My dd is 11.5 and she started developing breast buds at 9. I got the "Care and Keeping of You" book and we read parts of it together and she was fine with it. We had some great, open conversations and she wasn't self-conscious at all. But now that she's developed pubic hair and more than breast buds, she is super self-conscious. She usually wears baggie boy-cut shirts and long shorts. She refuses to wear a bra, even sports bras, but I buy them for her and put them in her drawer. I've told her she'll be more comfortable with one on. I find one in the laundry occasionally now :001_smile: I've asked her if she wants to talk about her changing body, but she clams up and thinks everything is icky. I talk matter-of-factly to her, and she listens but doesn't contribute. I figure that's ok for now and she'll ask when she's ready.

I just made this last week and served it over rice. It was awesome. Chicken breasts Can of cream of ? soup (we used cheddar, but you could use chicken or mushroom) 1 cup salsa taco seasoning (I make my own) Put chicken breasts in crock pot. Sprinkle with taco seasoning. Combine soup and salsa then pour over chicken. Cook on high for 3 hours (or low for 6). Shred chicken using 2 forks. Serve over rice or in soft taco shells. Yummy

I love our side by side and will definitely buy another when it dies. As you know, the freezer side isn't huge, so we have an upright freezer that we use for frozen veggies, berries, jams, applesauce, etc.. I'm also looking into getting a chest freezer so that we can buy half a cow and pig to save on the cost of organic meat.

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon is a great fiction picture book. An absolute favourite here. Kenneth Opel wrote a series of fiction books about bats - Silverwing, Sunwing, Firewing, and Darkwing.

My youngest (at age 6) did both and benefitted from it. We didn't continue with ETC after book 4, I think.

my sil got married and specifically did not invite our 3 dks or her other niece and nephew. Dh and I took our kids, but they stayed in the hotel room during the wedding and reception (with cell phone and we went up and checked on them every 30-45 minutes). Dh's bil stayed home with his kids while his wife went to the wedding. Grandma and Grandpa were not happy he didn't attend, but coming from Europe with 2 little kids who barely spoke English... what did they expect??? All 5 of the kids would have been fine at the wedding and my kids (at ages 12, 10, and 8) were insulted not to be invited The 'reason' for not inviting the kids was there were 'too many' on the groom's side, so it wouldn't have been fair, but then we found out there were no kids on the groom's side! We were not impressed, but it was their wedding...

My ds is now 9 and he still hates any worksheets. He loved Singapore for a while, but got bogged down in the memorizing of his facts. He loved the colour and white space, but the books after ?? level (I forget) became too traditional. He also hates repetition - once he understands and can do it, the rest of the questions are a waste of time, according to him. He needs very little repetition to grasp concepts. However, that makes finding the right curriculum very tricky. We usually skip so many pages it is painful (for me). So, what I've done is switch curriculum regularly to keep things fresh and new for him.... we've done Miquon, Singapore (through 3A, then skipped up to 4B and then to 5A - I'm not sure we finished many of those), Teaching Textbooks 4, Horizon (complete bust!), Life of Fred (too hard once we got to ch. 5 or so, and then he just wanted to read the story, but we'll go back to it soon). Currently he is working through JUMP Math (from Canada) level 5. There is still a lot of stuff he already knows, but it seems easier to skip the stuff he already knows (his uncle recommended it, and ds thought that was extremely cool!) and he has to tough it out through the rest, until he can show me that he can do it. Maturity has a lot to do with it. Even at age 9 we do a lot of his math out loud. He just thinks better than he writes. His output has increased and improved dramatically but it is something I don't push with him. He loves to do word problems, but usually figures them out in his head, silently, which drives me nuts. If he gets it right (most of the time) he gleefully explains his thinking. It is amazing how much his little mind knows and grasps intuitively. Some other fun stuff he does (with varying degrees of cooperation) are Logic Links, Perplexors (both from MindWare) and Math Detective (from Critical Thinking Company). We also have Primary Grade Challenge Math which he enjoys off and on. His favourite thing is to help his sister (11) and brother (13) with their math! Oh, and I never made ds go back and fix reversals. That would have been like pulling out his fingernails! I tried to go over number formation at the beginning of the lesson and when he was about to right a 5, I would say, "Hmm, you often mix that one up. Here it is... Remember we start at the top and go to the left and then down and a bump to the right." Eventually he would catch himself and fix on his own. His still does the occasional reversal, but usually finds it and takes care of it. I'm sorry if I'm rambling and I'm probably of little or no help. I just thought you'd like to hear a 'been there, done that' story.

We have a Honda Odyssey that is 9.5 years old and has 145 K on it. It is great!

All About Spelling! I started using it 3 years ago when dd was 8 and ds was 6.

We've used AAS for 3-4 years now and since my kids are pretty good spellers, the main thing we do differently than the book suggests are the number of times/week. We actually do all the lesson in one day - about 20 minutes. My dd likes to write on the white board for the instruction part of the lesson. My ds uses the tiles. If dd is having trouble, I insist she use the tiles and that usually helps her figure things out. When we do the list of words, dd does them on paper but ds often does them orally or on the whiteboard. DD does 3 sentences (I may increase that to 5), ds does 2 or 3. Both do the writing station activity (starts in Book 3, maybe?). In the course of their writing, if I find mistakes that are from previous lessons, I make a note of it and review it the next time we do spelling. Currently dd is reviewing the rules for adding suffixes - she tends to over-generalize. All in all, I'd say it's not an independent kind of spelling program.

Oh, gosh. It's all new to me, since I didn't do much grammar in school beyond the basics of parts of speech. I got Grammar Town for my dd (11) this past fall and had to go back and get Grammar Island. I didn't get all the different kinds of phrases, and neither did she. I must say that I love MCT so far. Hopefully with the base work of Grammar Island we will be able to work through Grammar Town next year. My son is doing grammar in his school and I use a book called "Nitty Gritty Grammar" to help him.

We started with SWO (seems like a bazillion years ago, but it was only 5 years ago!) with my oldest. It was ok, but it was just too dry, I think. Then I found some links to AAS about 3 years ago and we were sold! My kids think it is actually fun (if schoolwork can be fun, they say!). We don't do it completely by the book because it seems my kids are natural spellers and don't need a lot of repetition. We do one or two lessons each week and it is just so easy and painless for us.

Do you have a set of Base 10 blocks? It really helped my dd in 4th grade when I used those. I didn't think she would need them, but she just wasn't 'getting it'. Once we started using the Base 10 blocks, it all clicked for her. I'm now using them for my younger ds who is in 4th grade. It hasn't become automatic for him yet (ie doing it with pencil and paper), but he can do it with the blocks.

I switched my dd to TT7 in February or March last year, out of Singapore 5A. It was the best thing to do for her. There was a lot of review in TT7 for her, but new stuff too. I loved the review that is built in. She loved the independence of doing the math on her own. She finished TT7 just before Christmas and is now doing LoF Fractions (more review), but she loves it. She should finish it by the end of next week. Then we have to decide to get TT Pre-Algebra or continue with LoF. Jen

It drives me nuts! But then again, when my kids do find a pencil that doesn't do that, they use it until it's only an eraser :001_huh:

Young Scientist? They are available on Amazon. We have the Animal Tracks and Star Pilot. Animal Tracks was fun, but short lived. We haven't used Star Pilot yet.

But, make sure your kids know what to do in case of a household emergency. Last fall our toilet tank started leaking and the kids didn't know what to do. They got lots of towels and my oldest grabbed the duct tape! Over the phone, dh explained how to turn off the water supply to the tank. After that incident, we took the kids around the house and told/showed them how to do common, easy stuff like the shut off valves for all the toilets, fuse box, etc. Jen

For us, dd was 9 (now 11) and mid way through Book 5. Ds was 7(now 9) and is midway through Book 4. Book 1 was perfect for ds at age 7. He had done a few Explode the Code books prior to discovering AAS, but it was pretty much a perfect fit for him from the beginning. Level 1 was too easy for dd at age 9, but she had some gaps that AAS filled perfectly.

Actually, with all 3 of my kids!! I switched my dd (11) to Teaching Textbooks 7 in March 2010. Up until then, we had used Singapore through 4B, Miquon (early on), Horizons (hated it) and Jump Math (a Canadian program). Dd would end up crying in nearly every lesson in Singapore, but did much better with Jump Math and really liked Teaching Textbooks 7. She completely TT7 before Christmas and is now doing Life of Fred Fractions for a change of pace. It is review for her, but she needs to have her math confidence 'built up' before we move to TT Pre-Algebra or Algebra. Despite the many bad reviews, I think you'll find the same number of people who love Teaching Textbooks. I do think that it is a lot of review (dd skipped a few sections, just doing the Chapter Tests as a quick review), but my dd needed that. On the other hand, ds (9) hated it and is loving Jump Math 5.1. I usually picked the questions she had to do, rather than have her to do all of them. It really depends on the kid. I had to take myself out of the math equation with my dd because I got so frustrated with her. She still gets frustrated with the math when she can't remember how to do something and she hates to make mistakes. She often won't try if she's the tiniest bit unsure of the way to do a problem. But, now I'm not there to see her get it wrong so it's a bit better. (And it wasn't like I beat her or berated her for getting things wrong - she just didn't want to disappoint me - gosh, you'd think I hounded the child non-stop!) She actually told me not to come down to the computer when I could hear her crying in frustration. She told me she'd call me when she needed help and had pulled herself together, and she did! It was much better for her.

3 hours/day would never have worked for my ds when he was 7. It was fine for my dd, but not ds. We used Sonlight Core 2 at that time (2 years ago) and she loved being read to and loved the writing activities. She's a really agreeable kid who will do what needs to be done for the day without complaint. Ds was a different story - very young and needed a lot of play time. Even now, at age 9, my ds probably only spends 2 hours/day on seat work/read alouds/activities. However, it does depend on the day. To break it down for my ds Math: Jump 5.1 20 minutes/day seatwork Spelling: AAS 4 one lesson/week (20 minutes) Grammar: MCT Island 30 minutes 3-4x/week (read aloud and seat work) Science: REAL Science Chem 2 lessons/week (20 min. each) Social Studies: OM6 20 minutes/day Silent Reading: 20 minutes/day Read Aloud: 20 minutes/day There are lots of other things we do on a weekly basis (writing letters, making comics, Handwriting Without Tears, Editor-In-Chief, logic puzzles like Perplexors, Logic Links, Math Detective, etc). He also has drum lessons once/week as well as a writing class once/week. If you were to ask him, he still spends too much time on school work and not enough time playing :rolleyes: In my opinion, if your ds is fine with it, then it is fine. If he is resisting, then maybe do a little less or mix things up a bit.