I did do this!! With 4 children. I had them go til lunch. They loved it. What happened, is the teachers would not (as in not at all) help my kids, and used my kids as teacher's assistants. It was quite sad. I would "pop" in the class room and see my kids assigned to a kid who didn't do his work. I asked why are you doing this? answer: well they (my kids) can do their work after they go home with you, the other kids don't have that option. So, I researched more and more homeschool laws (in Cali) and how I could actually teach my kids, and found it was more of a pain to drop them off at 8 and pick up 3 hours later. We usually homeschool that amount of time and get it all done. Next year, we will battle the school, in that one of my boys is going to be on the track team as a home schooler. He is very much in demand from the coach, so we have that backing. lol

5:15am-hubby's alarm goes off, and we silently begin our day with a 3 mile walk with dogs and sometimes the twins (13) go with us. 6:30 hubby showers/dress/eat I read bible 7:00 hubby and DS16 go to church to pray-I pray at home 7:30 I wake up 3 youngest (DS4, 5, and 7) they go to pre-school and elementary Other DS(14) rises, and twin girls help with breakfast for DS4 DS5 & 7 eat at school I drive youngest to school and return at 8ish The 4 oldest are done with breakfast and chores and usually out in desert(our backyard) trying to shoot something. 3 times a week, I go to an exercise class for this hour. 9am-Science (all together) 9:40-History on MWF/literature on TTH 10:15ish-teach new math concepts or grade math with group that need it. 11:00 language arts then lunch DS16 works at library part time, and if he isn't working he takes the kids for grocery shopping or errands. I clean while they are gone, shower and nap! 3:00 pick up youngest 3, 3:30 home from pick ups, snack time and I prepare dinner home work with DS5 and 7 and play time til 5pm 5pm-hubby home/showers 5:15 eat kids do clean up church at 6pm on Wed, library on Thursdays, and usually Mon or Tues the girls and I go somewhere together, shopping or just out. bed for youngest 3 is 8pm and I follow at 9. lol, funny to type, but life is full

well thank ya! All 7 are from foster and 4 are legally ours, and we impatiently wait for the youngest 3's court things...

My kids so don't want mom to come up with something to keep them occupied. I have a whole list of chores...:tongue_smilie: so outside is number one choice, then reading, or the one hour play time on puter

SEVEN kids here and a schedule is a must for us: Laundry MON-3 young boys TUEs-2 Teen boys Wed-hubs and mine Thurs-twin girls Friday-sheets/towels as needed Saturday-left over sheets/towels Sunday - only load that goes in, is forgotten things, or something that may be needed for following day! Meals are planned out in 2 week increments and oldest 5 take turn making meals together. EVERYONE up by 7:15 on weekdays, school starts at 8am chores are done prior to school, and after each meal. Each kidlet has a chore for months at a time, and a "helper" younger sibling they are teaching. Eventually, the younger takes on that chore. we sleep in til 8:30 on weekends and chores are done after lunch together. Grocery shop for the planned meals only! ♥ We are very active with our church, and have activities all thru the week. I can not be responsible for equipment and uniforms, they don't have it, they don't go to sport. Works wonders!

I have 2 in PS, and 4 homeschool and one 4year old who is just attached to momma, but the forms! The rules that are not enforced and fund raisers and inflated book fairs!!!!! Last year they told all the 1st graders it was buy one get one free, 3/4 of my 6 years class (including him) came home with a book they took, thinking they got one free! We brought it back and the teacher said that only 5 students brought them back! 10 books from just that day never made it back. :lol:

Menus are mucho important in our home. Breakfast has the options, if you can cook it, you can have it. If not, you have cereal or pull a premade (I make tons of french toast, pancakes and freeze) and pop in toaster. Lunches are left overs or sandwich Dinners are planned. The number one loss of money for us, was waste of food. Vegi's rotten, fruit not eaten, left overs gone bad. Saturdays are FEND for, you get only what is in those containers. I can stretch a pork roast for 3 meals: BBQ sandwiches, burritos, and then into red enchiladas. Left over chicken is put in casseroles or soups. hamburgers can be broke down and put in burritos, toss them on the skillet and some sauce(cream of shroom soup) and smothered burritos with some ever ready refried beans. meatless dinners are a welcome treat Breakfast (eggs and pancakes or omelets made with left over bits of vegi's and meat) are a great dinner I have 7 children and 4 are teens!! They can eat, one of the things we also do is a mid afternoon snack (on the menu) todays was one package of pepperoni split 7 ways, cheese (cut off a block) and crackers. It takes away the hungry hungry at dinner, and makes for a nice afternoon. We have yogurt (I buy big containers and put in little bowls), or fruit cocktail, cheese quesidillas, celery and pnut butter, and for a treat I get bag of chicken nuggets, they get 3-4 with grapes. It isn't a meal but a snack.

we have been off for a week for our move and a week at the beginning of last month while we settled in with the adoption of the 3 boys. One is mandated to be in school, and will sadly be retained in 1st grade. I have high hopes to bring him up this summer. We will be working Math (mon thru thur) Listening to SOTW in car lots of books for the library and lots of outdoor field trips!

funny funny, freedom of speech, religion and right to bear arms, in America #1 and #2 but you can't mix them? sorry this just made me giggle. back to the post

My sons and daughters are all gun carriers. They ride their bike with guns in a guitar soft case strapped to back. They go up to the mountain trail, lock up their bikes and shoot dove and rabbit. They eat what they shoot. They also try(as in haven't been successful yet) to call in coyote, for the pelts to sell. They went thru an intensive Hunter's safety class and more intense one thru my husband! lol I am registered for the concealed carry class, and will wear a gun on me. My hubby has numerous hunting guns and ones for protection. We aren't in fear, we are American citizens that live in New Mexico(yep it's a state), and allowed to have them, so we do. :D It is not unusual to see men in line at McDonald's here with a gun strapped to their hip. The Old West is still alive and well. We went to a training for sensory and adhd, and the lady was explaining about fear, and she asked, what is the first thing you do when you hear a loud knock at your door at 3am. Our response, turn the safety off. :D Epic fail in her eyes, proud moment in mine. I know there are many here who will cite statistics, tell of horrible accidents, and more, but it is a American right to bear arms, put there by our founded fathers for reasons that would take more than Story of the World talks about in its book! **jumping off my soapbox**please turn the Patriotic music off....lol The sherriff on the other hand needs some people skills training, and maybe you could go over and laugh and tell the parents, yep we are city slickers, do you think you could help us? Perhaps go to the range with them? (now the range here is a empty field with bottles set up! lol good luck!

:bigear:you preach on, and I will yell Amen, we can keep advocating....I love that you are so adamant and PRO adoption! We had a superb sensory class last night, and spent a few hours with other foster parents, and I am grinning from ear to ear with support! :D

excellent advice! :001_smile: This is our 3rd trip to the dance so to say. ;) We have adopted 2 x thru foster, one a single child and another a 3 sibling group. I totally agree, with everything you say! We are actually able to call the foster mom and the treatment mom who had them for a year this Monday...I can not wait to have loooooooooong conversations with them! I will be calling everyone, from teachers to day care workers! Our attitude is they come here, and we have them forever, their attitude more than likely isn't the same! But it helps me to have vision! Our kids in home now, have been thru the process, and we do have hopes that is will be a help to the incoming kidlets.

Thank you for the concerns. The diet change was actually put in place about a month ago! We started because of hubby and my health, and the kids loved it...bring on the fruit to them! Yeah! YOur words about the neuropsych evals have been written down, and I will get the medical records all on Monday,and will be deciphering them! We won't be homeschooling them for a while, if at all? My angst about curriculum is I spend too much time researching....lol one of the things I think (oh my thinking has been on overdrive) is that I want to play for a long time with them. Exercising and going hiking and just getting to know them and being very active and learn on the go. When we brought our other 4 kids home (one who the teachers totally believed was adhd), we took 3 months off completely from workbooks, and papers and tests. We played games together and got to know each other again. This helped me notice how they added, processed things and my kids knowing when the Magna Carta was signed or the elements on the periodic table are such a low level of concern next to their ability to be loved and love others while thriving.

Well, I have researched like I was looking for curriculum(bit obsessive here), and yesterday, walked away just flummoxed! We are hoping to pick the boys up Easter weekend, and no matter what, they will be on meds while wards of the state. So our plan is to give pills as directed and watch and learn (we are also enrolled in a training for ADHD treatment) their behaviors whilst loving and pulling all patience we have out of storage! :001_smile: The doctor that comes to our town, once a week (small remote town) has gotten good reviews, and we can discuss with him any concerns etc. After the official adoption, we will explore other options, but during the time of Ward of State, our whole family is changing our diet. This is for our health and if it can in any way help the boys, we are all for it. Thank you all for the loving and kind posts. Your words were all helpful, and have been filed and read again and again.

I guess I am a slacker in something, cause we do all our school by 1pm, chores together, and a deep clean once a week, everyone takes a room and we turn up the music and clean and jam? We are up at 8am, breakfast, quick chores (sweep, vacumn, dishes done, and laundry started) I usually prep my dinner at this time (I have a list for the week, so I know what is for dinner) Dinner is on the table at 5pm, and cleared and cleaned by 6pm for evening activities? There are days, we get pizza, cause it was insane, maybe 1-2 a month. I am organized, but my kids are pretty awesome! hugs to you, cause you love your DH and want to bring some order for him, I read the Maxwells? I think that is the name, organizer of the home. It helped me soo soo much!! one big help each kid or (set of kids) has a day for laundry and a laundry basket. The older do theirs all, and help the younger ones on their days. Laundry is going pretty much every morning, but Sunday! We don't have a dish washer, so paper plates and set chores for each child, working as a team. You finish, you help someone who isn't. This is a family where the letter I is for I can help! lol Good luck to you, and please PM me, or send an email it is my name here at the yahoo.

I read a few pages and then got more confused and felt dumber and dumber and for sure I was raising my kids incorrectly and they were destined to flip hamburgers for life. I could feel my inadequacies growing. I shook myself and said, enough, skimmed thru a few more pages and exited to come here in hopes I am not an idiot. I teach my kids because the PS didn't. We laugh, learn and sometimes we don't do anything but laugh. I'm learning!

I have no recipes, but just wanted to thank you for going the extra mile in kindness for this family. What a relief to have the meals brought and that they can eat.

^^^ totally agree!! I must say that they all became so real to me in the book...I missed them upon closing the the book.

Donna Young has one that is so professional looking, I love it! Worked great for our insurance too!!

We have owned a few times, rented a few more and just today we are putting an offer on a house to buy! :lol: I bought as a single because the rates were so good, and I thought it was what one should do. I hated that house, got married and hubby and I hated it together. It was an albatross, and we could not sell it. Finallly sold for what we owed. Bad bad experience. Then we bought a mobile home, yeah dumb move, and we rented land. We sold it to the land owner at a 4K loss. But learned. Bought a home of our dreams, loved everything but the roof, but it's only a roof? Right? Replaced the roof twice. Sold the house 30 days prior to market crashing. Rented in California, great family, low price, let us paint, (and they took it off the rent) loved the place, but moved back to New Mexico to Rent. Landlord is nice, house is dinky, neighbor is like the hoarders with lots of friends that come over and park their semi-truck and ice cream truck on the tiny little street. They have 5 dogs, 2 huge pits that charge our fence...yada yada We are in a lease, the landlords let us out so we could buy. Why buy? Because our rate is 3.75% and the house is twice the size as what we are in now. We have 7 children. Being away from the insane neighbor is a good thing. We will pay an additional $500 a month and each tax time drop $3k on the mortgage and in 11 years pay off the house. Only 2 kids will be still "legal" in our home then and teens so, we can move them out, sell, and have money to live on in our "golden years". Or knock around in the old house and live cheaply. :glare:

We bought a hoover carpet cleaner (the one without hot water heater) and love it! I use it for carpets, furniture, mattresses and the interior of our car, (seats and rugs)! WE have gotten our money out of it and then some! I love it.

this is a big help , i did read everything you wrote, but this statement really is something I need to remember and hold to also!

wowza...sometimes I come to the hive and leave feeling like I have failed my children today I want to just hug you for being real in my heart and eyes I'm an adoptive mom to many...and my oldest is a genius...crazy smart, freaky smart, and has NO desire for college, give him a hammer and let him outside to build and joy fills his heart. He will get his GED at 17 and is already working part time for a construction company and loving every minute of it. The one failure to thrive who forgets from one day to the next formulas for area and perimeter. and two girls who struggle thru but do it to please mom.... and 3 more in route...and no idea their struggles but... I decided to keep joy in our homeschool (not fun like disney land, but joy) over everything else. We have done bonfires with curriculum (saxon tee hee) thrown away grammar (easy grammar after 4 years of crossing out prepositions) and realized that spell check is glorious, and the red squiggly lines I am ignoring even as I type this are wonderful helps! We began teaching life skills as major subjects, to help my children cope out in the real world. Yeah we do science, history, math and reading...but no longer intensive... Pure sleep in days for the sake of it....scrub the whole house down in one day instead of school and road trip for sneakers. this has helped my sanity....and kept joy in our home. hugs to you precious woman who hit the wall and just wanted to collapse, but we all know you will press on, and appreciate you for being so true!

you have made me cry so hard and happy, if that makes any sense, thank you for a reasonable voice in a wilderness of pain

I am distraught and probably need to stop reading about aDhd and the meds, the side effects the cause and all, but can anyone say... oh my child, we said, no more meds, and took them off and thank God for the results? we are in the process of adopting 3 boys, that have been in the system, and I really really believe it was just easier to med them, then deal with their pain, hurt and frustration. Legally we must give the meds til the judge signs the adoption papers... but this is tormenting me...good reports anyone??