I have a 7th grade ds that sounds a lot like yours. We're doing Sequential Spelling DVDs with great results. I also got Apologia General Science, with the audio CD. He's not good about sitting down and reading it, but asks to listen to it in the car. He's not one to do experiments, so we have just skipped those. He has just gotten into reading recently. Although it's not high quality literature, its not junk and he's enjoying it. I'm letting it be for now. For the 1st grader, Math Mammoth might be a good fit. It's easy enough to do and reasonably priced.

Another option is to do the placement test and see where he's "lacking" for the level you think he's closest to. Then fill in the voids with Math Mammoth from CurrClick. However, I've found Teaching Textbooks to have quite a bit of review in the first lessons, so he might be able to just go straight into Math 7 or Pre-Algebra.

Well, we gave my then 1.5 year old an older iPod no one was using. I got the Fisher-Price case for it. It was sooooo helpful at swimming. He's 2 now, and my iPhone occupies him in the car nicely. He can work everything, except for unlocking it. He loves to go and look at the photos and videos on it and has a few games he especially likes, like the farm animal sounds one. Most of the apps he likes don't work on the older iPod, so he has to use my phone.

I like to use a variety of things in the K year, as my kids zoom through worksheets but still need more review than most books offer. I've found Developmental Math Book 1 to be great for this. It is all about number recognition and has at least 2 pages for each number. Primer is really, really good, so I would probably do Developmental Math 1 and then go back to Primer.

All 4 of my readers have had a lightbulb moment. My oldest was the most dramatic. She knew all her phonics rules and could decode, but it never really clicked. We stopped doing reading work for 6 months-1 year. Then in one week she went from not being able to read to reading a 900 page book to herself with complete comprehension. That was when she was 7.

I like Spybot Search and Destroy and Anti-Malware. Make sure you run whichever one you're running in safe mode. You'll have better results that way. I've found that one will catch things the other didn't and vice versa.

Mine doesn't like school in general, but likes Teaching Textbooks. Oddly enough, he likes being graded at the end of every day. It's a competitive thing with him.

We are very rural. My kids have made their closest friends through 4H. They also have a lot of friends on the swim team, which we drive 30 minutes to.

What about William and calling him Liam? Instead of Abraham you could do Lincoln.

I agree. I don't do well with read-alouds, but I love audio books in the car. That way we all get to enjoy the story together, but I don't have to read it to them.

I had jury duty this week and the prosecutor told us he used to jingle his change in his pocket the whole time of the trial until a defense attorney told him he shouldn't.

Your plan looks great, but I personally don't have time to come up with spelling lists, so I love Spelling Workout. She could probably start in the B book. A is pretty easy. You will want to start in WWE 1 and FLL 1. Welcome!

Check out Cathy Duffy's new book 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum. She has a great chart to help you figure out if something will work in your particular situation, which I have found very helpful over the years. It goes by how you want to teach, what your child is like, and what type of homeschooling you're drawn to. I adore the WTM, but I liked having that chart to figure out what would be best for us.

Our orthodontist has told us that exact thing for 2 kids so far. The others needed extensive work for underbites. To the OP, ask the orthodontist what they foresee happening if they don't get braces. That will give you a better idea of whether they actually need them for anything more than cosmetic reasons.

We're another swim family here. My kids all swim 4 days a week in the winter and 5 days a week in the summer. The youngest swims for an hour and the oldest ones for 2 hours. They are in great shape. Now if only Mama could get that way...

I have found most Y's and Red Cross certified facilities follow a similar progression. I tried them one summer and vowed to never do that again. I had a 3 year old that could swim 15 yds while holding her breath, no problem. Her only problem was learning how to come up for air. I enrolled her at the local pool, thinking then we could move on to the swim team. They put her in Level 1 because she didn't know how to float on her back. I was so upset. Looking back now though, I can understand that in a group lesson situation, the instructor really needs everyone to have the same skill set. It makes it much easier for them to teach if they know everyone can do X and needs to learn Y. It also makes the kids safer, as the instructor knows how attentive to be. One Level builds upon the next one and there's no place for a varied skill set. Private instructors can work with your child individually and know what needs to be developed and what they already have mastered. That being said, we paid for private lessons for my then 4 year old with my kids swim coach. He spent literally the first 2 lessons teaching my son to get out of the pool without using the ladder. The reason? He wanted him to be able to get out of any pool he fell into accidentally without needing a ladder. A lot of those beginning swim lessons are about safety and learning how to get out of the pool before you necessarily have swimming skills. I guess more than swimming lessons, they are water safety lessons. I think being able to jump in indicates they aren't afraid of the water any longer, and that's a huge step in learning to swim.

I've bought my leftie numerous pairs of left-handed scissors. She doesn't use any of them and prefers right handed scissors. I answered "other."

What about the Trofast from Ikea? It holds 10 boxes. I love mine and have used it for about 10 years, though not always for workboxes. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30171123/

For a 4 and 6 year old, I'd highly recommend an iPod Touch. You can get the refurbished ones for not very much, and I imagine the 4th generation will be on sale soon when they upgrade it to the 5th generation. There are a ton of apps that are free or low cost and you can't lose an app. My kids all have iPod Touches, except for the 2 year old. They have various generations. I do let them play games on them, but I also require them to have a variety including educational apps. Some of them prefer the educational apps to other types of games. So, don't feel like you have to save up for the iPad to take advantage of the great free apps out there. The Touch is also a lot more portable than the iPad. I do recommend getting an Otterbox or Griffin Defender case for them though!

We don't set the table unless we have company. We keep all the everyday cutlery in a divided basket on the table and everyone grabs what they want. If we have company and we're setting the table with the nice cutlery, I put spoons out and then they get washed afterwards, used or not.

Make sure you order at least one thing that's not a book. Otherwise it gets shipped as bound printed matter, which can take up to 3 weeks to be delivered. Normally my order gets here within a day or two. This time, it's been a week already and its still in Missouri. Why a package being shipped from Illinois to Indiana needs to go to Missouri, I'm not sure. Next time, I'll make sure I throw in a dvd or art supplies to avoid this. I'm not complaining at all. I've just learned a lesson and wanted to share.

We had a local La Leche League Leader die of breast cancer because her doctor wouldn't do a breast exam while she was lactating. So, no I don't think breastfeeding makes you immune to breast cancer. One interesting study in Japan found that nursing 1 baby for 2 years had a much greater impact on breast cancer rates than nursing 2 babies for 1 year each. At least 3 generations of women on my dad's side have had breast cancer. I'm doing everything I can to reduce my risk.

I used to think that was my hair until I went no poo. Then all of a sudden I had spiral curls.

I've seen it a few times called a Golden Pyrenees. Ours we got from the shelter, so for us he was a happy accident. http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/g/goldenpyrenees.htm One cool thing about him, is he never left our property. He knew the boundaries and never had to be tied up. The only time we would have a problem is if a stray cat had kittens anywhere near us. He would go and stay with the kittens any time the mama wasn't there.

I've continued to think about this, and I have mixed feelings. If a brand sells dish soap for $.99 year round and then in October colors it pink and continues to sell it for $.99 during that month, what's evil about it? I don't think any manufacturers have a corner on the pink market, and I for one don't buy a certain product just because its pink. Now if my usual brand has 2 options; pink and regular I go for pink. Even if its just a small percentage of the profit, if I buy the usual color there's no percentage of the profit going to the charity. FWIW, I have a strong history of breast cancer in my family and will likely get it at some point. My grandmother didn't get it until she was in her 70's thanks to breastfeeding, I believe. My aunt who didn't breastfeed got it in her 40's. My aunt loves October and wears a pink ribbon every day.