Mine takes a memory card. I just drag and drop any photos that I want to add about once a month to the card on my pc, then stick it back in the frame. I like them to show up randomly, so no organization at all.

Well, I have never been to Tennesee :) Ask any questions you have. Chances are I can answer them.

My husband has one, but I have to do all the technical stuff for him :rolleyes: .... You can listen to mp3's, AAC, or WMA audio files that are unprotected, and WMA that are DRM'd from the Zune store. You can watch WMV, MPEG4, and H.264 video files, BUT the Zune software will convert all files to WMV as it is loading them onto the Zune which is a very slow process. You can convert them to wmv first using one of many free or inexpensive programs (google for Zune file conversion). You can rip music from cd's. You can buy music the Zune Marketplace (DRM'd) You can buy music from Amazon (unprotected mp3's) There are many sites such as librivox with free audio books. Most podcasts have rss feeds on their websites that you can put into the Zune software to have episodes downloaded automatically in mp3. You CANNOT use music purchased from itunes (well, you can, but not without some effort) You CANNOT use books purchased from Audible.com. When you plug in the zune and open the software it should automatically look in the My Music folder on your hardrive. If you have compatible music in another folder you have to point the software there. When you rip cd's the tracks should go straight into your My Music folder unless you have told your computer to put them somewhere else. Microsoft points are the same as for Xbox live. You can purchase them online direct from microsoft, in Xbox live marketplace, or buy a card preloaded with points at many card kiosks in stores like Walmart.

I am so jealous :D I lived near one for 30 years, now the nearest is hours away. We have a write in campaign trying to get them to move into a new shopping center being built, but so far no response.

Yes. We have watched tons of videos on the formation of the universe, dinosaurs, evolution of man, and early pre-civilization people's (Clovis, etc.). We usually watch these as a family rather than doing formal assignments. Ds6 will be doing a lapbook on life in the ice age after we work through our current queue of lapbooks. I may put together a lapbook on evolution for him too. We also have many books on pre-historic people and earth before humans. The kids tend to gravitate towards them for free reading so they don't need the topic assigned to them. Some favorites: Cosmos Walking With Dinosaurs (the whole series) Walking With Cavemen (Ale Baldwin version) Walking With Pre-historic Beasts Origins: Nova (and all Nova specials) Iceman: Hunt For a Killer Many more than I can remember

My mom cut and colored mine when we lived in CA. She does an awesome job (she is a nurse, not a stylist). Since we moved here almost six years ago I have tried several people paying anywhere from $10-$50 for a cut & style. Every single time has left me nearly in tears. I realized that ALL of the local stylists all went to the same local school (the only one) and learned the same crappy technique. It doesn't matter if they work at the $10 walk in or the $50 spa salon. Now I trim my bangs, but I am letting it grow out until my mom comes up to visit again. Dh would happily cut if he knew how and I think he would do a good job so my mom will give him a lesson. I doubt she will come up until late spring or summer. Until then I am letting it grow long. I stopped coloring and have embraced my white hairs. I do dh's and the boy's hair. I was desparate and sore (stupid weather making my joints HURT) so I had dh take the kids to the cheap place last week. Ds6's hair is so crooked and messed up all around the ears and neck. I feel awful. I am just glad he is not old enough to notice. She cut it so short that I cannot even fix it until it grows out for a couple of weeks.

Year round. We take off when we want to for the day. Most days we are done around noon, which I would not be comfortable with if we took a summer break.

When I was in school it was Algebra 1 - Geometry - Algebra 2 - Trig - Calculus. I have been thinking about whether to give my oldest son algebra 2 or geometry next. We will probably use Teaching Textbooks for those. I have at least 6 months to figure it out :)

Ds10 does 5: Algebra (30 minutes - 1 hour) French (15-30 minutes) Vocabulary (VfCR) (15 minutes) Alternating blocks of history, science, literature; Currently doing History Odyssey Early Modern Level 2 (3 hours) Cooking (with lunch) Ds6 does 4: Math Handwriting Alternating block of history, science, grammar, literature: Currently doing Ancient Civilization History Pockets. Cooking (with lunch) We are done by 12:30 with the academic stuff, have a cooking lesson to make lunch, and the rest of the day is free.

I painted for an hour or so, then watched last nights House and Daily Show with dh. Had a "discussion" with ds10 about being careless with the laptop which he had just dropped on the hardwood floor (it is OK). Now I am waiting for enough hot water (dh just took a shower) so that I can shower and go read in bed.

Mostly we do our own thing.

National Geographic Bon Apetit Secular Homeschooling Muse (ds10) Zooboks (ds6)

My kids are healthy eaters too... no soda, no junk food, very little candy. They are also foodies (like dh & I) so they love to try new foods and recipes. Ds10 had his best friend over for dinner the other day for the first time. They usually play earlier in the day. Anyway... the boy was all weirded out by the pita bread. He liked it, but kept going on and on about how he had never had anything like it before.....uhmm, it was pita bread not some bizarre alien concoction. I find out later from his mom in casual conversation that he had never had anything made with whole wheat before :eek: and that he thought it was fun (but weird) that we made it fancy and ate at the table. Again...uhmm, we eat at the table almost every night. She thought we had gone to some special effort becasue we had a well-rounded home cooked meal at the table (chicken breast, rice, salad, pita, tahini). The only thing that we did different from normal was roll up a fifth chair. When ds eats at their house it is always fast food or pbj on white bread in front of the tv. That brings up another question I have been thinking about. What do you do when one of you dc's friends has atrocious table manners? For example licking the butter serving knife that is on the butter plate and being used by everyone (yes, this did happen the same night). Dh and I sat quietly, but ds was obviously a bit embarassed by his friend. It is surprising because the friend is an otherwise exceptionally polite young man. The next time he came over for lunch we had the kids eat without dh and I because it is too much too stomach (sorry, bad pun).

Ds10 (11 in a few days) doing Early Modern level 2. He works independently except when he has a question or wants to dicuss something. He does all of the writing with no problems, but he is accelerated and I would consider him a 9th grader if I had to assign a grade level(higher in some areas). I have required him to write essays and longer three-level outlines for about two years, although we have never used a formal writing program.

We recently did a major clean out. I had far too many books purchased at library sales that "might" be useful for homeschool work someday. They all went. They were all musty smelling and made us sick to use.At the same time we weeded out a lot of other books that we felt were not worth keeping. Not every book is worth a reread :) I let the kids sell whater the store would take to a used book store for credit that they can use. We still have a ton of books. I want new bookshelves for the hallway, which will lead to having even more books.

I try to make things stretch more because I hate grocery shopping than to save money, but it works out that way which is a bonus. Some of our family favorites: Mix about 1/2 cup per pound of oats (quaker oatmeal) into ground beef before cooking or forming into hamburgers. It makes it healthier, gives it a nice meaty not-grainy texture, and seems to make the meat juicier. My kids LOVE tvp sloppy-joes or BBQ-joes. They would rather have these than the beef version anytime. We also love the hillbillyhousewife recipe for meatless "meat"loaf with tvp and wheat gluten. I make up two. Freeze one. The kids like to slice it up for sandwiches. I also adapted the recipe to use italian spices and made "meat"balls which were a big hit. I bake them, then freeze them and grab a few for pasta or "meat"ball sandwiches. Potatoes are also a big budget stretcher here. I make stuffed potatoes in a big batch and freeze them in sets of 4. One package is a snack or lunch size for the family, two is a dinner main dish when served with a big salad. A ten pound bag of potatoes makes a lot of meals. I also like to do freezer cooking when I can. It really is the same concept as making as many meals from, say, a chicken as possible. They get frozen, though, instead of having to eat them all in one week. When I go shopping I have my list of staples that need replenishing and I buy whatever meat is on sale in bulk. Then I check my freezer cooking books for recipes that use what I have. My freezer is tiny (I want one for the garage soon!) so I cannot do a whole month at a time, but I will do several meals worth a couple of times a week.

I used Homeschool Tracker for several years. Last year I realized I was spending too much time getting HST organized, entering lesson, plans, etc. When something would change and we would want to toss out a lesson plan I would feel bad about all the time I spent entering it and get frustrated with having to remove it from our schedules. Now I use two Moleskines and my fountain pen. One notebook is a plain line book where I write out loose lesson plans. The other is the small size yearly diary (just started 2008), where I transfer one weeks worth of lessons and any other activities at a time. Making a change is as easy as scribbling something out (which is kind of fun). Ds10 works in blocks of time rather than exact assigned lessons, so I make a simpe note in the diary about where he is at the beginning of the week so I can be sure he makes adequate progress. While we have no record keeping regulations here in OR, if I ever did need a formal record, it would be easy to go back through my notes and type one up.

I would love to go to a convention! I don't think any happen even within driving distance for us.

No grades here. If we did they would all be A's anyway since I require mastery before an assignment is considered done. I don't understand why someone would move on to the next assignment or level when the first is not understood to its fullest.

don't know about schedules, but I think my boys and I need a transporter ala Stark Trek so we can come visit all of the WTMers that cook a full breakfast. A hot, weekday breakfast here = bagel . Most days the kids get cereal. We do awesome lunches though!

DS10 is using their Algebra1 course. So far it is going very well.

I think its great to see what others here do besides homeschool. We are all individuals with interests beyond our children's education. Your artwork is fun and fresh. Don't let a party pooper stop you from posting:D Maybe someone should start an artwork thread for all the WTM artists to post to;) Btw, etsy.com is a site where you can set up a shop (free) and sell anything you have created yourself for low fees. It is also a great place to go shop for original goodies.

My 6yo does this more tham his big brother. This morning he wanted to keep reading about jellyfish and had a little bit of an attitude when I told him to go do his math. I let him listen to music while he did his math which made him happy again. Funny, he was begging to put together his brother's old k'nex roller coaster set yesterday. I am sure once I figure out where I stuck everything for it he will be absorbed for days.

Wii and an xbox 360 for set top consoles, each family member has their own Nintendo DS handheld and we have two PSPs that get shared. We have no restrictions except that school work must be done and parents get the big tv (where the consoles are) in the evening. Both boys play some pc games too. Technological literacy is necessary today, and will be even more so when our kids are grown. To me restricting video game time is similar to how people used to think reading time should be restricted. When they have friends over that have time restrictions those kids are always the ones that go nuts and obsess and only want to play video games when they are here, but their friends that are not restricted are always the ones that are happy to do other stuff too. At least with my boys, I think since they know they can play whenever they want, it becomes less important and frees them to persue other interests.

Considering the experiences we have had with ds6 and his ears, the fact that the doctors did not catch this boy's problem does not surprise me. We spent a year going back and forth when ds6 was 2-3yo with the docs telling us he was nearly deaf and needed surgery and us asking them for a better cleaning to rule out wax. The two docs were sure it was NOT wax, even though both dh and his father have/had a severe wax problem that effects their hearing when not kept under control. We did not like the local docs and were trying to get into to see a doc two hours away, all the while teaching ds ASL (dh and I were both already conversational and other family members are fluent). He could speak, but sometimes could not hear at all. Then one day massive amounts of wax started to run out of his ears on its own. I mean massive...like spoonfuls. We took him to the pediatrician who did a basic cleaning, then insisted on another hearing test. His hearing was 100%. It was wax all along. Then last summer, he was complaining about not being able to hear in one ear. The first pediatrician said he needed testing again, there was probably hearing problems, etc. We got a new ped becasue the other one moved. This one looked in his ear and found a lego bionicle piece (covered in a ton of wax)! Getting it out was another saga, but his hearing was fine as soon as it was out.