OK, I asked Jumping Spider which foreign language he wanted to study independently this coming year. I told him he could choose any language he liked but suggested he choose one of our family study languages (Spanish, Arabic, or Chinese). He thought a minute and said "I think I'll do Hebrew". Sometimes I think it would be better not to ask...now I need to come up with a plan for Hebrew for him. On the plus side, he really does work hard when the work is of his own choosing.

Donna, those chicks are adorable; my kids would be in heaven. Where did you order them from?

OK, a couple more questions: 1) When would be a good time to get chicks? We have cold winters, if that makes a difference. I have read of getting chicks in October so they are ready to start laying in the Spring. Are chicks normally available then or only in the Spring? 2) What do you all do with your chickens when they get older and stop laying? TIA, Sarah

Berta, your set-up looks truly amazing. And those eggs are so pretty...

This is the coop I am buying, including a small enclosed run. I think I will build a fence around this to make a larger uncovered run for them to roam in (this is in my friend's yard, I haven't decided yet where to put the coop in my yard). This coop is about 6 years old and in excellent condition, I believe they spent about $1000 building it initially.

We do have a 6 foot privacy fence around most of the yard, but I am thinking I would rather put a fence around the chickens than around the garden. I don't think predators will be a problem during the day, and as long as they are in their coop at night they should be fine. We have had raccoons around in the past, though I haven't seen any since a neighbor trapped the resident family two years ago. I hadn't thought about them getting from the top of the coop to the fence, but that is a good thing to consider. Better put the coop away from the fence if I'm going to let them roam around it. I really appreciate everyone's suggestions and experience.

Thank you for the recommendations! Do they get along better if all are of the same breed, or does that not matter? Maybe I could get one each of several different breeds. It would be fun to get different colored eggs...

Ah, you add further evidence to my conviction that we really need an ipad for school...:)

Thank you wapiti, this is a very helpful outline of what to cover. I don't have the MM 6 workbooks yet (I have preferred using the printed workbooks and don't own the PDF version) but I wonder now if I need to buy them at all. I do own the electronic version of the Blue (topical) series and it might just be easier to find these topics in there rather than getting the workbooks. dd9 has a good conceptual understanding of negative numbers in addition, I think she would pick up the other operations quickly. She needs more practice with decimals in multiplication and division, aside from that I think she would have no trouble with the prealgebra pre-test. I will look up the topics you recommended from MM 6 and plan to work on those when she is finished with MM5.

Hi Embassy, I like your new name. I was actually reading about your plans on your blog earlier today as I try to sort through next year. My own plans are not set in stone yet, so far I have: Honeybee: MATH finish MM5, move on to MM6--she has been working through this program at a rate of more than two levels a year, so unless things change that won't take us the whole year. We will probably start adding Right Start geometry back into the mix, which would stretch things out. After that my current plan is to move on to AOPS prealgebra LANGUAGE ARTS I'm trying to pull together a literature list, probably one that I will let her choose books from (so maybe twice as many as I actually expect her to read); this would be challenging books for formal study, I need to come up with another list to feed her voracious appetite for free reading. She has asked for a grammar program, and I'm not sure what we will do yet. I have the Bridge to the Latin Road on my shelf as well as some Michael Clay Thompson, but we may end up with PHP materials. This is a student who likes to have things clearly laid out for her. She also still needs handwriting practice to develop more fluency, I probably just need to get her back into journal writing. And then we need to do typing practice consistently. FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Eek! This is the one I have the hardest time figuring out. Foreign language study is a core subject in my homeschool, but I have a hard time finding materials for elementary aged children that take a logical and effective approach to teaching the language. In addition, Honeybee is at a point where she is really ready to work independently ahead of what until now has been group work with all the children together. She is currently studying Koine Greek on her own using the Open Texture Elementary Greek series, and their format (short, well structured lessons) works well for her. I wish there were similar programs for the other languages we are trying to study. Our family study languages are Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), and Spanish. At the beginning of the year I was doing Getting Started with Spanish with Honeybee and that seemed to be going well, we just got busy and it fell by the wayside but she can definitely pick that up again and should be able to do the work independently. I am also planning to have her work on duolingo Spanish. Arabic and Mandarin are my real challenges (that is one reason I was reading Embassy's blog as she teaches those same languages). I want to find a program to teach the Arabic alphabet that Honeybee could work through relatively independently (the same way she learned the Greek alphabet). We have Alif Baa, but it is not easy for her to use alone--I have to do the teaching. I am not sure what there is for Mandarin that she could do on her own. During our family language study time we are currently using the Michel Thomas CDs (for all three languages). MUSIC This is another core subject for us; I am in the process of finding a violin teacher for Honeybee, she really needs someone other than Mom doing the teaching at this point. She is interested in Irish fiddling to go along with her Irish dance, so we are looking for opportunities for her to pursue that as well. She isn't a musical prodigy type, but she is serious about practicing. I recently bought her a viola as well, I like the flexibility of being able to play both instruments (especially as orchestras and ensembles always need violists). She will continue with piano at a casual pace. Science: Not sure, I've been looking at RSO Biology level II. I need to read through the sample pages more closely. History: We've been doing a modified version of TOG and plan to stick with that, we are back to Year 1 (ancients) this year. Jumping Spider: This is the one I am stressing over planning for right now. I take a laid-back approach to formal schooling in the early years, and try to add in more structure around age 8. Jumping Spider turns 8 this year :ohmy:. He needs a lot more external structure than his sister, and providing that doesn't come easily to me. He's an interesting kid to try to figure out--does amazing things when he is internally driven, but can resist external direction indefinitely. He also has some performance anxiety and perfectionist tendencies that took me awhile to recognize because they display differently than they did in Honeybee. MATH: I'm hoping Beast Academy will be a good fit. He has not done formal math consistently up to this point, but has a good intuitive grasp of concepts whenever they do come up. He has worked through parts of MM 1B-2B, but needs more practice with adding and subtracting with regrouping. I have thought for a long time that a Math on the Level approach would be ideal for him, where I could tailor the program to his specific needs. I just don't have the time to pull that together. So my current rather vague plan is to work on the regrouping operations this summer, probably using a white board (or maybe even sidewalk chalk) and also have him work on xtramath.org for fact practice, then start BA 3 in the fall. Honeybee didn't do much formal math either until she was almost eight and a half, then she zoomed through MM 2A-4B in about 15 months. We'll see how things go with Jumping Spider. He does enjoy reading the LOF books, so if it fits in the budget I may add to our Fred collection. LANGUAGE ARTS: He needs handwriting practice, we will probably focus on copywork this year. Current plan is to spend a few months practicing manuscript writing, then move on to cursive. I will use the StartWrite program to make copywork pages. Also need to get him typing... For literature, I plan to do something similar to what I am doing with Honeybee--make up a list of books I want him to read and let him choose from among them. I don't see a need for formal grammar at this point. FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Again, wrestling with this. I would like to get him doing some independent work in at least one language, probably Spanish. I don't know yet what program I want to use. Suggestions are welcome! He might enjoy duolingo, or it might be frustrating to him. I actually need to sit down with him and talk about what he wants to do for language study. When I asked him last year what language he wanted to study he said French, but the materials I could find for French were not ones he could use independently and I didn't have the time to work one on one with him on it. French would be the easiest the language for me to teach so if that is what he wants we should be able to find a way to make it work. I unfortunately had to drop it from my plans for family language study because dream as I might we don't have time for everything I want to do. He will continue with the family language study, which is mostly geared towards familiarization. Music: Jumping Spider started cello about a year ago, and has progressed in fits and starts. We are taking a break from lessons right now but will start again by the fall. There is a small children's orchestra starting up in the fall that I am interested in having the children play in, so I really need to work on note reading with him. He will also continue with piano. Science: Nothing formal, he likes things hands on so the plan is to let him loose with Snap circuits and some Thames and Kosmos kits. History: This has actually been one of Jumping Spider's primary interests this past year, I think he must have the Story of the World CD's memorized he has listened to them so many times. I expect he will enjoy our study of Ancient History. When he is interested in a topic Jumping Spider can burn through every related book in the library. Again, not planning much formal work here, just letting him run with his interests. Ladybug: This one is intense and craves individual attention. I keep contemplating getting a pre-planned curriculum package for her just so that there is something scheduled for me to work with her on every day. I'm not much for following someone else's plans, but Ladybug tends to get lost in the shuffle and having something planned out for each day might be the incentive I need to work individually with her. We're slowly working our way through 100EZ Lessons, and I expect her reading to take off anytime in the coming months. She really enjoys Miquon math and asks to do that, I have also considered one of the beginning Singapore programs (Essentials or Earlybird). And something for beginning handwriting...Again, formal academics are really not my emphasis at this point, I just need something consistent to keep her happy. Reading will help a lot--Ladybug is a very verbal child, I really expected her to be an early reader but it hasn't turned out that way. She loves to be read to, though. In fact she just listened to Honeybee read all of Talking to Dragons to her in the last two days. If she doesn't start reading herself soon to keep her busy mind happy I may have to enlist Honeybees help to read to her more often. Honeybee seems to enjoy that and it makes for nice sister bonding time. For our group studies, I desperately need the time for major planning and organizing. I want to try something new for our foreign language study: this year we tried to do Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish each one day a week, with memory work thrown in on the off days. I think we really need longer chunks of focused study time, so this coming year I am thinking of rotating month by month. So September we might focus on Arabic all month, the October Chinese, and November Spanish--studying and speaking as much as possible. For the languages that are not our focus for the month we will keep reviewing what we have learned during memory period, so we don't lose ground in between. In theory I like this plan, we will see how it plays out in practice. I need to sit down and re-organize our memory system to make this work. I can't shake the feeling that I am forgetting something significant, though I don't know what... of course, wrangling a toddler and preschooler in the mix will take up more time and energy than I ever remember to plan in. Maybe that is what I am forgetting...

DD9 is on track to finish MM 5B sometime this fall. My current plan is to have her work through 6A and B and then move into AOPS prealgebra, but it seems I have heard some people skip MM6. I'm not in a hurry, but I am curious to know if there are things in MM6 that need to be covered before prealgebra or if the program is redundant at that point.

Can anyone suggest one or two varieties of hens that will be decent egg layers and friendly with the family? I've heard some varieties are quite laid back and sociable but others can be rather aggressive.

Thank you Thank you everyone. Berta, your chicken math story was hilarious! You definitely have only 3 chickens and really need to get one more. OK, I like the idea of four chickens in the coop. There is an area along the fence that I am thinking of making into a chicken run--it would be about 10 by 20 feet. Would I just fence that off with chicken wire? Do I need to cover the top with wire as well? I could let them free range in the back yard, but if I do that will they destroy my garden? And will they get over the fence? I have to be somewhat discreet about this because technically based on our lot size ( 1/4 acre) our city would only permit us to have one chicken--yes, just one. Funny thing is they say it doesn't matter if it's a hen or a rooster. I figure if a neighbor decides to complain about my hens I can offer to trade them in for a rooster :rofl:

This makes my shopping so much easier--and saves on shipping too! http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=10&category=408

A friend is selling her chicken coop and I decided to purchase it. Now I need to start learning about chickens. Would some of you wise souls with chicken experience help point me in the right direction? I'm planning to spend this summer/fall learning about chickens, then hopefully get some chicks to raise--I hear that three hens makes a nice backyard flock? Please share anything you think would be important for a first-time chicken owner, or point me in the right direction to get more information.

My 9 year old wears contacts. Our ophthalmologist said that a child can wear contacts if they are able to put them in and take them out themselves and responsible enough to care for them correctly (i.e. remembering to wash their hands well every time before putting them in/taking them out, rinsing them properly, etc.) They taught her how to care for the contacts and had her practice putting them in and taking them out before sending her home with them. I did have to help a couple of times while she was getting used to them the first week, but she has done everything herself since (I wear contacts myself, which made helping her easier). She wears a type that only needs to be replaced once a month, so she changes them out on the 1st of every month (easy to keep track of).

I left a charter school when I decided the stress and pointlessness of their requirements wasn't worth the benefits to my family.

One of my college roommates was like this--she was bright, capable, ambitious, and not interested in marriage and family. She is now married with three children. Maybe your daughter will marry, maybe she won't, but I can guarantee some things will turn out differently than what she envisions at age 21.

Thanks for sharing! Are all of these geared towards middle and high school? We're not there yet but these look like a nice option when we are ready for them.

I'm still trying to figure this out myself. We have used a variety of charts and routines. Having a basic routine really does help, and if you have a child responsible enough to follow a chart without constant reminders those are nice. If everything requires reminders from Mom I find it impossible to keep up.

Huh, honestly doesn't bother me--and I'm really not a gun person, don't own one, don't want one. I did learn to shoot, though, and see target practice as just that--trying to hit a target. Would it shock you if the mother was teaching her daughter to shoot a bow and arrow? Intellectual analysis says it might be disturbing because the child is young and we associate guns with violence; because the mother is wearing a holstered gun; because the photo seems to be in front of a house (not a shooting range or something). But no, I don't get a negative gut reaction to it.

As far as I know the applying make-up bit is not Mormon tradition. If it is I have never heard of it! The mortuary should be able to take care of that. If the deceased was ever active enough to have received temple ordinances (endowment) they are normally buried in temple robes and family members or the Relief Society president may assist to dress them. However, if your SIL and her sister have not themselves been endowed they would not be expected to do so. As for time, this varies from funeral to funeral according to how the family plans--how many speakers, how long they speak, any musical numbers, etc.; those I have attended have typically been around the 1 hour mark. People generally dress nicely as for Sunday church services, but wearing black is not expected. HTH and feel free to ask if you have other questions.

Thank you, I will take her to the Dr.

Dd5 was stung by a bee three days ago, and her entire foot and ankle are still swollen (the sting was on the top of her foot--not sure how that happened). She says it isn't bothering her much anymore, but I am wondering if this is an allergic reaction and might be worse next time? I know bee sting allergies can be life threatening and want to be prepared if she reacts worse next time. We have lots of bees around--she is the third family member to be stung this year.

I have mixed feelings on this issue. On the one hand, I really don't want any of my children to play football--too much potential for injury. I agree with Regentrude that I prefer to keep their brains in full operating condition. I've seen MRI images of the cumulative results of all those impacts a football player sustains, and it's not pretty. On the other hand, I probably would have loved to play tackle football at that age... If actually faced with the decision, I think safety concerns would win out. http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/head-hits-in-football-alter-teen-brain/