I have long wanted to have a bee hive, but never thought it possible given that we live in an urban subdivision. I just found out that our city code does indeed allow me to have up to three hives on my property! Then my DH admitted that he wants a bee hive, too. We do have a beekeeping club in a neighboring county that we plan to join, but I was wondering if anyone here has bee hives? Any advice? I would like to read a book or two before attending the first meeting and am looking for recommendations. Suggestions? Thanks!

Dried coconut? Like the super-dry unsweetened flakes from the health food store? Or the moist sweetened flakes, like Bakers? If the first, I have never figured out what it is good for! Now the latter, you can add 1/2 cup or so to basic recipes like banana bread or chocolate chip cookies. As mentioned above, coconut macaroons! And coconut meringue pie sounds good right now, too. :tongue_smilie:

The critical word is "good" dairy-free cheese. We found numerous dairy-free cheeses when DS was allergic. I wouldn't describe any of them as good. None of them even made it past the initial taste test before being deposited into the trash can.

I had emergency gallbladder surgery several years ago, when DS was 4. We don't have any family in the area so I told DH to go and take care of DS, I was a big girl and could take care of myself. Personally, I would not want my young child sitting in a germ-filled ER waiting room for any length of time! Plus, you never really know what type of things your child might see and/or hear in the waiting room. :tongue_smilie: (Blood, vomit, etc.) No need to give them that type of education until absolutely necessary.

DS7 was begging to learn Greek so I bought The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker. He loves it. I was shocked at how quickly he picked up the Greek alphabet. (BTW, If you do Greek w/a young child at St*rbucks, which is where we happened to be doing school the other day, you get lots and lots of funny looks when your son is quietly singing the Greek alphabet. :tongue_smilie:)

In Texas, the state standardized tests are released to the public. (In the past, they released the tests every year. I believe they are going to start releasing every other year.) I tell public school parents this all the time and they never knew they could look up the tests their children took!Anyhow. One of the third grade math questions had the children marking which circle had 1/2 of it shaded in. I know fractions is generally introduced around 3rd grade, but the concept of "half" is something that most preschool children have mastered. ("Hey, you got the bigger half of the cookie!") One of the fifth grade science questions asked which part of a bike was needed to coast down a hill. The answer? Are you ready? "A front wheel." :tongue_smilie: I'm sorry, but what in the world was a question like that doing on the test? If a child doesn't know that you need a front wheel to coast down a hill by kindergarten, I would question his critical thinking skills. But 5th grade?! It never surprises me to hear people say they thought their kids were doing good in school because they received good grades, but they realized their children were actually well below grade level in math and/or reading. If our state standardized tests are any indication of their educational standards - No thank you. Children need less - much less! - of it, not more.

Actually fire ants are super-easy to control through organic methods. We have been totally organic in the garden for 15 years and I seldom have a problem with fire ants. When we have a week straight of rain, I may have a mound pop up, but they are cheap and easy to treat. Other bugs in this area... Just your typical pill bugs, flies, wasps and bees. Nothing serious. We have snakes but nothing major. I think I have seen a dozen in 20+ years of living in Texas. Yes, Flower Mound did have a tornado June 10th. :tongue_smilie: If you are interested in gardening, you will be pleased to know that you can easily garden year round, including growing vegetables through the winter. Summer is hard, due to the heat and drought. But I am from "up north" and I can't stand the cold, snow and ice! Personally, I think our school system is awful in Texas. We are in an "excellent" school district, but monthly I hear of students being "pushed out" of the public school system because they can't pass the standardized tests. (I have no idea what the high school level state standardized test is like, but the elementary level tests are a joke!) I have lived in Texas all of my adult life, but have traveled around the US. I do love other areas of the country, but I can't imagine moving. Texas has so much to offer - and the scenery is totally different if you drive from one hour west of Fort Worth to one hour east of Dallas. The hill country is incredible. One thing we don't have -- tall trees. :tongue_smilie: Well, East Texas has some tall trees. But if you are used to the monsters in northern areas of the US, you would be in for a shock!

I would love to hear about educational places to visit throughout the country! Next year we are planning on going to the midwest and traveling part of the Lewis and Clark trail. Any museum suggestions? A few of our trips so far... Georgia - scenic train ride through Blue Ridge Mountains, Stone Mountain, CNN, World Aquarium, Atlanta Zoo, Tybee Island Houston - NASA, zoo, Ocean Star Oil Rig (oil rig actually in Galveston - wonderful field trip!) Colorado - train ride through Royal Gorge, Denver zoo, Cheyenne Mountain zoo, Rocky Mountain National Park We especially love to take train rides and visit zoos, aquariums and arboretums! The Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad (Central Iowa) is wonderful in the fall.

Our school does not grade skip. Ever. I don't know that it would have been a good idea, in retrospect, as DS is short for his age and his penmanship is terrible. He could never had kept up with the writing. :tongue_smilie: I wanted to comment on your above quote. I have never, ever met anyone that doesn't homeschool that "gets" the homeschool socialization thing. Everyone 'on the outside' says, "But what about socialization?" My response? Well, DS takes an art history class with a dozen other homeschool children at an art gallery every Monday. He has guitar lessons once a week. And he is in a zoology program with a certified biologist with 30 other children on Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday he played at the park for 3 hours with 16 other homeschooled children. On Friday, he has a class at a local nature center with 20 other homeschooled children. Our NOT-back-to-school party had more than 50 children in attendance. We attended two Valentine parties last year where we knew almost all of the children at both. One party had over 100 children. And - yes - my DS knew the majority of the children. DS plays with two children in our neighobrhood that attend public school. DS has taken swim lessons, dance lessons, chess class, played in a chess tournament... We are going on a field trip next week w/50 other children. And another field trip the following week with just one other family. He attends garden club meetings with me and helps maintain the gardens at a low rent housing area in town. He volunteers at the food pantry once a month, stocking shelves. Well, you get the idea. How much more socialization do you want? Because I am worn out from all this socialization!!! Seriously, I don't even know why socialization is an issue to non-homeschoolers. If they could watch a video of our week, they would realize how silly that comment really is! So I understand that your husband won't entertain the idea of homeschooling because he is worried about that - but it is such a non-issue it is laughable. I do realize it depends on where you live... (I am lucky to live in a suburb between two major cities.) But I have found that there are so many more opportunities available to my son that aren't as easily available to his friends that attend public school.

My son was born premature in 2001. He was ~ 34 weeks. It was touch and go on whether he would make it, then whether he would ever be able to breath on his own. The quote above (from the original link) upsets me greatly. If her doctors HAD attempted to save his life, there is never any way of knowing that he "could have been saved," as she is quoted as saying. The majority of premature babies born at that stage do NOT survive. Just because some have lived does not mean that ALL will. Ask any NICU doctor or nurse and they will tell you openly that studies show white males have the lowest survival rate for preemies. White females have the highest rate of survival. Every other race/gender mix lies somewhere between the two extremes. It is wonderful that Heather's nieces survived. The link re: kangaroo care also focuses on a girl. But - honestly - premature boys (the focus of this article) have a very low survival rate. So for the mother to say that he "could have been saved" is truly speculation. Survival also depends on the hospital. Some hospitals are equipped for premature births, others are not. The reason for the premature birth also plays into the survival rate. The neonatologists we dealt with said that babies that undergo a great deal of stress prior to their premature birth have a higher survival rate, as something in their body kicks in and speeds up lung development. If the mother has several weeks or months of premature labor than that aids the baby. Sudden premature labor does not. Premature twins generally do better (we were told - and have witnessed with friends) than premature singletons. Again, the added stress of the pregnancy is thought to speed up lung development. As we were told, every single premature baby is different. Just because one makes it does not mean that another born the same size/same gestation will make it.

It depends on the child. My son did Apologia astronomy the last half of his K year and loved it. He did flying creatures last year for 1st grade. I am amazed how much he got out of both books. He does love science, though, and was especially interested in the topics. You know your child best. Do you think he is ready?

I didn't notice this option already suggested, but pardon me if it has been. I always save bacon grease in a container in the freezer. In the winter, I make homemade suet for the birds. You can search the internet and come up with dozens of recipes or mixtures to try. If I am feeling lazy, I will just spread the grease on a feeder we made out of an old log, then roll the mess in chipped sunflower seeds and hang out for the birds. Last winter, we had a stale gingerbread house w/o any candy left on it. I spread the house with grease, then had DS decorate with seeds and dried berries. The birds and squirrels loved it.

In some ways - since birth. I have always taken DS along with me everywhere - bookstores, homeschool conferences, teacher supply stores, etc. I have always told him that if he finds anything he is interested in learning or reading, to please let me know. I research outside educational opportunities and ask him what he wants to take. Field trips I generally plan on my own, then do supplemental reading and study based on his interst level. DS is almost 8. This year he has requested to learn Greek (which he loves so far) and to take an art history class. In the past, he has requested dance (he has taken 4 different styles), swim, chess, music and science. He has picked out some interesting books and curriculum on history, science, Latin, spelling and grammar on his own. I haven't gotten around to posting yet on the LCC or unschooling post, but want to. We somewhat straddle the line. We are not totally unschoolers, by any means, but I have always let my DS have a great amount of say in what he wants to study and learn. I often pause our normal studies and ask him if there is anything in particular he wants to study, then we spend a few weeks on those topics.

Duplicate post.

A few weeks ago I bought more than our average amount of groceries as I hadn't been to the store in a while and wanted to stock up. It really did not seem like I was buying all that much. But the guy sacking my groceries asked, "Did you leave anything for anyone else?" :001_huh: When he was done sacking, he walked off, obviously thinking my young DS and I could push two full carts through the parking lot on our own. So the cashier called for a carry-out and another guy came to help us out. He said, "wow. You aren't planning on coming back anytime soon are you?" :tongue_smilie: THEN I got home and our credit card company had called to inform us that they had blocked our card, as there was some "suspicious" activity on our card! :glare: Really, I was glad our cc company was on the ball - but I only spent $80 more than normal. I hardly consider that "suspicious."

Bumping back up. I started getting stomach pains and general feeling of "blah" last night, after DS went to bed. DS woke up this morning and promptly declared that his stomach hurts. He laid on the floor until 1 this afternoon, which is highly unusual for him. He is now up, watching TV, but still hasn't eaten anything today. Hoping it is a short-lived bug! We have a field trip on Thursday that I do not want to miss!

I peel them, then slice into wedges. Toss with a bit of olive oil, maple syrup, a bit of salt and some fresh chopped rosemary. Roast until softened. You can also add onions and/or garlic to the mix. We love beets with rosemary!

I had never heard of a dulicmer until we attended a percussion program at our library this summer. Here is the guy's website: http://www.marksheltonmusic.com/index/mn27152/Welcome The hammered dulcimer he played was awesome! No advice. Just wanted to share that I think a dulcimer would be an interesting instrument to play.

Re: Peanut-free schools. My homeschooled DS is allergic to peanuts, as is my public schooled nephew. We live in different states, see different doctors. Our doctors have always said the same thing - do not push for peanut-free schools. The rate of children having severe allergy attacks in peanut-free schools is higher than in non-peanut-free schools, as there is a 'false sense of security' so the child and school staff tend to overlook the early signs of an allergic reaction. I can't find the article my doctor cited now and don't know what FAAN's stance is on the subject. But the truth of the matter is - you simply cannot create totally peanut-free areas. Kids are always going to have food traces on their skin, hands, lunch boxes, backpacks, etc. And - truthfully - I think adults are the worse. My son was exposed to peanuts at preschool by his teacher on several occassions, despite being told repeatedly by the office that his room wasn't allowed any peanuts. Same thing has occurred with my nephew in his school. They are suppose to be peanut-free, but parents forget or don't know what to look for on the food labels. I know my nephew's worse reactions have been at his "peanut-free" school. :tongue_smilie:

Same here.DS taught himself to read before his 4th birthday. He's above average for reading. And well above grade level for math. He has been reading adult science books since he was 6. He can make detail maps of almost anywhere we have ever been. He's very good at soccer, but not interested in actually playing a game. He'd rather dance. But doesn't want to take lessons where someone is telling him "how to feel the music." He does appear to be musically inclined. A geeky scientist that can dance? :tongue_smilie: I don't know what to make of it all. I'm just glad we can homeschool. As much as he wears me out, I don't know what he would do in public school.

:iagree:I'm in Texas and view the tax-free weekend as a joke. If you shop the week before, the sales are much better. Most stores are dead the week before, as everyone is waiting to go out on tax-free weekend. So you get better service, no long lines and can comparison shop w/o getting jostled around. You actually couldn't pay me to go to the stores on tax-free weekend!

I did not intend to "train" my son in this manner nor do I know how we picked up this habit, but DS taps my arm or leg once to signal that he wants me to stop and explain something. I will motion with my hand that I realize I need to stop, then I stop at a good breaking point - either the end of the sentence or paragraph. Sometimes - if it is a word or phrase that I am sure he does not know - I will add in the definition to the reading as I read along.

You can freeze them. I just wash and dry the tomatoes and pop into freezer bags. When you want to use them later (in sauces or winter soups) you just put them in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes and the skins peel right off. Core the tomato, then toss into your sauce or soup. We are overrun with tomatoes right now and I am eating insalata caprese twice a day. :D

I have not used it but am drawn to it at every convention. I love the look and feel of the program. I was talking with a homeschool mom recently and she said she used it in their co-op and that everyone loved it and learned a lot. Literally, that was the first and only time I have ever heard of anyone that has used it personally. It is a fairly new program and I don't know how widely they have advertised. I know that I am no help, but wanted to :lurk5:

We love spaghetti squash, but not as a "savory" dish. I prefer it mildly sweet. I cook until tender, then add a bit of butter, real maple syrup, cinnamon and dried cranberries.