...food that jiggles, is capable of jiggling or sliding around in any capacity...(my kids have never had jello, pudding, custard, soft boiled eggs, cranberry sauce, vegetable purees, milk shakes, bean salad, eggs benedict...etc) I also can't be present when other people eat these things... This is especially disturbing, given my rather all consuming fear of knives...you know the implement used to cut up the non jiggly food. When we go to restaurants I have them take the knives away...except now the butter knife. Much growth has brought the butter knife back into our lives. Besides you would be totally amazed by what a fork, spoon or pair of scissors will cut... I also can't eat in front of people when I'm really stressed out... So, why I am not totally SKINNY is seriously beyond me!

Not that this is relevant, but do you know why he keeps parking in your driveway? An effective solution for dealing with the malicious is probably not the same solution you would choose for dealing with the just plain clueless. I might pop over and politely apologize to him...(no, I'm not crazy - stay with me). Explain that you are terribly sorry that you haven't had a chance to draw up a written contract about his use of your driveway...but the last time you talked things were left pretty open ended...and you seriously weren't sure what the deal was. Tell him you would be happy to sit down with him now and work out a written contract about the driveway use that is acceptable to both of you, and respects that fact that it is your driveway. Tell him that you can sympathize with his parking issues, since you utilize the driveway as a loading zone for your business, and know what it is like to need a place to park...and that you would be willing to help him out...but just need to get those details down on paper so that you aren't feeling the frustration of miscommunication or resentment. This places the ball in his court...it allows him to apologize and take responsibility for his actions if he just didn't get it before...or to demonstrate his complete disregard...in which case you can decide what your next step should be based on your solid understanding of his intentions and your needs. I seriously feel your frustration and hope that this helps. PS - DH suggested a yellow sign that says, "Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!" But he was just joking... I hope...

I clearly have issues, because when I read the title of this thread I thought to myself... Wow, how incredibly generous of you...no matter how wonderful my family is, I just don't think they could give away our TV...even if it would be loved by a deserving family while allowing us to save money and use our satellite TV budget on something more pressing, and ultimately meaningful... Must lay off the diet coke... PS - Hugs. My thoughts are with you...a TV I could do...a needle...not so much!

I completely agree with WTMindy. Although I found a lot of my education classes interesting in and of themselves, they were not particularly useful in the classroom. Perhaps that's what makes teaching so exciting...each class is a mystery, filled with many personalities, motivations, skills and ambitions. Your students each have a key...and your job is to find it, and help them unlock whatever gift it entails. So off you go to class, armed with your teacher's college knowledge and experience, ready to deploy them with strategic finesse, and in return, your students give you an unforgettable, opportunity to share your passion about a subject with them, whether they are there because they actually share your love of Political Theory or just need the credit! Just like at home, the classroom challenges you to reach new levels of competence, and creativity daily. But unlike home, the focus is more about teaching the actual texts and keeping score, and less about helping to self-actualize each student through your subject area.

I just finished Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and Johnston's Colony of Unrequited Dreams. So Pamuk's My Name Is Red awaits me tonight. I have also found myself In The Arena with Nixon, and having a Forever Summer with Nigella Lawson...apparently the family is a little disappointed that no actual cooking has resulted from the latter,...but I digress... Finally, I am pre-reading the kids school literature and still attempting to carve out a quiet weekend for just Joyce,Ulysses and me!

We have two beautiful and rather spoiled cats, a persian and a hymilayan...but shhhh...they don't know they aren't human!

I agree that it's important to be polite, informative and firm. When I started homeschooling I casually let our family and friends, including those that homeschool, know about our new modus operandi. Namely, that we would not be answering the phone during school hours (8-3pm), but that they were free to leave a message and we would call them back after our day finished. Or that beyond Tuesday's standing afternoon homeschool group, all outside activities must be planned at least a week in advance...because I've never been able to marry the concepts of schedule and flexible... everyone is extremely respectful. However I failed to anticipate the 7am ..."The school is closed today, can I drop my kids off at your house, so they can hang for the day since you're home and I have to work? My kids won't bug yours while they are doing their work...just toss on the TV!"... or the 5pm... "Hey, why don't I send my kids over to your house tomorrow, since they have a PA day on Monday, and then they can play?" So I take a deep breath, try to put myself in their shoes and then say...that I am really sorry but we can't... First of all, I would love to help but, I am TEACHING, and just like my kids can't "hang" with your kids at their PS if I am deathly ill and can't get a supply (Thanks again, DH!), my school respectfully has the same rule. Not to mention the "No electronics during the day rule," that must be militarily enforced, and the fact that we just don't have a PA day on Monday! I have found that once people see all the schoolwork the kids do during the day, via their schedules on the fridge, or their books pilled up all over the tables, they are rather embarrassed about being so presumptuous. So, once we are all on the same page, I find that family and friends are very respectful of whatever boundaries and "I'm now free" systems you set in place.

I really like First Start French and the way it is organized. The kids are introduced to vocabulary, grammar and conjugation. Then they review these elements and use their newly acquired skills to practice dialogues and do some translations. The book is interspersed with information on French culture, has songs (which you can sing along to on the CD) and references for further study, if you want to expand your knowledge. There is plenty of review built into the program, and the lessons are in manageable parts (which you can play with if you need to speed up or slow down). If you added in some additional audio CD's (check your library for French kits that have a reader and CD - aka French books on tape) I think it makes for a really complete program. My 10 year old is half way through the program, and I think it is age appropriate for middle school. My 11 year old is doing French In Action - which is an immersion program - only because she has had two previous years of French and is a language whiz. I haven't used Ecoutez! Parlez!, so I hope that someone familiar with that program can give you some more specific details. But I would definitely recommend FSF.

We use Writing Strands...but not as a writing program...more like a crash course in how to notice details and use them to influence people! Basically I have the kids focus on: 1. How to follow directions and importance/effects of finite details. 2. How to organize information and how miscommunication happens. 3. How writing is a skill with component parts and different applications. 4. That understanding the mechanism of writing frees one to write creatively. 5. That report writing is different from creative writing and both skills are necessary for literary analysis. Which in this house is where the fun begins. I think of Writing Strands more as a primer in understanding the invisible hand behind the printed word, and how to best develop your own "ghost writer" abilities when using the written word. The kids explore creative writing and literary analysis in a far more organic environment, with the aid of their writer/director godparents. I also find that being exposed to/involved in the theatre really helps them understand how to use dialogue and setting to convey moods, meaning and characterization. Furthermore, our house is a living petri dish of their active transference of these skills in their creative written work, book analysis and constant dissection of marketing and advertisements! So in short, that's how Writing Strands is utilized around here.

DD Gr. 7 and DS Gr.5 History/Geog/Lit: TOG Y1 Language Arts: DD - LLATL - Gold Book - British Lit Wordly Wise - Book 7 Writing Strands - Book 4 Classical Roots - Books A&B DS - LLATL - Tan Book Wordly Wise - Book 5 Sequential Spelling - 2 Writing Strands - Book 3 Both - Winston Grammar Logic: Fallacy Detective Math: DD - Jacob's Algebra DS - Saxon 8/7 and Jacob's A Human Endeavor Science: DD - Apologia Physical Science DS - Apologia Zoology 2 French: French In Action Fine Arts: DD - Art Lessons AGO DS - Still being negotiated* Both - Guitar Lessons MacKenzieRo - Theatre Co PE: DD - Volley Ball Team DS - Rep Hockey Team Currently his preferred art course includes designing posters for his door that say - "No Girls Allowed" or "Keep Out" - with a tiny subscript of "Art In Action!"

THANKS! I just put in my request to join as well.

Most people inquire about accountability issues. Do you have to follow the government curriculum? Do you have to submit their work to the school? Do you have to submit lesson plans and test scores? Are you using the same textbooks as the ps? What exactly are you teaching then? What does your schedule look like? What time do you start and finish school? There is a seemingly universal disbelief, that a parent has the freedom to make educational choices that differ from those of the ps, or that these choices could be beneficial. This then usually degenerates into an outraged discourse about the abuses of the educational system that homeschooling allows. This tirade is prefaced with, "Not you of course...but what about..." Sometimes there is a palpable level of animosity, as I describe our day, because people register that perhaps my kids are accomplishing more at home, at a deeper level, than what their ps delivers. This is when the word socialization is brought up - a seeming leveler - to counterbalance the additional educational opportunities my kids may have access to. Humorously, the socialization thing comes up while we are at the same social event, watching our kids socializing together - which usually makes me smile. The hockey parents from our traveling rep team have a similar issue, usually becoming upset about the possibility that my ds (10) now has "free" time for extra hockey practice/conditioning, which may give him some unfair advantages. Lastly people typically say, "Well, good for you...I could certainly never do it." When I assure them, that anyone can home school, you just need a vision, a willingness to do a lot of hard work, a love for spending time with your children and a sense of humour ...it's usually too late...I've lost them at point #3...in which someone always responds, "Oh no, they would drive me crazy!" PS - The ps kids simply pepper the kids with questions about fun and games, "Do you get to stay up all night, and sleep in until whenever you want to, then play video games and watch TV in your PJ's all day?" I guess we all have different priorities!

That's my guy! PS - He's also really cute in a Canadiens jersey!

My first tween crush was on Ricky Schroder/Rick Stratton - I simply adored Silver Spoons. This was followed by Jonathan Crombie/Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables. I then entered my Alex P Keaton stage. The character not the actor. In my teens, I graduated to real people and had a crush on John Malkovich (Empire of the Sun, The Glass Menagerie, Dangerous Liaisons) ... although apparently this had some serious character driven overtones. In my late teens it was all John LeClair. Looking over this list I see parallels to those qualities that drew me to my DH, and I can't help but wonder how it will compare to the crushes my DD will surely soon develop!

My ds (9) plays rep hockey, and this was the first year he played with contact/checking. Since he plays 4 - 6 times a week, I spent at least half of my week with my heart in my throat and an audible mantra of "Please, don't hit my kid!" His concussion however, came courtesy of a class field trip, and astonishingly not the rink! On the return bus ride home, one of his classmates, reached over the seat and was tickling his buddy. The kid was laughing so hard that kneed my ds in the head, propelling it into the window causing a fractured cheek bone and a concussion! You just never know. Progress report - still in hockey, currently homeschooling, and desperately trying to figure out ways to make bubble wrap more fashionable and less sticky.

Was I the only one who gleefully read the thread title as, "When do you start over planning your curriculum for next year?" Well...I started over planning six months before we started homeschooling.I made up binders for each dc with subsections for: 1. Learning Objectives - overall actualization goals & yearly academic ones. 2. Strengths/Weaknesses - highlighting learning/teaching style preferences. 3. My Priority Subjects - each subdivided with lesson plans and outcomes. 4. DC Chosen Subjects - areas the dc want to explore with their mind maps. 5. Calendars - monthly calendars cross-referenced to #3 and yearly calendars outlining estimated time lines for big picture outcomes in each subject area until 2014. 6. Reality Bites - a black and white transparency overlay line drawing of me covered with symbols for my goals/needs placed on top of a colourful self portrait of each dc with pictures of their hopes/dreams - to remind myself that I'm here to facilitate their goals/needs - not my own. Appendix - Favourite Poems and Chinese take-out menus. Four months into our adventure - I have learned the value of erasers!

Just opened our book: There are 40 Lessons in Total: 33 Daily/Main Lessons + 7 Bridge/Test Lessons __________________ 40 Lessons Hope that helps.

I am trying to let the kids discover their own personal sense of gravity, when it comes to their gifts...but I must admit that this is much easier to achieve in abstraction, than in reality! So for the most part, I try to frame things for them in terms of stretching to see what lies just past their personal horizons. Sometimes they will see things they want to work towards and other times they just note the view. Either way, I have come to realize that my pushing deals with my desires, but that their pushing results in achievements, and more importantly personal satisfaction, that no external force could ever hope to produce. Repeated note to self.

My pantry has an innocuous little sticky that reads; "Your kids are 9 and 11." Underneath it, another sticky perches vicariously; "Seriously, 9 and 11." The last sticky, "Yes...socially and academically...9 and 11," keeps falling off. I seem to continuously forget that we are not peers, sitting in a masters class...(at least not yet!!!)...Truly I am working on this.

Absolutely...Jacob's is extremely user friendly...so much so that my 10 yr old ds loves it as does my 11 yr old dd. They also like using Jacob's Human Endeavor to mix things up.

In order to mirror the language program of our school board, the kids are studying French, and will continue to do so until they have high school level mastery. This way if they choose to attend a public/private high school, instead of remaining at home, they will have the prerequisite background. Having said that, my dd loves languages and would study it on her own even if it wasn't a core requirement for us. She is also learning Latin because someone told her it was a dead language, and she thought that was a horrible fate to carry around. Resultantly, she is making it "alive" again, so it doesn't feel left out!!!

Thank you so much! I am off to check them out right now.

For those of you who use Galore Park French Prep, I wondered if it was only available from the UK? I can't seem to find a Canadian distributor, and could thankfully use a little direction.