A new app for Reading Rainbow just came out (there's a link in the article for it): http://gizmodo.com/5919771/reading-rainbow-might-stop-the-ipad-from-ruining-the-brains-of-all-children

I have one partially vaxed and two not vaxed. For me, it was lots of reading and learning about some of the additives in vaccines. I also, personally, believe we should be exposed to some childhood illnesses rather than a vaccine.

It does suck. I'm also in CA and I remember when people old me that a few years ago. First I went through a furlough, then my work hours were reduced from 40 to 30 hours per week. Now I'm facing a possible layoff that could happen in August. The joy of working for a city. :tongue_smilie:

I exercised until my 3rd son's birth. I was very proud at how active I was during his pregnancy- walking everyday, yoga a few times a week or some strength training exercises. I parked far like suggested and never took the elevator at work (ok not never, maybe less than 10 times tops.) Finally he was born... Around week 4 or 5 I tried to get back to exercise and that actually went ok. Then I returned to work and I can't carve out the 30 min I need... Yet.

:iagree: I downloaded a copy from google books for my iPad. I'm glad I had the foresight to check about it. There's a couple of uses of the n-word, some of the period illustrations of the Africans are horrid, and we skipped over 2 chapters of the book. I would have stopped entirely, but dd enjoys the animals and overall the text is fine. (Personally, I'm appalled at the parrot's, Polynesia's, behavior and the Doctor's insistence to follow what she tells him.)

I believe you have to convert the word files from the KISS website into PDF. A free program like Cute Writer can do that. I've saved mine in a Dropbox account and then open them in Notability.

I used to play classical during school time until dd requested I stop because it distracted her. Now I'll play it during chores or when the house is too quiet but we aren't watching tv and would like something in the background. I also use it to smooth myself to sleep. Oh, but I should also say that I'll most likely be playing these off my iPad. Otherwise we tend to use the music channel through our FiOS.

:thumbup: Score! We love classical and spent our $2 on both links. :)

Spell by Color - which was created by a poster here.

We started out home educating because our local school system is a large, cumbersome behemoth with too much red tape running the administration. We continued because we like being up late and sleeping in (not a great reason, but true); because my social butterflies would probably wind up in the principal's office often; because I know my kids best and know what helps them thrive and what isn't working; because I don't need to answer to someone else if we simply want to go to the museum for a day or hike in the local mountains; because it gives all of us flexibility in our day; because I love to learn with my kids and not just hear about what they did; because it has continued to work for us and we're happy.

I couldn't on my iPad either. However, I was able to download a free I Can Reader (Huff and Puff) from Barnes and Noble and view it via the free Kids Nook app. So far, my only gripe is that you get double page landscape spreads and can't change it to single page portrait views. But it does have a read by myself option or read to me option. You also have the zoom in features. :001_smile:

:iagree: I work out of the home 3 days a week for 9 hours per day plus 6 hours every other Saturday. Dh is home with our 3 monkeys - two school aged and one 7 month old. The older monkeys do more independent, workbook items on the days I work. I do other non-workbooky things in the evenings and on my days off. I also take them to our local park day. Add in their outside of the house activities and things seem hectic. But it works and they are learning. The other thing I find works for us is schooling year round. It allows us more flexibility when trying to complete curricula.

:lurk5:

From HSBC? Do you like it? I see it's back again until 6/30.

Which level are you using?

I've just recently started using Check the Deck. I like its open and go format.

That is plain awesome.

I'm hoping we'll get to start the life science this fall. I'd like to buy others in January to use later on.

Dd did parts of volume 1 of Draw Write Now at a co-op. It's basically the instruction for how to draw the topic and then four lines of copy work to write underneath the picture. We haven't use the history ones.

We're about half way through our school year... 1. My iPad. While I have fun personal games and reads, I've also branched into vintage books for lessons and downloaded PDFs of curricula. Sometimes I have the monkeys fill in worksheets on it vs. printing out paper. Also, there's some great educational apps. 2.SOTW Lapbook. Without this, ds would never tolerate Listening to a chapter nor be interested in history. 3. Utilizing multiple curricula. Both dh and I work with the monkeys during a week. He's more workbooks, open and go while I don't mind teacher intensive planning. Since I'm the household bread winner while dh is a SAHD, I've discovered having two types of curricula for some subjects works well. The monkeys do workbookish things on the days I work (Spelling Workout, MCP Phonics for ds, handwriting for both, MM.) When I'm home or some evenings, we'll do things like MEP, LoF,Primary Math Challenge, PLL, ILL, MCTLA, HTTS, and some read alouds.)

I'm sorry, that's my fault. I must have messed up when I created it. It doesn't seem like I can change it now.

Pretty much what the header asks. Do you have a will or/ and living will? Have you made plans on your funeral? ETA: The poll is not set to private. I'm sorry about that. It was my first poll and I didn't realize it was set on public.

Ooo... Dd might respond better to this for extra practice instead of KISS.

We pretty much keep chugging along. We're coming up on the halfway point of our year. Just activities for dd change. She'd like totry judo and fencing with her brother to take a break from ballet and Pilates.

:iagree: We do about 2-3 pages per day, depending on the lesson and number of problems on the page. I usually have the monkeys only do MM about 3/ week. The other 2 days we will do other things like Challenge math or LoF.