Oh gosh! No, I didn't mean it to offend anyone. I was just giving an example of a really long sentence that was, in fact, grammatically correct. I have a BA in English and I was not concerned, really, about the sentence. I was more concerned about finding a guide to help me work on not judging his writing so harshly given my background. I do appreciate your input and my post was not meant to offend. The reason it came after your post, Colleen, is because when I posted to the first comment, it was after you had posted. It was not in response to your post. And, in both cases, was not meant to offend - only defend.

I am reminded of this sentence when thinking of whether or not something is a run on. Grammatically, this is a correct sentence: During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy house of Usher.

I disagree that #4 is a run on sentence. I do, however, dislike the wording. It is not two totally seperate thoughts. When you break the sentence, it sounds choppy. I like that he is trying to merge sentences together to "stretch" them. And gramatically, it is not incorrect. However, if I were going to write it, I would have said, "After exercising, we break into our smaller groups and practice the skills we are learning by playing games like "gotcha."

Gosh, add my son to this list! Ds is 9 and doing 4th grade. Math is the subject he does this in as well. He did his math today and missed 10 out of 37 problems. Why? Well, let's see. On three of them, he didn't read the directions and therefore rounded to the nearest 1 thousand instead of the nearest TEN thousand. On another three or four, he simply wrote the numbers in the problem out of the book wrong on his paper. When he solved the problems, of course, the answers were not right. I could have easily checked his work and counted the problems right because he did, in fact, get the correct answer, but the point is NOT to just have the right answer, but to do the whole thing correctly. And his other three or four mistakes were problems he didn't finish. Started, but didn't finish. :( ???? None of this was math he didn't know. It wasn't hard stuff. He was just careless. Bless him, though, today he "tried" to check his work. He went back and looked for dollar signs because, in the past, leaving a dollar sign off has been his downfall. I told him that this grade would not count today...but we are going to do a make-up that WILL count. Right now, I figure that he is learning and I don't want to make everything seem impossible to him, but I do want him to learn from his mistakes. One day, when he did something like this, I had him re-do every problem on the page. That was no fun for him, but he got them all CORRECT! Wonder what a ps teacher would do? I am sure he did the same in ps. Really makes me wonder...

My 4th grader son is just starting to learn to be a good writer. We are using Calvert 4th this year and he is really having to do lots of compositions. The problem is, I am a writer. I know, big problem, right? Well, actually, it is. I have a hard time reading a child's writing and thinking it is ever "good." I have no idea what I am looking for in his writing and I am afraid I am being way too hard on him with regards to it. Can anyone recommend a resource that will show me what I should be looking for at this age/stage? I have read about "Evaluating Writing" which is part of the Writing Strands publications. Would this be a good resource? I just want to make sure I am not slighting his abilities by comparing them to what someone with an English degree who has written her whole life thinks is "good." If it helps, here is something he wrote today...just a paragraph using his step-by-step planner. What I Do at Basketball Camp For a week in the summer, I wake up every morning and go to basketball camp. I arrive at 8AM and have free shooting for one hour. At 9AM we jog in place for 10 minutes. After exercising, we break into small groups and we play gotcha, practice shooting, dribbling, and blocking. We eat lunch, then enjoy games like tag and gotcha until time to go home. I can’t wait until next summer when I get to go back to basketball camp.

That is our opening everyday. We do the pledge and then the calendar. My son is 4 (5 in two weeks) and doing Calvert K curriculum. Calvert didn't tell me to teach him the pledge, but it seems like they did suggest it when saying we should do an "opening" each day. My son learning it after about 3 days of saying it.

My 5 year old has had one migraine in his life. The most terrifying event to date with him. :( I hope your daughter can get some relief from these. My son was much younger, but he told me he couldn't see right. Then he said his forehead and "back head" hurt. I knew something was wrong, but then he just went lethargic on me and would not wake up. When I did get him to rouse, he would scream in pain and tell me he just needed to sleep. Bless him. He had to go through a CT scan and everything that night, but they determined it was a migraine as nothing else showed up. That was his one and only so far - hope it stays that way!

Our Co-op offers it. We pay what we can afford as a donation for an hour a week!\. Can't beat that at all! Usually ends up being $5 for us most weeks. :) His uniform cost $20 and belt testing, I think, also costs $15-$20.

I guess saying "62 cents" is like asking to be flogged by angry geese? LOL I have never had an issue returning books, but I would absolutely DIE if I went in and our librarian told me I owed $332. How could anyone afford to pay that? I totally do not understand that at all!

Well, unfortunately, we also had a dog. An elderly dog. Notice the GLASS that is intermingled in all that cake wreckage. Can you say $1300 emergency vet bill and lots of prayer that said dog didn't die??? :( (dog lived, btw) I thought of another: Do not, I repeat, do not ride your husband's bike in a rain storm down a gravel driveway with your dog. He WILL dart in front of you, causing you and your husband's bike to flip numerous times and you to slide along the gravel as he licks your face like "what? why are you crying?" I have pictures of THAT too...but I am betting that you ladies do NOT want to see those. LOL

Oh Oh! ME ME! I have one.... Do not bake a cake and then take it directly from the oven (in its glass pan) and stick it into the refridgerator. This tends to happen:

The "plan" is to take off when we need it, school most of the time, and keep on going when we finish. For instance, I plan to take off 2-3 weeks around Christmas as it is always hectic, we want to visit family and enjoy all that surrounds the holidays. Then my oldest son goes to his dad's for a week. When he returns, we will start back up. After we do, we will likely finish in late April (we started in July). We will take a few weeks off, then start back again in say, mid-late May. We will just keep on keeping on in this fashion and not really have those big 3 month long type breaks. This is the PLAN. I'll let you know how it works! LOL

It took me 3 years with my first child to feel like myself again. I think every baby takes a different toll on our bodies. I also think that lack of energy could be trying to corral and manage all the kiddoes. It is not like #1...not the "only" and therefore more taxing. Not only are you up all night, you have two to homeschool and one to chase after in addition. I'd give it a bit more time.

I am all for a family choosing to "ban" a book in their own household. I personally do not want my kids to read the Golden Compass books. However, the thought of anyone banning a book from publication (like Harry Potter, for instance) - especially someone from the Government having the say on that...ummm it is all a bit too Big Brother for me.

Whoops - I voted married and then as I clicked "post" I saw "divorced, remarried" which is actually what I am. Sorry! Oh, and I am Griffindor all the way. First marriage was to a Slytherin...and yes, evil describes him somewhat. LOL Now I am married to a total Ravenclaw with two little Hufflepuffs who are now waiting to be sorted further. :) Oh how I love Harry!

I just finished reading the entire Harry Potter series back to back for the first time. LOVED IT. Now considering starting over and reading it all through one more time. Her attention to detail is amazing. Started To Kill A Mockingbird for the 1st time since highschool today as well.

I feel your pain. My son was only 8 when I watched a bully hit him right in front of me. My son was bobbing along out of his classroom (this was in ps last year) and looking for me. He wasn't paying attention to or harming this kid and out of nowhere the child hit him. I , on the other hand, did not keep my cool. I told the kid right there not to touch my son again. The principal of the school told me it wasn't my place. Really? As his mother, it is not my place to protect him in HER school. Ha. Let's see...reason number 9 million that we homeschool. I am sorry this happened to your son. I would make sure to tell the mother of the other kids - she probably also didn't see this coming. If I were in her place, I would be mortified and tell the bully's mother immediately.

My heart breaks for you. Thank you for sharing your beautiful little girl with us, and your memories, and most of all, your faith. God bless you and your family.

You know, I am 29 and have always been clockwork regular. Then, one month I took Yaz (7 months ago now!) and I haven't been the same since. I stopped the Yaz after 10 days, so I am not still on it, but man, are they whacky now. I was concerned (bleeding up to 4 days after cycle) and went to my doc. I had test after test and found basically nothing. No hormone issues, no abnormalities (well, not really...dr found what could have been a polyp, most likely was a "crinkle" and endo biopsy came back completely normal). So, I am right now at square 1 and just waiting on my body to figure itself out. Something else I have noticed just in the recent past is that my cycle seems to stop in the middle for a day or so and then start back. People have told me this is normal as you age as well. This getting older stuff bites!

Precisely why I don't have my blog in my signature. But really, thanks for the laugh tonight. I needed that! Perhaps it was a queen or something since she seems to be used to her opinion being held in such high regard. ??

Oh, the stories I could tell. ~MUS (sent it back but paid shipping both ways) ~Horizons - 3 grades worth and used part of it. ~Calvert 4th grade math, had to sell for less than what I paid and then bought the newer 4th grade math anyway because my son wanted the a-ha! portion. :( ~Come read with me - OMG! Could I go on and on and on and on about this. I bought the videos and book from the s/s board here. My son loved them...much to my dismay...but then I wanted the workbooks and stuff. So, I got a used set on e-bay - more videos but I got a decent deal. Got it here and the manual was written in 1998! It was a dinosaur and hard to read, much less use. I sold both for half or less than what I paid and ended up buying the dvd version afterall! Then, of course, there are little things like Writing Strands, Winston Grammar, and so on...but those pale in comparison to the blunders I have made with bigger ticket items. And I wont' even go into all the Science Kits, math manipulatives, and so on that I have purchased from Calvert for soooo much money that I will likely never use!

I would be livid too and hurt beyond belief. I have actually feared the same thing in my household because I also suffer from depression and often anxiety. When I have the anxiety and let it get beyond rational, it takes over my life. However, homeschooling has grounded me in staying within what is rational. Homeschooling my kids helps keep me sane. I urge you to talk to your husband and tell him how much this means to you and how hurt you are about this. Say it in front of the counselor if you like and talk about things openly. In the meantime, don't take your kids out of school. Keep on keepin' on until you and dh can agree. *hugs*

I use Calvert 4th and Calvert Kindergarten and I too admit that it can be daunting. I don't do a lot of skipping with my older son - mostly I skip things like explanations of things he already knows. My advice to you is to scan the top right list of assignments at the beginning of each lesson. When you turn to the page, if it is a new concept, go to the section heading for that one thing and review or teach it. If it is something your child already knows, have him/her do the lesson without the teaching part. For K, I skip a lot of the material that my son already knows - I skip the part where they are teaching the letters and sounds because my son already knows it...and I supplement with other things that he can do on his own...like Explode the Code. That said, I am very diligent about reading through the next day's lesson each night after they are in bed. I like to read it for ideas on how to teach as well as just something that may make it easier for my son to learn. Calvert has some really neat suggestions and ideas that are, unfortunately, often buried in all the black and white print. I read and then highlight the parts I find important so I can use just those things the next day.

Yep...only the really impressive one that my baby had pulled that had huge roots and looked terribly painful has been kept. Old teeth are yucky. :)

Yes. Done. Done.