My oldest is 19 and has worked at her job (her very first one) for almost a year. She has been saving some of her check each week to put towards a car. She pays for her portion of the car insurance, cell phone bills, and gas. She has a checking account and a savings account and knows how to transfer money from one to the other. I helped her set up Paypal so that's how she pays us for car ins and cell phone. She is not responsible for her own groceries. She is, however, responsible for any expenses/wants outside what we might do as a family. For example, hair cuts/color, clothes, grabbing a bite to eat on her way home from work, "fun" spending. There are times she has her siblings with her (ie. after church) and they stop for food. In those cases I pay her back what she spent since I don't want her to be responsible for feeding the other three (unless she does it as her treat). My second is 17 and has been working a couple shifts a week since December. She has been saving about 70% of her check for car/college so she has the rest to do as she wishes. She's hoping for some more work hours so that she can get her driver's license because she'll have to pay for her portion of the car insurance. Like her sister, she is responsible for any expenses/wants outside things we do as a family. We give neither of them spending money. If big unexpected things come up (ie. oldest needed some dental work done and we helped her with that), we pitch in as much as we can. They are old enough to start being responsible for their income.

My second daughter graduated this year...a year early and with 15h of concurrent classes done at our community college!! She'll be attending the CC in the Fall. Her plan right now is to complete 48h there that are required to be eligible for a honors transfer scholarship at the university she hopes to attend.

My 11yo son (7th grade) is expressing interest in studying a bit of entomology this coming year. If you have taught this in the past, what resources do you have to share?

Yes, I do. I want something that uses actual books. I want him reading actual books. I completely forgot Memoria Press has literature guides. That might be exactly what I'm looking for!!!

This past year we did LL7. A bit above his grade-level but he's a good reader so I gave it a try. The writing and other assignments (he did the comp questions) were a little much so I just focused on the reading. I'm not sure what to use this coming year. He does like to read but he's really picky. However, if it's in the curriculum and I say, "Read this...and do this lesson." he will. Even though he does like to read, he'll tell you that he does not like the library (a huge change after three girls who adored going to the library every week!!). I would really like something that has comprehension questions, activities to engage his response, short writing assignments perhaps, etc. More than just me giving him a book list. I have considered putting together a book list with books that have units available on TPT but I'm wondering what options are out there besides LL, LLATL, and OM.

I've been contemplating this over the last few days as I've been doing some curriculum research and planning. This. This the core of what I'm feeling. My oldest wanted to learn violin and we either didn't have the money for lessons or I didn't know where to reach out for lessons (I played for *years* but I'm a horrible music teacher). My 14yo wants to learn and now we have money for lessons and I've found an amazing teacher. I am feeling a lot of guilt that one daughter is going to get an experience my oldest wanted. I'm looking to switch science curriculum for Biology for my other two. I know my first two didn't really care for Apologia but the ease of it kept me going with it so I never really looked to switch. It's the huge shift in only having two but also that their Middle School and High School years are going to look different. I know I shouldn't feel guilty...but I do (INFJ..lol). But I'll get over it. ;)

August. But only because I was pregnant and we needed to get married or I would have been kicked out of college (yep...really). We planned our wedding in six weeks. We celebrate our 20th this year. :001_wub:

We did a couple years ago. I put together a syllabus on my own (I'm not an art history person so if it's quite accurate...oh well...we had fun anyway). Then I found art projects on Pinterest. Some of the projects reflected the time period or artist for that week but it wasn't always easy to do that so if I couldn't find one, we just did a fun art project. I'm happy to share the syllabus I made. I tried uploading it but it won't let me.

Thanks! We'll do most of our "outdoors" things while we are on the coast near Portland. Then our plan is to do more "touristy" things in either Portland or Seattle....right now Seattle sounds like it has more to offer.

Oh yes, I am enjoying it! I'm able to focus a little more on my businesses (like actually go to my office and work without feeling like I need to be here for every minute of their lesson time). But it's still so odd.

Yes. LOL! The first part of our trip will probably be a cabin near the coast a couple hours from Portland for a couple days. We're trying to decide if we want to go into the city for the remainder of our stay and do stuff or take a train up to Seattle for that time and do stuff. So those first few days we'll probably be doing some hiking, walking the beach, etc. What we do in Seattle would depend on what there is to choose from in the time we have before heading home.

Thanks prairie!!!! That's what I'm looking for...actual suggestions on what to do and WHY one would pick one city over the other. No kids. Just me and hubby.

I have absolutely no desire to be involved in a co-op. Zero. BTDT...our worst year. I don't need to bring structure, that's easy. It's just so odd not having all four of them...hard to explain.

Edited my post..... Whichever is your preference...what should we not miss? Where should we visit? Any local restaurants/food trucks you recommend (not places you can find in every other city)?

If you had 2.5 days to explore, which city would you chose? Why? What are things we should do/see? Local places to eat? And I'd love any "eat here!!" suggestions for either city!! We love finding local places!

I was hesitant to watch it because I didn't want to see them mess up the Anne I grew up knowing and loving. But I am enjoying is so far. I like the spin on Anne's past.

Did anyone else feel like this or similar?? My oldest graduated last May so this year I had three to school. However, my second daughter did most of her coursework this year concurrent thru the CC so I was really just schooling two. She graduated last week. So this coming Fall I will just have the two to school and I feel SO lost! You would think it would be easier..lol..but when I think about curriculum planning for Fall I just go around in circles in my head. What the heck!?!?! No real question(s) or suggestions needed. Just wondering if anyone else out there went through this.

I'm getting ready to school a boy through middle school after three girls. I'm scared. :lol:

People get C-RAZY when you start talking pregnancy and birth. Especially if it's something out of the "norm" (whatever that is..lol). I LOVE my seasoned mama clients!! And my VBAC clients!! :wub:

I'm in a similar situation with my second daughter. She *really* wants to get a job but the thought right now is very overwhelming. My oldest daughter (18) just got her first job two weeks ago working at a locally owned restaurant. We have two cars and she uses one to get to-from work. My second daughter (16) really wants a job to start saving money for college. I want to encourage her to do this but logistically I can't see how it will work. My job is such that I have to be available at a moments notice, need a car available 24/7, and I can't leave if I'm working and she needs a ride to or from work. My husband doesn't drive (vision issues) so I'm his transportation at times, especially in the Fall. She really needs to have her license AND we need a third vehicle (one is paid for thankfully). And I don't see either of those happening until maybe the first of the year. She's starting concurrent classes this Fall so, like your third point, I'd like to see her ease into this new schedule without having a job on top of it all. She'll be disappointed when we have this conversation but *shrug*.

This is what he wants to do for science this coming year. Any curriculum out there specific to this? I don't want anything overly Christian. He's ready for PreAlgebra so a little over grade level may work for him. ETA: After digging around a bit, I think we'll do Physics.

People considering fostering really need to hear this stuff. Usually the workers won't be completely open & honest with interested parents, especially if they are in need of homes and want to recruit new families. My mom has been a foster parent for a little over 20 years. I know two families (one a single mom and the other a young family with a baby and a toddler) considering fostering. From the posts I've seen from them, they think it's all sunshine. rainbows, and unicorns. They have no idea what behaviors they may see and what they may expose their child(ren) to. One family chatted with my mom a bit for info/advice and told her they would just lock their own children in their room at night to protect them. :scared: It's definitely not something to go into with blinders on.

All good here just SE of Tulsa. Just really, really wet. Tornado about 2.5m from our house last Saturday that we got some heavy winds from. That's about as exciting as it's gotten near us thankfully.

The work I do now will be the work I continue to do until I am physically unable.

Baby catchin'. ;) Plus all the things midwifery entails. Other things people IRL have asked my advice or commented about my knowledge (even though I don't feel like I'm really an expert at some of these, they are just things I really enjoy and do often with some sort of skill): Knitting/Crochet EOs Baking Gardening Schooling the kiddo's Writing/putting together my own units/lesson plans