I do continue formal math year round no matter what...even if we are traveling and have done so for 7 years. Outside of that it is lots of reading!

:grouphug::grouphug:

:iagree: She can be funny but then I'd spend the rest of the day explaining to my child why we don't agree with 90% of what she said and that would be just exhausting.

I have a beautiful pack n play (which I call a playpen) covered in dust in my laudry room. NONE of my 3 children would stay in it. They all screamed bloody murder if I even tried it. So I used the exersaucer but that only lasted until they were walking. So now my house is a labyrinth of baby gates, It's the only thing I can do to keep baby girl sequestered when I need to.

Praise God!!!

:lol::lol: snort :lol::lol:... here, too. I was thinking "What is so bad about February?" Also ducking and running.... Fun homeschool moments in February... my ds told me he likes his new book we are using for Bible lessons so much that he did extra the first day with it and didn't realize it (I just couldn't put it down Mom!). :svengo: He also said "I think Math is my favorite subject." :svengo: And last night I caught him reading a book of HIS OWN ACCORD. :svengo: So maybe puberty has not killed his brain cells after all!

Awesome!!! :party:

I'm not a good judge because I thought Inception was weird and boring (my husband actually fell asleep) and Black Swan was one of the worst movies I have ever seen! I did love True Grit and I hope that young girl wins an award.

This week it is "Young, Restless, and Reformed" by Colin Hansen.

Nope. Especially when dh tries to make them into a juice. Blech. :tongue_smilie:

Thank you all for your input. I've been reading the replies to dh and I think for now we are going to try to take her down to 2 bottles a day...on waking and before bed...for now but continue using the toddler formula as she was a preemie and is small for her age and could use the nutrition (the birthmom had NO prenatal care at all). In the meantime we are going to look for options for milk (organic, almond, rice, raw, etc.). In a few months we will take her down to just one bottle at night, etc. and try to have her completely weaned from the bottle by age 2. This will give us more time to keep up that type of bonding too for a little while longer. At least that is the plan. But you know what they say about plans.... :D Thanks again!

Yep. Both of my boys have one...a DS lite, that it.

:D Thanks for the encouragement. I made 4 dozen cupcakes and bought frosting in 8 different colors and all kinds of toppings and at the party they get to frost them and decorate them any way they want and then eat them! So I am hoping the pure sugar rush will keep them from noticing the weird shape of the cupcakes. :tongue_smilie:

A few more details to add in... She takes a bottle when she wakes up and before she goes to bed and one more before her nap during the day but she does not take them to bed with her or fall asleep with them in her mouth (I am very leery of tooth decay) or carry them around during the day. Also, she does drink out of a sippy cup on her own during the day but she drinks purified water. It's interesting what was mentioned about formula being a scam and toddlers getting their nutrition from food and cow's milk...my brother is a licensed nutritionist and he says cow's milk is one of the worst things a human can put in their body (and there is no organic milk here...in fact most Malaysians drink powdered milk...I can get non-powdered milk but it is brutally expensive). So I am just really confused. I know that bottle feeding is not the same as breast feeding but if one is not willing to tear a baby away from the breast at a year old, then why insist the baby cannot use a bottle at a year old and must only drink out of a cup? I am sure part of me is not ready for her to give it up (nor does she seem inclined to) and I feel the same pressure from some people to yank the bottle out of her mouth as other moms feel to stop breast feeding when neither the baby or the mom want to stop. Is it a bottle issue? Should I put the toddler formula in a sippy cup instead? OR Is it a formula issue? Should I give her cow's milk (regular store-bought, not organic) even though so many things I read say it is bad for us? If it is a formula issue, should I put cow's milk in her bottle instead?

darn. This is why I don't bake. :glare:

So here is what I am wondering... many women believe in the health and emotional benefits of extended breast feeding for the child. I agree. BUT princess Natalie is adopted so obviously we have been bottle feeding her since birth with the best formula money can buy here. Yes I know there are drastic measures you can take to be able to breastfeed an adopted baby but those were not an option for me since I only had 12 hours notice before she was in my arms. So let's just let that one go, ok? Anyways... assuming this baby formula is better for her than regular cow's milk (right?) and assuming that the bonding during feeding is another reason for extended breast feeding...would that not also apply to bottle feeding? Since day one I have held her very close during feedings almost as if she were breastfeeding, I wear her, we co-sleep, etc. But now she is 14 months old and people are starting to ask when we will wean her off the bottle and off formula. She should be drinking regular milk in a cup I am told. She is eating solids of course. No problems there. But I guess I am just curious...if you cannot do extended breastfeeding, can you do extended bottle/formula feeding as the next best thing?

Yes I am talking about ACTUAL cupcakes (naughty! naughty!). :tongue_smilie: I am making cupcakes for my ds's birthday party tomorrow and they all came out really sort of tall and, well, pointy. I don't bake. Ever. So why did this happen? What did I do wrong?

Ditto

And I was NOT pacing outside the director's office door the whole time. Really. :tongue_smilie:

How awful! I am so sorry.

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

We must be careful not to set up a false dilemma here of either "good teaching by a human" OR "technology in the classroom". Technology is here to stay and it is AWESOME... look at what we as homeschool parents are able to do with it... we collaborate and learn from one another, share ideas, research a topic of interest, get instant answers to questions, multi-task, etc. Our kids are doing the same thing. Just "putting a laptop in a kid's hands" is not effective use of technology (although I daresay that even without a teacher who is tech savvy, a kid will immediately find a way to use that laptop to their advantage). Why technology in the classroom? Because it is fun and EFFICIENT and there are so many things you can do with it. Why NOT have a spinner on a smartboard? If you already have the smartboard in your room and you are doing a lesson you can in a split second bring up a spinner for a game or a timer or videoclip linked to your lesson or do any one of thousands of cool things to add depth to your lesson. Now does that automatically mean kids will be smarter? Of course not. That's ridiculous. But it is a tool and a good one so why not use it? Textbooks? You can get your textbook on a laptop and get updates to them as soon as they come out. Does this mean no books? Another false dilemma. Of course we have books. We have two libraries on campus full of them. It is not an either-or. Competing with China? You bet your sweet bippy we are competing with China and Singapore and Korea and India, etc. and to act like we don't need to is very naive, indeed. I have said this before and I will say it again: at a conference on 21st century learning the speaker asked the audience (full of middle-aged teachers), "How many of you have ever played a board game with a child and LET them win?" Just about everyone snickered and raised their hand. Then he asked, "How many of you have ever played a videogame with a child and had to let them win?" No one raised their hand. Times are changing and a "good" teacher can use technology as a TOOL to be an even better teacher.

My school is going to a 1 to 1 laptop program for grades 9-12 in a year from now and we will be moving away from traditional textbooks. It is the direction international schools are headed. And the high school principal is heading up the switch over. Just thought you might want to know before the interview. ;)

LOVE Camus, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Marquez, and Shakespeare. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

for my 12yo it is his Ipod Touch. for my 6yo it is his soccer ball.