I think that if they're happy, if they don't feel as though they're missing out on something, then this isn't really a problem. It sounds as though they're very well-adjusted, and thriving with the social opportunities you've already made available to them. Whenever the issue of schoolfriends plays on my mind I always try to remind myself that for thousands of years, until just the past hundred years or so, most children have grown up socialising with just their immediate families and small communities. Being in school, as you recognise yourself, is no guarantee of good friends. My eldest has spent two rather miserable years at his very good school being tormented by a number of boys in his class; I often feel that for him homeschool would be a much healthier option, although academically he is doing well. We're in a slightly different situation in that we've always planned for our boys to move on to a B&M school when they reach 11 yo. I know DS11 seemed to be more interested in getting out into the big wide world during the 6 months or so before he moved on to school. I think at around this age children often naturally focus their attention more outside the family, but school needn't be the only place, or the ideal place, for this to happen. Other options require a little more thought and effort on our part, but they are there. I'm sure you'll hear many accounts later in this thread of the ingenious ways homeschool parents involve their kids more in the community and find them friends. :grouphug:

"Whose socks are these on the dining room/sitting room/kitchen/hallway floor? Will you please pick them up and put them in the wash basket!"

:grouphug: I find that my mood and thoughts before I go to bed and go to sleep affect my dreams and the quality of my sleep. I would make a conscious effort to settle into bed in a calm mood, maybe do something comforting - a relaxing bath rather than a shower, a cup of hot chocolate (I always sleep terribly after any alcohol), some yoga exercises, or whatever makes you feel calm, relaxed, loved. Then just before falling asleep I'd think about my dad, think about happy times, maybe even talk to him in my mind in a calm, comforting way, and I'd imagine that everything in the future was going to work out perfectly. It is difficult to stop worrying thoughts intruding when you're very stressed and anxious - I've found learning to meditate very helpful in enabling me to control my thoughts and prevent worrying thoughts taking over in the night. It's very early days yet, don't expect too much of yourself. Gradually you'll get back to your old self and you'll start having more restful sleep. :grouphug:

Would you be able to respond in a bit of a 'superficial' way, detailing the good things in your life just now and maybe briefly alluding to the nightmare you've been through without going into details? I would feel that in order to be able to confide the true extent of those difficulties I would have to get to know her again, develop the friendship all over again. She may be at a point in her life now where she's able to offer you the friendship and support you've needed from her in the past. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. :grouphug:

DS8 reads aloud to me for around 20 minutes twice a day during the week, once a day at the weekend. DS8 is dyslexic and has to work quite hard at reading, despite this he enjoys reading to me so I encourage it all I can.

Nope, not me, never. And it's not because I'm a saint or anything - it's because he is :D.

6+ children?

Sadly, I had all mine when I was quite old - my first at 35, so I've still got quite a while before I get one of those, and I want one NOW! He's just adorable.

Congratulations! Hope you're feeling much better soon. DS5 was born in my bed, and is still there! I wish I'd had all my babies at home.

Me too.

Oh wow, how exciting! Good luck :001_smile:. I'll bet it'll turn out to be just what you needed. But do look after after yourself, that's an awful lot you've got on your hands. :grouphug:

He's gorgeous! Congratulations!

DS11 and I worked through Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn French over a period of two years. He got to Chapter 6 of Book 2 before finishing homeschooling and moving on to a b&m school. I do speak French to an acceptable standard, so was able to give him extra practice in conversational French. He's now at a level far beyond DS13, who's been studying French at school for the past two years. Already the other kids in his class have decided that he's the class 'French Dictionary' :D. DS11, DS13 and I have decided to continue to afterschool with Book 2 - we do half an hour or so at bedtime, all snuggled up in my bed, with some 10 minute written exercises for them to do during the day. It's good fun, and gets results.

:iagree: We've thoroughly enjoyed Biology, Astronomy and Physics. You can make as much of it, or as little, as you like.

DS13's voice has not changed at all, nor does he have any noticeable hair. He is very much a thinner ectomorph build, and both DH and I are naturally quite slim. I started puberty at 13 yo and grew 6" in a year, so I expect once it happens it might, as you say, happen all at once. Just now he seems desperate to catch up physically with his peers - he seems to think it'll help him feel more confident, although for if I remember correctly puberty did nothing for my self-confidence at all, quite the opposite :tongue_smilie:.

My sentiments exactly.

:lol: Well there is that! I'm also quite happy for my little boy to stay a little boy for a while longer yet. It's just started to bother him quite a bit that most of the boys in his year are bigger and more developed than him.

I've never tried Sumdog. I pay about the same per year for Mathletics as I do for Reading Eggs. We signed up for Mathletics when we first started homeschooling, before we discovered a good math course, and it was a real hit here. At the moment, however, none of them have used Mathletics in months :glare:.

:lol: So you're in for some surprises (or nasty shocks) :D?

Thanks for all the responses, hopefully DS13 will be reassured when I report back :001_smile:. I seemed to remember boys starting puberty quite a bit later than girls, at around 14 or 15 or later, so I was quite surprised at the number of boys DS13 knows who've already gone through this. I never had any brothers, and wasn't interested enough in boys at that age to notice much. It seems that there's quite a wide range of normal. Maybe genetics does come into it, as Paula suggested. Maybe diet/lifestyle?

What is the average age for a boy to hit puberty? DS13 is showing no signs whatsoever so far, which, from my memories of boys when I was that age, is entirely normal. DS13 insists, however, that most boys in his year at school started to go through puberty a year or two ago. So a boy starting puberty at age 11? That doesn't seem quite 'normal' to me, but maybe I'm wrong. What are other people's experiences?

Have you tried Mathletics?

I'll have another try, sitting room, kitchen, dining room and sitting room again:

Sounds idyllic :001_smile:. I love those rare days when just enjoying the moment seems so perfect that I can't even be bothered to feel guilty about the schoolwork not done.

:grouphug: That's beautiful.