No dryer I'm afraid, we're rural and off grid - no extra power for a dryer. Normally, this time of year would have heat and wind to help me line dry. Of course, we've just had 3 days of pouring rain and now it's still misting and dead still... I've put the inside fire on to dry the most important items quickly.

Yes, my child is in for some heavy duty brushing! 😉

So, child who is old enough to know better, was asked to help by moving laundry from dirty basket into washing machine. Said child also scooped up other items to put in the washing machine. Said child did not do this carefully - even as I called out to double check the items - and so managed to also scoop up 3 books (highly likely left there by said child in the first place) and deposit them in for a whole wash cycle. Imagine my surprise to find my washing machine full of paper mache... Oh, it gets better. I was washing some particular items because we have a wedding to attend tomorrow. Said items are now covered in that paper fluff, despite a thorough (anger fuelled) shaking out and rewash by me. I need those items cleaned, rewashed and dry within 24 hours! Can you help me, Hive? Please?! P.s. they were only stupid Minecraft books so I'm less angry than I potentially could have been. They completely disintegrated.

You give me hope. Or maybe my dh, since he's the neat one around here!

I agree. We own bows like this, they are unstrung and stored in a safe place where children cannot help themselves. My child's world would end if they were playing around with one and injured someone. Neglectful and unacceptable. I'm sorry lavender's green, hope your ds is okay.

Yeah, that's why she does it. So you're kept on your toes, easier to manipulate. No way would I be falling all over myself to facilitate this - nor would my children. "Sorry mom, gee you couldn't have picked a worse date! If you wanted my/my children's help you needed to talk to us first. Good luck"

Awwwwwww huge congratulations!

Just say no. You've already put waaaaay more thought and care into this than your mother did. No, my children are not on call interstate nurses.

They know what Pokemon is, it's eeeeeeeevil! My kids play Pokemon cards and we get a decent amount of side eye for it from certain quarters lol.

Isn't this basically what SWB says irt Homer/ancient texts? It's one of the first ideas that wooed me to classical homeschooling. After sitting in my literature lectures and the professor ranting at us because no-one knew anything about Dante, Milton, homer... Fahrenheit 451 was a bit meh for me. I can see why they use it as a shorter/easier 1984 for high schoolers. It had some interesting ideas and a couple of striking scenes, but I think if you read 1984 first it really doesn't pack the same punch iykwim. I loved moby dick. I thought it was lovely. I did it on audio book though! On the too young thing, I'm guilty of that with my oldest too and try hard to not do it anymore! Dd read TKAM this year age 13. She picked it up herself and I wasn't involved at all. Apparently, it took her a long time to get the white and black characters straight in her head! I don't know what that says about us, but she didn't immediately/easily pick up on the stereotype characterisations...

Non intellectual re-read: I've been adoring Catherynne Valente's stuff. Deathless was a masterpiece. (She's not not intellectual, definitely quirky, gritty, beautiful but not a classic tome)

I'm with Texasmom, read them Russians! Loved Anna Karenina. Crime and punishment is phenomenal. I know it's going to get tomatoes thrown my way, but I loved Atlas Shrugged. Rand is certainly... forceful in her opinions but I thought it was an excellent book. I actually read Atlas and Grapes of Wrath right next to each other and that was a formative experience! I still tear up listening to RATM's song Ghost of Tom Joad. Someone mentioned Age of Innocence and I agree, loved it. The ending was perfect. Tale of two cities. Little women and the rest. What Katy Did. Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane. C.s. Lewis. Abolition of man especially.

The girl who circumnavigated fairyland series is a good one. Once he's finished Gregor, Hunger Games has a strong female lead. Cherie Priest just brought out a YA novel called I am Princess X. My teen daughter liked her adult stuff which was darkish, steam punky and had kick ass female leads.

I do think that using some of the only leverage we have - making men sh!t scared of false accusations, so afraid that they change their behaviour (like women change their behaviour all the time due to fear of rape/assault) - is a good start to part of the answer. In the absence of obviously clear evidence to the contrary, I will always err on the woman's side. There's enough in this world against us. Like the 17 year old in Ireland who's 27 year old rapist walked free recently, even though she had been a virgin and he was witnessed strangling her in the mud. The rapist walked free because the underwear the victim wore was too sexy...

I promise, my walking barefoot kids have legion of shoes around here. Keeping them on when I turn my back is a different skill apparently...

Oh don't worry, Bill has form.

Reverse sexism isn't a thing, women as a class don't oppress men as a class historically or institutionally, so don't stress texasmom. It's like accusing someone of reverse racism. Not the most intellectual of insults. Eta - maybe 12 too? Poor victims of reverse sexism.

I like that. Seasoned. With all those salty salty tears (mine and my kids')

Oh yes. Everyone used to joke that my mother needed a t-shirt that said "Don't ask me to marry you- I say yes!" She married the 4th husband when I was 17 and I moved out. For me, it was a literal feeling of throwing up my hands, not my problem anymore. Our lives had been a succession of losers moving in and out. It's the same thing every time. We ran into problems because I put a stop to the cycle and wouldn't let her introduce random 'friends' to my children. She won't listen to anyone, not even counselors. She loves to give advice and judge other people's relationships.

I like that!

We bring our bibles. Even my 5 year old brings a picture book bible. I think that getting into the habit of reading and double checking is very important. I've been in a few services where the minister was... taking liberties with the text and having the whole passage, in context, in front of me kept things clear (no, we didn't go back!) I also like any chance for myself or my children to flip around, learn the context, see how it's all put together. We like to highlight and note take too. Our church also has the main verses on screen and read out. And there are bible's available in the foyer. Plenty of people bring digital bibles or just read the screen & listen too. I wouldn't say there's a one way culture in our church, no-one bothers anyone about a right way.

Dd also just said that in Khan academy there's a section in the computer animation part about storytelling which she says is really good too. Lots about character/story structure etc. Pixar in a Box Art of Storytelling it's called.

With fractions, we try to draw or use manipulatives for everything. I use graph paper and we draw and slice. Actually, we draw in most math topics. Not understanding the leap from 1/4 of 40 to 1/4 * 40 can be shown in drawing. I'd let her draw a square, cut it into 40 equal pieces - drawing attention to the fact that she's now made 40 equal groups which is multiplication/division! Then I'd ask her what we are actually doing when we multiply. Forget fractions, use simple numbers first. What actually happens when we multiply 4*2? We're adding 4 equal groups of two. I'd do this in pictures/manipulatives. Then, what happens if you have 4* 1/2? We're adding 4 equal groups of a half. I'd draw a circle, cut it in half and ask 'how many equal groups of a half do we have? How many do we need?' 4, so draw one more circle and cut it in half. How many equal groups of a half do we have now? 4! How many whole circles is that? 2! Then I'd follow the same process for 40* 1/2? 40 equal groups of a half. 40* 1/4? 40 equal groups of a quarter. For the last one, I'd go back to her square cut into 40 and ask her how she would draw 40 groups of 1/4. I might suggest drawing a cross in each square like a window, then colouring in 40 of the small window squares. If she doesn't see herself, point out that 'wow she's coloured in 10 of the original 40 squares, or 1/4 of the original big square!'

Cool! Glad she liked it. It's on my list. Dd is halfway through Uglies and says it's good. ?

Something like Groupon I think... ah here it is: https://www.groupon.com/deals/writestorybooksforchildren-com-11-honolulu To be honest, dd just dips in and out doing a module at a time when the mood strikes her, but she has got a fair bit out if it and notebooks full of writing!