Hi all, The Study and Teaching Guide for the History of the Ancient World is now available for purchase on our site. Amazon should be shipping the book soon, too (it takes a bit longer to complete their warehouse process). Quick Description... Susan Wise Bauer's "The History of the Ancient World" is widely used in advanced high-school history classes, as well as by home educating parents. This Study and Teaching Guide, designed for use by both parents and teachers, provides a full curriculum with study questions and answers, critical thinking assignments, essay topics, instructor rubrics, and test forms. Explanations for answers and teaching tips are also included. Designed by historian and teacher Julia Kaziewicz, in cooperation with Susan Wise Bauer, makes "The History of the Ancient World" more accessible to parents & teachers. Note, since some folks had asked: The first half of the book is for the instructor. The student's pages, in the back half, are perforated. SAMPLES of the curriculum can be found on this page. Justin from Peace Hill Press

Hi all, I knew you'd want to know that we're offering two brand-new audio lectures by Susan Wise Bauer, recorded at homeschooling conferences: Burning Out: Why it Happens and What to do About it Every home school family finds itself in the doldrums occasionally. But when the doldrums last for weeks or months, it’s time to consider the possibility of burnout. In this seminar--drawn from years of personal experience with effective home education and burnout--Susan defines burnout, investigates the elements that make burnout more likely, and offers a series of practical, experience-tested suggestions for moving forward. and What is History? How and Why Should I Teach It? Choosing the right program isn’t the first step in teaching history to your students. Before you can make informed decisions about what curricula to use, you need to understand why you’re teaching history at all--and define what your student should be gaining from it. This seminar will explain what history actually is (you might be surprised!), survey different methods and approaches for teaching, and suggest appropriate goals for elementary, middle-grade, and high school students. Both are now available as MP3 downloads, along with all of our other lectures.

Squirrel!!! Hah, you looked! Just for you, a cupcake of the edible and not so edible (depending on your point of view)

I couldn't help posting a link to homeschool.com's new magazine, and now I'm wondering if their cover article was written by a Hive member?

It's Ryan Gosling's birthday. Has no one mentioned this all day? After all he has done for the Hive. :lol::lol:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0331516/

Tomorrow (today actually), my HS group, 130 of us- thats kids and parents, are going on an hour long train ride. I think its great but how can i make it educational? We are all just boarding and sitting together, theres no tour or program for it. :bigear:

I dont know much about it all, but I want to try a good wine. I know I like Boones Farm Strawberry Hill and I like Barefoot Reisling (sp?). Im lost beyond that. What do you like? Dislike? Is one brand better than another?

Discovered Motivational well being on facebook. Been perusing through and so many of the sayings and pictures are leaping out at me. Particularly this one. "You can never make the same mistake twice. Because the 2nd time you make it, it's not a mistake, it's a choice. My mother's favorite saying is we all have choices. So choosing not to be mad over husband leaving all his dirty dishes in the sink from his midnight snack. Worked of my mad, turned it into a life lesson for me son about courtesy, and will not ream my husband a new one just because I'm still mad about something else totally unrelated to his actions. Another motivational saying found and posted on my page: "Today will never come again, Be a blessing, Be a friend, Encourage someone Take time to care Let your words heal and not wound." Think I'll take up meditation and yoga again.

I keep seeing "cupcake" around here lately. I have no idea what it means. :glare: :bigear: I know, I'm clueless. I try to read between the lines, but I'm not getting it from context. The urban/slang dictionaries online list so many meanings, I'm still torn between (a) pat on the behind, (b) fart thrown in someone's face, and © something I will not type out on any forum, much less this one. Well?

My cupcakes were the BEST!!!! My kids just got in, burst into the house, and were all telling me at once that MY cupcakes were the only ones that were gone! A few of the 'blue' ones were eaten (kids wanted their mouths to be blue), but mine were the best and everyone wanted to know who made them (we are new there). Also, (color explanations below) someone who makes wedding cakes made the red cupcakes and for a little while, people thought that she had made the chocolate (my assigned color/flavor) but then she was asking WHO made the chocolate and my kids piped in that I did. YAY!!!!!!! Thank you all so much -- the links and advice you all provided really gave me focus so I knew what I wanted/needed to do: make a chocolate cupcake with a chocolate frosting swirled top. I have so many good places to go back and use when I have to do any kind of baking again. FYI, I used the recipe on the Hershey's Cocoa for the cake. I cheated and used canned frosting -- it was too hot and too late (I frosted this morning) for anything more involved. Helpful hints about frosting follow: I used Wilton canned chocolate buttercream frosting -- it is good - if you are going to use a pastry tube or one of those decorating tubes that are like a cookie press (I bought one this morning at WalMart), put the container of Wilton frosting in the microwave for 20 seconds otherwise it is too stiff to work through the tip and too stiff to push out the extruder. I also purchased two cans of Pillsbury Sugar Free Creamy Chocolate Frosting at WalMart (they only had two cans or I would have bought more - I was panic stricken that I would run out because of errors). The pillsbury, hands down, tastes better than the Wilton, and is a breeze to work with. It can go right from the can to the pastry/piping tube and I think I was able to frost a dozen cupcakes in about 2 minutes - no kidding. I did mix some Pillsbury and Wilton together just to see how it looked and it made a very pretty swirl. I have photos - I will try to add them when I am finished typing - I don't however thinnk the photos do the cupcakes justice. I finished by using a vegetable peeler and sweet Baker's Milk Chocolate and shaved a little on top of each cupcake. I baked 62 cupcakes (last night) - my kids said every single one was devoured and kids were looking for more. Oh - I learned that when filling the cupcake papers, just covering the bottom of the cupcake paper to about 1/4 of an inch ( not much batter at all) will bring the cupcake right to the top of paper but not over it which makes frosting easier. And, using a suggestion that some of you very wise women shared, I froze the cupcakes over night and frosted them that way - that worked because by the time the cupcakes got to the pool in this awful heat, they were just defrosting and it helped hold the frosting in shape. Finally, I found hefty plastic bags a total failure as a pastry/piping tube -- i think that is because i only tried the wilton frosting with those and the wilton is just too stiff and not creamy enough. I think the pillsbury super creamy may have worked fine with the plastic bags -- i was running out of time though and may try that next time. COLORS: One of the swim team member is leaving for the Olympic Time Trials - the social commmittee at the pool assigned the colors of the Olympic Rings (I took chocolate - we did that instead of black) and five of us baked cupcakes in the various colors so they could be arranged as such: I'm adding that graphic because I love it -- pix to follow

So if I don't add you, because I don't think I'll remember to check, or I am just to lazy to bother asking, it isn't because you aren't my friend. You are all, totally, my friend. BFFs, thats us. Sing it with me, ladies: We go together, like shanawannawanna, be bop doo wop doo wop, together forever, like shamalamalinga something something something... Never mind. Anyway. The only benefit I can see to adding any of you as my friend is the possibility of *deleting* you later if you bug me. And that isn't very friendly, now is it, so I am going to err on the side of caution (and sloth) and just consider you all my friends, added or not. :party:So this <----- is me and all of you WTM'ers, whooping up because we're friends!