I am glad it is working for someone else! I am still a bit amazed myself. 6 weeks now for me. No, plain water is not enough for me at all..Just makes my hair lifeless and yuk. But the soda seems to soak up the oil in my hair and make it quite fluffy and clean feeling. Also, I definitely "scrub" my scalp with the baking soda for a minute, and that feels good too. For rinsing, I use quite a dilute acid- I use lemon juice to blonden my blonde, but I probably only use a tbs or 2 for about a litre of water. ..I don't mind the lemon juice smell,(I have used both fresh and bottled lemon juice) but if i were to use vinegar I might add a drop or two of an essential oil like lavender. I also rinse with more water after using the lemon juice rinse. Another thing I have done is get just a drop or two of coconut oil and rubbed it into just the ends of my hair- I have an oily scalp and dry ends. It seems to work well and doesn't make my hair look greasy at all. I am fussy about that! I also thought it might be hard to get a comb through my hair, after being used to using conditioner all those years, but no, its ok. Not as easy as with conditioner, but not bad at all. I don't think I am losing as much hair, either.

I found the whole process of filling out the charts for MOTH very enlightening. It made me realise why I was exhausted and always felt behind, and like a failure for not being able to implement my high ideals. I realised there were literally not enough hours in the day! I cannot follow a timed schedule though, as much as I like structure. I prefer blocks of time. I only have two kids, but I break our schooltime into 3 parts- first part, independent work, even though I am available to help. 2nd part, our together time, where we do poetry and read alouds and memorywork, and everything we do together. 3rd part, they are on their own again. Of course, mine are older and do work alone a fair bit. I remember the days when I had to go back and forth between them a lot, especially for my younger. Prioritising helped me work out what was essential and what wasnt, so that we could put most of our time on the core work and not worry so much if the extras dropped off.

The passages start short and get longer through each book, so the child isn't just plunged into long dictations. The sample download probably doesn't show that very well. Even the later books, the first half are quite short but get quite long by 3/4 of the way through.

My LD reluctant writer always finds an illustration online (Google images) for his writing assignments, and I print them out and put them in a notebook.

I like it for good spellers because you don't waste your or their time learning words they already know how to spell. So in that sense, it is time saving. You do have to call out the words to your child. So in that sense its not something you can just hand them like a workbook. But, it also keeps you very in tune with where they are at with spelling. We don't use it much any more, but its possible to just use it for a part of the year or when you feel spelling needs a brush up. My son was not ready to write the words with Spelling Power until he was about 10 year olds. So we did it orally for a long time, and then with Scrabble tiles.

Lol, I enthusiastically started reading this thread thinking someone would enlighten me on Facebook too....but, alas, it was not to be. It is a pointless as it appears. I do have cousins etc and friends on there, but I dont care that much, really. It was nice to see the baby pics of my cousin, but I could just as well have asked to see some by email. My SIL has the most awesome blog ever for keeping family up to date, so i don't see the point of her throwing me sheep or whatever on facebook. I do live a long way from all my family, but i dont find Facebook a very good way to stay in contact. Email is just fine. On the one hand I am disappointed that Facebook is as lame as it seems to be, for me...on the other hand, its good I don't have another excuse to spend too much time online.

My 12yo also wouldn't say he loves he schooling,and he tends to be rather manipulative about getting out of it. However I want to give you some hope about the reading considering what you have been saying. I have read aloud to my son since he was small and it was very important to me that he love reading- and he didn't for a long time. I kept reading aloud, every day, about an hour. And eventually he grabbled the book out of my hands at the end our our reading session and asked if he could read it himself. He was 9.5. He has been a reader ever since, and I never thought he would be up to that point. My kids do not enjoy audi on CDs at all- they really complain bitterly if I make them listen to one- at the moment its just Shakespeare and they are accepting because I dont read Shakespeare as well as the actors do :). They want ME to do the reading aloud, and so I do. I was just talking to my daughter about her subjects for next term and we were discussing how much she dislikes doing languages on her own, and I realised, this is a kid who needs interaction and socialising for some subjects. So I have shifted Latin and French to our "do together" time rather than "independent" time. She also thrives with all her out of the house subjects- she attends a science class, she used to do Latin iin a class- she thrives with classes. I wouldnt under estimate the difference in enthusiasm if a subject is done with mum. My younger has learning difficulties and it makes the world of difference if I am just there, hovering. I at least always stay in the room.

I have noticed that changing over the last years- more and more mainstream bookshops here are selling various books on various religions- Buddhism is supposedly the fastest growing religion in Australia and there is a big market for books on Buddhism. I notice the section on "New Age", the section on "religion" and the section on "self help" all have books in them that I might choose to put in a different category. It's probably your area, by the sounds of it, and perhaps what sells, and even the person doing the buying may be strongly biased. Making a complaint is a good idea- it lets them know there is demand for more than Christian books. The times they are a changing- but in some areas, slower than others.

About 40. We follow the state school schedule, except we don't take off the many teacher training days ("pupil free days") much to the upset of my son, whose friends play outside on those days.

Our lives seem to revolve around Scouts..our troop is excellent, the leaders are obsessive and sooo committed it's scary and makes us parents feel so half hearted. However, the troop is more focused on fun and experiences than badges so I consider my two kids, one of whom is a patrol leader and the other an assistant patrol leader, to be gaining a lot of leadership skills and many other skills (survival, boating, camping etc) within the whole setup. We just don't work on badges in our own time, at all. Scouts already takes up at least every 2nd weekend, one evening a week, another evening a month for patrol meetings, Saturday afternoons all summer for sailing, time in the holidays for trainings for competitions- not to mention the week my daughter spent in the desert with the aborigines earlier this year- I jsut ain't giving any more time to it! (of course, my kids love it- it's such a great thing for homeschoolers).

I guess it depends on how "properly" you want to do it. We read the poem we are memorising, once through (or the kids recite it if they have it almost memorised) and then we just go back and recite a couple of older ones. takes 10 mins max.

12 and 14 yos- 12 yo struggles with LDs. The have to be up by 7am. Music practice at 8am. School starts at 8.30am, strictly. We work until about 1pm, but this includes read alouds and short breaks. The older often works for a bit longer after a break for lunch. Sometimes the younger has reading after 1pm. I try and stack it so that the more intense work is done first, then the together work (history read aloud, poetry, Shakespeare etc), then comes independent reading. Sometimes a writing assignment comes at the end too. So, 4.5 hours, sometimes 5, but it includes reading for school. And we are out most of Friday for Science, and Monday afternoons.

Story of the World for 4 years. Loved it.

I learn alongside my children and since I am an adult, I feel I get the bigger picture. It has also meant I am more drawn to historical fiction and documentaries that help me build on the foundation that SOTW gave me. Now that I am using Ambleside, I am actually reading books ahead of my kids, finally. Any books I will read aloud, I just read the first chapter to get a feel for how much time we will need in the schedule. Any books I will hand to my kids, I am reading ahead. However my kids are 12 and 14 and the books are meaty-it feels important with AO, to me, to be able to discuss with the kids what they are reading, since reading literature is the core of the whole CM method. If I was back doing SOTW in 2nd grade- I wouldn't worry about it. Over the next 4 years before you get back to the same time period, you will have learned more than you realise.

I used Classical Writing, Logos Imitations in Writing, some of Wordsmith Apprentice, and now I make up my own writing course.

What would I do? I am dealing with the issue of my kids likely having some mercury poisoning and I am not sure what to do either. I used a heavy metal test kit by an Australian company called FullHealth. I am a naturopath and my wholesaler stocks these- you just use urine or saliva and its quite inexpensive- (I just tried to find them online and couldnt ). I did it out of curiosity and was quite shocked to find my kids both tested positive for mercury. They dont have any mercury amalgums. I don't know where they got it- if the test is accurate. (I am a naturopath but I don't believe every product's sales pitch!) . However, it is notoriously difficult to accurately test for mercury. I contacted a friend who is a doctor and he said hair analysis is the next best thing. What he uses (he specialises in this sort of thing) is a chelation therapy product, but it involves intra venous therapy and he hasnt used it on children- and my kid would be very upset by it- and that's just to test. Blood tests are apparently innacurate. But in your case you could at least do that for a start. Mercury is very bad. Do some searching online- very very bad. I am not sure what to do myself, and I am only not panicking because my kids dont seem to have any symptoms- except that my son has learning difficulties, but his dad does too so its probably genetic. I am going to do a retest soon, and if their tests are still positive I will do more research and take it further.

I have noticed a similar thing with my oldest, who is a girl. My younger has always been SO demanding of me physically, in terms of cuddling and just paying attention to him, and my older is so easygoing, that it's SO easy to neglect her emotional need for physical cuddling. She is 14 by the way! And my son is 12 and still sits on my lap for a cuddle, and holds my hand in public (shhh, no one tell him that's not cool by his age, ok? :) ) What I have noticed is my daughter in the last year has started rough and tumbling with her female AND male friends- which brings up a whole other issue but is really quite sweet- and it acts as a pressure release for her. But once I really noticed I wasn't touching her much any more, (and I am not particularly a touchy-feely person, but my husband and son are) I just made more effort to sometimes reach out and rub her back, put my arm around her, and cuddle her- and she responded very warmly and lovingly, by coming to me for hugs in a very natural and spontaneous way- and I feel the issue is no longer an issue. I don't think she is going to be a particularly touchy-feely person either, but I wold like her to feel connected and warmly loved in that way. For me its quite a conscious issue I have overcome, because as a small child- apparently age 3- I rejected my parents physical affections- although my father was never affectionate. I dont remember being touched or cuddled my whole childhood and my mother has made comments that I rejected it (my brother was cuddled). I know it affected me and in my late teens I had to learn to hug people I loved. (Not "had to" but i wanted to). I think just the fact that you have become aware of it is enough...you will naturally make sure you don't lose that contact.

Toss a coin? RS4K is only 10 weeks, remember.

This is how I feel too. My kids actually don't like audios much- never took to the SOTW CDs- they always preferred me to read aloud. Another aspect for us us the American accent reading the poetry. But I also didn't like the sample reading on the website. He recites slower than me! I also did a recording of me reading the poetry, but it seemed silly to go to the fuss of putting the CD in the player and finding the spot, when I could just read it LIVE. However my kids also rebel at listening to "school" in the car. (We are at the stage of popular radio stations and they teach me the lyrics!) So I dont have that incentive.

OK here is another idea I have been using which will not save you heaps but for someone it may be useful. I have stopped washing my hair. I have wavy blonde shoulder length hair, very fine, and i was tired of the expensive shampoo/condtioner I was feeling I needed to buy to keep it looking ok, and I seemed to need to use it almost every day. Cheap shampoo/conditioner turns it to straw. I found this article: http://www.naturemoms.com/no-shampoo-alternative.html I decided to try it. I had tried no shampoo before and gave up within days. I am not one who can stand having greasy hair for long. So this method involves using baking soda and lemon juice or vinegar. A tbs or 2 of baking soda made into a paste, rub into scalp, leave for a minute, rinse out, then rinse with a solution of 1 or 2 tbs lemon juice/ vinegar diluted in a few cups of water. Its been almost 5 weeks now and I haven't even been tempted to touch the shampoo bottle. I am amazed myself. My hair is clean, it has more natural curl, and it is slowly producing less oil. I use the soda/lemon juice every 3 days or so and just wet my hair the other two days. I feel really good not having to buy expensive hair products that only make you more and more dependent on them. I really didn't think this method would work, and I am probably a bit of a hair snob- really, I do care what my hair looks like- and I was very surprised this method actually works.

Hi Bill, it is my understanding that yes, the author is strongly associated with Intelligent Design. I think I can confidently say though that the Chemistry level I used (middle school) had no taint of ID that I could detect, and was very useable by secular folk like myself.

Hi Tami, those books are written for kids age 13 and up. Its interesting how homeschoolers often try or expect to do things earlier. I have. We have read those books together,and my logic challenged child was ok with them- they are different to logic puzzles- but i don't think he engaged with them well enough to say he got much out of them. I intend on having both mind do them again when AO recommends them.

I havent read the other responses but we have a definite routine and I hope we are preparing the kids for the world out there. I think the child who spends years at university to do a degree that is generally hard to find work with was sheltered or badly prepared, and thats not a problem with homeschooling as such. Its just an unrealistic outlook on life, not doing your research properly. (One thing to do it knowing theres not much work and following your passion anyway- another to get a rude shock at the other end because you didn't realise there's no work in your field because you were living in la la land). We have schedules and routine AND the kids have chores and responsibilities AND they have REAL work in their teen years. Both my kids have jobs already, they are 12 and 14. My 14yo has an accounting job, a cooking job and a babysitting job. There are consequences for not doing her work well. The 12yo babysits. I dont know but I think its more to do with parenting than homeschooling. Grounded parenting will compensate to some extent.

We just call them "schooled" or "schoolkids", in everyday conversation.

Same crunch happening here in Australia over petrol and food prices going up. Its a common topic of conversation. My husband and I have always enjoyed a good standard of living by being willing, and enthusiastic, about buying everything we can 2nd hand. It has been a shared joy of our marriage to hunt for bargains every weekend and whenever we actually want something. All of our furniture, our cars, our linen, our clothes, our kitchen equipment, our music, our camping equipment, computers, are 2nd hand. It is simply our lifestlye and it becomes difficult to imagine why people choose to spend so much on things just to have them new, when they are no longer new the moment they have bought them. Once you get a nose for 2nd hand stuff, you know a bargain. And it's fun! There is so much more we could be doing though. We waste a lot on food. I am actually wondering when dh is going to start feeling it and I am kind of looking forward to having to budget food, rather than just look for the specials but still buy and eat whatever we want. Dh loves to grocery shop but eats junk and processed foods way more than is healthy. I wouldn't mind a little nudge toward "eating from scratch" more. Whenever I try, no one wants to eat it. I think it's the LDS people that have a plan for stockpiling food- I guess all that was promoted in the Y2K days. However I am reading this thread and thinking I could maybe make a spare shelf in the linen cupboard for stashing cans and rice and pasta etc. Anyone else ever consider what would happen if the water we take for granted coming out of out taps dried up or became poisoned or polluted in a crisis? Its been occurring to me lately its not such a bad idea to have some water stored in case of emergency. You can live for a while on little food, but you can't survive long with no water. Some water purification tablets wouldnt be a bad idea either.