And we mustn't forget that husband/partner turnover has often been quite high as well. Many women spent chunks of their reproductive years as widows or with their men on extended absence or incapacitated due to events such as wars, pestilence and so on. But casual TeA, well it depends on your definition of casual, but I'm not convinced that there was ever a time when the majority of people were into current conservative notions of chastity, monogamy and wedlock (I don't think I have ever met anybody who even uses the word wedlock irl, so obviously I don't move in those circles!).

According to the Thread Title Oracle: Favorite TeA Supplement? My daughter's horse :scared:

Lactational amenorrhea effected many women, particular in the lower classes where wet nursing was less common (alternative foods for babies have been around for centuries, there wasn't the regulated 'formula' that is more or less safe until the second half of the 20th century, so a lot more breastfeeding went on). Abortifacients were fairly widespread also.

Because if you do it all, you get accused of being a sheep, being ignorant and stupid, and callously poisoning your child with murdered fetus and mercury juice. If you don't do any, you get accused of being insane, trying to kill your child, and willfully endangering the lives of every other child in your country if not the world. But if you go selective, you get accused of all of the above.

I have seen a few threads where people list what they have scheduled for a day, but I remain blown away by how much most people seem to get done each day. As I type this, it's 6.15pm and my son has just finished the half an hour's math which I gave him at 12 noon. OK, so he's had lunch and some toilet and play breaks, but still, he's probably spent about 3 hours melting down over math. Girls have meanwhile done their math, looked at some Geography, finished memory work, made a video of their recitation, done half an hour each of music practice by themselves, and gone off to play. The total activities for the day have only amounted to half of what I had planned, plus we have no food organized and the laundry isn't finished. I'd really appreciate if somebody could share your real, unedited typical day. I feel too far behind and discouraged when I look at what the accelerated and 'normal' kids are doing each day, so I am hoping that what other kids with learning challenges do might be a more realistic level I could aim to eventually achieve. Or just sympathize that I had a bad day lol

Goodness, you are right! It's heavily Bible orientated isn't it? Someone needs to write another version. I'm seriously tempted to attempt it... Probably with 80s rock music backing.

Are we allowed to hear this song or see the lyrics without being involved in CC? Because I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to change a few lines to expunge the Bible story parts if that's what you want to do.

Please tell me that wasn't on this forum?

First, a friendly "G'day" from from one "traditionally built" 6' tall women to another :seeya: Don't worry, you won't get thrown out for disagreeing with people. I don't believe there's a single member here with whom I don't disagree about something, (although it's possible that I'm especially disagreeable :tongue_smilie:) but most people don't mind as long as you're not mean, snarky or deliberately provoking. As for what you know, of course there's always somebody who knows more about something than you. We can't all be infallible experts on everything! Half the reason I hang out here is so that I can learn things from people who know more about those things than I do. Just look at it positively: if somebody posts exactly what you wanted to say, then great minds think alike and you're one of them. If people don't agree with you, then you are an original thinker with the courage to express your original thoughts. Win win :thumbup:

Interesting. I'm always ambivalent about the whole labeling issue in general. On the one hand, it must surely be a good thing if more children receive individualized supports for their learning. In an ideal world, every child would receive such support (perhaps by 80-90% of children being home educated, thus freeing up the system to provide excellent learning opportunities for those whose parents are genuinely unable to home educate, but that's a whole other thread!). But on the other hand, we seem to be rapidly moving toward a system in which almost all children are either gifted and talented or have learning disabilities, and it's no longer accepted for kids to be normal, but not brilliant. (It's not Lake Woebegone: there have to be some kids who are lower than average!) Are kids really 'falling through the cracks' because of their particular position in the IQ league table? Or is it happening because school cannot work for every kid, and/or schools don't have the resources to cater for every kid optimally.

It's not selfish: if you're organizing stuff you should be organizing stuff that works for you and your children! Regarding driving distance, I would hazard a guess that it has a lot to do with how well the kids travel. It's probably not such a big deal driving a couple of hours if nobody gets carsick and the kids don't punch each other in the car.

But wouldn't that be massively frustrating when you are yearning to read a book that is crucial to the structural integrity of the bed? Not to mention the potential for books to go flying during energetic teA drinking!! :smilielol5:

A most excellent vocation. A friend of my girls told me she is determined to be a butcher, which surprised me because most girls that age would be "ewww raw meat!" (I couldn't even pass the meat section in the supermarket, let alone enter a butcher shop, without retching when I was that age, but maybe that's sensory sensitivity?)

We talk about words quite a bit, but I try not to be obsessive about it. Sometimes the kids will ask what something means, sometimes I'll offer an explanation. If I'm reading something with a lot of unfamiliar words, I might be selective about which ones I define, because I don't want to break the flow by stopping every sentence or so (our last read aloud was The Princess and the Goblin, and that contains a fair bit of flowery vocab for a fairy tale, as well as some words whose meanings have shifted since the 1870s). Sometimes we'll spontaneously get into discussions about words, sometimes I will correct the kids' errors (eg today Ms. 9 got mixed up between lulled and lolled, so we had to clarify the difference). Occasionally if I know they've learned a new word, I'll deliberately use it in conversation to reinforce it. Also, I always help Ms. 6 look up new musical terms in the music dictionary. But they do pick up a lot organically via context. So I think both methods of learning are necessary and good. As for how much 'more' to do, I'd suggest being guided by how your child responds. Is Anna interested to hear what things mean, or is her reaction showing that she wants you to stop defining things and get on with that exciting story already? (I tend to have to restrain myself sometimes, because nobody I know is as interested in words as I am!)

Well done girls, and well done Mandy :party:

Yes, we always eat something quick and easy after a major grocery shop. Most often some variation of pre-roasted chicken with salad.

Sure, no problem, but only as long as everyone is happy about it. The teenager should be confident about looking after the smalls and know what to do in an emergency. If she's an eager-to-please type, you'll want to double-check that she's really OK with this, and not just agreeing because she wants to be helpful to you. The children should know her and trust her enough that they are happy to be left with her. Remember that there might be a traffic jam or other unexpected delay, so you need to be fine to leave them with her for a bit longer then the time you expect to take. And finally you need to feel that they are all safe. If your gut instinct is screaming "no!" (as opposed to "hmm, this is something different, it feels a little strange"), then don't do it. Instead, take the kids with you or ask your husband to arrange alternative transport.

@ Sahamamama, OMGoddess I am seriously in awe of what you managed to achieve; I'm reasonably sure I have never got through that much stuff in one day. Now I want you to move in with me and be my kids' governess! @Soror, hope your dd is feeling healthier and more cheerful in the morning The main thing we achieved today was that all the kids have more or less memorized the first speech in the Shakespeare Book ("I know a bank where the wild thyme blows" from Midsummer Night's Dream). I managed this by the simple expedient of grabbing a bag of choc chips and feeding them one every time they recited a bit correctly. (Yep, junk food as a bribe. #3874 in my list of Things I was Never Going to Do with my Kids.)

Here's a method I have heard of but never tried because it's too hard core for me: put the books out of sight (most of us have too many to easily box up, so the easiest way is to cover your bookcases or stacks of books). Then allow yourself a week or so to write a list of all the books you want to keep. Once your time is up, books that didn't make the list get culled. Optional extra: give yourself 10 second chance votes to "rescue" books that you forgot about but still feel you can't part with. I guess the theory is that if something is that important, you'll remember you have it and want to keep it. But personally I am too in love with the feeling of discovering some gem of a book that I'd completely forgotten we owned!

***LOVE LOVE LOVE*** (sorry, but the forum didn't allow me to Like on the post)

Couch and sofa are two different things. A sofa is fatter and puffier looking than a couch. A really posh "anticky" one is a chaise longue (not a chaise lounge, although many people pronounce it that way!). Never heard of Davenport. It sounds like an expensive cocktail to me. "I'll have a Davenport with a twist of lemon please." "Certainly ma'am, that will be $20."

When is the eBook going on sale? I'd be interested in getting it for my kids.

We make copies of all the music and audio stories the kids listen to. We have some CDs that are backed up on our computer, copied to blank CDs and copied onto all the kids' MP3 players. I figure that if I paid for the CD, it's fair enough to do copies for members of my household to use, because that's not really any different from picking up the original and moving it from my desk to the car or the kid's bedroom. I don't make copies for anyone else. (It goes without saying that I wouldn't sell the copies, or keep a copy and sell the original, but I don't see anything wrong with selling the original as long as you discard all copies at that point).

Absolutely. I wouldn't even give it a second thought (unless the teen had a disability that would effect her ability to travel safely and confidently).

nm