I give Cheerios and other easy to eat finger foods, when baby has got the pincher grip down ( thumb and first finger pinch ).

We inject our turkey and cook right side up to get that beautiful brown. We have used many things over the years to inject the meat, just about anything can be used. Two years ago we found Tony Chanchere's Creole Style Butter Marinade. It is amazing stuff, I don't know if we will ever cook a turkey any other way again LOL.

Do away with them. Public education as we know it is to broken to be fixed. Government should stay out of it. Bring back once room school houses, where teachers are paid by the community. Teachers accountable to parents. Choices in education are the key. To the PP that said to start all teachers out at 85K a year. The median income for the US is approx $46,000 a year. Why should teachers be paid anymore, than average when starting out? My husband has never made more than $46,000 in a year, we manage to educate our children, and send 3 to college. Spending for education in America is INSANE !!!!!!

We had confirmed H1N1 in July. It hit us all different. I was sick for 6 weeks. My asthmatic son is still not over it in my opinion. He still has a cough.

Thank you for this, I just joined.

Be sure to grin and bear it, or read Don Quixote when he is in bed. :D I have met three people in real life who really enjoyed this book. And none of them in the beginning LOL

LOL, Hanshew ?? We did this way back ( 1986 ) , I think I am older than you. Can't be the same Mrs. Finley.

Of course this is my opinion and mine only. But I would do just about anything to continue to homeschool. Short of living in a tent. We have rearranged our whole life to be able to live on DH's income. It is a sacrific we are glad to make. Over the years I have worked opposite ****, taken in daycare children. What ever it takes.

I just bought the Well Educated Mind, I am 33 chapters through Don Quixote, and just bought the next four books from Amazon. They should be here next week. I have subscribed to a few yahoo lists, but it seems they are for the most part DEAD. There is one that was pretty active, so it is nice to look back through the discussions. Don Quixote didn't get my attention till the 28th chapter, now I am moving right along. I really had to fight to continue in the beginning of this book.

My mother always put up the Christmas tree before Halloween, the kids would always giggle when they saw while trick or treating. I have on occasion put it up before Thanksgiving. But with two little ones, it barely survives Dec. We will be putting ours up the day after Thanksgiving.

I love Sonlight's literature selections. I will soon be purchasing Cores K and 1, to complete my Heirloom status. But I will be fitting them into a WTM model, along with future cores. I expect to use Core 100 as an 8th grade curriculum, then skipping all but the literature of Core 200 for secular reasons. Adding much to the upper cores just using them as literature to read along with WTM. I see no issue with reading at a lower level, but I want to push my highschoolers.

Thanks Angela !!! Now that was more what I was thinking.

Thanks Ladies I didn't even think about the 1908 spelling book. I was looking at Saxon, maybe just the workbooks ? He knows his sounds, I would just like him to be able to recognized the diacritical marks.

I am wanting to use a phonics that incorporates diacritical marks. I can't seem to find any to look at. Any ideas ? I would like atleast a workbook like I was taught with, that requires children to mark the vowels as seen in older dictionaries.

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

Thanks for explaining. We do let personal feelings color the way we see things. I am sorry that your your family has been hurt.

I don't see how you can judge. I know a young man, that only played on the computer and video games. His mother was an unschooler. He is now employed as a programmer making a great living, and never did a lick of formal education. It went against everything I think about homeschooling, but it worked for him. I don't get how anyone can judge another homeschooler?

How on earth can you judge, you don't know this lady ? You can't judge how a person teaches unless you are in their home daily, and even then, what right do you have to judge ? Out of here, my soap box is going to swallow me soon.

There are parents who don't teach anything till 8 or 10 or even 12 years old or after. This style is sometimes called interest led. When a child asks to learn to read, they are taught. A child can learn without reading, they can listen to audio books, they can be read aloud to. There are those parents that don't teach anything at all, but just provide a rich enviroment for learning. There are parents who have their Kindergarteners learning Latin. There are those who teach only from texts, or from literature. There are some who teach only from software. There are some that truly believe that children will learn, with no help from a parent, what they need to know in life, based on their interests. Exactly which of these would you call Children and Youth on? They all believe they are doing what is best for their children, and anyone of them could believe you are neglecting your children because you aren't doing the exact same thing that they are. Every parent has the right to educate their child how, when, where, they want. To each their own.

I understand how hard it is. And commend your strength in supporting your sister. I am sorry if you felt that I didn't support you, I do !! There really is no way to help her, until she asks for it ! You might just talk about your day or what you are doing, if she is interested. Maybe she will find some wonderful new ideas through you. My step daughter radically unschooled while she was on the road with her husband, a truck driver, for years. She just put her sons in school. One is disabled, the other is working very hard to catch up. She is glad now that they are in school, but she still sees what she did as right for her family at the time. Even though I thought she was neglectful, and our family even had the talk many times about calling the athorities. Her sons are now both in public high school, by their own choice, and doing very well. I never pretended to understand, but I did lend a non judgemental ear and shoulder. It is a very hard line to walk sometimes. But my basic belief is that it is a parents choice, that is something we can't tread on without endangering homeschooling itself.

Another thing I have learned is that those who wish help or suggestions from others, WILL ASK FOR IT !!! I would converse with her in a non threatening way, or take a vacation and spend some time with them. But even then I wouldn't confront her with my opinion of educational neglect. It is one way to burn a bridge for sure !! Most homeschoolers don't take lightly to saying they are neglecting their children.

Even after 20 + years of homeschooling. I don't pretend to understand some methods. But I would never, ever put my nose in another parents , even my sibling or adult child, business. We as a homeschooling society will lose something very dear, if we start regulating / reporting the lack of, or how others teach. Thank goodness I live in Texas, we have no laws per se. It is a parents right to choose how, when and with what, to teach a child.

We buy new, because everything will be handed down to my second little one. And to atleast 3 of the grandbabies.

I don't have any suggests for you. I applaud your wish to educate your children though. My very young son, learned the same way we did by discovery before diagnosis. But I also can not understand the other mother. My daughter has life threatening allergies to dairy & egg. There is no way in H. E. Double Hockey Sticks, that I would ever put her in a cooking class with dairy all around !!!!! That is completely idiotic in my mind. It is my job to protect my child !!!!

I don't think a FSH of 38 is signifigant ! I had the same FSH before I had the two youngest. I am just not getting irregular. I know if I could bump it up to 41, I would !!! These flashes and power surges are wearing me out !