Very low income here, and very happy :)

I know for our family personally, if my girls want to go to college I will support that fully. I also can some what assume that my daughters will want to live the life they grew up with and become a sahm homeschooling mom. While education is our primary focus I spend a great deal of time focusing on training them up to be Godly women, wives and Mothers.

BJU :D

No "uniforms" however my girls do wear their old private school uniforms from time to time :lol:. I do require that we do not begin school until they are dressed, hair brushed, teeth brushed etc. The last Thursday of every month we have pajama day though. At their private school they had dress down day at the end of the month so we adopted it as our pajama day at home as our form of dressing down. I do get dressed daily as well from head to toe so to speak. I can't really expect them to be motivated if I am going to sit around in my pj's. On the weekends if we have no plans I don't care if they get dressed or not. On the weekends I even wear dh's basketball shorts :lol: if I am not leaving the house (I only wear skirts so I don't have any shorts or pants of my own)

We have accountable kids. I haven't started it since we moved in in April only because I cant deside where to put the boards up and I plan to paint.

I just bought it and I do hope I like it. I plan to use level 3 for my 4th grader. I don't feel she is up to par with where a 4th grader should be grammar wise so I chose to go back a level. It does look boring however It's school work we have plenty of other fun curriculum that Grammar can be a bit boring IMO. I have other things like hands on English & Voyages in English that we can pull from too. I have never really just used one text for anything. So if I find something in R&S that I like better in the other books I will go with it. I have rarely heard anyone say anything bad about R&S. I for one appreciate the Christian content.

It took me nearly 2 days to read this :lol: I multi quoted a bunch and lost it somehow :lol: So my take... eh..buy soda I don't care. I do think its somewhat foolish to do so on a regular basis because it would cut down on healthy foods that you could be buying over the soda. It wouldn't bother me at all if it was not covered. I do get FS for the record. It bothers me more when I see my drug dealing escalde driving neighbors bringing home lobsters because they get food stamps because they don't go in and say "hey I'm a drug dealer I make 1,000 a day" :glare: I live in a highly impoverished area, by choice. We moved here to save $$ we make up for it in gas for the commute :( My husband drive from OH to Pittsburgh for work 5-6 days a week. Local employment is McJobs only unless you are a doctor, lawyer or professor at the university. I work from home (barley) just to keep him in gas for the most part. I for one am thankful for the system. Having a child who requires several hospitalizations and life sustaining medications that with out Medicaid would cost us more than my dh makes in a month we have no choice truly. Food stamps allow me to send my children to bed with a full stomach. I am grateful. We have lived on both ends of the tax bracket and I had no issue putting our taxes in at all. It's the Christian thing to do, help others in need. Despite this we find ways to help others when we can. Weather it be with $$ or volunteering. My kids may never know what it is like to shop for "new" clothes or shoes, to have cable television, their own cell phones, fancy toys etc. but they are very happy, well adjusted, children. And they know they are blessed.

We are camping next weekend for the first time as a family. Walmart has a good deal on a 10 person 3 room tent for $119. We are staying 2 nights/3 days. we wont be at the site fulltime as we are visiting my bff and her new baby we figure we will eat only breakfast/dinner at the site and lunch with her as we visit. so we plan for 2 breakfasts/2 dinners we plan eggs/sausage/steak for 1 breakfast & cereal/poptarts for another breakfast hotdogs/chili fritos for one dinner foil dinners another night and will pack plenty of snacks and such.

We got very lost in WV a few days ago looking for a used furniture store. We where way out in the boonies and I just knew we where not on the path to any store. I told dh "let just start knocking on peoples doors and ask to buy their couches" :lol:I am sure people would of thought we where insane but it would of been fun.

wow, I think I am speechless.

Shaved 1/2 my head in 6th grade at one :glare: in highschool lying about staying at "Jenny's" when really i was with my bf.. no good at all. I was a generally "good Christian girl" by outward appearance anyway.

We host sleepovers, but my girls do not attend them. The one time we did allow them RIGHT NEXT DOOR we where awoken by police lights because 2 of the girls where fist fighting in the street at 2 am (mine where sleeping I woke them and took them home) Never again. Another sleepover (not my kids) ended in some really bad things that I wont discuss on the open board. but yeah no sleepovers, ever. I am ok with it if other parents tried to get my kids to "convince" me I would have no issue pulling them to the carpet and telling them "It ain't happenin'! back off my kid!" I don't think you are crazy at all ;) I call it playing it safe!

I cut dh's with cheap clippers and have for years. I also trim my girls hair.

We didn't start HS'ing till we moved out of state in April.Not sure what type of projects you mean We have done the following so far. homemade Playdoh for a health project (I blogged about it) log cabin out of Popsicle sticks roasted hot dogs in homemade solar ovens made a habit for worms :001_huh: painted bird houses dyed wool yarn for knitting did a trash pick up for Earth day community service (soup kitchen)

me too ;) I have several years of saxon (5/6 through Alg 1), I had no idea their was a difference between the hard books and soft cover books. We are doing 8/7 (soft cover) this year and I have alg 1/2 & alg 1 in hard cover is that an issue? (I got the hard cover ones at the local used bookstore) I have nothing of importance to add to this thread but figured if a bunch of saxon folks are reading I could sneak in an unrelated question :lol:

oh I def. need it on the wall. my 2 year old will seek and destroy it even if I hide it :lol: wall space isn't an issue I just want something big enough to play on but not as over powering as my chalk board.

mine would be messier because I would work out of the home 40+ hours a week and cleaning would be the last thing on my mind.

IMO these folks are a little strange. I would not be a bit surprised if one of the older children slipped up and told someone what gender "the baby" is. I know I couldn't expect my 5 year old to keep that secret. I don't keep my daughters from playing with boy toys. I in fact encourage them to play with more than dolls and Barbie's. my 5 year old LOVES spider-man and has many spider-man shirts and things that she rocks with a skirt and ponytails. I get irritated with folks who comment that she shouldn't have super hero sheets. She is as girly as they come. But like me after having 4 girls I welcome a little blue in my life. In fact my 2 year old has mostly "boy" pajamas because I am just over flowers and butterflies :lol:

I am wondering if you use AAS and keep all the magnets on your board on the wall. what size board do you have? that allows you to have plenty of functional space to work in and do other things? I have a HUGE blackboard already so i don't want a huge white board too.

I am Christian (Baptist with Torah observant ideals :lol: bit of an oxy moron) I cover fulltime outside of the home (some days at home I don't because I want to lounge and the knot in the back gets in the way lol) I also where skirts fulltime, as do my daughters they do not cover their heads as they are unmarried its up to them if they keep the same level of modesty when they leave our home.

I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with laminating things. I have done math games, chore charts, handwriting paper, insurance cards, special artwork, charts, flash cards. pretty much anything I can. I have an equally unhealthy obsession with my label maker :lol:

pretty much, we do now have a small savings but it wont last long if we don't bring in more $$ soon. I work PT from home doing graphic arts (blog makeovers mostly) but it can vary from months of no earnings to good months of $500. If the cost of gas would come down more that would help greatly.

Not 100% sure yet, I have a few options though Bible- Awana and plan to buy some character things from Doorposts Math- CLE or R&S Social Studies- CLE Reading/Phonics- Bob books, 100EZ/OPGTR Spelling- Zane Blosser handwriting - A reason for handwriting/Scripture copy work Science- piggy backing on older sisters things and interest led library books Art- how great thou Art Music- making it up as I go along That is all I have planned in my head, but I do have some other options on hand if those things do work out the way we plan.

:grouphug: We are on a "break" too most likely till we get back from Vacation on the 13th. Life had gotten a bit crazy these past few weeks and I had to stop the madness of "fitting in school" that and my children have been total brats :glare:

I want to get CLE math for my soon to be 1st & 4th graders. My first grader is pretty good a mental math (as in can add/subtract with out using fingers or manipulative's) and my 4th grader is average or slightly above average in math. Would buying 1st & 4th grade levels match their skills or should I level up or down?