I think for girls it is better to be a little early. Speaking personally and with those I know, the maturity difference between 17 and 18 or 19 or even 20, is not very significant. Now with so many people delaying marriage and children until after college and career start, I say the earlier the better. If someone wants to go into law or some other career requiring grad school, it can be many additional years of schooling, and most people delay family until they are finished.

Maybe you want something like circuit training. Exercises that you get your cardio in while you are lifting weights at the same time. Jillian Michaels has some DVD's that are like this. I also dislike lifting weights, but she has circuits, so it is 3 minutes of dynamic lifting alternating with 2 minutes cardio, one minute abs. It goes fast and it can be fun. Ballet dancing, though I guess that would be more lower than upper body strength. Kickboxing has some of both. You can also gain strength by doing flow or power yoga, or any exercises where you do a lot of push ups and planks (balancing on your hands and feet while pushed up from the floor).

IMO you could teach reading just from reading this book. It is simple, really, and she lays it all out. Most people want something with a few more bells and whistles, but in the end teaching phonics can be simple.

Even in quesadillas or burritos? My kids like beans rolled up in tortillas with veggies and salsa and a variety of other toppings. You can even make your own "refried beans" that are all mashed up, though maybe you have tried that already. Have you tried seitan? More nuts and seeds.

Nope. LOL. I was clear on the fact that the situation was hypothetical. No misunderstanding; I was responding to the situation proposed, but more generally to my disagreement with that particular poster's views, which I had quoted. You wrote in response that I shouldn't judge the situation of any particular family. I wasn't. ANYway, no hard feelings, carry on. I think I'm done here. I enjoyed your posts about what nursing homes are really like. :) Well, enjoyed isn't really the word, appreciated is better.

I wasn't aware that paying into social security was ever billed as "you will be fully taken care of when you are old, including nursing home." I thought social security was always intended to be supplemental. There were surely always people who had nothing else, but it wasn't ever intended to be sole support. Medicare was also not supposed to be all encompassing, and neither SS nor Medicare was ever promised to cover long-term care.

Believe me when I say I do understand these things and have seen them with family, friends, acquaintances. My statement was not a judgement of anyone who needs to put her relative in a home. There certainly are situations where a family member cannot care for the relative. But I was responding to a post that said we as a country should care for these people. It was in the context of folks saying it is okay to hide or transfer assets to make the taxpayer foot the whole bill. And I posted to disagree. So you took me out of context. My point was not that the relative should be living with family in every case; not at all. My point was that it is the responsibility of the individual and/or the family, to provide the care or to arrange and pay for the care themselves if there were any assets of the individual available to do so. The taxpayer should be the default only when there are no other resources available.

A good friend of mine who works and doesn't homeschool, once told me that getting a cleaning woman saved her marriage. It is a huge stress reducer for some people. And, I believe homeschooling is a full-time job.

I agree that there is much waste and it is infuriating.

If you think nursing home should be paid for the average person, why should the "super rich" not be able to pass on their inheritance? Didn't they likely work hard for it, too? Why is it fair for Mr. A who lived like a miser his whole life and saved a million to pass on to his son (let's just say the son is even disabled in some way, or maybe he has 10 children to pass down to) to pay for his care and deplete his assets, while Mr. B. living on the same street who always had new cars, a boat, spent his vacations travelling in Europe and generally kept up with the Jones's, gets free care? Who decides what super rich is? Maybe if I live in a rented duplex I think someone who owns his own land is "super rich". Just sayin'. This is the kind of argument that I believe is going to lead to the USA being socialist sooner rather than later. Pretty soon there will be more people saying "I want mine" than there are to actually pay big bucks into the system. And then there will be a lot less for everyone.

Yes, and they do receive social security, but that usually isn't enough to pay for a nursing home. Yes, we pay taxes all our lives (well, except now about 40% of people working today don't pay any income taxes, that's another kettle of fish :glare: ), which go to things to fund the public good (roads, defense, libraries, schools, and on and on). I am sure one person's taxes do not add up to enough to pay for all that, PLUS thousands or probably hundreds of thousands of costs that will be incurred by Medicare on his behalf, PLUS thousands of dollars per month for several years, of nursing home care. And guess what, this is why our country is BROKE!

The government isn't making the $5,000. There may be government run nursing homes (like run by the VA) but most are private or part of privately-owned conglomerates. As others have said, the reason they have to charge that much is because Medicaid will pay only a pittance, so private pay makes up for that. Also, IME, the "nicer" homes may not take the Medicaid patients, or take fewer of them. The patient that is completely funded by Medicaid may end up in a not-very-nice place.

No, sorry, FAMILIES should take care of their elderly. Personally, I will do everything I can to make sure my parents and in-laws don't end up in nursing homes. In the "old days" nobody thought this was the government's responsibility. It is the family's. And I wish that the gov't. would take some of that money that they would use for a nursing home, and assist families who need help with in-home aides, if a family member absolutely cannot afford to stay home and care for the elderly person. The government saves money, family gets to keep their land, and grandmother is with people that love her.

Negatives: time intensive for parent, it is open and go but there is no independent work I think if I used it to teach reading, I would try to go faster and not do the spelling at the same time. I would use level 1 and maybe higher, depending, for K and then try to zoom through from there and get them reading. Some kids may not care for the tiles. My son liked them at first but now can't wait for the tile part of the lesson to be over. I do think it help him, though, so it is not all negative, ad I'm sure you can do it all written if the child doesn't need the tiles. From what I have seen of materials geared to the public schools, AAS is "behind". Of course the program doesn't specify grade levels, but around here I see most people don't start spelling until second grade, with first being the earliest. We have done most of level2, finishing up first grade, and apparently this is still behind what students in our local (mediocre) public schools are expected to have done. I think some of it is that AAS does not teach any "sight words" at the beginning levels, so dc won't know how to spell some of the words they would commonly use in their writing. This might not matter in the long term, but just something to note. Overall I like it and will continue with it. My ds does not seem to be much of a natural speller so far, and going from reviews from others who have children like this, we are sticking with it.

I have read 4th grade level. I don't know where I got that, though... but kids can read McGuffey 3rd reader after finishing, actually my son was even beyond that, but we did use McGuffey 3rd for a while to start. My guess would be end-of-third-grade level.

This is why I exercise at home! I know, that's not so helpful. :tongue_smilie: But to go to the gym during childcare hours sucks up too much of my day. Would your DH be your accountability partner? I hand baby to DH as soon as he gets home, and I go for a walk (or take just baby in the stroller, without all of the other kids). Or I exercise first thing in the AM, since baby is happy playing on the floor next to me then while I do a workout DVD. I know it isn't ideal, but videos are the only way it will work for me now, and I NEED to exercise. Netflix is great because one of the worst things for me about exercising at home is the boredom factor, and this way I can rent lots of different things.

I remember this from growing up. My parents gave me some Francis Schaeffer stuff to read, "How Should We Then Live" was one. I was attending public school but we talked about this sort of thing. I don't know about that specific curriculum, but I think it's a good idea in high school to talk about worldviews specifically, and how different people they encounter will be seeing things through different lenses. For me it did not keep me from falling away from the church as a young adult, in fact though I knew all the right answers and I did all the right things, my heart was not in it even before I left for college. So though I think the discussions are important, I am always, always skeptical of speakers who preach "you need to do xyz and then your kids will turn out in such-and-such a way", or blaming the lack of one particular "thing" for kids leaving the church.

I think we are called to give 10%, but I do not believe all of it has to go to our home church. Ideally, we give a portion to our church, and a portion to other charities that we feel are doing God's work. Frankly, such a huge portion of our church's budget goes to things like maintenance, education materials, air conditioning. We also go to a larger church and I believe they waste money in many areas, for things that are "nice to have" for parishioners but I'd prefer more go to missions or the needy instead. So DH and I count some of our tithe toward other organizations.

I am not saying this doesn't work just fine, but want to point out that even before WWE was out, TWTM did advise doing additional writing besides FLL, in the form of narration and copywork in history and science. In the new edition, yes, it is advised to do BOTH. Or, instead of using WWE, you can do your own narrations, copywork, and in second grade, dictation, in addition to FLL. IME it was not too much at all. With a first grade boy who is on the young side, we did WWE1 and FLL including most of the enrichments (we used our own poetry and did other narrations instead of the FLL narrations, though). FLL 1-2 is only 2-3 times per week, much of it oral, and WWE is 4 days per week. You could also skip the copywork in FLL if it sems too much--we did this sometimes in the beginning of the year, but by the end we were doing all of the writing in both books.

I would be upset but not say anything, just be very strict about when and how my son could play with this other child. I am surprised anyone would leave their 8 yo at home alone, and if they did, that said child would be allowed outside, AND on top of that, have friends over. There are a couple of families where my kids have friends that leave the kids for short periods of time, but the oldest is more like 10-11 and they are not allowed to have anyone else in until a parent is there. To me even this is a little young, but I suppose it would depend on the circumstances and the kids. In the days of cell phones I guess this is a little more feasible. I, too, feel responsible to check on kids that are in and around my yard. But not all parents are like this. ETA: I believe in some states it is illegal to leave a child that youn at home alone. I am not sure a neighbor across the street counts.

Math: Singapore Primary Math 2A/2B, Rightstart games Reading: selections from middle ages history a la TWTM, selections from SL, Ambleside year 2 Spelling: AAS finish level 2, and continue on History: SOTW2 with AG Science: REAL earth science, although I approach it with some trepidation. We tend to be more unschooly for science. I also have A Child's Geography vol. 1 which goes along well with the earth science. Handwriting: quickly go through HWT second grade printing book and plan to start cursive mid-way through the year Writing: WWE level 2 with workbook Grammar: FLL2, also getting Evan Moor daily paragraph editing to supplement with Music: start piano lessons, composer study Art: continue with Artistic Pursuits and ad lib. , picture study a la Ambleside Language: will try again with Spanish and am considering Rosetta Stone, vs. using what we already have, which isn't getting done. Memory: continue with Bible selections and IEW's poetry program Bible: continue reading through Vos and also the Bible; lots and lots of prayer; Bennett's Book of Virtues for character stories from time to time

Wanted to add I also believe yoga and pilates are fine for every day.

I think if one is mostly sedentary the other days, that every other day is not enough. I think one day of rest a week is recommended. Even then, if I would take a stroll with my kids on the 7th day, I wouldn't count that as a workout, kwim? Even doctors recommend that you do something aerobic for 30 minutes, most days of the week. Not to say I do that enough, lol, but that is the ideal and I don't think it is necessary at all to completely take off every other day.

Well, being from the south you probably know all about greens! But rather than cook them in grease, you can boil them in a little water with some salt. You can add a little lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, and/or salt. This is for collards or mustard greens, the tougher ones. For kale, chard, dandelion, endive, I usually saute them in a little olive oil on medium heat. You can add a bit of red pepper flakes, chopped garlic, salt, pepper. Grated fresh ginger root +/- a little soy sauce is also good with greens, especially Napa/Chinese cabbage and bok choy. My kids like sweet and sour greens, with a tsp. of honey in the pan and a tbs. or so of some kind of vinegar at the end of cooking. There are so many ways to do it. Kale is even good with some tomato slice and a sprinkle of feta cheese at the end of cooking. See if your library has a copy of Mollie Katzen's "Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live without". These are easy and every one I've tried has been yummy. There are even a few in there that have got my kids eating certain things again, that they didn't like before.

nm, I'm going to focus on the positive in my world today.