We just moved from NYC and so $23K/year for private school still sounds like a pretty good deal to me. The pricey private schools here are far less, though. There was a very small, very good school for children with autism in our old neighborhood and the tuition was $70K/year. I believe that there was at least one teacher per child, possibly more. I also think then when you factor in the homeschooling parent's lost lifetime earnings, private school can start to look like a bargain compared to homeschooling. But I still think i can do a better job. Probably. Possibly. Well, we'll see. :tongue_smilie:

My DH is much better about apologizing than I am. I have learned a lot from his example on this matter.

Just reading this story made me want to bash my head against a wall.

I once used 'impact' as a verb in a paper and the comment in the margin was, "You know better.' Ouch.

I heard a similar critique from a high school teacher, who maintained that the homeschooled students who transferred into her school were inevitably both 'academically and socially behind.' I found the latter comment particular interesting -- what does it mean for a 14yo to be 'socially behind,' exactly? -- and when I pressed her on the question the gist seemed to be that the homeschooled students just seemed younger, were unfamiliar with the social norms of their peers, etc. Which made sense, but I thought it was a very strange thing to criticize, given that the problem ju jour is supposedly that the Youth of Today Are Growing Up Too Fast.

That sounds wonderful! You'll have to report on how it all goes. I have been doing something much more informal -- just periodically choosing a particular fairytale (or fairy tale, as the case may be) and checking out every version I can find at the library. Then we read and compare/discuss.

\\ I bought the same set at Costco maybe a month ago. They're terrific.

Great post. For similar reasons, I am not terribly interested in teaching my children to be 'obedient.' That said, since you (OP) do value obedience, one thing that you might think about is how you and your spouse might model this quality. One interesting thing that comes out in some of the Puritan writings about children is the importance of demonstrating to children *how* to be obedient through one's own obedience to authority, especially to divine authority or to those who could claim it. Obviously, it is harder to model the immediate, cheerful obedience to authority that you're looking for in today's society since, as Sevilla points out, that's not quite what is expected in most contemporary adult settings. However, if you truly value this particular quality, it might be worth thinking deeply about how you can really show -- not just tell -- your children how to live it out.

[quote name= I'm not sure how feasible it is for you to carve out large chunks of time' date=' but I'd try to. Enlist the help of your family and friends as much as you can. I think that this is sound advice, but at the same time, I think that it is just as crucial to really use small chunks of time, because sometimes that's all you have. When I was in heavy dissertation-writing mode, I only had one child (and was pregnant with another, which was my key motivation for finishing) and so I was often able to get one three-hour chunk on the weekends. I would use that to do the more heavy-lifting type of stuff -- planning out sections, thinking about problems, etc. Then, during the week, I was able to use my baby's 45-minute naps to get little bits done. That said, if you can get a good long stretch of time to work, go for it -- you'll get a ton done. And if I had to do it all over again, I would have hired some regular childcare so I could have finished sooner.

So glad your advisor meeting went welll! IME, they really do want you to succeed. I finished my doctorate a few years ago. My best advice is this: Do SOMETHING related to your thesis every single day. Some days it may mean only five minutes -- you make it to the end of a long, hard day with the kids and right before bedtime you just check one source or look up something in the library catalog. But you have to do something every day, no exceptions. If you work on your thesis every day, eventually you will finish. It may take a long time, but you *will* finish. And the years are going to go by whether you are working on your thesis or not, so you might as well write the darn thing. (At least, that was/is my philosophy. :001_smile:) Just keep slogging away. Slog slog slog. You will get there! And I'm so sorry about your mom. :grouphug:

I know little about education as an academic field, but in general I would hesitant to automatically conclude that grade inflation or deflation has anything to do with actual academic quality. I mean, I've taught at a number of different colleges/universities, and I grade on whatever curve they give me. It doesn't have anything to do with what I actually cover in the course, or even what I put on the final exam. Along similar lines, IME Ph.D. programs across the board generally also grade coursework very generously, way more so than undergraduate programs, but I wouldn't say that doctoral classes are automatically less demanding than undergraduate ones. And top law schools have a way more generous curve than lower-ranked ones; again, it doesn't mean that the classes at Yale Law are necessarily less demanding than those at fourth-tier schools, just that a lot more people get top marks. What I found interesting, though, was this: "The fundamental problem is simple: there is no pressure from competitive markets in education." If education students are all getting As, then how do hiring personnel decide whom to hire? Returning to the law school example above, I think that most people familiar with the scene would agree that the disparity in grading curves has to do with the relative power of the schools vis-a-vis the employers -- employers simply can't/don't pressure top schools to pre-sort students the way they do lower-ranked schools. Why doesn't the education job market exert the same pressures, I wonder? Surely the most desirable jobs must get lots of candidates applying. How do they choose?

Today, we are all healthy. As far as I am concerned, everything else is just gravy.

Wow, this looks fantastic. As soon as it cools off i am making this. I have also found the slow cooker to be very disappointing, but pretty much everything I have made from this cookbook has turned out anywhere from decent to spectacular: http://www.amazon.com/Cooker-Revolution-Editors-Americas-Kitchen/dp/1933615699/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314237778&sr=8-1

I had also never heard it before moving to the South, and I agree that it's quite endearing. :001_smile:

I'm sorry, but that is a hilarious image. :lol:

I wouldn't be offended, but I would probably start laughing.

LOL I do not have a notably large family but I am still surprised by what people ask. Someone asked me just yesterday if my third child was a 'surprise." I wasn't offended -- people are just trying to make conversation -- but I certainly thought it was an inappropriate question, and it's not like I would even consider answering that sort of thing one way or the other. The only thing that I get annoyed about is when someone asks me right in front of my boys, two of whom are more than old enough to understand, if we are going to 'keep trying for a girl."

I don't really care. Where we lived previously the norm was first names, which struck me as a little odd at first (it had not been not the norm thirty years earlier, when I was growing up) but I got used to it quickly. Where I live now the norm seems to be Miss FirstName, which is just fine too. (That's what I have been instructing my own kids to do here.) As would be Mrs. LastName, but nobody seems to do that.

After years in tiny NYC apartments, we just moved to a house. I am enjoying the extra space, for sure, but moving into a 2BR for 2 kids sounds just fine to me. I will say that the one thing about a house that is making a huge difference, especially for homeschooling, is having a yard. We never had any outdoor space before and I just LOVE it. It is so great to be able to take art projects outside, not to mention actually do things like nature study someplace where we can, you know, dig in the dirt. If I were to move back into an apartment, I would definitely try to find a place with at least a bit of outdoor space. Indeed, I'd take a 2BR with outdoor space over a 3BR with none in a heartbeat. I also really, really, really, like having my own washer/dryer. I don't know if the apartments you're looking at have w/d,but I'd prioritize that as well.

My 6yo has been able to handle a bath or shower by himself for a good while -- maybe a year? possibly longer? -- but since I usually bathe the boys either all at once or in quick succession more often than not I'm there with him anyway. And there isn't enough water pressure for him to go in the other bathroom to shower while I bathe his brothers. When he does shower by himself, he is in there for an ETERNITY.

At 5 my oldest son did Suzuki cello (one lesson and one class a week, although they were both on the same day); a local parks gardening class once a week, and a sports class once a week. At 6 he has Suzuki cello(weekly lesson and biweekly class), religious school once a week, and tee-ball once a week. It seems kind of a lot to me, actually, but we'll see how it goes and if it's too much we'll reevaluate.

I would take myself out to dinner, probably Indian or Thai (i.e., spicy food that the kids don't like and DH barely tolerates) and savor the uncommon pleasure of eating exactly what I want BY MYSELF with nobody needing food to be cut up/crying/spilling water/etc. And then I could just pay and walk out! Leaving the dirty dishes for someone else! I would then gild the lily but going to hang out at a bookstore for a few hours. ALL BY MYSELF. It would be awesome. Sigh. Hope you have a fabulous evening, whatever you do.

My older boys are rabid Richard Scarry fans, so Busytown is a big hit around here. It's a cooperative game and they were able to play it together since about ages 5 and just turned 3, respectively.

I recently read that DEET is apparently not as dangerous as one might think. Here's an article discussing the various options: http://www.webmd.com/allergies/features/avoid-mosquito-bites

I have read and heard this argument many times. It would be more powerful if public schools were not so relentlessly homogenous themselves.