It's very teacher intensive...it's by far the most parent intensive thing we do. It works for us because it's my favorite thing to teach, but I totally understand what you're saying...I gave up on Right Start math mostly because it was driving me crazy spending that much time one on one with DS on math every day, and I couldn't imagine trying to do it with more than one kid the next year.

lack of library books is a deal breaker for me w/ the kindle. Between free books and library books, I've only bought a couple of books for the nook, but I've read tons. Very happy with the Nook here (I have B&W, not the Nookcolor).

I think that's a completely legitimate reading of the novel. In fact, I would argue that denying that possibility misses the entire point of the novel. does that make it any less traumatizing? I'm usually fairly easily traumatized, and I loved Life of Pi.

I started doing a sort of semi-low carb thing a few weeks ago (I stay at around 50-70 g a day), and I'm sort of amazed at how quickly the cravings went away. A couple of really yummy 2 bite brownies from Costco just sat in my house all week, and I kept walking right past them. We have Girl Scout cookies here right now, and I couldn't care less! It's a miracle! I've hesitated about doing low carb in the past mostly because I, umm, eat like a five year old and don't really like any vegetables (except potatoes). But this time I'm determined to learn to like (or tolerate anyway) at least a few non-starchy vegetables. I ate like a quarter of a bell pepper yesterday and felt like a superhero. 50-70 g leaves room for some fruit, too (and, er, occasional really dark chocolate).

DH teaches math in GA. I've asked him repeatedly about the new curriculum, and he has mixed feelings about it. As far as I can tell, it's a really demanding, rigorous curriculum that's probably great for kids who easily grasp math concepts, and not so great for kids who struggle with math. I imagine this varies by county, but in our county they now have only two tracks (accelerated and regular), where they used to have three (honors, college-prep, non-college prep). So DH's classes now have a much wider variety of math abilities than they did last year (with bigger class sizes because of budget cuts. perfect combination!). On the other hand, he says that his juniors this year are way ahead of his juniors under the old curriculum as far as math ability goes. The whole department is currently panicking about the graduation test the juniors are about to take. I think the real test might be to see how kids who have done the new curriculum K-8 do when they get to high school....if the curriculum stays around that long. I haven't heard much about how things are going at the elementary level.

My third boy is Gus/August. So I vote Auguste :)

so far...I'm not that far into it. I've read his NYT article before, though, and I'm already more or less on his side, so he has a pretty generous audience in me.

DS5 is doing: *Handwriting without Tears *Explode the Code *Singapore 1a *RFWP's Aesop books lots of readers (right now he's reading an Usborne early reader about the history of Rome) *along with his brothers, he's doing SOTW1, Greek Code Cracker, various books and Science in a Nutshell kits for science *an outside Spanish class *and, of course, lots of read alouds

We have an X-acto (I think we tried to go with one that was pretty much exactly in the middle of available X-actos in price), and it's held up very well for going on 2 years now. We haven't put a pen in it, but DS5 did try to sharpen the eraser end of the pencil once; the metal band pulled off the pencil and got stuck, and DH managed to get it out somehow, and it seems none the worse for wear (the sharpener, not the eraser. The eraser did not survive the incident).

:iagree: (obviously, I think you're making plenty of sense ;)) I don't really know many people who are working in the same field they majored in, really. My husband is, but he's a math teacher with a math degree. He started out doing web programming and learning most everything on the job. And a lot of the people I know who do try to train for a specific career in college wind up hating said career when they graduate and actually give it a try (and then either switch to something unrelated or spend their lives doing a job they hate). I think college is, at least for most people,. a lot more about finding what you want to do with your life than training for it. This reminds me...I was an English major in college, but at one point I briefly flirted with the idea of switching to journalism (before a stint at the college paper reminded me that I hate talking to strangers and this is something of a liability for a journalist). I remember my Dad, who never had any problem whatsoever with my English major, telling me, re: the switch to journalism, "I don't want you chasing after some crazy pipe dream." I guess in his head, English major=future English teacher, so it was very practical :lol:.

Science in a nutshell kits are our favorite

that's how I would interpret it.

I am wading into this thread only far enough to point out that Marie Antoinette never actually said, "Let them eat cake." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake late night dose of trivia for you all.

Tuck Everlasting Charlotte's Web Tale of Desperaux the Ramona books James and the Giant Peach and/or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Little House on the Prairie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe The Hobbit Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone The Cricket in Times Square From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler something by Andrew Clements The Invention of Hugo Cabret

You know, historically I have a harder time with non-fiction, but for some reason I'm finding it much easier to finish than fiction this year... I finished Bill Bryson's At Home last week (review in blog), and now I'm most of the way through Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. It's a lot more relentlessly grim than I was expecting, though I'm not sure why I was expecting anything different. Maybe just because of Seabiscuit? Very good reading, nonetheless. I'll probably finish it tonight or tomorrow, and then I need to take a break from grown-up reading to read The View From Saturday, along with DS, so we can discuss it. And then I have both Swamplandia and Endgame (about Bobby Fischer) checked out--so one of them will be next. Oh--I'm also listening to Gary Taubes' Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It on audiobook

This is exactly the diet plan I came up with when I was 7 or 8. Not for myself...my mom was always trying to lose weight and, not being acquainted with real hunger, I didn't get why you wouldn't just chew the yummy food and then spit it out. I've never actually tried it myself....

If I looked around and got them all in one place, I'm sure I have at least 20 pairs...the majority are from the thrift store, though. I mostly rotate through a few main pairs. I have a pair of Doc Marten mary janes ($5 at the thrift store!) that I wear pretty much whenever they match what I have on, at least in winter. And then a pair of black Vans (from the thrift store!) that I wear a lot. In summer, I mostly do flip flops.

yes.

yeah, I think that's the thing...a small, family gathering is a completely different thing from a big, community event. It's gotten where I'm not really interested in going to those anymore, because at least one of my kids is bound to get his feelings hurt. It's easy to teach lessons about sharing at Easter egg hunts if your kid is one of the ones who finds eggs easily. If your kid is the one who winds up with 2 eggs while everyone else's basket is overflowing, I just can't think of any lesson that I want my kids to learn that comes out of that. And, believe me, I've had plenty of experience trying to put a positive spin on it. When I was a kid, I loved competitive Easter egg hunts. I was good at them. My kids are not, so I see it from a completely different perspective now.

I like life lessons, too, and I don't think there's any shortage of them in the world. Easter egg hunts will always suck unless you change your fundamental personality and become more aggressive isn't really one I'm interested in ;) Seriously, my kids get upset about something or other and I help them work through it every day. Some things are just supposed to be fun. Anyway, you just said that at the Easter egg hunts you attend, no one does get upset. If that's the case, I say if it ain't broke don't fix it.

:iagree: My kids (at least when they're younger) tend to stand there like deer in headlights for the critical first couple of minutes of an Easter egg hunt. Then, later, they cry. It's not really any fun. IME, at hunts with egg number limited, what usually happens is that the older kids get really into helping the younger kids find their eggs once they've hit their own allotment, which is another kind of sharing. ... I don't really care how things happen if no one gets upset, but I've watched my own kids get upset many times at Easter egg hunts. And it's not nearly as much fun to have some other kid give you an egg as to find your own.

I keep almost talking DH into Ezra, but he's never gone for it. Also, Ephraim. Apparently, I really like Biblical names that start with E and DH really doesn't.

:iagree: ...and that reminds me: when I trade a book on paperbackswap, I can print out the postage from home and buy delivery confirmation. I can do that even if I never intend to actually mail the book (not that I would do that...hypothetical I). I realize that the OP specified that the package had been tracked to another state, but I'm just pointing out that delivery confirmation in itself really doesn't mean anything, not even necessarily that the package was mailed.

if the post office lost it, then yes...just like I would expect a company I order from to reimburse my money if a package never arrives.

I've slowed down. Wah! But I finally finished Bill Bryson's At Home last night, and now I'm ready to start chipping away at my overwhelming (virtual) stack of library books. I let 36 Arguments for the Existence of God expire unfinished, alas--maybe I'll get back to it another time. I think I'm going to go with Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken next, and then maybe Swamplandia