I was brought up Catholic and one thing my big Italian family did was have a neighborhood St. Joseph's Day Alter. I was actually thinking of bringing the kids to one since we have been discussing Catholicism and the Pope but have not seen any. Maybe it is a Southern thing.

Here is a web site that gives weekly work in the form of games, logic, and using what they know to write and do math. http://mathlearnnc.sharpschool.com/cms/One.aspx?portalId=4507283&pageId=4993281 Click on the grade needed and look at weekly work. Great site.

piecing a core is work, lots of work, unless you can find a complete core (or almost complete) on ebay then you will spend many hours working on saving money. You have a newborn and littles, so time is very limited for you. Also if you want to use the library for the books be warned, others might be doing it too and checking out a book when needed may be hard. I would suggest buying the IG and each trimester buying what you need or take advantage of the 9 month payment plan. With that said.....you can piece it together buying used or finding a core on ebay (found an almost complete core for under $50 once) and spend very little money. Amazon used, library sales, and thrift stores are a great way to do this. It is very doable and the out of pocket money saved will be great but will take time and patience. Warning, LA IGs bought new have the student pages and so do the science IGs, buying used most likely will not and finding the student pages that are from a not current IG is very hard to do.

I think they can be used at any age. If your child can copy an image and follow the sequence then they can use it. My dd started using these when she was about 4/5.

Does she do any other type of writing? I am thinking on the lines of Letters, how to paragraphs, descriptive paragraphs and so on...non literary type writing.

This isn't a series but there are a few books by Clive Cussler that were adapted for young readers. You can find them used real cheap http://www.amazon.com/Inca-Gold-adapted-young-readers/dp/0671020560/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363173963&sr=1-11&keywords=clive+cussler+for+kids http://www.amazon.com/Shock--Abridged-Adapted-Young-Adventure/dp/B001BL6QCI/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363174081&sr=1-2&keywords=clive+cussler+adapted+for+young+readers I bought these for my at the time 11 yr old and he loved them. By 12 he started reading the Dirk Pitt books which gave him lots of adventure reading.

We have used these for a few years now. They are wonderful and help dd draw great pictures to accompany narrations. We finally got the whole set (slowly collected them from paperback swap and ebay) and now dd is using them to make a book of animals. I would love it if they come out with a World History book.

We are. One requirement to participate is to recite PI to at least 10 places for dd and 15 for the rest of us. I thought about making a homemade pie but the requests were all different so we will be going to the local cafe where pie is one of their specialties (15 different pies all the time on the menu).

Just got all my new curricula in and have been having fun organizing and reading. This is one of my favorite times of the year :) Enjoy your time looking at the curriculum.

For first names: If it is a common name or a Biblical name. Then no, these are for everyone. If it is a special name or a name with a creative spelling then I would be miffed if a family member copied. For first and middle name combinations: no excuse to copy unless there is some family history with the name. Also if a name has a very special meaning and the family knows it but a member still uses it, that would be another reason to be upset.

I recently read You Can Teach Your Child Successfully Bu Ruth Beechick and she tells how to teach Language Arts with out workbooks. It is easy and can be incorporated with other subjects. I too used BJU Language for my children and it was very good, I just wanted to move away from textbooks and siplify my teaching methods.

We have always had a no screen time with friends rule for the kids. I would mention this to parents whose house my child visited and never had a problem. This eliminated any exposure they might get that I did not want or any friend might get that their parents did not want. As for other things, talk with your child and let them know what is allowed and not allowed. If you feel playing zombies or HP is not a game you want them pretending then let them know. Setting boundaries is okay. It's funny what my dd has been exposed to being the youngest of a teen/adult household. Things I would have had a conniption about when the boys were younger. We have simply told dd that certain things might not be allowed in her friends house so no need to discuss it or repeating a bad word she heard from a movie will get her banned from watching those type of movies with the family.

:( :grouphug:

:thumbup1:

but not much letting dd play in the snow while the neighborhood kids go off to school. Yesterday the schools had a snow day and the neighborhood kids all stayed inside while dd played, made snowmen and built a hill to sled on. Now she waves (while eating a snowball on top of her hill) as they are off to school. My ds thinks it's a little cruel though.

One key to getting young kids to do nature journal is to do one yourself.

My adult/near adult children: *the ones who were mature and responsible are still the same only more responsible and mature. *the one who was trouble and very immature is still very immature and self centered.No change.

Well, I am glad you did not have anything broken, but sometimes things hit just so and CRACK. I am in excellent health but slipped on a step in just a certain way to cause me to break my lower leg to all heck and back, dislocate my ankle, and chip my heel bone. I am not fragile or have any weakness of bones. It was a freak things. Even the Dr could not believe how much damage I did from a simple fall but it happened. To say a person should not leave the house because they are too fragile is extremely insensitive.

Thank you for bringing this back to what the OP was asking...which was not how to sue the gym. I agree. Businesses carry insurance that cover accidents. I had an Aunt who slipped on spilled water in a store and broke her hip. It was another patron who spilled water and the store had no idea it was there, but it still happened on their property and there insurance covered the medical bills. The OP hurt herself on their property and there should be an accident report filled out. This is proper procedure. IF medical attention is needed THEN the gym should pay. it is simple. OP, definitely call back and get them to him to fill out a report and get a copy.

What about you? Any breast tenderness? I know when I had duct problems my babies would spit up yellowish junk. .

I had mine start as soon as they started drawing on their own, around 3. I just translated what they drew into words. My dd liked to draw holes when she first started so her first book has tons of black circles or brown patches and "hole next to azalea bush in the front yard with date, or mud under the bench at such and such nature trail and date. A nature journal can be done in the field or at home. It is up to you. We do both. usually when we don't have time or patience to do a full page in the field we sketch a quick pic or make a note "draw the crow on tip of log" of what we saw then at home we look in a field guide for a crow and use it to draw. If it is okay to pick flowers or bring home other small objects we will do that, then at home lay them out and draw. We then journal afterwards or later in the day/week. For small children I do the journaling while they tell me about the picture. As for adding souvenirs to your nature book...I have used glue or make small see though envelopes with velum paper to place the item in. I haven't tried dots, but I would think it would work. Anything used in scrapbooking should work. Biggest key to getting your dc to do a nature book is to do one too.

We have been nature journaling for a while. We just just use a multi media spiral art book and pencil colors. This new school year we will be trying to add some water coloring to it. In addition to our ongoing journals I plan on starting a new journal that looks like the one on pg 14 of Handbook of Nature Study One thing we do is have several on going pages for things we look for as we hike. It is pretty much a collage of a particular thing...mushrooms, seeds, leaves....that sort of thing. We draw the item and then write when/where it was located and what kind it is. On our normal pages we write date and where we are and/or what we were doing and then what ever we want to add....sketch, drawing with color, just journaling, souvenir, ... pictures will get a captions with a label. I have found lots of people want to do nature journaling but feel like they cannot draw so they will not be able to do it. A nature journal can be anything that records the nature you see. A date with a short blurb is a good place to start....Feb 28, 2013 Lone squirrel tracks mare the otherwise pristine blanket of snow in the back yard... when you look back on these "blurb" journals you will find a very nice collection of nature you have witnessed. For my dd, we are taking an idea I am doing for a knitting project (knit a row on a scarf based on the color of the sky) and coloring a line based on the color of the sky. We pre picked the colors for 8 sky conditions and each day around the same time she colors a line in her journal creating a striped pattern that shows the years sky conditions...a simple journaling idea with no writing or drawing experience needed but produce a record of the sky for a year (or just do a month, or week). Thanks for the links, some good ideas in them.