These are extremely common among Unitarian-Universalist youth, and are always very closely supervised. I'd be fine with it.

Dramamine. No reading or looking at books in the car. Have them look out the front window for the stablest view. Keep a window cracked for ventilation.

Ah, yes. When my daughter was a toddler she dropped several lines on the growth chart. I was frantic. I am calmer with my second, who is also a very skinny kid, but I still feed him carefully. It is normal for toddlers to get pickier as they get older, and to refuse foods they previously ate. Don't bang your head against the wall on this one. Keep offering a wide variety of foods, including refused ones, and don't make a power struggle over what he tries. Toddlers have tiny stomachs. Instead of trying to get him to eat more than he is now, concentrate on trying to make sure that the foods he does eat are nutritionally dense. It is very easy for a toddler to fill up on low-calorie, low-nutrition foods. I used to give my daughter a rice cake to nibble on while I made her lunch. She'd fill up her stomach with, essentially, puffed air that contained virtually no calories. Then she didn't eat much of her actual meal. I didn't mean to be giving her "diet" food, but I was - accidentally. So make sure that the foods you give him have as much nutrition and calories per ounce as possible. Put butter on his bread or rice. Saute veggies in olive oil instead of steaming them. Use spreads and dips to add calories to low-calorie foods. Try high-calorie treats with some nutritional value, like banana bread, zucchini muffins, puddings, custards. Keep in mind that "healthy" for an adult and "healthy" for a two-year-old are very different. It is fully appropriate for a newly-two to get 50% or more of his calories from fat. He needs plenty of fat for proper growth and brain development. You don't want to load him up with pure sugar and junk food, but don't hesitate to offer him plenty of high-fat foods like eggs, cheese, butter, oil, peanut butter, etc. Those are "danger foods" for adults (and only some adults, at that) - not for little kids.

The panel was this evening, and it went great! I had about five minutes to present (along with nine parents from private, public, and charter schools), and then people asked questions. I decided that the highlights I wanted to hit were: - We homeschool because we don't want to miss out on all the fun of discovery and learning. - We like the flexibility of a custom-designed education. - We like that we're able to provide a rigorous academic curriculum in less than two hours a day, because teaching one-on-one is so efficient. - There is a good local homeschool community with lots of opportunities. - I didn't have to quit my job. - You don't have to be a conservative Christian. Amazingly, no one asked "what about socialization." People asked about legal requirements, training, evaluation, and how we separate family time from school time. I made a handout with a few key points, like the requirements of Maryland law and information about local inclusive groups. I put my contact info on it as well and said I'd be happy to take questions from nursery school parents. The director said she would hang my handout on the wall alongside the private and charter school ads. :D Afterward two different people said something like "I never considered homeschooling before, but you make a very compelling case." I am really glad I went.

:iagree:

Thank you for your input! It's nice to hear that you and your kids find SOTW valuable even when it isn't done "to the hilt."

The one that just made me roll my eyes: a total stranger posted a drive-by comment in my LiveJournal saying that she could tell my daughter wasn't as smart as I thought she was, and therefore she would do just fine in a school environment. The kicker? She claimed to be a homeschooler. I guess her kids are good enough to homeschool, and mine aren't. :001_rolleyes: The one that really hurt: a good friend told me that homeschooling is racist and classist. And that whatever my personal motivations might appear to be, I was racist for homeschooling.

My 5yo is absolutely CRAZY about history. We are using Five in a Row as our main curriculum, and just adding in math and lots of reading practice. I think FIAR has plenty of great history opportunities, but my child doesn't think it's enough. She wants more. I've been supplying her with history read-alouds and readers and taking her on history field trips (most recently to Mount Vernon and to a Revolutionary War re-enactment). She has a couple of historical costumes (medieval and colonial) which get a ton of wear. She's watched every episode of Liberty's Kids, twice. This weekend she built an American fort with blocks and legos and had the British attack it with artillery. I don't want to give up FIAR, which is working really well for us. I love the art lessons, and the way she's picking up and using literary terms, and the cultural exploration. I figured we'd use FIAR through second grade and then start systematic study of history in grade 3. But Alex really, really wants more history NOW. Do you think it would be too much to keep FIAR but add in SOTW? From my blog reading, it seems as though SOTW is a pretty big commitment in terms of time, projects, activities, extra books, etc - more or less equivalent to FIAR. Would it be cheating her to just use SOTW as a read-aloud, without all the extras, so that we'd still have plenty of time for FIAR? Or, alternatively, is there a good option for an American history program for a bright, history-crazy 5yo? We use secular resources only.

My toddler likes to have his own math worksheet and pencil. He will earnestly scribble away, randomly calling out numbers, while we work. I have popped him into a warm bath and sat on the bathroom floor with his sister, listening to her read while he scooped and poured. He loves, loves, loves to peel crayons. He is only allowed to do this when big sister is doing school. We do as much active learning as possible. Math on the sidewalk with chalk (harder now that it's getting cold; I may need to clear work space on the concrete basement floor), acting out vocabulary words, manipulatives for math (toddler gets his own pile of Cuisenaire rods), etc.

My daughter attended a lovely play-based nursery school for three years before beginning to homeschool this past June. Each year, the school hosts a panel at which parents of graduates talk about choosing a kindergarten - charter schools, private schools, the application process, etc. The director invited me to join the panel to talk about homeschooling. My audience is parents of three- and four-year-olds, most of whom I am sure have never ever thought of homeschooling. They aren't coming to hear about homeschooling in particular - they're coming to hear about their kindergarten options. What kinds of things would you tell them? Would you bring anything to show/tell? I don't know much about the format. It would help if I had gone to the parent panel last year, but of course I was already planning to homeschool. I stayed home that night and privately gloated about not having to worry about the kindy application process. :D

We love FIAR. I love the flexibility, being able to go as deeply or as lightly as seems right for our child on each topic. I love how invested our child is in learning, and how much her world is opening up. I have been blogging quite a bit about our FIAR adventures here: http://tinderbox.homeschooljournal.net

Did you do all 55 FIAR books in one year?! Whoa!

Oh, they look fantastic! Here are some of our pictures: http://tinderbox.homeschooljournal.net/2010/11/06/mount-vernon/ Mostly she just got quick compliments from the staff - they were all very, very busy - but a few of the costumed interpreters at the farm site had nice conversations with her. My favorite was the woman who took one look at Alex and said, "You're the first person I've seen all day in normal clothes! Everyone else is dressed so strangely!"

We were there! If you saw a little blonde girl in full colonial dress, it was my daughter. She loves history and George Washington - she was in heaven! I am so glad we got a babysitter for the toddler. it meant that I got to enjoy the day too.

The wine store in my neighborhood always has candy for trick-or-treaters. They have informal drop-in wine tastings on Friday evenings, and my husband often takes our little guy in the stroller. I want my kids to think of alcohol as a ordinary part of adult life, not as some big forbidden thrill. I'm glad it's not illegal to take them shopping.

I have! In the last week or so I've posted about delving into the topic of slavery with our new Five in a Row book, experimenting with levers, our trip to a Revolutionary War re-enactment, and the dreaded "what about socialization" question. Link is in my .sig.

We go to Colonial Williamsburg every year for Thanksgiving. It's amazing how quickly I got used to: - no family drama. - a big delicious holiday meal in a hotel, with no cleaning up necessary. We are all big American history fans, so it's a perfect vacation for us.

I grew up in a UCC church, and it was a wonderful experience for me. I really like the way they ground their faith in social justice work. I'm sorry that the UU churches near you don't have children's programs - that surprises me. It does sound like UU would be a good fit for your family - they're an especially good choice for families which include religious diversity and don't want their children taught that there is only One Way.

What a fantastic idea! I'm so glad it went well.

I am so ambivalent about this. Realistically speaking, it makes sense for us to close the door. If we were to have another one, I'd want to do it soon because I am 37. But imagining juggling baby/toddler/homeschooler/job makes me faint. I already feel like I'm barely keeping up with my obligations now. Emotionally speaking, I am not ready to close the door. Our kids are so incredibly awesome. How could anyone not want more like this?

Cream of wheat. My mother used to have it every day in the winter, but even just imagining the texture makes me gag.

Sugar snaps and snow peas, not just green peas. Artichokes. Cucumber. Snow pea greens. (You can sometimes get these at Chinese restaurants.) Chives. (Yes, they can be a vegetable.) Bok choy.

I would say no. The teachers aren't failing to understand that the "neutrality policy" allows them to stop bullying, they are using the policy as an excuse because they don't want to stop bullying. And that rationalization from the Family Research Council is disgusting. Being bullied, rejected, and despised doesn't make kids depressed - they're depressed because even they know how horrible they are? Feh. There's no language strong enough.

My favorite picture of my kids: alex&colin2 by Rivka5, on Flickr

It comes down in large part to where the family's wealth comes from. If it comes purely from land/rents, and the property is entailed to keep it within the male line, then the daughters are indeed out of luck. But if some or all of the family's wealth is in actual money (invested in the Funds, for example), or in lands that are not tied up in an entail, it can be disposed of as they please. Also, if Mr. Bennett had been able to scrape up the money, he could have bought additional land, which he then would have been perfectly able to pass on to his daughters. The entail only applies to the land he inherited from his father - and again, only because his father had set up an entail.