Yes -- I'd love it! Grades 5-8 would be perfect.

We "edit" the toys & games severely before a big gathering. When a lot of kids will be over and the parents will certainly be busy chatting, we put away everything with lots of little pieces (lego, Bionicles!), everything that is noisy or could easily be a weapon, and anything fragile or that my sons don't want other kids playing with. Then we put out several very play-able things for the different ages, and leave it at that. We usually put out big legos (Duplos?) for little kids, or Brio-type train track, or wooden blocks, and our set of pirate-theme Imaginext for all ages (just the big elements and the people). For upper elementary and older kids, usually we have one or two sturdy games that younger kids could play, too, and some quirky toys. I'm now a big fan of editing before folks come over. Then there just isn't that much to clean up. Even if it's four or five bins of stuff, at least it's not those tiny bits and pieces. And the kids seem to enjoy themselves.

Hi there, mommahawk -- I'm glad you introduced yourself :) The first year of HSing is like nothing else! This is my third year HSing; my first year I only had our younger son at home, and the second year our older son joined us. That was another big adjustment. But it has been so very worthwhile. I hope we'll see you over on the K-8 Curriculum board (area? forum?); it's a great place for questions and support.

After weeks of only magazines and Dresden Files mysteries (fun!), I kinda went crazy and borrowed the next five or so books coming up in my nonfiction book group, LOL! Currently reading: :D A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told Through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances. My choice for the book group. I really enjoy the very readable and interesting history, and the photos and recipes are fascinating. :) The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. A quite readable, thoughtful assessment of stress due to the incredible variety and choices that surround us (which TV? which cereal? which curriculum??). Turns out to be not exactly about simplicity. I'm curious what his action points will be. Book group book. :( The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions. Very interesting thesis, but tedious to read. Lots of sociology, behavioral science, etc. Eh. I shall soldier on, because I think this book will spur us to discuss all kinds of (more) interesting things. Book group book. :( House Thinking: A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live. I enjoy this topic, so I borrowed this book by the previous book's author, but I'm tired of her discussion of historical American upper-class houses (Monticello, etc.). Eh. After this I will probably do some serious browsing through A Pattern Language, from my bookshelf; I love that book. If this topic comes up as a sideline in our book group when we discuss The Power of Place, I'll recommend The Not So Big House as a very enjoyable intro to what makes a house very liveable. All will be bumped this week by next weekend's book, which I actually ordered: Money-Driven Medicine. An excellent, easy-to-read book about our health-care system, how it has developed in all aspects (physicians, hospitals, insurers, patients, relationships and dependencies among, etc.) since 1900. Maybe toward the end it'll have some ideas. We've been looking for a readable, substantive book along this line for a year, and this seems to be the one! Book group book. Waiting on the shelf: Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, the Torments of Low Thread Count, the Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems After I finish House Thinking. I expect to be annoyed by this because I think it's going to be all woe-is-me about a yuppie/first-world way of thinking, without presenting alternatives or a real critique. I hope the author is a great writer! I got the audiobook so I can listen while doing chores. Book group book. MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change. Gonna thumb through it; just grabbed it at the library on a whim. Six Easy Pieces is another book group book. It is the "easiest chapters" from Richard Feynman's Lectures in Physics for CalTech freshman several generations ago. As it happens, as a goofy physics undergrad I bought the 25th anniversary edition of LiP, so I figured out which chapters and will read them in LiP. It'll be strange to be thinking about physics again, and this conceptual, no-equations approach is about what I can manage. As you can perhaps guess, right now NO blogging or knitting is happening chez moi!

I'm currently doubting my choice thanks to the word "facit". Ahem. My 12yo and I have trouble keeping a straight face this week :) Or maybe I need to revisit the pronunciation rules -- should I be using a soft 'c' sound rather than a hard 'k' sound?? That would be a relief, lol.

We're definitely relying on Latin study for grammar study. In 30 minutes a day, we review vocabulary, declensions, & conjugations on Monday, and then the rest of the week we tackle the Latin Book One lessons. We do 1 lesson over 2 days on slow weeks, and one lesson a day when we (or, my son) can keep to that pace. I say "we" because this goes best when we do everything together, orally, often taking turns... except that when we're on a roll I have my son do some or all of the exercises solo, written. As for whether 45 minutes of LBO four days a week might be too much, it really depends on your child and your particulars. As you can probably tell by my description, our pace varies, and I've learned to work with that. What we really, truly do is take whatever time we need for half a chapter (usually 20 minutes), or an entire chapter (probably close to 40 minutes). It goes much, much faster/better if we do most of it orally. Not that my son doesn't argue every day about Latin and math, at least a token amount, LOL! :D

I used to be a big magazine junkie, then dropped them all. A couple of years ago I gradually picked up the ones I missed the most, and my mom started giving subscriptions as her Christmas and birthday gifts, yikes. I get... Cooking Light (gift - favorite) Sunset (gift - makes me homesick though) Martha Stewart's Food (gift - eh) Family Circle Better Homes & Gardens Interweave Knits The family gets... National Geographic (just started!) TV Guide (because Entertainment Weekly is too much info for us) We used to get Newsweek, but simply couldn't keep up. My husband gets... a specialty beer magazine (gift from his dad) Scouting The boys both get Boys Life, and two more subs each, thanks to Grandma. National Geographic Kids & Sports Illustrated Kids, neither of which is a favorite (12yo); My Big Backyard, Zoobooks, & Highlights (7.5yo).

Looks good. I wonder if there's maybe more planned reading and handwriting in the daily category than need be? Handwriting work is part of ETC and copywork. Reading is in the Bible readers and ETC and Easy Readers. Personally, I would aim to alternate days for those things. My kiddo could only do so much reading practice and handwriting work in each day, and alternate days is still plenty, in my opinion. I don't know Parables from Nature, sorry. Ooh, tell us about Song School Latin!

Main program here, too; ds7.5 is in 3a, ds12 is in 6a. We started last school year, with 1a, 4a, and the workbooks. Now we use the textbooks and Intensive Practice workbooks, which we really like. For drill, when I think they could use a bit, I print worksheets from online sources, or have them do math facts from dice, or work on skip counting, or whatever seems helpful. Sometimes we take a few days off for a change of pace or to let concepts sink in; we'll do online math games or at-home math games. This month with my younger son we're going back and forth between two sections -- 2-3 days in each -- so he gets the practice he needs and yet some variety over the span of a week or so. Currently my older son alternates Singapore Math and an online algebra course because he started to balk at his SM at a "boring" section last fall and I didn't see any big reason to NOT try alternating the two.

Doing 6th grade this year, something like this. Daily, 3 - 3 1/2 hours of core subjects: - Math 45 min - Latin 30 min - Piano 20 min - Literature & history reading 45 min - 1 hour - History study or composition (different days) 45 min - Handwriting/copywork 5 min - Sometimes we also have memory work/recitation, 5-10 min Every week, on different days: - Science 45 min - Nature study/nature walk 45 min - Chess club 1 hour

Oops, sorry Pster. Yes, LCC is the book The Latin-Centered Curriculum: Homeschooler's Guide to a Classical Education, by Drew/Plaid Dad. I think sometimes those of us who like LCC also use it as shorthand to refer to the type of classical education the book champions. That would be... what was considered the standard for education until the 1940s?; Latin centered, of course; a focus on a few areas done deeply; the selective areas of study probably including Latin, math, foundational literature, and music study. More info at the Web site, LatinCentered.com.

I keep 10-15 pounds of sugar in a Tupperware container in my pantry (Modular Mate rectangular 4, if that means anything to anyone). I think I could fit a bit more, but I leave it in the bag(s). Flour I almost always freeze for at least 24 hours to kill the critters -- unless I'm baking a lot and will be using it up in a week or two. I usually just leave about 30 pounds of flour in the freezer, and keep 10 pounds of (all-purpose) flour in the pantry in another MM rect. 4 container, along with a 1-cup measuring cup. I've started keeping white wheat flour and whole wheat flour in the fridge, because when I keep it in the freezer it's always too cold to put right to use in a bread recipe. The "stash" of WW flours and stone-ground cornmeal, though, I keep in the freezer in MM square 2 containers. And yet, I have a 25-pound bag of wheat berries in my freezer that I need to put in some sort of containers. I have a couple I'm going to try, 'cause there's no way to seal that bag again once it's opened! I'm curious about the buckets with the swirling tops? What are those? I'm ready to buy things in greater bulk, but I'd rather have a way to keep them at room temp 'cause the freezer doesn't have room for everything I'd want to have on hand, lol.

Big hit here, too. My kids enjoy the typing games. Time to get back to that. Dorothy, I love your Luther quote!

Yes, go to urgent care or the ER during the pain (and don't wait for the more occasional numbness/tingling). It could be other stuff, but it could be heart related! Go, go, go. Be your own best caretaker -- get thee to a medical assessment!

I never got the Home Instructor's Guide, so I have no idea what I was/am missing :)

Wow! Thank you so much.

At that age, we started with SM 1a textbook, regular workbook, and household items for manipulatives (measuring cups, tape measure, ...). We had a set of Cuisenaire rods, and that came out from time to time, but I don't remember if it was related to the SM lessons/concepts or just for "fun." By SM 1B, I switched from the regular workbook to the Extra Practice workbook in order to slow my son down and make sure he got more practice. This year, in level 3, we switched again, to the Intensive Practice workbook to give him plenty of practice AND some more challenging problems as well. This was all a matter of paying attention to what he was doing and thinking about what he needed. Singapore Math has so many choices for workbooks -- you can really make it work for your child's needs. Good luck, and enjoy!

Day off, definitely -- 'cause Son1's is the day after Christmas :) and therefore an automatic day off. Son2's day is in mid-February, a great time for a break. Sometimes we take off for Dad & Mom's days (late Sept & early Nov). Basically it works out very nicely for our family, so we do!

On the countertop: KitchenAid mixer, microwave, toaster, coffeemaker, pod coffeemaker (gotta put one or the other away!). In a cupboard: slow cooker, rice cooker, blender, wafflemaker, coffee grinder, hand-crank ice cream maker. In the upright freezer: insert for our hand-crank ice cream maker. Less is more, in my opinion. I really want to switch to a smaller microwave OR a toaster oven; a larger slow cooker, a rice cooker that can handle other grains better, and a hand-crank coffee grinder instead of the electric one. I think we could easily get rid of the blender, except for the twice-yearly milkshake spree we go on :) We could make them with our Tupperware mix-shakers. On the other hand, I went without a wafflemaker for several years, but got another because we missed our homemade waffles, both sweet and savory kinds like pizza waffles!

Loved & love it all! Crazy, but I can honestly say that I have always really enjoyed history, science, geography, math, foreign languages, music, art, and even (eek) grammar. Over the years I've discovered good stuff in areas I'd ignored or avoided (art? discovered graphic design, and paper crafts). I even found a way into my formerly hated topic of biology, by discovering botany (through gardening and wildflowers)! So I'm #7, definitely -- I voted #8 by accident :)

Okay, now I'm embarrassed -- I had you confused with someone here who is 'just passing through', military family. Anyway, I'm not an OU fan either, we just happen to depend on them for our livelihood so we live right here :) Here in Norman, OU is a big deal so it looks like my perspective is skewed and I didn't know it!

Oh, sorry Heather -- I forgot that some of us Oklahomans are sorta new to OK. I live in Norman :)

We went LCC this year -- 7yo & 12yo sons -- yet we still do the four-year history cycle. I decided that since my kids really enjoy history and I really like the four-year cycle, we'd keep it :) The main thing I really appreciate about LCC is that our core subjects are very focused, and we have plenty of time for the other things, too. My 7yo second grader's core is Minimus & Latin games; math; and piano. The next in importance to me is world history, using SOTW2 & activity guide, synchronized with my 12yo's History Odyssey Middle Ages. In addition, he reads enrichment books for history, and tells me about them (narration); he has handwriting practice and copywork on alternating days; he is a strong reader so he has a couple of assigned chapters each day of reading for American history, British history, Christian studies, and literature (using LCC recommendations); we do nature study, usually quite casually; and we are a math-y, science-y family so that stuff happens very naturally for us. I brainstormed art, architecture, craft, and music exploration to go with each chapter/lesson of SOTW2, using our CD collection, books, local art museums, and online sources; that's what will work for us. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but it all hangs together pretty well for us. This year his writing focus is copywork, and we might start dictation in the spring. Next year it'll be copywork & dictation, and perhaps we'll try Writing Tales for a progymnasta-oriented writing program.

Here's the link Jenny posted re. Horizon and many other organic dairies: Cornucopia Institute Dairy Survey. Go to the bottom; you'll find Horizon, Kraft's Back to Nature, Alta Dena, etc. there. Click on a dairy's name to get the full info. The next level up includes Costco's High Meadows and Kirkland brands, and Trader Joe's & Wild Oats' organic milk. Go up another level and you'll find Stonyfield's milk; their yogurt is up another level (?!?). Back down at the very bottom there are links to the survey assumptions, questions, and full report. Here's Organic Valley's rating, with the survey's criteria: Criteria / Points / Comments Ownership Structure / 90 / Cooperative Milk Supply / 90 / Co-op members Disclosure of Information for Verification / 100 / Full and open disclosure Certifier farms / 100 / Most OTCO Certifier processing / 100 / OTCO Cows on pasture time/acreage provided / 100 / Strong/enforced cooperative policy Health and longevity of cows / 100 / Very low cull rate! Replacement animals only from organic farms / 75 / Organic animals purchased/minority conventional Antibiotics used on young cattle / 100 / Never Reproductive hormones used / 100 / Never Farm support oversight / 90 / All dairies and visited regularly by staff Outside dairy ingredients purchased / 90 / Almost all from co-op + Humboldt TOTAL SCORE / 1135 / FOUR COWS (excellent)

Senseo here, and it's great. I'm usually a coffee snob, but I haven't bought the fancy pods online and I'm perfectly happy. I get Senseo pods, at SuperTarget, for that first cup of coffee in the morning. Once I'm awake :) I make my own pod with a regular paper basket filter and whatever good coffee I want -- google for instructions -- makes nice coffee super quick, and isn't quite as much of a price jump over making a pot of coffee the regular way. My kids are delighted that they can use the Senseo for hot water for instant cocoa. No more waiting for water to heat in the kettle on the stove. I still use the kettle for tea water, 'cause I make a big teapot full.