Wow. ANd I love the idea of Christmas school. I bet they'll be talking about that all of their lives. Laura

Thank you! I just ordered two--although I'm waiting for it to go through. They must be busy. Laura

Another question: What do we do if we're already too far invested in LC products? Do we wait til we get to Henle (please tell me Henle uses them)? Do I try to teach macrons now on top of LC? Thanks, Laura

Your co-op teaching is valuable. Don't downplay it. Also, include all of your volunteer positions. As long as you have your education and at least 3 'jobs' listed with detailed active verb descriptions you should be fine. Just put lots of descriptions in the positions that you've done. If it's going to be electronically scanned, there are certain key words that you need to use--try to do some research to see what those are. Stress all the different situations where you used your teaching skills--esp. in unique situations. Good luck, Laura

I have a friend who is in debt TO ME, and she gets her nails done. She struggles terribly with her finances and I have never been able to ask her to pay me back (we're talking $5k). She's had serious medical issues, personal issues, financial issues, etc. Yet when she talks about her nails or her lunches out (while taking her dd to get her WIC items for her granddaughter), it's hard for me not to say anything, esp. since this debt is now 4 years old. I don't go out for lunch nor do I get my nails done--too much $$.

Honestly, I think at that age, many of the kids look lost. And as pp said some kids only hear the info from their tutor. Others, however, spend time every day reviewing the material--but not as likely at that age. I think your dd will enjoy it. They usually have open houses and you can stop and see the class your dd will likely be in next year. Laura

No help here, but just wanted to say I'm going to borrow your tradition. But, I think we'll just do one book for a read aloud. Laura

Wise and Otherwise looks really good. Apples to Apples Jr. is probably our favorite. Settlers of Cattan seems so hard and takes a long time to play. Laura

Interesting. But, for me, I don't think it's enough to stop the madness. I just plain love buying curriculum. Thanks for sharing, Laura

No train wreck, but a mini-Martha Stewart was born today. I am not known for my cooking skills, but as I remind dh it's b/c I don't want to, not b/c I can't. Well he's always been skeptical (he had Bob Evans on speed dial), but today I pulled it off. We usually go out or to someone else's on Thanksgiving, and up until yesterday we were planning to go out. I had an 8 lb turkey in the freezer and cooked it this morning. (I love the internet--anything you need to know is right there). It's actually better accdg to some to cook a turkey frozen. Turned out absolutely delish as did everything else. Made a ton of tasty sides, but did outsource the desserts. I even made a huge batch of turkey noodle soup afterwards. There is so much food in the house, "and I made it." And in all honesty it was world's better than my MIL who everyone thinks is such an amazing cook (she does have her moments, but a moist turkey isn't one of them). I guess I shouldn't be snarky on Thanksgiving. I'm now planning my roast beast for Christmas.... Laura

Angela, I think you're just plain brilliant. This is so much better than any curriculum I've seen. I do like Getting Started w/Latin as it provides instruction in such small bites. I have needed curriculum for my kids as I don't know any Latin and have done terribly in the past studying any foreign language. In part I think it's b/c I don't know my English grammar like I should. Tress, I have my dd6 listening to Song School Latin as just a nice easy beginning to Latin to make it less intimidating. She's also studying Italian and they of course overlap quite a bit. Thanks for sharing this. Laura in Ohio too.

stores don't refrigerate theirs. Not sure if that helps.

Here's a link from which you can pull Bloom's taxonomy if you want to create your own plan. http://theliterarylink.com/bloom_questions.html Laura

We've used LC set for that age and it has gone well.

Oceania sounds so Orwellian.

anything Reeses.

We've used LC I & II, but I think I'm going to switch to FFL. It looks a little easier. Laura

My vet said to use it until it frosts. She said that most ppl skip the autumn, but that fleas are prevalent then as well.

Happened to me when I was a kid. They told me it was because I didn't rotate them enough--must have been somewhat new in wearing them. It's one of the reasons I don't want my dds to have 'em for a while. Laura

are having a buy $40 save $20 sale. Use the code: HLP2 code

I'm thinking of a ping pong table for the 3 of them, a karaoke machine, and dog training classes for them to take our new pups too. There will be educational items too. I'm looking at the "musIQ" program that someone posted on here that has an electronic keyboard and software. DS11 is desperate for a phone, but that's not happening yet.

I come from a family of teachers and their reaction was skeptical and that it was just another of my nutty adventures. I had one teacher from a very expensive private school get up and leave me in the middle of a conversation when I told her I homeschooled. DD9's teacher's reaction when I told her I was homeschooling my son (then in 3d grade--dd was in first at that time) was that "I better not homeschool my daughter too." I told her it was up in the air at that time and dd actually started part of the next year. It made me very angry that she should say something like that. I'm sure it was the socialization myth as dd was a total social butterfly. DD11's teacher OTOH actually told me she thought he and I would do great at homeschooling (yet she was the reason we were homeschooling in the first place). I met w/our school superintendent recently over our local levy issue and he was supportive of homeschooling and choices offered to students. Our district just implemented part-time participation. Laura

ds is doing: Math LCII Bible reading/catechism CW alternating w/R&S 5 Literature-usually historical History (SOTW and others)/geography sports logic-lite-mind benders cds, thinking analogies cds, Fallacy Det. Sporadically: art music appreciation, but really want the MusiQ program someone talked about on here science Italian After Christmas Elementary Greek RS4K Just finished and am deciding on whether to move on to Worldly Wise 1 day/week CC Laura

Have you gone to the Nat'l Geographic website? On the kids' part they have daily questions and they also have a book you can buy(also available on Amazon). Laura

Ok, a couple of silly questions...why no TSS risk w/the cups and do they spill, either when they're in or when you're taking them out. Finally, how do you get them back out.