it as a followup after nature hikes and sketching/writing about nature in our nature jounrals. I agree that the used pricing can be ridiculous. I have seen it for sale on Barnes & Nobles for under $30 if you want a print edition.

We started reading the Ancient book outloud as a family. Both of my kids are in elementary-middle school level studies so we read a few paragraphs and then discuss/talk about it as a family. They are very jammed back and written in a wonderful historical but also story-like style. I am not sure I would use them for high school history unless my child was going to be majoring in history for college or had a love for history. If using them for high school you pretty much have to have your student write essays about this or that. There are no discussion questions or pointers. Personally, I love the footnotes and author's comments as well. The book gives the reader a full picture of history not just a picture of history from one belief or worldview.

I am not sure if you want to do papercrafts in the past we've used Evan Moor's History Pockets. For activies I would consider doing something with battles & weapons plus period food. We made homemade butter (with cream and a marble), a water-bottle cannon a bit dangerous but fun. We also have made hats and our own ink. For explorers, consider activities like on the sea "seafood" biscuits, constructing a ship of cardboard or basal wood, or keeping a journal/diary "In the life of..." Just some ideas...

Awesome resource! Thanks for posting. We done a lot of hands-on physics and would love some pages to go along with the concepts :)

Our library only does loans if the book is over $20 dollars and even then I have heard that generally it will not approve paperbacks of any kind, this also cuts out children s books which is really sad. The only nice thing about living near Atlanta is our county has 13 libraries so we have lots of choices. Consider paperbackswap I have found lots of books on the site that I couldn't get from my library. You can give put books on wish list and when someone post the book you wished for you're in line to get it.

We don't test for every subject. Before taking a standardized test I get the practice books just so my kids practice the idea of "taking tests". We treat tests like every day assignments expect that they can't ask for help. For reading, I agree with others we are big on narration (which my youngest calls "short summaries), we've done book reviews (posting on sites like amazon or a blog), as well as at times I have pulled off notebooking/worksheets for books from online teacher sites. For history, we stick with narration. I would like to do more essay writing but both of mine kids are still in elementary so we are focusing on their grammar and writing paragraphs then complete essays. At times I have given short and simple history tests, simple questions with T/F, a,b,c,d, bubbles, and fill in the blank. I have just made them up and printed them off. Not often but occasionally.