Not at all. Although you did dredge up a memory of me being a young kid and purposely looking up bad words in the dictionary lol.

We're big Oak Meadow fans here. We just finished doing Oak Meadow 4 for fourth grade, and we loved it. We're really looking forward to moving onto Oak Meadow 5 for fifth grade with my daughter in the fall, and Oak Meadow Kindergarten with my son.

Yes, totally, I would love that. Sounds like an awesome property to grow up on and so fun for educational purposes and entertainment purposes. Of course, I'd either fence off an area for the kids to stay contained in while they were young, and/or watch them very closely- chain locks or sliding bolt locks up high on your doors can help ensure that little ones don't sneak out of the house without your knowing, and when they are out there with your knowledge, you can keep a good eye on them or keep them in a fenced in area. If I had the chance to buy a great property like that, which might otherwise be hard to find again in the future, I wouldn't want to pass it up, I'd just take extra safety precautions and be extra watchful.

Yes, this! :)

Musical chairs, scavenger hunt, one of those carry an egg without breaking it games, simon says, keeping a ball in the air without letting it hit the ground, a pinata, wheelbarrow races, tug of war, 3 legged or potato sack races, etc. Hope your son has a great birthday :)

Haven't used it yet but I've already purchased and received TT5 and my daughter and I are both looking forward to it for the fall. I've read all about it, and seen all the reviews and arguments for and against. I've checked out the samples and demos, as has she. I've considered both of our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to math (hers and mine), and I've decided that TT will be a very good fit for our family. I think it will promote both better understanding and better teaching (will be explained and demonstrated much more clearly and much more patiently than I could do!), and what's more- she's EXCITED about using it. Excited about doing math. Who'd have thought! :) I don't plan on supplementing with anything other than times tables practice in the form of games at this point, if I still feel we need that in the fall (we'll be doing multiplication games and checking out Times Tales over the summer so maybe it won't even be an issue by then). P.S. After seeing how great our OM social group is, someone should make a TT social group :D

Thanks for the responses, all! Sorry I posted this on the wrong board! I think I will sign my son up this summer, then. I don't want to have to get in the pool with him- it's outdoors, early in the morning, and too cold for me lol. He loves the water though and doesn't care if it's cold. :D

Go take pictures :) Or video! :D

Great! Thanks for the replies! Maybe I'll go ahead and sign him up this year then, now that I've read all those swimming threads. I didn't start my daughter with swimming lessons until I think 2 or 3 months before she turned 6 (we don't have a backyard pool and I monitor them very closely if I take them to the town pool or lake), but maybe I'll start him sooner. (These are outdoor swim lessons, early in the morning, in a cold pool, and I have ZERO interest in getting in it with them lol).

I'm curious to hear what others will say! There is one neighbor girl a year older than my daughter on our block. My daughter likes playing with her. The girl hasn't said anything mean like that that I know of, but she has excluded my daughter from time to time, when she has someone else to play with- things like they're all playing out front just fine and then this girl will ask a neighborhood boy they are both friends with to go into her house or yard and will shut the door or gate and not invite my daughter along or even tell her "no, you can't come, too." The boy loves playing with my daughter, it's just the girl who initiates this. Of course, this same girl will sometimes come looking for my daughter to play with when no-one else is around. Yet, other times she's perfectly nice. Sometimes I'm tempted to say "don't even play with her, at all." But I don't, I just do what you do and tell my daughter "you don't have to be around her, you know." But even though it bothers my daughter sometimes, she'll say "I know" and still want to play with her. So I just leave it to her discretion.

Oops, I accidentally posted this on the K-8 curriculum board instead of here. Sorry! Reposting here. If you were to get swimming lessons for a 4 year old (American Red Cross swimming lessons at a town pool) do you know if they would expect the parents to go in the pool with the kids at that age? Or do they (the instructors) just take them into the shallow ends themselves at that age? Just wondering. Thanks!

Oops! I meant to put this on general, not curriculum! Sorry!

If you were to get swimming lessons for a 4 year old (American Red Cross swimming lessons at a town pool) do you know if they would expect the parents to go in the pool with the kids at that age? Or do they (the instructors) just take them into the shallow ends themselves at that age? Just wondering. Thanks!

Wow. I'd be fuming. I'd have to tell her in no uncertain terms that telling my children not to tell me about an incident is completely unacceptable and that it had better not ever happen again if she wanted to continue having a relationship with them. I'd then tell her that your four year old is no longer allowed to visit her home for an indeterminate amount of time as 1) leaving him unsupervised by a pool (as in close supervision with an adult right there with him, not in the house) and 2) having another adult throw him in when he's barely more than a baby and can't swim is irresponsible, unsafe, and untrustworthy and that they should both know better.

Very cute! My son (aged 4 1/2) asked me if he came out of my pe*nis when he was born (after I patiently explained to him that no I didn't eat him, and no he didn't come out of my mouth and gestured vaguely saying he went down, not up, when he came out). That was kind of funny! Of course, I reminded him that I don't HAVE a pe*nis and then he wanted to know if he came out of my butt. Yeah, it was a fun conversation.

Once you give them more than what is legally required, they will start having expectations that you will continue doing that, even if in the future you decide you don't have time for that and/or don't want to do that. And they may start expecting other homeschoolers in your area to do it, too. Always a bad idea, I think, to "over-comply." You don't have to prove anything to them or answer to them for anything more than what the law says you have to.

Yeah there's definitely some graphic gore, language and sometimes descriptions of sex or abuse in Stephen King's books. With that said, would I let my kid read it at 14? Yes, probably, if I thought she could handle them without getting too distressed- and that will depend on her personality at that point I guess. I'll have to see how it goes when the time comes; she's only 9 1/2 now, so she won't be reading them today lol. I was definitely reading them by your son's age though (probably from 12 or 13 on). My mom, too, was pretty liberal in what I was aloud to read, and I imagine I will be, too. I just want my kids to enjoy reading in general and don't want to censor them too much. P.S. I may start with some over others, though, as some are definitely more appropriate for younger teens than others are. I think I remember firestarter being a relatively tame one, as were carrie, cujo, christine, etc.

To publish a book. Not even to make a lot of money off it, but just to say I published one :) To successfully homeschool my children throughout the years- that's the biggest part of my life right now. I love doing it. I was a stay-at-home-mom before I started homeschooling, but now that I'm homeschooling, too, I feel so much more fulfilled in general. And homeschooling has led to me getting a few articles published (in a homeschooling magazine) which is a great step for me in the direction of wanting to be a published writer, I suppose! :D I'm happy, overall!

I'm with you guys. It's about tricking out a car. It's a bit of a reach to read innuendo or double meaning into that. I'd have no problem with my kids listening to it personally. I take Puff The Magic Dragon at face value, too, and don't think that's about drugs at all. But to each his or her own.

As kids, I don't think you should be allowed to, say, go to youth group or girl scouts or school and hand out invitations to only some kids and not others right where those other kids can see it and feel excluded. As adults, though, I think you can socialize with whoever you want to socialize with and don't have to invite every single person in your broader group every time you want to have a get together. I also don't consider it rude to post/blog etc about your get together after the fact on facebook or myspace or your blog or whatever.

When I was growing up, in NY, K-6 was elementary school, 7-9 was junior high school, and 10-12 was high school. So that's the way I think of it. Now I live in PA and these days, around here, K-4 is elementary school, 5-8 is middle school, and 9-12 is high school. But I still think of 10-12 as high school, because that's how it was when I was growing up, I guess!

In that instance, I wouldn't let him either. If it was somewhere that did NOT have a reputation for a lot of fighting and drinking and problems, then maybe I'd feel differently (because it's not your son you don't trust, it's the people around him who have that reputation in that particular setting). Every teenager thinks their parents are overprotective or that their parents are not fair. They get over it. lol. Sometimes you have to put their safety ahead of their desires, right? With that said, I don't see any reason why you can't offer the compromise that one of you will go along with him. Might be fun!

Well, I find it a little funny, really, that you are asking what other activities I would choose for my 16 year old to do. I wouldn't choose an activity for a 16 year old. He's definitely well past old enough to choose his own activities. So I'd chat with him. Does he want to stay in swimming despite what you've said? If so, I'd leave that up to him. Does he want to stop? If so, I'd leave that up to him. Does he want to just chill out at home and do nothing for a while? Fine! I'd try to find out, if I wasn't already sure, what he was interested in other than swimming and then I'd do a bit of research and find out whether there was any sort of club, activity, class, or whatever geared around those interests he mentions, and then I'd bring it to his attention and ask if he wanted to check this or that out, assuming he hadn't already told me what he wanted to try, do or check out. My daughter is younger, only 9 1/2. She is in Girl Scouts, 4H, and we belong to a homeschool group that has frequent get togethers and planned outings and field trips. In the summer she also takes swim lessons, goes to free summer library programs, and attends a couple of weeks of art camp/classes because she really likes art. Over this past winter/spring we joined a homeschool bowling league. In the fall she's going to return to gymnastics which she's done here and there, as I'm going to bring her AND her little brother at the same time. After school hours, she plays with neighborhood friends and cousins who live on our street. We visit with family. I'll have to play by ear how all these things change as she reaches her teen years. In your son's case, at his age, like I said, I'd find out what his interests are. Is he interested in another sport? Does he want to try something else that's not a sport, maybe some sort of art camp or drama/theater class, or music lessons? Does he have something he's good at that he might want to start trying to teach to other people? Is there something he might be interested in doing along the lines of volunteer work? Does he want to get a part time job? Does he want to try apprenticing himself somewhere? All of these things can lead to social opportunities. But I'd leave it largely up to him.

I like Chris in VA's suggestion. I wouldn't want chores to be a battle at my house, and I wouldn't want to start giving writing punishments and this that and the other thing and getting all stressed out about it. If I had to remind my daughter, I'd remind her. If I had to work alongside her keeping it pleasant, I'd do that. My goal would be more along the lines of getting the things done that need to be done companionably than in enforcing some sort of ideal that she does everything I said on her own with no reminders and if she doesn't, she's in trouble. I don't keep chore charts, actually I don't even have specific things i expect my 9 1/2 year old to do every single day on a daily basis. We just sort of all pitch in and do things where it's needed- and yes, that means asking her "Do this now, please" and she does it. So I might call her in and say "Hey, come here a minute." She'll come in. I'll say "Can you put this silverware away for me while I unload the rest of the dishwasher, please." She'll do it. "Thanks! Now take that garbage out while I wipe the table and chairs. Good job! Can you go pick up the toys off the living room floor while I sweep the kitchen so I can vacuum afterward? Oh, great, now just bring these things of yours upstairs, then you can go play." At dinner time I might call her in and say "Time to set the table, can you go grab the napkins and cups" as I'm setting out plates etc. After dinner "Make sure you clear your plate and put these things away before you go play," etc. If I go up to wake her one morning and decide her room is too much of a pigsty, I'll stay there and keep her company and oversee most of it, and pitch in a little, because if I just say "clean your room" and walk out, she'll be up there for two hours and it'll look like she barely put a dent in it. I imagine if I ever said to her "These are your chores that you have to do every day, make sure you do them on your own without me reminding you" she'd never remember, never get to it, and it'd be a constant struggle. Not because she wants to disobey or get in trouble but because she's 9 and a little scatterbrained and she gets distracted or she'll think she'll do it in a few minutes, but then she'll forget. Much easier to just call her in when I need help with a specific thing and ask her pleasantly to do it while I'm working alongside her doing other things, and it just gets done on the spot, as needed. I thank her for helping, and that's that. Works for us, anyway.

Well, at my house, we only do SOTW in the summer. We started last summer and did I think the first 9 chapters of SOTW1. We stopped for the school year, and will be returning to it probably next week. Here, with my then 8 and now 9 y/o, I read a chapter aloud to her. We do the narration and questions together. Then...well I really don't schedule it at all. I didn't want to feel pressured to do any of this, I wanted it to be fun and educational summer learning activities. So really we just take our time and get through it as we get through it. I'll get most of the recommended supplemental books from the library and we'll read them, always together, usually taking turns reading aloud. If they're short books more for younger kids we might read one or two books in a day. If they're longer, we just take our time and read it over a few days, a section or chapter or a few pages at a time. She'll do the mapwork, with me looking on, and then the coloring page on her own (I forget now if last year I had her do that stuff before or after we finished the supplemental reading). Then we look at the activities/hands on projects they suggest in the AG and we'll pick 1 or 2 of them to do and on a day that we are free to do it, we do it. Then in a day or two or when we're ready, we move on to the next chapter. So it's fairly casual. In the beginning, with chapter one, I had it in my head that we had to do every single activity in there. But then I found myself just sort of halted going "I don't want to do that activity yet," so we weren't doing anything at all. Finally I just gave myself permission to NOT do every.single.activity.in.the.book. I told myself we'd just go with the flow and move at whatever pace felt comfortable and if there was an activity we wanted to do, we'd do it, and if there was one I didn't feel like dealing with, we'd just pass over it and keep going. After that it went more smoothly and we just had fun :) And we did at least 1 of the activities per chapter but not all of them (we didn't mummify a chicken, for example lol).