My kids (14, 10 and 8) have learned to ask permission to sharpen pencils in Mom's fancy-schmany sharpener that they gave me for Mother's Day last year. http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/595671/X-Acto-By-Boston-School-Pro/ I've been very pleased with it and it's been going for 15 months now without a problem. It sits on my desk and I'm very territorial about it. lol

I'm Kate, starting 9th grade next week with our oldest, Timothy. I'm trying to balance my highly competitive and over-achieving nature with what Timothy wants to do and thrives at. We are following WTM pretty closely. It works for him. I read and lurk a lot.

My mom had to air out her house last fall after she burned a pot of sugar water on the stove (she was making hummingbird feeder food) and what she said worked wonders was to get wintergreen oil from Whole Foods and soak a cotton ball in it, then put the cotton ball on the AC filter. The AC dispersed the wintergreen smell throughout the house and cleared up the burned sugar smell. I use this trick when I burn toast, which happens about once a week. :)

Thank you Cinder! That's exactly what I needed. :)

If you have the most recent edition, could you help me out, please? Student Activity Book page 80 - the flip book - in my edition doesn't have the #s on the blocks, so I don't know which order they go on. I know this should be more intuitive, but I'm not getting it at the moment. Can you help me? Thanks!

We have had to sever ties with dh's oldest sister and the side effect of that is we have no contact with her two youngest children, nor does she have access to my 3 kids. I would never think about contacting her underage children who live with her, and conversely, I would go ballistic if she tried to contact any of my children. If the adults have agreed to sever ties, then unfortunately, that means the underage children have to deal with the consequences. We have used the situation as a chance to explain why we don't have contact and what kind of behavior is unacceptable - even our 6 year old understands that Aunt K is in "time out" with our family because she can't play nice! I'm sorry the children are having a hard time dealing with the situation. I hope that when they are all adults, they can see past the adults disagreements and still get along.

:iagree: Yeah! What she said!!!! :) My husband doesn't act on his every whim/arousal, and we are teaching our sons and daughters to do the same thing.

I haven't read this book, but really - is that fair to men? They're hard-wired to be aroused, so seeing a breast means automatically they're aroused? Wow. That's unfair. I know many, many, MANY men that aren't that base. You do too. The men I know and go to church with and live in my neighborhood with know that a breastfeeding mom isn't working her wicked wiles on him and instead think it's great that you're feeding the baby (and keeping it quiet so he can continue worshipping/talking to you/enjoying his meal without a screaming fussy baby in his ear). And I personally am not very interested in men desiring me for my body. I would much prefer to be desired for my mind. My body will change a lot over time, not for the better. My mind will. :) And again, breastfeeding in public IS mostly done modestly with respect and descretion.

Oops - I very rarely comment on the boards and don't keep track of who says what, etc., so I don't know who is married to whom. I hope I didn't offend you. Sorry. No offense intended. I just meant that requiring women to cover up to prevent a man from possible sexual arousal is a slippery slope that I don't see Americans wanting to start down. And starting with breastfeeding moms isn't the right place. Seriously, does anyone see nursing moms flinging themselves around and I'm missing this somehow? I'm not talking about radical nursers. I'm talking about standard, run of the mill mom whose 6 month old needs a feeding. She's probably paranoid about being seen already without making her feel like she's the reason for the downfall of Western Civilization! lol Sorry to get totally off topic from the OP. I think people are more aware of other people's rudeness and disrespect because we hear about it from more outlets - we don't have TV and only get our news from the local paper and NPR and the Sunday New York Times, but I hear about tons of awful things on this and a few other boards I frequent and Facebook. People spread the bad stuff far and wide more easily these days instead of shaming privately any more.

I agree with the OP that there is less gentility in the world today, more selfishness and less concern about getting along with your fellow man even if he disagrees with you. But I think our great-grandparents said the same thing, and probably their great-grandparents did too. Every generation seems to think it was the best ever and everything afterward is in a handbasket headed south. I think we would all be a bit less upset if we tried to find the good that flourishes as well. Balance things out a bit. Mandy, I live in Middle TN too, and unless we're running in completely different circles, I don't know where you're seeing all these breastfeeding moms flashing nipples everywhere. I've gone to La Leche League meetings in two states, the vast majority of my friends breastfeed, and am pretty darn earthy-birthy crunchy. I can't think of the last time I saw a nursing mom flash in public. Most of the time, even the crunchiest moms are discreet, even in their own homes. Being discreet doesn't mean they have to cover up with a blanket - they're already wearing nursing bras, nursing tops, a sling and have a baby in the way of anyone seeing their breast. Most times, covering up with a blanket is only going to bring MORE attention to the fact that they're nursing. As for the argument that we need to cover up in order to keep men from thinking of us in a sexual manner, do you realize that's the same reasoning Islamic fundamentalist states use to force women to use burquas? From your sentence above, anything a woman does that might make a man become sexually aroused is her fault. That is a dangerous line of thought. Instead, why don't we help educate our sons, brothers and husbands that a woman's body isn't primarily made to be ogled or gawked at, and instead respected as a source of life and nourishment. I would feel much safer with the world in general if I was looked at with a smile when feeding a child than with a leer for simply having breasts.

Anyone else up here? I have had a hard time fitting in to the homeschooling groups in town and would love to find other WTM families.