I think one way to handle this is when people ask if they can bring something take it as a given that they aren't going to show up empty handed and give them a practical suggestion. Something neutral and specific like "wine" or "a fresh baguette."

It would probably bother me a little, especially if I had a theme like Italian food and someone brought say stuffing. I never go empty handed to parties but I try to bring something like wine and make it clear it doesn't have to be opened at the party.

I kind of agree. As a VA homeschooler I find the requirements ridiculously easy to comply with so I'm a little suspicious of people who don't even want to bother. OTOH I'm not sure what annual registration for religious exemptions is supposed to accomplish. Could be a good idea, but also could be just more paperwork for no reason.

I think this is a problem a lot of us have even without all the difficulties of medical and case worker appointments. It's always the fun stuff that gets pushed out when things get busy. Here are some things I've done to try and build fun back in: 1) Field trips centered around history or science. Even if these aren't as educational as working through books, they are memorable and fun. 2) Prioritize PE. I put exercise on a par with math and writing in terms of importance. Now that my DS is 11 he likes to do more mature exercises like pushups, jump roping, walking lunges, etc. I think everything goes more smoothly when boys get tons of exercise. 3) Outsouce music and art if you can. Or drop it altogether if he's not interested and just do some music appreciation. 4) I agree about making use of car time. We love listening to the Grammar Girl podcast or NPR Science Friday. It sparks a lot of interesting discussion. 5) Swap out video games for board games.

I'm giving Photosynthesis to DS this year. It's new and is getting rave reviews. I also gave Gloom to a friend of mine, mostly for the art work. As for latest discoveries, we've really enjoyed the game Parfum. I think it would be more successful with a different theme, but its our new favorite for sure and very cheap even though it has excellent components.

My mother works in the water and fire restoration business and says she has never seen a Christmas tree fire. Mostly what she warns me about are candles, kitchen fires, and certain appliances left running while people are out like dryers.

I've read a lot of Willingham's work including the excellent Why Student's Don't Like School and haven't got a sense that he's an advocate of national curriculum. I think one of the points he makes is that if we're going to actually test reading comprehension then we ought to pick topics the kids have actually studied rather than random passages. I love his work for a lot of reasons - debunking the outdated and oversimplified idea of sensory learning styles (kinesthetic, auditory, etc.) in particular, and skepticism of certain types of project based learning (baking biscuits to teach about life on the Underground Railroad was one example he used), and some great techniques about presentation in the classroom. As a cognitive scientist he has some insights that I think are missing from normal classroom instruction. Though not all of it is applicable to homeschool, and some seem obvious, I've been able to make use of a lot of his ideas to improve how I do things with my son and some of my tutoring students.

Eh, the article sounds good but I kind of don't get it. Maybe because I was a military wife for so long and there were times when I really did neglect myself because I didn't have a choice. No amount of "rewiring what I have" was going to bring my husband back from Afghanistan early. I wish then I had listened to people older and wiser who had urged self-care of the common sort she seems to be ranting against. I could have used more babysitters, a housekeeper, a night out with girlfriends, a little more takeout, and a haircut more often. I did fine but there's nothing wrong with wanting a break or escape from routine either. That's why people take vacations, even when they love their work.

I have tons of younger friends in NYC and all are doing fine on much less than $100K though they tend to have roommates or live in Queens which is substantially cheaper than Manhattan. Taxes and groceries are high but you don't nee to buy/maintain a car and eating out can be cheap because there are a ton of places that cater to people who eat out everyday. Every one of them says its hard to make friends so there is that issue. Some kind of club or hobby that can form an instant social group would probably work best.

My son did AoPS pre-algebra while he was 9 in a little over 9 months working every problem, including challenge problems. We often do a lot of math though and sometimes even on the weekends. I would throw out the idea of scheduling it at all. Some of the chapters are a breeze, others are very very tough or just time consuming like the rates and proportions chapter. I also did not expect self-teaching. I think its written for an older audience so self-teaching from that text can be a slog for a younger students. Also, I went to a gifted program that entirely expected self-teaching in math and I know that I often took short cuts without thoroughly understanding so did not want to repeat that experience with DS. We do a mix of a math discussion, joint problem solving, and independent work with AoPS and its been very successful so far.

I was in a public school gifted program for 5th and 6th grade where this book was used as part of a class called Math Laboratory. I use it with my own son for enrichment and have seen some of the ideas like Billiard Ball problems turn up in his math circle as young as 2nd grade. Definitely a neat book and has a lot of stuff not covered in a traditional math program like combinatorics, symmetry and tessellations, graph theory, etc as well as some that are more typical like functions and scientific notation, which I think is why you see the huge age range. It's such a neat book! I think the purpose of the book is along the lines of Paul Lockhart's essay _A Mathematician's Lament_ of treating math as an art. Definitely recommend!

We love the Great Courses programs with both Art Benjamin and James Tanton. I think parts of the AoPS Combinatorics and NT books are very accessible to younger students. Some parts of them may not be however. For instance we got bogged down in the proofs of the hockey stick identity (2nd to last chapter) a while ago and are just getting back to it now. I feel like number theory is more accessible but requires some patience for tedious arithmetic (factoring, base conversion) so may depend on the personality of your child. There's no hurt in buying the books and trying as long as you're willing to put them away if necessary. Creating kid-friendly curricula for things like graph theory, taxi-cab geometry, etc. is one of my dreams when I have more time. I tutor a lot of gifted kids and explore these ideas with them in age appropriate ways but feel like there's a lack of comprehensive books and curricula. I would love to see kid-friendly versions of say the dover books with appealing art, problem sets, etc. for around $5. So many cool ideas to explore but feel like I have to read dozens of puzzle books to glean the best presentations.

I can't answer about much repetition there is with IEW, but I use both Killgallon and WWS1 and think they work beautifully together. WWS works more on structuring an essay and outlining and Killgallon is more about building quality descriptive phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. I switch between them a little haphazardly whenever we need a change of pace, but since each lesson of WWS is set to work over 4 days, it would also be easy to make the 5th day for Killgallon at the end of the week.

What specifically does he like about EoM and not like about AoPS? I know AoPS is written to the student, but I think my son would hate them if I presented them to self teach. The layout isn't all that compelling and I hate flipping back and forth between problems and solutions. And the exercise pages feel crammed to me so I usually write them on the white board or another piece of paper for DS. He loves the discovery method though, especially when he can see what the problems are leading up to and he guesses the main point early. I don't know anything about EoM, but I don't feel like $155 is horrible for something that is working. However, if he's a strong math student and will switch to AOPS later regardless it might be worth getting him used to the style now. That's a tough one.

This would be my approach. If I was busier I think I would be more inclined to rely on things like the pre-marinated pork tenderloin and pre-stuffed chicken breasts you see at the meat counter at the nicer grocery stores plus bagged salad. Every Thursday our Harris Teeter offers take out prime rib with 2 sides for $9.95. I wish they did this on other days with other entrees because its a great deal when I don't feel like cooking. They have a cart at the front of the store so you don't even have to go all the way in. I'm curious about the meal boxes, but we eat low carb and if I still have to do all the cooking, its not helping me that much other than offering some variety to our menu.

The main problem with that is that I know so many people who are doing work that either barely existed 10-20 years ago or people didn't know could be jobs at all. One of my friends has a very successful niche business 3-D printing props for cosplayers. It grew out of a hobby and he now has a full scale shop and was able to quit his day job. How could he have decided to do that at age 11 when that technology didn't exist yet and when dressing up and for Comic Con and adult costuming became such a huge thing? Plus someone needs to do ordinary things like sell insurance and I don't think most 11 year-olds would pick that as a career track.

Everyone is different, but in general we don't do evening activities. Part of it is that we live in an urban area and I have no desire to drive around in rush hour traffic. My DS participates in homeschool sections of parkour, kids crossfit, and piano lessons that are offered in the afternoons plus a math circle on the weekend. We start quiet reading time at 8 pm and the time between 5pm and 8 pm is for helping with dinner, board games, audio books, playdates, some screen time, and general family activities. Tonight we're carving pumpkins after dinner. There's nothing wrong with being busy, but if the kids are complaining I would definitely cut something. As far as school work, 5th grade is a lot more work! I've found that cutting out some of the smaller things like spelling, handwriting, and geography as separate subjects helps us feel less busy. We just cover that stuff as part of our main subjects now. We tend to do a big block of math, one of language arts, and then a content block that rotates between history and a few other subjects. Everything we do is pretty meaty, but it doesn't feel stressful because we're not doing a million separate things anymore.

We are big time board gamers and I agree with all of the suggestions in the article. In addition, my son and I have really been enjoying the game Parfum

Never. I have homeschooled in 3 very diverse urban places - San Diego, Seattle, and DC area and I have never once met a homeschooler who I felt was failing their kids. We also roadschooled for many months and I met a family of 6 in an RV who seemed unschooly and unconventional but her oldest son had just been hired as a full park ranger at Dinosaur National park at 19 (almost unheard of), because of his thousands of volunteer hours and experiences across the US, and was working on his college degree part-time. I would consider that a success regardless of how much math and bookwork they did at home (and I really have no idea).

I think a one hour time limit is way too short for company and I don't think anyone expects a house with kids (especially a game room or kids bedroom) to be neat and clean. I think the idea of a time window is a great idea, but probably 2 hours should be the minimum. I think sparkling water, maybe even flavored, is a great thing to have on hand, as its a little bit fancy and keeps well if its in small bottles or cans. I totally get not wanting to keep unhealthy foods on hand - I only buy crackers and cookies if I'm having a party because its too tempting otherwise. I still like to have something to offer guests though because you never know when people may have missed a meal because of appointments, errands, or work, and its just part of hospitality. A few nuts and slices of cheese or cut up apples works just fine.

We actually had this exact consideration a few years ago when we had a trip to NYC followed by a Disney World trip a few months later. We decided to skip the broadway show just based on the fact that close to $400 for a few hours of entertainment when we knew we were doing Disney a few months later didn't make sense at the time. The shows at Disney are nothing compared to the scale and length and magic of a Broadway show (especially something as involved as the Lion King), but they are very well done for a 30 minute production. The main issue for me is that they just don't have the drama of a full scale production in a theater. Open seating with people squeezing in wherever they can and being outside (for some of them) just doesn't have the magic of doing a big broadway show in a theater. If you're only doing Disney a few days the rides really take priority for most kids as well. We only did the shows because we had 10 day passes. I think some of it depends on the age of your kids too. At near 11, my son would rather do NYC and a broadway show, but at age 7 the variety of Disney was the perfect choice. If they're asking for Lion King in NYC I would be tempted to do that just because I remember being a kid, and getting the exact specific thing I always wanted was rare and special and cool.

I have one friend that is vegan who has stayed with us occasionally. Last time I just made big pots of rice and black beans in the Instant Pot. Had some different salsas on hand and gave her free range of anything in the fridge. Vegans are usually so easy to please as they are used to fending for themselves and really grateful if you put in even the tiniest effort!

I have not had to deal with picky teen/adults but when we have picky children over I pick up a fresh baguette from the supermarket section of the bakery and some real butter so I know at least they will not be hungry. Fresh bread slathered in good butter is a hit with almost everyone. For a picky adult I might add a simple cheese/cold cut plate that can be bought in advance and doesn't need to be cooked.

Just wanted to post an update. Last weekend we had an outing together which included a planned museum stop at 11:30 am. I suggested, in advance, a small snack break before entering the museum on the premise that the kids might rush through if they were hungry and know lunch was waiting on the other side. My friends surprised me by suggesting Starbucks. Very glad because we didn't make lunch until almost 2 pm since our original restaurant was crazy busy and we had to walk somewhere else! Everyone behaved wonderfully and no cranky pants despite 5 miles of walking on a hot day. Thanks, and from now on I know that suggesting something at the planning stage is key with these friends rather than winging it.

I think most city dwellers walk a lot more than to the subway and back. They might do that for work, but they also tend to walk to all of their social activities, bars and restaurants, doctors offices, shopping etc. When I visit friends in NYC I easily hit double my normal step count on my Fitbit just doing normal stuff.