You could make a book of books read. You can write down the title (if the kids can't write independently) and then the kids can draw a picture of their favorite scene from the book or something. I do keep a typed log for my daughter because I legally have to keep a log of reading materials used, so it's just a wordpad doc that I print at the end of each year to include with my portfolio. But she's going into 5th grade. For a younger kid who isn't of compulsory age yet and you're keeping it for fun/memories, I think there were lots of cute ideas here!

I've actually wondered about this, too. I don't have one, never used one, and I'm not sure how I WOULD use one.

This site is awesome: http://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/home-school-ideas.html It's got all different creative, fun homeschool ideas- including a section on photography which you'll find as you scroll down. I think you'll find some good ideas for your son there.

My 4 y/o son (and his big sister) both like "Annie."

Cool, that's what I was thinking. You think like 20 min covered and 10 uncovered would be good? (Actually it's rainy here too but we're hoping it won't last all day and we do have a building we're using with tables and chairs to sit and eat and chat and play board games and do face painting in and so on but we're hoping the weather clears enough for the kids to go play outside, too, where there's a big park. I'm putting on their oldest shoes and clothes and expecting them to get a bit muddy! lol) Thanks for the quick response!

About to stick two trays of baked ziti in the oven for a homeschool group picnic I'm leaving for in less than an hour. Should I cover the trays with aluminum foil before putting them in? If so, should I remove the foil after a certain amount of time? How long should I put them in for? I have the oven at 350 and the trays are ready to go in. Thanks! :D

That's fantastic!! Congrats!! :) I wish I could get motivated enough to get back on it (because I know it's a great program and that it really works!)

Well, you could give the benefit of the doubt, you know. I don't think it's strange. I'm not Christian or particularly religious but I can DEFINITELY see an adult agreeing to something that is a bit troubling to them because someone they really, really trust (like a pastor) has encouraged it... but still having second, third and fourth and more thoughts that might eventually make them say "I still don't know about this, I need to see what others think...." And there have been other posters here who have said that yes, they've heard a such a thing, so it's not like UNHEARD of. Just saying.

That's insane. No freakin' way. Just, no way!

If I'm reading a book that I'm really loving, I'll read just that one and nothing else til its done. But sometimes I'll have 2 or 3 books going at a time. I know that can be pretty common with adults who like to read. But I've found that I do that when it comes to read alouds with my 9 y/o daughter, too. I don't know if that's a bad thing! Sometimes I wonder if we should just be sticking with one book at a time. Like, we started reading the "Little House On The Prairie" series together a while back. But we keep stopping to read other books in between. So right now, we're in the middle of one of the "Little House On The Prairie" books. We're also currently in the middle of "Alice In Wonderland" because the Fresh Air Fund Child we just hosted had requested it for bedtime reading and now even though she's left midway through, I'm still reading it with my daughter, who had never read it before. And we're in the middle of a book of Chinese legends for SOTW. AND then there's whatever book my daughter is reading to herself, as well (which is currently an Encyclopedia Brown book). Oh, and she's asking me to start reading Harry Potter with her after Alice In Wonderland (I feel like yelling "Hang on, Laura, Ma, and Pa, we'll be back one of these days, really we will! haha). And this isn't just a one time thing; it was like this pretty much all of last year, too. We were reading the Little House books then, plus we were doing whatever books Oak Meadow "assigned" every three weeks, and sometimes we were doing further supplemental reading on topics we learned about, like when she learned about the Orphan Trains, we read a fictional series together about that, and she'd do her own silent reading, too. It's like she and I ALWAYS have at least 3-4 books going at once. Do you ever find yourself in the middle of more than one or two read alouds with your child? Do you think that, like, I don't know... affects their ability to absorb and really enjoy a given story or something?

That's wonderful! Congratulations! :)

I love Uncrustables :blushing: (I don't buy them often. But I think they're yummy, and so does my husband, and so do the kids)! :D ETA: I Never heard of peanut butter slices! lol. That sounds funny!

What if you make a fun little "cave" underneath a table (like with a blanket or sheet over it), or behind a couch pulled away from the wall, or some such, with a blanket and pillow, flashlight, book or audiobook or something underneath- the kids might get a kick out of it, and they can alternate who gets to use the "cave" that day. Or... what if you let one of them use your bedroom for quiet time? My daughter loves when I let her read on my bed, for some reason!

I think you're overthinking it lol. Do it however it works for you! My daughter likes when I start out the day reading to her, while she eats her breakfast. So whatever book we're reading aloud together, I'll read to her then, and when she finishes breakfast, we'll usually move over to the couch to continue. We might read anywhere from 1-3 chapters of a book a day, depending on how much else we've got going on and what her current attention span/mood is like. Sometimes we'll read a bit at bedtime, too. When we did the Oak Meadow curriculum last year, they 'assigned' a particular book like every three weeks, and that was what we would mostly read together. But sometimes I'd pick something that I thought she would enjoy (and that I thought *I* would enjoy, too, and suggest reading that aloud together as well). Other than that, she always picked whatever books she was interested in to read to herself. I don't think of reading as formal or informal- well, I guess if it's one of the 'assigned' books it could be considered formal, but mostly we just read because we both like to read and enjoy having it part of our daily activity. I don't worry so much about when we read, where we read, if we miss a day, if we read one chapter or three chapters or whatever. Fit it in however it works :)

I would not think there would be a point where you go "okay, you can choose now!" at all. I would think that it would just be a gradual exploring and coming to their own conclusions of what they believe as they continue to grow and mature and learn. Someday, they may end up choosing one religion. They may end up with more of a hodgepodge/mixed philosophy. They may decide they aren't religious at all. But I think those are just gradual things that you come to as you grow, not ever some point where someone "lets you" or tells you to "choose."

I only have three kids, but I can say that each one of those three pregnancies was different. With my first, I had one solitary episode of feeling nauseous and that was it for the whole pregnancy. With my second, I had like three episodes of vomiting and that was it, no other nauseau or anything else. With my third, I had constant nausea, day and night, for like the first 15 weeks, but never vomited, and FINALLY the nausea passed. So I wouldn't worry just because a particular pregnancy is going differently or you're having different symptoms, I would say that's pretty normal! P.S. Even if you DO have bleeding, that might not necessarily be a reason to panic either. I had spotting in the first trimester with my first pregnancy, a single episode of bright red bleeding in my second trimester with my second pregnancy that scared the heck out of me, and some bleeding with my third pregnancy in the first trimester, early on.

What a great tattoo for you! I love it! :)

Update: She got on the bus this morning. My daughter and I made the 2 1/2 hour round trip and saw her off. She's probably getting home to her mom right about now. Now we wait to hear about a match for next week's trip!

Hey again all, I don't know how to do the multi quote thing so I'm just going to type my replies to each of you in a wordpad doc and then C&P my replies. :) Darla, Good question! I really don't know why they wouldn't let the parents come get her! I'm sure they have some legal/liability reasons but I don't know what exactly those are. Cat, You never know, but my daughter asked her if she might want to come back next year and she said no, she doesn't want to do the Fresh Air Fund anymore, that she just wants to stay with her mom lol. Who knows, I suppose it is POSSIBLE that by the time next summer rolls around, she might have matured enough to decide she wants to give it another shot, and if that happens, she just may request us, but at this point we can't count on it. Teachin'Mine, Thanks for the encouragement :) JoyfulMama, She would not be traveling unaccompanied. The FAF has different locations within our state that they send children on trips to. The location closest to ME will not have another bus until the 15th as originally scheduled. But the next closest location has its own scheduled trips, and that is the location that happens to have a bus going anyway tomorrow morning. So she would be with that area's volunteers/escorts, and group of children. She would not be unaccompanied. TheDragonAcademy, Thanks for your words of support! elegantlion, I agree, it IS a long time. Definitely harder than she bargained for! See above re: the bus/unaccompanied child thingie :) Chris, It's always a possibility! If they contacted us next year and said that she has been asking to return to us, we certainly wouldn't be opposed to it, but I also know my daughter would have loved for a new friend who left here going "see you next year!" already knowing she wanted to return as opposed to saying outright (as of now) that she definitely DOESN'T. Maybe that will happen with the next visit- maybe it won't! Either way we'll keep hosting, I still think it's a good experience (for both families!) no matter what. My rep did say they love when people are willing to host more than once in a given summer anyway, since she says there are alwyas more children in the program than there are hosts, and that there are always children who arrive at the bus stop in the city on "standby" hoping that someone else had to back out and that they can go in their place! ETA: Anyway, apparently they are trying to get in touch with the Chairperson for that other area to 1) make sure there definitely IS room on that bus for her, 2) that they WILL expect her, 3) that the bus WILL definitely stop in that particular location (there are supposed to be a couple of towns it stops in before finally heading back to NYC but those stops may depend on whether they had host families in those spots), and 4) whether they know of any volunteers or reps there that might be willing to meet me halfway in the AM. But for whatever reason, nobody seems to be able to find the contact info for that Chairperson. So I guess there are a bunch of phone calls and messages going back and forth between my rep, and someone in NYC, and me, and they're trying to find a field manager and so on, and they keep saying they will call me back as soon as they know anything, but now it's after 8 PM and still no definitive word, so I'm a little bit in limbo here! But my FAF child is all packed up and I've had her lay her clothes out for tomorrow, and I'm about to go tuck her into bed and read to her (she's requested more of "Alice In Wonderland") so she can get a good night's sleep as she'll have to be up early... so things are a bit chaotic now. But whatever happens, I'm still glad of the experience. We've enjoyed it, other than feeling bad for her when she got so homesick and all the current chaos about getting her home again!

I'm sorry! Can you maybe start your OWN homeschooling group? Or other social group? You can do it on meetup and then put up flyers in supermarkets and whatnot with your email information or your meetup site if you start one, and maybe you'd be able to get a group going. There must be SOME other people out there in your position, who don't want to sign a SOF and don't unschool! Either that or maybe you can just stick with those unschoolers for the time being and maybe you can politely mention when it comes up that you know they feel differently than you/that you have a different way of doing things but that you'd still like to get together with them for social reasons and maybe that will give them the hint to stop giving you a hard time.

My daughter likes when I read to her while she eats breakfast. So we start our day with me reading aloud while she eats. If she finishes eating before I finish reading, we move to the couch and finish. I also usually read at bedtime.

Not gonna bother listening since I know it will just tick me off! :) With that said, as far as I am concerned, anyone who has a problem with nursing in public should stay home. If they feel they must go out in public and they, by chance, encounter a nursing baby, they can always shove a blanket over their heads so they don't have to see such an offensive sight :P

Yeah... They actually offer three different summer trips to a given area. Or for my area, anyway. The trip options for here were: 7/2-7/15 (2 weeks) 7/15-7/22 (1 week) and I forget the exact dates, but there's a trip in August that's 1 1/2 weeks (10 days). This way the hosts and the FAF children and their families can pick which trip they want to do. I chose the two week one because we had the camping trip scheduled and I thought that would be fun to take them on and we figured we'd just go for it- and I guess she and her family decided she'd get the most out of the 2 week trip, too, when they matched us up, but I guess she just didn't really understand how long that might feel or anticipate having so much homesickness! I know it just happens sometimes, and that's just how it worked out this time around! If we get matched with someone for the next trip, it will only be one week so hopefully that will be less likely to lead to homesickness and the visit can just be enjoyed by the child without missing home so much. We will see how it goes!

Our 10 y/o FAF Child had a good time with all the things we did while she was here (wildlife park with safari ride, spending a day at the lake, the town pool, one of those free summer movies, 4th of July parade and fireworks, hanging around the house and going in the kiddie pool, watching TV, playing board games and so on). But she kept getting regular bouts of homesickness, and every time she did, she would tell her parents she wanted to go home early and she'd get upset. I did everything I could to comfort her, excite her about things we are doing (we're scheduled to go camping Sunday-Wednesday and were going to take her with us, and then she was supposed to take the bus home Thursday), but she just REALLY misses her mom. So, finally, yesterday her dad said he was going to pick her up early, on Saturday. I called my area rep to let her know, and she said she'd notify the NYC office. The NYC office called me earlier today and said it is against policy for a parent to pick a child up early and that they'd notify the parents of that, and that they'd look into whether they could find an earlier bus for her to go home on instead. They called me back and it seems they have a bus she can get on at 8:30 tomorrow morning in a town that is almost an hour and a half away from me. So I'd have to be up at 6 AM, out the door by 6:30, and make almost a three hour round trip to get her on this bus. When I told them how far it was and asked if they knew if there was anything closer, they said there wasn't, then they said they'd call me back within a few hours so they could talk to my area rep and the chairperson about whether there were any other options- which I think would mean they'd see if they had a volunteer who could do it. He said he'd call me back within a few hours. But it's now after 6 PM and as far as I know, their office isn't even open anymore, and he hasn't called me back. I did also talk to my area rep and I'm sure she will call me back shortly as she works full-time and would just be getting home around now, but I talked to her earlier and she said that she might have time to do it herself before she goes to work so I don't have to. But I told her I did not want to affect her work schedule like that, and that I would certainly do it if needed. I did ask her if she could possibly try to find out if one of the volunteers/reps from that area where the bus stop is might possibly be able to meet me halfway or something and then take her from there, as I don't want to have to make that long of a trip if I don't have to, but if not, I told her I didn't want her to have to do it since she has to work that day, too. She said we'd work something out and that she'd call me later. So at this point I'm just waiting to find out what's going on for tomorrow. My daughter and I are a LITTLE disappointed (keeping it to ourselves of course) because we had really hoped this would be a great experience that the child would really enjoy and that we'd "click" enough with the child that we'd want her to come back subsequent years, and that she, of course, would want to, too, and it just hasn't worked out that way this time around. Of course, I don't blame the FAF child at all and I DO understand, she just wasn't ready for this, being away from her mom for an extended period of time. She's never been away from her mom before, ever! I told her we understood and that we were happy that she came, even if she leaves early. Anyway, my rep and I talked about us hosting another child this summer. She's seeing if she can get a match for us for the next trip, which is a one week trip scheduled for 7/15-7/22. So I'm hoping that will work out, that we'll get another girl my daughter's age here and that she will be a good match with our family and will thoroughly enjoy the experience and want to return. We won't have anything very special like a camping trip planned for that trip like we did for this one, but we can still find some fun things to do, go back to the lake, and stuff like that. We'll see what happens! Anyway just an update for those who happened to be following our FAF visit.

Teaching Textbooks. :D