...I'd also point out that the "Washington outsider" theme is a really common one in presidential politics....by my count it's one that 4 of the past 5 presidents have used in their campaigns; it's both very common and very effective. I think it's also interesting that both campaigns this year are seeking to conflate the idea of a campaign having an overarching theme and that being the only thing the campaign has. McCain wants us to believe this of Obama--he's all talk of change and hope and no substance. Obama wants us to believe the same thing of McCain: "he talks about why I shouldn't be president all the time becuase he doesn't have anything to say about why he should be president." Now, I happen to think one of these ideas is more effective than the other ;), but they're both making the same kind of rhetorical move here.

I'm always a little surprised when people ask this question. I guess I just see things differently. I think the broad strokes about what kind of changes Obama proposes are laid out over and over again in speeches, campaign ads, etc. and the details are spelled out on his website for anyone who cares to look at very specific proposals, numbers, etc. Affordable health care for all Americans, troop redeployment with a definite withdrawal date, tax breaks for the middle class (and a reversal of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest 5% of Americans to restore the rates to pre-2001 levels), aggressively pursuing alternative energies and other policies to eliminate dependence on foreign oil, a different and less reckless approach to foreign policy, ethics reforms in Washington to reduce the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups (one very concrete "change" you can already see in the Obama campaign is that it doesn't take money from lobbyists). To name a few. I think a lot of the message is simply that core Democratic values resonate with most Americans this year in a way they didn't in the past few elections. As someone or other (Kerry?) pointed out last night, the Republicans were in control of both Congress and the Presidency (and the Supreme Court) for the first time in decades between 2000-2006, and people are, overall, not happy with the results (80% of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to polls). It's not hard to see why a "change" message makes sense this year.

I've been told that in GA, schools are required to provide services. I just found this site, though: http://www.hslda.org/strugglinglearner/sn_states.asp ...and it looks like it's true--NM doesn't require schools to provide special education services to homeschoolers. If you have health insurance, have you already checked to make sure they won't cover it? Our insurance company covers 40 visits a year for my son's speech, although they did give us some trouble about it. They told us they would only cover it if the speech problem was due to an injury or a disability. He has a hearing loss, though, so they really didn't have much basis for turning us down.

That's up to them. They have all the options, so they can do whatever they want. My 7 year old has already dropped his first last name (i.e. my name) when he talks about himself or writes his name. That's perfectly fine with me. When they grow up, they can use one or both or something new altogether, and do the same for their kids. That's one of the reasons we left the hyphen out (the other is I just don't like them, aesthetically); it makes the names seem more detachable. I'll be very surprised if they grow up, get married, and decide to use three or four last names on a daily basis. But I guess stranger things have happened.

thanks, paula! brownie house? I'm all over that :tongue_smilie:

not at all :) The 100 Stories book covers a broad range of history, but it's not really comprehensive--it's more a "snapshots from history" sort of thing. I don't think it would really work as a stand alone if it's important to you to give your kids a full understanding of the timeline of American history (if, on the other hand, you just want to introduce the subject to them and make it fun and interesting, it'd be fine). We've really enjoyed Scholastic's "If you lived...." series (several of the titles come with AS 1, and I've added in a few more I've found), and a selection of titles from it would give you a pretty good overview of things. There is some redundancy if you do all the reading, but not a whole lot (especially if you're not getting the "Make your own" packs). We can do all the reading in under 30 minutes on an average day. We don't go over 45 minutes or so unless we're doing a particularly involved project. It's really not very heavy reading, and I say that as someone whose kids don't always have the best attention span (at least when they didn't pick out the book ;)). As far as the activities, it really just depends on your kids. So far (we're on week 10, I think), it's largely paper craft stuff. There's a book of 3D maps, which my kids thought was pretty cool at first, but then they have you do 1 or 2 a week, and it just got old fast for us. Of course, you don't have to do all the activities they have scheduled.

Teamsters! We have a winner! Teamsters and Nixon....hmm, why doesn't that surprise me? ;)

DH and I planned to do this, but then the paperwork seemed like too much trouble, so we just kept our own names. The kids have both of our names, no hyphen, though. I didn't realize it was a Mennonite thing :)

Pace yourself! Make up a schedule so that you finish up season 4 a couple of weeks before the new season starts. Otherwise, you'll get nothing else done with your life until you're all caught up. Trust me--I know! (and I only had two seasons to catch up on!)

thanks for the link! Re: WP--it's not them, it's me ;). I think AS 1 has come about as close as a prepackaged curriculum can to being a good fit for us, really. The amount of reading is just about perfect for my kids' ages and attention spans. My kids have liked most of the books. I guess my issues are mostly with the activities--there's a lot of coloring and cutting and pasting kind of stuff, and my kids are just not into it. And I'm a little disappointed with the "Make your Own American History" book. On the sample pages on the website, they show a page where the kids design a sign for their colonial business. And I thought that was great (and it was--the kids loved doing that page). But most of the pages aren't like that--a lot of them are just read and color pages. I've started making a set of my own pages that are more like the "colonial business" one in fact. This year I kind of wanted a break from planning and something that was already scheduled to keep me on track. But now that I'm all rested up from my break :), I'd rather spend this year getting things together and have something that's more exactly designed for my kids' particular interests and learning styles. And it doesn't hurt that I can save some money that way, either.

There's boxing? where's my boxing?!

We got ours a few days ago....I just finished my 30 minutes for today :001_smile:. It's pretty cool, and it's easy to pop on for a few minutes while the kids are around (although that means they all want a turn, too, of course). I have to say, I don't really feel like I'm working that hard on it, even when they say I'm being a "calorie torcher." And it's not like I'm in such fabulous shape or anything. But maybe I'm going to lose 50 pounds and become incredibly fit with minimal effort through the magic of the Wii, who knows? I also wonder if balance is really as incredibly important as my Wii seems to think it is? I have learned that I have absolutely no ability to do a push up anymore--none whatsoever.

Out of curiosity, why are you opposed to merit pay? On principle, or because you think it would just be too difficult to implement fairly?

Well, again, he spoke out in favor of merit pay for teachers at the NEA convention, even though he was booed for it. Just to name an example that's relevant here. He didn't "flip" on Iraq. That was the strangest spin coming out of the McCain campaign I've ever seen. And I'm really surprised that the McCain campaign is interested in making an issue out of "flip flopping" anyway (Bush's tax cuts, offshore drilling anyone?)

Are there ANY unions that have endorsed McCain? Are there any unions that have EVER endorsed a Republican candidate for president? I mean, I honestly don't know--probably there are--but it's certainly not common. Given the absence of a candidate that shares their views on homeschooling, it makes perfect sense to me that the NEA would endorse the most pro-union candidate. He disagrees openly with the NEA on a number of points, including his support of merit pay for teachers and charter schools (in fact, he was booed by some people for mentioning these when he spoke at the NEA convention). The NEA didn't endorse a candidate in the primary; that they endorsed the Democrat in the general election is hardly a shocker.

If you have a Kitchenaid mixer, the food mill attachment is the greatest thing ever for making apple (and tomato) sauce. I slice and cook the apples (no need to core) then toss them in there--it spits seeds and skins out one end and applesauce out the other. There's a lot less waste since I don't have to core them (and I put the seeds and skins part through a second time to squeeze even more sauce out). Plus it's kind of fun to watch.

Well, we got our Wii because DH's aunt won one in a raffle and asked if we wanted it :D. But I used Wii alerts to find the Wii fit, and got one from Best Buy about 2 days after I signed up, so it worked well for me.

yeah, that's 3 seconds I'll never get back ;). J/K! really, I could have said AS 1 in place of WP one place and been much more precise.

And I believe John Irving explores this thoroughly in The Cider House Rules. Maybe we need a book club spin off from this thread :tongue_smilie:

I also wasn't making any kind of accusation that someone's "not doing their part." I was just pointing out an unfortunate reality about adoption in this country.

right, but that's not how the adoption thread of this thread (got that?) got started. I was responding to someone who suggested that the availability of adoptive homes for infants was an argument against abortion. I was just pointing out that there aren't homes for all babies, not saying that that meant people should rush out and get abortions. But the fact is, if I were an African American woman and/or someone who knew she was carrying a child with special needs, I would not have the same confidence that my child would end up in a loving home that a white woman carrying a healthy white baby would have. I was just reading an article yesterday about how some agencies are starting to place African American infants in Canada and other countries because there's such a lack of adoptive homes for them in the US.

wow--thanks for the list, Lori!

eh, never mind.

right. Sorry--I wasn't very clear--I'm looking for stuff after 1850 because that's when the WP stuff I already have leaves off, and I'm not planning to use AS 2 next year (although I will be looking at the books they use for AS 2 and probably getting some of those).

Our room is half school room/half playroom (we call it our schlayroom). It works out fine for us...we're big fans of multi-purpose rooms around here (I say as I type in my "moffice" or music room/office :))