No major changes, but this is the time of year I look longingly at worksheets and packages with nice tidy lesson plans.

It must make you extremely uncomfortable, then, that Jesus is nearly always portrayed as a white man.

I do 2 minute tasks, but I also think Flylady has some wisdom in her weekly 10 minute task list. Throughout the week you continue with your few minutes here and there, but on the weekend you set aside time for a small list of tasks: changing sheets, cleaning mirrors, things like that. And if you don't finish in 10 minutes, it's okay to stop and move to the next item on the list. Over time it ends up staying pretty well picked up and the bigger things are never really neglected.

No. I don't want the extra laundry. :lol: My oldest spent his last two years of school wearing uniforms for different activities and it was just overwhelming. We do a basic routine that seems to signify it is a school day. We are working if everyone is up by 7 and chores (including getting dressed) are done by 8. It sets the tone from breakfast on. If we're all hanging out in our pjs and making a nice leisurely breakfast, tv on, then it's the weekend.

You mean like The Wiz? Or Hamlet? Or Macbeth, done by Orson Wells?

I dropped $7 at the grocery store last night. $.75 on a can of tomatoes, and the rest on stocking stuffers and Easter basket toys. Playdoh was marked down to a quarter and the little minifigure type toys were about the same price, so for about $6 I scored enough Beyblade, Lego, etc. and squishy dough to put some in his basket and hold off on some until next Christmas. I'm doing pretty bad at this no spend thing this year. :lol: I keep justifying spending money. However, it is making me look more seriously at our money habits, so there is that. Today is projected no spend. We are going skating with our punch cards. I cooked up the protein last night that dh had taken out to make on Tuesday. It was wayyyy too much! Half went into dinner and the other half is going in Chinese food tonight. There are plenty of leftovers in the fridge for tomorrow, too, and then on Saturday I'll grocery shop again.

To do: fold laundry clear ice from gutter paths and mailbox feed the squirrels birds school take ds to skating practice parent-child conference set up playdate tweak schedule for next week, print, and put together supplies

I would scrap it. You paid money for something bad. Is it worth throwing your daughter's time and effort at it as well? You could try Mystery Science - they have units on animals, food chains, and animal needs. They have free sign ups right now for the rest of the year. Or Winter Promise's Animals And Their Worlds BFSU A unit or two from Moving Beyond The Page Evan Moor Daily Science I wouldn't keep doing something bad. You're relying on being able to know when the information is false in a product that is shoddily made. ETA - Mr. Q's Life Science is free, too, and might be a good option.

I'm so sorry about your mom, Scrap. :grouphug: I know you have been expecting it, but that doesn't make it easier. To your questions: It is warm and sunny here. The squirrels were having a fine old time out in the trees and enjoying the weather. The 7yo burned off some energy by shoveling the rest of the ice off the driveway and riding his scooter. We did start back to school this week, but it is slow going. Currently the 7yo is playing legos in the living room. He has been very, uh, dramatic lately, much helped by his choice of reading material. So far he has threatened to run away from home, told me that "school is like prison" and generally moaned and groaned over anything he has been told to do (right down to brushing his teeth). I gave up today. The work is still sitting there. I'm just not fighting a child who doesn't want to be engaged. That sounds pessimistic of me. Perhaps his attitude is catching. :laugh: But I figure it's not worth it. We'll continue to "start" at 8am and go from there each day with a loop schedule. And he just announced he's ready to do school. :huh: I'm going to go make hay while the sun shines!

Fat is a symptom. Eating bad food is unhealthy. Not exercising is unhealthy. Stress is unhealthy. Lack of sleep is unhealthy. Fat is the product of that. You don't address the result, you address the habits if you do so at all, and YOU DON'T COMMENT ON AN ADULT'S HEALTH. Calling someone out for being fat is extremely rude. (notice the verb- being. Not "doing", which is an action). It is one way to tear apart a relationship because you are rejecting a person as a whole. Yes, there needs to be an adversity to fat shaming by moms. Moms can be concerned about what their children are doing, but they have to know that a good parent knows when to back the heck off and understand that their own kid has reached adulthood.

It could be that two names had a glitch in the database, with your address showing as the address for both individuals.

Nope. Although dh considered getting season tickets to the theatre here because Hamilton is coming, and it's included as one of the 5 shows in the package. The overall cost would have been much lower plus we would have gotten nice seats from the areas we could pick. I just couldn't fathom having other tickets I knew we wouldn't use, though. I have no desire to see the sequel to Phantom. :lol: The original was enough! And I'd be uneasy about taking the 7yo to that many shows late at night.

Do they have a Facebook page? Maybe you could message them that way.

Be aware of long weekends. Ds had a 3 day fall break where the dorms were closed (it's 2 flights home, about 10h of total travel time with sitting in airports). It was very random, like the week after parents' weekend and for no reason. Had we been aware ahead of time that the dorms would be closed we would have made other arrangements, but as it was we scrambled to get him taken care of.

I was nosy and did a search on TOG lesson plans (I did the same when I got overwhelmed trying to plan BFSU with their flowchart.) . One blog pointed out that you can buy what are called Planning Aids from the company, telling you what to read and when along with other info. It might be worth the investment.

Gone Away Lake The Drina Ballerina series (out of print, but good) All Of A Kind Family Pollyanna books, though they may bring out her sensitive side. Pollyanna is temporarily disabled. Understood Betsy Five Little Peppers (any of the books, except The Birds' Christmas Carol. Carol dies) Susan Coolidge's Katy books (What Katy Did, What Katy Did Next, etc) Betsy-Tacy Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm

1/9 - $12. I was running the 7yo to auditions last night so dh was going to cook dinner. He ended up being exhausted when he got home. I ran to McD's instead. In hindsight, not even the fastest option because it took them 15 minutes to make and bag cheeseburgers and fries. DS ate on the way home and fell asleep soon after we got back. Long day for him. However, it was a successful one. He's guaranteed a part and we set up the foundation for two more playdates. The child who was afraid he wouldn't make friends here has now a large group. 1/10 - any activity today was paid for way in advance. We're going skating and stopping by the library on the way home. :) Dinner tonight will be the chili dh didn't do last night. He'll get home to a hot meal after his 12 hour day at work. I'm going to try to make bread, too, but we'll see how that goes.

I'm not familiar with ToG, but can you make a basic template of a lesson plan? We do Story Of The World with the activity guide. Our lesson template this year is usually based on 1 chapter, 4 days a week. Day 1: Introduce section 1 (and light activity) Day 2: narration, mapwork. Day 3: section 2 (review map, add if necessary) Day 4: activity It works mostly. This week we have 4 sections in the chapter, so each day is an activity and narration. And some chapters are light so we stick two of them in one week. But the above keeps us on a good rhythm so we don't stray too far and it's easy to "plug and play".

This is exactly the one I bought last summer. Had it for two weeks and loved it, but then my teen stole it and refused to give it up. Called it the best pillow ever. :lol: It's currently sitting in his dorm and I need to go back to Ikea. The other brand I bought just isn't cutting it.

We loved MUS for multiplication, but I also made a Montessori checkerboard (like lattice method, but more explicit) and graph paper to correspond with the MUS ones, tens, and hundreds blocks so that it was always visually reinforced what unit went where.

Meet a child where they're at. For some kids, every concept should be introduced in a visual way, but for a kid that conceptually understands it is better to have the manipulatives handy and allow them to work the way they do best. I have a mathy kid. He likes Right Start, but the manipulatives don't speak to him. We're still using it because he picked it out. We're also using Life Of Fred because he loves it and it encourages him to take RS and go deeper. FWIW, I put a kid where they're testing at. We went with level D this year and compressed/skipped as needed, and we'll probably finish at the end of Feb/beginning of March. It's a great program, but it isn't tailor made for my kid. Then again, lol, if it was, that would mean it wouldn't work for a lot of other kids. It's a good thing there are so many choices, isn't it? :) We can each find one to tweak and fit just right.

This deserves to be stated again. It is really easy to feel despair at this age and think they'll never develop the habits they need. :grouphug: They do, or at least still have a chance of doing so. Remember I said ds and I nearly killed each other while he was in middle school? The same kid got to college and within his first few days made a spreadsheet of all his classes with study times, and set up/joined study groups for classes he knew would need more of his attention. No prompting or prodding from us parents. He just knew what he needed to do in order to succeed and actually did it. :lol: I was never more proud!

We needed a new thread. :D 1/8- $0. Arranged a playdate at our house so we stayed busy and occupied. 1/9- projected spending: $175, the weekly activity that if we didn't pay for now, would cost twice as much in 3 weeks. However, dh came home with a $50 gift card to the grocery store from his work (end of year gift to all employees), so that will shave quite a bit off our next food run.

Middle school was hard for my kid. We nearly killed each other, with his refusal(?) to work and lack of organizational skills. It was like parenting a toddler again. You have to make the time to connect daily. DAILY. This is the minimum. Either a morning meeting that covers what was completed yesterday and looks over the schedule for the day, or an evening one that covers that day's work and looking over tomorrow's. It shouldn't take more than half an hour or so, and every child should be able to get half an hour with their parent each day. Second, the child who doesn't work independently gets to work in line of sight of mom. I set school hours - and if my kid wasn't trusted farther than I could throw him then he got to sit right there. He could wear headphones, or have his back turned, but knowing I was watching him work/not work made him more accountable.

2nd grade- occasionally a historical fiction, definitely a reading book reader (reading aloud to me), and a book basket of 1/2h per day.