[s/o those who don't allow daiting, do you teach safer sex?]

Does she understand STDs? No. There's no reason for her to.

 

 

I think that at 13, she should know that a sexually could be a consequence of having sex. No parent wants to think that their child could become sexually active at that age, but it happens.

[Could you live on 1/2 your income?]

No. With dh currently underemployed, we're barely living on our whole income.

[WTM board lingo?]

I've heard "love on" in real life.

[s/o Managers of Their Homes question...]

What I'm wondering is whether those of you with older children (middle school or older) ever have them teach a phonics or math lesson to a younger sibling?

 

We haven't, but I'm definitely considering it for in the future.

[We have new neighbors. Are we supposed to go over and introduce ourselves]

Go say hi.

[Biggest Joys & Biggest Challenges in Homeschooling?]

I also run an in-home childcare and homeschool my children. I've been doing childcare for three years and homeschooling for five.

 

My biggest joys have been having the flexibility and time with my children for them to be able to learn about things that they're interested in and for me to be able to be there to help them. Not to mention the wonderful freedom of not being stuck with the school year schedule.

 

With homeschooling, they still get to see dh when he has to work from 2-9pm, because he has the morning with them. The way his schedule is now, he'd only see them on Sundays if they were in school.

 

A big challenge for me has been getting my children's schoolwork done when we have the childcare kids here. Somehow we do, but there are weeks when I look in their logs and realize that I really do need to make a greater effort to purposefully have them working instead of playing all day.

[Oh, my. Tell me if my 8th grader's days are too long]

Would it be possible for your 8th grader to stay home and work during park days?

 

Laura

 

See, this is one of the things I would keep. I think older kids need time outdoors to run around just as much as the younger ones do.

[Oh, my. Tell me if my 8th grader's days are too long]

Is the reading time from 10-11 assigned reading or down time/recreational reading? I think that being an hour of reading that the child gets to pick would be a good idea.

 

Could you do a couple hours on Monday morning to knock a half hour off of the other days?

 

You may want to do a half day on Saturday, since you're cramming a lot into three weekdays.

[So frustrated with trying to make/find a lesson planner for 4 kids!!!!!!!]

There's FergNus's Home Schooler's Journal. Regretably, the Web site doesn't have a sample page, but IIRC, there is plenty of room to write everything you're needing. You'd have one for each child, I believe.

 

That's what we use. One for ds1 and one for dd. They're cheaper from Rainbow Resource.

[Math and LA Abeka, CLE , Horizons, BJU]

CLE math here- lessons take about half an hour, unless ds whizzes through it and finishes faster or is being uncooperative and takes all day

[Nursing school PLUS homeschool...is this crazy?]

I believe nursing as a profession is compatable with homeschooling. I don't know about the time spent in nursing school. You would need childcare and someone else to do most of the homeschooling then.

[Praying for BMW's dd's prego friend]

Jesus, please let this girl see that no matter how hard it seems now, she can carry this baby and either raise him or her with the support of a loving community or find an adoptive home that she's happy with. God, put the people around her who can help her get through this tough time.

[S/O unplanned pregnancy]

I would help in any way possible to help them get on their feet so they were capable of taking care of their baby.

[If you wanted to encourage someone not to have an]

If someone were to do this, they need to make sure that they know that they have contributed to that decision by telling her that she would be kicked out if she became pregnant. It might not even occur to them.

 

It would kill me as a parent to know that my grandchild was killed because of something I said.

[If you wanted to encourage someone not to have an]

Thanks everyone... my daughter is heartbroken... torn up over this. Her friend has an abortion scheduled for Friday. My daughter sent her a page on a baby 7 weeks along... hoping that she'll read a bit about the baby.

 

I am proud of my daughter... she and her friend have both been physical with boyfriends and it could have been my daughter to be pregnant... my girls wishes it were her instead and grieves over the potential loss of life. It also shows my girl that these choices in relationships do have consequences. She was able to share some of her opinions and share some things from this thread... from her heart... friend to friend... her friend was open to the conversation, but her mind seems made up right now... her mom had told her that if she got pregnant, she'd be kicked out of the home and she doesn't have a place to go. And our home is packed wall to wall with the 11 of us who live here! There is literally no room for her to come here. But... she isn't willing to look at other options, either.

 

Thanks for a great thread, I appreciate it staying so nice.

 

She's welcome to live here. I PM'd you.

[Where did you attend college/university?]

Community College of Baltimore County

[When is your "school year"?]

We school year round, with Sundays off, taking other days off as needed. I take a week or two off during the year for planning and "mom's break."

 

Ds1 gets a week off in the summer for overnight camp.

 

I'd guess that we homeschool 45/52 weeks.

[How do you ensure you don't leave gaps in your child's education?]

I don't ensure that. It's not possible. There's simply too much out there for me to teach them everything they need to know. School certainly didn't teach me everything I needed to know, so I know it's not a homeschooling issue.

 

What I do make sure is that they can read well, so that they are capable of learning anything they want to know. And I teach them as much as I can in the time I have them.

[Who all here schools year round?]

Year round. I like it because then we can take days off as needed during the year and not feel like we have to catch up.

[Story of the World vs Mystery of History]

There is a chart showing how to combine the two on Paula's Archives. A lot of people have used them together.

 

Can you please link to that?

[HELP! I'm stuck debating between CLE math and Singapore...]

We use CLE with Singapore as a supplement for if he finishes up early or I feel like he needs something harder.

[How long do you spend per day/lesson on CLE math?]

1st grader- 30 minutes

3rd grader- 15-40 minutes, depending on level of cooperation

[Just discovered 13 yods is snooping on "s#xy" sites]

Put the computer somewhere in the open, where anyone walking through the room can see the screen. Ours' is in the kitchen; there's no privacy at all.

[s/o parenting book .... Growing Kids God's Way]

I've read that his own daughters do not have a close relationship with either parent. So is this really someone who we want to take parenting advice from????

 

Yup. His children aren't close to him and he's been kicked out of at least one church for not fixing the messed up theology in his book.

[What does the Hive say.....related to MERSA]

I would have turned around, too. I may be oversensitive to germs & illness though. I once didn't go to a function because a friend's child had lice and still let said child go to it.

 

That's not oversensitive. Lice isn't something people should be spreading around. My kids got them from a "friend" (who we don't talk to now) who was staying at our house, visited a friend she knew had lice, and brought them back to our house. It was horrific delousing six people and the house.