:iagree: I was Salutatorian of my class and have probably learned more in my 7 years of hs'ing about history, grammar, and science, than I did through all of my years of growing up in public schools. I am sooo glad I decided to homeschool! P.S. - speaking of my ignorance.... I don't even know if I spelled "salutatorian" right or not :lol: Another P.S. - Just thought I'd throw in here the fact that the Valedictorian only beat me by .05 of a point!!! And another P.S. - did I spell "valedictorian" correctly????

thanks, just put this on my RR wish list :)

My wish list hasn't been updated in years, LOL. I think it still has all the volumes of SOTW on there and a lot of resources to go with them. I know that's old because I've already bought and sold all of those :001_smile: I hope it's okay to tell you about this here, but I was being nosy and looked at your wish list, and I have one of those books for sale :) The Random House Book of Poetry... it's on a for sale post titled GREAT BOOKS! History, Science, Art, & More!

My girls loved the JBJ books, but we did have to have discussions about Junie B's inappropriate behavior and smart-mouth. I never had a problem with my DD's trying to emulate JBJ. What to do with the books really depends on the giver. If you told her, in a nice way that you appreciate the thought but don't allow those particular books, will she get offended/upset, or would she offer to help you exchange them for something else? I would probably just say thank you or quietly sell them or give them away, because my MIL is very easily offended. But in the past, when I have done that, I have always had to worry that she might one day ask my kids about whether or not they enjoyed the gift. Would your mother ever ask about whether or not the books were read/enjoyed? My girls LOVED the Rainbow Magic series. I asked them if there was any smart-mouthing or bad behavior from the fairies, as there was in JBJ, and they said no. I remember we listened to a Judy Moody audio book a while ago and there was some arguing between Judy and Stink (her brother), so there may have been some unpleasantness there... can't remember specifically... Is "unpleasantness" even a word? LOL -Angie

Forgive me if this is a stupid suggestion, as I don't have a saved list at amazon... Can you put all of the items in your cart, as if you were going to buy them all; but then go through the cart and delete what you don't want? Then, when you only have in your cart the items that you still want to save, save them again. Will that work? I haven't bought anything on amazon in a while, so I may be imagining their checkout process incorrectly. I've done this before somewhere else, though, so I thought I'd suggest it :) -Angie

We don't get to go to the movies very often, but when we do, we always get popcorn and drinks. We'll get the combo with the huge tub of popcorn and 2 large drinks, then I usually get another large drink for the girls to share. Sometimes I'll get the girls each their own "kiddie combo". I have to admit, though, I have occasionally brought some candy in my purse. The candy at the movies is WAY too expensive. However, last time I did this my kids pointed out to me that we shouldn't have done that because it was wrong (I was embarrassed and proud at the same time, LOL); so we haven't done it again. We just get the popcorn and skip the candy :) -Angie

:iagree: This is what I do. I make several small orders, just enough to get a good deal on a free book and the free shipping :)

I need a new dictionary for my kids. They have outgrown the Children's Dictionary, but aren't quite ready for the college dictionary. What's in-between? We're tired of trying to look up words only to find that they are not in our dictionary :( Any recommendations?

I know this is pretty new, but I looked at it for a while today and thought it looked really good. Has anyone tried this yet? Any thoughts? I know the first volume, Paths to Exploration, is for grades 3-5, and I will have grades 4 & 6 next year; but I wonder if that will really matter much since my 6th grader has not learned about this part of history yet. It includes grammar and spelling, but I'll be using something else for those subjects. I basically want it for the history and science. Here's a link: http://www.geomatters.com/products/category.asp?CID=53 P.S. - met Uncle Josh today. He is so cool :)

I have not used it, but had looked at it several times and pretty much had my mind made up to buy it for my daughter. I asked at least 7 people for their opinion about it and ALL of them told me that they did not like it and their children hated it. The overall complaint was that it bored them to tears and did not improve their spelling. Still, I was considering buying just level 1 and giving it a try. So, I went to a curriculum fair this morning, and ended up buying something else instead, LOL. I was just about to post and ask for opinions about this other curriculum. :) -Angie

I never really thought that my kids sharing a drink may not be honest. If we go to a fast food place, we always get combos or kid's meals, so everyone gets their own drink - with the exception of Krystal. My girls get the combo with 4 Krystals, fries, and a drink and they share. I tell the cashier that they're going to share the combo, and they have never had a problem with that. In fact, they usually offer me an extra cup. Even though I would let them get at least one cup of soda, they always choose lemonade or Hi-C, and hardly ever drink enough to need a refill. When we go to a nicer restaurant, we always order water. Those sodas will really run up your bill! The exception to this would be if we're having breakfast, then I'll usually let them get juice or milk. -Angie

Can't it be shipped US Priority Mail Flat Rate International? I think that might be about $50, but it's still much better than $175. That's outrageous!

I took my kids to a pizza buffet for dinner tonight and the cashier rang us up as 1 adult, 3 children. Well, my DS is 11 and is now too old for the child's buffet price, plus he usually eats at least 15 pieces of pizza (seriously), so I told her it should be 2 adults and 2 children because he is 11. The woman looked at me like I had lost my mind and said "o-kay then". Is it really that strange that I was honest about it? This has happened to me before when I was in a department store and bought several outfits for my girls. I got home and noticed that one of the outfits was not on the receipt. I went back to the store and told the cashier that she forgot to ring up one of my outfits so I needed to pay for it. She laughed and asked me, "Why in the world did you come back to pay for this? You could have had a free outfit!" Am I strange because I try to be honest????

We have read Poppy and some of the sequels. We aren't really conservative about what we read, so there may be some things that I wouldn't notice, but someone else might. We really enjoyed Poppy. As someone else pointed out, there is a mean owl that eats the mice. There is a porcupine (I think he was a porcupine... it's been a while) named Ereth who is extremely irritable and sarcastic. We thought he was hilarious, but some people may find him to be a bit much. It's an adventure story, for the most part, but there are some sad moments, too. I absolutely loved The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. It's about a porcelain rabbit who belongs to a little girl and she loves him very much. Although Edward can't talk or move himself, he does have thoughts, and the girl's grandmother senses that Edward does not return the affection. One night she (the grandmother) whispers something into Edward's ear, and the next day his journey begins. They are on a ship, going to America, and Edward ends up being thrown overboard and lies at the bottom of the ocean for a while. Edward finds himself involved in the lives of many different people throughout the story, and learns to feel real emotions. This is a beautiful story, my description does not do it justice. It is a tear-jerker, at least it was for me. Kate DiCamillo is a wonderful writer, really making you feel for the characters in this story. There are some moments that may be too emotional or scary for a child that is really sensitive. My kids were 10 and 8 when we read it (actually we listened to it on CD) and it was not too much for them. P.S. - The Tale of Despereaux is not on your list, but it is another book by DiCamillo. If anyone has seen the movie, but not read the book, I have to say that the book is MUCH better than the movie. I was extremely disappointed in the movie. That weird vegetable guy was not in the book. He really creeped me out!

My mother was one of those women with absolutely no filtering system whatsoever. She didn't even try to watch her tongue. She said what she thought immediately upon thinking it. I grew up seeing her hurt people's feelings and watching the "I can't believe you just said that to me" expressions on other's faces. It took me a long time to understand that that's probably why she couldn't seem to keep any friends. I don't want to be like that, so I really try to watch what I say.

Maybe I just take for granted that people will not assume a harsh/snarky tone and get offended by what I write??? Now I'm going to be stressing over how I write, too! LOL

I did Atkins from Oct 2002 until Oct 2003 and lost 100 pounds. I lost it very quickly in the beginning, 30 pounds in the first month, 15 in the second month, and after that it slowed down. 100 pounds was my goal and I was really wanting to eat some sugar and flour again, so I stopped. I was really eating healthy, not overeating, exercising a lot, walking 3 miles a day at least 5 days a week, etc..., and still the weight came back. No matter what I did, the weight came back. I was very disappointed and frustrated, and after several months of this, I pretty much went back to my old ways of eating too much and not exercising enough. Almost 6 years later, it's all back and maybe a bit more :( Anyway, my point is, you can lose your 5 pounds and more right away, but if you eat "normally" again, it will come right back... unless there was just something wrong with me, LOL. -Angie

Do you have to cut out foods from milk, like cheese and ice cream? Forgive my ignorance, LOL. I've never heard of this diet. What do you drink, besides water? I can't drink anything with aspartame in it because it gives me bad headaches. -Angie

Wait - We're supposed to teach that kind of stuff??? No one told me :001_huh: Seriously, though, in the past, we've used a lot of workbooks for language arts, like Evan Moor, Teacher Created, Scholastic, etc., and at some point that stuff was always introduced. Can't remember specfically which workbooks, but I know my kids have seen it a few times. Maybe if you're not wanting a whole new curriculum, just supplement with a dictionary skills workbook?

Through 7 years of hs'ing I have never been to more than a used book sale - but I go to lots of those :D This weekend I am going to my very first curriculum fair. I probably won't do any of the workshops, just want to see what it's like :001_smile: -Angie

:001_huh: I think I may be guilty of being one of those "mean moms" I don't intend to be mean or snarky, but sometimes things just come out of my mouth that I probably shouldn't have said out loud... I am not a very outgoing person, for this reason. I have a small group of close friends who know me well enough to not get offended when I slip-up. They know that whatever it was came from good intentions and was not meant to be mean or hurtful. Seriously, when I am talking to people that I don't know very well (and they don't know me), I have to pay close attention to what I say and I often lose my train of thought because I'm stressing about saying the wrong thing. It's not that I can't control it, but I do have to work at it, so it's easier to just stick with the people who know me. I like "talking" over the internet so that I can take my time and choose my words more carefully :001_smile:

:iagree: Mine is Dread Pirate Rackham Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr! That was fun :001_smile:

:iagree: Sounds just like my kids :glare:

Mine's pretty easy.. homeschool mom of 3 in Tennesee. It shows you that I'm not very imaginative :tongue_smilie: I have enjoyed reading the other screen name stories, though :001_smile: -Angie

I will sometimes let mine bring and play their Nintendo DS's, but we spend most of our time in the car listening to audio books. It's much better than trying to find something decent on the radio! My girls also like to bring those "seek and find" type books. -Angie