I have an overly tall Ikea filing cabinet/bookcase combination that has now weathered 4 moves and 7 years. It looks and performs like new (except those spots where my husband wasn't careful when packing it into the truck. He thinks moving blankets are silly. :-/). Edited for word order

She is in my thoughts!!

I purchased the First Grade Diary and read it for my own edification, but I did not use it formally. I did use a huge set of wooden rods and the Annotations so that I would understand all of the pages. At age 5, we used Orange and Red, mostly in the order printed, with me working side by side with him. At 6, we took a break to do Singapore 2A. When he was ready for Singapore 2B, I pulled out Miquon Blue as well. He does 1-2 pages of Blue daily, but now he chooses the pages, doing them in no particular order. I make sure he knows how to complete his chosen lab sheets and usually turn him loose to work independently. I plan to continue this pairing of Singapore and Miquon until he completes Miquon. Disclaimer: my son is not yet 7, so you will likely find better advice from someone with older children. :-)

Another recommendation for Katy Bowman of Katy Says....Alignment Matters blog. I've eliminated my issues after a year of working through her book.

Without having been raised in any of these philosophies, I'll share that I prefer to have about 6-8 books going at any given time. I've found that more burns me out, but less never feels satisfying. The beauty of having lots of book at once is that I can read what I'm in the mood to read (light, intense, new, reread, etc). YMMV, obviously. For my very young AOer, I choose to let him free read from anything he wants, while maintaining the schedule at the same time. So far, that hadn't bothered him at all, other than his begging that we read faster. :-)

I am in the frustrating position of still being a new homeschooler (DS1 is in 1st grade, though he has never been to a BM school) while also having been homeschooled for seven years when I was young. To that end, I have tons of excitement and confidence, as well as a decent amount of exposure to methods (and curriculums) for someone with such young kids. I also know firsthand how needs change and that PS can become a great fit at different times and for different children. I try to keep my mouth shut (except to encourage people to breathe and relax), but it's hard. :-) I also have all boys, boys who make my head spin at every moment. I've had enough laughable advice from certain friends with all girls to teach me to pay attention to the giver of advice and to, again, encourage me to be quiet! I, too, am oddly happy and upbeat this January. I hope it sticks!!

My boys take Natural Calm daily, but I don't like the taste, so I take Magnesium in pill form. My brand of choice is Doctor's Best, and I currently take 600mg (3 pills) daily. Edited for typos.

If memory serves, Forks Over Knives is largely based on research known as "The China Study." There's a well researched analysis of that study by Denise Minger. Google her name and China Study if you'd like to better understand the research and feel less like you are killing yourself. :-)

Yes, my parents began homeschooling me in the early 80s. My mom and her best friend started the local homeschool group in my small hometown in 1985 and within a year the group included 25 families (the group is still there, nearly 30 years later, but now boasts several hundred families).

I'm reading: "Smart But Scattered" "Dragonfly in Amber" "Stray" "Mini-Habits" and "E Squared" and listening to "Fortunately, the Milk" and "The Ex-Pats." I'm reading "The Year of Miss Agnes" and "Now We Are Six" to the kids.

Winners over the last few months have been "The Hobbit" and "Owls in the Family."

This has been a chaotic year that included two moves on top of many other stressors. I'm rather shocked at how well school has gone in the midst of all of it. That said, I want to make Spanish a priority beginning in January. I think the problem was part lack of motivation and part lack of a plan. I had a few books and thought I would wing it. Nope. So, I'm taking some time to plan Spanish over the holidays in the hopes that I follow through. I'm also in desperate need of a schedule or, at least, a morning routine. There is entirely too much freedom (and, therefore, fighting) in our mornings.

I have four programs, of which I use three every day. In our case, we use multiple programs to offer a deep exposure to the concepts that, so far, my son speeds through. At first, I alternated Miquon books and Singapore books, but beginning this fall, I've been having him do them at the same time. This plays out as doing about 45-60 minutes of Singapore textbook and Intensive Practice, as well as the mental math. Singapore is done with my complete attention and any necessary instruction because it is hard enough that he would wander off otherwise. We currently use Miquon and Calculadder to build independent work skills, as he is working at both below his skill level. He chooses any page from Miquon blue, we review the instructions, then he completes that page and a page of Calculadder independently. I check them later. We read LoF sometimes for fun, but I'm not in love with the elementary series, so he has to ask for it. I'm really happy with this arrangement right now. And, yes, I'm aware that he does A Lot of math, but he loves it and begs for more (we do word problems at dinner and in the car. He's obsessed). We do school year round, which is another reason that I'm happy to use multiple programs.

My asthma appeared out if nowhere when I was 14. The docs labeled it "exercise-induced asthma" and gave me an inhaler. It got worse every year reaching it's peak in my mid-twenties. By that point, I was allergic to countless environmental allergens as well and the asthma attacks were caused by everything: exposure to these allergens, stress, exercise. Which of these was the cause depended on the day and the doctor. At that point, I was on five daily medications and still had a rescue inhaler. I tell you my history because something funny happened. Three years ago, suspecting a gluten sensitivity for other reasons. (Joint pain, etc) I gave up gluten. I haven't had an asthma attack since that day. A few months later, I stopped eating dairy. Suddenly, I had almost no environmental allergies. I still struggle with freshly cut grass, but barely, and I haven't taken an allergy or asthma medication of any kind in nearly 3 years, and I feel amazing. Before the food changes, there were months every year when I hid inside. In my case, the asthma and environmental allegies were mitigated by my food sensitivities. Maybe your child's are too. Huh. I just realized something as I was about to publish. My gluten sensitivity got worse with each pregnancy, but I only just realized that my asthma appeared just a few months after the big change we women endure in our early teen years. How interesting. Hormones are crazy things!

I would encourage you to stop writing out the narrations, or only write out one a week and take the rest orally. I'm not sure whether you are using the narration for the copy work or not, but if you are and want to continue, you could scribe the narration on Monday, then have the child copy a sentence from that Monday narration each day. However, I'm just not convinced if the utility of having a second grader copy their own narration. If you are using literature for the copy work, I would keep that but reduce the handwriting. I wouldn't have a child doing both handwriting and copying their own narration, but I would do short copy work from good literature and handwriting (to be combined once they master all the letters).

We are a "barefoot" family, in that we are barefoot or in socks whenever possible because we believe that feet develop more naturally when barefoot, and, when shoes are necessary (for safety and warmth), we wear the most flexible shoes possible. To that end, I would let her wear whatever she would wear. My kids like water shoes with socks in the winter, except for the sensory kid who only wears the water shoes. He is also the child who strips off his shoes and walks barefoot on the snow (note to self, get the kid some moccasins). Incidentally, the human foot can safely handle reasonable cold when the person is moving. I run in thin, neoprene vibram five fingers in 30 degree weather. Even with slight dampness from the snow, I am not cold because I am running. I do change out of those shoes immediately upon stopping to avoid a chill. Could she wear the slippers to school?

Oh, cheating! I woke up early every single day of fourth grade so I could copy the answers from my mom's Abeka math teacher's manual. She caught me in April. I spent the summer doing every lesson again...on my own this time. There was also a long period of time when I did my younger brother's handwriting. I have no idea what was in it for me, but I remember how hard I had to work to write like he would. In related news, I learned not to cheat. This served me well in public HS and college.

Thank you so much for these ideas! I had no idea where to start looking, and this is do helpful. I'm looking forward to seeing what my son does with this.

DS1 has decided that he MUST learn to write Japanese characters. He's remained obsessed with the idea for several months and has learned to copy several characters on his own, so I think he means it. Does anyone have any ideas for how I might approach this? Should I start with a picture dictionary or something else? I intend to teach him the pronunciations as well (as best I can), but I don't want to purchase something that focuses only on that, as his little artistic heart is set on writing the language. Thank you for any ideas/suggestions you may have.

I run and do push-ups and squats 3-4 times a week. My short term goal is to add in some other activities so that I'm exercising 6 days a week. Running doesn't cause muscle soreness, but my push-ups do!

Is there a way to lock your fence, perhaps with a padlock through the latch or a light chain around the gate? One of ours is an escape artist with boundless energy, so outdoor time is both essential and requiring of creative locking mechanisms. Being able to send the littles outside while I school just inside the sliding glass door is a life saver.

Another vote for the Denver area. I've lived in several areas of the country, but I don't ever want to leave Colorado.

Correct. While the Options program, which is also available in the suburbs, including Aurora, is a public charter program, you are still legally a homeschooler. You must file the letter of intent and school the required number of hours (easy!). The hours at Options count toward those requirements. CO is easy, but I did spend years thinking I would be homeschooling in NY.

My 35 month old wears 5T shirts and 4T pants, though that is about to change. He's very tall and thin, so I have to take in everything he wears.

We had a similar issue in the units of Singapore 2A that covered multi-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping. I opted to have my son do 3-6 regrouping problems each day from those units and continued on with the book. By the time he had mastered multi-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping, he has also completed the rest of the book and avoided being frustrated by the hard units.