Yes, my kids rarely get sick. A cold or two a year. I think it is because I'm *not* germaphobic. Their bodies have built up their own immunities to the stuff that is around us. This is not to say they don't wash their hands, etc. They do. But, I'm not obsessive about it. My mother, OTOH, *is* obsessive (ie: uses hand sanitizer all. the. time., washes her hands for the requisite two verses of the ABC song, etc) and she is sick all the time. Last year, all the kids got the flu shot -- this year just the youngest two. So, we'll see how that pans out. DH *might* get it (he works in healthcare management and does have some patient contact), but I have never gotten it.

:iagree: with everything people have said. The other thing I'd add to their suggestions (whether you borrow a unit or purchase a unit) is to sit *with* someone who uses it. It can be a overwhelming to look at and figure out.

We have it in the kitchen/ dining room. I don't know what the brand is because it was done to sell the house (to us) 4 years ago. IT would be fine....except the water damage by the dishwasher. Water got into a seam, and has warped a few boards and the under-laminate (a press board type of material), has expanded...it's basically ugly right there. I hate that part of it and can't wait to replace it.

Great, I added this to my instant list. I'll watch it before suggesting it to my sons.

Excellent everybody, thank you.

Does anyone have a list already? If not, I'd love to create a list of movies or plays that have been modern adaptions of Shakespeare's plays, or have used Shakespearean themes. Here's my two so far: The play "All Shook Up" is The Twelfth Night. "The Lion King" is thematically related to Hamlet. Note that I'm not looking for filmed versions of the original plays (Like Sir Laurence Olivier's Hamlet), but adaptions. I'd prefer to find movies/ plays that are PG-rated and under. TIA! Alane

I had a little freak out this week. I'm so SICK of staying in my state for every. single. vacation. and I blew up at dh about it this week. It was instigated because one of my dearest friends is leaving in March for a 9 month RV trip across the US with her two kids and dh. I've wanted to do this since my oldest was 2. Now, I'm not jealous of her (well, OK maybe a little:tongue_smilie:), but it just brought up a lot of feelings that I've been slowing sharing with my husband over the past few years, and I guess I just finally exploded this week. I LOVE traveling around for vacations -- heck, I'd travel around the world if finances were not option. I feel blessed that my parents "made" us take 2 week long driving trips all over the US, and want to bless my kids with that. DH not so much. He grew up going to the same lake house for a week in the next state over for much of his childhood. His parents divorced when he was 12 and although he did a lot of traveling (as an itinerant physical therapist) in his mid-20s, not that we've got kids and such, he's pretty content to have the same sort of week-at-the-lake-in-our-own-state vacation. And that drives. me. crazy. (Lest you think I'm bashing him, I'm not.) We even met while he was traveling and did a fair share of traveling together before getting married and having kids. And we loved it. Last year, we took the usual camping trip an hour from our house, but did take our two youngest to Philadelphia/ DC while our oldes was exploring DC with is boy scout troop. It was so much fun, and dh admitted that these sorts of trips (outside our state) would be fun. He and I grew up very differently. I think the stability that he wants -- the predictability -- is still part of his coping mechanism from the traumatic divorce of his parents at a really vital stage in his own maturation process. Me? Well, I grew up in the same city I was born in, lived in the same house since kindergarten, went to (a great) university in my home state, and finally broke free for graduate school. I loved the newness and exploration of all that I've done. (I was an itinerant speech therapist for a year and LOVED it). Heck, I even like moving because I get to find new ways to arrange my kitchen. I have to move the furniture in my house at least once a year or I. go. crazy. There's probably a brain chemistry thing -- endorphins get released when I move furniture, etc. that I get a natural high on. For dh? not so much. It takes much more than moving the couch around to get his endorphins going. :lol: So the upside is that dh agreed we could take outside New England vacations and he asked me where I wanted to go this year. Not one to shy away when the world (so to speak) is being offered to me: I said the Grand Canyon and New Mexico (where ds#1 was born and hasn't been back to since we left 10 years ago). He hasn't said "no" yet. :D

I'm using Firefox, and had no problem watching the first video. We haven't used LL BB1 in a while, so I was pleased to see the videos (thank you for posting about this). Makes using BB1 with my middle son a possibility....

My husband takes my two oldest skiing for the first homeschool ski lesson tomorrow. Tomorrow it'll be sweet, sweet powder! Here in NH, I know of at least 4 sets of homeschool ski lessons at two different resorts, but I'm sure there's more.

Not me, but one of my IRL best friends, after 3 births, has major bladder control issues. She wants to bring it up to her dr. and look at surgical issues because she's tired of being 42 and peeing her pants.

We're using this.....I've had it for a year, but since I was the only one who wanted to have a budget, I never invested the time to learn it fully. Right before Christmas, DH decides he wants us to go back and have a budget (an answer to prayer), and I showed him the YNAB that I purchased a year ago. He LOVES it (can you love a budgeting software? lol). I've been passing over all the banking and finances information to me, and I'm pleased to say that even after a week, we're still using it successfully, lol. I highly recommend YNAB. There's tons of free educational webinars and such to help you learn how to use it.

We used to have a 2-3 week cycle of meals that I planned on -- with a quick ad easy meal "in reserve" in case the day got super crazy. Normal weeks are pretty -- well, normal, so it was easy to plan around scouts and sports. I buy meat when it is on sale, and generally have a good stock in my freezer of basic cuts for whatever we need. But then, life got crazy for a couple years, and I have just been throwing stuff on the table. But, I've got my groove back and am ready to try plannning again with a similar system as above.

me, too. and mispronounced. Of course, not having learned phonics, it wasn't until my oldest was watching Between the Lions when I learned what the job of the silent E is and, therefore, how terribly easy it is to sound out my name. And because no one knew how to pronounce my name the first time (including nearly ALL of my teachers in elementary and high school), I was usually "Alan" the first day. Insert children laughing and snickering. :angry:

:iagree: When I see weird spelling, my first thought is, "wow, those parents can't spell!"

Yea, that was the message I got when the clue phone rang :D

We've had a rash of lying here -- 4 times since the beginning of the month. DS lost his DS/Wii/computer time first until Christmas, then until Jan. 1, then until Jan. 15. I finally picked up the clue phone and realized this was apparently not enough consequence for him to break this habit. So, yesterday's lie resulted in the following "hard labor": all bedrooms, living room, and school room are vacuumed bathroom floors are clean and mopped! I even have a clean tub and the boys have a clean and organized sink and counter! And now, he's putting the finishing touches on his 1,000 written sentences "I will tell the whole truth all the time" This was given because 1. we want to cement it into his pre-pubescent brain 2. it's meaningless 3. it's a LOT of sentences. (He had to write a similar sentence 500 times for lie #2, I think, and was told if it happened again, he'd get 1,000) For the record, I'm really pleased with the way all these chores/ writing took up all day yesterday -- he still had 250 sentences left for this morning. The crimp it put into his Christmas vacation is substantial. So what's in your arsenal? Unfortunately we live in a small neighborhood lot with not a lot of demanding outside physical labor. But if it snows? You can bet that we won't be using the snowblower. :lol:

we're a dude family. No "that sucks" here. :lol:

:iagree: We took our K through 6th graders to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston a few weeks ago to do some compare and contrast between northern and southern renaissance art styles. They now know more about this subject than I'm sure most if not pretty darn near *all* high school students, let alone their same aged peers. I think homeschoolers' expectations (at least in the circle I run around in -- including here at the boards!) is far different from those in government schooling.

I thought I'd pick the Hive's brain as part of my research. I'd like to make some with my kids for science this spring (after ski lessons are over), so I have about 8 weeks to gather resources. I'd like to make a couple "model" ones, but really, I'd like us to try and build a big one! So, have you done this? What good online or book resources do you know of?

This is my general sense about the issue. I did a quick survey of HSLDA's current and recent cases, and there seems to be other factors involved. I think this "person of influence" on our webinar was trying to scare us into keeping some regulation (annual reporting) instead of total freedom I really appreciate everyone's comments.

I loved my TomTom (340XL or something like that). IT worked like a charm, until some jerk stole it out of my car this summer :( My only complaint was that I couldn't change the volume without touching the screen several times....there was no toggle on the side to adjust it quickly.

I don't feel ripped off. DH proposed on Christmas morning. Slipped the ring in a box with his old cycling shoes then wrapped it all up. Was one of the best days of my life. Seems like this other person is more concerned abou the *stuff* of gifting than the meaning and sentiment itself.

Thank you all for your replies so far. You are (so far) confirming what I thought. Of course, for those of us type A enough to hang out here, I don't suspect people wold consider us *under*educating our kids. Thankfully, there's no crime in *over*education them. :lol: (just kidding....)

Homeschooler-friendly legislator in my state are preparing several bills that could drastically change our home education law from moderate-to-highly regulated to practically no regulation. Personally, I'm in favor of as little regulation as possible :001_smile: In one of the online panel discussions that we've had, the issue of educational neglect and Child Protective Services/Department of Children, Youth and Family. Someone of influence is claiming that in other states with no regulation (he cited Texas as an example), CPS often harasses homeschoolers. I'm curious to know what happens in your state. Are you a low or no-regulation state? Does CPS (or whatever it is called in your state) harass homeschoolers for ONLY homeschool/ compulsory education reasons? I know this is probably a hard question to answer, as you may not know what is specifically going on in your state, but if you have input, it would help me to clarify in my own mind which bill to throw my support behind and help me to develop my arguments. Thank you!

See above