Ok. I'm signing up. I need something more productive to do with my life! I don't get it though. Do I post a review on my own blog and link it to the blog, or just post here? Do you do a review every week?

When do you find the time to read all of those books?? I guess I would need to cut out some of my pointless Internet time. I flirt with that thread, but it feels kind of like going from not exercising to being a marathon runner overnight. I want to be like you. :)

Thank you everyone!

Thank you. It's all fine logically, but very difficult emotionally. I can only talk about it here, in outer space, where I can be a little illogical. :)

You are my hero with the lack of stuff! I'm not ready to give up more books yet. I thought we had gotten rid of a lot when we moved, but I have boxes in the basement and really no idea what is in them! The show is dumb, but totally addicting. I TiVo it and then fast forward to the part where they talk about the family. (They send two wild teenagers to live with a strict family for ONE week and they magically learn respect.) I do think it is interesting to see what works for other families...

Oh forget it. I'll be nice.

Oops! Wrong board!

Oh, please don't ever feel that way. People post the nicest things on my FB about what a wonderful mother and teacher I am. You know why? Because I only post happy things!!! They don't know I scream at my kids, spend way too much time online, and battle depression, and many of them would never guess it. We share things we are proud of and happy about, but it's far from the bigger picture. :) Don't stay up until 2AM!

We downsizèd from a big 4 bedroom house to a two bedroom tiny house a year and a half ago. I could NEVER get all of their clothes under their beds and I feel like they don't have a lot of clothes as it is. I'm constantly weeding through it and i have to do laundry every three or four days or they run out of clothes. When their sizes were smaller, everything fit, but now their clothes are almost as big as mine! Their room is maybe 10 x10. Our bunk beds are from IKEA too, but they are older. I wonder if they have under the bed drawers that would fit. They are in their room a lot. Every day for quiet time and then they enjoy playing together in there. If they aren't in there, they are outside. We don't have anywhere else for them to play, really. I can vacuum my whole house from one outlet!! ;) So, if it's not in their room, it's not anywhere else. We do have an unfinished basement, so that is where their art supplies and dress up are stored, and there is plenty of room for "keep forever boxes" (so far they each have two). Hmm...

Check with your insurance company first. Our pediatrician says, "what's the best kind of trampoline?" And the kids answer, "No trampoline!" I'm shocked (in a good way) there are parents who don't let their kids jump at other people's houses. I don't know how I would handle that. I just let them jump. Maybe I'm a whimp. I wonder if there are trampoline consumer reports that list safety ratings??? The nets have to do something, right?

(I should add that their room is actually very clean, but I'm tired of the cluttered dresser tops, and when they pull out all their little collections from underneath the bed, it takes forever to clean them all up.) Ok. Maybe I'm trying to reassure myself that throwing a bunch of their crap away isn't going to do any emotional damage. :) when they were younger, I would go through their rooms with garbage bags on a regular basis. I've lost my backbone!

Do you let your kids choose, do you do it, or is it a shared effort? (My dd with special needs will not be able to make the decisions on her own, but I want her to feel like she has autonomy).

My twins share a very small bedroom with a tiny closet (barely room for dresses, coats, and shoes). They each have a dresser. They have "stuff" everywhere. We have organized spaces for the AG dolls, Legos, and Playmobil that are all still used. But what do I do with all the other stuff? Trinkets, awards, allllll the stuffed animals, things they have made, etc. How do you handle this? I will admit to watching "World's Strictest Parents" and I'm always shocked at how sparse their kids' bedrooms seem. But I can see how it would make keeping it clean and organized so much easier! I have a dd with special needs who would benefit from less stuff, but I also want my girls to have ownership and be able to have things that are important to them, even if I don't understand why. We've tried the "here's your box for stuff" but it just seems to multiply so quickly!

I see the audio tracks, but there are videos and I'm only seeing one option for videos.

Which pronunciation does the teacher use on the videos? Is there a reason to use one over the other?

Ah! So no consensus?! :) I just can't decide! I'm leaning toward LC just because of the format, but wonder if my girls would be more engaged with LL. hmmmm

Anyone?

CLE LA made me cry! But we love the math. We switched to FLL. But, if CLE is the goal, stick with it and give her lots of support.

I think this is excellent advice. So much of high school is about the dialogue. And high school is NoT college. It's just not. High school is about learning to be passionate about your work, learning how to study, learning about responsibility, yes, but it should be a gradual release over those four years, IMO. It sounds like she just really still needs you. That's ok.

We didn't like Latin Prep. I didn't like the way it was laid out and I felt like it moved too fast. I need something systematic, open and go, with built in review. The girls are in 5th grade. They've had a few weeks of Latin Prep. Do I get Lively Latin and plan on doing the 2 books through 8th grade, then starting a modern language (or continuing high school latin). OR do I do Latina Christiana this year and into next, then use first form and second form for 7th and 8th? (We are secular homeschoolers, but at this point, I just want the easiest program to use. I don't care what they are memorizing as far as religion.) What would I do for high school from each of those programs? Latina Christiana teaches Ecclesiastical pronunciation. Does it matter? Any suggestions? Thanks!

Ha! I just don't like the format. It was hard for me to open and go without any Latin. I was hoping for more hand holding. It also seemed very disjointed to me. I need something more systematic with spiral review.

I can answer part of your question, for me. My twin girls are inseparable! The energy between boys and girls is sometimes very different, especially at that age. I think all of that is perfectly normal. I don't know if he's dramatic, but if he is, so is one of my girls. We just reassure her, once, and move on, trying not to indulge or encourage the behavior. It's a reaction to getting in trouble, then it never comes up again.

I'd check out some helpful websites like Reading Rockets for handouts and suggestions, then I'd talk about explicit instruction and how to choose books at your child's level. The rest depends on if you are going to talk about teaching decoding to beginning students, or working on fluency and comprehension with older students.

This was great. Dh and I got married when we were 26 and 21, so fairly young and still in college. I remember we read a book of questions like these together and talked about a lot of issues like adoption, religion, and if our kids should go to college. I was always so grateful for those conversations because it got us communicating about issues from day 1. LOTS of things have changed since then, but I think setting the foundation for good communication helped us grow together instead of apart. We are vastly different people than we were 11 years ago. Our engaged selves would have never believed where we would be now. I think being able to have these conversations is almost more important than having the same answers. (DH and I were devout Mormons, he wanted 5 kids and didn't think college was important. Now he is an agnostic, doesn't want any more kids than our two, and hell will freeze over before our kids don't go to college. Funny what growing up does to you.)

Ugh! I was going to switch to Lively Latin because Latin Prep isn't getting done here. Why isn't LL getting done at your house??