I worked up a sort of long-term plan for my 9yo yesterday, inspired by you folks. She'll be in 5th next year so I started there, and promptly started panicking over the fact that I only have 8 years left! She'll be in junior high before I know it! (She laughed at me for this. But you know what I mean, right??) My kid is not PG or anything, just pretty bright. So really it looks a lot like the WTM plan overall. I discovered that we can lollygag our way through Classical Writing if we want, because on our current schedule we'll be done after 11th grade. That seems unlikely IRL, though--it's such a heavy program. So I guess that was good for me. I don't know if I did what I was supposed to, though! :)

If you're doing WEM I'll follow your blog! My husband has one on politics with his brother. I think about two people read it, and one is me. He just feels like he needs to express his opinions and get a record down. I've been thinking of a book blog because I love joining the online challenges, but you're supposed to have a blog to participate. But I don't really feel compelled to speak to the world like some people do. If you do, then continue! At the very least you'll have a record for yourself, and you never know who will read it and be influenced by your words. PS I agree about the background/type colors of the homeschooling blog--I love the color scheme but the two are too close together and it's hard to read.

I do! Plus Joanne Jacobs and some other educational-issues-type blogs.

This is what I do too. I figure it's part of their life skills to learn to dress themselves decently--it just takes a long time! (And remembering the things I used to like to wear at that age....maybe a lack of dress sense is genetic....)

I'm looking forward to it too, lovemykids--ancient and medieval are my favorite years of history. (And thanks--my sig lines are from an old NZ pop song I've always loved. :))

Yay, thanks Capt Uhura! I will look at those threads when I am more coherent, which is not right now. Is there a sickie smilie?

Oh no, I missed it! Can anyone post a link for me?

My in-laws were here for most of the day. They're gone now and we are much happier. I managed to get all coldy, and let me tell you having a stuffy head and constant sneezing really makes it way better! :001_smile: Oh well, having to run off for tissues all the time was a good excuse. By the time they left, all I wanted was to go to bed and read in my SWB history computer-book. My darling husband was so happy that they were gone that he went all bouncy and skippy and took the kids over to my parents' place. I've had blessed quiet and I lay down and read, and now I'm going to go do that some more. :001_smile:

It may have been the Great Books: History as Literature lecture, but I have two on literature on CD from a seminar I attended, and I'm not sure which one it was. Sorry. There was a K-8 lecture and a highschool one, I think. I'm having the same thing with HO and SOTW, which one to rearrange and such. The 6yo will be in SOTW 1 and the 9yo in HO Ancients 2. If I use it. Agh!

My 9yo daughter is moving into the logic stage, and next year we'll be doing Ancient History. I'm considering History Odyssey for a spine. Anyway, I've been thinking about how to do logic-stage history, and I'm a little flummoxed. I've heard SWB speak on how to do literature at the beginning of logic stage, and I'm OK with that. Does anyone have suggestions on how to do this well in the study of history? (I sound like an idiot, don't I? Oh well, it's a lesson in humility I guess.)

I have a vision, but no long-term plan. I would like to do one though; can anyone point me to a sample so that I can see how they work? I can imagine, but I always like having plenty of examples.

We got Fluxx and Martian Fluxx. Hoping for the Monty Python edition next time!

I would also recommend Secular Homeschooling for library collections. It depends on the library, of course, but most homeschooling magazines are aimed at the conservative Christian market. SH is for everyone else ("Secular" is supposed to mean "this magazine is not about religion, it's about homeschooling"--it's easy to see that the editor is not religious, but mostly they just want to talk homeschooling and leave religious beliefs to the individual). You could also look at Home Education Magazine, but I don't know anything about that one. If your librarian has access to Infopeople training, they offer an online class for librarians about serving homeschoolers. :001_smile:

We had a lovely relaxing Christmas with my family, who are easy to hang out with. Tomorrow my in-laws come. There has been a lot of tension in the past year. Neither of us is looking forward to it.

This is what I would do. We've been getting a ton treat plates and nearly all of them contain nuts, which our 9yo is very allergic to. She's an awfully good sport about it. One friend of ours made fudge and set up a special nut-free plate just for her, with a clean knife and everything, which was so nice! But almost no one is going to realize they need to do that. That's OK, there's more than enough anyway.

Her version of homeschooling history is a bit inaccurate. Check out Diosa Dotada's response for some correction on that point.

She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. -Louisa May Alcott, 1873 "A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. ~Samuel Johnson "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." --- Mark Twain Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. -Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent My early and invincible love of reading, . . .I would not exchange for the treasures of India. - Edward Gibbon Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child. ~ Anonymous ~ A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. - Henry Ward Beecher I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. ~Jorge Luis Borges You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. -Ray Bradbury ~ The closest we will ever come to an orderly universe is a good library. ~ Ashleigh Brilliant ~ There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. ~ Joseph Brodsky ~ There is no substitute for books in the life of a child. --Mary Ellen Chase, 1952 A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. - Chinese proverb When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes. Desiderius Erasmus 1466-1536 When I discovered libraries, it was like having Christmas every day. ~ Jean Fritz ~ The libraries have become my candy store. ~ Juliana Kimball ~ Book lovers will understand me, and they will know too that part of the pleasure of a library lies in its very existence. ~ Jan Morris ~ My home is where my books are. (1909) ~ Ellen Thompson ~ Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. ~ Henry David Thoreau ~ Books, books, books had found the secret of a garret-room piled high with cases in my father’s name; Piled high, packed large, -- where, creeping in and out among the giant fossils of my past, like some small nimble mouse between the ribs of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there at this or that box, pulling through the gap, in heats of terror, haste, victorious joy, the first book first. And how I felt it beat under my pillow, in the morning's dark. An hour before the sun would let me read! My books! ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning ~ You may have tangible wealth untold; Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be -- I had a mother who read to me. -- Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954)

Check out some responses at Just Enough and Nothing More. Here's the blogger's own response in a different column.

I had kasha with walnuts and cranberries...and then a slice of Christmas Danish pastry from my friend Ruth, who is one of the world's best cooks. Wow.

Yes, she seems awfully young. Poor kid.

I pray and hope things work out for you. :grouphug: But if they don't, God is still God. We can quite close to disaster this year too. It was something of a shock to realize that there was no guarantee that we wouldn't lose our house, etc.--that might not be the plan for us, and I still had to have faith that God was taking care of us. Just maybe not the way I wanted. We were blessed in many ways during that time, but not with money. :grouphug:

I love newsletters too. The super-braggy ones make me laugh. I know they're not perfect. :001_smile:

Is it the newish one? Mary has long dark hair and bangs? The first part is pretty scary, with the cholera epidemic. And it has a tendency to play ominous music pretty frequently. Otherwise it's a decent movie.

If you're looking for a less expensive wardrobe option, you might try this idea.

But if he starts at 10.30, can't you go for a little while? Surely the party starts at 7 or 8? Sorry you're having an icky day.:grouphug: