No limits as long as school work and chores are done.

:iagree:

I don't see anything wrong with it. They're old enough to understand that buying a Touch for each of them is not in your family's budget. I would think that contributing to it is a great gift.

We used to do the Sprinkler in the 80's. Not as a "real" dance, but just for laughs.

Yes, they could have easily put that in there. Speaking of quotes though, I got a chuckle out of hearing "Always the tone of surprise?" It didn't matter that the quotes weren't used the same as in the book, I was just glad they were there.

I registered several years ago, and have lurked on and off. I only recently started posting. I'm a former ps teacher, and my son has always been homeschooled. I also helped homeschool my now 22 year old niece when she came out of ps after 7th grade. We started out with a Charlotte Mason style, drifted into several other styles, then recently realized CM is what works best for us. I do believe CM is classical. My stepson was 13 when I met my dh, who was the custodial parent, so I actually did the teen years first. I can't believe my baby is now the age dss was when I met dh!

I wondered that too, but I'm still shaking my head over the 6th movie. How is Harry going to find the diadem if he had his eyes closed while Ginny hid the book? I agree with other posters in that it was well done, but I wish there were some things that hadn't been left out. I mostly missed the same things others already mentioned. I think they left out Kreacher's tale because in the movie they hardly spent any time at Grimauld Place. I do wish they had shown what the Potter house looked like to wizards -- with all the encouraging things written to Harry on yard signs. I think (at least I'm hoping) we'll see more of shell cottage in the next movie as they plan the Gringott's break-in. I really hope they don't leave out the Prince's Tale. And I want to see Neville in charge at Hogwarts. I love how his character has grown over the series. Finally, I guess I'm one of the few who wasn't bothered by the Harry-Hermoine kiss -- and my 13 year old was sitting next to me. First, I think it had to be appear to be more than innocent in order to really, really upset Ron. And to me, the shiny, silvery skin made it look unreal -- not quite as unreal as in the book, but still not quite normal. I know it was the sensuality and implication that bothered some people, but to me it had to give Ron the feeling that Harry and Hermoine had a future together that didn't include him. JMO anyway.

I got so tired of frantically giving my turkey a bath every year, that I started buying fresh a few years ago. I know they cost so much more, but I just gave up and gave in.

I know that if you marinate too long the meat can turn mushy, but I wasn't sure how long is "too long". I found this website: http://everything2.com/title/Marinade Apparently pork will be fine. Here's the part about marinating times: The time that you marinate the meat is also important. If the meat marinates too little the marinade does not have a chance to soften and flavor the meat. If you marinate too long the acids in the marinade can overtenderize the meat, leaving it mushy and unappetizing. The acids can also actually begin to cook the meat (as in cerviche), which causes the meat to dry out and toughen. Marinating times vary greatly depending on the kind, cut, and size of the meat. Denser meats like pork and steak can marinate for 24 hours or even longer, while lighter meats like chicken should marinate for no more than 2 hours. Seafood times generally range from 15 to 60 minutes. Meat that has been sliced will marinate faster than meat that is whole, due to the additional surface area. Puncturing the meat does not appear to help marinade penetration and may actually cause the meat to lose valuable juices.

I searched my emails but couildn't find this notice, yet when I go to My Account on their website, the notice is right at the top. I wonder if I deleted the notice thinking it was a "get your friends on Netflix" type of email. Anyway, we currently have 2 at a time unlimited plus streaming. I think we'll drop down to one and keep the streaming. There are some movies and shows we're interested that aren't on streaming, so we do want the dvd option. Though we have a Redbox on practically every corner, that would be more expensive for us. We sometimes like to watch a movie several times before sending it back, so the Redbox fees would add up quickly that way. I can see Netfilx going to more and more streaming. Currently Hulu seems to have the market cornered on that, and Netflix is known for making smart business decisions.

We usually take this week off. Then we usually do very little academics between Thanksgiving and the New Year. However this year we've slacked more than usual. We've taken more time off than I'm comfortable with, and I feel there are a few things I want ds to finish before Christmas.(We will take off between Christmas and New Year's Day.) In order for that to happen, we have to have more school days than we usually do at this time of year. So, no. Not this year.

Nothing. I'll stay home and nibble on leftovers all day. :laugh:

We don't follow a schedule, but try to get a bit of everything in each week. Math - just finished LOF Fractions. He's now reading The Number Devil and doing some of these activities. When he finishes, he'll take a break from math for the rest of the (calendar) year. He'll start LOF Decimals and Percents in January. Science - NOEO Chemistry III It's done on a 4 day schedule, but some weeks he does 5 days, some weeks less than 4. Language Arts - We follow Bravewriter, though he doesn't take any of her online classes (too expensive!). Right now he's working through a bookstore book called Grammar in 15 Minutes a Day, because he needed a refresher. Read alouds and some independent reading are related to our history program. Other reading comes from Braverwriter, or from a list I put together for him. American History - Winter Promise American Crossing. We'll start WP American Cultures as soon as we finish AC. He also does a U.S. state study that's part of this curriculum. I've done a fair amount of tweaking this program. Spanish - I gave him a foreign language choice, and he chose Spanish. We're using Instant Immersion Spanish, but neither of us is thrilled with it. Our library system now offers free foreign language programs online and I plan to look into that. Fine Arts - takes weekly guitar lessons at a local music store; monthly art lessons from a local artist Nature Study - I consider this an important aspect of his education, and though a type of science, we keep it separate from his science curriculum. Sometimes we do study on our own (I use the Handbook of Nature Study blog), but we also belong to a local CM Homeschool group that tries to meet monthly for nature studies. Career Education - He'll start a virtual school class in January He spends 2-3 hours a day on academics (not counting independent reading), unless he's working on a project or doing a science experiment. He has guitar lessons on Mondays, and practices 20-30 minutes a day the other days.

We don't follow any particular schedule, nor do we have official breaks. We take off when the mood strikes. Much of our off time comes when weather in Florida is the nicest, which isn't summer. Still, I do allow time off if a school friend comes to the door during one of their school breaks. Ds has several school friends in the neighborhood, including 2 his age who live right across the street.

We're currently using this, and I recommend it.

My philosophy is very much CM. We go through waves of child led and non-radical unschooling, but CM is always there in the background.

These are the only 2 I visit regularly. http://simplyrecipes.com/ http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ I really like those blogs and have found several new family favorites at each one. For the most part though, I just do searches for recipes, tips, answers to questions, etc.

We don't really do grades, but if ds was in school he'd be in 7th. If he had been born 2 days earlier, he'd be in 8th :001_huh: We also tend towards being relaxed homeschoolers. Not every subject is done every day. math science (chemistry) history (American this year) U.S. geography language arts Spanish I plan to sign him up for a Florida Virtual School class on career education after the first of the year. He takes weekly guitar lessons at a local music store. Plays/practices at home the rest of the week. He loves art, and takes a once a month art class with a local artist in her home (with a few other homeschooled kids). He's not sports oriented either, but he goes to agility classes with his dog (a Sheltie) once a week. We built some agility equipment for backyard practice. He's entered one trial so far, and wants to enter more. With agility, the handler is as active as the dog, so he gets plenty of exercise. He also throws the football and rides bikes with some of the neighborhood kids.

Dh hates crowded movie theaters and wants to wait until next weekend. He'd be so hurt if ds and I went to see it without him. I don't think I can make it a whole week and might have to talk him into going Sunday. So far I'm hearing good reviews from people who've read the books. Several facebook friends went to the midnight show, or saw it this morning.

Up until he was around 10, mine would get up between 6 and 7. It didn't matter what time he went to sleep. Then he started sleeping later and later. Now if I want him up before 10:00 I have to wake him up. He doesn't get grumpy about it, but just doesn't wake up on his own any earlier than that.

Around 17-18 pounds for 4 people. One of them is a teenage boy in the midst of a growth spurt. My daughter in law has to work, so my stepson is going to come over and have dinner with us. We want to be able to have leftovers for ourselves and send him home with leftovers.

Mine was around 4 or 5 I think. Probably 4. He liked, but didn't love duplos. I found several large ziploc bags of lego bricks at a yard sale really cheap. That was all it took. There were no kits, no instructions, just a bunch of lego bricks. He's 13 and asked for some of the Harry Potter Lego sets for Christmas. He still loves them. He likes kits as well as just bricks. We often go to The Lego Store in Downtown Disney (about an hour away) just so he can shop their wall of bricks. Even now when he uses kits, he'll build whatever the kit item is, leave it that way for a few weeks, then take it apart. Those bricks then just become part of the collection.

We were pretty fortunate in our insurance choices it seems. There's no max on ortho, and it does pay half (actually a bit more than half). We added extra dental because our ortho practice requires you to see your regular dentist every 3 months. These are higher priced plans, but they still were worth it when compared to our out of pocket expenses.

My son just got braces at the end of August. Our dentist had said the same thing - to wait until he lost all of his baby teeth. It will cost around $4000 for 18 months to 2 years. Insurance pays half, and our orthodontist (and most of the other practices around here) offers a no interest payment plan for our portion. We had advance warning from our dentist, so dh made sure to add extra dental + orthodontist insurance to our plan for 2010. We'll continue it into 2011 of course.

My ex-sil is a facebook friend of mine and she does this. I cringe when she comments on any of my status updates. She's almost 50, and it just doesn't look right coming from someone her age.:banghead: