thankyou so much for your replies...it has helped me to narrow down where to start. I had not thought to think ahead to highschool. it makes sense to rebuild the room with that in mind. yes we had 3 laptops that we will replace. At last count we lost 300 books and we were not done yet. we were reading aloud yesterday and encountered a word we did not all know and my son said "ah man no dictionary" it was a profound moment because what I had hoped would become second nature was.

Imagine for a moment that your dc were in a school and not at home. They would have had to "learn" through all of your difficulty. Schooling would have been hard for them. You homeschool for flexibility and relationship right? your oversight is impressed right? then stop and prioritize. What is most important right now? is it taking an additional 2 weeks to holiday, or hurrying through school. Remember what your reasons for homeschooling are and then determine what to do. We had a fire in our home and lost all of our school materials and I spent the first 3 weeks overwhelmed. I determined to take a longer holiday now and go to a year round schedule starting when all of our materials were replaced. The emotional aspects of schooling are just as important as the academic ones. Enjoy your baby too...that time goes very quickly and you worked awfully hard to get him here. be encouraged you are doing a good job.

I hate to oversimplify because I do not wish to offend anyone...but when you are homeschooling you are a fulltime teacher. particularly if you endevour (sp?) to teach in a classical style. If you subscribe to a service or use all box curriculum you could probably do it. But I would take time off to learn how to homeschool before attempting to do both. It would be like taking on 2 fulltime jobs and only knowing one of them really well. Now if your job is such that you can schedule 3 12 hour shifts back to back then it might be easier...but remember there is still laundry and vacuuming and everything you do now that will need to get accomplished it takes time to figure out how to do it all and decide what you can't do.

we work on one book at a time. I leave it somewhat open ended depending on the child. As an example..."Ok today we will make a book about the eye. please write /dictate 3 sentences about what you remember about the eye." I generally begin helping them fold their little books and offer design suggestions but each child remembers different things and i make a vocabulary list for my youngest to trace or write but they decide how it fits into the book. it is very similar to narrating only they do it in a small book format. i hope that helps. once we have completed several little books then we take one day where we assemble them into a lap book. The little books sit in a bin on the children's work shelf during the unit until we assemble.

I recently had a house fire and everything will soon be gracing the bottom of a dumpster. I have the unique privlidge of rebuilding my entire homeshcool collection. I am overwhelmed with the possibilities. I have 12yob 11yog 9yob and 6yob. I am trained in early childhood and thus had lots of hands on manipulatives. So the ? here for the hive is; if you were to start over, what would you make sure you replaced? What things are an absolute must have and why? not curriculum but the additional extra things you have around to do. I think reading a few responses from others will help me get my brain around things. oh and yes everyone is ok. we weren't home when the fire happened. The firefighters even got my cat out ok. Thanks

Anybody have any ideas for a hands on project for the invention of the printing press? My little boys are 6 and 9 and I was hoping to spend 2 afternoons this week on a hands on project for this. I haven't found much that I thought they could do. Any ideas would be appreciated thxs. I have stamps but wasn't sure it really applied.

When I worked in a pre k setting we would work in 20 minute blocks of time. we tried hard not to make anyone go for longer than 20 minutes without a wiggle break or a change in activity. It is hard to get in the groove but it is do able. Break the 2hours or so you are trying to do into really small chunks and reward yourself when you get it half done then work up from there. I wore my baby in a sling for some of schooling when we were in that stage.

Had a lactation consultant help me with some supply issues and she suggested Madela pumps. Said they last forever and it helped me. had a knob that regulated the suction.

Thank goodness somebody else is out there who deals with this! I was beginning to think I was a mutant or something. I'm told it does get better.

The other Bolelyn girl in the grip of grace the shopaholic series a biography about Janette Oke and just finished Enemy of God about King Arthur (actually this is a series too and I finished the whole) how is that for eclectic?

If it is thick like a zuccinni you can slice it thinly and layer it in a veggie lasagna (or add meat too). I add it to mexican skillets like fajitas, with the peppers and onions. Also you can cube it and add it to a black bean salad. Sometimes if it's particularly sweet we slice it and dip it in hummus raw. also good with a horseradish dip the rounds go nicely in pita bread. hth

Thankyou for the link!!!!!

I am very practical and since they fed you I would suggest a grocery gift card...or if you know they have a SAMS or Costco membership send a gift card for that. other wise if you know they like something else specific like reading or music send an amazon giftcard or starbucks or itunes something to allow a small splurge they may not normally do.

If you don't need the space leave it for a day or two then try to tie it up again. Give it a little time to recover before you mess too much, it might bounce back a bit.

Is there a local farmer market near you? I take $40 with me and buy whatever is available and usually get enough produce to feed 6 of us (total 4 kids 2 adults) for a whole week. Now my kids eat. They don't pick at food. Last saturday I bought corn,tomatoes,green beans,yellow beans, broccoli,onions, zuccinni,yellow squash,eggplant,and green onions. If I took $60 I could by extra and freeze it for summer but I just haven't been that motivated lately. Maybe you could try a local farmer's market or a corner farmer stand?