Can I have some advice from you veterans? I'm struggling with what to do with my DD. She turned 6 in November, so she would be in K if she was in public school. She started reading (on her own, although she watched a lot of leapfrog videos) at 4. The only thing I've done to teach her anything is have her sit there and listen (science or history), or give her progressively more difficult work (reading, math). Addition, subtraction, early multiplication and division, fractions, etc each took less than 5 minutes to explain. If she has a workbook for something (spelling, math), I have the date at the top of the page and she knows to do that days work and bring it to me when she is done. She rarely has any questions. Since we started homeschooling at the end of March last year, she's completed all the Singapore EarlyBird books (she did 1A and 1B in 3 days, total), and Primary 1A. She is on less 42 (of 70) for Primary 1B. She will sometimes do 6 or 8 lessons a day, but then she doesn't want to do any for a while ("well, I did that so I wouldn't have any work for the rest of the week"). What in the world am I supposed to do with her? If she does 6-8 lessons a day, should I still make her do a lesson the next day, or let her take a few days off? I don't want to totally drop math during the summer, so I'm going to have them do a lesson every other day (at least during elementary ages, when they can lose so much over the summer), but at that rate, she'll be done with Algebra before she's 10. Right now, she can do all her work in 15 minutes (30 if you include reading, she's assigned a story or 2-3 poems in the Yesterday's Classics Second Reader), while DS (8) takes nearly an hour to do his math (he's right on grade level, although we did start last March in Primary 1B and work through the summer, he was "failing" 2nd grade at public school) and then still has his spelling and reading to do. So, I guess my questions are: If she does several math lessons a day, do I have her do another one the next day, or give her time off? Do we just keep working through the Singapore with just the text/workbook, or should I have her do the extra practice, the intensive practice, the challenging word problems (all? some?) Miquon? I have all those things, money is something of an issue but I've got 2A and B already for her. I also have some basic add/sub drill sheets and flash cards for multiplication. Should I make her do more assigned reading? She does read independently as well, although she's currently sticking mostly to the Dora level 3/4 books (the ones for up to 2nd grade). She got some Junie B Jones books for Christmas, I'll have to ask her if she is enjoying those. Also, I'd like to start Latin, do you think it sounds like she'd be ready (we're close to the end of FLL). And, how do I cope with this kid :tongue_smilie: She would be even futher along in math, but I had her do the intensive practice workbook for 1A before doing 1B because she was catching up to DS too fast. I decided holding her back wasn't a good thing, and he said he didn't care if she caught up with him, or even passed him, so now she's working at her own pace. TIA :)

I currently live in Bedford, I haven't tried to hook up with a group (I'll be moving in June to Spencer so I go to a group there), but the library in Bedford is very helpful. I'm sure they'd be happy to help you find someone.

For short term, emergency heating you can always get an indoor/outdoor portable propane heater like the Mr Heater Buddy: http://www.shop.com/Mr_Heater_Portable_Buddy_Indoor_Outdoor_Heater_151_Model_35_MH9B-5625792-7970969-p!.shtml?sourceid=298 They are around $80 and you can get an adapter hose to hook up the 20lb propane tank that you would have around anyway for your BBQ grill. They are safe to be used indoors because they have a sensor that will shut them off if there is too much carbon monoxide. If you lose power for a few days in a blizzard, you can shut your family into one room and use this to heat just that one room. HTH!

A small correction on this part. I've seen the video from this before (I already had a regent when I saw it, but it did convince DH that we were smart to get the seats), and the parents advocate 5 point harnesses (and the Regent in particular) because you can use either the belt or the latch and have the additional protection of the tether. The tether should hold the seat in place even if the latch or seat belt fails. They are saying that a Regent is inherently better than a booster because the Regent offers the extra protection of having a tether. Smaller bodies need greater protection, and bigger kids can do their own seat belts, when it is appropriate, to ensure that they are properly latched. Missy

Tracey, I think you misread Melissa's post, she said the gov't did NOT force people to run up credit cards. I've been extremely worried about the economy for a good (or is that bad? scary?) year now. I'm also in the position of being the major source of support for my little family. It is incredibly difficult to be a single parent, homeschool and support the kiddos (and not in the life they were accustomed to, we've cut back in many areas already). The price of gas isn't even my biggest worry, food is (I can stop driving a lot easier than I can stop eating). Missy Sorry to hear about DH's job. That stinks. Several years ago my DH's company had a mandatory salary decrease, ranging from 6-25% depending on salary and personal value to the company. For many people it was never raised. Some industries are in a recession (ie housing). I wondered why you felt the government now forces people to run up credit cards, etc? Seems more of a social norm instead of government sponsored. We did it to ourselves to "keep up with the Joneses" IMO. I'm so proud to drive my crazy old Suburban and DH drives a trashed Ford Taurus. We could easily buy new cars, but place value elsewhere instead. People assume we must be poor b/c we live below our means. Strange that a generation ago it was expected, but now it's the anomaly. Listening to stories from grandparents/GGparents and their sacrifices during the depression followed by WWII are utterly unimaginable today.

This is one of those things you should definitely speak to an accountant about. I'm not certain that you'd be able to count the house as a primary residence when selling it at a later date if you used it as a business expense (even if you were meeting the living in it 3 of the last 5 years requirement). We've rented out a house for the last 3 years, and have had to depreciate it each year (I think it is a 20 year deprciation, but I'm not digging through 12000lbs of stuff to find out just now). You also won't be able to do the mortgage deductions (that you get with itemizing), but they will be used to offset your rent so that you don't have to count it as income. I used to do all our taxes myself (and I mean by hand), but it got a bit too complex when we started renting. No 2 tax software programs treat it the same, so it is very confusing. Right now, we haven't even depreciated the house down to the level that the market has fallen to :glare: so I'm not worried about "profits" in later tax years yet.

I think it is about 90% religious and 10% academic. It would certainly be great if we could do an enrichment thing. I'll find out more next week what the leadership might be looking for.

I probably don't need a degree to teach, although I think it would be nice to get the help in teaching writing. I think that if the church were to start a school it would be more of an enrichment/coop kind of thing (although it might also be a full school as a ministry). I also think they are interested in someone having a degree in case homeschooling regulation gets passed (it was tried last year, apparently, to require that anyone homeschooling have a degree). If I had a degree, we could umbrella everyone in the church school and no one would be homeschooling, even if their parents did most of the teaching. Several of the parents can do math tutoring and they have a few that can do science, but no one is confident enough to tutor/teach writing (there was a big gap in kids, so right now there aren't any high schoolers, but several upcoming 8th graders and at least 5-7 in each grade below that). I'm going to talk to my mentor more next week, she's at a worship conference with half the church this weekend, before I make any huge decisions like switching majors.

I think I've asked for advice before on what to do, but, well, I'm doing it again ;) Background: I got out of the Navy last month after 12+ years. I've got a few health issues from my time in, especially wrist tendinitis and carpal tunnel (I was a computer person). I get some compensation money for the disability (and others). I'm taking online classes right now and the workload has really been bothering my wrists and hands. I'm currently going for Accounting, but I'm just not sure I can handle all the computer work and keep the pain at a reasonable level. I should be able to get the VA to pay for any/all schooling I need, plus pay a monthly stipend to help us live off of. STBX and I are separated with a 99% chance of divorce (I suppose he COULD choose to give up p*rn, but he was looking at it in front of the kids before we separated, no matter how much I asked him not to). He's been paying support. Between the support, VA stipend and disability, we can live while I go to school without incurring too much debt (I've already got plenty of that, unfortunately). Now for the questions. Does anyone know a good work from home job (so I can still be there for the kids) that wouldn't make me use my hands too much?? I can get training for it, I just don't know what it is. I plan to live in a small town that has no private schools, not even church schools. My church is discussing starting a school, but it is just the leadership talking about it and I don't know how far into the future it would be. I know this because I was talking to my (well, it is hard explain, best friend's mom, but she's also quite young and has a 10 year old and 12 year old, she's basically a church mentor) mentor and asked her for the same sort of advice. I mentioned tutoring and that I'm only 7 classes from an English degree, and perhaps I could get a teaching degree and get even more students (local school is terrible). That is when she told me that they were thinking about a school. There is only one child (out of about 75) in the church that isn't homeschooled, and nobody is exactly rich, so I'm not sure how many of our members would send their kids to a school. But, it is an idea. And, perhaps if the church didn't start one, I could. I should be able to get some funding with the woman veteran thing. The biggest problem I see is timing. It'd take me 3+ years at the local university to get my undergrad teaching degree, and the grad degree is tough to get into. Any ideas or suggestions? TIA!

I answered family account, but that would likely change if I were to ever remarry (of course, I'd have to divorce first, still in the waiting period now). When we separated the first time, DH was finally getting a job (after 5.5 years) and I accepted less than the state calculator said so that I could get more during this period (I'm living on 1/5 of what I was before, plus child support, while I return to school-we set the amount and it stayed the same even when he got a raise and when I got out, so I could have a set amount). I suppose when we actually divorce, the court could change things, but I don't think they usually do when the parties have agreed. When we set up the agreement, he got paid on the 1st and 15th, just like I did, so he paid me in 2 equal payments each month. Now, he gets paid every 2 weeks, so he's not quite on schedule, but when he gets paid he pays me. We are "lucky" in that my kids will get to go to school at any public in state college tuition free because I have a military disability and wartime service (this is an Indiana thing, not nationwide). In IN, parents have to pay support through college, so we'll probably just split their room/board 3 ways (each parent and the child paying 1/3). STBX isn't a bad person (and I think his parents would guilt him into paying support even if he didn't feel obligated), he just isn't a good spouse for me.

No residency requirement, you'd certainly be able to submit portfolios. I've not talked to anyone about submitting portfolios, so I'm not sure how tough they are. If you go to the link I used above, you can go to the Courses FAQ along the top of the page and it will answer many questions. You can also go to the high school courses link along the side and once there you should be able to download the catalog, which explains much more. As I mentioned, neither I nor my children have taken any of their courses, but I've heard nothing but good things about IUHS. Missy

I don't know about Clonora but IUHS is NCAA recognized, according to their website. http://scs.indiana.edu/hs/highschoolcourses.php It should be possible to do 3 years of high school in homeschool and then transfer it to IUHS, but you have to keep VERY detailed portfolios to submit (and I think you pay $7 per portfolio to be evaluated). However, once in IUHS you wouldn't really be able to choose your own courses (although they only have a 5 credit residency requirement). My oldest will be 8 next month, so I've got a lot of time left to plan (and we're probably not going to graduate him until he's almost 19, he's got maturity issues and was failing public school 2nd grade), but I'm sort of hoping the kids all choose to go to IU, so IUHS would be quite handy and would make STBX-H feel a lot better about my homeschooling.

Yes, we're not at all bad where I am right now (Lawrence County, we might get some flooding in another day or 2), but I was supposed to move into a house in a different town on June 1st (well, start the lease June 1st, I wasn't moving in until the 3rd when my stuff came). On the 1st, the owners let me know that the prior renters were basically squatting (well, they paid rent, but they weren't going to move out and eviction would take too long to matter) until July 1. Here is a picture of the street that house is on (straight from the truck). You can't actually see the house but it is directly across from the picnic shelter. I certainly feel like I dodged a bullet on that one. This is the 3rd worst flood ever at this point, and has the potential to be the worst ever. http://indy.planetdiscover.com/sp?p=/photogallery/index&id=4542746 I'm just hoping that everything that I own, which is in a storage unit on higher ground outside of town, isn't under water as well. Missy

:iagree: In the immortal words of Harry S. Truman: "It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours."

Not my children, but I'm doing my degree online. Nothing about my degree says anything about online classes, however. Every class I'm taking is also offered on campus at the school, I just never have to go there. It could be quite expensive, though. I still get in state tuition since I started my degree as active duty military (and it is still ~$240 per credit, I think it is closer to $500 per credit nonresident). You might be surprised at what can be taken online. There is even a school that offers an online PharmD (of course, prereqs are probably taken in a regular classroom and it is incredibly competitive). I'm doing Accounting, but the school I'm using offers many majors that can be done totally online* http://www.umuc.edu/prog/ugp/mjr_chart_online.shtml (and I'm wouldn't say I'd endorse them since they have a few shortfalls in my mind-cost and the fact that they aren't all that great at taking transfer credit). *A lab science still has to be done. I've know of people who did an online biology course and it was INCREDIBLY difficult (this was in 2004, I've been taking classes with this school since 2002). I'm not sure if they still offer it.

I'll second this recommendation! I just ordered the Primer and First Reader. DS (almost 8) doesn't really like to do independent reading but he read the whole Primer in one sitting (without my asking him to read any at all). DD (5.5 but reading since 4) read through the first 3 stories and really enjoyed them. And, Amazon has many of the yesterdays classics on their 4 for 3 sale right now :)

The long and short of it: I'm newly single, fresh out of 12+ years in the Navy and a full time student for the next 15 months while I finish my BS in Accounting. DS was public schooled until the end of March and would have been held back in 2nd grade. He won't be 8 until July. DD5.5 has been reading for almost 2 years. She did that all on her own. She's counting money up through dimes, telling time to the half hour and has finished 3.5 of the 4 Singapore Earlybird Math books in the 2 months that I've been homeschooling them. She scares me (and I was "gifted"). I just started my classes yesterday for the summer semester. I'm taking 9 credits, all online (next summer will be the same, it'll be 15 credits during the Fall/Spring semesters). DD18mo has decided to drop her 2nd nap of the day. I'm currently not up to the level of study time I need. I'm probably going to have to do some sort of daycare for DD18mo so I can study. I'm moving next week (even more fun, yay! ;)) and will be living near my church (where everyone homeschools). Since I've been gone for 12 years, I'm a bit out of the loop and not up on everyone (about 55 kids have been born in the time I've been gone, I know about 7 of their names). I'll be living about 45 minutes from my parents. My dad is 70 and has early emphysema and my Mom just turned 68 and has arthritis. She has to limit how often she picks up the baby. Should I try to use my parents for daycare (they're willing, I just feel guilty-plus there's not a quiet place at their house), see if someone from the church is willing to watch them or at least the baby (I'd pay them, of course) or try to find someone in the town, not associated with the church to watch her. I'd probably only need half time, or even about 12 hours a week of care? Anyone BTDT? I'm more than likely going to have to have daycare for her anyway when I have to go back to work after I finish school (although I might be able to find a work from home thing and use some of the older kids at the church as mother's helpers). This real life thing sure is complicated :tongue_smilie: TIA!

I think the government should be about 1/3 of what it is now. Military-yes, but much smaller. Get rid of our overseas bases, basically the only ones that should be out of CONUS are some folks on exchange programs. Concentrate on national defense (including from illegal immigration), and quit building aircraft carriers and much of what we're working on now. We need to stop being the world's police. The State Department is still needed for its constitutional role in diplomacy (and for passport services) but should also be cut way down and all the extras gotten rid of. I also think the UN needs to be cut way down. The Treasury should print money and collect tariffs (which should be the major source of governmental income), not mess with all the other stuff. Congresscritters should only get retirement after 20 years of service, like in the military. NASA should go on ice until we pay off the federal debt. Most everything else should go to the states, who will collect and administer their own taxes. If income taxes must be collected by the federal government then the states should collect them and send them on. Even the post office could go away now, private commerce (think UPS and Fedex) has given a readily available alternative. The biggest problem with all of this is that about 13% of the workforce is directly employed by the federal government (between fed employees, post office and military) and millions more are employed supporting the federal government (defense contractors, suppliers and so on). Cutting the government is going to leave lots of people unemployed, and that is going to be hard to stomach. Honestly, though, I think if we cut all the pork and went down to what is really necessary, we could cut 10% per year from the budget and get down to where we need to be (and by 10% I mean from the years current level, so the 1st year it'd be 90% of current, next year take 10% of the 90, so 81% of current and so on). I think at that point, corporate taxes and tariffs should be able to cover things, and the corporate taxes should be collected at the state level.

Info can be found here: http://www.galorepark.co.uk/product/parents/127/latin-prep-book-1.html It can be ordered in the US from here: http://www.horriblebooks.com/galoreparkbooklist.htm I haven't used it, I just have heard about it :)

Most of my ILs think my homeschooling lifestyle habit is odd ;) Freethinker, 79%

I'm not certain that the OP understands the differences between a DEBATE board and a SUPPORT board. These boards are (or at least were) intended to be for support.

I had my whopping $36 tax bill drafted from my bank account and will be getting a paper check at the end of June (its apparently not direct deposit in the eyes of the govt).

You wouldn't happen to be talking about a young lady whose first name (and DH's first name) start with a J, and she recently returned home, would you? If so, we definitely need to get together. That describes the exact circumstances of one of my best friends from when I was growing up. I've just gotten out of the Navy and returned to to area. If you go to her church, I'm the short one, alone with 3 kids (7, 5 and 18 months). Or just the new person :) Missy

I personally got a Big Berkey by British Berkefeld. I had to save up for a while, though, because they are quite expensive (I think I paid around $200). I got the black carbon filters rather than the ceramic because the black carbon filters out viruses and because one of the nearest sources of water was the site of a PCB cleanup so I got the add on attachments for filtering heavy metals and PCBs (because, hey, if GM didn't clean it up right the first time, whose to say they did it right again). HTH, Missy PS Totally off topic Drew, but have you gotten any updates on when they might publish the new book? Not the updated LCC, the other one :) I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and get the Harp and Laurel Wreath or wait for your new book.

I really like Mrs. Survival for information on inexpensive food storage and preparation. The ladies (and a few gentlemen) there are really nice. I've tried the scotch broth recipe that I first found there and really like it. It is also a great way to store a lot of food inexpensively (and in a fair compact space). Here is a link to a discussion there about it: http://www.mrssurvival.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=10&Number=171566&Searchpage=1&Main=23526&Words=scotch&topic=0&Search=true#Post171566 Since they discuss more than one recipe, I'll say that I used the one posted by "Grubby". I quite liked it, DD(5.5yo) liked it, DS (almost 8) said he hated it and I'm sure the baby (18mo) would love it (she loves food, period). I use the "better than bouillon" paste (which they have several vegetarian flavors of) and it is quite yummy. As far as emergency preparedness stuff, convincing spouses about it can be one of the biggest challenges. Homesteading today has a great, fairly low key survival and emergency preparedness subforum. (http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/forumdisplay.php?f=11) Just remember, you can survive far longer without food than without water. If you are lucky enough to live near a large supply of water, then getting a water filtering system is a great idea. HTH, Missy