Wow, you go, girl! Now I understand your email asking about the notebook. I am totally a SKIMMER compared to you!

I would challenge your thoughts on how homeschooling has diminished you or held you back. You might be surprised how homeschooling has developed you professionally. It might make you an awesome tutor or fee-based co-op teacher. It might make you a great substitute teacher. It might make you a fabulous nanny. Etc. If I were you, I would start planning my post-homeschooling career. What have you always wanted to do but had to put aside to homeschool? What steps could you take toward making that a reality? I, for one, have decided that I am basically ruined for the classroom but LOVE tutoring. So I take on a student or two, which is all I can handle if I am still homeschooling, just to "keep my hand in." After my children are grown, though, I can see taking that as a serious career path. Or I might go back to school for a graduate degree, which I have always wanted to do. Or I could go back to technical writing, which I enjoyed. Or I could revive my deaf interpreting skills. I could go on and on . . . Plotting what you will do after homeschooling, and taking small steps toward that, could lift your spirits a lot. I also agree with the posts about getting in shape physically, and working on your hair and clothing to update them. What about subscribing to some meaty magazines like The Economist to get your brain working? P.S. I am 43.

Audiobook in the car is a great parenting secret weapon.

Pro. Not because I will need the extra power but because I have to have a DVD drive. I'm still ticked that they have discontinued the low-end MacBook line. This is what I have now, and I would buy it again. But mine is aging and will need to be replaced in the not-too-distant future.

1. Yes, it should be fine to get different opinions. 2. Bummer that the one giving the 3D scan doesn't take your insurance. 3. No way do I believe that the ortho would know everything by simply looking in the child's mouth. I wouldn't touch this one with a 10-ft pole.

No. Stinkin. Way.

We did three such consults. An x-ray was taken for each consult and seemed standard. We were very open and told them that we were getting three opinions before making a decision. They seemed fine with that. It was very educational to see the different approaches.

I would like to provide perhaps a different take on this situation. I definitely agree with the others that spending lots of time screening the world through electronics is feeding the problem. I agree with setting fairly serious limits on them, and DEFINITELY not allowing them out in public. I also think it might be nice to offer a weekend away, but honestly, I think I would make it a NICE weekend, but then say, "I am willing to have a special getaway with you at X cool place, but the iPod would need to stay home. I think you two need some time apart. Are you willing?" Also, after I read the whole post, my first thought was, "Well, she feels like time crawls and that she is sick of the same-old-same-old because she isn't DOING anything with her life." I think that she needs to get over herself (I'm not saying this snarkily but kindly). I would start dragging the family to the homeless shelter, Meals on Wheels, the food bank, a DV shelter nursery, therapeutic horse barn, animal shelter, short-term missions, or SOMEWHERE she can make a difference. Perhaps she will find a passion and then be off with it. I agree with Margaret in CO that it's time she start giving back to the world. I think that teens need a larger purpose outside themselves, and I think it's an innate need in all of us. She is not a child anymore. Ideally, the family has a larger/purpose mission and at about 13 the children get involved, but if that's not happening, the child can find her own purpose. She does need scaffolding, guidance, and help to find it this young, but the urge to DO something, BE something, is A Good Thing.

We went a few years ago and were miserable tent camping. A pop-up would really be no better. The bear rules are so strict that you can't leave hardly anything at your campsite. If I were to do Yellowstone again, I would rent a hard-sided RV just north of Yellowstone. It is tricky to drive them on those tiny roads, but you can have the most freedom and flexibility. They are expensive, but so is lodging in the park. And No. Way. would I try to tent camp again. If it's cold you will have heat. You won't have to worry so much about the bear rules. You will always have kitchen facilities and all of your clothes with you. It can take a long time to get from one place to another in the park, and this way you can just have lunch or dinner wherever you are. The weather can change rapidly, and if suddenly it gets sunny and warm, you can change into your bathing suits, instead of having them be two hours away (sigh). I would also make sure I allotted time to go to the Tetons. I think it was prettier than Yellowstone, but we only allotted part of a day to see that park. Unless you can sneak in at the end of May or beginning of September, it will be VERY VERY crowded. That is quite annoying. Don't get me wrong--Yellowstone is beautiful, but I'm not that into crowds.

I'll join the chorus recommending a Best of Ester Maria blog, but links in your sig are great too. :001_smile:

I wear casual shoes and smooth-knit knee socks. Works pretty well. But then again, I'm no shoe maven. Think LL Bean kind of styles.

:iagree: I can't say I'm *enjoying* teaching school in bleak January, but that's not the curriculum's fault. :tongue_smilie:

:iagree:

To me, this is where you went awry. I vote for "neither." I agree with the other posters that if a 6yo child does not respond you go after him/her. In this case, I would go after the child and convey: 1) It is not okay to disappear when I say it is time for school 2) If you do not begin your schoolwork now and complete it promptly you will not be able to go to skating and possibly, if the child is normally obedient: 3) If she wants a "reading day," she needs to come to you first and ask permission for it to be a reading day. I might set up some kind of rule that she can ask no more than 4 times per month, or something, so that she doesn't try to get out of school every. single. day.

A mounted tapestry. When we moved here, we needed something large for that space, and a tapestry was cheaper than a large picture. :lol: It's a pastoral scene, very restful, with a house, a meadow, sheep, and a girl feeding them.

Ugh. Our first day back will be tomorrow. I'm dreading it. And to make matters worse, the children and I have dentist appointments smack in the middle of the day. What was I thinking six months ago when I made that appointment??? Well, cheer up. Tomorrow you will be over the hump of the first day, and I will be the one suffering and posting about it instead. ; )

I don't have time to read all of the responses, but I have often said that my parents viewed education as a "black box." I graduated high school in 1985 and college in 1988. Other than threatening me with death if I got less than an A, they never got involved at all. They were blue collar through and through and knew nothing about education or cared to learn, but they were DETERMINED that I would do the best possible job. They saw their job as working hard to earn the private Christian school tuition. Period. Fortunately, I was very academic and survived the no help + incredible expectations formula. I learned early on to turn to my teachers for help, never my parents. They would never take me hardly anywhere I asked, but if I did have to stay after school and miss the bus because I needed to ask a teacher for help, that was accepted without question. I do have to give them that. They also bought me the books I begged for (a LOT of them) and took me to the library every week when I begged. Being a voracious reader was the one best thing that helped me in school.

I have heard this line too. I think it is a standard "professional" line. I am of two minds. For Latin, I think it is quite possible to go pretty far mastering the grammar at home. My daughter is far enough along now that she does benefit from an outside tutor translating with her as a supplement to our grammar studies at home. It keeps my daughter's interest and challenges her more than I could. For Greek, it is quite difficult and hard to get too far along without a tutor--I have used a tutor and found it worth every penny. I agree with the "grain of truth" poster, I think. And I think the classics professor should NOT be so categorically dismissive.

:iagree::iagree::iagree: You have to decide which is worse: the pain of sucking it up or the pain of dealing with the fallout. See, that's how they get you conditioned. They throw tantrums and make the fallout so bad so that you will indeed continue to put up with whatever situation they create. But at that point not only are you the one with all of the pain, but you are also enabling their behavior.

Thanks!

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sorry it was so awful.

Hmmm, we will watch for this. For the moment, his rate is better than anyone else's--my husband has investigated three or four places.

Thanks for your comments. I confess to having only a vague understanding of current events. Briefly, what was their involvement in the bailout? *cringing while revealing vast ignorance*

Hi, I seem to remember Wells Fargo getting dissed on the forums some time ago, :lol: but I didn't turn up anything concrete on a search. Does anyone have good or bad experiences they would like to share? We are in the middle of refinancing, and out of frustration with one company's non-response, my husband called up the mortgage agent who handled the purchase of our home five years ago. He changed jobs and now works for . . . Wells Fargo. From initial figures, it looks like he can put together a great deal for us. Is there some reason I should run screaming? :lol: Thanks!

I have not had time to read all the responses. I am leery that most high school class discussions are not that profitable or substantive, but at the same time, I am doing my two together for high school literature despite the age difference, so that we can have discussion. So far this year we have done The Odyssey, Agamemnon, and Oedipus. We read each aloud, taking on different characters, except I got the audiobook for The Odyssey because it was so long. We read aloud and discuss, and at the end, they write an essay. This is working just fine, and they are retaining just fine. We are going to stick with this method, I think. (They do the appropriate Spielvogel chapter mostly on their own, though.)