Those pouffes are gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad it became clearer with the other stories! And I agree with SaDonna on that point. Good luck! p.s. I'm a "need to know why" person, too. Which is probably why I asked all those questions last year to figure out this lesson.

I wrote a reply to you from your post from a month ago on the WWS assignment samples thread - hope it helps!

I know you wrote this a month ago, but my attention was directed towards it this evening, and I see you did not get any feedback yet. Hope I can help! About what I bolded above - to me, that is an analysis, not a straight summary of "what happened?" Have a look again at the questions in the IG section for "HOW TO HELP THE STUDENT WITH STEP ONE." The questions are at the end of that section. Those questions are all about *what* happened, not character descriptions or why things happened. Now, notice what Step Three tells the student: "Your narrative summary might have mentioned what the cobras wanted...but it could still be a perfectly good narrative summary if you didn't mention..." What might help is to go back and ask your daughter those questions in the IG for Step One, and have her write a new summary based on those answers. Tell her this time not to write anything that answers WHY or that talks about what the characters wanted. Then maybe the difference between summary and analysis will become clearer to her. Make it clear that summary is about WHAT happened (but could contain descriptions), and analysis is about WHY it happened.

I know you asked to hear from Susan, but I'll answer as a fellow TWTM/lecture-clinger. Suffice it to say, I am SO GLAD she is making WWS!!!!! There are SO many skills that she teaches in WWS that are not mentioned in WTM or the lectures. Things like how to outline *for specific types of writing* (it's basically how to think through several types of writing), how to research and write for different purposes (writing a chronological narrative, a biographical sketch, a narrative of a scientific discovery, a scientific description, etc., etc.), and that's just the tip of the iceburg. WWS includes copia exercises where the student learns how to use a thesaurus to improve writing, and the student sometimes uses this knowledge on his own writing, too, within the lessons. And literature - so much more guidance on reading, discussing, writing in WWS. Somewhere on these forums (maybe in the big WWS thread) is a link to a scope and sequence for all four levels of WWS - I found that very helpful to look through, to get an overview of what WWS would be like. I can't recommend WWS highly enough to clingers like me! lol

I just want to promote my friend's daughter's new novel: http://www.amazon.com/Flightless-ebook/dp/B00C03X5NY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364155797&sr=1-1&keywords=Flightless

I just want to promote my friend's daughter's new novel: http://www.amazon.com/Flightless-ebook/dp/B00C03X5NY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364155797&sr=1-1&keywords=Flightless

I just want to promote my friend's daughter's new novel: http://www.amazon.com/Flightless-ebook/dp/B00C03X5NY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364155797&sr=1-1&keywords=Flightless

This amazon link has some great books!! I love this kind of design. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=islamic+patterns

Depending on many factors, it's likely you can control the second part. But you can't control the first part. You can work hard to influence, you can talk, you can live as an example, you can do all sorts of things to help a teen keep an open mind to your opinions. But ultimately you cannot control what anyone thinks.

I didn't see your posts that way. I saw them exactly the way you just wrote - trying to make a couple of decisions. The parts I bolded are unfair (and I believe untrue blanket statements) of you to say in a thread where you asked for advice. The bottom line is that we were all trying to help you. Threads get heated on these forums. That does not always equal immature discussions. And yes, sometimes personal experiences are used to argue a point, especially if that experience is common to a large group of people. I still contend my basic point that if one has not experienced something, one cannot always predict or control what will happen when one does go through that experience. Thus in this thread, many of us sharing our common experiences in raising teens. I support your decision.

I should have included your OP in my previous post/question. Seems to me it would be a legal requirement to disclose the budget and the state of it at least yearly.

Are churches in the States required to have a yearly business meeting to disclose the state of the finances to members? Does yours do this?

I reread the OP's posts, and can't find *anywhere* where she said he was rebelling. I reread your posts in this thread, and I think you are just trying to provoke. Good luck with that small gray area in a couple more years. Signed, The mother whose 15yo thinks she is too strict because she still does tell him what to do in certain areas, but who picks her battles after careful consideration.

OP, my son once told the son of some fellow Christian homeschooling friends that he was a/an (insert different set of religious beliefs). I. was. speechless. But that wise mother who was already raising teens brushed it right off and said, "Oh, so he's starting to test the waters, is he? It's normal; don't worry about it." I think you've received a lot of great advice here. See this new adventure as a learning time for all of you - you are learning about a faith that is new to you, and he is wondering what the heck is going on, lol. Have patience with yourself (believe me, I have tons of regrets about content I didn't know before starting to teach my kids various things - such as the Bible, science, history, literature, religions, etc...) and with him. Find a way to help him explore what he might be questioning. Or, if he doesn't care to research evolution and Christians at the moment, let him be. If you foster curiosity in him, he may get around to it sooner or later. As to whether or not to make him go to church with you, only you can really know. I've not been in your shoes, but I'd tend to say have him go with you, if only as a short, weekly family activity. On the way home, comment on the scenery, the weather, whatever; just don't ask him "So what did you think of the service?!?!?!" :D Alternately, if you decide he can stay home while you go, don't go home afterwards and say, "Oh, you should have been there!!" Just say, "So did you have any lunch yet?" lol Best wishes to you!

OK, well, if you didn't imply it, I'll assume you meant to tell her outright, despite her description of herself. And then you did it again! It's disrespectful to her as a fellow adult human being. How would you like it if she had said to you, "My godlessness is everyone's godlessness" and kept pushing it? I wasn't even thinking about teen rebellion when I asked if you'd raised teens! And since you didn't answer my question, I'll assume you haven't. Raising teens is completely different from raising, say, 6-11 year olds, who are generally between the physically busy baby/toddler/preschooler stage and the mentally busy stage of adolescence. A LOT of mental gymnastics is involved in parenting teens, and that is NOT always due to rebellion - it's just part of raising people who, developmentally appropriately, are starting to think for themselves. Your "rigidity" is in for a wakeup call in a few more years. And I don't mean that your kids are going to rebel against you. I just mean that all will not be black and white, esp. if you hope to have a great adult relationship with them later and hope that they will respect your beliefs (and perhaps own them). Newsflash - many 14 year olds make all sorts of mental decisions about all sorts of things, and you'll have no control over what they think. You'll only be able to do what the OP is seeking to do - wrestle through the issues, try to figure out how to talk about them, and try to figure out how to help them think through big decisions.

I am a Christian, and I am cringing at your comments in this thread. To imply to nmoira, after what she has already written about herself, that your God is also her God is disrespectful. Have you raised any teens yet? I wonder if he'd enjoy poking around the different articles in this blog: http://www.patheos.c...logs/peterenns/

Because the sentence used the plural verb "were," I took it to mean several individual family members, not the family as a unit. It just depends on what the author intends to communicate. The sentence made me picture several grown-up family members living happily and separately, not together under one roof.

Both of mine have gone through WWE 1-4, WWS 1, and are beta-testing WWS 2. I think WWE is plenty. If you do WWS after WWS, your daughter will encounter how to write about literature, so I wouldn't worry about getting literature guides. WWE and WWS are excellent training. The only thing I'd suggest is that you might have her practice what she has learned in WWE on her history/science/literature reading. Maybe once a week or twice a month, have her do a short narration from one of those readings. It's easy, she'll know how to do it, and it'll show her that the writing skills she is learning is relevant to her content learning.

I thought "adverb" at first, too, because it's a negative word. But it seems to me that it's modifying a noun; and if it is, it can't be an adverb. But now I'm wondering if it's considered to be modifying "is," which would make it an adverb. "...but there is no evidence that she made the first Stars and Stripes" could (awkwardly but grammatically-correctly) be changed to "but evidence no is that she made..." (meaning that evidence isn't existing as opposed to is existing) maybe? yep. I see what you mean. Lisa, speak up, girl! :D I'm curious why you are asking - is this for yourself or are you trying to reason with Sailor Dude? (My son and I have these debates all the time)

I know, but I was answering her question about what part of speech it was. She didn't ask what part of the sentence it was.

I love hanging laundry, and I can't wait for it to be warm and dry enough to do so. It's the one chore I like. I do it in the morning, as the sunlight shines through the trees in our back yard. It's my time to breathe deeply before tackling everything.

A couple of nights ago I attended an event that was great. At the end, something (part of a long string of somethings) happened at the end that made me very angry. As soon as I got into my van to drive home, I burst into sobs like I haven't sobbed in a long time. When I got home, I briefly looked up into the sky and saw stars and thought, "Oh yeah, I really need to go look at nature again soon." So for me, it's nature. Either star-gazing or watching the wild Atlantic ocean is something I'd love at the moment. I haven't been around the forums much lately, but I've caught up a bit the past few days. My hugs go out to a few of you who are experiencing difficulties (and to Kay and family - that message of hers is just....). I'm hoping to find time to catch up a bit more, because I really miss several of you!!!!!!

I think "happy" is a predicate adjective, because it comes after a being verb and modifies the subject, "family." I think "no" is an adjective modifying the noun "evidence," because it answers the question "what kind of" (or maybe "how much") about "evidence." I think "others" is a pronoun here, because it's replacing a noun (but it's not clear to me what noun it's replacing - I can't say for sure what the antecedent is, although I would guess the writer meant it to be "citizens.").