Yup. Peoples reasons for hating Camilla and loving Diana are so strange. They'll call Camilla an adulterer but ignore Diana's lovers. They'll call Diana loving and warm, but completely ignore all the charity work and times Camilla has been with the people, smiling and getting along. And my BIGGEST pet peeve is all the talk of "Diana was sooo beautiful and Camilla looks like a horse/dog!" Seriously. It's so petty to be judging a person's worth on how attractive you find them to be.

Yeah, a co-op would be great. Unfortunately, the one that exists here is so expensive I cannot afford it. And a lot of people here don't want others teaching their kids. A lot of their kids are ND or have learning concerns and they don't want to outsource. So what you have is a bunch of families trying to schedule events and social outings, but people bail.

If class sizes were smaller and kids were grouped more on their general skills rather than just their age, I think I'd feel much better about public school. My friend just sent her two kids back to PS and their classmates are learning things that should have been covered 2 grades ago. Basically, 2 years of learning loss from the pandemic, in a system where the academic standards weren't so impressive to begin with. Having smaller class sizes would also allow the teachers to give more attention where needed, whether that's with explanation, or correcting behaviour. (Having parents who care about their kids education helps a ton too, I know.)

I have been able to connect with 3 other families, however, one has sent her kids to school this past year. We still meet up once a month or so, so the kids can play. The other 2 are still homeschooling but while they will come to things that we plan, it's finding a date that works for all of us. All our kids are in different activities with conflicting schedules. So while we do meet, its a bit sporadic. I feel like my son is wanting that kind of deeper connection you get when you see the same people often. Maybe not every day like at school, but even 1-3 times a week, in an unstructured environment. I've suggested looking into an app like FB Messenger so the kids could chat more frequently but still have their conversation monitored, but everyone is really against tech around here. My son's main interest is video games and even that gets a lot of comments from the HS community. *shrug*

This speaks to me. We're in our 3rd year of homeschooling my only child, and I am so burnt out when it comes to "begging" people to get together socially. I live in a city of 800K, and there's about 3,000 - 4,000 homeschooling families either in the city, or within a 1 hour drive from the city. Trying to organize events or ask for any sort of commitment from homeschoolers is like herding cats. People agree and then flake. My soon to be 10 year old is needing more interaction with peers, and I am considering sending him to PS for grade 5 next year. I know that it will be terrible for him academically, but will be helpful in all the other ways you mention. I just can't help thinking - isn't the reason why we send kids to school is to LEARN??? He learns 10x more at home, but I feel so emotionally drained from trying to orchestrate social gatherings that end up feeling so flat. Thank you for your post. It's helping me process my own situation.

I was/am exactly like this, and I've never really gotten over it. Night time itself isn't an issue, I can hang around the house in the dark no problem. But as soon as it is time for me to go to sleep, I just can't. All of these bad, creepy, scary images keep flooding my mind. I was never into scary movies, I even avoid listening or seeing the previews for scary movies. (Imagine an adult with eyes closed and fingers in her ears at a the movie theatre when the previews came on. Embarrassing. But any image would linger in my mind for weeks and weeks.) There was a point in time, probably between the ages of 20-23 when I did manage to sleep in my bedroom alone, but then at 24 I loved in with my now husband, so... yeah. Right back to being scared. A few months ago my husband caught covid and was isolated in the basement. I invited my 9 year old to have a "sleep over" with me. He thought it was great fun, I was just so thankful to be able to get a good night sleep that week. I don't really have any suggestions, other than some source of dim light in the room, and lots of pillows. A heavier blanket can give the illusion that someone is near you.

SAME. Growing up, it used to give me anxiety whenever my younger brother used to have friends over. I would hide in my room just to avoid them. As my 9 year old is getting older and wanting to have people over, I'm trying my best to deal with my anxiety. It helps to have notice before anyone is coming over so I can clean the house, put things away, close and lock doors, etc. Helps with my anxiety about people poking around in my home. My nephew (20) just stopped by yesterday for a visit with my son, and I felt like I couldn't relax the whole time. I wanted to chill in my pjs and read a book or crochet on the couch, but I felt like I needed to be "on" and be a "good host".

Quidnam Press is having 20% off all Modern Classical curriculum, Nov 21 - Nov 28. https://quidnampress.com Sale advertised on FB.

Very very weird, and if I were in the wife's position, I would definitely be on guard about it. I don't even know how the female director could even claim this to be an innocent gesture. Even if she gave everyone in the company the same pair of underwear - its still super weird and inappropriate.

SOTW Middle Ages is not going as well as Ancients did. We got to chapter 11 and now it feels like a real slog. I've been looking at the Core Knowledge History Units and this week we're going to try Vikings and see how it goes. I'm hoping the colourful student readers will be a bit more interesting.

Ah, gotcha. That was not the case here in Canada.

As a Canadian, we've had legalized cannabis use for about 4 years now. One amazing benefit is that now, there are all these options to get high quality cannabis products that contain minimal amounts of THC, or no THC at all. My husband suffers from severe anxiety. In the past, it was so bad that he could not leave his bedroom for months, and ended up losing his job. He's been on anti-anxiety meds for a long time, but he was still needing to take Lorazepam often for panic attacks. We did our research and were able to easily buy some soft capsules that are high in CBD, and have no THC. Before legalization, this stuff would only be available to cancer patients. It's been helping my husband immensely. There will always be those who abuse a substance, just like those who abuse alcohol. Cannabis has always been easy to find for those looking for it. But now, you know what you are getting. You know the dosage, you know that it's safe.

I just downloaded this app and it looks wonderful!!! Thanks for sharing this! I'm hoping it will help remove some of the current to-do list that runs in the background of my mind constantly.

We are entering our 3rd year and I've finally hit my stride on the schooling part. I have all this free time that used to be filled with panicked researching about curriculum and teaching methods. Now that I know what I'm doing, I feel like I can actually relax a bit. I love homeschooling. I love the time I get to spend with my son, that I get to help him and we learn together. But I wish it was easier to find people out there to meet up with. It takes so much effort to plan an event, and then 90% of people bail. It's disheartening. So I hate the fact that I feel like I have to try so hard and worry so much about finding my child social outlets, when most parents just send their kids to school or let the siblings play together.

This was exactly my SIL. She passed away last month, rather unexpectedly. She'd been battling cancer for 2 year and then caught covid. Her husband tried asking her once what she would want if things took a turn, but she said she didn't want to talk about it. She was only 47 years old and because she made no plans, her husband and two kids made a lot of big decisions in a state of grief. Its been a lot on the whole family.