No, bio dad. Honestly, dh is harder on older ds because of his behaviour. Younger ds and dd are pretty easy-going and compliant. We don't have to hard on them. However, all 3 dks get pretty much the same consequences for the same actions.

Dh and I are really struggling with ds, 14. At times, he is wonderful, charming, helpful, kind, etc.... Most of the time, however, he is negative, self-centred, borderline-rude, bullies his little brother and sister, etc. I'm wondering at what point my 'treat others as you want to be treated' mantra should be tossed out the window. Example, "Please mow the lawn." "No!" and then after rudeness, grumpiness and a bazillion reasons why it doesn't need to be done now, the lawn gets finally gets mowed. Ds is now happy and pleasant (he's nearly always better when he's has some good physical activity), joking with me and all around pleasant. He asks to be taken to a friend's house. So, do I take him because there is no reason not to (other than he was rude earlier), or not (to 'teach him a lesson')? Note, this isn't a one time thing, or a new behaviour. It has been going on for quite a while. It is cyclical, although I can't figure out the triggers. I know he's stressed about starting high school and he's got a big responsibility in his Scout troop that he really didn't want in the first place. But, none of that excuses his behaviour; it may help explain it, but certainly doesn't excuse it. Dh has had enough of it and is coming down hard - not taking anything and not giving any slack. He confronts him on his behaviour, food choices, tone of voice, etc. Dh acknowledges being rude to ds, but figures that that is the type of treatment ds has earned since he treats everyone else so badly. It really bothers ds and I've talked to him about it. Ds figures dh 'doesn't love me because he doesn't treat little brother and sister that way' Well, honestly, the other two are not nasty, petulant, rude. Sorry this has gotten so long, but it is tough road here and I'm trying to figure out the best way to deal with it. So, does ds reap what has sown? Or, do we follow the golden rule, in spite of his behaviour? Thanks for any advice, or even commiseration!

Don't be house rich, but life poor.... meaning, don't spend so much on a house that you can't afford to do anything else.

We go to friends for Thanksgiving Dinner and we all don't fit in one room, so.... we draw names in 2 piles - one for the kitchen table with 8 or so people, and one for the dining room 10 people. That is where we sit for dinner. Then, we draw again for dessert seating.

My 14 year old ds and his dad are current battling each other, unfortunately, so I'm sure it would be #2 for awhile, but then it could go to either #1 or #4. Now, if it was his grandfather or uncle - he'd gladly work all day, side by side either of them! ETA They did a building project early in the summer and had a great time working on it. It took nearly all day and both were so happy at the end of it - the project turned out great and they enjoyed each other's company.

My mil has it. It was fun for the kids. We were only there for the weekend, so I don't know how much 'staying power' it has, but all 3 of my dks enjoyed it. Jen

My 14 year old kept saying, "That's not what Katniss looks like." Although he liked the actress portraying Effie and Lennie Kravitz as Cinna.

Vermont has the Ben and Jerry's factory outside of Burlington. It's a very short tour, but fun. I'm sure there's lots to do in that area, but we were just there for a hockey tournament, so we didn't do a lot of sight-seeing. My dh says downtown Burlington is interesting, but older ds said it was a ' hippie town' (his new favourite phrase!)

So, I bought this off a fellow board member (thanks Chloe!) and it's been sitting by the tv for a few months now. I read the books, but hadn't gotten around to actually putting the dvd into the machine :rolleyes: Ds (14) has decided he needs to get in better shape for wrestling, so he pops in the first disc and has a go - he loves it and is shocked at how tough it is. Next day, dh sees ds doing it and joins in. Dh is an avid road biker but hasn't been able to ride for about 3 months, so he's been feeling incredibly blah. He loves it too. He realizes we need more stuff - the bar, a mat, weights, etc - and spends some time on amazon looking for good, inexpensive ones. Now, he's all about the diet. This morning dh had yogurt and granola, a banana and some tofu. I'm heading off to Trader Joes in search of high protein, low carb/fat snacks. Any tried and true recipes, good websites? Anything to look out for? Dh and Ds will eat pretty much anything, thankfully!

Excellent! Thank you so much. I didn't even think to google it. Silly me!:001_rolleyes:

My youngest has decided he wants to attend middle school next year and he'd like to try to get into one of the local public magnet schools for their French program. To apply, I need to provide them with last year's report card, as well as this year's first quarter's marks. Of course, I have no report card, nor do I have any grades! Thankfully, the report cards here are still pretty much anecdotal in 5th grade. My homeschool advisor recommends making up a report card and submitting it. My older ds attended school for 5th grade, so I do have that to work off of, but man, it is super time consuming, especially for someone like me who is not Excel literate! So, does anyone have a template they would share with me that I can just 'fill in the blanks', print it off and it will look great/professional? Thanks,

My 9 year old had his hair quite shaggy and it was driving me nuts. I usually don't care about the kids' hair, but his was really looking awful. I figured if I took him to get his hair cut, it would cost me $15 or so. So, I told him I'd give him the money if he let me cut his hair. I really wanted to give him a buzz cut, but he didn't agree to let me go that far:tongue_smilie: I ended up doing a pretty good job and he liked it. Now he's asking me to take him to get it cut because it is getting shaggy again. But he's not sure I can cut it again - beginner's luck and all:lol:

I've homeschooled my 5th grader since K, and he was a late writer - hated to hold a pencil. This boy didn't even like colouring, until now! He is making noise about going to school next year, so I got into a bit of a panic regarding his writing ability. I looked at WWE and WWS. I decided to go with WWE2, but do it quick time (2-3 lessons/week). He really needs the practice in summarizing. He can do the short sentence dictations and copywork very easily, but his summaries are very long and rambly. We just finished Week 2 and I really noticed it. Next week we will do Weeks 3, 4, and possibly 5. Where you start is really a decision to be based on your son's ability. Take a look at the samples on the website, get a copy of WWE from the library and give the sample weeks a try to see where your ds would need to start.

Good to know! Thanks.

[quote Do you have a small generator in case the power goes out? You do not want all that spoiling in there. Hmm, maybe I'll look into that. Good idea. I really don't want to be losing that amount of money/meat.

Too funny!!!

No dog, but I'm sure the cats would like it :lol: I think I'll look into some recipes before I say good bye to it. And, my mil is coming in a few weeks. I know she'll have a recipe.

What was wrong with the hog you got? Actually I have a whole hog, and the hams are delicious - we had one a while ago when I bought a mixed 50lb box to try it. YUMMMMY! Dd and I shared a ham steak last night and had leftovers - the farmer said we got a big pig. He's not kidding. I've thought of giving away the liver and tongue, as well as the other stuff I cannot identify and is not labeled (looks like the hip/shoulder bone, maybe?). I don't know who to give it to, so I may just post it on freecycle. Thanks,

I just went to my grassfed meat supplier and brought home lots of meat - completely filled my brand new 14.8 cubic foot chest freezer, plus 2 shelves of my upright freezer!!!! I'm hoping I don't over work them! As I was putting the meat in I was attempting to organize it and I've come across stuff I have no idea what to do with!! Pork Tongue (I know what it is, but I don't know if I can actually eat it!), Ham Hocks, Pork Rind (?), some types of bones (obviously cow or pig, but ????), and a few others that I can't think of right now. So, can anyone offer me advice on what to do with these cuts of meat/bone? Thanks

He actually did go to school for a few days last year. He knows what it's like. Yesterday I had him write the 3rd part of a math test and he did stick with it and get it done in a reasonable amount of time. And, he did really well. He can do it, but it is taking some getting used to! Thanks

Thanks - it was mostly a vent, I guess! Trying to talk myself down. I do appreciate your response though. He does work more independently some days. Yesterday was one of the days he did not, unfortunately, because I was trying to get other stuff done - isn't that always the way?! He definitely does better when things are all laid out for him, and they were yesterday. He was having an off day. Thanks again!

My youngest has decided he'd like to go to school next year. He has options - local public middle school, public magnet school, private Christian school, Montessori school. We'll look at all of them and make a decision in the spring. I explained to him that he needs to get used to doing his schoolwork in a timely manner, but it is not sinking in. Today, we did science (spent tons of time drawing life cycles, but didn't label anything), math - took forever to do a short quiz, I read to him, then he had a single page of grammar (one sentence), a logic problem and a page in his Greek workbook. All day!!!!!! I hate to squash his enthusiasm and creativity (he wrote all his grammar labels in Greek!). I'm trying to get him to work without me at the table, so I set him up and then went off to paint his room. I came back 30 minutes later and he had done 1 math question but 'didn't know how to do the next one' so he built a fort with a box for the cats - sigh! I love his energy, his creativity and his style, but it is driving me nuts. Deep breath, deep breath. I think it's time for a timer so he knows how much time he has for things and if it isn't done within that time then it becomes homework. I hate to be so regimented with him... he's such a free spirit. Perhaps if we have a one 'school day' a week where I do things with the timer would be a more gentle way to approach it. Thanks for 'listening'.

I don't know that we pay dues. We pay a fee for rechartering, and in Cub Scouts, we pay for camping trips ($15/person) and summer camp. Most everything else is paid for by the Pack. In Boy Scouts, I don't think there are dues either - just the rechartering fee. Any money raised through Popcorn Sales or other fundraisers go into the boys' Scout account and we pay for camping trips with that. Some boys (both Cub and Boy Scouts) sell thousands of dollars of popcorn each year - on their own and at booth sales. Some sell only one item to their parents. Whatever each boy sells is fine here and there's no pressure from anyone - just do what you can/want to.

A minimum - that's crazy! I would hate that. I have one boy in Cub Scouts who always has his eye on the big prize so we go door-to-door. He doesn't love it, but he doesn't hate it either. He must have gone to 30 houses yesterday and only got one sale (plus a donation). He was disappointed, but he's fine with going out again today. My older son is a Boy Scout who only goes to neighbours he knows because he knows most people will not buy and he hates wasting his time. The only 'minimum' his troop has is for everyone to sell one item, and that's easy for us.

I'm using it with my 10 year old. He finished book 5.1 in about 5 months and is about 1/3 way through 5.2. I agree that it starts out very basic, but we either review those lessons quickly or skip them altogether. However, it is the only math program that he has enjoyed - not too hard, not too much repetition, not too easy. We have tried many - Horizons, Miquon, Singapore, LOF,... I would say that he is quite intuitive in math, but he gets overwhelmed if things move too quickly and frustrated if they move too slowly. I must admit that I rarely refer to the Teacher's Guide (oops!) but I think that's because my ds seems to 'get' the new concepts with little explanation. Perhaps I'm making a fatal mistake here and he'll get bogged down later on, but I really hope not! He will be finishing 5.2 in February sometime and then move into 6.1 Oh, I should mention that their Fractions lessons is what made my dd a fractions queen. She hated them in Singapore, but loved the way the JUMP program introduced them. Little steps, using easy denominators first - absolutely fabulous!!!!!