For those of you who (like me) try not to believe everything you read on the internet: The good news is, the blogspot link is for real. This girl really did give this speech and she is the owner of that blog page. And there is no bad news. I tracked her down to write an article - which I don't think I'm allowed to link to in this forum. So I'll just say that I wrote it for the homeschool column run by the Washington Times Communities website and leave it at that. Cheers! Amie

Hey Sarah - There's also a secular inclusive co-op in the Gaithersburg area. We probably have room in your age group. PM me if you want more info. Amie

Hiya, I thought I'd put this out for discussion, even though I can't post a link to the article I saw (as per forum rules). A group composed of all state school superintendents just released a draft document proposing one common educational curriculum. Every state except TX and AK signed on to it. Now, the group says they're completely voluntary and separate from the federal government - except when the fed announced Race to the Top funds, one of the four core requirements to be considered for funding was for states to agree to adopt common standards. Couple this with the feds also funding "rigorous, common state assessments" - which I read as "one federal test everyone has to take". Anyway, the homeschooling column at the washington times communities is discussing this topic, and I thought it would be relevant - any time the federal government wants to control major changes in education, I worry. Especially since this is something as intrinsic as curriculum, coupled with testing. It feels all Big Brother-ish to me. Amie

Hey, For those of you working on timelines, there's a great free timeline website called TimeRime.com - I was going crazy trying to do a paper timeline with my kids and found this. You create an account and then you can add dates, text and pictures, plus you can choose to make it public or private. My oldest has taken over doing her timeline and it's great, she writes whole paragraphs for her entries. Amie

Voting doesn't close until Nov 1 - still time to vote! I don't think you can vote more than once; I think the site may track IP addresses. Unfortunately, it seems the girl in first place is going around to the computer labs in her college and voting from *each machine* to up her votes. My friend is still behind by about 50 votes. Thanks everyone for voting! Every little bit counts! She's going to take her son with her as a homeschool field trip if she wins. Amie

Totally cool to vote for one you find more interesting - but just thought I'd try to drum up some interest. Thanks for looking! Amie

Hi - a really nice homeschooler I know has an amazing photo of herself swimming about 5 feet away from a manatee at this site, and she's currently in 2nd place to win the photo contest. http://matadorpulse.com/discover-dominica-photo-contest-semi-finalists/ No registration needed - just go and vote. And seriously, the current first place contender is a photo of two people pretending to jump off a rock. That's going to win over the manatees? I, for one, am appalled. The manatees are only about 40 votes away from overtaking the leader! Vote manatee! Also, the manatee photo was pure luck - happened while they were diving to do a reef cleanup off the Florida coast. From a pure karma standpoint, I believe the manatees deserve to win. Sorry. Your regularly scheduled message board will resume now. Thanks! Amie

Hi Sarah, You might ask the tutors to check out the materials offered by the Stanford Chinese School (the website is in chinese so you'll want to have them look it over). Stanford has a CD-ROM that is very kid-friendly, as well as a series of workbook-type texts. My kids meet with a tutor once a week (but we'll probably make it twice since we just started homeschooling). I'm not comfortable enough with my chinese to immerse the kids in it but I can still expose them to it in pieces on a daily basis. You might also ask the tutors to help you make up character and pinyin flash cards to stick all over the house. Good luck, Amie

I think the 1/2 versions can be used without the teacher's edition, but then you don't get the exercises that require teacher's instruction (we're at a lower level than you do I don't know if you still have those listening instruction activities at that level). Otherwise, they're supposed to be more practice of the same activities from the whole number levels. HTH

Over here, we frame the discussion in terms of our personal standards - what we think is right and appropriate. It's a kind of a long-term explanation, but my kids have been able to understand that how you speak represents you as much as what you wear, and how that expectation is handled in our own household. Hope that helps a little.

How about a book plate to go with it? It's not an inscription, I know, but it's still a nice way to personalize her book - and if you get a small pack of them, it will be the beginning of her library. Which should lead to good things...

I'll make the point that you'd have to have an unbiased media before you could expect thorough or rigorous investigation of an issue. Also: the PM of Italy just came here for heart surgery. Congress is trying to write the healthcare bill so they, personally, would be exempt from using a socialized system. Doesn't speak well for how much faith they have in the system, does it?

Hiya, I'm not sure what you mean by "I don't want to project, but a feed" - you're trying to put content from your laptop into a tv monitor, right? Your laptop needs to be able to provide video out. Look for a jack on your machine that has a little ID logo that looks a little like |O| and that's probably it. Also, your tv needs to accept video in, usually with an RCA cable (that's the one that splits into three color coded heads, red yellow and white, and there are corresponding jacks on your tv to accept them). If you have both of these things, then you should be able to just get a video out-to-RCA cable from a big box store like Best Buy or Circuit City. Set your TV input to the component that accepts video in from those jacks and your TV should now be a big monitor. Good luck! Amie

I'm using both together. Looking over LoF, it looks as complete as the Keys series. In our house, we're using Keys as our primary and LoF as the supplement. This is mostly for my benefit - the kid is happy doing both.

I looked at this recently - it seems the older editions can be had quite cheaply, but the newer editions are $$$ (which is why we passed on it). SWB qualifies the grammar stage recommendation of this series saying that you should skip the writing portion.

Typing Tutor for Kids.

We've had one for 10 years now, I love it. Huge capacity, runs really quiet, lower water/electricity bill. When I move the clothes to the dryer, they're often practically dry because the spin has removed so much water. Also, I find our clothes have been in generally better shape than when we had a top loader. A warning if you get one: don't let the installers unpack the unit on the truck! They're supposed to keep the bolts on the drum until it's within 3 feet (or as close as possible) to the installation point, because the movement (particularly the dropping it off the truck) can throw the drum out of alignment. Which in turn will keep your unit off balance, typically causing the entire house to shake like a jet plane is taking off in your laundry room. Also, the unbalanced drum will also cause your unit to fail within 5 years. Ask me how I know. re: Mildew - I haven't had a problem with this, but I do a couple of things that circumvent the problem. 1) Run a hot load regularly, (this usually means towels for us). 2) Run a load with bleach (whites). 3) Check your gasket for water buildup. If you have hard water, you probably want to keep a bottle of regular white vinegar around and add it in the fabric softener compartment with your loads. Hard water can cause mineral buildup around the drain vents in your gasket, leading to a major case of ick. HTH - Amie

I'm assuming you want something for general reference? I've had good luck with the National Geographic store for large maps. If you want smaller maps for worksheet work, have a look at Uncle Josh's Outline Maps (google that and you'll get the website). Good luck.

Well, given that the state we're in is practically a teeny little communist nation, I'd probably get picked up by Child Protective Services right away. And then probably pilloried for making my children too smart for regular school. "They'll never be just like everyone else, now!" Okay, I'm done bashing the public system now. Sort of.

...at the local public school system. I ran into a friend the other evening and she mentioned that her kids hadn't had any academic instruction for the previous two weeks. Every day, her kids are watching movies, or playing games, or taking a non-educational field trip. And there's another week of "school" left. Her poor kids are stuck marking time in a school building because, by law, the school has to provide 180 days of school. And I guiltily admit, my first thought was... (where's that kid Nelson from the Simpsons?) HAAAA HA! Now, our state's homeschool law says we have to show "regular and thorough" instruction... yet the county can blow off three weeks on cleanup and parties, because they've finished their standardized testing for the year (but haven't met their nut in the Number of Days category). This county, by the way, has apparently been the model for the rest of the country since the 60's. Half the County budget goes to education. In higher performing areas, they spend $14k per student. In lower performing areas, it's more like $15k. Man, what I could do with $14k per kid... Of course, I'm sure it's not that simple. Unlike the county, I wouldn't have to spend $400.00 per day on legal fees. Sorry for the interruption. Y'all can return to your regularly scheduled educations now.

Have you tried the Philippa Gordon historical fiction series? It's the history of the Tudors a la historically researched bodice ripper. Try The Other Boleyn Girl, the book was (as usual) much better than the movie.

Well, perhaps I need to ditch lower case for a while and have his eyes checked as a backup. His comprehension and vocabulary seem fine - when I read him stories, he can narrate back to me, no problem (stuff like SOTW or D'aulaire's Greek Myths). Thanks for everyone's advice, I'll keep researching. -ATB

I don't know what to make of him, seriously - he even has (I believe) relatively nice little kids! Bright, curious, reasonably well-behaved... and I don't think he thinks his kids are that out-of-the-ordinary, either. Maybe it's because, given his own family, I was surprised that he found the possibility of large numbers of well-behaved children unusual. I can't understand how you cultivate that mentality. I just assumed that the news of a population of well-behaved kids would be greeted positively, at least.

Okay, the other day I mentioned to a family friend that we'd been to a homeschooling convention and I'd been impressed that, in a crowded venue, all the kids were really well-behaved. Not weird or robotic, just nicely behaved. Kinda Mayberry-ish. His response was that it seemed seemed very "Stepford Wife-ish", and that it was weird and unnatural that the children should be so well-behaved. Now, we live in a bedroom community of the DC area so we're largely insulated from the behavior of the more urban/densely populated area but seriously - tell me honestly - are the kids out there today really that bad? Despite the frequency with which I wish to sell my children to the gypsies, I also think they're ge I'm seriously not trolling, I'm just trying to compare my experience to his. He, for reference, lives out in Palo Alto, which always seemed like a nice place to me. Happy Californians with more money and nice weather than they know what to do with, etc etc etc. I was surprised that his outlook on kids would be so negative, given my impression of where he lives. Anyone?

[slight thread hijacking warning here] Multiple questions for everyone with a late readers: What's late, and how do you know if your child is just late or if there's a problem? Can someone point me to a resource that will give me benchmarks to follow? I hear a lot of people talking about how their dc didn't read until they were 8, 9, 11? But what was it like on the way? I've got a ds6 who really resists reading. He's still having problems with reversals on b/d/p. I think part of it is a confidence/perfectionist problem, but I don't know where to go next. Thanks to anyone with advice, sorry to hijack - it just seemed a good opportunity to ask while people in a similar boat were paying attention. -ATB