:001_huh: Can you imagine your water breaking while test driving vans!:001_huh: I guess you could get it for a discount after that.;) When my water broke my husband insisted that we leave for the hospital immediately before any contractions began so we did, and it was a good thing too. The baby was born rather quickly. All I remember is screaming "No, you don't have time to do bloodwork!!!! Get you gloves and gown on doctor!!!! GET THE SHOULDER OUT!!!" She came out with her shoulders front to back rather than side to side. I sure don't reccommend that!

Do you have Val's soap where you are. It is basically a soap with only 3 ingredients. It is almost entirely olive oil so it tends to mosturize. Less ingredients is better.

Laws are a difficult thing. They often fail to get to the heart of the matter. Jesus said that the commandment that sums up all of the laws is simply to love your neighbour as you love yourself.

I think it is great to let her follow her dreams. As parents, letting go of our plans for our children's lives is not easy but it seems to me that our kids need to have the oppurtunity to excel in the area that they are gifted. Your accademic daughter was able to excel in her gifting and I think your other daughter's spiritual giftings are no less marvelous! I doubt that your daughter will look back and regret getting her GED instead of graduating because if she is able to fulfill her dreams and pursue her passions she will be happy. On a side note, I hated high school and would have done anything to have shortened the time.;)

I didn't read all of the posts so forgive me if this has already been mentioned. I think that the correlation of back to sleep and SIDS related deaths could be explained by other means. The study did not take place in a vacume and I think there were major cultural shifts occuring at during the same years such as a decrease in parents smoking around their babies and possibly a decrease in mother's drinking alcohol while BFing. It seems to me that the SIDS rate began to decrease even before the education campaigns began.

I think it is more the mega churches that go prosperity. Joel Osteen is one. My sister attended a mega church in Singapore that was also blatantly prosperity focused. I think they raised 21 million dollars in 24 hours for the new church building fund!!! The pastor's salary is $500,000 yearly.

I really do agree with you on this as far as people needing a place to heal from a legalistic church or people needing to heal from the harm of an overly liberal church. Sometimes it really does help to find a church with a different perspective but I do think that all perspectives should be in line with the true gospel.

Thank-you for this post. :)

:iagree: I guess it is hard not to interpret things as a [hu]man because that is just what we are. Thank-you again for all your ideas. I am going to check out some of these suggestions. I have heard good things about the book Justification and Regeneration by Charles Leiter. Anyone read this? Anyone here check out Calvary Chapel churches and would be willing to share their experiences?

So I think I am nearly to the point of convincing my husband that we just absolutely can't live without a dog and I'm sure there are a lot of happy dog families on this board so... what breed of dog would you recommend? My husband wants a dog that doesn't smell or shed and isn't too big and I have allergies so I'm sure that narrows the field. I would really like a dog that loves kids and I was thinking maybe a mid-sized dog. Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated!

I really hear all of you about the 'God's wrath' thing. I was never taught anything about this dimension of God but then comes the question- what was in the cup that Jesus drank on the cross? When Jesus pleaded in the garden three times for his father to take the cup away from him and each time he also resigned "not my will but yours be done"- what was he asking for God to take from him. Did he sweat drops of blood because her was afraid of death? I don't think so. It was the cup of God's wrath. Jesus was the mediator between us and God and he drank the cup of God's wrath that was OURS in order that God's justice be satisfied and we would be reconciled to God. So many churches malign the character of God by only preaching a two dimensional picture of God. He is the Lion and the Lamb. He is both just and merciful. How could God be just and at the same time let wrong go unpunished? The word wrath is mentioned 181 times in the Bible and many of those times it is refereing to God's wrath. If the church were to preach from the Word how could they avoid teaching on the wrath of God- especially in reference to the gospel? John 3:36 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

Thank-you all for your words of encouragement! I typed a long response yesterday but it was somehow lost. Although while I was typing things became clearer to me as sometimes occurs while typing everything out. I think that churches that preach self-improvement messages are really, not to put it too srongly I hope, preaching an anti-gospel. The foundation of the gospel is man's lostness. The fact that no matter how much effort we used to free ourselves or find ourselves or improve ourselves, we would still be hopelessly lost. The entire Old Testament establishes that this is true. It also shows us that salvation is not through the law but through faith (I love reading the recap in Hebrews 11). We see in the New Testament that it is by grace that we have been saved, and that, through faith not through self improvement. Ephesians 2:8-9 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. If a church is afraid to approach the issue of sin and man's complete and utter lostness what foundation do they have to preach the gospel? We have been saved from the wrath of God but many churches would never think of preaching on the wrath of God. So if they do actually get to preaching a sort of gospel it is incomplete and doesn't make sense. We end up thinking that we really are okay and we don't need salvation. When I was younger and going to Christian school I remember thinking that it was a waste for Jesus to die because we really don't need to be saved. So how can a church that preaches "your best life now" be preaching the gospel? Likewise, how can good fruit come from a church that is not preaching the gospel?

I believe in biblical Christianity but I can't find any churches that seem to belive and teach the same. The church mission statement says they do, and they may, but I just don't see it in practice. So many churches around here have gone the 'seeker sensitive' route which (can I be cynical here for a moment) translates into churches full of unsaved people (with a false sense of assurance) and where the real flock is starving from lack of spiritual food. Two things that have really been bothering me: The first is when I found out about the seperation of an awesome homeschooling couple that have a number of kids (two graduated as well as some still homeschooling -youngest in grade 4). They go to the local seeker sensitive church where many homeschooling families attend. We tried out this church for 3 weeks until I could bear it no longer. The preaching was watery at best and to avoid the mention of 'sin' the preacher had to do some fancy footwork and eventually ended up calling it 'distraction.' This church runs all sorts of programs such as 'financial peace university' where I would occasionaly see this couple in the hallway as I picked up my daugher from youth group (which was just games and snacks). I noticed that though the husband was always warm and friendly before, he now seemed really stand-offish. The last time I saw them I asked her how things were going and she was on the brink of tears as she said things were going fine while he was even more stand-offish and was standing a couple meters away from her and would not even make brief eye contact. A week or so later I found out that they had seperated. These people were pillars of the Christian homeschool community. I believe that if this church that they attended faithfully, every week (and evenings as well) were faithful to preach the gospel they would have had a chance- and much more than a chance. Why do churches want to discard the gospel in order to be 'seeker sensitive.' If any 'seeker' does wander into the church how would they ever get saved without the gospel being preached. They may as well go to an Ekhart Tolle semanar for pete's sake!! I once heard a preacher say that the only seeker is the Holy Spirit and if you want to be seeker sensitive then be sensitive to him and I would agree! I have gone to church all my life as well as to a Christian school from grades 2-12 and still I didn't really know the gospel until I was 30 and happened onto a Paul Washer sermon on a friends ipod. The second thing that has been bothering me is our church attendance. We have been trying out a different local church (after going nowhere for a while) and have really been on the fence about it. The people there are wonderful and very commited to eachother and the church but I am running into the same problem with the sermons being rather lite. The thing that really had me concerned is the change in my 5 year old daughter. She is the most spiritually sensitive child I have ever run across. I attribute it to the fact that she was never supposed to live (according to the doctors) and, as a preemie, had many near death experiences. We prayed non-stop for her and I think that due to all that prayer and the fact that all she had was Jesus, she has a real deep love for him. The first week we went to this church I asked her how Sunday school was and she emphatically told me "We did not talk about Jesus!" which she repeated about 10 times on the drive home. The next week was the same- "We didn't talk about Jesus" and she only repeated it 5 times on the way home. The third week and fourth week- same, just with less emphasis. Now (after 3 months) if I ask her how Sunday school was she just says "We made this" and thrusts a craft at me. It was only on reflection that I realized that she used to corner everybody and quiz them on their relationship with Jesus and what heaven is like and if they want to go to heaven to be with Jesus and now she doesn't do that anymore. In fact she doesn't talk about God even a fraction of the amount she used to. I know that it has been said that sending some kids to school makes them dumber and I wonder if sending some kids to Sunday school spititually dumbs them down? So this is a bit of a rant and a bit of a "what to do?" What do you guys think?

I highly reccommend the Successful Family Homeschool Handbook by the Moores. I know it is older but it sure has a lot of statistics on how homescholers fare. I would also talk about the non-academic reasons for homeschooling. The heart of the matter.

With us it seems always to be a work in progress with some backsliding here and there. The best way to stay motivated is to read a book about why you are needing to change your diet or, better yet, subscribe to a health website such as mercola.com where they send you daily healthy living emails. Just whatever you do stay away from aspertame. It produced harrowing results in rat studies (tumors, skin melting off, nasty birth defects etc...). The really frightening thing is that my friends sister, who drinks far too much aspertame, has been developing the exact same results that were seen in the rat study. She has developed many tumors in her abdomen and her skin is beginning to peel (all the way through the dermis). She drinks about 2L of diet soda a day.

I don't think we have done a full year of school yet. Every year I have some reason such as being pregnant with morning sickness or having a baby (repeat the process a few times). The year I was in the hospital for 2 months and had a baby who was in the NICU for 4 mo we didn't get a whole lot done. Life and living is far more important than school. :grouphug:

I feel this way too sometimes but then I remind myself why I am homeschooling. Really, in the end, accademics will come. A longish story... I was a really poor student in high school. I just didn't care and so I failed math every year for a few years and had to take it in summer school every year. In summer school everybody passes as long as they show up so when I enrolled in first year university math there were some, er, gaps. My teacher was flabergasted that I didn't know how to calculate the perimeter of a rectangle. He kept on saying "PERI...METER- AROUND THE EDGE!!" and I thought okay so I have to know what this measures around the edge- but how do I figure that out (all of the sides were labled). You get the picture. It was a revelation to me that in algebra you could subtract or add the same number to both sides to balance an equasion. I had no idea. Anyway my math teacher told me that only 40% of the students who take this class pass and that I should drop out. I decided instead to take a math book out of the library and learn what I needed to know in order to pass the class. It was a lot of work but I was motivated and ended up with a B+. Of course I probably could have done well in math all through high school but I was not motivated. I really feel that when students are motivated they will move mountains and learn things you never thought was possible but until then...grrr:glare:. Accademics will come when they are needed. It won't be the end of the world if my child suddenly decides on a career path only to discover that they have to upgrade and work hard for what they want. I hope this takes some of the pressure off. Just because we homeschool doesn't mean we have to be flawless accademically. I would rather excel in realtionship with my kids and have them know how loved and precious they are to me. Kinda reminds me of that kid in "Dead Poet's Society".

I spend a lot of time trying to order my day in such a way that I don't have to spend much time standing in lines. I must have not learned my lessons well in school.:001_huh:

A good way to teach you kids to do chores is to do them alongside the kids. At my house it really requires a lot of this before I could ask them to do a task on their own. My 7 year old son can now fold a number of loads of laundry and put it away on his own (of course he can't put the pants on the pant hangars because they are the pinch type and he is not strong enough so he just lays them on my bed). I think it is important to work alongside them because then you really know what they are capable of and what they are just trying to get out of (such as the pant hangars). Also, the kids have the oppourtunity to see that you are working as a team and not just handing them the work for your own convenience. Eventually they will be confident enough to help out on their own. My younger child, on the other hand, is really difficult to keep on task therefore I need to be in the room giving her small instructions the entire time. I will tell her to put all the ponies away. After that task is completed I will ask her to put all the books away etc... It is a long and painful process but if I don't guide her step by step she will just lay on the floor while my son cleans everything and I fear that she will develop bad habits this way. I think a chart makes things more routine but may not allow the kids to gain the ability of seeing what needs to be done. Though a chart is great for developing daily disciplines.

This is my struggle exactly. I have 9th, 3rd and 1st graders as well as a toddler to make things exciting. This year I am trying to work with my oldest more while giving the younger kids some freedom. I have never been fond of using websites to school but now I am finding that my kids (especially my first grader who needs LOTS of reinforcement) do really well with computer based learning. My 1st grader uses reading eggs and it has really improved her attitude toward reading as well as her reading ability in just 7 days! Both of my younger ones are using math whizz for math and are doing better because they actually do it (a lot). Really, when kids are young they don't have to accomplish too much to be able to meet learning outcomes. We listen to the Story of the World CD's as well as many other audio books too. I am finding that my older child needs more attention this year to give her that final push of encouragement toward independance. Whatever your situation is I think that a previous poster had good advice when they said to choose two main goals per child and don't sweat the rest.

Good for you guys!! I'm glad to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

I just stumbled across your post and was SO glad to see that I am not all alone. I could have written your post, but with different life circumstances. In the middle of grade 8 I found myself freaking out about how far behind my daughter had become. We were using MUS as well and we also ended up stalling in Epsilon. Strangely, a learning consultant at my child's school said that she found that students can often get behind particularily while using MUS. The reason she gave for this was that the students don't do math consistantly enough which begs the question, why MUS and not other math curricula?:confused: I am not good at forcing math and so I ended up putting my daughter into Kumon for 5 mo. (September is the last month and my daughter is counting down the moments). She hated Kumon but it really was great to encourage mastery as well as take the load off my shoulders (in Canada it is $125/mo and you can request as much math as you want i.e. 30min./day or 4 hours/day). They started her in level A-addition to build up her confidence and she is now in level E-fractions. She has absolute mastery of her facts and can now rattle of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division facts in her sleep. Now we are playing catch up. I bought TT6 and the plan is to do TT6, TT7 and hopefully TT8 this year. We will see how it goes. Your post really encouraged me so Thank-you so much for posting!!!:thumbup: PS How is math going for you guys now?

How would one go about gettting hooked up with an online co-op?

I agree. The most hearbreaking thing in the Bible is the verse that asks- when the son of man comes back will he find faith on the earth? <---That is the kind of place we are living in. I really think you can love people caught up in any sin and you can fear for them.

:iagree:What a great post.