We highly recommend Johnson String Instruments for parts and excellent service. They are just outside of Boston, though. I'm sure there must be a good place right in the city. You might be able to call them to find out who they would recommend. Johnson String Instrument 1029 Chestnut Street Newton Upper Falls, MA 02464 info@johnsonstring.com 617 964-0954 | 800 359-9351 http://www.johnsonstring.com

This looks interesting . . . but what time period does Liberty Kids cover? Is it just colonial/Revolutionary War history?

Sorry for avoiding this question earlier, but it brings up bad memories of too-long days, too much math, and too much writing for my first grade daughter and kindergarten-aged son, who were working together. We eventually survived Saxon 1 by condensing the meeting portion and not doing it every day (although it is important to read it yourself and see if anything new is being introduced so that you do not miss it), and only doing the first side of the worksheets. I think this worked for us, as the kids still ended up with great test scores, and did not hate doing math as much as they would have hated it had I made them do everything the manual says to do -- as I did in the beginning. Doing everything really does take at least an hour -- and that is if the kids are working at a good pace.

There is something crazy-making about five, but I am hoping it will pass when they get a little bit older. It is certainly easier now that my youngest turned two. He sleeps through the night, can play quietly to amuse himself for a long time (when he wants to -- not necessarily when we are doing school), uses stairs like a regular kid, and can tell us what he needs. 7 months old is a tough age for babies, and it sounds as if most of the problem is a "7-month-old-baby-not-sleeping" problem, which will get better by definition, and not an "I-have-five-kids" problem (which will not).

That sounds like an enormous time commitment and loss of flexibility for an unknown benefit. I would probably sit it out this year, and see if I could come in and observe for a session or two to see if it is something that would work for my family. Keep in mind that you would be expected to prepare for and teach a class to students in the 3-6th grade age range -- so making things "understandable for the 3rd graders and challenging enough for the 6th graders" will be *your* problem for the class you teach. You will also have all of the preparation and classroom management issues, which can be difficult in a co-op setting when parents are in class, as Calming Tea mentions (parent expects teacher to step in and correct behavior; teacher expects parent to correct -- kid knows no one will correct, so continues to act up).

I run the laundry during the day, but tend to fold and deliver it once the kids are in bed. I also do most of my cleaning at night. It helped tremendously once my husband started doing the dinner dishes and putting the kitchen in order while I did violin practicing with the kids and put them to bed. After that I usually put my feet up and read in my room for about thirty minutes, and tend to get a tremendous burst of energy in my calm, quiet and kid-free house to clean a few bathrooms, wash a floor, or organize something for an hour or so. Or sometimes I don't. I did find that trying to maintain a clean house throughout the day cut into my focus on our schoolwork too much, so I just try to ignore the chaos, knowing that I can put things in order at night. I also have the kids do a quick pick-up in the late afternoon, so that I don't have to spend my evening cleaning time putting away toys.

Thank you for the advice! I think I will just stick with the workbooks for now and try to make some print-outs for extra practice.

Now that Rainbow Resource is carrying my favorite Zaner-Bloser handwriting at excellent prices, I am considering the Teacher Edition and/or Practice Masters to go along with our regular workbooks. I find the workbooks to be excellent, and easy to follow, so I haven't felt the need for a teacher's manual. I was interested in the Practice Masters, however, as I do tend to want some more practice at times. I just had my 5-year-old do another K workbook as I didn't feel she had mastered handwriting. Because of her personality type, she happily worked through a second one with no complaint; but I wouldn't count on getting away with that with some of my other students. I also like that the Practice Masters are reproducible, so it may end up being the same price or less expensive than buying duplicates of the workbooks for several children. Does anyone have the Teacher Edition or Practice Masters, and do you have any thoughts about how useful they are?

We use ReflexMath over here for math facts. It's much more exciting than Xtramath, and actually guides the students through the memorization process ("Coach Penny" comes out and explains things at the beginning). After a short lesson, they get to play video games using math facts. Instead of using arrow keys to move their little ninja guy, they have to answer a math fact. My children, who do not otherwise get to play video games, found this program tremendously exciting. In fact, it threatened to take over our homeschool day because they were constantly begging to do it, going way over their allotted time limit, watching each other play, and otherwise obsessing over it. I think that excitement has finally worn off, but they still enjoy it and will ask to do it if I forget. There is a 2-week free trial you can do, but make sure you research the program first and decide whether you are comfortable with the price before letting them try it out, as they will certainly want to have it. I got a discount on three subscriptions by ordering through Homeschool Buyer's Co-op.

Wait - so what is this Bona everyone is using on hardwood? It looks like a mop system, similar to Swiffer. But is it better?

We also have a hickory floor. It is quite low maintenance. I swiffer it a few times a week, and do a proper mopping with Murphy's Oil Soap -- um, maybe once a month. It doesn't show dirt very much, so looks reasonably good most of the time. We did have a fridge leaking problem, and the wood became warped, but it went back to normal after a while.

I have some good credentials (Ivy League undergraduate and law degree, summa cum laude, Law Review, etc.), but only five years of work experience from before I had children. I did corporate law -- mergers and acquisitions, in New York. I don't feel that any of my work experience is relevant anymore. It is outdated, and not needed in small-town New England. If I had to go back to work, I would probably need to get a very low-level job with a local attorney to learn some actual skills. I am confident, though, that I could be earning a good wage in a few years -- just not initially.

I have the same testing philosophy -- and start to second-guess myself if they are not in the top 5th percentile for everything; however, I do think those are excellent scores! I did the Stanford tests with my children and was able to administer them myself. My first and second graders are excellent/advanced readers, but still did get a few questions incorrect because of questions that were not worded clearly and clip-art interpretation issues. It is to be expected.

MedicMom and AMJ, I agree completely. Our financial advisor wanted us to consider getting our own disability insurance as well, as that type of problem is more common than death. I guess there is such a thing as private disability insurance? We have some through my husband's company currently, but it may be something to look at making more permanent. There is also a possibility a husband could go to prison, which actually happened to a good friend. She suddenly had absolutely no income, and was supported by the church and family for a few months until she was able to get part-time work in her field while the children went to public school. As she had built up a good career in finance prior to having children, she was able to enter the workforce at a higher level and negotiate a well-paying job for reduced hours that allowed her to be with her children when they came home from school. It is certainly not an idea situation, but her prior education and training allowed her to provide well for her children even during this difficult time.

You should be able to set up a beneficiary for regular bank accounts as well -- just give them a call. We set up a revocable trust as the owner or contingent beneficiary for everything so that our family can avoid probate and cash and assets can be immediately available.

I also have a 5-year-old daughter with a late October birthday. Depending on cut-offs, she would be a very old kindergartener or a very young first grader next year (the latter in our school district). We have been happily doing kindergarten in her skill subjects this year, as she was certainly ready for it. I will begin some of her "first grade" materials this fall, and others (such as grammar) may wait a few months before I roll them in. She has older siblings, so has been folded into their history cycle, science lessons and Latin study. If she did not have older siblings, I may have done some informal science with her this year, but would wait to begin the history cycle in the fall. I may change my mind, but I still plan to call her a kindergartener next year for purposes of camp and outside activities, as that is how children are grouped by age in our area. I will probably give her the first grade standardized test at year-end, though, to reflect the material we have covered.

I think a passcode book or piece of paper is important. We have so many passcodes! I was forever losing them and having to do that "lost passcode" thingy.

Absolutely! My husband would need at least a live-in nanny, and possibly some other help with meals and cleaning. That is why our life insurance policies are for similar amounts. We are both fairly essential around here.

We have thought of most of the things in this post -- assets and accounts are in both names, we have wills, a trust, and life insurance policies. We made an effort to consolidate investment accounts with one bank after a particularly embarrassing episode during which we completely forgot about a sizable IRA, and were incredulous when the advisor mentioned it. So yes, keep good files and check up on these things! I think that making a claim on a life insurance policy is quite easy. You just need to call your agent or the company, and they will be able to walk you through it. The most important thing is to have the paperwork and make sure you know of all the policies. In reading through these responses, I did realize how important it is to keep our school things well-organized throughout the year. I'm good about stuffing it all into portfolios and completing standardized tests at the end of the year to comply with our state homeschooling law, but if something were to happen to me during the year, and the kids had to be placed in the public school, my husband would have no idea what to make of all of the mess and piles or what levels the children were working at. I would hope the school could just test them and place them appropriately, but realize that some advocacy may need to take place to put them where they would thrive.

I use Whirlpool Stainless Steal Cleaner and Polish, which was recommended by our local appliance company. It works very well with minimal scrubbing, but you do have to let it set for a little bit (per the instructions), then buff it off, so it is more of a serious polish than a convenient spray.

I am currently homeschooling Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd, with a 3-year-old who also wants to "do school" and often listens in, and a toddler. It is a little overwhelming at times, and I am not able to do as much as I would like; but by outside standards (test scores), they are doing exceptionally well. I realized a few years ago that early reading is critical, and I work to have fluent readers prior to Kindergarten so that we can spend the early elementary years on other language arts. They all work on their own writing, language arts, math, spelling, etc. -- and we do Latin, science, history, geography, logic, read alouds and art together (with different expectations for different ages). Honestly, I am a little bit apprehensive about adding the 3-year-old and toddler to the formal lessons, but realize that once I add them I will not have a 3-year-old and toddler to wrangle, so maybe I will still be ahead.

I think there are some really foundational, important things taught in RS B. The coverage of place value, multi-digit addition and mental math is outstanding. That said, the beginning of B does seem a little young for an 8-year-old. I would suggest leaving out the songs, for example (I learned that the hard way -- there is another thread with my DC's lyrics to Yellow is the Sun), and condensing lessons to leave out topics your child has already mastered. I just got a medium-sized plastic bin and dumped all of the manipulatives into it (except for the large things that would not fit). The manipulatives are really fabulous, but you don't need to bring all of them out every times -- just check the instructor's guide to see what you need for each lesson. They start out using just a few. I would suggest first trying out some of the RS B lessons at an accelerated pace (perhaps writing out any worksheets or doing them orally so that you can return the books if needed). If you feel that RS B is really not working, I would call RightStart to talk about exchanging your books. The customer service is excellent, and I am sure they would help you out.

Great. I'm glad that was helpful. You may want to consider taking a look at RightStart 2nd edition to see if it is scripted enough for you.

I think of 1-3 as small, 4-6 as medium, and 7+ as large. It could be because we know quite a few larger families. Somehow, it makes a difference to me how they appear. If the kids are nicely dressed, have their own interests and opinions, and come across as individuals, I don't tend to think of the family as large even if there are many children. If, however, they wear matching outfits with very long skirts, drive a big "church van," travel around and sing together, and stand in a row and blink at me, I consider the family large, even if there are only 5 or 6 children. As I write this, I realize that makes no sense whatsoever.

We have five children, and now feel that our family is complete (which we did not feel after our fourth). I think of us as a medium-sized family, but sometimes feel like a larger family. Time is a lot more scarce for us than money, so if my children's clothes are in disrepair (as they are, sometimes) it is because I haven't noticed or have been too busy to mend them or order new ones. In reading through this thread, I have realized that I should be more mindful of this, as I hadn't thought about how it might make them feel when they are older (I think they are too young to care right now). We do extracurriculars, but primarily things we can all do together. All the kids have swim lessons once a week, those who are of age play baseball, we take French classes together, nature center and art classes, travel and go to museums, the ballet and theater frequently (even the toddler). Our violin teacher comes to our house once a week and does multiple lessons. I know my oldest would like to do ballet and have a horse, but I don't think we would have time for ballet and a horse even if there were just two children! If we have anything resembling bitterness, it might be my oldest. She is a deep thinker, mature beyond her years, and needs solitude. She complains of not having enough quiet time to do all the reading she would like, which I recognize as a valid need and have been working to build more quiet and unstructured time into her day. It is usually her own fault, as she also loves to run around with the others playing loud and wild imaginative games (they are all best friends and can play together for hours). Sometimes tell me she feels shortchanged about not being able to do certain things (European vacations, Disney, ballet, a horse), but I came from a smaller family and also did not do those things until later in life. I don't think that is a large family issue. We are not interested in Disney, but do plan to travel internationally once we are past the toddler/preschooler stage, so she may get her European vacation at least. The largest downside I see to having five children is feeling like I can't meet all the needs of my children who are gifted in certain areas as I think I might be able to do with a smaller family. For example, the 3-year-old has some talent at piano. I imagine we could develop this there were more time; but I can't build any more music lessons into the schedule at this point (I do work with him a bit on my own, as my husband and I both play piano; and we do plan to get lessons for him when he was older). My first grader is amazing at math, but I do not have time to take him to math circles or provide as much math enrichment as I would like. Instead, I give him math books and online resources.