That's funny!

What about a stuffed pepper type recipe? Okay you can't bake it in the oven obviously. But you can brown the ground beef and saute the peppers and cook rice on a stove top and basically just toss it all together at the end and eat it all mixed in rather than putting it into peppers and baking it. You know, meat, rice, diced onion, tomato and pepper, season it up, add cheese, mix it all together or layer it. You could do like a stroganoff type thing (I don't have a recipe at hand but with egg noodles and sour cream and whatever). I don't know if that's supposed to be baked afterward but I'm sure you could do it without baking. I can't think of anything else, everything else I would have said, you are already sick of lol.

I've got one going into 5th and one going into Kindergarten so I'm definitely not combining them! They will both be using Oak Meadow (we used it this past year for fourth grade and loved it), but they will each be doing their own grade level/curriculum. With that said I'm sure some of the nature and craft projects might have them both interested enough to at least attempt to be involved with, even if it's one from the other one's grade.

I agree about the CAT. You can get it from Seton for I think $25.00. With fast results.

My kids like Shel Silverstein poems (as did I at that age)!

Enchanted Learning has some really cute ideas for homemade father's day cards (and ones for other holidays, as well). http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/fathersday/

James Herriot's Treasury For Children has all different animal stories in it (beautiful illustrations, too)!

http://www.nickjr.com/kids/ http://pbskids.org/ http://www.peepandthebigwideworld.com/ http://tv.disney.go.com/playhouse/index.html http://www.sesamestreet.org/games http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/teletubbies/games/ http://kids.hasbro.com/playskoolkids/ http://sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/preschool.htm http://duplo.lego.com/en-us/Games/default.aspx http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2601&e=gamesByAge&mcat=game_preschool&site=us http://www.freerice.com/ http://www.winterthur.org/kids/introduction.asp (this one is really cool, the kids make choices to play out a historical game called "Life of an Apprentice") http://www.multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm http://www.exploratorium.edu/music/index.html http://www.sproutonline.com/sprout/home/jump.aspx http://www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse/history/index.html

Well, I found what I like and I have no intention of switching or "curriculum hopping" at all. I definitely plan to stay with Oak Meadow :)

I just got back from taking the two younger kids to "story time" at the library. They listened to a couple of books, sang a couple of songs, played some musical instruments, and did a craft, then borrowed some books. In a little while, we'll be going to the mall so my sister-in-law and I can get pedicures and my two daughters can get their fingernails done. Then we'll come home and have lunch and hang out with Daddy as today is his day off, probably fill up the kiddie pool for the kids. Read some of the books we borrowed from the library. Did I ever think I'd be a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom way back when? Nope- but I am very much loving my life these days :)

My daughter asked about that stuff at around age 5. I sat down and read a book with her (it was a Dr. Ruth book geared toward kids). I told her if she had any questions to let me know. She said: "Thanks for telling me about where babies come from!" and skipped off to play. Periodically after that she'd ask me if she could look at the book again. I'd say yes. She'd read it and give it back to me to put on the shelf. I recently had a funny/interesting conversation with my 4 1/2 year old son. Check this out if you're so inclined: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/98326.html (towards the bottom of the page, you'll know when you see a picture from the book I read with him :D)

Exactly what I was thinking. I'd leave it entirely up to him and his bride-to-be.

I agree, sign them up!

So he cursed on his facebook page- uh, if that was written on his own personal computer, his own personal facebook page, on his own personal time (i.e. not at school using a school computer), then the school should NOT have any authority to "punish" him for that. That's between him and his parents. So for me what this means is that they are preventing him from the graduation ceremony because he dropped some water balloons. Too harsh? IMHO- yes. P.S. And if he really had teachers who said he'd never amount to anything, there's a bigger issue here than what he did wrong. And I wouldn't be surprised if it were true, since I can recall a particular 10th grade social studies teacher who asked one day "Does anyone have any questions?" And when I raised my hand, she looked at me, said "Hold on, let me get an intelligent question first" and then pointed to a boy behind me. This was at a private catholic school, btw (and I'm not Catholic but my mother had thought it might be a better/safer school at the time than the public schools in our area). Some teachers are just nasty.

We're not free range. With that said, I agree with a lot of what she says/thinks. And no I don't think she's totally crazy or anything like that. I just can't bring myself to take unnecessary chances with my own kids as of yet.

I get pedicures in the late spring, summer, maybe one last time in the early fall, maybe once a month. In the winter months I don't get pedicures or paint my nails.

My daughter did "book reports" in fourth grade (9 y/o) this past year- However she got to do them sort of creatively- like instead of just "write a book report about what this book was about" she'd do stuff like: Make your own comic strip depicting a favorite scene in the book Write a new ending to this book Add in a new chapter or adventure to this book Write a letter to a character in this book telling them what you think about their behavior Make a storyboard In a case where we read a book about myths, she might be told "Now write your own creation myth." That kind of thing. And it was never "do this and only this," it was "you have a choice of doing this, or this" and she'd choose. We also took vocabulary words from those assigned reading books (which we had one of approx every three weeks), if we came across a word she didn't recognize/understand/know, she'd tell me, and we'd jot it down and look it up. Earlier in the year it was just looking it up, later in the year it was writing it down in her "personal dictionary" (a notebook with pages headed A-Z). I agree with those who said that at ages 6 and 7 I'd just discuss the book a bit with them, seeing where the discussion leads, maybe a little bit of narration, but mostly I'd just want them to enjoy the book :)

P.S. Again: I didn't really answer your question, though, did I. It's got pages you read to yourself, like for your information. Like, the first section is about the body. So it gives you some info about how kids grow and develop at different rates. It tells you how to incorporate diversity through your choice of words and materials and that you should talk openly about the body and differences in gender, skin color, physical ability, etc. It tells you what words you can use to "stimulate ideas for follow-up activities." Then it moves on to Topic 1, which is "my body parts." and it tells you what the learning objectives are (children will identify body parts by correct names, identify and accept differences in individual appearances, will state or show how to take care of their bodies, and will practice behavior that protects specific body parts). It then gives you more information for you to read to yourself (not to your child) about this topic. It tells you how you can create an environment such as making child sized helmets and knee and elbow pads available, etc. It has some evaluation questions (like, "do children use correct names for body parts? Are they comparing their bodies to others? Are they using protective clothing in play" etc). Then there's a "Family Information & Activity" section which again gives a little more info for you to read to yourself, and then tells you some family activities you can do. Such as using a tape measure, scales etc to see how tall everyone is, how long their feet are, how much they weigh, showing them the protective gear family members use. Then it's got a "Children's Activities" section which starts out with: "What Is A Body? Meet with children IN SMALL GROUPS (emphasis mine) and discuss what they know about bodies. Ask questions such as "What is your body made of?" "What are the names of your body parts?" "How is your body like other peoples' bodies?" Explain that they are going to learn more about the body. Ask what they would like to know or what they would like to learn. Use what the children say to help with follow up." Then it gives ideas like making the body on a large piece of poster board with markers. It lists "Other Ideas" like: Encourage conversation about bodies visit a museum to see skeletons and bones help children use their bodies to make sounds Go on a body tour- arrange a trip to see different representations of bodies. Children can suggest places for the trip. It suggests places like an art shop or museum, art class with work in progress, lawn and garden store with statues, clothing stores with mannequins, doll stores, dance studios, etc. Still more ideas: Invite a medical professional TO VISIT THE CLASSROOM (emphasis mine) and bring charts, x-rays and models. Still another part says: Meet with children IN SMALL GROUPS and explain that they are to come up with a way to show the other children IN THE CLASS what they have learned about bodies (emphasis mine)... ...Anyway there was some more along those lines, but hopefully that gives you a good idea of what it is like. It does have some cute suggestions but you could as easily look up or come up with ways to teach your kid about their bodies, without something geared more toward groups of kids, I would think. Other topics in this book include: My Five Senses, Moving My Body, Taking Care Of My Body, washing myself, taking care of my hair, brushing my teeth, dressing myself, I need my rest, foods I eat, when I'm hungry, Many different foods, I Share Food, Not Germs, For My Mouth, My Mad, Sad, Glad and Scary Feelings, My emotions, I like myself, I have many different friends, etc. It's too much to list them all but you should have a good idea now :) Oh and in the introduction section it also says "this book is created to support the busy teacher who wants to incorporate exciting ideas into the classroom that make health education fun" ...so again most people think this is geared more toward classroom use than home use. I'm also not personally sure how I'd plan around this book since it's supposed to encompass YEARS not just one year if I remember reading that right when i first read about OM's suggestion to use it. Okay I'm done rambling, hope this helped with your decision lol.

Let me preface this by saying I LOVE Oak Meadow. Everything about them! We used them for fourth grade- loved it. Plan on using them for 5th and K in the fall. With that said- don't bother getting Growing, Growing Strong. I'm very surprised that OM uses that book instead of just building in their own health curriculum like they do with every other aspect. The thing about that book is it is really much more geared toward a class/group of kids. Several of us in the OM social group agreed on that. And as far as I can tell, none of us will be bothering to use it. I mean it has some good ideas in it, sure. But so does the internet, and that's free. I'd do my own thing for health if I were you. And that's probably the only "negative" thing you'll ever hear me say about Oak Meadow :) P.S. But if you're dying for Growing, Growing Strong, I have a copy I could sell you.... haha.

All I can say is I'm glad I found and fell in love with and decided on Oak Meadow before I found this board. If I would have found this board first and read about all these different curricula I would have been lost and wanting to try everything and probably feeling a lot like you lol. But since I already had my curriculum and love it enough to not feel tempted to change, I'm pretty safe. :) So far the only thing thing unrelated to Oak Meadow that I've spent money on because of this board was Times Tales which we will be using this summer to work on strengthening the times tables memorization, but I just skim over most other curriculum stuff, I'm happy with what I have! I hope you find the thing (program, curriculum, mix of stuff, whatever!) that makes you feel that way, too! P.S. We do have and very much enjoy SOTW too, I focus on that in the summer and OM over the school year, but I already had SOTW on the recommendation of a couple of friends before I found this board, too.

I love Oak Meadow. We just did it for fourth grade and we're looking forward to 5th (and K) in the fall! What is it about it that's got you worried or thinking about switching back? Or are you just getting nervous because it's so different from what you've been used to? We've had so much fun with Oak Meadow last year. It's creative, it's hands on, it's not dry and boring. You've already decided on it for good reason, you've already bought it, why don't you give it a chance- you know, get past the planning stage and actually do LOL- and then see what you think?

My son started by sitting, for a short period of time, when he was first potty-training, because he couldn't "aim" without making a mess. Once he had the hang of actually using a potty instead of a diaper, we started working on standing up like daddy and making sure to aim properly so that pee doesn't get on the floor, seat, walls, himself, etc. Also, come to think of it, at first we used a small potty that came with a pee guard thing instead of the toilet and if he would have stood up above that and tried to aim down into it, I'm sure it would have made a mess. When he sat on it and was tucked behind the pee guard, it went right into the potty- no mess. :D Then he moved to the regular toilet with one of those removable seats with handles that fit into it so that the toilet seat wouldn't be too big for him, and then we worked on standing up to pee. It wasn't a long process overall, really.

Why don't you just go with interest-led learning with him for a while? Forget "programs" and "curriculum." "Handwriting" isn't going to make or break him. Forget handwriting. He likes reading, great! You can learn tons from reading, so read to him/with him/let him read! Forget math workbooks or whatever and do math in other ways. Real life stuff like shopping with an allowance, helping to measure while cooking in the kitchen or for woodworking. Playing math games (either board games or computer games) etc. Find out what he likes to do, what he's interested in, and explore it in hands on ways. Truly he can learn without it ever having to come from a textbook or workbook. People do this with kids who don't have your son's problems all the time just because they like doing it that way. Others, I understand, aren't comfortable with that- but in your case, with all of your son's problems, all the more reason to give it a try. You may find it a lot less miserable for both of you. Anyway, just thought I'd throw it out there! Good luck whatever you do, I hope you are able to find a way to homeschool him without either of you feeling discouraged. And you are not a failure by any means! You are doing the best you can with a situation you are in and it is coming from your heart. Hang in there!

That is HIGHLY inappropriate!!!!! Even families who are very prolife like yourself would not necessarily want to have a conversation with young children about what abortion is! That had no place at a recital where children were performing and where even younger children were going to be sitting in the audience. It was both irrelevant to and inappropriate for the situation and could put a lot of families in a very awkward position where children would start asking questions afterward that they hadn't planned on covering for years to come. And understandably so! I'd be fuming, too, and while my first instinct would be to blast him, too, I do agree with you that he should write the letter from a concise, calm point of view. Do you know any of the other parents? What do they think? Can you feel any of them out to see if they agree with you? If so you could add a line about how other parents you spoke with feel the same way so he knows that it isn't just you guys making waves, that several families at least found what he did highly inappropriate and upsetting? Or even get other people to sign the letter?

Can anyone tell me how much it costs?