He just needs to choose his friends more carefully :tongue_smilie:. Now, had it been one of our boys ... why, even DS5 can sleep until 10 am with no trouble at all. Do you get to sit on the sled coming back down the hill, or is it too full of grit? Sledding down sounds wonderful fun. Hope your day gets better and you have a lovely lunch. :grouphug:

This sort of thing happens to DS11 and DS13 a lot - sometimes it's DS11's friends and DS13 feels left out, other times it's DS13's friends and DS11 feels left out. They have a lot of friends in common, a lot who have brothers very close in age; if all us mums tried to invite the siblings of all our boys' friends it would get ridiculous. I usually just tell whichever boy feels put out to get over it, and remind him how last time it was him who went to so-and-so's birthday party on his own. Life's not always fair, but things mostly even out in the end.

:laugh: That was my first thought, followed by 'medicated'.

:grouphug: I understand, I really do. You know I'm not even that keen on homeschooling :001_tt2:.

The only ones here to eat breakfast are DH and DS8. DS8 eats a large quantity of pancakes spread with Nutella, and a glass of milk. None of the rest of us can touch anything much before noon.

It really does depend on the child. DS5 reads to me for about 30 minutes a day, in one session, and sometimes insists on reading for longer; he's reading chapter books fairly fluently. DS8 can only read for about 20 minutes at a time before he gets tired and starts making lots of mistakes; he reads twice a day for 20 minutes each time and really struggles. I don't use any reading program or worksheets. DS5 will often read ahead on his own in whatever book he's reading to me at the time.

Ah, whatever would we do without them? Life would be so much duller. Thanks for sharing, I love it.

Absolutely. I keep wondering about NanceXToo. I have nosied at her profile to check that she's still popping in, but I just don't see her here so much anymore. I rather miss her.

I'm not particularly bothered about the etiquette of young people sat glued to smart phones, but it makes me shudder. I don't have a mobile phone at all, so maybe I just don't understand, but the obsessiveness of the behaviour seems scary to me. Recently we were in the company of some good friends and their children, and their lovely daughter spent a good deal of the time messing with her phone; I felt quite dismayed, as though she was suddenly lost to us. I think it's probably a sure sign that I'm now an official old fuddy duddy :tongue_smilie:.

:grouphug: That must be very hard. I'm so very sorry.

Our children tend to have fizzy drinks only on special occasions, such as birthdays, Christmas, etc; it's what they have when DH and I open our favourite bottle of fizz :tongue_smilie:. I don't buy it very often as I firmly believe that it's not at all good for them, especially DS8 who has very poor teeth. I've never refused them when a special occasion has come up though, just as I wouldn't deny myself my favourite tipple :D.

DS11 is like this, and always has been. I go through phases of following him quite closely and reminding him of what he needs to be doing, what he needs to be paying attention to; it's a bit exhausting and I need to be in a very patient mood. Gradually I back off and he manages better on his own for a while; until next time. When he was homeschooled there were frequent phases when I would literally sit next to him and keep him on task, keep him focusing on completing his work; again, I would gradually back off; until next time. He was always so pitifully proud of himself when he managed to stay organised and get his work done. When he started school in September he really struggled at first, and does still to some extent, but he goes to a really wonderful school who work with him to help him organise himself. Most recently they have paired him up with a girl in his form who is super organised and she helps him quite a bit (he says she's really annoying :tongue_smilie:). I think it's really important to be patient and stay calm, they really don't want to be this way. Also, I wouldn't necessarily expect him to be able to cope on his own, he needs support, maybe a lot of support. If DS11 were left to his own devices he'd just sink.

I love that I married such a kind, sensitive, intelligent man. I love that I have so much freedom in my life to do pretty much what I want when I want. I love having been able to spend so much time with DS11 when he was homeschooled, and still being able to spend lots of quality time with DS8 and DS5. I love that my older two boys have such a wonderful school to go to, only 10 mins walk from home. I love my home and the pretty, friendly town it's in.

Thank you so much! I feel a lot more confident now about rushing through it, and you've rather confirmed my fears about missing out whole chunks altogether. I think I'll try to focus on getting through the material while be alert to how much he's engaged with it. He really does enjoy math when we're doing something new and more challenging. Which iPad app do you use for telling the time? Both DS8 and DS5 love anything on the iPad, and DS8 would really benefit from some practice telling the time - sadly, he struggles with math a bit.

Ooh, be very careful around the 5 yo, I could tell you some tales about my DS5 when he got this over Christmas, but I don't want to scare you ...

:grouphug: We all had it over Christmas, it's really, really unpleasant. I'm only just now on top of all the bedding that had to be washed. I do hope it's all over quickly and that you're feeling much better soon.

I wonder if something has been lost in translation :001_smile:. I think I kind of get what she means, in that so much of the art, literature and music of western culture has been inspired over the years by Christianity. I'm not a Christian, but DH is and takes the boys to Church each week, and I'm very grateful as I think it adds to their education. Religion here is, I think, an awful lot gentler than in the US. There is no sense that your children are being indoctrinated, but a healthy atmosphere of enquiry. Both DS13 and DS11 have discussed Dawkins' books in Religious Education at school.

Last year I went through RS A and Singapore Earlybird with DS5, and we started RS B as his main math in October. We started at Lesson 24, as recommended, but he seems to be finding it much too easy. I've tried blasting through it as quickly and efficiently as we can, but he's now started rolling his eyes at a lot of the questions that come up, declaring "I'm NOT dumb, Mum!" Has anyone else had similar problems? As rushing through it doesn't seem to be helping, I'm wondering whether to actually miss out a whole chunk until we get to something he finds challenging, but I worry that we might miss out something vital that would cause problems later on. Any advice?

Ooh, I could have written that exact same paragraph!

Over Christmas we all had both the norovirus bug and a nasty cold that dragged on for around three weeks. Yesterday DS13 came home from school to say that a number of people from his form were off with flu. DH immediately suggested that we all have flu vaccines, which seemed an entirely rational response, given how much illness we've all endured just recently. And yet, I felt a really strong resistance to the suggestion. Maybe I'm just very stupid and irrational, but somehow having the flu seems more normal and natural than dragging us all along to the doctors for flu jabs. I may, of course, feel entirely differently about the matter if and when the flu catches up with us :tongue_smilie:.

DS11 started at our local secondary school in September after 3 years of homeschooling. He is loving every minute, doing well academically in what is an academically rigorous school, adoring all the extra opportunities for participating in sport, and is very popular with the other children in his class. I am now seriously considering sending DS5 and DS8 to school, even though I love homeschooling and they seem very happy. Around here at least, I think kids miss out on wonderful opportunities if they stay at home.

I'm sure this response will displease a lot of people, but I think it's worth asking: does homeschooling suit him? I ask because I know that DS13 would be incredibly depressed if he were homeschooled, he thrives in social situations and loves to be involved in lots of different activities. As well as being at school 7 hours every day he also has activities every evening for an hour or more and is out most weekends. Even DS11 seems so much more exuberant and enthusiastic about life since he started school in September. I really did try everything to make homeschool fun and exciting, with lots of outside activities, but he always seemed very bored and subdued. It's worth mentioning that it was DS11's choice to be homeschooled in the first place, I was always open to him going back to school whenever he wanted to. That's probably not what you wanted to hear, but, as I say, it's worth considering; I have very mixed feelings about homeschooling DS11 now, although at the time it seemed like the perfect education for him.

I like it! A lot. This just might save my life ... or that of one of my boys :glare:. I'm going to get started on typing out those ransoms right now. Thanks Chris :001_smile:.

Those examples sound like extremes, not balance. I do a lot of things that add absolutely nothing to my quality of life, that really bug me, in fact, but are necessary for the smooth running of our lives and to fulfil my obligations to my family. In return I get a couple of hours here, an afternoon there, to do things that are important to me. It's not either them or me, but a compromise; it's not perfect, but it works, and we're all mostly reasonably content with our lot. I can't quite remember the ages of your children, I do remember that you have quite a few more than I have, and I imagine that some of them are quite small - small and demanding! I think finding time to think about what you need gets easier as they get older - my youngest will be 6 yo in May. I'm also very lucky that I have a dh who understands that I'm not just a drudge, but a person with dreams and passions :tongue_smilie:.

I've only ever had positive comments about how close our family is. If anyone ever made a snarky comment I'd probably look at them with pity and move on. It doesn't need a response, it's their problem, not yours.