When we lived in Europe, we traveled a lot. We were able to use ATMs in many places with no problem. It is often easier than getting travelers checks or cash exchanged. The only place we used a cash exchange was in an area that we decided didn't have secure enough banking (or rather all business was heavily influenced by organized crime). Credit cards can work well too. You will want to keep all of your receipts so you can check the transactions later. You will also probably want to call your credit card company and tell them that you're traveling. Otherwise, they may put a freeze on your account because the first overseas transaction will register as atypical. You may find that you can't use your card when you want it. You will also want to check that credit cards are accepted. Most tourist places will take them. But we had one notable incident in a major bookstore chain that only took cash or EC cards. I wouldn't travel with a lot of US cash, because the first thing you'll need to do is to change it. I also don't like to travel with a purse, because it is just one more thing to keep track of. I use a small backpack instead. And my wallet goes well into the big inside section, not the front zipper pouch. I have a travel wallet that goes around my neck. It is a little less secure than a travel belt and can be more detectable, maybe making it a target. But I had good luck with it. You will probably find that in general, Europe uses more cash than the US.

Actually, I don't even knit. But I love the stuff on this lady's blog. She does such a nice job of capturing the fusion of craft influences in Hawaii.

I might weigh the anticipated interest earned in the college fund against the financial aid liability of putting money in the children's names. Financial aid calculations can be rather unusual. They generally expect the student to spend most of their savings on the education but only expect the parents to spend part of theirs. Some types of savings (ex. retirement) might not be included in the calculations at all. So there might be some benefit in leaving it in an insurance policy and cashing it out when the tuition bills had already been calculated. On the other hand, if it's not really earning $ at this point, it might be worth converting it to something that will have more earnings, even if it changes the financial aid calculation (or if it wouldn't have much impact).

Well, we are military. So we can pretty much count on either our friends moving or our moving almost every year. We get very good at making friends and leaving friends. And sometimes coming back to friends. My children's buddies right now are a family that introduced us to homeschooling over 10 years ago when dh and I taught their oldest dd in Sunday School. I also remember that some of the worst heartache in my childhood was at betrayal by the girls that I thought were my friends. So I love that my kids have friends. Our neighborhood has lots of little boys for my boys to play with. But I'm not the type to go scheduling playdates etc.

I like home educator, because I have hopes that the term will eventually gain demographic momentum. I tend to use educator if the home version isn't available. I recently had to fill out a form for the kids summer camp and the only option that was true was unemployed. I understand that the spouse employment line was only there in order to determine eligibility for one program (which we weren't even using), but having to mark unemployed annoyed me. The sign for our homeschool designates me as headmistress. However, the funniest occupation we've ever run across was in an entry for the census in Cincinnati, where we found a man who listed his occupation as Theocrat.

I found these directions for knitting a cool crown and ring and thought of all the knitters here. Could be a fun thing for the dress up box or for middle ages study.

It may be that your Paypal account ended up associated with your savings account instead of a checking account. There are some limits to how often outside withdrawals can be made from a savings account. This seems to be related to how a savings account is defined by banking regulation. It may be that you could appeal to the bank manager to allow you to keep your account as long as you limit the transactions. You might not have been given the amount of notice of excess withdrawals that your bank's policy indicates it should give. Try to keep calm. I don't think that this is a personal thing against you. The bank seems to be trying to comply with banking regulations. If you are able to stay calm and ask for their assistance, you may be able to get things straightened out. Sorry this happened to you. I had a similar glitch with the phone company last month and I hated the feeling in my stomach while I had to deal with the issue. I was able to stay calm and polite and got everything settled in my favor (calm and polite is a huge overcoming of my normal reactions). I hope you have success too.

I haven't read any of the other replies, so my reaction may be way out of the stream. I also have a couple boys this age. They tend to be quite naive that the world is going to be fair to them and that they can take people at face value. I think that when other people are dishonest or unreliable, they tend to be shocked. However, many people are dishonest and unreliable. They will bend the truth to advantage and protect themselves. Some will even go out of their way to hurt other people just because it amuses them to do so. As teens and adults, they are also going to encounter women who will lie or place blame as soon as a negative consequence rears its head. It sounds like your son is meeting up with this bit of life head on. If I were dealing with my own boys, I would probably explain that the ISS is the consequence of their fooling around carelessly. But I would also point out that the friend lied to get out of negative consequences. I would be blunter with my 10 yo than my 8 yo because the 8 yo is also a sensitive soul. But I think in the long run, he might be served better by leaning that others don't always have his best interests in mind than by protecting him by glossing over how unfair this situation is. You mentioned that you don't want him to learn the wrong lesson. I'll guess that you mean you don't want him to learn to lie to stay out of trouble. So I'd ask him how he feels knowing that the girl is lying about what happened. I'd point out that he'll probably always have a bit of distrust for her now. So she has stayed out of trouble with the parents and the school, but at the loss of her reputation. I'd try to take how he's feeling and use it to reenforce that lying isn't worth it. On the other hand, how badly was the girl scratched? I dont' know that I'd even notice most little marks on my boys. It does make me wonder how rough the play had been. I also have to work with my boys to teach them that they can easily go overboard and beyond what their playmates are enjoying. And that this roughness can cost them friendships too.

Some advice will depend on whether you will be able to mail stuff to a US address or if you will be using only an Australian address. In other words, if you can ship to an APO/FPO or a US address that forwards your mail, you may be able to mail yourself boxes of books or other items that you want early on. Is this a definite short term assignment or one that is more permanent or one that is open ended? Short term might make storage worth while. It would also give you more of an idea if you need all your books or just a couple years worth. For example, we'll be moving soon. I'm planning on storing most of our stuff and only taking what we need for a couple years. This includes storing a lot of our decorations, prints etc. I'll take what I need for a couple years of school and hope that we're somewhere where I can get my storage stuff when the third year rolls around. On the other hand, I'll take all our clothes or get rid of them because they'll be outgrown or damaged at the end of storage. I'll probably also get rid of most of our press board bookshelves because they're old enough that they're not worth the storage weight. Third Culture Kids is a very good book. So is Survival Kit for Overseas Living. You may be able to find both of these in a larger library. I also like the Culture Shock series of books. One more random thought is to check into what your medical coverage will be there. You may find that there is stuff you want to make sure you get done in the US (update eye exams and get contacts and glasses for example or make sure dental work is done) and other stuff that is worth delaying (if for example, you have wider dental coverage there). There is some good info at Military One Source on international moves. Obviously, some of the concerns about allowances are directed toward military families. But it may help you think through some of the issues involved.

Of course you're not wrong to want them back. And you've gotten some lovely ideas of how to press the topic. I have been the recipient of some incredible stuff, including bags of Sonlight Cores that other families were done with. I do try to make sure that I get stuff back if it is just a loan (although if you are B. Spofford's daughter, I still have your copy of Eternity in their Hearts from 1990). I also try to be open handed with my own loans. Though who I will loan a workbook we're done with vs. a hard to find history book are two different groups. Maybe this would be a great time to discuss setting up a library shelf in your church. Early in our homeschool journey (so early, I had not kids yet) I was a church library volunteer who got to help stock the shelves with homeschool friendly books. We added biographies, science books, how to books and curriculum guides. Even just collecting a few books from used book sales and families that are done with them might be a great service in your church. (And keep your own stuff on your own shelves.)

If you make backups of your home computer, move them to another room (ie, removable hard drives or cd backups might be in an upstairs closet). There was a breakin here a couple years ago and they swiped not only the computer but all the software and papers from the computer area. Within 24 hours, someone was trying to access their online banking. Hopefully, it won't come to anything like that for you guys.

The books reminded me of a comment I got from a girl in a Christian middle school that everyone she went to school with was Christian. The adults that she said this to sort of looked at each other over her head and rolled their eyes because we knew of some very non-Christian behavior by these same kids. There are a couple situations where the Christian establishment in the book is shown to not have the power to resist the darkness (in particular a scene in a church). I can see how this could really offend. On the other hand, I attended a very hollow church when we lived in Germany. I could have easily set that scene there. There is also the issue of the plot's reference to Arthurian legend. It is sort of an updating of many of the stories in the Arthur tales. So you could reject it as overly relying on pagan imagry or go back to the idea that all stories reflect the one true story (Tolkein, I think). Jean, I'm not trying to say that you're wrong, just to amplify with my own thoughts. I have most of the books, but I've held off giving them to my kids. In my case, however, it is because I want them to have a better background in the Arthurian legends before they read this adaptation. And I don't mind that they will be a bit more mature in their understanding of our faith before confronting the idea that bell, book and candle may not drive out all evil.

I started using a fountain pen in college. I used cheap plastic ones and then eventually got a Mont Blanc. However, I have rarely seen a student fountain pen for sale in the US. You know the lovely Lamy ones that come in the little kit with a larger barrel that is easy to hold. Maybe in a high end toy or stationary store. There really isn't a national US handwriting style in the same way that there is in many countries in Europe. My SIL is a 3rd grade teacher and she was surprised to find that there wasn't even a consistent style in her school from grade to grade. Each teacher chose what they wanted. It has also become more common for public schools to abandon teaching cursive altogether. Partly in order to find time to teach keyboarding and partly because they have despaired of teaching legible script.

One point you might start with is that the history of US education was for local systems that eventually merged into state regulated systems and that there is no national curriculum or national university entrance exam (like the Abitur). I've always found that it is difficult for Germans to imagine replicating the Gymnasium experience at home, which is a little more like a junior junior college than an American high school. It may help to explain the US system in general in order to explain how homeschooling fits into the context of American education. Because of the ultimate weight of the Abitur exam (and earlier placement exams that determine the schooling track) in adult career choices, there is a sense for many Germans that homeschooling would ruin their children's chances in life. On the other hand, they are the land that gave us Waldorf education and I often had the sense that they long to be more child delight directed than checklist driven. There is definitely a tension between Lyra pencils and wool feltcraft and the rigidity of a German train schedule. A German/English website on homeschooling is Educating Germany I especially like the interview with the Neubronners on Beckmann. I think the Neubronners are especially thought provoking in Germany because they chose homeschooling for emotional and academic reasons, not on religious grounds. There are some historical and contemporary reasons why Germans are distrustful of making policy decisions based on religion. This interview also has a lovely line in it that the school rep who had been overseeing them had approved of their homeschooling setup and achievement but had been afraid of setting a precedent of approving homeschooling.

Not without discussing it in more detail and perhaps forming a contract. I am very hesitant over who gets SSN numbers. There is also not only issue of your dd having taxable income but also of the other family crossing the line to being considered as her employer (which would require their getting an employer id number, paying the employer share of workman's comp and SSA contributions and perhaps doing SSA withholdings for the employee contribution). It can get murky very quickly. I would be concerned about a situation where someone wanted to take advantage of using a certain type of account but wasn't willing to take on all the responsibility of the employer/employee relationship. It's not something I would say yes to right away.

Code-switching or code-shifting is a linguistic situation where the speaker switches from one language to another (and perhaps back again). For example, you might be discussing what to do with a piece of trash and use the German word Restmuell to indicate the bits and pieces that don't have a recycling destination (paper, packaging or glass). Sometimes it is because a particular word fits the sentence best, sometimes it is because the speaker only has experience in that topic in a certain language, sometimes it is because the listener is more proficient in one language or the speaker uses a particular language when they are more emotional (like my one son who liked to chew out his brothers in German). A lovely example of this is in Shining Through where Melanie Griffith is describing arriving in Germany and meeting her underground contact. The interviewer stops her and say, "Do you realize that you're speaking in German?" She looks at him and replies, "Well, that's how I remember it happening." When we were living in Germany, I had so many discussions about homeschooling at dinners and receptions that I found that when I was discussing homeschooling with other Americans I was mentally translating it from my standard German script for that conversation.

How different is it from what I am using now. An older homeschool mom observed to me last year that things went in and out of fashion in homeschooling. So there might be a lot of people buying something because it is the next new thing, when the old thing might do just as well. Sometimes a new product has an effect because it is really different and catches the learner in a new way. But sometimes, it's just because there has been a switch. If the latter, then in a few weeks or months, you may be in the same slog. In which case you have to choose between switching again and just slogging through.

I'll bet there was a at least one matchbox tank parade down the hallway though. I still kick myself that dh didn't buy the set of school propaganda posters showing Lenin at critical moments that he found in a store in Estonia. Although we do have a few examples from the Mao set.

Is this the chapters he reads in SOTW or a CD of his storytelling?

Was it a poor fit because of a learning style or a teaching style? For example, I know that Sonlight is going to be a stretch because I get tired out with read alouds. Other people get annoyed with scripted lessons (like Saxon K-3 or 100 EZ Lessons) or with programs that don't come pre-scheduled (like Veritas Press). I've heard other moms say that it was a poor fit for them but a great fit for their kids so they just stuck with it.

But there are cool castles - King Ludwig of Bavaria's Neuschwanstein was the model for the Disney castle, for example, although there is everything from stone fortresses to romantic follies to opulent palaces Music - Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Pachabel all spring to mind. If you expanded to the Germanic area you could also pick up Mozart. (This expansion does make sense if you figure that Germany wasn't a united country until the late 1800s and many figures crossed boundaries - born in one area but working at a court in another). Religion - not only was Luther German, but much of the 30 Years War was fought in and around German cities. Jewish identity and the Holocaust. The current Pope. Culture - Christmas traditions including Christmas trees, many of the Christmas carols we sing, and even Santa Claus (a modification of St. Nicholas, who comes on Dec 6th in Germany). Then there are traditions that didn't make it in the US like Martin's Day (Nov 11) with lanterns and a children's parade, decorating the town well with eggs and greenery for Easter (a tradition in the Franken region of Bavaria), Three Kings Day on Epiphany (celebrated mostly in Catholic regions in the south and in Austria) or celebrating the first day of first grade with a Schueltuete (School Cone) filled with candy and school supplies and toys. German Embassy Info site German Travel site This site should be able to send you some nice travel guides. I remember being impressed by their Christmas Market guide a few years back. (BTW, under language, English is GB for Great Britain). Germany for Kids This has some interesting interactive areas. The various German states also have active tourist boards. I remember Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt) having especially good stuff.

What about Germany? Castles, classical music, center of the 30 years war (ok, maybe not for 1st grade). Many American cultural traditions are rooted in in German traditions (especially around Christmas).

How cool, I'll have to add that to my ipod.

We have a set of Clifford readers from Scholastic (5 boxes of 12 books each) that has been our next project. There is a lot of review and the kids don't seem to get freaked out by having to read actual books. From there we moved into books like Poppleton, Henry and Mudge and Mr. Putter and Tabby and then in to level 2, 3 & 4 readers from DK. A DK level 4 reader might take us a week to read through, one chapter at a time. (Watch out for readers based on popular media like Star Wars. The kids like to look through them, but the irregular words can make for hard reading.) Some of the Dr. Seuss books were also favorites. You might also check out the back of 100 EZ Lessons. My copy has some suggested books for the next step. The First Favorites list from Veritas Press also has nice suggestions. The Billy and Blaze books and the Francis books were a hit from this list. I also remember that Little Bear by Else Minarek was popular at our house. Don't panic. This stage may last a good year. The next step is chapter books and they can be pretty intimidating for the kids.

But even in Lang there are so many good qualities in the stories. The hero is often the smaller, overlooked, humble young man who triumphs through perseverance, curiosity, kindness, loyalty and bravery. These are great qualities for future men. Hmm, makes me think I need to drag out the Bookshelf for Boys and Girls tomorrow and do a little reading myself.