Not reading anything on my own at the moment. Waiting for the 5th George R.R. Martin book (from the Game of Throne series) to arrive via interlibrary loan. Also waiting for the next Karen Marie Moning book (third in the "Fever" series- an urban supernatural/fantasy series) to arrive via interlibrary loan. With my daughter, I'm reading "The First Four Years"- we're finally nearly done with the Little House series! ETA: Okay, I started "Waiting for the Barbarians" last night, so I'm reading something after all. :P ETA Again: Put "Waiting for the Barbarians" aside as BOTH my George R.R. Martin book AND my Karen Marie Moning book came in at once yesterday. Reading Faefever first as it will be a quicker read.

My daughter was 8 I think. And i had no luck teaching her myself, or did my husband, in the first couple of days of trying. Then her friends decided to help her. Instead of having her steer and pedal at once as we were trying to do, they had her just keep her legs out, not on the pedals, and focus on steering/balancing until she got the hang of that, and then start pedaling, and within like an hour, they had her riding her bike up and down the sidewalk like she'd been doing it forever.

My husband figured out that if we change from 3 DVD's at a time to 2 DVD's at a time, we'd pay roughly the same amount we've been paying, so that's what we went with.

This.

:iagree: My son loved his 3 wheeled scooter at age 3 and 4. He still used it this year even though at 5 he could use a regular, 2 wheeled scooter. We'll get him one by spring time. :D

That would drive me batty. I might have to attempt insisting that he quit with the "snooze" and just get up when he needs to get up.

:iagree: That teacher was way out of line using the word to your daughter. She could have said (if she felt she just HAD to say something, which seems like over reacting to me regardless), "I know you might mean that as what the heck, or what in the world, but some people take it to mean a curse word so it's better you don't say it at co op" or some such.

I'm O- and they always love when I donate blood. It can be used in any emergency without having to take time to type the recipients, since we are "universal blood donors' and anyone, regardless of blood type, can accept our blood.

I third Teaching Textbooks. My daughter no longer thinks math is too hard or that she's bad at math. She can do math about 99 percent independently now. Her test scores have vastly improved. AND she finds math fun now! It shows AND tells how to do a problem, so it's easy to understand, gives choices of animated buddies which kids find fun, never loses patience, unlike me, and keeps an automatic gradebook for you. Love, love, love it over here!

Join or start a group! Mine is fun and a sanity saver, for sure!

We went to a Native American program at the museum last year and the guy running the program mentioned that he used to teach at a high school. When he found out that I homeschool, he told me: "I REALLY approve of homeschooling!" and My daughter's sensei did an anti-abduction/anti-bullying class for our homeschool group last year. He said that they seemed to be a "strong" bunch of kids, as in physically stronger than some of the other school groups he does. I quipped that they don't have to sit at desks all day and actually move around and use their muscles, and he said in all seriousness, "That could be it!"

Hm, weird. When my daughter went to public school (K-3) she had a choice of giving out invitations to the whole class OR to all the girls only.

I have to confess, we throw out all the little plastic rings and such when we get home, the kids don't really want those, they're just more clutter and little junk items ending up on the floor and such. Playdough, stickers, temp tattoos, halloween pencils, etc would get used, though. And my kids never minded getting bags of chips and pretzels and popcorn balls and such in addition to candy. But if MOST people did that and they hardly got any candy, they would probably mind it more. They enjoy getting candy on Halloween!

Yes, this! Tell her that many doctors are really NOT knowledgeable about breastfeeding and unfortunately often give bad advice when it comes to feeding, and that you highly suggest the Kellymom website which is run by an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and which is extremely helpful on all breastfeeding and feeding issues. ETA: It's also normal for breastfed babies to gain more in the earlier months than formula fed babies do, but it slows down. My son was at the top of the charts through his six month checkup and at his nine month one it was slowing down quite a bit to more mid range and he's just been average in regard to growth since then (he's almost 6 years old now and was breastfed exclusively until about 9 months and then started eating table foods here and there, too. I did try introducing baby food at 6 months but he wanted nothing to do with it).

fun size chocolate candy bars.

Doesn't Timez Attack have division now, too?

Well, my family is Jewish and secular at that, and if my homeschool group (which is not religious by nature) did something like this and someone's child did their biography on a Christian/religious figure, I would not be bothered by that in the slightest! I'd let him do it on whoever he wants to do it on.

He should at least know how to sign his name in cursive. And it would be helpful if he could read cursive. But other than that, is it "necessary?" At 10? Nah. Let him try again if you and he want when he's 13 or 14 or 15. I bet it's a lot less stressful for you both then!

I get that. But 50 pushups? A 5 year old? Overkill. You know what my daughter's sensei does if a kid is late? He tells them they have to stand to the side and not participate in the class for the same number of minutes they were late, and that they can't "blame" their parents...those kids are mostly 8 and up, he's not telling them to do something they're not physically incapable of doing, he's teaching them responsibility even though we the parents ARE the ones who have to get them there, and I'm okay with it. But my 5 y/o would not be able to do 50 pushups. I would not be able to do 50 pushups. I think he's being too harsh.

If I thought the one person was perfect for it, I would tell that one person. I would not mention it to the other if I knew or strongly suspected it would just get their hopes up for no reason.

If it was my spouse or mother I'd adjust it myself. If it was anybody else, I'd either ask if they minded, or just deal with it, depending on who they were. (And I'd be more likely to "just deal with" a song I didn't like than feeling uncomfortable with the temperature of the car).

Coach sounds like an idiot on a power trip. For a 5 or 6 year old? Really? Ridiculous.

Did you ever read this article on "Same-Sex Relationships In The Bible" at religioustolerance.org? http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bmar.htm I thought it was quite interesting. But, I should say that I'm not Christian and I couldn't care less who anyone else has an adult, consensual relationship with.

You can put leaves on a piece of white paper, then "spatter" with paint of different colors on top of and all around the leaves. Then, when you lift the leaves up, you'll see just the white outline of the leaves with the colorful paint spatters all around it 'outlining' it. You can do leaf or tree rubbings, too.

Testing is not required in the state of Illinois for homeschoolers: http://www.isbe.state.il.us/homeschool/ You should definitely read up on your state's home education laws and see if maybe your state has a yahoo email list to discuss homeschooling specific to your state. Mine does and it's been enormously helpful.