We've gone from CA to CT and CT to FL and CA to WA and most recently CT to OR. I think CT to OR was our favorite. I think it was something like this: CT to Hershey's PA to some small Amish village in OH to Chicago to St Paul (Mall of America) to the Laura Ingalls homestead in SD to Mt Rushmore to Badlands to Cody WY to Yellowstone to Boise to our new home in OR!

I had sealants as a child and had no cavities until I was 30 (despite some periods of pretty bad teenaged dental hygiene). My kids both have them on too.

My step-mother's mom is in her mid-90's and is rapidly declining in mental health. She's paranoid, depressed, anxious, and has some pretty severe dementia along with arthritis and very poor eyesight and hearing. She was just moved out of her house and into an adult foster care home in our town. She may have to be moved to a psych ward soon, but that's another story. Currently my stepmom visits her every afternoon and most nights needs to help settle her too. My stepmom is going out of town for two days for her niece's graduation and has asked me to stop by. As I understand it, she's horribly bored. She can't read or can't see the TV and doesn't have the attention span or hearing for being read to. The only thing she enjoys doing is folding towels. Apparently her caregivers bring her a load of towels, she folds them and then they go and mess them up and bring them to her again. She used to enjoy quilting and reading the Bible, but was never very social or had many hobbies. I only met her when she was in her late 80's and really only visited on a few occasions, so it's not like we share any memories. I don't believe she remembers me, but I thought I'd have the most chance of having a successful afternoon if we could do something together. Do you have any ideas for what I can bring with me when I visit?

I wouldn't try to change it at all... I'd go for a Montessori sort of approach and figure that he's giving you signs that he isn't ready to move on developmentally... not that he can't technically *decode* something more difficult, but just that where he's at right now is the world of easy-readers. And that's totally fine for him. There's a lifetime of reading out there and only a limited window of time in your life when easy readers are appealing. He might as well enjoy it because he will, at some point, get bored... just have some trickier stuff ready when he does. He's not going to enter university with a secret stash of Fly Guy or Frog and Toad.

And 5 months later... what we're doing is actually this: Math: SM 4a, 4b Language Arts: SWS, First Steps in Academic Writing, Excavating English Science: Story of Science (continuing) History: OUP as spine, but mostly historical fiction and movies Latin: LL2 Piano: Piano Adventures Primer Ballet (at a local studio), Acting and Drawing (at PS)

I've always been curious about the book, but understood it was intended for non-math-oriented high schoolers. I figured we might get more out of it later on -- I also have a 4th grade daughter. I'm really happy with Singapore math. Life of Fred is fun too, but at 4th grade, it's not going to offer a very complete semester of math. Another alternative, if you are looking for some interesting math reads is "Murderous maths". My daughter thinks they are the funniest things ever and adores reading them for fun.

We found some really cute wooden boxes for a dollar each at the craft store and filled them with chocolates. Very popular and less than 2 dollars each!

We cloth-diapered my oldest most of the time (but used disposables when traveling or out on a day trip!) We moved to an apartment with a communal washer/dryer when my youngest was 1, so we switched to disposables then. There was no way I was going to haul dirty diapers into the basement to wash them in a public washer.

I'm okay with my 7 yr old staying by herself for a short time while I go pick up her sister at ballet (or whatever). My 9 yr old has stayed home for up to 2-3 hours. But... they have strict instructions on what they can and can't do. And we have a tenant (a 70 yr old lady) who lives in our house, so there is technically an adult on the premises.

My 7 & 9 yr olds bathe as needed -- at least 2 times/week, usually 3 times/week.

In the field of second language acquisition, it's generally accepted that people won't be able to *speak* a language better than the input that they are exposed to and interact with. That is, without a fluent speaker to communicate with, it's not possible for a learner to become fluent themselves. It is certainly possible to learn vocabulary and grammar and useful phrases to say from a book or computer program or audiotape... but I can't imagine you would be successful in teaching a person to communicate in a language you don't speak. If you don't speak a language, but want to teach it, I'd suggest you either change your goals towards translating or having a 'reading knowledge' of the language (Latin or Greek are good for this). Alternatively, you might consider enrolling your child in a language class with a fluent speaker (or hire a tutor, send your child overseas, etc...).

Book club? Also, some of Ellen McHenry's materials seem very 8-week-homeschool-co-op friendly.

My daughter loved Minimus, though like the others, I can't say she really retained much. I think it was designed to get kids interested in learning Latin, not actually to get kids learning Latin. But then... learning Latin is probably best saved for middle and high school when it can be done so much more efficiently. It's good to have programs like SSL and Minimus for a fun "pre-Latin" experience.

Soaring with Spelling seems like something kids could do very independently. We're starting it soon.

I'd use "Good Masters Sweet Ladies: voices from a medieval village" . It's written as a series of monologues and I think there are a lot of suggestions for using it as a performance piece. Like this... http://www.candlewick.com/book_files/0763615781.btg.1.pdf

Yep, the day after labor day for us too.

I'm not very good at organizing artistic or experimental work... so I'm going the workbook route with Evan Moor Daily Science - Grade 2. It's not particularly exciting, but my daughter is eager to start it. At least we'll be consistent with it and hopefully she'll pick up some vocabulary (and work on her reading comprehension too). Luckily we have a homeschool support PS and a science museum locally to fill in the gaps -- making science more than just a workbook.

I was looking into something secular like CLE too, and settled on GWG. For a spiral effect, you might consider "Daily Grams" or Evan Moor Daily Language Practice. Perhaps combined with GWG? For part of speech practice, how about doing a few madlibs every day?

It's a funny developmental leap when it happens. She may never like coloring, but at some point she'll be able to color in the lines. My guess is that it's a sign she's not ready for that kind of work. I'd set it aside for 6 months or so and try again later.

My partner does not like to read. She has never read a book for pleasure. Ever. I have one daughter who is the same. It drives me nuts!

In small town Oregon: 2.99 for conventional milk at Safeway - maybe 2.50 on sale. 5.50+ for Organic Valley.

:iagree:

I was Katie as a kid and Kate since college. It is an excellent name!

I think my daughter's favorites were the Oh My Gods series and the Horrible Histories 10 Best Greek Myths.