Immersion method is the best way to learn a language. A combined with Communicative Language Teaching, Direct Method, and a mix of others for various activities--I'd be thrilled to have my children in such a program. I teach 2 foreign languages, and this is my field. Really, "my teacher teaches all in ____" is probably a misnomer, too. Studies show that even in immersion classes, even 85% target language is about all you get, and that's fine.

I hope you find the encouragement you need to do what it is you mean to do. I don't know if you're going to find a board exclusively for people who mean to homeschool forever and where everyone does, though. I hate to say it, but I think it would be a terrifying place. Some families don't make it, even when they want to. Horrible things happen, people get sick, there are divorces, there are financial obligations. I think a place that excludes everyone but die hards would be a place that hurts other people emotionally when they can't make homeschooling work, and ostracize them if they begin having doubts, thinking that's the way to keep them in the homeschooling fold. There are hard circumstances, then there are choices. Happens in marriages too. People go in for the long-haul, more than half in the US don't make it. Christian marriages too! I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure that some people who wind up moving their children to other educational methods intended to homeschool for the long run, just as they meant to get married for the long run. Sometimes, it just doesn't work. I'm very sorry they bring you down, but I don't think you can escape them :) T. (who plans on homeschooling forever--and staying married forever--but knows that stuff happens, and won't slap-down anyone for making other choices, or having situations where homeschooling is untenable.) BY THE WAY, YOU CAN DO IT! ;)

I have several books I read every several years; a couple I saw listed here. One I didn't of those, I suggest: 1. Watership Down. Wonderful, brillinant story of rabbits and politics :) Not political, though. Just brilliant. I can't wait for my kids to read it. (I saw this one mentioned.) 2. The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. I do not care for Arthurian legend At All. Almost everything I've read I find, dry, tedious, and completely made-of-meh. This, however, is freaking brilliant! The characters are meaningful. The stories are touching and funny! If you only ever read one thing on Arthur. . .and Merlin, and Guinevere and and Knights of the Round Table, I'm begging you, read this. It will stay with you. I look forward to every read.

Re: Cleaning house. There was a period of time, and I don't know whether this is the case anymore, that the missionaries were encouraged to "serve" in house they were going to. So, if a person didn't want to be evangelized, the missionaries were supposed to ask if they could serve in some way. When I was a young mother, several asked if they could help in the yard, or something like that. I wish now I'd have taken them up on it. I have wondered about the house cleaning :) T.

Yes to this. I'm from a heavily Mormon area, and I've heard from many RM (returned missionary) friends that they sometimes had very poor quarters and little food, even in the US. They live on a mere pittance, allotted to them each month. One young man and his companion lived in an apartment in Chicago that was so run-down, it didn't even have beds, and he had to sleep on a door they found in the alley. He and his companion shared it because missionaries are not to sleep in the same bed, only the same room, as is indicated in the handbook. Eventually, he got a bed. Often times how the missionaries are housed/fed depends entirely on the MP (Mission President). I always invite the young women in and give them something to eat and drink, even if it's only to get them out of the weather, or give them some time off their feet. I let them talk to me, and we chat a little bit, and eventually, I tell them I'm an atheist, and we continue to have a nice chat, and I never see them again. I have considered putting together a small bag of non-perishables to give them when they leave, but haven't done so yet. I'm not sure how that would be taken. ~T.

Why not? It was a safe, "educational" environment and my children were happy to go a couple of afternoons a week. They got to enjoy things I was unable to provide for them, and it gave me some time to school the older children without constant interruption. I'm certain some mothers manage to homeschool with toddler twins, or a colicky newborn, or all kinds of other distractions. I just fell short :) My children had no problem going from a pre-school program to homeschool. There's no "right way". This way worked for us.

Hi, EM When I was a Christian, I went through several views on this. For a while, I believed that people were saved because people were "called" into a relationship with Jesus Christ. It was not available to everyone because God didn't call everyone, just the "elect." These people had the fullness of spiritual life, and while we might not understand everything, we understood the important things. I believed, for a long time, that everyone had a spiritual longing, and that was a human reality, but I believed that only specific people (Christians) had the privilege of actually knowing God. Most people thought they knew God (anyone religious/spiritual, but not born-again Christian) but were merely deceived.

Hmmm, maybe you're right. I'm definitely converting to Islam now because so many people can see/smell/feel/taste/hear Allah. :001_smile: Funny how so many people have experiences of a god but disagree on what He/She/It is. No one's going to disagree on a Mac Truck.

False equivalence fallacy. Mac Trucks can be seen, smelled, tasted, felt, and heard by everyone with these senses. No one questions existence of Mac Trucks save a solipsist. God/Heaven/Salvation--none of the above. T.

My husband is "gifted" based on IQ tests. He grew up nominally Catholic, left in hs. Was born again at 27. Was very active in evangelical ministry and Bible study and church leadership for a decade before becoming an atheist. According to hubby: He says he liked the moral guidance of Christianity, particulary of the evangelical sort. He worked really hard at it and gave lip service to 6-day creation, Biblical inerrancy, and could sometimes convince himself of them. It certainly was what he taught to the young men he discipled. Eventually it just became too difficult to keep up. Once he started looking at the Bible critically, "with the mindset of 'convince me' rather than, 'I want to believe this right or wrong,' I realized why it took so much effort to believe. It's simply untrue." I'm not gifted, but "above average" (according to tests. Doesn't matter much to me, but that was part of your question :)) No, personally, I didn't find it difficult to take part in different things than hubby. I subscribed to a similarly conservative Biblical perspective. I revelled in not being able to teach men, being told to be quiet in church, my vaunted position as "helpmeet". I really did! Part of that was that in really conservative churches, strict adherence to Biblical gender roles was praised and honored. The more conservative I was, the more honored I was. If not in the eyes of "The World" then at least with the Church. Additionally, husband has always been very egalitarian and never made me felt like I was "submissive". He supported me through my master's degree, and supports me if I want to go to work, or to get my Ph.D. Even when we were still Christian. Looking back, I believe I became a Christian in my teen years to give me a foundation and a feeling of security in my life. It worked for a long, long time. Then, when analytical, more rational criticisms came into play, the faith wore away over a number of years, and finally crumbled entirely. T.

Only if one sees a conflict between meditation and mindfulness drawn from some spiritual practices and a my-way-or-the-highway dogmatism about a deity.

Neither word nor emoticon could convey my total whateverness at this combination. Each on its own is heaven. Together. . . It's almost like gilding the lily, but wronger :)

You bet! Enjoy it while you can, and while dc enjoys it!

Who was supposed to file with the insurance? This happened about a year ago with my parents. My father was hospitalized, and the hospital didn't file for nearly a year afterward. Oops! Hospital had to eat the whole thing because the cut-off date was a year afterward. Track that down, but just so you know, you'll have a heck of a time getting anyone to talk to you in billing at the hospital. Just keep calling and calling. Luck!

Plenty of people in the Sudan and in China are opposed to what is going on, they just aren't in power. Yes, God condones rape. Here's how to take a captive woman and rape her God's way. Deuteronomy 21:10-14. (The Hebrew word for "dishonored", is the same one used name the rape of Tamar, and in Judges 20:5.) Here's another rule on rape. Deuteronomy 22:28, 29 "If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her." **I'm sure she's grateful for that consideration. The article you linked. . .Wow. A quick summary. God told the condemned people to repent to escape his judgment, but they didn't so he killed everyone. Totally ok. Even pregnant women and babies. And, really, it's better that the babies had been killed otherwise they would have grown up to be as evil as their parents. Better that they die before they grow up and be condemned to hell. All I have to say is, "my point exactly."

YES!

Depending on the edition of the book, Pluto may have still been considered a planet when it was published. Pluto being removed from the "planet list" has happened very recently, within the past two years, if I recall correctly. T.

Oh, those are great ideas. I'll look into them, thanks. I feel pretty comfortable teaching writing; it's what I used to teach at uni, but it's different developing for a kiddo. Terrific thoughts! T.

"God's word", and morality, once said that if a man wanted a woman, he just had to rape her and buy her from her father. "God's word", and morality, explained how to sell your daughter into slavery. "God's word" said a righteous man was one who would send his daughters into a mob to be gang-raped, and later impregnate them himself. God once commanded men to go into cities and kill every man, woman, child, and animal in them. Nowadays we call someone who commands such a thing a war criminal. Unless he's God, when we must call this thing good, because God is good. God commanded that people who had pre-marital sex be put to death, disobedient sons too. I, for one, am glad morality has changed from those days. I think most of us mere humans can agree on better moral standards than those the Bible god had. I'm also sure there are people on this board who think those rules were just fine and were divine and perfect, although they wouldn't support them today. T.

I've been really disappointed with the writing program I've tried so far. Writing Strands last year. Booooring. I'm going to try something different this year, and I'd love to hear suggestions. I'm thinking about having my 10-year-old try a writing exercise every day, something different, but then also creating longer assignments. Once a week we'll do a letter to a friend or family member. Once week I'll have her do some free fun writing, whatever she likes, as long as she writes for 15 minutes. Then, we'll go over grammar, punctuation, spelling together. Once a week she'll do some writing on whatever novel she's reading: character analysis, plot overview, discussion of story conflict, etc. We'll also do a short dictation everyday. As for longer assignments, we'll do several types of papers: Book report Summary/response of newspaper article Argument essay Probably one of these per month. Any other suggestions here? Every day she'll do some sort of narrative summary on history or another subject, so I think we'll be fine for narration. Thanks for much for suggestions! T.

Kindness, compassion, and truth became more important to me than dogma. If one considers those combined to be morality (and to me it came pretty darned close), then YES! While I was a Christian, I struggled a lot with dogma that told me gays were sick, non-Christians were ****ed, and that the Bible (and all of the wicked things God demanded) was perfect. (The Bible can't even agree on which day Jesus was crucified). I eventually gave in to my better nature. "Why am I struggling with these cruel beliefs, when the book that they are based on is demonstrably flawed?" I wanted the beliefs, I did! I wanted Jesus, and I wanted God, I wanted to be saved and have the Holy Spirit living in me. And I was ok for a very long time struggling with the cognative dissonance. But eventually reason and truth won out and I found that I could live without the deities and their dogma after all! T. Um, really, "****ed" is censored! But it's in the Bible!

Yes. I would certainly use it.

There's a "wonderful" religious pamphlet for young people that I read once devoted to convincing kids of the sin of masturbation and how to avoid it. One of my favorite recommendations was, when you're masturbating, imagine yourself doing so lying in a bathtub full of worms so that you can try to gross yourself out of it. It can still be found online, and is still frequently used.

Joanne isn't calling out people, she's calling out attitudes, statements and beliefs that have all stemmed from Christian (of various flavors) teachings. Now, Christians, may not agree with them all, but they have come from the Christian world-view, right or wrong. I bet if you asked the people who said those things, they'd all profess to be Christians.

:grouphug: I, and many others here, know how long, hard and tiresome this becomes, and is for you already to come to this point. It's exhausting and emotionally draining, and so many of us are feeling for you and pulling for you, Joanne. I'm new to posting here, but I've been reading the forum for a long time. I've always appreciated, and admired, your strength. Even strong trees are felled be enough ax swings though. But falling isn't so bad. :) And then you find that you didn't really fall, you actually grew some more. (And your darn glad of it, because it's really hard!) T.