According to Pigby, hits are LOF Apples and Butterflies and Artistic Pursuits (the first book). He says he also likes AAS 2. For me, I'll have to call the whole thing a win. He does it all w/o much fuss. The biggest problem is the amount of time we have to work with. We can only do school during Chuck's nap and trying to cram everything in really quickly doesn't work so well. So we kind of alternate which subjects we do every day. I think overall, it's going pretty well.

Let's carpool! :auto:

Oh my gosh, I was going to post something similar! Only mine was going to say something about, "I hate visiting teaching!" :glare: I've tried the during the day thing; the children are nightmares, have to wake them up from their naps, interrupts school, etc. Can't really do it at night though because DH is now working the night shift and won't be there to watch them (and like I said, they are nightmares when I take them). Can't do the weekends anymore because DH works Sat and Sun. That leaves one of his two days off, one of which is needed for errands because we only have one car. Yeah, hate visiting teaching.

Well......we're supposed to be using the Gospel Principles manual. It's divided up very nicely for short little lessons/discussions. We've only started it about 200 times or so :lol: We do scripture memory. He reads the Friend and those Scripture Story books the church puts out. We're pretty much big Mormon failures at teaching our religion. :bored: We did have a really nice discussion yesterday though. I like those random discussions that pop out of their curious little minds.

The messiest (that I can think of) would probably be a family relative and his wife before they moved. I wonder if she might have hoarding tendencies. And he's just kind of lazy. They were moving across the country, she left first with their son. Left a huge mess for him to try to deal with. My mom insisted I help. So I went over there, threw away expired canned food. She yelled at him for it. Found three used pregnancy tests. She forced him to keep them. Boxes everywhere (not moving boxes, boxes full of stuff that had always been there), papers and clothes stacked a mile high, filthy, filthy floor. Trash all over (that was probably him just leaving fast food garbage and not throwing it away). My husband vacuumed and there was so much hair on the floor that it burned out the motor. Cleanest? I feel like it's been so long since I've been to anyone's house so I'm trying to remember everyone I know. I will go with my Grandma and Grandpa for now. She's so cute. Little Japanese lady who keeps everything spotless. You have no idea how I scrubbed absolutely everything in my house when she came to visit. She can be super judgmental of messy people, so I had to hide my true nature.

What is Two Buck Chuck?

I went through the same thing at 24 and am now doing it again because I'm turning 29. For me, it's mostly because I feel like I *should* still be 19 again, but life has sucked all the energy out of me. Also, I thought I would have my act together by now and feel like a miserable failure of a 28 year old. I should have been perfect by now; why am I not? :tongue_smilie: That sort of thing. :grouphug: I hope you feel better soon and remember that you are still young and the best is yet to be!:grouphug:

I think you are nervous because you're waiting for the other shoe to drop. If your husband has shown tendencies similar to your father's, then I would probably worry too. If he doesn't, then I would completely relax and worry about all the "what ifs" later. Let them enjoy their new found hobby. Is this the same daughter you've been having behavior issues with? If yes, then maybe swimming will help her. Maybe? I don't know, but maybe :001_smile:

Back from making lunch. Had to run for a minute, but I forgot to add that after about the first paragraph of my last post, I wasn't really referring to Veritaserum when I said "you". I was kinda referring to the general you/talking to myself as I worked out these thoughts and feelings in my head. I do appreciate Veritaserum's contributions to this thread. They have given me SO MUCH to think about. And while I was making lunch and thinking about this thread, something...ummm...interesting happened. (A good thing that's not really related to this specific discussion. And I would just like to add that I think ya'll are so cute when you add the little :001_smile:. I think it's so amazing that we can have these peaceful discussions and really work out our opinions without offending or putting others down. You guys rock!

In Joseph Smith's day, women were also baptized for men and vice versa (for the dead). Women were sealed to men that were not their husbands (even though their husbands were still living), children were sealed to people not their parents (even though their parents were still living and active members), temple ordinances were performed on the mountain, not many records were kept, so it made quite the mess. Children were whipped to keep them in line. So just because Joseph Smith set it up that way, I don't think everything needs to stay that way. And I know you didn't say that, but to me it seems the church organization was something of a mess and as the time has passed it has acquired more order. The Relief Society being "under the authority" of the men isn't because men need to subjugate everyone under them. Weren't Primary and YM/YW also at one point considered autonomous? I can imagine how having everything follow the chain of command makes for a more organized system. That way if someone does something wonky in your organization, you take it to the one in charge of the whole group (Bishop). If your Bishop is doing something wonky in the ward, you take it to the SP. And so on. I'm thinking it made for a lot less bureaucracy and infighting amongst members. Also, think of how many splinter groups there are. FLDS and RLDS are only the two biggest ones. There were dozens if not hundreds of others. So I personally dislike it when people say, "You need to have a testimony of Joseph Smith and the BOM." It's somewhat inaccurate. Yes you do need that testimony. But you also need a testimony that Brigham Young was a true prophet (there go the RLDS), you need a testimony that all the rest were a true prophet (there go the FLDS), all the way down to President Monson. Right, back to the splinter groups; there were a bunch. The priesthood, IMO, is organized in such a way as to keep people from knowing which group is the one they should be following; the one splintering off or the one who stays with the main body of the church. To me it's also possible that God set it up that way because women were just too busy dealing with their lives. Back then (territorial Utah) I think there were a lot less single Mormon women because of polygamy and because they had fewer options. So most of them had a lot of children, plus the responsibility of feeding and clothing them. And when you had to raise most of your own food, butcher most of your own animals, wash and sew clothes by hand, keep those young children alive (always a hard thing for a mother of any two year old), and stay up on your own spiritual progression and that of your children? I can imagine some women would have exploded if they were also told that they also had to worry about the welfare of their neighbors too. Don't you think it's possible that if they were given that responsibility as well, they might have just screamed about the men were being sexist and lazy and wanting the women to do it all? Especially if her husband did have wives that he lived with other parts of the year and she were on her own for extended periods of time. To me, it's no different than Tim Gunn pulling a name out of the button bag and saying, "You're in charge of this group project. You really have no other qualifications over anyone else, but I'm putting you in charge. You need to make this work and if it goes wrong, the judges will sure want to know why." To me, there is a TON of work that needs to be done in the Church, no one is more special than anyone else, but it needs to be organized in a way that can get it done. In if you've seen the 10 diva designers battling it out as to why they should be in charge, it makes sense why 14.5 million church members don't get an equal say in how things are run. It's just too ineffective.

We have the CD and I love it. The indexes are super organized and so easy to search. It's easy to change the size of the pictures to the ones I need. We use a sketch pad that I got at Hobby Lobby. I drew the lines and wrote my own dates. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but it was very cheap, like $6. And my son is only six so it works for us. When he reaches the grammar and rhetoric stages, he'll get new ones.

Pros: I like all the rules that it teaches, so many rules that I wasn't even aware of (and we're only in the beginning of level 2). My son remembers the rules and the phonograms to each letter. This is amazing to me because we don't review all the cards everyday and I don't think *I* have them all memorized. We go at a pace that is good for him. There's enough practice, but it's not boring or tedious. It holds the parent's hand. I didn't know what a closed syllable was, but now we know. The script is easy to follow, but I don't feel obligated to read it word for word. He loves the tiles. The cost doesn't seem like a big deal to me, although I only buy the student and teacher packets. Long story, but the charter school we were with messed up our order and we never got the interactive kit like we were supposed to. Someone linked to a blog that had all the phonogram tiles, so I just printed them on cardstock, cut them out and had them laminated. Then I put my own magnets on. Cons: Pigby's desire to take FOR. EV. ER messing around with the tiles drives me bonkers. I don't think the tiles need to spin around on the board as they move to their proper location. ummm....that's all I can think of.

Thank you. I tried it out this morning, he heard and wanted to try. He did the hunt and peck thing some more. I know his fingers aren't dexterous enough and probably are too short, but I guess I'm hoping he'll at least learn the letter placement so it doesn't take so long. Maybe? I dunno. Thank you! Thank you! Nope, no undue pressure here. He finished the first level on his own. Thank you, I will look into that. He already writes for WWE and cursive practice. He also writes plenty of notes to relatives, colors for science and history, creates his own little comic books, and other creative endeavors. I'm not worried about his handwriting; I think it's coming along pretty well. But I can get more....not sure of the right words...academic thought? I've recently taken over writing his math answers and having him do his spelling words and sentences on the computer. His brain does hit that wall as quickly and we can get more done. Thank you!

Praying for you all :grouphug: I don't know about any resources though, I'm sorry. :grouphug::grouphug:

This is Pigby's first grade year, we use pretty much all the WTM recommendations. WWE1 FLL1 StartWrite software AAS2 MUS Alpha SOTW1 ES Biology Artistic Pursuits For reading, he made it through OPGTR last year, so just reads on his own, reads aloud to me, and learns most of the rules again through AAS.

Is it an exercise in futility? Is there even a program out there that is meant for a child this young? Pigby is doing a lot more work on the computer, so I figured it might be helpful to move him beyond the hunt and peck method. Just wondering if I should wait or if it's a good idea (and what program to use). Thanks:bigear:

We live in Provo. I've been stuck here for 10 years and it's growing old on me. If I had my heart's desire, we would move down to Payson. It's more country-ish. Things I like: COL seems low to me. We get buy on a pitifully low income. We are trying to do gluten free/dairy free and it helps to be so close to the glorious Winco and Costco. Going up into the mountains is so very pretty. The actual valleys are kind of ugly, but I love the mountains. We've gone up several times this summer and it makes me not hate being stuck here so much. Homeschooling is easy. We've actually signed up with a charter school and we get $450/year for curricula and supplies. It definitely helps. It's also very easy if you don't want to go to the charter school route, just send in a notarized affidavit every year. Things I dislike: The summers. I guess it's getting easier now that we're on our third summer w/o AC; we're just getting used to it or something. But I hate the heat, I really wish we could move to Oregon or Washington where it's nice and rainy all the time, but that's just me. Some people like the 100 heat :ack2: The area is awfully brown and ugly (unless you go up in the mountains.) The head of Utah Department of Transportation must be a drunk monkey. They are CONSTANTLY redoing the highway for no apparent reason and lately they seem to be fond of making major intersection's into mind boggling labyrinths. Every time I drive on the highway or go through one of those stupid intersections, I start screaming about the drunk monkey. I'm sure there's more, give me a few days and I'm sure I could find some other things to rant about.

I knew I loved you!

For the main subjects, we only use secular. We tried A Reason For Spelling and while he loved all the activities, it drove me crazy so we switched to AAS. We do use a book called Gospel Principles that's published by the church that we use for in depth gospel study of our beliefs. That's in addition to the scripture reading, scripture memory, and Friend magazines we use for gospel study. I would like to add that even an LDS curriculum could have things that members disagree with. For example, some LDS member are young earth creationists. I am an old earth creationist, so I wouldn't want to use a curriculum that was YEC.

I agree with Joanne and Parrothead about setting her up for failure. (When I talk about discipline, I don't mean punishment. I view discipline as correcting their behavior and guiding them to the behavior I think is acceptable). First, yes I think it's unreasonable to expect her to get work done w/o you there supervising. She is 6, she is testing your boudaries and she will be testing your boundaries until the day she moves out. There are more fun things for 6 year olds to do when mom is not paying attention. Second, just because she's looking you in the eyes, does not mean she was paying attention. Make her repeat back to you what she is supposed to do. It took several weeks for Pigby to start paying attention. He'd be looking at me, saying yes when I asked if he understood and then give me a :confused: when I asked him to tell me what it was he was supposed to do. I don't really make my children repeat things over and over when they do it incorrectly; once is usually fine for me. I do not accept sass or backtalk from the boys (baby girl is starting to hit and yell when she doesn't get her way, but when I tell her 'no hitting' but she's only 21 months and not quite grasping the concept). I do know that it will happen often. I don't think that at 6.5 you can expect her to never backtalk or sass. I'm pretty sure that if it ceases to happen by 18 it will be considered some sort of miracle :lol: Anyway, what I do when correcting any rudeness, disobedience, backtalk, name calling, etc: Me: "Pigby, you don't talk to me like that. What do you say?" Pigby: "Sorry Mommy for being mean. I won't do it again." Me: "Please don't. Now how do you ask nicely?" Pigby: "Mommy, can I please (fill in the blank)?" The script took awhile for him to grasp. I had to frequently tell him what to say when we first started. But it covers the apology and getting him to ask nicely. If they are still rude, disobedient, whining, etc then they go to timeout until they are ready to apologize. I don't make them stay their any specified amount of time; they can come out when they are ready to be kind. Digby will go and hop out immediately to apologize. Pigby usually sulks and seethes for a few minutes until he can calm down. If after several minutes Pigby is still yelling, being rude, etc he gets sent up to his bed til he's ready to apologize. I don't know where this fits developmentally, but even the 3 year old will occasionally catch himself being rude, apologize and start being nice (for awhile anyway) all of his own accord so I think the method seems to work (for now). And again, I expect this kind of thing to continue until they're grown and gone. Also, I did notice at about 6 that Pigby went from 90% obedient to raising a huge stink when asked to do something. The only thing that I can think of is that he's gone from automatically obeying so as to avoid discipline to being able to rationally think things through more. He doesn't *want* to take the clothes up to his room because he *wants* to keep playing on the computer. Before, I would tell him to do something and he would do it for the sole purpose of avoiding timeout. Then it switched and the computer (or whatever) was worth more than the discipline. I think it requires more explanation from me "Pigby, you can play again when you're done putting the clothes away." That way he knows it's just a temporary break and the faster he gets it done, the faster he can get back to whatever he was doing. Second of all, I started spelling it all out ahead of time and making him repeat it back to me: "Pigby, you have 20 seconds to put your clothes in your drawer. If you do not get it done in 20 seconds, you won't get to play on the computer for the rest of the day. What did I just say?" Pigby repeats it back until he gets it right (not necessarily verbatim, but the what he has to do, what's going to happen if he doesn't get it done). Then I start a countdown, the faster he moves the slower I count. I always, always, always countdown. Got way too sick of DH counting from 1-3, then going to 5, then 10, then 20 just so he could stay on his bum and not actually have to discipline. He even admitted to me that that's why he kept adding more time; sorry buddy, we're trying to raise responsible adults, not sit on our fannies. :tongue_smilie: It actually works better, even the 3 year old will hustle along (and has learned to count down from 10-1). Also, this part is still a work in progress, but teaching them to disagree appropriately. This is part of their cognitive abilities growing beyond the simple "do this or you will be disciplined." At age 6, they are starting to think things through and become more aware of those thoughts. I think it behooves us to listen to them, to let them have a voice, to let them express it. So if Pigby were playing on the computer and I told him to go put his clothes away, the conversation would be as follows: Me: "Pigby could you please put your clothes away?" Pigby: "Mommy, I'm almost done with this game. Can I put the clothes away when I'm done?" Me: "Sure, you have two minutes to finish." Then I would have to follow through and time it and make sure he went as soon as he was done. But like I said, we're still working on this part of the discipline. He only gets it right about 25% of the time. But again, I think it's teaching him an appropriate way to communicate rather than throwing a fit and yelling and being rude. Anyway, like I said, these tricks have been working really well for us. Of course they still have their tantrums and moments of being rude and disobeying, but slowly they are learning to discipline themselves. And discipline is a slow process; one that won't ever be completed. I'm 28 and still lack so much discipline in various aspects of our lives. Take heart and stay the course. :grouphug: (and I'm sorry if this post is confusing and all over the place. My brain is a little scrambled today) Oh and praise, praise, praise, praise, praise when they get it right, when they are being sweet to each other, asking politely etc. I think that helps them remember that they did it right, which helps them feels empowered.

I have no advice, but :grouphug: Ok, I do have advice. Whenever I was feeling resentful towards Digby (he was a crazy child. He is starting to mellow out a bit at three) sometimes it was best to just hug him, hold him, tell him how much you love him, read him a book. I don't think it does much to help him be less of a terror, but hopefully it will help remind you that there is some good in him or to nurture some sweet feelings toward him or something. I hope that makes sense.

:grouphug::grouphug: Sorry you had such a stinky day: car sideswiped, late police, stinky insurance news. Glad you are all safe.

I think it looks very classy.

Ouiji Boards Magic 8 balls Astrology Bloody Mary I wasn't allowed to watch Unico or All Dogs Go To Heaven because there was a devil or something in them (although last night my mom said the ADGTH one was untrue) and............ any airline other than United, the worst of all being Delta. My dad was a pilot for United and apparently 6 year olds don't understand sarcasm all that well. I still remember going on a school trip in the seventh grade with a different airline and worrying that the pilot was going to kill us all.

All the time. Are you a worrier? I am a huge worrier! Maybe I should stop. Apparently it's normal for young children to be little Tazmanian Devils! I know little Digby has always been difficult to handle, but sometimes he behaves so well in front of other people I just wonder why he can't do it all the time. We've recently started with the, "HE'S ANNOYING ME!!! MAKE HIM STOP!!!!!" screaming in the car. :willy_nilly: Blech! I keep reminding myself that I still have several years to teach them how to behave properly. I used to watch Nanny 911 and think that if I were consistent, they would learn to be obedient by the age of 3 or so. Then I actually had children and realize they will always be pushing boundaries and there will always be a balance between letting them work it out themselves and teaching them what to do.