Just posting as a modest-dressing woman to agree that that kind of treatment of abused women is horrible. I don't believe in shunning at all. I think we all have standards of modesty on some level, and I understand that mine are more conservative than others'. I want to pass those conservative standards of dress on to my kids (both genders). And I'll admit that to me part of the reason is consideration for those who are trying not to have lustful thoughts. That doesn't mean that I am responsible for that person's thoughts. It just means I'm willing to cover up more if that helps them. I'm not posting this to start controversy but to note that not all of us who are advocating modesty have that hurtful outlook. I hope this comes across in that way without giving ANY excuse for abusers. And I'm so sorry the OP's SIL was treated that way after what she went through. :grouphug:

A friend of a friend passed away recently, and his Facebook page was memorialized. Now an acquaintance of his is leaving rants against this person and his family on the memorialized timeline, as well as other random spammy posts clogging up the page. Apparently this guy posts this stuff on other people's walls, but of course living people can just block this guy. Memorialized timelines don't have that option AT ALL. It's also a process to get the posts themselves removed, and no one knows if they guy will just post something else after one post is removed. I'm so heartbroken for my grieving friend, and I really think Facebook should let the family of the deceased block the guy who is harassing him. I've reported it to Facebook as a broken feature, because I think that's what it is. And I had an idea... that if enough people reported the same thing, that maybe it would get Facebook's attention, and they would fix this. So if any of you have a moment to report this to Facebook, I would really appreciate it. Here are instructions for reporting a broken feature on Facebook. I basically said that there should be a way to unfriend or permanently block a known spammer from a memorialized timeline.

AAR AAS Any packaged curriculum (why would I pay money for you to take away the best part of planning? :-D :-D)

I'm good at dealing with my paper clutter, but how do you get your kids to deal with theirs? My kids want to save EVERY drawing. We have a file folder for the small amount of art that will get saved long-term, but I don't know what to do with the huge amount of stuff that's special to them but that we just can't keep forever. The little inbox system I have now gets terrorized frequently by my toddler. I need a better solution! What do you do in your house? Anyone have any toddler-proof ideas?

As I understand it, there is some very real prejudice in Korea against adoptees, especially among the older generation. When my sister had talked of adopting, she and her husband expressed some concern as to how much his parents would accept the child as their grandchild because of the way Korean culture views adoptees, almost as second-class citizens. Supposedly that is changing, and one of the evidences of that is that Korea is scaling back its international adoption program. (Haven't followed that recently, but at one point they were expecting to close it altogether. I think the fact that they have not means that there is still difficulty getting folks to accept adoption.) That doesn't really get into the rejection-of-culture issue, but as was mentioned, Koreans are very tribal, very proud of their culture. I imagine it is hard for them to wrap their minds around someone who they expect to be very Korean, who is so far removed from Korean culture. Probably the same thing that bothers Korean parents when their Korean-American kids are "too American." Add to that the prejudice against adoptees... I'm sure it can be hard. I worry about that if we adopt. I'm sorry the OP has had to deal with it. :grouphug:

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Thank you for starting this one! I'm having a hard time phrasing my question. A little background... my sister's in-laws are Korean, and both my sister's family and her MIL live near us. Sister's family enjoys a lot of Korean culture -- food, traditions, etc. My husband and I are interested in adoption, and Korea seems like a natural choice, but sometimes I wonder if that dynamic isn't ideal after all. We would be able to offer a connection to Korean culture, but I wonder if it would make it less of a choice to pursue the birth culture or not. Or if it would be hard to see your cousins get to have more of a connection to your birth country than you do. I don't know if that's something you can answer for me, but if you have thoughts I would really appreciate them. And a simpler question... if you speak Korean, how did you learn it? (Any curriculum ideas? :-D)

Wet animal crackers. (You can guess why they're wet. I have a toddler.) Legos. Socks. Bits of cut up paper. Straws. (My kids use these as play weapons.)

I am looking at the prices at Jerry's Artarama and am seeing that for $2 more than I would pay for a set of RAS paints (2oz per color) for each of my two kids, I could get the 16oz bottles of each color individually. But I am reading on teacher forums that tempera paints (sometimes?) have problems going bad in a matter of months. Supposedly you can add antibacterial soap or vinegar to help, but I don't know how much time that would buy me. Has anyone bought in bulk or kept these paints long-term? Or would the 2oz bottles be enough for two kids' use?

I did OM in middle school and have thought we might one day go there. Our coaches and our team took it very seriously -- one year we nearly made it to world finals, and the team at our high school regularly went -- so it consumed us (coaches included) as the competition got closer. Every weekend in the spring we were at their house, and more and more of the weekdays close to competition. Maybe in high school the kids can manage more of the logistics themselves, but our coaches moderated brainstorming sessions for us, played judge for spontaneous practice, watched to make sure we didn't destroy their house or ourselves as we created props and costumes, timed our rehearsals over and over again, cleaned up after snacks (sometimes preparing them -- we had a rotation), brought in artists to teach us better technique, etc. We took over their entire garage and we went through more than the $100 of materials allowed (that was the limit back then for the materials that could show up in your play -- so there was waste whenever we redid a prop or bought too much of a material). But there were seven families to share the costs. Some of what they did seems like "extra" but it's what made OM so fun. I consider these things a defining part of my childhood -- OM was the only thing that I enjoyed during a particularly bad year at the public school -- but I don't know if I have it in me to do it with my kids. In my mind it is a huge commitment. Probably not everyone who does it makes it that way, but when I think of OM that's what I think of. (And it's a fantastic experience that way.) Anyway, I think I'm kind of waiting to see what my kids need. Part of me hopes that our homeschool will provide enough challenge and enough of a creative outlet that we don't "need" OM. But that's me projecting my experience -- OM really is great even if you aren't having a horrible school year where you are constantly bored. ;-)

I feel awful for Savannah. Today she was complaining that she never gets to do art, and she's right. I've stopped letting her get out the play-do, watercolors, finger paints, colored pens... anything but the old broken crayons or colored pencils. The markers have been sucked dry, otherwise I would probably be restricting them, too. Because her 16mo sister eats ANYTHING with pigment. Rainbow diapers are the norm around here, lol. And I am not okay with the kind of mess the toddler would make with the other art projects. The only time my 5yo gets to paint is when dh paints with her and her brother while I'm watching baby sister. If you have little ones and still manage to get out the art supplies... how do you protect it from your adorable little troublemaker? ;) We don't have the luxury of naps during the day anymore. I know that this is just a phase, and I can accept that, but I have a hard time telling my "future sculptor" that she has to wait till she's older to enjoy her passion.

Thanks for all your replies. You've given me a lot to think about. I appreciate the thoughts abput getting stuck with that spot long-term, because eventually ds will be taking cello lessons at the same studio and we will want to try to get them in back to back if possible.

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Savannah's violin teacher is asking if we can do a morning lesson time in the fall. We will be starting first grade. Is this a bad idea? It will be on Monday or Wednesday, and I don't want to start off the week behind. I am considering options like school at the library beforehand (10 or 11am lesson) and audio books and language audio.

Some of it is just luck. She has a great relationship with my dh, and she and I are very likeminded. So she's not tempted very often to try to meddle, because I think she already approves of most of what we do. But even where we do disagree, she doesn't try to change us. She is Catholic and we are not, and I know she must wish we were raising our children Catholic, but she's never said a word about it. When we first told her we were homeschooling, she was supportive but had a few concerns, which she voiced once -- in a gentle/helpful way -- and then she left it to us. She is very generous with us... she's a thoughtful gift-giver and also offers to help us with practical things throughout the year. I'm sure that endears her to me as well. :-) We are not super-close -- I don't usually get on the phone when dh calls her; our relationship is still mostly through dh. But I like her very much and we've never had anything unpleasant between us.

Hmm. In my experience, boredom can really increase behavior problems. (It did for me.) I would definitely monitor that aspect of his education pretty closely and take action early. Has he been tested for giftedness?

I agree with what others have said. I would add that if you know that he is ahead any subjects, you could ask now about getting him in classes that are on the correct level for him. But that may be a fight, depending on the school. Regardless, it may be worth a week or two in the class so your son can demonstrate where he is and whether he needs more advanced (or remedial) classes.

Always cheaper at Costco: Jasmine rice Huge russet potatoes Organic ground beef Lean ground beef (not by much) Beef stew meat Sonicare toothbrush replacement heads As good as usual sale price, or better: Chicken thighs Toilet paper Diapers Frozen pepperoni pizza Annie's macaroni and cheese Milk (we buy organic half-gallons wherever we shop) English muffins Better quality than anything in stores: Meatballs ETA: We've also bought some furniture online and been very happy with it. Often I find that things at Costco are about what I would pay at the store, but much better quality. I find the biggest trick to saving money there is to buy only the things I'd be buying anyway. Impulse purchases there add up REALLY quickly. Now I bring a priced-out shopping list with me, and I can only impulse-buy if other items ended up under budget.

We watched a couple episodes of Doctor Who and had leftovers for dinner. Now I'm thinking we'll play a quick game with the kids, and then I have to plan school for next week Tomorrow I'll probably watch some of the commercials.

I have the hardest time knowing when to move on in math. I feel like we are spending forever on stuff she doesn't find that hard, but I am worried about missing pieces of the skill that are taught separately in Singapore. Here's my dilemma with my (young) 5yo: We've been working on subtraction within ten using Singapore 1A off and on for a while. (Unfortunately with MANY breaks due to illness, helping a family member move, and a death in the family). From a pedagogical perspective, I feel like I have not adequately taught all the details Singapore wants you to cover. For example, she doesn't count on for a problem like 9-7, or count down for 9-2. I have explained it, and she knows how to do each of those if prompted, but she gets confused about when to use which one, and in practice never does it that way. But... she knows how to subtract accurately. She has to think about it for a few seconds, and sometimes she uses her fingers*. But she always gets the answer right, and I can tell she understands what she is doing to get the answer. Do I keep pushing for more mastery on this? (Looking for quicker answers? Or more use of the Singapore techniques?) Do I spend more time in Miquon or IP worksheets to be sure she is solid? Or do we move on? Maybe move on with some review? And what about all those blank worksheets we haven't used???? We've been doing teaching activities and games and mental math sets from the HIG, but barely using the Workbook or the Textbook.... *If it matters, she's not counting her fingers, just removing a set of three to subtract three, for example.

My Facebook feed is full of friends saying they had 4, 6, or even 7 hour drives home today. One friend is currently stranded at a restaurant (car ran out of gas). Hotels are all booked. A few people I know walked part of the way home (3 miles or less). Friends who live closer to the city are posting offers to bring blankets and sleeping bags to people who are stranded. I'm still waiting to hear from one of my friends whose commute is normally an hour. (Can't even imagine.) I have NEVER been so thankful to homeschool and have dh working from home.

I'm a Laura, too. It doesn't bother me, but I do have a preferred pronunciation (Law-ruh), which I've made a point of teaching to my kids. (My dh sometimes gets it right and sometimes doesn't, but mostly calls me "My Love" anyway. :001_wub: ) My MIL's name is spelled and pronounced "Lorra," so I like to make a distinction when it comes up. But even before I met her, I would tell people I liked the "au" to be pronounced like "audience" not like "order." But only if it came up... it's never been something I made a big deal over, but I do notice if someone gets it "right," and every now and then I comment on it afterwards. For the record, my FIL calls both me and MIL "Lorrie" at times, and I don't mind, although it took some getting used to.

I usually allow 2-3 days to defrost a whole chicken anyway. Otherwise I find the giblets are too frozen to remove. If it makes a difference, I put chickens in the freezer the day I bring them back from the store, so they have time before they "expire" anyway. ETA: What cut of chicken is it? Just reread your post and realized it said "chicken" not "a chicken"...

Rules: I'll start by making a familiar anti-homeschooling argument. The next person answers that argument and poses a new objection to homeschooling, and so on. Repeats are fine, and uncommon arguments you've actually heard are fine. I'll start with the first one I ever heard IRL: "But they won't get to go to prom!!!!!!! :-( :-( :-("

Our family has playsilks, a cowboy hat and bandanna, a tutu, a variety of silly hats, super-hero capes, butterfly/fairy wings, and a couple scarves. We keep magic wands and a play sword and shield there too. I'm thinking I might want to add to this as they get older, but I'm short on ideas. What do your kids have?