You've got to do the Museum of Natural History. It's my favorite thing there: http://naturalhistory.si.edu/ Also, cupcakes: https://www.georgetowncupcake.com/

No, I don't break it down. I do say some, on occasion.

My 12yo dd likes: - baking, she bakes something about every other day - making videos on the ipad - writing stories - drawing - printing off pictures to color - playdates with friends, we have a couple favorites that we schedule with - going to the library - reading

Absolutely. I've noticed that the offices in our area don't follow up if we miss an appointment. So you could just stop going without them bothering you.

" I directly teach math, grammar, composition, spelling, foreign language and history to each of my kids separately. " As a large family, we purposely do history, science, and some foreign language together. Math and language arts the kids do on their own, with some oversight from me. I try to buy curricula that I can hand them and have them do themselves (once they're literate).

We just paid $87 to register our kids for the local homeschool co-op. That's a semester session for 3 kids at 3 classes/kid. It includes the registration fee and my background check.

No, I don't think the church is taking on any more liability than they are by having the rest of the kids in the building.

We're up to seven children at our house and life has been very busy, between work, foster kid appointments, and regularly scheduled kid stuff. What are you doing for dinner that doesn't take a lot of time, does feed a lot of people, and is reasonably healthy?

I think it's important for the church to provide accountability in some way, perhaps in the form of a chaperone.

Here are a couple of Coursera options: https://www.coursera.org/course/psychfirstaid https://www.coursera.org/specialization/socialscience/25 https://www.coursera.org/course/soc101

I am in a similar situation, where we need to work on oldest ds' writing.

I think the motives of those who charge and those who don't charge are the same.

I wouldn't think it was necessary unless they weren't making their payments.

The free summer bowling at our bowling alley includes the bowling and the shoes. It's pretty awesome.

Another vote for Scouts. Also, jobs! Jobs take up the kids' time and are extremely cost effective. My oldest (14) works for our church for a couple hours a week doing setup and take down for Weight Watchers, dog sits, does yard work, and is working at a blueberry farm this summer.

Don't forget about this one: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/13/mother-of-7-in-jail-because-her-kids-skipped-school-dies-in-cell/ "A 55-year-old Pennsylvania mother of seven, sentenced to serve two days in jail because her children were absent too much from school and she couldn’t pay some $2,000 in truancy fines, was found dead in her cell...."

Gran Hotel

But expelled from school?

I am having a really hard time getting my 14 year old ds to do work on the day that it is assigned. He generally avoids doing work until I boss him around and tell him that he has to do it. Today when I left for work, I said that he had to be caught up (he had assignments from Friday and Monday he hadn't done) to be able to go to a teen event at the library. He wanted to go, I wanted him to go. He didn't have the work done when I got home and said it was because he had lost the graphing calculator (which he found on his bedroom floor, not hidden from sight) when I got home. I stuck with what I said and he is home, supposed to be finishing his work, but he's sitting at the table not doing it because he's sad about the event. At 14, I feel like I shouldn't have to punish him to get him to do things on time, but maybe it's been my lack of making him get things done on time that's led to him thinking he can finish work whenever he feels like it. Grumble.

I have not been impressed at all with this hosting organization (AFS). We got her because someone asked my friend when she was at the coffee shop if she would take her (back when they thought the (second) host family was going to be away for a month. If you count the time she had to spend at a volunteer's house while our paperwork went through, we're the fourth family she's stayed with. Apparently private rooms isn't a requirement, just that they have their own bed/dresser. The organization knows what the setup is, they did come to check the place out in person before she came to stay. I was at TJMaxx with the teenager yesterday and got her an underbed thing (she's on the bottom bunk, so giving her the underbed space seemed to make sense. She used it to unpack some of a suitcase (she has a lot of stuff) so that it's more accessible than it was. I also had her move one suitcase to the hall closet across from their bedroom; she'd been keeping them both in the room, and it took up a lot of space.

I'm trying to be less miffed lately :) I had a rough couple of days being really resentful of the exchange agency that can't get their act together, the two other families who had her before us who didn't manage to crack through her shell, the parents who sent this kid who is not a good fit here for the school year, the entitled, unsociable, lazy, sad teenager who would like to go back to Japan but won't do it because she would have to start the same grade next school year for failing to complete the year here.

That's not a choice I'm willing to make at this point. We agreed to take her for four weeks because her host family was going to Mexico. They decided not to take her back when they return, and the agency isn't looking for another home (we are her third house).The girls have already been sharing a room for over a month. Our oldest (14) got his own room for the first time when we moved to this house in June, we have three boys sharing a room, and dd and exchange student, then me and dh.

My 11 year old daughter is currently sharing a room with our new 17 year old Japanese exchange student. We thought we were going to have her for a month while her host family was on vacation and it's probably going to be the rest of the school year (that's its own separate issue, ack). Ideally, the teenager would have her own room, but we now have six children and four bedrooms, so that's how it is. Before the teenager came, dd had lots of stuff in her room. I'm trying to rearrange it so that they both have space (dd had mentioned that she feels like teen took over the room). Right now, we have a bunk bed, desk, bookshelf, short dresser (used by teen), and dollhouse in the room, with another dresser (split by teen and dd) and shelves in the room's closet. I want dd to be able to have friends over and hang out in there while teen is at school (dd is homeschooled) and provide space for them to play. Teen asked me today why dd still has the dollhouse in there. Dd has friends that are in the 8-11 range, she's small and tends to hang out with kids who are a little bit younger. Anyway, what do your 11-12 year old girls have in their rooms? How do you organize things? Anyone have a teen and preteen sharing?

My 11 year old daughter is currently sharing a room with our new 17 year old Japanese exchange student. We thought we were going to have her for a month while her host family was on vacation and it's probably going to be the rest of the school year (that's its own separate issue, ack). Ideally, the teenager would have her own room, but we now have six children and four bedrooms, so that's how it is. Before the teenager came, dd had lots of stuff in her room. I'm trying to rearrange it so that they both have space (dd had mentioned that she feels like teen took over the room). Right now, we have a bunk bed, desk, bookshelf, short dresser (used by teen), and dollhouse in the room, with another dresser (split by teen and dd) and shelves in the room's closet. I want dd to be able to have friends over and hang out in there while teen is at school (dd is homeschooled) and provide space for them to play. Teen asked me today why dd still has the dollhouse in there. Dd has friends that are in the 8-11 range, she's small and tends to hang out with kids who are a little bit younger. Anyway, what do your 11-12 year old girls have in their rooms? How do you organize things? Anyone have a teen and preteen sharing?

The kids all drink a couple of glasses of water per day. I buy a jug of orange juice 2-3 times a month. It lasts for a couple of days and each kid has a few cups, and then it's gone. We also go through a carton of chocolate almond milk a week. Our youngest has about 24 ounces of milk/day. He's our only one who's had milk as a drink, because he's the only one where I've worked outside of the home full time and we were giving him a bottle. I drink coffee like it's going out of style, a glass or two of water, chocolate almond milk, and the occasional hard cider.