I am working my through my first Teaching Company Course (The Early Medieval Period) and I am LOVING it. I'm already trying to decide on my next purchase. Any suggestions?:D

I just finished The Piano Teacher by Janice Lee. It's set in Hong Kong both in the occupation of Hong Kong by the Japnese and then years later. I really enjoyed it. I'm reading The Last of her Kind by Sigrid Nunez for my book club. I haven't read enough of it yet to form an opinion.

I don't know of one, but that would be awesome!

I love this! :iagree:

I struggle with this so much, too. My Dd is really outgoing and just can't get enough of being with friends. She has been in ballet, soccer and then church activities. We also go to a library art class. It's never enough for her. We do have kids nearby and cousins so that helps. I am not a very social person. I'd rather be curled up with a book or knitting solo than be out with friends. One thing that I think is going to help us both is that she is attending a 3-week summer day camp :D . Personally, I think 2 or even three activities a week is PLENTY. But, if it makes you feel any better my Dd doesn't have one particular friend, either. I'm not sure that kids in this age range 5-8 do? I have only the one child so I'm not help there. So, I don't think I can offer ANY help at all, but I totally understand this worry.

We've been using SWO and we both love it. I tried AAS and didn't last a week. I really do think that SWO is great for "natural spellers". I don't think it would work as well for kids who need a little more help.

My daughter was a good reader when she was in first grade and I completely dropped phonics. It just didn't seem necessary. We use Spelling Work Out and I feel there is enough phonics in there to justify not having a separate phonics program. Personally, I don't think it's necessary for a good reader, but you can always do a phonics program for peace of mind. Though, it might just be busy work for him.

Thank you so much for the warning. I had some sneak peak passes and I chose not to use them because I suspected that might be the case. I hate, hate, hate when movies or TV show animals eating other animals. I know it's nature. But, I just can't watch it. It's something I'm really sensitve to.

I've worked at libraries for a good portion of my adult life. In system library "holds" or "requests" probably cost about that much. True ILLs (Interlibrary Loans), as in books are actually ordered from a completely different library systems cost much more than that. I've heard estimates of about $20. You shouldn't feel at all guilty about placing holds. At my library we LOVE holds because it helps our circulation stats which helps our library staffing needs. Often we you walk by the hold shelf you'll see rows of books for the same family or customers. It sounds like maybe a couple of people at your library are a little grumpy. :D Another thing I want to add is that by checking out so many books you are also increasing the chance of that book staying on the shelf. We weed 1-2x a year and if a books isn't being checked out often enough we have to get rid of it. We look at it as a book having to earn its place to stay on the shelf. Don't feel guilty! Libraries are there to be used, alot. :D

My MIL does this, a lot. I think that often times this happens when people are "new" to email. I don't ever read this stuff.

Thanks for the recipe. Lentils are one my most favorite things to eat!

I'm in totaly agreement with many posters ahead of me. More secular options! We are actually Catholic, but I prefer to keep things separate. I love the idea of SL, but I would not be comfortable using it.

Thank you so much for posting those links. They are some amazing sites.

Thanks for the ideas! :thumbup:

I was wondering if Lightning Lit would be appropriate for adult self-eduction. I'm trying to read some of the literature I missed in high school and college and was wondering if the high school level might be an option.

Thanks so MUCH! These are fabulous ideas!

Oooh, that's an idea! Thanks!:)

Hello everyone! I work 20 hours at a branch library in a rather large public library system. My specialty is adult fiction. My manager came to me last week and wants me to implement some programming for children. We already have the standard storytime for the preschoolers and toddlers. She gave me really no boundaries as far as age group or ideas. The only real constraints are it has to be fairly inexpensive and no food. For my own comfort level I defintely want to do school-age up to tweens. I've got a million different ideas going on in my head but I thought I'd pick everyone's brains and find out great public library ideas from your own public libraries. Or, what would you like to see? Thanks so much in advance!

Thank you so much for that link to spelling city. That is the neatest site. My Dd loves it! We are using SWO and this is the perfect supplement. Thanks!

Hello. I don't think most libraries have the Reader's Guide to Periodical Lit. anymore. I work for a fairly large (17 branch) library system. The only branch that has it through the library's homepage. Here are some of the different databases we offer for example: Expanded Academic ASAP - Access scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers. General Reference Center Gold - one-stop access to general interest magazines, business periodicals, and newspaper articles. InfoTrac Custom Journals - with NY Times and The Financial Times InfoTrac OneFile (1980 - current) A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics. Updated daily. Infotrac Kids Edition (Elementary School) - Easy access to full-text magazines, newspapers, and reference books. Infotrac Junior Edition (JuniorHigh/Middle School ) - Easy access to full-text magazines, newspapers, and reference books Infotrac Student Edition(High School) - Easy access to full-text magazines, newspapers, and reference books InfoTrac Professional Collection - 250+ full text magazine articles for education professionals InfoTrac Specialized databases -additional 25+ databases on various topics Kids InfoBits (for grades K-5) Newsbank - Local and regional newspapers, world news. I think it is really unfortunate the the reference person you asked at the library couldn't point you to some sort of reference. If your library or library system is smaller they should still have some sort of database or method of looking up articles. Even though using databases is easier and quicker, most of them only have articles from a certain time period. I think that most of them at our library system only go back to 1980 or so. I don't think that this has been such an easy transition. Let me know if you need any more help!

I can't give any insight because I just ordered my copy last week. I'm very anxious to receive it and begin working on it with my 7-yr old.

My Dd loves these. I don't think there is anything to be worried about in this series. No bad language and nothing scary.

We got ours last night (we had preordered it) So far, I'm loving it. Its really fun and I worked up a sweat--not that its that hard for me to do--I'm way out out shape. I hope that it will help me with exercise. Either way its totally fun.:D

At the moment we just have Religious Ed one night a week and Ballet one night a week. I'd be willing to let her do one more thing, but I think I'd draw the line there. I am very much of a homebody and become quite grumpy if I'm not home enough. :glare:

I love, love, love both coffee and tea and drink them equally. Though, I need to start my day with coffee. I really only drink black, herbal, and oolong tea. I just can't like green tea for some reason.