Ours was named Cluckmose I. :)

I guess I could almost be called a one-issue voter, since there is one issue I feel so strongly on that it is difficult to consider voting for a candidate opposite me on that issue. In most elections I would not cross that. However, I will take a person who I believe to be a moral human being that would try to act in what they believe to be the best interests of the country, even if I disagree with that candidate on their political views, over an immoral candidate who claims to align with my views.

My funniest one was, "But you won't be able to homeschool her, you'll have a new baby the year she starts school!" From my MIL, when we told her we were planning on homeschooling. Dd1 was only a year old at the time. Apparently MIL had the plans for our future children all mapped out in her mind, 'cause the idea for that spacing sure didn't come from us. (We actually had #4 about when she had planned on our second). :) I get the socialization question a lot, too, but I have the perfect response. "I was socially damaged by my experiences in public school. It took me years of work to get past that. So this concern really doesn't hold weight for me." I discovered a while back that this stops even the most pushy people in their tracks.

Sorry I didn't respond before; I have had an insane week. Thank you for your suggestions. I looked them over and I like the look of MEP, but I don't think he's ready for Reception yet. I'm thinking I'll probably just give it more time, and maybe try MEP next year if it turns out he is color blind.

For preschool, I make sure I have time available to do preschool math and phonics, if the kids want to. (Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1&2 and OPG). I do preschool on demand--but in practice, they generally want to do everything every time. We have hands-on activities, but not the complicated-prep ones that require my full supervision. I have activities ready that I can pull out for them, and they can do while I help an older kid with math or something. Pattern blocks, tanagrams, play dough, letter stamps, very tiny stickers to place on the letters of their names, salt tray for letter tracing, water colors, etc. Activities that both develop their motor skills and concentration and also give me some time to work with sisters. They also usually choose to participate in history, science, art, read-alouds, memory work, etc. My four-year-old has his own binder of history narrations. The ones from when he first demanded to participate are hilarious--"Athens boys had to do school. Sparta boys got to wrestle and fight and use swords and run around outside and play lions!" They also do violin lessons on demand with Mom from the time their arms are long enough for the 1/10th violin until they are at least playing Twinkle and want to start lessons. They only get to start lessons with the teacher if they are willing to practice every school day. And we do once-a-week long term unit studies on a topic that interests them. Last year, it was whales for my ds1. I would trace out scale drawings of the whales, and they would color the whale while I read books about that kind. Then we would cut it out and put it on the wall, and sing a song or watch a David Attenborough nature film if I could find one including that whale. Pretty simple. So really, all three littles are doing a lot of things that could be called preschool, but I only spend about 30-45 minutes per day of my time on dedicated preschool activities.

My youngest is desperate to start his own math book, and begs me for his turn nearly every day. He is the same age/older than my daughters were when they started Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1. We love those books for preschoolers, I have used them for all my older kids and my extra preschooler. It's a great gentle start, with lots of sitting cuddled on Mommy's lap and very little writing. But it also has many questions that require knowing colors. I suspect ds may be color blind, though he is too young for testing. (It runs in my family, and there is a 50% chance I am a carrier.) Can anyone suggest a preschool math book like Mathematical Reasoning that doesn't require being able to identify colors?

We do the DORA and ADAM assessments twice a year. Dd1 jumped eight grade levels in word recognition since the spring, up to 11th grade! I just wanted to tell someone, somewhere.

I am flying out for a funeral on Wednesday, so since tomorrow is the last full school day we will have this week, we need to try to get in some extra work. Plus drive down to the town south of here for music lessons tomorrow afternoon. And pack, and pick up some easy-prep foods for dh and the kids while I'm gone. And figure out what to do about my textbooks that still haven't arrived, and how to do my Wednesday assignment for my class without books! And I need to shear my angora rabbit for the first time, and make her a coat. I would leave it until I get back, but she is in full coat and we are having unseasonably hot weather, so I'm worried about her overheating.

Hmm, would you sign your kid up by age or current level in that subject?

I think it's great that their teacher is looking to individualize the lessons to better help your kids. I think you should encourage her to read the new youth sunday school manual (Come Follow Me) and apply those methods to the lessons for your kids. There are some great resources for youth teachers on how to teach, rather than what, which I think would apply to your kids. Rather than just learning about the stories and how to make good choices, there is a strong focus on identifying underlying doctrine, making connections, considering deeper meaning, and applying what you learn to your life. There are even lists of specific ideas for how to go deeper in these ways. All of these methods could be applied to the lessons for the younger kids. https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/train/introduction?lang=eng https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/learning-teaching-ideas?lang=eng (look at the links down the left hand side of this page) She could also read the adult sunday school lesson on the same scriptures and pull in extra information on the same topic from there where applicable.

Dd1 is reading Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales (Dover Thrift Classics) for assigned reading, Lord of the Rings for family read-aloud, and for free reading: re-reading Little House in the Big Woods, the Secret Garden, D'aulaire's Greek Myths, and Beast Academy Guide over and over again.

We started last week. I think we're nearly past the attitude issues that always come with a schedule change from change-averse dd1. We're off to a good start and things are going well. Though I learned this week that I need to condense our plans for Singapore--dd1 was insulted that I wanted her to do "baby math" after finishing a Beast Academy book, so we went through doing a couple of questions from each section until we found something she didn't already know. Also, I had purchased the workbook for dd2 because last year she seemed to need the work at the basic level before stepping things up with intensive practice (big sister just did intensive practice at that level). Except now she doesn't seem to need that much anymore, it's overkill. I don't think buying the book was a waste though, as we're doing about half of the basic workbook pages before doing the intensive practice. She is being really resistant to working on reading, saying that she can't read. She actually can decode at a pretty high level (once I make her actually look at the words instead of guess) but has no fluency. Hope we can get past this hump soon. Ds1 is going through an explosion right now. My all-boy, goofball, knock-his-head-into-a-wall-to-see-what-happens son. (The one I privately thought was just not as clever as the others, to be honest.) He's demanding phonics and math and violin and every other subject he can get every day, drinking in as much as I will give him. He's beginning to read, all of a sudden. He's beginning to play actual tunes. I don't know if this is just a phase, but if he keeps on like this, he could be at the point of starting Singapore 1 in a month or two. This is the kid with a summer birthday, who I was planning on holding off on calling a Kindergartener until he was a young six instead of young five. (He's four now.) And when he's not begging me for more school, he's still every bit as much of a wild little boy with no apparent common sense--leaping, rolling, fighting, deciding to strip naked and then run into the brambles to pick blackberries.

Yes.

Last time we were visiting my folks, I noticed that the "published by" address inside of the BA books was only a mile from their house. Dd was so excited, we stopped by there, but to her disappointment they said no, we couldn't come in.

Would this work for six- and seven-year-olds, if you took it slow? Do you really have to have the DVDs? If a fluent Spanish speaker used the program, could they do it with just the books? Thanks

Dh is going to take over teaching Spanish. :) He speaks Spanish fluently. He will have one evening per week to give to this. He needs something pretty open-and-go, or maybe something I could prep for him. I know some very basic Spanish, and could do some work with them on other days if it is all laid out for me. My kids know quite a bit of basic vocabulary from things like Salsa, watching movies in Spanish, and picture books, but they can't put words together at all. We are four lessons into The Fun Spanish, and are very underwhelmed by it. The layout seems like a good idea for a parent who doesn't really speak the language, but there have been so many errors in just the first four lessons. My hope is to get the kids to where they can start to put words together, rather than just listen in Spanish. What curriculum do you suggest?

Thank you! I appreciate the encouragement. Those resources and ideas for botany are really helpful, thank you!

Roasted chicken for dinner, but cut off some good portions to save for another night. Those go into something that has chicken as a more minor ingredient (I like to put it in a cilantro/lime/black bean salad). The carcass goes into the crock pot, all the meat falls off and it makes broth. I use those for a chicken noodle soup. So one chicken=three meals for the family.

Where do you live? These times are not typical in the U.S. Prosecutors may give plea-deals if they don't think they have the evidence to succeed in court, or if the parents of the victim really just want closure, and time will be way shorter with a deal. But for a convicted offender, the above is not true. In other countries, yes. Crimes that will get a child molester 30 years here can get five in the U.K. ETA: And while criminals frequently serve way less time than they are actually given, many states have statutes making perpetrators of the worst crimes ineligible for early release.

No. Every time there is discussion of sex offernders' registries, someone brings up this scenario, but these people are not registered. They fall under the Romeo-and-Juliet laws. If someone on the sex offenders' registry tells you this is why, they are lying to you.

But there is a big, big difference in the danger those offenders pose. Pedophilia and statutory rape are two different ball games. Dh has to deal with these people all the time for work. There are far more sickos in this world than I ever would have imagined. Everyone in the US is statistically likely to know at least two undiscovered pedophiles.

Thanks so much, Tibbie. I am tired, and I feel so alone in all this.

I feel like September is hurtling toward us, and I'm scrambling to try to get things together before then. I know my kids' educations are not going badly. They are doing fine, somewhat ahead even. But when I compare what we have done with what my kids are capable of and desiring to do, I know that I am holding them back. Not intentionally, just my incompetence and lack of organization getting in the way. I spent over half of last school year just figuring out how to handle teaching two school-agers plus a preschooler and a little without going through a constant sprint/crash cycle. Then I spent the last month of the school year with a couple of extra littles around most of the time to help a friend in need. I like being casual about what we do when, but I have figured out that my dd1, especially, really does not function well that way. She loves checklists and knowing what is coming next and reliable, unchanging routines. She is also very strong willed, and I finally figured out that some of our clashes can be avoided simply by her knowing on her own what comes next, instead of needing to ask me--a part of her just resents me telling her what to do in general, though I know this is something she has been working on. I am also taking an independent college class at an accelerated pace to work on finishing my degree and trying to find ways to get our little tiny house organized, because right now it's out of control. And working on trying to teach them to do some housework up to a basic standard, as they had seemed to have acquired the mistaken impression that there was maid service in our home. And still doing school several days a week, as well, because I am not willing to go through the month of suffering it took to get the kids back in the habit of doing school after taking time off last summer. I'm trying to work with my own tendencies to work really intensely on one thing for a time (dh calls it bulldog mode), and then let things go after a while. I want to get everything printed and prepped and organized beforehand to make things as open-and-go as possible, so it will be low-maintenance to keep going with school subjects when things start to drag midway through the year. I made a binder for each girl to hold six weeks of schoolwork with dividers to separate weeks, with the intention of having everything they need in there for that week plus a checklist with stickers to mark what's done, so they can see what they need to do each week. I figure we can take off a week, or two if we need to catch up on things, in between sets of six weeks. I'm planning on putting future weeks' papers into a separate binder so I can switch them over to the kids' binders as needed. I'm building the six week checklists in excel for the year, but I will print them one at a time when switching the new papers over so I can make changes then as needed. I don't know how to put math into the checklist for my girls. I don't know how to guess how quickly they will move through it or what copies will be needed when. Maybe just "work diligently for x time"? Doesn't help with the copies issue, but it would give them something to check off. What length of time is reasonable for a 7.5-year-old and a 5.75-year-old? Dd1 really wants to go deeper with Latin and start Greek. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I am thinking of just giving her the Big Book of Lively Latin and Song School Greek + Greek Alphabet Code Cracker and providing time for her to work on them independently. Is this unreasonable for a seven-year-old? I need to plan preschool for ds1. I need to figure out some more schooltime toys/activities to keep the littles occupied. I need to work out something so dd2 can learn more about her special interest. (It's just a lot harder for me than the other kids'. Whales, myths, dead languages, cool! Plants? Plants for a five-year-old who doesn't have the confidence to read much independently yet? Except for a couple of short Ruth Heller books, I'm at a loss.) I'm almost done ordering curriculum, but need to start looking for good prices on reading books and other items. My earlier plan for Spanish is not going to work. I need to scrap it and try again. My husband's work schedule just changed, so I need to contact the other moms in my little Friday group and try to reschedule. I need to work out what outside activities we can manage for the Fall and sign up. I am thinking about putting together a local science fair this year, and if I do, I will need to contact the local school superintendent before too much longer. Of course, they just told us dh might lose his job at the end of the year, depending on local election results. And the friends whose girls I watched in the Spring are coming back this next week, and if they are still wanting to pay me to watch/preschool them, I will need to seriously consider it because of the financial benefit. They're sweet kids and I like them, but it's just more to juggle. I'm not losing it, however it may sound in this post. I'm doing well in my class. The kids are doing well and enjoying learning. I am making myself make time to take them to do fun summer stuff, so they don't miss it. I am making progress on my school planning. My plates are still spinning alright. I'm just tired of being in charge of making everything happen.

Before our gym closed a few months ago, it was $133/ month for dd1 (= about $5.50 per hour) and $53/ month for dd2 (= about $13 per hour).

I've actually never had to think much about clothes for the kids before the last year or two. Dd1 is the first girl in my family since me, and we were given so many little girl clothes by family members + hand-me-downs from a friend that there was very little I needed to purchase. My older sister gave me hand-me-downs for the boys for the first few years, basically sizes up until her boys were spending a lot more time outdoors and were wearing all their clothes completely out by the time they were done with them. There is no clothes shopping here, we have to plan ahead to purchase things on a trip out of town. (Not even a thrift store with kids' stuff.) This past year, by the time I realize that someone needs something, we are in a position of having to make do without it for a month or two before there is a chance to buy it, and heaven help me if I forget or their size is out when we make the trip. So really, I'm just wanting to be organized and plan ahead. That way I can make a list of what we have in different sizes and what we are still looking for, and purchase ahead of time when I see something for a good price instead of after I notice something has gotten too tight. I'm not looking to change the way I do laundry, but I'd like them to have enough that it won't be a problem if I have a busy week and get behind on the wash, or it's a mud week and they all go through extra changes. Also, right now it's church shoes or play shoes, and it's a huge pain when we're trying to head out the door and someone has misplaced their shoes.