When my mom shops with Clinique she always gives me the "free gift" which is packaged in a little toiletry case. Sometimes there's an additional mini-makeup case. I found that one of these mini zipper cases is a perfect pencil case, so I have been using it to keep a nice little assortment of pencils, ballpoints, fountain pen and highlighter right with my planner/journal. Another option is to use a mechanical pencil with #2 1/2 or #3 lead, so you could retract them to toss in the purse. Or even just a pencil with .5mm, #2 lead -- I find that the finer pencil is much less smudgy than a .7mm. (Sadly I misplaced my .5mm pencil and have been using a fatter one! The smudging is starting to get to me!)

You also aren't the only one who's afterschool supplementing, there are a couple of us not home schooling. :) Welcome to WTM!

I don't know about better, but instead of just switches and integrated circuits, they start investigating the effects on the circuit of different resistors and capacitors, and they use transistors and things. But my DS mostly just builds the circuits from the 100 kit and then adds on to them, he hasn't been interested yet in exploring the uses of the other components. He did like building the AM radio.

This. And the characters really flattened out, each playing a caricature of themselves. Texican, is it time to find a good used book store? :) My kids' shelf is slowly getting more stocked with the likes of Bambi, Jungle Book, Beverly Cleary and EB White. My own shelves have Narnia, Jane Eyre, My Antonia. There are a lot of options for when he gets bored of library books and Tales from the Odyssey. ;)

I think you might want to stop and ask yourself what is the goal of teaching literature in your homeschool. Is it about checking off boxes and getting right answers, or about learning to love good books? MCT says, "Is what you are doing literature, or is it only an assignment? If you are answering questions, it is an assignment. If you are questioning answers, it is literature." He also says that classic authors don't write their books to be STUDIED. They write to be read, and they write in rich language that should be folded back onto the content in a holistic way. "Each book is designed to open itself." One challenge here is whether Ender's Game "counts" as this kind of classic. Like raptor_dad points out, it kind of seems to fall short of the quality of writing, coherence, universality of themes that classics usually have. I think it merits a good probing discussion but maybe not a really comprehensive study of every little nuance between the covers? If you want to have a conversation with your son about this, have the conversation. Like Socrates, keep your mind open: "I only know that I know nothing." Your son's theory about the ending is defensible, but it's not what you thought? Then find the point in his theory that doesn't ring true to you, and pull it out to discuss -- without appealing to the Google authority, no saying "but that's not what the lit analysis site said!" But make sure to be humble enough to accept his viewpoint without steamrolling him with your authority either. He thinks that Peter changed through the story and you don't? If you really care, have him find support in the book. Or ask more probing questions to flesh out his theory. Or just be satisfied that he clearly read the book and engaged with it! The latter would be my preference. Over time you'd like your student to be able to engage with the book at all levels of Bloom's taxonomy. But at 6, even a gifted 6, the kiddo's mental processes are mostly still in the "grammar stage", which is naturally lower-order thinking on the taxonomy. Recall and comprehension, etc. But I find a lot of gray area between stages, and I know my 5 and 6yos can do *some* analysis and synthesis, so I'd definitely want to start stretching the bounds of higher-order thinking. As 8 says, it's a process, so don't expect lit discussion at 6 to look exactly like it does at 15. Also note that it takes just plain life experience to even be able to register some stuff, like the motivations of the characters. As SWB says, I paraphrase, "Middle school students don't usually know why *they* do what they do, how should they be expected to know why the *character* did what they did?"

I've developed a hierarchy of bullets. Check boxes give me guilty feelings if I have to carry them forward more than a few times. So instead I sometimes sneak actionable items into regular bullet points. Then I get all the fun of checking them off when they're complete, but if they don't happen, they just drift back into my subconscious until I find another day where I want to do them and re-bullet-point them. :) Eg. today I have check-boxes for "sweep attic" (which I've carried forward twice) and "vacuum/dust bedrooms", but bullets for "go to bank", "buy cat food", etc. A few days ago, "turn the compost pile" was a bullet that neither got checked off nor carried forward. There are just more pressing things. But it might resurface on my next decent day with a block of gardening time. ;) I actually...bought a purse to fit my notebook! I am not a purse person, so since the diapering years ended I've been aimlessly alternating between a shabby, stained nylon tote that is just a bit too big and a cheap little clutch that is way too small. So I got a new nylon tote that is exactly the right size for my 5x8 notebook! I'm successfully in the habit of popping my notebook and pencil case in when I leave the house, and although I haven't needed it, I'm reassured by having it. I have daily to-dos, a mind map that keeps me referring back to projects like the garden and my duties as preschool treasurer; I have a few pages of notes from books, and one page (marked by a post-it flag) for specific quotes; and because this week was going to be busy I jotted a little "week at a glance" into the sidebar of my to-do lists. It's Tuesday, dentist and soccer day, today!

We love nettle season up here in the Northwest! First fresh veg of the season. I actually have a tub of pre-cooked leaves in my fridge waiting for inspiration -- thanks for providing it!! Ooh, plus I have a huge flourishing lovage plant and no idea how to use it...this will be ideal. :) (I also like to make sausage and nettle pie...or just cut up the nettle leaves in marinara...or make nettle and hazelnut pesto...)

The real question is, did he pronounce the ñ? ;)

Beast Academy 3B has a chapter just for learning times tables. There's a nice blend of repetition and variety. My DS is really having fun puzzling through the incomplete-table problems. It might be worth picking up at least the Practice book for that level.

There are a few ways. The easiest way is that most Gutenberg books are in the Amazon store. So you "buy" them for free and they download, easy peasy! But if you want the ones from the Gutenberg site, first download the .pdf or the .mobi version to your computer. Then go to your Amazon account online and figure out the unique email address associated with your Kindle. (Does this link send you to the right place? https://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/manage?ie=UTF8&ref_=sv_kstore_9#manageDevices) Send an email to that address with the .pdf or the .mobi attached to it, and it wil show up on your Kindle! Hope that helps.

I use iCal for events, appointments, and chores. My husband uses it for his work schedule, birthday reminders, and to-dos. It works similarly to Google Calendar in its ability to sync between devices and update in different ways, so we share our calendars and can keep track of each other's days a little. I've returned to using a paper notebook for a planner/to-do lists/activities.

Yeah, something like a 40 with filtration rated for 80 gallons would be a delightful home for 2 goldfish! Maybe choose a 40-long for regular torpedo-shaped goldies, or a hexagon for round fancy goldfish?

Yes, even little goldfish have a lot of waste, and even a filtered 10 gallon tank isn't usually enough for long. Expect about 20 gallons per fish with excellent filtration (sometimes double the recommendation, eg. use two filters rated for the tank size.) The fact that the pH was so much higher in the tank than out leads me to suspect A) ammonia from his waste isn't being cycled and/or 2) there is something in the rocks that is buffering the water higher. How long did you have him, and did you *ever* see nitrite spike and nitrate start to build up? How much water were you changing daily? I once had a betta fish that I wanted to pamper despite my extremely hard, almost "liquid rock" tap water. Fortunately he was happy in just 5 gallons (filtered), so I actually used RO water but I added mineral replacer for freshwater fish (something like this: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4828). It was a huge pain but he grew beautifully as long as I had him, and so did the live plants I grew with him.

Good luck!

We started at 3 or 4 for DD, about 5 for DS. We go because it's an evidence-based preventive measure, and because we have no fluoride in our drinking water so the professional fluoride treatments are fairly important. Because we pay out of pocket we go every 9 months or so. DD turned out to have some cavities in her molars that I hadn't suspected, which were found at about age 4.5. The dentist found them with a probe, without x-rays. Unchecked they would have started to be painful, and could have spread decay to the incoming adult teeth. Catching them small, the fillings were easy and we were able to seal the teeth afterward -- she'll need those molars for a while! I think DS had his first x-rays at 6. DD has yet to have any.

I really like the Kern and Perrin audio linked from here: http://www.amongstlovelythings.com/2013/10/listen-up-collection-of-my-favorite.html

I believe this is what is meant by "strewing" which is mentioned constantly in connection with unschooling families. There may be some philosophical unschoolers who are opposed even to this, but I don't think it's a majority.

http://rfwpsupport.com/forumdisplay.php?9-MCT-Level-4-Discussion Especially see the stickies.

The perfect is the enemy of the good!! My favorite part of planner/journaling is that I force myself to embrace messiness. Ubiquitous capture trumps neat and cute pages -- tough as that is for my inner perfectionist. As a complete aside, putting a star next to a checkbox is impressively motivational. At least during this "new shiny" phase. :) Kind of a MIT thing, but on stuff like cat litter boxes more often than on huge life goals. ;)

Yep, all these named errors have been acknowledged as mistakes and listed for revision in the next edition.

I mostly just skimmed the book, but for example Twilight is on the reading list and there's a whole chapter about how any story that involves vampirism or blood-sucking is a metaphor for sex. I think a couple other places use similar connections in a "nudge-nudge, heheheheh" young teenage immature humor kind of way, trying to hook that demographic by talking about their favorite subject. It might have mentioned all the sex in Chaucer? I don't really remember now.

Mechanical pencil, Papermate Profile ballpoint, Lamy fine nib. The fountain pen definitely bleeds a little, but it doesn't make it unreadable, and I can't help using it for notes and things. :) I did notice about my über-productive 2009 journal that I used mostly pencil. Something about the impermanence of the marks makes it easier to use with abandon? I'm trying to use mostly pencil on this one. I also read a thing on the Art of Manliness site that quoted a 1920 Boy Scouts manual, instructing boys always to use hard pencil for field notebooks, because pen bleeds in the presence of water and soft pencil smudges with lots of use. ;)

Yep! :lol:

Hera. How about "gray eyed"?

I'm very washi tape tempted! I'm finding the grid paper very usable (phew) and it's going really well so far (2 hours in! But to be fair, I started back up with to-do lists in the back of my old notebook 2 days ago.)