Okay - maybe he isn't being dense. I'll encourage him to see about getting me an ATM for his Japanese account before he comes home next month. Otherwise, I'll get him to find a western union. He does go to the bank to cash his checks. He had to have a Japanese bank account before he could get a job.

Anybody in Tokyo who can teach my ds how to deposit money in an ATM? I have suggested this to him several times, but he hasn't yet tried. Apparently there aren't any ATM's between his apartment and his work. Sometimes he is amazingly mature, and other times....

Since my ds graduated in June and obtained his Japanese residency card, we've been trying to sort out an easy way for him to pay his student loans. He has a Japanese bank account and an American bank account. He generally cashes his paychecks and uses cash for his bills. When money was flowing from here to there, it was simple for me to deposit money in his account and have him use an ATM to withdraw it. How does one go about sending money the other way without having to do an international wire transfer? He can't be the first person to have an overseas job and US student loans.

Hi Jean - no bathrobes for me. I bought one to take to the hospital when I had the girls, but never wore it other than that. I have long, cozy cardigans that I wear when I need to be wrapped up and warm. I have some gf cupcakes with buttercream frosting and some refrigerator pickles to share. There is a beef stew in the crockpot, but you'll have to wait an hour, I just put fingerling potatoes in. Technology makes my job possible. I work for home for a very large IT company. I only go to the office occasionally to catch up with friends or if my work computer needs a little tlc. My manager is in San Francisco and my coworkers are in WA and CT. I host a call every week with people from all over the globe that I've never met in person. There is no way I could eat out twice in a day. I'd pack myself some food instead. I can't even get within a block of a Chinese restaurant (soy sauce in the air gives me migraines). Even on vacation in Rome this summer I typically only ate out for one meal.

We should eat those for you - you know just to be nice.

Ouch. I'm sorry you had a bad week.

I'll take an apple and some peanut butter and some coffee, please. I had some tuna salad for lunch, but I ate all my bean chips yesterday so I had nothing to go with it. It's best to not reflect on my week. I had a migraine for more than 3 days and was insanely busy at work. This morning, youngest asked why I let her sister watch Star Trek yesterday after school (we have a "no media" policy Sunday-Friday). My answer was that I had a headache and was too busy to realize that she was breaking the rule. Not a good week. Tonight I work until 8ish. I'm hoping dh and I can go to a movie this weekend. I also want to make it up to the mountains for some fresh air and fall color. (Didn't make it last weekend because youngest came down with strep).

I don't assign it to my children until high school, but I wouldn't prevent them from reading it earlier.

The flip side of this is a child that is reluctant to try anything new for fear of not being able to do it perfectly. Be careful what you are teaching and expecting. My ds graduated homeschool years ago. One of his cautions and criticisms for homeschooling, especially with just one student, is the hyperfocus. He didn't like having everything he did get intense scrutiny. He wanted me to be able to cheer for his efforts sometimes instead of always pointing out his mistakes. I have since learned to love Miss Frizzle from the Magic School Bus. She encourages kids to make mistakes and get messy.

For that age, I like the If I Were Kid.. series, but it isn't on kindle.

Only if the kids spilled it on the floor. That is part of the dog's job description.

Personally, I am beautiful. I tell myself that everyday. I make sure my girls know that I know that I'm beautiful. I want them to inherit this legacy from me. They are beautiful just the way they are. I like my soft, fluffy tummy. I love my smile lines. I don't read women's magazines. I don't watch tv shows that tell me I am less than perfect because I don't look like they do. I eat healthy food and enjoy moderate exercise. I get plenty of fresh air and sunshine. I try to never forget that I am perfectly lovely the way I am. No one can take that away from me.

Quoting myself :D Perhaps the book I found the helpful teaching ideas in was Right-brained Child.

I read Overcoming Dyslexia last year to help with my dd's reading. She isn't dyslexic, but had visual development problems that interfered with learning to read. One of the suggestions in the book was to make flashcards for words in multiple colors. I took a chapter of a book she was reading and wrote out flashcards for most of the words using a different color for each syllable. These were amazingly effective for her. I think the book could be very helpful for many other parents whose kids have reading problems. It really helped me to breakdown the steps involved in reading so I could find tools and strategies to help her get better. We did lots of other things before this, and I found that ETC and Phonics Pathways were effective to help her decode and understand words, but the color-coding the words helped her the best to be able to see the parts of the words. I think 5 is still young to quit phonics, but it is certainly a good time to start researching other methods.

I'll add a couple of notes from a ps side. Not all schools are like that. My dd's school has a 20 minute per night rule for each class for middle school. Her teachers coordinate the work so that if one class has a larger assignment or test, the others don't. In over a year, I've never seen a pointless assignment. Her homework is intended to directly support the classroom instruction. It doesn't substitute for it. I think homework is essential in public school so that the kids can have a chance to do work outside of the class. It helps to cement the lessons taught during the day and provides the content for the next day's discussions. When my kids were all homeschooled, I was anti-homework because I thought only about it detracting from family time. Once I saw homework used thoughtfully, I gradually changed my mind. I would be terribly unhappy if my dd had 4-6 hours of homework per day but under two hours, not counting instrument practice, seems to be a good amount for her right now.

If I used only one for elementary, it would be either MM or Saxon. I've tried just about everything out there and learned that my understanding of math and how to teach it is just as important as what I use to teach it (and maybe even more important).

Goodness. A new grandbaby coming to visit? Congratulations. Last time I visited my brother, I stayed over a month. It was wonderful and not enough time. My mom is going to visit him for 3 weeks soon to play with grandbabies. Last year she stayed a month after the baby was born. She helped with homeschooling, house cleaning andcooking. My sister only stays a week when she visits because of her busy work schedule. The only "house guests" I ever get are family who get treated like family. I usually take off a few days to enjoy them, but normal life goes on around them. They come to visit me and be a part of my life. They come to close some of the distance between us. They fill our hearts and homes and are welcome.

My dd made some gluten-free pumpkin custard turn-overs. I'll bring those. We like Uno, Boggle, and Forbidden Island and Pandemic. We also like Rummy and Hearts. If we are feeling particularly aggressive, we like Risk, but we have a whole family of competitive people that are sore losers. We still have some bad feelings about the last game we playing (I won, so I don't feel that bad). The first car my parents gave me as "mine" was a Mercury Lynx station wagon. The first car I bought myself was a Nissan Altima.

That makes me think about John Holt's book about the real lessons of school. These kids are learning that they have to obey and do as they're told even if they feel it is wrong. They're also learning their parents don't have the power to make things right.

I like making our own so that we can vary the length and overlap the years if we need to. My dd12 made one last week that covered 400-800 and had a dozen items on it. The previous one covered 300-500. She illustrated each one which took a lot of time, but she had pages for her history notebook that she's proud of.

Right now I'm wearing these Rocket Dogs. In the winter, I wear warm, cute boots.

Oh yeah - 20 minutes of homework per class * 6 plus an hour cello everyday for a 12yo that was in school from 7:30 - 3:40 gets old, fast. That doesn't include the fun of getting the 12yo up, dressed, fed and to school by 7:20 everyday. She goes to a rigorous, classical charter school by choice which means that I can threaten to keep her home and homeschool her if she doesn't get to school and get her homework done. ;)

Good morning. Is it too early for me to bring wine to the lounge? It has been a long day already. I will at least order a gf pizza for us. We're going up to the mountains this weekend to see if we can find some lovely golden aspens. That is my big plans beside taking a nap at some point.

Making and illustrating maps really helps my girls understand where things are. They aren't going to remember it forever after making one map, but it helps me to think of it in layers. First time through Ancients, they get an idea of what and where and maybe how some things were before or influenced later things. Next time through, they make more maps, think about it more and get a better idea what, where and how things are related. In high school, they've encountered all the people and places a couple of times and are ready to think about them more deeply. In college, they blow their professors away because they are so insightful and have a deep understanding. Making a one page timeline for about every 10-12 events you cover with timeframes overlapping by at least 3 events helps with the "when" part of history.