I have tomatoes coming out of my ears from the garden so I thought I'd make fresh spaghetti sauce. Does anyone have a good recipe to share? I'm in the process of peeling the tomatoes right now. Thanks!

I found 3 editions dating back to 1920 at a used book shop and bought them mainly for the nostalgia. I was wondering however, if anyone still uses them and if so, what exactly do you do with them?

To be honest, I'm not expecting my oldest to turn into a bookworm. He has a friend who absolutely loves to read and I suspect that my son will never quite get there. If I can get him to choose a book every-so-often however, I will feel that missing the Food Network will be worth it :D. For what it's worh, I'm guessing our little agreement will cost me $20. I'll keep you posted...

I'm tired of fighting with my son to get him to read so I cancelled our Directv, at least for the summer! Now, I'm in a slight panic because I don't know how 3 boys are going to keep themselves entertained (without driving me absolutely crazy!) I told my oldest that I'll actually pay him $2 for every books he reads this summer! I hope this experiment works. I have friends who haven't had tv for a few years but yet their boys are totally addicted to their Nintendo's and WII. For my sanity, I didn't keep the cable on in my bedroom .

I'm tired of fighting with my son to get him to read so I cancelled our Directv, at least for the summer! Now, I'm in a slight panic because I don't know how 3 boys are going to keep themselves entertained (without driving me absolutely crazy!) I told my oldest that I'll actually pay him $2 for every books he reads this summer! I hope this experiment works. I have friends who haven't had tv for a few years but yet their boys are totally addicted to their Nintendo's and WII. For my sanity, I didn't keep the cable on in my bedroom :D.

Wow...I was a Deputy Coroner in my other life and actually did "mock" drunk driving scenarios at high schools. There would be fake accident scienes and I would make "mock" death notifications but we never blindsided kids like this. They always knew it was a dramatization. They're lucky someone didn't go ballistic and get hurt. Now, I live right next to this town and knowing the school district like I do, I'm not surprised they would pull a stunt like this.

So, I'm spending a little time to myself while my boys are in "quiet time" so naturally, I decided to pop on the tv and started watching Food Network. I'm watching someone make banana muffins w/ cream cheese frosting and a thought occured to me: what's the difference b/w muffins & cupcakes? Both have flour, eggs, sugar, etc. Both can be topped w/ frosting, or not but only one is an acceptable option at breakfast? We would never allow our kids to have cupcakes for breakfast but a muffin is ok. What's the deal with that? Is it the fact that we call it a "muffin" that makes it ok? Does anyone else have one of life's nagging questions that they'd like to share (and I'm not talking about discussing the theory of relativity, here)? :D

So,what I'm hearing is that it's not my fault...boys just have a genetic defect! :D I have thought about Captain Underpants and other such books. I've always been hesitant though. I've heard books like Goosebumps (which he would like) have poor sentence structure but this is probably why kids like to read them...they're easy. Maybe I'll have to compromise...one books he chooses, then one I choose. The scary thing is that I've got 2 more boys coming up behind him!

I'm so frustrated! My son is almost 8 and making him read is such a chore. He whines that reading is "boring". We had a little row about it and I told him he doesn't like to read because he's lazy. Reading takes more effort than watching tv or playing games and therefore, he doen't like to do it. I know it's not a "learning" issue. He reads fine...when he wants to. He has the tools to sound out words and I'm not making him read anything above skill level. Academically, he does fine. Maybe I've ruined him w/ tv. It's not on a lot but but he does watch some. We also have video games but he is limited to about an hour/week. I just feel like I'm stuck between "all or nothing" when it comes to media. The bottom line is he will never choose books over media. Should I just give in and let him be a media junkie (I say this sacastically, of course...sort of.) :glare:

Too funny..."get them drunk and take them hunting" was the best! :rofl:

I like RS4K pre-Chemistry but it's not meant to be covered an entire year. It's only about 10 weeks. Have you looked at easyclassical.com's science curriculum? It has a nice 36 week schedule and uses easy to find books such as Usborne and Evan Moor. I'll be doing the "Animals, Human Body & Plants" study this upcoming year.

Hobie is our shepherd mix named after the famous surfer, Hobie Alter. Max & Sofie are our dopey basset hounds Elvin is the cat (that was his name when we adopted him.) We also have 6 fire belly toads named after various Star Wars characters...

I combined some Ambleside with SOTW 1 and I'm planning to do it again w/ SOTW 2. I'm planning on using My Island Story, Fifty Famous Stories Retold, The Awakening of Europe and On the Shores of the Great Sea. I'll read the appropriate chapters from these books to go along w/ chapters from SOTW 2. SOTW is my main spine but the Ambleside books are a nice addition.

I just paid for WWE this week and was told that it should be shipping out in the next couple of weeks. The workbook however won't be available until August, I think.

Tina, Do you mean the earth icon at the top of my screen that says "geocities?" That icon seems to be something related to my web browser. That is the only one I see. I'm assuming that I should highlight the http: address in the box above whatever I'm trying to link but I'm still lost...

I'm slowing working my way up to the 21st century and I wanted to find out how you all attach links like newspaper articles, Youtube videos, Amazon reviews, etc. to you threads? I'm sure it's fairly simple but being that I'm electronically challenged...:001_huh:

My youngest just turned 3 this week and he's so not interested yet. I'm done! By the time he is finally potty trained, I will have been on diaper duty for about 8 straight years. Boys...aren't they fun! :D

You non-Californians crack me up! All across the country, most people deal w/ tornadoes and hurricanes every year. We only have earthquakes about every 20 years. I had an uncle who lived in Indiana and he flat out refused to come out here for fear of earthquakes. Now wildfires...that's a different story. :D If you get a chance, head one town south to San Clemente and try Sonny's Restaurant. It's my all-time favorite Italian place. Great beaches too! Try stand up paddling.

Well, from what I've just read from her commencement speech at Harvard, it seems that J.K Rowling did...at least in college. She's done ok so far! :D

The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock. It sounds odd but it's a story about a 13th century monk in England. The underlying theme is dealing with pain and suffering in the lives of believers; not depressing in any way however. It's fictional but really good. You can read the reviews on Amazon as well. Just be sure to pick this book and not the romance novel w/ the same name. :D

Well it probably depends where you live. Many Mexican restauants around here use manchego cheese. It's readily available here in So. Cal.

Woo hoo! Come on...loving hockey and being a WTM'er have to be synonymous! :party:

I'd be interested...what do we do next?

Thanks to both of you for the advice and the encouragement! Since my oldest is only 7 1/2, I'm still trying to figure out the "when it all comes together" thing. I generally don't worry too much about comparisons with other kids or placement levels but it's still good to hear from others who've been there! :grouphug:

I'm trying to come up with review ideas for the summer. My son just finished list K and I dont' want to go any furhter right now. He spells well when we do lessons together and I remind him of spelling rules, etc. When he writes on his own however, it's not so good. I think he just needs practice so over the next couple of months I was going to review one old list/day + have him write one original sentence. I'm going way back to list D for review. Does anyone have any other good review ideas?