What Does She Use?

Home school curriculum offers so many options, it's completely overwhelming. Parents who don't have a home school philosophy before going to the convention will find their heads spinning! How to narrow down the choices?





When I started, we were broke. Anything I bought had to be for more than one child and for more than one year. OR, I had to at least be able to reuse the teacher manual. Here's a rough sketch of my criteria:





1. Must be God honoring and Christ centered
2. Must increase a love of learning
3. Must be academically excellent
4. Must be reusable
5. May I teach it to more than one child at the same time?



It's hard to find, say, a math program that would be Christ centered, but I at least found a Christian company! Three years ago, I met Steve Demme of Math-U-See in person, and he's such a great guy. I embarrassed myself by gushing all over him about how he saved my LIFE, and he wanted to put me on their next promotional video. I see him at the convention every year now and he's always so gracious to talk to me.



Later in this journey, I realized almost all the things I use have been written and personally used by home school families. I stayed away from the mega-textbook companies who had non-home school men in suits selling the books. They obviously don't know what it's like to teach at home, and their textbooks reflected that.


Over the years, I have used the SAME math program - Math-U-See. It has saved my life. Literally. (And I don't mean that in a literary sense.)


When I had to teach phonics, I used Alphabet Island Phonics. It was so thorough and wondeful! I miss not having to teach it. :-(


Ok, so what am I using NOW?


For my 6th grader:
Discovering Our Amazing God (Deeper Roots Publications, for Bible, geography, social studies, history)
Math-U-See - Zeta level
Easy Grammar 6
Phonics Zoo Spelling (she's almost done, so for a few weeks only)
The Institute for Excellence in Writing (I teach this in my home to other home schoolers)
KONOS for science
Around the World in 180 Days (Plus various maps from Geography Matters)

I used to use KONOS, a unit study, exclusively for every subject but math and phonics. Now that I have one in high school and one in grade school, I can no longer teach them all together as I used to. I am teaming up with BA and she likes a little more structure, plus I want her to be able to do more on her own at this age. Glenna, that is. Not BA.

For my 10th Grader:
Bible (KONOS History of the World I)
English III Honors (KONOS History of the World I)
Biology Honors (Apologia Biology, a creation science)
Geometry (Math-U-See, of course!)
Art Appreciation/History/Criticriticism (KONOS History of the World I)
History of the World I (Guess what it is? :-D )
Individual and Dual Sports (she's going to sign up for softball. We're excited!)
Personal Fitness (Uh. . . running around the neighborhood, learning about nutrition, making and following a personal fitness program. Yeah.)

OOOOH! And most exciting of all! She's taking an art class with KR, Phyllis's Mom. I've shamelessly begged this woman for about 4 years to teach an art class and she's finally agreed. I have to look up the course codes to see what credit to give Kelly for high school.



Most of my 10th grader's books have been passed down from her brother. Any of the KONOS stuff I received the first year of our home school (John bartered some work for it from the Florida rep) and I've not needed to buy that again. In fact, this year was the LEAST expensive year of home schooling for me, and that's with buying most of the 6th grade stuff new!



And there you have it.

We have quite the home school network here, so I'm so blessed. I have been able to place my children in classes with other home school students, so they have the benefit of accountability to other teachers, working as a team with other students, and class presentations. It's nice to be able to hand-pick people to teach your child!

Kelly has taken an English class with KR for four years. She took a science class with another woman last year, and will take biology with her this year. She also had an EXCELLENT teacher come to our home (with other kids) for Spanish, and then I chained her to the table to get her to do algebra with her as well.

Glenna participated in my English composition class last year and will this year. Hopefully, she'll be able to participate in the science classes when she's in high school. We've also done co-ops with other families every year but one.

See? Us home schoolers DO get out of the house. ;-)

Disciple or Pharisee?

This is the time of year when we home school moms go through the process of narrowing down our curriculum choices. What to use? What NOT to use? What could I live with/not live without? Trust me; marketers have discovered a goldmine here, but home school parents are usually on one income and oh, so savvy when it comes to letting go of those dollars. If you have what we want and need, we'll gladly plunk the money down. If you don't, you'll be sitting in your booth at the curriculum fair alone.

Through the years, I have seen trends come and go in the home school world. There's usually a buzz word which people latch on to, and they buy anything and everything with the buzz word on it. One year, it was "Character Based." Another year, it was "Classical Education," which was followed quickly by "Trivium," "Chronological History" and "Timelines." These last ones have actually disturbed me the most.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a strong supporter of "classical" education in the truest sense of the word, which is more along the lines of a Charlotte Mason educational method -- using whole books, lots of reading, great literature, lots of exploration of the world around our children, notebooking, narration, and dictation; real learning instead of a dumping of facts for rote memorization. Over the past few years, however, there has been a trend in "classical" education that is morphing into something else entirely. I couldn't exactly put my finger on why it was so disturbing, but the message in church on Sunday hit it on the head!

The "Classical" education today encourages knowledge for the sake of knowledge. There's a big push to learn "Socratic dialog" (*more on that later) and to teach history chronologically. The book lists, classic literature, and foreign language lists are impressive. In fact, the entire scope and sequence looks quite impressive! You'll definitely have one well-educated little tyke if you're able to follow it completely!

If we look in the Bible, who else was considered well-educated? In fact, who were considered to be the most educated of anyone, and they knew it?

That's right; the Pharisees.

The Pharisees were so puffed up with their own knowledge, it was almost impossible for anyone else to live with them. Jesus had so much to say to them (Matthew 23), and His words were not kind. Specifically, he used terms like hypocrites, blind guides, serpents, and brood of vipers when he spoke of them. Far from applauding their work in Matthew 23, over and over He said, "Woe to you"! He chastised them for working so hard and traveling on sea and land to make one convert, then that unfortunate convert became, "twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." (Matt. 23:15)

Except for one, that is.

John 3 introduces us to a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, who was actually wanting to know. He was afraid of what the other Pharisee leaders would say about him, so he came to Jesus under the cover of darkness. It's implied that what Jesus was doing must have been so wonderful and so disturbing to him, that he couldn't let it go. He had to have some answers! He understood that Jesus had to be from God, because no one could do the things Jesus had done unless he came from God (John 3:2).

During their conversation, Jesus rebuked him as he had all the Pharisees, but this time his rebuke was gentle. "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?" (John 3:10)

To paraphrase verses 5-12: You mean to tell me, Nicodemus, that you have studied and studied and yet you still don't get it? And you call yourself a teacher of all things godly? Dig deeper! All your studying is useless unless it leads you to a deeper understanding of God. But you can't understand God unless you have been born of the Spirit. Only the Spirit can open your eyes to spiritual things. Know this, and you will truly know everything.

Our pastor summed it up this way, "His vast education had not equipped him to understand the things of God."

I swore I'd never home school. I thought home schoolers were crazy and ruining their children. Yet, like Paul on the road to Damascus, my eyes were opened when I saw what I wanted most for my children, godly character, was the least of what they were getting each day. I saw the photo album of a home school mom here in Florida, and every subject they studied led them to an understanding of the character of God, whether that subject was historical, scientific, geographical, or anything at all. I actually gasped out loud! I went home and cried and cried, because I knew I would have to home school my children and I had spoken so harshly of it for so many years. It's so hard to die to self!

Simply put; knowledge that does not lead to a deeper understanding of God, or cannot be used to His glory, is useless knowledge. Dear home school Mom, on what are you spending your hard-earned dollars? On what are you spending the short season of time God has given you to train your [His] children? Are your goals for home schooling, truly, strictly academic?

I would consider the academics a bonus, and they will come if you trust God with your children and your school, because they can obviously be used for the glory of God. Their knowledge and understanding of God, however, can only come from you. You are the one God has appointed as teacher, no one else. You are the one responsible for the training and instruction of His children.

Psalm 90:12 - Teach us to number our days aright, that we might gain a heart of wisdom.

A "heart" of wisdom, not a "head" of knowledge.

1 Timothy 1:5 - But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

What is the goal of your instruction? Is it to have a disciple, or a Pharisee?


*In the book The Golden Age of Greece (sorry, I can't find author!) we find out what happened to Socrates and the ones who studied under him. These young men learned "Socratic dialog" so well, that they would argue for the sake of arguing. They would enter a "discussion" with their elders for the sole purpose of making them look stupid and feel foolish. When Socrates was executed, part of their accusations were, "You have turned the hearts of our young men against us!" This may not have been the intention of Socrates (I truly believe he wanted them to question until they understood), but this is definitely what happens with the "puffing up" of knowledge.

Paul, the disciple, was also a Pharisee. His "head" knowledge he considered as garbage compared to his "heart" knowledge. I Corinthians 2:2 he wrote, "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Also in verse 4, "and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." [Emphasis mine]

Why did he say this? Verse 5, "so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."

Amen.

Sample Pictures File and Home Schooling

Something tells me this surfer is in the Pacific. The two clues are:


1. He's wearing a wetsuit because the Pacific is COLD.
2. The wave is big enough to ride the curl. Atlantic waves are so small.


I found this by browsing through the sample pictures on my computer while looking for a certain picture to post (one I still haven't found, I might add). I think I'm missing California today, or rather missing that one carefree summer I had before marriage and moving to the desert. I'll bet a lot of people have this same photo in their sample pictures!


BA came over last night to go over our home school calendar for next year. I think she left completely overwhelmed, and she said repeatedly, "I feel so stupid." Ack! Not my intention! She forgets I've been doing this for 9 years, so I can "see" where things are going more easily. I can also relax, because I know learning will happen. I was convicted to home school, and I have seen that I can trust God with the education of my children when I am in obedience to His will. They have thrived and learned in spite of all my clumsy efforts, migraine days, and "let's ditch and head to the zoo" days.


Our first year of home school was the worst. At the end of the year, one of my kids was evaluated to be in the same place as when we started. To say I was discouraged is an understatement! I struggled and struggled with this child, read the experiences of other HS moms, then decided readiness was the issue. We backed off, read books together, did crafty-type things, and explored the world around us. The next year, this child was ready and everything began to click. The evaluation revealed a leap of two grades to land exactly in the right grade level! I learned so much from this experience, such as home school works to allow children to learn at their own pace, AND God is in control. I love when God is in control. Or, should I say, I love when I remember that God is in control!



Of course, home schooling does this to you:

Note the exhausted sag to the shoulders, the untidy kitchen, the upward roll of the left eye, the "I am not amused that you're taking my picture" glare I'm giving my hubby. Yes, this is what Himself comes home to.


Our children are worth it.

Kelly's PC Paper

I'm putting together the portfolios of my kids' work, due TODAY. I'm almost finished. I have a love/hate relationship with portfolios. I love to look back on all the work we accomplished, but I hate going through the piles of paper! One year, I did the portfolio work every Friday. I LOVED being current on them, and my kids HATED that I knew right away when they were ditching their work (only two of the three actually had anything to fear!). Tyler dubbed Friday, "The Day of Reckoning."

I came across this paper Kelly wrote and she gave me permission to post it here. The assignment was to turn a fairy tale into a politically correct fairy tale. She chose the Grasshopper and the Ant. I laugh every time I read it!

The Farmer and the Fiddler

by Kelly W.

Our story opens on a wide field of wheat bending beneath the wind, waiting to be harvested. An other-than handsome person named Mart was at one end of the field, laboring fiercely, harvesting. Down the road near where Mart was working went Jappedo, the fiddler. Jappedo loved to fiddle, and unfortunately that tended to block out the not quite large amount of genius in him. "Here we go again," mumbled Mart when he heard the merry tune approaching up the street. "Mart, my friend!" bellowed Jappedo. "Why must you work so when such a fine day has dawned?"

"Oh, Jappedo," Mart responded, "although I would find it narrow-minded and restricting to a person's free mind not to accept your view on working for food, I must suggest to you to do a bit of preparation for the cold days ahead as I myself do at this moment, instead of perhaps not using your time to the greatest advantage."

"HA HA!" laughed Jappedo. "Surely you must see me as dull! I shall survive by being joyful and fiddling the days away instead of cutting down innocent plant life as if they were soulless beings!" With that last remark, Jappedo continued to frolic down the road, fiddling all the while.

Three months later, as Mart ate a warm loaf of bread (with a smidgen of guilt from what Jappedo had said in the past about cutting down blameless plant life), he heard a gloomy song floating down the way. Following the mournful tune out the door, down his walkway, and along the path a ways, Mart met up with Jappedo and his fiddle by the road. Jappedo lowered his fiddle and admitted, "Perhaps I should prepare a bit ahead of winter, so I shan't perish from lack of food." Mart, who now felt terrible for destroying the lovely wheat plants, tossed down his bread and added, "Yes, and I must find a suitable diet that does not so impose on the beauty and pride of the magnificent nature of this earth." From that day forth, Mart and Jappedo opened up their minds to other views, and never again were they narrow-minded and intolerant.

:-D

The Scarlet Letter(S!!!)

I want to be well read. I do. I want my girls to be well read, too. (I think Tyler gave up reading when he picked up his drum sticks.)

So far this 2007, I've read Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Diary of Anne Frank. I read them for content before I pass them on to Kelly, and Glenna gets such classics as Carry On Mr. Bowditch, Farmer Boy, The Bronze Bow, and Strawberry Girl.

I'm about 20 pages into The Scarlet Letter and I've realized something; the man is babbling.

I kid you not!

He rambled on for at least three paragraphs about his friend's fond rememberances of delicious dinners. Three paragraphs! I have learned from past experience that just because something is labeled a classic in literature, I can't just hand it over to my daughter to read. I read through them, put little sticky tabs on the places she should avoid (and she does -- she trusts me), or I tell her to skip the book all together. But this book -- this book is driving me crazy with all the babbling! Yet, every reading list recommends it for high school.

It's not making my job easy.

Last Convention photos

Here are some last photos from the Home School convention. The girls had plenty of time to walk around while John and I were at the graduation meeting, then we had to wait until 7:00 for the graduation to start.

This is Steve Demme. For the last 9 years, we've been using the Math-U-See curriculum. Each week the girls watch Steve Demme on their math DVD, then do the lesson for the rest of the week. On the DVDs he has some hair! This guy is brilliant and saved my life by writing this math curriculum. Thanks, Steve! (I also worked in the booth next to him one year in Jacksonville. He's a hoot!)

Not to leave her out, I also had the girls stand with Sherri Seligson! Talk about brilliant! Sherri is a marine biologist who left her profession to become a stay at home and home school mom. As each of her children reached certain science levels, she invited other home school kids to join them. A couple of years ago she wrote the Marine Biology edition for Apologia Science curriculum!

Sherri is just one of the examples of how God provides for our children's education. Tyler studied Biology, Chemistry, Marine Biology, and Physics with this family. Kelly has taken Physical Science so far, is signed up for Biology next year, and will hopefully do Marine Biology the following year. Fortunately, Sherri also has a child Glenna's age!

Here we are in the lobby of the Rosen Shingle Creek hotel, waiting for graduation to start. My Mother-in-love had bought me this home school comic book as a present for graduating my firstborn. The comics were hysterical, but probably only to home school families. (Zach and Kaley read them and didn't even smile; Kaley isn't home schooled, and Zach either doesn't understand what his mother goes through or has no sense of humor.) ;-D

Here's Glenna with her Grandma! For all of you who know us, this is the woman that lived an entire year (to the day!) in a teepee with five kids and a large dog. She has fought more battles than I would ever care to! Now she's working for a company selling crypts, funeral plans, and viewing places for urns after cremation. Ask John for all the jokes; he's got a million of 'em about this. Mom calls them "plans and properties." Sorry you didn't meet her on Sunday, but we were all exhausted and stayed home from church.

Graduation!

Here are some comical attempts at trying to get pictures of Ty's FPEA Graduation experience.

All the boys were told to wait in this room. We're not sure if Ty's in here or not. The girls were in a different room.

Some Mom snuck in there. Let him go, Mom . . . . let him go. . . .

This was the "line" the Family was asked to stand in. The doors to the ceremony are actually to the right. We were surprised that no one in Orlando, the line capital of the world, knew how to use velvet ropes to make orderly lines for a crowd! Tyler's friends came! Jeremy has some problem with his tongue, as you'll see in later pictures.

Ok, we're safely inside and seated! This is as close as we could get to the grads walking down the center aisle. See the banner? Fortunately, they had a camera and huge screens showing the grads during the processional.

At this point, the camera became useless. Tyler was on the END, in the BACK, and not 50 feet from us, but we could not get ONE DECENT PICTURE of him! I had Zach and Stephen getting up from their seats (a big no-no according to the parent meeting), running up to an empty seat that was closer to Ty, trying to take his picture. As you can see above and below, all in vain.
Finally, we resorted to getting pictures AFTER the graduation. You can tell by our expressions that we're extremely tired and hungry at this point! It's 10:30, we haven't had dinner, and we're not sure where we're eating yet. We still need to catch the shuttle bus back to our cars!

There's Jeremy's tongue problem again.

All in all, it was an experience. He seemed pretty happy about the whole graduating thing!

I love how Glenna's peeking around her brother on this one. She was/is SO proud of him! She beamed the whole evening.

Home School Convention

Well! Another home school convention is under my belt! As predicted (and hoped!) I have come away renewed, recharged, and convicted. I AM doing this because I feel God has called me to home school my children. He WILL NOT expect me to do it without His help!

One of the major "jewels" I came away with (and the strongest conviction) was that I have lost sight of my original goals for home schooling. I brought my children home to school because I wanted to start our day with the Lord and point them to Him all day. I wanted them to love learning. I wanted them to receive an excellent, one on one education.

We've had some great experiences over the years, but the minute I joined an umbrella school for record keeping, it was no longer about learning but about GRADES. Granted, high schoolers need grades, but Kelly and Glenna certainly didn't! I became the Mom who ranted, "Finish the book! Finish the book!" instead of taking the time to LEARN the material. This is so hard to admit!

Since Glenna will only be in 6th grade, I can still get away with not giving letter grades to her. She will get a "P" for Pass or a "N" for Needs Improvement. That's it.

Kelly will still have to get letter grades, but it will rightfully be on the work she has accomplished, NOT the work I have planned by the minute and maybe she didn't get to!

The students in my class, however, will get letter grades. ;-) Or maybe they won't, if they're not in high school! High schoolers will get the worst of me when they don't turn in assignments on time. [heh heh]

Coming soon: blurry pictures of Ty's FPEA graduation ceremony!

A Two-fer

I know I already posted one blog today, but here's another.

We are finishing our 9th year of home school this month! Ty wants to move on, and here he has THREE celebrations of his graduation. One for our church seniors, one for State Home School graduates, and one for our umbrella school. Man! I wish we had all just taken the month off. He seriously is only going through with everything for me. Nice kid.

At the end of each year, I take a few minutes to ponder the "regrets" of things I didn't get to, the celebration of our accomplishments, and the resolution to "do things differently" next year! My sincere hope is that our school room will be finished by the time school starts next year, so there will be less mess in our home and I'll have everything in one place.

*[School room update: the part needed for the nail gun finally came in the mail, and John's putting it in right now!]

I'll miss Tyler, but I certainly won't miss having to home school him. We would get along so GREAT during the summer, then struggle the rest of the year. This year was our best year yet with his efforts and attitude, for which I am so grateful.

I hope to focus more on Glenna. Kelly's such a great self-starter and I never have to worry about her finishing school, while my sweet Glenna is the one I have to constantly pull out of the tree or dirt and call her back to task. We had one glorious semester where she would do all her school FIRST, then spend the rest of the day being a kid. I loved that! This year, teaching the English classes here was a new experience. I'll know more of what to expect.

The home school convention is next weekend (along with Ty's graduation ceremony). I look forward to the encouragement and recharging I get each time I go! I love getting the things I need for next year (without paying shipping!) and talking to other home school families. I'm reminded again and again WHY we made this most difficult choice to bring our kids home and teach them ourselves. It's the hardest thing I've ever done; it's the best thing I've ever done.

Stuff

Hooray! I'm getting some cleaning and laundry done today!

Yesterday was the first band practice for VBS. It went well, as far as first practices go. Beth Anne says they always sound horrible and then sound great at VBS time. True.

I got a little frustrated with the guys. I'm trying to talk and they're playing guitars. I'm trying to get them to listen to music and they're talking to each other. I finally got after them (I don't need to listen to the songs, THEY do! I already know them!) and they were better.

I appreciated Tyler so much! He kept the guys in line for me and kept things moving. He even offered me some comic relief that only I saw, which I'll treasure! I just feel the music this year is of the quality that we really could make it outstanding if they put effort into it. I pray they go home and listen and practice. We'll see. I'm so excited to have Kelly and Aleah helping with vocals! They're really listening to their parts and working to figure it out.

Graduation stuff: Really ready to ditch it all. It's not so bad, but I don't want to forget anything and let people down. I hate that more than anything. I feel like I'm spinning dishes on poles, or trying to keep six volleyballs underwater at once. I know something's going to get away from me and I'll have to chase it down. I can't wait to see my Dad and his wife, and I'm so looking forward to John's Mom being here!

Three Blogs in One

Who has time to read a long blog? While busy with the tasks of the mundane, my mind is free to ponder. I've three separate subjects and numbered them, so you come back and read them at your leisure.

1. Concert
Ty's band, Evangelin, practices here. Usually Wednesdays ends up with the girls and me locked in a room somewhere. It's a great time to do some spring cleaning! I'm glad they practice here because I love to hear what they're working on, and sometimes I get to feed them snacks or make them dinner. I love it.

However, I don't always get to go to their concerts! Largely, this is because it's not cool to have "band parents" around. Actually, the band Dad is cooler to have than a band Mom. I can respect that.

Imagine my momentary pleasure when Tyler informed me I was personally invited to their concert on April 30th.
"I am?" I gushed.
"Yeah!" grinned Ty.
"Wait a minute. . . isn't that the benefit concert for the Mexico short-term missions.?"
"Yeah!" grinned Ty, even more broadly.

Sigh. I'll take what I can get.

2. Overloaded
This year I definitely took on too much. It nearly killed me (not literally, but it sure felt like it).

3 English classes - this was for added income, but was basically a part time job when you include the grading of papers and preparation.

A US History class (see above, just not for income).

A Weekly Bible study. I didn't have to prepare to teach it, but I did have to do daily homework.

AWANA - I specifically said I couldn't play the director role this year, but no director stepped up. I did the planning and teaching as much as I could, but I know I wasn't able to give it 100% this year. Coaching the Bible Bowl team was especially a killer! HOWEVER; I love JV so much. It's such a pivotal age in a person's life when they're trying to discover who they are and who they're going to become. This is where they test the boundaries and see if lightning WILL strike them the instant they sin, and when it doesn't, they don't think about the consequences down the road.

Homeschooling my three - Glenna had the least of my attention this year. God have mercy on her education! I'm so thankful Tyler's graduating so I don't have to fight with him about school anymore.

SAHM - For those of you who don't know the term, it's Stay At Home Mom, Cooking, cleaning, laundry, driving kids around, etc. You can tell when we've had a GOOD SAHM day OR a good school day! Rarely am I able to do both!

Sunday school teaching - one quarter only, but it added to it.

VBS -- it's coming! I don't have time to prepare! Arrrggghhh!!!!

I was chatting with my pastor last night and without going into the details, I confessed I took on too much this year. He asked me what I was going to cut back on NEXT year . . .

Lord help me, I honestly do not know.

3. Mugs
At last year's women's retreat, I had an interesting conversation with Debbie B. about mugs. I'll try to shorten it as much as possible, but basically she likes all of her mugs to match. She says no one really likes the gift mug from Uncle Edward; it just kind of gets pushed to the back of the cupboard and is ignored.

I have mugs that match for formal occasions, but I like mugs that DON'T match for every day. I asked Debbie how everyone keeps track of their mugs throughout the day if they all look the same? Her simple and amusing answer was, "Mine has a chip in it."

Ha!

Still, there's something to be said for ditching the ugly mugs. We all have them. Most of the time, the kids love them and keep using them while the mom hates them and wants to toss them.

How do I keep individual mugs while still adding beauty to our home?

I came upon the brilliant solution of getting different mugs, but making sure they have a similar THEME. I love red, so I thought if I had mugs that had some sort of red to them we could all keep track of our mugs and yet still have some uniformity. I wouldn't mind a black or white mug, either, since those go well with red! Ta-Dah!

I present this idea to John and Kelly. The response?

John - Whatever. I'm keeping the mug that reads "DAD" all over it.
Kelly - I want the mug with the pigs! I know it's kind of lavender, but I love that mug. I want that mug when you guys die. It will be part of my inheritance.

I haven't even talked to Glenna about tossing her Winnie the Pooh mug, plastic, with the handle completely broken off.

I did, however, throw out a mug I myself had purchased from Lakeshore learning. At least, it's sorta thrown out. it's sitting on the counter, WAITING to be thrown out.