I don't think your kid is playing you. You just are chopped liver next to the teen. 🙂 I have kids who, if I don't feed them during their window of hunger, will simply stop being hungry. Generally if they skip a meal, it will be at least twelve hours before they want to eat again, but that doesn't prevent them from being super cranky because of blood sugar dropping. All of that, "just keep offering the green beans until they eat it" does not work for every kid. Thankfully the older one who is like this knows it and can be reasoned with. "You are angry. I know you don't feel hungry, but you know this peanut butter sandwich will make you less angry "

I don't find them uncomfortable most of the time, but when I've gotten to the end of a long sweaty day or feel itchy for some reason, they go from being no problem to horrible instantaneously. Also, I am very, very over nursing bras and can't wait to get rid of them all! Last kid will likely get weaned in 6 months or so, then I'm done!

I could very well be in a strange bubble. Several of the ones in thinking of are related, so that could be the common thread, too. And they went to the same engineering school, which is a good one, but maybe should have more liberal arts. I think it's always hard looking at people you love and respect in many ways but who have bought a skewed version of reality. When when they agree with you, if they do it for the wrong reason, it's hard to converse and you have to steer conversations towards safe waters, which hurts relationships.

My husband and I were talking about the phenomenon of intelligent people going for conspiracy theories. In our circle, this is pretty much only engineers who have this bent. Not to say all engineers we know so this, or that only engineers do it, but they are over represented. Like someone said up thread, I think it is due in large part to a lack of novel reading in general and humanities education in particular. They study a field that has definite black or white answers and become very good at those. Then, when faced with a world where scientific consensus develops/changes, they see this as dishonest instead of part of the process. I'm doubting myself, though, because in more liberal circles I see people doing the same thing with history instead of science. (Though not a solely liberal problem, to be sure!) Lots of people thinking that they had been given the wrong view of history and now have the truth, neatly contained in this approved book list which they may or may not have actually read. I want to say "That's not how any of this works! History isn't a set of black and white answers!"

Teachermom, I think you should go for it. I've got what feels like a pack of little kids, so I have to be really hands on still. I would do it happily for a friend in an emergency, but it would completely destroy the day's plans.

I've seen how much work goes into starting a business, so I would consider it a family affair if dh were starting one because otherwise I'd never see him. Not that I'd be his business partner, but I'd be around, so I'd know his business partner. He or she would know us and our kids, would be invited to family things, etc. In that kind of situation, I wouldn't care about his partner's gender. If I suspected that the partner would encourage my husband to be unfaithful, I would suspect he or she wouldn't be a trustworthy business partner either.

We were supposed to be doing it this week. The children's director had planned for social distancing. The kids were divided into small groups that they would stay with all week. Teachers would rotate rooms while kids stayed put. Siblings were going to be kept together in mixed age groups. No assembly. Craft packs preassembled then left at children's places at the table so no sharing of supplies. Masks on everyone, all the time. (Except my toddler as he's too young, but he was going to be with me, well back from others.) Our church leadership decided it wasn't worth the risk, so it was cancelled shortly beforehand.

I think this is good advice, but it also reminds me of when my oldest were 2 and 6 months (now 6 and 8, so not that long ago) and I was constantly sleep deprived but having a good time. They were both easy kids as long as we stayed flexible, kept them fed, and didn't let any strangers near the baby. An old family friend had a toddler in between the ages of my two and asked what method I was using to raise them. I came out with something about "we're doing what works and it seems to be working," and she responded back, "oh, we're raising kids God's Way." My sleepy brain was so confused. I was staring at her one child, trying to figure out how she was raising "kids" at all. I think I said something about how that's a good goal for all of us and disengaged as quickly as possible, which is easy when you have a baby and a toddler who are awake. After a while I realized she was quoting the title of a book and simply decided never to talk to her about child rearing. To answer the original question, at least around me, parents and babies are now just flooded with so much stuff! We had about ten beautiful, special blankets given to our oldest, plus the every day kinds. So many toys, clothes, feeding gadgets. It can be hard because new mom is grateful, but it comes to feel like a burden to need to enjoy each special thing. Granny gave this, Miss Ida gave that. For those in a small apartment, it can be a real problem, too. Consignment sale are overflowing with new and nearly new baby stuff at pennies on the dollar. That's not to say not to give your special thing, because those are meaningful, but just to share what many of my friends and I have noticed.

I'd love to participate, but I'm not up to organize one.

I've enjoyed watching the song contest and been interested by the politics involved as well as amused and sometimes impressed by certain acts. I don't remember to seek it out each year, though.

My husband, who is a police officer, and I have been talking a lot about reforms that are needed, even before events brought this into national attention. Here are some of the things we've discussed recently. Police are asked to do too much with too little training. Our department gets far more than the state requires, but they still don't touch on many things the officers need to know on a daily basis, like, laws regarding custody disputes. This leads to officers using their best judgement but making many mistakes that have to be sorted out later, with very real affects on the lives of families (just one example). The main emphasis in much of their training is "you could be shot at any moment." Readiness is important, but incidents where officers go in on too high alert and make mistakes because of it are more common among newer officers. Training needs to be longer, with more information about laws and available resources, and then the on the job part of the training, where new officers ride with experienced officers, needs to be way, way longer as that's the most helpful part. Kind of like becoming a teacher, much of what needs to be learned can only be taught through doing. Unfortunately, right now the academies are all closed due to Corona and the last batch of recruits got graduated early. I suspect the next batch will be given an abbreviated course as well since by the time an academy can be run, the county will be desperate for officers. There also needs to be more help for officers to deal with the stuff they see. There are some resources, but they have to be sought out. They should be automatically offered and, in some cases, required. When dh returned from serving overseas, the first day here reported to work they had him running calls on his own. As it happens, he wasn't in an especially harrowing plane while he was overseas and wasn't having to process too much, but they didn't even check that. Other changes need to be made, like ending the war on drugs. Also, currently in our state, when police officers arrive at a scene of domestic violence where any injury or property damage has been done, they have to label someone the primary aggressor and take that person to jail. That law was made for good reasons but has had bad unintended consequences and hasn't helped terribly much to protect domestic violence victims.

Is it the chain of home school academies, about ten of them, that has a big arts focus? I don't have any direct knowledge, but I am aquainted with a few people who've been involved in the one near me. They've enjoyed it, from what I know.

One big thing to teach in the situation you describe is how to communicate when you don't know the words. Yes, as a teacher you teach lots of relevant vocab and basic grammar structures, but they aren't going to get close to fluent in that time, so they need to practice strategies, like using different words, miming, sketching a quick map, etc that will help them bridge the gap. Without practice it is too easy to either withdraw and give up on communication or fall into the trap of speaking English more and more loudly, hoping it will get through. When I went to live in Russia I only know how to decide the alphabet and really basic greetings. After two years, I could hold basic conversations about certain topics and understand a lot. (I was teaching English, so my growth was stunted in that much of the time I was required to speak English.) Midway through my time, I needed to buy a lightbulb, but I kept forgetting to look up that word when I was near a dictionary. I searched all through a store and ended up having to ask an employee using the words I did know "I have a lamp, but there is no light. I need this." Then I mimed screwing in a bulb. It worked like a charm, and I'll forever remember how to say lightbulb, even after all else is forgotten.

When I'm working with a child, I call it a "look pretty e." When the child hasn't encountered the word very often, I'll remind them "some words in English have an e that is only there to look pretty and doesn't change the sound. Even though you'd expect this to be a pinch-y e and the word to be pronounced air, this one we ignore. How would you say it, then? Good work, r." Later, if the child is looking perplexed, I just remind them "this is a look pretty e," and that's enough for my kids.

When you have been in the school system, either as a student or a parent, you have a lot of assumptions about what should be part of school. The day starts with the Pledge to the flag, and desks are the best place to study, right? Well, it could be that way, but at home, it's all up to you. I'd like to invite those who are brand new or newish to homeschooling to discuss what things they would love to incorporate into their home school. What goals would you like to aim for in the coming year or years? Are there any aspects of traditional school you'd like to leave behind? Any that you feel are important to keep? Is there an area of study you think your child will be excited to branch into? Experienced posters aren't banned, of course, but please be gentle and don't rain on anyone's parade. If I say I'd love to teach my kids four foreign languages and three styles of folk dance in the coming year, no need to tell me my plan is odd and unlikely to come together, at least not in this thread.

I have a 6 year old boy, too! I would start by thinking about what he's capable of right now and what areas you want to prioritize in the coming year (or months). Language Arts covers so many bits and pieces that if you go full force on all of them, you'll eat up all your time. For example, my big goals this last year were to make as much progress with reading as possible while keeping him happy and confident and to build his writing willingness and stamina so that he could be independent for 5 or so minutes at a time. He's now reading well enough to navigate video games, and he can enjoy a funny story when buddy reading. He no longer loathes drawing and writing and will even color a picture or write a few words spontaneously sometimes. My goals for the coming year are to help him improve his reading to the point where it can be a fun independent activity and help him start writing the words in his head in a way others can read them. We'll focus on these areas by buddy reading a lot of fun books and working through All About Spelling level 1. We'll do some handwriting as well, and we'll keep doing lots of read alouds that build vocabulary and comprehension, but he is strong in those areas and I don't feel a need to belabor them. We do some narrations right after reading, but more often we do a "quick, who can remind us what's been going on in this book" before we read the next chapter of an enjoyable read aloud. I have a big book of worksheets for those times when I need to give him something to do and can't work directly with him the whole time (one of four kids), but he likes that as long as it's not overdone. With another child I would do more copy work, perhaps, but this one would find that painfully meaningless at this point.

I've been using the handwriting and my kids enjoy it reasonably well, though that's not their favorite part of the day. I like the nice variety of activities and think that keeps it interesting. I read some of her recommended books list and her list of books never to read and absolutely cannot trust the LA after that. I'm not throwing my kids in the deep end of sex and cursing and graphic violence, but she recommends that no one ever read All Quiet in the Western Front because it uses God's name in vain and seems anti military. Anne Frank's diary is rejected because of Anne's bad attitude, and while I don't think the diary of as necessary to read as some school book lists would indicate, I think that criticism is missing the point entirely. So many of her reviews were like that, relying on a quick Google search for bad words leading to absolute rejection without any consideration for the context of the words, the importance of the work, etc. That's not someone whose help I want in teaching my kids.

I read it in eighth grade in an advanced program (though this particular class was not pushing the limits). It was a very easy read, which in a school setting was good because everyone could read it quickly enough that it actually got read and people weren't just staring at the teacher during class discussion. I think most of the class was engaged by it. The ideas were big enough that we cared but the world Jonas lives in is simplified enough that a young teen can grasp the whole thing and not get bogged down while articulating their position about the different issues presented.

Sadly, I don't have to imagine, just remember. Our schools would occasionally have "brownie" on the menu, and it was always a disappointment, and yet I always hoped.

Usually I do assume whiteness, but there was a book I read to the kids recently, I can't remember which one, that I was sure had a black main character until there was an illustration part way through. I didn't notice the assumption until I found the illustration jarring. I think it was because of some word choices indicating a southern dialect. I live in the South, but in a more urban area, and middle class black families are more likely than middle class white families to have clear "southernisms" beyond "y'all." Overall, I don't really picture characters in detail, but I imagine them to be "like me" unless I know they aren't. Kind of like how I picture all of you to be like me except when I know otherwise. Lots of 30 somethings in my mind until someone mentions remembering the eighties.

If someone is so misguided as to make cake-like rather than fudgy brownies, they can cover for their mistake by coating them in fudge frosting, but I'll have trouble trusting their judgement on any topic after that. Fudge brownies can have nuts or not and are delicious, center and edge.

My kids are 1,3,6, and 7. The older two can scrounge, but not terribly well. I mean, they got themselves breakfast this morning very well, but there was one day a couple of weeks ago when the oldest ate nothing but chocolate and chocolate flavored dairy all day long (I made her lunch and she traded it with the neighbor for chocolate milk!). Unfortunately, that was the day she tried to walk the neighbor's dog and got dragged, bumping her head and shoulder. Then, when she became remarkably nauseated, I had to guess whether it was caused by concussion or terrible diet. Thankfully it turned out to be the diet. My husband works from 2 till midnight, and the kids don't eat enough yet to justify cooking a full meal just for us. The five of us eat about 2.5 servings all together, if they love it, which they rarely do. So, 4 nights a week tend to be sandwiches, breakfast for dinner, takeout, or something frozen. Breakfast for dinner is one of dh's favorites, so we tend to have that again on the weekend. Someday, in a few years, maybe I'll get to cook and try out new recipes. I like cooking, when I know other people will eat the food rather than stare at it, waiting for attack, and when no one is trying to climb me like a tree while I'm using a knife or attending to a boiling pot of something.

That looks cute. It may be a Christmas present!

It's not that I think fairy tales are the best for a one year old. I just think that an engagingly written and illustrated book of quick to read stories is a good way to help parents who know they ought to read to their kid, but don't actually enjoy reading, ease into a good habit. Maybe now, maybe in a year or three when the child is old enough to ask for it.

All these look good, but I think we're going to go with the - Five-Minute Stories -- 50 fairy tales, folktales, & fables that Lori D suggested. It looks like a nice mix of stories and nursery rhymes.