Peela, I went to a talk the other day about worm farms/composting, and a couple of people raised the heat issue. The lady said on those really hot days to put a frozen bottle of water in the top of the worm farm. She said to open the lid just a little so the water drips out as it melts. We do something similar with our rabbit when it is hot, except we don't want the water to drip out, so we keep the lid tightly closed. We use a plastic milk bottle, usually. Miranda

Looks interesting, thanks. Miranda

Hi everyone Can anyone recommend a reading comprehension program for a gifted 11yo? Thanks! Miranda

Here "water" does not have any of the three "sounds of A" as mentioned in AAS, and I have modified AAS to reflect that. Here (in Australia) we have five sounds which "a". Our sounds are: short a bat long a baby (b - ay - b - ee) ah bath, father (b - ah - th) aw water, all, fall (w - aw - t - er) o was (w - o - s ; pronounced same way as pot etc) Was is taught as a rule breaker in AAS, but with our (more English) pronounciation there is a rule for it ("o" sound after a "w" sound, even after a "qu", is almost always spelled with an "a" - exception/rule breaker is wobble) and so we teach that rule. I am ignoring "air" as in Mary, as there aren't many of them and if and when they come up I'll treat them as rulebreakers. These five seem to be the standards ones taught here in the schools. My kids haven't had any issues with the extra sounds, and I did modify some of the teaching accordingly, and to add in things like the rule mentioned above. I've put together list of changes I made and they're on AAS's support group, together with some additions made by other people. Miranda

I have amended AAS to reflect the five sounds that "a" has here (Australia). The five sounds we use are: a

It's not a curriculum, but the CSIRO http://www.csiro.au/resources/Education.html has some great stuff you can use. Miranda

Peela, have you checked out Open University Australia? Very flexible, and lots of units can be studied for interest, but still combine to make a degree. Lots of Arts options, and I think psych as well. Some sciency ones too, but I haven't looked at them in great detail. There is a BA-type Bachelor of Communications available, not sure of any work outcomes though. Studying online isn't for everyone, but I see you've listed that as an option. Miranda

Could your water be too hot? I have this idea that if the water is too hot it kills the yeast. Also, is it (the room) warm enough? Miranda

Lisa, I am in awe! Isn't it a wonderful feeling when dinner is in the freezer. I do big batches of spag sauce and have to cut lots of onions, though not as many as you! I have a blender that is almost halfway to a food processor, and I do onions in that. I still have to peel and quarter them, but then I just toss them in and press "chop". I do them in batches, and as someone else said if you don't watch it you can get mush. Actually, sometimes mush isn't a problem, depends on what I'm doing. Miranda

Hi everyone, particularly grammar experts! Life these days is full of TLAs (or four letter acronyms, or two letter acronyms etc) and I find myself unsure how to pluralise them. I tend to do it like the previous example, as I like kittens. Many people, however, would write TLA's or ABC's etc. Is there a definite rule? In my mind the definite rule is "never use an apostrophe to make a plural" but I find myself uncertain... Miranda

We use AAS as afterschoolers... It has made a wonderful improvement. Miranda

I'm envious. Rats keep eating my passionfruit... I *love* passionfruit and am about to abandon my previous live-and-let-live approach to rats. Miranda

I've adapted All About Spelling for Australian spelling which as far as I know is the same as British spelling. (I've adapted the first four levels.) If anyone wants the adaptations I'm happy to pass them on. Some rule breakers in AAS like "was" are not rule breakers in our English, which is nice! Miranda

Sometimes you can find a grown up... Good luck! Min

Are you near a Bunnings or similar? They might have something. Miranda

I purchased it and was thinking of doing it with my (will be) 7th grader next year. I see that it says 8th grade and up, but when I look at it I think it will be fine to do it the year earlier. Will find out !!! Anyone done it with younger kids? Miranda

I also love All About Spelling. I recommend it to anyone who will listen. :) Miranda

We use real and really differently to Americans. I always think "really" should be used in the same way as "very". I am driving really fast; I am driving very fast. (Actually, I don't!) "Real" - this is a real rabbit as opposed to a toy rabbit. Love to hear other thoughts! Miranda

Rosie, don't worry too much about things that haven't been covered yet; all will be revealed! I'm also working through AG as a self-education exercise. I'm a few units ahead of you, but it it's all been shelved at present while I'm working on other assignments. You're in Australia, aren't you? When you get to the punctuation bit you will probably notice that we handle end punctuations differently when using quotation marks. That's one difference I noticed on a quick flip through, but I'd love to hear if you notice any other US/Aus-etc-English differences. I feel like I'd notice any differences along the way, but you never know! Two minds are better than one! (And, if I'm totally confused and you're not in Australia, please ignore me!) Bye Miranda

Angie, I haven't used any of those, so can't comment. I have downloaded and started - but life got in the way ;) - the NaNoWriMo booklets. They're intended for National Novel Writing Month, but could be used at any time. There are versions for elementary, middle and high school aged kids. I've got the elementary and high school versions printed out and I think they were completely secular. http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/workbooks Not sure if they're what you want, but at least they're free and downloadable so it won't cost you anything to find ou! Miranda

I'm doing Rosetta Stone Dutch, and so are the kids. It is an immersion method so, as far as possible on a computer, it is how you learn your own language. You see a picture - for example - of a red ball and hear, say, read, type etc the words "red ball". Later you'll see a picture of a girl kicking a red ball and learn "the girl is kicking the red ball". Eventually "the girl wants a red ball but hasn't got one". That kind of thing (not a specific example... now that I've got so far into my explanation I wish I'd picked "playing" instead of "kicking"!!!). There is a grammar component, but isn't a "writing lists of verb"s kind of grammar. You see and hear the sentence and then have to choose from, say "kicked" or "kicking" to make the sentence correct. They also often show "he kicks, she kicks, they kick, they are kicking, they have kicked" etc. For me, I think it is great. The kids think it is a bit dry, but it is the best thing we've found as Dutch is a "small" language. Not all of the language companies even offer Dutch. Now, if you wanted to learn Spanish, French or English as a second language there were many more choices. I don't think it would be difficult to add an extra formal grammar component if you wanted to. Miranda

We have a composting loo on our boat. So far, it has been a success. When it wasn't leaking. Better than a holding tank, though. Nan - how does this work? What sort of "tank" size do you need? I'm thinking that it would need to be a good size? Miranda ETA - sorry, I'm not very good qt quoting from previous posts. The first line is a quote from Nan's post...

We use Rosetta Stone, the homeschool version - me, the full curriculum, and the kids are doing the speaking and listening version. If your result falls below some line determined by the software, it suggests you repeat the unit. I think this is enough, as there is so much repetition as you go through the whole unit. Occasionally I'll go back and repeat a unit if I don't think I got it adequately. Miranda

I'm an antique too, I remember the hand beaters. My mother had one and used it regularly when I was at home and when I moved out I had one too. It was rubbish though, kept bending and getting caught on itself so I tossed it. I did discover hand whisks though, and use that intead of the hand beaters. I've even made meringues by hand with one of them, though generally I'd recommend using a stand mixer! Oh, my arms ached after that! Min

Is the phonogram bingo different to the dog walk game? DD is loving the dog walk game... Miranda