Ooooh, :bigear: very closely for this answer... me, too!

After 8 years of a nice-enough plain old printer that did love to voraciously eat ink, I finally got a new all-in-one last month--an HP Officejet 6500A. It scans, copies, prints, and faxes. It has separate colour and black cartridges. I am *loving* it, and it is nicely efficient on ink. Yay! :)

Thanks for the :grouphug: :001_smile: You're right; I think it very much depends on the situation and the relationship. You are probably right about notifying in your case. Best wishes!

Wow, this hits rather close to home. A few years ago, my sister made a point of calling me one day and saying she'd like me to be the one to take her 4 boys if anything happened to her (she's technically single). She knew I had always spent time with them and taken an interest in them and cared about them. Then a few months ago, I find out from my parents that she's officially switched the life insurance, so now the money (and with it, the responsibility to raise the boys) would go to her ex and his new partner (with their 3 kids). I know the reasons have to do with her increasing difficulties with mental issues (paranoia, anxiety, OCD) as well as her rigid belief system (religion) which is getting stranger and more rigid all the time, and I don't "measure up" as far as how I express my beliefs. Problem is, the ex is about the lowest, controlling scum I've ever met. I don't say that lightly. She suffered years of him controlling her every move as well as abusing her (mostly emotionally/mentally, but also some physical). He still controls her to this day. He's been a pretty pathetic father to the boys, as well. Needless to say, the boys would be much better off with me. My sister has some big issues with his new partner, and will not even say her name aloud. If anyone so much as mentions her, she goes off the deep end. I guess it hurts that she changed the guardianship to include a woman she hates, instead of me. And then, to top it off, she never even told me she had changed it. Among many other things, that has hurt our relationship deeply this year. Personally, I think it's only fair to tell someone if your desires have changed.

:lurk5: I'll be :bigear: for thoughts on this as well. I think they are two completely different skills--and both very necessary. Should we focus so exclusively on the summary style of narration? (I'm just starting WWE with my daughter.) She is an excellent listener, and naturally wants to give me lots of detail as she tells. Should I let her? It seems almost wrong to say, "No, I want less detail." As a teacher, I'm usually asking for *more* detail!

:iagree:

I'm assuming that flooring is not a euphemism in this thread. :D:lol:

I think it works fine either way. You can get away with no commas because it is very short and people usually "say" it without commas--that is, you can't hear any pauses when people say "My brother Chris is coming home this weekend." But in a longer example, I think you'd need the commas: "My sister-in-law, Mrs. Mary Ann Vanderhoosen, is a published author." ...even though that's not a direct address.

:D Great pic!

I have lots of fish experience to draw on... how big is the tank? Are you just getting the one goldfish? One goldfish per 5 gallons of tank is reasonable. This is not so much for space reasons as it is for waste reasons. :) Goldfish are one of the biggest producers of waste, which has an impact on the tank in the form of ammonia. It's deadly for them if the ammonia level gets too high. The good bacteria break down the ammonia into fairly harmless nitrates, which is why they're so important. Good bacteria build up to a strong enough level after a couple of weeks, but that won't happen in an empty tank, anyway. Do you have a filter? The sponge in the filter and the stones on the bottom of the tank are the best places for the bacteria to build up. Because of this, never wash both filter sponges in tap water. At least one should be left alone or only rinsed in the used tank water. The stones on the bottom can easily be "vacuumed" with a special suction tube (they're cheap and useful). Never take out more than half of the tank water each time you clean, so you don't disturb the bacteria too much, and to keep the ph level from fluctuating a lot. I'd say go ahead and get the fish on Friday, but remove half of the water every two days for the first couple of weeks to keep the ammonia down while the bacteria is building. (Again, a vacuum is the easiest way to do this by far.) If you see the fish looking ill in any way, do an emergency 1/2 tank water removal. Oh, and make sure you buy a "pet" goldfish as opposed to a cheap "feeder" goldfish, if you want the fewest health problems. I had one goldfish for over 6 years. :D

I have a retro kid who is only (mostly) interested in music from the 50s - 90s, cartoons from the 80s - 90s, has been begging me for a record player, and scoffs at the kids who like Justin Beiber, Hannah Montana, and the like, meanwhile cranking up Bohemian Rhapsody on our computer. Oh, and she wants a GAME BOY for her birthday, she says. She's 9. I'm all warm and fuzzy inside. :D

Piano lessons absolutely help with other instruments. You can "see" how the chords and scales and key signatures work on a piano, because it's all laid out in a nice, straight line. Theory and piano fit together beautifully. That said, if they are going into it just for a year, with no enthusiasm, I don't think they'll get far enough to really justify it. Passion will take you 100 times further. If you do invest in a piano, I HIGHLY recommend going with a real piano. The only time I'd consider an electronic version would be if it's a top of the line one with 88 full-sized, weighted, touch-sensitive keys. The cheap ones will disappoint. I'm teaching one girl right now on her cheaper electronic piano, and it's so sluggish, you can't even do a quick scale on it. It will be very frustrating to her in a couple of years when the music gets more intricate. (And I say all this as the owner of an electric keyboard--which I only used for laying tracks and playing in a rock band. I love my real piano for everything else.)

Ahhh, I've found my tribe! I love my evening/night hours, I resist going to bed, I hate getting up early. When I go to bed really varies, but it's always past midnight. During the school year (ps), I didn't need to be up until 8:30. Now it doesn't matter, but I'm trying to reform. I'd really like to go to bed at 11:30 and be up at 7:30 or so to get a good start on the day. We have to finish homeschooling at a good hour, because then I tutor in the afternoons and evenings.

A big bowl (ha, my finger slipped and I accidentally typed 'bowel' first) of oatmeal and a big glass of water to wash it down. Oatmeal is like a miracle. :) And a long walk or lots of exercise.

I'm interested!

Love love love all-white for everyday. It can be accompanied by all sorts of colour schemes to make it look completely different in different seasons.

Thank you, thank you! That's exactly the author I was thinking about. Highly recommended for young children and process art! (i.e. the opposite of follow-the-direcitons cookie cutter craft projects)

:iagree: Start in very small doses with very engaging books, so that they will begin to crave it. Make good use of "cliffhangers". There were many nights I had to toss the chapter book on my daughter's highest closet shelf after reading, because she wouldn't let me stop! Believe me, she was very keen to take it down the next evening and find out what happened. :) Read for a "too short" time rather than a "too long" time to keep them wanting more. Start with extremely simple ones! One that hasn't been mentioned here that we adored when K was 5, was Dick King Smith's Lady Lollipop. Maybe for the first few chapter books, have some kind of simple, pleasurable extension activity so they can immerse themselves more in the story or characters, since there are few pictures. This could be as simple as photocopying the cover of the book and letting them colour it in with markers while you're reading. Or drawing what's happening as you read it. Really and truly, don't set picture books aside for chapter books! The picture books (high-quality ones) and powerful and important. They can be used and enjoyed alongside ch. books for many, many years! I'm glad you're getting Trelease's book. It was sooo helpful to me, not to mention motivating. It's NOT a race or a competition. Enjoy!!!

:iagree: What you're doing sounds great. :) But when I hear "retyping", it sounds like "perfectionism". Is there another way to make that program work? Maybe you simply read the script and she does the work on a blackboard or whiteboard? Or maybe consider a different program that cuts down on your prep. As for art and science, have you thought about: - finding a "premade" program that lays it all out for you - doing science units that span a number of days (eg. growing a plant from seed, and each day drawing what it looks like and making a simple log to track growth/changes) - doing art units... so maybe for one week, you do a variety of drawing skills, trying out drawing with different media, etc... and another week it's all about making finger paintings or watercolours... and another week is modelling week, so you do play dough, then Model Magic, then plasticine... none of these types of exploratory art require much in the way of prep. It's all in the process. (Which reminds me, there's a great book about kids' art being all about the process--can anyone think of the title or author?)

Thank you! I'll definitely give her the placement test before I make any final decisions. It's good to know I don't have to be rigid about the levels.

Thanks so much for the advice! I think that's what I'll do, including going at a quicker pace. I read of someone else doing it "double time", and I think that would work for us. Then we could get through WWE3 and WWE4 in a year.

Hey, thanks! That will help a lot. Anyone have any additional advice on placing a new-to-WWE 9 year old?

I'm trying to figure out which WWE workbook is the best starting place for my 9 year old daughter. She was in public school until March of this year (grade 4), but because she was the youngest in her grade due to where her birthday falls, I'm not going to push her into all of the grade 5 curricula (at least what WTM considers to be grade 5). I know a lot of it would overwhelm her. She's a bright girl, a good reader, a strong speller, and can write creatively quite well. But, she's never done copywork, dictation, or narration. And she's only 9. So, which WWE would be best to start with? (I plan to do some Brave Writer concurrently.) Also, I remember hearing about placement tests for WWE, but I've searched everywhere and can't find them. Would anyone be kind enough to supply that link for me? Thanks!

I just watched the preview there for "Dolphin Tale", and I'm so excited!!

:iagree:wholeheartedly. He's doing well enough for his level. Those are not easy words, but you can see that he not only gets all the correct sounds in the correct order (which is great--and I would say a sign that dyslexia is not an issue), he also has some visual memory going on (as evidenced in "rough" and "enough"). I liked Reading Reflex (minus the stories) for both reading and spelling purposes. He would learn things like the 'ough' STANDS for the /f/ sound, so you don't need both. Also, I find vocabulary work to be tremendously helpful for spelling. I always encourage my kids (students) to listen first for root word. For example, in "disagree", if they hear the word was made from the word "agree" with a prefix put in front, they are more likely to spell it properly, rather than only listening for the sounds. I'd let him learn how to spell slightly easier words first (like root words on their own) before expecting him to do the list in the original post.