I miss my grandmother's house and the way she made Christmas happen. Helping her make the pudding, licking the bowl. Her silver sparkling tree. She really valued family, since she didnt have any extended family herself as a child. She had ornaments on the shelf. I miss plaiting Pa Jacks few strands of hair with my cousins. I remember my grandmother peeling her grapes. And she loved mangoes, which I detested as a child. She really made christmas happen. She is still alive, in a nursing home, with bad Alzheimers. I just wrote her a letter with pictures in it of my family. I hope she still remembers us- she lives on the other side of Australia. It makes me think, I really dont try to make christmas a big deal for my family- I dont like it much, acutally, because of the commercialisation of it. But when I think of my own childhood Christmases, I feela bit sad that my kids arent getting that.

My ds13 is similar, but he does have learning difficulties. He doesn't know the states or capitals of Australia (and theres no where near as many as in the U.S!). He doesn't even know his months of the year very well- the order they are in, anyway. He has an excellent vocabulary though. I think it just takes some kids longer to come out of that bubble of childhood, into the bigger world. Until they do, they don't notice a lot of stuff. It has to relate to them personally. Once there is a personal incentive to register things, it should take root. My other child is not like that though. However one of the guys in her Scout patrol....man, he drives me crazy, his brain just doesn't work. So something can be organised with him, and he just won't register. Like when he asked me for a lift to a Scout camp, and I turned up- having gone well out of my way to get him- and he had organised a lift with someone else already- hed forgotten if I was coming or not. It's like he is completely stupid, but I dont think he is- I think it could be partly puberty, actually. Its like there just isnt enough energy to go into clear thinking, and growing into a man, at the same time.

Sounds like your son handles it really well!

I never thought I would like a digital but I love ours. It takes up less space. The sound is really good. Dd has no trouble playing a real one- they all feel different anyway. The best feature of our digital that I enjoy is being able to record one hand and replay it while playing the other hand. Great for learning a piece separate hands.

Dh is an extroverted authoritarian dictator....but I am his weak spot, and I usually get the final say if its important to me. The kids know it too...if he is being too heavy with them, they just come to me and I moderate. I think its normal for the dad to need to feel he is in charge, but usually its the woman who really is :)

Can you tell me about it? Someone on another thread mentioned that ipod touch can download and read kindle and other ebooks. Suddenly I am thinking, thats what I want for Christmas, now I know! But I am thinking, surely the ipod touch has too small a screen to really enjoy reading from? How big are the others? What other choices do I have? I would like to be able to download and read ebooks, but I am interested in other functions too. thanks

Oh gosh, and my dh has been asking what I want for Christmas. Now I know! However, isnt the screen a bit teeny for reading from? Anyone using this?

I find these guides suck all the joy out of reading books with my kids, unless we just sit together and go through the questions orally and informally. The guides which take passages out of context and then ask tricky questions about the passage, are much worse, I find, than guides which use questions to help you get more out of a book. However I did find recently during some testing that my kids were not so good at answering those questions the way kids in schools are trained to- full sentences, complete answers etc- so I have bought them a "comprehension" book each, but it is specifically designed so that the passages are not excerpts , but are complete essays unto themselves. But my kids are older and I am only doing this so that they learn how to take tests, really. Their comprehension is otherwise good.

Lol, I am in my 6th year and putting my hand up as flaky too! I know I probably appear flaky to others, but I am just learning on this journey, and I dont think it hurts my kids to change curriculum. We have often tried things that dont work for us. The one thing I am good with though is history. We all love it. My ds13 is dyslexic too, and takes a lot of my time. I am learning to give him things that he CAN do alone, at his level, even if it is below where he supposedly should be. It keeps him feeling successful, and i just burn out sitting with him all the time. My dd14 is independent and bright and academic- but a bit lazy too. I find that when I hand her books to read etc, often she doesn't get anywhere near as much out of them as if we do them together. I have tried many times- we did Story of the Greek and and Story of the Romans this year- both kids several disliked them and felt they weren't retaining or learning anything. So I read them aloud- and we all loved them! They came alive for us. I have always done history together with my two, at least the spine, as well as at least one book for literature, and it has always been our favourite part of the day. I think its good for my dd14 to be patient while my ds13 expresses himself or takes his time. She speeds ahead in other subjects. We do a lot of history orally, and he can discuss things as well as her- it is his writing that is way behind. Dont give youself a hard time. I have so much unused stuff on my shelves- mainly because of my son. I keep trying. He does keep moving forward. I dont think you can really stuff up history anyway. And I dont think its important that your dd does the 4 year cycle in highschool starting with ancients in year 9. Theres nothing wrong with starting it in any year you end up in. My priority is for us to stay in the same year for history, rather than it all fitting neatly with ancients in year 9.

home2teach.com has 6 week writing courses. Good quality.

Lol, I am a trained naturopath. As I said, I have tried everything :) I will check out the book though, thanks. In a way its only registered recently that it's not normal to be like this- well, not normal for other people-its normal for me. I am otherwise completely healthy! (btw, if I take lots of pharmacy strength iron pills I can get my iron up, but its not a long term solution as I don't want to take them all the time. So I try different things).

Actually in a way I have been the opposite. I started off very rigorous and after a few years I have changed my attitude, streamlined more, and relaxed! we still get a lot done, but I am no longer pushing so hard. We have had a pretty relaxed year...next year is looking like it will be more rigorous but no more time and hopefully no more stress. I have just had a revelation in the last few days. I have headed toward CM and Ambleside because I wanted something different for my kids and it had always attracted me. I have next year all planned out using Ambleside for my foundation. Then a few nights ago I was looking up TWTM for something, and decided to just spend a few minutes perusing it, for the stage my kids are at now. What I found is that although there is focus on some different things (eg vocabulary and in depth logic program for logic stage) than Ambleside, the actual level of reading is lower than what I am having my kids do with Ambleside (actually, HEO year 7)...less books and less difficult books. So I took a big sigh of relief there and cut out some of our more heavygoing stuff from the reading list, and added in a good writing program (and a good logic program) and voila, a more balanced mix between Ambleside and WTM again. It was just interesting to me that I could read TWTM and feel that I was pushing my kids too hard by NOT folloing its recommendations and trying something else! TWTM feels quite age appropriate from my perspective right now...wheras in the past I always felt it was way too much! Its interesting how my perspective changes as the years go past.

19.32939% Geek. Can I just say, some of those questions really had me :rofl: Very funny indeed. I really do want a yurt, though. I always thought they were cool. And I cracked up over being asked if I wanted 7 of 9, then I remembered who THAT is and ...gosh, someone very geeky thought up a lot of very funny questions. Off to send it to my dh.

I am buying a couple of things for our new year starting february, but mostly I am glad I have already bought nearly everything over the last year. I am buying what I need now though, before we feel any recession here. It hasn't hit Australia very hard yet- we are buffered- apart from the fact that our dollar is only worth just over half of one of yours, and a few months back it was 97 cents! That is definitely deterring me from buying from Amazon or overseas at all. I have plenty I can make do with, and I just keep an eye out for bargains anyway.

Oh, to have your energy levels, Colleen :) I realised recently that I used to have lots of energy..before I had kids. Now my blood pressure is so low the doctors don't know how I get up without passing out, and my iron is anything from very low to just low, even though I take supplements, eat meat, and don't bleed heavily. Ive tried everything. So, I just rest when I need to. But sometimes I long for enough energy to go jogging in the mornings.

I said yes because I think they have been important for getting rights for workers- here in Australia, anyway- historically speaking. However, the truth is I just don't know anymore and they seem to be the cause of a lot of problems. Far too hard for me to relaly know the ins and outs and intricacies of whether they really are a good thing anymore. Bit like democracy- seems like a good idea, not sure it works so well in reality. Could be said of a lot of things.

I tried. I liked the look of it. I couldn't make it work for me alongside another spine like SOTW. It kind of is a spine all by itself, with specific topics covered and suggestions for things (not informaiton- just spaced for things, and maps), which didn't match the order in SOTW for me. It iinspired me though to get a big sketch book for each child and put all their work in that and colour the pages and make it look nice. That was we werent hampered by anyone else's structure.

*I* like it, but my kids cant stand the way it talks to them. I think its a bit long winded because of the conversational tone, too. I dont have huge problems with it though and would have been happy to use it..(perhaps i should have stuck with it) but the kids really revolted with it (and not with other programs).

I guard our morning school time fiercely too, however most years we have ended up with one day where we only have a couple of hours in the morning before we head off for an activity. The activity has to be very worthwhile, though. The last 2 years, it has been a Science class for each child- one at 9.30 till 11, the other at 12 till 1.30. it has been worth it, it is a Friday, and it doubles as socialising time because it is in a hall at a park, and there are lots of siblings to play with, and I get to go run errands, knit and chat with other mums. But overall...yes, we start early, we finish soon after lunch, we have the rest of the day free. If your dh wants to be involved, I suggest you have the kids show him their work around dinner time, have him read aloud to them before bed, and other little routines like that which include him.

I will 2nd Our Sunburnt Country (for Australia) at Homeschool Favourites, and it is also available here as an e-book. It is a reprint of a classic book. http://www.downunderlit.com/index_files/History.htm

I have bought and sold AP twice now. I want to love it, but it just doesnt click for either of my kids- the extremely artistic one, or the one who thinks he can't do anything artistic.

I said "other" because I don't know! Like Laura, I tend to make up my own- or have done for the last year. It's gone well but I am ready for a program again. Before that I loved Classical Writing but I burned out on the teacher intensiveness of it. Great program though. I like Writing Strands but my kids don't. I am about to try IEW's medieval history writing plans...writing is my son's weakest area and this may provide the scaffolding he needs, I hope :), while minimising having "another" subject to complete. My daughter just completed 2 online courses with home2teach.com, and I can highly recommend them. They were perfect for her.

I get up before everyone else so that I can have an hour or so to myself. Othersie I am anti-social and not nice to be around :) Usually, i do that even if I haven't had enough sleep. I get pre-menstrual insomnia and will often wake extremely early for a few days, no matter what time I went to bed. I have learned to get up, and just organise my whole life so I can have an afternoon rest. Also, I try and go to bed earlier. I dont have any problem going to sleep- its just waking up very early.

I buy one of our music teachers an ornament for her Christmas tree that is musical, every year. She is a retired recorder teacher, apart from teaching my son, and we always get her something like an angel playing a flute or something remotely similar to a recorder. She loves it. The other teacher is newer for us, and her Christmas tree decorations were so tatty and she was commenting on it, and apologising for it- so we bought her a beautiful tree decoration, but not musical, because that was too hard to find.

I found when I started homeschooling my kids didn't respect me, because they had been to school where the institutionalized thinking is simply that mothers are not qualified to teach- you have to go to school to be taught by teachers. It took them ages to realize I was ok at it :) It is still a struggle with one of my kids though, because of his partcular relationship with me and his personality. Be careful not to just try and imitate school at home- enjoy the freedom of homeschooling, and take time to de stress her from school. Both parents and children usually go through a de and reprogamming of what it means to get an education. Have some fun and build your relationship together.