Outside of relatives' homes, there has only been one friend whose house my daughter has been invited to sleep over so far, and she was 9 when it first came up. I did allow it (I don't know the parents EXTREMELY well but I've met them a few times, and the girls had been friends since preschool, go to Girl Scouts together, the girl's aunt is their Girl Scout leader, and they live in the same town as us) etc.

Testing ETA: Oh, cool! It worked! Too bad I can't do it with pictures that are just stored on my computer, but at least I know what to do now. Thanks! :D

Ah, thank you... that's a great photo, by the way!! ETA: Hm there is no "copyimageurl" option when I right click a photo on my blog. There's "copy image" and "copy image location." Would I "copy image location" and then paste? And then do I have to put img and /img in brackets at the beginning and end of the link it posts?

How to make a photo appear right in your main post (as opposed to uploading a small attachment that shows up below your post and has to be clicked on to be viewed at a decent size)? Thanks. :)

I'd either give her the snow day, or I'd change our normal schedule around so that she had plenty of time to play. If it's under two hours anyway, you could always do half of it in the morning then send her to play, and do the other half in the evening or some such. Or weed out one or two things that aren't as big a deal to get done to shorten the day some, or whatever.

Ah, yes, I do believe so. (Since I love that song... and many others by Meatloaf...too! I've even seen Meatloaf in concert. I love his voice! :D)

Not really- my daughter is 10 and I'm more USED to this board so I do feel at home here- I've always gotten good responses/answers etc. But I've been dipping my toes into the other one a bit lately, too, and I'm finding that a good place to post as well. :) Just do it, post away! :D

I love Oak Meadow. It's more gentle and hands on in the earliest years, which I like. And it does do crafty stuff although not quite as extreme as what you mentioned. :lol: Because I love reading so much, I also love the idea of Five In A Row (and for younger ones Before Five In A Row), and if it weren't for the fact that I already adored Oak Meadow, I'd have been totally attracted to FIAR; however, I understand that wasn't a secular curriculum, which would have been what I wanted.

Air Supply. Making Love Out Of Nothing At All. Love.that.song. You should hear me belt it out while I'm driving!... ...on second thought, no. You shouldn't. :lol:

My daughter and I read that last week for the first week of the challenge. I agree with you! It had its moments but definitely, definitely not one of my favorite children's books! EVERY parent should read that book! I need to put that one on my list, I would like to read it, too. I want to read that one, too. My library doesn't have it, I'll need to order it from ILL. Maybe I'll do it just before we leave for Florida for a few weeks- I hear it's long and I won't likely run out of pages before I run out of vacation heh. No, I can't blame you. :lol: Anyway! This week, my daughter and I are reading "Skellig" by David Almond together (features a homeschooled character and a half man, half owl/angel thing (with a grumpy disposition as of early in the story) that a boy discovers in the run down garage of his family's new home... And I am reading "The Virgin's Lover" by Philippa Gregory on my own. I really enjoy her books. We are continuing with "Ben and Me" by Robert Lawson for school this week. It's cute but nothing to write home about. And my daughter is reading the second book in the "Wright On Time" series ("Utah") (homeschooling family goes state to state in their RV) on her own. It's a very quick read for her and she's enjoying it, she finished the first in the series (Arizona) last week.

Other: Writing out the bills. I procrastinate every month, can't stand doing it. Does that count? If I can't pick that one, then it'd be cleaning the bathtub.

My library card number is memorized, and I have a very friendly/chatty email relationship with the ILL librarian :D

I know that. But I'd rather tell her that it's not going to bother her so much then, then to tell her "well you might be one of the old people who it DOES bother..." I was trying to make her feel better about this lol.

Choke was SO weird!

I love this analogy!

Good to know...thank you both! (And another reason for me to want to wait til next year so that this may end up being review/reinforcement rather than new material- neither she or I are particularly strong at math. She really likes and benefits from TT for new material since it shows AND tells step by step how to do things and then gives plenty of review and hints and instant correction/reinforcement and so on- so I figured if she learned the material there first, LoF would make for an interesting/fun way of reviewing it).

Hmm. How about looking into whether a "speaker" of your choice would be willing to and could do a web chat or teleconference type thing instead of a live appearance? If that works out, how about turning that into a "mom's night" kind of thing where they can have the cyber-speaker talk and Q and A, and then just have adult conversation. Play a game- even something silly like Charades. Share some snacks (or host an inexpensive spaghetti dinner). An adult beverage if that's your thing. It's nice of you to want to do something for them!

Thanks for that book recommendation! I just ordered it from Interlibrary Loan so I can check it out. I have given my daughter the "some people believe this, some people believe that" talk. I've given her the "you're very young and this is not likely to happen for a VERY long time" talk. I've given her the "by the time people are very old it doesn't bother them anymore the way it does someone who is young" talk. I've given her the "you should think about something else, you are alive and there's no use in spending your life worrying or being upset about something that hasn't happened yet and shouldn't happen for a very long time" talk. Usually she's fine or the conversations are fleeting and/or far and few in between. But sometimes she gets really hung up on the "I don't want to die" <cry> kind of thing and how it's hard not to think about at night and so on. And I can remember doing the same thing when I was a kid. Heck, even from time to time as an adult although I've gotten better about putting it firmly out of my mind. I wish there were some magical words of comfort but I guess there aren't, really. It's just one of those facts of life that everyone has to come to terms with one way or another. It sure is hard, though. I'd rather talk about sex all day long than to have to have even one conversation with a child about death. Sigh.

What do YOU say/do to comfort a child or to help ease those fears that crop up now and then about dying? If you're religious you can talk about how the child will go to Heaven/be with God and so on and so forth, and maybe that would be of some comfort to some children, but what if you're not?

You might "miss something" they'd be doing in public school- but how much do YOU remember of what you learned in public school anyway? ;) It won't ruin him for life. Do what's working for you guys. If it's working and if he's enjoying it, he'll probably retain more of it than he'd have retained in public school anyway! If there's something he finds out he really needs when he's older, in order to follow a path he wants to follow, he'll have all the motivation in the world to fill in that gap when the time comes (and a very motivated young adult will do much better with that than a disinterested preteen will IMHO).

Does anyone find that this tends to be a good fit for "not-particularly-mathy" kids, or no?

She said he's in 1st grade. I wouldn't worry about keeping grades for a 1st grader at all!!! Keep some or all of his work if you like (I like to keep pretty much all of it lol) but I really don't see a need at ALL to "grade" a 1st grader (or an elementary school student at all, really). If you don't have to do it for reporting purposes, then I wouldn't even let it cross my mind again until around the last year of middle school, when you might want to start thinking about how to prepare for/get used to grading for high school transcripts or something. (Or you could just wait until high school).

Thanks for suggesting this! I had been considering getting a cell phone for my special needs teen for her 19th b-day. She's never OUT anywhere without me or a trusted adult, so I've never really felt the need to give her her own cell phone. But lately sometimes she's been staying home for short periods by herself, like if I run my younger daughter over to Girl Scouts, and older dd wants to just stay home and watch TV and so on, and it's made me a little nervous anyway because we have no landline. (We have relatives 3 houses up the road but still). So at first I was thinking of either one of those firefly phones, or of just getting a prepaid phone, but then there's the hassle of adding minutes and so on. Anyway after reading this, we found out we could add her to our plan for $10.00 a month AND get her a FREE PHONE. Of course, we had to sign a 2 year contract, but, whatever, it's only $10.00 a month! It made her feel really grown up and she loved getting it, she can use her own phone to call her dad and grandparents and aunt and so on, and I can feel more comfortable leaving her home alone for short periods since I know we can get in touch with each other. :)

We occasionally throw a towel over our bedroom door or on our elliptical machine in our bedroom. :D

It could be an ear infection and they'd give you antibiotics for that AND a pill that will help stop the dizziness, so I'd want to go.