I've used All Through the Ages quite a bit, but I definitely think of it as primarily a book list. I'm comfortable putting together my own reading schedules, so I find it to be a great tool for finding books that fit each time period we want to study.

I couldn't quite match my situation to the poll. We always have Netflix, prime, and Disney+. We've done short stints with other services like Paramount when there was a show we wanted. In the recent past we had cable because it was bundled with the internet, and we did YouTubeTV for about a year after we switched internet peoviders. But we realized that we only used Cable/YouTube TV for a couple of sports. We then re-hooked-up an over the air antenna for certain local market sports and subscribed to F1 TV to get our race car fix. 😁

My least shelved was a book we read for school... "Causes and Consequences of the Great Depression". Only 4 people shelved it! I don't shelve every single school book I read aloud for school, but I do most of the ones that aren't textbooks. After reading in A History of US vol. 9 about the great depression, DS11 specifically asked to learn more about its causes, and this was a book I found at the library that I thought would be at an understandable level.

My mom did this for me with the ring from her marriage with my dad (they divorced when I was a toddler). It was a total surprise when she gave it to me for my college graduation. I had no idea she had even kept that ring! It is "flattened" and is almost a heart shape but not quite.

I generally prefer self checkout. I feel like it's pretty fast. Like others have said, Aldi is the exception since the checkers are lightning fast. My only complaint is that sometimes produce is a pain. Like I type in sweet potato (no sticker on it with a numerical code) and I'm so perplexed when nothing comes up. I had to call for assistance and the clerk told me it only comes up as "yam" in their system. Ok, fine, I guess I was having a mind blank but it would not be hard to have all terms in there. Another time there were two brands of bananas as different prices...I could only get the self checkout to ring up the more expensive variety even though it was supposed to be the cheaper brand. But small complaints, really. I'd much rather self checkout than have to answer the clerks questions about what I'm making with these things, or to wait in a super long line because they are understaffed.

I actually never knew that some people wrapped stocking stuffers! To me the stocking IS the wrapping, just like a gift bag would be if you like bags and tissue paper. Once or twice I've put a layer of tissue paper over the top of the stocking if things are peeking out. We do a traditional "stocking photo" every year with kids holding their stockings so it's nice to still have a slight bit of anticipation and not be able to visibly see the top items during the photo.

I don't think it's a thing at all where we are. DD turned 16 in Spring 2020 so she got no celebration with friends at all, unfortunately. But I don't think she would have had any desire to have any kind of party other than what she typically did with friends as a teen - hanging out with a few friends, eating, doing crafts or watching movies together, etc.

It seems like a lose/lose situation. ☹️ She thinks it's rude to tell you what she really wants, but then throws away or doesn't use (clearly doesn't want) things she did receive. It's like the only way for you to "win" this game is for you to be a mind reader or come up with something that even she doesn't know she wants. You might luck out with things people suggest here, but if even her DH doesn't know what she really wants, it seems like maybe she doesn't want anything (except maybe money, though it seems like you are saying she would be offended if you did give her cash).

Maybe I missed it in a previous post, but is there a reason you couldn't ask her? Even if you don't ask anyone else? I usually surprise my kids with a lot of their gifts, but now that DD18 is at college, I asked her she wanted to be surprised (and risk me getting it wrong) or give me a list, even for stocking stuffers. She said she wanted to give me a specific list. You could let her know you will spend $X, and would she prefer to be surprised, to give you a list, or to receive cash/gift card. It's not insulting if it's what she wants! And if it is insulting to others that she gets to receive a gift card when everyone else gets physical presents, then it may be time to rethink your gifting plans in general. My mom and MIL always ask if we want cash or to give them a specific list of things we want, and I appreciate that. Sometimes I would rather have the cash to put toward an experience or a larger expense, sometimes it is nice to have someone "treat" me to a fancy kitchen item I wouldn't buy myself or something like that.

My husband has taken to watching lots of chess strategy videos on YouTube to keep up with DS11. They are neck-in-neck in their improvement, but this is with DS11 not studying at all. He is just naturally improving as he gets older while DH has to really work at it! DH always beat him when DS was younger, then DS11 surged ahead and won most of the time. It's fun to watch, but I don't really play at all...I just have a basic understanding of the rules.

In level 1 (with the revised edition) there was one time I wished I had the manual to have the answer key. In a sentence where not every word was supposed to receive a mark, I was slightly unclear once which word to mark. My DS picked a word to mark that I did not think was correct, but he didn't like my logic and was disappointed that we couldn't double check. In level two I have consulted the answer key maybe 3 times in the first half of the book. It's always obvious when every word is to be marked and sometimes less obvious when not. For example, in a clause, "which he usually wore outdoors" the word "outdoors" was not meant to be marked. I was pretty sure it was being used as an adverb, but DS was convinced it was a noun. It was unmarked in the answer key , so I was able to say more confidently that it was a type of adverb we hadn't learned yet. I haven't used the TM for anything else. If you have a kid who will confidently believe you about why their answer is incorrect, then you might not need it. 😂. I do wish in the teacher manual they would list for my benefit what those unmarked words would be if we did label them, just to confirm my thoughts!

In our previous neighborhood, when only oldest DD was a young teen, all my kids had close neighborhood friends and it was basically an open door policy with all the friends all the time unless I specifically asked them to not let their friends in (because we had an out of town guest or someone was sick or we were about to leave or whatever). All the kids were well trained not to stay for a meal unless asked to stay ... 😁 After we moved it took a long time before my kids had closer friends, and except for youngest who now has a neighbor friend, my kids rarely have friends to the house - they see their friends other places. I would be totally fine with older two bringing a friend home unannounced. DS13 it might give me more pause because if he didn't ask first he might not realize there would be intervals where I would be gone driving a sibling somewhere or running an errand, and at his age (and especially because his friends tend to be a bit younger) I think the parents would expect adult supervision. Luckily his friends live across town so it's unlikely they would show up without parent coordination.

We open windows at night in hot weather unless it is raining or rain is in the forecast and we're not sure we'll wake up to close windows when it begins raining. However we always have the rain fly on the top of the tent (except for one time camping in a desert) because even a short unexpected rainstorm could make things extremely unpleasant inside a tent and we don't want to be trying to get the fly over the tent in the middle of the night. We have a large family size tent so it's several minutes of work to put the fly on and secure it in the dark. We are most often camping in the Midwest so a stray rainstorm is possible most any time.

I've never heard it called Yankee Swap except on the internet (Midwesterner here). I've also heard it called White Elephant (whether they are actual "white elephant"-type gifts or not) or Dirty Santa. I've also heard it just called a "gift exchange game" or even a "stocking stuffer game". Funny story...my kids go to an event every year that is a true "white elephant" exchange in that you have to regift something around your house, and really nothing is too ridiculous. One kid was so excited that he came home with what he termed a "chandelier" (it was really just a dining room light fixture). He was so excited about it and had a hard time being convinced that we really had no place to hang it up, and it was kind of an annoying thing to dispose of due to all the glass panes. Now, whenever my kids are going to an event with any kind of "white elephant exchange game" of any kind, I say "What's the family rule?" And they will chorus back "absolutely no bringing home any chandeliers". 😁

Things were really rough between me and my oldest when she was about 10-12. She has a late in the school year birthday so this is 5-7th grade. She struggled to respond well in general to my parenting (not just about homeschool work), but homeschool demands just made it worse. She wanted to be independent of me, but didn't necessarily have the executive function skills to pull it off well, plus she is strongly a procrastinator. It led to so many battles. DH and I have always planned to send our kids to PS for high school (his strong preference, and I don't mind that plan either) unless it was truly not a good fit for an individual kid. We put DD in school in 8th grade, and it was a huge turnaround in our relationship, and school turned out to be a great fit for her. Despite being disorganized at times at home and not wanting to put in the work, she loved the structure of going to class, listening to a teacher teach a lesson, and having time to work in class that was only designated for doing classwork. No distractions of fun things to do like at home. She is an extrovert and despite not making tons of friends in her school in 8th grade, she liked being around a bunch of people all day and not just her obnoxious brothers. ;-). I don't know if she was "unhomeschoolable" for high school, but I think it would have been really tough, and we probably wouldn't have come out of it with the great relationship we have now. BUT, she was very wiling to do work for public school teachers, which helped her in terms of being successful in school. I think it would be so much harder if it turns out that the child isn't willing to do school work for anyone, whether it is mom, outsourced class, or a teacher in school. If you can put her in school before high school, OP, I think it's a great time to do it, even if it's midyear. You want to find out sooner rather than later if public school will produce a better result, or if it will just be more agony you can't control - the stakes are so much higher in high school because they will impact college options if she spends a semester failing a bunch of high school classes.

General minimum is a bit over $10 here, but there's an exception for small employers and anyone under 18, for whom the minimum is around 8.50. DS15 worked at a very small business last summer and made the lower minimum. For him it was an ok situation because he got a lot of work hours and he wasn't very interested in working at most of the places that were willing to hire 15 year olds. He definitely is hoping for something paying more next summer when he is 16.

I realize a serious discussion is being had here, but I just can't resist... do any of you follow this guy on Twitter? He has so many great threads with headlines/little snippets of articles through the decades with these kind of "sayings" that are said about people these days... "Kids are too soft", "people are lazy", "people have lost their sense of humor", "music isn't any good any more"... and so on. It's pretty hilarious how people have been basically saying them same thing forever. 😁 (And yes, this Twitter thread isn't just about kids working). 😁

As a person who organizes thing on a volunteer basis...yeah, plenty of people don't read the emails I carefully craft explaining all the details they need to know for the events I am communicating about... 😁 They read the "headline" of when and where and then assume they can show up and figure out the rest. I wish I could think of a good story, but most of my worst stories are less about people not reading the instructions and more about people treating me as a volunteer as though I was some full time paid person doing this as a job with no other life! (Like the op, I once had a volunteer role as a facility reservation coordinator, but it was for three different churches sharing a space. Things would happen like a misunderstanding of who was using what room when, and then someone from one church would be mad that I wouldn't march right down to the building and sort out why a group from one of the other churches was in the room they had reserved. Sorry, my pay of $0 is not enough to personally spend 30 minutes round trip driving just to work out between two groups of adults who can be using a certain room!). I guess I am not at all surprised when it comes to customer service type roles that people call with questions that can be easily answered on a website. My late-70s age MIL still has as her first instinct to pick up a phone book, look up a number, and call a business on the phone when she has a question about something. I also have a friend who is about the same age as me who has some unremediated learning disabilities, and generally just seems to really struggle with reading comprehension. She texts me lots of random questions that google could definitely answer for her. Sometimes I answer her questions, and other times I suggest she google it. She is very resistant to doing so however, and if there is any way she can call and talk to a person about her question, she will pick that every time over reading websites. Often if I don't know the answer to a question, I think she keeps texting people she knows until someone else does (based on other comments she has made about how she ended up solving some problem she had). I feel for the people who are working places who have a lot to do and wish people would just read the darn websites though...

DS10 is going to be a dragon - we got mask/wings/tail on ebay and have some dragon scale fabric to pin on his sweatshirt or coat (depending on how cold it is). DS13 is an owl Pokemon called Decidueye. He did the costume almost entirely himself (I did a bit of the cutting) and it is amazing. He wore it for a youth group party last night, but I haven't taken pictures yet. DS15 is going to go trick or treating with his school debate team after practice (I find this to be adorable that a bunch of smart, nerdy teens are going to do this together). He's going to be the "cabbage merchant" from Avatar the last Airbender. I need to help him finish his costume....it's pretty easy but he's super busy and hasn't had time to work on it.

I'll say a "fluke" also. Our current house really only has one possible spot for packages but at our old house they would most likely go on the front steps or in the porch if we had left the door unlocked. Every now and then one would turn up at our back door (which would involve opening a tall latched gate - I could imagine someone walking up to the side of that house and turning back because the gate was hard to open) or more rarely still hidden under a bush next to the front steps. 😁

I'd be pretty hesitant unless there were circumstances making this gap smaller than it seems (aka, maybe they are really only a grade apart in school due to birthdays or grade skip/held back). I'd probably encourage the teens to wait a bit, continue as friends/hanging out in a group.

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Is there any mechanism to have a general election sooner than the five year term, other than the party in power calling one? My 13 year old is curious if there is any UK equivalent to the US process of impeachment. I said that I assumed if someone had actually committed a crime they could somehow be removed, but I don't actually know!

We've only used the Pre-Algebra and Intro to Algebra books because so far my older two boys started public school classes for math at the Geometry level after finishing those books: Kid #1 (DS currently 15) did every problem in both books Kid #2 (DS currently 13) had a bit stronger preparation before starting pre-Algebra, and I allowed him to only do the review/challenge sections of several chapters of pre-Algebra that he felt he already had a strong grasp of. Then he did every problem in the other chapters. In the Intro to Algebra book he did not do all the challenge problems. We had a bit of a time schedule to keep because we anticipated him doing public school geometry class as a part time student in 8th grade. So we allotted a certain amount of time to the challenge problems (maybe, 2 days per chapter), and then he moved on after completing what he could complete of the challenge problems in that time. He also has very slow processing speed, which makes some of these problems take even longer than they might otherwise. Kid #3, DS10, is doing pre-Algebra right now, as a 5th grader (we started last spring so we are over half way through). He also has some learning challenges (dyslexia, dysgraphia), and just isn't as mature for dealing with the challenge problems...so we have definitely skipped some of them. I'm finding he is less apt to have the patience to persevere though the challenge problems that require making some definite conceptual leaps or require parsing a lot of complicated info in the problem. I read the text and problems to him, but on the more complex problems there is occasionally a comprehension gap for him. Because I am really trying hard not to rush, we may circle back around and come back to the challenge problems again later after we have finished more of the text.

We play a card game at big family get togethers called Up and Down the River. I think you can Google for the rules. It can expand pretty large, you may just need a 2nd deck of cards. If anyone has the "party" size edition of Telestrations, than can be really fun and plays up to 12. Balderdash is another fun one with groups. If you don't have the actual game, you can play with a large dictionary. You would write out obscure word definitions from the dictionary on index cards. You take turns having someone be the person reading a word. Then everyone writes their own definition on an index card, all the definitions are read, and the group tries to guess which is the right one. The point isn't to know the words since they are so weird, but it's funny to hear the definitions everyone comes up with.