Great question. Thanks! :bigear:

:seeya:

I wonder if the forbidden-ness makes it more fun! I shared a bedroom with a few sisters, and I remember Dad knocking on the bathroom door where I was hiding out reading at around 10 at night to tell me in a deep voice, "Good night, Joy." Busted! I also remember finishing the second book of Lord of the Rings LONG after my bedtime and being so upset by where the stopping point that I rushed out into the living room to find the third book. Mom and Dad were on the couch talking and Dad just grinned at me. My siblings did the same things. I suspect that baiting us with great literature was Dad's adaptation of un-schooling.

That book list was great! Thank you. I'm going to go fill up my library list now; I hope they have them!

A Grief Observed, by CS Lewis. This book helped my dad and I after a death in our family. It is short and easy to read.

I eagerly await the pre-order link for lewelma's book. :001_smile:

I hope she is back and fine soon. Poor babe. Poor Mom! :grouphug: FWIW, I broke my arm clowning around when I was six, and my primary memory of it is that afterward I got a WHOLE shake of my own from McDonalds - I didn't have to share it with my brother!

I like Leading Little Ones to God, and so does my 5yo. I'm going to look up the Bible story books you mentioned for the next thing! Thanks.

Did Shakespeare quote Cervantes (and then, the other way around). No good answers.

We now live in AZ, so yes, I now use chemicals. I hate to do it, but the bugs here are very hostile. I spray outside the house around the foundation and every door, window and weep hole with Ortho Home Defense ever since we had a picnic with friends on the porch one summer day and found THREE black widow spiders camping on the porch. My 5 yo killed one herself ("Look Mom, a spider!" WHACK! Mom freaks out inside). Someone mentioned using the Home Defense spray on the baseboards indoors, but my bottle says not to use it inside. I dilute the liquid per the bottle directions in a 2 gallon hand-pump garden sprayer which you can get at Walmart for about 10$. The bottle of chemical costs about 18$ and takes care of us for the year. If I start seeing bugs in the house, I use Raid Bug Bombs, first floor only, and close the bedrooms off from the fog. That costs a little more, about 20$ for per occasion, and I do it up to twice a year. You can do it; just read the directions!

(I don't know why this is underlining and can't make it stop right now, sorry.....) The above is a great idea, because I think, in my short experience so far, that it is about paying attention to the shape (unless there is some bigger developmental issue which we haven't experienced). One thing we've done is to write the letters very large on paper and have my daughter put cooked, chilled spaghetti over the lines. She loved it, and it helped her notice the precise shape of each letter.

Wow, I'm so glad I asked! I think I'm going to lay off it for about six months, and then maybe do the room idea. I don't want it to affect her peace with me! I think she IS doing it as a response to stress, and I don't know what to recommend she do to soothe herself otherwise. I really appreciate the help, ladies.

Any ideas that have worked for you? She is 5.5 yo, and sucks her thumb when tired, bored, engrossed in TV, or upset. I tried painting her thumbnail with the over-the-counter spicy nail polish, and she just sucked it off. She is theoretically willing to stop, and I frequently have her wear a bandaid to remind her not to suck that thumb, but later I'll find that she took the bandaid off when her resolve weakened. I find myself telling her "No thumb" all the time. Please help me out!

Thanks! Will look into that. :)

Shoot, if I had to go anywhere busy with 2 yo twins, I'd do whatever I had to do! I don't like the idea of a leash as a standard parenting tool, and sometimes I see people who seem to be holding on to the leash instead of interacting with their kid, but I'm not going to do anything but smile at someone using them in a busy place with busy kids. I assume you have a good double stroller, etc.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

I'm not sure how you'd go about teaching this, but it might be good for your son to realize that some people shoplift addictively for the thrill and destroy their adult lives by doing so. This is a very prevalent crime. I have had occasion to detain (arrest) military personnel and family members with shoplifting, at the cost of their privileges, careers and resulting in bad conduct discharges. I remember hearing of a documentary in the past few years about this kind of theft. (Of course, you'd want to watch it first yourself.) I'm sure you know this, but this event is a very big problem in the developing personality of the shoplifter.

This link is to the recorded workshops from a recent Classical Education conference. It was for brick-and-mortar school teachers, but Susan Wise Bauer did the preconferences on teaching writing, and I loved listening to them! Even if you don't agree with everything she says, I think you'll find they help you think through how you want to teach writing and where to start. I've wound up loving her concept. http://www.societyforclassicallearning.org/index.php/resources/media/20-2012-conference-recordings The first preconference is on elementary, the second on middle, and the third on upper grades. She also taught a Plenary session on "What is classical education?" which is great. You can download more podcasts on the peace hill website too, which I've enjoyed.

What are your favorite books on parenting the elementary age range? I'm realizing that I need to adapt as my daughter grows up from preschool age. She's a good kid. She usually listens to me, obeys generally, is generally happy and thankful, etc., but I'm concerned that I not be over-controlling for her age. My approach so far could be called "Duck on a June bug". She needs to become more independent and learn how to negotiate and disagree with me respectfully. Also, I see that she needs to grow into more self-accountability. I need some good books to help me think this through. Thanks in advance! :001_smile:

This just drives me nuts, because I don't think my friends check them, and they are reinforcing their own viewpoints into dogma. And I like and respect these friends! It kills me. Then I saw this one: "90% of quotes on Facebook are misattributed." -- Abraham Lincoln ;)

I have a friend who has taught me a lot about being direct. She is not mean, and does not mean to be rude, but she is extremely hospitable and generous herself and just doesn't see boundaries the way I see them. I have had to say things like, "When you did that, I really didn't like it" and "Next time, please do this" and it was SO UNCOMFORTABLE! But I like her, and want to continue to be her friend. If I didn't say it, she would have no clue and I would be progressively more angry. She reacted very well to the direct approach. Be bold. Plan ahead, and then make a positive step. Honesty is worth courage!

When I looked into enlisting (1998), that was true; however, you can enter a college ROTC program to enter the military as an officer upon graduation, with a GED/homeschool diploma, if you are accepted to a university. You can attend your chosen school and do your ROTC at another institution in the area, and there are a lot of ROTC scholarships available, depending on the needs of the military branch at that time. They are looking for qualified people, just like the enlisted side, and a lot of people are not qualified. If your nephew is a good candidate (smart, in decent physical condition, no criminal history, and a citizen), he might call the nearest ROTC recruiter in his desired service and look into that.

Rats. It sounds like you did exactly the right thing, though. :bored:

I like the double, but I second whoever said you want a high faucet.

My daughter likes to practice some of the concepts with letter tiles on a whiteboard. Whenever she seems to struggle with something new, we spend a day or two's lesson time building words and then she's good to go again with the next thing. I got the tiles on amazon, and I think I spent 10$, but if you didn't want to spend much, you could cut 3x5 cards in half for each letter. For the silent-e lessons in particular, she has to sort of look over the whole word before she reads it, the exact opposite of how I initially taught her to do it (left to right, letter by letter), so when she was just beginning those lessons I'd say, "Now, this word has a silent-e at the end, see it?" and she'd modify the vowel sound. Now I just wait while she reads aloud, and she corrects herself. HTH