I had someone at Mc Donalds tell me that I must be "passionate" about homeschooling; scary thing, I didn't know I had said that much about it....Wow, wonder what I say when I realize that I'm talking about it. Carrie:-)

She's still young; she'll grow and write better paragraph's when she's interested in the topic. You give her the tools now and she'll use them later. I was just reading my 10 year old's paper that has 3 paragraphs on it. WOW, I have to believe that her writing will improve with age and maturity. Carrie:-)

Are cases like this across the board? And, maybe kids should just ALWAYS be supervised. That's what I assume happens when we send kids to school; adults are present when their are children in the classroom. I'm glad that my children are kept unsocialized at home:-) Carrie:-) Whose children do ballet, drama, and other interactive activities...with an adult present.

I wanna live in a 70 degree year round spot with no biting bugs and good jobs for my husband...Where should I live? Cuz, what i love about winter is that it gives rain to make my summers green! Carrie:-)

(I wanted to make DD a doll treehouse ... with these dolls, some of which I have already made... *sniffs with disappointment*...) Wow, these dolls are great! Carrie:-)

Sorry for you as you go through this time.....Praying that you'll be able to homeschool just as soon as possible, and that your husband will have lifted spirits soon. Carrie

:grouphug: I often think about when my parents are gone, if I'll miss them as much as I believe I will. We're kinda best friends, no one else always has time for you! (even that 15th call!) Sorry for your loss; I'm sure the holidays are especially hard as you pass through them this first time. Carrie

Just wondering if I'm by myself in homeschooling without my child's other bio parent agreeing. Have many of you had to go to court over homeschooling?? Thanks! Carrie;-)

I like what I purchased for my son http://www.nurtureminds.com/ It takes the child all the way through addition, subtraction multiplication and division. I also let him play with cuisenaire rods and unifix cubes. He loves to connect legos...and we do oral math all the time. He'll go around saying....1+1 is 2...2+2 is 4....all the way up to?? I'm not sure how far he's gone. He also skip counts to School House Rock and Classical Conversations' cd, which is the once a week homeschool program that we go to. He also likes to write/draw on the whiteboard that's on our wall. (It's actually a shower wall that we bought for $15 plus a back board at Home Depot. If you get one, make sure to get the low odor markers) Carrie:-)

When I called Seventh Generation, they said to just use half as much. I just use a little.... (maybe even a third) and it works perfectly. I use liquid. I've used many different kinds of detergent, but I use detergent that is pretty "natural." Carrie:-) (I've had it for maybe....3+ yrs.)

This is crazy, huh? Sometimes the government just has too much time on their hands. Why do we pay them to make our lives miserable...??? It may be with good intention, but it's gonna kill the kinds of businesses that I like to support. Carrie;-)

That's how I imagine my son reading! A good way to drive your mama crazy while doing something that would usually make me so happy..... Carrie;-)

I'd let him...and know that sometimes when you fight an urge, it gets deeper...and deeper. You may let him and after a while his interest may wane. I know that the spots where my step kids have been told what they need to do by their mom, who says she listens to their desires and goals...anyway, where she's fought them...they've actually bent more in the direction that they wanted to go. They are very smart, sweet girls...but her trying to force them in her beliefs has not worked. (They are with us half time.) This sounds like an incredible opportunity, and as long as you can trust the leader....I'd go for it. (You might even talk to the leader about the direction you'd like your son to go...) Carrie:-)

I like our abacus that we purchased from http://www.nurtureminds.com/ It goes through addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I ordered the package and an extra abacus. Carrie:-)

I think that in breads WW fresh flour is great! Chocolate Chip cookies, you can't even tell, and I feel so much healthier eating them! My mom got some really light WW berries last time...and the bread was so much lighter, my 4 year old (at the time) thought it wasn't Grammy's bread. (I cheat, my mom makes all of our bread.) Carrie:-)

My kids 16, 13, 10 and 5 will all still listen to a book read out loud, especially if it's their dad. Carrie:-)

Maybe she loves herself TOO much! Who cares if she can afford to pay Bob? If she spent that time and money say...mentoring a young person, she could do a lot for society! Carrie:-)

There are IEW co-ops around, and I think doing IEW in a group setting is a great help. Carrie:-)

That's awesome! Wish my tummy could be pushed towards being "in" ! Lucky You! Carrie:-)

You know, my son had a problem with throwing up when he was little. Different, but frustrating. He would also throw up almost every time he was in a car. I resolved that when I had specific problems with my children, I would take them to specialists. I took him to a pediatric ears, nose and throat specialist. My son had been dealing with a sinus infection for over 6 months! I found out that it was a true sinus infection when I had a scan done of his sinuses. After treating him for a twice the time of normal antibiotics (21 days?) he was done with this. No more throwing up....he did have a little bit of problems with something....once more. But, it was never as sever. The specialist said that children's symptoms just don't show themselves the same as adults in these cases. Also, even though I nursed for a long time, my husband did treat me to a few nights where he would feed rice milk in a bottle to my son, if he woke up. Is there a g-ma or g-ma person around you, who could do this? If you're in Oregon...I'd come over:-) Also, can you elevate the head of whatever bed/crib he's sleeping in? Oh, and after reading this post...you could pop him in bed with you. Some would say, "NO" but I'm pretty sure that that's how babies slept in Bibilical times...and in most cultures, now. Babies are in the middle, until the next is born. If you nurse...he could nurse and then get back to sleeping...I had my son's bed up against ours...with the side off of his bed..... And...he might be going through a huge growth spurt....My son ate every couple of hours...round the clock...for the first year (and maybe longer) He has an incredible metabolism and I felt like an iv. (But, he is shaped like a skinny green bean!) Good Luck! Carrie:-)

Hi There, I was just talking about this with my mom, who does Latin with my girls. She was wanting to know if the Memoria Press' Latin in this new addition, is stressing conjugations and also accents. She finished Latina Christiana I and II and is doing Henle, now. But, she might want to have this instead of "teaching" like she is now. She commented that it was sure nice to have a dvd to pop in every week. Has anyone actually received the program yet? Thanks! Carrie:-)

If it's molasses, which is the only "sorghum" I know about too, then you can use it when you make bread or things like crepes. It keeps a long time, so you don't have to worry about it going bad. We also use it in our wiener bean pot, which is basically baked beans, molasses, sauteed onions, dried mustard...and beef wieners cut up in chunks....stuck in the oven and baked for an hour. Anyway, you use 1/4-1/2 cup of molasses...We make alot of it...cuz it's great as leftovers, too! Carrie:-)

I have a running, jumping, crazy 5 year old son. He jumps up and down as we do his phonics. Can your son sing songs that he's memorized? We do all of his learning by repeating, chanting, singing songs.... Even though he'll only write when he wants to, he can sing a ton of info. And, we can check out cds from the library by readers such as Jim Weiss. (Yay! For free!) I've thought of buying one of the balls that kids squeeze when they need to release energy; he uses his ball that you jump around one...to jump around the front room while we're learning. My son likes the little magnet that sticks to our fridge, that you use to put letters in it...and it says the sound. It's actually pretty accurate. I'm not sure if you'd want to try something like this... If he likes computers, he could use the computer to do some reading, maybe? If it's a problem, I'd hate to dissuade you from getting help, but....I've heard that if it doesn't become an "issue" that children without learning disabilities will learn to read by the onset of puberty.

I have to say, that while I feel bad for your neighbors, this might have been over a 13 yr old's head. Not the cat box...that's easy. BUT, dogs usually have to be walked to make sure they "go" and I would never leave my dog at my house...inside just walking around... and think that a neighbor could just let them out. Now, lying to you about everything...that's another issue. But, this may have been a set up for trouble. Just my 2 cents. (And I do feel bad for your son...and I'm sorry for your embarrassment for your neighbors) Carrie:-)

Those from New Jersey and such...do you consider "Bare" and "Bear" homophones? You have to be there to realize that they aren't said the same, everywhere. I grew up in TX and when I went to New Jersey, people were constantly telling me that I said my name incorrectly. :-) My name is "Carrie" and they would say..."Is that Kerry? or Carrie??" Before moving there...I had no idea I said my name incorrectly:-) (To say it like in NJ, if I wanted them to "know" my name...I had to almost blow out the "Ca" part of my name...hard to explain.) BUT, I do remember when my dad use to say, "Carrie Berry" my mom would say that those two words didn't sound the same. Carrie:-)