I hate it too. I am anxiously awaiting word on how your oldest is doing in the PA HS'ers writing course. Next year my oldest will be in a writing course and a book discussion course. Did I tell you that I hate that one too? Why oh why can't I just teach math. Math I know how to teach, math is easy to teach, but these others. Give me math, and cis, and science any day, any student over writing and book discussions,..... Wish you were closer, we could go out for a coffee.

I've gone in and deleted the body of messages, leaving just a ---these have all sold---- but it would be nice to delete off posts. I thought we had that option when this new forum began?

oh now I would love that but the rest of the family dislikes aubergines, and they would be impossible to find in our stores right now. Great thing to make this summer though when my eggplants are growing wonderfully.

We had a leg of lamb last night for dinner. I was thinking of making lamb soup with the leftovers. Anyone have a great recipe? We also low-carb it here so there can't be potatoes, corn or beans in the pot.

Last week I responded to a Want-to-buy ad and the books went out on Friday. I searched it before I posted my long list of items I had/have for sale. I'm also headed to the USPS this afternoon with several book packages for the items I sold on the For-Sale board.

Make a pot of New England clam chowder, smash the potatoes up and use them as thickening for the soup. Although I'd really be tempted to fry them up with onions and a few eggs and have a breakfast feast. OR, you could fry them up, mix in some ham and have ham-hash-browns for lunch or dinner.

In addition to what others suggested we really enjoyed the Badlands. Many folks just drive through but we camped there and stayed 3 full days. It was wonderful, we did some hikes (hike very early and take lots of water), and visited Wall Drug after our hikes for a great milkshake. We also enjoyed/toured Wind Cave and Jewel Cave, and did both caves on the same day, had dinner, and got to Mt Rushmore in time to see the fireworks on July 3rd. What a DAY!! While in the Mt. Rushmore area we camped at either Jewel cave or Wind Cave --- one of them has a campground and reservations were not needed. C

I've enjoyed your comments and it has given me greater incentive to read through CT along with my DS. At 15yo he's quite ready for some bawdy tales.

Two additions that I didn't see listed so far are the World Famous glass flowers exhibit at Harvard. This is a MUST SEE; you cannot see these anywhere else that I know of. The entire musuem is fun to see, but the glass flowers are a must-see. There are tons and tons of things to do in Boston but outside of Boston this is my first favorite spot to take vistors (back in the days when we lived in Mass) -- Lowell National Park The early story of America's Industrial Revolution is commemorated at Lowell National Historical Park in the midst of this lively city. The Park offers visitors an in-depth look into the past that brought the 19th century textile industry to tap the waterpower of the Merrimack River while also revealing cultural connections to the present and visions for the future. And Higgins Armory --- I'm so glad someone mentioned this place. My kids want us to travel back to Worcester just so they can visit it. Oh, and the Willard Clock Museum --- at the very least jump on over to their website to see a typical New England house. It is just unbelieveable what this place has inside that house.

That blink, blink, blink,.... is such a wonderful sight. It is something that you never, ever forget. A little life has started!

We are about to start reading Canterbury Tales and WTM says 'selected tales'. Which ones would you recommend reading? or the ones to avoid? Thanks, Carole, DE

Here's another way. Use this little ditti: King Henry died Monday drinking chocolate milk Use the first letter in each of the words to represent the metric words: Converting from Km to m you need to move the decimal point to the right, how many? Start at the King and move it one space to the right for every word until you get to the Monday. King Henry died Monday 1Km = 1000m king henry died monday to go from cm to meters: King Henry died Monday drinking chocolate milk chocolate to Monday, hmmm need to move the decimal place to the left, how many? monday drinking chocolate 1cm = 0.01m cm to mm: chocolate milk 1cm to mm move the decimal place one to the right

What a wonderful position to be in; knowing about Classical education and that you want to hs, and on top of that your dd is only 27m old. You too have a great attitude of loving learning and being a good student. But since you asked what I'd recommend to prepare for Classical HS'ing I'll answer that question. If I had it all to do over I would have started with The Well Educated Mind, read it, and then started reading all the books it lists. I would pick up Susan Wise Bauer's new History of the Ancient World and read it; when the Middle Ages book gets released I'd pick it up and read it too. Please believe me though, you could do nothing and really just learn along with your child, and still do a great job. I'd attend hs'ing conferences, and see if I could go to a conference Susan Wise Bauer and/or Jessie Wise are speaking at. I would read all I could about hs'ing too. When we started hs'ing my oldest was in 3rd grade there were many subjects I knew nothing about; grammar, Latin, history, rhetoric, but I learned alongside my boys. I've read tons and tons of great books too and this is the one area where I really wish I had started reading these books back when we began hs'ing. Carole, DE

We told our insurance company that we were pulling out our gas fireplace and replacing it with a zero-clearance wood burning fireplace. No problem, and no increase in the premium. We are with AIG. Oh, they did want to see the building permit signed and approved.

My kids so want us to do this and I haven't gotten up the nerve to do it yet. Don't know why?? I've taken them into DC, Baltimore, Philly, Boston; and I took myself all over London, Paris and Milan. Why is NYC frightening me? Give me some encouragement, please!

When I have to take a cake somewhere, and it's teenage kids and older I always take the Kentucky Butter Rum cake, and made with rum. No icing to deal with, pretty as can from the bundt pan, and so moist. ummm.

A 1-2-3-4 cake is 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 4 eggs. Here's my absolute favorite 1-2-3-4 cake recipe. You can make this recipe and pour the batter into 3 - 8" cake pans or 2 - 9" cake pans, grease and flour those cake pans. Kentucky Butter Rum Cake Recipe Preheat oven to 325 F Generously grease bottom of 10" tube pan. If using a bunt pan, grease the entire thing. 1Cup Softened Butter ----- Cream it 2 Cups Sugar ------------- add to butter slowly so it is light and fluffy 4 Large eggs -------------- Add 1 at a time, beat after each Blend together dry: 3 Cup Flour 1 tsp Baking Powder 1/2 tsp Baking Soda Take these dry ingredients and blend in slowly with above butter/sugar/egg mixture. Alternate in: 1 Cup Milk 2 tsp Vanilla Scrape bottom and sides of mixing bowl. Beat batter for 2 minute at medium-high speed. Bake 325 F for 60 - 65 minutes. Cake is done when the top springs back when lightly touched in center, or pulls from sides, or a toothpick inserted is clean. Prepare Butter Sauce, Prick cake, pour warm sauce over cake. Cool cake completely before removing from pan. Butter Sauce Heat but DO NOT BOIL 1 Cup Sugar 1/4 Cup Water 1/2 Cup Butter Remove from heat and add 1 Flavoring: 1 TBL Rum Flavoring OR 2 TBL Rum OR 1 TBL Lemon Juice This cake recipe is also known as a 1-2-3-4 cake. I have used the cake batter for cupcakes, or for Strawberry Shortcake, or for a birthday cake.

The other plus with having a wood fireplace is that you have now diversified your heating methods. If something were to happen to the gas supply you still have heat. If you are in a winter storm and lose electricity for days (which has happened here) and your furnace cannot run you still have a means to heat your home.

Thanks for trying Lindsay and now you are on your way to posting all the time. ;) Really, this new format allows so much freedom in adding all sorts of fun to our posts. :D

Great Avatar. Pegasus is cool and wouldn't it be grand to have horses with wings. Maybe someday it will happen.

We replaced our gas fireplace this past October for a high efficiency wood burning fireplace by KozyHeat. We went with a zero-clearance, 241ZC, and if you go into their website and find it you'll see what we see most everyday---a beautiful, wood fire burning with flames. We LOVE it. LOVE IT!! The heat is wonderful. In the morning I turn the house gas furnance on to 69 so that it will quickly heat the house up to temperature from 50 degrees --- we turn it off over night --- and while it is running I get the fire going. We don't try to keep the fire going overnight, just don't need to. The house furnace runs for about 30 minutes before I shut it off for the next 24hrs. The fire place heats our home; 2200 sq ft of space for the rest of the day. The place easily stays around 69 to 72. We shut the doors to the upstairs bedrooms so that's another 2000 sq ft of space that the fireplace doesn't heat, but it does a great job of keeping the house cozy warm. We have a large, open floor plan so the fireplace is our only real source of heat this winter, except for the 30 min in the morning. I don't understand the comment about not being able to enjoy the flames cause we can certainly do that with ours, provided that I have cleaned the glass in the morning. That is easy to do using Windex (on the cool glass) and sometimes the 'flame-soot-glass remover' stuff. ))))))))))))))))))))))) All the features and benefits of our popular model 231ZC, with square doors! Now you make the choice as to whether you want your zero-clearance woodburning fireplace to have arched doors or square doors. Either way, both options deliver superior heat output to bring warmth to even the coldest days. Available with black cast iron doors only. Standard Features 65,000 BTU/hr Input 73% efficiency Secondary combustion chamber High-quality pyro-ceram glass (12" x 14") Air-wash system (keeps viewing area clean) Air-seal square cast iron doors Zero clearance Large burning area - fits up to 22" logs Adapts to an 8" HT class “A†insulated chimney 10 year limited warranty Optional Features Outside air vent - closure & non-closure vents Black, Brass, Chrome or Brushed Nickel grills Face Trim - Brass Fan kit with variable speed (2-110 cfm) 8" B-Vent heat duct kit Expanded metal face Grill extension Lintel Iron KLS gas log conversion system

Interest paid on home mortgage Gains and losses from selling stocks Charitable contributions Those are some items that have affected our tax payment.

We did a similar approach to Pam's for my 8th grader; a little bit of SOTW 4, History of US and then TONS of books. There are just so many books for this time period; historical fiction, biographies, newspaper reports, historical living books,.... that it is easier to go down lots of rabbit trails and have this time period take years instead of one year.

One idea is to take one book, such as Stuart Little and start dictation from the beginning of the book. Work through the book, continuously dictating from the book. Day 1 you dictate from Ch 1, line 1 to whatever your child can handle. Day 2 you pick up from where you left off the day before. Continue in this manner. I did this with both my boys using Stuart Little, and then using Anne of Green Gables. They really, really looked forward to doing dictation so they could hear the story! We too used Harp and Laurel Wreath book for dictation however one problem we had was that my boys became really interested in the stories, and I could not find these OOP books for them to read 'the rest of the story'

First, IMO, 22 page report from a 6th grader is out of line. Way too much. I thought of making a joke here, but I'm dead serious, No WAY. I wouldn't require my 10th grader to do a 20+ page report. My 6th grader writes: 3, one page papers for Classical Composition per week 1, one page topical paper for History per week 1, one page topical paper for either science of literature per week. The approach I'm using is to write often, but not that lengthy of a report. My 10th grader will write a research paper, his first, this spring. It is to be about 10 pages in length. 22 pages, I'm still shaking my head.