Yes, well, there's another place where it's always hot, and I don't wanna move there, either. :lol:

September 7 for us.

I think that was the idea behind putting it out in the first place. :D

Yes!!! In fact, I have given serious thought to not starting our school year until fall has arrived. There's just something not right about merchants hauling out the Halloween candy, the apple-cider-scented candles, and the fall-motif table runners when it's still technically summer. They've got deck chairs on clearance, and it's supposed to be 90 degrees here this weekend! (If I actually *needed* deck chairs, this would be a good thing. :D) I don't like the fact that Someone On High has decreed that summer "starts" on Memorial Day (no, it doesn't) and "ends" on Labor Day (no, it doesn't). Is it any wonder that I can never remember whether the first day of fall is the 21st or the 22nd of September? Of course I can't -- no one takes the real changing of the seasons seriously anymore. If people in ancient times, for whom the changing of the seasons was a pivotal event in the year and cause for a (non-Madison-Avenue) celebration, could see us getting a "jump" on fall and every other season ... they'd think we were nuts. And may I just say, sir, that I am a big fan of Barry Goldwater. The Conscience of a Conservative is a classic. Just want to clarify -- it's not that I want to hold on to summer. I don't. I can't stand summer. It's that I think that it's blasphemy to be acting as if it's fall when it's still summer!

I think you could define "full-time" in a variety of ways: How many hours you work at it per day or per week How hard you work at it How much of a priority it has in your life relative to other things I know that full-time usually means the first. But in reading the responses on this thread, I'm sensing that many of us are thinking about something more than just the number of hours.

What she said.

Full-time and then some. But sometimes I wonder if I'm doing it wrong and that's why it's so all-consuming. :confused:

I've never heard the word "subsidiarity" before, but I have long been a staunch supporter of the principle you're describing -- I just never knew it had a name! :)

My son is like this. It has improved over time, but there are days when I am at my wits' end. For him, it is about serious problems with *impulse control.* (He has executive function problems in general.) No words of wisdom. Just lots of empathy. :grouphug:

:laugh: Sorry about that -- it stands for Christian Legal Association. They have a program called Homeschool Legal Advantage , which is similar to HSLDA. I opted to go with them because I felt that HSLDA could use a little competition. :tongue_smilie:

Another vote for Base 10 blocks.

I've never blogged at Homeschool Blogger but I considered it early on. However, I was told that HSB does not take kindly to content that is critical of its sponsors. So if you are using the Blah-Blah curriculum, are having a negative experience with it, and say something to that effect on a HSB blog, HSB will respond to that. Whether they censor or warn you or delete your blog for repeated offenses, I don't know. I also don't know how far you have to go in your criticism of a sponsor's product before they react. But this is what I was told by another blogger.

It's been a while since we after-schooled -- the child whom I afterschooled is almost through with college. But the reason I did it was because I felt that there were gaps in what she was learning in school. Not in terms of the basics (although I did do some occasional grammar with her) -- it was more in terms of things like music, art, poetry, reading classic literature.

My family has no idea that I blog. There's nothing on it that's inappropriate or that I wouldn't want anyone to see -- it's just that it's not for them, it's for me. It's kind of like my own little corner when I can go and express my own thoughts, in my own way, without being interrupted. ;) It isn't a journal in the "Here's what I did today..." sense. I think I originally envisioned it that way, but it's really turned into more of a place where I type my opinions and observations on current events, philosophical issues, etc. I just don't have time anymore to sit down and write in a notebook like I used to -- and I find that typing allows my transcription to keep (relative) pace with my thoughts. So a thought or an idea will pop into my head, and in no time flat I can go online, log into my blog, and type it out. I find blogging to be very therapeutic. It gives me a place to unload, to sort things out, to develop an idea. It's really "my space" in the real sense of those words, and it just happens to be public. Someone asked me once why I don't just keep a journal in Word or something. I don't know. I don't have any delusions of being the next Pioneer Woman -- I just like the format of a blog and all the features it has, so I do it that way.

Ohhhh, I like the looks of both of these! One can never have too many good atlases. ;)

Exactly -- it's a *plan,* after all. ;)

I submit my plan with the best of intentions, but I also give myself "wiggle room" by using the phrase "including but not limited to..." when listing the things I plan to cover and the materials I plan to use. And no, I don't find that it matters what I tell the district. ;)

My state requires a half-credit of government *and* a half-credit of economics; they're separate. I would think that free enterprise would fall under the category of economics. For government, I'm having dd use a guide and workbook called Understanding the Constitution. Haven't decided what to use for econ yet.

Very well put. :)

I love this one: http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Beginners-World-Updated/dp/079224205X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282608199&sr=8-1

Same here! We have a wonderful relationship with our library and there is a running joke about how we're trying to check out enough books to get a wing named after us. ;) If there's a problem with our record, we're given the benefit of the doubt because they know us so well, and because when we're wrong (it happens ;)) we 'fess up and pay the fine and tell 'em to keep the change. I love my library. :001_smile:

We've had problems with books that were put in the book drop not being taken out for a couple of days. They'd be due on, say, Tuesday, and we'd drop them off at the book drop on Tuesday before the library closed. But the little old ladies at this particular library apparently didn't feel like emptying the book drop before they left for the day; they'd empty it the next morning and of course by then the books were late. Of course, they insisted that I was "misremembering" when I'd returned the books, and it was my word against theirs. I paid the fine -- it was minimal -- but refused to use that library again.

I can't tell you how often that's happened to us -- books that we returned weren't logged in correctly and were put back on the shelf but still appeared on our record. One time there was a book from Inter-Library Loan that was supposed to go back to another library, but they couldn't find it -- because it had been shelved at *our* library. Then of course there was the time when we had a $40 fine that was legitimate ... because ds wasn't keeping track of his record. He spent a while paying that one off. ;)

I'm starting Level 6 this year and will do Level 7 when it comes out. We took a more leisurely pace with Level 5 than with the previous levels -- we did spelling three times a week with Level 5. I kind of wanted to be "done" with spelling after this year, so having another book throws a wrinkle in it. I think what we'll do is see how Level 6 goes -- if ds does well, we'll do spelling 5 days a week and move into Level 7 as soon as possible. Ds has become a very confident and capable speller -- the reason I want to finish the series is that I just see such tremendous value in it. But if he needs more time with Level 6, we'll focus on doing only that level this year and will continue our 3x/week schedule, and then do Level 7 next year. Ds has internalized the rules very well, so I don't think we'll do Megawords or anything else for spelling once we've finished AAS. If I find he does need some review, the Apples Spelling Drills are a good way to target just those things he needs to review.

Like you did.