My husband Our 5 kids My mom My dad My MIL My brother's family of 4 BIL's family of 5 SIL's family of 5 SIL's family of 6 The occasional teacher, coach, etc...but none this year I usually exchange something small with a few friends We used to get individual gifts for all those "family of's" up there, but now we just get one family gift, usually some kind of game or entertainment (Wii stuff this year)

Chocolate chip cookies baking, and the crisp smell of a cold autumn day.

I'm in. I just embarrassed myself by filling out one of those "bold all the books you have read" lists. Joining so I can force myself to add some good fiction to my non-fiction addiction. :D

Our favorites: Focus on the Family's dramatizations of Anne of Green Gables and Little Women (my oldest 4 are girls so this list is "girl heavy" LOL) The Penderwicks Little House on the Prairie series Jim Dale reading Peter Pan

Done! I simply called it MCT. I'll try to link up in a minute... ETA: Here we go this should be the link directly to the group: MCT

Thanks Melanie, that's helpful! Especially learning what else you used for extra practice - my one dd is dyslexic and I'm sure will need some.

We have just started LC 1 with my 4th grader and (dyslexic) 6th grader. I was wondering how others who have used this have fit it into their week - what do you do each day? We also have Lingua Angelica so I was thinking to slip that in along side LC somehow (even if we are just listening to it during lunch ;)).

Me too. Although last week my dad asked me for a loan. Dh said, "Hey, you're all grown up now!" :tongue_smilie:

We are being switched to Cigna's HSA this year, I'm so glad you asked this question! :bigear:

I'm so sorry Ellen. Many :grouphug: and prayers for her and all of you.

As I was cleaning up the house a few weeks back, I picked up my little son's scarf and put it around my neck. I was so surprised how warm it kept me, that I've been going back to it every time I'm cold! I'm *so* not a hat person, and I stubbornly (pridefully?) refuse to wear one around the house, but the scarf I like, and I can whip it off at a moments notice w/o looking all messed up afterwards.

We are -- we were using Oak Meadow 6th, 4th, and 1st. It really bombed for my 4th grader and was just way too easy for my advanced 1st grader. It's working OK for my 12yo , but I feel like it's not teaching her the skills she needs (i.e. it asks her to write, but doesn't TEACH her to write). So we are going to pick up some new things this January - Prima Latina for my 1st grader (who will most likely also listen in to everything the 4th and 6th graders do), Latina Christiana I, Famous Men of Rome and/or Greece and CW Aesop for the 4th/6th. I'm also going to try to up our science study, which has been negligible this year. Probably with Apologia Land Animals, since it's on the shelf.:) Math (TT) will stay the same! ETA: I forgot to say we already added some extra LA pracitce for my dyslexic 12yo recently - Apples and Pears and How to Teach Spelling.

Well, the relatives we were supposed to have Thanksgiving with changed their minds w/o much notice, so we stayed home alone (alone with 5 kids ;)) and had leftover birthday dinner. DD turned 12 the day before Thanksgiving. Dh and 4yo dd were sick (not from the food, lol, but from staying at MIL's old house that they are allergic to). Then I found out my 96yo grandmother died that morning. :crying: Strangely enough, despite being lonely and grieving, it was a relaxing, quiet day - something we all needed! So I guess not a train wreck, but definitely NOT what we expected.

I personally don't know about "typical" but I know it happens to my dd to some extent (she's about to turn 12). Are you sure it was the font with the "allegretto"? My dd can read long chapter books also, but relies HEAVILY on context cues to figure out the longer words she is reading... or she just "bleeps" right over them:001_huh:. A single word like allegretto, foreign - with no context, would flummox her. She just doesn't know how to attack it (despite years of reminding :svengo:)

You are not alone. I got fed up last night and blogged about one of my most hated misspellings. Of course, I was kept humble by missing my own misspelling of "MISPELLING"! :lol: I'm not the best speller, but on something like a flier you bet your booties I'd be spell checking! My blog doesn't count, it's my place to just "chill" not worry about anything. ;)

Sun person here too. Well, I stay out of it a lot because of past skin cancer (non-malignant, though) but I enjoy the sun from inside my house. :001_smile: I can be grumbling along, wondering why everything in the world is so horrible, and suddlenly the sun will come out, and I'll realize that it was weather related, again. It doesn't seem to be a winter/summer thing to me, although we do have more cloudy days here in winter - we have plenty in summer too. I can be happy as a clam in winter if the sun has been out. I'll add a caveat to all this - if there is a good storm, either snow or rain, I feel pretty jazzed. But just plain old boring cloudy? UGH.

I'm going to guess it's harder today and here's why: When I've gone through a day of hard physical but *necessary* and *appreciated* labor, especially when those around me are working also, I go to bed feeling good about my life. I feel like that's what life was more like back then - hard, constant work, but your family and friends were all in the same boat, and your work was necessary and appreciated. Today, at least in my little world, things are not as physically demanding. But they seem very mentally and spiritually demanding. And at least by society, I'm totally unappreciated...for every one "you've got a nice family" I get, I get at least 10 other strange comments, many of which are downright rude. I honestly hate going out with all my kids because people here don't keep their rude thoughts about my family size to themselves. And I only have five! And they are well behaved for the most part when we are out. :tongue_smilie: Being the perfectionist people pleaser I am, I have a very hard time with that (the rude comments, not the good behavior of my kids !:lol:) Add that fact that I "just stay at home" even though I have a masters degree, and I'm certifiable. Even our families think we are a little off our rocker to homeschool and have more than 3. That "attack" from all sides makes my life seem 10x more difficult than if I was supported in my role. If what I was doing was "normal". Sorry this is disjointed, I kept getting interrupted by those crazy little people who keep calling me mom. :lol: ETA: I forgot to say that I also find it difficult because I have no good examples around me. I came from a small family, the families around me are small - I don't know HOW to do this large family thing and no one is able or willing to show me. I think it would be much easier/natural if I had in fact ever *seen* it at work, LOL.

Thanks again everyone! This was one area I *knew* I would struggle with more than others soon. Teaching calculus? Let me at it. Teaching literary analysis? Hide me! :tongue_smilie: And special thanks to sagira for recommending the LIBRARY. I can't believe I didn't think of checking there first for some of these things! :001_smile:

Thank you so much everyone! These books/links/threads should get me well on my way!

and in a few minutes here it will be 5/7/9 11:13 (AM) :)

Is there a book out there geared to the teacher - telling me what IS literary analysis - what I should be telling my kids to look for, questions they should be asking themselves, ages that certain things are expected/appropriate - so that I can learn how to teach this and apply it to any book we want to read? I know this question seems so basic, but all the curriculums I've looked at pick apart particular books, and I'd rather learn for myself how to teach this well for any book! :) Thanks.

listening to Fernando Ortega music (although it's taken on a different "tone" in my mind since I listened to it during labor with my last baby) watching LOST reruns with dh online eating oreos

Praying for him and your family!

nak We do the dots too. With four girls in a row I need the help. Best thing I ever did was establish a "family closet" (really just for the kids) on industrial strength garment racks directly across from washer/dryer. Now, I put a load in first thing A.M. -- transfer to dryer when I get a chance and set buzzer. When dryer's done one of us (99% of the time it's me) drops what we're doing and goes and hangs everything before it gets wrinkly. If something *does* get wrinkly, I just leave it there and re-dry it with the next load, because I loathe ironing. :lol: Socks/underwear go in a toy organizer kind of like this one. Pants were hung for awhile then I stacked crates and they get folded and put in there. All this is right across from our washer, so a few steps back and forth and I'm done. Socks to be folded get tossed in a small basket. I torture my children with this task when they need some discipline. :tongue_smilie: I do hang dh's and my clothes there temporarily and bring them up when I get a chance, along with other things that belong elsewhere (towels, sheets, etc). I try to keep the amount of all our clothes down to a dull roar, this seems to help in the organization of it too. If I couldn't fit a whole "family closet", I would still install some sort of small bar somewhere near the dryer, to hang things immediately and bring up to closets when I was finished. I'm guessing we hang more clothes than most people and rely less on dressers, which we have no room for.

Here's a trick. Go to Google. Type in: site:www.welltrainedmind.com/forums "the phrase you want" for example: site:http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums "Put That In Writing" The quotes are important if you want the exact phrase, as is the space between the word forums and the first quotation mark. HTH!:001_smile: