Ahh! I think we were separated at birth. Don't even get me started.

I have never seen a video like that, but it would probably make me break out into hives. Life is messy enough without seeing videos of the messes....!!

I found it effective. I didn't use the 'script', but used the letter sounds and words plus a whiteboard to create short lessons for my son. Once he was reading fluently, we just stopped--we never finished the book. There was no point. I liked that it was inexpensive and re-usable! We also started after the letter sounds--he already knew them--but with my daughter, we are working through those pages. My son also did ETC in first and second grades--until he hit that fluency point, and then I decided he could be a free man. :) HTH!

Weekends tend to be more relaxing for me b/c my schedule is so much looser (no getting up at 6am!) but the REAL reason is b/c my husband is home and can run interference for me with the children. BUT I have to keep some kind of a cleaning routine and working out, or I turn into a she-monster at the end of the day. so for me, it's the husband. He takes care of the children (mostly, not completely) and I can be off-duty with the parenting, which is a blessed help after 5 days ON. :)

I don't think you're being too sensitive...and I'm not an especially sensitive person. If you and the church differ on this, even though it is 'non-essential', and they have clearly stated their position, I'd probably start praying about where to go next.

I really have no idea if this will help, but I think using a word list (from any spelling program) and then using some interactive game-playing can be a pretty painless way to do spelling. That's what we're doing this year. I start the week by doing fill-in-the-blanks on my big whiteboard (I make up crazy sentences, he inserts the correct spelling word into the blank) and then we do other games for the rest of the week, like tossing a ball back and forth to spell (after studying the word for a few minutes)--each of us saying a letter, rolling dice and then he has to write the word that many times (if he rolls a 3, he writes the 3 that many times), etc. I try to focus on studying the word and writing/saying it correctly. This is more an 'approach' than a curriculum, but it seems to work well for us for now.

You definitely do not need one. I consider the MFA a springboard to teaching, frankly, more than writing. I have mine. I considered it my boondoggle. I loved it...it was a wonderful experience for me. I also had a full scholarship so I didn't pay for it, which makes me REALLY love it. It helped with making connections (the networking aspect was useful in publishing later on) and building my own confidence in my work, but is certainly not necessary. If you can find a group of writers who meet regularly, I'd encourage that. I have a poetry group that is full of constructive criticism and encouragement. Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way is far cheaper than an MFA and will make you a more productive artist, in my experience--I'd start there! Enjoy the process!! :)

I am over $750. Math is about $100, language arts $400, science class $600, and then lotsa books. ;) Next year LA will likely be less (different plans). It beats private school, so I am happy. Not counting science would be under $750, but it is totally outsourced to a great school, so I count it as our core. In the past we have spent much less, and I have lots of reusable things for my daughter!

I just use cast iron. I cannot destroy it, it's inexpensive, made in the USA (or passed down to me from my great-grandmother, which I have loved), and if seasoned and cared for properly it's pretty much non-stick. And, of course, I don't worry about any weird stuff coming off into my food. I feel like it's perfect. Maybe not for crepes, but for everything else. I am not sure what you mean by burns, though--burns your food or your hand? The handle definitely gets hot! In any case, I feel like I've tried everything and cast iron is my forever cookware. I don't think that helps, but that's where I'd cast my vote for the 'healthy' cookware!! :)

I would probably hang in there a bit longer and just see how it goes, but that's just me. FWIW, we did CC for three years. I never did it for academics, but instead to provide a social setting for my son that is structured yet would also include some 'free' time (lunch and rec time). He really blossomed there. The presentation was tough the first year--I would stand with him, we would do it 'together' as a show-and-tell...by last year, he had no wish to have me help at all and he did so well. He's also very comfortable speaking in front of our church now! For my very shy son, I felt this was time well-invested. It took me a while to assimilate into the crowd as the 'new girl' but once I did I really enjoyed socializing with the other mothers. We opted not to do it this year b/c we need to focus more on our academics (he's in third grade this year) and I'm sending him to a science class once a week that is $$$ but amazing, so decided to invest elsewhere. My daughter is 4 now and I haven't ruled CC out for her next year--for the same reasons I felt it benefited my son. We'll see. Like anything else, it's a tool. Try it out. It's not for everyone, and it's not for everyone long term (like us). But if it's a tool that you can use at this time in life, go for it. If you really just hate it after a trial period, chalk it up to a good lesson learned and don't feel guilty. :) Good luck!

I stuck with OPGTR (never teaching it as scripted, but rather just using the words/concepts as a springboard for my own teaching) and the lightbulb went off when my son turned 7. Glorious. When he was struggling with even 'easy' readers, I wrote my own. They were very basic. I knew which words he could read, and used those....and sometimes I drew pics, sometimes he did. It was fun. He also liked Bob books, which I didn't like, but they were very basic and thus very helpful! (Oh! we also used ETC until about midway through second grade. At that point he was so fluent that they were redundant, but I think they may have helped.)

Definitely Miquon, although it could be frustrating for a child w/ a rigid-thinking personality. (It is for mine...but we still use it. His conceptual understanding is amazing.)

I just want to say I L O V E this thread. I drink from the well of wisdom of those who have gone before me (even cornering women who have functioning adult children and excellent relationships with them) to quiz them on what they did. So, I love threads like this. Thank you for starting it!!

Hmmm. My own goal has always been to help my children become the people they were born to be (and, b/c I am a Christian, this means the people God created them to be). What this looks like is completely individualized. I certainly hope good character is part of it, but I also think an education that equips them for any road they wish to pursue in life is a very important part of that. To me the quote sort of sets up a false dichotomy. I'm not sure why it needs to be that the focus has to be character OVER academics. I guess I'm more holistic in a way: it needs to be everything that the child needs to live our their individual vocation/calling.....whatever that is. I think children need a good education to catapult them into their adult lives; I don't want them to be at a competitive disadvantage because I under-focused on academics, but I also wouldn't want to raise a whiz kid with no values. I think, in general, we can choose *all of the above*.

The vast majority of people I know would say they actually enjoy their children a lot as teens/adults. I love this and hope it is true for me too! I am sure it does get harder in some ways (bigger kids, bigger problems) but at the same time, I love watching my friends w/ older kids enjoy the camaraderie that they share as the kids develop their own personalities. My sister-in-law is super busy right now w/ her teens, but they do the coolest things together as a family--going to concerts, new restaurants, etc. I love that! So, don't lose hope that it can be good at each stage. Your self-awareness re: your situation with your mother is sure to inform the parenting choices you make, and that's a good thing.

Oh, I love this! Will you adopt me?!! :)

I was like you--trying to really cherish and embrace that season of my life. I ADORE babies and am very much a 'baby person', but am not a toddler person (I think they are absolutely crazy....but adorable, so I could make it through. ;)) In some ways I definitely miss having a baby in the house. But I don't miss the exhaustion. Older children are definitely hard in different ways, but I have to say I really love their independence and the fact that they can verbalize their needs (hallelujah!). And I sleep 8-9 straight hours per night, which feels like a miracle b/c my children are terrible baby-toddler sleepers! I am not out of the 'meltdown' phase, but we deal with fewer meltdowns. I can tell people to get ready to leave and they can potty, put their shoes on and meet me at the door. Amazing. In my opinion the best way to live with parenting is just to embrace the season, but definitely look forward to future seasons as well. Don't feel guilt about acknowledging how hard things are now. I kind of miss the innocence of the little years, when we weren't dealing with some of the personality traits that can make a child really tough to handle. But I definitely don't look back and wish I were still there!!!! I always tell my children that the perfect age for them is the age they are right now and I try to remember that myself. :)

FWIW, we didn't deal with crowds at the Anne Frank House. I don't know if that's because we got there right when it opened (we were on a strict timetable and had to fly out that afternoon) or if my husband purchased tickets in advance, but I don't remember that being an issue at all.

Ohhh, thanks--I will do this sometime this week. Thanks again!

Oh, I just adored the Anne Frank Museum. It was so moving! We were only there for one night, so I went straight to the AF museum before our flight home!

This is so definition-dependent! From the outside my life is very tame. I have a rich inner life and find enjoyment in the quotidian tasks of my everyday life, and am just really interested in the world. I think if you're engaging with the world, ideas, culture, people...you can not lead a 'boring' life. So no, although my life has followed fairly predictable paths, it has been wonderful and interesting so far.

How old is your son? I absolutely identify with this because I have a child with truly obsessive interests as well. He's diagnosed on the spectrum, so I know that plays into it. He eats, sleeps and breathes his obsession. He hasn't been obsessed with one thing for 2 years--they tend to run their course within a year (and sometimes he'll have two at once, which is always kind of interesting). The only thing I can say I have found that helps is to just live an interested and expansive life. We do things outside the house, take walks, go places together, etc. He may be *thinking* about his obsession, but we're *engaging* with the wider world...and we're doing it regularly. I do think there are kids hard-wired this way, and it's exhausting to parent them at times. :)

We dig biographies here....my son is allowed some fluff (magic tree house!) but I encourage reading other books. http://www.valerieslivinglibrary.com/garrard.htm you may also check out Clyde Robert Bulla's books. My son likes them, and I read them as a child!

I don't do it first thing b/c I need my son to focus on MATH when he's freshest! My solution has been to do Bible reading at bedtime. My son and I read through a Bible last year during bedtime (it didn't take long--we also zoomed through several Little House books) and it was great for fostering discussion and thinking. I sometimes pick up a Bible and read to them at other times of the day (we use illustrated children's Bibles). I really prefer just weaving this into my normal life because it IS normal life. Last week I had a day when I was trying to pray for a friend every 30 mins. I set a timer. The kids saw it. I didn't do it to teach them. But I could tell it made an impression (she was going through a crisis. I haven't done that before!). We have a jar of popsicle sticks with individual prayers on each one. We don't pray them daily and sometimes we miss a week or two or more. But they are there for us. I don't read the Bible with my children every day. We do pray each day. And we talk about stuff. This feels more natural to me, during this season of life!

I think we live the exact same life (except I have fewer children). EXACT SAME. This morning my children were so engaged in becoming fairies (crazy clothing choices) and watching starlings outside and collecting and cracking walnuts and carefully examining leaves.....we started school after lunch! For me the solution has been to teach language arts and math and either outsource or let them do the rest. (I do have some additional topics we cycle through, but on days when they are truly engaged in their creative work, I let those topics go. Like today!) My son reads many library books, used his own money to buy an ant farm (after his own attempt at establishing an ant farm failed), is something of an expert on the Titanic and her sister ships, is self-educating on the RMS Lusitania, designing ships out of clay and legos to see what really floats...I'm not going to tear him away from that just so I can check my boxes off each day. He's also 8 and just so full of ideas. He is writing little books, making jellyfish flashcards, trying to write his own waltz....it's so fascinating. I really do trust them on enrichment at this point. SOTW CDs and Jim Weiss are helpful too. They'll have to get more formal as they get older, but for now, a pretty limited amount of work, primarily focused on building skills, and laying the groundwork for interesting activities/play/creative projects/books....is working for us.