I’m seeing people with long covid urging others to make sure they get a PCR test and have that important confirmation since it could be trouble down the road getting access to certain benefits if you don’t have the “official diagnosis” and end up needing supports. Not sure if that is just here in Canada or applicable elsewhere so ymmv.

We hs’d our kids for 7+ years. They’ve been back in B&M for a couple of years now….with all of the disruptions to their education the last couple of years due to covid + looking ahead to what the next couple of years will look like, I’m starting to think maybe the youngest 2 (grade 4 & grade 6) should just be homeschooled again. I mean, this whole variant thing can just go on & on & on and their learning is definitely being impacted - no doubt. Anyone else having similar thoughts?

Ya know what is shocking to me - when a medical officer of health tells all of us that we are in for a “very rough 6-8 weeks of omicron” but then tells everyone schools must re-open to protect the economy, we can’t test anymore or even report on case #s, ICU rates are stable, everyone who tests positive can go back to work/school after 5 days (thanks CDC even though you have zero to do with Canada) and finally, that they will try and get N95s to teachers in the next few weeks and 3-ply cloth masks for all the kids! Oh and kids sports are all still a go…. We are sacrificing these kids for our economy now. #hopeless

I live in Loh’s region and I really REALLY hope he does the right thing here. For the first time, I am jealous of Quebec.

Of course that is the plan. Our province just became Florida 2.0 I am so angry rn and feel gutted for the teachers and HCWs - yesterday’s announcement was a slap in the face to them. I voted for this govt but for the first time in my life, they wont get my vote in June 2022. I am hanging on to the hope that our regional health leaders can do something…..anything to make things safer for the communities they serve. Keeping my under 12 kids home until they are double-vaxxed and this $hitshow with the schools gets settled.

@wathe Have been grateful for your comments the last 20 months….also here in Ontario and seriously cannot believe what we heard at the presser today. It’s Lord of the Flies……and I am so sorry for the disaster that all HCW have to manage now becuz of the sheer incompetence of our govt.

I am so sorry. Praying here for you & your family.

Hardcover not being being released until Aug 16th here :(

Ellen - if you're in the Toronto area - try Cross Border Pickups. Fees are super reasonable - I have all of my US curricula shipped to their US address in Buffalo and then they look after getting it across the border. I pick it up near the airport. By reasonable, I ordered 3 books from Circe (including Mere Motherhood) and there were no taxes/duties....and their fee was just $10. Sometimes I pay a small amount in duties/taxes but definitely a lot cheaper than US supplier shipping rates.

See a registered massage therapist. They can do some massage to help. It provides temporary relief. What helped is seeing a chiropractor (i am a huge skeptic and wouldn't have ever thought in a million years i would go to one...). He did intra-oral massage and although it was uncomfortable in process, it has made a huge difference. I could barely open my mouth wide enuff to brush my teeth a few weeks ago and now i can eat a burger.....well, almost. Hope you can find the right treatment.

Thanks for the replies. Yes, we have good health insurance for when we travel - no issues. I'd be more worried about the kids though - who would look after them if I had to go to the hospital??? EEK. I suggested to DH that he go instead of me - but he can't really take the time off right now. He and DS13 are supposed to be doing a little trip of their own later this month (not Disney). All of the reservations are in my name. I'm sure I could change the Disney ressie to another name if I had to (yes, booked with them), but the car rental is 100% non-transferrable, same with the other hotel we are supposed to be staying at. I don't even think I could switch those to DH even if he wanted to go. The ER doc said all looked fine - that it was likely just part of the flu recovery but to follow up. Stupid googling though makes you wonder if its something more sinister that is starting......

I don't know what to do. We booked a last minute trip to Disney for me, DD11, DS8 and DS4. We are supposed to leave in 4 more sleeps. Our entire house came down with the nasty flu bug on Christmas Day/Boxing Day. Everyone is on the mend - not 100% there yet but pretty close. Lingering coughs, no big deal. Yesterday I went to the ER. I was actually feeling fine when I first got up but started feeling this warm sensation in my chest. I had felt it before a couple of days earlier but thought nothing of it. But yesterday it kept happening, and of course we got a little worried when I googled it. Evidently, this warm sensation in the chest can be a sign of heart attack in women(!!), along with feeling weak (check), dizzy (check), lack of appetite (check)........hard to know what is from the flu though and what could be something else. Anyway, long story short - they ran an ECG which was fine, did a massive amount of bloodwork including cardiac enzymes, and all was ok. The ER doc said to follow up with my family doctor if it continues. So while I feel better knowing that the ECG and bloodwork were fine yesterday, I still have the warmth in my chest today. Still weak, etc. I will see one of the doctors in our family practice tomorrow to follow up. But do I still go away, on my own with 3 kids? At this point, everything is non-refundable which is a substantial amount of money but DH said it doesn't matter; if I want to cancel, it is what it is.

I really wanted to do this but none of the kids can go on their own since any child under 14 needs an adult with them to be in the class :(. Makes it hard for us homeschoolers to take advantage of the program when they are age-segregted: for example, DS8 would have loved one class that was for kids 6-9 IIRC, but he had to have me there and neither DS4 or DD11 could join that class since they didn't fall into the age group.

Late Jan/early Feb is good. We didn't find it overly crowded and the weather was much better than what was happening st home! I am heading to Disney with a few of the kids in just 10 days!! Wooohooo! We've never been this early in January - I just hope the weather is nice and warm. We aren't doing any parks while at Disney but we are heading to the Dark Side this trip!! Good luck with the planning! Make sure you sign up for Mousesavers newsletters and if you are really brave, hop on over to the Disboards. If you thought cupcake threads were fun, wait until you see the brawls over pool hopping and refillable mugs LOL

Thanks for sharing everyone. @Tiramisu - I LOVE those 3 points you made about how you approached her 8th grade year. I am so torn between making sure he is super well prepared (which will probably translate into a lot of pressure for both of us but will help him in high school) and just enjoying him and letting him enjoy all of us. I need to figure out how to balance those. We will have to get all of us to check in once school routines are settled & see how we are all doing.

Just wanted to add that we are also doing the HSII class on-line this upcoming year. DS13 has worked through WWE, followed by some IEW and then dabbling in Sadlier-Oxford last year. He enjoys writing. We were undecided about which level to do with MP - I looked through the Fable/Narrative (since my DD10 will be doing those this year) and it looked pretty easy so we agreed to go with HSII, and we've been working on a super crash course of Fable/Narrative this summer. Hoping we made the right decision LOL

This is the final year of homeschooling for DS13. He will finish up 8th grade and then off to the local Catholic high school. It is good. It is fine. He will be totally fine. I have mixed feelings. Sigh. We started homeschooling him in 4th grade so he has been in B&M school before - he has always missed being around his friends & he knows the work at school is far easier than what he does at home. Homeschooling has been great for him - but the plan has always been for him to head to high school. Part of me is kinda hoping that once he gets there, he will change his mind and want to be back home LOL. Not likely with this kid. DH wants to make sure we get some travel in this coming school year since it is the last time he will have the flexibility to just take off during the school year. Hopefully we can do that. Anyone else have an 8th grade DS or DD who is doing their last year at home? Are you doing anything differently since it is their last year? Anything special? How are YOU feeling about it? What about your DD/DS - are they excited?

Well hello and congratulations on #5! Hope the rest of your pregnancy goes smoothly.

Adding my prayers. It sounds so scary. I pray that the Drs can figure this out soon.

I want to. I really do. But i am too invested in the NHL and some other shows that will remain un-named to actually pull the plug. It would save us a LOT of money every month but......... Not.sure.i.can.do.it

We have the books and i was planning on starting Fable with DS7 (rising 4th) in the fall. DD10 was going to do Classical Composition Fable/Narrative through MP but my interest in CAP is piqued for her :). I was looking at the online class for CAP and wondering if that might be a good option for her. Writing is def not her favourite subject, nor is it mine to teach so I am outsourcing it for sure. Anyone else doing CAP online classes this fall?

DS13 started piano a few years ago. He just finished the grade 3 exam. He has done an exam each year. Is it necessary? No. Does it help him try that little bit harder? Yes. Does it really matter at this stage? No. But he enjoys the challenge of going in & having a virtual stranger critique his playing. In our province, you can get 1 high school credit if you have successfully completed grade 8 piano (practical & theory). We like the discipline and focus it demands of him now. It shows him that when he devotes the time/energy, he can do well. Does it make a difference to any future educational pursuits? Nope. He has no desire to pursue a career in music - this is for fun :)

Apparently i am too! Cheers :)

..... My 4 year old vs. a common housefly that managed to get into the house this afternoon. He has been chasing this thing around the house for at least half an hour! Forget toys and TV - just let in a fly and instant fun LOL

Hi Moxie – Kolbe IS great, no question there. But it is still a lot of work for mom. We did Kolbe for grade 7 this year with our oldest – here is what we learned: You don’t have to do every single subject that they list for each grade. I think it is a LOT, too much almost. DS13 is a smart kid, not that motivated but he can whip through work like nobody’s business and this workload was too much for him. I wish we had just focused on the key subjects and gone deep rather than wide if you know what I mean. You can substitute whatever you like in elementary/jr. high. We started off substituting the vocab/writing, & grammar. But we did change to the Sadlier-Oxford writing after 1 quarter since the Enhanced Evaluation Service wasn’t as helpful with a program they weren’t overly familiar with. We were using IEW Medieval book. Speaking of Enhanced Evaluation Service – if you can manage to pay for this one – SO WELL WORTH IT! Seriously. We used it for history, writing and bible history assignments. The feedback we got was AMAZING. It is one area that I am just not sure about and I find it so important to be able to get good feedback on their writing as we prep for high school level writing. Bible history + Faith & Life is unbelievably outstanding catechesis, but kinda overkill in my opinion. Rather than doing both as written in the course plans, use whichever you like and just supplement with the other. Another friend of mine who uses Kolbe often jokes that our kids will be able to go directly into 3rd year seminary with the level of catechesis they are getting with Kolbe J I took the easy (lazy) way out and just put the week’s course plans into my son’s binder. There was way too much info in there and he would have done better just having simple instructions for each subject/each week. This requires work though…… Keep up with marking the subjects every day/week and RECORDING the marks! It will make your quarterly reporting SO MUCH easier. I had the best of intentions at the beginning, made up a handy dandy spreadsheet to keep track of everything, used it for 2 weeks and then fell off. Totally my fault. But I paid for it in the end when it took me a whole weekend to catch up on all the quarterly reports that I had missed……… Their advising department is great – you can call them anytime and they will help you. Keep on top of the science – make sure you have the “stuff†you need for the lab parts. We missed out on a few of these because Mom hadn’t read ahead and noticed what we needed. The Jr High literature program is not to be missed. Very very good program. And if you can find the time to read the book along with your kiddo, then it is so much better. The conversations you can have are fantastic – and the teacher guide is so helpful. We are doing Kolbe again next year with a few tweaks. We will have a 4th grader, 6th grader and an 8th grader enrolled. We signed up the 8th grader for a few of the on-line classes so hopefully all goes well there. I have been immersed in Circe and the whole concept of teaching from a state of rest so that is a huge influence in how we are approaching our studies next year. Less breadth and more depth. ANd yes, we can do this with Kolbe. More focus on the lovely things that we can enjoy together (Shakespeare, poetry, art, music, readlouds) – which in practical terms means trying out the morning time concept. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss.