I don't think Popes step down. Besides, it looks like the problem has been endemic in the system; can you find someone who isn't touched by it? At least he's addressing it now.

Yeah SolaMichella, I don't like those either! Lots of little girls like to play wedding, so that doesn't bother me. I don't buy Disney costumes for my kids, but I'm not at all surprised to see that they've got a princess bride dress, all those movies end in one. My own girls have never asked for a bride dress, come to think of it, though they have princess dresses (that I made), Robin Hood, knight, lion, all sorts of other stuff. One of their favorites is to dress up like an Egyptian...:001_huh:

Totally inappropriate for a young teen. No way.

I would be hesitant, but I have recently given a little thought to doing it. I told the mom I'd be willing to pray about it and give it thought if she wanted to discuss it.

Yesterday I got my very own pocket spectroscope. I've wanted one for years. :001_smile:

What exactly do you expect to see? Have you asked the librarians what sort of donations they want or where they go? What is the donation policy of the library? It's great that you've donated money. Your library may be beleaguered enough that it's paying the electric bill with your donation or something. Material donations to a library present a little bit of a problem. Don't get me wrong, libraries like donations, a lot! But in general, libraries do not put donated books into the collection unless they're really worth it--it costs money to process a book into the collection, and 'whatever gets donated' isn't really a big part of any library's selection policy. Quite frequently the donated books are sold at a used booksale and the proceeds used to benefit the library. But every library is a bit different, so you can ask about that. If you ask, the library may also have a book wish-list for patrons to use, so that you can buy books for the collection. Donations can be a little bit awkward. When someone, for example, donates a World Book from 1968 or otherwise old or inappropriate items and then makes a fuss when they don't appear on the shelves, it can be easier for the library to just have a policy of "we don't accept donations" or something like that. (I'm not saying you did that, just that it happens all. the. time.) Anyway. I'm sorry that someone in your area is making it impossible for the library to buy homeschooling books. That kind of dishonesty hurts the whole community.

The "too-clean" theory has some problems. It's possible that not running into enough germs may make some people vulnerable. (OTOH, I'm a terrible housekeeper and my oldest child has severe food allergies.) However, many allergies start in infancy, which is a little early to be saying that it's because they are kept too clean. Allergies also run genetically, and are somewhat mysterious right now (as are all auto-immune disorders, all of which are on the rise). And there are obvious problems with dirty homes--our modern wall-to-wall carpeting and warm, well-insulated homes are dust traps and havens for dust mite growth, and dusty homes encourage dust allergies and asthma. Polluted air also causes asthma. That isn't a hypothesis, it's known to be true. Mold causes similar breathing problems and allergies. Modern homes are one reason for the rise of dust allergies, since in the past everyone had drafty homes (that is, lots of fresh air all the time), and human beings are designed for fresh air, not stale, dust-laden air. All that aside, you're a slightly better housekeeper than I am, but I do all those things on a regular basis and my house has lots of fresh air. My kids are disgustingly healthy, almost never sick, and one has severe food allergies, as I said. I have problems with dust and hay fever.

Yep, libraries survive on taxes, and they usually get the dregs. After all, libraries aren't important or anything. If it's a county system, it's paid for by county taxes, or by city taxes if it's a city library, etc. Counties, being generally badly off all the time, tend to have poverty-stricken library systems. Let me tell you, unless your local population really LOVES libraries, it is nearly impossible to pass a special tax to fund them specifically (say, a sales tax of 1/8 cent, or a property tax of $16/year, etc.), so libraries are part of the overall county budget--the last to get new funds and the first on the chopping block when money is tight. If you pay overdue fines thinking you're contributing to the library's budget, think again--many fines just go into the general fund. You can ask where your fines go; maybe your local library does get them. But mostly not. Why yes, I did get laid off from my library job last year, and so did half my co-workers...:glare:

I just finished The Children's Book! Yay me. All 675 pages. Man, it was dark.

Well, I personally wouldn't. I'd want to read the label myself. But I'd still need a label.

OTOH, I'm a not-very-good housekeeper and my daughter had severe allergies from the time she started eating food. Be careful about blaming parents for their children's health problems--it's very easy for it to be a coping mechanism. That woman is has allergic children--she is a bad mother. I am a good mother, therefore my children will be safe. I have a lot to say on this topic, clearly, but we are out the door now.

It's not the obesity, it's not knowing what's in there that some kids may be severely allergic to. Dairy, nuts, soy, eggs--there are children with life-threatening allergies to all these. I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but as a mom with a kid who has severe allergies, I'm grateful for the heightened awareness these days.

Ha! I may need to put that on my summer reading list. Unfortunately my problem is not that I don't know how to schedule or what to do--it's getting my butt in gear and DOING it. For the past few weeks I've had an off-track college student come in and help me, and it's been heaven, but I can't afford that for long and she's leaving soon anyway. :(

I only have MOTC. I take what I like and leave the rest, but certainly if you followed it completely it's quite inflexible. There's quite a lot of writing about scriptural justification for having your kids do chores, so if you don't feel the need to read a lot of that you might not want it. I do think it's a good planning system and it's worked well for me, so it was worth the money to me. Another thing about it is that it's designed for large families--I only have two kids and so the system is kind of overkill for me. MOTH--well, the only thing I know about it is that you're supposed to break your day into 15-minute segments and schedule them all for every person. I cannot live like that, but I can see where a more relaxed version would be good for some folks.

There are 5 congregations of my church in town. Not very many people homeschool, probably 1 or 2 families per congregation. I'm the only permanent homeschooler in my congregation right now, but a friend of mine is hs'ing her daughter just for this year.

Kitchen table math has had quite a bit of discussion on this in the last couple of days. The two main links are here but there's more if you look around the last few days of entries. Chemprof on handwriting Handwriting part 2

I'm about halfway through A. S. Byatt's new book, The Children's Book. It's long. So all I reviewed this week was Alice Taylor's To School Through the Fields, a memoir of an Irish country childhood. It was quite enjoyable. I also read some Irish poetry, to round off a week of St. Patrick's Day reading. :) The Children's Book is good, but a bit bloated, and there are more than a few references to awful victimizing practices of various kinds. I hope English boarding schools weren't really that horrifying, but I suppose they were, in which case, what on earth were those fathers thinking?? :ohmy: Oh I forgot. I also started reading The Death of Socrates. It's not nearly as difficult as I had been led to believe.

If you find the questions, post the link here please!

Hahaha, you've just reminded me of the time I was eating at my parents' house and we were having burgers. They have a huge garden and we eat a lot of produce. I opened my nice hamburger, and there in the very center, curled up on the garden lettuce, was a very fat and happy grub worm thing. :ack2: But on the whole, yep, we're used to it.

I'd download it! :001_smile: I think it's a great idea.

Even folks who ate whole foods they produced themselves on the farm had to put up with extra-curricular protein. It's part of life. Bugs get into food, and so do rodents. My dad has told stories about his father in the early 20th century--they didn't have much to eat, so when the flour had bugs, it got eaten anyway.

I only have girls, but it sounds pretty normal to me, even the slap. My brother once tried to ride the cat. (Can't be done. Cat was OK.) I put the egg in the microwave to see what would happen. (Bang! Oops, we need a new microwave. I really didn't know you weren't supposed to do that.) My husband's older brother played "lion tamer" with his friend, using a pillow as a shield and a bicycle chain as a whip.

Hey, that's our song! Silly people, with your tree mascot. :D Besides, I think we have the Axe at the moment, do we not?

Ouch. DH and I went to #21. :001_smile: But I'll give you my opinion anyway. I loved my college, and if I thought that my kids could get in, I'd be thrilled. (A 4th generation at Cal! Oh, the glory!) But it's much harder to get in now than it was for us, just 15-20 years ago. And the tuition has skyrocketed. I don't want my kids to burn themselves out in high school trying to get into the perfect college or anything. BYU, with lower tuition and a good program, is looking better and better.

I see your point, but if it was me running the school, I would have a written policy in place with reasons why. I plan to do both cursive and typing. But because of the ergonomic dangers* of too much keyboarding at too young an age, our policy is that we will not allow our kids to do much work on the computer until age 10 at least. By which time they will have finished the handwriting program, pretty much (we use G-D Italic). I would prefer them not to spend too much time typing until jr. high, but they will certainly learn how to type well. I don't see any reason to teach typing before 12, unless there's a particular circumstance. Most people my age who learned to type did it at 13-14, and we seem to have done OK with that whole dot-com bubble/digital age thing. There's no rush. I'm just plain against PP until much older. I believe it encourages flashy bells and whistles over content, as well as shallow thinking (since if it doesn't fit on a screen with 3 bullet points, it doesn't get put in). Kids are quite inclined enough to pretty twiddles over content as it is, and it's not like PP is a difficult program that takes years to master. *My husband is very careful about ergonomics, esp. for young folks. He's a software engineer and has had tendinitis for over 10 years.