Maybe it would help you get hold of it if you could get past the fact that they are 'the relatives'. Imagine they are acquaintances or complete strangers. How would you handle it? I've had all kinds of people try to quiz different dc at various times in our hs'ing journey. When one ds was 12, the 12yob across the street kept trying to quiz him on his multiplication tables! And I always consider it to be just plain rude - and that's my starting point with the whole lot of them. When dc were the small, I always stepped in immediately. I'm not very good with quick retorts, so I changed the subject and directed the offending person's attention towards me vs the child. Sometimes I would even physically step between them, if the person was persistent, keeping my eyes glued to the quizzer, and making some kind of physical contact with dc to reassure them everything is OK. I would also suggest something for dc to do elsewhere. In other words, I 'hijacked' the conversation. ;) I usually warned dc ahead of time about these potential 'quizzers' in order to prepare them for any sudden strange behavior on my part. As they got older and were able to understand what was going on, we discussed various techniques for handling the quizzer. I taught them things like changing the subject, responding with questions of their own, running off (great in outdoor situations involving sports and such), telling them bluntly they don't want to be quizzed about their school, etc. Currently, when people quiz them about school, they tend to do what someone already suggested here. They begin listing all the various things they do (a long monologue, in minute detail - a must!;)) until said quizzer's eyes glaze over and they begin looking about frantically for an escape route. This technique never fails, and dc actually think this is kind of fun, now. (our youngest dc is now 15yo) :) I've also tried to help them learn to discern between a quizzer who may be truly interested in hs'ing in general, and the drive-by quizzer only out to soothe his ego for some personal reason (and we don't care about the reason, usually). And if they want to answer questions from the truly interested quizzer, they can ... or they can not. It's up to them. But this is only for much older dc than I think you had. Anyway, gotta run. HTH. PS - I just had a thought. If these are your dh's relatives, maybe it would be best if he dealt with them. That's generally how it seems to work best for us - I deal with mine and he deals with his. That way, the opposite set of relatives is less likely to turn you into the bad guy and vice versa. FWIW

I used to use KONOS when our dc were young. Even though I loved the unit study approach, I think they've learned so much more using the WTM approach. If I had young dc now, I think I'd use the unit studies as more of a break from the rigor of the WTM-type subjects. FWIW.

Anybody been there heard that?? I had a similar kind of conversation with another mother in our local hs group once, only she wasn't rude (which this woman seems to be). She asked me what curr. we were using. I tried to explain WTM and she didn't understand, so I let her borrow my WTM book. When she returned it, she said something about it being an awful lot of school, etc. My response to her was that when I looked out on the horizon of our particular family's life at this point, the Lord hadn't provided relatives or local apprenticeships or tons of money or tons of friends or any of those kinds of things in our lives; but what He had provided was all the ingredients for a quiet life of intense education ... at this particular stage of our lives. On the other hand, her life was full of things like close relatives whom she loved (her mother lived with them and many others within walking/driving distance) and a church she loved and tons of close friends and all kinds of things like these that took up much of their family's time. I told her that I used to pray that the Lord would move us near some of our relatives, but that His response was always to move us to the opposite side of the country (for excellent reasons, btw) ! So we've had to work with what He's given us; whereas the Lord has obviously provided her family with a very different life. I told her that I would have loved to have had the wonderful relationships she enjoyed with relatives and lots of friends and so on, but that's not what we got. And we all have to work with what we're given. She listened and agreed and that was the end of our discussion about curr. We never discussed it before or after that. FWIW.

The more I look into it, the more I think the machine should go to ALL the girls (me included:001_smile:), and we can learn to sew together. If your dd's have already learned a lot of hand stitching, don't be surprised if they fly ahead of you (skillwise) and take over the machine. Our dd's did that back when I bought a Sears machine for less than $200 (wait for the sales). We wound up buying another one (exact same machine) so they could all sew when they wanted to. Ds's even learned to sew on it (they wanted to make their own costumes for a movie they were all filming). It's also nice not having a cabinet, too, because they can haul it around and sew in private in their own rooms (also nice for containing the clutter!). 15yod even sews out in the camper. :) As far as books, they all learned to sew by trial and error with the patterns themselves. I bought a few used books on sewing at a used bookstore (cheap! check net), but only 1 dd ever looked at them much. And I have to say that all dd's sew so much better than I do (I learned when I was 8 or so). Not sure why. HTH. PS - The machine will pay for itself as they learn to make clothes for your family. 17yod makes most of my shirts and some of her sisters' shirts. PSS - One more thing and then I have to run. It's worth it to buy the maintenance thingy from Sears - for a few years anyway - esp. with young dc. Once a year you take it in and they give it a tune up.

I'm not sure why I think I have any business homeschooling her as I don't even know how to do Algebra. She's a pretty "smart" kid but she struggles with math. As far as not knowing the math, it can actually be an advantage in some situations. I went through Calculus (25 years ago!), but can't seem to remember a thing when I sit down to do Alg. with dd's. So what ends up happening is that I ask rather sincere (but stupid) questions about the stuff we're supposed to be doing. Well, after they get through laughing hysterically at me, or staring at me with that shocked 'I can't believe you just asked that' look, they are forced to paraphrase the material in 'Alg. for dumber-than-dummies' lingo. This has helped them greatly to understand the material, as it forces them to slow down and actually think about it in order to explain it to me. (And I can be pretty dense sometimes ;).) It also works even when they don't quite understand the material, because I say something along the lines of 'Well, let's look at it and see if we can figure it out' ... and next thing I know they're little brains are smokin' as they race to figure it out before I do (well ... more like, before they have to listen to more of Mama's ridiculous questions!). And if all of this fails, I usually say 'Let's call Daddy at work and see if he can help us figure it out real quick'. This is greeted with hails of 'No!' 's, but I dial anyway and as I'm dialing, they're working like crazy. We almost always figure out the problems - one way or another. FWIW. PS - The goal is not to compare your dc with other dc. It's just to start where she's at and take it from there. Look at her ... not at everyone else. You don't know their individual circumstances and what they are and aren't doing to get where they're at today; but you do know your own dc. It's the internet, remember. Extremely one dimensional. HTH.

HISTORY: **Maps – 20yod says especially maps of the same region at several different and widespread epochs in history (ex. Europe in the 1800’s and Europe under the Roman reign) The Timetables of History The Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean by Haywood Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia Basic Communism by Carson Basic American Government by Carson Constitutional Law for Christian Students by Michael Farris, Esq. **Mostly good library books. SCIENCE: Dictionaries for the particular subject (ex. physics or biology or chemistry…). Oxford publishes good ones. History – several, to read through over the years The Timetables of Science by Hellemans and Bunch (1988) Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia (big one-volume book) **Many field guides. Here are some topics of the guides which we currently own: birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, insects, trees, animal tracks, clouds and storms, weather, mushrooms, etc. **Many, many library books on many, many subjects (both kiddie and adult books). ART: **Drawing Textbook by Bruce McIntyre (?). Sorry. They’ve used so many different things over the years, but this is the only one which stands out that I know they have all referred to time and time again. The rest come and go. Also, they never did much with the history and I never pushed it. I’m just glad they can draw and some can even paint and do clay fairly well. MUSIC: **Dictionaries – of symbols (where symbol serves as entry word), and Latin (for understanding the Italian guide words) The Oxford Companion to Music (1955) – large one-volume book. Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments by C.P.E. Bach (William Mitchell, editor and translator, 1949). Once again, like the art, they just emphasized playing an instrument and reading the music. LATIN: **Dictionaries, charts of declensions and verbs and such (make own or buy), grammars, various texts, Bible in Latin … OTHER LANGUAGES: **Dictionaries and same as for Latin. When I looked on our dc’s shelves, they all had many dictionaries, a grammar or two, a few audio programs, and a few had audio Bibles in their language of choice. 15yod says the “Teach Yourself _______†series from the 1940’s through the 1960’s or so, are very good [if used with other programs (library?) to pick up the spoken part]. She says the older books have lots of exercises and readings and some answers in the back. The newer versions of this series are not as good because the emphasis is more on scattered conversations with little organized grammar, and some don’t give the English to other lang translation in the word index. GREEK: Interlinear Greek New Testament by Green Dictionaries, etc. BIBLE: **Many versions (KJV, Amplified, etc.) **MacArthur Study Bible Modern Reader’s Bible **Dictionaries, timeline, maps, atlases, etc. **Concordances (Strong’s….) – for original Greek and Hebrew, and for researching specific topics. Interlinear Bible, Hebrew-English. 3 volumes **Good, old encyclopedias (the 1944 Britannica is often useful for Bible topics) **Many good history books. Hermeneutics books (Terry, etc.) **The Tabernacle of God in the Wilderness of Sinai **Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions - large, one-volume book, packed with information and surprisingly thorough OTHER: **How Things Work (dc still refer to this and other books like it) Service Etiquette (U.S. Naval Institute) by Harral and Swartz (1959, 1963). 20yod picked this up at a used bookstore and says it’s much better than the other huge books on manners. More concise and practical and less flowery and silly.

Here is the list I said I would type up. It is arranged by subject. I wouldn’t call it thorough, but it might be a good jumping-off place. Although we use and have more books than this, I tried to include only the books we seem to open again and again. I’ve put asterisks beside the skeleton list which I would work on if I personally were just beginning hs’ing (=younger kids). If I think of anything I forgot, I’ll tack it on later. I hope you got plenty of other ideas from others, too, because this list seems somehow incomplete to me. Not sure why. FWIW. GENERAL: **encyclopedias – We own 3 sets: 1993 World Book, 1979 Britannica Macropedia, and 1944 Britannica. Paid several hundred dollars for WB (least useful), $10 for Macro at discard pile in library (very useful), and owner of a used bookstore in NH gave us the 1944 Brit. for free (most useful). If I’d known what I know now, I’d never have wasted money on the new set. Just get used sets at used book sales/stores. In fact, most of us actually prefer the 1944 Brit. If we want current info, we look other places like the internet and library. **dictionaries – We own several of the one-volume, unabridged “Webster’s Third New International Dictionary†(buy used). We also have various smaller dictionaries around. And we have a set of the “Oxford English Dictionary†(20 volumes, not for just starting hs’ing, usually). **Synonym Finder, thesaurus, etc. **globes, atlases, maps, raised relief maps, etc. **timelines – secular and Christian WTM, WEM, HTRAB (**WTM for beginning) Oxford Companion to Classical Literature by Sir Paul Harvey (1957) – defines those endless, crazy names and places in the Great Books so you can actually keep up with the plot instead of fretting over who’s who and where’s where. Great Books – we own 2 sets: 1991 and 1952 versions. Each include “Syntopicons†in the first 2-3 volumes. I compared one of the ancient’s writings and I prefer the 1952 version. The 1991 version seemed more ‘dumbed-down’ to me. MATH: dictionaries - Mathematics Dictionary edited by James and James (1949). This was the best one I could find. We own others, but they seem shallow and sloppy next to this one. history – many, to read through over the years. 20yod says cheat sheets – conversion tables, formulas, units of measure, time zones, etc. **math books – many books, many versions, from old to new. Even though focus is on one main book, helps to see how other authors present the material. Can also work problems from other books. And if it’s a lousy book, use it to help them see the difference between a good book and a lousy book. LOGIC: History – several, to read through over the years 20yod says diagrams of the common forms in “P and Q†form **Logic books and programs – lots SPELLING: **Word Speller and Divider by Barnes and Noble, or something similar. One for each dc. GRAMMAR: **Handbooks – ABeka, R&S, etc Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (ds calls this “the grammar Bibleâ€) **Diagramming books by Eugene Moutoux (search net) - helps cement concepts after completing a grammar program. Answers in back of book. WRITING/RHETORIC: **Dictionaries, thesaurus, word speller, synonym books, etc. 25yos says: Dictionary and thesaurus in collaboration: hunt down synonyms for an overused word by means of the thesaurus, then use dict. to check the precise definition of these synonyms.

Also, you probably figured this out years ago, but IMO there is a huge difference in the girls vs the boys - usually. Could that be a factor here? FWIW.

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We tried BJU French (and Spanish) years ago. Too scattered, little substance, not much methodical grammar instruction, seems to need a teacher who knows some French. Better as a supplement to a 'real' program. (Note: I consider something like Henle Latin to be more of a 'real' program. Plenty of solid grammar instruction and drill.) 17yod pursued the French and sifted through tons of programs by checking them out from the library, buying some, etc. I can ask her what she liked best. Only thing I can remember right now is the French Bible-on-Tape, which she still listens to; but I know she has other stuff on her shelves. It may help you to reserve tons of programs from the library (for free!) and compare features, grammar presentation, etc., to decide exactly what it is you want in a foreign language program ... before spending all your money on anything.

Same as most of the others posted. We also own 3 different sets of encyclopedias which dc refer to frequently. Also, Unabridged Webster's Dictionaries. I'm drawing a blank here at the library and it's about time to go, so I'll write up something at home and ask dh to post it.

No, you're not a social misfit. You just don't like wasting time. I've been to some of these parties. Once I was at a Pampered Chef (?) party and the saleswoman asked me if I liked to cook. I (very honestly) answered 'No!' and about 3/4th's of the other women chimed in and said they didn't either. She looked very pained, but continued. I was never asked to another one. Thank goodness.

Only 1 shower. 7 people. Tiny hot water heater on which dh turns the propane all the way down every night! I just make sure I get my shower first. Hate cold showers. The rest of them don't seem to care. No one can spend long in the shower with so many people waiting either.

Only 1 shower. 7 people. Tiny hot water heater on which dh turns the propane all the way down every night! I just make sure I get my shower first. Hate cold showers. The rest of them don't seem to care. No one can spend long in the showere with so many people waiting either.

We have used some stuff called "Bag Balm" (Wal Mart, pet products or feed store) that works pretty good, if you can stand the smell. It's meant for dairy farmers (Vermont invention), but I use it in the winter when my fingers occ. get 'cracks' in them. Put a glob of it on and wrap it in band aids, overnight. Relieves pain instantly. Comes in a green can and is fairly cheap. HTH.

2 Chihuahuas. They are inside all the time unless I take them walking with me, or they need to go out. They both used to sleep in the bed with me and dh; but the older one (17yo) sleeps on a baby blanket on a cushion beside our bed now. Younger one still sleeps in bed with us. :) They also have cushions at various places all around the house (kitchen, beside table ...) to sit on when I'm in these rooms.

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We don't do any shots for our 17 1/2 year old Chihuahua anymore. She's almost totally blind and deaf and stays inside most of the time. When I let her out, she goes from one door to the other door by walking alongside the house as a guide. The only thing I give her is heartworm medicine; but I spread that out, even. Instead of once a month, I wait for 5 or 6 weeks between doses. It definitely affects how she feels. I've noticed she seems to feel better and act livlier when I feed her some cooked, mixed veggies with her usual IAMS. And I still feed her a little steak every now and then, with all the fat cut off. For our 12-13yo Chi, I take her to get the rabies shot at a clinic and give her the booster shots myself. I spread the boosters out much farther than the usual year that the vet wants to do. It's been working very well. I also do her heartworm like I do our older dog's heartworm. Same for the food, too. She's very healthy. I was so glad to read Soph the vet's posts about all this, because I had suspected some of this years ago and that's how I came up with a more 'relaxed' schedule for the shots. Also, we live way out in the woods with ticks from about April to about August and I've found it's better to skip that shot and use "Advantage" (?) brand tick preventative for the few tick months of the year. It's topical and does an excellent job of keeping off the ticks (so they don't bring them into the house!). We do the same for our 3 cats and one is a male who prowls the woods all night, unless it's really cold or wet. They also do well with the extended shot schedule, Advantage, and added veggies and meat. HTH

Dh buys ours at Staples (I suppose you could get it online from Staples). It costs more than WalMart stuff, but it's bigger all the way around and doesn't 'yellow' like the cheap stuff. And if you get one of their "Teacher Rewards" cards, they send you a check (for use at Staples only) every so often; their way of giving you a discount.

Yeah, it's worth reading. I even read this one and liked it, as did our dc. There are a few reasons to read it. First, it's rather like an extended context page, well-written, and thorough. Second, it's a nice 'easy' book - a welcome break in the flow of 'harder' GB's (since it's not actually a GB). Third, there's no need to write any context page, since it is a context book. In fact, all I had dc do with it was write a summary or anything else they felt like writing (nothing at all would be fine, too). The only slight negative is that it's somewhat watered down. I assume it's because it was originally written for young dc. But when you compare it to something like "The Twelve Caesars", you can see a rather large difference. We all enjoyed it nevertheless. HTH

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