I usually just tell them we homeschool (and more often than not, people tell me they wish they could do that and then proceed to tell me about the troubles thier children are having with ps), but I have been known to say "we don't send them (to school)" or "they don't 'go' " (because the reaction is rather amusing to that one). You could try telling people who you know you will have a problem with that they are "privately tutored" and leave it at that (its interesting to see the change in demeanor with that one, too). ;)

:iagree: I would say this and my very Catholic upbringing. I may no longer Catholic, but I can't shake that old fashioned guilt that follows us around everywhere (and I say that with affection). So, if I don't want to want to wake up in the middle of the night feeling like cr*p 20 years after I've affronted someone, I JUST DON'T DO IT.

*I* was the kid that was angry with my parents for having "lied" to me...but my parents were still not giving in when I was 11 (LOL)! We were never going to do Santa, but I couldn't help it. They have been asking since they were about 4 or 5 - trying to get me to fess up. I never lied and said there was one, but I hadn't really come out and said there wasn't either. We have read several stories about the real St. Nick and also a wonderful book called "The Autobiography of Santa". Just this past year (they were 8yrs), they asked so many times, I finally said "Do you really want to know?" and they said they did. So I said "No, it really is just Dad and I. Are you mad?" And, honestly, they weren't sure whether to believe us! Finally, ds came to me and said, "Mom, I am really kind of relieved. The idea of a large, strange man dressed in a weird suit in my house in the middle of the night kind of freaked me out. I'm glad it was just you." He also said this about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. DD came to me and thanked me for "giving (her) all that stuff" all those years. So, I guess it may not be as bad as you are thinking. You may get thanks, or relief :lol:, but if you don't push it into puberty, you should be safe!

Hi Jean, Do you want to "build" it from scratch? Will a blog work? Dh has his business set up at blogger and paid Go Daddy $10 a year for a better domain name. He can do what he wants when he wants to in the site. Visitors can either type in hisaddress.blogspot.com or the much cooler one he bought from GoDaddy and get there as well. If you want to see his site as an example, feel free to pm me. PS - It looks like the water is receding from what it looks like on the news. Hope you're hanging in there - been thinking of you.

We use Paypal for dh's online business. They are very thorough and careful. We transferred a large sum of money from them to our checking acct around New Year's and not 5 minutes later, they called our house, and after verifying we were who we said we were, alerted us to the fact that the transfer had been made. They've done this with every transfer since. Nice! All in all, very happy with thier service.

:iagree: I second this book and I also pair it with the Square Foot Garden book (not necessarily organic, but good info about when/where/how many.

At least yours makes it to the bed - mine rarely gets past the couch (because he "really isn't that tired")! :glare:At around 2am, I wake up and go turn off the lights and the tv and he says after a loud snort/snore "Oh, I was watching that" or "I was just resting my eyes" LOL I just finished my routine - took nearly 45 min! But the counters are clean, doors are locked, floors are swept...

I think JBJ is funny. Dc think she's a hoot. When they were younger (5 or 6yrs) they used to find her poor grammar scandalously funny (I was glad they noticed!). Sometimes we read them together or I had them read them outloud just so I could laugh along with them. Its a lighthearted read, humorous and, if your dc are still reading other works, virtually harmless. I'm fairly picky about what they read, and after I read the first one, I let them go to town reading all of them. Don't know about the Amber Brown books - I've never heard of them. I know you didn't ask, but I don't see anything wrong w/MTH, either. Dd read all of them and it enlightened him to historical happenings (which we hadn't covered yet) that he took an interest in and read more about because of the books. His big obsession with the Titanic comes to mind, as well as the Civil and Revolutionary Wars. The guide books are pretty cool, too. IMO.

You can freeze it! We buy ours in big blocks from Sam's, too and rather than finding it all draining and oddly pink in my cheese drawer one day, I cut it into reasonable sized chunks, wrap it in wax paper, tuck that into a freezer bag and freeze it. Thaws beautifully! PS. Can you post your recipe w/the balsamic?? Don't have one of those and it sounds rather interesting :-)

So sorry that you are in the midst of this mess, Jean. Here, in Green Bay, we were spared the brunt of it so far. Last night, the wind tore one of the screen doors open and bent the little latch on the jamb that holds it shut so it wouldn't close. I was trying to hold it shut while dh tried to repair the latch and it literally ripped me out of the house twice while I was holding on with all my might. The tornados were just southeast of us. No major flooding here yet, but portions of the surrounding fields look like ponds. Lots of tree limbs in the yards. Sounds like, unfortunately, there is more to come. Hang in there - will be thinking about you.

Thank you:). I checked out some excerpts at amazon for this book, and since our library doesn't carry it, I think I will go ahead and order it. Thanks again!

I need some advice/suggestions about a basic, tasteful, well-written book about the birds and the bees. I did a search for this info before I posted, but I don't think ds is ready for the full blown information for boys. Dd just got her first period last a few weeks ago:001_huh:. I did first explain about this part of things to her about 6 months ago (she was 8 then, and I knew I needed to let her know this before we were both surprised, kwim? and the information came as quite a surprise to her). She did not want to hear about where babies actually came from at that time, claiming she just needed some time to wrap her head around the period info :001_smile:. When she finally got it, she was pretty okay with it, fairly excited, called grandmas, etc...At just 9y, her friends either are just learning about it in school or have no idea - most likely not even close to having to experience it, and I felt kind of bad for her about that, eventhough she didn't say anything to that affect. I tried to make it special, dh gave her flowers, but ds (her twin) had no clue what was going on and wanted to know "when he would get his". (Sigh) *I really think he just wanted the extra chocolate, anyhow :D So, whether I think they are old enough to understand or digest the info, I've got to do what I've got to do. The problem is that dd is very mature (always has been) and ds...well...not so much. Dd will be easy and we've talked about a lot of these things already (just not exactly the nuts and bolts), but poor ds - I'm not sure he's past the giggle phase, you know? I plan to talk to each of them seperately, though. So, anyway, I would really love some suggestions on just the basics, tastefully done (I was appaulled at what I ended up not borrowing from the library! Way too much information for 9 year olds, imo) from those of you who have explained all this to both boys and girls at this age. I want to be thorough, without giving too much info at this point. Thanks,

Dh uses Shutterfly.com for a slide show he has on his website for work. If he can do it, I'm sure you can. He said the instructions are very, very easy and the site is pretty user friendly.

We have an-almost-4yr-old Golden Retiever named Lily and a newly adoped Bluepoint Siamese/Mix cat my dd named BlueStar (he's a he, not a she, but dd is obsessed w/Warriors, so...we finally agreed on just Blue)

Hi We will be starting Singapore 5A in the fall (have used it exclusively since 1A) and have been very happy with it. Ds does very well with just the regular workbook and mental math. Dd needs a little extra work occasionally, so we make copies of the Intensive Practice workbooks and extra copies of the MM worksheets. We also don't move ahead until ALL the answers are correct, so she really has to work at the ones she is having trouble with. I think the teacher's manual (we use the hs version) is very helpful and sometimes, I will just let her look through *my* info, which spells everything out in more than one way. We also use the game cd, which I'm not sure I love, but they do. I think if I added another program, they would not like it as much, truthfully. Meaning that they would feel overloaded with math and lose interest. Singapore works well for us and we are looking forward to 5A.

Thanks everyone! And, Cathy, Mark Kistler's books look great. Both my dc love art, and I'm just not all that artsy! I feel bad. Thought about real lessons from a local studio, but haven't done it (mainly due to the cost). We do crafts, but as far as really learning about drawing and painting, well, I stink. Will definitely order his books.

Hi, Also in Wisconsin, though on the "east coast" in Green Bay.

White vinegar. Let it soak and eat away at the ick. Then scrub it w/baking soda. Good luck. Did this w/2 of my favorite stainless pots. This works well, though.

When are you having them read? When my dc were 6ish, we tried the afternoon "go read in your room" game, but it was a pain, and they felt as though they were being punished. Rather than make reading a "punishment" :eek:, we did the bedtime thing. Thier bedtime is 8p, but they can leave thier light on to read until 930p (they are 9yrs now, don't remember exact times when they were younger). But if they are not going to read, off goes the light. Ds will sometimes turn his off early, but most times its nearing 10p and I hear "Awww, c'mon, I only have 3 more pages!" Now that they are older, we do have 1/2 hr of history reading on their own during the day and they have to write a sentence in thier notebook summing up each chapter, and they seem okay w/that. They still get thier evening time as well. As far as keeping a journal of what they are reading (other than history), unfortunately we've not been successful with that. Seems to make reading seem like...(gasp)...work. I've tried and tried, but finally gave it a rest. *I* know they are reading, *they* know they are reading, they like to read, they are constantly telling me about thier books, so I've set aside the journal as a battle for later, deciding to let them continue enjoying it on thier terms. Just as long as they keep doing it.

Same here - took us 3 years to finish the first two books. The activities and extra reading suggestions are too cool. Well worth the time, though, since we really get a thorough understanding of the material covered at this age.

Hi, I have been checking the Classical Writing so many of you love, and it looks fantastic! I am wondering: A) If you also use an additional grammar program or if this is that thorough. B) Is it necessary to still use a spelling program if starting on Homer A? I can't really tell from the sample pages. C) And what do you think of the Poetry for Beginners vs the poetry program offered by IEW? Thanks for any input, Laura dd9 ds9

We were going to use ours to pay off our BOA credit card. I was informed by a fairly reliable source (retired AirForce uncle) that BOA is actually owned by...China. :confused: I didn't do my own research, though, so I can't say whether this is true or not, but we didn't use it for that (the dog's knee surgery pretty much covered all but $50 of it). While we are on the subject of China (sort of), I thought I'd share that while I was purchasing canned artichokes from a large, reputable local supermarket here in the midwest, I discovered they had removed all but the store brand of artichokes. These artichokes were "imported". When I turned the can around to see from where - it was China. Don't we grow these in America? Or Mexico? (No need to answer, as this is probably not the thread to add this) Laura

Hi I thought I'd offer up an introduction. About 3 years ago, I used to post on the old board. For about 2 years before that, I lurked and gathered information, then couldn't help myself and participated in the boards. Then, I kind of dropped off, but still, whenever I needed information, these forums were the first place I looked, and inevitably found what I was looking for (and then some). The support and knowlege in this forum is invaluble. Now, nearing the end of this school year, for some reason I can't explain, I'm pumped to start planning next year. Pumped? No, obsessed, actually! So, once again, I turn to these boards to reap the info and plan curriculum. And once again, I'm sucked in! We are entering our 4th year of homeschooling the twins, 9y ds/dd. Both went to a private school for the first few months of 1st grade, but it wasn't working out for any of us, so at Thanksgiving they came home for vacation and never went back. It was the best move we've made with our children. We use Singapore Math, SOTW, going back to Voyages in English for this upcoming year, Rosetta Stone Italian (and a tutor), Spelling Workout, and rely heavily on WTM recommendations for the rest of our studies. We've experimented with various Latin programs and Writing Strands. We are also looking at adding an additional language (deciding between Mandarin, French or Spanish classes offered to hs'ers at the local college in the fall). Planning to use some of the Critical Thinking Co programs for logic next year (or perhaps even this summer - I've already ordered them!). Need desperate help with art classes. That said, there are way too many good threads in here to stop myself from adding my 2 cents worth! So, I'm off:thumbup: ! Laura (in GB)

Something that has helped my ds (9y) is guided imagery cds, a warm neckwrap (placed on his forehead, stomach or around the back of his neck) and a few drops of lavender (essential oil) on the pillow case. Takes him about 20 min max to fall asleep...usually. (Takes me about 2 min!) Laura (used to post on the old board, missed the board change, just now catching up...)