There is a nice picture book called Thundercake that deals with fear of storms. Included is a recipe for Thundercake that you are supposed to bake when you hear the approaching storm. Turns something fearful into a reason for a party. http://www.amazon.com/Thunder-Cake-Patricia-Polacco/dp/0698115813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327592253&sr=8-1

Scholaric works on Mac. It is $1/per student/month. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but then it is easy. http://www.scholaric.com

One Year Adventure Novel is definitely bigger and better than the NaNoWriMo workbooks. The videos provide invaluable encouragement and explanation. There is a textbook and a workbook as well as an short adventure novel to analyze. It is a high school level program. I am letting my 6th grader do it to his own ability. The best thing I see about it is that you could use it over and over again to write many novels. You would just need to buy a new Map Workbook for each new novel. Sorry this is hard to read, but here are the major sections in the table of contents: The Heroic Quest; Point of View; Synopsis; The Five Elements of Story; Someone to Care About; Something to Want; Something to Dread; Something to Suffer; Something to Learn; The Supporting Cast; The Villain; Conflict; Disaster; Dillemma; Acts and Scenes; The Four Defining Chapters; Chapter One: The Inciting Incident, Chapter Three: Embracing Destiny, Chapter 9: The Black Moment, Chapter 11: The Showdown; The Novel Outline: Formulas Plots and Subplots; Chapter 2: Promises, Prophecies, Predicaments; Chapter 4: The New World; Chapter 5: The Middle Cycle; Chapter 6: Failure; Chapter 7: Lessons; Chapter 8: Achievement and Atonement; Chapter 10: The Coming Storm; Ch. 12: The Denoument; How to Write a Chapter; Creating Emotion; The Illusion of Reality; Summary (Telling); Detail (Showing); Narrative Order; Dialog; Gestures; To Be or Not to Be: Too Many Modifiers; Symbols; Flashbacks; I Saw I Heard; Raising the Stakes; What's Likely to Go Wrong; What to Do When Stuck; The Character Interview; Setting; Character Masks; Character Handles; Unexpected Humor; Unexpected Tragedy; Unexpected Grace; Cliches; Irony; Transparency; Double Disasters: Writing the Climax; Setups and Payoffs; Deux ex Machina; Loose Ends; Parting Words; Revision and Rewriting; Revising by Verb; Formatting Your Manuscript; Sharing and Publishing Your Novel.

Birds and Blooms Magazine is very cheerful in the winter months. I've known several ladies in their 70s+ that received them. Plus they get mail that is not a bill. Looks like it is $20 for two years. It may take a month or two to get started though. https://order.birdsandblooms.com/pubs/RM/BNB/BNB-1106-Microsite-Index.jsp?null=102158&cds_mag_code=BNB&id=1327514126838&lsid=20251155268041465&vid=1&cds_page_id=102158&9gag=2124016990&9gtype=search&9gad=8935079230.1&9gkw=birds+and+blooms+magazine

Only on Lesson 22 of One Year Adventure Novel (still in the planning, not writing stage), but my son loves it. The video clips are really well done and add immensely to the workbook and the text. I am also finding that the program covers literary analysis from the creative angle: characterization, motivation, setting, conflict, theme, denoument, conclusion etc. which is an unlooked-for but great angle for further understanding of these concepts. TWO THUMBS UP! If you just want something simple to get your kid writing fiction. NaNoWriMo has free downloadable curriculum workbooks (middle school or high school) for planning your novel that include the same steps, without the video guidance. You don't have to participate in the November novel writing contest to use these workbooks.

Someone on a laundry thread posted here a while back mentioned that rather than mix everyone's clothes, she did personalized loads of laundry. I tried it and I no longer have to sort clothes! This was a great time saver. I have small square laundry baskets that stay in the laundry room, one for each person in the family. All dirty clothes are deposited in the proper basket by their owner (most of the time). Then I have a second set of small square laundry baskets (they fit one load and are easy for children to carry) into which the individual's laundry is unloaded from the drier. These are taken to the dresser, unloaded, and returned to stack under the dirty laundry baskets until a load is finished. You also do separate loads for towels sheets and whites. You could separate these by bathroom or person as well, but I haven't needed to. I used to have marathon sorting sessions on weekends. Often the laundry piled up into huge piles until we could get time to sort. Doing personalized loads has saved huge chunks of time and the laundry mountain is gone. Thank you to the person who mentioned it first!

He's certainly not cutting edge, all his ideas are from the progressive education period that began back in the late 1960s!

I'm with SpyCar. I have looked askance at many a mom and dad who let their tiny tots sit with the seat belt across their neck rather than keep them in the booster seat (which they already owned) a few years longer. Our pediatrician was shocked and proud when I mentioned that my son (age 9) was short enough to still need his booster seat. He said that he couldn't get any of his patients to keep using them once their kids hit kindergarten ("they don't have them in the bus, they don't need them in the car" mentality). My daughter who turns 7 is still in her Britax 5-point harness which goes up to 65 lbs. I think NY and NJ have laws similar to those of NJ. I think the laws are necessary, because we haven't been through enough generations of people who don't remember the time before car seats. There is still a "we didn't use them and we were fine" fallacy. What also drives me nuts are the people who install them incorrectly. One of our highly educated friends mentioned that their baby's car seat tipped over when they went around a sharp corner! And I see babies in their car seat carriers with the top clip down around their bellies all the time. The clip is supposed to be level with the armpits to prevent ejection from the car seat. Argh!

Same stubborn anti-cleanliness stance with my 12 year old. Especially frustrating is pretending to wash his hair. One day my mom was caring for the kids and put shampoo in his hair as if she were washing it, not just a dab on top while he was still clothed before he got in the shower. Then he HAD TO at least rinse it all out. So that is what I do. All my friends with older boys say you have to wait until they discover girls, then the hygiene battles will be over.

In NY. Classes with about 10 students, materials included, cost $18 for each 1.25 hour session. Materials include canvasses, acrylic paint, watercolor paper, paper-mache, pastels etc.

Denisemomof4: The bags of your dreams: leather and upholstery fabric. And you support small businesspeople in job-poor Maine. http://www.erdaleather.com/

My dh has been a martial arts instructor for decades. Although he is usually in the tough as nails category, he said that he would have let a shy child participate in hopes that the child would become comfortable. But if it were a child who was not shy, but being difficult, he would never have let him try the fun stuff. However, his final word is that 6 is far too young for martial arts unless the child is extraordinarily talented for his age and that most martial arts instruction before the age of 7 or 8 is really not productive and just aimed at earning money to support the school.

I second EmilyK. Famous Composers, More Famous Composers, etc. is reminiscent of the teaching company products. They are meaty and the kids still like them. Now, if I can just figure out where mine are...

Our Kenmore front loader does fit huge loads that our top loader could never handle. Uses very little detergent (you don't actually have to use the special front loading detergent. Just half of the regular detergent amount so it doesn't get too sudsy). Sometimes it does twist the clothes especially sheets all together in a big wrinkly knot, but it never tears them like the agitator did. The spin cycle is definitely more efficient than the top loader. Good if you are air drying.

Our farmer's markets here in NY must be the trendiest of all! Here are some examples for organic: Eggs are $5 a dozen (we use a dozen every two days). 2 Pork Chops are $15. A steak that could feed 2-3 is $19. A whole chicken is $20. Vegetables are less expensive, but we only have one organic farmer and he has mostly greens. Non-organic, but local veggies: $5/doz for corn on the cob; $1 head of lettuce, about $2 per tomato, $1.50 per cucumber, $6 for a quart of raspberries, and $8 for a small bag of apples). They don't sell organic milk at our farm market, but we go through a half-gallon per day at between $3.99-4.50 per half gallon. Consequently, I have been working on adding more raised beds to my garden, but am not going to venture into livestock yet!

I don't think it is necessary to understand every word to enjoy a classic work. Have them look up words that impede their understanding of the plot, but otherwise let them read. If every chapter is a long vocabulary exercise they will soon come to dread the experience of reading older works. Michael Clay Thompson's Caesar's English I and Caesar's English II from Royal Fireworks Press are vocabulary programs that focus on the most common words in classic literature. You might find them helpful.

Love the hardback one illustrated by Robert Ingpen.

My mom used to work for L.L. Bean, and their packages used to be delivered this was. It was called "Smart Post." The first leg of the journey is by UPS or FedEx and the second is by USPS. Somehow this saves them money. It really slows things down. I think the UPS hub near our house might drive by half the houses in town before it got to the post office! Efficient, huh?

Plan diversionary tactics. You probably know these people well enough to know their interests and hot-button issues. Be ready with leading questions on these topics. When they come at you with topics you'd rather not discuss distract them with the pretty conversational bauble you've prepared. In that way, you keep control of the conversation. Example: say they like shopping) Them: "I've heard you've been homeschooling..." (You: jump right in, don't let them get too far along their path. Be like a politician--never answer their question, just answer the question you wanted to hear) You: "Yes, did you know that homeschoolers get a discount at Staples? I've been able to buy a laminator, speakers for my laptop, and a voice recorder for 25% off! And do you take advantage of their printer cartridge recycling program. I get $2 per cartridge can you believe it!....." Just keep talking until they pick up on your new topic. Role play it in your head so you are prepared. DISTRACTION! It works with toddlers and with social gadflies! Also, don't feel at all bad about feigning a cold and excusing yourself to the bathroom for more tissues. And when you emerge don't return to them. Engage in deep conversation with another member of the party. (Plus they won't want to be too close to you if you have a cold.) I'm an introvert too. We need survival strategies for these things. Good luck!

I had an opportunity to look at :They Say, I Say, the original edition, and was underwhelmed. It appears to address a single concept in academic writing: how smoothly transition between expert opinion (from your research) and your own. Unless the second edition is significantly expanded to include actual step-by-step writing instruction like WWS (which I doubt was the intent of the book), there is no way I'd choose it. In fact, it was so not applicable to my 6th grader's work, I wouldn't use it at all until, maybe, high school. I'd stick with WWS. Certainly, SWB recommended They Say, I Say merely as a supplement not a substitute (and for high school not middle school). Take WWS (or another formal writing curriculum) and proceed at your child's pace. WWS is a modern version of the classical writing sequence that has worked for so many on these boards (think: Classical Writing; Lost Tools of Writing, etc.). If you think she has already progressed beyond WWS (which is for 5th grade) and want a classical sequence in writing instruction, you might be better off ordering an inexpensive used copy of Winifred Bryan Horner's Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition. It is like Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, which SWB recommends for high school, but significantly easier to read. p.s. If she's ready for full outlining, just assign that task no matter what the directions say. :-)

This is an interesting article from Science News. That women don't have memory problems as they enter their 40s and 50s, but that the hormonal shifts of menopause and their life stressors make it difficult for them to encode the information in the first place--we aren't forgetting; we're not learning! Is that better or worse? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060206000800.htm

Just so you all know even if you keep your location and names off your blog, if the pictures you took were taken with a cell phone with GPS, there is software that will allow people to find out the exact location the photo was taken. That means if you post a photo of Jilly in her bedroom taken with your iPhone, people with the right software will know the exact geographical location of Jilly's bedroom! http://www.gizmag.com/online-predators-can-determine-where-posted-photos-and-videos-were-shot/15818/

I've had good luck with these companies. If you want specific rocks, you might try teacher source a good place finding a place to order nicer specimens individually. http://www.acornnaturalists.com/store/Rock-and-Mineral-Kits-and-Specimens-C337.aspx http://www.teachersource.com/EarthScienceGeology/RocksAndMinerals.aspx http://www.hometrainingtools.com/rocks-minerals/c/22/

Use them someday? I can use them tomorrow. We are starting Olmec/Maya/Inca/Aztec in The Human Odyssey. Thanks!

Halcyon, thank you so much for the link to your review of Nancy Larson Science. It is so helpful to see more samples. There are only two per level posted on her website. She takes a museum-education approach (which I like being a former museum (zoo) educator) rather than an experimental approach which is perfectly valid for grammar stage and much easier for the moms who have trouble with the experiments. It also looks like it is a curriculum that would be easy to supplement with living books, more specimens, and museum and nature study field trips), and experiments if you were so inclined. After R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey turned out to be a flop with my little one, I'm looking for something new for the new year. Nancy Larson might be a useful option.