Praying for everyone affected. The whole thing seems amazing to me. We are still getting significant amounts of snow!!! The weather is just too weird these days. :confused:

Anyone have an organization system for their hooks and needles? I was hoping for something that does both together in smaller quanities because my daughter is just starting out. After looking around a bit I see that may not be the best way. She has several small sized (000, 00, 0, 1) double pointed and a few circular. She has about five different sized hooks. Ideas? :bigear: TIA!!

My youngest has a personality. These are a few stories I have shared with others IRL....maybe you will think they are funny too. Just before dinner last night he asked me for some chocolate. I said, "No dear. Dinner will be in five minutes." He said, "Uggg! Will that be the short five minutes or the long five minutes?" When told he never took naps, my son stated in his sweetest voice, "Well, I take big ones in the night time." To which his all knowing sister replied, "That's called sleeping." My youngest had just counted to 59 with a little help. Proudly he said, "I think you should call the Guinness Book of World Records!" He is five and comes out with the cutest things. Mostly they make me laugh because he is mine and I am savoring him as my last. Hope you get some good ones!

Some things that we do with our daughter who is almost 12 years old and shows only a hint of the shyness that you mention when with strangers. We work hard at keeping her involved in sports (swimming and TaeKwonDo) that are encouraging her to compete against herself and helps her to see her own improvement. She is not a state level competator but she loves it. I think any sport that is run in a healthy way would be helpful.....but becare of negative team dynamics and harsh coaches. Commit to taking her to music lessons if she likes, or some other creative outlet like drawing class or knitting class. Again, be careful that the adults you trust her with are deserving of that trust. Have her spent a lot of time with Dad doing an activity she enjoys. My husband does the swimming with her, so he is an official and volunteers to be there at *all* the meets she chooses to compete in. It is their time together. Give her responsibility that you know she will be successful at. Dd is starting to babysit her brothers for very short periods of time and I pay her. This would work for chores or yard work or anything you would be willing to pay her to do well. My daughter has several chores around the house that I depend on her to do, but it is not overwhelming and only takes a bit of her time. It is not meant to burden her, it is meant to give her a sense of contributing to our family. She spends and budgets her own money (please do this.....it is an important skill) Give reasonable praise and tell her when you are proud of her. Kids know when you are faking it or over doing it to make a point. Simple statements when they are genuine are what I am taking about. Dd has taken on crocheting and knitting and knits better than anyone I know. She loves it and she tackles it with gusto. I have told her several times recently that I see her amazing work. I also add in that she should keep it up and finish what she starts. When she gets stuck I help her or get her another adult that can help her move forward. I do not let any of her projects get stalled because she lacks help or information. Protect her from our culture's messages about a female's s*xuality. My daughter has not been exposed to common messages about beauty and such. I guard her that way for a reason. The measage is ugly and would make even a strong girl wilt with uncertainly. So overall I think the ideas are support her in her interests, give her something to be responsible about, believe in her and protect her from ugly messages. Good Luck! She is lucky just because you are thinking about it! ETA: Sorry this may be more apropriate if you were her mom. Maybe something will help.

We use Wellness here as well with a mix of raw fruit and scraps. We could not go totally raw because our dog got "the runs" nasty. Wellness is pricey but I am happy with the result. She has regular poops now and I don't have to clean her crate in the morning. We are having a reoccuring problem with her nails which I will start looking into. She has brittle nails so they break often which causes a lot of pain. (She has had 8 nails pulled off the bed in about 2 years!!!) The vet suggested thyroid problems not diet as the problem (in a list of many options). She does not have the typical racer back shedding so the vet did not push for a diagnosis. We are going to work at keeping her nails *very* short and see if it prevents it. Next step is thyroid test. One of her litter mates was diagnoses with hip displashia (sp?) before 2 years old. My goal has been to keep her weight down just like you are going to try. I have also heard that the amounts on the bag are high and so I do not give other treats and keep it as low as she will allow me to. She asks for food after we have eaten but does not beg or steal. In fact our dog food bag is downstairs opened to the air and she never sneaks it when we are gone. Her request for food is more a social reminder for me and she can wait if she needs to. I have been very happy with Wellness even though I would have preferred raw. I hope you can keep your pup healthy and happy at a low weight and that she lives many more years to come. I get the dilemna you are in as we would have to work hard to pay for a hip displashia (I know that is spelled wrong but I do not have the time to look it up!!! Ugg.) surgery as well. All the best! PS: I want to thank whoever suggested copying a final post before hitting submit! I almost lost this and would not have been able to rewrite it this morning. Whoever mentioned that saved this one very important post!:tongue_smilie: (read with the greatest of sarcasm) Have a great day, FaithManor!

I'm cheating and not reading the rest of the responses. Hopefully this encourages someone out here at some point. My husband was not supportive at the beginning. My daughter had, what we now understand to be, sensory issues which she is beautifully growing out of. We had just moved and were out of town with one car. The kids and I were very isolated then and she was intense. I had talked about sending her to a half day of daycare an dmy husband was willing to try it at a fairly high cost. My husband would have had to get her out the door and be responsible to bring her home at lunch. I think he would have done it but in the morning he is not that high functioning so it would have been a struggle schedule wise. I knew some homeschoolers growing up and some locally at the time. I started looking into Sonlight and found that their preschool for a year was the same price as a month of half day everyday preschool locally. So I asked him if we could take one month of that cost and put it toward the preK year at Sonlight. He looked at Sonlight and felt confident that someone could homeschool and still be educated in Science. We have had may growing experiences and when I had three younger kids it was VERY hard on me. Many times I thought of throwing in the whole thing. We took it one year at a time.....no long term committments here. Gradually, as they have grown and I have learned what to press on with and what to let go. I have found myself more confident in this lifestyle. We do not always have excellent days but we have more good days than bad. My daughter "started this" because of her intensity. My son, a nerdy Science guy that is less than 50 lbs, benefits from it. My last, 5 years old, will perhaps be better for it, too. My greatest challenges have forced us to all grow together and find a pace of life that brings out the best of us all. It is a miracle when I think of it because my husband is now one of our greatest defenders of our homeschooling journey. He never asks me to go to work to make more money....he steps in to find other contracts. He never tells me to give up when I have a bad day.....he steps in to ask the kids what they still need to get done (even if all it is doing is keeping them accountable to him not me) When I face criticism or notice others judging us....he reminds me that it is working and that they are definately learning things even if perhaps not at the same pace or cycle of another child. He provides his support without critizing the local public schools so that if I have to send them there in the future it will not be hard on me. I never would have thought we would have come this far but we have!!! God does changes the hearts of Kings!!!!

That is so sad. I am sorry.

Seed tank tops sold at Walmart.....they are super cheap and keep their shape better than anything else I have ever bought. I wear one of mine everyday here in the winter and they have stood up well (I have about 6 of them). I think they come in packages of 2 for $5. There are two shapes....so be careful how you pick. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/allReviews.do?product_id=15191453 Sorry, I am no help with bottoms. I wear pants I bought at Target over 6 years ago which are like cotton scrubs.

Well this goes without saying. :lol:

Hope it is OK if I play. Mine is..... Red Neck Woman by Gretchen Wilson. Ugg.

Oh, I wish I had an ipod. It is a fun game but NanceXroo is right.....be careful of any ads!

I put quotations around whole phrases I want to search for. I am not sure if it helps but this gives you a bump to the top......Good Luck!!

It looks like a great thinking game. I'm not all about games but it has a physics component that I thought was special! The first 10 levels I have done and my husband has done over 20. They get really thought provoking!!

I thought more people would see this here. http://www.addictinggames.com/redremover.html My husband just found this really fun game that teaches physics concepts. I wanted to share and see if anyone here had any other suggestions for games that challenge reasoning skills and mental dexterity. I thought it would be great fun for logic stage but you may want to check it out before sending your students there unsupervised. The first four levels are tutorials but then it gets more intersting. Do you know of any online games that would help develop logic skills?

http://www.addictinggames.com/redremover.html My husband just found this really fun game that teaches physics concepts. I wanted to share and see if anyone here had any other suggestions for games that challenge reasoning skills and mental dexterity. I thought it would be great fun for logic stage but you may want to check it out before sending your students there unsupervised. The first four levels are tutorials but then it gets more intersting. Do you know of any online games that would help develop logic skills?

"Who owns homeschooling?" is indeed a very important question. I have only watched a few of these threads as my time is limited because of....well....homeschooling. But I have been thinking of this all day and longer than that in fact. It just dawned on me that you could ask another quesition, "Who has the right to claim homeschooling?" Another question to ask would be "Who does Ken Hamm think owns homeschooling?" I think we need to answer these ones too as we consider how to respond to people like Ken Hamm. I am fairly certain his answer would be God or the group that he thinks created homeschooling. I am equally certain that he has not thought out all the implications of his position. If in fact God owns homeschooling lets look at how God deals with ownership and claiming ownership. Does he force us to acknowledge Him because He created our souls? Did He possess many and valuable things while walking on earth as Christ? Did he spend much time claiming things, groups or organization on earth while here? I could pull out my bible and find many references to how God dealt with ownership and claiming ownership but I will not because each of us must look into it ourselves. I know the answer I come up with. The apparent claiming of the homeschooling movement that I think Ken Hamm alludes to in his position is sad to me because it appears to be incongruent with what I see as God's character. I am very thankful for these boards. In our local group we are wrestling with all of these same issues and you ladies have helped me think it all through. Hopefully, I can face the local group with ideas that I have fleshed out as a result of spending time here and we can all put the issues ownership to rest. Many Thanks to SWB for keeping the civil discussion open and flowing so we can all work out our own thoughts on this sadly dividing and damaging issue.

Thanks I will go have a look at Spelling City. I have a few books for capitals and states from the dollar section as well which is why I did not want to buy the MP book. I did like the simplicity of the book though with the geographic locations very clearly presented. The dollar section books do not do that. The price is soooo high!!! The Spelling City does not have hand written work, right? It seems to be typed in answers? Am I wrong on that? I wonder if there is a way to get Canadian provinces and capitals as well......I'm probably asking too much.

I would want chickpeas or (less so) beans. Fruit would be high on my list for a healthy easy to make snack. Stock would be very important to me as I can buy rice and other ingredients and make familiar recipes. Stock is VERY expensive to buy yourself and can be perceived as an unneccessary ingredient if you are tight for cash but can make or break a recipe's favor. When I give to food banks I do not give items I don't go out of my way to afford.....such as expensive cereals and prepackages meals that I feel are low on nutrition. This is not meant to criticize anyone's food choices.....they are just things *I* do not eat regularily. I think it is wonderful that you are holding a food drive.....the issue of food insecurity is close to my heart. I wish you much success!!!

Hoping someone can point me to a good resource. I am looking for a spelling workbook or a site with downloadables that covers some or all of the items on the following list. We are almost finished our spelling book for the year and I need a workbook that builds spellling skills for everyday things such as -days of the week -months of the year -states and capitals -countries -holidays -any other words that fit into this type of list I can teach it myself using SWR phongrams but I wanted a book that is already set up with lines and maybe pictures for each page. Because my kids do it more faithfully if mom isn't the person who prints it out and I would like a book format to follow to make my summer easy but productive. I have looked at the States and Capitals book from Mermoria Press and it meets my needs for that topic but I still wanted something for days, months, countries, holidays, etc. Anyone have any ideas? We have been using Spelling Workout and love it but it has not covered these words as thoroughly as we need here. I liked the format of States and Capitals by MP, so a cross between the two would be great as well. TIA!!!

This is me too.....I find when I edit myself it gets me in more trouble (with a few exceptions). I have a very honest personality but I do not always understand that others may see things from a different perspective. When that perspective is clearly stated, I usually realize that what I thought was fact is really my opinion. With my husband I am just out there with my thoughts and feelings. He and I, fortunately do not fight even when we disagree. But he is the one that listens to me when I am agitated about something. I am not as a rule disrepectful to him just oblivious sometimes.

Good Lord! That must have been amazing to watch! I hope He strikes lightening here too because I'm rubbing the sticks together all by myself with not so much as a wiff of smoke.

My kids do not like to narrate.....I just let it go for awhile and moved on to copywork and written narrations. I would not recommend that approach as I have seen knowledgeable people say that discussion later on is very important. I need ideas about how to get the narrations flowing.......anyone?

This looks excellent but it would be best for my self learning. My kids would not understand its importance yet. Thank you....I must brush up on my skills as well and this will help. Nan and Angela......I will look for the threads with questions and see if I can brush up on how to facilitate that interaction. Right now, my kids and I are just following the schedule and do not interact as much as I think is needed for this kind of learning. We have a great chatty relationship but I do not think it involves opinion and current events and ideas as much as it could. I am curious, is this better started in Grammar stage or is it not helpful until Logic? We spent most of our time trying to cover basics and I missed that there was more to the grammar stage. I am waiting for the current edition of TWTM from Amazon.....everyone is sold out.....even PHP. Thanks to all of you for your guidance!!!!

If it is most beneficial within subjects as opposed to a separate subect..... How did you go about choosing curriculum for your children so that the subject has this in place for you already? Also, do curriculum that are set up like this also have answers for me as a teacher? How would I know if my child is following the better path in answering? I would prefer to include it simply because it seems overwhelming to me to add another subject in but how do I know the choice I make helps lead to this? Not all questions would lead to these thinking skills....would they? Thanks so much for your help!

Yes. Struggling with the transition myself and I am not so sure I have mastered the grammar stage. I have been realizing that I know in my head what I am suppose to do but I do not often know how to practicailly help my daughter along. I am :bigear: