Interruptions and putting out fires. It seemed like we were swimming uphill all year and always behind. All year I've struggled with a good routine and a quiet week of focusing on schoolwork but we've been plagued with outside appointments, emergencies, interruptions, and then dual credit courses that just suck the life and energy out of the house even though only one child is taking one class each semester. I miss those younger years where we scheduled a couple days a week to not leave the house and we would get things done in a relaxed way.

New to me--Bullet journals (although I discovered it in Sept of 2016), it really helped me to organize my time and thoughts this year 3 words--"Bright, positive and happy" were my words of the year and I found that it was a great focus and kept me inputting things that kept me positive and in a good mood rather than being run down by how busy it was. Favorite memory--Teaching my youngest daughter how to sew her own clothes so she could finally have the clothes she wanted to wear.

I survived. It was a super-busy year with lots of interruptions from life.

We'll be doing 10/11th grade for my youngest and last student. 90% of her work will be at home with only violin and possibly a foreign language class or science outside of the home. I know so far we will be doing: American History American Literature Music Art Math (algebra) Science (not sure) Korean (at home) or Japanese (if the co-op offers it)

My daughter's priorities: 1. variety of foreign languages (preferably Eastern European) 2. study abroad options We've done one college tour because it's the only one in our state that has these. It's a beautiful campus but so big and sports-oriented but I think she'd find that of any school that offers languages beyond the big 3 (French, Spanish & German). Luckily it's a state school and she will hopefully get a decent amount of financial aid.

It really depends. Is it a fancy restaurant or fast food or something in-between? Fancy restaurant, probably rude unless the person is wearing a hat because of some sort of social anxiety or other problem that might be going on. My daughter used hats for years to help her cope with social anxiety. I can see children on the spectrum needing a hat for reasons. Lots of reasons out there for why someone would need or want to wear a hat.

Next year, I'll be down to one. We have a new co-op in town that I hope makes it and we are thinking of becoming involved with but right now we're waiting to see if they'll be offering Japanese for the spring semester this academic year. Only thing I know we need to do for sure next year is American lit & history.

With the first I found potatoes (french fries mostly), nuts and pretzels were about all I could eat there for a long time. With the second there was more variety because I got on medication sooner and I discovered Italian ice. It kept liquid in me but not so much at a time that I got sick on it like anything else. Good luck and I hope it passes soon and you don't have hyperemesis which is what I had.

Books especially library books are a bit part of this for us. We spend a lot of time following rabbit trails. In the early years it looked like this: lots of time outdoors playing and exploring, digging and running, painting, drawing, playing with clay, baking, singing, dancing, talking, reading books, when a child got interested in something we would check out all the books on that topic and read and explore until we felt like it was enough. Every where we went, everyone we talked to was a learning experience and the lesson was life. Not everything is about textbook knowledge but there are lots of lessons to be learned in the early years about helping, making friends, cooperation, mercy, hope, etc. Even the movies and television shows we watched always had a lesson to be learned. But we never did anything overly preachy, I did everything with a subtle hand. Later on: lapbooks, lots of library books, still drawing, still watching quality TV and movies, still doing most of those things but more books. In High school: We are doing some outsourcing for things like languages, math and art history (mostly online) but we still do the bulk of our studies with the library. My oldest is a senior and interested in Northern and Eastern Europe so she's reading their children's and teen literature (basically a list I came up with after asking friends who lived in that area and what we can track down), my youngest has a college textbook she reads in addition to library books both non-fiction and fiction on Asian history, we have plans that hit all the checklists for college but we spend a lot of time still exploring their interests through books and sometimes old texts that we find. We did do a co-op for about 3 years but never more than 2 or 3 classes and often just 1 was enough. We found that there was a large amount of busywork involved in these classes as well as time commitments and one of our main goals in homeschooling was the fact that we wanted the freedom to learn on our own schedule. Good luck to all the newbies that choose this path. It's not easy, you do second guess yourself a lot but it's worth it. I mean my daughter's current events and politics class is mainly just her and I have regular chats about things that are going on in the world and having conversation and debate about why things happened and what people can do and where does the world go from there, or what happens next, etc. With old-school homeschooling, you do end up having very close relationships with your children if you learn how to listen to them and be their mentor on the path that they choose in life.

Just a few more years left for me and I'm looking forward to focusing on myself and my hubby who is close to retirement. I plan on spending a few years working on the family history then it's all about my projects.

We're handing out candy this year instead of trick-or-treating. We're decorating everything cute and spooky with lots of cats and bats. My oldest is going as Verka Surducha From the Eurovision performance in 2007 which means she'll be dressed a bit like the Tin-man. Youngest is sewing a Lolita style dress in black & purple with a cat theme. It's really cute the sleeves on the top are huge bell sleeves that took about 1/2 a yard of fabric each. And so much ribbon and lace and ruffles. We're looking forward to it.

This is pretty much what ours does as well but recycling is only picked up every other week. And once a month you can put out random stuff & they will come by and get it. Like large items or brush.

It's a frowned upon behavior in the city where I live. All restaurants, public places and parks are non-smoking.

They told me mine but I was in labor so I was more concerned about other things than that. Both my parents are type O so I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be any different.

Update: We do have chipmunks again. Also lots of bunnies and a possum that we named Roxy because she's got that sort of punk rock hair-do but she's cute as a button.

Using Mango free from the library. Korean from Zero book and also Learning Korean with a Smile (a book about Hangeul) And then we are also watching Korean dramas and variety shows because watching people actually speak the language is a great way to pick up pronunciation and vocabulary. And we also refer to the Talk to Me in Korean videos. We just started and are working on basic vocabulary & the alphabet although I've been learning through osmosis for several years now.

All the women around me usually had hair and make-up done up while I was growing up and it seemed to be a big thing with most of the girls I knew. I'm allergic so no make-up for me. Whenever I would put anything on the top layer of skin would peel off--eyeshadow, lipstick, face powder, etc. So I have a bare face and usually keep my hair in a messy bun or long. When I dress up I will wear a fancy hair accessory usually bead or quill-work that I picked up in the 90's.

I use mayo and mustard and pickle relish. It gives it a nice sweet & tangy flavor with the creaminess of mayo.

I'm the other. I have periods or moods for music. At work we listen to 80s mostly. If you hit the top 10 most played songs on my playlist it would be all Seventeen's songs because they make me happy and feel good about life. But my playlist includes a lot of Hawaiian music, classic Rock, The Cure and No Doubt. In my younger years, every time I looked up a band I liked it tended towards Ska Punk. I also really enjoy Big Band, shows tunes of the classic period of Hollywood, bluegrass and outlaw country music. But I also like folk music, protest music and Kpop (certain songs & groups) and there's even a Mandopop group that I love. Oh and I have some stuff from Thailand and Singapore on my playlist too.

She knows where she'd like to go but she's hoping to have a gap year as an exchange student then come home work for a year and apply during that period. It's really the only school around that would have classes for her interests.

A lot of kids don't at that age. My oldest didn't but suddenly during 10th grade she discovered geography and languages and started listening to a lot of youtube music videos in various language like comparing sounds and things. And now she wants to major in linguistics and teach English overseas. So something small like Japan could branch off into any sort of interest. Just let him take the lead and do it on his own. But keep feeding him resources. He'll find something soon.

Things I do when I look at what to have them take is "What is my child interested in studying?" "What do they spend most of their time doing on their own?" "What is really catching their interest and how can I count it as a class?"

Literature: Korean and Chinese Folk Tales and literature Art/composition: Working on her graphic novel History: East Asia Math: Geometry through art and then numbers (little Wooden books to start with and then Khanacademy) Science: Anatomy through art both human and animal Korean: Korean from Zero and Mango and dramas and music Violin: group and private lessons and youth orchestra (hope to add in music theory) Art History: Khanacademy I think that's it. She wants to be an artist but have music as her back-up. If she goes to college she says it will be for music so we're prepping her for that while she works on her art. Next year we have to do the "American" year and do all that history and literature.

When my oldest was in grade school, she loved robots and we decided to join a Lego-robotics team for homeschoolers that was starting up in our area. We were asked to leave because they wanted it to be a boys-only club. It took her until her junior year in high school before she was willing to try again and loved it. But then this robotics team was run by the local college. So yes, we have heard that girls aren't supposed to be doing math and science. Also got this message from the Chemistry Co-op teacher.

I was 24 when my younger brother was born. I was out of the house and already married with a teenage step-daughter of my own. I am the oldest, I have a sister 2 years younger than me that I have never met and have talked to a handful of times on the phone. Our relationship is not close and growing up he found my house to be boring and so would do other things rather than come here to visit and he spent holidays with his mom so he's closer to her family. We see each other maybe once or twice a year and he is often in a hurry. Basically we have no relationship. It's sad because I always wanted a little brother but he came into my life too late for us to have any sort of closeness.