Tonight the topic at our homeschool group's monthly mom's night out was how to do science/history fairs. Very informative to those of us who haven't done one since grade school. Some of the moms mentioned that their children don't have a choice as to whether or not they participate. They require their children to do both. There were a couple other moms who said they let their children decide for themselves. The moms who make their children stated public speaking type reasons as well as *I'm the parent and so I make the decisions for my children.* It made me wonder what the *norm* is, I guess, in other homeschooling families. Not that it matters one way or another. I am simply curious. So I thought I would ask here. Do you make your children participate in fairs or do you let them decide for themselves?

ETC primers and letter of the week (I borrow ideas from here and here.).

MUCH better week for us! A lot of pics!! I post a bunch of pictures of our Apologia Astronomy notebook as well. Here is the link!!

:iagree: My dh and I were just talking about this exact thing. My oldest learns and retains much better if he does so independently. I keep up with his work and we talk about missed problems and such, and of course if he is stumped, I help him. For the most part though, he is in the 6th grade and very independent. Really the only subject he needs one-on-one help with is English. Since he moved into a more independent study, his standardized test scores have jumped up. He just learns better by himself. It would be silly of me to push my teaching on him when he does much better on his own.

We use ETC and he LOVES it! We also use LeapFrog videos, BOB books, and some various games that I made for him.

With my first and third, it was done by his ped doctor the day that we went home. It was done while he was in the nursery and the doctors did their rounds. My second had a low platelet count so we decided to wait. He was a month old when we did another blood test and the platelets were up. I took him to the nursery at the hospital and I stayed in a nursing room while they took him to the nursery for the doctor rounds. Because I have a low platelet count while pregnant and there is a chance that what causes my count to be low can occur in my babies (as with my 2nd), my babies are blood tested before a circ. There was some kind of mix-up with the doctors, my husband had to go home to a sick child, and I was out of it due to some problems. Anyway the blood test didn't get done but the peds doctor (on call) wanted to do the circ anyway. I refused so we took him back to the hospital at his two week checkup and followed the same procedure as with my 2nd. With my 1st and 2nd, I wanted it done as well as my husband. With the younger two, I wouldn't have had it done if my husband didn't want it. He had an adult friend who had a lot of horrible problems as a result of not being circ'ed and he eventually had to be circ'ed as an adult. That experience didn't go well either. He was out of work and in a lot of pain for months. That was the main reason for my husband's insistence. We didn't have any problems with our boys'. Within a week or so, they were fine and could be bathed.

We have just a few more weeks left of Astronomy and LOVE it! We will be using the rest of Apologia's elementary series as well as Gen Science next year with my oldest!! I haven't seen the Zoo books yet and I have heard that they are geared a little higher grade-wise. However I thought Astronomy was perfect for my k'ner....and 6th grader. Both have learned SO much this year!! My k'ner knows the planets and about the sun, space rocks, and Earth's moon; and he can recite quite a few facts about each. I am really surprised at how much they both have retained. We don't do many of the experiments, only the ones that appeal to us. We do the notebooking suggestions. My k'ner dictates to me what he learns each day and my 6th grader of course does his own notebooking. They especially like the part of drawing each planet. I also printed off the lapbooking pages found on a yahoo group (The name has slipped my mind. I can find it later if you would like.) I have some pictures of what we have done so far on my blog under Weekly Report. I usually find some You Tube videos of different aspects of each chapter. For example when we studied Earth, I found videos on the different layers of the Earth and more info about the atmosphere. When we studied about the moon, we watched the video of Neil Armstrong. Just some fun extra stuff like that to go along with the book. You don't need those things but my boys like the pictures and videos. I am not a sciency person. My 6th grader tends to be sciency and my k'ner just likes to have fun with all of his schoolwork. Apologia has been a great fit for all of us! I enjoy teaching it. I think I have heard that the majority of Creation talk is in Astronomy, and I can see why as it talks about how the solar system was formed and why Earth was perfectly made for us. So obviously there is a lot of Creation talk in this book. The author talks from a Young Earth perspective. We believe in Old Earth Creation but I thought those little YE parts were easily tweaked. Just from what I've heard about the other books in the series and what I've seen in Astronomy, I think this book is the best to start with if you plan on doing the whole series. Great series!!

Better late than never! Our very uneventful, sick week is posted! :D

We will meet one hour a week for 8 weeks. I would like to have a craft, game, and food along with some basic info for grades K-2. Any ideas? Galloping the Globe maybe? Thank you!!

Two stepsons (24 and 20), four sons (12--almost, 5, 3, and 1), three grandbabies (3, 2 mos, 2 mos). I'd love to have more...LOVE a girl. I'm not sure though. My last pregnancy was full of complications and very scary.

I know all their baby info and gestational weeks. However my baby boy's birthday throws me everytime! I was due 04/23/08, but actually had him 03/24/08. Always, always think his due date as his birthdate! The insurance company was sure confused when I added him to our policy. The hospital submitted claims for a March 24th birth and I claimed he was born in April.....

:iagree: I don't see anything wrong with your scenarios either. When my oldest started feeling modest about his body (about two years ago), we just respected his privacy. My younger three are not modest in the least. My 3 yr old would run around the house completely naked all day if I'd let him. We're pretty relaxed about it when its just our immediate family at home. I bathe all the little boys, and did bathe my oldest until he was old enough to do it himself. My husband does run around in his undies and it doesn't bother anyone, including my oldest who has been known to streak across the house in undies before too. I don't undress in front of my oldest because it would embarrass him but my littles don't care at all. They don't even notice. My husband dresses in front of any of us and nobody is embarrassed. I grew up in a very relaxed home and I have never had any issues with seeing anyone without clothes. My sisters and I used to sit in the bathroom while my mom took her extremely long baths and we all talked. It was a really nice girl time. Her nudity never bothered us. My dad however was never naked around us. He did run around in his undies every now and then which embarrassed me as a pre-teen/teen sometime. I keep that in mind as I'm dressing with my oldest in the house.

Everyone in my family also thinks this. :lol:

My late term preemie needed some supplementing for the first couple of weeks. I just nursed him on demand, making sure it was at least every two hours and no more than 4 hours at night until he was a bit older. When I thought he was ok without the bottles, I just got rid of them and nursed, nursed, nursed. After just a few days, he did just fine with nursing. I had to wake him every few minutes but usually I could let him nurse for 5 minutes, change his diaper to wake him up, nurse for another 5 minutes. One of my stepson's late term preemie twins (Jackson and Lauren) needed some supplementing for the first 6 weeks or so. They are two months old now and I think they give a rare bottle here and there to Jackson because he seems to need a little more than Lauren and nurses all the time already. My sdil nurses on demand, but when one demands, the other gets to nurse too and they are on about an every 2 hour schedule. Maybe if you nurse closer to every two hours instead of three, that might help. She always nurses them one right after the other if not at the same time so she isn't nursing every hour. They were the same sleepy way my early bird was. They don't have to try to keep them awake anymore so it may be a gestational thing.

I've had the same Christmas morning breakfast since I was a little girl. homemade drop biscuits chocolate gravy white gravy bacon sausage eggs milk oj We've added various other things over the years but these 8 things are a MUST. :lol:

My sister works for WM right now because it is the BEST paying job she can find right now. I worked for WM a long time ago. Back then they were paying 50 cents more an hour than any other place around for someone right out of high school. I personally LOVE Walmart. I love shopping there and I loved working there. I transferred to three different stores while in college and after I married. Loved all three of the stores I worked in. We have a Target, several grocery stores, and a mall, but I prefer my Walmart!! However I also love big shopping crowds and used to love getting the grouchy customers through my line so I could annoy them with my insane cheerfulness. :D LOVED working Black Friday and the whole Christmas season. I love shopping Black Friday at Walmart and now those grouchy people get a big ole toothy smile from a Walmart customer.

Truly the workbox system has helped my 6th grader being independent in his schoolwork, although we don't use the boxes. We have a hanging file folder system. He comes to me when he gets to his English folder and we go over that together as this is his weakest subject. Together we go over his work from the day before, the new lesson, and oral work (R&S). Then he comes to me when he gets to his math (Saxon) folder. We go over his work from the day before and go over the new lesson. He has a checklist for everyday in his math folder because he can get lost moving through the lesson. He has to check off the missed problems he corrects from the day before, facts review, lesson, drill (if any), and any additional resources from the web. I write down all that needs to be done and checked and then he is on his own. We do history and science as a group, and then he goes back to the schoolroom for any follow up work with both subjects. Everything else he does on his own. It is all just *do the next thing* or *one lesson a day* type lessons and fairly easy for him anyway. His workbox keeps him on track. He knows his school day isn't over until all of the folders are completed, and he has learned the hard way that goofing off when he should be working only means his school hours will be extended into the evening. His public school friends get off the bus here at 3:30 so his goal is to be finished with school and chores before his friends get home so he is free to play. We go over the folders one a week to review past work (besides math and English obviously) and prepare for the next week. Before this system, he came to me for every.single.thing. He could do nothing on his own for some reason. Btw he has been diagnosed with ADHD, is very unorganized in every other part of his life, and really struggles to just pay attention to conversations sometimes. He is the KING of procrastination. :D He is learning some good time management and independent skills with his workbox system!

This is what I do too. I don't have to keep grades in our state...so I don't. :D When they have learned the material, we move on.

Baking cookies and goodies for cookie plates that the kids hand out to neighbors every year. Only I can't stop eating all that I have baked. It's seriously getting out of control! :lol: At this rate, everyone will be getting a bag full of chocolate covered pretzels.

True. Some non-Catholics do interpret it differently. However someone was asking whether Mary being the Queen of Heaven was considered tradition or biblical within the Church. Along with the reference to the ark of the covenant Rev 11:19, Rev 12 tells the Catholic Church that she is the Queen.

Didn't see this week's posted anywhere!! I have been out of the loop lately. Finally posted our progress last night. Can't wait to read everyone else's blogs today!

Being a convert, I also had issues with this as well. Until a Baptist led me to Revelation 12. Specifically verse 1. Also in response to someone who asked about Mary being our mother, verse 17 for instance. Having been away from the Catholic Church for almost a year now because of my own faith issues, I was SO happy to have been pointed to Rev 12.

My secret is my mom's spare bedroom! I hide most things there and wrap everything little by little as we visit. I'll sneak in there and wrap a couple here and there. It has a lock that canNOT be picked so I love it! Then about a week or two before Christmas I bring them all home and the older two keep a good eye on them for me. They know my rule well: If any present gets opened before time, it goes back to the store. :tongue_smilie: This will be a tough year with my 20 month old who LOVES opening things.

The first is me with my oldest two. We were taking silly pics to kill time in the car one day. The second one I found while looking for the first. I love it...My husband and me after sometime after Christmas last year.

Fun thread!! Here's my hubby!!