Your kids have no separation issues, they love and you trust who they will be with, I say... "Go for it!" :001_smile: The way life goes, with sickness and pregnancy/ nursing and finances... you may not have another chance to get-away like this in years. So, seize the day! Seize all seven of them! ;)

What do you think about this blog post? I've got my thick skin on, just in case I need it. But with this audience, I think I'll be safe enough saying these things... :001_smile: http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/08/are-you-sure-you-are-homeschooling-your.html

Great list musicianmom. I think I am going to copy that down somewhere for future reference. :D

I guess it may also be important to add that I try to encourage my daughter to make close friendships with the kids who bring out the best in her. Those kids we invite home with us. The others, the ones who she mixes with like oil and water and always ends up in trouble with... we invite them to large parties, not intimate events and try to limit our interaction with them to group settings. And, we just deal with the "stuff" they "learn" from their friends, good or bad, on a case by case basis. And we pray... a lot. :001_smile:

First of all, let me say to anyone who happens to read this: I realize your kids are yours and mine are mine... You have to raise yours according to your conscience and I have to raise mine according to mine. That said, I try and teach my daughter to treat people with respect. As far as I know, she doesn't rate people according to whether or not they go to our church. She doesn't look at their clothes (or lack of clothing, as the case my be) and make judgments about them over those things. But, then again, she is only five and she doesn't have to be as discerning in her relationships with the kids she slides down the slide with as I do moms I invite to our home. :001_smile: We do community sports and things like VBS, so she can be socialized. We associate with people who are on both ends of the spectrum from us. In some groups, we are the most conservative Christians. In others, we are the most liberal, verging on heretics, I think. But, like I said, we try to treat everyone with respect (even when they are unkind or even offensive to us because we are either too goody, goody or not good enough) and we hope our daughter is learning from us to do the same. As she gets older, we will have to try and teach HOW we discern who we can get close to and who we are simply kind to... that's a tough lesson... one we as adults are still learning for ourselves. :001_smile:

For me, it's like an online scrapbook- diary- photo album- nature journal... only much easier and cheaper to make, edit, save and share because it is online. I enjoy looking at it and laughing over the funny things my daughters do... http://www.veronicaboulden.com/search/label/Humor or the places we've been... http://www.veronicaboulden.com/search/label/Memories or seeing how my kids have grown... http://www.veronicaboulden.com/search/label/Now%20and%20Then or keeping track of my thoughts about home school... http://www.veronicaboulden.com/search/label/Homeschool I keep a blog for lots of reasons, the least of which is that other people happen to be able to see it. (Though, I do try to keep in mind the fact that my teenage nieces and nephews are reading it, and so are my inlaws and parents... so unfortunately, there are things I can't talk about with that audience in mind). But, all in all, it's a great outlet for my creative energy. And just like everyone else said, I find that I do not have to depend on my husband as much for communication now that I blog. I am not desperate to talk to him like I used to be. Now, I work my thoughts out on my blog and then he reads them there in a coherent form and we can talk about them like civilized people when he gets home. :D

We are interested in doing a unit study on rocks, geology, etc. We picked up some rocks on the seashore in main... which led to research about caves... which led to stalagmites... which led to a science project to make some... which led to a planned field trip to Howe's Caverns in New York... We are thinking about starting a rock collection. Has anyone ever done this? If so, where did you get your rocks? Have you ever actually chipped some off a bigger rock? If so, where and how? Do we need a rock identification guide or book? Which one? How do you label and store your rocks? Any other books or materials that you suggest? Thanks! :001_smile:

You don't sound unreasonable to me. What sounds unreasonable is to expect every parent to participate, Christian or not. (I'm a Christian and I hate being obligated or guilted into service at church). I don't think it's wrong for Christian parents to use these programs as a "break" and the fact that the church or the leaders don't approve of that could be a bad sign, in my opinion. If they won't let your kids participate unless you volunteer, you could explain the reason why you want your kids to be in the program, but the honest reasons why you don't want to be volunteering. I would not feel guilty that it is a "want" and not a "need." Or, you could choose something in your schedule to give up and volunteer at AWANA so your kids can go... you could make that more of a priority over something else you are doing. If you can't do that, you could consider taking the kids to another AWANA program in the area... If you do this, I think you should send a letter explaining why, kindly and gently, so as not to cause any more offense than necessary. Good luck. I hope your kids can participate. I love AWANA. :)

Here's what I do to get more blog readers: I post answers to questions like yours on forums like this one and hope people will click on my blog address below. I also try and fill my posts with links to my blog, as you will see below. :D No seriously, I've been blogging every day (I'm not kidding about that... every. single. day.) for years (that's right, YEARS!) and I have only 11 followers to date. I think what I am saying is interesting???!!! But I guess it really isn't. :001_huh: I actually tried to do a give away to drum up "business" a few months ago. I gave a year's subscription to Everyday Food magazine. Ever heard of it? I think I got something like six entries to the contest in one month. :confused: http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/04/enter-to-win-subscription-to-everyday.html Hind site is twenty twenty. I think the "rules" for this contest were too difficult to the casual blog reader. I asked people to type out a recipe. I think I should have just asked for a shorter comment. But, I went through the motions and gave away the magazine anyway. Here's proof. ;) http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/05/my-first-blog-contest-is-officially.html It was still fun, even though I didn't many followers from the contest. I was actually able to give the magazine to another homeschooling mom in my local group and we are becoming better friends now. :001_smile: I wish I had more followers, but when I get discouraged about it I remind myself that that is not why I blog. For me, it's like an online photo album/ journal/ scrapbook. My family reads it religiously and when I haven't posted something by 10am, they call and fuss at me. That makes up for the lack of official followers. :001_smile:

Sorry this happened to you. This couple has probably been out to eat before and they have probably had bad experiences with kids sitting next to them in the past. It's not fair, but they probably don't want to take the chance of getting settled there and having their nice lunch ruined by noise and kid-motion, etc. That said, I'd still probably be annoyed if I were you, especially if they were obvious and rude about it. I've also gotten up and moved away from people before... But I've never done this to other parents. No matter how terrible their kids are and how much they ignore them, I feel like moving away from other parents would break a sacred "parent" code... like leaving a man behind on the battle field or something. It's just not done. ;) But, I have often moved away from people who smoke or cuss or who are talking explicitly about having sex or who are just talking too loud (one of my biggest pet peeves), etc. And nicer restaurants seem to do this on purpose... We don't go out to these sit-down places often, but when we do, I notice they seem to group families with kids together. I get a little annoyed at this because our kids are very well behaved (I think) and then we get stuck next to a family with kids who don't behave and parents who don't pay attention to them and that ruins OUR lunch... :001_smile: But, like I said, I stay there, no matter how bad it gets. One day, it may be my kids screaming. I don't think I'd ever let it get that bad, but I've learned to never say never in this parenting business. Everything I said my kids would never do, they have done... often. ;)

Love it! :D Where do store your little stuff like staples, stapler, tape, sticky notes... the stuff YOU need to use. (It wasn't obvious from the pictures). This is a particular problem for me... For now, the things I use are in one drawer and one cabinet. But, inside that cabinet and that drawer, it's a mess!!! I have to do organization on a smaller level. What do you do for that smaller level? :001_smile:

I'd keep it until you know you know you know you won't want to use it. Too often, I've thought, "I haven't used this in months..." and gotten rid of something, only to really want or need it a month or two later... and have to buy it again. :tongue_smilie:

I am about to start reading "A Dog Called Kitty" to my five year old... I'm really excited about it because my mom read this book to me as a kid. Does that count? :D No really, I should say Story of the World Book 1... and the activity book and all the read-alouds that go with the ancients. :001_smile:

This girl and her parents sound very manipulative to me. I haven't heard their side, but what you say reminds me of some things I have been through. Some people could make an art form out of getting nice people to commit things to them... Once, I found myself in Walmart with the only money I had to buy groceries for me and my newly married husband for the next two weeks, buying a chick who had four closets full of clothes even MORE clothes because she had convinced me she needed them for a job interview... when she chose skin tight pants she could wear to the club and insisted that's what she needed for the interview, I thought to myself, "Never again..." (I didn't know about the four closets of clothes until the same chick also roped me into helping her move out of her apartment she hadn't paid rent for... as I was moving bags and bags of business suits to her car, I thought to myself, "Never again...") And, another time, I found myself standing in my kitchen for hours cooking fancy, stuffed jalapeno peppers wrapped in bacon for another girl who hadn't eaten in days... because after days of not eating, that's what she wanted. :confused: Really? Okay... I figured out quick enough that her money-strapped husband just wouldn't agree to buy all the fancy, impractical and expensive ingredients necessary to make this dish for her. It was her favorite, after all, and they had plenty of mac and cheese and ramen noddles at home while we did not. :glare: With cream cheese all over my fingers, while she was stuffing her face with peppers, I thought to myself, "Never again..." You owe these kind if people no explanation when you say "No"... even when they expect one from you, even when they cry or get mad and when they and everyone else knows you are saying "no" just because you "don't want to." It's okay not to want to... You aren't mean or wrong for making these kind of people mad or uncomfortable. "As far as it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live at peace with all men..." meaning... Some people are just going to be impossible to live at peace with. That's not your fault. Good luck. :001_smile:

Here's a blog post I wrote about my I don't have a classroom. http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/06/lot-of-people-ask-me-how-i-organize-my.html This really works for us... so far. :001_smile:

Sonlight is a lot of reading. We are doing the Core P4/5 right now (which may be even less reading than what you are doing with your Core.) A lot of reading is a positive in that it's, well... a lot of reading... ;) But, I've noticed that it's also a negative because the stories tend to blend together in my daughter's head (and in my own sometimes) and we loose track of all the plots and characters and morals of the stories after a while. We do a narration notebook with a story here and there. You can see samples of my daughter's work here. http://www.veronicaboulden.com/search/label/Narration This notebook builds so many skills, but also it provides a way to "record" at least some of the stories, so they aren't all lost forever in our minds. We can go back and read this notebook again and again and get a least a little handle on all that we've covered. With longer novels, I'd definitely do the thing another post suggested and write out the names of the characters as you are introduced to them in the first few chapters and list who they are and review that on a daily basis or as needed when you are reading and discussing the stories. Even when I read Jane Austen by myself, it helps to do this because all the cousins and Mr. and Mrs. Characters blend together after a while. :D Good luck.

Where's that smile face with the big ears... :bigear: I am tuning in for this post. We are starting first grade at the end of summer, too. Your lineups look alot like mine. That makes me feel more confident. Thanks!

I spent approx. $500 last year (for one kid). But, that was an expensive year... I had nothing I already needed and I had to get "start up" supplies like the Math U See block sets, etc. I hope I can reuse those every year and with all my kids, making the expense well worth it. But, I try not to buy too far in advance with this idea that "we will use it later." In my (limited) experience, we don't really use what we buy ahead of time (or haven't yet). It becomes a waste of money that I could have spent on something I knew we really would use right away. I try to buy what I know I need the next three to six months and we use it like crazy... work through the book front to back, etc... and then move on to what we need/ will be doing for the next few months. I have saved (or haven't spent yet) hundreds if not thousands that way. I don't have tons of supplies built up like so many homeschooling moms I know, but I can say... we are actually using what we have purchased. I know so many moms who have gone into debt buying stuff years ago they still haven't used... I want to try and avoid that. :001_smile:

We travel a lot. My husband goes on trips for business and we tag along. We usually have trouble finding a room if we do not reserve one in advance. And, with a tired, cranky family in the car who is ready to sleep, not finding a room has never been "no big deal... we'll just drive a little further." We still travel without firm plans... sometimes. But, we always keep in mind that those nights, we may have to travel a lot longer than we wanted to in order to find a room. That's just my experience. We just traveled (like last week) to Chicago, St. Louis, Springfield, Tulsa... and then back home for work. We stayed in 11 or 12 hotels on that trip... I lost count. We "just showed up" to two hotels and neither of them had rooms. We had to drive on and call and find a hotel from the road on those occasions. Some other nights, we called as we were driving, a few hours before we arrived somewhere, when it didn't matter where we stopped in between sites. That worked out okay. But, it was a pain to drive and call and drive and call back... Of course, if you make reservations, you will have to pay attention to the policies and ask what they are and cancel on or by a certain time to get your money back, if you won't be showing for some reason. But, with a trip like that, I'd make a tentative plan and make sure the hotels where you will be staying are central to where you want to be once you are in those places and that they have stores and restaurants around and are (probably most importantly) in your price range... In my experience, you pay more (not less) when you have not reserved the room you had in mind in advance. The more expensive hotel next door always has rooms available. ;) ;) Good luck!

I didn't mean to sound so smug about the food... I sounded smug, didn't I? ;) I just meant that you should offer them something simple like someone else said... something like hot dogs and chips... or just cake and drinks. I can't even tell you how many parties I've gone to WITH a full belly... only to have to eat to be polite. So I wouldn't stress about the food too much. Good luck with this and I hope you have fun... Even if you have some extra "lifeguards" around the pool. :001_smile:

I think these parents probably just assume that they are invited to the party, even if their child's name is the only one on the invitation. It is customary where I live in Connecticut to send the invitation to the child or siblings you want to come to your kid's party, but actually mean that the whole family is invited. In fact, if parents don't come to a party and just drop their kids off, that's actually a real insult to the hostess. At first, I actually thought you meant that the parents were planning to stay with their kids for the second party, the one just for your family, and I thought that WAS really rude... But, I assumed (like they probably have) that they were invited to the first one. :001_smile: Also, you mentioned that it is a pool party. I think a pool involved makes your party a big liability for many parents. If you were having the party at the local skating rink, for example, many of those same parents might just leave like you want them to. What are the chances their kid will die if you turn your head for five minutes while they are skating and fall down? But, unless you are hiring a professional lifeguard, many parents will not feel comfortable enough to leave their kids in a pool setting without them... And asking them to be comfortable enough with you to let you oversee their kids while swimming may be too big of a thing to ask of them. Personally, I wouldn't let my kid go to a pool without me. Maybe that is how these parents feel. I wouldn't stress about the food. I know you want to be polite, but offer what you can and if the food runs out... oh well. :001_smile:

I like this quote alot. "Too much have we emphasized drawing as an art; it may be an art, to the artist, but if he is not an artist, he still has a right to draw if it pleases him to do so. We might as well declare a child should not speak unless he puts words into poetry, as to declare that he should not draw because his drawings are not artistic." The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock :001_smile: I was a terrible writer in school. I could hardly even read. Now, I publish articles and write for a paper. I had the heart for writing and if I had given up on myself, if I had listened to my teacher's voices, I would still be living that regret. If your child has "the heart" for drawing but just isn't "good," I'd still encourage it, do programs that will equip them and make more room for it in your schedule. I think it depends on their interest level not their natural ability. If they have an internal desire to learn to draw well, that plus diligence will be enough. Good luck. :001_smile:

Please don't give up. You really are free to choose something that other moms wouldn't choose for their children and you do not have to know about everything that's out there to pick something great... I still don't know about it all and I have been homeschooling for two years now and researching for over five! :001_smile: The first year I homeschooled, I was the only one I knew to ever chose Bob Jone's DVD school for K4. I felt like I needed alot of "help" and liked the idea of having a "teacher" and I just prepared the stuff. I liked it, but wanted to take more control the next year. So, for the next year, I chose Sonlight's Core p4/5. It provides plans, but I became "the teacher." This next year, it will be "all me" and I will be leading my daughter through the material without real plans, following a schedule instead and helping her create history and science notebooks, etc. like The Well Trained Mind suggests. I think it was nice that your pastor's wife made you a list. That may have taken her a lot of time. But, to get started, there is no harm in getting something you feel really sure about, personally, and then using that list and other recommendations, to "move out" from there once you are more comfortable. Good luck. :grouphug:

I use content from the books my daughter reads. It works for now. Here are two blog posts about what I've been doing... with pictures! :001_smile: http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/07/zaner-bloser-company-that-makes-norahs.html http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/07/norah-is-almost-finished-with-zanier.html

If I don't have time, I focus on the three R's: reading, writing, and arithmetic. If any of those have to give, it's handwriting. If I can only do ONE thing, it's reading. :001_smile: