It's not online, but I keep a running list on my phone with the Evernote app. I just take a picture of the cover of the book when we're done reading and it saves them all in one "notebook." Since I have evernote on my phone and on my computer, the lists sync both ways and I can bring up a list of the books we've read with one click.

For now, the plan is to home school all the way through, except the time we spend in other countries. I'm hoping to get a Fulbright grant to spend 9 months in Brazil- if possible I'll put DD in school that year. I may also be going to a French or Spanish speaking country to teach English for a year, and again, I'll try and put DD in school. Otherwise, home school all the way. We won't be settled in one place until DD is at least 12, lots of moving in between. And by then she'll be just a couple years away from being able to go to community college, so might as well stick it out and go with that. :D But, I'm a student, and a single mother, sooooo.... never know what life will bring.

It would have been too overprotective for you to forbide her from going. But you didn't do that. But, not necessarily a bad thing. I've been going to concerts and sporting events with friends since I've had friends that drove, *but* my mom would (and still does!) express her concern over my safety. Occasionally I have not gone somewhere because of the concerns she brought up, but more often it made me a little more aware of my surroundings. As a person who has often been accused of being off in my own world, the words of caution are sometimes a good thing! :tongue_smilie:

I started last year... definitely read more than 52 for last year, but slacked off on posting about them! So I guess that's my goal for this year- actually POST about the books I'm reading! :001_smile:

Thanks for the reminder! I wanted to start one of these for 2011. I love quotes (as evidenced by my pinterest page :lol:) and would love to have a paper trail of sorts.

If you don't mind me asking... what brand is the Eiffel Tower model? I was looking at a couple different ones for DDs birthday next month but I was worried about the level of difficulty. She would LOVE an Eiffel Tower, especially if she can put it together (at least mostly) alone.

I think DD is probably a little young for both rock climbing and trapeze... although, learning trapeze looks like so much fun! Can I have MY birthday there? :lol: I didn't even think of an indoor water park around here. off to google...

This is what I'm thinking. I guess I was just looking for a way to make it HER choice not to do the big party so Mommy didn't have to be mean. It was definitely help. If nothing else, it makes me not feel so bad that it's just us! Honestly... it seems like it is only an issue at birthday party time. We are blessed to have great friends, but we split our year almost 50/50 at our home and my parents home, so our friends/family are spread out over a large geographical area. DD doesn't really realize that she doesn't have many friends, since she spends so much time with the ones she DOES have. I did think of a museum we could do. Port Discovery is in Baltimore, within a 2 hour drive for many of our friends (most of whom are cousins also). Maybe do something like that... You are right about saving the trip for another time, but we live within driving distance of NYC right now, and won't after next year so I thought now would be a good time to get it in,. :tongue_smilie: Oooh. I'll definitely check this out. DD would LOVE an organ concert, and what kid doesn't like fireworks? Thanks!

DD will be 6 next month. She has been talking about having a birthday party for quite awhile now. I'm having some issues though because while DD calls all the girls in her dance class as well as from co-op (the one we don't attend anymore...) friends, I don't think any of them would come. The only people I expect would come would be her best friends, the children of my good friend. I don't want to get DD's hopes up for a big birthday party and not come through. Soooooo, I was thinking that we could do something else instead. A day trip somewhere? I wish it was summer and I could take her to an amusement park instead. It's gotta be something good to make her WANT to give up the party. Depending on what it is, we could also take one or two of my friend's daughters. Any ideas of something exciting in driving distance of MD? I was thinking maybe overnight at Great Wolf Lodge with one friend. I also considered overnight to NYC with just DD and I, but I'm concerned about the weather.... definitely don't want to get caught in a snowstorm or anything!

Everything was a hit here, except the Lightning McQueen R/C car that had been ordered off Amazon and it wasn't until wrapping last night I realized the wheel was broken... :glare: Went ahead and wrapped it up and told DD we needed to exchange it for a new one. (It was one of the two things she really, really wanted!) DD has spent a little time with everything she got... even having a fashion show with the clothes! :lol: I got the biggest hit though. My mom surprised me with a new laptop... I've been without a computer since September, so I am thrilled to say the absolute least!!

Nope.. my normally up late little girl was up bright and early at 9 am! We had a rough night, so I expected her to sleep later. She fell asleep around 1130, but then woke around 1 and couldn't get back to sleep til 5. Which means Santa couldn't get to sleep until much, much later! :tongue_smilie:We're ready for a nap here!

Yes, we're using a combination of Progressive Phonics and BOB books. All the other methods I tried didn't work, and DD loves that she's actually reading, and not just learning sounds/words out of context. We had taken a break for a couple months and now she's literally flying through.

Nope. Most lunchmeat starts to get slimy after a couple days. I can't stand even the least bit of sliminess. Usually any lunchmeat that doesn't get eaten within the first 2-3 days gets wasted around here.

I am so jealous of people who do this. Traveling is actually one of the reasons I chose to homeschool; once I actually get out of school myself and am (hopefully) working as a professor, I'll have long stretches of time off- we'll be traveling! :tongue_smilie:

Okay... so the first link to the Singapore/Miquon chart went bad, but then there was a second.... instead of being smart and saving it to my computer I just saved the link. Guess what doesn't work anymore? Does anyone, by any chance, have a copy (or another site?) of the chart that correlated Miquon pages with the Singapore program? I'd send you loads of good ju-ju if you do, because while I don't have time to go through and match them up myself, I do enjoy having them working together!

WRT price: many shops have a minimum anywhere from 50-100 dollars, depending on how detailed you want the designs, I imagine it wouldn't be much more, if any, than that. Don't tell the artist if you've been drinking. A reputable artist who doesn't know you won't do a tattoo on someone who is inebriated. Tattoo needles and blood draw needles are much different. I too pass out when giving blood (or getting immunizations) but I have 3 fairly decent sized tattoos and more planned. :tongue_smilie: And, just a second reminder that I already mentioned in Nakia's thread about tattooed wedding bands... I've been told by a number of people that the small intricate words/designs of a tattooed ring don't hold and eventually become one big blob. I'm not sure of how truthful this is since I don't have anything that small, but something to look into unless you don't mind eventually having just a solid band.

I've always heard that getting anything other than a solid band there is a bad idea because eventually it will smudge and the words/numbers/designs will look bad. I love the sentiment, but definitely something to check into! I wanted to get fingerprints tattooed on me but was told the intricate designs would eventually look like one big blob. Haven't done much more research though, because I have about 4 more tattoos planned before I was going to get the fingerprints anyway! :tongue_smilie:

Even though this wasn't my question, just wanted to say thanks for the recommendation on Nolo books. I'm a single parent, and with my Dad's recent illness, figuring out what would happen to DD has been looming over me. I know where I want her to go, unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion there will be some fighting, even with a will. :glare: I should probably see a lawyer and make sure my will is un-disputable, but frankly, I can't afford it right now.

:iagree: It'll be another few years before we get to it, but I'm thinking that a good place to stop would be the year DD was born (so, we'll study up to 2006, everything since will be current events). No real reason, completely arbitrary, but I do feel that there is a strong distinction between history and current events... the same distinction I find myself trying to make between "history" and "journalism" when writing my own papers.

:bigear: I'll be interested in seeing how this goes if anyone chooses to use it. We have L'art de dire, but it just isn't getting done. It isn't structured enough for me, and DD isn't enjoying it either. We've just been reading French books and learning random French vocab words for now. (One of DD's favorite games in the car is "Mommy... how do you say (random word) in French/Spanish?") lol. So we are learning words, just not how to use them!

For me, Latin is more like grammar than foreign language. And when we start learning, it will be with the goal of understanding grammar and also having a better understanding of English. So, in that case, I do think that Latin can be useful even if it isn't every day, much like grammar isn't studied every day.

Well... every year I come up with a "plan", and every year two weeks in we are off the plan. So, I'm starting over in January acknowledging that plans don't work for us, and yet we still get (mostly) everything done! :tongue_smilie: I do have some general goals to focus more on our bookwork instead of the life-learning we've been doing.

I think it probably has something to do with the definition of history. "History" is technically only that for which we have written evidence of. Anything before that is prehistory, and often falls under science studies for many people. (dinosaurs, ice age, etc.) It also makes SOTW usable for both creationists and evolutionists I suppose (not 100% sure on this, since I haven't used SOTW yet).

Well, all 7 days are open to planning, and sometimes we do some type of school work 7 days a week. But I'm in school myself, so we have to work around my class schedule, and spreading it out to be shorter days every day is the best way to get everything done. Luckily DD enjoys school. And this schedule allows for us to take breaks when needed- whether that be a couple weeks to allow for transitioning into new schedules, or a day or two to recharge.

:willy_nilly::svengo:I'm still not settled into the new school year and you want to talk Christmas??? :lol: It just so happens I actually know what DD is getting. Her big gift is going to be a keyboard- one of those that are like a piano, so she can take piano lessons (the lessons are part of her gift). She's also getting an electric guitar, complete with amplifier and everything. My boyfriend has thrown around getting her a set of drums (he plays, and wants to teach her). Our neighbors are really going to love us! :tongue_smilie: Of course, she'll also get books, pjs, and some other small gifts- a lego set, some new dollhouse furniture, baby doll clothes, etc.