I agree with the skip the zoo sentiment. We went in 2010 and the zoo was our least favorite part--tt was packed with summer camp field trips and so hot. We have a nice zoo in our hometown that we visit frequently, and the National Zoo wasn't anything special, other than the pandas. We opted to drive in every day, so I can't help with the Metro. It really wasn't a big deal to drive/park. We also brought sandwiches to eat and just found a park bench somewhere. Kids really liked the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It's one you have to get a ticket and come back for, so plan ahead if it's something you want to do. We did Mount Vernon our last day and it was fabulous. So much walking . . . be prepared!

We had ours (15 X 48 Intex Easy Set) for five summers. But unlike Martha, ours required a lot of upkeep and as the resident pool girl, I got tired of doing it. We had a salt system, an upgraded pump and an automatic vacuum, but with the daily rain we get here and the fact that we have a lot of trees, it was often in need of some kind of cleaning or chemicals. We live in the southeast, so just left it up all winter. The kids loved it and the close to $1,000 we put into it over its five year life was well worth it. But this is our first summer without it and I have to say I don't miss it. The trampoline that took its place is MUCH lower maintenance!

Nah, I'm hoping someone else will just fix dinner!

Well I have no magic formula, just commiseration. I am very organized in many areas of my life--homeschooling, around the house, toy storage--but when it comes to meal planning, I'm a lost cause. I think it's because I'm a picky eater and I don't like to cook, so I don't really care what anyone eats. I'd rather organize most anything in the house than figure out what to fix for dinner. Because after fixing dinner, there's a mess in the kitchen and all we have is food to show for it. But after organizing something, everything has it's tidy little place. Personally I vote for only eating once a day. Then everything can remain in its place for the rest of the day. I'm kinda weird like that.

Appoint your board. Choose people not just for their gifts and commitment, but on their ability to work well with others and in particular their ability to work well with YOU as the director. You want people who share your vision for the group and who are going to support your leadership role, not those who want to revolutionize the way the group is run and upset the apple cart. I think one of the most helpful things about a board is the ability to share weighty leadership decisions. When something comes up that isn't in the best interest of the group as a whole, but might upset some individual members, it is a blessing to first take it to the board and then be able to announce that, "The board has decided that this is not in the best interest of the group," rather than having to take the responsibility for making this difficult decision alone as leader. And people can know that when it's a board decision, it's something that's been discussed and prayed over by the board and not just dismissed out of hand because one person didn't like the idea. I second the recommendation for Carol Topp's website.

One word: Craigslist. As other people upgrade to the latest and greatest, I am happy to purchase their two year old, not good enough because white is so yesterday fridge at a fraction of the original cost. Give it a good cleaning, and it's good as new. Currently scouring CL for a next-to-new dishwasher . . .

In my experience, the best time to begin is in late elementary, go slowly, and study it for as long as the student retains an interest. That said, my goals for Latin study have been to ease the transition to a modern language study in high school and to gain the vocabulary/root study benefits from an ancient language. That and just to stretch the brain with memory work and applied grammar. I've taught Latin to all three of my own, plus a bunch of kids at co-op for several years. My 8th grader is moving on to Spanish now, and so my tenure with Latin is through. I'm ready to move on, but I've sure learned a lot. Hopefully the kids have as well :-)

I have 8gb on my MBP and it is plenty.

I have a good friend whose daughter went to the finals of the national bee for a few years. She said it was an amazing experience where her daughter finally felt to be among peers, and as one of the finalists, a rock star. It did require a tremendous amount of studying, but name a competition that pits the best of the best against each other that does not. These are bright kids with a love for learning, and chances are most of them will go very very far in life. Congrats on your spellers, and enjoy the competition! Nice article, BTW!

Florida Sun Vacation Homes rents Windsor Hills and other nearby vacation home communities. We have used them several times and never been disappointed. You get a lot of space for the price this way, and a lot of ammenities, too--great pool with waterslide in addition to the small backyard pool (if you get a pool home), huge playground, game room, movies shown, etc.

Our group used one of the big name professional yearbook places for years. But it was expensive and they were a pain to deal with. This year we went with Tree Ring--love the results, especially love the price. It's not as fancy as the big name place, and there didn't seem to be as many editing options, but for a homeschool group what you get is perfect. I especially liked the option for each family to add their own personal pictures/pages to their books only--for no extra cost I got to do a two page spread with just family photos or memories specific to my kids. It only went in my book and I could make it whatever I wanted. You can add additional such pages for a few dollars more, but 2 was all we needed. The whole book, including shipping, cost less than $12. In the past we paid $45 with the big names, so IMO Tree Ring is IT! I've also seen some nice homeschool group books done via Shutterfly, and I have used SF for other types of books so I know they are great.

We have 12 week semesters--fall and spring. Classes are generally scheduled to last the whole year, except for the primary grades (K - 2) which have semester-long classes. The class schedule is set the spring prior by people stating what they want to teach and preparing a class description. Registration for those classes happens in July--you sign up for the classes you want your kids to have all year. If you are teaching, it's for one hour of the two hours of programming. If you are assisting (we don't require people to teach), it's the same deal--one hour of the two. You teach/assist in the same class all year. In your "off" hour you can attend a Bible study, use it to get to know others, or whatever. But you have to stay on property and you have to be willing to sub for someone who is absent. If you PM me I can send a schedule from past years.

Well done--I love it! And so appropriate that it's bigger on the inside! Just make sure no one spray paints "Bad Wolf" on it when you're not looking!

I had one go through level 6, but I decided not to do level 7 with him because level 7 is a lot of root study and he was already several years into Latin. Since I already have level 7, I plan on using it with my youngest, whose Latin study ended last year and who just finished level 5. I didn't use AAS with my oldest. Not only was it not yet published when she would have used it, but she's a natural speller and didn't need it.

Well I was and remain a picky eater, and my mom was no cook who passed her skills and dislike for cooking on to me, so I can't say I now fix or even eat exotic and interesting foods. If my family eats something, anything, I'm happy. My kids are less picky than me, but mainly because we have friends who cook that invite us to dinner periodically so my children have at least been exposed to good cooking. Plus we eat out a bit (yay, no cooking!) I will also say that I hated salad growing up, because salad was roughly chopped iceberg lettuce with a couple of chunks of tomato, maybe a cucumber, and thousand island or french dressing. Who wants that??? I had no idea that "salad" also meant yummy things like butter and leaf lettuces with pecans and goat cheese and dried cherries, with a light coating of a nice vinegarette. Yum--now that's a salad! Why it didn't exist in my 70's and 80's midwestern world I have now idea, but I'm glad I've found it now.

My oldest did a program similar to the Academy you mention, and it was a fabulous option for our family. It was a two-day per week tutoring program, and she did core classes (English, History, and Bible) as well as a couple of science classes there. She did math and some foreign language with FLVS and also took advantage of dual enrollment beginning her junior year and accrued a number of credits there. If your husband is worried about college admission with the lack of an accredited diploma, he doesn't need to be. Talk to the colleges your dd is interested in now to put his mind at ease. Every school is different in what they are looking for in homeschoolers, but these days many schools have an admissions counselor designated specifically for homeschooled applicants. For most a homeschool transcript is still needed, but not looked at the same way as a regular school transcript. Test scores weigh more heavily for a homeschooler, but the main thing the colleges seem to want to know is that the student is ready for college-level teaching. For us that's where the dual enrollment credits really helped a lot. For the record, dd was accepted to all of the schools she applied to and has just finished her freshman year at UF. She's had a great experience there and was well prepared for college. For us using a variety of options (tutoring program, FLVS, dual enrollment) in high school was a great way to go. And one more thing--by the time my dd was done with her FLVS classes, she was very over virtual classes. She flourished in a small classroom environment, particularly with the discussion-heavy classes offered at the tutoring program. She was really tired of being in front of a screen for math and language. I say this just in case your husband is still stuck on the FLVS option--my dd would have hated all day, every day, every class on the computer for her high school years.

I like IEW because it teaches a specific, step-by-step approach that slowly guides the student to getting their own thoughts down on paper, which is a more difficult skill than many realize. A kid who has no problems in that regard might find IEW a little too stifling (my oldest was like this--I don't think she would have liked IEW at all, because she just wrote naturally and well). But for the kid who just stares at a blank piece of paper when given a prompt and has no idea where to begin, IEW starts at the beginning and builds the skill carefully and gradually. For my sons this has been an outstanding approach. FWIW, I don't begin IEW until 6th grade, and I don't teach it (we do it via co-op classes). But I have owned SWI A and am familiar enough with the program to say that my boys were not ready for it in 3rd and 4th grade. Maybe 5th, but for us waiting until 6th was fine. You could begin with SWI B at that point if necessary. IEW is totally different than WWE. I did use WWE with my boys in grades 1st - 4th, as it's more about the skills of dictation/narration/summarizing, which are important skills leading up to original writing. I always suggest that those struggling with teaching writing or deciding on curriculum read SWB's lecture on elementary writing, available here and well worth the $3.99 download price.

I like to start outsourcing in middle school to get my kids used to other teacher's deadlines, grades, expectations, tests, etc. For us this happens via co-op classes. Often these classes include skills like note taking, keeping track of assignments, and projects/presentations. My oldest did a two-day/week tutoring program for high school alongside DE classes in 11th and 12, and was well prepared for both by the outside classes she had had in middle school. Both the tutoring program and DE had her well prepared for full-time college. My sons are in middle school now and have both done classes through our co-op with increasing academic rigor and expectations as have gotten older.

We do school-lite in the summer. As we finish with our outsourced courses in the spring, those are DONE. We continue with whatever we were doing at home until we are finished with the book. For some books, like Math and Grammar, we just start the next book when we finish one, so we never really stop those subjects. But Spelling, Latin, etc. books get put away when they are done, until the next school year officially starts (August or September). So really we are only doing 1 - 2 hours per day, generally only 1 as it gets later in the summer. We do take July off for family vacation, travel, and other activities. The year we tried not doing any school in the summer we lasted only a few weeks because everyone was whining and arguing and looking for something to do. I figure if we're here all day anyway, we might as well devote an hour or so to learning, so we do. But we are also much more apt to drop school and take a day off to go to the beach, pool, or whatever in the summer. I like the flexibility and relaxed atmosphere of a summer schedule.

You are not alone. I do not like being read to, nor do I enjoy audiobooks. I need to hold it in my hands and see it with my eyes for it to penetrate my brain. I also don't do well with youtube videos explaining something, and I hate it when I click on a news item online and it takes me to a video. Just give me the words in print, please. I've found that trying to interpret spoken directions is difficult for me. My husband was trying to explain over the phone how to fix something in the house. I ended up throwing down the phone in frustration and asking him to text me the directions. Thing was fixed in no time after that. I do have one child who needs to read along with audio because he is a super slow reader, and another who just likes to be read to. I've read myself hoarse with them. My oldest, however, is just like me. Once she could read anything she put her hands on well (which was when she was 5), she didn't want me to read to her anymore.

Like with anything else, differing educational goals as well as paths to get there are arbitrary. Your "waste" is my tool to advancement in other areas. I might have great math skills, but no desire to study calculus, and that's okay. I guess some might consider this a waste ("but you're so GOOD at math!"), but if it's not my area of interest, what's the point? And while a good foundation in Latin may enable me to go in depth in Classics study, the end is not necessary to justify the means. Sometimes just learning for learning's sake is enough, at least in my opinion.

I think it's great, and if I had the means I would do similar birthday excursions. In fact, though our means are far less, we HAVE taken along friends to theme parks, vacations, etc. They are always good friends of our children and we are always well acquainted with the families, so it's easy to just treat the guest as one of our own kids, and the families understand this. The kid sometimes brings money, but we make it clear that they are our guest and we will be treating them. I've never had a kid insist on spending his money just because he had it. Really I think an acceptable way to handle it is to tell the parents this is an "all-inclusive" experience and that spending money is neither necessary nor desired. State that you will cover everything for their child, even a spending money allowance. Then toward the end of the trip give each kid, even your own, $20 for them to spend at will. After covering food, hotel, transportation, tickets, etc., what's another $20? And if the kid brings his own money anyway and asks to spend it, just say no. Now for the trip to the AG store where the parent went along, that's tricky, because asking a kid to not spend money is one thing, but an adult? Can't do that. I don't have an acceptable solution there--what the parent spends is her business. Sure she probably could spend more because you footed the bill for everything else, but since you volunteered to do that, she is under no obligation to contribute. And that's why for me I would make these kid-only invitations. My house (or trip, as it were), my rules.

This was never my goal in having my children study Latin, yet I'm glad we took the time to do it. The introduction of new vocabulary through its Latin root, the reinforcement of English grammar via the study of declensions and conjugations, the exercise of memorization of all those declensions and conjugations, and the introduction of an ancient culture have all been beneficial and worthy of study. But my main reason for spending time with Latin was to help my children transition to a modern language. My daughter eased into Spanish in middle school after the early years of studying Latin. I hope the same will be true for my sons. I am not fluent in a second language, so my ability to teach a modern, spoken language is nil. But with a solid Latin program my ability to teach the basics of language study through an ancient language that helps prepare them for modern language study is adequate, and as a bonus I'VE learned much in the process. I see our years of Latin study as time well spent. My middle son really enjoys the success he has with it. No, he'll never read Cicero, but the foundation for future language study has been laid, as have the reinforcements of other areas of learning, through Latin.

In my group if you consider yourself a homeschooler, so do we. Our purpose as a group is to offer encouragment/support to families who have their kids at home for educational purposes, regardless of government's involvement.

Moved dd home Thursday after her last final. I had forgotten how much STUFF she had, and how nice her room has looked all year with all of it gone! Now it has taken over the house while she figures out where to put it all! She's only home for 5 days, however--she leaves Tuesday for 6 weeks study abroad. And then all the stuff goes away again in August when she moves back to campus. I can't believe a whole school year has gone by already. She's had such a great year and is having the time of her life.