Would Geraldine Macaughrean's series be too easy for him? I know my 11yo wouldn't pronounce them too easy, but that's just him. Peter Connolly is an amazing artist and has done books that we really like. Oxford University Press has a series "Rebuilding the Past" that Connolly wrote "The Legend of Odysseus" for. My son wanted to read this one over and over. Rosemary Sutcliff wrote "Black Ships Before Troy: the Story of The Illiad" and "The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of The Odyssey" that always get high marks from the boardies.

Really fascinating. Love all the detailed info about the discovery of the elements, and how the artists were able to incorporate that into the work.

I'm not posting nearly as much, probably due to the format change. But I read/lurk a lot. If I think I have something intelligent to add, I will. But either I'm not so intelligent anymore, or I'm missing the opportunities that are here!

Karin's approach sounds like mine. I don't vary the curriculum based on my kids' learning styles, though. We just let the auditory kid listen to the poems aloud and the visual kid read through them, by way of example. We pretty much pick our curriculum [with lots of input from these boards] and do what comes next. History and science are the big exceptions. I'm a history buff so we do tons of extras. And DH wanted us to do a year study of the properties of matter before tackling chemistry. So, I had to make up my own course.

I've been honest with my boys that their early bedtime is not because they need the sleep. It's because Mother needs some quality adult time, with Father and by herself. And she can't get that with feet pounding around on the stairs or TV noises filtering down. So 8 o'clock is Get Ready for Bed Time. After I read to them, it's Quiet Time. My 11yo son usually falls asleep at 9:30pm, and wakes at 7:30am. They can read, color, trace, or quietly talk, but it better be QUIET or Mama ain't happy. And you know what they say about what happens then.

I think we all react to our homes growing up. If they were happy places, we want to re-create that, whether they were tidy or messy. If they were not happy, we try the opposite in hopes of effecting the opposite emotional state. Turns out I'm happiest when my home is neat and clean. My kids hear me say "A tidy home is a happy home!" Not really true, of course, at least in a causative way, but having external order helps my internal peace. It's easier now that the children are older, and you can't always tell where they've been by the tornado left behind. But my overarching goal is a happy home, where children are allowed to be children, and we learn cooperation and joy. Some of that learned while scrubbing toilets. ;)

Howdy, neighbors. We're in a suburb, just east of Peoria: Morton.

As a general rule I would prefer to *not* have appliances for different things. Chesterton said we move from a general thing that does many jobs toward more and more small things that only do one job. True, true. Sometimes they do it better, but often it's just because it does it more easily. So an appliance has to be used at least weekly for it to stay in my kitchen. That said, it seems to me I have a LOT of appliances. A person from any other country would certainly say so. - heavy duty Kitchen Aid mixer - Kitchen Aid food processor - cheap blender (it only gets used for smoothies in summer) - Foreman grill - Krups coffee grinder - Rival crock pot - a cheap electric teakettle (this is going to Goodwill in the next bin) Right now we're down a coffeemaker. I would like to stay with using the drip Melitta filter system, but it uses waaay more coffee per cup than an electric coffeemaker, and thus is much more expensive.

The problem lies with the term "lurk" that evolved pretty early on in the internet. Originally it was quite rude, I believe. But now a forum can be closed and private, in which case you don't have unknowns watching, or public, in which case it is expected. I would prefer a neutral word, like "reader." Actually, that's a pretty positive word, eh?

OK, I'm going to fetch my book of WTM board recommended reads, to make another entry. Thanks, dears!

She sounds like one heck of a lady. hugs to you both.

There seems to be a wide range here. I knew one family whose daughter took high school classes at the local public school part-time and homeschooled the rest. But the vast majority of families I know have very young children, so the junior high/high school issue hasn't arisen for most.

Thanks for the heads-up. My 11yo son is full of surprises, so "Duckie-Wuckie" would fit right in these days. Good story -- I hope you're writing all this down!

If your littles are anything like mine were, they should *adore* the "Ready, Set . . . Read" book, edited by Joanna Cole. A great variety of fun things to read, jokes they can tell you over and over, and silly poems. It's a gem.

Card-carrying member. :D

I carried off a laundry basket full of books today at the members' preview sale. Two Teaching Company audiotape series lovely old volume of Huckleberry Finn Your Money or Your Life -- I've always wanted to read this, but couldn't bring myself to pay full price! a few glossy decorating books a steak cookbook so I can do a better job on those expensive pieces of meat for my carnivore DH a National Geographic world geography trivia game a leather blank journal A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch -- I minored in Russian but never had read this book! a critique of modern advertising in our culture R.A. Rey's famous book about star-gazing for children and a few other odds and ends [deep, satisfying sigh] I love a good book sale.

We usually make them for my boys' parties. They are a pain, yes, but the boys love it. As a card-carrying member of the No-Fun Moms Club, I normally abhor crafts, but for a birthday I'll make an exception, especially since I despise paying royalties to kiddie-oriented cartoon media empires. :mad: You cover your work area with plastic, because you're making a *glue* that will stick to everything. Blow up a sturdy balloon. Tear up newspaper into . . . oh, about a hundred strips. Cough, because of all the paper dust flying around. (Did I mention I don't like crafts?) Dip the strips, a few at a time, into your flour + water glue in a bowl, then apply them sorta randomly around your balloon. You want nearly complete coverage. Leave an uncovered spot at the top where you can pour in the candy and loot, or else you can choose to cut open a flap after it's dry. They both work. Once it's covered and a big, ugly mess, let it dry thoroughly. Then you get to clean up. And a day or two later (depending on humidity) you get to do it all over again. See, one layer isn't strong enough to hold more than a few measly handfuls of mini-Tootsie Rolls. Now's your chance to apply "extras" like toilet paper rolls for bug legs, or oompa-loompa legs, or whatever. Just don't try adding more long balloons to make spider legs. I'm here to tell you, it won't work. They won't stay attached. A leg-less spider is not an aesthetically pleasing spider. Now let your mess dry again, before you pull out the poster paints to glop on. (Golly, aren't crafts fun?!!) Go for bright color rather than precision effects. Some adventurous souls will glue on paper streamers for color rather than painting their masterpiece. Dry (again). Pour in your junk food, and hang it up either by magic or craft a sling-type affair that will still allow the candy to escape once it's banged hard enough. My boys have very enthusiastic and energetic pinata-breakers as guests at our parties, so we never have a problem getting them to open. In November, we hang them up in the garage, having taken the precaution of sweeping the garage floor beforehand, so no one scoops up dead leaves and dirt. Homemade pinatas -- there's nothing better! :p

Yeah, I tried to read everything on this board when it first went up, but that quickly became impossible. Now I guess I'll just do my normal half-hour in the morning and in the evening, and try to post if I think I can add something useful to a discussion. I have no plans to post just to raise my level -- that way lies madness! And feel free to grouch to us about the unpleasant guests. We won't tell. Remember Samuel Johnson's famous dictum: "Fish and visitors both start to smell after three days."

If my blood sugar level takes a dive, so do I. Not good. I aim for a steady-state, so meals always include high-quality protein and a whole grain. In the summer I frequently make a frozen banana-yogurt-milk-vanilla extract smoothie. In winter it varies as the wind. But I'll never go back to the days of artificially-set eating times that don't mesh with my body's rhythms.

Quick answer: 1) yes, and 2) yes. Longer answer: If you were a public or private school mom, you'd be stressing about the same things, just with less information to go on. We are all subject to the human tendency to see the parts of others that they want to show to the world, and golly, they are looking pretty good! What you don't see (because we don't feel as good about airing it) is the times when everything is like slogging through mud. Most of us at some level are continually assessing our schedules, our choice of activities, our time spent on each subject. If you're really concerned, ask an experienced and wise homeschool parent to shadow you for a day, to see if he or she can offer any suggestions. Or just bounce ideas off of him/her. Take heart, get lots of sleep, do your best, and realize that it won't be too long before your children will be the ones primarily responsible for educating themselves. We want to create little autodidacts, yes? After a certain age, there is no more teaching, there is only learning. So wear those excellent homeschool shoes with pride!

Hey, you've come over to my world -- how many double copies of cool books have I found in my collection over the years? Lots. Our big library booksale begins tomorrow. I'll make it my special mission to NOT come home with more of what I already have.

The pain I took my son in for subsided a bit once we were in the doctor's office. The nurse immediately calmed down. Seems that if it subsided at all, it was more likely to be muscular, i.e., poop impacted in his colon. Seems my dear son was experimenting with his body by *not* going poopy for as long as possible. A little bit of laxative resolved the problem.

They make associations that to other people are just . . . odd: "Wow! That cloud looks just like Madagascar!" "If we go run errands today, can we also stop at the library? Can we go there first?" "Let's play Egyptian mummy. This suitcase can be the sarcophagus."

Don't store apples with carrots in the fridge. Apples will make the carrots taste bitter.

Every week, when I do my Saturday Home Blessing. :) We have the boys trained (finally) to change their own sheets & pillowcases. Whew. That took a while.