Well, since nobody answered your post, I thought it would be OK to respond even though I don't have a Kindle. I think you are EXACTLY the type of reader that would benefit from this device. I have seen them, and they are easy on the eyes. Nothing like "reading" on a computer. But I would wait.....I think they are almost ready to release the new version. Why do I think so? Because it was hard to find iPhones right before the new version came out, too. Rumor has it that the "old" ones will be $300 and the "new" ones will be $400. Just a rumor, mind you. They will have fixed some slight annoyances with the old one (easy to turn the page accidentally when you don't reall mean to). If they haven't released it by March, go for it! Julie

This year (as in calendar year) has been nice because I met another mom of only one. Her son is the same age as mine, so somehow it all feels more status quo. I guess I never obsess about THAT (although I probably will now, LOL). I worry more about a possible future transition to school. We are not passionate about homeschooling all the way through high school and are not sure when (if at all) that transition will happen. So I often find myself saying, "You would get sent to the principal's office if you did that in class!" I really am unsure about how much I should prepare him for appropriate classroom behavior, like not humming during tests or not shooting bionicle blasters while the teacher is reading history or science....... And about the expensive curricula, I find that the most expensive (like IEW) can usually be used for multiple years. But the State of Alaska pays our homeschooling bills, so I really can't complain about this aspect of homeschooling. (Except, like another poster said, I am not out earning the big bucks since I am spending around 40 or 50 hours per week on homeschooling, planning, and the paperwork associated with it.) Julie

I am so sorry that you have this on your plate. I just popped in to say that you are doing a great job with this situation so far. Thank you for not ignoring your grandmother when she says, "He'll kill me when I go home." Yes, he's 96, but it seems highly unlikely that he was not responsible for at least some of her "falls." I wish you the best with your efforts. Ugh. Just ugh. I had a great-uncle who had always been "difficult." He got kicked out of three nursing homes because he was so rude and belligerent in his later years. His daughter ended up taking him in, but he had to move from Southern California to Canada because, well, she had a life and a family in Toronto. So I have no suggestions, just joining you in her your frustration. Can your houseguests stay in a hotel? Julie

I think Isaac passes the "You're in trouble" test just fine. You have to go really low on the "I", and really draw it out. Then spit out that "k" sound at the end. It's the "k" sound at the end that makes it work nicely, IMO. Can you tell I'm procrastinating on a project? I had a terrible time naming my son. I had lots of girl names picked out, but no boy names. I still like the name John, but I got overruled because of its "commonness." But nowadays, there probably aren't many Johns at all! I know a lot of Max's, Aidans, and even more than one Elias (there is Mt. Elias in Alaska, maybe that's why), but not one single John under the age of 40. Julie (intentionally not mentioning my son's name because it is rare and thus identifiable)

My son's good friend is named Lincoln. The other day he was looking at our calendar, and he exclaimed, "Hey! Lincoln's birthday is pre-printed on our calendar! Did you order this custom-made, Mom?" :lol: And in my defense, he did know to whom I was referring when I corrected his mistake. (Whew!) julie

if you do GWG you should do at least "3." The program can be picked up at any level, and they are GRADES not "levels." In other words, IMO there is no reason to do "4" after "3" if the child has good retention. We did GWG 3 in Grade 3 and then we got 4, but sent it back for GWG 5 because it was too easy for ds. To explain a bit more clearly, each level of GWG (at least through 5) can be begun by a student of that grade with little or no grammar experience. A fourth-grade friend of ours with no prior grammar experience is doing GWG 4 this year with no problems. Julie, (who is not enjoying either IEW or Aesop "B" these days so we are just "writing across the curriculum" and trying to use strong adjectives and strong verbs!)

Congratulations. Yes, I suppose naming him might make things a bit easier. :001_smile: Oh, I know! You could number him... I kind of like 237. Or maybe 62? That would drive the IRS batty. Anyway, congratulations and kiss his little toes for me! Julie

Lately, we have been enjoying the Orvieto Classico by Ruffino. I thought it was a Pinot Grigio (tastes like that) but now looking at the bottle, I see it's not. It's only 3:00 p.m. here, so I am not sipping wine! I will add, though, if you don't like red wine we might be different species. So take my recommendations with a grain of, um, grapeseed? Julie

Pema Chodron wrote "Practicing Peace in Times of War." She is of the Mahayana School of Buddhism and does a wonderful job of simplifying very difficult Buddhist teachings. This piece is from the Vipassana school: http://dharma.org/ij/archives/2002a/nonviolence.htm They both emphasize the notion that nonviolence begins at the individual level, in the way I react to this person, this situation right in front of me. I realize the latter piece is very long so you might not get through it. But at least skim it, because it is very thorough, well-documented, and not (IMO) limited to the Vipassana point of view. It mentions the root (the source) of nonviolence in Buddhist teachings, which is that there is no difference between "you" and "me." You want to be happy. I want to be happy. I want my children to be healthy and successful. You want your children to be healthy and successful. I experience fear. You experience fear. So if I truly understand this concept and I choose to respond to my OWN anger* by intentionally hurting you, that is just......illogical. A hefty portion of Buddhist practices involve practicing/raising compassion (boddhicitta), beginning with compassion to myself, then to close friends and family, then finally (when I am ready) compassion to enemies and people that are "invisible" to me. Tonglen instructions are available on Pema Chodron's website. That is the compassion practice to which I referred. I wish I had 1/10 of your energy.......:tongue_smilie: *I think it is funny that we say "she MADE me angry" in our language. Uh, no she didn't. My pre-conceived notions, the perceived threats to my beliefs (gasp! I might be wrong!), my fragile ego, THOSE made me angry. And what to do about that anger is all my choice. Mine. She didn't make me do anything when she insulted my flabby hips and the way they look in that gold brocade Cuban-designed dress. Oh, dear, now you know my realname! Hee. Julie

The "living in Ca" part surprises me. You must realize that California is a huge state, and that racism does exist everywhere. In fact, I am surprised that your father (and your siblings) have not experienced racism due to the prejudice many Californians have against Mexican. Nothing to add, really, just surprised. I was living in Los Angeles during the riots that followed the Rodney King verdicts. I am not saying that the rioters did the right thing, but that anger did not spring ONLY from the verdicts. Black people were frustrated by being continually treated *differently* than white people by the LAPD, and now (Rodney King) that treatment was being upheld. (Edited to add: my workplace was right across from the DMV, which was set on fire. I had driven to work, unaware of the events of the previous day, so I watched the fires of L.A. burning from the roof of my workplace. Many of the stores on the way to work were destroyed and looted.) Since so many of you have said that your children have never seen racism, I was going to ask if any of you DO live in racist communities. But that would just get the thread locked, I guess. I am not implying that any of you are racist or that you would intentionally choose racist communities. Just curious as to whether any of you have witnessed it during the past, say, 20 years. My grandfather (raised in Missouri) was so racist that he didn't even know it. It was so fully ingrained in his belief system. My father was raised in Newport Beach and never even knew that he had absorbed that belief system. He is probably still racist (Mexicans can only be gardeners) but it doesn't really come up. I have not asked him what he thinks about our new President. He is probably still in shock. And to answer the OP, I will show my son a clip of MLK Jr.'s speech on YouTube, and look up the text of the "I Have a Dream" speech. The holiday has come at a good time in our history studies, because we just finished reading "Amistad" and also a few books on Sojourner Truth. It is poignant that Sojourner Truth didn't fully realize that abolishing slavery would not "fix" everything for African-Americans in the United States. At the end of her life, she saw that a long road was still ahead regarding education and other opportunities for African-Americans. Another nice "link" we made is that when Abraham Lincoln showed Sojourner Truth his Bible, he said that it had been a gift from the "colored people of Baltimore." No wonder Obama is using this same Bible at his swearing in! Julie

We simply take Rainbow Light (sour lemon!), the only brand my health food store sells (they are very choosy). It has made a huge difference in my mood and my energy level. My son said, "Mom, PLEASE don't stop taking Vitamin D. I like this mom." I am much more fun, quick to laugh, quick to suggest fun things. Some researchers are actually suggesting that the reason that SAD lights work is because they do cause Vitamin D production in the skin. This is a HUGE revelation to me, because I have had Seasonal Affective Disorder for 27 years (ever since I moved away from Southern California). To think that all this time, I could have just been taking 1,000 IU of Vitamin D? Wow. Just wow. Don't ask me why I live in Alaska with SAD. I ask myself that every winter. But I do love it here. Julie

We cook it on the stove top in a regular saucepan with tight-fitting lid. The lid is important because all the moisture will be absorbed into the rice, but if the moisture is allowed to steam out (evaporate) it won't turn out right. I heat 1-3/4 cup (that's one and three-quarters cup) vegetable or chicken broth to a low boil. Then add exactly one level cup of brown rice. Bring back to a boil, then lower heat to "simmer" and put the cover on. Cook for 45 to 50 minutes (no peeking!), until all moisture is absorbed. Fluff it a little bit. Yumm, no butter or salt necessary! This is one of the ONLY foods that my son never complains about eating. Actually I usually don't use ALL broth, but a total of 1-3/4 cup broth/water mixture. It usually depends on how much broth I have on hand. This is one of the only ways my son gets vegetables (from the cooking broth), so I use vegetable broth almost every time. If you use a rice cooker, be sure you use their instructions for brown rice. White rice cooks completely differently. I've never used a rice cooker for brown rice, so I can't help you there. Julie

In almost every way you can think of, they are different. I think one is parts-to-whole and the other is whole-to-parts (can you tell I'm shaky about that whole concept?) One is way fun and is a gentle introduction to Latin. The other one will actually TEACH you Latin. I mean, it's fun too, but also a lot of work. We actually did Minimus and LFC A at the same time (alternating weeks with each program). I'm not sure I would recommend this method. Perhaps doing them sequentially would be better. I think you could do either one first. LFC A will definitely take you the whole school year, and really should be done every school day for best results. I think these two programs are both excellent. But I can't really say which one is "better" because they are completely different in almost every way. (I do think our pronunciation was helped greatly by doing Minimus. Dr. Perrin's pronunciation (LFC) is not always consistent, which confuses my son. But we haven't been corrected recently by any ancient Romans..... Have fun with your Latin journey. Julie

Me: "May I have one of your tootsie rolls?" Son (looking at the clock): "Nope, too close to lunchtime." :glare:

Ds asks to play this almost every night. It is so much fun. Tonight he won, so that was exciting for him. It is like Scrabble except way easier and faster and more flexible. Julie

I'd say on the average we did RS Lessons four days per week; the other day we would either skip because of a ski day or field trip or perhaps do Singapore or card games (Go to the Dump, etc.) Don't rush through "B." I think it is perfect for first grade. It provides a valuable foundation. As someone else said, "C" isn't as intense IMO. I don't think "C" took us as long, but I don't remember. We are doing "E" now (4th grade) and will probably finish by June. We do math every day in "E." We didn't do "A", so take that into account. In other words, if we had done "A" in Kindergarten, we would have breezed through the beginning of "B" (which is sort of a speedy trip through "A"). But since we didn't (ds had been in public school for K), we took all of "B" quite slowly and steadily. Julie

Just a tiny bit of advice if you do end up choosing RS (which I love wholeheartedly). It is a very challenging program, so if your child doesn't "get" something don't get too hung up on it. Unless it's something like addition, subtraction, place value, etc., don't stop and stress about it. (The tough thing, I guess, is determining whether it is a concept that will be important later on.) But my son was able to do a lot of tasks in RS "B" and "C" that completely stumped me. Completely. It was the visual-spatial stuff. Very easy for him. But there are other tasks (the algebraic-style puzzles that are in the warmups in "E") that he is stumped by, and we simply puzzle them out together and move on. Sorry to hijack....back to your main question now! Julie

We started with GWG 3, so I don't know about the earlier levels. But GWG 3 does teach diagramming. We are only in Chapter 2 of GWG 5, so up to this point the diagramming has been similar to that of GWG 3, except for a little more practice diagramming compound subjects and compound predicates. Hope that helps. If we get to a lesson that is not challenging for my ds, I turn it into a handwriting lesson and have him do it in cursive. Each level is just a little more sophisticated. For example, GWG 3 might teach how to punctuate both direct and indirect quotations. GWG 5 includes that, but also includes practice in changing the location of the "speaker tag" in the sentence. Beginning, end, and the middle. An example of speaker tag in the middle is "Why do so many people on this message board ask grammar questions," wondered Tom, "when it is such a boring topic?" OK ignore my content there...... One amusing thing about GWG (only amusing if you are famliar with IEW). My son is always commenting about how often he is required to use "banned words" in GWG! (said, went, good......) Julie

In his native Italian, it would be pronounced more like MEE-kul-AHNJ-uloh BWOH-nuh-ROH-tee. (kind of flows nicely, doesn't it, with every other syllable accented?) But he is so dadgum famous that art historians all over the world talk about him. German used to be the primary language of art history, and English is also used quite a bit, so you will also hear it pronounced this way, which is not considered incorrect. (The accents are the same.) MIH-kul-ANJ-elo BWAH-nuh-RAH-tee. So not very different. I think most folks here would agree with me that they hear the third syllable of his first name pronounced both ways -- short English "a" (my second example) and Italian/Latin "a", which is prounced as in FATHER (my first example). Sigh, more than you wanted. Julie

We use Growing with Grammar (5) and it teaches diagramming. We found that after completing GWG 3, it was appropriate for us to skip GWG 4 because it was a *little* redundant. It would not be redundant for some children. My son loves diagramming too, and GWG has plenty. My son retains the knowledge he learns in GWG. But, to be fair, he might be learning just as much grammar from his Latin studies. (Neither program has yet taught him indirect objects, though. I'm thinking they are coming up soon in Latin.) Julie

In order to take the deduction for preschool tuition, both parents (if married) must either be working, actively looking for work, or full-time college students. Here's the tax publication: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p503.pdf Not a CPA here, but I do my own very very very complicated taxes. The IRS doesn't intimidate me, which helps a lot. Good luck! Julie

Honestly, I opened this thread to post about being grounded, you know, in one's authentic nature. Grounded as in speaking from one's root intention and not going on and on about stuff that one does not care about or believe in. Hee. So, um, bye. :leaving: Julie

Like I'm gonna tell the worst thing I've ever done on a public message board. 'Cmon, now, be serious.........:lol: Julie

Since my son is finishing fourth grade this spring, I feel slightly qualified to comment! :) We have spent 1-1/2 years on SOTW 3 and are reaaaaaally stretching it out. We don't skimp at all on SOTW itself (we do all the mapping, tests, etc.) but we also add stuff from History of US and extra reading. We are studying the abolitionists right now and are reading "Amistad" together (Walter Dean Myers). We also read books about how the U.S. government is organized, how laws are passed, the long hot summer when the founding fathers worked on the writing of our Constitution, etc. All of which is to say that if you feel you spent enough time on "civics" this year with your dd, go ahead and do SOTW 4. But if you haven't done SOTW 3 with her yet, it is a wonderful book and there is plenty of time in 5th grade for SOTW 4. I just wanted to plant that possibility in your head for you to mull over. I am not familiar with ILL. Will it be enough writing instruction for YOU (and your wonderfully high standards)? Since you are doing WT1 now, is there a reason why you are not going to do WT2? I wish I had looked into it. But we did Aesop and had great success with it. As I say, I have not seen ILL, though, so it might be *perfect* for 4th grade. Don't forget that she will be "upper elementary" and you will probably unable to resist comparing her writing curriculum to that of public school (which is WAY TOO MUCH these days, at least here in Alaska). Our ps'ers are writing a paper each week, but most of it is done at home..... :) Gotta get off the computer. Good luck! I hope you find time to re-visit your French studies at some point. Perhaps there will be a French club in your town or nearby? We can only hope. Julie

After you read "Running with Scissors," (which by the way has some really unsavory parts*, and I am quite the liberal!), don't miss "Look Me In the Eye: My Life with Asperger's" by John Elder Robison. It is written by his big brother. They explain that even though they had the same parents, they were far apart enough in age that their childhoods were quite different. But it is fascinating because the older brother witnessed first-hand some of the abuse that Augusten suffered at the hands of his father. (Robison is the family name; Burroughs invented his own name later to distance himself from family memories.) Enjoy! Oh, and there are two versions of the Robison book. He cleaned up the language quite a bit when he realized that young people with Asperger's were drawn to his book. So the paperback version has milder versions of the AWFUL abuse stories and also less bad language in it. I let my 9yo read it and he liked it very much. He has two friends with Asperger's. The hardback version should only be read by adults. PM me if you want to know the part of "Running With..." that turns even my stomach. It involves homosexuality, which I have no problem with, but Augusten was so emotionally needy that his early homosexual relationships were unequal and borderline abusive. OK not so borderline. I trust that his current, committed long-term relationship is healthier and more respectful. Julie