We have a large world map that is on our kitchen table. I purchased clear vinyl, sewed elastic around the edges to fit around the top of the table, and put the map under it. We see it each day, quiz each other every night at dinner, and it has sparked some great conversations with guests. (The vinyl also makes clean-up very easy!)

We felt it here, too, near Massena, NY. We wondered if it was an earthquake! The biggest earthquake in NY rregistered at a 5.8 in the Massena, NY/Cornwall, Ontario, area in 1944.

The WW I book was discontinued a couple of years ago and replaced by the thick Usborne WW I & II book. I think any WW I book geared towards the age of your friend's dc would work. I'm not sure if my dd read it when we did Core 3/4, but when we did Core 4, we skipped it, just adding in the other book at the appropriate time. I looked quickly through our books, but didn't find it immediately. We're moving, so things are a little messy anyway. The book didn't strike me as particularly important. The subject is, but the book could easily be substituted.

Does she sew? We've been making some quilted bags and have found we need to use math to add fractions when cutting the fabric out and use proportions when we decide to change the dimensions of the bags. If the final bag size is 15" tall X 4" deep X 8" long and we want to make the bag smaller, we have to decide how much smaller and recalculate all the dimensions for each block before we cut them out to sew. Cooking is easy, too. If the recipe for cookies makes 24 cookies and she needs to take 5 doz for HS graduation, how many more batches of cookies will she need to make? Or if she wants to cut a recipe in half, how would she do that?

We pay $15/lesson/week for an amazing teacher who has a pedagogy degree in music from Toronto, I think. She give us a $5 discount on our third child. I'm hoping to find another teacher who will motivate my dc the way this one has!!! My dd14 teaches an 8 yo for $8/lesson/week. This is her first student (the job just kind of fell in her lap through church) and she only wanted $5/lesson, but the parents felt that was too low. She has the support and help of her current teacher who offers suggestions and is allowing my dd's student to participate in her recital in June.

Ours will be closing next week. In the nearly 3 years we've lived here, we've had a new roof put on, purchased a shed, had significant electrical work done in the basement, installed a new water heater, oven, and dishwasher, did some landscaping, repainted nearly the entire interior of the house, and paid ahead on the mortgage. We easily put more than $10,000 into the house while we were here. Some items were anticipated (we knew we needed better lighting in the basement) and some were entirely unexpected (needing a new roof). We knew we wouldn't be staying, so everything we did was with the anticipation of selling quickly/easily. We didn't make improvements for our particular taste, but made sure everything was all neutral. We live in a rural area where houses are typically on the market for a year or more, but ours sold within about 3 weeks. We had only 1 showing, not through our realtor, but due to an e-mail my dh had sent out. I believe having a move in ready house is what made the difference. We staged it by renting a storage area for $25/mo and eliminating what we could within the house. All our shelves were very sparse, the kitchen looked like it had plenty of space (unfortunately, we have missed some items I wish we hadn't packed!), and it didn't look like we had 3 kids living and homeschooling here. We also looked on the internet to see what comparable houses were selling for. One of the things we found was that sellers were coming down about $12k off their asking price, so we priced it so we could do that if we needed. Something that worked in our favor was that there aren't a lot of 4 bedroom houses like ours available; most of the houses for sale are 100+ years old and need a lot of updating. It was a lot of work and a lot of money and between our realtor costs and the final offer on the house, we will owe at closing. However, it's worth it not to have dh living in a different part of the country and me here with our kids by ourselves.

We have never used the DIVE CD's, but dd used the Teacher CD's last year and liked them a lot. At first, she didn't want to use them; she just wanted to read her book and figure things out on her own. However, as she moved in to more difficult material, she listened to them and felt they explained things well.

Another spine is the Landmark book. There are many suggestions for editing it, to make it like a "Reader's Digest Condensed Book". Maybe that's what your friend was referring to. We've done 3, 4, and 3/4 and I have never edited it when reading it out loud, but my kids never really got into the book. (I thought it was interesting.) I don't think it's a book told necessarily from a Christian viewpoint, but SL uses many books that aren't Christian. My dd is using Core 5 as a 5th/6th grader. It will take her 18 months to finish. Initially, as she got used to researching the EHE, it was very time-consuming. Now, half way through, she knows how to find what she needs to find. My oldest dd completed Core 5 as a 5th grader without any problems. I think it really depends on each child and anything else you incorporate into the Core. (She also completed Core 3/4 as a 4th grader and hated it. It was a lot to do and because it was our first year hsing, I made sure she completed everything mentioned in the IG. I have since relaxed a little since then!)

A few years ago, ds got hold of a Sharpie and used it on the sheer curtains of a rented house. The owner was preparing to sell the house and we tried to replace the curtains, but it was cost prohibitive. We ended up soaking them in OxyClean and scrubbing them on and off for 40 hours. It took a long time, was a pain, but did get it out! Hopefully you find a remedy that works! I have also successfully used OxyClean and Shout together to get any stain out. Spray on the Shout, put on some OxyClean, spray on more Shout until you get a paste. Use a toothbrush and scrub for a bit, then run it through the laundry. Sometimes you might need to repeat this, but it has always worked on all our stains.

My dd would have loved receiving some, too. If they were offered on alternating months, we might have gotten some for her. Some girly ones would have been well loved!

Ds received this as a birthday gift one year. He loved it so much he got it again the next. He really liked being surprised by what would come and he always knew when the next set was due.

My ds9 and dd10 enjoy all the old legos that used to belong to their father and uncle when they were boys. Ds really likes the Star Wars legos. Dd likes to build houses/apartments/towns. We haven't had good luck finding them inexpensively. We have found some at garage sales. DS usually receives them as gifts or he saves his money to purchase them himself. We also use the plastic drawers, but my dc separate them by color. I think we may have a 3 drawer and a 5 drawer. Ds keeps the Star Wars legos up in his room in a bin so the sets don't get mixed up. I forsee, after our move, a need to purchase drawers for those, too. We had duplos before legos and ds really liked them. We have kept them for younger friends who may visit. We have the zoo/animals ones and the construction one with motorcycles, helicoptors, trucks, etc. We have a train table, too, that dc build on. Since we're selling our house, all the legos needed to be picked up when they were done playing. They now put all their big creations on the table and dd can build her town without needing to move all the buildings at clean up time. Usually the legos stay either on the table or in the drawers and I don't find too many underfoot. However, it took a long time to train them to keep them picked up!

I haven't watched it yet, but here's the link. Marcia

That's funny because it takes me to MY bookshelf! Got it! Thanks!

We had this problem once, too. The way I corrected it was to explain that if they were called back to correct sloppy work, they were done with the tv for the day. If they did their work well (including good attitudes!), they got a reward (watching tv.) When they argued with me, I either sent them to their room for a long while or took away the tv the following day. I wouldn't argue or continue to explain why. I can remember one child who kept arguing and lost the privilege for a week. My dh also either plays on the computer or watches a lot of tv and it's difficult to enforce rules for the dc when dh isn't on board. The way I handle it is to make school time and the time before dh comes home the time I enforce my rules. When dh gets home, sometimes the rules have to change. On the curriculum front, it seems there is a pattern. The two of you find a curriculum that might work and after a few weeks, she decides it's boring and wants to do something else. Perhaps before you purchase the next curriculum, you agree to try it for ____ weeks before giving up on it. I would suggest at least trying half of it. If she says it's boring, ask her what she'd do to make it more interesting. Explain that it's too expensive to keep trying new things and that this curriculum is what you both agreed with, so she's going to stay with it. However, if she sees something she'd like to do differently, either using the curriculum in a different way or supplementing it, you might consider allowing her to make those changes. However, I would stipulate that you need to know the changes ahead of time to approve of them and that she is the one who needs to do the prep for it. You are simply too busy to continue doing that for her. She is old enough and it sounds like she has the skills to be able to do something like this. The only caveat I would give is to explain to her that until she has your permission to make the changes, she will continue doing the curriculum as it was written. This is a privilege for her because she has so many capabilities; it isn't something to allow her to not do school. She is very busy and seem to have many capabilities! I would encourage dd to keep pushing through things, even if it seems boring. Unfortunately, life isn't always exciting. The boring, less interesting work can make life more fascinating by providing more background to an interest. Marcia

I have an orange cake recipe that uses everything in the orange but the seeds. (Are the seeds what you're referring to as pits? Or are you referring to pith, the white part of the peel?) My understanding is that the seeds contain something in them that is inedible, so they shouldn't be bitten into. But the rest of the orange is edible. I don't know about the strawberry greens. I wonder if you could call someone from your local county extension office to ask. I'm curious, too! Marcia

We have made these valentine airplanes for years for the boys. My ds really enjoys making them!

Thank you for the clarification. I thought the tests were all nationalized. Marcia

There needs to be a balance, finding that middle ground in how quickly to move through subjects. I agree it's important to assist the slower learners. However, I don't think it should be to the detriment of the faster learners. I understand what you're saying in regards to the social cost of assisting the slower students, but there is also a social cost to not challenging the quicker students, too; they will find other "entertainment", whether it's to prove to their parents they don't need to study (or even get an education) to finding creative use of their talents, sometimes in very negative ways. I believe all students should be challenged on his or her own level, but I don't think it's fair for a class of 30 students to learn at the pace of the slowest 2 or 3 students.

The problem is that the NCLB tests are nationalized. The assumption is that all children are being taught the same material across the nation. I don't believe school districts in Washington state are teaching the same materials as those districts in Washington, DC, are teaching the same materials in South Dakota are teaching the same information in Alabama. For NCLB to work, public school education needs to be nationalized so that all the states are teaching the same material at the same time. (Please don't throw tomatoes at me...I don't agree that ps need to be/should be nationalized). What I hear you saying, Heather, is that school districts need benchmarks. I agree, but the test should then be based on what the school district believes is important, not what the federal gov't believes should be taught (unless what is taught is nationalized).

I believe it has caused teachers to teach to the slowest students in the class and hold back students who could move through the material much faster and/or deeper. Students who would like to be challenged in their learning are not and become bored with school. Instead, all students should be challenged on each student's level, allowing the students who understand the material to move ahead and giving other students the opportunity to stay on topic longer. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible. Marcia

We received Alibi (a game like Clue), Ticket to Ride, the 1910 expansion pack to go with it, Traders and Barbarians (to go with our Settlers of Catan), and Puerto Rico. We played Ticket to Ride today and enjoyed it. The kids really wanted to play Puerto Rico; they heard about how much my dsil and her family enjoy it! Marcia

We went this summer and loved it--I think we spent 3.5 hours there and could have easily spent more time, but we were all getting tired of reading what happened. I have a dd13, dd10, and ds8 and all of us enjoyed it.

We went this summer and stayed at the Hotel Harrington. They have very large rooms--our family of 5 had 2 double beds and 4 twin beds in the room. They also had a refrigerator, so we brought cereal, bowls, and spoons and bought milk for breakfasts. The hotel isn't anything fancy (they don't have the small bottles of shampoo, for example), but it was clean and very centrally located.

We just got back from a major, drive-halfway-across-the-country-and-back trip. We were getting 23 mpg consistantly on the way out, we stopped for an oil change at a dealership we'd dealt with in the past, and began getting 25 mpg immediately on our return trip. DH is convinced that oil change made the difference. Might be worth trying!