I run a book club for 1st through 5th grade...but it's turned out to be mostly 6-8 year olds. We read (either parents read to kids or kids read on their own) a chapter book once a month (we've done James and the Giant Peach, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Cricket in Times Square, et. al.). For the meeting, I do a guided discussion for the first 40 minutes or so and then a simple craft or project for the last few minutes (often as basic as making a poster to go with some part of the book. Simpler is better when it comes to kids, crafts, and me ;)). I try to introduce a literary term or two for each book (we've talked about setting, point of view, identifying parts of a plot, similes, etc) and then try to get them to draw some conclusions about the broad themes and what the author is using the story to convince us of. All of that said, that's probably a bit much for 5/6 year olds. I do have a few 6 year olds in my group, but the 8 year olds are really the ones who grasp the ideas the best and are the fullest participants in discussion. Another idea--a friend and I are doing a mini-class for our own kids, having them do the Caldecott winners literature pocket book by Evan Moor. So each week we'll read and talk about a Caldecott winner and then do the pocket (which usually has a little craft to go with it). We've only done the first week, but it went pretty well. We were planning to do it as a class for 4-7 year olds at a local homeschool co-op, but the spring session was canceled. If that had worked out, we would have used the Evan Moor book as a guide and to get craft ideas, but probably not done the actual pockets, because they do call for a fair amount of writing (I think the book is designed for 1st through 3rd grade).

ooh, that's exciting news about the Wii! Finally ours will serve a purpose other than causing my kids to scream at each other! I signed up for my disc.

DH is a teacher. He gets paid sick days (5 a year, I think?) but he doesn't take them unless he really, really needs to, because it's so hard to deal with getting/preparing for a substitute.

If John Adams wanted to be remembered as a guy who helped found America as a Christian nation, he probably shouldn't have gone around signing stuff like the Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Tripoli (1797), which states: http://www.adherents.com/people/pa/John_Adams.html Adams considered himself a Christian, and, as such, I do, too. But it's worth noting that plenty of Christians today wouldn't apply the label to him. He rejected the trinity, questioned the divinity of Christ, and was a universalist.

I've looked the Kay Arthur stuff before...so you think her stuff would work for any denomination? Ooh! This looks good! I looked for something like the Penny Gardner outline awhile back--suggestions for passages kids should read--and couldn't find anything. so thank you! How far have you gone in the Journey through the Bible book? Are you happy with it? The samples on Amazon looked good. Our old church was just about to start up Godly Play when we left...it did look good. We wanted to find somewhere closer to home, though...the church we think we might end up at now is very small; they don't even have Sunday school. They have children's church during part of the service, but it's only for a few minutes, and it's for kids preschool on up--so not a lot of rigorous study. It really is! I know lots of non-religious homeschoolers, but I'm not sure I know any other progressive Christian, not evangelical, not Catholic homeschoolers (IRL, that is). I'm so lonely :tongue_smilie: Thanks everyone! Lots of good ideas here; I'll look over all the links more carefully when I get some time.

I know this has been done, but I still don't seem to have picked anything I'm happy with, so indulge me one more time? We are...still sort of between churches, but we're leaning toward a Lutheran (ELCA) church right now, coming from a UCC/congregationalist church. So anything that works for any of the mainline protestant denoms (Lutheran, Episcopalian, UCC, probably Methodist, etc) would likely work for us. I'm looking mostly for my 8 1/2 year old, as I'm pretty satisfied just reading and discussing Bible stories right now with my younger kids. I'm not even sure what I'm looking for. We tried Memoria Press' Christian Studies awhile back, and he really didn't like it....so I think something less workbooky. What I'd really, really like actually is some kind of Bible commentary aimed at 4th-6th grade or so. He's a strong reader and can read from the actual Bible no problem (we use the NRSV), so I'm fine giving him stuff to read and then talking about it with him, but I'd love it if I had some kind of guide. Something that offers some analysis/interpretation (or maybe talks about how different scholars have interpreted a passage), perhaps with historical/cultural background info. Does this exist?

pointer/lab mix???

Finished Persuasion last week, and I'm on to Michael Pollan's book about gardening, Second Nature now. I'm hoping to get inspired in time to start seeds next month!

Do you have to decide right now? Could they take the dog for now and then you all revisit the issue once the house is sold and you're settled in a new place? Things may look different once the stress of selling the house is gone; you may find a dog would fit into your lives again. Or you may find your friends and the dog have gotten so attached to each other that it's better for everyone if she stays with them.

I had no idea what mine was set to. I checked and changed it now.

Ours is up! Link in sig.

I lived in Boston for a few years (and most of my life in GA), and one thing I'll say is that a heat wave in Atlanta is much easier to deal with than a heat wave in New England, because everyone here has air conditioning. In Boston, half the restaurants didn't even have it (at least our part of Boston). It gets just as hot in NE as it does here, it just doesn't STAY as hot for as long. And you can generally count on it to cool down significantly at night in NE, which cannot always be said for Atlanta.

ooh, they're opening one in Florida? We went to the one in CA this past September. There are lots of rides, most of them only exciting for the under 10 or so set. There are also lots of miniature towns and cities and such made out of legos to look at, some shows, some places where you can build with legos. In CA, I believe there's only one table service restaurant, and it's not particularly great. The restaurant experience isn't on the same scale as Disney by any means. It's a fun little park--we'd just done 5 days at Disneyland, and Legoland was a nice relaxing change of pace kind of day.

NPR.org has a new feature where they list several books that have been talked about on the radio during the week. I found it last night, and my Amazon wish list has grown exponentionally: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120012205

My four youngest (half) siblings were/are all homeschooled (they range from 8 to 21 now)

Ours is up!

I just finished Barbara Brown Taylor's Leaving Church. For this coming week, I'm attempting to decide between Wendell Berry's What Are People For? and Jane Austen's Persuasion.

I was going to mention selective mutism, too. My son hasn't been diagnosed with it, but I suspect we could get a diagnosis if we sought one out. He doesn't have the stomach aches, but has had, at times, other symptoms of anxiety (pulling his hair out, raging and acting out when he feels insecure, etc). He saw a therapist for awhile last year (when he was 7)...not sure if that's what helped or not, but he's gotten much, much better over the past few months especially. I think 5-6 was the absolute hardest age for him; 8 has been much better. This year is the first year I haven't had to basically shove him through the door of any class he's taken; he goes in to them willingly, talks in class (!), and has a good time. I hear over and over again about kids with anxiety that 5-6 are the hardest ages; I think it's just a time when a lot is going on in a kid's life, lots of big adjustments to make and suddenly more is expected of them socially, and it's really tough. I'll also throw this out there just in case: my son was diagnosed with a pretty severe hearing loss in his right ear when he was 5, and I definitely think having that going on undiagnosed when he was younger contributed big time to the social anxiety stuff. He passed his newborn screen, so we had no idea until a standard hearing screen at his 5 year checkup. Likely your dd had a screen at a check-up sometime recently, too, but just thought I'd mention it in case she hasn't.

Roald Dahl could keep her busy for awhile.

I said #2. But mostly because the #1 neighborhood sounds like it would be a terrible fit for me. I would gladly sacrifice some yard space for community/walkability if it were a neighborhood I'd be comfortable in (although more acreage would make it a tougher choice).

it does sound intriguing! putting it on my list!

We like "Are They Thinking?" critical thinking curriculum from Tin Man Press. I know I originally heard about them somewhere on this board, but they don't seem to come up often.

Ours is up!

It makes me happy that this administration has the needs of Lost fans on its mind.

Hmm...he sounds a little bitter. I guess my experience was a little different than what he describes, in that everyone I encountered was very quick to warn potential humanities grad students that the job market when you graduate is really tough. People definitely need to go into grad school with their eyes open about the realities of academia these days, but I don't have quite as negative a view as the author of the article does. I went to grad school (an English ph.D. program) for all the wrong reasons, but I knew that that's what I was doing. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, and I knew I loved literature, so I figured it was as good of a next step as anything. My program was fully funded, so I didn't take on any debt (although I was pretty poor for awhile). I learned a lot, I made good friends, and I gained some experience in teaching. I quit after my oldest son was born (I have a master's, but not the ph.D.). I don't regret it at all, even though no tangible benefits have come out of the experience. What would I have done instead with those years right out of college? With my English major, I could have gotten a low paying entry level job somewhere that I likely would not have found as fulfilling as grad school, and I would have quit anyway when my son was born. The author seems to be looking at things almost entirely in economic terms. It's certainly true that no one's going to get rich (and few will even become relatively well-off) with an English phD. And certainly that's something any potential phD student should be aware of. If you won't be happy unless you score a tenure track position at a good college, you probably shouldn't do the phD thing. But if you see grad school and higher education as a valuable experience in and of itself and you're willing to be flexible with your career choices when you're finished, then why not go for it? I don't think there's anything wrong, really, with finding a way to spend a few more years learning full time about a subject for which you have a passion, even if that's all it ends up being. Everyone I've kept up with from grad school seems to have fared well, whether or not they're working in academia. One friend quit our program to go to journalism school, and he's been working as a newspaper reporter for years. Two people from my program ended up going to law school. One runs a small farm, homeschools her kids, and has published a couple of books. As far as I can tell, everyone who sought a job in academia was able to find one, a few in tenure track positions. I guess I don't disagree with the facts the author of the article presents, and I do think it's essential that potential grad students are aware of those facts. But I don't reach quite as negative a conclusion about the value of the humanities phD program as he does.