I want to know, too! We are currently using Getting Started With Spanish also, and I'm not sure what to use next to continue our studies, either. My daughter is turning 11 in a few days.

Hershey's fun. There's the amusement park, of course. The streets with the hershey kiss shaped street lamps and cute little stores. Hershey Chocolate World has a free tour plus lots of really neat activities and things you can do....look them up! You can do a 3D show, a free tour, design your own candy bar, and lots more.

2, as of this year!

:iagree: I tend to think of "older kids" as being 10 or 11 and up in our group. This class description sounds like it's meant for 5-8 year olds.

I understand. It's not so much that I want them to disallow it, I would never say that. And again, if and when I am pregnant again, I know that I will want to talk about it, too. I do think it would be nice for the pre-schooling years from pregnancy through preschool to have it's own "home" so to speak.

We celebrate Hanukkah which is in December, too. My kid's birthdays are Oct 1, Nov 7, Hanukkah in December, and a Jan 4 birthday.

Thanks for the understanding and commiseration! I don't know if anything will come of it, but I PM'd a moderator asking if there was any chance of getting a "pre-homeschooling" forum that consists of a pregnancy board and a parenting infants and toddlers board. I thought it would be nice anyway to have a "home" to discuss that stuff, and to talk about things to do with parenting younger kids while homeschooling olders or for people who plan to Homeschool but their kids aren't school age yet and so on. It would also have the benefit of avoiding that kind of thread easily f for some reason it is either hurtful or irrelevant to others to see it on the general board. If anyone else agrees that would be a good idea, maybe you should PM or ask, too?

I'm sorry. I kind of feel like a jerk even saying it. I really don't blame anyone for posting about their pregnancies. If I were still pregnant, I would, too. If and when I get pregnant again, I am sure I will again. But after having to end an ectopic pregnancy this summer, that I REALLY wanted, and just reaching the point where I can try again but worrying about how it will go due to my age, this past m/c and so on, it's still hard for me to read all the threads about pregnancy and doctor appointments and baby names and symptoms and so on. It seems like there are tons of them here lately. Or maybe I just notice them more now. I kind of wish there was a separate board here on this forum for discussing pregnancy and infancy and even toddlerhood- all the "pre-homeschooling" stages so to speak. Then I could go there when I was excited to do so, and could avoid it during the time when it's just, well, kind of hurtful. Or irrelevant to me. Or whatever. I hope this doesn't offend anyone. Again, I REALLY don't mean that people shouldn't post about these things. I'm just feeling kind of down, I guess. Other family stresses currently going on in my life don't help. Anyone else in the same boat?

That stinks. :( Mine is still free, thank goodness, because I use it all.the.time. I'm really grateful for it! If there were a charge, I'd probably stop using it except for extremely rarely.

My daughter (a few days away from her 11th birthday) asks me almost every morning, "Are we doing anything today?" By that I assume she means, "Are we going on any fun field trips, outings or activities today, or is it just school today?" In her defense, we do a fair amount of fun field trips, outings and activities, so it's not an unreasonable question. :D

All I can say, is I'm so grateful for interlibrary loan!

Just to let you know, I once contacted an Architect whose info I found online when looking for one in my area, and emailed him, and asked if he'd be willing to talk to our homeschool group about his job, what he does, what architecture is and so on, and he was happy to do it. He talked about his job, he had the kids build with legos and blocks, he showed them blueprints and his computer software and so on. I don't know whether he would also have known much about the history of architecture, but it may be worth a shot seeing if someone will let you visit them and talk about it.

:iagree: I don't care what my kids want to read. I just want them to like to read. So far, my daughters do, my son hasn't yet learned how.

Funny you should mention that. Yesterday evening we took the kids to the park and were amazed by the unusual number of dragonflies we saw there. They seemed to be everywhere. We are in Pennsylvania.

She really enjoyed doing it! http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/240585.html

To me it means they are not trying to replicate a public school style education or methods in their home, that they're more relaxed and making their own choices regarding curricula, how long to spend learning, when and where to learn and so on, not trying to make a kid sit at a desk/table for 6 or 7 hours doing textbook and workbook stuff and so on.

I do not get the wasabi thing at ALL, either. That makes zero sense to me. Bizarre and Unacceptable.

Ugh! But c'mon, how could you not tell us what book it is?!

I hate bugs. Am I the only one who read "Cleopatra" when I skimmed the post title?

This is cute! I would print it out, but our bathroom doors do not HAVE locks. This is an old house, with old doors, and they have no locks on them. They do, however, have little keyhole things. And because one time I caught my daughter kneeling on the floor in the hallway trying to peek in the keyhole thing when someone was in the bathroom, I now shut the bathroom door and then open the closet door that is just inside the bathroom so that the closet door blocks the bathroom door and if someone were to peek in the keyhole, they'd only see a door haha. We just had to teach "don't open a closed door without knocking" around here. It did take quite some time to get used to a bathroom door that doesn't lock, I felt horribly exposed for a while there each time I went into the bathroom! I suppose we could have changed the doors or knobs or something but we just never did.

Definitely don't read these books if you are bothered by violence!

Wouldn't be worth the struggle to me. It's just not that important. She asked to do book reports which you wouldn't have even assigned and successfully did four of them. Good for her! She's no longer interested, and it wasn't one of your requirements, so let it go. Maybe if you want this last one to be finished, either tell her it can be the last one, or tell her she can do it in some creative way instead of whatever it is she's been doing- a storyboard/comic book, a picture collage that depicts the main idea of the story, writing in a new scene or ending, doing an oral report and even videotaping it if she wants, etc. ETA: P.S. When my daughter did book reports in 4th and 5th grade, she had three weeks to do each one and we often made them more creative than just a standard book report.

Kinda neat. I'd meet him! I found out as a teen that my mother had put a child up for adoption and thought it was weird knowing I had a half-brother out there somewhere that I didn't know. I convinced her to try to find him but we weren't ever successful. If I recall correctly, he'd be about ten years older than me.

Next time you have a day like that, you should take a road trip here to PA! It'd be fun and educational and I'm here! And bring cupcakes! (Because, yeah, I'm still not back on that diet haha).

For your dad, how about a donation in his name to the VA or to some sort of foundation that researches/treats diabetes? For your mother, is there some sort of other charity she might enjoy having a donation made to in her name? A literacy program perhaps? What about one of those things where you name a star after someone, "adopt" a zoo animal, etc, something that doesn't actually involve "stuff."