Full-day here. Some public schools also offer preK, which is generally very competitive to get (the schools don't have to take all zoned kids for preK and so they run a lottery), and that's frequently full-day as well. And the only private school with half-day K that I've heard of here is one of the Waldorf schools. There may be others, but the overwhelming majority are full-day.

Love this. I actually think that schools today are doing quite a lot of things better than they were when I was a public school student back in the early Pleistocene, but I think I can do even better at home.

We do a bit of formal schoolwork every day, but I am not at all convinced that the stuff I give my son during 'school time' is any more challenging than a lot of the stuff he comes up with on his own. In the final analysis I simply lack the nerve to unschool, but in a way I think that's kind of a shame.

What an interesting post, violinmom. My son is in his second year of Suzuki cello and I think the program is simply brilliant. I can't believe the sort of serious musicianship that they are teaching to such young kids. DH and I are both beyond impressed with the quality of the whole enterprise. The only down side is, as others have said, the tremendous amount of parental involvement it requires. It is a LOT of time and energy, and it isn't cheap, either. (Well, nothing here is cheap, but still). If you are simply not going to have time to go to the lessons and classes, supervise practice, etc., then I would likely just wait until the child was old enough to take on most of the responsibility associated with traditional lessons. Obviously all music lessons for relatively young kids are going to require parental involvement, but Suzuki is really structured around the assumption of the parent as co-teacher, as least for a while.

I love sandalwood. Alas, DH loathes scented candles with the passion of a thousand suns.

i agree that consulting an attorney is crucial here. It would seem to me that you have a good argument that in your particular case, paying you fair market value does not make you whole, and from what you say, the statute mandates both. I also have to imagine that there are cases just like yours springing up all over the country. Just googling quickly, here one article on the subject: http://www.rebusinessonline.com/main.cfm?id=13206 I'm sorry for the headache (and heartache). :grouphug:

I only know a few other homeschooling families, and I have no idea what they do day-to-day. I would assume that they are serious about it, if only because pretty much *everyone* I know is deadly serious about their children's education.

That poor child. No matter what her figure is like and no matter how she dresses, she is still thirteen years old. I imagine she is desperate for attention and trying to get it any way she can. Is her father in the picture? What a heartbreaking description.

The Amazing Miracle Blanket. It is my standard baby gift.

I don't think it's unreasonable for a parent not to want to be the sole financial support of the family. It's a huge responsibility, especially in these uncertain times. That said, if you're both working 50+ hour weeks, both of your lives will change. Is your husband on board with taking on a greater share of the housework and child care? (I am assuming that since you are currently SAH most of that is your job right now, but that won't be possible if you're working full-time.) How does he plan for the two of you to handle sick days, school vacation days, etc? You won't be able to keep a job and take off for all of them yourself; he will have to take some of them. Is he expecting that you will up and quit if his job takes you elsewhere again, or will you be able to stay long enough to build a career? I know plenty of happy, healthy families in which both parents work full-time (or more). But it takes forethought and commitment to make that happen, just as in a SAH/WOH family.

I'm a lefty -- my two older boys seem to be righties, alas, but I'm holding out hope for the baby. Love the notebook! My big regret is that HWT wasn't around when I was a child. Handwriting was SUCH an ordeal. Between the Palmer cursive and those erasable pens that were all the rage back then, I had just a terrible time and essentially stopped writing in cursive the moment it was no longer required. Which is fine and all, but going through HWT with my son it's just such a easier way to write as a lefty.

Isn't it the national curriculum in Singapore? I have to assume that it's designed for a wide range of learners.

I think that I would more likely to homeschool an average or struggling student (especially the latter), actually. But I don't homeschool my oldest because he's accelerated, but rather because I am generally sold on custom education, so I suppose that's not precisely responsive to your question. FWIW, I myself was a very accelerated student as a child (just like both of my parents), while my brother was not. He had some additional difficulties to struggle through, but he was and is not especially intellectually gifted. I'd say that our thoroughly mediocre school district didn't serve either one of us all that well, but he really got the shorter end of the stick.

Thanks so much for the suggestions -- very helpful. I had been thinking that copywork was the way to go and am glad to have that validated. He is not much for drawing but does already seem to do a fair amount of copying on his own -- I find sheets of computer paper on his floor covered in (all-caps) excerpts from library books. Maybe I will let him choose some of his own copywork and then just insist that he use lower-case letters as well. I plan to also start incorporating a bit of writing into our unit studies. And I like the one spelling rule a week idea as well. My son would enjoy that, I am sure. I am not familiar with the differences between spelling programs but will start with the suggestions here and look around. (Not to get off track, but I cannot for the life of me remember how I learned to spell. Like my oldest, I was also a very strong reader and speller but I went to public school and surely we must have had spelling lessons, no? But the only 'rule' I can recall is the one about "i" and "e." Did we learn rules? Is it that you forget the rules once you know how to spell, along the same lines as phonics and reading?)

I have no idea about your letters, but I do know that the realtor that we have been working with to buy our house found one a house for at least one of my husband's colleagues by sending out letters. (ETA: They were looking in a very desirable neighborhood with limited availability.) So it's not an implausible thing to do, although of course that doesn't mean that the letters you received are real. Are you interested in selling your house?

nm -- sorry, double post

My DH is also Chinese and loves rice, so we have it frequently. I too have always been under the impression that white rice is not terribly good for you, so I am always trying to switch us to brown rice, but DH (who is generally just about the least picky eater in the world) sighs sadly when I break out the brown rice. I did find an interesting rice mixture (assorted brown and red rices) at the Japanese food market that has been a hit for everyone. It's $$$ and I have to remember to put it in the cooker rather earlier, though. ETA: I make Chinese-style stir-fries with the rice, for the most part. But if I make chili or anything even remotely sauce-y, DH will want rice instead of bread, so even if the rest of us are having bread (which the children greatly prefer, to DH's consternation) I will make rice for him. I also make fried rice about once a week to use up the leftover rice in the fridge.

Wow, I didn't know that that was still available! I remember codeine syrup from my childhood -- that stuff worked when all else failed. (Or maybe it just knocked you out enough to stop the coughing?) Clearly I will have to hit our ped up for the good drugs before next winter.

I read a study a year or two ago that found that buckwheat honey was more effective at relieving coughing than dextromethorpan. So we now give a teaspoon of buckwheat honey plus some water. It usually takes the edge off. The Vicks thing has never worked here, alas. I usually prop the beds up with blocks and crank the humidifier, too. Poor bean. Hope she feels better soon.

I am wondering what -- if anything -- to do about LA with my almost-6yo K'er (rising first grader). My philosophy on seatwork right now to keep things short and sweet, so we do math (SM), handwriting (HWT) and cello practice every day, and then move on to unit studies. Next year I am going to add in some foreign language study as well. He is a very accelerated reader -- I'm afraid I don't know what level, but whatever it is it's enough that he gets agitated about things he reads in the paper-- and seems to spell quite well, too. We have never done much in the way of phonics, but I think he has a very strong visual memory and that seems to be getting the job done. His handwriting is perfectly average, and he doesn't have much stamina for handwriting, although he does have a LOT to say and I think he gets frustrated by not being able to physically write more easily. In any event, we are coming to the end of the HWT first grade book and I am thinking that perhaps we should do something else for a bit before moving to the next book in the series. So, two questions: (1) If I were to do *one* LA thing instead of HWT, what would you recommend? I am inclined towards WWE but am more than open to suggestions. (2) I had not planned on doing spelling any time soon, if at all, but my son has been asking to learn how to spell and pronounce words he doesn't know. As I mentioned above, both his spelling and his pronunciation seem remarkably good to me -- clearly he has internalized phonics rules, even if he never learned them formally -- but apparently the only thing he dislikes more than making occasional errors is having to ask Mom how to spell something. :001_smile: Any suggestions?

Love semicolons. (Also love Faulkner.) Fortunately for semicolon haters, I am not going to write the Great American Novel any time soon, but if I were? It would be FULL of semicolons. :001_smile:

I think that preschool would have been very nice, actually. I didn't send my oldest mainly because of the cost, which is astronomical, but also because he wasn't ready at 3 and then by 4 all the local programs were full-day. My 3yo would love preschool, but we're moving this summer and I don't think I'll be able to get him in for next fall. But maybe the next year -- preschool should be a lot cheaper where we're moving. And I could definitely see sending my youngest in a few years, if only to give me a bit more extra time with my oldest.

One thing to keep in mind is that kids who use public transportation all the time are accustomed to it. Not that I'm going to pack him off solo anytime soon, but my almost-6yo (who has been riding subways and buses his whole life) could easily navigate himself to our usual destinations, and probably to some new ones as well. In fact, at this point I'd say that he's actually a net benefit; he carries small packages, helps his little brother through the turnstiles, etc. Even my 3yo knows the drill pretty well. Dealing with twin toddlers or (oy) triplets would be daunting, for sure, but once the kids are out of strollers and walking well it's just not a big deal. This is in sharp contrast to the car -- my kids are not nearly so used to taking the car and getting everyone in and out with the carseats, etc. is a major production, requiring numerous reminders about keeping one hand on the car in the parking garage, not unbuckling the seat, and so on. And my 8 mo just screams bloody murder pretty much the whole time in the car (this is a common issue with city kids, by the way, and his older brothers did the same thing for most of the first year). Sometimes we will actually take public transport instead of the car specifically to avoid the screaming. I do agree that grocery shopping on foot or public transit is a massive hassle, and I try to avoid that as much as possible by doing the bulk of my shopping through a delivery service. (When nobody is shopping by car, a lot of stores offer delivery.) Also, around here there are no family passes, although kids under 44" tall ride free, so at some point it can actually be more cost effective to drive, even factoring in the enormous parking charges.

Your blog looks very interesting, Jay3fer. I look forward to looking through it more carefully after the holiday!

I voted other. We have a closet that I think is supposed to be a linen closet but I am using it as a pantry. Linens are in plastic bins under the beds.