Praying

I much prefer snow over freezing rain. It's been freezing raining here all day and I cannot wait for it to stop.

I think what they were saying was that the forehead was wider than the cheeks, no? So the face shape would kind of be like a v. I was just looking at pictures of my own kids to compare and their cheeks are wider than or similar in width to their foreheads. The kids in the article, had wider foreheads and the space from the eyes to top lip were close together.

We loved 100ez. I liked the extra symbols because it's the way I learned when i was a kid, and it made it easy to distinguish the various sound of the vowels. Transitioning from the extra symbols is very intuitive. I've never met anyone who had to do all 100 lessons, at some point the child just takes off reading everything. We never made it past 50 lessons and they we're short enough to sometimes do more than one in a day, if I felt the child ready and interested.

I wasn't here for the original Circe thread (last year?) so I didn't really know what you guys were talking about on the most recent thread, but I'm intrigued. Some of you stated that Circe influenced you to ditch historical fiction and I'm wondering if someone could enlighten me. Is there a video I could watch about this? Why is that a recommendation? Or am I misunderstanding?

Gluten sensitivity (with or without celiac) = inflammation, if you are eating wheat, barley or rye. For some people oats also. Inflamed skin, gut, joints, you name it. Go gluten free.

I lasted less than a month working at an ice cream parlor. I got robbed at gunpoint on my very first shift.

I realize there is no right answer, I'm just wondering what the social norm is where you are, if there is one.

I'm not sure if I'm quite getting what you're after. Our favourite bible program has been Our 24 Family Ways. It's very engaging with lots of thought provoking and fun questions. Each week focuses on one verse and one Family Way but with daily Scripture reading, and includes some " imagine you were...what do you think..." type scenarios. This might add a new dimension to his play... Have you looked at some of the Sonlight books?

I adapt a C25K app to whatever new cardio exercise we are trying. 1 minute on, two minutes off makes it a lot more palatable in the beginning. Hearing a voice tell me to stop and go, so I don't have to watch a clock, is nice too. Kettle bell swinging is fun and not too expensive, same with skipping ropes, skippits, pogo sticks. I like to alternate between cardio and toning. The muscle building really helps with weight loss, if that's an issue. Do you own any fitness equipment like a treadmill or elliptical? C25K it if you do. I alternate rebounding with pacing, or elliptical with pacing (walking indoors). Step counters are good motivators. Wear it for a week without deliberately doing additional exercise to find your daily average steps then add 2000/day to your average, when that gets easy, add another 1-2000. There is also a good book called Homeschool Family Fitness. Written by a hs dad/pe teacher. He adapts games, sports, drills and ball handling skills to a hs setting, without specialized equipment or large groups of kids. Really like this book.

Can we compile a list of favourite homeschool/curric. catalogues?

We've been Sonlighters for around 8 years and I never followed the IG for long. I am not crafty and dread gathering all the required bits for projects. But I love SOTW with activity guide. A lot of the projects are simple and the books are well done with good review questions and supplemental reading lists. This year SOTW is our main focus and we are rounding it out with some SL books and other books. I think it's been our best year yet. The kids are enjoying it and getting a lot out of it.

I do that too. It fulfills my need for constant stimulation.

Yep, what the other ladies said. During school time, I assign high quality readers, like Sonlight books and other stuff. Lots of variety from biography, historical fiction, science etc. on their own time, they read what they want. I don't judge. And I still read aloud to them. Again, high quality, lots of classics.

My kids have been vaxed and I don't worry too much about being around sick people, but I do understand that not everyone can have up to date vaccinations and that some people, whether I'm aware of it or not, might be immuno compromised so if my kids even have so much as a sniffle, we either stay home, or I let the other moms know that my kids have the sniffles and would they rather reschedule. Some moms are not overly concerned about my kids colds so we still get together, but I do inform the mom beforehand. I think it's the sensible thing to do. I would hope others would do the same, but of course they don't always. Sorry 'bout the run on sentence.

I can't think of any Sonlight books that we didn't like. I wasn't fond of The Westing Game, but the kids loved it. There are some that one kid or another didn't like, but someone else did, so they've all been worth it. I'll admit there are a few that we never got around to reading though. We've done all the cores from P3/4 to F and are working on G now.

I'd let it be. I doubt the extra tv time did any harm. I understand your desire for your parents and kids to build relationships, but if your parents just aren't kid people, then they just aren't. Could they make the effort, yeah, but if it's so much effort the kids would probably pick up on that. Maybe they will enjoy the kids more when they get older? Do your parents have any hobbies that might interest your kids as they grow? Hopefully, in time they will come around to having some common interests. Maybe you could encourage your kids to ask grandma and grandpa what things were like when they were little or ask to see some family photo albums from way back. Get creative about encouraging the kids to talk. My own grandparents weren't all that interested (or so it seemed to me) in being the kind of grandparents that liked to hang out with the grandkids, but I still enjoyed just being around them, even if I was watching tv and they were chatting with adults in another room. I did enjoy listening to them talk. When I grew up, we enjoyed each others company. All this to say there are different seasons and different ways of being with people so don't worry that what's happening isn't good enough for your kids - its all good. And hey, it can be neat for kids who have limited tv to say "grandma and grandpa always let us watch lots of movies! Cool!" they probably had fun even if it isn't what you had hoped for. My parents give my kids way too many snacks and treats, but whatever, I'm just glad they're having time together.

Oh yes, we've also claimed the archetypes we are most like from this book. I do love the characters, I just wish there were some real adventure. But I think modern lit has ruined us for the sweet old fashioned variety of adventure.

I had this feeling about it before reading it, so I waited until my kids were a bit older. I thought my 13 y/o would love it - he's very good at lit analysis for his age. He's the one complaining the loudest right now, but he's pointing out some literary devices. I do love that aspect of it.

Two of mine were 10 and under when I read it aloud to them. We discusses it a lot and for my dd who was 10 when we read it, it's her favourite book series ever. So glad we read it. But like others, it would depend on the kid. I'm not sure I would have read it to my oldest when he was 10. Actually, now that I think of it, I refused to read it to him when he asked at that age.

YOu can have a similar experience with a Mac, just not as often. One update on my Mac caused another application not to work. The application that ran a few of the main apps. Anywhoo, I am stubborn and refuse to pay a repair guy to fix what apple broke, and it did take a few weeks to figure it out, but boy did I feel superhuman when I finally fixed it. If you knew how little I understand about computers, you'd fully understand that it could only have been Devine intervention which makes me feel all loved and stuff. Totally worth it!

I'm reading it aloud now and we are on chapter five and its certainly charming, but the kids are finding it boring. Does it get better as it goes or is it just more of the same? Either way, we will be sticking with it because I want to know how it ends but at this point, the kids could care less. I see lots of love for it here on the forums, after doing a search for it, but so far, I'm not seeing why. So if you love it, why do you love it? I don't mind spoilers. Or are there others like my kids that just find it terribly snore worthy? ETA we've read oodles of classics over the years, so it isn't that my kids aren't used to it...

Not arguing here. Just pointing out that I don't think our society wants us to delay sex, just reproduction. Parents want their kids to delay both, but society really seems to want us to have lots of sex of all kinds, with lots of partners, but absolutely no babies!! At least that's the messages I see almost everywhere.

I wore seabands and that worked for me.

This is funny. My ps didn't have a gifted program, so I never knew until I was an adult and a recruiter asked me how I scored in the top 2% on an IQ test when I hadn't been to college yet? I was hired by a company that only hired people with degrees and I didn't have one. There were hints along the way, but I didn't recognize them until after this happened. So many things made sense. The other thing that was a huge factor in my not knowing is that my classmates and I were basically the same. We were part of an experimental program that, apparently, worked. Ha!