I was wondering if there would be a way of defining it as an action? The journey, rather than an end goal? Peoples philosophies and goals varying so wildly and all... Stop me if am not making sense, or not adding constructively to the discussion.:tongue_smilie:

I've been reading, but felt too insecure to discuss with you smart ladies. Jumping in with my wonderings a little, though. Bolded is what I was wondering, too. I think as far as being a more public "voice" for homeschoolers who aren't based in religion, coming from a place of "academic excellence" is fundamentally important. I do wonder the same about not making unschoolers feel unwelcome. Would it be necessary to define "academic excellence" however you get there. Or something similar?... Thank goodness you are all putting this together and not me!:D

I probably should more often!

I like the butter family from restoration hardware pretty well, though I like a little more color than that. I LOVE peach walls (in the right tone) with cherry furniture.

Ha!:lol: There are MANY days where I feel I am running a remedial or reform school...for orangutans!

Thanks! I'm adding it to my list...

Crucially important, I know.;) We will be registering as a "private school" next year and so the time has come to figure out a name. Academy Prep Preparatory School Hall School Home School Adding from below... Learning Center What did I miss, are there others I am not remembering? Wanna share opinions on any of the above? Thanks!

I like the quote Geek uses in her signature.

My parents (and this is coming from a couple of free-loving hippies and my dad was an atheist) taught us to view the "point" of dating to be finding a spouse, asking us, if not that, then what is the point? Speaking for myself and looking back, while I did date some in the later teenage years, those relationships weren't about figuring out how to be in a relationship or learning about the differences between boys and girls etc. I know that for some people, these might be the primary reasons for dating. But again, for myself, I think that to a much greater degree one patterns these types of things after the example set by your parents. For me, dating was more about figuring out if there were any deal-breakers and if I could effectively communicate with this person (obviously, I already liked them or I wouldn't be dating them). Looking back at some of my friends from High School, it is painfully clear how many of them end up in relationships similar to their parents (for better or for worse) and I think it has little to do specifically with the people they dated, the one constant in every relationship being yourself. I guess if I were to try and sum up my rambling: Yes, I think the point is marriage. It's too hard for me to pick an age, though it does seem prudent to wait at least until they reach an age that they can legally hold a job. So that's my vote. I think it is sad how many teenagers think they need to "hold" a girl/boyfriend du jour for status/self-worth. Thinking about the teenage years scares the bejeezus out of me:scared:

Yes! I've been in the trenches since breakfast and my brain is now mush.:drool5: I am going to re-boot tomorrow. I have 2 states as well... Every year I tell myself I'll get it done in January. Yeah, right! As soon as I get this done, I'll start telling myself the same lies.:tongue_smilie:

Maybe this has already been posted before. I haven't looked at the whole thing, but thought it looked fun and wanted to share anyway. You can preview the book in it's entirety (just scroll down a bit) or buy a paper version. He has some other books at JLDunbar.com, but I haven't looked at any of them yet.

I just scanned the replies, sorry if someone already mentioned these. I am lazy about leaving the house with cloth diapers, but didn't want to use disposables. Take a look at gDiapers. The inserts can be composted or flushed, and the pants fit well. Sometimes I used them around the house as well, with motherease liners instead (the motherease one size was our usual).

:banghead: There should be a "bang-head" smiley for when you aren't angry, but are having one of those, "I am SO stupid! Eureka!" moments. One of the things we took away from Waldorf when exploring different methods, was the nature table. My daughter was always bringing in rocks/sticks/leaves/dead bugs anyway, why not give them a place? Doesn't work in my house. Toddler manages to spread the rock and leaf love to every corner of our dwelling. I am IN LOVE with your aquarium. I love that you can decorate the back and that everything is CONTAINED. Really. I could go on and on. I can't wait to steal, um, implement your idea. Thanks!

Yes! My mom researched things for months ahead of time (pre-internet). Yes, to family bonds, as well.

Not as an adult, but when I was 11 years old my parents did this, so I wouldn't really be of any help in working out logistics with you. They had a little $ windfall, bought a used RV type trailer and decided to spend it on a big family trip. My parents didn't have steady jobs, so that wasn't really an issue. We did a 3 month, relaxed, cross-countryish trip from Utah across and up to New Jersey and down to Florida and came back to Utah via the South. I still have SO MANY wonderful memories of that trip. I remember the public school was angry with my parents for pulling us out of school for 2 months of this trip. On my first day back to school, the principal came into my classroom and (in front of the class) demanded to know how our vacation was educational, since that's the excuse my mother was using for her truant kids. I could tell I was being interrogated, but I was also excited to share how awesome our trip was. I couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was to see in person: Fort McHenry and did he know that they still had part of the flag?!, The Mall in D.C. (how tall the Washington Monument was), The Statue of Liberty, The Smithsonian (various), had he ever seen pointillism in person? Amazing!, Various battlefields and reenactments, etc. etc.(I'll spare you EVERYTHING I said) The kids in the class were getting excited and asking me questions, and he finally had to tell me, "That's enough." Which is probably what you are thinking right now, too:tongue_smilie: All that to say that if you can swing it in any form, it's worth it! Even short trips, when something outside of their normal everyday thing, get logged in the brain in a special place.:) I'm curious to see other ideas as well. I would LOVE to travel more with my kiddos.

We all hate commercials too much for most regular TV (But my husband and I love CBS Sunday Morning and Fox Sunday Evening cartoons!), and the kids do have a few PBS faves. We don't have cable. That being said, we do watch a lot of movies/documentaries/nature programs etc. that we borrow from the library and I am SURE we log FAR too much screen time. I am too embarrassed to add it all up and share!:tongue_smilie:

Yes! I've listened to this. Excellent.

We bought a used Honda Odyssey last year. Paid $2500 for a 1996 model with 238,000 miles. So far we did have to replace a radiator hose but it drives/handles beautifully. I really feel like if it were, say, a GMC, it wouldn't even be on the road above say, work-truck capacity, at that mileage. I feel like I should knock on wood now! But we love it, have been converted to Honda Odysseys and would buy a new one if we could afford it! Honda is also good about adding little extras to their base models. For example, ours is power everything, sunroof too. Did I say we love it?!

My daughter and I had a fun "session" yesterday, not 100% socratic but mostly. She was digging her heels over math, being generally argumentative and writing all her numbers backwards on purpose. Very tiring. I asked her if she knew how the Romans wrote their numerals. She was VERY curious, I think because she thought she would get out of math! We use Rightstart, and I am sure they cover this in the future, but we haven't hit it yet. I drew a quick chart with 3 blocks for each number 1-10. Then we started wondering how she would write a number, if she had never seen a number? I put my bottle of water in front of her and asked her how she might show someone else that I had 1 bottle of water, if she had never been taught numbers. She decided she would make a check mark. I told her that that is very similar to what the Romans did and showed her an I and a 1 underneath. I asked her how she would show someone that I had 2 water bottles? She drew 2 checks. Rinse and repeat up to 3. Then I asked her to show me five. I commented that I couldn't easily tell whether there were 4, 5, or 6 checks. I used the line from RS asking What's special about 5? Her whole hand. And (unsocraticly!) told her they used a different symbol for 5 and showed her V. She looked at her hand and very excitedly said her hand had many Vs and that her pinky and thumb made one big V that held all her fingers! I asked her how she might draw a 4. 4 checks. I said I could tell it was 4, but maybe if I was distracted I might get it wrong. I asked what was special about 4 (pulling again from what RS teaches about what's special about 9). She said it was 1 less than 5. So I wrote IV while saying, 1 less than 5. At this point I stopped asking her to give me her version, because she was putting it together so well. I asked her, If she was a Roman, how might she draw a 6? She had no idea and looked frustrated. Again I pulled from RS and said, 6 is...? 5 and 1, says she. Ok...VI. I hadn't even finished writing it down, when she yanked the pencil out of my hand and wrote VII in the next slot. She was thrilled with that one! Again, I asked how she might write a 10, if she were a Roman? She was positively vibrating at this point! She drew two fives stuck together, like this 55, but one was backwards. I wondered out loud if maybe that's what they did, but reminded her we are Romans and 5 is V. She excitedly drew a W. I told her that was very close, but no tomato and asked how else she could stick 2 Vs together. She drew a diamond. I asked her if there was another way? An X! Sweet! I asked how she would write a 9 and at first she took a line away from the X to make a Y, all I had to do was show her the 4 and we were done! She was shaking her head in wonder at the paper and sighed to herself tiredly, "That was awesome." I was giddy myself. I said, "You told me you didn't know Roman numerals! Did you tell me a fib?!" She exclaimed, "I didn't know I knew!" Now, I know they say Roman numerals came from tally marks and that IV is just an abbreviation for IIIIV, and IX is similarly abbreviated from 1111V1111X, and that I didn't "teach" them to her in precisely the right way from that perspective. BUT, it was very easy to intuitively figure out the way she did, and her sense of pride over it is HUGE. I will go back over it at a later date. Sorry for the disjointed nature. I am a rambler and a horrible writer and am hurrying to type while making breakfast. I just wanted to share because we had so much fun and was an easy "lesson" to get your Socratic feet wet.

I was 12-13 years old when I decided I was no longer willing to buy what I was being sold, and I am 35 now. I was raised LDS. All I know is that I do not know (I didn't quote it because when I tried to look up quotes from Socrates, there were so many different versions). Although, I don't consider myself agnostic. I don't believe there is nothing, just that I can't define it, if that makes any sense at all.

Ordinarily, I'd have so much fun with this one, but my desk is sparkling clean and empty after I spent a whole day cleaning it because I'm... ...procrastinating doing our taxes.

When I was in middle school one of my friends had an obsession with V.C. Andrews...had a shelf full of them. One afternoon I speed-read 2 or 3 of them. It forever altered the way I looked at my friend. :001_unsure: I just couldn't understand the fascination and it left me slightly worried for her. Please tell me that not all of her books have to do with teens and incest, and it was just the few I happened to pick up? Maybe my memory is skewed, it's been awhile...

Oooh, I need to go look at the mathy one. Thanks! My computer is too old for Netflix:nopity:... But I can watch at my sisters place. Thanks! Between the Letter Factory and They Might Be Giants ABCs DVD, my son had them all down pat in less than a week. We love it here, too! BTW, The TMBG one isn't nearly as straight forward as the Froggy one, but it worked for my son because he is SO physical, and I think it helped cement it for him to be able to dance to it...

We just use the workbooks.

I'm glad you liked it! I think it's the first thing I've been able to share with someone on these boards that they hadn't already seen before..I tend to be perpetually late to the party.:)