The school one of my sons attends is a K-8, and they have a free breakfast program for all students.

I didn't claim anyone advocated that. I was merely sharing a personal experience that matched the quote another person shared. Now I wish I hadn't.

When we were stationed in South Carolina, the base schools had a breakfast program that was free to all students and I saw this happen all the time. It was a training command, and many of the junior enlisted families were flat broke. I'm sure they weren't supposed to, but the cafeteria staff would also pack up leftovers (that would have been thrown away) and gave them to moms who had younger kids with them. Thank goodness nobody was heartless enough to turn those women in.

I lived in some pretty rough neighborhoods as a single mom when oldest ds was a baby. In one place, the apartment building next to us housed several drug dealers, and I used to say good morning to the sex trade workers who were coming home as I was walking ds to daycare on my way to work. That actually saved me from an ugly situation once, as two women I'd been exchanging greetings with for months told the guy to leave me alone because I was cool. The elementary school a block away had volunteer crews of parents clean up the school grounds every morning, picking up used condoms and needles. It sounds like what you're moving into isn't as bad, but I agree with what other posters have said about being confident and not walking with fear. Being friendly and polite, but not getting involved in neighborhood drama, went a long way too.

My ds and I have Fire HD 7s, and we use them extensively during the school day. Some things they get used for: reading/annotating curriculum files I have in PDF form, reading ebooks, listening to classical music as we do school (streaming through Prime Music), OneNote (I use this for lesson planning and my son's task lists), audiobooks, taking pictures of projects, watching Youtube videos to enhance what we're studying, using a graphing calculator, playing DragonBox Algebra, using a dictionary, looking things up as we follow rabbit trails, and watching Great Courses we own in digital form. For example, last week we were studying Pearl Harbor. During the lesson we used the Fire to get our reading list for the day, watch FDR's "day that will live in infamy" speech, look at timelines of the attack, check an unfamiliar word from the textbook, and research something that wasn't clear in the text. We could do all of these things from a computer instead, but I find it less disruptive to just pick up the tablet. I also do needlework, and use my Fire to read and mark up patterns instead of having to make photocopies. The special offers are unobtrusive, imho, and are sometimes deals I appreciate hearing about. I was skeptical about how useful a Kindle Fire would be when my dh ordered them as gifts for us, but I keep finding new ways to use them. I'd still love an iPad, but think a Kindle Fire is a great value.

Until April 18th, you can buy the Killgallon books (including the newest one) from the publisher for 30% off and free shipping. Use the coupon code NCTM15. Not affiliated or anything, but I stumbled across it this morning when I was looking for the teacher book downloads. http://www.heinemann.com/products/E05378.aspx

My ds got his results from Lone Pine - a perfect paper on Latin I. He was one of three kids in his class to score perfects. I'm glad I convinced him to stick it out with Latin, after a rough start to the year. :)

My son took Latin 100 from Lone Pine this year, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. He had some struggles in the beginning as he adjusted to the workload, but he stuck it out and managed to score a perfect paper on the NLE this spring. He really likes the teacher, and has a lot of fun in the class. I was a bit dubious about the textbook (Orberg's Lingua Latina), but I can't argue with the results. I also like that the classes meet twice a week. My ds will be moving on to Latin 200 at Lone Pine next year, and is already asking if he can go to next year's convention in Colorado. Lone Pine been a big hit at our house.

We went to an information session for the P-tech school one of my kids is hoping to attend next year, and the principal said that there are rumors that NY will soon begin counting computer languages as Languages Other Than English, in lieu of the Foreign Language requirement in the ps regs. Doesn't really apply to us, except that if it happens the public colleges in NY may adopt that guideline too. As Sparkly already knows, the SUNY and CUNY schools are often pickier about homeschoolers than the other colleges in the state are.

We're using the TGC series of How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, and as I listen to the lectures I note down the composer/title of any musical selections the professor talks about so I can add them to a Spotify playlist afterwards. As we've progressed through the course, our playlist grows and it's a great tool for reviewing the concepts covered in the course. It's ended up being kind of like a timeline for music. So far I've been able to find every selection on Spotify, even the more obscure ones.

Yes, and no. For me, it meant turning down the nursing school spot I'd earned with several years of hard work. It was certainly the right choice for my son's well-being, and I don't regret doing it, but it was a painful decision to make. I enjoy staying home with him, and do feel that homeschooling helps me be a better mom. I don't think it has any impact on how good a wife or citizen I am. Being a good home keeper isn't something I've ever aspired to, and I find I have less time and energy for that than I did before homeschooling.

About a month ago, we had a large flock of wild turkeys ambling through our suburban back yard. Our yard backs up onto a fairly big forested area, and we often have deer passing through. We love watching them, but our bloodhound sees every deer as her personal nemesis and voices her opinion very loudly. Some of them startle and run when she goes off, but the more canny ones have figured out that all Molly can do is bay at them through the windows so they stay put.

I found out about this first because my dh called me from work to tell me. He's not a huge reader, so I was touched that he knew I'd want to hear about a new Harper Lee book.

Lightning Literature might fit what you're looking for. We read all the books/stories/poems, but did some picking and choosing from the assignments. Some of them seemed too much like busywork for my ds, while others were definitely valuable. I liked the literature selections, and we discovered some authors we probably wouldn't have gotten to if all the choosing had been up to me (e.g. Chesterton, Durell); some of those books ended up being family favorites. If you want to tie her reading to her history studies, the modern era has a ton of great books to choose from. Try searching this forum for a modern history book list - I know I got one from here that I'm using for ideas. We use History Odyssey, which uses novels along with non-fiction sources. I also try to steer ds towards other classics that fit the era we're studying, and will add in other books I think he'll enjoy (e.g. we'll read 1984 together after we study WW II). We aren't using a formal literature program this year, just reading a lot of great books and discussing them afterwards.

But what makes a name a "real" name? Unless the name is a translation of a word (e.g. Sarah means princess), then weren't all names "made up?" I mean, look at your username - it's two names, Lu (also spelled Lou, usually short for Louise or Louisa) and Anne melded into one word. So at some point, someone decided they wanted to combine two names into one and a new name came about. And please know that I'm not mocking your name - I'm a Lyanne, which is another combination name and spelled unusually as well. My point is that many, many names that are now commonly accepted started out from someone making them up. I think if I had a unique name, I'd be a lot more bothered by someone claiming that my name wasn't a "real" name than by people asking me to spell it.

No, it doesn't. Not unless they're identical twins, and my understanding is that even though id twins share the same DNA code environmental conditions can cause changes between the two.

Health

I'm a pen junkie, so I'm always looking for my new favorite pen. Right now, the best ones I've found for my bullet journal are Pigma Micron 05, Papermate Flair Ultrafine, and the Pilot G2.

Pets de soeurs (roughly translated, "nuns' farts"), butter tarts, and Nanaimo bars.

The difference here is that the girls weren't forced to share a room. Lena writes that her sister begged to share the bed until Lena was 17, and also that she enjoyed manipulating her sister's emotions around it (e.g. making her beg to be allowed to do so). I don't know that what she recounted crosses the line into molestation, but their power dynamic is disturbing imho. I'm quite liberal, but as an abuse survivor what she's written squicks me the hell out.

Staceyshoe, your link for Scholastic's Note Taking leads to a review of a stainless steel frying pan. You might want to fix it. :)

My DS started in Latin 100 at Lone Pine this semester, and he's loving it. He says he feels like he's part of an actual class, as Lone Pine divides the students into houses and schedule activities outside of class time. I looked at Lukeion as well, and was impressed with their program; Lone Pine just felt like a better fit for my son. I also liked that the online class meets twice per week. We had only done 2/3 of GSWL but ds isn't having any problems keeping up. Sounds like you've already decided on Lukeion, but thought I'd share our impressions of Lone Pine in case anyone else reading is still deciding (or feels Lukeion might not be quite right for their dc).

This one scares me, as ds 13 is asthmatic and spent weeks in the hospital as a newborn with RSV (including a week in the PICU). He gets every respiratory ailment around, and gets hit hard. The virus hasn't been reported in NY yet that I know of, but DH has to travel to Kansas for business this weekend. I'm trying to make him understand how serious this virus can be, in hopes that he'll be super vigilant about handwashing, etc. Even so, airplane travel and a layover in a major airport may make it almost impossible for him to avoid being exposed. I think I'm going to order an oximeter, and make sure ds' prescriptions are refilled. My biggest fear is that he'll get sick during one of dh's frequent business trips. I don't drive, and we have no friends or family in the area. There isn't any public transit nearby, and our taxi service is very unreliable.

Amity's! Wow, I'd forgotten that place. I hung out there a lot after my twins were born, for nursing and cloth diapering advice. Used to love all the co-op buys people put together, but the frequent dramas got old.

I actually came here this afternoon to see if anyone here were talking about this yet. It sounds so very good, but I'm a bit hesitant. Perhaps I'll sign up, then cancel if it either isn't working for me or (more realistically) if I'm not using it to its potential. I'd love to hear others' impressions after the Alliance goes live.