I can empathize with the "talk and admonish" dinnertime.

I have enough answers now. Thank you hive, that was very fast :)

But that means a different thing. Your example emphasizes the person doing the hard work, as you said. The A+ as the subject that becomes a reality implies that it sort of grows into being, so the (absent) person's focus is not so much on the act of doing hard work, but on the act of observing the A+ take shape, as it were. It is expressing a feeling about how the A+ might be viewed, which is perfectly legitimate, if that is what the writer intends to express. The shoes sentence can be grammatically acceptable either way, but we don't know whether it is accurate, because we don't know whether the shoes were the only messy aspect of the person's home.

I wouldn't see any of them as downright incorrect, however the first and third read a bit awkwardly to me and would sound better if the clauses were reversed thus: The mom was able to keep her home looking neat by lining all the shoes up b the door. Bloody Marys are made by mixing vodka and tomato juice. The middle one seems OK as is, I am guessing because the 'hard work' is a longer process. Hard work repeatedly undertaken eventually led to getting an A+, whereas lining up the footwear or mixing the drink is pretty immediate, so it seems redundant to build up suspense with that sentence order. JMO.

It would be silly to abandon a family tradition that is still fun and fulfilling to do, no matter how old your 'kids' are. But it also isn't a good idea to carry a financial burden that you can't afford. So I would continue with the stockings but use inexpensive (but still nice to get) gifts to fill them. Alternatively you could consider taking turns between yourself and those of your children who have paid work, so you'd be buying more expensive presents but you'd only have to do it once every few years.

IME being well rounded tends to be overrated. Once you have enough basic skills for regular everyday life, there is ever diminishing return from requiring a student to continue with subjects that are irrelevant to them. I think that schools do not allow enough specialization or offer specialization early enough, and being able to provide this is one of the numerous advantages of home learning. I would certainly accept the internship as long as your child is keen (and understands what is involved) and of course as long as you trust the mentor.

We have had similar issues with Ms. 6 blurting out answers before her slower, but older, siblings could answer. I know a 3yo has a lot less self-control than a 6yo, though, so I'd second the suggestion to simply get your younger child out of the way while you are working with the 5yo, and maybe do some one-on-one schooling with the 3yo while the 5yo does something else (perhaps your Ms. 5 could "look after the baby" - at the other end of the room where you can still keep an eye on them - to help her feel mature and capable?)

Thanks so much for introducing me to this site. I really like it, cause it has everything I liked about Flylady but none of the things that annoyed me.

He needs some data to graph and analyze. Please if you have a minute, would you post your kids' favorite colors? Thank you :)

Goodness, haven't seen that one for years, but I am sure Helen Mirren was better than Michelle Pfeifer. Must get it for next year...

Snap, so did we! The version we got was a bit sexier than I really wanted for the 6yo but it was lots of fun, especially Kevin Kline as Bottom.

We celebrated today (Summer Solstice here) because Ms. 9 was away from home yesterday. Kidlets were up at 3 (ouch) ready to watch the dawn breaking. We had fire lanterns instead of a bonfire, which was great fun.

Fitted trackies/yoga pants and long sleeve T (add thick socks and a cardy in winter) is my 'uniform'. When going out and wanting to look slightly more decent, I change the pants for a long skirt in summer, or pop a knee-length knit skirt over the top in winter. And that's about it, unless it's a serious occasion (wedding or funeral-level serious warrants an actual proper 'outfit'). I seldom have any desire to look 'put together'. Being free to dress for comfort is one of the perks of homeschooling, so why not enjoy it?

Strangely enough, I found one of those 'nappy pins' when I was decluttering just a couple of days ago. It wouldn't have been used for years, but I must have thought it would come in handy somehow.

I would not have chosen to 'reuse' the first baby's name in the first place, but if I had made that choice, I would actually reuse it for every subsequent child. To me it feels like too much of an injustice that one child gets his late brother's name and another doesn't. JMO.

I think it is fine to suck it up 'just this year' if you feel that would be the least problematic option, BUT if you do go that way, be sure to discuss the topic with all the relevant people so that next year doesn't end up stressful all over again. Whatever you do, don't inconvenience yourself, resent it in private but be too 'nice' to communicate your feelings with others.

Wow thank you for all those responses :) So many useful ideas we will probably use a few of them.

Well right now we are on a light schedule of formal schoolwork, but I want to increase this when the new school year starts (that's beginning of February down here). This will be the first year I have all three kids doing a 'full' load so I'm trying to really hammer out what will get done when, without being too ambitious and flirting with mom-burnout. I would say our issues are a combination of both general organization issues and learning issues. The general issues are things needing to create a stronger daily and weekly rhythm so we are all ready to get started by a reasonable time, and getting our environment and Stuff organized. I have lots of ideas on how to deal with these things . One of which is killing the Pencil Monster who, I assume, comes out every night and eats the pencils (Because honestly, every. single. day. it proves impossible to locate three functioning pencils for the dc to use!) But seriously, I am already halfway through cleaning and organizing all of our 'school' stuff, so that should help. The learning issues mainly revolve around the fact that I just haven't had much success in getting the kids to work independently. (I have posted about this previously, and although we have had some improvement since then, it's still a big problem.) Mr. 11 has multiple learning disabilities. He is doing really well with catching up on math (I expect to have him onto 6th grade level work by second term next year) and can now sometimes do a bit of math on his own. But he is still years 'behind' with writing (can't formulate a paragraph) so I need to be sitting with him for any written work. He was doing independent silent reading, but I have gone back to having him read aloud because he hasn't made any significant progress this year with comprehension (although he has been working on his eye exercises so that helps). The only thing he can reliably do independently is his music compositions, which he does on the computer so no writing required. Ms. 9 has low processing speed and is a reluctant reader, which means that as well as one on one reading support, she needs me to read out the instructions for her other work. Ms. 6 is the most independent - she can actually take a few pages of MM and bring them back all done. But I actually need to slow her down (because if we keep up her current pace she'll go through 3 grades of MM per year) so I was planning on doing more fun 'playing with math' stuff with her. Also I need to work with her on handwriting, as we have done a lot of stuff orally in the past so even though she can come up with a decent paragraph, she still isn't writing all her letters quite correctly. I am thinking about trying to do almost everything as a group (with eldest child majorly delayed, middle child mildly delayed and youngest accelerated they are all at roughly the same level with things like history), and mostly concentrating on the math separately, plus whatever else they need the most. Might just have to ponder it a bit more...

That sounds like a wonderful set of goals (except #4 - if we ever had newspapers, I would more likely be hiding them from the kids, but I guess that changes when your dc are a little older). I can only think of a couple of tips: 1. Put your objectives in a logical order and tackle them in a staggered fashion, rather than trying to change everything at once. Maybe focus on one new habit the first week, then add another each week. I'd start with the sleep hygiene because a decent night's sleep will give you more energy, and your students are less likely to be stroppy, resulting in a better chance of succeeding with subsequent improvements. (And yes, we have also found that getting up earlier is the key, because if you just make kids go to bed earlier, they stay awake for ages, whereas if you get them out of bed earlier in the morning, they are actually tired in the evening and don't mind going to sleep.) 2. Ease into goals by making mini goals that aren't daunting. For example, with music practice, I have found the easiest way is to start by just doing some, any amount. Commit to practice every day (or just 3 days a week in your case) no matter what, but don't require a certain number of minutes or list of items to practice. Just get to the piano or get out the instrument and start playing, and for the first week or two it's OK if practice time only lasts a few minutes. If you know you have to practice for an hour, it's easy to convince yourself that you don't really have the time today, but everyone has time to practice for a few minutes. Once you get past the hurdle of starting on a regular basis, and that becomes a habit, it is actually surprisingly easy to increase the quantity and quality of the practice.

Bumping cause I found some helpful stuff and possibly somebody else might also find it helpful.

I know this has been discussed in the past, but I can't find any specific threads. I would love to know what is 'normal' wrt how much time you plan vs how long things actually take. For example, if you had 2 hours of 'school' to get through with 3 kids together, plus half an hour of individual work for each kid, theoretically this would take you 3.5 hours to finish. But how long does it take in real life (not including planned 'in between' time such as a snack break)? What do you do to make things run more smoothly and not take all day?

Or maybe, "You're right. He's quite ill-rounded." (big wink at said teenager). And watch her run out of steam as her expected debate fails to materialize.

Sounds like you have got a lot to take in. :grouphug: A few points to consider: 1. AFAIK, Aspergers isn't actually an 'official' diagnosis anymore. With the latest DSM version, everything related to autism got rolled into the one ASD diagnosis. 2. It's very difficult to accurately assess your own kids' difficulties. Even though you probably know him better than anybody else, you don't necessarily have in-depth knowledge of what's 'normal' for a 14yo. We all tend to get used to our own kids' individual strengths and weaknesses, so red flags aren't always obvious, and this is especially the case when it's the eldest child of the family. (I know for a fact that there were a few things I never realized my ASD son 'should have' been doing until a couple years later when his NT sister did those things). Also, as parents we sometimes compensate and make allowances for our kids' weaknesses without even being aware that we're doing this. Take away the unconscious layer of support and scaffolding (as in a neuropsych eval scenario) and suddenly any existing deficits become far more apparent. (Note that this is reflective of good parenting, so don't feel bad that you didn't pick up on things sooner!) 3. Don't get overly hung up about the scores. I understand it doesn't feel good to be told that your child is in or near the bottom percentile for anything (btdt), but remember the tests aren't totally accurate, the results aren't immutable, and even if they were, none of that makes your child any 'worse' than he was before you had him tested. The important point is that there is a large discrepancy between the different scores, which indicates his likely strengths and weaknesses relative to each other. This gives you valuable clues regarding what might help with his learning. 4. I would respectfully suggest that you not be in too much of a hurry to change anything. He won't suddenly become twice as challenging to educate because he now has a diagnosis! (Plus if he's anything like most ASD people, he won't be happy about starting a raft of new therapies and curricula all at once.) So continue on with whatever is working OK, and re-examine whatever is working badly in light of the new information you have. 5. I haven't really done this with my kids, but considering your son is 14, I would try to get his input when it comes to considering any interventions or other changes you are thinking about making.

Why? We can only guess at her motives, of course, but if I were forced to bet on it, I'd say it was a classic case of insecurity and defensiveness. Does she by any chance have a child who isn't very good at math? Or whom she would secretly like to home school but can't? Or maybe she herself feels shown up by your teen's talents and interests? I am sorry you and your son had to put up with her appallingly bad manners.

Hmmm I do have some pics of cakes I baked, but the forum is telling me that they are too large to post. Might try later on (math crisis in progress right now!)