I think it's important to keep your sense of humour- also to be able to laugh at yourself. Teens love that :) Goof off a bit.

I havent read all the replies. I too have finished the books and have not yet seen the movie, and I am in no rush to see the movie, because to me Edward is Leonardo de Caprio. However, I won't avoid seeing the movie when it becomes convenient to do so, and I am sure I will enjoy it (I am not highly critical of movies and it has to be really bad for me not to enjoy it). I am just not going out of my way to see it.

I dont know what you cal them in the U.S. but we have several rocker recliners which we all read on. I have one in my bedroom. The kids tend to read in bed. All our recliners were 2nd hand from op shops and we love them, they have character.

I do know what you are talking about at least :) I was obsessed with the books until I read them all. I have yet to see the movie though...I look forward to seeing it but am in no rush either, because in my mind Edward is Leonardo de Caprio.:)

When I was a planning fanatic, I would happily spend hours on the weekend prepping. That phase seems to have (finally) passed and my system is such that on weekends I barely do anything any more. My planning is done during holidays. The kids have a schedule each- not a timetable- and at the top are their independent, do the next lesson subjects. Under that is their independent reading- which is usually a chapter or two from each of their assigned books, rather than specific pages. I keep it simple. Under that are our "together" subjects- where I read aloud, we discuss etc. The only weekend work I do nowadays is when I want to re-do our timetable because I have decided to add or drop a subject (e.g. we gave up on a book and started an alternative). I do photocopying and marking during the school day or sometimes the evenings. I have changed the way I do things so many times over the years. I used to love spending hours prepping, and I no longer do, so I organise things so I dont have to :)

I am such a whimsical and spontaneous gardener, gloves are the last thing I am thinking about when I actually get in there.

The doctor- any doctor- is your servant, not your master. You are the authority in your family's life, and health. Educate yourself. Doctors are trained by a corrupt establishment funded by people who make vaccines. Of course they are prejudiced that way- and I am not against vaccines outright.

I did it with my two when they were 11 and 12/13. We loved it. But I wouldn't hand it over to a 12yo to do themselves- it worked well as "together work" for us, and because I was right there every day I tweaked it considerably. A certain amount is busy work, IMO, and it is a lot of work if you do it all. We did the comprehension orally, ended up skipping the tests and vocabulary after a while. I made up some writing assignments because I didn't like the ones in the program. The background information and extra studies were excellent however and we had a good year doing the program. It was even more expensive getting it to Australia, but I resold it.

I prefer the Crystal Cave myself, but that is the book I was assigned in school, and it started a lifelong love of Arthurian things, so I am prejudiced. My kids are both reading Sword in the Stone at the moment and neither is hed over heels about it at all, although I think they are enjoying it ok. I read the first few chapters and was happy to stop.

I tell my kids straight out that I disagree with how some others choose to homeschool. It doesn't mean I don't like them as people. But I don't see a problem with telling my kids what I think. After all, if I agreed, I would be doing it that way too, and Im not. We are not presently in contact with many unschoolers, but we have in the past...not a problem. But then, we have classical homeschooling friends who work harder than us too, so its all relative, and my kids have it pretty good! I dont see why you wouldnt just be really straight and tell your kid the truth.

I think if you used their method you actually wouldn't need to spank very much at all. I found the website useful at one time (I only discovered it when my kids were older), especially "tomato staking" an older child on occasion. Good concept- far better than sending them off to their room to get moody and resentful and further separated from the family.

I think self control is maturity. And it's not so much about control, as just getting strong enough not to follow all those impulses. When I think "control", I think "effort", and where there is effort, there will at some time need to be a relaxation from that effort. The effort cannot be sustained indefinitely. Hence the failure of most methods of self control, most diets, etc. The pendulum will swing, that's the way it works- you cant go against nature for very long. But I look at it differently nowadays. For example, I havn't eaten sugar since last September, but it is not an effort. Rather, if ever the urge comes up- which isnt often, but it did yesterday- I relax, breathe, and distract myself. In this case, I made myself a berry and kefir smoothie- not sweet enough to trigger cravings but sweet enough to satisfy the craving already there. So I guess I distracted myself, in a way. I didnt "force" myself not to eat sugar when the thought popped into my head that I wanted something sweet. I think "self control" is often a means of self flaggelation. Then succumbing to the temptation ends up being a form of reward- as people often reward themselves with things that are not actually good for them, like sweets. But in a perverted way, it is being kind to oneself to stop the torturing of oneself in the name of self control. Self control needs to come from a space of self love and self respect, then it will be of overall benefit, and upliftment, not just another swing of the pendulum that will inevitably swing back to self indulgence.

I did it for quite a while (baking soda/lemon juice rinse) and it worked well. I just got lazy and found a cheap brand of organic shampoo. But I am about to go back to the baking soda/lemon juice because shampoo irritates my scalp after a while, even the good stuff. However the draw back for me was finding a container that made it easier to dispense the baking soda while in the shower. I still haven't found one. I used to spoon it into a plastic cup before getting in. But I am lazy, and am looking for a more convenient way to do it.

I would discipline the child myself, in front of the mother, if it got to that point. Tell her (the child) the rules in your home, strong and clear. It gives both the child AND the mother a clear message, and it is not unreasonable . It would take me a while to get to that point- but by the time you are writing here, I would be at that point. We have kids here that my kids babysit, every week. They live by our rules- and the youngest was 3 when he started coming. My dh is very strict and the parents either handle it, or they don't, but we are not taking on anyone else's baggage. We offer a gift, a service, not a dumping ground. The kids always love to come, because the rules are clear after the first few visits. Kids usually respond well to very clear boundaries and consequences.

:lol: I have done that for the last 2 years! Now I have a name for it, thanks! I work so hard in the beginning for the year. By our 4th term, I am done, and I loosen up considerably.

I allow privacy, but not rudeness. If a child has politely and specifically asked for some private time with a friend her own age- I would certainly allow it. The 7 year old can spend some time cooking in the kitchen with you or something- some special mum time. I have done that many times with my two.

I have one reluctant writer- I would have considered those pieces of writing adequate for him at those ages. is it a "classical" coop? Many homeschoolers are gentle in those years and dont pick up the pace (and start panicking, often) until the teenager years. It depends on why you are going. I agree, they sound like sweet kids.

I think schools are a confused mess. But it's hard to compare K and grade 1 because kids are all at such different stages of development at that age. I know kids who could read and write by 1st grade, in my son's class- yet he couldnt by mid 2nd grade, and there were several other boys like him. Schools seem to cater to the lowest common denominator in many cases. In my son's 2nd grade class however, the teacher catered to the bright, academic girls and the boys were left far behind, drowing and lost. Considering what children in general learned and were capable of in previous generations and centuries- fluent Greek and Latin just as entry to university- youve probably seen the exam papers etc- I would say overall, schools are dumbed down. The best system I have seen so far is the IB, but I am no expert at it. If there was an IB school close and at a reasonable price I would actually consider putting my older child into it. I like their programs and I believe they have an internaitonally high standard. Which is different from a local high standard. The school system in my state in Australia has been a mess for years- its definitely been worth homeschooling. They are talking about a national curriculum- and, shock horror, are even considering chronological history!

The kids havea decent sized desk each with enough shelving to put their books. I frequently go through their shelves and cull anything they are not using presently, to keep them as uncluttered as possible. Our "together" books and work- poetry, read alouds, history- go in drawers under a coffe table near teh sofas where we do our together work. It doesnt stop things getting lost, but I try and keep things really simple so there is less to lose. I have a folder for all their writing assignments whoch I print out when they have done them. I try and minimise loose papers though, and if there are any I tend to use the stapler freely to try and keep them together and not jsut floating around.

Oakmeadow has a (one semester I think) course on Psychology for highschoolers.

Lol, my kids look at me weird when we come across the word "period" because that's the common word for a menstrual period here in Australia. :lol:

I joined Flylady in 1994 and I used to find the emails an important part of the whole system. Everytime I unsubbed, I fell off the wagon. I didnt actually read the emails- except I found the testimonials useful for a long time- I was someone with low self esteem and a lot of difficulty not beating myself up for having a messy house- I realy needed Flylady. However, over the years, I found she kept adding more and more different reminders and included a lot of advertising for her products- that is what did it in for me. I appreciate her system is free, but I just dont like advertising in my daily email, and there got to be too much of it. I used to just read the subject line and delete the emails. Even if I didnt do what the email said right away, or ever, it strted to embed the system into my brain and it became more and more automatic for me. A few months back I unsubscribed again and appreciate not having teh clutter in my inbox. However, I also give credit to that "clutter" in my inbox for years, for helping me learn how to "keep house". i think there is a yahoo group you can join that jsut sends you the reminders. I would just sub to that if at all. Or try the full emails for a while and see if they help.

I have been thinking about this thread. I am amazed that people don't allow themselves or their children to use the word "fart" , as if it is an offensive swear word. How can that be? It is a word that describes a bodily function that is natural and very ordinary, if sometimes offensive smelling and often better done in private just so as not to offend the nostrils of others! An act of courtesy, if you will, but not an act of morality, surely! I am surprised that people would taboo a word like that. Banning the use of a word, and therefore any discussion of a bodily function seems to me to be.....kind of Victorian or something. Like a kind of repression. I don't see the practical or even ethical function of such a ban. Surely a sense of humour is a better way to go. Even the OP punished and shamed her son, who was enjoying his body, while posting a thread here and in the subject line wrote "LOL". Isn't that a double standard? I am just musing, not taking it all too seriously, but I just see a strange set of behaviours- children and men who are actually enjoying their bodies and having a sense of humour around farting, and a set of women who decide to get offended by it. Is it that bad? Couldnt the world do with a bit more laughter and a bit less rigid morals about things that ultimalty dont matter? Why do we get hung up over things that really dont hurt anyone? Farts dont hurt anyone. In fact, they are a good thing.

Dh is the same. I am sneaky, so I have no suggestions :)

We don't schedule family time. Life happens. The only evening dh doesn't work is Mondays. And here I am, Monday evening, on the computer :) However, he is around during the days and weekends too. When we miss each other, we naturally spend more time together. Most dinners and some lunches we are together. But if I tried to plan it, we would all feel restricted and constrained by it. We all like to do our own thing, dh likes to watch TV alone , the kids and I are usually in the middle of some series on DVD (Battlestar Galactica at the moment) and we are all computer addicts with a laptop each. But amongst it all, we do spend time together. There can be such a thing as too much family time, you know, too :) but only someone with a husband who works from home ALL THE TIME would understand :) :) :)