My lesson plan is only a few words for each subject -- "Lesson 4.3 odds" or "Watch documentary on triangle shirtwaist fire" or "start essay on Dickinson poem" or "read & answer questions p. 44-67". I know in my head that in math we always correct the previous days work and review the next lesson together, or that the essay on a Dickinson poem might first involve a re-reading and discussion of the poem and maybe a review on what makes a good thesis statement or something. My written lesson plan is just to remind me where we're headed.

From the sample, Alpha omega lit workbooks look like ACE workbooks where you get spoon fed short bits of information and regurgitate it in true/false and fill-in-the-blank questions. It's not the sort of thing I'd recommend. Instead, I would suggest just a regular literature textbook. My daughter has one (Glencoe American lit) with short stories, poems and excerpts that have a little segment at the beginning to set a context for the work and insightful short-answer and essay questions to answer afterwards. A student could work their way through an anthology like that and get a lot more out of it than the AO lit workbook.

I've been trying Porcelana for 6 months and it hasn't done anything. I'll keep using it until the jar runs out and then try something new. I used to be very bad about sunscreen and it's catching up with me now.

My 13 yr old and I are visiting Washington DC this week and really enjoying it. It's neither as hot and humid nor as crowded as I expected it to be. We had a great time at the national gallery, the air and space museum, the "Newseum", and the Supreme Court. The archives, Fords theater, American history museum and Library of congress and American Art/portrait gallery were okay. The natural history museum wasn't for us... Too full of screamy kids running amok to see the exhibits. We'll go to the Capitol tour tomorrow. The White House is closed for renovation.

I have prismacolor. They come in a metal box so are unlikely to break. I find if you explain to the kids that these are *very special* pencils and put them on a top shelf and have the kids make sure they are all there when they finish using them, they treat them really well. I have a box of crayolas and rose arts that can be used for anything, but kids need to ask to use the special pencils.

Realistically though... Unless your child is actually living in the foreign country, or is in an immersion program at school communicating constantly with native speakers, or speaking the target language exclusively with fluent parents and siblings, no amount of videos or songs or stories will make your child anywhere near fluent. A lot of the companies who produce these sorts of programs are preying on eager parents who want to believe they can give their kids a leg up in language learning. It's a hopeless endeavor and by the time the kids are school-age, they will have long forgotten the words from the toddler Spanish videos their parents had them watch. If you are serious about raising a bilingual child, your best bet is to move to the country where the target language is spoken and enroll the child in school there.

Eva Ibbotson's kid's (not YA) books were great for kids that age. Also, Coraline and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, though they're both a bit creepy... But in a good way. Maybe the Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett -- the protagonist starts off age 9, but the series is more aimed at young teens. Still, it was my daughter's favorite book at that age

The first few chapters were pretty easy review for my daughter (who had done two years of pre-algebra), so we did chapter one review the first week and chapter 2 review the next week. Etc...Starting in ch 5, we did each lesson in one day unless it was outrageously time consuming. Looking back at my planner, I can see that chapter 11-10 lasted 6 days, for instance. Still doing the chapter review and chapter test, we finished the book by April. I took someone's advice and had my daughter do odds, but all word problems.

I had my daughter read it in 7th grade. She thought it was moralistic, sappy and predictable. I'm thinking if I had had her read it in 3rd or 4th grade she wouldn't have been so cynical and sarcastic about the whole thing.

What about something by Woody Guthrie (since his poster is the first clue)? Or I'll Fly away by Gillian Welsh?

How do you decide how elite a university your child should attend? I don't think parents should decide at all. A student applies, a university decides whether to accept the student or not, the student decides whether to attend. It's not about parents other than to caution at application that "gee... You'll have to take out a lot of loans if you want to go there because it's out of our budget" or "I wonder whether you'll enjoy being so far from home... It'll be difficult to fly home very frequently. " Really though, university is not about us as parents and we should not be the ones making the decisions.

You don't need to do anything different than you'd do with any child. Just meet her where she's at with interesting appropriate materials. She won't run out of stuff to learn. You won't run out of interesting age-appropriate materials. If you want to slow her down, shift sideways or dig deeper. If what you're using is working now, keep using it. If it goes too quickly... find something else for the younger while your older continues using it.

I used to teach middle school and before that I taught in a juvenile hall. One thing I decided was that I really don't like teaching people who actively don't want to learn. In your place, I would do everything possible to make learning fun, but if I still got constant complaints, I would absolutely send my child to public school. He might learn better and with less stress in an environment where he is one member of a class following directions and where his individual opinions on the task aren't relevant. Homeschooling is a relationship. If he hates learning, and you aren't having fun teaching either, find an alternative. You can always reevaluate in a year...

I lost all thyroid function after a bout of thyroiditis so I take synthroid (or its generic). I definitely eat gluten and dairy. My dad is gluten free and though I love him, I have grown tired of his self-righteous revelations of all the health benefits being gluten free provides. Before that it was avoiding fermented foods (FODMAPS), before that it was being a vegan, before that he was on a macrobiotic diet, before that it was raw foods, before that it was Atkins, before that every meal seemed to involve tofu and carob and sprouts. I'm eager for his next fad to take hold. Anyway, the avoidance of gluten (for reasons other than celiac) or dairy (for reasons other than lactose intolerance) seems like a fad in my community. I figure if humans have been eating it for thousands of years, it's probably just fine in moderation.

I love, love, love my Prana swim shorts and top. They're pricey and don't come in plus sizes, but I like the fit and think it's pretty stylish for a middle aged body. I got mine at Title Nine, but I think REI also carries them. http://www.prana.com/women/clothing/swim.html

I've been a local coordinator for an au pair agency - cultural care, and we've had two au pairs. The first was young - 19. Her main purpose in coming was not to do childcare, but to travel and see the world and learn English and drive a car. I totally get that, but we couldn't keep her on. She was lying to us and not actually watching the kids. Years later, she sent me a heartfelt apology... I guess she has kids now herself and realizes how irresponsible she'd been. Our second au pair was a 26 yr old who'd left another family. We were a much better fit and it was perfect. I'd definitely recommend getting an older au pair (after college) rather than a teenager having the first experience out of her parents' home.

Board shorts and tankini tops work well for me.

I like The Paragraph Book for reluctant writers. It'd be pretty easy for an average 8th grader, but it'd surely give him some confidence and get him ready to write longer essays. https://eps.schoolspecialty.com/EPS/media/Site-Resources/downloads/program-overviews/S-paragraph_book.pdf

I wonder if it came from the same tradition (or is an offshoot from) Parent Child Interaction Therapy? I've done the PCIT training with aggressive foster kids and it's been quite helpful. It involved having a 'special play time' in which the parent wears an earpiece and is coached to do things like praising kids, describing what they were doing, imitating their play actions, etc... It's actually a very effective technique that has helped a lot of parents and kids. That said, it's intended for one parent and child at a time, for a child that's 2-7ish, and for a 10 minute period or so. I doubt very much that whatever is going on in the classroom is very sustainable. Maybe the coaching is good for a teacher who has poor classroom management skills and the administration is trying to intervene, but I can't imagine it'd ever catch on in a regular school context.

My daughter, a lover of ballet, has come to the realization that a career (or at least attention and corrections and good casting in her own studio) is just unattainable. Unfortunately her teacher only focuses on kids with professional potential and she's finding the competition and politics among girls unbearable. Before puberty, she got that attention, but now her curves and short height make it all pretty unlikely. Anyway, it's the only ballet studio around so she's going turn her attention to jazz or contemporary or ballroom or something else. Her decision is kind of a relief - she had class 6 days/week for about 3-4 hrs. And the driving to another town was time consuming, so anything now will be purely recreational. Plus - the pointe shoe cost was getting out of control. It's sad that it's the end of an era, but I'm happy that she feels good about the decision to move on.

Pentime Grade 2 starts with printing and moves to cursive. Grade 3 is all cursive. I think it's a nice traditional looking script.

I picked up an American lit textbook at Goodwill and use it as an anthology. It's nice to have the biographical info and the questions at the end of each story or poem are pretty good.

They're intended for high school kids... I'd go as early as middle school age. So.. 10 or 11?

We like to do historical cooking and will eat spam for the first time while studying WW2. It'll be part of our war ration meal.

We don't foster teens, but I'd totally cheer you on if you did.