Thanks; I'll point and click then!

I see they're offering $97 on their website. Is there a better offer out there? My trigger finger is getting itchy. I'm about to buy! :D

I have the 1st edition of TWTM, but I thought I'd ask what the new recommendations are for teaching logic to a 7th grade child. ETA: we haven't done any formal training so far, such as Mind Benders, etc. Just strategy games, which he loves. Thank you! Sharon

We use vinegar in the fabric softener well, it seems to dissipate the Fels Naptha smell, and I'm pretty sensitive. Maybe give that a try? (Haven't used any other soaps, sorry.)

I so admire your kindness and Christ-likeness, Katemary. Thank you for giving us this opportunity for service.

I bought a heavy, non-steam, old, old iron from a thrift store. I love it. It glides over the fabric, it has no steam holes to clog (I keep a spray bottle of water to mist if needed) and it cost all of a couple of bucks. I will likely take it to an appliance repair shop to get the cord replaced sometime soon. That's the only thing even slightly wrong with it: the cord is old though unfrayed. I did however, buy a magnificent, expensive, German ironing board from the Martha Stewart online store many years ago. It's extra wide, and more stable than anything I've ever seen. I had issues :glare: with the flimsy, cheap, gar-bahj stores were selling as if they were actual useful ironing boards.

I went to the local small-business supply store in our town and they got them for me overnight from their warehouse. I wasn't pinching every penny, so it was fine to pay a little more. I've never found them elsewhere, at a discounter, big box store, much less a Dollar Tree. Wish is had, though!

My great-aunt Fern used to joke that she and her brothers grew up eating beans and cornbread every day. Then for a change, they'd have cornbread and beans. :D Corn + beans makes a complete protein.

No techno-tips here, just the kitchen kind. Cut fresh brownies with a plastic knife and they won't stick to the knife. Much, much neater.

Our board microbiologist was skeptical of the claims for raw milk. [Gosh, what was his name?] He said the only difference in nutrition was that pasturized milk wouldn't give you brucellosis or some of the other nasty diseases that are possible. I don't understand how conventional dairy farmers just squirting that blue stuff onto the cow's teats before attaching the milking machines makes the manure clinging to them just *poof* disappear. I'm personally askeerd of brucellosis, but if I had a family that I trusted raising and milking a cow, I might be willing to try raw.

Is there some reason you can't make a mix without the oil or shortening, and then just add that along with the liquid? The standard ratio is 2/3rds of the amount of oil in place of shortening when you're substituting oil for shortening. IME oil is much easier to work with.

Stop looking at your food so closely. It will spoil your appetite. :D

I find a lot of action movies to use something like a deus ex machina. If a hero is holding onto the pontoon of an airplane with one hand as it is taking off from the lake, despite having lost the use of his legs in a knife fight, and the super genius who knows-all and sees-all tries to knock him off. But a sudden XYZ (gust of air, well-timed explosion, judo move) catapults him into the pilot's seat . . . . Well, you can see how this is going. When no chance is suddenly transformed by near miraculous salvation into triumph, well I call it DEM and that's that. :tongue_smilie:

I think part of what we want for our children is to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Having a good framework of history, math, and science education makes filling in the bare spaces easier, because you will recognize when something doesn't fit. Is it a poor fit because the framework is wrong somewhere (possible)? or because the information is invalid or poorly presented (more likely)? If I have a basic understanding of biology, I won't accept anecdotal evidence as representing a generalizable medicine. "It works for me" is good. "It works for 70 out of 100 people versus a comparable group that tried Brand X and had a 30 out of 100 response rate" is much, much better. You also learn that people's personality has a lot to do with how they interpret data. Iconoclasts can't bear to 'accept the word of authority.' So they tend to believe evidence that undercuts the authority. True believers (of any type) can't bear to believe their heroes have feet of clay, so resist evidence of bad behavior of the leader, for example, that he might have shaded his data to fit his theory. My Dad loves conspiracy theories, so remembers anything he hears that reinforces that and forgets evidence he's read or heard that tends to disprove it. (But you've can't prove the non-existence of a conspiracy, so he's really always ok.):lol: Given all those items, and reading the best arguments from both sides of an issue you can make up your mind and rest easy, knowing you've done the best you can. Nothing in this world is 100%, and if it were, we couldn't wrap our heads around it anyway. Do your part, and let the quest for perfect choices go.

Ask any 10 homeschoolers what they want from a group, and you'll get 12 different replies. ;) Everyone's needs are so unique that it won't take long for a new group to shake out and separate into smaller units. The unschoolers won't want to spend their free time listening to issues having to do with getting too slow turnaround on grading tests, and the Christians don't want to spend their free time listening to announcements about the pagan drumming circle that meets on Tuesday nights at the community hall on 14th St. OK, maybe your pastor's group won't have those announcements, but you get the picture. No matter how things spread out, I've found it very useful/nice to meet other homeschoolers of different stripes face to face. The personal interaction helps to prevent the kind of hard feelings and antagonism that so easily develops when communication is by e-mail or heard through the grapevine. Having met Heather and Tony, and Jill and Erik makes it much easier to put their comments and preferences into context, iykwim. So even if you never end up seeing these folks regularly, just meeting them for the initial period will help you over long term in building a homeschool friendly community. Because you can't do it all over cyberspace. You need RL connections.

He's smart enough to give folks the straight poop! :tongue_smilie:

This scandal was widely reported in the news, with my insurer, Golden Rule among those refusing to end this outrage. I reported this to DH and he (a doc) was sooo angry. "Then what's the use of paying it?" I had to agree. Soon we'll likely be able to switch insurers for me and the boys over to Blue Cross/Blue Shield. They were (to the best of my knowlege) not participating in the awful practice of retroactively cancelling insurance.

:iagree: Oh yeah, it's one great book. I'm part of an attachment parenting support group in my metro area, and while there are a lot of good books on the topic of meeting your baby's needs, toddler's needs, and preschooler's needs, not much has been written for older kids. Hold On To Your Kids gave me the direction I needed to continue well. Another seems to be one Joanne has often recommended, Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes . . . in You and Your Kids! by Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller. As the group's librarian I get to have a lot of say in which books we get for our library, and we this one just arrived on my doorstep. I can't wait to dive in!

Remember that you are in charge of your curriculum, it is not in charge of you. If you like, substitute something else for the book/material recommended in TWTM. Use the book as a philosophical guide and a plan, not a blueprint. :001_smile:

Whaaaa??? Hmph. Well now I'm not coming. :lol: Although I did once see an interview with a celebrity hairstylist who said that the only people who retain blond hair (past adolescence) are Swedes. Everyone else dyes her hair. LOLOLOL (Though I did attend law school with a Finn who was white-blond. Boy, could he blush brightly, too. I think we can stereotype Finns as extremely easy to make blush?)

Go back to the Circe conference CDs from last year and listen to the lectures about running a classical school. It seems to me that there is a definite timeline of ups and downs that every school can expect, and try to plan for. Apparently the seventh year is particularly tricky. A friend borrowed my set to listen because she's very involved in a private Christian school and they are facing the seventh year issues. I am so pleased for you and for the families you will be serving. God bless!

I can. Look at the size of the cars on the road. That's a heckuva lot of steel being hauled around to carry (usually) one person.

Run, do not walk, and buy yourself a copy of Living Up Country: A Pilgrim's Progress by Don Mitchell. It's one of the genre of 'a funny thing happened on the way to the homestead' but it will have you peeing in your pants from laughter. A sample taken at random: Several years ago, Vermont performed an important service to the nation by accepting immigrant Whole Earth devotees in numbers wholly disproportionate to the state's tiny size and population. The newcomers wanted -- if one takes them at their word -- to Go Back To The Land. Almost unconsciously, they recognized a point of ideology where the existing, conservative Vermont ethos merged with their desire to foster a "greening" of America: both extremes shared a mania for unfettered individualism, for personal liberty. But as ideologues are wont to do, the newcomers sought new architectural forms that would give concrete expression to their deeply held beliefs and values. Amost overnight, unique and organic and sculptural residences began to emerge from a landscape formerly renowned for restrained, homogeneous, white clapboard houses. In itself, this architectural revolution might not have produced a bumper crop of late-model Handyman Specials, but it was a tenet of the back-to-the-land set that each person ought to design and build his natural abode. Whether he knew how to or not. Many of these immigrants had squandered their prime hammer-swinging years in universities, pursuing advanced degrees; they came to construction work with a minimum of practical experience. And a maximum of philosophical baggage. I remember particularly from that era a generalized abhorrence of the right angle. Right angles were deemed dull and cold and obsessively rational, a symbol of excessive cultural rigidity. Compared with, say, spherical icosahedrons.

I never wanted to live in Illinois because of its reputation for corrupt government. I realize the news reports are the exception, but . . . there sure are a lot of news reports on the town treasurer embezzling city funds, sheriffs caught taking bribes, and on and on. Big cities and small towns alike! So I'm inclined to think that particular stereotype is more accurate than I would like. I don't know what others think of my area, but both good and bad can both be said of it. Lots of corn and soybeans, anyway. LOTS. :D

My local Attachment Parenting group did a big freezer cooking prep one evening. One person (Jan) who was very interested in it gathered the recipes, figured the costs, collected the money, did the shopping, set up the prep stations including laminated directions for each station. Another member asked her church to let us use their space. Lots of people brought tools that Jan had sent out a request for. We all helped wash and clean up, divided up the leftover supplies, and took home a bunch of meals to go into the freezer. They turned out very well, Jan had done her homework! Come to think of it we actually did this twice, I only participated once. We'll likely do it again.