Yes, I would. My son at that age was riding a mile or so to our small town downtown and to the pool. I figured in 3 years, he could get into a CAR and leave the house, so I should get used to him traveling distances away from me without me knowing what he is doing 24/7.

I had a friend fall on the property belonging to a church in which I was staying in due to ice. She broke her ankle in multiple places. She was on medicaid at the time. Months later, I was in Texas serving as a missionary and got a letter stating that I was being sued for medical expenses. Apparently, medicaid didn't want to pay, so people suggested she sue the church for reimbursement. The church's insurance felt like they shouldn't pay either, so they went after me, who had no money, and the janitor of the church who also had no money. I'm not sure what happened because I had to get a pro-bono lawyer who basically told them, this woman has no money and currently has no way of getting any more so leave her alone. This is why I will never state where my family or I have had accidents.

Ditto on the solutions manual. And the bonus part of that one for Advanced Mathematics is that the problems have which lesson they came from which was not included in the textbook (for some random reason- why?!?!).

My problem isn't so much on me not being able to figure out the lessons, it's time. So, ds will tell me he needs me to teach him his math lesson. So, due to time constraints in my life, the first time I look at the lesson is the time I am to teach it. It will take me 5-10 minutes to figure out what they're asking him to do and to figure out how to teach that best. Then I teach him the lesson. Then what usually happens is another kid needs me or is interrupting. By this time, my 14 year old "sweety" is annoyed that I can't just get to it right away and gets frustrated. Then, we proceed with a flustered me and an annoyed teenager. Not the best combo. The other situation is that he likes to do some stuff after dinner. After dinner, I.am.done. I have no brain cells or motivation to do anything educational, much less try to figure out advanced math. So, it would be nice to take me out of the teaching job all together.

I am looking for a program to help teach my ds Saxon Advanced Mathematics. I can teach him the material, but he really likes to be independent and it's good to have an additional view. This will be his second round with this program since he is on the younger side for this and I want it really solid. Which is better? Art Reed or the Saxon Teacher? Beth

I have tried generic for my Brother laser printer off and on and I'm ALWAYS disappointed. They don't last as long and usually when I take it out to shake the remaining ink left in the generic cartridge, I have ink all over the place. I just buy the original. $50 for a year's worth of printing is not that bad. I get mine off of Amazon.

Here's my peeve. Our local Target has special offers of something like, "20% off when you scan this code" with one of those square scan codes on the sign (I can't think of the name of those things right now). It automatically assumes you have a smart phone with internet access. EVERYONE does right?!?! Nope, not me. I find that very presumptuous. I just tell the cashier I would like the 20% off and that I don't have a smart phone but would not like to be discriminated against due to that fact. I get the discount no problem, but just another way to track customers.

We had this very situation play out in our lives. We were wanting to move and dh had lost his job, so it was a good time to do so. The place where my family lives sounds very familiar (Illinois?!). We figured that if we were to move closer to my large extended family, we would be able to have a relationship with my family, but we would struggle to maintain our living standard with a salary twice what my dh was making when he lost his job. TWICE! Over $100K would be eaten up with everything you described above. We would have been worse off with double the salary. We couldn't put our family in that type of long term financial hardship. We were looking at $250K houses with $5-8K JUST in property taxes not to mention the whole slew of additional state taxes that were added to gas, electricity, food, clothing, etc. A lot of a 6 figure salary for us would have gone to taxes and the increased cost of living with me still having to pinch pennies. We would up moving 1000 miles away because we had better job opportunities and my dh could continue to take care of his family. It is a definite mourning for what we would LOVE to have, but the financial piece just doesn't make any sense. I have NO IDEA why they stay. Each of my siblings are struggling financially (except for the one who has no kids and both spouses work full time).

I have a friend who has hashimotos and decided to go gluten free based on research she had done. She was taking thyroid medication and a year or so after going gluten free, her thyroid levels are normal without any thyroid medication. There is some thought out there that gluten can mimic thyroid hormones in certain people. Once my life gets a little less crazy, I am going gluten free to see if that helps with thyroid nodules. I did do it for about 3 months for a while and a lot of random symptoms that don't seem like they would be related (skin issues, feeling my thyroid nodules more pronounced, PMS) went away at the same time. I say going gluten free is worth a try. It really doesn't hurt anything.

I plan on making sure the history and readers get read by my son. The read alouds I will try to do on schedule, but if it gets to be too long, I will just adjust. I did get Core E. I did Sonlight years ago when my 14 year old was turning 6. It was a good year, but I realized very quickly with him, that he was a wiggly kid and couldn't sit for longer readings. Also, I didn't want to do two cores and my next child was 4 years later. So, I get to do this with my two youngest who are 2 1/2 years apart.

Anyone have a review for me?

We use Republic Wireless. You buy their phone and can sign up for a month by month plan for about $15 a month unlimited talk and text. It runs off of a wifi network when it can and uses Sprint otherwise.

They have snow here, but it melts within a couple of days or so I'm told. I guess people's definition of cold winter is relative. For us, cold winter means not being able to let the kids go outside because they will literally freeze their face within 20 minutes of exposure, never seeing snow melt from November to March, and pausing at stop signs if there is no one else there because you really don't know if you're going to be able to stop or get going again because of ice. My kids never got the play in snow experience of making snow men or throwing snow balls because it was too cold to pack snow most of the time. They made forts out of snow blocks they cut from the frozen mass. We left that kind of cold winter. YAY! Snow can visit every once in a while, but it just won't stick around. And, a snow covered Pike's Peak is always a nice sight.

This charter homeschool also does standardized testing. It is law anyway that we have to do testing on the odd school years in Colorado. The test scores are mailed to the parent and the parent is responsible to send them to the proper place for safe-keeping. I am used to doing this in Minnesota every year anyway AND paying for it. Now, I don't have to pay for that either!

Yes, that was the big question after she started loading my sheet with my curriculum order. "Who pays for this?!?!" The state of Colorado. I know there are a lot of people who suggest you not let the public school get involved in any way financially with homeschoolers because they will eventually regulated homeschoolers more. In my way of thinking, it's not money that goes to homeschoolers that will cost us more regulation, it's the non-schoolers that seem to get themselves in the media limelight. There are those that go to these charter schools that count this one day enrichment as their whole school week. Then they wonder why, when they go to enroll their kids in the public school, that they are considered a year behind. :banghead: .

We recently moved 1000 miles away because #1, we were sick of icy Minnesota winters, and #2, my husband was unemployed and didn't want to continue commuting over an hour one way in icy Minnesota winters. We also were in a small town and I really needed some sort of change in our homeschool routine to make room for me to breathe a little. We are now living 20 minutes from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Last week, I signed my two youngest up at a charter school that has a one day a week homeschool academy on the side. They will get taught art history/art, music theory, IEW writing, do a messy science lab, and get a PE that teaches skills. My 5th grader will be taught how to write and present a research paper. After the director showed me around, she got out a form and asked me what I was using for next year. So, I told her and she asked if I had it already or needed it. Basically, she is ordering all the non-religious curriculum for us for the next year! An almost complete Sonlight core (without the TM which I am getting used anyway), handwriting workbooks, All About Spelling, an IEW workbook for my son, and math workbooks for my daughter. I am sitting there like this: :ohmy: And the best part? I pay a $10 lab fee for each kid and bring two reams of paper. The other best part? I can volunteer, but I DON'T HAVE TO SIT THERE ALL DAY! It's the classical education electives I was never able to get to and I can have a day to breathe. It's not a fluffy co-op where they're teaching fluffy fun stuff to say our kids are being socialized, it's really helping me to homeschool. I am looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

We have a Garmin. I call her Sylvia. She helps me get everywhere I want to go and has only steered me wrong once (which was a high school that changed locations and never got entered correctly somehow). So, if you're lost, and you call your GPS Sylvia, and your 14 year old has turned off the GPS, you start screaming, "Turn her on! Turn her on!" because you're getting miserably lost in heavy traffic. To which your 14 year old gets all red and then after a minute or so of that, you realize what you were saying and promptly stop. Still - Sylvia. My GPS is my friend.

Are Ikea chairs and couches comfortable? I like a firm seat with a decent cushion. I don't like sinking into a chair . I also don't want the thing to fall apart in less than 5 years. I'm asking because the nearest IKEA is over an hour away. Thanks!

I have a "formal" living room connected to a "formal" dining room. We have put a rustic table into the dining room that we will use for homeschooling. In true homeschool fashion, I have lined one wall of the "formal" living room with two pretty substantial bookshelves. There is room for a small couch and comfy chair. I really don't want to spend a ton of money for what I really just want to be a cozy reading room. I thought about putting two papasan chairs there and being done, but I do want it to be "pretty" also. I'd kinda like a space for myself also that stays relatively clean - away from kid clutter. Anyone smarter than me in the decorating world have any ideas? We have bought a sectional couch and dining table off of craigs list, but finding a couch that isn't totally beat up or really dark is proving elusive. Help?

I am noticing that my younger two are really needing a love of books. I want them to enjoy reading books that don't include comic books. I have done Tapestry of Grace and Heart of Dakota with both and now am looking for a literature rich curriculum. History through stories mostly. Tapestry of Grace has great books, but not enough literature. Same with Heart of Dakota. Should I just break down and get Sonlight? I would combine my 8 and 11 year old in the read alouds and have my 11 year old do the history reading and readers himself. Beth

My guess is that they tie funding to attendance because either there is a general distrust of parents in general or there are enough parents who don't value education enough and have wrecked it for all. I have kept my oldest special needs son at home when he has had a bad cold. Let's just say he doesn't know how to use a kleenex and when he sneezes it's really not a pretty thing. The teacher and aids have thanked me for the consideration. I do think it's sad that the good parents can't use good judgement and just keep a sick child home.

My husband went to a Youth With a Mission school with one or both of them so one of their faith beginnings was with YWAM.

And then you get those who bought the "affordable" health insurance with the $15,000 deductible which means you're paying the whole doctor bill which last time I saw was over $150. In some families, that's an entire week of groceries all so that you can avoid having the school district get you in trouble with the police. Maybe some of these schools should have the paid school nurse have a side clinic where she approves all the sick children instead of the very expensive doctor. As a bonus, if she feels they are not sick, then off to school with you! Now that makes more sense and would make the school still feel like they have control which is what they seem to want.

My friend decided to homeschool based on absences of her son. When her oldest was in Kindergarten, he had pretty bad asthma and related illnesses. He was out of school a lot because he was sick. They told her that her son would not be able to pass to the next grade due to too many sick days that she had no control over. This is the same son that was well advanced past kindergarten work. So, she decided she didn't want to play that game anymore and decided to homeschool at that point.

Yes, a touch here - not over the top - just a post here or there - not enough to get me angry. In a lot of other public news sources, it's like a happy field day with people who don't like Christians or at least this brand of Christianity. I don't do a happy dance every time someone I don't agree with get's publicly debased. If anything sorrow for them and their families. I'm just watching the "Christianity is a fraud" group in a very serious happy dance over this. Now, that bugs me.