We moved into this home last October and designated one of the upstairs bedrooms for a school room. I love it! For the most part we do everything up there. Sometimes the boys work on the laptop in the kitchen or we read on the downstairs sofa or need to use the kitchen for science experiments BUT most seatwork is done in the schoolroom. I find I get less distracted that way. I just try to bring my tea, phone etc. with me and we just stay there for 2-3 hours until we are done with that part of school.

Having just graduated dd from a private Christian school, my take on it is how many THOUSANDS of dollars I am saving my husband by homeschooling these last two as well as not being driven by someone else's schedules and "mandatory" everything. I'm loving life right now:)

Very cute! Great gift idea, I can't wait to try it out:)

Oh, I'd love to! I've never been to Sandy Cove but my dh has (he insures it) and says it's beautiful! But, my dd's b-day is the 22nd and she starts college the 23rd so I have to opt out. I hope you can find someone to share the costs with. Maybe next year;)

I'd love to have a review if you go! It's a two hour drive for us, when you add the cost of the institute, parking, meals, etc. it adds up. I just don't want to get there and regret it. But it looks really interesting!

Has anyone seen it? We were driving through Philly yesterday (very slowly, I might add. It took us over an hour to get though the city yesterday). Anyway, I saw a bill board for the Cleopatra exhibit and was wondering if it was appropriate for third graders? We will be doing the ancients this year with CTG from MFW and this might be a good field trip if it was geared for a younger age group. Thanks!

What great ideas! I should have asked on here when we had my dd's grad party last month. We had 76 in total. The teens and dads played several games of volleyball even though it was nearly 90 degrees! We do have an inground pool, so some of the younger crowd enjoyed that. I had some balls and toddler slide and some other yard toys for the little ones. I think it was a successful party:) I mostly concerned about having enough food but it all worked at well. Let us know how it goes!

After three years of Saxon, I"m excited about switching to Teaching Textbooks for, hopefully, a little more independance in the math area. We will be using Flying Creatures, Zoology 1 which I think my boys will love. And adding piano lessons to our schedule. Lots to look forward too. One of the boys told me today that he wanted school to start soon. How cool is that? ;)

Lately, dinner is around 6ish. We all eat together (usually) and clean up doesn't take long. Dh typically starts while I finish eating and then I'll finish what isn't done yet. The kids have after dinner jobs too. In the winter, we eat earlier. I guess since it gets dark so early it feels like it MUST be dinnertime:)

No guilt here. We've been married for almost thirty years and during the "lean" times during those years I had a pt job or two. But I hated it. I love being home, dh wants me to be home. I do try to do as much as I can to make things a bit easier on him. If I can make a phone call, run an errand etc. I will happily. My youngest children just turned 9 so I don't have babies to tend to anymore ( although I do help out with the grands when able), life is quite enjoyable right now. Guilty? Not a bit;)

Thanks, Julie! Exactly what I was hoping to hear:) Off to order GWG!

Looks great, Jennifer! We are blessed to have a schoolroom/playroom as well. I'm planning on getting in there to clean out, organize, paint and add a few new things (like a trashcan, I kept having to go across the hall to dh's office to throw stuff away). Thanks for the inspiration!

Getting ready to order this and I have a question. I will be using the third grade level with my 9yo twin sons. Do I really need TWO student manuals? We will be doing the lesson part together and then the boys can complete the workbook on their own (hopefully:) If so I can save a few $$, always a good thing:)

Ah, doesn't it just feel good to have a "plan"? :001_smile: Good for you. You know what's best for your kids. If you had to go to textbooks for a season, it certainly won't harm them so please don't feel guilty about it. If you can tweak things a little to suit everyone, so much the better. I too remember the issues you had during this pregnancy. So happy that baby is here and all is well.

Yes, I'm too am sad for her family. Her husband, children, grandchilden. But, oh what a legacy she leaves behind! That God would enable me to have that much impact for HIM in the lives of my children. She must have been a wonderful woman.

I can't imagine that a day late would be a problem. Although, in our district (south cental PA) we get a letter with dates acceptable for dropping the portfolios off. This year's last date was June 28th and that's the date I brought it in. It was ready before that, I just hadn't gotten to the admin building yet. BUT, when I woke up the next morning my first thought was if I remembered to put the evaluator's letter in a page protector or if I even remembered to make sure that each portfolio had a letter or if I left them all in one. We were sort of rushed the day of evaluations and I might have just put them into one portfolio. I never looked inside of them after that. Oh well, I might get a nasty note but hopefully they'll figure out that there really IS a letter for each of them. Ugh!

Exactly 14 days left out of our 180 required by PA. One of those will be a field trip to zoo/chocolate factory. Two weeks of time off to graduate DD from Christian school and then will continue with math, typing, reading, swimming and gardening for our "summer school".

Thank you so much for your quick responses. You've been very helpful, just what I needed:)

I'm narrowing down my choices for convention tomorrow and need help with writing. My boys (8 yo twins) have done very little writing this year (2nd grade) and this is one of the areas I am hoping to improve upon for third grade. We have used FLL mostly for grammar, they just weren't ready to write much yet. I'm looking online at samples of WWE but thought I'd ask for opinions of those who have actually used it;) WWE 3 looks like way to much writing for my guys so it's really between 1 and 2. Must I begin with WWE 1 or can I start with WWE 2 and just jump in? They do fairly well with grammar and punctuation, it's the writing I'm mostly concerned about. Thanks so much for any advice!

Yes, MFW's four year cycle is for grades 2-8 so you can teach all those age groups together for bible, science and history as well as art and music. HTH.

I made chicken soup yesterday with only 2 chicken breasts. It fed four of us with a little leftover. Dh raved about it and is was easy, peasy!:)

((Kelly)) Oh my goodness, you have a lot on your plate. I have this theory that we, as wives, moms, etc., can "do it all",but we (or maybe I should say "I") can't do it all well. You know what your main priorities are, just choose those and let the others go, for now. Having a sick infant trumps everything, imho. You have a newborn and it doesn't sound like you have been given the time to recuperate from birth much less deal with all the other stuff going on. Please give yourself a break. I'm so glad to hear that you love the Lord. I know He loves you. I'll be praying that you will be able to see His hand in all of this.

Oh, I miss "quiet time". We used to do this but when the youngest gave up naps, we stopped. Out of curiosity, how old are your oldest children who still have "quiet time"? Admittedly, it's probably more for me than for them, but I can see where it might be nice for them to have a break from one another during the day.

Oh my! The kids hate "stuff" in their shakes so more for me!! Thanks for sharing:)

That's exactly how it works here, too.