:grouphug:

Absolutely. I can't imagine getting out of junior high/middle school without having heard about the holocaust. And even if you didn't hear about it in school, it comes up in conversation, on documentaries, occasionally in the paper or online (such as mentioning a holocaust survivor or some such), there are books about it, etc etc.

I'd say let's have a race but I'd have to do a lot more gratuitous posting than you lol.

No. I can't recall an instance where I've restricted what toys any of my kids, boys or girls, can play with.

Here's a link to our entire book log from fifth grade (which we just finished). http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/122233.html

LOL well if you like the way it looks unmelted (it does sort of look prettier that way I think!) you could give that a try! Then you could even add some glitter here and there, too. (I confess, I love glitter lol).

Happy anniversary! :)

She was 14, not 16. Just saying. I agree with your post though.

I'm going to disagree with the majority. Five is young and a lot of five year olds (especially boys) just might not be ready for any sort of sit-down academic kind of work. Not that you would want to follow it exactly but you still might want to read "Better Late Than Early" by the Moores just for a little perspective. K didn't used to be academic back when we were in school. 1st Grade used to be time enough for that. Now K is more academic to "prepare" kids for 1st, and pre-k is more academic to "prepare" kids for K- me, I'm more about letting little kids just be little kids, keeping things very hands-on and informal and, yes, fun. There's nothing wrong with fun when you're five. There's time enough for the "school doesn't have to be fun and school has to happen!" attitude throughout their whole lives. It doesn't have to happen at 5. In many places, K isn't even mandatory. Where I live, compulsory school age doesn't even start until kids are 8. Which is just to say, if he's not ready, not interested, beginning to "hate school," and you don't want that attitude to carry on and/or become really ingrained in him, I personally think it's fine to take a step (or two) back, relax, look for something more interest-led and fun, give it another six months or a year and then try again if you want to with your K plans. Even informally, he'll still learn lots. How can he not? Kids learn from the world around them all the time, even when you're not trying. Just for fun, here's something I wrote about my son, called "A Kindergarten Dropout".... http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/190076.html But the truth is- it doesn't matter what any of us say. What do YOUR instincts tell YOU about YOUR child? Good luck, whatever you decide!

I think it sounds like a wonderful opportunity- but I would prefer to have the kids on board with it.

:iagree: My son who will be 6 in November LOVES the game "Plants vs. Zombies." He's allowed to play that, for instance. But a realistic, violent, gory looking video game? No, not yet, if only because I'd worry it would give him nightmares or something!

I would absolutely let her quit. No one should have to invest that much time in something they don't enjoy and that makes them that upset.

That I don't know, it didn't say how it came about that he got charged even once the mother gave permission for them to marry. I sure as hell wouldn't give my 14 year old permission to marry a 38 year old who knocked her up, though. I'd have his butt thrown in jail and I'd file for an order of protection and I'd keep my teen (and her child) as far from him as possible. I'm assuming he's already got custody of the other three children they had together so I don't know as this one makes more of a difference- I don't think he's looking to abuse a toddler/preschooler (I hope)! But he had no qualms about having sex with a 14 year old, so, ick, regardless!

Normal, and it's never bothered me, whether my kids have toy guns, or make pretend guns out of sticks, or whatever. When I was a kid, we had cap guns and so on, played cops and robbers, I wrote gory horror stories in later elementary school... I think we grew up okay lol.

I'm just the opposite. My daughter started K as the youngest in her class (she wasn't even 5 yet), and now that she's finished 5th grade, while she's done well with most of it, a few times I've thought she'd have gotten more out of her reading and writing assignments and could have been working more independently on some things if she'd had that extra year to grow and age and mature and so on earlier on. And I think that will be even more the case going into junior high and high school years. So I've decided that over the next two school years, I'm going to stretch 6th grade out over a two year period and get her back to the age level she'd have been if I'd waited that extra year before starting K. I think this will also have the benefit of not having her graduate too young- I'd rather her have the extra year of age/maturity etc there, too! So MY opinion is no, don't grade skip. Just leave him in the grade he's in and do whatever type of work that suits him.

What a sickening story. All of it. Did you read that the reason he is a registered sex offender is because of the fact that he was with this little girl's mother to begin with? She was 14 when she met him- he was 38. He got her pregnant, so her mother signed permission for her to marry this guy (lovely). But he got arrested and pleaded guilty to a sex crime involving a child under 16. They did stay together and had three children together. Then she got pregnant with this little girl, Miranda, and left him; he filed for divorce saying the child wasn't his, but then requested custody when the mother died. The whole thing is pretty twisted! But I sure do hope that he is not a danger to a 4 year old child while all of this plays out.

Love all the pics! I have a bunch of pics of some of our SOTW1 activities up too on my SOTW review page if you want to see more: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/124469.html

Not sure if I mentioned or if it's already obvious lol...but that involved putting the crayon shavings and bits of colored thread on the picture, putting the picture between two sheets of wax paper, putting a couple of layers of newspaper over the whole thing and ironing for a minute or two on a low setting to melt the wax, and then trimming the wax paper to the shape/size desired.

Cough. Wow. You really ARE ambitious. LOL!

:lol: I have a dishwasher so I don't really do daily dishes, but, no, I've never used gloves while cleaning anything.

We love birthday parties :) When my daughter turned 6 we had her first birthday party where we invited friends- she was in public school at the time and we invited all the girls from her class and met at a nail place in the mall where the girls all got their nails painted and got to pick designs to put on their nails. Then we moved across the mall to the pizza place where family met us and we all had pizza and cake and did presents. When she turned 7, we again invited just the girls and did a tea party at a bed and breakfast place that did tea luncheons for girls. When she turned 8, we had a "storybook" theme party at the house and invited different friends to come dressed as fave book characters. We made a cake in the shape of a book, gave out books for favors, decorated bags to put the books in, told stories, etc. When she turned 9, my son turned 4 around the same time (one's October, once's November), and they were homeschooled as of that year, so we had a joint birthday party at a community place that has a climbing wall, trampolines, sports, electronic games, and so on and brought in food and did our party there, inviting some homeschool friends, neighborhood friends and family. When she turned 10, we had a carnival theme party in our backyard and got a bounce house and made cotton candy and hubby did face painting and so on. I would have had a joint party again that year but my son turning 5 was absolutely begging for a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, so we let him have one. He loved it. This year as they turn 11 and 6, we'll be doing a joint party again- we're going to a farmer's market type place that has a fall festival where they do hayrides, have a bucking bronco thing, a little corn maze, an apple sling, a chute slide, and an inflatable obstacle course thing, nerf tag and so on. I think once my daughter gets to be like 12, 13, though, we'll stop with the bigger birthday parties and do ones that focus more on my younger son, and for her, I'll start moving toward letting her choose a friend or two to take to some sort of event or outing instead, or maybe a sleepover, and just do a family dinner/cake at home (or go out to eat or whatever).

I personally prefer a more gentle, hands-on, Waldorfy, play-based approach to the youngest years, particularly pre-K through 1st grade. And I'm still pretty relaxed for the rest of the grade school years, although they do get more and more academic for us as we go. By 4th, 5th and 6th we're doing much more academic stuff- more so each year- (though we still like to keep it hands on and interesting to the extent we are able). This approach is working well for us in regard to our happiness, how I can see my daughter learning, how she's doing on standardized testing, the things our evaluator says about our portfolios at the end of each year, etc. I think if you decide a more laid back approach is best for you- you don't need to feel guilty or traitorous lol... there's more than one way to approach an education. :)

We're stretching 6th grade out over a two year period for a variety of reasons, so we're supplementing our main curriculum with a couple of things to round things out in the meanwhile. We're using: Oak Meadow 6 Ancient Civilizations and English (integrated Language Arts and Social Studies) Story of the World Volume 1 Ancient Times (we've already been doing this over the summers when we weren't too busy with main curriculum, but now that we're stretching 6th grade out, we'll incorporate it over school year, too). Story Grammar for Elementary School (we did Sentence Composing For Elementary School last year). Oak Meadow 6 Basic Life Science Teaching Textbooks Math 6 (plus Life of Fred Fractions 1X a week to see how we like it). Meet The Masters (art) Typing Instructor For Kids Platinum Getting Started With Spanish She will also be using the free health curriculum at kidshealth.org for health, beginning to cook using the Rachael Ray "Cooking Rocks!" cookbook, taking up guitar lessons for music, and continuing weekly Judo classes for P.E. She will also be continuing with Girl Scouts (becoming a Cadette this year).

We're using: Oak Meadow Kindergarten Syllabus (Waldorf-inspired, hands on, gentle) Oak Meadow First Book Of Crafts Oak Meadow A First Book Of Fairy Tales. It's not overly academic in the earliest years. Nature, stories, drawings, craft, music and movement, upper case letters of the alphabet in hands on ways (i.e. drawing in dirt with a stick, finding it in nature), etc.

LOL! Reminds me of the time when my son was about 4 1/2 and my daughter had mentioned something that happened before he was born. "Was I there?" he wanted to know. "No, you were still in mommy's tummy" his sister told him. Well, he wanted to know if he got into my tummy because I ate him. haha. We ended up getting this book for preschoolers called "You Were Born On Your Very First Birthday." But it was a little bit vague when it said, "Out you came along a narrow path that was opening wider and wider, a special pathway only for you out of your mother's body." "Like this?" my son asked, moving his hand up his belly toward his mouth. Apparently he was still thinking I ate him and that he got in and out through my mouth. "Uh, no, you didn't go up, you went down..." I started, gesturing. “You mean I came out of your penis?†He wanted to know. “Er, no... I don’t have a penis. I'm not a boy...†“Ohhhh. Out of your butt!†“Er, no… remember, boys have a penis and girls have a vagina...?†“Ohhh, you have a beegina!†"uh huh." :lol: