I have joked with my dh that if there is any post whose title is a yes or no question, the answer is no 90% of the time. Every once in a while, I want to be contrary and respond to yes or no questions with a one word answer based solely on the post title. :lol: I never have though.

The cover's different and the layout is less busy, but it looks pretty much the same, lol. I did have my kids young, so it wasn't that long ago. ;)

I don't know what counts as a "curriculum;" I tend to think of it as a package, a la Sonlight or History Odyssey for history, say, or RSO for science. Going with that definition then, for us: history, science, music appreciation/history, art appreciation/history, and literature are all done without a full curriculum. I may use pieces of a program as part of what we're doing (i.e., DD is using PLATO Life Science as a component of her bio studies this year, but it's not the only thing and not really even a spine). We do a lot of those things the WTM-way: spine plus supplements. If I was fluent in a modern foreign language, we would study that sans curriculum at least for the first few years. Alas, I am not, nor did my Latin studies 'stick,' so we use curricula in those areas.

I remember using this in junior high & high school. As a student, I found it somewhat tedious, but it was effective.

:iagree: Gluten is simply one component of many processed foods that is easy to identify, IMO. Giving up gluten will often result in giving up a lot of processed food!

Dd has 5 hours and 15 minutes on her schedule. By the time breaks, meals, and piano practice are included, she finishes around 2:30 (assuming nothing has interrupted; right now, for instance, homeschool soccer is on Thursdays from 1-3, so she'll be working from around 4-5 this afternoon). She has 30 minutes additional time for literature reading (she can choose when to do this), and she also practices trumpet for 30 minutes. Almost everything has 45 minutes alloted. Math is five days a week; language arts, history, science, and Latin are four days a week; logic is three days a week; music appreciation & art appreciation are one day a week each. Sometimes language arts does not get finished in one 45 minute block, and we work on it later.

:iagree: We don't do any schoolwork at our house on birthdays (any birthdays - mine is tomorrow, so the kids are excited!), BUT we go to most of our "outside" activities (i.e., dd has band tomorrow afternoon & a webinar before that). We did skip a longer activity on ds's birthday last year, but I had no commitment with it.

Exactly. I also try to make someone's joy solely about them - not "Oh, congratulations! I remember when I found out I was having a baby, I was so... blah blah blah." I have a friend who is pregnant, and posted on fb that she was sad, b/c her mother is living overseas right now, and won't be able to be at the birth. She had at least three "friends" chastise her, because after all, at least her mother was /alive/.

Not at this point, no. There was a time when my oldest was my only, ages 2/3/4, that we demurred on the point of school. "No, there's no preschool nearby that's a good fit at this time, but we do fun things and learn stuff," rather than get into the fact that we were going to homeschool. Once she was five, though, it would have been difficult at best to hide that we were homeschooling.

My kindergartener is done by lunch time if we start right at 8:30. Sometimes he's draggy, though, and that means a few books get pushed to right after lunch. We have breakfast from 8-8:30 & lunch is at 11:30, with a 45 minute break between 10-10:45. (In theory, 15 minutes of that is outdoor time, and 30 minutes of that is playing with his younger sister while the older one plays piano; if we're really behind, I do school with him between 10:15 & 10:45 as well). Sometimes he'll do one worksheet before breakfast. My fifth grader starts at 7, breaks at 8 for breakfast, 10 for outdoors + piano, 11:30 for lunch (another 30 minutes), and finishes by 2:30 more days than not. She has to do trumpet practice & literature reading between 2:30 & bedtime (30 minutes each).

Irish by birth, though. :)

A funny: for years, I would mix up Oscar Wilde & Oliver Wendell Holmes. I have no idea why! The Importance of Being Ernest is a wonderful play. And, as others mentioned, he was arrested and charged with whatever the phrase at the time was for homosexuality. An intriguing character. :)

Me! I am. I know a great deal of what we'll be doing, and I've started seriously evaluating options in a few areas. I've also thought about what we will and won't do outside the house. :leaving:

We're using Voyage level, all components. DD used Island & Town both this year. I loved it before; now I *really* love it. Essay Voyage alone is just... everything I could have asked for in a writing text. DD is doing some pages out of a diagramming workbook periodically & also Editor in Chief periodically (plus literature, of course).

I've often thought that what I need is a non-sectarian group. Too often the secular groups seem to be using 'secular' as a code for 'atheist,' which I am not, but the remainder of the groups use 'Christian' as a code for Christians of particular denominations with particular political beliefs (?!?), which again... I am not. It would be delightful to find a group that is truly inclusive.

I've often wished I could Just Stop Thinking. There's a quote from Riding in Cars With Boys that sums it up perfectly, albeit a bit with a side of offensiveness ;) - "And I just wish that I could be dumb. And then I wouldn't know better."

:iagree: I have had people say more explicitly to me, "I wish I as smart as you, I'm not smart enough to homeschool." I demur, thank them for the compliment, and then assure them that I believe they are selling themselves short. About 10% of the time, I will get more questions, as the person is truly doubtful but curious. The rest of the time, they smile, thank me, and we've had a nice passing of the bean dip that leaves both of us feeling better afterwards.

Week Eleven is in the bag - wahoo! :)

I'm a year-round baker, but autumn brings me to the oven even more often. Cooking in general. I tend to look at new cookbooks and try new recipes most often in the autumn. Cleaning is definitely an autumn thing for me. While we're in the south, I have a definite need to 'prepare the den' for 'hibernation.' I tend to turn even more inwards (a more introverted introvert? Eek!) and more reflective. My birthday is in the autumn, and in general I do my "new year's resolutions" at that time instead of around January 1.

That's definitely a good price - they're normally around $15.00 each. We've only used Colors from that grouping - we've also used Physics and a bit of Time. I like them. Most of the necessary supplies are included and they are simple enough for ds to grasp without being oversimplified and watered down.

I had a friend who lived nearby that had one child my middle's age, and two then-high school age kids. They've since moved away and I desperately miss having her nearby - I thought it was such a boon, to find someone who had BTDT. And now I'm ecstatic that my friends from high school are (at last) having children - I get to be the one who has BTDT! :)

I've only had them once, but yep - preceded a major stomach virus.

Dd's main writing is Essay Voyage. I don't let her pick one of the non-writing options at the end of the chapter. Sometimes we rewrite one or two so that it's applicable to history or science. If it's applicable to history, she does that instead of a history summary that week. She writes a history summary each week (exceptions as above) and an outline. She also outlines every other week from Science Matters, and most weeks for music appreciation. She writes a book summary every other week. She usually writes two or three outlines a week and two or three summaries or very short essays. My biggest goal is for her to consistently apply what she's learning in Essay Voyage in all of her writing assignments. I also want her to perfect her 1-point outlines.

:iagree: I can easily think of areas where I see a need for increased spending at some level, whether it's federal, state, or local (infrastructure!), but I would hate to unilaterally cut without knowing more details. For that matter, getting rid of duplicate programs could actually result in a net increase in funding for an agency, without the appropriations changing.

I think that they would understand the question in the strictest terms, but I'm not sure all 12 year olds have enough self awareness to KNOW their orientation. I think there are potentially plenty of kids who would not be sure or have a good sense of their orientation, gender identity, etc. by age 12. Goodness. I'd hate to think we all have to be that self-aware that early. Sure, there's a lot of openness on some level, but there are also a lot of pressures for kids to keep things at a subconscious level.