No. Our kitchen is not open . We have breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, snack, and dinner. That is it. I meal plan and if you eat something out of that schedule you're taking food from someplace later on in the week.

I get a night a week to be alone. Usually it means I go wander a local bookstore or take a hike until the sun goes down. The rest of the week my husband works odd hours so I get from 8 until 10:30 in a quiet house to read, sew, meditate or whatever. If my husband worked a typical 9-5 schedule I think I'd go bonkers.

As soon as it is nice we are out of the house. My daughter loves reading while among the trees. The only thing we struggle to do out of the house is math. There is something about math that requires a table and real sit down consistency.

We've done this by mistake. I would absolutely want my neighbor to say something to me. Especially if in my case it was a misunderstanding.

A week would have been too long for my younger two. Even now at 5 and almost 4 a week would be too long for them. My oldest has been away from us for up to four days when she was 3 and did fine so I wouldn't worry about her now at 7 especially since we are considering having her stay with her grandparents in the mountains for a week this summer and sending her to Florida with the other set of grandparents for a week. But, the little two would be so upset after 3 days. It wouldn't be fair for my parents, the kiddos or me. If I could shorten the trip to maybe 3 or 4 days it would be doable but not at a full week right now.

Our homeschool group give the children the opportunity to present reports, stories or just do a show and tell time once a month. Girl scouts has also given our oldest some opportunities as well.

My daughter will be in 2nd grade and 7 years old.

Or can I just use a spelling list and base the work off of the ideas I've seen in her homework packets and spelling tests from school this year? I want to keep our hs budget low and avoid workbooks as much as possible because they currently create a great deal of conflict. At the same time I don't want to short my child on something that is important.

We do their literature selections as well as nature study including the Burgess books.

My 5 year old is in the process of a diagnosis. She had the blood test in September. It came up negative but she had been on a gluten free diet for roughly a year and no one told us that she needed to eat something gluten containing for the test to show anything. After that we started seeing an allergist and a GI in combo to tackle what was going on with our daughter. We will find out in May how the drs. want to go forward because she was having some other GI issues. So, while we do not have an official dx we are in the middle of the whole process and living gluten free with our little girl. It was an overhaul but the difference in her is absolutely worth every inconvenience.

I'm curious about this as well because my state requirements say that I have to instruct on both state and civics during the elementary years. Next year I was just going to introduce state history and info through a simple reader and explore in more depth based on my girls' interest. US history also is closely connected with our state so they will also get an introduction to some US history as well.

I didn't want to stray from the OP in the other thread. Am I the only person who really doesn't like lapbooks? They seem like busy work to me.:confused:

I wouldn't have been able to throw anything together to feed more than say one extra person without notice. I plan my meals according to my schedule for the week, our family size and our budget. To feed 25 people I would have ended up emptying our pantry for the week.

We do the same. Half hour or so for each child while the other is getting some more personal focus or learning a new bit of info. There are lots of good one but these are the ones that I can set up and walk away. www.noggin.com www.sproutonline.com http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/book_details.asp?Category=PictureBooks My kids also enjoy starfall.

I exercise 30 minutes a day year round but in the nice weather at least twice a week I commit to at minimum an hour of cycling or 45 minutes of running. In the winter I work out to maintain my health, in the summer I work out to improve my health.

Not all of them we are in the process of reading them right now. We haven't read too many of the colored Fairy Books. We have read a number of fairy tails just not those specific collections. My 3 year old wanders in and out while I read but my girls 5 & 7 sit and listen intently or want to try and read some on their own. I see the list as a guide to shoot for by the end of each learning stage.

You can successfully container grow any of the plants you've mentioned. Strawberries are another fun one to container. Herbs like mint, lemon balm and others that come back each year are good to container that way they don't over-run your garden space. We will be container growing cucumbers, hot peppers and eggplant. I'm still debating on whether to container my beans and peas or to plant them in my raised beds.

My husband does not require me to get up with him. I get up with him in the morning so that I can have a few minutes with him before he leaves and my day starts. I also make him breakfast and lunch. Not because he requires it but because I want to do that for him. He also eats better if I pack his lunch and make his breakfast. It saves us money too. To be fair, when I was working full-time and he was home he did the same for me.:)

My girls are are also 28 months apart but three years apart in regards to grades. We will be doing history, science and literature together. Also done together will be art and music. Of course my expectations will be different and that is something that the girls and I talk about quite a bit. What we do individually is phonics, math, and spelling.

My son is also not quite 4. He is just getting into drawing on the chalk-board. He really loves when we turn it into a game. I will draw a circle and then he has to try and do it the same way. Sometimes it is just wiggly lines on the board and other times we end up with a whole nature scene. He has no desire to do anything on paper other than paint. I think he struggles to figure out the correct pressure to get the results he wants so painting and chalk are much easier for him. If he's not interested I'd give it a bit more time while still being sure to give him plenty of fine motor skill activities that he is interested in doing.

I'm not in OK but we looked into K12. Friends of our had all three of their children in it when they first moved from homeschooling to a cyber. If we didn't have such a non-traditional family schedule I think we would have gone with K12 instead of what we are doing. But with an inconsistent family schedule the set up of K12 wasn't going to work. Part of the reason for schooling at home is for us to have more family time than we would have with the kids going to school. K12 didn't provide that for us.

No. There are many reasons why I won't be permitting my two daughters to be vaccinated with this some of them have been mentioned.

:iagree:

What a great way to put it! That is how we are approaching educating our children as well. We started with CM philosophy and realized with a child who had already been in the public school system and introduced to certain things earlier than CM suggest that it would be a disservice to her to put learning in those areas on hold. That is where WTM came in for us. :)

You can get really good shoes for relatively little money but you have to really shop around for sales, outlets, coupons etc. Good shoes are so important!:) Ditto on the frequently replacing them. I used to go through a pair of shoes every 3 months. We joke that my shoe purchases are my gym membership. I wear whatever athletic apparel I have around. Currently I run in a long sleeve t from a charity even and sporty cotton capris. That will change with the weather.