Get up first in the morning and walk, do chi kung, and/or meditate. Or sometimes, just check my email :) I really like some time alone before having to talk to anyone in the mornings, even though I am a morning person. Have a cup of tea first thing. LOVE that first cup of tea. Have a spa (outdoors) with dh twice a day. Have an afternoon nap or at least rest time, most afternoons. Evenings I again get space because dh works evenings and the kids- no, now they are both teens, boohoo (ds is 13 today) do their own thing. Sometimes we watch a movie but mostly we read and do email and by 8 or 9 o clock I am alone. I like alone :)

Lol, I have never seen a bird eating spider! Never even knew there was one here. There are poisonous spiders in some parts of Australia though, and poisonous snakes all over the place, but its pretty rare that anyone ever gets bitten since they run away from people usually. Kangaroos are totally beautiful, I love them too. Most places in Australia I have been you only have to move out of the cities and you see them everywhere grazing on the farmland. However koalas are much, much rarer and you have to be very lucky to see one.

Last Christmas we had a heatwave- over 40 degrees Celsius, and then we had a power blackout so the aircon didnt work. And it was our turn for the extended family over. So hot. Fortunately it didn't affect the food- it was cold meats, seafood and salad, which is pretty normal. My mother used to BBQ a turkey outside sometimes. We used to use gum tree branches as Christmas trees when I was a kid. We used to try and Australianise Christmas as much as possible when I was a kid- it was a fmaily tradition to try and make it more Australian. But the shops are still full of snowflakes and Santa Clauses, its very wierd. I never feel Christmas is right, here. Its just wierd- not that I have ever spent it anywhere else- but it just doesnt fit the weather at all. But most Aussies still follow the tradition one way or another.

Similar to Camy here- fairly random. We waited till they were well over 1year, had another batch a year or two later, I think nothing more till last year when I decided to make sure they were covered, for some reason (they wre 12 and 13). Even the doctor insisted on checking first (I think its called a titration) with a blood test to see what was needed- she is good that way, believes in vaccinations but not a drop more than necessary. We had lost their records from babyhood and couldnt remember what they had been vaccinated against- the doctor checked their blood. The nurse was just willing to give them everything. I think the thing is to watch their reactions. Neither of my kids ever had any adverse reactions to vaccinations. Both were still breastfeeding for all their vaccinations under the age of 5. If they had seemed to react, I would have been much, much more careful about it. Even last year when they ended up with several over a few weeks- no apparent reactions at any time. So I never felt the need to give them single injections. For them, and me, the less injections the better (I wont vaccinate dd14 with the cervical cancer vaccine, for example). Neither has allergies, both are very healthy. I think that would play more into the picture for me than anything- what can my child's immune system handle? I am very glad we waited that first year, but i am not sure how much it would have mattered what we did after that. Another point about the aluminium. I gave my kids a heavy metal test a few months after they were vaccinated last year- there are fairly inexpensive ones available nowadays. Both came up positive to mercury, and I was very upset about it- although neither showed any symptoms other than my son's learning diffiulties which he had always had. I coudnt think where the mercury would have come from- they dont like fish- except the vaccines. I put them both on a good diet, lots of water, and meanwhile researched what to do for them. A couple of months passed- I tested them again- no mercury-in either. Strange. I think their bodies just got rid of it. I think kids are exposed to way too many chemicals and heavy metals nowadays, but a healthy kid can handle a fair bit and a healthy system will offload things, if given a chance.

Well, I wont let the kids have them because of the electro magnetic frequency- they are kids, there is enough crap in the world without giving their sensitive systems more to deal with. However, this year I did buy myself one :) I decided, what the heck. I never sleep on it. I only used it to heat the bed and sometimes while I read- but I always turn it off before I sleep. I can't trust my kids to do that- they would end up falling asleep forgetting to turn it off. Instead they have wheat bags and hot water bottles.

Havent read the other repsonses. I understand the blog poster to have had a revelation of sorts in her own journey. Her me time was an escape from the drudgery of motherhood, and she realised actually its important to also enjoy the motherhood part and relax and accept that it is a large part of your life. I can relate to the "me time" become addictive and unfulfilling, if one is not enjoying the rest of the time too. But I dont agree with the story she has built up around that. It is quite possible to be present and loving and accepting in the parts of life that are spent in service to children and husbands- and feel fulfilled in that- as well as expressing other aspects of oneself in time spent away from the family, and feeling all the more fulfilled for having both. We can have our cake and eat it too. We dont have to resent being a mother to enjoy having me time, and she seems to indicate that if you want me time, you are not enjoying motherhood and you need to get over that and suck it up and enjoy it and stop wanting anything else. To me its an article by an immature woman wrestling with her own demons and writing about her own journey as a mother in terms of absolutes and she is just way off base. But thats ok, thats her journey and thats what blogs are for. She might look back in 10 years time and see things differently, too.

I would skip it but if it starts to deteriorate, bring it in once a week.

My dd is 14 and only lately (the last 10 months actually) have I not been able to help her with everything. However, most of the time, she slogs through it until she understands it herself. Sometimes we have asked a young friend, a math whizz only a few years out of school, to come by and help her- and me- understand something. I think you have several possibilities. Choose self teaching programs and train them to literally teach themselves. The Robinson method uses Saxon and if the kid doesn't understand something, they keep going until they do- themselves. Other programs like Teaching Textbooks really teach the student and have an aural and visual component. I can understand my son's math at his level, and I can explain it, buy we have such a personality clash over it that he just cant hear me- he argues with me- and then feels stupid- so I changed him recently to an online program (Australian) that has a voice component, and teaches the student- and maths is now his favourite subject. Aleks is a U.S. online maths program. So, there are lots out there. Another possibility is to choose a tutor. And of course, you can just use the opportunity to learn maths yourself. Often, us women formed an identity that we couldnt do maths quite young, and it is more our belief in ourself than our lack of ability. Your kids will pick up on you whether you try to hide it or not. Its ok that you "cant" do math but you expect them to. After a whiel they may even be proud that they can do more than you. Having the answer book- and in particular a solutions manual- has been a great help to me over the years, with all sorts of subjects- without me having to take the time to learn it myself. I do not help dd14 any more. It's all her now....and we touch base on it regularly- she tells me how she is going. She knows if she gets really stuck, we can ask for help from the friend, and if it just overall gets too much, we will either get a tutor, change to an online program, or, re-evaluate how much maths she is going to need anyway and stop!

How long and for what grades have you homeschooled? Almost 5.5 years, since ds was 7 and dd was 9. Did you know from the start you would homeschool or did some event point you down this road? I was attracted to the idea but dh wasnt on board until ds started really struggling at school in grade 2, when dh agreed to a 6 month trial. Within a few weeks dh was convinced and insisted dd be brought home as well. Were you homeschooled? No, but I would have loved it. Does anyone in your extended family homeschool? I have a cousin who homeschools on and off as they travel a lot, and a SIL who has homeschooled one of her 5 children for a year, and intends to homeschool a different child for a year next year. What method and materials did you use your first year of homeschooling? I discovered CM first but within a few months read TWTM and started implementing that. What method and materials are you currently using? I use a variety of methods and curricula and freely change what we are doig when we get bored or it doesnt seem effective any more, or an efficient use of our time. I woudl say Ambleside is our main structure at the moment, using Years pre 7, moving onto Year 7- it jst fits where we are in the history cycle after using SOTW for 4 years. However, we are secular and I tweak freely. What books, ideas, etc. have helped shape your homeschool? The Well Trained Mind, Latin Centred Curricula, Charlotte Mason ideas, and a variety of other books like the Teenage Liberation Handbook. What has been the most challenging aspect for you? My son. He has learning difficulties, a manipulative and charming personality, and he needs a lot of attention. What aspect has come naturally for you? Planning. Being around my kids all day. Having homeschooling be the centre of my life for 5 years (but this phase is morphing into another as I am moving back into my career on top of homeschooling). What are your favorite homeschool memories thus far? Sitting around reading books to and with my kids- the journeys we go on together with books. A year of Lord of the Rings was particularly memorable. What is the best advice you've been given? To not give up on my son and just wait till he matured. To be consistent and keep him writing even though he resisted it every day. The woman who told me this could not get her 15 year old son to do ANY writing for her- she wished she had tried harder when he was younger, but she kept waiting. I have taken her advice and am glad I have. The other advice is to relax and enjoy the younger years, go on field trips etc. I wish I had taken this advice more than I did, as I was stressed out and fearful when I took them out of school- I needn't have been, i wish I had just had more fun with them. What advice do you give others just starting this journey? Relax and enjoy the journey. Take time to have fun, especially when they are young- and young is a lot longer than you think ! :) Keep your life in balance, nourish yourself, train the kids to be alone sometimes so you can be creative, read, rest, have coffee with a girlfriend, whatever you need to do. Keep some separate interests going for yourself. A daily routine and consistency go a long way to alleviating the guilt of not doing enough schoolwork. Taking time to do schoolwork most days adds up in the long run, but don't let it take all day, either- keep plenty of free time for play. More isnt necessarily better when it comes to schoolwork. Feel free to change what isnt working.

Dd14 is a very good nature artist, and we are going to take two of her best paintings from this year to the colour copy shop and make several copies of each painting on good, glossy paper and send them to the grandparents.

A friend of mine gets this very badly, to the point of being suicidal depending on the weather. He asked my opinion about what he could do- he gets plenty of sunlight- and I suggested seeing a homeopath. He did, and it has been virtually miraculous, the difference it has made in his life.

I say trust your body and sleep and rest. Just because a virus doesn't have a name or doesn't have clear batch of symptoms doesnt mean its not there. If your body is tired- sleep.

I also feel you are not over-reacting, so don't feel bad about feeling the need for help. Naturopaths are used to seeing people who have tried normal doctors and found they can't help. Naturopaths vary widely in their specialties and modalities. In your case, homeopathy could work. An allergy specialist could help- there are machines people use to find out what you are sensitive to- my dd had regular headaches, I took her for testing on one of these machines and after some specific treatment, the headaches went. I cant help you find one though- I am a trained naturopath going back into practice, however I live a bit far away- Australia. Word of mouth is often the best way to find one- but you may have to ask around.

Yes, I have a worm composter and I have had it going for months at a time. But i am not the most consistent person in the world. I have forgotten about watering and feeding my worms for weeks- which usually doesn't matter, they're tough little things - but then during summer heatwaves...umm, it does matter. Cooked worms are not pretty, although they do break down into the compost fairly quickly :) I am sure no worms deserve me to take care of them.

Not really. I have a lot of spare time. My kids are teenagers now. They do a fair bit independently but if I leave the room, not as much gets done. So I sit here and surf the net, pay my bills online, answer questions, come here some more. I usually check in a few times a day, but the truth is if I am busy or away for a week, I don't miss it so i don't really feel addicted.

You might like Gareth Lewis's books- I have the one for ages 11-18. its called Unqualified Education. The one for 0-11 is called One -to-One; A Practical Guide to Learning at Home. I find the one I have to be full of Classical information, but presented in an unschooling fashion. Another good book is the Teenage Liberation Handbook- its written to teenagers but is a very inspiring read for parents, even of younger kids. I think it probably depends on your particular breed of kid, to a large extent. Some kids are very self motivated, are drawn to reading Jane Austen and learning Latin and Ancient history. Perhaps more would be if they werent first polluted by school, but that seems to quite quickly destroy a love of learning in many kids. But if your kid is interested and will follow your lead and read the books you strew around the place and teach themselves science- well, it just does seem to work for some kids. I think one of the great drawbacks is that we are in a technological age and many kids- I have one- are easily addicted to the stimulation and entertainment of computer games etc, which really does seem to limit their creativity and flow into other areas. As for loafing around- who says that is such a bad thing? We live in an age where we are expected to be incredibly productive- but daydreaming, time to loaf around and just think- is a valuable thing, and underestimated. I hear many kids who start unschooling do loaf around a lot at first- to decompress- but after a while, they feel a pull and move in some direction or another. I do feel the value in it is a child who is actually interested and engaged with what they are learning, because they are choosing to learn it. Many of us find our kids not as engaged as we would prefer- but the truth is, they are not given much choice. Thats our choice. I dont unschool but I do have respect for it to some extent, because it has produced many brilliant people, in my understanding- but also, you will find many parents who try it and do not feel it works for them. This board is full of people who consciously and deliberately create and direct thier kids' education, and a few unschoolers, so it may not be the best place to ask. I would love to see more classical unschooling models but havent come across many.

Oh yes, all that bacteria is extremely good for the immune system and I credit my strong, healthy kids to it :) Actually, there is a link between sterile environments and kids' asthma. The only thing I do much different to you is I keep the bathroom sink area tidy and wiped down most days- it is so quick and I just like to do it. But scrub the shower? Every couple of months at most. But for the rest- I am sporadic. I might suddenly get an urge to spend an hour cleaning out a cupboard and wiping it out thoroughly, or actually vacuum behind furniture, or cleaning the schoolroom from top to bottom- but it is not a regular thing by any means. Flylady helped me stop feeling guilty about it though, and stop feeling I have to do everything at once- i have no problem spending a cleaning urge (or sometimes when I am upset and just want to clean) on one job. My cleaning urges are unpredictable and I just learn to trust another will come sometime. I have come such a long way since my twenties and early thirties, I am proud of my surface tidy home :)

Perhaps there are soul mates, I don't know. Some people seem to feel so. True love? I don't think that has much to do with marriage or relationships at all. Love is love, its not conditional and you cant control it and it comes and goes and its not a feeling and its certainly not always a lovely dovey feeling. You dont have to earn it and you cant get rid of it, you can only be open to it or not. I think most people- 99% of us- expect to find love in someone else, not realising it's in us and all around us. Marriage is more about forming a family to bring up children. Love may or may not be present in any moment. No, I dont really believe in the wohle prince charming, soul mate, true love thing, and I think it does lead to a lot of suffering. But I do believe in love.

Sleep. Get dh to take over the kids, have them eat cereal for dinner, go to room, and rest. If I am too wired to rest- take magnesium go for a walk, have a bath, whatever. I find when I am caught up on rest, the housework virtually does itself.

What is messy? No room is more than 10 minutes away from very presentable, but no room looks like a magazine room, either. I dont feel the house is out of control though. Nor do I feel overwhelmed by my life at present. For me, yes, there is some sort of connection, but I find housecleaning therapeutic. When I clean the outside, my insides feel cleaner too. I am sure there is another extreme- people who cant relax unless everything is absolutely in control and perfect- I am not like that, and my house isn't usually THAT tidy, but just kind of relaxed tidy :)

Dd then 13 tried Traditional Logic and although she could technically do it- it was just too abstract for her at the time. We have done and enjoyed The Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox as informal read alouds. One child could do Mindbenders without any trouble. The other has so much trouble he becomes a blubbering mess, so I had to stop and postpone for him. Logic is not my favourite subject but I think its worth giving attention to at some stage.

I vote just sweet, but as a compomise- because dh's feelings are his feelings, nothing wrong with them- a babysitter sounds good, and dh comes along. But maybe ds especially wants time with just mum. I think its sweet.

Peek, thankyou for sharing what you are going through. One of the things that has been very important to me is standing up to any form of bullying so that I model to my kids, especially my daughter, that it is never ok and I was never going to succumb to it. I did leave for 18 months, and my kids were really fine- it was far less stressful and their dad had a better relationship with them, and eventually, with me. No matter what "studies" show, every case is unique. We reconciled but some issues are still there. What happens when a dh uses the studies showing the damage to children of divorce, to manipulate the dw into staying, without changing his behaviour? Guilt. I have suffered from lots. Very hard to know what the best thing to do is when you feel guilty about the kids- but undermining self confidence is a control technique. Dh used to literally tell me I could never live without him, financially, mainly. Well, that proved untrue and it empowered me a lot to learn that I could. We keep growing and that's the best we can do.

A good multivitamin can do no harm and plenty of good if you are a little low in something, which is easy to be on a modern diet.

If you have to wake them up, they are probably not getting enough sleep. Put them to bed earlier- kids that age still need 11 hours sleep. And you need at least 8. Are they eating cereal for breakfast, or other forms of sugar? Give them all, including you, a high protein breakfast with little or no sugar. Some people are just not morning people- we only have one in my family, dd14. But I am not willing for her to start later than the rest of us because she has afternoon activities, so she gets to sleep in on Saturdays. She gets up, has a shower (usually longer than she should) and spends a good half an hour getting dressed, doing her hair etc (she has lots of curly hair). Then she does her chores. Only then is she ready for breakfast. Then music practice. Then finally, school. However last term, I had her also go for a walk around the block before school to wake up her brain a bit more. She is still not really in gear until mid morning, but she manages. Now if it were *me* that were not the morning person, I would organise our schedule around *me*. :) my son is often ready before even me, so I have him read until I can go over his maths with him. Your kids are young. It will get easier, I promise. They still need you a lot.