I'm glad you asked this. I've been looking at these myself and needed this info.

Thanks everyone! This has really helped the attitude of my 12 year old today. Before I posted this she said, "No one does school for 4 hours!" She wants to move up to 7th grade, but at the same time only wants to spend 10 minutes doing math. It just doesn't work that way!

Oops, I guess I should have put this in the general board.

How long does your 12 year old spend doing school per day?

There's also Sara Jordan.

For Latin, I would recommend going in to Prima Latina or doing what I'm doing and going to Song School Greek. We'll go back to Latin after we finish SSG. I'm not super familiar with Sonlight, but this would be a perfect time to start using Story of the World Ancients.

I like OPGTTR with Explode the Code. I'm teaching the 2nd time through with this method. It's going much better than teaching my first 2 with 100 EZ lessons. 100 EZ Lessons is fine up until about lesson 75, then my kids have a meltdown. Although OPGTTR is longer, it doesn't get too frustrating. Explode the Code adds a slightly more fun element to the no-nonsense approach of OPG.

I like First Language Lessons. They start diagramming in Year 3.

What we do is start small, establish a routine, and add one new subject at a time. It sounds like you have several things you've just started. Could you scale back to OPGTTR, Math, and GWG. Do that for a week and get established. Then re-start Sonlight. Do that for a week and re-start Write Shop, and so on. I recommend doing it this way, because you can find how it works best for your family.

Statistically speaking, once you have 2 of one sex, you're more likely to have that sex than the other. Your chances aren't 50-50 anymore. I have G-B-G-G-B and am expecting a B in September to even things out :D Congrats!

My dd when she was 3 had a lot of fresh pineapple and broke out in hives. For about 3 months after that if she had any fruit whatsoever (bananas were okay), she would get hives. She couldn't eat most other foods, but the blandest ones. I finally used an elimination diet and got rid of everything with salicylates. After about 2 months of a very bland diet, we gradually reintroduced foods. She hasn't had hives in about 4 years, but she does react somewhat to fresh pineapple still, and canned pineapple if she eats too much of it. Long story short, you might want to take note of the list I linked and see if he reacts to other things on it.

The quickest way I've found to bring a fever down is to use a cool washcloth under the kids arms. That spot is the most effective for reducing fevers, much better than the forehead. I'd be cautious about overdosing on the ibuprofen, but would alternate with tylenol. One is hard on the liver, the other on the kidneys. That way you don't damage one or the other, but give it time to process and purge the medication before adding more.

Snapfish is great about replacing bent prints.

It really just sounds to me like she learned some bad habits in ps. They're taught a series of 4 steps to take to figure out a word, and the very last one is sounding it out. My kids have all been overwhelmed by a book or a page in their lesson, while they're able to handle individual words easily. That goes away eventually, but you'll need to be patient. One day soon, it will all just click into place for her and she'll be a reader. Mine have all been able to read before I considered them a reader. There's a big difference between having the skills needed and being able to put it all together at one time.

My ds10 was diagnosed with Tourette's about 4 years ago. Last year the pediatrician recommended taking out his tonsils and adenoids as some kids/adults have a tendency to develop neurological problems in response to strep, specifically OCD and Tourette's (that I remember.) She also recommended having the other kids taken out as well, to make the house as strep-free as possible. We did that about 18 months ago, and ds has not had a tic at all since then. Not one. I am so glad our pediatrician was well-enough researched to recommend this. It won't work for all kids, but it did work for mine.

Just the student pages for coloring. I do find the whole thing helpful though when doing mapwork and it makes narrations much easier for me.

I have 4 in USA Swimming at the moment. They started almost 2 years ago and have progressed fairly well for how late we started. We have swimming from 5-8, 4 nights a week. It's my planning time, if I'm lucky enough to get the youngest asleep for a nap for the first bit. It's the only time I have to sit down with no distractions and read, look at a catalog, plan the next week or year, write lesson plans, etc. I have the criteria met for a stroke and turn judge, but I haven't gotten around to sending the paperwork in. In fact I need to do that tomorrow. I really hate not being able to cheer though.

If she doesn't have the Pampered Chef peeler yet, its a must, must, must have. I also adore their All Purpose Spreader. Oh, and the Large Serving Spatula. The Slice and Serve is quite nice as well. I'm not addicted to Pampered Chef anymore, but these things are my go-tos.

Yea! Now I have it. This will make my life a lot easier this week. Thanks again!

Okay, I'm clueless. I don't see it listed here. I'm assuming its one of the untitled nature poems? BTW, Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Does anyone know of an audio recording of this? I've searched Librivox with no luck.

I always recommend combining subjects when possible, especially science and history. SOTW works very easily for combining. I like the Apologia Elementary series for combining science. We also combine Latin. I would also recommend scaling back on outside activities if possible. We have 3 activities. 4H once a month, swimming 4 times a week, and an art co-op. They ALL do those. I can't take 4 kids to 4 different places. So, we compromised and chose things they could all enjoy, though maybe not their favorite things. Finally, you can find some great toddler suggestions at paulasarchives.com That can help keep her occupied, so you can do school with the older ones.

This year we're pretty pure as far as curriculum goes, but I'm not doing as well doing their notebooks. I do use Portland Italics for handwriting, but other than that I think we're WTM recommendations all the way for all 4 kids.

My 6th grader listens to Story of the World with the littler ones. She also does the mapwork with us and usually chooses to color a picture too while we listen. Then I have different books for each level, all on the same subject (usually recommendations from the Activity Guide) and I have them read different history encyclopedias on the subject. She'll read the most involved, while the others read the simpler ones with me or on their own. She does the timeline herself, writes a paper on the subject she's chosen, and if I have any primary sources on hand she'll read those. I really like having us all on the same page, so to speak.

My brother's band has gone through 2 Sprinters in short order. The both wore out with less than 100,000 miles on them. I think their driving is probably more similar to what a family would do. I think the Sprinters are great for things like FedEx where its a lot of stop and start, but not so great for highway use. We have a 12 passenger Ford Van, but not the super long one. They make a 12 passenger that's the same length as the 15 passenger, but that's just too long for me. From what I've read the super long vans are not dangerous unless you have them loaded with 15 adults. They get quite top heavy then. I don't worry about that, since I only have 5 kids and they're under 12. I also am always aware that I am driving something prone to rolling and don't drive it like I would a little car or minivan. I think that's most of the problem personally. It's been mostly schools and churches that have had problems with rolling. These are people who quite likely drive little cars every day and then try to drive a van like you would one of those. It just doesn't work. FWIW, our "little car" is a Ford Excursion that seats 8. You can get a 9 seater though, but you lose the center console in the front. I love, love, love my Excursion. We can actually fit all 5 kids (including Britax car seats) quite easily.