The tail end of summer is roaring past me at ridiculous speed. We opted to skip the ‘big’ fair this year– it costs so much!– but had a great time going to a church carnival on Saturday. They had 50-cent hot dogs, corn dogs, burgers, ice cream, snow cones and cotton candy, if you...
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My youngest daughter just turned 5 in November.  Most days I am so caught up in getting her older siblings through their school that she doesn’t get much that looks like ‘official’ school.  However, she is a champion ‘joiner’.  Anytime a sibling is doing something interesting, she’s there watching and participating to the best...
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I’ve had a terrible time lately finding time to do book reviews!   In an attempt to catch up on months of neglect in one fell swoop, I’m going to tell you briefly about each of the books I’ve gotten recently. E is For Ethics contains several dozen short stories about various ethical dilemmas...
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Our new Teaching Textbooks computer math program came a couple weeks ago, and I am completely loving it. Setting it up for multiple kids on one computer was a bit tricky– basically you create user accounts on the computer for every kid and install the program into each user.   But once we got all...
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I spent half an hour this morning googling SAT essay tips and thought I’d share the best links I found just in case any of you have student taking the SAT this year. FAMILY EDUCATION NEW YORK TIMES APPLICATION ANXIETY COLLEGE CONFIDENTIAL BOURLAND PRINCETON REVIEW ———– On this day last year I was writing...
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These days there is a huge variety of choice when it comes to homeschool curriculum, with almost as many good options are their are homeschooling families.  Below I am going to list my favorite curriculum.   I hope you will add your own favorites in comments, below. MARY’S HOMESCHOOL FAVORITES MATH Grades K-3 — Alpha...
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Apparently I got the griping out of my system the other day, because I’m feeling more cheerful about the start of school. I’ve organized my existing books, and ordered more, including handwriting and a 3rd copy of Saxon 7/6 math — the latter on paperbackswap.com– hooray! Last night I got a new chore chart...
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Homeschooling older children with little ones in the house can be a real challenge. Toddlers and preschoolers are energetic, inquisitive, and mobile. They make things happen. Woe to you if you’re not watching them while they’re making things happen. But how can you occupy them in a way that will still allow you to...
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I’m not about to claim that I am READY for school to start, but I did at least get a start on pre-school organizing. All last year, the laundry room counter was the dumping grounds for kids’ books at the end of each school day.  Books were supposed to be stacked neatly, but of...
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