Robin, Glad to hear you enjoyed the first book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I love it. I'm actually reading "Covet" now by the same author, the first in her "Fallen Angels" series. Not very far into it yet but takes place in same town and it mentioned one of the same clubs so some of the parallels are fun although this series doesn't seem to have anything to do with vampires. With my daughter I'm reading A Cricket In Times Square. Nance

Lynne, I'd be happy about it, too. I hate dealing with snow! Myra, Aw so she forgot where they parked? That was so sweet of you to drive her around looking for her car! Jean, I love hearing stories of how the kids get involved with the planning and implementing. :) I'm not sure yet what we will do this week!

So, we are moving into our third week of our Random Acts of Kindness Challenge and it's been great hearing about what you all have been doing! To reiterate, it doesn't matter how big or how small your Random Act of Kindness is over any given week. The idea is to just improve somebody's life, mood, spirits, week, or day in some way, no matter how big or small. Happiness is contagious. By doing nice things for other people, you're bound to make not just them feel good, but yourselves, too! And by involving the kids, the whole family, you'll be making THEM feel good, and teaching them to do good, too...it's a win/win! It doesn't matter who the recipient is. It can be a friend, a relative, someone in your own household, a complete stranger, an animal friend. It can be someone truly needy, or truly deserving, or it may be one of those weeks where it is just someone you allow in front of you on the checkout line. Just DO something to brighten somebody's day each week. I hope you'll join in on this challenge and post to the threads I'll be posting each week to let us all know what you did! This way, we can offer each other accountability to continue on with the challenge, inspiration as we give each other new ideas, can share fun stories of what we did and how people reacted and so on, and, okay, give each other a little bit of well-deserved recognition, too. :) This is the place to chat this week, which runs from Sunday, December 4 to Saturday, December 10. Come share your ideas, ask for ideas, tell us about the things you end up doing, comment on other people's stories, and so on. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Oh! That's a great thing to do with used books and curricula! Definitely heartfelt, I am sure that lifted their spirits! :) That's wonderful! lol that's pretty cool. This kind of thing is definitely on my list, too. I'm sure it is! I'm sure they'll appreciate hearing from you guys! Okay, I am starting the Week 3 thread shortly, so please post anything further to that thread! I'll update with the link in a minute or two. :) ETA: Week 3 thread here: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3378722#post3378722

radical unschoolers

I think it's a mixture of things and will depend both on how lenient a district is and on the individual family. Some districts ARE more lenient than others about what they expect and accept in the portfolios. The law says "samples" of required subjects must be in the portfolio but doesn't specify how many samples or what constitutes a sample. And like you said, with some RU families, the kids probably pick things up naturally or because they wanted to and the family helped them do so, and some probably didn't have an interest and so WOULD be considered too "behind" to get in samples a district might realistically want to see. So I imagine in lieu of worksheet and written paper type samples, some unschoolers might show for science, for example, photos of their kids at the science museum, a photo of some experiment they did, a certificate showing they participated in some sort of science class or program at an environmental conservation center, and a few science-related titles on their log of reading materials. Some might never "make" a kid do math all year long but come portfolio time print out three or four math worksheets off the internet and help them do it if they need help or ask them to do it if they are proficient enough to do it on their own, just to be able to put it in the portfolio and consider it "civil disobedience" for a worthy cause because they don't think they should have to have the school district intruding on their lives to begin with. Some districts will willingly accept a more minimalist portfolio if you give them a "summary" telling them what kinds of things you did for a given subject...I like to only include 3-5 subjects with my portfolios and I do include a summary with my portfolios. My summary will list our curricula but it will also say things like: Arithmetic "She used math in practical situations such as during shopping and cooking. We played math operations board games, card games and computer games and used flash cards for further multiplication tables practice." Science "She also did various kid-friendly science experiments and participated in some science-related homeschool co-op classes. We visited several science museums and a planetarium as well as zoos, aquariums, gardens and other nature areas and habitats." And I'm sure there ARE also families out there who do, indeed, just "fake it all."

Yep. Here were some of the worst: 1. Being touched extremely inappropriately by a school custodian when I was in elementary school (and having the principal insist I was lying, that he would never do that). There did ensue an investigation and all I remember was that the end result was that he "retired" to lots of applause for all his years of service to the school and blah blah blah. 2. Got up to throw something in the trash. The teacher told me to sit down, but I was already almost at the desk where the trash bin was. I said, "I'm just throwing something out" and proceeded to do so. She grabbed my hand, hissed, "I said, sit down!" and dug her nails in to the back of my hand hard enough to leave a bloody scratch. 3. Had another teacher ask if anybody had any questions. When I raised my hand, she looked at me, raised a brow, said, "Let me get an intelligent question first," and nodded to the student behind me. When she came back to me, I was pissed. So I said, "Let me get an intelligent answer first" and turned to ask my question of a student behind me. She didn't like that and made me leave the room and go to the office. :P I could go on, but I won't. When my 11 y/o daughter started out in the public school district, there was a whole bunch of things I didn't like about her experiences, too, and those started right in Kindergarten. At least mine didn't start that young. So by third grade I'd had enough and pulled her out. So glad I "found" homeschooling. :001_wub:

Well, I live in PA which is one of THE most regulated states and I know radical unschoolers here who manage to go about their lives and still manage to show a portfolio that meets the state requirements so I imagine where there's a will, there's a way. I do wish the homeschool law was less intrusive. For one, there are stats showing that the less regulated states are not faring any worse than the heavily regulated ones. So why not just back off and save everyone time and money and energy and resources and so on? For another, it just rubs me wrong that I live in a failing district (in an area with a lot of failing districts, for that matter) that ought to be worrying about its own students, not mine, so I sort of resent that they feel the need to focus on my kids to the point where they even push for things that are a bit outside the letter of the law. I want to say "worry about your own kids. You're failing them. Literally. You're on warning for not meeting state average. Again. My kids are fine." But of course, I can't lol.

Might she enjoy a storybook party? One year my daughter had one and really loved it. We asked the kids to dress as their favorite storybook character. We had my sister tell stories (she's a librarian and a natural storyteller). We played games that had to do with books (like balancing a book on your head and having a relay race across the room), and "Name that book" (you can tell part of a story or describe a popular character for that age group and they have to shout out what book it's from). The party favors were books bought inexpensively from the Children's Thrift Classics section of Dover Publications. There are a bunch you can get for anywhere from $1.40 to $3.00 each: http://store.doverpublications.com/by-subject-children-children-s-literature-dover-children-s-thrift-classics.html We bought those small paper bags with handles that you can get from places like Michael's and for a craft, the kids decorated them with markers and glitter and stickers and stuff, and they carried their books home in that. My favorite part was the cake. I bought online a Wilton cake pan in the shape of an open book and we baked the cake and frosted it. My husband made the design on the computer that we took to Walmart to get printed in one of those edible designs that you just apply to the cake. One one side it had a picture of my daughter from her birthday party the year before (which was a tea party so she was dressed up and looking all story book like :D) and it said "Happy Birthday Alexa" underneath the picture. The other side had text which read: "Once upon a time, not too long ago, not so far away, there lived a young girl named Alexa who loved books..." My husband put a little border around it with frosting once he'd put the image down and it came out really cool. I can't take full credit for all of these ideas, I found a lot of them online when I was googling "ideas for a storybook party." :D I'll attach a couple pics of the cake! :D P.S. It was my daughter's 8th b-day but I think it can be adapted for a 6 y/o, too. Other things we did for some of her b-days were a nail polish party (age 6), a tea party (age 7), and a carnival type party complete with bounce house, cotton candy machine, snow cone machine, and fancily decorated cupcakes and carnival style games, face painting courtesy of my husband who is quite good at face painting, etc. (age 10).

If I had a baby, that wouldn't be my concern. My concern would be the cat pouncing the baby. My cat is very playful and she's been banned from MY room at night because whenever I move my toes, she pounces, sometimes with claws. It can hurt. I wouldn't want her doing that to a baby. She doesn't mean for it to hurt, but often it does. Also, she does, indeed, like to curl up and lay right on top of us and will often crawl right up onto my chest, often close to my face and this can make my eyes itch and water some as I appear to have developed a minor allergy in adulthood. I'd be unsure as to whether that would affect a new baby. Lastly, I really wouldn't want cat hair shedding all over my new baby's crib sheets.

I'm not saying one way or another whether I condone this... But I did read on another parenting forum once where a family set up a crib, laid some cardboard down in it, covered the cardboard with double-sided sticky tape, and announced that their family cat jumped in once and only once. :lol:

I wouldn't think anything at all. And I go out and let my hair air dry all the time.

I don't know. I'm a pretty relaxed homeschooler. I do think kids should be able to read to the best of their ability, write, and do at least basic math. But other than that, I think that the beauty of homeschooling is being able to take a very individualized approach, and I do think it is quite possible to educate your children without using textbooks and such if you prefer not to, without being guilty of "neglecting" them. I think there are a lot of ways to learn, not just from textbooks and worksheets and such. Especially in the elementary school years. I do use curricula (in a fairly relaxed way) but even if I stripped all or most of it away I still think that I'd be pretty happy with what my family was learning just by living our lives, looking at what we've been doing the past couple of months since starting this school year, for example. My 11 y/o daughter for example, since September has done: Extracurricular activities: Girl Scouts (this recently included some sewing which is good since I can't sew lol), Judo (she even gets to learn a little bit of Japanese here), Guitar Lessons, Library Book Club, Homeschool Bowling League, occasional homeschool wilderness club meetings, occasional homeschool group kickball games. Lots of reading: She reads on her own for fun, she reads assigned books through her library book club, and we read books together for the 52 Books In 52 Weeks challenge, which we have been doing together. Many of the books are fictional, some are about specific topics such as street safety or drug abuse. She also has a few magazine subscriptions, including Cricket Magazine, Back to Homeschool online magazine for girls, and a National Geographic type magazine. Arts and Crafts: She's made potholders, paints, draws (sometimes on her own, sometimes with how-to-draw type books), Wordtoons, etc. Board Games: She plays lots of board games such as 5 Second Rule, Monopoly, The Allowance Game, Checkers, Bingo, various card games, and others I can't think of right now. Writing: She's written short stories, letters, kept a dream journal, etc. for fun. Field Trips and Outings: Attended a local heritage day festival, went to the Statue of Liberty, tour and fire safety program at a local fire hall, a homeschool day program at an Environmental Education Center, the Crayola Factory, a nature hike/scavenger hunt at the lake, a tour of our local courthouse, a free "So You Want To Be a Geologist?" program at a county park, farmer's markets for fall festival type things, Fort Hunter Park and Mansion for a Native American Homeschool Day Program, an airport where she got a tour of the airport, including the control tower, and a free flight in a small plane through the Young Eagles program, a homeschool day program at the National Watch and Clock Museum where we even got to make our own clocks, a tour of McDonald's, a tour of a local radio station, a tour of a local food pantry where we also donated some food, a library tour and program, the Turkey Hill Experience tour, a science museum.... As you can see we particularly enjoy outings and field trips and try to do as many as we can. Chores: Helped with things around the house from helping to clean the house, to helping with laundry, to occasionally helping me cook or bake something, to helping with yardwork, to helping with petcare (cleaning the cat's litterbox, catching crickets for the gecko, etc). Foreign Language: We are learning Spanish together using Getting Started With Spanish because she wants to, not because I made it a school requirement. Geography: Learning about different countries via the Little Passports subscription we have for fun. Learning new hobbies: Her dad has lots of hobbies and he's always teaching her things. He's got a big saltwater aquarium with a huge filtration system that comes up from the basement and she knows lots about the care and terminology and names of different corals and so on. He enjoys making balloon animals for fun and sometimes they sit and watch videos together and he teachers her how to make them. He's recently getting into blowing glass again, and so he takes her with him into the basement and she gets to watch him and he talks to her about what he's doing and what's happening and tells her the terms for things and so on. And there have been educational television shows pertaining to science and history and holidays and so on, lots of conversations about lots of different things, time spent with family, time spent pursuing own interests, video and computer games, at least some of which have to be educational....and I'm sure there are other things I'm just not thinking of. We did our curriculum stuff, too (granted, sometimes we're behind on it lol- but we always manage to catch up) but I do feel that even without it, there is always so much that we're learning all the time. So I'd have a really hard time being one to "judge" anybody for not "teaching" their kids- I think there are a lot of ways to "teach," and a lot of ways to "learn," and that even unschoolers can often have a valid education if their hearts are in it and they aren't just calling themselves that because they don't want to be bothered with anything...an unschooler I know, I'm amazed by how out of her way she goes to help her kids achieve any goal they could possibly have for themselves.... and again, this is part of the beauty of homeschooling. Of course, this IS a classical educational board and so a lot of people are going to have much stricter standards as to what would be considered "enough" I suppose, but I think without really being in a person's life on a daily basis and seeing beneath the surface and knowing the kinds of things they do together that might constitute teaching and learning outside the box, *I* wouldn't want to be the one to make snap judgments on them. P.S. This also reminds me of a blog post I wrote last January called "What Does A Homeschooler Do Every Day?" which sort of describes how there IS no "typical" day in a homeschooling household and tells (and shows with lots of pics) how I used a random month of our lives to show how different our days can be and how judgments can't really be made by peeking in on us on any given, random day but rather that our lives should be looked at as a whole. Take a peek if you're interested. :) http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/175611.html ETA: Sorry! I see that was quite a novel! I don't blame you all if none of you read it LOL.

Well said, Pamela!

I, too, am curious how they spend the rest of their day (in general). There are a lot of ways to learn outside of textbooks and worksheets, many of them just as valid and sometimes even more so. I can even understand delaying formal reading instruction if they favor the "Better Late Than Early" philosophy (like in the Moores' book) even if age 12 does seem a bit TOO late to a lot of us. I don't know. No, I would not be inclined to "report" them, especially if I thought they were learning in other ways and encouraging hobbies, interests, and loving and providing for them etc.

Charlotte, those cheesecake filled thumbprint cookies sound amazing! I've been undecided about what to make for my homeschool group's cookie exchange. Now I know! :D thanks for posting!!

Cool. :) It's fine to be more vague about it if you prefer! Meals on Wheels is something I'd like to look into at some point, too! Looking forward to hearing some of the things the kids come up with in the future! That was nice of him to repair something for someone you don't even know! :) Aw. Very sweet. We never see people like that where I live, actually, must be very touching and difficult. Don't worry about boring, I would love it if someone did that for me! Cool! I forget if you already mentioned why Liberia...what's with the book shipment there? My mom used to be really active on a site called Books for Soldiers which I always thought was cool...they'd send books and other things for deployed troops to have things to do on their down time, and the troops could make requests and stuff. That was nice of you to give away the stuff instead of selling it. And cool of your husband to take off work for that! Of course it counts! And I'm sure you'll come across an opportunity while in Philly! Love to hear about kids doing things on their own!! :) It doesn't have to be a secret! :) Nice of you to help your friend out and hope her husband is able to find something, that is such a shame when people lose their jobs right during the holidays! :( Oh yum, I love pumpkin bread! Continuing to enjoy hearing what everybody is doing and getting new ideas! :)

Funnily enough, I like Ozzy less than I liked him on previous seasons he was in (though of course I can't help admiring how well he plays), and I like Coach more than I liked him on his previous seasons. Brandon is rather unbalanced! He needs therapy or sonething! Cochran is so quirky it's hard not to like him. Nobody else really leaves an impression- that one other older guy, I can't even remember his name!

lol... Sounds like you have to explain or read about the mechanics of sex so he understands exactly what was happening physically, that it did not hurt either of you, that this is how all humans and animals reproduce and he's lucky that includes his parents or he'd never have been born, and that married couples do it not just to have babies but as a way of showing love for one another... Privately. And obviously you didn't know he was there and now all three of you are embarrassed but you are confident you will all be able to move on and get over it and you would appreciate it if he doesn't discuss it with anyone other than you and dh (and psychologist?). He'll live. It happens! Nance, who remembers being asked once "Why were you and Daddy bouncing on the bed this morning?" LOL

I'm a few days behind, I try to post every day but sometimes I get up to a week behind and then post a bunch of entries at once. Mine chronicles our day to day lives as secular relaxed homeschoolers and then I've got a bunch of informative stuff on my sidebar. :)

My family is Jewish. Someone from my Homeschool group just sent us a card that had "walking in a winter wonderland" on the front with a wintry scene and "Wishing you the season's best" on the inside and I thought that was very nice of them. I would have found it odd if they had sent me a Christmas specific card knowing that I don't celebrate christmas. But something like this was fine and thoughtful of them to include us while sending out their Christmas cards. If somebody who didn't yet know us well enough to know we don't celebrate Xmas sent us one that did have a Christmas specific message, I would have to just appreciate it for what it was- a nice gesture.

Jenn, Aw, love that you stopped and helped her. I've never seen anybody bother to help an employee in a store like Walmart. Julie, Nice of you to do a toy for each! Heather, That's awesome, that's going to mean so much to her, I can't wait to hear about her reaction! Amana, Aww that is so sad and sweet all at the same time about your elderly neighbor! Well so far this week the random act of kindness gets credited mainly to my hubby. He cooked us chicken soup and latkes last night (yum)! He only makes latkes maybe twice a year and we all love them! Anyway, almost nobody around here ever heard the word latkes but they know them as "bleenies" and stand on line for them forever at street fairs. My next door neighbor loves them, so my husband made some extra and brought them over to her and her family last night. We will keep an eye out for further opportunities. :)

Just not a big deal to me. You still have the people you love in the photo and if someone down the road asks "and who is this?" a simple "so and so used to date her" is answer enough. In the event Photoshop and such doesn't work. ;) It is more important to refrain from offending a relative and/or their current partner than it is to have some "perfect" photo.

Not a guilt trip: Mom, asking: son, will you go out to dinner with us? Son, declining: nah, I'm going to stay home. I have to study. Mom, explaining her position: ok, I just thought we should all go since it's Grandma's last night in town and we could get the whole family together. Son: I know. I just don't have time. Big test. I spent a lot of time with her yesterday. End of conversation. Guilt trip: Mom: fine, but Grandma's going to feel bad that you didn't care enough to spend time with her on her last night here. And she's not getting any younger you know! There might not BE a next time! It's a fine line, I know, between "explaining" and "guilt-tripping" lol.

Tammy, That's great that you gave it all it away instead of doing a yard sale type thing! How exciting to finally be coming home! Faithe, Aww that's so sad. :( I'm glad it didn't have to suffer alone. Kristy, I'm sure a lot of people appreciated those traffic courtesies because a lot of people don't extend them! And I KNOW a generous tip is always appreciated after hearing from my waitress SIL how tough things are these days! Angela, How cool! I'm so glad my own laundromat days are long over but that would have been cool, I'm sure it will be appreciated! Going to put one of those "Please enjoy this random act of kindness" signs on it so people know they can use it? Jean, That is cute about the alumnus! I am glad Libby is ok now! Good way to make use of the unused dog items! Nicole, Cool, my mail lady is on my eventual list of someone to do something for too!* I am still unsure of what we will be doing this week, we will see what opportunities and inspirations arise. :)