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saintanneshs
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| Posted: Feb 08 2006 at 10:52pm | IP Logged
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Would anyone care to share how a subject (any subject) or lesson time is spent in one day in your CM homeschool?  I've read lots of the archives and they've been SOOO helpful, but I'm looking for specifics here, like whether you have a self-written or already-formatted lesson plan for today's math, which living books you read to go with the lesson, what you did after reading the books (were the books themselves the lesson or was there more?), etc. When did you stop the lesson (after how long)? Did you set a timer or look at a clock so you could move on to someone or something else or did you let your child stay with the "idea" until they'd had enough? I know it sounds like a lot, but I'm trying to get an idea of how everyone else who loves the CM method implements it during "lesson time"...maybe this will help me relax about trying to keep up with invisible students!!
Also, I'm just curious, is there anyone here who used to teach in public or private schools and feels like their training to become a teacher is interfering with the CM method? I need some suggestions! 
Back in December I had an epiphany about the contradiction between our much-desired teaching method for our homeschool (CM) and the ways I was trying to run our lesson time (not at all CM, but very much what I did in PS), so I pitched the accursed lesson plans and just wrote down the events of our day, journal style. I realized the great educational value in our everyday doings and decided to take January off from homeschooling just to give myself the space and time to leave the old habits behind and maybe start up again in February with a new perspective and new ways to better follow the CM method. I thought it was a good idea, but I must confess, lately I feel like I am still "recovering" from my past teaching experiences (pretty-much still spoon-feeding at its worst...) I've re-written my lesson plan format at least 5 times since September and no matter how much spoon-feeding I trim out, I just can't get beyond the whole "what if..." of letting go of the way and the amount of stuff I used to be responsible for "teaching." I long to do all of the fun stuff with my own children that I always dreamed of doing with my PS students, but there never seems to be enough time. I want to stick to 10 to 15 minute phonics & math lessons (leaving time for lots of whole books, messy science experiments, nature study, art & music, etc) but everything always takes so long! I know part of it has to do with 4 kids really close in age, but what I want to know is why it's taking me so long to find my groove with this. I can't believe I ever thought that teaching in PS would make homeschooling EASIER for me. If anything, it's harder knowing what the PS kids are doing and letting go of that fear of my own kids not keeping up with them (for now) because I'm not spoon-feeding, but giving them time to be educated by their intimacies. And what about end-of-the-year tests? If I'm not structuring a math lesson and assessing regularly, how will I know if my child will pass? This is where CM gets me...I need a crash course in the how-tos of day-to-day CM! I think I get the overall picture but I'm having a terrible time trusting in the details because I feel like they are so fuzzy. Maybe it's my own education that beat the self-trust and instinct out of me, to the point where now, as an adult, I can't figure out what to do unless someone is giving me directions! 
It's so scary to let go of what you know "works" for something that might work even better in the long run if you can just have a little faith and trust. Lots of prayers for guidance going on here...
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Kristine
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ALmom
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| Posted: Feb 09 2006 at 2:11am | IP Logged
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Is your oldest chick 6th grade or 6 years?
With my 6 yo, I do nothing planned most of the time other than a pile of books we read aloud and talk about.
Occassionally I pull out CHC and we go over one letter per time (practice writing it and saying its sound) and we may do some math. I get to this as he wants it.
I am consciously trying not to do too much close work right now because of eye things.
He basically butts in whenever he wants to join brothers in a science experiment, project or trek through the woods.
Whatever we do in the course of a day - liturgical celebrations, crafts, etc., he of course is a part or is welcome to join in. I do have the CHC religion plans and we do some of this but not on a daily basis. I am not worried.
In the classroom, the assumption is that most people will forget everything anyways so you repeat it over and over until it sticks. We figure we are going much more slowly, but when we learn something, we really learn it so my dc don't need quite as much repetition (actually too much repetition will bore them).
In this layed back way - I am finding out what dc already knows - quite a few of the letter sounds, some basic addition and subtraction, basic familiarity with old testament and life of Christ, his basic prayers. He doesn't write much but we work a tiny bit on that (maybe once per month - maybe we should do it more often and if it weren't for the fact that he suppresses and is far-sighted, maybe I would be tempted).
I don't have the foggiest idea where he picked up most of this. However, I suspect it is just from life. After all he sets the table (one to one correspondence), bakes with 8 yo brother (plenty of measurement and addition), tries to make swords and shields (again plenty of measurement and probably a bit of addition and subtraction). We pray morning prayers, blessings at meals, Mass, rosary, talk about the Saints, make variuos posters, play plenty of games with dice. He wants to purchase some lego stuff and he and his brothers calculate how much more they need to save before they can get it. They even have some exposure to percentages as our state has an 8% sales tax on everything. In addition to the sheer accidental academics, he is also developing eye-hand coordination by walking on the curb/wall, playing ball, climbing,etc. IE - the normal developmental path is gross motor first, then fine motor. He wants to take violin, so we are pursuing that.
I have more trouble being relaxed after 4th grade. And you'd think that after so many dc and seeing them make huge leaps suddenly in one year, I'd figure things out.
My 8 yo is doing CHC plans mostly - but again I don't worry too much about the schedule. He is done with these in very short order and then pursues what he wants - mostly science. We just ordered some math for him but right now Math is mostly Math Blaster and Math Facts Now on the computer interspersed with some games. I have lots of books and we read aloud even though this dc taught himself everything while I was so busy working with dd 14 who had serious vision problems at the time. He was my teacher - and very humbling it was to see how unimportant I was in one sense. Now it is very hard to follow any curriculum because - well he just cannot be put into any one grade.
My 11 yo, 14 yo and high schooler look more traditional from the outside. We have traditional looking plans but try to keep the quantity where they are finished in time to freely explore areas of interest. I modify extensively in consultation with dc and others. I try to focus on one goal - pick one area of weakness to concentrate on per child per year and try to relax more about the rest.
My goal with the 11 yo was to get him to write ANYTHING. He has spent the entire year working on a story about the Vikings, revising it, correcting spelling, etc. I never imagined the child would write so much - so I haven't stressed on any other writing program this year. We dropped the Lingua Mater and Stories with A View we were planning. I also have let him do the projects in the CHC comprehension workbook that involve copying a prayer/quote relevent to the story and memorizing it as opposed to the writing assignments I initially thought would inspire him. He has a grammar workbook which he does and we discuss, but I don't worry about where we are in it - just go at his pace. I already mentioned the Comprehension type book and other than the above, we use it for dictionary skills, and to get him to answer questions in complete sentences (remembering to start with a capital letter and end with punctuation). The stories are interesting and not terribly time consuming and he doesn't seem to mind. But at the height of his writing his rough draft for the Viking story, we skipped this. We also skip it if he is really digging into a long history related read. Science has been our downfall with our older dc, so I decided that reading a text and answering some questions was better than nothing and would at least make him familiar with science vocabulary. We are using Kolbe's new text and are pleased - he actually enjoys this except answering the questions. Sometimes he does experiments of interest with his 8 yo brother instead and once a month we do science club instead of the text. The text does have some fun activities in it like making paper, examining an owls pellet, etc. so we do that. I have from Sea to Shining Sea for history which he reads - and enjoys with pauses to add in books. Since he is a history fan and doesn't seem to have any trouble here, I only occassionally spot check to see what he is up to. He is always telling us something new he has found out. I very, very rarely ask anything from the quiz materials or test materials. Then I strew all kinds of books about the house. He does a math text - and I haven't been great at living books here but I do try to set what I think is a reasonable limit for the age - usually 30 min or less for the 5th grader - but we adjust if I think "formal" stuff should just be done or if he is just having a great time with it. Hoping to do better with living books. But he does use dad's tools for making things out of wood. And he did some research on what was needed for a pilots license - saving up money for when he is 14. He suddenly got very interested in math and science.
I don't plan projects but try to have plenty of supplies so that if they want to do something, they are able. They usually entice each other. Currently they are working on armor (that they can wear) in the various styles from the middle ages, a colored page sample of each (using stencils of some sort that I didn't even know we had) and his older sis has gotten him into a book she read and liked (Bethlehem Book historical fiction). They also had a medieval supper the night that I was away with oldest - I saw the set table and the bowl for washing and no forks. They build castles out of legos and have mock battles and jousting tournaments and tease the high schooler about being the queen of love and beauty. I have nothing to do with any of this - it is all self-directed. But I never dreamed it would happen, and wondered why all these other families seemed to do such neat things and we never did - and then suddenly, something that dd 14 was reading set her off and they've been coming up with neat stuff ever since.
I'm not a great CM - I don't quite know what I am actually. Sometimes I think we are just trying to strike the right balance so that school doesn't take over our life and so that we don't just get lazy and accomplish nothing. I was not a teacher - although I did go through the secondary education curriculum with the idea of teaching Math and History. I'm a good math tutor, have definite opinions about history but cannot control a classroom - couldn't focus on more than one thing at a time. I just never could get teaching a group. I survived student teaching with the idea that this was not my calling. I read tons of philosophies of education (nothing CM  ) in college and seemed drawn most to Montissori of all the philosophies we read. Of course some of them were pretty bizarre. I don't know if this has done much for or against me in homeschooling. I think my biggest drawback is that I was educated in the traditional manner and liked school and reading and all that stuff. I always said I would have made a grand professional student. I am not very daring - so I like things to be familiar and comfortable. I am 100% non crafty and non artistic so when it comes to creativity - that all has to come from within the dc. I'm getting better now that my dc are leading in this regards - but it still wouldn't happen without them.
With all the dc, they take frequent breaks throughout the day at their own chosing. I generally don't interfere with this unless something is way out of wack - like dc needing to take a break.
You can laugh - for my oldest 3, I do have detailed lesson plans done for the whole year. The dc check off what they do. We regroup about 2 - 3 weeks into the year and make major adjustments as we find out what works and doesn't. We totally revamped 14 yo history - she suggested what we finally settled on and it is working well. I insisted that she do the science workbook - rather dull and un CMish but nothing I could find better and for me science wasn't going to happen any other way. After diligently working on it for 3 weeks, she has actually started to like it. However, we are going at a totally different pace than lined up. Over Dec., I totally re-wrote lesson plans - mostly so that dc and I wouldn't feel behind. Now, we are ready to re-write again (only in Dec. I was smarter and just wrote to some natural stopping points - so I have a lot of blank pages with dates on them. Dc write on the plans anything they do in subject areas that is of their own. In a crazy sort of way it works for us. Maybe it is my weaning process - as the plans make me feel better, even if we are never "on track" and we substitute freely throughout the year. Some of it is that with 6 dc, I don't get to every dc on a daily basis and the dc don't end up with days of nothing from lack of inspiration or direction. I do try to stay in general awareness of how long things are taking (if it is too long then something is wrong unless they have found a tangent that they cannot stop talking about), general demeanor (you begin to learn to read the signs - one dc goes AWOL, another breaks into tears at the drop of a hat, and another gets generally crabby and disagreeable - these are my signs that maybe stress is too high, or the plan is not well-suited to the dc in some area and I make a point of meeting with dc for some heart to heart discussion of what is going on. They really are very honest with me. Sometimes they just need a reminder to seek my help when they are stumped, sometimes we need to slow down for a while and sometimes something really needs ditching. We also may just need a break - and do a week of outdoors and reading to get back to equilibrium. We always have read alouds and great, living books. My dc pick these naturally so I don't ever feel a need to assign them - just guard their time so they do have the time to read.
I know I am not completely CM (maybe not even close)- so this may not answer your question very well - except to let you see inside the household of someone else who is gradually being weaned by dc. Also our school looks different every year.
Janet
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Feb 09 2006 at 10:26am | IP Logged
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I think the very best example of lesson planning CM style is Julie Bogart's Bravewiter Lifestyle. Check out her website and if you like what you see, sign up for the daily email reminders. It is a wonderful way to homeschool and has been an inspiration to our family. Now, I don't do everything exactly as she has it laid out, but just seeing her examples of how wonderfully simple school CAN be, gives me inspiration to adapt the methods to our particular needs.
That being said, here is how I fill our days:
We sort of have theme days
Monday is "Mostly Math" day, where we do first some Jacobs "Mathematics a Human Endeavor." We just do whatever is next in the book and we work at whatever pace ds sets. At lunch we do some reading from our current Read-aloud "The Man Who Counted. That right there often sends us off on rabbit trails for the rest of the day. If not, then we go on to "G is for Googol" and see what nifty ideas we can get from that. Then we finish off the day with some Marcy Cook math games.
Tuesday is Lotsa Language Arts day. We start off with ds typing away at a "novel" he is working on-his own idea. Usually I will have read his previos week's work and have some gentle suggestions for narrowing or expanding his ideas. Mostly it is just him writing for the pleasure of it. Then we read about our saint of the week and do some copywork of a prayer to or quote from that saint. Ds like to illustrate them and put into notebook. At lunch we do tuesday tea and read poetry that each of us has chosen. The rest of the day is spent engrossed in whatever novel ds chooses.
Wednesday is "What in the World? History" day. We do history based on whatever theme we are working on. Currently it is World Archtecture. I usually have a book or website (or both) ready for ds to read and do an activity. Yesterday ds read up on Greek architecture and then I asked him to design his own temple using the architectural elements he learned about. It turned out great. After lunch we did some more Jacobs math. The afternoon was spent watching a DVD on Ancient Greece where I had him call out the different types of columns as he saw them; "Doric! Ionic! Corinthian!"
Anyway, I could go on with the rest of our week (thursday is "Mad Science" and Friday is "Fun Friday" (arts and crafts and freewrite), but I think this gives you a good idea of how we do things here.
Of course, if we really get going on a topic, like we did with our Pirates unit, all planning goes out the window and we just go with it. 
I used to be a teacher at both public and private schools and YES it does get in the way alot. I must constantly guard against slipping back into that mode. Ds is usually very helpful in that regard as I can see the look on his face when I try anything public schoolish! 
BTW: dd age 4 likes to join in when she can. Lots of read-alouds and lots of coloring, looking at the pictures in the books ds is reading. Stuff like that.And we count everything!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: Feb 09 2006 at 2:15pm | IP Logged
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Thank you, Janet, for such a detailed look into how you homeschool! My oldest chick is 6yo and we don't really fit a "grade" either. He finished up what I would consider "kindergarten" level work and moved into 1st grade-level work last October, even though he'd only be starting the 2nd half of kindergarten in public school right now. I'm never quite sure what to say to friends (who know I used to teach) when they ask me what grade my son is in...I just look at them and think, well, do I tell them "K" since that's his appropriate age, or do I tell them "1" and have them think I'm bragging? Both answers would be misleading...So I usually just try to change the subject, especially since I've been getting the competitive vibe from ds4 who wants to be right there with big brother and when it comes to math, often is. Oh well! (I remeber reading about this very thing in one of the older threads.)
I admire your sense of balance and trust in yourself and your kids and in your insticts for knowing when something isn't working. I think your perspective will help me relax (just knowing that even with a large family, it is possible to learn to trust myself and my instincts when it comes to how we homeschool)! Thank you so much for sharing!
Theresa,
I think it's amazing how much I am drawn to the sort-of subject-based days (my fumbled attempt to label the way you described your homeschooling week ). We have "Fun Friday" here too, which includes freewrie time and all the little things we love but cannot ever seem to find time for Mon-Thurs. I've checked out Bravewriter and I like it's style. I see that you have lesson time 5 days a week. Right now I'm trying to keep it to 4, with 1 day for mass and the library and a playdate every now and then with friends (all in the morning) and creative play or nature walks in the afternoon. Maybe that's why I feel like I can't get anything finished the other 4 days since I'm trying to limit my official "lesson days" to 4 days/wk. A few more questions...
Have you found it to be less stressful spreading the lessons/subjects out over 5 days rather than 4?
Do you write out your lesson plans or just keep a running list of the ideas and activities that come from it? (In other words, how loose or tight is your curriculum spine?)
And...do you ever worry about end-of-year testing, esp. since you know what the tests are looking for on a short-term basis?
Thank you so much for sharing!!
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Kristine
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: Feb 09 2006 at 2:54pm | IP Logged
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We have always spread school out over 5 days, however, we consider board games, field trips, nature outings, etc to be all part of "school." And I have never worried much about "what grade" the kids are in and how they compare to ps kids (except to make sure that I'm not completely leaving out a subject I should be covering), because we don't get tested here. I do try to maintain grade level in math, but everything else is so subjective, that it's really hard to compare anyway.
Kristine, your children are so young that I wouldn't worry at all about curriculum or lesson plans. When my older two were in k-2nd, I didn't have toddlers around, so we weren't pulled in as many directions, but really, all we tried to cover was lots of reading and basic math, language arts and phonics. We went to Daily Mass, prayed the Rosary and saw some friends almost every day. That was it. No stress, no plans, no workbooks except those purchased at Sam's and Walmart. In hindsight, I wish I had known about Five in a Row, because I think it could have provided some great enrichment opportunities, but it would have been low key and low stress. I could give you a "sample day" or "sample science lesson" but I don't think this would be helpful as I'm dealing with a 10 and 11 yo now. My 4 and 3 yos have workbooks, coloring books, and color wonder books that they "work in" most days. This is very low key and involves coloring for 3yo and tracing and coloring for 4yo. We talk about letters and the sounds they make too.
I was never a ps teacher and never took any education classes. Don't know if this has affected my attitude or not. 
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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ALmom
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| Posted: Feb 09 2006 at 4:33pm | IP Logged
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We don't have mandatory testing in our state and our state does not require any record keeping until dc turn 7 before the start of the school year. I take advantage of that and do not even test dc until upper middle school. I also do not lesson plan or sweat anything until I must have a record for the state.
When I only had 6 yo and under, we just had fun. We went to the grocery store together, to the library, had letter magnents on the fridge, read lots and lots of books (many of them over and over again). When dc started trying to write her letters and was officially school age here (for this dc it was 8), we did a fun phonics/writing program and played a bunch of games in the Math Their Way book (dd fondly remembers getting to eat all those marshmellows)and we read a lot. I wish I had had access to more lists of picture books for her (especially historical/biographies). We took lots of walks and just followed whatever tangents dd went off on. One time it was dinasaurs and later it was all these saints and biographies from the 1800 -1900. I remember dd making the observation that everyone seemed to die of TB - and then we had to find out more about TB.
We have always identified our dc as in the grade that they would be in public school. It makes it easier to answer questions - although sometimes my dc look at me when asked the question  . My dc don't know what it means anyways and I give them the level of work that is appropriate for them - whether it is a 1st grade book or a high school book. I figured that by calling them according to their age, I'd not have as much pressure on me and we could do what we wanted. My state doesn't look at anything but attendence anyways.
Janet
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Rachel May
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| Posted: Feb 09 2006 at 8:14pm | IP Logged
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Kristine,
I'm starting to see more that what the state requires and how we deal with that can have a big influence on how we school as well as our previous training. I was never a public or private school teacher, but I was a frustrated student which I think influences curriculum choices. For example, the creativity and holistic approach of CM appeals to me since those were things lacking when I was little. No inspiriation, lots of workbooks were the rule of my schools, I believe.
Now I pick the things I think will be most fun, make the most mental links, and still cover what the state requires. The state is the bane of my teaching existence.
So for now we do about an hour or hour and a half of formal schooling per day, about half of that is at the table for math or phonics/penmanship. The other parts are memorization, religion, piano, and those happen 4 days a week. The rest I try to do cuddled on the couch, and through the inspiration from the posts here, I've started doing a better job rabbit trail blazing. So this month is Black History Month and the memory work, reading practice, read alouds, art/crafts, history, PE, music, narrations, well, I guess about everything is themed on that.
At the end of the day, I write what we did in which subjects in a little spreadsheet I have so I can show the school district what we've done. Occasionally I'll journal about something really good. We do 2 portfolio reviews a year here, so that's what my record keeping and mental toting are geared toward. This week I freaked out and thought, "How do I teach PE?!!!!" Then we read some books on Jesse Owens and went running.
BTW, our kids are nearly the same ages.
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Feb 09 2006 at 9:11pm | IP Logged
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Well... It sounds as if we have 5 days a week of school, but honestly we do end up with days where we just say, "bag it, lets go ride the horses," or "lets just read in bed." I call those our "sanity days" 
I do find it easier to plan on 5 days because if we do need to take a sanity day, or morning, or whatever, we don't miss as much. We used to school only 4 days and it seemed like if we missed a day it was alot to miss. The 5 day plan actually allows us to be more flexible, in a way.
I don't do lesson plans. What I do is have a general focus for the year. This year it was two-fold: to regain the love of writing and math that were killed by his public school days. As long as I keep that focus in mind, then I am doing well, and everything else is gravy. And if there is one area where my public school days come in handy, it is that I am VERY familiar with national standards in many subjects and grade levels. I KNOW that my son is way, way ahead of his peers in most areas and at least grade level in others. That gives me the luxury of not having to worry about testing, etc. Now, I have to say that even though we live temporarily in NC, I am lucky to be a legal resident of a very homeschool-friendly state(Alaska) so I don't have to do testing or portfolios or even report to the state at all. Nice, eh?
Now all that being said, I do usually have a check-off list in the morning for ds to do, based on what he has expressed an interest in. Some are more elaborate than others.
Here was yesterday's:
Go to website X and read about Greek Architecture. Pay attention to the following words: Pediment, column, capitol, architrave, triglyphs, metopes, frieze.
Click on the page "Doric order" and read it.
Click on "Ionic order" and read it.
Click on "Corinthian order" and read it.
Go back to main page and click on "Parthenon" and read about this building.
Now get some white paper and design your own temple to one of the Greek dieties. Make it have at least 3 columns, one of each style. Also include and label all of the architectural elements you learned about.
Add your picture to your notebook.
Read about Athena in D'Aulaires Greek Myths.
Now, this was done pretty independantly and finished by lunch (except the reading). Then we had fun writing in Greek and watching our video. Ds also decided to add to his picture a couple of poems from his book "Modern Rhymes for Ancient Times." I thought it was a nice touch, and can't believe he voluntarily did copywork!
Other days our plans are much less detailed.
Hope that helps. And keep in mind, the ds I speak of is 10 years old, so I wouldn't do nearly as much with a 6yo.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Feb 10 2006 at 7:31am | IP Logged
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Theresa, can I come over and hs with your ds?
Your days sound so fun!
I've got to ask, do you spend hours each week planning things like finding the right web sites and places to click so that ds can have a wonderful hs day?
Also, if I may ask, how many activities are you involved in, outside of the house?
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Feb 10 2006 at 9:16am | IP Logged
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Tea,
Thanks! We do have alot of fun. If it ever gets "not fun" we drop it and try something else.
I usually spend time in the evenings after dc go to bed planning specifics for the next day, like which websites or books ds will read, and how to include dd(4). Google searches are pretty efficient, so it doesn't take long. Usually I already have an idea what I'm looking for based on interests of ds and what we have done during the day.
I also spent alot of time this past summer reviewing websites and adding them to my favorites, organized into categories by subject. I have about a hundred of them ready to use.I also bought a ton of books on many subjects that ds and I discussed he would like to learn about.
Then I just jot down a checklist for ds on a pad of scratch paper and hand it to him in the morning. We go over it together to make sure he understands.
As far as outside the home, we are pretty much homebodies. We do alot with our horses and they take up most of our spare time. It is a lifestyle we enjoy. Ds does karate and has a buddy he visits on wednesday afternoons, and dd(16) does Jazz band and biology club at her public school.There are, sadly, no other Catholic homeschoolers in our area, so we don't have a group since we moved here. I watch my 2 grandsons 3 days a week. We go to Mass. No real outside the house activities for me, other than our horses.Unles you count grocery shopping!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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saintanneshs
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Thanks everyone, for sharing your lessons and other day-in-the-life home school type of stuff. It sounds great to not have to keep records or worry about tests for those of you who live in very relaxed states. Remind me to never move to Maryland ! To be honest though, I'm such a type-A, overly-organized girl that most of my record keeping is self-imposed because nothing scares me more than being at fault for something and not knowing where I got off track. And besides, that's what I was trained to do through the PS system, which is very big on record keeping as you all know. I know I need to relax about things but sometimes it's so hard for me to get a grip on WHAT to relax about 1st that I just want to burn all the lesson plans and curriculum guides and just do what feels natural for a year...but then the worry about end-of-year tests gets to me and I decide it might be better to just ask for advice and trim whatever I think is most problematic, 1 thing at a time. Armed with new ideas, I think I'll get started.
Thanks ladies for sharing...just being in the company of other CMers raises my confidence level.
__________________
Kristine
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Care to share details of a "lesson" ??
