I am not at all technologically savvy and have not kept up with the latest developments. I need to get another device for our homeschooling besides our desktop computer. Everyone is always wanting it at the same time, and we really could use a second device. I want to spend the least amount of money possible. I can't pay any monthly bills for the device, such as to a cell phone company. I really only need the device to be able to get WiFi internet at home. Apps would be cool but aren't necessary. I don't need to do any word processing. Would a laptop, tablet or netbook be best? Or is there another option I might not know about.

Hi. I am trying to decide if I want my son to do Awana or some form of Christian scouts instead b/c we don't have time for both. Any thoughts?

Thanks Hunter.

I am planning to do a lot of living books for kindergarten history, focusing on early American history and brief introduction to other peoples/cultures of the world. I am thinking of waiting until first grade to get into ancient history. I am looking for some sort of simple spine to help organize the living books. I have eliminated CHOW, MOH and LIttle Pilgrims. Any ideas?

Why were you not a fan?

The problem is that my son tends to imitate the bad characters instead of learn from them. For example, if you are familiar with the the sharing book "The MInosaur," that book was a disaster for him. It started him saying "Mine, mine!" all the time lol!

Hope you have some other smiles today, Forgiven :)

Looking for a silly/uproariously funny audiobook for my nearly 5 year old boy. It's okay if it has bathroom humor but nothing with any other objectionable material (people talking unkindly to eachother, bad language, etc.).

What is your favorite social skills/manners/anger management/character resource? I'm looking for one for my five year old son that will explicitly teach him skills. There are so many being offered that it makes my head spin. I would prefer open and go. It would be a plus if it was from a Christian perspective with Scripture references but secular is fine too.

This link gives an amusing illustration of what can happen if we make to many "little" changes to our language. It refers to much more substantial changes than we are discussing, but is interesting nonetheless http://m.tickld.com/x/the-english-language-is-about-to-change-are-you-ready-for-this

Thanks. That is very interesting. It is actually from Rod Everson's site, not Don Potter, though he has a good site as well. Everson also supports "think to spell." For example, saying "ton" and "ton" and not "tun" for spelling, but I think he feels that the long ee in i and y is different.

Thanks. That is very interesting. It is actually from Rod Everson's site, not Don Potter, though he has a good site as well. Everson also supports "think to spell." For example, saying "ton" and "ton" and not "tun" for spelling, but I think he feels that the long ee in i and y is different.

This is silly but makes a good point! http://m.tickld.com/x/the-english-language-is-about-to-change-are-you-ready-for-this

Please don't leave Hunter. I really appreciate hearing your perspective. Please do talk to him if you can get in touch with him. I started this thread to hear both sides so I could make an informed decision, not to bash people who don't choose to teach ee for i or y.

Thanks for that heads up! It is hard to foresee the changes that will be needed b/c I'm not very deep into it.

Even so, I think most Americans say pizza closer to "Peetza" than "Pitza" and happiest closer to "Happee-est" than "Happi-est."

This is a great article by Rod Everson on this topic: http://www.ontrackreading.com/homeschooling/the-easiest-change

My current plan is to do SWR and add the long ee sound. I don't think that will require too much modification. I like what Rod Everson has to say on the issue: http://www.ontrackreading.com/homeschooling/the-easiest-change

What is it that is causing heads to turn? Is it pronuncation, vocabulary?

That's a good point. It's not a straightfoward as I thought.

how odd. thanks for your research!

Do most British people say it like "Monkeh" with short e?

I stand corrected :)

I myself tend to gravitate toward old-fashioned, simple, classic things in my homeschooling, and I see what you mean about the benefits of that. It also has drawbacks of course, because what sets them apart also can make them odd. I struggle a lot with that in my own homeschooling philosophy and parenting philosophy in general - how different do I want my kids to be? I certainly don't want them to be like the average kid today, which is a big part of why I am homeschooling. So that will automatically make them a little odd. But I am also concerned with giving them some common ground in popular culture. Anyway, sorry for the tangent. Can you be more specific about how the old-fashioned spelling has caused your kids to be noticed? The professors don't hear him "think to spell" the word baby as "babi." Are you saying he pronounces it "babi" and they notice that?

I think it's important to remember that the English language is English, ie. Brittish. Brittish people pronounce it "i". You can tell it was originally intended to be that way b/c of the suffixes, etc. (see other threads). If you want to make sense of how the English language was originally put together, "i" does that. However, as several people have pointed out, most of us don't speak that way anymore. I guess you could say we speak "American." Just ask a few people from England what they think about American speech; some of them look down on us. So to me, the "i" is good for understand the history of our language, and the "e" is good for matching what we say today. People are going to disagree about which is the highest priority. I personally feel you can go to far in emphasizing history. Taken to the extreme, this could have no end. Are we supposed to go back to achaic English (how original is original?) that would be so foreign to our ears that we could make no sense of it? Language does evolve. But this is a big part of the debate. Remember the big to do about ebonics? There will always be both traditionalists and revisionists.