Mowing the lawn sounds pretty physical! I'd be afraid to let my 10 y/o daughter do that lol. But mowing lawn, weeding, washing the car, carrying in groceries, making projects out of wood, walking to a local store or some such, taking the garbage out and the cans to and from the road, and so on are all physical. Too bad it's harder these days for young boys to get a paper route!

It sounds nice in theory- in a "novelty" kind of way- I mean what fun to decorate your own little schoolroom!- but in actuality I think the novelty would quickly wear off and I wouldn't want to be using a detached building. 1) If it's raining, hailing, snowing, icy, freezing, 95 degrees out, or whatever, I wouldn't want to be traipsing back and forth from the house to that building. 2) If I wanted my kid to work on something independently for a while, I'd want them where I could keep an eye on them or check on them, but I wouldn't want to be stuck in a separate little cabin- I'd want to be in my house getting things done. The vacuuming, the laundry, the dishes, dinner, whatever the case may be. 3) My younger son doesn't always want to be where his sister is doing school- and in our case, I wouldn't want to be in a little building with my older student while my younger son was alone in the house doing who knows what- and he wouldn't necessarily want to be in the same little building with us, and she'd get too distracted even if he was.... So, yeah, I'd have to go with no.

Personally, I'm not a fan of timed tests. I'd rather them do them right and get it than have to rush trying to get something done within a certain time period. I also think 7/8 years old is still on the young side and that this type of thing will probably automatically become easier as she gets a bit older and begins to understand more. Further, I think 100 math problems for a 7 year old is ridiculous. Actually, I thought it was ridiculous for my 10 y/o too- the insane number of problems in a lesson was one of the reasons why I wanted nothing to do with Saxon myself last year. heh. Anyway- I would just encourage her to do her best and see what happens over the course of the year, if she automatically gets faster as time goes on or what. But I wouldn't make it into a huge issue or make her feel like she's inadequate at math or any such thing (I'd be VERY careful not to give that impression to her), I'd just praise her for the ones she did get done. And maybe somewhere down the road you see she's doing 65 or 70 instead of 60 and you can tell her that you noticed she's improved her time and that's great. But I wouldn't want to turn this into a huge deal for a 7 year old if it were me.

:iagree: I've never had anything to worry about with my special needs teen so it's never come up. My next oldest is a couple of months away from turning 11 and I've never felt the need to do this with her. If I ever had some sort of suspicion or concern about something, I wouldn't hesitate to do it. But to just randomly do it for no reason? No. I would think that would make them feel like I didn't trust them and/or they couldn't trust me, which is not a feeling I'd want to induce. I also think it would just make them think of great hiding places should the need ever arise so that if it ever came up that I really felt like I should be "looking," I'd never find anything.

I would talk to the person who is actually running the group and explain your situation and ask if they'd make an exception. I'd also point out that there is a huge difference in what a 5 year old wants to read or can read and what an 8 year old wants to read or can read. I agree with everyone who said they can't imagine 5 and 8 year olds being put in the same group. My son is 5.8 and isn't even reading yet and would listen to someone read picture books- he'd have no interest in most 'older' books as read alouds yet. Whereas when my daughter was 8 she was a good reader who was interested in chapter books, not picture books.

:iagree: I estimated 30-39 for us. We do lots of field trips, educational tours and so on.

Ok it just became irrelevant. I looked up from my phone and she was walking away, and they left the pool. I wanted to say something but 1) didn't know what sort of reaction I'd get and 2) didn't know how to do it discreetly and unobtrusively enough in the crowd. Guess I can go back to watching my son's swimming lesson without distraction heh.

Well, no, lol. I don't know if she knows, I don't know if she would be offended or what. Awkward!!

To approach you at the crowded public pool you were at with your toddler and Inform you that your bathing suit/tankini top is quite see thru when wet? I can't decide whether to say something to this woman!

Although, just to throw it out there, I really doubt this is an either/or situation. The 7 year old who giggles and says yuck but gets to view it, will likely still be the 14 year old secretly looking at it (again) at night because it is so interesting. That's just human nature and particularly teenage nature. I still do think that it is less awkward overall to just introduce it matter-of-factly early on.

With something like a statue or a picture of a statue, it wouldn't bother me. I'd let her see it now. She might giggle a little, you can just be matter-of-fact about it. I also think an earlier exposure would be less awkward than a later one!

My daughter is going into sixth grade and the "required" books she will be reading (assigned by Oak Meadow) are: The Adventures of Robin Hood D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths Rainbow People Growing Up In Aztec Times King Arthur The Ramayana We are also continuing to work our way through Story of the World Volume 1 and we read most of the suggested/supplemental reading for that. We're doing a 52 Books In 52 Weeks Challenge together, so each week we pick a fun read aloud that we're both interested in and read it together. Other than that, she chooses her own reading for fun.

Although I prefer not to start formal academics too early and waited until Kindergarten age to start this curriculum with my son this year, a lot of people do think it would make a good preschool curriculum as well, as it's not a very academic K and is more gentle/Waldorf-inspired in the earliest years: http://www.oakmeadow.com/curriculum/kindergarten.php

:iagree: What great info! To the OP, I'm so sorry your daughter had to read trash like that. :(

I haven't watched it. But my husband watched it and has been talking about it quite a bit for the last few days. He, too, wants to buy a juicer and give this a try. He wants me to try it with him, but, I don't know if I could. I also don't know if it's REALLY healthy to just do that... I mean, what about protein and stuff? Is this really okay to do for days on end?

It would be too early for us to start on a regular basis but now and then on certain days where we were going to some sort of field trip or outing that would have us out of the house for hours, I have been known to once in a while wake her up earlier to get some stuff "out of the way" before we left.

Haven't noticed that here.

It has DVDs but I've never even looked at them because I couldn't be bothered with having to return them as often as they'd have to be returned. I like Netflix. We can watch at our pace, return at our pace. :D

I host inner-city children in my home for a week or two in the summer through the Fresh Air Fund. Well, I only started last summer, but we are doing it again this summer and plan to continue. I donate blood regularly (at least I did before starting to TTC and the subsequent ectopic that I'm still not quite through with- still waiting for HCG levels to drop all the way back to zero. They were at 225 last week. Went again yesterday and waiting to hear back from my dr. today with results). We try to do some volunteer work here and there, clean up litter, recycle, etc. And like others have said, I count my children in this. I am raising and teaching my two younger children at home. I run a homeschool group that I hope helps other homeschoolers find info, make friends, etc. (and try to put fun and useful info on my blog as well). That's all I can think of for now!

We did a biome observation project together for school this past year which she really enjoyed. We picked a bike/walking trail that was surrounded by wooded areas and very pretty and we'd go for walks there and note what sounds we heard, what kinds of animals we saw, we'd identify plants and trees and so on. We'd see lots of squirrels and chipmunks and one time we came across an elderly couple who had a big bag of peanuts and they gave us some to toss to the squirrels and chipmunks. We are doing the 52 Books In 52 Weeks Challenge together this year, selecting a book each week to read together. She likes playing board games with me. We've done volunteer type projects now and then together. Sometimes it's something more 'formal' and other times we just go for walks and clean up litter as we go or some such. ETA: Oh and we have a book called "Talking Pictures, A Parent's Guide To Discussing Ethics, Values and Everyday Problems With Children" which is divided by age groups. Sometimes we watch some of those movies together and then go over the discussion questions and talk about it. I also bought the Rachael Ray "Cooking Rocks" cookbook so that this year we can start doing more cooking together and she can start learning some recipes.

They're not told to whisper, they can speak in voices just a little lower than normal level. They can't be wild or talking overly loud or running around. I only ever have them in the children's section of the library. Fortunately, everyone at our library is nice and doesn't seem to mind kids being kids.

What I do is write a short note saying: "I am the medical doctor for (child's name). Her immunizations and medical services are up to date and are on file at my office." And I ask my pediatrician to sign it. Which he does. And I turn that note in with my affidavit each year. After doing that for 3 school years, I decided to just skip it this year. My affidavit already covers it, I've already given them notes each year stating that their medical records are on file... so we'll see if they "miss" it this year. (Also note that you can claim exemption, too, in PA).

I'll admit I'm one of those people who usually doesn't answer the phone unless I recognize the number. If I don't recognize the number (unless I'm actively expecting a call back from someone that I know might call me from some extension I don't have in my contact list or something), I let it go to voicemail. Then I check the voicemail, and if it's someone I want to speak with, I call them right back. If I got a call in the wee hours I would probably answer it though just because I would automatically think it was an emergency and would want to know what was wrong.

I took it as being a rant against homeschoolers who aren't as "rigorous" as you think they should be. (The OP I mean, not you, Chucki lol) rather than being about public schools, but, glad to see that's not what you meant. Because, in that case, I agreed with the person who said that it's not that we don't strive for more, it's that we strive for something different. I believe in a more gentle approach with young children. I believe in a more hands on approach with even older children. I'm a fairly laid back/relaxed homeschooler. My kids are learning tons and doing great. I'm happy with them, their education, our lives, etc. As for "fixing" the public schools, I wouldn't know the first thing about how to go about that. Some homeschooling gurus believe it, by nature, can't be "fixed." Can I think of changes that would make it better? Sure. Can I think of how to make that happen? No. It took me until my daughter was in third grade to decide I'd had quite enough of it, and I pulled her out of public school to homeschool instead. That was my change- to remove ourselves from the system entirely. (Well, as much as we're allowed to here in PA, which has some of the strictest homeschool laws in the country, anyway)!

Yeah, right! If I were you I'd send a brief reply basically saying what you wrote here: "I'm sorry, but I will not give out such personal information to a complete stranger. If my feedback rating on this site is not enough to convince you that I do business with integrity, you will need to purchase from someone else. Thanks and have a nice day."