Church leadership is full of extroverts who don't understand introverts. That is the one place I don't feel like I fit in. Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk

I don't think people have a problem with me. But I might be so wrapped up in my own head that I don't notice.

Yes, this is what he meant. He said it's silly to buy skim milk because for the same price you can get whole and add water and stretch your milk. My dad argues about anything and everything though.

I brush and floss when I wake up. I used to brush at night as well, but my dh never brushed at night, unless he was wanting to clean up nice for me, and he never got cavities, ever. I'd have a few cavities every year, so I gave up brushing at night, and lo and behold, no more cavities for me. Not one in 15 years. I still think it's kind of gross, but it works for me, so I stick with once a day. And I don't have a problem with eating after brushing in the morning. Nothing tastes gross. Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk

My father argued with me once that skim milk was really whole milk that had been watered down.

I've used SL for 8 years. I've tried their LA in the past, and it just never worked for us, mostly because my kids would be all over the place in ability level. However, I bought LA for grade 2 readers a few weeks ago for my middle dd, and it's working beautifully! I really like the changes. The writing seems perfect. It's not jumping around each day. We stay on one topic and it coordinates with the grammar. My middle dd is almost 9. She's got great penmanship, but she struggles with reading, comprehension, and writing. She's fine with dictation, but she needs lots of prompting when asked to come up with stuff to write. This level is a little too easy for her, but I wanted to give her a solid base in word-study, writing, and phonics, and it's fitting the bill nicely. I am using all the extra workbooks. I also started using LA E for my older two children who are doing Core E. We are only in week 7, and it's the LA from the last revision 2009?maybe (so not the 2012 one that is sold with the Core E IG) . We are liking this as well. In order to be successful with the writing, we used IEW before this and that has helped me to help them know how to start on their writing assignments. We do the Grammar Ace as well. It's a little babyish for my kids ages, so we just do the workbook, not all the little activities it suggests. We do not use their spelling or vocabulary recommendations.

My mother made me open a checking account when I turned 16 and started driving. She gave me a monthly allowance of $130 (in 1993). It broke down like $40 for gas, $40 for my regular allowance for fun stuff or whatever, and $50 for clothes. She used to spend about $200 per season on clothes for me and she quit doing that totally. If I needed new socks, a bra, or a dress, I had to buy it myself. I had to learn to save it up if I needed. I borrowed a dress for my prom because I was so lousy at saving!! It taught me how to keep a checking account balanced. When I worked in the summer, I had someplace to put my money. I really thought it was ideal. They did pay for my car insurance. I'm not looking forward to that with my own kiddos!

My in-laws are wonderful people, and my only regret this year is that I didn't get to spend much time with them.

The years I want presents, I make a list of lots of things that I want. I tell dh to take the kids shopping and let them all pick out something from the list. I give him a budget and make sure that my list can be bought with it. Usually, I'd rather not spend the money though!

That's crazy late!

How do you guys know your UPS guy? They ring the doorbell and they are back in their truck driving away before I get to the door!

:lol: I have no idea what the book was even about, but I'm guessing the wine was more stimulating than the book discussion.

I didn't get past chapter 2. :ack2:

Me too! That was my worst book this year. I saw the movie a few years ago, and the book offered absolutely no extra information or character or plot development.

I did a trial run of part of the morning schedule today. I did: Et works with mommy - AAR prelevel 1 and Math - 30 min Em works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min Mommy reads aloud to youngest three - 1 hour - 30 minutes Jo works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min This took me from 9am to 11am. Yay! My time estimates were pretty accurate. I had to cut some thing short and Em and Jo worked on their own on a few things.

Thanks everyone for the replies!!! :grouphug: I want to clarify that this is my proposed schedule for January. I haven't actually done it yet, so no doubt it will need tweaking. I've never been much of a schedule follower. We usually do the things on my schedule in a random fashion, with some things getting neglected for weeks and others happening more regularly. I estimated time based on what we've done in the past when we've done those subjects. Also to clarify: History is only 4 days a week. Science is technically independent work for my oldest, but this isn't working out too well. for the others, it just hasn't been getting done this fall. The enrichment activities have never been done consistently. I'm trying to get more structured and actually do them! Mostly I don't do this because I usually need time to myself at the end of the day. It's about all I have in me to read one Bible story and lead them in a prayer. Yes, I am trying to figure out how to rework this. Since Sept, Fridays have been our enrichment days and we don't do our regular work unless we got behind in something. I think we may keep that. Well, I do a read-aloud so that might work to do at lunch, but I am also intending to drop the younger kids history and science curriculum in favor of reading from history and science picture books. They would probably rather sit with me and look at the pictures for this, so I need to have at least 30 minutes to do this reading. It doesn't have to be an hour though. This is what we've been doing, but since about mid-Oct we've had other obligations on Fridays (just random stuff), but I think we will go back to our M-Th schedule and use Fridays for catch-up and enrichment. Thanks for the reminder. Bible: I have tried so many times to do Bible with everyone. It doesn't work. My younger two and my older two are just light years from each other. It's always awkward when I try to do them all together. Yes, I am rethinking Sonlight for next year. We are in the middle of the American history cycle though, and I don't want to just drop it. I am dropping Sonlight for my youngers for now. I have to figure out something else that will work for all of us or at least let the older ones be more independent. Science is so hard! I feel like it needs teacher attention to impart any truly useful knowledge, and yet when to find the time!

The 3rd grader works on math and reading independently while I work with the other two, so she's doing more than 30 minutes. I believe that reading aloud is an important part of language development. It's not optional for my younger kids. My 3rd grader is a struggling reader and she needs it toi. We do listen to audiobooks in the car, but we are not in rhe car enough for that to be our main source. I am trying to find ways to cut down my time spent at reading aloud. But that is my favorite part of homeschooling!

I think my beliefs line up with my methods. BUT my energy and motivation levels are inadequate for what I want to do! I'm trying to remedy that, but for now, it is what it is.

Yes, they have a sheet. But sometimes I need to teach their grammar lesson or explain their writing assignment. It's not a daily thing.

I'm not a rigid enough homeschooler for a block schedule to work.

*amended schedule shows what I took out in red and what I added in bold. (How come we don't have strike through?) I feel like a slave to my children's education. If I am doing what I think I should be doing, I am working all day with no breaks. What I think I should be doing and what I want to be doing, are not jiving. I never thought homeschooling would be an 8 hour day for me. Here's the schedule I've been working on: MORNING- Work with younger kids Up, dress, chores, breakfast Assign oldest two Independent work and get them started. 10 min Bible with youngest three (Et, Em, Jo) - 15 min Et works with mommy - AAR prelevel 1 and Math - 30 min Em works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min Mommy reads aloud to youngest three - 1 hour - 30 minutes Jo works with mommy - Reading, Writing, and Math - 30 min History/Geography work for youngest three if time permits - up to 1 hour AFTERNOON- Work with older kids Lunch and clean up - 45 min Go over oldest two (L and J) independent work - 30 min with each Bible with L and J - review reading and bible study - 20 min Sonlight Core E History, Maps and Timeline with L and J - 45 min Enrichment Activity with all: M-Science, T-Hymns, W-Poetry, Th-Science, F-Art - 1 hour move to Fridays Read-Aloud to L and J - 30 min If you add up all those minutes, it's 7 hour and 45 minutes! That's not including transition time and unexpected interruptions. If I start at 8:30 AM (and I haven't gotten up before 8:00 in months!), then I can finish all this by 5:00. Twice a week I have to be out the door by 4:00 to take kids to gymnastics. I can do the less time consuming enrichment stuff on those days. I've spent the last three weeks on vacation, and I'm trying to plan for January. I have no idea how I am going to sustain this amount of work. I'm not a go-getter. I don't have endless energy or run great on 4 hours of sleep. I don't feel that it's reasonable for *me* to routinely accomplish this kind of day, and yet I can't see where anything can give. :confused:

I'm considering using this next year for my 8th and 6th graders. We have always used SL and we are doing Core E this year. Interested in hearing the other responses.

I'm going through Epsilon for the second time, and I think it's worth pushing through.

I use Fridays to do our regular work in a more interesting way. Like for writing, we do a family journal. We do art on this day. We might do some math games instead of worksheets. I take the weekend off. I try not to schedule anything on weekends. If we need to just hang out and play, we do that. We try to get our weekend chores done Sat morning and then we are free until Monday. When school is over for the day, it's free time for the kids. We do chores in the morning before school It helps them get their work done if they know that their play time is coming. I don't stress about formal sit-down meals. We do that sometimes, but if everyone just grabs something, that's okay too. We're together all day, every day. We don't need the formal family dinner to reconnect.

I call my children by their public school grade level based on age, regardless of ability. I intend to evaluate them at the beginning of high school. If I don't think they can perform to my standards for 9th grade, then I will hold them back. I figure by that time, they will have caught up if they were going to. If they haven't, then we can spend a year remediating.