Just another possibility for anyone else who looks at this thread...I just bought a Photography course through Oakmeadow. Its a one semester highschool course- 18 weeks. Its cheap ( and it was on special a month ago when I bought it). I love it. Its doable, presented clearly, the assignments are clear, and it has my artistic kid inspired.

Yes but my issue with this is....many people DO lose weight doing high fat/low carb (well its all about the protein of course). And actually many people DO lose weight doing low fat. Ask simply here on these boards...many people lose weight with WW. The problem is, as far as I can tell, more about habits and developing a healthier lifestyle, so that habitually one turns to healthier foods. And I am the first to admit different people need different diets- I have studied Ayurveda and people simply have different body types. But any diet that is a radical divergence from your normal diet, or a diet you can normally sustain easily, is bound to fail in the long term. I realise the low fat diet has its problems, but I see that those problems are often largely to do with marketing of high sugar unhealthy highly processed but low fat foods, rather than a problem inherent in the low fat diet. Low fat doesn't mean no fat, of course. Fat simply carries more calories per gram, however, it also gives one a sense of satiety and comfort. I personally do not see the high protein high fat diet as a sustainable diet in the long term, for many people, even though many can lose weight on it in the short term. Nor does it suit everyone- I have tried it twice and it makes me feel suicidal- really badly depressed. So I know it's not for me. In the end, I think it has been proven true you can eat more calories on a low carb diet and still lose weight, and that is going to work for some people. But I am not into one type of diet for everyone. Our bodies do vary a lot, not to mention our psychological tendencies. Some prefer to restrict what they eat (eg they can cut out carbs) and others, such as with WW, you can eat anything, but you restrict the quantity. Lucky there is so much variety out there, but of course that works against us too. Im not having a go at you, Wendy, glad its working for you, as it does for many people...just using your post as a jumping board to my thoughts. I have been watching this high fat high protein thing. I noticed one of our Australian pop stars went on the Montague diet a few years back- she was quoted in the advertisements. A couple of years later, she had breast cancer. Of course it may not be related, but eating a diet very high in meat just doesn't equate with health in my books, even if it keeps your bum nice and taut. Balance.

Its true, the sheer number of people here makes it more valuable to me than a secular group where no one talks. There is a CM yahoo secular group though and that is very chatty. I am new to it, but it seems very active.

I sell good stuff in good condition for about 2/3 of new price quite often. But if I just want to get rid of it, I will sell for less. I am often surprised by what sells and what doesn't.

I understand completely where you are at, and I have been there for several months myself. I left the boards to stop getting stimulated and exposed to the next best thing, and settle and establish myself in my own natural groove. I really relaxed and am happy with where the kids are, and where I am at. I suddenly had the urge to stop buying curriculum for my challenging son, and go get him tested- lo and behold he has at least dyslexia- and I realised I had been pushing the poor kid literally beyond his capacity, and blaming both myself and him for his areas of weakness. And it just wasn't necessary. Anyway, I had a taste of the memory of being a curriculum junkie again yesterday when I read the thread about progym versus modern writing programs, and I suddenly felt a hankering for using CW again, which I had dropped months ago due to burnout....and I have to calmly reassure myself that we are better off doing well what we can do well, and not trying to bite off more than we can chew easily, and digest well. So enjoy the peace.

My 2 cents. I have looked at programs like TOG and I must admit, they do a lot more than we cover. They're very comprehensive. We love history and it is central to what we do, but I have found any one else's structure is more work than the simple reading and writing and discussion we do and enjoy. So, even though packages may seem to simplify things, I think they also have the potential to be so thorough and comprehensive that if you use text books and packages for every subject, you would end up with a LOT of work to get through.

As for the danger....we seriously considered that before we went to Bali. I guess you know about the bombings there. The Australian govt has a level 5 alert about going to Indonesia, including Bali. So, it wasnt something we just did lightly. But, we are so glad we did it. It is a cheap holiday from where we live, for an o'seas trip. The Balinese people are wonderful, and they were so badly hurt by the bombings- economically, which for them means survival. I feel its important people keep doing what they do, travel, everything, otherwise the terrorists win, fear wins. Of course, every situation needs weighing, but I don't want to be too afraid to travel, when the risks are actually pretty low. Travel expands you, it takes you beyond your world and somehow stretches you, and I think that can only make you better. We are very lucky that we can. Most of the world- by far most- cannot ever leave their own country.

Oh, that would be fun! I must admit I love Asia best because of its cultural contrast, but the nature in the U.S. is awesome, just like in Australia (except different, of course). I have seen the Grand Canyon...amazing.

:drool:I like nachos, or a good curry. I guess its the spiciness (warms me) and the fat. Other comfort foods we eat: Cauliflower cheese Peanut butter pumpkin soup Taco soup Balinese black Rice pudding Indian kheer (rice pudding)

Yoohoo, secular here too. There are many of us, and here I have always felt I could pretty much just be myself without having to be too concerned with holding back. Of course there are threads I avoid. IN fact I find it more comfortable here than with some of the homeschool groups I mix with IRL. Many times I have been simply presumed to be Christian, wheras here I think there is a large enough mix of people, that people are generally pretty unpresumptive (if thats a word!).

I would like to write a secular, down-to-earth Health curriculum, for all the way through school (K-12), with an "alternative" health slant. Also, a classical type program/schedule for Australian homeschoolers. And, historical fiction.

I tend to buy. I look ahead, sometimes way ahead, and write a list, and keep a lookout 2nd hand- swap meet, ebay, out and about at op shops. Worse than the library for me is reading off the computer. I just find reading it, or worse again, printing it, such a pain, but I am pretty good with 2nd hand stuff so things usually turn up cheap sooner or later. if its a book a child is going to read in one hit, I don't mind the library. But if its something we will stretch out over a term, I will buy.

We just read the Richest Man in Babylon and I am glad we did. Simple message, good for my early teens to hear now....and they did hear it.

I spent far more in the past than I do now. I was a curriculum junkie. I was insecure. I was giving too much power up to curriculum, and not spending enough time just doing the work. I was stressing, and curriculum shopping seemed to be an answer to the difficulties inherent in being almost solely responsible for my kids' education. The benefit was however that I am now familiar with a lot of curriculum and know what most of y'all are talking about most of the time! I guess I know myself better, and I know what will work better for my kids, due to time and experience. I seem to be veering away from workbooks and textbooks more and more, and heading toward more CM reading and using the library a lot as a resource. If I ran out of money, I could homeschool with the internet, the library and a maths text. And I could make do with a maths text from the internet if I had to, too.

I saw this a week or so ago, and it brought tears to my eyes. We underestimate the intelligence of animals (and overestimate our own) way too much.

One of my dreams for my children was to take them overseas, because I was taken overseas 3 times as a kid. First time, age 7, to the U.K, Iceland and the U.S. (I have an aunt, uncle and cousins in Philadelphia!). 2nd time,age 11, to New Zealand. 3rd time, my grandmother took me after my parent's separation, when I was 13, to Canada (Vancouver) and the west coast of the U.S.- including Disneyland. it wasnt such a happy time in my life though. Since then, I have been to India three times, and Bali twice, as well as all over Australia. A month ago, I got to live my dream for my kids, dh and I took them to Bali for a week. Dh is like the OP...happier at home, though he has done far more travelling than I have, before we were together. He did this trip for us, because he knew ho much it would mean for us all. We had an absolutely wonderful time in Bali, and it will be a memorable holiday for the kids. I love to travel, and I love to come home again, too. I am a homebody, but I doubt I have finished travelling at all. I feel very lucky.

I avoid a lot of fluff by ordering all my library books online. I rarely browse in the library. I spend a lot of time online, and I pick up book recommendations, and I see if my library system has the book or can get it through ILL. Then I duck into the library on my way home from shopping, and park in the 15 minutes parking zone, and return books and pick up a new bunch. The librarians only see me coming now and scuttle to the reserved book shelf for my latest orders. This system has the disadvantage that my children do not often browse the library. However, it has the advantage that I bring home to the poor,book starved waifs wonderful literature that has been through the mummy filter. Even at their ages. They haven't complained yet....of course, if they have requests, because of friends' recommendations or whatever, I usually comply.

I don't think I want a job or career as such...I could go to uni and do literature and classics, just for fun, since homeschooling has whet my appetite for such things. And I have a yearning to be a writer but I am too lazy, I think. I just like being a kept woman, doin' what I'm doin'.

This thread has been absolutely fascinating and highly educational for me, as well as helping me clarify some things. I used CW for Aesop, and to the end of Homer workbook A. I burned out on it, although the kids were doing some good writing. However, one of my bugbears with the program (and I respect CW highly despite it) is that there wasn't enough time in our days to do it justice, and there certainly wasn't enough time in our days to also give the kids free scope for creative writing assignments, which one child in particular loves, and which gives her the joy of putting her whole energy into writing. So this thread has helped me clarify that I didn't find CW efficient enough, for my needs, even though I already cut out a lot from the workbooks. I personally do find it contrived, however I find all writing programs like that and I have yet to find one that my kids enjoy, because of that (they inherited my free spirit, but probably my negative qualities too!). Although they liked CW best. I am now making up my own assignments for them and bungling along, wondering what to do next, and meanwhile they are producing some good creative writing in spite of my inadequacies. My goals are lower than many here! I would rather we do what we reasonably can, well, than reach too high and want to speak 4 languages and read Latin texts etc.....I am going for less than that, way less, and its still going to be better than what I received, and I went to a good school. I am coming to the conclusion myself that I will not actually be satisfied with any particular writing curriculum, and although I am no expert writer or teacher, I will probably use ideas from the many I have to just make up my own as I go- or use parts of various programs. But it will be relevant to my kids , our subjects etc, rather than a one size fits all program with exercises than become terribly tedious after a while.

I picked up Lives of the Noble Romans and Lives of the Noble Greeks from ebay pretty cheaply many months ago, not realising the edition makes such a difference with Plutarch. It is a selection edited by Edmund Fuller, translated by John Dryden, revised by Clough, published by Doubleday books. After perusing other versions online, and digging into a page or so, I think its actually going to be ok, but I won't know until we have done a few weeks, which we are starting in a fortnight. I would much prefer to have a book than read off the computer or print from the computer, so I will try and make this work.

This book makes the difference between poetry memorisation happening, and not happening, around here. I didnt buy the CD and I am glad, because my kids prefer my voice on most things anyway (SOTW CDs flunked here, they prefer me to read aloud). Also, when I listened to the sample, it sounded too slow to me....probably well enunciated and all, and slow for a reason, but it irritated me. Also, we didnt need the American accent. With just the book, this is a pick up and go way to do poetry memorisation. We work on one poem, revise a few, and often read ahead a couple too, so that by the time we get to memorising them they are already familiar.

My daughter is doing Cambridge year 3 online.I think you need to use the British versions but I have never heard that they are radically different for the U.S. ones.

I like to joke we have backyard battery hens. But we did do an extension on their cage. And it is outside. Its not so bad anymore, they have quite a run. But for a long time we had a tiny rabbit hutch for them. We let them out every couple of weeks for the day. They don't do too much destruction in a day. We call chickens 'chooks' here in Australia. We have Kentucky Fried Chook, backyard chooks, BBQ chook.

This was my situation too. I was embittered at my father in my teens after my parents divorce, but in retrospect he wasnt that bad- he tried to do his duty, but his attention was elsewhere (another woman of course). I stayed in contact though, as hard as it was. I ended up with a better relationship with him than with my mum for a few years, but that's another story. However, my dad didn't only call me for my birthday once a year! We had regular contact. I would say you ex is not a very involved father and I don't know if I would necessarily want to bother because the occasional phonecall is more or just a reminder of the relationship they don't have with him, which might be painful, rather than actually building a relationship. Unless he has tried or is trying to build a relationship. I don't know how deep it runs with your kids or whether its worth it...its very personal, but I don't think you should feel guilty about whatever choice you make, and maybe you just need to stay open to changing your mind, too. You obviously care and are trying to be selfless about it...you can only be human.

I 3rd Weight Watchers...the support is considerable, for some reason it just works for me.