I do agree with you on that. Not a fan at all, but I don't wish ill on them. (not saying you do)

:iagree: What is with all the annoyance/hatred of the Duggards? Why are so many rooting for their failures to be exploited?

I hate it when shows do that! In the first season (I think!) when Josh is getting engaged, they said it's up to their kids to decide what they will do about courting and kissing and whatnot. They talked a lot about allowing their children to decide for themselves when they are older what they will do.

It seems like she is saying that she wants her parents to move, so she can live on the farm with the other family. Ouch!! Ouch. She really didn't mean it that way I am sure. We sort of have this same situation. We jokingly call the other family the fun parents. It's s easy for kids to see the fun and not see the reality. The grass is always greener... Being with friends seems like a perfect thing, but even too much time with your best friend can get annoying just like being with family.

I think this is key. Most of the time, you really have to invite people over to get invited over. Sometimes you have to do it first, and sometimes you have to reciprocate in order for the invites to continue. People can feel like you really don't like them - want to be their friend if you don't invite them over. It's the same as the way you are feeling. When we lived in a house that was better for entertaining - larger main area, we had a lot of people over, and were always getting invited to other people's home. Once we moved to a house that wasn't so great, we didn't have a lot of people over, and we stopped getting invited over. We didn't move far, and we were still in the same groups of people. But it is hard to have people over here. The same people stopped inviting us. I do think it can be additionally hard to invite over a pastor. Our pastor has everyone over at least once - it really breaks the ice and helps you get to know them. He has more invites than he can keep up with. So I would say take the time to invite over some friends - even if you don't have them to the house. Maybe you can host a picnic at a park or somewhere.

Yep - I agree with croup.

It could be a virus. My ds had that.

I think it's one of those things that some kids do well and some don't. But I think that most kids do this naturally until someone segments things into subjects for them. I don't think they struggle with it unless they are forced to. In my house, we have a lot of integration of subjects because that is classical. We don't really have many subjects at all. When someone asks, we have to think long and hard about our "subjects" because they are so integrated they aren't easily separated, or they are group so differently than traditional subject. I think it's natural for kids to connect things, but I think are often trained away from that by a traditional school approach. Does that make sense?

No! We homeschool for a lot more reasons than lack of a great school. Even a great school isn't as good as homeschooling for our family.

I agree with finding something you can do someone else until you discover a passion of your own to dig into. Find some volunteer opportunities for you and the kids - nursing home, animal shelter, do a food drive for the food bank, or something like that. You could send cards to people in the hospital or nursing home. You don't really need names. You can send them and have the hospital deliver them to whomever needs it. There are a lot of little things you can do that would really brighten someones day. One time, someone delivered a card and some crazy gifts just to cheer me up. It was cheap silly things - bubbles, candy, crazy glasses....just things to make me laugh. They didn't spend more than $5. But it was fun. I still have no idea who did it. You can do this for someone you don't know. You can take flowers, plant or something to a neighbor. My kids and I love to go letterboxing. It's just something different to do.

It depends... If their financial situation is we can't afford a manicure and Starbucks or we are thinking about cutting the cable and letting the cell phone go, no I don't think the child needs to contribute much if anything. But if it's we aren't sure we can buy groceries or keep the heat on, absolutely he should contribute. It's ridiculous for a child to have an ipad if the family can't eat. I would assume that if he's saving for an ipad then there is plenty to eat and they are able to pay the bills.

They are supposed to be available in the spring. The set for Foundations will be released all at once. I am not sure when the expansion packs will be available.

And the CC cards are much more comprehensive and expandable!! They are amazing!!! I am choosing to split my family because I want to use the new ones, but my older 2 already have the other memorized! So just my younger ones will do the new one.

The new cards are being phased in over the next 3 or 4 years. So in our program anyone a certain age and up will stay on the VP cards. I think it's anyone 3rd grade and up will use VP for the rest of their years in CC. Talk to you director about not switching over right now. We will essentially have 2 versions being used at our community until 2015 (I think) which is the official switch over time. Some families will be split, but there is a plan in place for them too. PM me if you more explanation on that. Also they have a great resell value.

:iagree:

Yep. It wasn't a good book. It seemed to me simply to be an argument against all the other books out there. She spent far more of the book saying what was wrong with all the others in the classical world than she did telling you what to do. Or at least it felt that way when I was reading it. The writing wasn't all that good either. She doesn't back up her opinions with research or sources. She doesn't explain things - classical education or who people are. It's seems to be written to parents who already know all about classical education which is fine. You have to know all about classical education to follow this book. But if you know about classical education there is no reason to read this book. It didn't offer anything different. It was either a repeat or a criticism of every other book out there. I see the reason to read a lot of different books/ideas/approaches, but this one book was a waste of time. There were some good ideas in the book, but they weren't hers. None of it was new information. Since it was clearly geared to those in the know about classical education, she could have at least added something different to it.

It's worth it! We use it every day. My kids use the online tutorials everyday, and I put the mp3 files on mp3 players for them to use. There is a forum for idea sharing. And the file sharing with files you can download are great. For$ 6 a month try it for a month.

Are you on the CC connected community?

Well maybe that is at the root of all these problems. Maybe religious extremists wouldn't be that way if their mothers hadn't put them on the bus at 2. Or maybe starving children are only starving because their mothers aren't there. Any maybe if mothers never took breaks there would be no war. :lol: I am being sarcastic here....:tongue_smilie: I don't know I still don't even understand why a mother is on the bus with her 2 year old. I mean does he go to preschool on the bus (other replies would suggest there are buses for toddlers.) And she rides with him? How does she get home? Does the bus take her back? Why not just take him herself? Or stay home? The entire thing confuses me...I hate that facebook status pick up in the middle of something... Maybe that is why I don't like facebook. I notice more poeple posting that way on forums. They don't share the background or the lead up - just bam. and you left going huh??

iWe have Carons in our family too. I prefer having the first name first because it's a pain when you use a middle name first. My sister did this, and it's been a royal pain for my niece. But I don't love the way Ann Caron sounds. But I wouldn't put it in the middle and then use it as a first name. If I had to use both those names, I would probably add another name. And so it would be Ann Something Caron... Not sure what the something would be.

Email! It's required. If you opt out of email, then they have to find someone to keep them up to speed on what's going on.

Someone should ask him that....

Sounds normal to me. In our experience, we were the ones who were expected to know where the connections where. And if you needed wire run, you had to hire someone else or do it yourself. The cable companies only ran the wires to the house. What was in the house was our responsibility. The way he did it actually seems like more work. Cable company customer service is always pain! If you aren't happy, definitely complain. Not saying it's okay and you should live with it, but it's normal. We complained by ditching the cable.

:bigear:

:iagree: While the situations are different, I agree that both come down to personal responsibility. She spilled it. It's tragic, but I just don't how it's McDonald's fault. The aunt tripped - that was her fault. It's like the people who sued Kellogg because their unattended pop tart started a fire when they left the house for 10 minutes.