it's true--McCain has apparently decided that torture isn't so bad after all: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/washington/13cnd-cong.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin to be fair, neither Obama nor Clinton made it back to Washington for the vote.

My kids, especially my oldest, insisted they couldn't stand the real syrup when we first switched over. We just let them put jam or butter on their pancakes instead for awhile. But eventually they caved, and of course now they're always talking about how much better real syrup is.

It's an excellent read. And I second Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, too. I'm reading Marion Nestle's <i>What to Eat</i> right now, which is more about the health end of things and less about the ethics of eating. Michael Pollan has a new book out, too, but I haven't read it yet.

I used to get The Nation and Sojourners, but I've let them both lapse for now. I keep meaning to check and see if I can get an online subscription to Sojourners instead...I hate either tossing magazines or having them pile up all over the place. Oh! I still have a sub to Brain, Child. I love that one!

yes--my dh watched it with me. he liked it. It wouldn't occur to him to be uncomfortable about it.

brownies with no eggs and no sugar...mmm...sounds good! ;) j/k--I googled and found this: http://www.pioneerthinking.com/eggsub.html got anything on that list?

now, see, I make homemade bread all the time (without a breadmaker. I knead it by hand and everything), but I am, ahem, not so great about changing sheets. I enjoy baking more, and I'd rather have homemade bread than new sheets every few days, so that's just how it works out. I would have time to change sheets if I cared more. Like when I had new babies and diapers and breasts were leaking on my sheets every night, I somehow found the time ;)

thanks to both of you for your thoughts! juls--there's a university near us that does testing at fairly reasonable rates, too...I've actually got an e-mail in to the women in charge of testing, but I haven't heard back yet. There wasn't much information on the website, so my main question was what sort of testing might be useful and how we'd decide. Maybe they have the same system with a questionnaire to help us figure it out. He's already had an OT evaluation (at his audiologist's suggestion--I didn't feel like it was really what he needed, and it didn't yield much useful information. "He's a puzzle, isn't he?" concluded the occupational therapist. Yes, isn't he? We knew that already) and he's in speech therapy for articulation issues (or at least he was until the insurance company started giving us trouble. argh--another phone call I need to make).

My oldest son, 6 1/2, has an assortment of issues, some of them probably having to do with giftedness, and some of them probably not. We've thought for awhile that some sort of evaluation or testing might be helpful in figuring out where to go next with him, but I'm not sure what/who exactly he needs. Basically, I'd like an all purpose "What's going on with Ari?" sort of assessment, someone who will sit down with us and talk to us about what he needs, whether he'd benefit from some kind of therapy, if there's anything we should be doing academically and/or socially that we're not already....and, while we're at it (but maybe it needs to be a separate thing) I'd like to have an IQ test for our records as there are some programs we might want to take advantage of in the future (if he qualifies that is) that require them. A quick (or as quick as I can!) rundown: He's extremely shy--to the point where it's a major, major event for him if he says a single word to someone outside of close friends and family. He's been in the same sunday school class for a year and a half now, and just in the past few weeks has he started reading out loud in there and occasionally saying "hello" to his teachers. This is a BIG deal for him; he's very proud of himself for working up the courage to talk at all. We suspect we could get a selective mutism diagnosis if we sought one. He has a hearing loss in one ear that was diagnosed when he was five; he's had a hearing aid for just over a year, and that's helped a lot; it had gotten to the point before that where he had trouble talking even to extended family whom he sees regularly. He has trouble socially. I'm not sure how much this has to do with the hearing/anxiety stuff and how much is something else. He has friends with whom he plays really well, but other kids he just can't seem to get along with. He misjudges their motives--thinks they're being "rude" or "mean" when they're just playing around. He can't seem to distinguish between real aggression and play fighting, I've noticed. And it's very frustrating for me to try to help him make friends, because he'll never strike up a friendship in a group situation; it always has to be one on one. He also recruits his very sociable 4 year old brother to join him in being angry at other kids for some imagined slight, and I hate to see Milo miss out on making friends because he feels like he has to along with his big brother. And then we have the usual stuff with perfectionism, hyper-emotionalism, not wanting to try anything that doesn't come easily to him, etc. etc. Maybe I should be posting all of this in the special needs forum. I'm not sure. But I do think the perfectionism is at the root of a lot of it...if something isn't easy, if he's not sure he's doing it right, he doesn't want to do it at all. That's true not only of academic stuff, but being out in the world, interacting with other kids, too. I've noticed he is much more at ease socially in structured situations--playing games with rules, etc. At any rate, I want to be sure anyone we talk to understands this about him and is familiar with giftedness (and I feel presumptuous even saying that since we have no "proof" that he'd be considered gifted, but, you know--taught himself to read at 3, reads 4 grade levels above his age, fascinated with negative numbers at 4, blah, blah, blah. I'm pretty sure he'd qualify for gifted programs were he in school, and I'm pretty sure some of the typical traits associated with giftedness are at the root of some of his behavioral issues). Well. That was long. I feel a bit sheepish posting this, since I haven't posted much here historically, but I have been meaning to forever, so why not? Any advice on where to start looking would be much appreciated. I'm not even sure what kind of professional to call: behavioral ped? child psychologist? neuropsychologist? Our ped has not been especially helpful ("well, I could refer you to a psychiatrist....if you want.") I don't know if I want. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of myself as a kid (not the extreme shyness, but the social troubles and the perfectionism). So on hand I think, "I turned out okay" and on the other hand I think it's not just an issue of whether he's going to okay in the long run, but of whether we can do something to help him be happier and have an easier time of it right now. Okay. /novel. thanks to anyone who's made it this far!

I'm in Cherokee, an hourish north of Atl.

We have a drought going on here, so we've made a conscious effort to cut down on water consumption. Pre-drought, we aimed for every other day. Now I'd say we're averaging a little less than twice a week (with spot cleaning as needed, of course).

I read the Long Winter in the middle of summer a couple of years ago, and it was really incongruous. And then a few weeks ago I came across something about how you can soak wheat to make it soft and then eat it without milling it, and I felt really bad that no one had told them that and saved them all those hours and hours putting wheat through their coffee grinder to make flour.

I had this same situation when my son was 5; we did SOTW that year, and honestly I wish I had waited. It's pretty easy to find readings that coordinate with whatever reading level he's at when you start (in the activity guide, it usually tells what level each book is appropriate for as a read aloud and what level for independent reading). If I had it to do over again, I would have had him do mostly the first grade recs for grammar and math and then maybe done some unit study type stuff for science and history (or whatever his interests were) for the year. He would have gotten a lot more out of SOTW if we'd waited a year. Of course, I'm sure it depends on the kid. You could always give a try and see how he does with it, and be prepared to put it aside for a year if you need to.

I'm ridiculously excited. Dh and I have been watching some of last season on DVD to whet our appetites. the only (non Netflix) shows we watch our Lost and American Idol, and we pretty much only watch American Idol out of habit these days.

I have carrots in the garden that WERE doing okay, but it's snowed a bit lately, so I need to go check on them. I think I could grow a few things outside year round here (in N. Georgia) except that we have so many trees and the sun's so low in the sky that the garden gets pretty much no direct sun for a few months (it doesn't get much even at the best of times). I keep meaning to get a window box (to keeps cats and little fingers away) and grow some stuff inside...I hear turnips will grow ridiculously well, even in a non-sunny window. I don't know how I'll get anybody here to eat turnips, though....

History: I'm pretty sure we'll do Winterpromise's American Story 1 (with my younger DS joining in) Math: Singapore 3A/B Science: I'm trying to decide between Noeo Chemistry and putting my own stuff together. I'm not sure I'll love Noeo, but I think having it laid out will keep us from neglecting science as we tend to do. LA: he just started FLL 3, so he'll be working on that until around mid-year next year. And I have my eye on SWB's new writing book. And I'm trying to decide whether or not to start Latin next year.

except now I see only the first two workbooks will be out...okay, then--will I be able to start with the second grade one?

I'm excited about this, too! Will it be easy/reasonable to start in the middle with the first volume? My son is mostly doing 2nd grade work right now--would I be able to pick up with the 3rd grade workbook in the fall?

we're at 60-62 during the day, 56 or so at night.

Free dining has been offered the past 3 years from sometime in August through September/early October. They haven't announced yet if they'll have it this year (historically, they announce it in April). We've been the past two years in September. We stayed in Pop Century last time, and were very pleased with it. We got two connecting rooms for less than we paid for one room at the Wildnerness Lodge the year before. You can also stay off site and get a good deal, but you can't get the dining plan that way. The disboards (http://www.disboards.com) are a great source--you can find out much more than you ever wanted to know about WDW there.

Ari's reading the Wizard of Oz, alternated with Henry and Beezus, and I think he has a Magic Tree House book in there somewhere that he hasn't picked up in a month but still claims to be reading.

I'm seeing 3 levels....the preK/K that spends a lot of time going over individual letters, then the advanced K that just reviews for a few weeks then jumps into reading, and then an accelerated K. Is it the middle one that you're saying is pretty challenging? He's sort of maybe on the verge of sounding out words...he can read the easiest of the Bob books with some help, but it's hard to tell how much he's really reading and how much he's just sight reading familiar words and/or guessing based on the pictures and the initial sounds. But we're still 4 or 5 months away from when we'd start, so who knows what could happen by then...

I'm thinking of getting it for my then newly 5 DS to use next year. I like that it has different levels to choose from, as he already knows his letters and basic letter sounds, so he doesn't need a lot of time on that. We've tried Phonics Pathways and 100 EZ lessons, and he gets bored very quickly. I think he needs something sort of....shinier. More color, more hands-on stuff, etc. Any thoughts/opinions? Thanks!

I'm another who didn't post much at all on the old boards, but I like this format much better.... I'm Gretchen, mama to 3 boys--6 1/2, 4 1/2, and newly 2. Ari is the only officially homeschooled kid. He's doing SOTW 2, Singapore 2B, and we just started FLL 3. He likes reading ("books are better than toys"), drawing, making books, and gymnastics. Milo's less interested in academic things at the moment. He's doing Singapore Earlybird, listening to lots of library books, and sitting in on SOTW and science when he wants to. He likes robots, superheroes, and aliens. Gus is 2, so his main interest is in destroying things and trying to give up naps. But he's cute.

you should definitely call the school district and ask. I think it might be a federal thing that they have to provide services for special needs, but I'm not sure. My six year old has been in speech therapy (for Rs, too), and we've just run into some trouble with the insurance company that we may or may not be able to resolve. So I may be going the school route myself soon. I know I've been told that in GA they have to offer services, at any rate.