i just can't believe that
it's so sad
how could no one notice?

2010BEBES
yes dare and muse are their real names

we didn't have any family naming traditions to follow in our family
and not a big fan of my mom's name     

i live in mexco though neither i nor my husband are from here
but both my girls are citizens as they were born here

i know even my husband cries at anything with kids
i think it sweet 

i read in bed too
maybe thats why i can't sleep at night
oh well

thanks so much for your kind words
here in mexico i don't get a lot of support for what i do
but i feel compelled to continue
it wasn't a easy choice to make
as i was very happy helping to run a nonprofit school in Ghana before i had kids
but my girls matter so much more then my career
and by staying home with them i hope to give them many happy memories with mom

great idea with the toy crocodile 
love it, love it, love it
karma to you

i believe they are a bit slower
the books by Dr Raymond More have a lot to say on this topic
they suggest delaying formal academics for boys until they are 8 or 9
as boy need more time playing and moving in general
they say when you do start academics they will catch up in no time
and do better then kids started years earlier 
the Mores have many many studies to back them up
a lot to think about

does anyone know if you can get this film online?
i live in mexico and it's not showing here 

go for the king
i made this mistake already
we had only one kid and she had her own bed
so we saved a little money and went with a smaller bed
now i have a baby and the three year old is back with us
oh how i wish i had a bigger bed 

yum
what a great list karma to you for posting
i'm so hungry now 
it's really true about how you crave the foods you grow up with
as kids we never had sugar, msg or white flour and rice
and now as adults we all only eat healthy foods
so i'm trying to do the same for my kids

cute
memory is one of my little ones favorite games 
and i love it too

47 no standardized testing until they are older
When do they HAVE to get tested

in the USA it depends on what state your in
some states you never have to do standardized testing if you homeschool
we chose not to test while they are young
my plan is in third grade to start letting them play with standardized tests
so that they are very comfortable with them and it's not a scary thing
starting at eighth grade i will use them regularly as part of the high school transcript

48 less sickness

when you have 30 plus kids in the same room all day with very little ventilation germs get passed around
as do lice and other woes
keeping my kids at home i have more control of the environment they are in 
when friends are sick we don't visit etc
partly because of this my girls have been ill very few times

18 Latin
we plan to start teaching Latin in second grade instead of grammar
Latin gives children a firm foundation for spelling, vocabulary and grammar
it also helps with learning the other Latin languages
in the USA children take grammar almost every year
but Latin is not required or if it is not until high school
instead of grammar every year i plan to use more of a Charlotte Mason approach
using lots of real literature, dictation, writing, and Latin in the early years
and teaching only two or three years of grammar rules starting at about fourth grade
i plan on learning Latin right long my daughter
there are a few good programs available now that we may use
or i may try to develop my own with my son-in-law who is a classical language professor in japan

25 foreign languages

my husband speaks French and we've been teaching it to her on and off for two years
i don't speak French so i learn with her using CDs and books
as we now live in mexico we are learning Spanish as well   

28 early learning opportunities (she's three and starting first grade)
Do you test her to know what topics are covered in each school year? Do you use any internet page?

i look at what topics and skills are covered in schools, but i don't teach based on what schools are doing
we use a few ready made 1 grade programs everyday for math and language arts
for the other subjects i teach her whatever she has a interest in
things like chemistry she might not get till years later if we stuck to only first grade work
World Book Encyclopedia has a course of study which can also be used to see what kids learn in different grades 
www.worldbook.com/typical_course_of_study.html
   
29 no homework, less then an hour of seat work
How can you teach her so many things with only an hour of seat work?

Doman's Encyclopedic Knowledge program: less then 3 minutes for 5 topics
(our personal EK program includes: music, physiology, art, biology, geography, and general science)
Math in Focus first grade (singapore math) : 15 minutes for 2 lessons
Miquon Math:10 minutes for 1 lesson
Sing, Spell, Read and Write 1 grade : 15 to 20 minutes for 1 lesson
BrainQuest 1 grade workbook : 10 minutes every other day
i sit with her for all seat work

other subjects we do informally
for science we use Janice VanCleave's Science for Every Kid books
(great books of experiments on different science topics, right now we are using her chemistry one)
for geography we study maps, read about different countries and color blank maps
etc

the rest of the day we play, do puzzles, cook, garden, read, listen to classic composers, dance, bird watch, paint, sing
read bible stories, take long naps and enjoy nature
at night she does brillkids and plays starfall

because her fine motor skills are still developing i try not to have her write too much
she only writes in her SSRW books and some in her math books
so only 20 minutes total writing time a day 
everything else is hands on work   
writing is a physical function not a sign of how much you can learn
so i try not to hold her back by her slow writing we work on it a little at a time but keeping it fun and stress free
if she stops enjoying it we stop doing it

32 no vaccine rules

i feel she is still to young to get vaccines
so we are choosing to wait a few more years
hopefully they will also be safer then 

hope this answers some of your questions
feel free to ask me if you have anymore   

hi 2010BEBES
let me try and answer all your questions
if i miss anything or i am not clear please let me know
first off let me explain we live in mexico 9 months out of the year
and in new orleans the rest of the year
every two years we go as a family on a 3 month mission trip
but when i talk about the school system or home school requirements i'm referring to the US 
because i know little about the schools here in mexico
and i don't know ANY other home educators in mexico
 

33 no learning labels (ADHD etc)

it could be other children using these labels but i find that it's the usually the schools that use them
and once you have a label it's very hard to get rid of
i know kids that are diagnosed as "learning impaired" or "ADHD" in kindergarten
and have a long list of "helpful" drugs and special ed classes that they will "need" to function
it's my belief that most of these kids need more time outdoors and better food not drugs and labels

34 no talking/teaching down to children
the curriculum used in schools are constantly being dumbed down
vocabulary used in textbooks today have far fewer words in them then in textbooks from 20 years ago
i find many people including teachers tend to "talk down" to children
not being respectful of the intellectual capability of young children, using baby talk and small words
teachers teach to lowest common denominator   
the bright child is bored in class and may act up

a example of this is two years ago when my daughter was a year and a half old
i was in a bookstore with a friend of mine when i bought a lovely book of poetry for my little girl
my friend (who teaches first grade at a expensive private school) laughed at me for buying the book
she said,"why wasted your money it will be years before you can use that book with her, the kids in my class would never sit for that and they are 6 or 7"
i asked her if she had ever tried reading really poetry to her class and she replied,"it's not on the curriculum for two more years at lest and besides it's not age appropriate try some simple mother goose instead"
thankfully i didn't listen and it soon became my daughter's favorite book
her favorite poem being The Day is Done by Longfellow and anything by Tennyson

39 learning how to interact with people younger, the same, and older than themselves
we don't force socialization we let it happen naturally the same way it happens in real life
when we have guest over or we visit people
at the market or in stores
at ballet class which she take 5 days a week with mixed age kids
at the park, in church etc
she is very social and plays well with mixed age kids

44 we have school everyday of the year 
right now she is only three and loves school
so i don't really see any need for a vacation from it
for us school is just a natural part of everyday life
learning takes place all the time and is not a bad or boring thing
besides on vacation we still take baths and brush our teeth so why not learning too?
also it keeps us from wasting time on review
any teacher will tell you the first six weeks of the school year is just relearning what the kids forgot on vacation
we also get a lot more done in the year

more later
 

yes both my girls were wiped right away
even though i ask them not to
i was very mad about it