I wish we had a board just for book recs! Anyway, I wanted to pass this on: Nic Bishop is a photographer who has several books out with marvelous photographs - they're great for exploring more about the Kingfisher 1st Animal Encyclopedia articles that WTM suggests using for 1st Grade Science. Right now my public library has his books on: Lizards Butterflies and Moths Marsupials Frogs Spiders, and Secrets of Animal Flight These are really cool books - whether you want to search for them through interlibrary loan or buy them. Just wanted to let you all know! Mama Anna

It's been awhile since I've read it (so I don't remember specific scene difficulties) but I would chime in that the themes are mature. There's a lot of hate and the majority of the book is about carrying out a meticulously plotted revenge. If I remember correctly, the main character doesn't get much satisfaction out of it by the end, but the rock hard hate/lack of forgiveness that stretches through several hundred pages would give me pause when thinking of elementary students. For middle-schoolers, maybe. High-schoolers would probably deal well with it. Just my $.02! Mama Anna

We're right in there with you! My 4th-grader has been groaning for weeks. My 1st-grader is as excited as she can be in such a downer atmosphere. I'm scared - I've got the work all planned out, I have a general idea of the schedule, but no clue how I'll deal with the two of them together. We'll see! Good luck to you! Mama Anna

I haven't read all the replies, but what I've done is: #1 Buy a training bra from Walmart or some such place for about $7-8. #2Make sure I have a couple bra extenders with the right number of hooks from the fabric store. (Walmart might have them, as well.) #3 If the shoulder straps aren't long enough, cut them at a point that the adjuster won't have to go over (often in the front) and then add in some similar-width strap from an old bra. If you use a 3-stitch zigzag on a sewing machine you don't have to worry about it coming apart very soon. These have worked for the past 1 1/2 years, anyway! Good luck! Mama Anna

We've done 4.5 days for years. It worked pretty well to do the 3Rs in the mornings 4x/wk and then do Hist/Sc/Hist/Sc/Music or Art Appreciation in the afternoons. Now that dd9 is in 4th grade I'm moving up to 5 days a week. (And trimming two weeks off the end of the year.) I think I'll need the extra time for Latin, vocabulary, and working between the two girls. We'll see how it works! Mama Anna

First of all, :grouphug::grouphug: I can speak to this a bit from the kids' side. My paternal grandmother moved in with us when I was about 5 or so and lived with us for about 3 years, I think. She was suffering from Parkinson's Disease (with the dementia element) and it was . . . interesting. On the one hand, those are the only memories I have of her. I sometimes resent that, because I know she wasn't that paranoid/demented when she was raising my dad and yet it's hard for me to picture her in any other way. But she's the only grandparent I have more than one memory of, so that's good. On the other hand, it was very hard on my mom. The care required was constant and more than Mom could really handle. She (my mother) later found out she'd had multiple small heart attacks during those years and was finally told by her doctor that either she or her mil would have to go to a rest home - the situation could not continue. That just about broke Mom's heart. She'd promised to care for Grandma and wanted to keep her word despite the difficulties. My parents put Grandma in a rest home nearby for about a year and then (due to the nature of the dementia) moved her down near where she grew up so that she was around childhood friends. At that point we could only see her for about 1 week a year which was difficult and guilt-inducing. But there wasn't anything else we could do, to the best of our knowledge. Also, while Grandma was staying with us, we kids basically didn't have a mom. Meals were last-minute type things (regardless of my mom's scratch-cooking philosophies), extra-curricular activities didn't really happen unless the older kids could drive themselves, and a couple of my older brothers had problems at school that Mom just didn't have the time to figure out and deal with. The loss of extra-curricular activities didn't scar us but the loss of parental attention may have. My dad wasn't home too much due to work and Mom just couldn't do it all. I don't have any professional advice, but would like to make a few suggestions based on my experience. 1. Things won't be like they were before. Everyone needs to be okay with that and just work for a new "normal." (Fewer/no activities, needing to leave someone at home all the time, or whatever.) 2. Be very up front with their doctors. If you're the caretaker, you have as much need to be in full communcation with their doctors as if they were pre-or grade-schoolers. (I would tell them about the Valium.) 3. Have a plan. At what point of care will your family no longer be able to handle things? What kind of assistance is available in your area or from insurance/Medicare/etc.? How and when will you take advantage of it? Meet with someone like the geriatric social worker mentioned by a pp. 4. More questions: How can you keep your nuclear family together through this? "Date" your kids? Where will hubby and kids fit in your priority list compared to grandparents? How can you make that work in daily life? Give a bit of thought to how things might look in 5 years if they're still with you. Don't dwell on it, but consider it. If you try to push through this assuming that it is a short-term thing and it goes long-term the consequences might be big. 5. Make sure you look for positive impacts this time can make - maybe encouraging "dates" between your grandparents and your kids or object lessons in compassion and sacrifice. Teach the kids how to take oral histories and help them appreciate first-hand knowledge of the world 6 or more decades ago - a world that really no longer exists. Take lots of pictures. Learn any skills they can still teach. Help them pass on their passions to the 3rd and 4th generations. 6. Make sure you have a support network - don't let your friendships slide during this season. Find a way to keep in relationships with others so you won't have to deal with feeling isolated yourself. Um. That's more than a few suggestions, isn't it? Others on the board are likely to have much more professional advice - this is just from a been-there-seen-it-dealt-with person. I hope it helps! :grouphug: Mama Anna

Wow! I haven't been able to get to the computer for about 24 hours, but I'm blown away by all the suggestions - thanks!! I really appreciate the websites and specific curr. suggestions. I was thinking of trying to put together a science curriculum for her using documentaries from the library, but a series would be so much easier to plan and keep track of! I was encouraging J to not stress over history and science, but she's used to the full Abeka load - how do you know you're doing enough if you're not doing everything? Is dyslexia officially considered an LD? (If so, how can school districts not test for it?!?!:confused:) Again, thanks! Mama Anna

I don't have the full results of the evaluation or whether it was a full psych-ed eval. I just know a few things: She doesn't show up on the autism spectrum. Her social skills are that of a Ker. In some areas she's at high school level, but her processing abilities are definitely unusual. Neither testing team could/would put a label on her. It seems her difficulties aren't enough to qualify for an IEP. She'd have to be mainstreamed in a classroom until the teachers noticed enough difficulty to qualify her for special ed. Dyslexia. I hadn't thought about that. Thanks for your ideas. Any ideas for video driven science or history programs? Mama Anna

J has a dd who has learning disabilities - she's been evaluated by two school districts and they both agree on that. But nobody can tell J what exactly is going on and how to help her. J's dd has been hsed from the beginning with Abeka. J has painstakingly worked with her for hours each day for 4 years now - there's no neglect here. But the dd can't read well enough to decipher worksheet directions or take in content subjects on her own - she has to have her mom "translate" everything so she can more or less get it. Meltdowns are frequent and her brain often just shuts down in the middle of school. And then she does the "got it one day, lost it the next" thing that is so frustrating for a teacher. J was thinking of putting her in ps to take advantage of a specialized IEP or something, but they're now living in a dreadful school district - it's no longer even accredited by the state - and that's not an option. The difficulty is that J has four other children coming along who need to be taught, too. She wants to continue focusing on skill subjects with her dd, but needs something for science and history that her dd can do pretty much without her - and without lots of reading. If she can find a way to get her reading on her own, then everything will get easier. Until then, she has to have time to deal with hsing another one and manage three littles. There's not a lot of money available. The dd has been through 3rd-grade Abeka. Does anyone have suggestions? TIA! Mama Anna

Off the top of my head, I'd say logic stage at least. There's so much that's under the surface that the reader really needs to be aware of the unwritten stuff. Besides, the accusation leveled in the book would itself put it up there for me. Maybe 7th or 8th grade? Just a suggestion. I am not a literature specialist, nor do I play one on TV.:D Mama Anna

I don't know that you're still looking for other strategies, but we do things a bit differently. Dd8 is a voracious, advanced reader. She'll read anything left lying around, too. However, I've noticed that she skims a lot. For instance, she'll "finish" a 150 page book in 30 minutes. That means that my goal is to "slow down" her reading and require her to actually r e a d the book. I assign her books spread out through the year (~100 pg/wk or so), limiting her reading of the assigned book to only the chapters I've assigned. (She reads everything else in sight in reaction to these limits.) Then on the Friday after she finishes the book, we do a narration that involves a basic summary of the plot and have a discussion of whatever I've found to be interesting in the book. (Character development, Theme, etc.) I usually have to make sure she reads the same thing at least 2-3 times or she has no memory of the plot by Friday. Mama Anna

I'm getting into this discussion late, but I have an idea that might be of use to you. To control our "important papers," we have The Great White Box. Back before we had kids, I bought a magazine storage box - one of the horizontal, hinged-lid types - with a white lid. It lives right inside our front door and all important mail goes in there. Being a detail-oriented person, I tend to go through it every week and pay the bills, write the letters, and reconcile receipts, etc. Anything that we're likely to need inside a month's time (rebate information, birthday party invitations, etc.) tends to just stay in the white box until we're done with it. Other things that need to be kept for the future (medical information, payment receipts, etc.) I file away in our filing cabinet. Our checkbook and envelope of receipts awaiting bank statement reconciliation live in the white box, too. I like the fact that it has a lid. Even if it gets knocked off and fall upside down, it stays closed. The girls know that nobody touches it without my permission, and we've not lost a bill or receipt (unless after I took it out of the white box :glare:) for years. Anyway, something like that might help the paper problem! Mama Anna

What type of Anthologies are you looking for? If it's poetry, I've got a neat one that someone gave us. It's A Family of Poems by Caroline Kennedy. It's not an exhaustive anthology, but pulls from different time periods and styles to give a nice variety. The poems are arranged by themes (Funny, Bedtime, Animals, etc.) and my two older girls love the Funny section! I love the water color illustrations that cover each page - they're gorgeous! HTH! Mama Anna

We use ZB. I think the teacher manuals are that high because they're selling them to PS teachers. We've used ZB for 4 years now and I've never regretted my choice to not buy a TM. Mama Anna

Thanks for your reply! I think I just need some reassurance. :) Mama Anna

We're doing FLL and R&S English for Grammar/writing here, but I like WWE, too. There's just no way I'm going to add on the cost of those workbooks and the time involved in doing the whole program. I figure we do narration with history 2-3x/wk, so I don't need to worry about that. But for the second year in a row, I'm sitting down to write out my own version of the dictation exercises. Is that okay? I love that fact that SWB gave careful instructions on what each weeks dictation should cover! I just can't seem to find sentences of the appropriate length that have the appropriate characteristics. I can come up with them, though. (Just a little more DIY!:tongue_smilie:) I know one of the purposes of dictation is to expose a child to the writing of good authors. I guess I question how much I'm cheating my child by writing my own. Any thoughts? Anyone else doing it? For some reason, I'm feeling the need to duck, here. Not sure why . . . Mama Anna

I splurged and picked up the entire series, figuring I could hand them over when I felt it was a good time. The suggested ages do seem a bit young to me, too, but like the pp said - I'd rather they get it from me than come to me later. I'm happy with them, I think. The whole topic makes me more uncomfortable than I like to admit, but this series gives me a good jumping-off place. And the POV works well with our conservative Christian world-view. My suggestion is to look at the book one age group younger. Can you get them from your library first to preview? Mama Anna

The first 19 of the series were written by Gertrude Chandler Warner herself. If you read them in order then you know where various characters in the later books come from, etc, and understand allusions to past events. After that, I don't think it matters. HTH! Mama Anna

For me, dh is the principal - he gives approval to my schooling plans, my curriculum choices, and helps me formulate our overall goals (and keep them in mind when the going gets tough) and keeps me accountable. It's not so much that he knows more than I do about everything, but that as I'm presenting stuff to him I'm forced think through things in a way that shows up logical flaws, etc. He allows me to bounce stuff off of him - ideas for the future, problems I see coming up, etc. in a way that helps me think through things in advance. He teaches for me when I'm teaching voice at the college (as long as I give him very detailed lesson plans), which not only gives me opportunities to use my own training, etc., but also gives him experience with the joys and frustrations of homeschooling. He'll adjust his work schedule to allow me to attend the annual conference. He's only once sympathetically suggested that we could let the girls go to public school if it really was too much for me. And then he learned not to do that again. :) You're doing great in that you're planning to read TWTM. Just realize that homeschooling can become a consuming passion and may begin to take up the vast majority of your dw's time and concentration depending on how she handles things. If you're right in there with her, it will draw the two of you closer together. If it's all "her thing" (which it seems unlikely it will be) then you have to worry about feeling left out and excluded, etc. Just my 2 cents! Mama Anna

We love the Harper Audio vesions of the Narnia Series - so very well-read! Mama Anna

Hi! I'm Mama Anna. I'm wife (of almost 14 years) to a fellow studying to be a professor and mama to three girls (see sig.). Dh decided we were going to be homeschooling before we had kids and while we were living near SF, CA. I was not blessed. Then several years later, when dd8 was 3 years old and questioning me closely about the musical form of Brahm's Lullaby, I suddenly realized I didn't want to just toss her into a public school system and hope she turned out okay. (I didn't know it was an option to be heavily involved in your child's public school life - my parents weren't in mine.) Not knowing what else to do, I went to the library looking for homeschooling materials and found WTM. We've not really looked back since. We school for academic, religious, social, and logistical reasons. As well as for the fun of it. Once I got into it I realized that I've got quite a few teachers in my background (My dad's parents were both school teachers, he's a professor, and all three of my brothers are involved in either teaching or training.) and really loved the teaching part. Dh is a natural teacher, too, so our kids might as well benefit. Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for them, having myself grown up in a house where instruction is the normal mode of communication. (You ask my dad a question about AC vs. DC current and you get a 1 1/2 hour lecture including diagrams. At least I did last week! :lol:) I hope we can school all the way through. I've been on this board since it switched over, but I only post intermittently. We're located in the middle of the States right now, but that'll change when dh graduates. 'Nuff about me. Mama Anna

My dad has a great system - and the self-discipline to follow it! (I'm still working on the self-discipline part.) #1 What goes in must be used. If you up your caloric intake, you'll need to up your caloric usage through exercise, etc. The extra piece of cheesecake (or in his case, the jelly doughnut) may just not be worth it. #2 Weigh yourself often and set up "zones." For instance, if under 140 is where you want to stay, than have that be your "green zone." 140 to 145 would be your "yellow zone" where you realize things are creeping up again and you need to be more careful with what you eat. Above 145 would be your "red zone" where you shift back into "diet mode" in order to lose 8-10 pounds. If you weigh yourself often enough to keep track like this, you shouldn't ever need to lose more than 10 pounds. Theoretically. Health problems and pregnancy/breastfeeding excepted. Now, he really doesn't see food as much of anything other than fuel, so this is pretty easy for him. He also has never had to try to get back into shape after a pregnancy either . . . The other thing I would add would be that (at least for me) the more fit your body is, the more leeway you have with a few extra calories. HTH! Mama Anna

I started training for a half marathon last winter (didn't actually make the race because of slight injury) and found myself becoming much more toned - I actually have leg muscles now! :) I had jogged casually previously (~3 miles per week), but when I began seriously training I added weight work to keep things balanced as my running muscles strengthened. Because I didn't change my eating habits a lot, neither my weight nor (as best I could tell) my clothing size decreased. However, since getting back to running after recovering from my injury I've adjusted my eating to a moderate cut-back in calories that has me losing about 2 pounds/week or so. Right now (in case it helps you estimate time), my exercise routine basically is Mon - Walk 1 mile (about 30 minutes including prep - I don't hurry.) Tues/Thurs - run 3 miles (about 45 minutes including waking up beforehand and stretching out afterwards) Wed/Fri - walk 1 mile; Balance ball routine with weights and video that takes about 12-15 minutes broken up by baking breakfast, taking dd2 to the bathroom, settling arguments, etc. Sat - run 4 miles (about 50-60 minutes including prep and stretching.) I walk and run before the kids are awake in the mornings so that it doesn't effect the family routine. I love the extra energy this exercise gives me. I also find that eating 150 or so healthy carb calories immediately after a run keeps me from going on a binge for breakfast and doesn't keep me from the weight loss. Dh says he can definitely see a difference in me! :D HTH! Mama Anna

:iagree: That used to drive my mom crazy! We had a little small-town library 5 miles away from us when I was growing up. We'd each get 10-15 books out at a time, with the librarian rationing us on series. ("No more than 5 from one series, now.") We never had a huge problem with late fees - I think the total check-out allowance was small and we'd burn through all the books so fast that we'd have to have them back each week in order to get more out. I remember reading Ben Hur on the bus in 4th grade, so proud of myself that I was reading a "big book." I always read on the 45-60 minute schoolbus ride when it was light enough. When I got to high school, it would sometimes be one of the few times that I could read fun stuff instead of homework. I was unhappy when my parents decided my dad would drive me to school instead of riding the bus (it was supposed to be father-daughter time) because I knew I would lose that reading time. My mom took my book away once when I wasn't getting my chores done. (It was Marguerite Henry's King of the Wind - I still remember!) After that she only had to threaten such a punishment for me to hop to them. :) I love to glance around the living room now and see dh, myself, and all three dd reading/looking at books. Such a feeling of kinship! (Such blessed, positive silence!! :D) Mama Anna

I haven't done a lot of study in this area, but I can answer a bit from my own experience. First of all, I think "sensitivity" has a spectrum. Some children at the more severe end may have other issues that contribute to form a quantifiable, medically recognized condition. For my dd, I think it's simply a personality trait. Why do I consider dd8 to be "sensitive?" Well, all of her emotional reactions to things tend to be exaggerated. From the time she was 2 years old, she was like this. When she's happy she's enraptured. When she's unhappy she's "in the depths of despair." She has a low frustration threshold and is incredibly concerned as to what others think of her. (Of course, she's also 8 years old, which may have something to do with it right now, but then most of these things have always been true.) She has nightmares easily and only recently has been able to handle stories where everything doesn't end happily ever after. I've read definitions of sensitive children that do not jive with dd's characteristics. Sometimes the term seems concerned with ESP-like sensitivity to others' emotions, etc. How do we handle it? With difficulty! I try to expose her to low doses of frustration regularly in a supportive environment so that she can learn to deal with it (ie, Math). We regularly talk about being overly concerned about what others think. We spend time working on "not allowing her emotions to control her." I often keep upcoming fun events secret from her in order to avoid the drama that ensues if they get canceled or delayed. So I protect her in some ways and work on exposing her to her troubles in others. Neither dh nor I are as sensitive. Both of us were socialized the hard way in public school as children, though, so between our scars and our callouses it's hard to judge our original sensitivity. As for dealing with the real world, she has to do that through friends. I try to walk with her through it and advise her when I can. She's going to get hurt - there's nothing I can do to keep that from happening. My job is to try and help the hurt have a positive impact in who she becomes. HTH! Mama Anna