Do you Facebook?

I’ve had a Facebook account for a few weeks now so that I can stay in touch with my out-of-state brother and sister. It doesn’t have anything cool on it – not even a picture of myself.

To be totally honest, I haven’t added any pictures because I don’t really want anyone to recognize me and add me as a friend…

It’s not that I’m anti-social. A few years ago, I had a MySpace account, with which I was able to catch up with many of my long-lost acquaintances. Unfortunately, I soon grew weary of the limited way of communicating that seems to come with a MySpace account. I also got tired of the horrible advertisements that I had to look at whenever I went to sign in. Several other reasons all added up to my cancelling my account.

When I opened my FB account a few weeks ago, I didn’t go searching for people that I know. I didn’t want to get involved in the whole social networking thing again. I only have about 4 or 5 friends ((waves to them)). However, this past weekend, I somehow or another wound up surfing through my friends’ friends, friends, friends lists – you know how that goes if you have FB – and it seems like EVERYONE THAT I KNOW has a FaceBook account!

I found several people on there that I was never able to find on MySpace that I would love to take a peek at and see how they’re doing. 

The “problem” with Facebook is that you have to be listed as a friend of the person to view their profile and pictures. So, I can’t just be nosy and look at pictures of old high school friends, for example.

So, I’m in a quandry. Do I get all involved in Facebook like I did in MySpace? Is it worth it to spend all sorts of time adding pictures and information to my profile, adding people to my friends list, writing on their wall and exchanging trite little messages back and forth? I regret the amount of time that I spent wasted when I had a MySpace account, even though it was GREAT to catch up with a certain few people.

Or should I just let those people who have slipped through the cracks of time in my life well alone? (i.e., not be so nosy!)

What do you think? Do you have a Facebook account? Do you think it’s worth spending time on? Why or why not?

A name for the farm

For the past week or so, we’ve been trying to come up with a name for our farm. It’s not absolutely necessary to have a ‘farm name’, but I just like the idea of having a name for our place. In addition, since we are now members of the American Dairy Goat Association with our 2 registered goats, we’d like to have a name that we can attach to our own registered baby goats when we sell them.

We haven’t come up with anything that both Dan and I like yet. (This is reminiscent of picking out baby names!) So, now it’s time for you to help me out! We were thinking of a name that either describes the locale/geography of the property or our outlook on life.

Some things to consider for geography names are:

• Marsh Creek runs across the back of the property
• We have lots of spruce/pine trees
• Our property is adjacent to an old railroad line, converted into a bicycle trail
• Our house sits on a corner where there used to be a train stop – a little store sat on the southeast corner of the property
• We are planning to raise goats and chickens (mainly)
• Our house and all outbuildings are white with red (rust colored) shutters
• We live on Lakefield Rd
• We have apple trees, blueberry and blackberry bushes and a strawberry field
• Our property is very sandy

So come on, help me out! I promise not to laugh at any names that you send my way unless it’s as bad as this one Dan came up with -

“Annie’s Nannies”

Choosing a curriculum (help!)

Do I have any readers out there who homeschool? I would love to hear from you about any of the following topics:

• How did you go about choosing a curriculum?
• What curriculum does your family use?
• Why did you choose that curriculum?

So far this year, I have not used any set “curriculum” with Abigail. We’ve just been working on the basics of reading, handwriting and beginning math concepts on our own. But as I look ahead to next year, I’ve been overwhelmed at the many choices available for homeschoolers today. The methods alone are so varied:

…Classical education - the Trivium…Robinson curriculum…A Beka Book ‘Scope and Sequence’…Charlotte Mason method…Sonlight…various homeschool academies…and on and on…

Dan and I have a basic ‘philosophy’ for our children’s education, but when it comes to choosing specific books, I could really use some advice. You can get lost in the sea of different books and materials out there! It seems like it is all a bit complicated to me. How did people successfully teach their children for years and years without all the resources we have today?

I realize that homeschooling moms are very busy and probably don’t have much time for commenting on blogs, but if you have a second, please help me out! If you’ve written about this on your own blog, please leave me a link so I can come and visit!

Thanks in advance!