I decided to have my daughter who is a very auditory learner and has major spelling problems plus has a very hard time with memorizing learn Spanish. She just finished the class for Spanish I at our homeschool academy and got an A. It was a 90% A but it was an A. This was with her suffering from non-stop headache since late November. I chose Spanish because it has one of the best spelling systems. So far, she hasn't had almost any problems with spelling in Spanish. She made flash cards and reviewed over and over again. She had previously tried learning French when we lived in Wallonia, the French speaking part of Belgium and while she did learn her numbers and colors and such, she couldn;t spell any better in French than in English. I didn't push early language learning with her because of her memory issues. Her memory is improving as she gets older. (She is 14 now and finishing up ninth grade at home.)

I got it because it would be easier to use for me. I love it because it uses less water, does more laundry and is quieter.

When my parent's named me, I had the same first and first middle name as my mother. They called me by a nickname which I didn't like. I ended up having banking problems because of the fact that my mom and I had the same name. When we moved to another area, I changed my name. I kept the same first name but changed the spelling and changed my middle name to Christina which is what I use. My mom was okay with it. Both my husband and I wanted only traditional types of names for our children and that is what they all have. Not traditional English names but traditional first names nonetheless. =

All of us here have different circumstances. We can't make any assumptions about all of us being low income or high income or middle income. Some have one child and struggle. Some have many children and high incomes. SOme have grandparents who help out. Some have a husband who has a good income. Some have property that has been left to them. As more and more people homeschool, there will be greater differences in styles and resources. We are still military and have a certain level of income. When my husbands retires, we may have a lot more or maybe not. Currently I feel that with our very stressful family situation, the one thing that has gone very well for us this year is the outside classes and coop. With no let up in stress in the forecast, I plan to continue to use those and in fact, greater use of those next year. It is worth it to us.

I did and will again as soon as I get a new seal. I use it for one pot meals and for vegetables mostly.

My kids take two types of classes. In one type, they pay about 30, 35 a month plus a supply fee, plus a registration fee. Is it a lot? Not too much for me but my daughter got a very good education in those two classes. My other daughter was taking parent led co-op classes which cost 25 a month for three classes and no extra activity fee. Those classes were good too but I can see why the upper level classes cost more. The teachers did a lot of work outside of class. Children who took science classes with the one teacher who did Bio and Chem using BJU materials came out and scored well on AP tests. But you have to understand that for some of us, it is a choce between homeschooling with co-ops and lessons or private schools or online courses which are even more expensive or similarly expensive. At this point in my life, I have more money then I do energy or time. Many others have the same.

Well what gets me is that some question why you have ____. I was living in California when I was pregnant with my third (and come to be last). As I came from a family of three children and dh from a family with four, I certainly didn't think there was anything unusual about three. I got at least two negative comments and what was really striking was that one was by a civilian employee at the base. Now for those of you who aren't familiar with many military families, military families tend to be larger than average. I don't know if she was new or just didn't like children, the military or what. I wasn't particularly young or old, the children were well spaced apart, and it was none of her business. It gets to me how many people want to rule over other people. I want to live my life in freedom and let others do the same. Like one of you,I also don't want to support other people except for truly exigent situations like fires, hurricanes, catastrophic illness or injury, etc.

We count lots of things as school. I plan on counting the science of musical instruments camp as school as well as marine biology camp. I plan on counting quilting camp or class as part of my high schooler's sewing credit.

My first two were quite independent by age 11/12. I would do some lessons with them and have them do most on their own. My first was independent in most things with occasional backup on math and science and discussion time with lit and history. My second was mostly independent with history, lit, and science but needed math taught daily then she would work problems. My third is a different story. She is almost 11 1/2 and very little can be done independently. She is the only extrovert in the family and going off by herself and doing work is just really awful for her. We are deciding what we will change next year but she will definetely have some classes as co-op to help with this. She is much more willing to work somewhat independently for others.

I was bottle fed but only because of my medical problems. My mom was very pro-breastfeeding. Since neither my husband nor I was breastfed nor any of our three children, we don't feel any of us missed anything. We are all considered highly gifted academically (not that that matters but we don't seem to have suffered anything in the intelligence department) and while I did come down with many childhoof illnesses, my dh came down with remarkably little. He has also been very healthy as an adult.

I don't know what exactly we will do with the last two. Our first one did honors classes but no AP by choice. He did very well on his tests. He had great extra-curriculars. He got half tuition scholarships to a few colleges and chose one. Now he is home from college after 2 1/2 years and we will be happy if he gets a job. (He is suffering from major depression). This is all coloring my outlook so much I don't think I can answer well. You do the best that you can and sometimes things go well and sometimes they don't. My ninth grader will have to work this summer to end up with six credits. She is doing very well considering her health problems and the stress that her brother's illness is having. I won't be trying to get her into a pressure cooker though. We will start CC classes this fall and go that route with her. We will decide later on whether to try for any CLEP or AP tests with either of the last two.

We have enjoyed both. In the first state, we had a few classes offered for different grades and it was on a Thursday afternoon. ALl my children (middle/high school, upper elementary, lower elementary) enjoyed it. The oldest did drama and Shakespeare, the younger two did world geography and drawing. We also had field trips with that group and some fun days like end of year waterpark day. Now we live in Florida and this last year we were involved with a very orgnized home school group. We have classes for 6-12 graders where they meet for one or two days a week and a facilitator teaches. They don't call the people teachers for legal and administrative reasons. Anyway, the parents work one or two days a semester all day with monitoring the student center and help with cleanup and lunch. The other group are parent led classes with three classes a semester and all parents staying in the building. It is for one morning or one afternoon a week. The Academy is for academic classes like enlgish, science, and languages. The co-op is for classes like PE, dance, public speaking, etc. and is for pre-schoolers-8th graders. As parents of those kids, we work two sessions, and be a hall monitor (i.e. usually a break) for one. If you are a monitor with any other person, you have someone to chat to. The second group is much more organized and very well run but it is also much more expensive. Also some of the rules are silly like no shorts for any female sixth grade and up. When I am not at that group, I am in shorts almost all the time here since it is so hot. (Not short shorts, but nice long ones with nice t-shirts or polo shirts, very respectable).

We lived for three years overseas in Belgium. We had problems gettng little things like file folders, socks, certain other school suppplies. Overall, we had a lot easier time getting most art supplies over there. Each country will be different as to what is easy/hard to get. One suggestion I have is if you know what area you will be moving to, get on th internet and look at things like libraries. I know that UK libraries and there catalogs are online so maybe Australia's are too. THat will give you a good idea of what types of books they carry. I always have names of certain siubjects I look up and some authors. This gives me a good idea about how adequate a library system may be. Since it is an English speaking country, you should have no problems getting books.

It is the island Cocoa Beach is on but so are many other cities and it is a very long island. It goes all the way from Canaveral to Sebastian Inlet. It must be one of the longest islands in Florida if not the longest.

I said 5 or 5 but I was thinking of activities like dance classes or nature classes. Actually a few weeks old would be the correct answer but the child would be in a baby room and I would be close by in church. Then for other types of care, normally a over one, but I remember that my oldest had surgery when my youngest was 6 weeks old and we needed babysitting for a while. Are a lot of you reading it like I did or do most never use babysitting, drop off care, or anything similar until all children are 5 or above? I am all for homeschooling and keeping families together. We take our kids to many places others don't-art museums, very nice restaurants, classical concerts. We did that since they were little. We do like to go out at times as a couple and we also need to go to certain functions or I would need to get out when my husband would be away for weeks or months.

I live on a island. It is quite long and has thousands of people living on it. The other islands near me have names but I can't ind the name of my island. Everyone hear calls it the barrier island or beachside. I am sure there must be a real name even if it only was used historically. CAn anyone give suggestions how to find it?

I should have added their summer activities. Both will continue karate. Youngest will continue trumpet and oldest will continue choir with a one month break. Oldest has marine biology camp, and archery classes. Youngest has a science of musical instruments camp and also the archery classes. I am trying to find a sewing or quilting class or camp for both together.

DD. 14, 9th grade, Youth group, Adult church choir, Law enforcement Explorers, Homeschool one day a Week classes, library volunteer, projectionist at church, karate lessons weekly, DD, 11 . 5th grade Homeschool co-op day, Homeschool book club (1 time a month), trumpet lessons weekly, karate lessons weekly Both girls are in a local production of Fiddler on the Roof which will be performed at the end of the month. Next year, I have scheduled the girls for even more (at least the younger). Why, because she is an extrovert and we aren't and she needs the extra contact with others. She does much better work for outsiders but likes the balance homeschooling provides so I compromised and will be having her go to homeschool classes two days a week and and extra day every month to help her get happier. It means less classical but more actual work getting done.

I was able to answer this one for once without any problems. Since we are military, we haven't lived in the part of the country I came from since I moved away to go to college. Now I am back though more than 600 miles away.

I have three and won't give birth to anymore. My youngest is 11 1/2 and I owe it to my current children to be there for their growing up. I couldn't have anymore without risking my life and my baby's, so no more. I am fine with that. I am fine with my friends who have many (either naturally or through both birth and adoption). I am fine with my friends who have few or none or aren't even married. Since I see a number of instances in the Bible where the figures had few children as well as people who had many, I don't really see either as really being Godly. It is how we live not how many kids we have. When I was growing up, there were kids from large families where the parents were great and others that came from ignorant, lazy parents who gave birth and not much else. The Duggars seem like fine people but we prefer our lifestyle with less regimentation and more individuality. I can understand the logistics and expense that require them to have all children learn piano and violin but I enjoy that mine were able to learn what they wanted since there are only three. There are blessings in all types of families as long as the families are loving and nurturing. My kids missed out on having ready made sports teams at home. Theirs don't.

We've been going through very tough times here too. Here is what i am doing: reading mysteries that either engross : M C Beaton, Alexander McCall Smith, Ruth Rendell, Jill Churchill, Sue Grafton, or are very funny Carl Hiassen, some other Florida ones are great I also was recommended Hot Fuzz and was very skeptical at first because I don't like most comedies the rest of my familiy likes (things with Will Ferrell and other bathroom hhumor stuff). This one doesn't have that in it and it is hilarious. It is about a cop in England.

My soon to be 6th grader has been doing Horizons Math for the last three years. I am looking to change her math next year for three different reasons. I need to find math for 6th and pre Algebra and Horizons only goes through sixth. I haven't been too happy with the fractions presentation this year since it introduced a lot of new concepts, practices for a few lessons and then they disappeared. Another problem is that going over the test prep books for fifth grade, I found I had to teach more concepts that either hadn't been covered or were briefly covered near the beginning of the year and then hardly at all. Finally, I am trying to find a more concentrated curriculum that gets the student from fifth grade math up to pre-Algebra without unnecessary dilly dallying.

she sings with an adult church choir. I can't see the difference between that and a typical high school choir. She has plenty of exposure to music types and we have been and continue to take her to music concerts. I will give a half credit for this year, based on her hours. However, I took a drama class in high school and it really was much more on the history of drama and types of drama. We did very little acting. I would add some history of theater or information about types of drama to beef the course up. That's just my opinion.

I am an INTJ and my dh a physicist is a INTP. My middle child is usually an INTJ too. THe only one who is an E is my youngest.

I like: Susan Wittig Albert (herb shop owner in Texas foothills) M C Beaton (both the Hamish MacBeth (highland Scotland)and the Agatha Raisin (Cotswold)series) Ruth Rendell Rhys Bowen (Evan Evans, a policeman in Wales) Alexander McCall Smith Sue Grafton Diane Mott Davidson Carl Hiaasen Older ones I like are Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Kemelman (Sunday, the Rabbi ...),