:lol::lol::lol: I am into pink juices at the moment. Carrot, celery, beetroot and apple. It is such a pretty colour! I make a litre in the morning and put it in the fridge for the day and it's gone by evening. But some of the people I make lunch for are pre diabetic, and they have a splash of juice and then fill up the glass with soda water. I dont like fizz much myself, and I can't help thinkig of all that plastic wasted in bottling water. But I guess everyone is taking babysteps.

Never. I realised when I was quite young (late teens?) that soda, as you call it, is a source of empty calories and no nutrition whatsoever. I was interested in health and so stopped drinking it and haven't drunk it since. There are so many nice things to eat and drink that are of some value- I knew soda was addictive too and that if I started I might not be able to stop.

It's not just kids though- its us adults too. Now we need to go to university to learn things that in the past one would learn from someone as a mentor. Everyone needs a qualification, even to serve coffee! (there are coffee making courses at my local cc).There are courses on how to be a shop assistant. I guess the social structures are not there for us all to learn from the older people in the community. And no one wants to pay a junior even a few $ an hour to learn a skill like using a cash register- they want them to have done a course first. Its all becoming more and more impersonal. And we are all disempowered. But at the same time as the general trend is going in that directon...there is another trend that it is response and reaction to it. And we homeschoolers are a major part of that. How dare we think we can actually teach our children even elementary level mathematics and how to read and write? In my city they are creating vegetable gardens in most primary schools because there is a realisation thatcity kids are out of touch with nature. Things swing one way, and then there is a response.

Oooh, my dd has been asking me to buy her guava after a friend with a farm up in Gingin sent us some. But you cant buy them in the shops! Guava jam or jelly is I think what I have heard.

You are a fulltime student, trying to run a business, and a full time mum with all the incredible amount of work that entails with littlies.You are doing all the housework. And you are HOMESCHOOLING. Another full time job- and your dd has learning issues which means she needs extra attention. On top of that you are trying to keep your 3 kids, who are at home, out of your dh's way. Your dh is a fulltime student. What is wrong with this picture? Tell your dh to go to the library to study or at least buy earphones and be patient. Organise a roster for him to help you run your home together. Are you partners, or are you the family servant? OK, should have read the other posts first. Still, you need to stand up for yourself.

I understand you have tried everything you can think of for the sleep issue. If it is related to adrenals or underlying anxiety issues (I cant remember your whole story but I do remember that you have posted here before about it) then she may need help to learn to deal with those before the sleep issues will heal- they are most likely a secondary issue rathe than the primary one. For the school issue...do your community colleges do any online courses? Is there something she could do by correspondence that would keep her moving forward and learning and get some sort of accreditation? I have a 15yo doing online courses (here in Australia- different system obviously) which make a highschool certificate redundant. And next year when she is 16 she will be going to our equivalent of community colleges to do a diploma- she will end up 2 full years ahead of kids in school, yet it won't be a heavy load for her. She doesn't need to go through the system that burns out the normal school kids, let alone any ones with health issues. Can you do some more research about alternative pathways for her? She may not be able to cope with much- but something? As for making friends...it does sound to me as if she could do with a little push in that direction, but you can only do so much, and school is not necessarily the answer. Sounds like you all need to come to a deep acceptance that the situation is as it is and she wont be able to go through a normal pathway. What does she want to do? I can understand her father's perspective- if I saw a 15yo not making friends and being clingy to her mother, and she was homeschooled, I would wonder if she is getting enough socialisation too, to tell the truth.Sometimes dads see patterns between the mum and the kids that the mum can't necessarily see because its her blind spot- but they can be off in their solving of it too. And your situation is unique. Are you yourself an anxious person? Is your dd picking up on what is going on inside you and internalising it? Is she living out some part of the family energy that no one is expressing? Sometimes one child takes on something no one else will. Just looking for a deeper pattern...you dont need to answer me. Its definitely a tricky situation. And you can only do so much in such situations. As I was sayng in another thread, sometimes we are too close to see what is needed and we need to step back and let go of the outcome.

Wow this thread is going incredibly well. I have found my kids don't jump to conclusions such as that Muslims commit most terrorism. Studying history chronologically as we have done, we have covered so many wars and acts of atrocity over the centuries, that its far more natural for us to see terrorism as just another face of war, and war is a part of human nature, aparently. Wars have certainly been going on for as long as recorded history. Its about people- people who feel they have no choice but to behave as they do. People who are often born into situations we can barely imagine, living as comfortably as we do, in peaceful parts of the world. When you study history over years, it helps keep things in perspective- even and especially as an adult who is responsible for imparting world views to a child, because we are not immune to being influenced by a press that is biased toward sensationalism. I wouldn't teach my kids about the association between Muslims and terrorism unless it came up in context of something else. I would rather teach them world history for many years before tackling modern issues. Then the modern issues can be seen in more context.

:iagree:That is the dryest most boring program I ever forced my dd to do! I am a bit of an all rounder- I like writing, grammar, maths, life sciences, chemisty. Physics I dislike so we outsourced. Basically, I dislike marking. I like teaching, andlearning alogside the kids. I dont like marking. I did notice the other day that I may have a budding polician on my hands. My ds14 had to do an assignment of designing a form of government that combined the best of communism and democracy. He raved to me about it! He wrote a page- incredible for him! He even mentioned something like "its my calling" during his rave! Scary! I cant believe I could possibly have bred a politician since it is SO not my interest, but there you go. Maybe all this classical education will be good for something after all.

I read a lot of non fiction. Some fiction. I dont generalyl read fluff. But I find it hard to put aside what I am drawn to read in favour of a "classical education" for myself, so I guess I have let go of that ideal. So for me it has mainly been learning alongside my kids, which has been huge anyway. Although, sometimes i think about going to university and I do consider doing the Classics. I am drawn to it.

Loved and still love CW- but I am a CW drop out. We got part way through Homer B. Great program. Very teacher intensive- at least for my family. And I didnt find it easy. It was the teacher intensive part that made me give up. I have one kid who is already teacher intensive and this was too much for me. I dont regret the time we spent on Aesop and Homer though, and I went back to look at the following books many times before wistfully letting it go.

I think it is a really valid question and there have been discussions here before about how homeschoolers often "rest on their laurels" and are told so often that homeschooling is always suerior academically even if you do very little academic work...that many do very little work and are shocked when their kids DONT do well back in the system. I do not think I do a particularly superior job to one of the local highschools which is a top state highschool. Its quite possible my dd15 would have done very well at school. I am not sure about ds14. We cant know unless he does end up goign back to school (a possibility) but he has learning issues and I tihnk he would get lost. If not now...we took him out because school wasnt giving him the attention he needed. If it were purely academics, dd might have been better in school. I am particularly feeling inadequate this year. She is really ready for having teachers who are passionate in their areas and bouncing off people- of course, school may not provide that either. Depends on the teachers. She kind of wilts here at home doign so much independent work. However the plan is to send her off to what you might call community college- its technical college here- next year, so we are just getting through this year. Ds is probably best at home. Socially he is doing fine. We homeschool for family closeness and other reasons such as protecting the kids from the jungle of school, and letting them thrive in an environment that caters to them specifically. Academically- I just dont know, and its hard since we cant really know- they have done well on testing but how woudl they do in school? Maybe dd15 woudl have done French - we flopped in that. Maybe ds14 would heve been inspired to be a scientist? Who knows? I tell people hoemschooling is only if you have a nature that is quirky that way. I see kids i really admire- who are not pulled apart by peer pressure like we thought dd would be- who are given help for their learning issues- so I cant know that the kids are better off at home. We live in a good area too. But, its what we do and I dont think they have been disadvantaged as far as further education is concerned, so hopefully they will forgive and recover from homeschooling. I am joking...but my kids are social beings and whether they feel it was the right thing for them in the long run, remains to be seen.

Absolutely. And as we all do, they probably feel they are doing the right thing, too. I think we all do pass on our own brand of craziness to our kids. The extremes are sad, though.

I was just reading a story in the book 7 Habits for Highly Effective People, during my afternoon rest time. The author and his wife had a son who was a "loser". Struggled at everything, poor at sports, low self worth developing because not good at academics...lots of issues. Parents step in, very concerned to boost up this child. They did all the normal things, gave him lots of praise, stood on the sidelines cheering him, encouragement, all that stuff. No help. Kid still floundering, low self worth. The author was reading all the how- to -succeed --in life literature from the last 200 years (for his job) and to cut a long story short, decided to step back and just believe in his child and watch him unfold in his own way, in his own time. He and his wife withdrew their emotional investment in their son turning out a certain way, and just accepted him and trusted him. They stepped back and stopped trying so hard. And the son changed and became an A student etc The story touched me because I realised how hard it is as a parent to "let go" of the outcome of how our kids turn out. It's also hard not to care about what others think about our children, since in our society we think they reflect us. It sounds like you are quite emotional and very invested in this young woman and a bit of stepping back and perspective, and letting go of so much control, even though it looks like that woudl make it worse, might make it better. It might at least make you feel better, and from there act from a more accepting place, and keep a healthy connection with the child. A 10yo child has a lot of time yet for growing and working herself out, but going against her will turn her against you, and you wont both be on the same team anymore.

Agreeing - it lasts till they notice girls as ...girls. And a little after that because it takes a few moments (um, months around here) to realise girls probably won't like you if you are stinky. And I am still trying to convince ds14 that lavishing himself with stinky deodorant wont cover the fact that he has been wearing the same tshirt for several days. He really does need to wash his clothes. Its slow, but things are changing. He now showers voluntarily most days.

This may not be a popular thought but it's what comes into my mind. My dh refused to have more than 2 kids with me because of finances (he has a 3rd child from another marriage). If you have 7 kids, and a limited income...you're not going to be able to afford to give your 7+ kids the same as what those of us with 2 or so kids can give ours. Its simple mathematics. There is no law out there which says that more money will come if you have many kids. So, the balance is still there...you have a big family and all the benefits that come with having a big family. But you don't get the benefits that come with a big family AND the benefits that come from having a small family- which is being able to afford to spend more on extras on each child (generally speaking- of course there are people who dont fit in either catagory). There is no divine right that every child gets classes no matter how many kids we have. So I think that everyone has given you lots of possible suggestions so I dont have anything else to offer. But my suggestion is to focus more on what you do have and less on what you dont. I would have loved a big family- not to be for me. So I focus on what I have and yes I can afford to have my two kids do classes. I also have time to work part time now they are older, and bring in extra income as things get tighter. But I have felt an ache for not having more children for many years. We all have our difficulties and we make our choices in life. Focus on the blessings and what you CAN do for your kids' benefit, and let go of what you can't. We all can't do some things. My kids would get benefits in school they cant get with me and sometimes I feel regret over that- but overall, this is what I do and there are blessings and I do count them every day.

In a normal healthy situation, I would say, for a father, there is no limit on the age. My dd15 is cuddled by dh regularly and he pulls her onto his lap to do it at times- in a big armchair. Even big kids need to feel cuddled and enfolded in the safe arms of their dad. he also does it to his daughter in her twenties- she is a bit father deprived becaue she didnt grow up living with her dad, so he ha always put her on his lap and cuddled her like she was little- she loves it! As for uncles...dh has one brother that Iwould be perfectly happy doing the same and I see him cuddling and physically playing with his daughters who are in their twenties. He is an adored father- no problem here with either of those. But they are both very physical and affectionate men. But it is totally circumstantial and there is no ick value whatsoever with these two men. They are loving, affectionate fathers and uncles who understand the importance of physical affection towards their children. I love it that neither are so afraid about what others think, or their own sexuality, that they physically withdraw from their beautiful daughters who are young women. My dad withdrew from me. Not that he was ever affectionate in th first place. If however their father- dc's grandfather- did something similar, I would feel red alert immediately because he is not normally affectionate and he is a letch- or at least, he was. It would be out of character and suspicious. He once patted me on the bum- ick! If he did something like that to my daughter I would just about kill him. But he hasnt. If you are asking th question because you are feeling some ick regarding men and children and physical affection- a partcular circumstance ...well, it could just be your own conditioning and beliefs and that sort of thing, but it might not be, too. Always, always, always, always trust your gut feelings.

Vegetables, especially green vegetables, contain protein. Wheat- even wholemeal- is notorious for upsetting people's metabolsim. Perhaps substutute other whole grains such as brown rice, for anything wheat. Eat more vegetables. I admire anyone who goes for eating less meat, and I dont think the whole high protein- if it comes from meat- low carb is a long term healthy diet even though it can cause weight loss. It acidifies the system. I think your diet just needs some tweakng. Dont be disheartened. As for dairy- processed and pastuerised dairy is not necessarily good for you. Cheese especially is quite an addictive food and hard to give up but its not really of much benefit as a food. All in all...I would say, eat even more fruit and veg, less grains and meat and dairy.

Generally, I think my 14yoson would still benefit from me going over with him the directions to just about all of his work. But especially some parts of it. But I kind of just dont want to any more and so we end up havin to go over a fair amount of work that he does INCORRECTLY. That is the price I pay. He doesnt want me to go over it with him though. He just confidently does it wrongly. I suggest an 8yo might still need a fair bit of help. Perhaps gently help him transition- get him to read the instructions aloud to YOU, then have him explain what it means. If he understands, let him do the work. Eventually he will change over. My son needed me a lot until he was around 12 and I came here a lot to ask when on earth woudl he stop needing me so much? Well, he still needs me at 14. Every kid is different.

I think any amount of Latin is better than no amount of Latin. One could say "the more the better" but at some stage, there might be other priorities. You could have a goal or you could see year by year. I did one year of Latin at highschool- didnt like it much, but it had a profound affect on me and I could remember a reasonable amount when I came to teaching/learning with my kids. Just the small amount of familiarity I had with basic Latin- which I had mostly forgotten but came back to me- made me much more confident about doing it with my kids and has made me enthusiastic about keeping it up over several years. We are just now dropping it- the kids are almost 16, and 14 and they've been doing it for 5 years or so. Which doesnt mean they have reached a high level- we havent moved quickly- but it has been a fun and reqwarding journey.

Lol, thats kind of ironic, isnt it? I meant to start a new thread. OK, more caffeine for me before I write stuff like that.

Thanks- I was thinking ADD too but for some reason we have never felt he was. Now it feels like he fits many of the symptoms. It does help for *me* to have a label, even if I dont want to put it on him (yet, anyway- his dad is very adamant about that- we will see). Thanks for your notes Laurie.

I am not one to say I only homeschool for my kids benefit. I homeschool not only for my kids benefit, but because I want a close family, I love to learn, I love to be with them, and I love the lifestyle. The lifestyle also includes me not feeling I "should" be working in the world bringing in money. It has given me a passion. It has been very fulfilling. Not all those motivations are selfless. However, I think people who arent familiar with homeschooling often have strange ideas about it. I can't see quite how it is selfish. The actual carrying out of homeschooling daily can be gruelling.

I could swear I posted here this morning and I cant find the post anywhere. Ds14- dyslexic but reads well. Strongest symptom has been poor wrting skills and poor organisational skills, and difficulty with reading instructions. Lately, dh and I have been becoming quite concerned because we have noticed that ds's memory has become terrible. It probably wasnt ever really good, but others are noticing it now too, such as the guys he works for. He will ask them 3 times what he needs to do next because he just forgets. At home, he forgets a lot and has been getting very frustrated with his schoolwork but tries to cover it by rushing through. Last weekend he went on a Scout camp and he came home very excited but quite mean and cool with us all. Dh and I sat him down for a D&M (deep and meaningful conversation) and it turns out ds feels he had a very clear mind all weekend, managed to remember all his knots and everything he was supposed to do, and felt incredibly competent. And, it turns out, he was drinking a lot of caffeinated drinks. When he came home he was trying tomaintain that clear headed space by being tough and distant- his words wre alogn the lines of not wanting to "relax" into the home vibe because his mind will fall apart again. SO this mornning we put him in a separate room for his schoolwork (because the distractions in our shared schoolroom, even though its usually him !- are really upsetting him) and gave him coffee with breakfast- and he stayed engaged and focused on his work. he was very happy with himself. His other symptoms are sensory- more and more he cant stand certain textures such as carpet or wool, and his range of foods is narrowing to white bread, fruit and meat. I dont want to actually label him but if any labels come into your mind, I would appreciate hearing them so I can do some more research. He is not at all hyperactive and never has been- unlike his diagnosed ADHD half sister, and undiagnosed ADHD father. He does have trouble concentrating and while I wouldnt call him "dreamy" he certainly doesnt focus well. We would not medicate him. But I am concerned for him, because he is really nticing this himself and feeling bad about himself, and I am wondering what other support we can give him. thanks

Well, what do you feel about it yourself? If ultrasounds were a "necessity" I think we were doomed long ago...since they have only been around a few decades. I know people who dont do ultrasounds because there is some evidence that the baby doesnt like it- that it can disturb the baby. And they know they will have the baby anyway, rater than abort if there are problems...so they go without. For myself, I am really against unecessary medical treatments and the medicalisation of pregnancies.... but I would still probabyl do the ultrasound for my own peace of mind and just plain old curiosity. I still didnt know the gender of either of my kids even though I had ultrasounds.You can ask them not to tell you. We asked them to tell us and they coulndt! I did love not knowing till the birth. But...whats your gut feeling about it? Is it necessary for you? You will always get people playing into your fears, and people who would never dream of not doing an ultasound, and all the what if's and maybes. But if you have a gut feeling its all ok and an ultrasound is superfluous...go for it.

Yeah, I reckon if you drank the milk pretty quickly it would be fine. As for linseeds or chia seeds going straight through- a normal blender should be able to powderise them the you can sprinke the powder onto cereal and stuff. You know about LSA? linseeds, sunflower and almonds. Tastes ok on toast with honey!