Biggest downside for us has been mice....Ugh... Our house is not quite 100 years old, but it is really hard to keep rodents out. It feels like we are constantly patching holes somewhere in the house because more mice found their way in. if you keep cats around this is probably less of a problem, but my husband hates indoor pets so it is not an option for us. My favorite plus side...beautiful woodwork that everyone ooohs and aaahs over!

Ugh...when I was in my early 20s I was involved in a leadership role in an organization and helped select others who would be offered other roles/leadership positions. On two different occasions I remember being rather derisive and saying to someone essentially, "You just aren't the type. I don't think you have what it takes to ______". It was pretty hurtful. I was in a position where I should have been encouraging them, coaching them, giving suggestions for personal or skills growth... Instead I kind of dashed their hopes because they didn't fit my "mold" of what I thought our organization needed. I really regret the way I acted. :-(

I've pronounced it Q-min most of my life...but I am trying to switch to the coo-min way of saying it because I'm guessing that is actually correct...based on how I've heard it on food shows, etc.

I've never heard the term, but if I had to guess, I would agree with others who said it would be someone who take advantage of you when you are at your weakest.

We also love YMCA of the Rockies! I worked there for two summers and went back with the whole family a few years ago. Super fun!

Could you tell your kids not to look at what the other kids are looking at on the phone? Or if the other kid is being "pushy" about wanting to show them something, tell them to walk away at that point? They could explain they aren't allowed to look at things on the internet without their parents, and just not look (and maybe ask other kids not to show them things). In my mind, if older kids are looking at something on the internet on their phones (or, more likely, are texting, snap chatting, etc)...I can't imagine they really want younger kids watching or reading over their shoulder most of the time anyway. Imagine it was a kid listening to music. Maybe you don't want your kids listening to music with explicit lyrics. If the other kid is listening to music with headphones, no harm/no foul. If they put the music on speaker, then your kids could ask them to turn it off. Your kids only have to leave if the other kid refuses to turn it off or put the headphones back on. If kids are consistently trying to be pushy about showing your kids things they don't want to see or aren't allowed to see, then those kids probably aren't good company for your kids to keep anyway. True friends/good friends would honor the rules that their friend's parents set.

A smaller store I've ordered from is: http://www.legacyhomeschool.com They are in the same state as I am, so sometimes I order from them when I want something quickly since it will ship to me in a day. But it is also nice to support small family businesses too.

On either Sign Up genius or Meal Train (or probably the other sites too), people could start by putting TBA in the "meal" comment field, and then go back later and "edit" their comment based on what other people have brought. The challenge is to get people to actually follow through and check/edit their entry. I know for me, when I sign up for a meal that is more than a week away, I often write TBA and mean to go back and edit it, but I rarely remember.

My personal favorite humorous book in middle school was Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. But I haven't re-read since I was that age to know if most parents would find that appropriate...LOL. :-)

I know there is a way to add a "comment" field on sign up genius - we've used that for church events before and had broad categories like "dessert" - with a blank for someone to add a comment as to what specific item. For just bringing a family meals (vs. having a big potluck event), I like Meal Train - it is a bit easier to set up for that purpose. What I have noticed though is that people who sign up toward the bottom of the list often write TBA or "?" for the meal comment field. I think the problem is that if everyone is signing up now, the people bringing a meal in two weeks may not know what will be on sale, what they will have on hand, etc...making it hard to commit to a certain meal to bring.

I have no idea if this is typical, but at our "initial" meeting before the actual testing, the Psych wanted me to essentially tell her everything I had concerns about. All the behavior problems, weird things we had noticed, etc. She asked some follow up questions for clarification, but it was really mostly me talking. Then during the actual appointment I had to fill out about seven different questionnaires about DS7's behavior, development, etc. I don't think there would have been many "questions" directed at me at all at this appointment had I not let them know j wanted to update them on some new behavior problems we had seen in DS7 between the initial appointment and the actual testing. (It was about six weeks in between...part of the delay was they had to get insurance approval in between). My DS knew/knows he has behavior struggles (our primary concern was ADHD - no learning difficulties), so I told him part of the reason for the testing was to find out how we could help him with his "anger issues" as he himself calls it (that's not his only struggle, but one that is obvious even to himself at age 7!) and to find out more about his strengths and weaknesses.

I don't think that will be a problem. Are you going to read the whole text before going back to do the practice book? The only thing I can think of is that if you read all the chapters before starting the practice, it would be easy to forget some of what was taught in the first chapter by the time you finished reading all the chapters. But it says somewhere right in the practice book that if you want to read the whole chapter first, then do all the practice problems for that chapter, that is ok. We always break up the readings in BA because it is like a little motivator to get through the workbook. Some days DS is super motivated to do extra problems because he knows if we can just get to X page, we get to read the next day.

I would definitely look for ways to read to the 7 year old alone at least part of the time. That's a pretty big age gap -- Even with just two years and nine months between my DD and my oldest DS, I have pretty much always had a separate read aloud for her vs. the boys. (Difference in interests is part of it as well -- very different books appeal to her). But with a 4 year (or almost 4 year?) age gap, if you think ahead to the future, in a couple years your oldest will be ready for middle grade read alouds with more intense topics, while you still have younger kids who clearly wouldn't be. With my boys, DS9 and DS7 have interest in some chapter books that DS4 isn't interested in, but DS4 really just wanders away to play and I don't require him to listen. I try and encourage him to play "out of sight" of the where I am reading (Usually I'm in the living room, he goes to another room just around the corner), and then the older boys are less likely to get distracted. I read aloud to my DD at bedtime most nights while my DH reads to the boys, and this is how I do read aloud time with her most of the time. Obviously she is old enough now that we wouldn't NEED to read aloud, but she likes it and it is a relationship building time for us to read together. When DH isn't available, I just read to the boys first, then read to her (she stays up later anyway). When the kids were younger and I had nursing and napping babies, I often read while I was nursing the baby or while younger ones were napping. Reading during meals doesn't work for me either (either because I am eating or it is a much needed break to uh...post on forums or facebook). ;-) We also haven't had much success with kids playing with toys while I am reading, because they can't play blocks, legos, playdoh, etc without talking extensively. Sometimes they color or draw while I read, but that is the exception for us rather than the rule. We also use audio books. If there is something my DS9 in particular really wants to hear that DD isn't interested in and it is too intense for his younger brothers, he can listen as audiobook with headphones. We also do audiobooks in the car quite a bit when I can find titles that are both interesting and appropriate for everyone. (When youngest DS was younger, I kind of assumed he wasn't listening and we listened to some kind of intense things like Harry Potter. He may have actually be listening because I am surprised how non-scared he is by things that my older kids totally would have been scared of at the same age. But I am not sure if works out that way with all kids!).

We started camping with our kids when I was expecting our youngest, including doing Yellowstone when the kids were pretty young (almost three years ago...youngest was not yet two). I think it is very doable, but I would definitely test out your cold weather set-up if possible ahead of time. Camping with lows below freezing would be miserable if you aren't warm enough. We were super happy that we had invested in 0 degree rated sleeping bags with lows in the 20s when we were there! I would also double check to make sure you can do your tent set up alone if you haven't done so in past years. We have a very tall (cabin style) tent, and I discovered last summer that it is really tough for me to set up alone because I am so short, and I can't really reach certain parts of the tent at it's full height (my DH was joining us later in the evening, but luckily we also had friends camping at the same campground who could help me out with the height issue...LOL!)

We allowed it for a long time because our couch was seriously cheap (I think we bought it at a rummage sale for $25), and I didn't really care if it got destroyed. The problem I didn't forsee is that when it did break, it damaged the floor underneath. Whoops! So, now we try really hard to enforce this rule, and send them to jump on our mini trampoline. But with the three boys, despite having had this rule for years now, I still repeat it many, many times every day.

I know this isn't universally true (mission trips seem to be a big exception, actually), but I feel like most culturally acceptable youth fundraising is for team/group activities rather than individual activities, and maybe that is the "sort of" consistency that applies. Maybe the problem is with the funding model or organizational expectations. When I was in high school, the schools had cut funding for marching band, so an independent community organization formed to pick up the slack and run a summer marching band to represent our town in all the parades around the region. My parents initially gave permission for me to join (fee to join was something semi-reasonable for 25 years ago...$200 or something like that). But then it turned out that to cover the real expenses, each family was required to participate in many, many fundraisers. The cost to skip the fundraiser and just donate one family's portion of the expected fundraiser "receipts" was something much higher that my family couldn't afford at the time...maybe $500 or something like that. My mom didn't like the idea of either the fundraisers or the extra donation option, so I just didn't get to participate. I am guessing the organizers rightly guessed that if they charged the true cost and didn't fundraise, they wouldn't be able to find enough families in our town who could afford $700 or so to join. But they figured if they had enough car washes and sold enough candy bars, they could pull it off.

My DD is working through this book: http://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=012177 Some of the math is over her head, but it is good overall.

This is what I did with DS9 - He did RightStart B in Kindy, and then sped through C in the first five or six months of first grade, then we went to BA With DS7, we finished B maybe six or eight weeks ago. I am going through C with him but we may skip some sections (I don't think he has much interest or attention to detail for the drawing section, which is a huge chunk in the middle of C). We will (I think) move on to BA sometime next fall after he has done "enough" of C. DS7 will likely need more review than DS9 does, so we may add in another program for review...or maybe just Prodigy Math will be enough review.

My DD used RightStart in levels A through the first bit of E. I agree that RightStart's strongest levels are the early ones, and D and E were not as good. D had a ton of review and was short. By the time my DD was a 4th grader starting level E, she was ready for more independence. RightStart is very teacher dependent, even in Level E. If you like independence and spiral/incremental approach, I also suggest CLE. I picked CLE over Saxon for my DD because you can write in the Light Units and she didn't have to copy the problems. It's also easier to cut some problems out if topics are mastered or the lessons are too long (I know you aren't "supposed" to do that with Saxon, but no one ever says that about CLE!!!). My DD did levels 400-600 and it was a great fit. We're moving on to other things for Pre-Algebra, but I am glad we did those three levels. That being said, RightStart does have an amazing approach with fractions, so I can definitely see supplementing with the Right Start fractions kit.

We tried another product with little "stories" for the multiplication facts, and at the end my DD could retell a bunch of the stories, but somehow lost the detail of the "fact" that you were supposed to learn through the story....lol. She did better with a much more concrete way of memorizing (Xtra math did the trick for her). I think it will just depend on the kid if it is effective or not to memorize with the stories.

Is this assuming year 1 = first grade, then year 2 = second grade, and so on? Or is is just year 1, year 2, etc regardless of age? With multiple kids, my DS7, for example, hits cycle year 2 (middle ages) in first grade and his first time in year 1 (ancients) in 4th grade, as he didn't really participate in literature readings as a Kindergartener. His cycle year 1 (ancients) as a 4th grader will in all likelihood involve reading more classics and be "meatier" than DD11's first time through Ancients was a first grader. She was ready for a few picture book versions of classic literature as a first grader. DS7 will hopefully be able to tackle much more in his elementary year of Ancients. I guess for me, if "100" is a weight assigned to whatever cycle year a family may be in when a student is in first grade, then it would naturally increase in weight each year as the student ages (but not because later classics are more important -- more because of maturity). If you aren't taking age into account, I don't think I could reasonably answer that question, because I don't assign a "weight" to the number of classics that are read based on time period alone. Whatever is missed the first time because they are too young to accomplish many classics of that period can be covered again future cycles. Unless I am totally missing the intent of your question.... :laugh:

So agree with this. Yes, some homeschool parents sheltering causes issues. Some kids are "sheltered" or out of touch even when they are in public school. I was super out of touch and "uncool" in junior high despite having been in public school. We were just scraping by financially so I had really out of date clothes. My glasses were cheap and ugly. I had a botched perm/short hair cut early in 7th grade that took most of the year to grow out into a decent style. Even though we weren't religious, my mom didn't let me watch MTV or read teen magazines because she thought I was still "too young" for that stuff at age 12. I was smart and got good grades, which worked against me in the "cool" game. Luckily, I learned to overlook the teasing. I found better things to do and didn't "rebel". Eventually I figured out how to look a bit more like I fit in. But it totally could have gone a different way...a lot of these struggling homeschool teens might have struggled in other settings too.

My 6th grader is using MOH this year, but I haven't used the other two. She really likes it, but to be honest I am having her read and sometimes narrate to me what she read about. We aren't doing the quizes, projects, etc. I also wanted to make my own lit list and she has her own Bible reading plan, which is part of the reason I didn't want something like Biblioplan.

I wasn't saying I was going to give any personal information. ... just explaining further here (vaguely), why I am trying to avoid a discussion and looking for a good response. I really won't be able to avoid this person for long, and I personally would find it rude not to return the video or make DH do it. I just needed a good response to make it clear I don't want to talk about it. My guess is that you and I have different views as to when it is helpful to share information with others about special needs that kids have. Personally when I am teaching or assisting in a class, I find it really helpful to know if a kid has issues, or if they are just ornery. I felt that way before I had a kid with "issues," and still feel that way now. I want to extend the same courtesy to others to let them know that yes, my kid is difficult, but we are seeking appropriate treatment. You or others may disagree with this view, but that is how I feel about it. Like I said, even people who don't know anything about the specific situation but have just observed DS have just come up to us and offered "advice" or asked if we are getting help for him. I like being able to say, yes, he has this diagnosis and we are receiving professional help.

Thanks, that is good advice! I think it caught me so off guard to have the video shoved in my hand (and I am sure she was well meaning!), and had I not been in such a hurry I might have been able to deflect it a lot more quickly by not taking it home in the first place. And I think honestly she would have eventually tried to give me the video at some point whether or not I had shared the diagnosis, because DS7's behavior went through such a bad patch in the last couple months. Even people who know nothing about what is really going on with him have been offering unsolicited advice on how to "fix" his problems! ETA, I am also trying hard to avoid further discussion with her because there is a bit of a back story here too with the approach in this particular video that I know my DH would not appreciate and have issues with our family trying out, so this video in particular would really not appeal to our family for various reasons. So I especially don't want to get into all of that back story of why this specific thing would be pretty low on the list of approaches we might ever try, so I am trying to deflect on the basis of not wanting to pursue diet changes in general (because we really are waiting to see how other approaches work first).