:glare: Mmmm, I should have guessed Linda would put this in stock.....if only I had waited just a few more days instead of buying from Lulu. oh well. The samples look great.

We only do the kids and the parents. Just do it.

I used to use Flylady calendars, but I discovered a big spaced plain one in our shops - its twice the size of a normal calendar, no pictures, just 12 tear of pages- but plenty of space to write in each daily square. And it costs a whole $6. I have bought one for both of my kids this year. I still have lots of Flylady stickers left too- and you can buy them separately. However, I gave up on calendars for myself when I started to properly use a diary. I buy one with a week to a double page, and columns that are vertical across the pages. I use the bottom of each day for notes and a to-do list. The diary sits open on my desk at the appropriate week. I use it daily.

What about splurging on some different clothes? Do you have a girlfriend to go shopping with? (Not that that's my thing, but it helps some people). This summer (summer where I am ) I have actually skipped the op shops and gone into some fairly inexpensive shops and bought myself a few nice things. And I have started collecting various scarves to mix and match- a simple scarf with a pair of jeans and a tshirt, with a pair of earrings and some lipstick- well, lets just say its a step up from my normal look :) Also, I have a few pretty dresses now. I dont know if its something to do with being the other side of 40 now, but suddenly I am trying harder with my appearance, wheras I just threw clothes on before. Do it for fun...dont take it too seriously. I dont think denim jumpers are normally very flattering, are they? (we dont tend to have them here in Australia). Be playful about your appearance. I have a teenage daughter- ah, now thats a good motivation, having a sexy spunky 14 year old who has an innate flair for appearing gorgeous! We now share clothes- rather, she steals mine! - and I think all my make up has gravitated to her room. I am "catching" her playfulness around her appearance and enjoying it myself. She gives me honest feedback- and she actually thinks I am beautiful as well, which helps. I think you have to step out and just experiment a little.

Lol, I was first, once. Sigh. Happy New Year everyone, but it is the next day here already!

I always wondered if 6 year olds, the targeted age, would really absorb much- I dont know though because my kids were around 8 and 9 when we started SOTW1. They certainly didnt remember much detail, except things that took their interest, but they definintely got a good overall feel for it and i do think the exposure was well worth while. Yes, probably being more consistent would probably help. We did SOTW weekly for 4 years and it was our favourite part of school. Adding in the extra books- particularly historical fiction in our case- really helped.

I have done it at times, but what I would rather do is even if we have activities on 2 days, if we can do some maths and anything else first thing in the morning, we do. If we dont have to be somewhere till 10 or 11, it still gives us an hour or two to do some basics. I would rather hit maths daily than only 3 days a week. Also, I tend to agree 6 hours is a bit long for those ages- but it depends on how intense those 6 hours are, how academic. If they include sitting on the couch doing read alouds, art and colouring in- well, its easier than if its all bookwork. Last year I lost almost a whole day to Science classes- but we managed to get some maths in- and another whole afternoon to a coop, which meant we had to leave home, already eaten lunch, by 11.30. It still allowed us to do several basic subjects in the morning, though. This year, I have 5 mornings at home, and only one afteroon out- I feel very relieved.

Not much help here, ds13 can be a challenge, for sure. I use dh sometimes, but I don't like to constantly do that. If it gets bad, I bring in a strong consequence, enforce it and it usually gets better for a while. Scouts is good- he has other authorities, he sees other kids getting "told". He is now a leader there and he gets to "empathise" with and consider others. It's been good for him. A gratitude diary helps when he has a bad, ungrateful attitude for a while. Daily he has to write 3 things he is grateful for in full sentences. I will keep that diary for life, it has some real gems in it. Certain things upset him- like adding more work to his assignment sheet. I learned not to do that :)

My kids have alternate weeks on different chores Week 1- all pets, doggy poo pick up Week 2- ALL kitchen washup and dishwasher duty Dd14 takes care of pool maintenance now- Dh trained her. Ds13 does all bins weekly. Both kids do their own washing, including bedding. It still takes reminders from me, though. The benefit is never having to sort washing- dh has always done his own, too, since he was housetrained long before me. I just don't cook nightly. I do cook for "work" though, twice a week, and we often have leftovers from that. My family is fussy, dh keeps himself loaded up on TV dinners for those nights we eat meat or something he doesnt like. The kids can get themselves pasta or microwave a pie. I cook maybe 5 nights a week. I do the aeroplane thing- when I am feeling tired, run down, overwhelmed, too busy- I make myself food that I feel I need (fish, salad, sometimes red meat), I go to my room, I nap, whatever I need to do. Everyone can fend for themselves while I recuperate. I get up first and early, so I get "me" time- that leaves me "filled up" and ready to do what need to be done the rest of the day. Generally once a week I will grab the kids and we will do the basic cleaning, vacuuming etc. Doesnt take long when we all do it. Training the kids really helps. It takes effort to train them, but the pay off is great. It is really dh who is consistent with it. I would often prefer to do it myself than nag them yet again- but he will drag them away from whatever they are doing and demand they do or complete a chore NOW. It works.

I colour copied two of my dd's best paintings and put them on a coloured board backing as a frame- very inexpensive, people loved them. Dd is a good artist though.

I was at the beach this morning (yes, summer here, very hot, yuuummmy) and there were many other people walking there and swimming, because its a stinker of a day. What I notice is that the skinny older women....do look older. Particularly if they are very well tanned, so their skin is leathery. I do agree with Colleen, a bit of fat under the skin is a soft look, especially in an older woman. We are sooo indocrinated to think we should all be skinny for all of our lives, but we come in all shapes and sizes. A woman who is confident in her skin (as in, comfortable in her body), dresses well for her shape and own unique style, can look beautiful at virtually any size. But I also compare myself....I have never been skinny and it's hard not to be envious. Nowadays, I see people skinnier than me, and people with more weight, and I figure, thats the way it will always be, no point comparing.

Yeah, it's nice to have some company :) We are 18 hours ahead of the west coast of the U.S. here on the west coast of Australia. Actually, 17 at the moment because of daylight savings. So yes, Christmas was pretty much over for us just as you guys were getting started :) In fact I was up early on Christmas morning and while waiting for my family to arise, I came here, and it was kind of wierd that it was still Christmas Eve for you over there. It's 6hours and 40 minutes left here until New Year, yet for many over there it's not even New Years Eve yet. Happy New year though when it finally gets to you :)

My kids are ages 13 and 14 and I don't grade. Well, not in any sort of sophisticated way, anyway. I mark their work, we go over mistakes, that's it.

I was speaking to a friend about her two teenage sons this afternoon. The 18yo just got accepted into media studies at a good local university, after taking a non- academic stream at highschool and then still FAILING every subject! He got accepted because of a portfolio because apart from going to school he had been following his passion of film making and had made a few good films! No one was more shocked than the mother that he got accepted into uni. I would feel uncomfortable and irresponsible taking my kids out of school and not making sure they got at least the equivalent of what they would get IN school in terms of basic academics and knowledge our society expects of people. And I didnt like school, and neither did my husband. But I feel I owe my kids that much. However, I feel unschooling is a valid alternative for many kids and families and there are too many good examples of brilliant kids who unschooled to say it can't work well. In this day of electronic distractions and sugar and junk food hyped brains, one would just hope the parents have enough common sense to know what they are doing and be willing to set some clear boundaries.

flylady.net

My dentist told my daughter to leave some toothpaste on her teeth at night to give her extra flouride. (I told her don't do that, she gets plenty of flouride in the water and too much is toxic).

I know mine just from asking my doctor to test it when I was getting tests for some other reason, years ago. And same for my kids- they were getting tested for other things and I just asked if they could test for blood type as I was curious. Dd and I are O positive and Ds is O negative.

Teenage Liberation Handbook (written to the teenager, but best to read it yourself first) is just brilliant and in depth.. I have another one called Unqualified Education by Gareth Lewis. Both these are sort of unschooling books, but before that turns you off, they encourage the teenager to be well educated and empowered. I found them both inspiring and complementary to Classical education, although I have not handed over the reigns to my teens to the extent both these books encourage. I might as they get older.

I haven't read all the other posts, but I have found that various religions come up in history, particularly ancient history. My logic stage kids learned about Buddhism, Taoism, and several others, when we covered Ancients this last year. And they read some Great Books that are related to Hinduism and Taoism. I did make a point of stopping and savouring the religions because I have an interest in that area and was excited to cover that with my kids. My kids have no interest though, and kind of rolled their eyes a lot when I would enthusiastically share something :) I don't think choosing a religion is necessary at all- people talk as if it is necessary to adopt a belief system, but I think that is not what spirituality is at all. It is all an attempt to point at Truth. Truth is not something any one group of people has a monopoly on, it just is, and all religions are just having a go at expressing Truth and living well. So I never want my kids to feel they should find the one true thing to "believe" because Truth exists all on its own, it doesnt need "beliefs" and religions, in fact they get in the way. So I approach religious studies as an observation of how people try to live the best way they know, and often follow people who were very, very wise- and I learn from others in that way, and the wise people who have left their wisdom to be read and spoken about. But I dont approach religious studies in the hope I will find something to believe, and nor do I want my kids to find something to believe in- even though they may be drawn to some more than others. I dont see that as necessary, or spiritual. Its ok not to adopt a whole set of belief systems. Its ok to live in "not knowing" the whole of your life.

For a long time, drama, and sport, but only sport this coming year (and only gymnastics). Music lessons. Use to do Latin in a class, but now we are back to doing it ourselves. One of the things I am most grateful to outsource is Science. It takes almost a whole day to get through both of their classes, but it doubles as a social day. It is so great to have an enthusiastic science teacher teach them. Dd has done two online writing classes- very successful. Online foreign language not so sucessful. Dd has done a watercolour class for 3 years, we dont do much art other than that, except for a bit of artist study. Outsourcing has been good while they are young, for socialisation. As they are both teens now, I rely on it more to cover academics that I know I could do with some help with.

I think there is a place for handwriting and I suspect it is also good for brain development. However torturing a child who has bad fine motor skills to produce perfect letters seems unecessary- not to mention impossible if you have one of those kids. Mine is 13 and can finally write legibly. I don't think there's anything I could have done to speed up that development- just the small amounts of daily practice that he has always done. Typing is a great skill in this day and age. Even if handwriting eventually gets relegated to the "art" catagory rather than a fucntional necessity, it is still a wonderful thing to learn to do. Many people including me actually enjoy the act of handwriting. As always, a nice balanced approach is probably best, no need to go to either extreme. I don't think the person who wrote the article is very balanced though- she is in reaction. As homeschoolers, we don't need to be.

Its on my booklist to start in February. Kids will be 13 and 14. Not sure yet whether it will be read aloud or independently read.

I am not sure why you would put "neoclassical" as being without Latin. Many people do neo-classical WITH Latin, yet arent so Latin-centred as LCC promotes. Isn't that what TWTM is, after all? I am a strange mixture and I don't bother trying to classify myself into a neat box any more. The LCC approach inspired me to put Maths, Latin and some English at the forefront of our day. However sometimes we go into a book very deeply,(The Iliad and LOTR were both long studies) and sometimes we read lots of books at once like CM. I am using a fair amount of Ambleside/HEO at present but only because the year I am using (7) fits nicely with our Medieval year in our 4 year cycle. I think we are probably more history centred, like TWTM, than Latin centred, even though we do Latin. I have moved away from workbooks and tried to cut out any extra subjects that seemed like my kids werent getting much out of- like vocabulary as a separate subject, even spelling. I have a child with LDs and I design his program to work for him. Parts of CM appeal to me, especially making sure the child is well rounded- such as having time in nature and using their hands. Our emphasis seems to change each year, here and there. I like it like that.

How do you learn timeline events in the wrong order? I mean, it sounds like they simply didn't learn them chronologically- but they haven't learned anything incorrect. I wouldn't even fix it- you could just simply spend a bit of time with the child going over your timeline from the beginning to where you are up to, which is a nice thing to do anyway. All problems healed- the child sees the natural order and gets a better feel for chronology. Then teach chronologically from now on. Hardly something to ruin a child for life :)

My dd14 has just completed two Home2teach.com writing classes- 6 weeks each. She can also write a basic 5 para essay and is a competent writer, however all students (I think ) have to start with Paragraph Writing, and I can say this really stretched her and refined her writing to a much more "professional" level. The feedback was absolutely excellent and I basically was asked NOT to help. I really feel i got my money's worth. The courses are inexpensive, I think, and 6 weeks was just long enough. I will do more when they again coincide with our school terms, later in the year. BTW, the Paragraph classes include grammar, vocabulary etc and can be considered complete LA for the duration of the class.