I have spent a lot of money on diferent planners over the years. Nowadays, if I use one at all, its always home made- using Word. I am now using the workbox system and I am finding that I dont need a planner for it. I did my planning at the beginning of our year, and I just know what we are doing.

Wow, I hadn't even considered it but yes, my grandmother was a child psychologist and counsellor and insisted I was tested when young...but, I was young, only about 5 or 6 I think. It was probably more an IQ test- I wasnt told the result. My grandmother has spent all my life since then until recently (she is still alive, 90 years old, but now has Alzheimers) telling me I am wasting all my talents because I didn't become an academic or get some big career beause I was so gifted (no one else in the family copped that, but I was first born on both sides of the famiy)- because that's how she valued herself and others. And yes...even though my IQ is far from genius and my emotional IQ lagged behind by a couple of decades...I did feel confident enough to homeschool, when many others don't. I just felt capable. I hae always felt I could do whaever I wanted...if I only knew what I wanted :)

I was totally panicked that I would ruin my kids' lives. I found the decision to homeschool to be by far the hardest part of it all, though- one I was on the othe side of that, its just one day at a time and lots of reseach. Remember to have fun! Its a great adventure.

My dd also had what you guys call Mono (we call it Glandular Fever), last September. She is constantly complaining to me of tiredness, and a lack of ability to concentrate. This thread just reminded me that she may simply not be fully recovered yet, so thankyou. We seem to naturally be having an easier year. Less push. Workboxes are helping, but I have taken days off for movies...something I would not normally do in the past. I like the idea of 5 hours a day of self directed learning covering maths, reading and writing.

Pasta with tomato sauce with lentils and vegetables snuck in Pasta with pesto- my son LOVES this- he likes the bottled stuff but I often make my own- it is basil, olive oil/water, garlic, parmeson cheese, and nuts, blended together. Home made potato chips. My kids dont lke potatos- I didnt think that was possible but they don't, except as chips or baked potatoes cut into chunks. Avocado and/or tomato on toast My kids have never liked cooked vegetables much, but will happily munch on carrot sticks, baby cos lettuce (they LOVE caesar salad), celery, red capsicum. Fruit. Green smoothies (fruit blended wth water and a handful of greens).

Dh is a biker- he has a Harley. I dont have my own bike, but I ride on his with him, all in black. Its kind of fun because it's so NOT me. I wouldn't ride without a helmet, beause I like to take all precautions for my safety, for my children. However, dh would ride without a helmet if he could get away with it.

More than an occasional coffee makes my joints hurt. And 2 cups of coffee will make me jittery. You know you can train your body to tolerate poisons- people have trained themselves to tolerate deadly snake poison, arsenic, all sorts of things.Small quantities that wont kill you, until you can handle a larger dose The body can adapt to all sorts of things. It doesnt make it good for you, though. When you go off a drug, as caffeine is, you become more sensitive to it. You can build up a tolerance again, though- doesnt make it good for you.

:iagree: I also thin kthe article is a bit old hat for most of us- rehashing an old issue. I guess it is making a point to the general public, but the point has been made many times before and i am a bitover it. You cant argue with people's beliefs, honestly, so there is no point in trying.

I am notoriousfor this sort of thing. I honestly dont want to be friends with the parents of my son's soccer team, no matter how great the season. I didnt want to be friends with the mum's in my kids' classes at school either. Becase...I have different values and I want to be myself, and I am simply not interested in the same things. Sometimes, I might find a person who resonates- not often, but I am open to it. I am surehappy to have a friendly converstion. I actually find I have more in common with a highly religious homescholing mum, even though I am secular, simply because we have homechooling in common. So....at those end of season parties, I am terrible for declining further contact. I am friendly. But mytime IS precious and I am nto goign to make friends with people. I dont intend to continue the friendship on any meaningful level. Yes, I am a snob, but I have the right to allocate my time and energy wisely and with discrimintion- without meaning anyone any harm at all. I am not short on friends, and I am happy to have more, and many more acquaintances...but I only have so much time and I wont go to inane functions where the connecting point is not something that is going to bring me in contact with people I resonate with. And honestly, they probably dont want me there either, because as I get older, I compromise less and less and I will say exactly what I think.

I have discussed this with my girlfriends a fair bit, actually. I think a lot of people are noticing it. Its hard to find the time for people, for friends, yet it's also hard o give up all our sheduled activity- and sometimes, as someone said to me recently, we just want to do nothing in our spare time, rather than fill it with more stuff- even if its valuable stuff like being with friends. I have found that making a date each week to meet with a friend has helped- one of my friends complained she felt she was always reaching out to me and I never had time...so I organised to do a weekly yoga class with her. We both stopped after a few months, but it was enough to bring us closer together so that we make sure we connect regularly. I also find that there are some actvities that are rregular but important to me, where I connect with my friends. In my case it is connected with my spirituality- certain teachers coming to town etc It brings people out of the woodwork. And we all say, wow, we really should make an effort to see each other more often...and it still doesn't tend to happen.

I really wonder though...for those with grateful kids and those without. I think it has a lot to do with whatever lessons each kid is here to learn and their unique personality. Environment, parents etc all play a part, for sure, but only a part. When I had my first child....eveyone told me what a good mother I was because she was such a good baby- smiled at everyone, happy. No one told me that when my 2nd kid came along, lol, because he was a screamer! I was the same mum. He was a different kid. My dd is still an easygoing, grateful and generous person- reasonable, loving. Ds is not. Same parents. I understand there are things we can do...and need to do...but I just wanted to make the point that a lot of it comes down to the individual child.

We are having big issues with this at the moment. However I remember my mother throwing a hissy fit every few months and keeping us in all Saturday to tidy our rooms, getting very uspet and angry....but she didnt really train us consistently to do chores o tidy our rooms. She just "expected" which didnt work. Being a good parent seems to invve more than just giving selflessly- it seems to involve a lot of training as well. My 14yo son has been totally obnoxious lately. Last night we took his ipod off him and all TV/comuter rights, as well as grounded him from seeing his friends. He had nothing left to do (fromhis perspective) other than go to bed- he slept somethin like 13 hours. He must have needed it. I have had both kids write a gratitue diary for weeks at a time, as part of school. Ds14 is writing it again. He has to write 5 things he s gratful for, in full sentence. It is amazing, considering how challenging and ungrateful his behaviour is, what he comes up with (because he is not allowed to repeat himself). We are finding both kids- teens-will get out of chores if they can at any opportunity. Ds will whine about anything extra he is given. Yet dh and I LOVE to give to both of them. DH is a gift buyer- he LOVES to buy gifts for us all (usualyl 2nd hand bargains). But- the kids take it for granted a lot oh the time, even though they have 2 computers each and lots of other great thngs. We just keepon keeping on, and at the moment, I am jsut about ready to send ds14 to school because of his attitude. Idont want to, but I dont want to sithere and have him ruin my day with his negativity about everything. But that is teen stuff, I realise. I think we hope and expect, as parents, that ou rown selfless generosity will result in beautifully natured kids. ANd it does on some level- but not necessarily. My husband is trying to get me to see I cant be my kids' best friend AND give them the discipline they need. I have to be prepared to be the bad guy, as well as love them to bits in the more mushy sense. Its a challenge for me, as they seem to be needing more of the tough love and less of the soft mushy love as they go through teens.

:iagree:

I have a difficult child too. He is 14. I took him and his sister out last night to an educational event with a group of MY peers- it was an astronomical evening, we got to look at stars through telescopes etc- and he spent a lot of the time trying to manipulate me by telling me he was going to keep annnoying me and emotionally blackmailing me until I gave him money to buy junk food. Then he said at the meal table, to anyone who was listening, that I forced him to homeschool and he really wanted to go to school. This was not a homeschooling function and he knows that would embarrass me. He didn't want to go to the event- he made sure I suffered for taking him. Ugh, he can be truly horrible. But, he has always been a challenge. I don't know why I do, because he doesn't appear to deserve it, but I still absolutely adore this kid. I think that's all you can do. Grab those brief moments of a cuddle, a tickle on the bed, look at him sleeping...catch those innocent moments. Find the good in him. For me, it made it all worth it last night when I was finally ready to go home,- my son insisted I come back to look at the moon again through the telescope, because he was so awestruck by it. We could see so much detail. THAT'S why I took him for that sort of experience. But he thinks my job in life is to terrorise him in the name of an education, or chores, or computer restrictions! I guess I treat the whole situation as a task that has been given to me...to take care of a difficult child who needs EXTRA love and EXTRA patience. SO, in a sense, its like a spiritual practice to me. And those days I really muck up, lose my temper, say things I regret- well, I just forgive myself, apologise and move on.

I think its good to keep in mind that it is one of the great benefits of homeschooling, to be able to spend one on one with your child. I have had to tell myself that a LOT as my son has matured. At 8- wow, he needed me a LOT. At 14- I recently moved his desk close to mine so that his constant asking me things wouldnt disturb his sister so much. He really does work mostly independently now, but reading instructions is still difficult for him, and if I am not breathing down his neck to some degree, an essay will be lucky to be a paragraph long. With my ds, it has been slowly, slowly, slowly. Having a checklist helped. The workbox system helps A LOT- I've only implemented it recently but it helps my kids get through their work much more independently and quickly. And patience. I recommend lots and lots of patience.

:iagree:I never read anything either other than what was written here. The man is obviously a fruitcake- unfortunately, a dangerous one. I now have him mentally pegged alongside cult leaders who have their cult followers all commit suicide, or who have sex with underage girls. To me, its pretty much of the same level of twisted (and I am not particularly anti spanking either).

I walk for exercise, but I walk outside for the fresh air, the contact with nature, the change of scenery. I sometimes wear exercise clothes, but not usually. i dont walk fast- not fast enough to sweat or get out of breath. I walk at a moderate, normal walking pace. I enjoy my walks- they are not a chore, although sometimes I do have to bribe myself to get out the door- once I am out there I always love it. I think if you are spraining your ankle- maybe you need better shoes, but also, you probably need to walk more, to help with your ankle strength and your balance. I pick my route spontaneously according to my mood. I usually walk along the river bank near my house, on grass, with bare feet. Sometimes I will walk the bike path nearby (with shoes on). And other times, and in other locations, I enjoy walking around the neighbourhood looking at people's gardens and homes. I prefer to walk alone- sometimes I take my ipod. If you walk for pleasure rather than "because its good for you" you can walk at whatever pace you please. Just getting out of the house and moving every day is a good thing. I don't "push" myself to walk hard and fast- that would spoil the fun for me. Sometimes I ride my boke if I want a more intense exercise. But walking and stretching is my daily movement, and its not hard work.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. A bit OT: Someone was making a comment the other day to me about freedoms and I thought she had a point. She spends a lot of time in India. In India, you can play loud spiritual music, with loudspeakers, right next door to another temple that's doing the same. No laws against it. You can put your whole family on a motorbike (Ive seen 5)- no law against it- if there is, no one will stop you. You can throw dead bodies into the river and its seens as a GOOD thing because it purifies them. There's freedom..and there's freedom. Is it free to have so many laws, protecting us from ..ourselves? I came back from Bali recently and felt an intresting comparison- over there, you hire a motorbike for $4 a day and you ride relatively safely- everyone rides slowly and considerately, but road rules are mere suggestions. You have to stay very alert or you will be killed...but amazingly, there are few accidents and we saw none. I came back here and its interesting- you can just about be asleep at the wheel. We drive so fast, its no wonder there are bad accidents. So...differences do not necessarily make things better, and freedom is an interesting concept.

I said 4+. My son can easily munch through 10 pieces of fruit in a day. He just loves fruit and i have decided to just keep buying it for him as I can't see any problem with eating a lot of fruit as a form of energy for a growing teenager. He might also eat several other snacks like some corn chips, a juice icypole, some nuts. He snacks a lot. Dd15 doesn't snack much though- maybe once or twice a day she will have a piece of fruit or a cup of coffee. Both are healthy and of good weight. Of course snacking is related to obesity since the standard of snacks is so low. When nutrition levels are low, the body craves more food to try and get enough nutrients, and overeats. If the kids were given high nutrition foods, chances are the unhealthy snacking would drop off and so woudl the weight. It's all about the quality of food.

All of those. I didn't know I was "secular" either, cos it's just normal in my world :) The dating courtship thing was new to me too.

I wouldn't call what schools do, building self esteem. Real self esteem isnt thinking you are ok because you are good at various things, growing up showered with praise at your every correct answer or beautiful piece of child's artwork. It's just feeling ok in your own skin, not hating yourself for any reason, being able to feel remorse but not wallowing in guilt, just treating yourself with common respect and love. Many people in the west do not feel these things (I think its different in some countries)- they truly feel bad about themselves most of the time and feel they are less than others. Hence the swing to try and build self exteem in kids. To me self esteem is being able to have a go at something, because I am not terrified of failing. Its caring about myself as much as I care about others. It's just being OK with myself. It's not dependent on what I do, ever. Praise, at least excessive praise, doesnt build self esteem- it makes a child dependent on others for feeling good about themselves. So, it doesn't surprise me that the whole thing backfires. A sense of entitlement comes from being spoiled, not having healthy self esteem. I see the same thing in my own kids now that they are teens, by the way. They both have good paying part time jobs, now- better than average wages for their age. At first I wasnt so happy my dd15 in particular was getting paid so well. But there IS a place for not accepting crappy jobs for crappy pay. How low should we go just to make some money? I think things are continually balancing and very rarely actually come into perfect balance for long. People mean well, trying to give kids self esteem. It's just often misguided. But then, I am not so keen on a traditional work ethic, either. I say work smarter, not more.

Its not normal to "need" to remove an important organ from your body! It may be considered "normal" because so many people are unhealthy, and doctors know no alternative (what incentive do they have? ) It is a lifestyle/ diet related issue. It is totally reversible. Surgery is easier in one way, for sure, but what organ is the next to suffer? YOu are cutting out a symptom, not eliminating the cause of the problem. Research gallbladder flush.

I tend to peruse Ambleside and Sonlight lists- and Tanglewood- mostly Ambleside though (well, TWTM / SOTW as well). If you join some of the Ambleside Yahoo Groups, they have plenty of alternatives to the various books. Also, their booklists are extensive- if there are only a couple of books you dont like, there are still plenty there to use. I find my kids, as teens, still remember stories far more readily than factual accounts.

I think you are on the right track...but I walk before school starts, here, because if I leave the room, concentration goes down. My kids are both teens. Dd15 can focus if I am not around, but ds14 is not mature enough, mostly. We do have a strict school routine though....and I keep myself to it, too. As in, I am ready by 8.30 am for school, as I expect the kids to be. Housework and exercise etc happens outside school hours. Not that I "do school" all school hours- but I am available, in the room with them- usually at my desk. Although I "shold" be able to leave the room...its not so relevant as what actually works. Getting weeks behind in grading...well, BTDT. I think its hard for a kid to be motivated if they arent getting immediate feedback. Since I implemented the workbox system, the marking of work has taken a huge improvement because I have to go through each box each evening and set it up for the next day. It keeps me accountable. I find homeschooling is actually more about myself keeping it together, than the kids doing their side. If I am together...well, it generally all flows pretty well. If I am chaotic, too much happening...well, it definitely shows in our school routine, and I just do the best I can till we get back to our routine. But, it all boils down to me, every time.

I have used home2teach.com classes for my dd15 since she was 13 and i can highly recommend them for rising the quality of writing. Dd found them challenging and stopped them...but when she realised she was going to go into journalism she asked to do more home2teach classes because she realised they helped her quality of writing more than anythin else had done.