Sorry. I just returned and noticed this. It is a great way to use up old cloves....you can get away with using more that way. Maybe my bump will get you some more recipes!!!! :001_smile:

My MIL scores a ham crosswise (about an inch wide) then places whole cloves into the squares. She then packs brown sugar (about 1/3 cup) over it and drizzles with pineapple juice drained from a can of crushed pineapple. Bake it for several hours at 350 and baste as neccessary (about every 20 minutes). I'm not a big clove fan but I can enjoy this. My husband loves it!!

My mother made it each year and she froze it....I couldn't tell the difference. But I'm with everyone else...it does not last long around here.

:iagree: I also agree with the other posters that said it was very important to have a place where dh is comfortable doctrinally.....even if he is gentlemanly by overlooking a few things here or there it still has the potential to turn out badly. My advice, if you want to consider it, is to pray to be lead by God and stay in ministry and fellowship to all God's people by His leading. If you continue to seek God's voice you will hear it when you arrive in the "right spot". Finding the right church is a long term search and should be based on factors other than a child's ability to make friends with the other kids. I understand with homeschooling you may be more vulnerable to those feelings but giving it a greter importance than it deserves can lead to other issues. I pray that you will find what fits your unique family best and in God's unique timing.

:iagree: So I bought a pair of mittens from these lovely ladies last year....they are not smallish gloves but very nicely done with felted wool and they keep my hands very warm. They homeschool their kids as well and they are such nice people. http://www.woolygirls.com/vests.html

I did not use HOD for K, 1st, 2nd or 3rd....so I am just pondering some things. However, I am required to test my kids at 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th grade....so I have been down the testing road once or twice already.....both casually and formally and with two different tests, CAT and Iowa Basics. I wonder if you could give us an idea as to what you are using HOD for......is it Science and History only? I see you are using FFL and AAS and ETC.....It looks to me like you are altering the HOD plan (which is what I do) I would think that these programs would influence the test results more than HOD (Science, History, Bible, etc) especially if you are only administering for the basics and not the whole shebang. What I can tell you is that I was surprised at how prepared my daughter was for the tests but, again, I did not use HOD for the first few years. My daughter started the CAT at second grade here at home and we were not required to submit the results. You can buy a survey test on line for about $30 and administer it for a few fun days off school and see how she is doing. I'm sorry I have a few more things on my mind but my four year old is talking to me about dinosaurs right now and I cannot think clearly.....ack!!

Thank you for taking the time to post this.....you have no idea how much of a blessing this is to me right now. :001_smile:

Here is a link to their recommendations.....I have received a broad range of condition in books and I have sent a few very poor condition books that people agreed to take because they were highly desired books. I agree with Nestof3 though; post it, tell them privately and let them decide. http://www.paperbackswap.com/help/help_index.php?atl=t HTH

Have you considered reflux (GERD). That happened to me twice about three months ago and it is very distressing. I hope you get to the bottom of it.

Anyone have any ideas? What activites have you done with Hans Christian Anderson's stories? His stories seem so beautifully suited to learning moral lessons. They are fun to read as well. TIA

I have a lovely edition of Hans Christian Anderson that I want to use with my kids (one girl and two boys) at some point in the near future. It has 40 of his stories. My kids are 10, 7 and 4 this year. I wonder if anyone could suggest a unit study that is not too heavy on Fairies (I have two boys) and still lets us appreciate each story with a bit of literary learning thrown in. I'd like to cover some literary terms that are appropriate for the age (ie. mood, theme, character, crisis, resolution) I would like it to have a hands on creative element (ie. painting, sculpting, pastels). I would prefer that it not be too repetative (so a unit study that does the same thing for every story would probably not suit me) . I know I'm asking for the world but know that I ask here because you are all so smart and if something like this is out there, someone here would know about it. Thanks for thinking it over for me.

Is there a site that has a sample of this curriculum? I'd be interested in looking at this more closely. Thanks.

Here are a few of my family's favorities. Taco soup (a friend shared this with me and I am ever so grateful) :001_smile: Fry a pound of ground beef (optional) with a chopped onion. Pour in three cans each of any bean you want (ie. black, kidney, white or navy) with some of the liquid. One small can of sweet green chili peppers chopped and one can of Hominey (white or yellow). Add one package of dried ranch powder and taco seasoning (I buy these bulk so it is cheaper) Boil for 15 minutes or so. Serve with corn chips and cheese. Also, I make a Mediterranian Soup. Four cups water to one package Knorr Minestroni Soup mix (or some equivalant) Bring to boil and add 3/4 cup of red french lentils and 2 cloves crushed garlic. Add one teaspoon cumin and boil for 20 minutes until the lentils are soft. At the end add one can of drained chickpeas and warm through. Serve with crusty bread and pickles. It is very yummy and cheap as it is thick and can stand being watered down. Good luck with the budget! It can be done, just takes a bit more work!

We wake up our four year old to go before we go to sleep around 12am. He is use to it so he falls back to sleep right away Our budget does not include night time diapers and he is dry all day. Additionally, my time budget does not include extra laundry. We found this solution. We have a dog so we laugh about who gets "the pee job" at the end of the day. Take heart, they grow out of it eventually.

I knew you ladies would be helpful! I signed up for the yahoo group and I will look closely at the posts this weekend....Thanks! Jenne, your schedule looks doable for me. I like it. I'm thinking that it might take her about 20-30 minutes each day. That is not too bad for a fifth grader that is not naturally drawn to writing. Is it? Just re-planning our day now to fit it in. Thank you! If anyone else has ideas I'd be grateful. :001_smile: ETA: For those following me, this site was very helpful as well. http://www.wallsofbooks.com/2007/07/planning-year-of-iew-complicated.html

My daughter, in 5th grade, is starting IEW this year. She has had a writing tudor for about 8 months but otherwise she has only done narrations, copywork, and dictation with me. She seems to want to write and is average at it....her hesitation comes from wanting to be perfect at it and having a mom with little to no writing skills to pass on. Let's just say I am willing to buy anything. So far I have (in my hands or ordered and on the way).... TWS&S, SWI A, A Word Write Now, All Things Fun and Facinating, and, I am embarrased to say, every single source book they have on download for every single unit. :001_huh: (and another free download that I do not know the name of :tongue_smilie: for SWI A with a schedule of sorts) Did I say I was willing to buy anything..... So, where is the best place to start and how does one progress through this maze? I have looked at it on and off for a while but not gotten too far into it. I have watched most of the DVD's. We have done the outlining and started the idea of dress ups but we have not covered all of them. My new order was an attempt to fill in the peices I am missing to do this well. I feel a bit lost in a sea of gold. I know this is a great program and I am certain that my daughter will get it once we start blazing through it but I'm not sure how to schedule it well. Is there a schedule somewhere that I am missing? Any help would be appreciated! TIA!

We had a Japanese lady staying with us and she made Miso soup once. I was surprised at the technique for adding the Miso. She added it at the end by stiring it through a sieve and removing the larger chunks. It made the soup smoother.....I always just added a big spoonful at the right temp. and let it sink to the bottom. :001_huh: Shows how much I know! GL!

Hi ya'll, We are going to be using HOD Bigger starting October. My MIL is here for an extended visit so we started the year with the three R's to leave the afternoon for a visit with her. We stopped Bigger 7 weeks in last spring and we were loving it. So the timing worked out great for us. When we start in October it will be finished at about the right time in the spring. I just looked at the dictation passages last week and did one with my 7 year old.....it was very good. I have only done copywork with him and it was his first dictation. WOW! He was jazzed and it built his confidence. I liked that it was just right for his ability level. I'm thinking of buying Preparing or CTC to do just the dictation with my 10 year old daughter. The dictations I do with her are often bible verses or AAS dictation suggestions. They work well but sometimes a change is good. I'm Treewin on the HOD board but I do not post much, here or there. Good to see that others are enjoying it. I have found HOD to be an excellent choice for us all. It has given me a long term view of where I am going with school and makes it seem more do-able. :seeya:

We traveled to San Diego this winter and loved it. I highly recommend Point Loma tide pools and Cabrillo National Park. Someone here suggested both places and they were right on! They are very close to each other and about 15 minutes drive from downtown. Have a great trip!!

I have a set up in our main bathroom. It consists of shower curtain rings (or ones for drapes) with clips in them. I took off the towel rod and slipped three rings on, one for each child. Next I simply clipped a color coded wash cloth onto each ring. They know which one is theirs and I can take the washcloths off to wash them as often as I want without much extra laundry. I buy colors for the season...like lime green for spring and Christmas colors for December. If you wait a bit they are usually on sale. Washcloths are cheap!!! HTH!

We finish Beyond last spring and we did like it. I did not do the Science due to several reasons I will not get into. We did Noeo instead...but I do like the notebooking feauture in Bigger so it my have been a bad level for us Science wise. Some of the activites we breezed over or I left the kids to do them on their own. We did AAS instead of the lists and copyworks. And MUS instead of Singapore. So, I guess I did a lot of picking and choosing, which is who I am really. It is in my nature to use what fits and leave the rest. I hope you find a groove with the things you like and make adjustments that do not seem as much a match. It is still early in the year there is time to make those adjustments without too much of a loss in time. As a balance....we really enjoyed the poems and bible verses (I did not follow all the questions). We enjoyed the History a bunch and the read alouds are great books. Bigger has been that much more enjoyable and you might want to look at it to see if you have the wrong placement. The notebooking feauture is right down our alley. If you like the concept of HOD then that may be a way to reconsider without losing the benefits. HTH!

This is a better site for instructions for how to make it.... http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/Makekefir.html looks more like the one I remember as well. When you read his story about what role Kefir played in his life you will see why he is so passionate about it.

I did not wash my jar each time, just when it seemed to need it. The milk should be about 80-90% of the jar contents. You can do less if you want, it will just kefirize faster (gee the spelling of that does not seem right???). Never put a tight lid on it as the pressure will cause problems. Loose lid of any kind....I would just sit the one for the container on top without screwing it on. For a wide mouthed bowl I used a plate...just enough to keep dust and stuff out and to keep it from drying up on top. In the summer, you would have to wait about 24 hours.....the temperature of the room plays a part and it is more of an art than a science. Have you looked a Dom's site? http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html I think this is the one but it looks a bit different. It is certainly Dom's style...he had a beyond comprehensive site last time I was there. I loved making Kefir but my family stopped drinking it...my hubbie called them "the aliens" and the kids followed suit. I made it for myself for a while but I was so successful I could not consume it all. I finally quit when my heart burn started to be a problem. Best of Luck! Enjoy!

Well I always left mine out on the counter and two days was plenty. But when I went on vacation and put them in the fridge a week was not enough to get the milk kefirized. You may find that the milk is not fully done but it would not be bad, as it has been refridgerated, just milder. I would simply get a strainer (with small enough holes to retain the grains) and a larger bowl and strain them. Shake out the excess milk gently with a back and forth...left and right movement. What is left is the kefir grains with a bit of milk clinging on them. Simple put them back in a container with more milk. You can leave it on the counter but you would need to watch it more and be willing to tolerate a stronger flavor. The kefirized milk can be put in the fridge for a few days or used immediately. HTH!!

I have one child that has needed quite a bit of work. One thing the dentist said was that the cavities matched up....the top tooth cavity matched up with a cavity in the bottom tooth. It is like the bacteria transfered to the other tooth when left unchecked. We did everything the dentist recommended except the back of the two front teeth which had already infected each other (and they will be the first two baby teeth to be lost, so I am comfortable wih leaving them). I would not say if this is common but it is something to consider when deciding whether to deal with cavities in a young child. Once cavities start they seem to progress very quickly in some mouths. I hope you find a comfortable solution for your family.