I did not know this! Love The Guild!

Congratulations!!!

I have my 2 boys in bunk beds in one room and my DD alone in another. They usually all end up in one room. I have thought about getting a bunk bed that sleeps 3 (with the trundle), but I think my DD may outgrow it soon and need her privacy (she is 9).

I was truly touched by this mother's acceptance for her son. What an amazing woman! I am not sure how I myself would deal with the situation, but only because I'm not in the situation with my boys (or girls). I do know I would love my children for whomever they are or whoever they want to be. I know this is a very touchy subject in today's society. Children (and adults) can be so mean. I honestly believe everyone should be able to be who they want to be and that starts at a very early age. We may be able to direct our children in the right direction and help them to make right decisions early on, but in the end.....they are who they are. The mother on the show wrote a book about her son directed towards children called My Princess Boy. You can read the first page on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/My-Princess-Boy-Cheryl-Kilodavis/dp/1442429887/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top It basically sends the message of having acceptance for everyone no matter who they are! For those of you who didn't see it, it was about a little boy who is 4 who wants to wear dresses, loves pink, and wanted to be a princess for Halloween. His mother was hesitant at first and her older son said, "Mom, why can't he just be happy?". After discussing the situation with psychologists, etc., she is letting her son be who he wants to be wherever that may lead. This is just one less child that has to grow up hiding because his parents/society don't accept who he is. Props to this mom!!

I know I started this thread looking for living books for Science. I just found an awesome list when I googled. Not sure why I didn't think of that first. :001_unsure: Anyway, I know others are watching this post so hers the list. http://appliejuice.wordpress.com/brain-suff/living-book-list-for-science/

Thanks for all the ideas! I'm going to check out the books on Amazon now. Would still love to see more ideas coming! :lurk5: BTW, as far as what we are going to study, this is where the problem lies. My DD is extremely bored learning Botany. She was enjoying it in the beginning, but now I think it's becoming too much for her. My DS picked it at the beginning of the year and I already had it laying around. I just had to purchase the experiment kit. My son is still enjoying it, but he is using the regular notebook at 7 years old because they haven't made the Junior one yet. It is just too much writing for him. Im sure they are retaining some, but not a ton which is fine. My DD wants to study animals and DS wants to move on to physics. Ugh! There is no one subject they both agree upon. It makes it difficult.

Can you please give me a headstart? I would like to use some living books. I am not really sure what I want to study? Right now we are finishing up Apologia Botany. My children haven't retained much from it so I really need to try another route. I would love some ideas for living books and kits that are good that I could purchase. How do you go about making your own science curriculum?

My children all look very much alike (even my DD from a previous marriage). They all also look just like me. My 9 yr old DD and 18 yr old DD both get told every time we are out somewhere that they look exactly like me. I'm sure they are sick of hearing it. As for my sister and I, I don't think we look anything alike.

Can you please share your schedule? How does it work out so that you still have a couple weeks off in the summertime instead of the usual 2 1/2 months? I'm thinking of going year round, but I'm horrible with scheduling. I just really need a break and Im sick of worrying about taking a break because it's so hard to get back on track.

:bigear:

We have gone through Alpha and Beta TWICE! My DD was no fingers and is now back to using them again. Ugh!

I have posted before about my 4 year old (5 January 2nd). I have introduced letters through Starfall on the iPad, letters to play with in the bathtub, Leap Frog Letter Factory, and writing letters with HWT. DS can not recall a letter, identify it or the sound it makes from one day to the next. If I ask him what sound a certain letter makes, he will just start randomly guessing. If I say, "what letter is this?" after we just learned it 5 minutes before, he can't tell me. I think he can identify 5 letters and their sounds (if that). He loves books. His favorite this week are Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Little Red Hen. He will open the book and has them memorized word for word and pretend he is reading it. He can tell me on the road, "Mommy, I see Do Not Enter!" or "Mommy, that says Stop!" I just don't get it! I haven't taught him street signs! How would he know this, but can't identify more ten 4 letters?? He is still learning to sing the Alphabet. He knows most of it, but sometimes needs help when he gets stuck. He doesn't want to do schoolwork so I don't ever push it. He will maybe twice a week pull out HWT, but loses interest after writing one letter. His handwriting is beautiful for 4. I'm so confused. What am I doing wrong? I'm not new at this! He is my 4th I'm homeschooling. I homeschooled one from 3rd who has graduated and starts CC in Jan. my other 2 just learned all of this with Starfall and were ready to learn to read by the age of 5. Am I just worrying for no reason? Is it normal with some children to just take longer to identify letters and remember te sounds they make? I have thought about buying prelevel All About Reading, but that's a lot of money when nothing else has worked and he just isn't interested in "schoolwork".

It looks great! http://www.harmonyfinearts.com/index.php

I'm researching for the Fall. I don't want to use SOTW again. My DC aren't enjoying it as much as I thought they would. They are loving what we chose for science this year and beg to do science. I would love for them to feel the same way about history. I would be using it with a 3rd and 4th grader with a K'r listening in. The K'r would only be there listening in by his choice or otherwise be in another room playing.

:lurk5:

Is it just me or are the two way too repetitive? Also, My DD is learning today how to put together a paragraph in correct order and how to indent in GWG. Wouldn't that be considered Writing? I'm confused. I'm starting to wonder if we need to do both. Yesterday my DD learned quotations in both WWW and GWG. When she completed GWG, she said, "Again?!?!".

Thank you so much for responding! I would love to see pictures of what you have done. Have the supplies been hard to find or things you generally have on hand? This is my biggest concern since I won't run out to get a ton of stuff if I don't have it.

Nobody is using this?

I would love to hear a review. Or if you can post a link to your blog so I can see some of the fun activities as my children are very hands on. I'm Thinking about purchasing but want to make sure I really want it first.

If you just want to read books, surf the Internet, and don't care that you have a limited amount of apps on Android, the the Fire is a great idea. We have 3 iPads in our house and I will definitely be buying the Fire on release. It looks great and is more compact for my purse. I don't like taking my iPad out though. It's too expensive and I'm just scared! Lol

You should be fine with the 16 GB. I have a 16 GB for my children. They have a TON of apps (at least 6 pages) and it's not full yet.

In a few more days, they will release IOS5 which will include iCloud. iCloud will allow all your Apple devices to sync up without having to connect to a computer. It will also allow us virtual storage place so that we won't need the iPad or iPhone with the bigger amount of storage.

Here is a pointy stylus. The reviews are horrible though. I have a few different styluses and they all have different points of sensitivity and some are better than others. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032J1NM0?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1

My oldest DD (now 18) always had very negative side effects on any medication we tried. We tried 3 different ones. We used Concerta, Ritalin, and one other that I can't recall. One made her zombie like, another made her violent. After my experience with one child, I don't think I would ever medicate another one of my children again for ADD or ADHD. I suspect my DS7 has ADHD, but I am dealing with it and just altering his diet. I don't want to go through it all over again.

Is anyone doing this? Is there a schedule somewhere for doing so?