I found my dd10 a super-soft, long-sleeved green shirt at the thrift store. When she put it on, she said, "I LOVE this shirt! I feel like I'm part of the Green Shirt Club!" Me: "What's the Green Shirt Club?" DD: "It's like the Red Hat Society, only for little girls." :D

Take a look at the magazines on this website: http://www.stampington.com/ I am not a rubber stamper, but I am a collager, and I find Somerset Studio magazine deeply inspiring. I know Stampington publishes at least one magazine that's more specifically stamp-related. If you have a good bookstore in your town, you may be able to look at copies of some of these magazine. They're all gorgeous.

Check these out, Ronette: http://www.amazon.com/Market-Guide-Young-Writers-Where/dp/0898797217/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227540074&sr=8-1 and http://www.amazon.com/Young-Writers-Guide-Getting-Published/dp/1582970572/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227540074&sr=8-2 I would have LOVED either of these when I was a kid. Christmas is coming! :)

Go to Etsy.com and type "soy candle" into the search box. Etsy is an online marketplace for artists and crafters. You will find tons of soy candles and be able to buy them staright from their creators, at (usually) an economical price! :)

Phonics/reading, nature study, gentle math, music/fine arts, and advanced cuddling:tongue_smilie:

My dd (14) is taking an online Latin class using Wheelock's, and she LOVES it. We did Latin half-heartedly for about 1.5 years with LCI and LCII, but I know now that they were not right for her. Wheelocks, though.....wow. Latin is her favorite subject and she thinks Wheelock's is the best!

Well, my dd's Latin teacher recommends starting Latin when they're firmly into the logic/rhetoric stage and can handle abstract thinking, which she has found is around age 13/14. I'm probably the lone voice here.....

Grammar and chocolate....I love homeschoolers!:tongue_smilie:

Shari, Yes,this would be an excellent addition to your Rome study! It has lots of general info about ancient Rome in it, and it's very interesting. HTH!

Um, when you find your self-control, will you please send me some? A box of Candy Cane Jo-Jo's can disappear in under 2 days in my house, and there are only 4 of us. :D

Well, if any other adult did what this doctor did, would you consider it reportable abuse? If so, why should a doctor be allowed to do so just because he's a doctor? I agree that someone in authority should be notified, and you should not see this pediatrician again.

Same square footage as my first apartment with dh!:lol:

Rascal - Sterling North Gentle Ben- Walt Morey (we've read others by him but none come to mind at the moment, all good, though) books by Jean Craighead George besides the My Side of the Mountain series (these are great, too) - I'm sorry, again no specific titles come to mind, but my dd, a budding naturalist, likes them because they have lots of nature details in them

This is one of the wisest posts I've ever read. Bravo!!:hurray:

re: Workshops and workload I think it depends on the workshop. Like another poster said, being familiar with Greek and Roman history would help. The Ridiculously Rich Romans workshop took no work except showing up. The Greek Tragedy workshop, on the other hand, required dd to read a Greek tragedy per night for 3 nights, so that was a bit of a commitment, there. She loved it, though, and later we were blessed to get to go to the Getty Villa here in SoCA to see one of the plays she'd read performed in an open-air, Roman style amphitheatre, which was wonderful!

Josie, My dd, 14, took two of the workshops last summer: Greek Tragedy (this might have had a fancier title) and Ridiculously Rich Romans. Both were expertly taught by Regan Barr. She loved them so much that she is now taking Latin with Amy Barr and is about to complete her first semester. Latin is her favorite subject and she plans to take all three years of high school Latin with Lukeion. I plan to have my younger dd take Latin with Amy, too. I cannot speak highly enough of Regan and Amy Barr as teachers and simply as interesting and engaging people.They are absolutely passionate about ancient history and languages and they are a gift to the homeschooling community! I recommend their classes highly and we're so pleased to have "found" them. Please feel free to PM me if you'd like more specific info. HTH!

CA: At least one mission, perhaps San Juan Capistrano or San Diego, and somewhere in Gold Country.

We loooooooove Lands End bedding!

My dd loves the Complete-a-Sketch program from Insight Technical Education (available at Rainbow, Timberdoodle, too). It's excellent for kids who like precision, need help with fine-motor coordination, like a more technical art style, need a pre-drafting program, or all of the above. We love it, yet whenever I mention it, people either haven't heard of it or they've vaguely heard of it but have never considered it, etc. We highly recommend it!

JFS and Annette: I went to Chapman, too!! Wheee, let's have a Chapman alum party!:grouphug: Bwa ha! My dh grew up in Orange and Tustin, attended El Mo high school, and lived in the house we're now living in from 10 years old to 20. But I digress.... To JFS: Our now-in-Arlington-Heights friends lived on 1542 E. Chestnut. They moved because he got a job there, and they really like it. They've been there a little over a year. We miss them! Ronette, I'm so glad you're okay, even though you have to keep your windows closed. I hate that ashy-ness in the air. :( See you soon!

JFS, We live near El Modena High School, off of Chapman and Prospect. We used to have friends on Chestnut Street! (That is, they're still our friends but they moved last year to- get this- Illinois! :001_smile:) We heard this morning that some of our friends in YL (one family) have evacuated voluntarily, but they insist that their part of YL is not on fire. Our skies look clear this morning. How are you doing up there, Ronette? (You know me - think pig dissections in the backyard......)

Well, we live in Orange (about 10 miles from Yorba Linda) and we have several friends in YL, none of whom have had to evacuate, thankfully. We had weird, bruise-colored sky all afternoon, but it seems to be better now. It's true that this has become more and more frequent because of lack of rain.

We've been trying to cancel our weekend paper for months. We don't pay for it anymore, but it comes. Sometimes they give us the weekly paper for free, even though we have called literally dozens of times to ask them not to give it to us free. This has gone on for years. I'm just glad we can recycle it! :tongue_smilie:

My 14 yo dd's online Latin teacher says that Latin is best learned when a student is well into the abstract thinking stage, and that it's not necessary to spend time or money on Latin when they're young. Her teacher says that the "early learning" model that is often applied to foreign language does not apply to Latin. I know this goes against conventional homeschool world wisdom, but I have seen this played out in my dd's life, for what it's worth. Based on my current experience and advice, I'm going to wait until my younger dd is about my older dd's age before she starts Latin, with no apology! I say all this not to discourage you if you really WANT to do Latin right this minute, but your title would seem to indicate otherwise. :D Don't start just because you think you have to or because someone is telling you to. I am thrilled with how much my dd has learned in just this first semester, using a high school text in an online class, and so is she. We trudged along with Latin for almost 2 years before we both got frustrated and decided not to continue at that time, even though she really wanted to learn (we started in the first place at her request, not because I had even been considering it!) Fast forward to this year and this class - she says she learned more in the first three class sessions than she had in all the time we'd done Latin before. Now, part of that was because she's being taught by a real Latin teacher, of course, rather than me. :tongue_smilie: But I wasn't doing too bad a job, honestly. It's just that Latin really is a complex language, and dd has found that to learn it to a satisfying degree, even at this stage in the game, your brain has to be ready. Hers is, and she has learned a tremendous amount in a short time, retained it, enjoyed it, and been willing to put in the intensive study time to treat it like the discipline it is. She was not ready to do this even a year ago. So, take heart. You don't HAVE to. :001_smile: Feel free to PM me if you want to hear more rambling. HTH!

Or, on a snarkier day: "Well, I could never send my kids to traditional school, either, so I guess we're even." :tongue_smilie: