I've only read Three and I thought it was goofy and predictable. I read it and was figuring out the ending too early in the book for it to be the author's intent that I know that soon. ;) I may need to read more of his books if others think they are good. That may have just been a weird one.

That is strange. I'm in my 9th year of homeschooling. I had a harder time in the early years about dealing with unsavory homeschoolers than now. I've found some wonderful friends for us (or God has) and have met some of the sweetest moms and dads who are raising genuine kids who desire to learn and desire to handle the nonsense they see around them in the world in a Christlike way. My oldest children just spent time with a family this weekend that fits my description, and dd and I were able to talk about some of the deep discussions they had. It has been refreshing to me to say the least, as my first years were many competitive moms and granola snobs, so much so that we didn't feel we fit anywhere. It may be because we moved from a large city where there were tons of homeschoolers to a smaller town where there are fewer. I'm not sure. Teresa Teresa

We have a real piano that was given to us. It is nice looking, though just a basic piano. We have a tuner come to our home every so often. We had at least 2 other opportunities to purchase a relatively inexpensive piano around the time we received this one. I think we were looking at around $500-$800 for a used piano, and they looked nice. They, of course, didn't look like a grand or anything, but as far as a nice piece of furniture, the one we have and all the others look nice in a room. I will say, though, that we had a keyboard when we started piano lessons. It was loaned to us. We chose that route before sinking money into an instrument our children wouldn't be interested in. As it turned out, my oldest loves to play, so then we were able to get more serious about a piano search. We much prefer the real piano to the keyboard, though I know that is different than a digital piano. If you did anything, I think trying a less-expensive route like a keyboard until you find out if your family will pursue piano would be wiser than purchasing a digital keyboard for that amount of $$. Either that or holding out for a nice used one. If I was going to spend $3500, it would be for a real piano. Teresa

:iagree: Exactly!!! I grappled with this a few months ago when it was a topic here on the board. At that very same time, I had a friend calling me and telling me she had totally changed her pov and was leaning on me heavily to fall into line with predestination/election, etc. I prayed, and hard, over the matter, because I've learned to hand the Lord all I've been taught about Him so He can show me whether it was truth or man-made. I started realizing that many whom I admire/respect were calvinists. As I studied and prayed and looked into the lives of those I respect (Muller, Packer, Piper, Tozer, Andrew Murray) I started to see that while they were calvinists, they weren't all little cookie cutters of one another and they were leaning less on a doctrine and more on who God had shown Himself to be to them, through His Word, prayer, relationship, experience. God started to ease my mind on the matter and give me the peace I needed: that as long as I am pursuing Him, He will lead me and I'll get what I need because I can so fully trust Him for truth when I ask. "Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Something Muller said that hit me about people salvation was that He leans on two scriptures when praying for the salvation of those he knows/loves: One was the scripture 1 Tim 2:4 that He wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, and Two was 1John 5:14 that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. That is how George Muller chose to pray for the salvation of others, and God showed me that it is the way He wants me to pray also. That is my walk. This may not be anything you even asked but I am just saying this because of the struggles that I've gone through to grapple with this, many of which are not fully answered yet, but I am at peace with that. I just realize that if I'm pursuing hard after a doctrine or theological viewpoint, beyond just the need to understand it, I may get really smart but will I know God more? No. If I ask for wisdom, though, He always gives it to me.

The one day per year that it is cold enough here to wear a coat, I let the older ones choose. The younger ones wear them. We purchase those little fleece pull-overs from Old Navy for all the dc, because those typically cover the amount of cold we get here.

We just purchased one for dd last night. I'm going to tell you the info that her piano teacher gave us. First, we do have a regular piano. Dd wanted a keyboard so she could practice in her room and work more on composition. We were told to avoid the Casio and that Yamaha was a good brand when looking for the ones in the price range we were going for (under $500). Weighted keys, and no less than 76 keys were the recommendation she gave us also. Dh found a Yamaha 76-key Grand piano keyboard with the weighted keys for $320. That does not include the stand, as we haven't purchased that yet. The Yamahas were highly recommended by her teacher, and she is someone I trust very much when it comes to anything music.

From my 2yo, lovey son: He walked up and sat beside me on the couch, hugged me and kissed me and said "Mom is so cute. I wub you. Wub me?" The way he asks that question makes me just want to cry it is so cute!! "Wub me?" I mean, who wouldn't wub him!!! :)

My 10yo has some. I stood against them for quite a while, until I felt he could safely use them, and then he got them with rules. He is not allowed to wear them in malls or stores or in crowded areas. I just can't stand to see a kid rolling quickly past elderly people and small children in those. I've almost been run over. Those are my main issues. I hadn't thought of the part about walking on toes that someone pointed out. That is a good point. Ds doesn't wear them as much now that the novelty has worn off.

No, I didn't confront her. I have "let it go", but with the plan that my children will never go anywhere with her again or be in her care in any situation again. As a matter of fact, my youngest boys won't be with the daughter unsupervised. It was trully just that proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I think the thing that has been bothering me the absolute most about the whole thing is that the 12yo girl was using my 5yo son as her comfort, sitting there blubbering all over him. I mean, he's 5 and stuck in a car with them, with her hugging all over him and crying. He can't get away and is a very shy child and not bold enough yet to express that he didn't like that. That just seems extremely creepy to me. I appreciate everyone's input, and as soon as I started reading the responses, the main point, for me, was that I not go and confront the mom over this. It really would be pointless. She is really just trying to keep her head above water most days, and none of my issues would register at all. I feel for her. I pray for her. I'll continue to help her whenever I can. That will be me doing for her and not asking, expecting, or wanting help from her in that manner ever again!!

Hmmm, what do you do? You say "Thank you, Lord, for a child who is such a level-headed leader, so completely unaffected by peer influence, willing to call it like it is." That is the biggest thing I think I'd do, for starters. She's obviously a confident, wonderful girl. Hmmm, so she's not boy-crazy or texting. Those, IMO, are such blessings!!! I don't desire, in the least, for my dd to be like the description of what it would mean to "fit in". As a matter of fact, when she sees it as mindless, I think how happy I am that that part of homeschooling is getting through to her. I'm proud of your dd and I'm not even her mother. ;) BTW, I have a 13yo dd who is slowly and clearly seeing the ridiculousness of pre-teen and teen drama, boy-craziness, the texting addictions that seem to be rampant. She has finally found one friend whose parents feel the same way we do about things and they are a support for one another. Because of this girl, for whatever reason, the things we are standing for and against, are making much more sense to dd. Your dd may not need that type of friendship because she sounds so firm in her own beliefs, but if she does, I pray she finds a comrade. :)

I'm looking for 10yo ds. He is interested in camoflauge bedding. I'm interested in getting him something that is relatively inexpensive so he has the option to change his mind in a couple of years without my having blown a lot of $$ on it. I looked at Cabelas and they have camoflauge, but I'm thinking I'd like to find a place that has some decorative things to go with it. Any cute stuff for little guys would be good too. My 5yo and almost 3yo are sharing a room and I'm looking for new bedding for them...I think I've found what I want at Target, but I'm open. :bigear:

:iagree: completely!! It is a rare thing that anything they say on the View is of any value to me anyway so why would I let this be the start? ;) I'd rather see all homeschoolers blow the thing off than create the type of attention that they are wanting at the View. I mean, really, from what I've seen, backlash IS what they are after. Teresa

I think I need some wisdom in handling a situation and whether I am angrier than I should be. <I just read my whole post, and I am certain I'm not as angry as I should be>. My 5yo and 10yo sons go to Awana. We live about 20 minutes away from where the church where it is located. My 10yo ds has a friend down the block who goes with him. I am typically the one who takes and picks up. The mother of this boy has a history of being unreliable herself and to have an unreliable car, so I have found it simpler to be entirely responsible for the delivery to Awana. My oldest son takes it very seriously and wants to be there on time, so I try to honor that by being the one to take him, ensuring he'll be there at 6:30. This week, the mom purchased a new, reliable car, and told me that to show gratitude to me for all I've done, she'd like to pick the boys up and bring them home so I could go straight home after dropping them off. I said yes. Awana is over at 8:15. 9:20 rolls around and they aren't here yet. Dh said he was getting angry and for me to call. Our history with this woman is that her life is chaos and if we aren't careful, she brings her chaos into our life. I call, and she told me she had just left a friend's home and had accidentally taken the lady's keys and had to take them back to her. Yes, I'm thinking WHY did you go to a friend's house with my children? So she is, at this point, on her way back to the friend's home with the keys. I then told her that I didn't know if she was stopping for fast food but that I did not want my boys to have any because they ate before we left, and it was too late to eat junk. She had been about to buy them some at 9:20 p.m. So I wait and she pulls up in front of my home with the boys at 9:50. with. my. 5yo!!! I didn't go talk to her because I was too angry. If that was all, that would be enough...more than plenty. 10yo ds comes in and seems distracted and a little angry. He calls my 13yo dd to her room so he can talk to her. To preface, this family has a dd that is an on-again, off-again friend with my 13yo dd. I went and told ds that if there was a problem I wanted to know, anything that was upsetting to him. He told me that after Awana, they had gone to pick up the daughter at the daughter's friend's home. The friend came running out crying, telling my children's taxi mom how mean that the daughter had been to her, trying to get some girls at this function they had attended to beat her up, etc., just a bunch of girl drama that did NOT shed a good light on my dd's friend, particularly with my 10yo son...he was furious with her, apparently, after hearing all she had done to this girl. The mom got upset, drama ensued, while my boys are in the back seat listening to it all, and burning up because the car was hot. It all finished up and the friend got in the car, crying, etc., and proceeds to sit beside my 5yo and hold on to him, hugging him, and crying the whole way home, while stopping for fast food (probably 20-30 minutes). My 10yo said she clung to my 5yo like he was her comfort or something. My 5yo said it made him uncomfortable. I just feel furious. There are so many levels here. I know there are problems here, and I should have just stayed with my instinct and not let her take my children home. I know I need firmer boundaries, but should I just confront this mom and let her know how many problems I have with what went on? She has a lot of problems in her life, lots of chaos, lots of hurt. She's a single mom who struggles. T

Great Post!!! I'm looking forward to replies. Cooking is part of my mix here. I'm doing better about decorating than I used to. I need guidance in this area more than I need to offer assistance, so I think I'll just read.

2300. It is just the right size for our family of 6.

I know this isn't the point of the post, but let me just say that you'll make it. You may have done it before. You may never have, but it IS doable, no matter what the naysayers say. ;) That said, nosey people, particularly in the area of educating children, really get under my skin!!! I really think she just doesn't have the social graces yet to know when to close the mouth. If it wasn't this topic, it would certainly be another!

I want to read this book now...or at least give it to my dad who is a huge Louis L'amoure fan. I think it sounds like a great education. We've made some changes in the past 2 years from what we were doing before, even though we are using a curriculum. Just changing to a literature approach has been brought such a change in my children's attitude towards learning. If we weren't so loving what we're doing, I could see taking the approach you're thinking of. My 13yo dd even admitted to me the other day that she feels she learns better writing from reading good authors. She was explaining to her younger brother that his writing would improve if he paid attention to how an author wrote in a certain book he was reading. I never told her that concept...she drew the conclusion on her own. Moving away from textbooks and being more practical just seems to make sense. I hope it goes well for you! :)

I agree 100%!!! I didn't vote for him and it had nothing at all to do with his race. I think people sometimes like to just make blanket assumptions. My ideal presidential candidate this year would have been Condaleeza Rice, but alas it did not happen.

I like what you said. Good points!! I have been signed up for Presidential Prayer Team for a while. This a.m. I received an e-mail from them to sign up for 77 days of prayer for the new president. I have signed us up, and that, combined with our U.S. history studies this year, are ways I'm going to use this election to teach my children. As much as we were rooting for the other guy, this is our new president, and I plan to teach my children to honor the person holding that position.

EXACTLY!! What you said is exactly why that bail-out ticked me off so badly!! The consequences for bad decisions by the liberals were not able to play out fully. Had we backed off and let those consequences come forth, then the truth of those bad decisions would be seen clearly. The govt. is like one of those pitiful moms who mean well but wind up enabling their child their whole life and not holding them accountable for anything!

I am so so sorry. :( I'm praying for you.

Dh and I discussed this last night. Dh said we will, after much prayer, make a decision about moving our 401k money if there is democrat control. Socialism, gotta love it.