My daughter just turned ten this month and for the most part, she's still only allowed to ride her bike and play on our block. Maybe three to four times now (very recently, like between late August and September) we have agreed to let her go around the corner to a park or to ride "around the block" with a group of other kids- we only allow it when she's in a group, not alone (the group usually consists of my twin 7 year old nephews, a 9 year old neighborhood boy who is one of Alexa's friends, and sometimes another 10 year old neighborhood girl who is one of her friends). All of the other kids on the block have been allowed to do this ("going around the block") all summer. But it was only toward the very end of the summer that we started letting her go once in a while. And we haven't yet allowed it on a regular basis. I'm a little over protective, I know. Part of the route they'd take "around the block" is kind of deserted and it made me nervous (like one old run down looking apartment building, and some sort of warehouse). But for the most part it's a quiet residential area she'd be in. I even called the police to ask them if they considered that a safe area for kids of my daughter's age to ride and they said yes, that there are no registered pedophiles or anything like that there. So that made me feel better. But then we'd go for a family walk and my daughter would walk right across a street without even looking and when we'd say something to her, she'd go "but you guys are with me!" And I'm like, I don't care WHO is with you, it should be AUTOMATIC that you ALWAYS look both ways before you go flying across a street and if we don't see you doing that now, we're not going to trust you to do it when you're riding bikes with your friends!!! So, I don't know, we're easing into it. The cold weather is coming and it won't be much of an issue. Come spring when she's 10 1/2 and the kids are all more into riding bikes "around the block" and to the park again, we'll probably let her do it more regularly by then. I'll talk to her again about stranger danger, about not going with or approaching ANYBODY who isn't a friend (and a "friend" is someone who visits our house and whose house we visit, it's not a neighbor that she vaguely knows but who we don't visit, for instance). And about street safety (looking both ways, not riding in the middle of the street etc- most of the areas she'd be in has sidewalks but one longer section doesn't). And about staying with her group at all times. And we'll also give her a cell phone at that point that is programmed for only a few numbers. Letting go is hard! :)

Touchy Feely Boxes!! http://www.squidoo.com/Halloween-Party-Games

The first time, I think, I came to ask a couple of questions about SOTW. Then I didn't return for quite a while. The second time I came because I'd heard that there was a sale board for used curriculum and I was looking for something specific (TT5 I believe it was). Then I think I just kept browsing because I was bored that day and found out that despite the board's name it actually DOES have other homeschoolers who are more relaxed (like me), so I stayed. :D

Happy birthday!! :)

Oh my gosh, I just read this whole thread. How horrifying! I am REALLY glad that your daughter didn't understand what was said to her. That's the main thing! You can play it off to her as "they were just being silly/stupid and the police told them they shouldn't go around yelling at and scaring people like that" and then she hopefully won't have nightmares... ugh! GOOD for your husband for getting that license plate number and you for calling the police! I'm so glad they handled it the way they did! Maybe they will think twice about being such idiots next time, and maybe you just saved another young girl a whole lot of terror, especially if the next one DID understand what they said!

No, for the same reason everyone else says. I don't work out of the home but sometimes my kids have computer games going and they'll leave the volume up and then I click onto a blog and all of a sudden music starts blaring and scares the cr*! out of me. I hate that! And it's rarely the same music as what I like. So all I would do would be to turn my speakers off if I can't find a quick easy way to stop their music from playing (if it's a site I REALLY want to check out- if I could take it or leave it or was undecided, I'd just X out of it immediately), and I'd be less likely to want to visit that blog again. I'd find it irritating.

Well, the pizza was decent, and it was warm, if not hot, and I overlooked the fact that they slopped the cheese around a bit since it was free, and the kids and I are no longer starving! ...And the manager just now called me to ask me how everything was and to apologize again lol. I feel somewhat better now. Nance (also a displaced New Yorker, living in PA though :D)

I just called again like two minutes ago to see what the heck is going on because now it's been at least 40 minutes more, and the girl who answered is like "Oh, they're actually lost. What's your address again?" (As if I haven't already given it to two other people during the last two phone calls I made). "And this is your phone number? Okay, they're on their way now." So I'm STILL waiting. I am SO not happy. But I want pizza, darn it! ...oh wait they just called me to ask me AGAIN where I am. They finally made it here (7:05), apologized profusely and gave me the pizza and a two liter bottle of soda for free. Going to eat now! Blah!

There's a newer pizza place the next town over which is now officially the closest place to deliver. (Like maybe 3-4 minutes away). Tonight I decided to try them out for the first time. I called at 5:10 and ordered a large pie. At 6:15 I called again to ask if they could tell me how much longer it was going to be, as it had been over an hour since I'd called with no sign of them, and we were all starving. They told me they had somehow "lost" my order. They apologized. They took my info again. They said they'd give me a "free soda" (whatever! they should give me a free pizza at this point as far as I'm concerned!) and they said "We'll be there in 15 to 20 minutes." Well, it's already been another 30 minutes- and they still aren't here. I'm hungry and cranky and I'm never ordering from that place again! /rant.

I would have smiled and said, "Oh, it's easy at this age, and as they get older, you don't have to know everything- you just have to be willing to learn with them, or able to help them find out what they need to know. Sometimes we learn as we go!" At the most, I usually just get a question or two, like a "why do you homeschool," or "how do you get your materials?" or "Are you going to do it all the way through high school" but that's usually about it.

I'm not a Christian and I love Halloween, but with that said, I cannot fathom how a cute costume gives an "appearance of evil" either. Anymore than dressing up for a school play or a recital or whatever, or "playing dressup," it's just for fun and tradition. I don't really get taking it so seriously or making it about "evil."

For the fairy costume, you could cut wings out of cardboard and let her decorate them with paint and/or glitter and glue, and then let her wear a pretty dress or something that she already owns. Maybe you could make her a crown of flowers, even cheap fake flowers. For a super hero I would think all you mainly need is a cape, maybe an eye mask, maybe you can do some face paints for him, like a lightning bolt on his face or some such? I would check even a dollar store for things like this! Not sure on a dinosaur, I'm not really that crafty either!

Maybe she'd enjoy playing some of the games on multiplication.com? Many board games are also great for utilizing math skills.

My fifth grader is using the Oak Meadow curriculum. English and Social Studies and Geography and Crafts are integrated. Vocabulary words are assigned based on the social studies reading. Spelling is assigned based on words she gets wrong in her writing assignments. They do cover grammar. Writing assignments (and reading assignments) generally revolve around social studies. So, for instance, the first thing we read about in social studies in the syllabus was "Early Visitors To North America." Then she had two writing assignments to choose from. One said: Read about Marco Polo's adventures. Write a page or two about what you learn. If you enjoy creative writing, you might prefer composing a scene that you imagine could have occurred between Marco Polo and the great ruler Kublai Khan in China. The other said: Compose a short story or newspaper article about what terrible monsters and other hazards might await anyone who tries to sail around the world. Illustrate your story. (My daughter did this one). Meanwhile, she was reading "Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus?" And when we do the social studies reading in the syllabus, it has her stop to look things up on a map or do mapwork here and there, for the geography portion of things. She also made her own compass as a craft. Lesson 2 was "More Exploring" and more about Christopher Columbus. She again had a list of things to choose from for that week's writing assignment. The one my daughter chose said: What if you were a Native American Indian who saw Columbus and his ships arriving off the coast of your home? How would these people have appeared to you? How might you have felt/ Would you feel welcoming or would you be frightened? How might you and your family prepare to meet these strangers? For a craft, she made a wooden sailboat. By Lesson 3, we were reading "If You Sailed On The Mayflower In 1620." We read about Jamestown in the syllabus. For a craft, she made a diorama of Jamestown. For a writing assignment, she had five different choices to choose from. She chose the one that said: What if you were elected the leader of a new colony? What are some of the laws you would make about establishing a secure food supply for the colony, relationships with the Indians, and other major concerns? What would the consequences be for breaking these laws? What would some of the other major concerns be, and how do you think you would deal with them?" In Lesson 4, we were continuing with the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. She had a choice of three things for that week's writing assignment. She chose the one that said: If you were preparing for the long sea voyage to the New World and needed to bring foods that would not spoil, what could you bring? There were no refrigerators, no canned or bottled goods back then. Make a list of food supplies that could feed your family for the journey. What other supplies would be useful for the trip? What household items would you want to be sure to bring for your new life in a colony? What about tools and supplies that would be necessary for survival in your new home? What things could you probably count on finding in the place you were going? This week (Lesson 5) we're reading "The Witch Of Blackbird Pond" and she's taking notes (ideas and facts) on index cards as we go as an outline because in a couple of weeks, she'll be writing a report comparing the Puritan way of life to her life in modern times. OK this is getting long LOL. But this gives a really good idea of how the OM curriculum works, I really love it! There's always a hands on activity/craft, a choice of things to write about, a book to read that goes along with the lesson, and a page or two or three of information in the syllabus, not a lot of dry textbookish stuff. The writing assignments give some interesting choices and allow for some creativity... we really like it. ETA: Oak Meadow aside, she's also working her way through a HWT Can-Do Cursive workbook, and maintaining correspondence with a penpal and sometimes has to write out answers to questions from her Environmental Science syllabus, too.

You know, this is a good point. I NEVER thought I would homeschool. My daughter went to public school for K, 1st grade, 2nd grade, and most of 3rd grade. It wasn't until third grade that I finally just had enough of all the things I couldn't stand about the schools and started looking into homeschooling. I did end up pulling her out in March of that year and homeschooling her for the rest of third grade, all of fourth, and now we're doing 5th and I can't imagine life any other way. I wish I had done it sooner! My little son, at least, will be home with me right from the beginning. But the truth is, it WAS scary. I hadn't been homeschooled, nobody in my family had been homeschooled, the couple of people I knew who homeschooled, I knew only casually at that point, and it was a big change. It was just so out of the ordinary for us, that that alone was kind of scary. And I kept thinking "am I REALLY "qualified" to teach her? Am I going to screw this up? Am I ruining her life?" Like Brownie said, it's easier to let someone else, someone you were raised to think of as "qualified," take on the responsibility of teaching your children! But in the end... Brownie is right, and i never thought of it that way. If you're afraid of "screwing them up" and so you're leaving them in someone else's hands... making that decision is still YOU "screwing them up" if you're allowing them to be in a poor system where bad things are happening to them!!! For me, doing lots and lots of reading (books and articles) on the benefits and positive side of homeschooling helped me get started. Connecting with other homeschoolers in my meetup group also helped tremendously (not feeling like "the only one" or something). Reminding myself that it didn't necessarily have to be permanent, that if i changed my mind or felt like it wasn't working out, I could always send her back helped. And lastly, once I actually STARTED homeschooling, I found myself thinking "this is great! This feels really natural! What the heck was I so worried about to begin with?!" And I'd see the standardized test scores come out in the paper each year and see how the schools here really are "failing" and I'd think, "Well, I can't possibly do a worse job at this than they are!" and I'd remember all the things I couldn't stand about public school and think, "I'm glad I don't have to deal with THAT anymore!" Maybe your friend can think of it as a "trial period" and just keep in mind that it isn't irreversible. But hopefully once she got started, she'd never think of reversing that decision!

"What Can You Do With A Pumpkin" - Each kid gets a pumpkin. You can do this on the spot or you can do it in advance and then just have them bring it in to show off. They have to use their imaginations to do anything they want with that pumpkin (either turning it into something else or decorating it or whatever). You could do pumpkin carvings or decoratings and then toast the seeds. If a "field trip" is an option, an apple orchard to go apple picking would be fun (or you could get apples in advance and then you guys can make candy or caramel apples). Enchanted Learning has some cute ideas for younger kids: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/fall/

That'll actually get your tables nice and clean :) You could also do fingerpainting with pudding. My son is a bit older but loves when I give him a one hole punch and some paper. He'll happily sit there for a long time punching holes out of paper. I also gave him a lock set to play with the other day and he spent quite a while putting a key in and out of the lock and turning it (and then doing the same with our front door). I also agree with the person who mentioned pots and pans- maybe you can dedicate one cabinet to some pots and pans and containers and cooking tools and things that he can just get into and play with. Let him crawl around in the cabinet even. Give him a big, empty cardboard box and a few crayons. Let him play around inside it, color on it, pretend it's a train, a house, whatever he wants to pretend. Show him how you fold a towel and then give him a pile of washcloths or dish towels and ask him to fold them (my 4 y/o LOVES doing this).

I agree. If we were talking about an older kid who wanted to give public school a shot, I'd be more willing to talk about it (taking their reasons, maturity, etc into consideration, too). But a 6 and 7 year old? No, that would not be up to them.

Well, drat. I just clicked on this to read it, and it wasn't here. :P

I agree, we watched the one with Shirley Temple, rented from Netflix. My 9 year old loved it after reading the book (and enjoyed tasting goat's milk afterward- well, she didn't enjoy the goat's milk itself, but she enjoyed the opportunity to taste it haha). My 4 y/o even watched a good amount of it before he lost interest.

Oh, a diorama would be a cute idea! This isn't a craft but maybe she would like writing a letter to a main character about his or her behavior or how he or she handled a situation? Or drawing a comic/doing a storyboard kind of thing? Or writing a new ending (or adding in a new chapter or adventure) Or making her own little booklet about the book and illustrating it. or painting a mural depicting one or more of her favorite scenes Or making a poster "advertising" the book Or pretending she is a news reporter on the scene describing a major event in the book and video tape it.

Thank you! And, Oh!!! I can't believe I forgot to mention that part! I am actually going to TOPS meetings (although I'm using the WW diet plan) and they gave me a charm bracelet today for reaching 10 lbs lost last week! From here on out, they give out charms for the bracelet every 5 lbs, which I thought was pretty cool. :)

Thank you everyone, for your support and encouragement! Today was my 6th results weigh in. Status Report: 8/26/10, Week "0" Weight: 237 1/2 lbs BMI: 37.2 Height: 5'7" 9/2/10, Week 1 Weight: 235 1/2 lbs BMI: 36.9 Weekly Change: -2 lbs Total Loss: 2 lbs 9/9/10, Week 2 Weight: 234 1/2 lbs BMI: 36.8 Weekly Change: -1 lb Total Loss: 3 lbs 9/16/10, Week 3 Weight: 231 3/4 lbs BMI: 36.3 Weekly Change: -2 3/4 lbs Total Loss: 5 3/4 lbs 9/23/10, Week 4 Weight: 229 1/2 lbs BMI: 35.9 Weekly Change: -2 1/4 lbs Total Loss: 8 lbs 9/30/10, Week 5 Weight: 226 3/4 lbs BMI: 35.5 Weekly Change: -2 3/4 lbs Total Loss: 10 3/4 lbs 10/7/10, Week 6 Weight: 226 1/4 lbs BMI: 35.5 Weekly Change: -1/2 lb Total Loss: 11 1/4 lbs Goal: 58 lbs. 11 1/4 lbs down, 46 3/4 lbs to go. --- My husband has lost a total of 9 1/4 lbs so far. (He had a 1/4 lb gain this week). --- Please see my weight loss page on my livejournal site for fun weight loss picture updates: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/139113.html --- I would, of course, have hoped for more than a half pound loss this week, but I had my daughter's birthday party (definitely indulged!) and a neighbor's birthday party, and only made it to the gym once this week when I wanted to go more often (but my little guy got sick and I couldn't take him to the play room at the gym) and so on. But it's better than nothing, right? And still two more sticks of butter gone, at least!

Gosh, what a touching story!

Thanks for the replies... I tasted it. I guess it wasn't the most awful thing in the world, but it was this unfortunate color that just doesn't look like meat, and I think I was psyching myself out thinking it was going to taste horrid, and part of me was going "okay it's not THAT bad" and another part was going "but it's just not meat and it's kind of weird" and in the end I just found it...I don't know, maybe unsatisfying is the word. Even with some cheese and lettuce and a bit of ketchup. I didn't finish the whole thing, I just felt sort of put off by it lol. Oh, well.