I am glad you started this poll. I meant to make one and got distracted. DS9 has one and his name is also Sharkie. He came from the Ikea in Paramus NJ and his particular claim to fame is that he's driven over 32k miles in the car.. Having crossed the country three times and back.

One of the many reasons I home school is because I don't think kids should be separated from the family so young. PreK can be the right amount of outside activity for some children, but definitely not all children. Sounds like she gave it a fair try, and she expressed herself clearly. I don't see how you can ask for more from such a little person. Of course if you keep forcing her, she'll adjust. But is that what you really want from her? I'd personally being her home. Maybe she can watch an educational-ish movie in the mornings while you do school?

We did pretty well today. DD decided she'd finish 2/3 of a light unit in exchange for one day off math and being allowed to bake a cake. I agreed, not thinking she'd do it, but she did. I had planned to make the cake anyway to celebrate the end of the Cassini mission early tomorrow morning. So we ended up making a great Saturn/Cassini cake. DS did the normal. He had trouble focusing today after his fun trip but I'm sure tomorrow will be even better for him. Tomorrow DD will just have L/A to finish for the week. DS9 has a bunch that I had planned but we obviously won't finish a weeks worth of work in two days so I'll just see how long he can hold out.

My DS9 sleeps with that ikea shark too. His name is sharkie. DD has a large elephant who I think is also from ikea for her pillow

I still have my lovie from when I was a kid. I slept with him into college because he was the perfect size/density for a pillow, but he ended up in a box the closet when DH became my pillow.

Maybe I just have so much going on? I don't know. I just have prov send over my paperwork. I asked at one point what the procedure should be after an anaphylactic reaction with epi and on their end it was just the report after the fact. We had a really bad year for all things medical in 2016 but I'm hoping to be on less of a first name basis with all my doctors in the future :)

You should post on local chicken/farm/food group and offer a "retirement home" for some hens. They only lay 2-3 years but I've heard they can live ~15. A big problem for many people is what to do with their beloved laying hens after their days of laying are over.

Even if they are the same price, if you are executive members at Costco you will get the 2% back so that's $12 better :) My Costco membership pays for itself and then some. It's worth calculating if you'll use it enough.

CD's are so fragile. They just wear out. I rip all of ours and listen from a digital something so they last.

I think the call if you have a reaction thing is a cya. My allergist doesn't even really care if I have an anaphylactic reaction as long as I take care of it properly. They definitely don't care if I have a delayed reaction to allergy testing. It's not to say they don't care -- I have the best allergist on the planet -- it's just once you know what to do and and are doing it, there isn't much else they can do for you. They want call ins from people who have no idea how to follow instructions or take care of themselves. That's a surprisingly large number of people.

Because we've had so many breeches in the last few years, we've had continual free monitoring. I think it might have been with different companies but we are with credit karma right now. They email with any change to my credit report and periodically if my credit score changes for any other reason.

DH and DS9 are sill hunting. They got ptarmigan but are still looking for caribou.. Or moose or bear if they find one of those first. Not much school planned for the little two today. It's super nice not to have the pressure of "real school". I do have a French lesson scheduled for my 2 year old.. I booked a different teacher every day this week to see if we can find one to work with him. His french is really dropping off compared to English and I want him to be ready to do CNED (French correspondence school) when he gets to preK age. He just needs another regular contact besides me, and I don't have anyone I can ask right now. Hopefully one of them works out.

Thanks everyone! This really helps. I think fourth grade is the time when kids take over a little of their reading in Ambleside Online too, so it looks like it might be time to try a list and see how it goes. I didn't realize TWTM had a reading list starting in 4th. I just bought it this year actually for the first time so I haven't read it cover to cover yet. I'll go give it a look!

I have two kids who read very well. DS9 and DD6 are past the point of assigning them daily reading for the sake of learning to read. They could definitely read classics that would be worthy for language arts as a subject, but up until now I have done all the "school work" books as either read alouds or audio books we listen to together with stops for narration. I have wanted to let fluency develop by letting them read as much of whatever, and have helped them find catchy series. They each read at least 2h/day and maybe more on a relaxed day or in the middle of a good book. I do sometimes assign 30 minutes of history or science reading if we aren't going to cover those subjects in another way on a given day, but I've been pretty relaxed about letting them read from any book that fits without a commitment to finish it. So at what point do you start assigning specific books that have to be read by the child? Do you use a time per day model or expect things to be completed on a certain schedule?

11 laying hens doesn't seem like that much for a family of they mostly slow down laying in the winter like mine did. I used to add eggs to everything. Pancake recipe calls for one egg per cup of flour? Make it 4 or more. Want Mac and cheese? Make macaroni and cheese soufflé with 7+ eggs.

My oldest is a perfectionist and says he doesn't want to do art so I told him it isn't one of his subjects this year. I do still try and engage him, and he often goes for it if he doesn't fall under pressure or judgment. It is my expectation that my children will have decent realistic drawing skills by 8th grade, but I'm not going to make it torturous for all of us to get there.

If you can get it locally, Dragon fruit from Vietnam. We just had one recently so they might be in season/available. I'd say tamarind for India but they aren't unique to India. Fresh tamarind is just awesome though. Kids who haven't seen it will find it fascinating and most will like the taste. There is also St. John's bread (carob pods) from northern Africa. Both of those you can order online easily. I'd probably do mochi for Japan, unless you can get fresh lychee. Musili for Germany. Skyr is a soft cheese similar to yogurt from Iceland. There is a brand of skyr that is in American stores now Siggi's

My littles each did math and handwriting. Now they are working on an Ed Emberly book of fingerprint characters. Super cute little scenes being created on my kitchen table. Baby and toddler are down for their nap. This beautiful little moment of calm almost makes up for the chaos that was wake up through the start of art time lol.

That's how I like mine. You'll be fine. It isn't chicken.

Oh maize, I'm sorry about your MIL. Take care of yourself this week. It's so easy to put yourself last with so much intensity on your husband's side of the family. --- DH took my oldest hunting so I can't plan much for school for him. They could be back tomorrow evening or stay until weds night, depending on if they get lucky or not. I have a cold with a very sore throat so I'm going to take it easy and do art, math games and handwriting with the younger set but otherwise take it easy.

Gosh I didn't catch that! YES. You can't only do part of A and then expect to do B with a 5 year old unless you have previously taught RS and you know how to read your child, stretch the concepts and practice. The review lessons are supposed to be for a kid who came from a different program. A kid who had RSA should have everything on the review lessons automatic already.

Are you talking about partitioning 10 on the abacus? I remember my son not liking that at that age.. Possibly because I over did it, or possibly it was a little abstract, or too easy. I can't remember. What I did do though was make him do it once a day out at least watch me do it and answer questions. I was very matter of fact about it and after a while he decided it was faster to do it himself. He hated all the manipulatives in RS so I was selective, but partitioning 10 is important. You could switch to playing go to the dump for at least some of the practice, but revisiting the abacus is important eventually. RS advances quickly. Don't be afraid to hang out, play other games, and wait for those pieces to click.

I do remember seeing threads where people used TT Algebra as a pre-algebra program. Maybe that was the mixup.

It's noon here. DS9 has handwriting, astronomy, Greek and history reading left. DD hasn't done math yet. It seems like rather a lot not to be done at this point in the day :( Everything else is done though. Kids just had lunch. We are going to go high bush cranberry (aka crampbark for my herbal friends) picking if my kids stop fighting over where we are going, and we'll finish school after.

Thanks! Actually my local homeschool group has a meet up every week to work on that. I was sort of on my radar but I hadn't had a chance to look into it yet. That might be great for us. Thank you!! Great suggestions in there, and then a few more that got added today :) I see your kid went through a similar phase a couple years ago. We love the Among the People books too but there is a time for that and a time to branch out. ----- Can I hijack my own thread for a tiny vent? My mom is staying with us. She mostly keeps her mouth shut on homeschooling things because she and all her sisters were public school teachers. We have pretty different ideas about education. Anyway.. as I was offhandedly discussion some things I was looking at for DS5, she told me that she thinks he'd be less intense if, instead of adult books, he had more Rafi and kid appropriate things to listen to. :banghead: He is a super intense kid.. he just does everything BIG. I am a huge believer in fairy tales and we do have LOTS of "age appropriate" (whatever that really means) things for him. I feel like I need to justify *why* he's super intense and point out all the beautiful things his intensity brings. He has a genuinely sweet heart, a crazy maniacal laugh when he learns something new that just warms your heart and makes him a joy to talk to. And yes, he has tantrums and lots of anger, and he and his two year old brother have a really hard time together... but he's a young 5. Everyone expects so much from him. He does so much, and they still expect more and I just want to cry for him :( tldr; just the bold.