My mom loved puzzles when I was young.

and portions of that choir get to perform in the children's chorus of a local opera company. The 2 other girls are doing the opera for the first time and this is my dd's 2nd performance. The only thing special in her mind is dd gets to sit in the car with other two younger girls. This has nothing to do with being in the opera itself. What a thing my dd gets to sit next to two other girls. My dd brought her mp3 player and was having the three of them record a silly story on her player on the drive home. It is funny, when we ride with some of the other girls home from opera, moms turn on a dvd and the girls just sit there. I've not seen a homeschool mom feel the need to play a dvd with a carload of girls on a 15 minute drive.

that will bring the kids (4) and Grandma and Grandpa together. The reason is, my parents don't make steps to get on the kids' level, and I've trained the kids to keep a distance from Grandma and Grandpa because when they were younger my parents just couldn't handle the kids. I know that sounds terrible of me, but the "children are seen and not heard" model seemed to keep the most peace with G-ma and G-pa. Now I want to build more of a relationship. The problem is G-ma and G-pa aren't game players. They are both artists and complete perfectionists. We also have very old Great Grandma too on Thanksgiving. My Dad is slightly Altzheimers so anything that takes a lot of directions would frazzle him too. Maybe there is something my children could make ahead of time to do with G-ma and G-pa. I'm at a total loss, but I really want the holiday to focus on family and not just the food. I'm not sure how the food will go because we have Opera with dd all that week and the big production Sat. and Sun. after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is sandwiched in between dress rehearsals. My house is not ready, my food is not bought, but I have to be loving and calm at Thanksgiving because my parents are so uptight. I pick up on their uptightness and the holiday gets destroyed. I told my mom that I wanted it to be a relaxed holiday and just a time to enjoy our family and she replied, "With four kids how can it be relaxed?" (My children are ages 7, 9, 11 and 14- so we are not talking toddlers here.) I want to show my parents how much fun my children are. They are very creative like their grandparents and they are very sweet, but they are wisely afraid of G-ma and G-pa. That is completely my fault too. I have to say I'm still afraid of them :confused: afraid of disappointing them that is.

Oh my goodness, I've been homeschooling a long time now and don't seem to get wierd questions etc., but the other night I had a ps mom telling me how lucky my daughter is to be able to ride in the car to Opera practice with these other two ps girls. It must be quite special for her to get that kind of time to talk to other children. If she ever NEEDS a playdate she can come over to one of their houses too. WOW! Imagine, my dd 6th grade gets to talk to a couple 5th graders. ;) This mom proceeded to ask if my dd does any extra-curricular activities and after I gave a simple reply, she said, "Oh, I thought she just sat home all day." No kidding?? OK, I kind of forgot there were even people like that around any more- really. I'm still laughing.

and I think it is nerve related. Shingles houses in the nerve too so it could also be that. I have no good advice, but I use an anti-itch cream and ice especially at night when it really drives me crazy. Mine is on my ankle. I'll have a red mark or something there for approx. 10 days and then it will be gone. It will go from looking like I have a serious skin infection to nothing almost overnight. It has taken me years to realize that it probably is a nerve thing, and I plan on going to the dr. but I want to go when it is flaring up, and that is usually when life is at its craziest.

don't do them all each week. We keep a minimum of 1 science and 2 history, but there isn't any magic formula.

She doesn't look cheap or trashy. She wears little dangle earrings and she looks quite darling.

commit to do it faithfully every week. It is fun to read, do a map page etc. At this age you don't need to try to combine a bunch of different things. I'd just work on establishing a weekly routine and have fun with SOTW. I'm charging through my second round with it and it is a lot of fun.

and didn't run our two day school and she told me that I would be able to make them homemade cookies and cook much more gourmet homemade dinners. I asked her if it was worth the exchange and she said yes she wouldn't trade a homeschool/coop mom for a mom who cooked better. So I guess the cooking isn't really getting done here. Academics are fine but cooking, laundry, painting and all the basic house projects aren't getting done. I'm not sure I'd be a better cook if I had more time, but I'll just let her think I would.

and put a bit of tissue paper on it. Cut a hole in the top for a flashlight to shine in and cut a viewing hole in the opposite end of the tissue paper. Then let your kids build the scene with Legos. You can look through the box into the scene. It is much simpler, but lots of fun. They can color the box sides and my kids make little paper costumes for their mini-figs. You'll be the envy of all their friends if you have boys because they love showing these off. When you've enjoyed it a few days you can dump the scene, keep the box and use it again another time with Legos and have something completely different. Wahoo! Insta-diorama.

child. They are the kind of thing that a child who had my learning style thrived on. I lived for a project that involved creating and hands-on manipulating. I can close my eyes and see the Junior high library with all of its explorers projects on the tables. I made Columbus' ship on an antiqued map, my friend made a soft sculptured sea monster. Another friend created fashions and had a whole display of them. I can almost touch these items as I look at them in my head. Do I remember a lecture or any book I read from that year in history? No. I remember the puppet show we created in Spanish class. I remember the mask I made of Jimmy Carter. I still have some of my projects that I carefully painted and created. They were one of the reasons I loved school. My children tend to be like me. It really isn't busy work to make a diorama. It takes planning, fine motor work, attention to detail, knowledge about your subject. You may not see such a project as fun. If your kids do though, perhaps you might try doing one. :)

had my frustrations years ago when LfC first came out, but Classical Academic Press has done an excellent job listening to parents and fixing errors. It took time, but I'm so glad they really put the effort in fixing their Latin programs because they are excellent. I just wanted to put in this positive note about the company. I think they are very artistic, their programs look so beautiful, and they are very fun to use. The enthusiasim that is put into their programs is amazing. They have wonderful customer support too. So, I just wanted people to know not to write them off because of editing issues.

I think that it is a wonderfully fun instrument to play. People automatically think of the cheap plastic toys when you say recorder, but there is beautiful music for the recorder. Where we live there is a recorder society and they put on concerts etc. I wish I had the time to really play and join something like that. Recorders sound very nice alone, and are highly portable, unlike the piano. Penny Gardner's books are excellent too. Now, I just need to learn the flats. I flip through my music books skipping any songs with flats... and it is just a matter of putting them deep into my memory. :tongue_smilie:

"Hey I can smell Target all the way out here in the parking lot!" She then proceeded to discuss how much stronger and stronger the smell was getting as we walked across the long parking lot. I never really thought of Target having a specific smell, but I guess it does. Try it next time you're in a parking lot!

which is grades 3-6, but I'm using it with my 2nd and 3rd graders because they have the time to do all the fun things. This week we were putting together Joe Body Parts. It has all the Latin names for the body parts and you assemble it like a skeleton. We had so much fun. I'd love to own the cd, but money is tight at the moment. We've been singing the songs on our own right now. Last week we were classifying the animals found in common children's books. There is a unit on architecture too. It is quite a fun book. Really it is just a huge spiral bound thing, but it is a very easy way to add fun with my class. It is truely immersion Latin and I like that with these little ones.

they identify whose towels are whose by smell when they swim with the neighbor kids. My neighbor thought it was so strange. She would never dream of smelling anything! They identify clothing left at our house by smell too. I have a very strong sense of smell myself.

is a much better recorder, though you pay more. We purchased the Angel one as recommended and for high notes it is quite terrible. http://www.folkharp.com/product_info.php/products_id/2510 I think I paid $45.00 for mine, but I was told that by going plastic I got a much better quality than anything wood under $200. I think it is true too. We used the Penny Gardner books and then I started on a Bach book from Amazon for guitar and recorder and this recorder is a lot of fun to use. http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Soprano-Tenor-Recorder-Guitar/dp/0793527066/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226554933&sr=1-4After buying several of the suggested cheaper recorders I'm glad to finally have a real instrument for my family. I don't know if you are looking for a recorder in this price category, but someone might be who follows this thread.

made a pretty funny picture last night. It is amazing the silly things my kids will do. This same 7 year old is always singing in the bathroom and last week we heard, "The toilet, the toilet, oh I ate the toilet, I didn't eat my mattress or my soup, just the toilet...." (The Veggie Tale Bunny Song). Last night all four age 7, 9, 11 and 13 staged a riot bullfight in the playroom. I loved seeing them laughing and being so silly. Right now those silly all kids together times are fewer since they are getting older.

up and over. He had the surgery years ago in high school I think or jr. high. I think it was a good choice for him both physically and emotionally.

we don't limit our reading to our SOTW chapter, but keep some threads going longer. That is why we'll have this huge life in the colonies thread and still be cruising along in SOTW 3 all over.

We don't have a dog. Our parakeets each have individual cages so they stay tame. The kids love to take them out and my 13 year old is training his to do darling tricks. He'll go upside down now and we can hold him in our hands and pet him. They need their cage bottom changed each week and food and water daily. We have someone come in and feed them if we go on vacation. They need to be in a room where there is a lot of activity- thus the playroom where we walk through all day long. They cannot be around chemicals or teflon cooking pans, so proximity to a kitchen isn't always best. They need their wings clipped if you are going to have them out with kids etc. (IMHO) and that can be a little scary. We had a wing feather break and had to pull it before our parakeet bled to death, but in all my years with birds this has only happend once. The birds are talking away as I type right now, it is so cute. Now my littlest guy wants a bird so we'll have to spring for another cage. I thinkparakeets are so darling and personable without the mess of a cockatiel or other larger bird. They don't live as long either which can be a plus or a minus, but buying a large parrot who lives many years is a much larger committment.

and that will go a long way.

touching my feet.

and even friends. I think my friends and family are all in the same economic boat and it is nice to be able to give something that would have cost a whole lot more new. Most of the book I find to give are difficult to buy new anyway.

a bit frustrating to do LfC B in 4th grade. I prefer LfC B in 5th grade myself and then Latin Alive in 6th. So, I kind of work backwards from this and have found that Song School or Prima or any other really fun Latin items can be done before 4th grade. This is my recipe to prevent burn out for kids. I'm in it for the long run with my kids and I know that there requires a great degree of Logic as you progress in the upper stages of Latin. We do Song School in a day with the 2nd and 3rd graders and then they listen to their songs through the week. The second day of the week we do fun items from this book:http://aclclassics.org/tmrc/catalog.asp?parent=500&category=22&c= It is so much fun playing games, singing songs and really falling in love with the language, versus just chanting vocabulary and paradigms. We do that too, but I never had this much fun when my older kids were younger and we were just doing Prima. I know I will still get to the same place, or even further with these kids too. Singing Old MacDonald in Latin is a blast, and playing animal bingo etc. I suggest adding this book for anyone who is really having fun with Song School and wants to take it a little further.