Would you say it would be too difficult for grade 2? I will definitely look at the book you recommended.- I appreciate that. Thanks for the info Paula!

I am planning to use either Zoology I or Astronomy for grade 2 in the fall. DD will be 7 years old. Are there any reasons that I should wait to use these? Will she be too young or get more out of them at a later time? I'm also having a hard time deciding between the two. I'd like to follow WTM a bit more and do the space and earth science next year but the flying creatures sounds really good too. Which would you choose and why?

Sorry, no advice on this one, but I hope someone has a solution! My dh cracks his knuckles all the time and I can't stand it. We'll just be getting into a conversation or sitting down for a nice family dinner and c-rrrr-a-c-k. ugh.

It is VERY sad. I get very shaken when I read things like that as they deeply upset me. My heart really goes out to the families that are affected by tragedies like this.

I really agree with you Tracey! Great post. I do offer help when I can, and I guess I should have added in my post that I would call 911 and try to offer assistance in most situations. I felt absolutely terrible for not helping out in the situation I was in, but at the time I perceived danger, not an inconvenience, to myself and my children. I have helped in situations similar to those you mentioned and I think that it is sad that most people just keep going by.

I don't live in South Carolina and we don't watch a lot of TV so this story is new to me. I vaguely remember hearing about dry drowning before but don't know much about it. It seems like there is so much information out there now and so many new things to be aware of all the time. I used to be a big worrier and reading news things like the one above would concern me. Lately, I think it's certainly good to be informed and aware but with kids there are so many things that can go wrong and sometimes bad things are just going to happen. Am I out of line feeling this way? How much do you let media and news stories affect your life?

I would like to say that I would help, to to be truthful, it would really depend on the situation and who was with me. I only have basic CPR and first aid training. As much as we practised a lot over the 2 day course, boy would I be panicky about doing CPR on a real person. Having that training makes me comfortable that I could but inside I would be a nervous wreck. I definitely would be seeing if anyone else around knew CPR first. Also, if I had my littles with me, I may be less prone to help. My 2yo would likely freak out and I could see the baby crying non-stop. For me, that would be too much of a distraction and I don't think I could be much help in that situation. Dh and I were taking the kids to the library once and were about to walk in the front doors when we heard tires screaching. Suddenly a car that was parked in the lot came racing forwards towards us at high speed and crashed into the hand rail about 50ft from where we were standing. I was 9 months pg with #4 and quite shaken up about the incident. Why would someone pin the gas pedal and drive straight into the library?? My mind got away on me and it freaked me out as I thought perhaps he may be a danger to others- perhaps he was on drugs? Would he back up and try again? Dh, of course, wouldn't listen and ran over to help. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I was too scared for myself and the 3 little ones to want to rush over and offer my assistance. Turns out he wasn't on drugs or trying to kill himself at the library and that it was a car malfunction. That situation proved to me that I guess I wouldn't necessarily help in just any situation, but I am glad that dh was there for the kids to see go and be a good citizen and help others.

DD6 thinks the same thing. She will shriek in sheer terror and come running when she sees a spider. Then, I have to sit and muster up my courage to get close enough to kill it so she can continue on with her day. That's when she'll start screaming again. No! Don't kill!! I like spiders! :001_huh: They eat the bad bugs Mommy. You can't kill it. :001_huh::blink: I can't quite handle this. I can barely muster up the courage to throw an encyclopedia at one, let alone pick it up alive and move it! :tongue_smilie:

Oh my!! :lol: I wish I could have seen the look on her face! I soooo have to remember this next time we're out...

:iagree: :hurray: Hooray for toilets! Sorry to hear that you had troubles in that dep't, especially with 5 kids! Yikes. Sharing your joy with you!!

Umm, but that would me she'd have to get off the couch to get *to* the hairspray. Thus, be closer *shudder* to the spider. eeek.

I really like it Katy! Looks awesome. I enjoy reading your blog.- I thought your old one looked nice too. You've got a good way with words and you make me laugh a lot. I also really like the pictures you've included on this one. What a beautiful family you have! :001_smile:

My 2 older ones are HUGE fans of the Andrew Lang books. They'd ask for them all the time and now my oldest reads them to herself. I started reading them as read alouds when my oldest was going on 4. She didn't grasp everything, and sometimes, her attention span just wasn't there for the entire story but I'd just continue reading. I do stop more often now that she is older to check if she is comprehending but when she was younger, I'd just stop at the end of each major event and help her through what happened. Sometimes she'd have no clue! but other times she really surprised me with what she understood. I would help her sum up the plot and move on. We talk about the struggle of good vs evil and what she thinks or hopes will happen next. I do try and stick to the shorter stories when both girls are listening as I find some of them to be far too long for the littler ears. We think they are great around here. I would just try a few of the more familiar ones with your daughter and see what her reaction is. If she's not interested, don't push it, but if she is, I say, go for it!

Ooooooh. I'm gonna LIKE it here!! :D

I'm new here, so I really don't know. :blushing: Well, I know I sure do. And I also know it's FRIDAY after a llooong week. :cheers2: Anyone care to join me? Jane :D

YES! I know how this feels. I have a good friend who would decline invitations to things and come up with the weirdest possible excuses. I actually dropped her as a friend because I took this as a hint that perhaps, she just didn't like me and the friendship wasn't meant to be. So, after a lot of pain and hurt, I learned that it wasn't personal. They just didn't have the money. While I totally respect that, it would have saved our friendship a lot if she had just told me.

Amy, I know where you are coming from as I didn't want to be the only one in my group of friends who had to admit that we just couldn't swing a trip the local amusement park or rec. centre. In the past, I wouldd come up with the least lame excuse possible. Funny thing is, when I finally worked up the courage to admit that we just didn't have the extra $$, I was surprised by how many of my friends felt the same way.- Except they would just splurge and go along with the flow, leaving themselves in not-so-comfortable financial situations by the end of the month. I actually started a trend of finding less expensive things to do together! :rolleyes: This wasn't the case with all my friends as some of them really do have the money for all these extras. I will say that I don't tell *everybody* who invites us to join them that it's a financial decision.- I still fall back on excuses sometimes. When I do admit that I just can't spare the room in my budget, I try to have a big smile on my face and shrug that's it's no big deal. I don't want to incite pity and have people offering to pitch in etc. Although I appreciate their kindness, I'm not comfortable with that.

Great advice, thanks! Sounds like I'd better plan to spend a few hours per day on the boards! LOL!! Now I understand what Christina meant about wondering how I lived without all y'all.

I'm looking at starting to use one of these two next year. My dc are all quite young and because dd is only in grade 2 I would like to take this opportunity for her to get a good solid start to reading quality literature. I would also like to work on my own self education at the same time. Can you help me compare the two and if they could fit into our grade 2 year? Thank you.

That's kind of you Crissy, thank you for the nice welcome.

Oh good!! I have lots!:D

Hello everyone! I'm Jane and I have been blessed with 4 awesome kids. I started my homeschooling journey when my oldest was in K and she's now just finishing up grade 1. I'm really looking forward to grade 2 next year and am so glad that I found these forums!! I had no idea this was all here until now! WOW!! What incredible ideas and insight all of you have to share. It's so humbling. I feel like I could not possibly have anything to add to such great minds! So, now that it's taken me close to two hours to force myself to write something, what do I do?? It feels so lonely with my one post. :o