I keep a Word file. My list: "Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom" Ignorance more frequently begets confidence, than it does knowledge. –Charles Darwin Perfect Practice and Preparation Prevent Poor Performance. May you live in harmony with exactly who you are and may your creativity and talents light up the world with love and peace. "Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire." William Butler Yeats "Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand. " ~Native American Proverb~ Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning, the devil says, “Oh, crap, she’s up!†Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But everyone is not entitled to their own facts. – Patrick Moynihan Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if no one believes it. Remember the tar baby; you are attached to what you attack. Do unto others 20% better than you’d expect them to do unto you to correct for subjective error. –Linus Pauling Procrastination is the natural assassin of opportunity. The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces. Motivation, Dedication, and Teamwork are weapons against life’s challenges. – Armando Morales Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard. It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. – Mark Twain The Seven Deadly Sins: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Worship without sacrifice. Politics without principle. –Mahatma Gandhi The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. There’s nothing like work to help get over disappointment. Working up to your potential should involve work. The person who risks nothing does nothing; has nothing. Everything will be all right in the end. And if it’s not all right, then it’s not the end. "You may have tangible wealth untold; Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be - I had a mother who read to me." --From Strickland Gillilian poem Repetition is the mother of retention.

First Grade. First and Second Grade were considered "Unit A." Third and Fourth were "Unit B." Fifth and Sixth were "Unit C." In First and Second, they gave us yarn necklaces with large index cards on them. Our names were on the top. The bottom, largest area was divided into three parts. The first number was one's homeroom. The second number was math. The third number was Social Studies. The numbers were all color coded. I don't recall if our Social Studies classes were mixed (First and Second students mixed together), of if some First Grade teachers taught Second Grade Math and vice versa. So if I had a: 3 6 2 I would have Mrs. T for Homeroom (Room 3), Mr. C for Math (Room 6), and Miss I for Social Studies (Room 2). This was also a good system to help point lost kids in the right direction during the first weeks of school. Of course, we traveled as a class together to gym, music, and art rooms.

Define "homeschooling." Yes, MotherofBoys is "homeschooling" in the morning, but why not count what happens in the afternoon? If you read to your kids in the afternoon, isn't that Phonics? If you pull out the paints, or even just color in colorbooks, isn't that Art? If you go to the park with friends, isn't that P.E.? If your child collects a spider in the kitchen, and you identify it together using the internet, isn't that Science? If your child counts cups of flour in the cookies you are making, isn't that Math? If your child writes a note about not doing piano until Mom finds the Dinosaur curriculum, isn't that writing/spelling? The problem with my examples is that they are not structured. And so what, if that is what works for you? Your P.E. doesn't end after 40 minutes (it may go for 2 hours and 40 minutes), and it may be a different time each day. Art may create 8 new paintings, rather than the 1 or 2 in a public school setting. Or no paintings if your child would rather play with playdoh today. Science will be more impromptu, but also more relevant than studying pandas in China, since your child will identify another Zebra Spider a week later in the milkweed patch. Just because you don't think you are doing "school" until 3pm, doesn't mean that you are not. Tee hee: you should tell her that your kids homeschool through supper! ETA: fixing spelling and grammar

A couple more, inspired by the last few days: 1) Your kids cannot relate to any of the "First Day of School" books: Berenstein Bears First Day of School Little Critter First Day of School Curious George First Day of School Seriously, why are these books in my house??? :laugh: 2) Dad comes home and asks, "What is _____________?" referring to some mess the kids are playing in. It's always some science or art project...probably some brilliant idea of Mom's that looks crazy to someone walking into the middle of. Unfortunately, this happens at our house all. the. time. Yesterday dd6 had a plastic bin full of water and rocks and pony beads. Also, the big food scale (can weigh 5 pounds of food) was down off the high shelf. Dad wondered what dd6 was doing. :confused1: We had been re-enacting Archimedes' crown experiment. The rocks were the gold; the pony beads represented the gold that had been stolen and replaced with silver. Lucky dad. He has to live with us. He never knows what he will walk in on. :lol:

You're so lucky!!! This is one thing that Massachusetts libraries used to do when I lived there. (I don't know if they still do). I wish Iowa would offer this.

1) You buy bug cups in bulk. 2) You buy glue by the gallon...and you've done this more than once. 3) Your 6yo speaks Latin. 4) Your child owns more sets of pajamas than any other sort of clothing. 5) You've mummified something. 6) You've had a science experiment on the dinner table while eating dinner. 7) Instead of playing Cowboys and Indians, your children play Romans and Barbarians. (Didn't somebody's children strip off their shirts, paint themselves blue, and have a pillow fight while shouting, "Death to Rome!!!") 8) You've considered writing a curriculum. 9) You've written a curriculum. 10) Your children learn cursive. 11) You own goats. (Isn't that required? I rather thought one was issued a goat in the second year of homeschooling. We're still waiting for ours to arrive.) 12) You can name several different curriculum for each of the following: math, phonics, science, history, handwriting, writing, and Latin. 13) Your child talks about things that the rest of the relatives don't understand: pulsar stars, the Silurian Period, and why Sumatran orangutans are different from Borneo orangutans. 14) You celebrate the first day of public school by not going to public school. It's rather an un-holiday, kinda like Festivus. Maybe we need a thread to name the first day of public school. 15) You have ever maxed out the number of books your library allows for checkout. 16) You know who Charlotte Mason is.

As a PP said, in the first year, just language: ESL and, if you can do it, continue her Mandarin. If you can keep her fluent in Mandarin, she will have such a gift from you!!! Speaking in Tongues film :( Netflix doesn't have it yet. The concept of the film is that schools are learning that it is better for students to keep them biligual rather than to tell them to not ever use their native tongue. ------------------------------------------------ Congratulations on your new daughter!!!!!!! :party:

The Buddy Files (series) --from the pov of a dog. We're half way through the series, and my dd6 LOVES it. A Tale Dark and Grimm -- NOT FOR EVERYONE. Modern version of Grimms' Fairy Tales. We are listening to it on tape, and the reader is hilarious. "And now, we get to the good part of the story, if by good, you mean violent and bloody." Dd6 loves this story, too, and I tease her that *I* will have nightmares from the story, but so far, she and I have both slept fine. A good story if your children are not squeamish, and like this kind of story. This has also been a good lesson on how "fairy tales" weren't always the sanitized/Disneyfied version we know today (not that there is anything wrong with the Disney version). Diary of a Fairy Godmother -- audio, I could not have done justice to this book in the way the reader did.

Extra resources (not a substitute for an actual curriculum): SpanishDict.com -- Spanish Dictionary, with a verbal player for any words you look up. See what youtube has to offer if you get stuck on a specific concept. Again, not a substitute for an actual curriculum, but a good help in a limited situation.

There are no shortcuts. The secret to doing things well is to practice, practice, practice. There are no shortcuts. Most things, if you want to do them well, you need to practice. -------------------------------------------------------- I also use these opportunities: Whenever dd6 is happy that she can do something new (ride a bike, do something new in Gymnastics, achieve competence in a swim level, and her drawing has come a long way this spring!), I ask, "Why do you think you can do it now, when you couldn't do it before?" If dd6 does not know the answer, then I prompt her, "Could it be that you PRACTICED? Most things, if you want to do them well, you just need to practice." She is starting to figure this out. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Is it possible that he does not need so much repetition to learn certain skills? Some kids need 20 problems to learn a concept. Some only need 5. Disclaimer: Other families have done this, but we have not. Would it work for your family to offer your son to do only the odd exercises, and if he gets them all right, he doesn't need to do the even ones. BUT 1) He must do them independently. 2) He must not grumble or complain about doing the half assigned. 3) If he misses an odd one, he must do ALL the even ones, too, because he obviously needs more PRACTICE. *tee hee!* You could also assign two even problems for each odd one missed (plus fixing the odd one). 4) If he has difficulties with this concept in the future, he must come back and do the remaining even problems with NO COMPLAINING. If this concept doesn't stick in his brain, you could always come back and do the even ones. Be careful before instituting this practice. Tell your son you will TRY it for a week, then two weeks, etc. At whatever point this system quits working for him as a learning process, it's back to Mom being a meanie! GO MEAN MOMS!!!!

1) CONGRATULATIONS ON THE NEW PREGNANCY!!!!! :party: 2) The best advice I got concerning homeschooling when pregnant with #2 was, "Just plan that you will fall behind, and be okay with it." 3 ) Work while you can. You don't even know what kind of pregnancy you will have. Some moms end up on bedrest or have spotting problems. I was lucky enough to not have any of that, but I could barely walk for months and months because of hip pain, and I threw up every day. Have a Plan B for days during the pregnancy that you are not well. Be okay with shorter days if you need it. Some days, you may just run through flashcards. Other days, you may do only art.

We sing Months of the year to "Ride a Cock Horse." January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December's the end! Sing them again as fast as you can!!! Of course, we sing this while turning around in circles faster and faster! :laugh:

I don't work significantly out of the house. I am just a SAHM, and we homeschool. That's it. Although Loverboy enjoys his job, I would wonder about sending him back to the university to pick an interesting project on which to work because he likes lab work. We would work it out for him to self-fund the research. (Imagine a post-doc arriving, and saying, "I have $35K for equipment and supplies, and you don't have to pay me. Can I work on your research project for free?") A part of the agreement would be that our girls could use the lab space for chemistry/biochemistry experiments when they hit Middle School and High School, and the lab/university will take care of chemical disposal.

As I understand it, the purple water is NOT sanitized. It is called purple water for the color of pipes used to take the water into your house. You would still have regular (sanitized water) from the city water plant to come out of your sink taps. Purple water (from rainwater, or less santized from the city) is used for your toilets, laundry, and lawn. Not all areas use purple water. It is just starting in some bigger (SW United States) cities. I think Phoenix is using it for all new building. However, I live in Iowa, and I'm not sure that we will ever get purple water here. I think of my Grandmother's story of the dustbowl years. (She was born in 1920, and she lived in North Dakota). She spoke of no rain for years. At a certain point, her dad lost the farm or sold the farm, and they packed up to come to Iowa where her mother had been taking care of HER grandmother. When they got to Minnesota, everything was so GREEN. And when they got to the Iowa border, there was WATER ACROSS THE ROAD.

Ugh! Me, too! I think I'm the only one in the house that realizes that if no one is in the hallway, you don't need to have the hall light on!

Even just to let him know he didn't get away with it. It would be doubtful that you would get $$ from him, unless he is a more ethical person than he has shown to be so far. He backed into your yard, and he shouldn't have done that. He caused damage, and he wasn't responsible enough to double-check if he had done harm, or to contact you about it. Outside garbage cans aren't cheap. What if he had run over the family dog? ---------------------------------------------------- I have experience getting money out of people. PM me if you really want the money and need some pointers.

How do I reconcile extreme rationality with faith? It's okay to be on a journey. It's okay to not have all the answers. It's okay to keep seeking, and to change your mind, and change your mind back again 5 years later. -------------------------------------------------------------- I am not intending any of the following to be offensive to others. Currently, I count myself as an atheist, although I am probably more of an agnostic. I am also constantly reading and seeking, and I am open to moving closer to a Deity (God) if I feel motivated to do so. With a science-oriented mind, I seek evidence. However: In the spiritual realm, I have decided that God (if I felt there was evidence for his existence) mostly asks three things of us: 1) Love God (self-explanatory) 2) Love One Another (self-explanatory) and 3 ) Love Yourself. This doesn't mean to be self-centered, but it means: --brushing your teeth every day --getting as much education as you can so you can provide for yourself --be honest in one's dealings so one has a good reputation --be frugal with one's money, to save for a rainy day --eat healthy and exercise --don't share your body sexually with those who would not value it --avoid drugs, and use alcohol sparingly or not at all So, did Noah's Ark and the Flood really happen, or is it figurative? Does it matter? Nowhere in the triad of love listed above should a parade of animals and a great deluge affect how I am living my life for God. Was there really a Garden of Eden, or is it figurative? Does it matter? Nowhere in the triad of love listed above does a story about a magic tree and a talking snake affect how I am living my life day to day. Did Jesus perform all of those miracles, or is it folk story? Does it matter? Nowhere in the triad of love listed above should I be doing anything different whether Jesus walked on water or whether he went skiing in the Himalayas. Let me re-emphasize: I am not intending any of the above to be offensive to others. I know many take the bible literally, and I'm sure they have strong reason to do so. I just don't see the point in getting bogged down in Bronze Age details when one either chooses to follow God today, here and now, by living in love, or not. Oh, I am sooooo going to hell, aren't I?

I wonder if green infrastructure would also reduce erosion (in a waterway/river/creek). ----------------------------------------------------------------- There is also a "purple" water system in Phoenix or Las Vegas, if I remember correctly. It uses purple pipes for non-potable water that is used for toilets, laundry, and watering lawns. http://www.pdxpurple.com/resources/guides-and-publications-2/articles/what-is-purple-water-2 ---------------------------------------------------------------- There is a NYC park made from unused train line. http://www.thehighline.org/ ------------------------------------------------------ Bike trails may be considered Green Infrastructure, too, if they link work and home and encourage bicycle commuting. I wonder if electric buses would be green infrastructure, too. They would decrease greenhouse gases. I don't really know if any of these listed above are green infrastructure or not. I'm just throwing out ideas.

That does suck. Situations like this make me want to believe in karma. At the very least, can you hope that his beautiful white truck was scratched up and damaged more than the cost to replace the garbage can? I have more evil thoughts on this, but I'd probably better stop now.

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I've seen over and underpasses for deer and other wildlife. I know in Australia, the Kangaroos use them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_crossing Do a google search for "Wildlife crossing photo" for more examples.

For next year: One kid (not mine) did a poster on nutrition in eggs dependent upon what the chickens are fed. He had compared regular eggs with those supposedly enriched to provide an extra vitamin. (Vitamin D? A???) His introduction discussed how this was claimed in advertising for eggs at the store, and he tested/compared the yolks of the eggs. For this year: History of a specific breed. I'd be curious about that. Where did it come from? How long has it been in the U.S.? Was it bred for a specific purpose? Different types of goats: p. 6 Market Goats Dairy Goats Pack Goats Cart Goats Fiber Goats I never even knew there were more than milk or meat goats. What is the purpose of each type of goat? What breeds are popular for each type? Are all types still used in the U.S.? Would we see all types here at the fair? Difference between Domesticated Turkeys and Wild Turkeys. What is the History of Turkey Domestication? When did it occur? What is the goal of breeding turkeys today (more meat? more breast? faster weight gain?) How is a turkey egg different from a chicken egg? Compare goat meat with beef, pork, chicken, and turkey. What does goat meat have that other meats do not have?

This was our first year of Clover Kids. Dd6 took a stepping stone and a Coral Reef Diorama. She also had a poster from the Communications Contest a few months ago (highly recommended!) You can choose whatever you want for the poster. Dd6 chose Snow Leopards. The judges for both the Communications Contest and the Fair were very gentle with the Clover Kids. They really, really, really want the kids to come back and do this again next year. For her poster, dd6 went up front and was asked, "Do you want to say anything about your poster?" and "What was your favorite thing about Clover Kids this year?" Dd6 was nervous, but I reassured her that "I don't know," is an acceptable answer. For the stepping stone and diorama, the judge asked many questions of how she had made each item. All Clover Kids receive a green "participation ribbon" for each item (including the poster). Blue, red, white, or purple ribbons are not distributed at this age. Other Clover Kids took birdhouses, origami, necklaces, tied fleece blankets, lego creations, a fairy garden, a battle scene, etc. ------------------------------------------------------------ Whether Clover Kids can take animals to the fair or not may depend upon each county. Contact your local fair or Clover Kids Leaders for more information. ------------------------------------------------------- In reading OP original post, I see that your dd will be 5 in November. She may not make the cut-off for Clover Kids this year. (We didn't a year ago; dd was not 5 on September 15th. :sad: ) Check with your local 4H office before getting hopes up. If this is the case, use this next year's fair to scope out ideas for fair ideas and what your area offers for Clover Kids age. In our area, there is the Communications Contest, Photo Contest, and Tech Fair (two Clover Kid friends each submitted a movie). I'm crossing my fingers in hope of a Junior Lego League.

Why surprisingly? Just curious. Good question. I think I feel that way because my Usborne lady is deeply religious. That's probably not a very big sample size. :blushing: We've used a LOT of Usborne in our homeschooling so far. The science books have all been evolution-friendly, and the quicklinks all reinforce this. I have no disappointments with their nonfiction books.

When older dd was 2yo, I did in-home daycare. Among my kids was a friend's 2yo, and (from another family) a baby. One day, the friend telephoned to say her 2yo son H would not be coming to daycare because he had Chicken Pox. "Are you sure?" I asked. "Oh, yeah, because we wanted him exposed. We took him to a Chicken Pox party a few weeks ago." :banghead: So then I got to telephone the mom of the infant (who was too young for the vax) that her baby had been exposed to Chicken Pox, and she might be needing to miss a two weeks of work to spend with a sick infant. Oh, and she only gets two sick days a year from work, and her husband is gone as much as he is home at this time of year for the research projects he runs at the different lakes around the state...so she's be handling this sick infant alone. Moral of the story: if you choose to not vax, that's fine, but please do not send your kid to hang out with other peoples' babies after he has been knowingly and purposefully exposed to the virus. It gives ALL non-vaxers a bad name, and they don't deserve that. :rant: So if he caught it at camp, that assumes that someone else at camp had it also. Do you happen to know the source that the child caught it from? Was it someone recently vaccinated, someone else with wild chicken pox, or someone with shingles? Incubation time for Chicken Pox is 2 weeks. He was likely infected a couple of weeks prior to camp. One is contagious for two days before the first spots appear, so, yeah, letters to all the parents.

I think that it is your homemade soap. I have had a bad experience using homemade soap. I know many here swear by it, and I have IRL friends who swear by it, but I was not impressed with the batch of homemade soap I used. It was adequate, but in our experience, we are not a terribly messy family. Any stains I pretreat. We don't live on a farm. I don't have sons. And Loverboy works at a lab where he needs to change into scrubs to enter the lab area. He's not a farmer, a construction worker, or a mechanic, with seriously dirty clothes every night. It's not as if we needed heavy duty laundry soap, and it was not obvious that the homemade soap wasn't working. So I was babysitting for a little 2yo boy at this time, and he peed his pants. To help the working mom out, I threw his pants into the washer with our homemade soap, and ran them through the wash. When they came out of the hot dryer, the dryer reeked of urine. (We used disposables at that time, so I couldn't have known the soap was ineffective on urine). I think that it is your homemade soap. For dd2, we use cloth diapers, and we wash them in cheap laundry soap + a downy ball full of vinegar. Warm water, extra rinse. ETA: Nastiness to follow: We don't use a soaking bucket for our cloth diapers. I hang them over the side of the bathtub to dry or elsewhere in the bathroom to dry before throwing them into the dry diaper hamper. Allowing them to dry eliminates the opportunity for wicked ammonia smell. For poop, I use a kitchen pan scraper to remove the poop to put directly into the toilet, and wipe the scraper clean with toilet paper to put into the toilet. Then I wash the scraper in the bathroom sink. I then lay out my mostly poop free diaper to dry until I can do a load of diapers. Hang in the sun after washing to sunbleach stains.