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As an aside, I'm thinking that next year we might go with Aleks, too, since we'll have easier access to the Internet during school hours. This year it just wasn't convenient. But next year, with DS4 in our local public K half the day, we'll be home for homeschooling. This year, DS4 was in pre-K halfway across town, so we just stayed at the church to work and had no Internet service.

Note to self: "Kriston switched to Aleks, must run out and buy."

J/K My son is really loving Singapore so until the well runs dry we'll stick with that...

LOL! No, I haven't made the move yet!

And seriously, heaven forfend if I am your model for what to buy! I'll be your model for laidback attitude to work toward if it will keep you from making yourself crazy. But I'm terribly disorganized! You can do much better than me for a shopping model!

We liked Singapore very much for the first part of our first year. I think it's a really good program. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I mostly wanted to try something different. And if there's a good math class at the "school for homeschoolers," we'll probably do that, frankly.

You see, more than anything else, I'm just lazy! True confessions...

Oh no Kriston you are disorganized too? My son 'reassured' me today that only couples without kids and moms who spend all day cleaning have clean houses. He loves that I would rather play than clean. Not sure if that is the right message to send but also know there is no changing me at this point. Anyways thanks for all the good advice. Us newbies are a little insecure...

Oh, BTDT! It's why I keep piping up about it. I know firsthand how scary it all seems. But happily, I can also tell you from experience that you're more scared than you need to be.

Worst case: you start out one direction and it doesn't work. <shrug> So you change! No petitioning the queen or making a federal case of it. You just do something else, using what didn't work to help steer you in a better direction. No big deal.

As long as you don't throw up your hands in despair and quit, it's all fine. (And never feel like you have to finish something just because you started it. When it's not working, it's okay to do something else.)

Just make sure you and your child both accept from the start that you WILL make mistakes. If you know that going in, it will make the whole process easier.

Homeschooling is actually a really good anti-perfectionism exercise, for both parent and child! Very healthy for us all!

And, yes, you should see my NOT clean house...