Great answer, Hillary. Groups and rules vary so widely, talking with the actual members is the only way to go.

Not to start a whole firestorm because I'm headed out the door, but many presidents are given credit or blame for things that occur during their watch. When they've had a hand in policy, legislation, etc., that effects something directly, then that's pretty valid. But some things just occur. Wrt the moon landing, no Nixon was just peripheral. But had Humphrey won, would his name be more associated with it? The larger point of my post was that the accreditation is often variable depending on +/- of the issue and where on the political spectrum that leader is. It was an observation I'd heard not long ago. And yes, you're right, it wasn't really speaking to this series at all, more in the way that biases affect perceptions in recent history. Worth keeping in mind off to the side somewhere as one hears history reported.....

I know it's natural for those of us here in the US to cover our own country's history in greater depth than world history.... just wondering, do you do world history to this depth? (honest question) If so, how do you gather information, source materials, etc.? tia

Have you ever heard the comparison.... Herbert Hoover was responsible for the depression, FDR's New Deal saved the country, the US entered WWII....JFK had a vision of going to the moon, the US landed on the moon in 1969. The US dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasake, the US was at war with Vietnam, the US "won" the Cold War in the late 80s, GW Bush invaded Iraq, the US increased troops in Afghanistan. I heard a commentator run through a long series of details from the past century and I can't really do it justice .... except for the point: In the media and history books, Democratic presidents get credit by name for what are viewed as triumphs/positives, but "the US" is used when it's negative or controversial. Do we hear that Truman dropped the bombs on Japan or that "the US" did? The converse is true when dealing with Republican administrations. We don't even equate Nixon with landing on the moon. An interesting observation of the tendencies. Of course, it bears remembering that any president is part of the flow of history and has great influence and power, but not often as singly responsible for any one thing good or bad that is laid at his feet. :001_smile:

And Carter.

You're right, Laura. The author told us that they realize a lot of homeschoolers are using it now so they are working to reduce the price by making a homeschoolers version. The assumption was that an elementary teacher would use it for years, making reproductions, etc., while each class would just get new student books each year. The teacher's version is spiral bound, printed on nice sturdy card stock. It is full of lots of ideas, vocab, chapter overview with translations and background info, teaching hints and activity ideas as well as the reproducible pages, many of which are quite clever. I avoided getting it at first but this is one TM that really did make a difference when I had it. ymmv The website is full of activities and ideas too. :001_smile:

Wherever you are in the book when it's time to go, just read up on the Egypt and King Tut portions. Your boys won't quibble that you've jumped ahead 300 years or whatever. ;) In general, we spend more time on the portions that dc are intrigued with. So we might read 2 (sometimes even 3) chps. in one week, do the maps and look at another book (library, history ref., picture book) so that we have time to go more indepth with the next topic. There are areas with several chapters in a row on ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome. You can easily spend a few weeks here exploring the projects, making food, looking at lots of books, reading about mythology. So, since you asked : ) I'd say, it's best when you don't expect it to move along at a steady even pace for the whole book of 40-some chapters. Have fun.

Here's another great resource: Library of Congress If you click on the various parts of the homepage, you get access to a huge variety of maps, old photos, documents, etc. Really cool. Even better to actually visit. :D

:001_huh: Does this mean what I think it means? :lol: Anyway, tator tots? (or were those 70s?) That light green jello and pineapple salad thing? Gotta have some kind of jello salad. Shish kebabs. Teriyaki chicken on little skewers. Cream cheese on celery. Rootbeer floats. Sherbet and gingerale punch. Baked ziti. Wonder bread (crusts off) bologna sandwiches for the kids. Orange and grape nehi. Kool-aid. Definitely deviled eggs (some plain, some w/parsley flakes, some paprika) and pigs-in-a-blanket, mini gherkins. eta: Oh man, just read through all the other posts....too funny. I was little, but I remember those picnics and parties! Tang, cheese balls, onion soup dip, fondues. Too funny. We still make the chex mix for a whole new generation! We made ours with cheerios too. Have fun, Aubrey.

Oh. Some of my friends would comment on what the Italian girls could get away with when a mom in discreet walking shorts would be turned away. But these were regional cathedrals. It's been years since I was at the Vatican. :001_smile:

Any of the churches or sacred spots actually. Excellent advice -- you can wear very short, very tight skirts but no shorts. Think urban chic and you'll blend in more. Oh have fun.

Buon viaggio! Buona fortuna! Arrivederci!

I've no doubt you would've answered a query to this effect. Lots of Danas in the world. :001_smile:

Bill, I just noticed this series of posts as well as the fact that you may not be able to respond right now. Ftr, I'm not a TOG user or familiar with TCoO. What I saw across several posts was that you abhor this book. You've asked repeatedly (again here) if this book is acceptable to people -- a book which you characterize as depraved, racist, bigoted. You did imply that to continue to use it or even have it would be depraved. You've made your point. My point, which is largely from observation and experience with homeschoolers for much of the past decade, is that even if a homeschooling family is using TOG and this resource or any resource for that matter, it is not the only resource and it is not being used in a vacuum. This is why I highlighted several points that redheadeddaughter made as well. And I will repeat that I have no intention of passing judgment on what another family chooses to include, I'm not there, I don't know how it's being used. I didn't mean for you to take it personally when I referred to the repeated invective against one book as authoritarian and/or shrill. It just struck me as the type of behavior that we homeschoolers normally avoid. But I have run into a couple folks who will adamantly denounce a book or curriculum. That's unfortunate. Those of us who spend years homeschooling have enough self-doubt, challenges and schooling to do without our fellow(?) homeschoolers insulting our decisions and/or cherry-picking resources to criticize. In one post, someone didn't care for the example of Mein Kampf that I made. So I'll use another -- Apologia Astronomy for grade school level. It was our spine several years ago and yielded a nice study of the solar system and more with fun little experiments, nice photos, etc. I didn't agree with some of the points made in the text so we skipped over or discussed. A resource can be just that, a resource, without one's agreeing with all of it. Just because we are exposed to some material doesn't mean that we're indoctrinated by it. Who knows? We might come out richer on the other side for having had the discussion. And that's the adventure I intend to have with my children .... rich, varied, inquisitive and joyful. Wishing you well on your own journey if you start homeschooling too. :001_smile:

Yes this was the guy. He started this a number of years ago. He mentioned that there's also a woman in Calif. who makes pantyhose-buoy things full of hair that float and act as barriers.

I agree. My point for OP was that a dog that is able to get free and attack a cat may attack other living things (like kids). In the example I gave, the dog was in our neighborhood living with the parents of the dog's owner because his city had outlawed them. I don't think the dog's owner was a reputable person who kept the dog as a pet, I think it was more for protection. The dog got loose and chased the boy who was a hefty 8 yo. People were able to pull the dog off the boy after a long couple of minutes. The dog was going after his head and neck but the boy was able to protect himself til he got help. The dog was restrained and being led into its house when it got loose again, tore into another home, chased a woman out of that house and latched onto her bottom. She climbed up on a car hood with that dog holding on. He was chasing other people around. The responding officer had no choice but to shoot finally. I have a healthy fear of dogs running loose, especially anything resembling a pit bull....borne of experience. If the dog isn't on a leash or a known dog, you have no idea what the dog is like or might do. I agree with unsinkable here -- I'd make the police report.

Good advice, unsinkable. It is possible that the dog will go after kids. In our old neighborhood, a pitbull went after a cat then later went after an 8 yo boy. People got him off the boy, he ran into someone's house then ran out and jumped on a woman's backside. Police were there by then, they had to shoot the dog finally.

Wow, I was flipping channels .... anyone see this? Mike Huckabee has a show on Fox (:confused:): He's got inventors and scientists on who are showing their products for sucking up, drying up, and degrading oil with available products. Some reclaim the oil to reuse and can then reuse the product too. Amazing. One guy just showed his product -- he's got a huge volume of the granular substance (don't remember -- 100 tons?) ready to go. He swept a white feather through the oil, yuck. Then he put the product on the oil slick and let it sit for a minute. When he whisked another white feather through it was virtually spotless and the "oil slick" in the little tank was gone. Another guy is a former hairdresser from AL who uses hair mats to soak up oil. He's helped with coastal oil spills around the country. Wouldn't it be great if some of these products can be put in place and really work???

Appalachicola area? Hopefully some of the remediation that's finally getting there will be of some help....

Early on they were burning off the oil around the rig area. Of course there are air pollution concerns with this. There was outcry about this -- before the extent of the spill and difficulty of a fix were understood, I think. Sadly, I'm not sure what's worse as we see all the oil wash ashore. And we won't know what difference the Dutch aid might have made.....

The system is heavy on the testing right now, to be sure, but it is quite disheartening to view the population of teachers, principals and administrators as being devoid of any other answers or methods except for cheating or otherwise gaming the system. Talk about low expectations. And of course the students and what's best for them is a minor factor at best when this is the focus. Like I said, very sad.

Here's a quote from WGNO site: New Orleans - More help is on the way, thanks to Dutch officials who are sending six sweeping arms to the United States to help with the oil clean up. The high tech pieces of equipment are being shipped here this weekend by the Dutch Corps of Engineers. Jeff Admon is a mechanical engineer who for weeks has been urging BP to use these machines. In the thickest oil, the arm, which is attached to the side of a ship, can suck up 29,000 gallons of oil per hour. The oil can then be separated from water. Then, the oil goes into a compartment located in the hull of the ship, and gets taken back to shore. Admon says the arms have been used in other parts of the world, and have been very successful. "This equipment was used in two huge oil spills off the coast of Spain and France, the Prestige and the Erica...and they were also used in the '91 Gulf War" Admon says. So there's renewed hope now that the equipment will be in place by next week....but Admon and others still wonder why it took so long to get them here. "If they would've listened to us from the beginning and they would've listened to this proposal and this offer from the Dutch government, maybe we could've contained a lot more oil and we wouldn't be in the situation we are today" Admon says. And this: Three days after the explosion, the Dutch government offered to assist the United States by sending ships equipped with oil-skimming booms. It also provided a plan for creating sand barriers to protect the sensitive marshlands of the Gulf coast. According to Geert Visser, Consul General for the Netherlands in Houston “The embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’†Almost seven weeks later, the administration finally relented and agreed to accept partial Dutch assistance with the cleanup. The administration has not accepted Dutch ships, but has allowed the skimming booms to be airlifted from the Netherlands and deployed in the Gulf. Part of the problem is the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act. This act is a piece of protectionist legislation which requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents. The provisions of this act make it illegal for the Dutch to come to our aid. Geert Visser was noticeably confused by the administrations intransigence in refusing Dutch assistance, “What’s wrong with accepting outside help? If there’s a country that’s experienced with building dikes and managing water, it’s the Netherlands.†The government is also making it difficult for the Dutch to provide assistance in creating sand barriers to prevent the spilled oil from reaching the gulf shores. Van Oord, a Dutch company and Deltares, a Dutch research institute provided plans to build 60 mile sand dikes and the government rebuffed their offer of assistance. The government has now changed it’s tune and has accepted the plan, but the Jones Act prevents the Dutch from operating in America’s coastal waters. The United States Maritime Administration could issue a waiver of the Jones Act limitations, and has done so several times in the past. Doing so, however, would subject the Obama administration to criticism from labor unions who demand protection from global competition. :sad: :sad: :sad:

Yep. We were at a scout banquet when the leader took the opportunity to launch into a similarly inappropriate speech. People get an audience and think they've got a forum. Particularly stupid when children are there. :glare: