I'm so sorry that this happened to your child. I do believe that you are absolutely correct that people feel compelled to point at something "that is to blame" so that they can sleep at night "knowing" that they are "safe" and it could never happen to them. I was a prosecutor for 7 years in Atlanta and I would never want young women on the jury for a rape case. It was the victim's "fault" for going to the grocery store at night or her "fault" for wearing "that." Women would attack the victim and blame her so that they would know that it could "never" happen to them. No one wants to live in fear, so they shift the blame somewhere that makes them feel more comfortable. But as to the original thread... I have little piggies of my own. Love my messy, messy kids that bring more dirt inside on themselves then the leave outside. Having grown up in Florida, I never wore shoes and had perpetually skinned knees. I don't want my kids to miss out on the mess of childhood. We met a family at a HS play-date in the park who talked about making her kids wear masks and avoiding all jumpy places etc. even for birthday parties. My dd was horrified by how germaphobic the family was. We laughed at how they would NEVER want to come to our house.

It is so simple really, cats know that they are superior to us. The allow us to bask in their glorious presence. Anyone who has been owned by a cat knows that it is our privilege to love them. We should be humble and grateful when they permit us to show them affection. I have always had cats until the last few years. I have always loved the independence of cats. Now we just have our over-enthusiastic dog who is "all about the love." I get that there are "dog people" and "cat people." I am definitely in the "both" column. But I have never understood people who don't like animals. How can you not melt when you see a cute puppy or kitten? Do those folks hate babies too?

Congratulations! Clearly you are achieving for your child the types of things we all want for our own children. As a newbie HSer, I am tying to plan for next year's "middle school" for my DD who loves to write. Would you please outline what approach you used for your child so that we might have some ideas of what worked well for you and what did not? I know you don't have a magic formula, but I am very interested in what grammar, writing and literature approaches you implemented. Thanks!

I just wrote a blog with the above title about my not-so-bright dog. You may get a kick out of it... (http://neweducationexplorers.blogspot.com/) Have fun and don't let your dog get bored. That would only lead to mischief.

If my 2nd grader who loathes the mere sight of a pencil could write that, I would be more than dancing a jig... new dancing shoes, a tutu... contracting a marching band to parade through the whole neighborhood... block party with balloons and bounce houses. It would certainly be cause for a celebration.

My daughter and I watch together. I have thought that Eben is adorable since they showed his first audition. He has such a beautiful voice. How could any mother not love him? He is just too cute and talented.

Hope you guys managed some sleep last night. We have a trick that has always worked for those teeth hanging by a thread. The best part was our drama queen would actually relax. We would fill a cup with warm water. Using a children's medicine syringe, we would bathe the threads repeatedly. While doing this, we would begin twisting the tooth, over and over again. The warm water soothes any discomfort and helps to dissolve those pesky threads holding onto the tooth. The tooth will literally just fall out in your hand. No pain, no discomfort. The warm water washes away any blood as it comes to the surface so you don't have to hear the screams of "I'm bleeding!!! AHHH!" Our tooth fairy's going rate is $5 for the first four teeth and $1 for every tooth after...

My husband has been snoring for years extremely loudly. For a while it became a major issue (for me) for our marriage. I couldn't go the rest of my life without sleep could I? Plus I was really tired and grumpy while trying to deal with the problems. I found all the different earplugs to be quite uncomfortable. I also couldn't rest well with them in for fear that I wouldn't hear the children. I have a sleepwalker who roams our house on a regular basis. I agree with some of the comments regarding weight. As the weight goes up, so does the volume on the snoring. I can still hear my husband snoring even if I go downstairs to sleep on the couch. The single thing that has helped the most is for me to go to sleep before he does. If I am asleep before my husband, then I have a shot at riding out the racket...

I just refer to my son or daughter. My name is also not on my blog. I have never posted a picture of my children either. I use lots of photos, just not of my kids. I have asked any friends who post to not mention my kids by name for privacy issues. I used to be a prosecutor, and I just am not comfortable with that someone would have private, "identifiable" information on my kids. I'm a bit paranoid though... Here's my blog if you would like to see an example. http://neweducationexplorers.blogspot.com/ Good Luck!

I have a general HS blog from the perspective of the "newbie," panic attacks included. I also deviate to some issues specific to Georgia regarding charter schools as well as current events like the HHS vs. Catholic church. http://neweducationexplorers.blogspot.com/

Boy I was hopping a lot more people were going to chime in with lots of ideas and suggestions. We are in the same boat. I need a non-religious grammar program for next year for a rising 6th grader. I made an extremely poor choice for language arts this year, oops! Newbies will make mistakes and we chucked it at Christmas. We are just reading and writing A LOT! However, she is still going to need learn what a direct objects and participles are. So I need to find something...

Deja Vu!!! Sounds like word problems at our house too. They are very challenging for my daughter (and me too)! I haven't thought mathematically in forever (if ever). Never needed to as a lawyer. The hardest part is to keep my daughter's confidence up while tackling a new way of thinking.

We have just started using Faith & Life this year, so the verdict is still out... But I noticed that several were looking for a more colorful, "fun" version of religious education. Perhaps Sadlier's WE BELIEVE series might be of interest. They used it at the Catholic school we just left. We moved away from the We Believe series because my daughter wanted something more of a challenge a little less "warm fuzzy." The books are very visually appealing.

Thanks for the ideas. Maybe I do need to relax and just enjoy what we learn as we go through the Space Center. I just wanted to try and maximize the opportunity. I know I still have a criticism of HSers I read awhile ago stuck in the back of my mind about how HSers just go on field trips and count it as school. When I read the comment I thought of all the school field trips that I was a chaperone for... the school sure counted it as school. I know I shouldn't let one biased opinion effect me. I think maybe I have more "newbie confidence jitters" than I thought. I will practice deep breathing and we will have a great time. I'm sure we will learn a lot too.:)

My husband has a last minute business trip this weekend to the Daytona area. We have decided as a new HS family to take advantage of the opportunity and to take our learning on the road. Unfortunately I have nothing prepared for space since we have been delving quite deeply into Ancient Egypt for the past week. Does anyone have any curricula, notes or hints that they could share with me so that I could put together a couple days of "school" while we are there? I would appreciate any help you could offer.

We got several of the videos from our library when we were doing a unit study on Roller Coaster and Newton's Laws of Motion. We got the Roller Coaster one, Gravity and another that I can't remember right now. My kids loved them and could retain the information in them. They were informative yet fun too. They are stand alone videos on the topic they represent.

"Efficient," I am not. I haven't gotten the hand of adjusting the workflow of the kids yet. Some lessons are way too short and others are too long. I am still trying to juggle with skipping ahead when they already know something so as to not waste their time with "busy work," especially on math. I hope I will get into the swing of things soon. The plan for this week is to spend a week + on Ancient Egypt. I just got about 20 books from the library. We have fiction & non-fiction. We will go on to the Carlos Museum at Emory Univ. Hopefully we can relax and enjoy learning rather than checking off lessons to "get through the book" in 180 days.

We are a "newbie" HS family too. This has been in the back of my mind driving me crazy since we started... How are all these HS support groups done with school, dressed and have finished lunch in time to meet at the park at 1:00??? Deep down, I figured that I was just doing it wrong. I scheduled half the "normal" amount of work on Friday so that we could go to an archery class at 1:00. I think I had a misconception that we should finish our work early since we weren't in school. I felt a genuine pressure that we should be done by lunchtime. I think it is taking us longer because I am requiring a lot more of the kids than they were ever required to do in their private school. This thread makes me feel much better. I guess I need to lighten up!

Just left your website... THANK YOU so very much. It is just what we need!

OOoh thank you! I have bookmarked that page. I was just telling my husband that the WTMF is a gold mine. You may read through thread after thread and then WHAM something that I can really use (and free too).

I was calling the HIG the teacher's manual. For once, I had my bases covered. Too bad I didn't even realize it.:) Thanks for the clarification! I appreciate it.

I was too afraid to "start" HS, so I have developed a semi-diabolical plan to ease the kids into HS. Last week we started a unit study on Roller Coasters. We did lots of science experiments which demonstrated Newton's Laws of Motion. We completely skipped spelling, math, grammar etc. I have "bribed" the kids with putting our learning into action. We will be going to Busch Gardens when we go to FL this weekend. Once we come back from the beach, then the nitty gritty starts. I don't anticipate leaps for joys once spelling etc. starts in earnest. I did have some highs and lows last week. That I described in a blog entry (http://neweducationexplorers.blogspot.com/), but who knows how full-blown HS will go... I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

We haven't started yet (we are starting on the 22nd). We will be starting with Singapore 4A. I know that her private school did not teach LCM and GCF because she completely blew that section of the placement test. So obviously, this thread is of great interest to me. (Who doesn't love to head off problems before they start?) But I have to ask, what in the world is HIG??? I have the teacher's manual, the text book, the workbook and the word problem book. What is HIG?

Okay, so since we have never HS before, I definitely feel overwhelmed. I have been sorting through teacher's manuals trying to get a handle on how to plan out a day. I have been focusing on how to just get to each subject and SURVIVE! I certainly hadn't even thought about creating something as wonderful as this. I haven't even figured out how to teach Story of the World to 2 different age groups, let alone supplementing is such a colorful and visual way. Your timeline photos are printing out as we speak! I genuinely appreciate your making this available. THANK YOU so very much!!!!

Wow! These are some great websites. I can really use these. I'm very glad I read this thread. THANKS!