Our children's atlas has an orange bar on it. There is also an orange shoe box. Otherwise, nothing.

Schools in this country range from horrible to excellent, both in social environment and academics. The schools my children are zoned for are abysmal (and dangerous) in the 6th-8th grades, mediocre in K-5th, and poor in 9th-12th. There does seem to be a link between the social environment (behavior and values of other students and of teachers) and the academic quality, though--at least here.

When my first two were little, I worked full time and they stayed with my mother. When they were around 4 & 5, I started working part time. For some time, they were homeschooled in the mornings and then went to grandma's house for the afternoon while I went to work. For the past 11-12 years, I have stayed home full time, though I am now looking (unsuccessfully, since I have no recent references) for a part time job in the afternoons or evenings. Of course, I also have the problem of child care, since my mother is no longer able to babysit, and I still have 2 who would need supervision--and the older two will also not be available to babysit on a regular basis.

I probably have a low post count for the amount of time I have been here. I mostly just read, and only post if I have something different to contribute. If someone else has already said what I would have said, I don't post.

I haven't had actual twins, but my first two are 15mo apart, and my second two are 16 mo apart (with a gap of 6.5 years between pairs). I also think the hardest part is when they are under three. However, I would specify that the very hardest part is when you have 2 little ones who are old enough to run off in 2 different directions, but are too little to know how to obey (come back when called/stay put when asked/know where they can and can't go/etc.). So, for mine, the hardest part was from the time the younger of the pair was around 9-10 months and a solid walker until the time the younger was 3 (and the older 4) and they were both better at listening and obeying. Also, my younger pair is significantly more challenging than my older two ever were, so personality (and ADHD for my youngest) also plays a role.

My almost 10yo (9yrs, 9 mo) is the same height (50 inches), but heavier (60 lbs). He is often mistaken for a 7yo. Since babyhood he has been at or under 5th percentile for height, and around 40th percentile for weight--yet he has never been at all chubby since he learned to walk. I have no idea where the weight comes from--bones? muscles? I think your son is probably in the average to low average range in height.

I have 4 children. They walked (respectively) at 7 mo, 9 mo, 9mo, and 9mo. None of them required vision therapy, though my 3rd is mildly dyslexic. (At age 11, the dyslexia is only evident in her spelling, reading in Spanish, and occasionally her pronunciation of a new word/name.) The first two were early readers (at 3 and 4), and the fourth learned to read easily in kindergarten. They did all crawl, however--at 5-6 mo. I have no idea if that really makes any difference or not.

My first thought was of Kindergarten Cop. (The female cop uses Ursula as an undercover name.) Overall, I'm not too crazy about the name, though as a child I liked the fact that it meant bear. (I used to read a lot about names and their meanings, and make huge lists of unusual names that I liked.) However, all 4 of my children had a very negative reaction, and said not to name her that, because she would hate it when she gets older.

My college roommate was from Taiwan, and came to the US for the last years of high school and all of college. In Taiwan she barely passed math. In the US, her high school math teacher thought she was a tremendous student, and suggested she major in math. (She said the level of the work here was much lower than in Taiwan.)

Typically we give $15-20 for birthdays, and $20-45 for Christmas (more when we had more money/fewer kids, and for special birthdays like 15 and 18). My youngest has a December birthday (Dec 5), and often decides to save his birthday money (from us, his grandparents, and his great-grandmother) to combine it with Christmas money and get a bigger present. I also have one with a November birthday (Nov 17), plus my husband and father with January birthdays and another son with a February birthday. The November/January/February people don't really have a problem with interference from Christmas. My December son complains that he gets all his gifts right together, and then nothing else all year, while everyone else--meaning mostly his sister with an August birthday, since his brothers are much older--gets to spread out the gifts a little and get gifts on two occasions rather than just a few weeks apart. He keeps seeing things he would like to have and being told to ask for it for Christmas or birthday. For a 9.5yo, waiting from May until December can feel like a very long time. At the moment he owes one brother $40 for a Pokemon game that he borrowed money for last spring and will be paying back with birthday/Christmas money combined from various people. If he has leftover money, I'm sure he has an idea what he wants to get with it, though he has mentioned possibly saving it for later in the year. In the case of yours, does your family usually give larger gifts for Christmas or birthdays? That could be a deciding factor. However, if you are giving the same thing (or similar items) to each, it might be better to give it at Christmas so they get it at the same time.

For reasons I have never known, potatoes seem to rot more quickly if stored close to onions (the reason I store my onions in the refrigerator instead of the pantry shelf near the potatoes).

What my 6th grader did this Friday, also fairly typical workload: Read Bible passage and wrote a paragraph or so about it Read Bible memory passage in both English and Spanish. Said what she could from memory Rod and Staff English lesson orally (she uses mostly MCT, currently Grammar Voyage, but periodically I use a lesson from R&S that covers a topic not in MCT) Two sentences of dictation One sentence analyzed (basically MCT Practice Town type, but a sentence I chose from a book we own) Read a chapter or two of historical fiction (life of the Biblical Ruth). Oral narration of this Read one poem Two math review questions from Singapore PM 5B One lesson from Singapore PM 6A (just the textbook this time) Read a section from Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt and narrated orally Read some animal information cards. Watched a science DVD. (She more often reads library books for science, but we forgot to get more at the library this week, so she has been watching Bill Nye and various videos we own) Listened to a Spanish Bible story read aloud while coloring a picture and discussing in Spanish. (We alternate this with a 3rd grade Spanish science textbook and occasional dictation and written narration in Spanish.) listened to our usual hymns, folk songs, Spanish songs, classical music, and Geography Songs (Geography Songs is really for her 4th grade brother, but she listens too.) various chores, free time drawing, and free time animal research

I also have an age gap between kids, though maybe not quite as much. (My second son is a college freshman, and my next oldest is in 6th grade this year.) I keep all the history and literature books (except any books I didn't like). I also save some of the math books. However, I sell/give away most of the science books, since they will almost certainly be out of date by the time the little ones are ready for them. (In addition, I never found a biology book I liked for high school, anyway, nor a 6th-8th grade text.)

My older two boys got letters from them every year, starting around age 11-12. My daughter (just turned 11) got her first letter from them this year (also for Canada). We can't afford to go (so I haven't really investigated it), but being invited has turned into a rite of passage.

My 9.5yo son wears a 3, but he is overall small for his age. My 11yo daughter wears a 6. (I wear a 5.) But, as a frame of reference, the largest shoe size in our household is my 17yo, with a size 9.

My grandma (from Ohio, but now living in Georgia) calls vacuums "sweepers". I had almost forgotten that.

I said yes, barring extenuating circumstances. Two of mine have already graduated from homeschool, and I expect the other two will also. I will sacrifice whatever it takes to homeschool through 8th grade, though. Our local middle schools are AWFUL (safety concerns, academics, etc.).

My older two boys used AO for high school. A typical day's reading would be: 5-15 pages from one history book 10-15 pages from either a biography, a geography book, a government or economics book, or another history book 10-20 pages from a literature book a section from the science textbook (not really part of AO, I guess) 8-15 pages from a science supplement book (a living book related to the science they were studying that year, or perhaps a nature study book) a chapter from the Bible 8-15 pages from a devotional, missionary biography, Bible study book, etc sometimes additional literature (essay, short story, free reading, literature analysis, logic, etc) poetry They would do one written narration each day, rotating between the subjects so that each book had a written narration at least once or twice per term. I asked for an oral narration for all the other readings. Sometimes the oral narration was just a quick summary of the topic. Sometimes it became a discussion of various ideas brought up by the reading. Sometimes it was in between. Normally I didn't require narrations on poetry. The written narrations ranged from simple one paragraph summaries to 2 page essays. (This depended on two factors--how interested they were in the book, and whether I insisted that they write more than they had been.) They also periodically wrote longer papers as part of grammar/writing, though I did not require this as often as I wish I had.

From your description his mistakes were more of a "don't know how to take a formal test" problem than a "don't know grade level material" problem. Most likely he simply didn't take the test seriously enough. My daughter who is just starting 6th grade this year did something similar on her 4th grade testing. She skipped all math questions that she did not immediately know the answer to without calculations. She ended up scoring around 15 on math computation--which upset her enough that she was VERY careful to answer everything she could as well as she could on her 5th grade test. (Testing is required yearly in our state.) Go ahead and finish the test--maybe with some reminders that he should be doing his very best and not skipping anything he knows how to do, and perhaps with the hint that "None of the above" is only rarely the correct answer even when it is an option. (I always remind my children before one of these tests that they should always check every other option carefully before marking "none of the above".) When you get the results, you might want to show him that he did poorly on the tests where he skipped questions or marked randomly instead of trying his best. Depending on his personality, this might encourage him to take the testing more seriously next time you use it. (If he is more likely to just be discouraged, then you would not want to do this.) Only use the results you think truly reflect his knowledge to make changes in your curriculum.

If it is just from me I just sign my own name. If it is from the family I make everyone sign their names--I don't sign it for anyone who is old enough to write.

Animal liberation would be referring to the occasional oddball case you hear about demanding that animals be given the same rights as people. It may also refer to PETA.

We know very little about my father's side of the family (either parent), other than that they were from Ohio. We think they were German in origin, and possibly Jewish. We know more about my mother's family. A distant cousin traced my maternal grandmother's lineage from an ancestor in Scotland in the 1500s who moved to France and married there. That son moved from France to Ireland, and his grandson moved to Pennsylvania. From there, the descendants moved to NC, then Illinois (where my direct ancestor was married in 1861), and then to Missouri. In 1902, my great-grandfather from this line married the daughter of German immigrants (music teachers). My grandmother was born in 1915. We know almost nothing about my grandfather's family, except that he was the youngest of 9-10 children and one of his parents was an orphan. One of his older brothers remembered traveling on a wagon train (to Illinois, maybe? that's where my grandfather was born). I am not aware of any Native American or African American ancestors. They would have to be on my father's side, because my mother's family are all very fair skinned and mostly blue-eyed. (Although my husband is part Mayan, so my children are part Native American, if you don't limit the classification to North American.) Judging by where they lived during the Civil War, my ancestors would have fought for the Union if they were involved at all.

We didn't have much to choose from. We can only elect someone who runs, after all. (And for some reason, in recent elections there have only been minor differences between the candidates)

My mother wanted to breastfeed me, but the doctor said it wasn't worth it since she had to go back to work (as a nurse). So, I was bottle fed, but I despised milk and she had to spend a long time at each feeding coaxing me to eat anything. When I had my first juice (in a cup, at 4 months), I refused to take another bottle. I ended up on baby food/table food plus water and juice from a cup at 4 months. Not at all what would be recommended now (or even then, probably), but I managed okay. Since two of mine had trouble with milk (one who got an asthma attack the first time he drank milk, one who cried continuously and got severe diarrhea if I ate any milk products while she was breastfeeding), the reason she had so much trouble getting me to drink milk was probably some kind of milk allergy/sensitivity. However, in the late 1960s soy formula was only given to babies with obvious allergic symptoms--breathing trouble, rash, etc.