We used to camp there when I was a little girl, and then when I went to summer camp near there. Now I take my family up there every labor day, but we stay in a hotel :) It's a lovely, lovely area. Sorry I can't be more help!

I HATED North and South!!! (and boy did I get slammed for my poor review on Amazon!) It was so different from the book, and the stuff they changed was just ridiculous. I was screaming at the screen. I think even if I hadn't read the book, I would have thought it was silly. I like all of the other ones I've seen, though :)

Don't laugh, but I found "Canning for Dummies" to be the best guide on how to can! I bought a whole bunch of them, and that was the one I found the most useful. There's an old cookbook, too, that you might be able to find used called "Fancy Pantry" if you want to make some slightly different recipes. As for gardening, I have the blackest of black thumbs. I go to "pick your own" places and can that stuff ;)

I notice you have 4 kids, though... convenient. ;)

Yeah, that's what I got. What I thought of was Fruitlands and Bronson Alcott etc where they got rid of all their material possessions to live on the self-sufficient commune... of course none of them had ever grown so much as a tomato plant so Bronson's poor daughter had to support the family by writing. But the early pioneers are an equally good example. I'm all for a self-sufficient lifestyle, but it's a little unclear what these people want, or have any idea what they're getting: their moving to a house with no electricity and the guy hopes there's internet access? Hmmm.

Very cool! Just be forewarned that the resale value of diamonds is very low.

Good luck to them and all... but I have a feeling that this isn't going to end well.

That was REALLY funny :)

That is a very interesting suggestion, and I'm not sure it's one that has been thought of! I will suggest it.

I wrote a spelling curriculum for 1st, 2nd, and 4th graders. Also a little bit of grammar for those years. Right now I'm writing a Froebel-based kindergarten curriculum. I'm getting some very good help from members of the Hive! I'd love to be able to write everything, because nothing I can find is perfect... but I think it would take so much time.

I figured if anyone out there had some advice for this situation, it would be some of the Latin-loving ladies and gentlemen here. What's needed is career advice for my sister. She's friggin' brilliant. Always has been. She started Latin in 5th grade, Greek in 11th. In college she picked up Old Norse, a few obscure Latin dialects (insular latin, anyone?), Anglo Saxon, Arcadian, and probably a few others. She has two college degrees, from a top college in the US and a top college in England. Also knows a smattering of French and Italian and I think some German. Last I heard, she's read 45 books in 2008. One of them was Finnegan's Wake . Yeah. She really wanted to work in a museum, but in that field it's all about who you know. We're not a very connected family, sadly. The way you get hired is you work an unpaid internship until a job opens up and then you get the job. She was so lucky, despite being unconnected, to fall into an amazing internship at a world-famous museum in London. She worked there for over a year, also working two other jobs (waitress and retail) so she could make rent. She was working literally 7 days a week for months at a time, all the time being promised the museum job that her internship is based on. Literally, promised. Several people told her, point blank, that the job was hers and she didn't need to worry. Perhaps you can see where this is headed. Despite wonderful reviews from her managers, the job that she showed up to 4 days a week for over a year UNPAID went to someone else (purportedly one of the top curator's nephews). HR didn't even interview her. She quit, obviously. This was "her" job, and the only way to get another job at the museum is either for one of our parents to have a long-lost sibling who works there, or to get another internship which she would work at for a year before the opportunity for a job comes up. Sorry this is a long-winded explanation, I just wanted to give the basic story. Now my sister is very depressed and pretty directionless. She's been out of school for a year now, so doesn't have access to their career services. There are only a certain number of fields where she could use her skills. The classified ads aren't exactly filled with job descriptions that say "must be proficient in Word, Excel, and 18 different obscure dead languages", KWIM? I'm just wondering if anyone with a background in a similar field has any career advice. I wish I had some advice to offer her. Part of her problem in life is that she's not so good at thinking outside the box, unlike me who is always wedging through that window when the door shuts ;). But from what I understand about the museum field, it is very insular and very hard to get your way into and basically she's probably totally ____ (I'm trying to think of a non-curse word version of the 2 words I can think of to go here, and it's not happening. Insert your chose adjective). Again, sorry this post was so long. Anyone have any advice?

My sister taught herself to read by the time she was 3, and I didn't learn until I was 8. While she's continued to be exceptionally smart, I don't think I'm all that far behind her. My parents say that their theory is that there was always someone to read to me, so I never really bothered to learn myself. Then one day I saw a chapter book with a unicorn on the cover, decided I wanted to read it, and did! It took A LOT of flashcards and worksheets and exercises to get me to that point. (For some reason, phonics never "clicked" with me, and so when I was in 2nd grade my parents started working on sight reading with me, and I got that.) The way my sister told it once was that she was on her way to daycare and she was looking at the billboards and realized she knew what they said. Then she pulled out books at daycare and realized she knew what they said, too. No one ever flashed a flashcard at her or explained sounds or anything... she just figured it out on her own. I always thought our experiences were really interesting, combined. I think it shows a whole bunch of things: 1) kids are ready to read at different points, 2) there's no "one size fits all" method of instruction like the phonics v. whole-word debate (and even the Well-Trained Mind) claims, and 3) it doesn't have anything to do with intelligence. I know everyone knows #3 at a rational level, but I think when little Susie is still having trouble at age 7, and little Timmy down the street had read Proust by the time he was 4, it's hard for little Susie's parents not to panic. This is one of the reasons I really want to homeschool: I hate the educational "keeping up with the Joneses" attitude that all the standardized testing and really the whole culture of preschool workbooks and preschool math tutors etc seems to push on otherwise sane, rational, normal parents. Not that there's anything wrong with the occasional workbook, if the child is having fun.

People can believe what they want, but passing along blatant untruths as anything but is not okay in my book.

A plus-sized model is size 12. She looks about right: she's probably fairly tall, too.

Um, that is exactly what people are saying. "Say the Pledge or leave the country." I'm really shocked at the ignorance and lies on this thread.

When I was a teenager I would have been screaming about civil liberties the 4th amendment (and I never did anything the least bit illegal in high school, except for a few puffs on a cigarette once!) As an old and bitter lady, I'm all "Good! Dern kids get what they deserve!" So I guess I'm torn.

National Geographic is always interesting. Carus Publishers (who do Cobblestone and Cricket) have a few for older teenagers. I haven't seen them, but every magazine they publish that I have seen has been excellent.

I used it with a 4th grader and thought that it was about right for late elementary (maybe 4th grade as the minimum, but still appropriate for some kids that age). I'm a little surprised that it's being used as a high school text. My understanding of the book is that it's for late elementary and maybe junior high.

:iagree::iagree::iagree: :D

I keep them for sentimental reasons :) I'm a sucker like that, and still sleep with a teddy bear. A word about donating: I've never heard of a place, except the occasional animal shelter, which takes donated stuffed animals. They have no way to tell if the animal is moldy, carrying lice or bedbugs, or has some other problem. When they get them, they just chuck them.

I always want to put down something vaguely snarky like "Domestic Goddess" but usually I chicken out and just put down "homemaker." It sounds kinda retro and more ironic than "housewife" or "SAHM" for some reason.

That is too cute!

You know, it took me a second to get it, too! I loved Animaniacs: truly one of the best shows ever. And it only gets better as I get older and actually UNDERSTAND the jokes!

I don't think that this is true at all. Humans are social creatures and for thousands of years have lived in communities. Until westward expansion in the 19th century US, most people lived in small villages or within very close walking distances to small villages. Houses were small and dark, and children too young to do serious work ran around outside with all the neighboring kids while people too old to do manual labor did handwork and ostensibly watched them. This is universal, so far as I can think of. Now, pioneers in the US usually lived far apart, but not nearly so far as the popular ideal. These folks were not self-sufficient, per legend, but relied on a barter economy (which requires neighbors and a general store to barter with) and cooperation between neighbors to get massive amounts of work done in a very limited time period (during planting, harvesting, barn-raising, sugaring, etc).

People learn words best in context, so I agree with everyone that elementary school vocab work probably isn't needed. In high school I think it's worth it to cover some vocab, because some of the words you're expected to know for the SAT are a little out there and don't come up much.