I get mail

Thanks for your patience! I've been busy working on a freelance piece as of late, so my attention has been split between my family and my writing.

Today, I'd like to address a handful of questions I receive repeatedly in my booksandbairns gmail box. Scroll through and see if any of them are yours!

You write a lot about math and always say you've tried a bunch of programs. Can you tell me which ones you've used?

Sure. We started with Calvert math in 2002. Jo was K age, and we had decided to buy in to the whole kit and kaboodle with Calvert. The program--as it was written at the time--was very straight-forward and schoolish. I understand, however, that it's been revamped.

Next came MCP math. Again, it was just Jo using this particular math program. And again, it was very institutionally-oriented. My husband says he thinks this was the program his Catholic grade school used in the 1970s and 80s.

Then we sampled Miquon ... and my brain exploded.

We jaunted over to Math-U-See just long enough to realize that Jo was lost, utterly.

By this point, Atticus was ready for some mathematical instruction. Having tried two new-to-me approaches, I ran back to the established, tried-and-true textbook route. We spent two years with Horizons.

And then we realized that Jo needed to start over, completely and totally. So we went back to ground zero with Math-U-See. And that's where we've stayed.

What do you do with Oliver when you are homeschooling the older kids?

So far, it hasn't been a big deal. Oliver is not mobile, and he's happy to rotate through some one-on-one time with his older siblings. He takes a nice, long nap that allows us some reading time, too.

I know that this stage won't last long, though. My arsenal of distractions when Logan was a toddler included my infamous, Montessori-inspired pans of rice and small digger trucks, tubs of water and bubbles and more art supplies than you can shake a stick at. I also invested in some of the Rod and Staff preschool workbooks, since Logan was so interested in seatwork.

Will you be able to homeschool Oliver even though he's a foster child?

While Oliver has not been adopted yet, he is in the pre-adopt stages. In other words, at some point, Oliver will legally be our son. When that happens, yes, we can homeschool him. Homeschooling is legal in all fifty states. :-)

Is Whole Foods really that bad?

No, I don't think Whole Foods is really that bad. I've actually asked someone that I know who works for them if their corporate policy is anti-family and she was adamant that it is not. Whole Foods is no more responsible for the attitudes of those who shop there than I am.

I have more questions that I'll get to tomorrow.