Well, my first suggestion would be to read up on "Chicken Math" (See below). It WILL get you! :lol: :lol: Four is a good number and I would not suggest getting any less. Chickens are social creatures and like to have company. If you get three and something happens to one or two of them, your lone chicken will be very sad. You also can't just put new/younger/older chickens together right away. It takes time to integrate them. My DH and I agreed on four. Then "chicken math" hit. Then I got bit by the incubating bug. I am down to 60 chickens at the moment. My dog took out 12 of them in less than one hour when my daughter accidentally let her out not realizing the chickens were out ranging. Here is my experience with "Chicken Math": Hubby and I agreed on four chickens. I went to a local guy that hatches out chicks to get four Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks. While there, I noticed a second pen full of baby chicks, they happened to be Easter Egger chicks. So we came home with four of those too. Total: 8 A few weeks later I realized at least one of those chicks was a boy. So I went to get two Buff Orpington chicks that were sexed female at hatch. When I got there, I was told there were only three chicks left, one was a boy. I couldn't leave him by himself, so I took all three chickens. Total: 11 Now, back to my original four SLW...... three of them are looking pretty roo-ish to me. So I went and got seven more Buff Orps that were hatched the same day as the three I had bought a few days prior. My four chicks have turned into eighteen chicks. But I swear to my DH we only have THREE chicks.. SLW, EE and BO. That leaves me still able to get one more chick to bring me up to the four we agreed upon. Then I realized that my eight original chicks were ALL roosters as well as four of my BO's! I was able to find a home for two of them, so that brings me down to 16 chicks. Knowing I still had several roos to re-home, I ordered the Hatchery Choice Pullet Special and got 16 babies. That brought me up to 32 chicks. But...that same day started Chick Days at Tractor Supply. I brought home six sexed red pullets for a total of 38 chicks. Then I just had to hatch my own eggs, which meant 13 more babies. Yup, 51 chicks. My managers sister has a farm and took 9 of my roosters. So that means I have seven BO's (one is a gorgeous roo), 22 sexed pullets (one of which turned into a roo) and 13 babies that hatched. I saw a listing on Ebay for gorgeous eggs that I just had to have. I bought a dozen but only two of them hatched. (Total: 53) I took 14 eggs out of my coop and put them in the incubator to see if they were fertile. I happened to wander into Tractor Supply and guess what... it's CHICK WEEK! Seeing as I don't have a great track record of good hatches I bought six more chicks. (Total: 59) I still had the 14 eggs in the incubator but I didn't think most would hatch. Well, guess what.. 13 of them hatched! (Total: 72) This is where we stood until my dog ate 12 of them, now I have only 60. And.. I'm really fighting the urge to fill the incubator again. Coop Math is similar to Chicken Math. I was going to start out with a 4x6 coop, but that was before I brought my little fuzzy butts home. Since I had more than the agreed upon 4 chicks, I decided I needed to go a bit larger and ordered a 6x8. Then I saw the 8x10 wasn't much more money.. but wait.. the 10x16 was only a little more than the 10x12 so lets go with that one. I had to call the shed company back twice to change the size. So my shed arrives and I realize I can't put all my chicks together because of the age difference. I had to have someone come over and build a wire mesh wall to divide the coop. Now my BO's are in one side and my 22 sexed pullets are on the other. But what to do with my 13 babies that hatched??? I had to put their brooder in the shed and I think I need another coop! When my husband asked me how many chickens I have, I told him THREE! I have BO's, Teenage Pullets and the new babies... that's three, right? That means I can still get one more to bring me up to the agreed upon four chickens! :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

Guns are also designed for sport, recreation and competition. You won't get an argument from me. I'm obviously very pro-2A but if someone else wants to throw their rights away, so be it. Don't trample on mine though by trying usurp the Constitution with silly gun control laws that would not change a thing to make anyone safer.

I missed last nights episode, I really wanted to see it. I have a daughter from China and watching last week brought back SO many memories!

See if your local range has a day for ladies. We go on wednesday because it's ladies day and admission is free. You are very likely to see mostly women, of all colors, shapes and sizes. No one will judge you. I took my concealed carry class in a long skirt and my hair up. I wear skirts most of the time and have never had anyone look at me strange.

I can understand this completely. What you need is a trusted friend or family member to take you to the range. Trust me, no one there is going to be anything other then helpful. I have and would take anyone willing to learn how to safely handle a firearm to the range. I'm not sure what you mean by getting the wrong idea of how you dress. I took my concealed carry test in a long skirt and no one batted an eye!

Why are you lumping a law abiding gun owner in with a crazy, deranged man that committed murder? This really bothers me. I am no more responsible for any of the mass shootings then your former friend. Would you like it if someone lumped you in with a drunk driver that killed a child just because you own a car?

My daughter is all of 5' tall and that photo I just posted shows her shooting a .357 magnum, which is a BIG gun. The gun in the picture looks like it has a front laser sight under the supressor. I don't know what kind of gun it is but it very likely could be a .22, which is a perfect, lightweight, easy to for children and beginners to shoot.

Why do some think this is a staged photo? Maybe she is letting the girl handle the gun to get a feel for it. My younger daughter has held my unloaded guns. She has not held or shot a loaded gun because she still practices with a BB gun. I want her to feel 100% comfortable with a real (unloaded) gun in her hands before touching a loaded gun. I want her to be able to check for a clear chamber and load the magazine with her eyes closed first. She has had her BB gun for almost a year now and I she handles it as if it is real. This is how I taught my older daughter. SAFETY first. Does this photo look staged? It's my younger daughter practicing with her BB gun. The other picture is my older daughter at the range. Why would either photo offend or enrage anyone??

That is because there is nothing wrong with this picture. It's a dose of reality that shatters every mother to the core; the thought that something awful could happen to that little girl in her jammies. But guess what, it happens every.single.day. I have a daughter that has been stalked for TEN years. There isn't a darn thing the detectives or police can do. We can't even GET a restraining order because he hasn't physically touched her and there is not enough "proof" that will hold up to a judge in order to get a restraining order. I taught her basic safety, and then I taught her marksmanship. No piece of paper gives me the peace of watching her handle a firearm.

It's also good for children to realize that there is a criminal element to our society and that mom and dad will do what ever they can to protect them. Letting them in on the fact that there is evil in this world doesn't mean they will walk around in fear. In our case, my older daughter has experienced that first hand. At the age of seven she was a witness to a death and gave the police the name of the person involved. That person has been stalking her since she was SEVEN years old. We moved 600 miles to get away from him. I taught her gun safety how to handle a gun from a young age. At 17 she can safely handle a firearm and is not afraid to walk out the door. At age 18 she can legally own her own firearm and at 21 she will legally be able to carry one. When we were looking for a state to move to I made sure we moved to a gun friendly state because we were living in NJ, where no one has rights.

Like someone else said earlier, you don't just hand a gun to an 18 yr old and say "here". Depending on the child, you start when they are old enough to understand what a gun is all about. My 17 yr old can shoot just as well as I can, but I don't expect her to be the one to shoot an intruder. MY job is to protect my family. But, if she is home alone I know she can handle any of my guns safely.

If more kids were taught gun safety beyond "don't touch, tell an adult" there would be a lot less accidental deaths. I have my concealed carry license and carry daily. My sons are 25 and 21, both know how to safely handle and shoot. My girls are 17 and 7. My 17 yr old comes to the range with me 2x a month to practice. She knows how to handle a gun and if someone threatened her I know she would do her best to defend herself. Legally she can't carry a gun til 21 yrs old, but the day she can, she will. My 7 yr old has been taught gun safety by teaching her to shoot a BB gun. She handles it just like a real loaded gun and respects what a gun can do. She has not fired a real gun yet, but when I feel she is mature enough to do so, she will. I don't think there is an age limit, it all depends on the child. All of my children have learned to respect the power of a gun. They have grown up around guns and to me it's just another part of getting dressed.. socks, shoes, underwear, gun. I feel naked without it. And no, I don't live in fear. It's actually quite the opposite. It's a very peaceful feeling knowing I have the ability to protect myself and my family if needed.

My daughter is not a natural speller and it shows lol... I bought SpellWell B/Bb for 3rd grade. We have not started it yet but it seems like it could be a good fit for us.

CLE math Explode the Code Teaching Textbooks (I no longer twitch at the thought of high school math!) A Reason for Handwriting These are what I have used every year and have not thought of straying from.

We school year round, but will take the first two weeks of June off. This past year I after-schooled my youngest daughter because I needed to work but she will not be going back to PS next year. We have a lot of catching up to do. We take off between Thanksgiving and Christmas and then a few weeks here and there during the rest of the year. We have to make sure we get in 180 days and we spread them out. Where we live it gets really hot in the summer and we have pretty mild winters. I prefer to be out and about in the winter, and spend the sweltering summer afternoons doing school work inside in the A/C.

I have been using A Reason For Handwriting with my daughter and really like it, it is based on scripture.

Same here.

We traveled 12 hrs one way between two homes while in the process of moving and we listened to all the CD's in a row. My daughter LOVED it and couldn't wait to start doing the activities that go with it. I also love the CD's, my husband however was ready to hang himself and couldn't wait to get out of the car at each rest stop. You either love Jim's voice or you don't.

All About Spelling Anything Lifepac CLE Reading and Science Horizons Spelling A Reason for Spelling Math U See

I'm also going to suggest Teaching Textbooks. After four months of struggling with different programs AND a tutor, my daughter finally was able to do Algebra with the TT. She used TT for all four years of high school and math turned out to be her strongest subject.

My daughter is finishing up 2nd grade and spelling is her weak spot. I bought SpellWell B/Bb and we will be starting it this summer. I had a hard time finding reviews on it, but the ones I found were mainly positive. I have looked through the books and I like what I see.

My daughter is in 2nd grade. We put her in school in the middle of 1st grade because I needed to go back to work. I would love to get all the subjects covered after school but it just wasn't happening. We would spend almost an hour getting busy work done for school, and our homeschooling work really took a hit. Her teacher told us that homework was not being checked for accuracy, just that it was done. Checking for accuracy was the parents job. I made the decision to become a homework-free home. We still do reports and projects, but not the daily homework. We work on math, grammar, spelling and cursive after school. On weekends, vacation time and this coming summer we will add history and science. She is used to homeschooling year round (my older daughter is homeschooled full time) and she loves to do her work so it works for us.

I do see some very valid points. She can't get out of doing something just because it's menial, I get that. What made me think about going homework free, along with the reasons I listed above, is because the teacher doesn't check the homework. She checks to make sure it's done, but not to see if it's correct. When my daughter had her homework in her folder all week long (we have been getting all the homework done for the week on the weekend) I asked her why it wasn't handed in. She said the teacher never asked her for it. I sent a note to the teacher asking if she had checked Lia's homework for the week and she told me that she only checks to see if it's been done, and that I should check to make sure it's done correctly at home. Why bother doing it if the teacher isn't worried about if she can do it or not?

I know this is an old post but I just wanted to add that you can use the public library for all your resources, free. They have preschool story time, craft classes etc.

Our district doesn't teach it either. I taught my daughter cursive starting in 1st grade. Last year her teacher would not allow her to do any of her work in cursive. This year (2nd grade and the same teacher) it is ok as long as she can read it. My daughter has beautiful handwriting so I'm glad she is letting her use it in school too.