before I read a book. Now if I'm getting a whole slew of materials and basically trusting them to pick appropriate books and resources for my child's age and interest I REALLY want to know their bias. And everyone has a bias. Have you ever met someone completely neutral? I, thankfully, have not. So please, authors (are you listening?), tell me where you stand so I can make my choices - informed.

and the glass cabinet covers for about 1/2 of them. 9 of them, I think? We anchored them as the early poster mentioned and filled them with all the books we've had in the garage and then all my new homeschooling/Tapestry of Grace books. I have loved them ONLY because I didn't have anything workable BEFORE. They were a present from my husband and they made me SO HAPPY!! I couldn't find any bookcases that I could afford to buy more than one or two of. I needed a small library, not a computer bookcase to store my appliance manuals and random newletters. Very frustrating. My Billies have finally started to sway just a little bit in places - but they are packed full. Not a long term solution - but it'll work for us now. I also have one Ikea Hemnes (sp?) bookcase in my sewing room that is much better quality. It is tall and has some crown modeling at the top and a little bit of fluting on the edge of the shelves. Streamlined, but with some style. Unlike the Billy bookcases which are simple to a fault. If we had more money, I would have purchased 8 of those bookcases! If you have the skill to build your own out of wood, I think that would be a great idea too.

but I'm holding on to my SWR (Spalding) roots. WE just received OPGTR and b/c I am all sorts of crazy I decided to have my boy try a few lessons out with me on the couch - right before we were supposed to be taking a summer break. Well... although he still doesn't LOVE reading/spelling... he is much more willing to sit down and work through it. With SWR he balked at every. single. step. All of which I knew to be important. He learned his phonograms - we learned some spelling rules - we did the dictation in the little copybooks (and I made my own copy as well, just as recommended). I really like SWR. But for whatever reason, my son doesn't have the attention span for such a fragmented program. Having just the one book for most of the school session is less intimidating for him. He has been writing for 2 years now, but it adds to his frustration level and it seems to limit his retention, not increase it. OPGTR is simple. And that works for my son. We started in the middle of the book and just ran with it. A little review and a lot of progress. Oh, and it also takes alot less time to get through the subject. SWR is still my personally "mommy" choice and I hope to return to that format in 6 months or so. I figure we'll be done with OPGTR by then anyway, so I can ramp up the spelling part after that.

This one is from Cooking Light, but I always get rave reviews when I make it... really good! http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=521737

help avoid any potential problems that could pop up having 2 families living under one roof. No matter how big the home, if the bathrooms are limited and the washer/dryer are always in use, there could be some built up resentment from even the most patient. So much depends on personality. My parents are wonderful - we love 'em. But if they had to wait 3 hours to use the washer when they wanted clean sheets NOW... That would clearly bother them (they aren't used to waiting anymore!) that would put me under a cloud all day. Especially since my own personal laundry gets done last every week (if it even gets done). I think having 2 sets is a GREAT idea - especially with a family that large. I suppose if you decide against it you could have a posted schedule that might make it more manageable?

My daughter is a little bit older than yours, but she had the same desire to be "doing school" with her brother this past year and although I'm not usually a fan of workbooks - Horizons and Rod and Staff workbooks are fun and colorful (appealing to 2 and 3 year olds!), simple enough and do not require a whole lot of step by step instruction - so it should free you up a bit to work with your son, get some dishes done, put together lunch, etc.. These have been great for us and they aren't too expensive (rod and staff is cheaper than Horizons I believe).

resdesigned and my best friend LOVES Sonlight. Although I am a die hard TOG fan, there are some wonderful benefits that come with SONLIGHT. Primarily, for me, they are all related to scheduling. Sonlight plans everything! TOG requires the teacher and/or the student to do nearly ALL the day to day planning. I believe it is part of their philosophy that the student should in some way take responsibility for their work, and also b/c TOG can be used for so many different grades/stages, it would be difficult to provide daily lesson plans for every family. Still, it's a big drawback for me and I found myself spending way too much time trying to put together lesson plans every week into HST for my records. I also think that Sonlight might work better in the younger elementary grades, whereas TOG has so much meat and so many great discussion points for the teacher, that I think for middle school and high school it is unmatched. I still wish they provided daily lesson plans though.

and I feel like I could use it all by itself if you wanted to without really having any gaps. (This coming from someone who has over 8 phonics programs in the library). I think with my daughter it is all I will use.

love the WWE workbook. My son, who balks at nearly all things non-math related, is really enjoying it too. If you're thinking of integrating the two, the workbook might make it easier to pick and choose assignments when needed. Just a thought.

with Veritas Press today. Even with 10 percent off, and most of the big items already purchased (at a discount or used - Saxon 2, Shurley Grammar, Phonics Museum, random literature books I already had, Literature guides purchased here), my total still came out to be over 450. This does NOT include handwriting (or any writing really, other than phonics museum), history (I could wait until 2nd for this, but I LOVE history), foreign language or science (not sure if I want to do lyrical science or an experiment based science program). I think I need to sell my TOG year 1 and 2 to justify all these expenses... but I'm sure I'll use them again in a few years.

And my husband would not be happy without it. He works an incredible amount of hours and simply cannot relax without having a super clean home. I've learned the hard way that our marriage, and our family in general, is muich happier and we get much more done, having that little bit of help. And it really is only a little bit of help, if they only come once every two weeks. The bulk of my time at home is still spent cleaning, doing laundry, making meals, picking up, taking care of bills and paperwork. I'm certainly not idle! :) We can go to more activities (which my husband really wants for the kids) and I can focus more on him when he IS home. I think most of the women I know who HAVE cleaning help scrimp and save in other areas. When you don't have childcare help from family or friends at all, and your husband works 90 + hours a week, it becomes less of a luxury and more of a part of the routine business of running the home. Just my 2 cents!

2 adults, 2 children. Somewhat picky husband. :) High cost of living area (north san diego). But even so, I find I cannot buy nearly what I did 2 years ago for that amount. My cooking experiments have been seriously tempered by the increasing grocery costs! I do buy the sale items and occasionally use coupons. We do organic eggs and milk, but go for value on almost everything else. I think if I made my own bread I could save alot of money... we eat alot of bread! :) I feel like beauty supplies and household items are almost a luxury these days. A small bottle of Windex around here costs nearly $5. And fresh food is always expensive around here, even the farmer's markets. Which is weird since we live in California, don't you think? We tried a food coop and ended up spending way more than we saved and not using all the produce. So frustrating. I need a good size garden. That would help. I'm also going to look into the CVS extra care idea.

with such great interest. So much contribution on an important topic, and so varied. I find myself agreeing with conflicting posters, and then reading on to find my opinion swayed again. What I haven't seen is anyone point out that "education," especially a good one, is a privilege and not really a "right." It's also a relatively new privilege that is now afforded to a much higher percentage of the population than ever before. I'm not sure that this increase in "education" has truly given us more intelligent citizens who can contribute in individual meaningful way than when parents were entirely responsible for everything in this regard (or outsourced it). I love homeschooling classically. BUT, I think for an awful lot of kids and their families, a college prep type educational plan is just plain silly. And more importantly, I think that the education of the heart is just as important as schooling the mind... and in this regard schools are doing a terrible job (no matter how great the teacher, kids are being influenced much more by their peers). Our local district has 41 students in the first grade class - and 1 teacher (parents are supposed to rotate through as helpers). In fact, these institutions are taking up nearly all the time we, as parents, have to influence our own children. They even want to serve them breakfast. So... For me, I have an incredibly rigid schedule that I plan to follow. It's old fashioned and exciting to me. Both my husband and I have graduate degrees and the higher level academic stuff is just plain interesting to us.... we want to share that with are kids. But... for the neighbor next door who unschools and her daughters dance beautifully and they do alot of lapbooks and spend time hanging out at the library (and much more I'm sure). It works for them and her daughters have warm hearts and talent! I just feel that "generally" when parents take the reigns of their children's education it is superior. In every sense of the word. I have never met a homeschool mother who didn't care about her kids education. I have met many who worry about it all the time. It still takes courage to stike out and homeschool these days. I think most need to be encouraged in their attempts. We are are learning, yes? Just my thoughts.

I can completely relate! I feel like it's the catch up day for everything: laundry, cleaning, schoolwork, phone calls, business matters, whatever. It also has been our coop day this year. We love coop, but the planning it entails has me thinking next year maybe we'll take a break for a bit. Or maybe I'll just up my coffee intake and count my many blessings instead!

I am also using TOG and Horizons Math with my first grader next year (DS6)! It is, as the other poster mentioned, supposed to be "icing on the cake" at this stage. However, we have used it very loosely this year (kinder) and I really enjoy the literature and projects as a way to introduce history to my son. Really fun and super educational for me. I feel like this time around it is preparing me for the next 2 cycles through the time periods and at the same time giving my son those "hooks" to hang the history "meat" on later. Great worldview stuff. Oh, how I love it! We did Yr. 2 this year and will stretch it out until next Nov. or December I imagine, as I want to cover lots of Early American History and then move on the the Pioneers, etc. Not sure if I'm going to spend too much time on Napoleon, etc. I've really been picking and choosing from TOG and that has given me alot of freedom and time to do extra field trips and lapbooks and projects. That's just how we use it. There have also been weeks where we have been really heavy into phonics or math and just skipped TOG altogether for a bit. We use HST and I just "send" my lesson plans as we work through the material/readings instead of doing it all up front. (I also occasionally use the Mystery of History and SOTW as resources following the TOG topics. And I LOVE the "Homeschool in the Woods" lapbooks and unit studies) Now, I realize alot of other moms think this is too much at age 5 or 6, but for my son, just focusing on math and phonics gets VERY boring for him, no matter how much I try to mix it up and make it interesting. So these history/geography "explorations" are refreshing for both of us. We don't test at all, although sometimes I'll have him do some copywork or narration for me. Oh, and another thing I really wished I had when we went through Year 1 (is that what you guys are planning?) and we are doing now even though the timeline doesn't match up: Veritas Press Old Testament Cards... I don't even have the CD, I bought these used. But I hold up the card and read the summary on the back and move onto the actual Scripture referenced there, and then we clip the cards onto a "timeline string" across the wall in our school room and move through the OT. It sounds like a lot, but it's really done in a short amount of time and my sons interest in the Bible and HIStory in general has grown a great deal. Okay, that's my rambling for the day! I'm sure you'll have a blast now matter how you do it. :)

I have an "almost 6" year old boy who also loves foreign language. If you have ever considered French: We really enjoyed Bonjour Les Amis... even my 3 year old daughter enjoyed it and learned from it. It was just the right amount for K/1. It feels like so much time is spent on the reading, spelling, math and read alouds... I didn't want something that would require a great deal of time. The Song School Latin is on my radar for next year. Dana