I didn't know what you were even talking about so I had to look it up. No, I don't remember ever learning about that. I went to public school in the 90s and early 2000s.

We used to live with our extended family more often, as well. Mothers, fathers, in laws, cousins, aunts, etc mostly lived nearby so you had help and advice when needed. You didn't need parenting books, you had your family. With today's nuclear families, many of which don't have any family nearby, they're on their own and we need help.

I would say that he would need to be the one to initiate divorce. The Bible says if the unbelieving spouse leaves, let him leave. As for remarrying, I would say no.

Go outside and explore nature and do some nature studies. Handbookofnaturestudy.com has some great ideas. Get a caterpillar kit and an any farm. Among the Meadow People and other similar books by Clara Pierson are really good for that age. Short chapters about animals and how they live. Let's Read and Find Out books are a hit with my kids, too. Get a bird house, bird feeders, etc and note which birds visit your yard. Look them up in the Burgess Bird Book and color a picture of them.

Starfall has some great math games on it.

I wish they had some kind of a sample page or sneak preview! I'm very interested for next year, I hope it comes out by then.

One other thing I'd encourage you to do is spend a few days and really PLAN out the year. Not day by day, but maybe week by week. That way you can check off as you go along but don't feel so tied to a daily check list. It really helped me this year.

They are still both very young and I don't even think your 6 year old is behind at all. Many homeschoolers don't start any academics until 6, anyways. What I would do.... Rod and Staff Math 2 for your 8 year old to really solidify the facts. XtraMath review every day. To cover spelling, copywork, and grammar (even though I don't really think grammar needs to be introduced until 4th or 5th grade, but anyways) I'd use Dictation Day By Day (it's public domain, so free). If you want to do history, look into the SOTW audio to pay in the car or maybe look into Veritas Press self paced history, both kids could do it together. Other than that I'd do Phonics Pathways and/ or Reading Pathways to work on reading fluency. She'll probably pick it up really quickly. And just read a lot of great books together! They are fine!

We put 3.5% down with an FHA loan just this past September. It was very easy. Including closing costs we paid about $11k on our $235k house.

I seriously laughed for 10 minutes after I read this. Lol!

I've had mine for several months and honestly, to me, it's just ok. I like it for cooking meat and rice. What I don't like about it is that you have to know exactly how long to cook it for or you have to depressurize it and start all over. And it doesn't "just" take 4 minutes to cook rice, it takes 4 minutes after the 10 minutes it takes to get the pressure high enough. So really, might as well cook it on the stove. And again, if something isn't quite cooked how you want it, you can't just take a peek like you can in a crock pot. Anyways, I like it and use it occasionally but I don't understand the love from others lol.

My 7 year old is like this and yes it is exhausting. There's a book called Your Seven Year Old, and reading it has really helped put her behavior in perspective. Yes, it is a phase and it will pass.

I'm reading The BFG by Roald Dahl to my girls and they are loving it.

Well this makes me feel a lot better. It seems like I've been teaching my DD7 to read for the longest time, over 2 years, and she's still not fluent. I don't know why I've been led to think that teaching reading should be.... faster? Lol. But this makes me think this us normalast. Thanks!

How long did it take your child to learn to read, from the time you started trying to teach your child to read (letter sounds and CVC words) until they were able to read a chapter book fluently? And what was the age range?

In the fall, I'll have a 2nd grader, Kindergartener, a 3.5 year old (who will be going to preschool), and a 1 year old. Yikes. Haha We'll probably just keep doing what we've been doing. I don't have a strict schedule and we school year round so that we can take breaks as needed. On the way to preschool drop off I'll have DD7 read to me from a reader. When we get home we'll do math (Rod and Staff 2) for about 30 minutes. We are doing MFW Adventures this year so we're doing the LA with that (Language Lessons for Today and Rod and Staff Spelling 2). That will probably take 20 minutes. Then Memory Work. Then I'll probably do math with my Ker. And a couple times a week we'll do Song School Spanish together. After all that I'm sure it'll be time to get the preschooler so we'll do that and I'll have her do a math game or listen to an audio book. Come home, eat lunch, put baby and 3 year old down for naps. After they are asleep we do history and literature read alouds and I have her read aloud to me. She is doing the Veritas Press self paced BI bible course, too, so she'll do that on the computer a couple times a week. Then I'll do AAR 1 with my Ker. After that is rest and free time. Any other readings we do will be at bed time. But basically, I'll try to do all the skill stuff during the morning.

We have had the same issues with mine. Usually the baby is whining, everyone is distracted, nobody wants to listen. Lol. I've resorted to reading to my 3 year old at his nap time and bedtime and I read to my 5 and 7 year olds when the little ones are napping and at bedtime. It's not ideal but I'm sure as they all get older we can change the timing a bit. My kids have really liked Mouse and the Motorcycle, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Pippi Longstocking, Matilda, and my girls loved Betsy Tacy.

It's all the "rod" verses in Proverbs that most Christians seem to latch onto and hold as Law. I've always found it strange myself. So they feel that it's the only way to discipline in a godly way. That, and a heavy emphasis on the "children obey your parents" verses. Interesting, though, that you don't know anyone Jewish who spanks. How do you think they interpret the Rod verses in Proverbs? I am Reformed so it has always troubled me how people that are so devoted to the Doctrines of Grace can usually be so heavy handed with their kids. I was spanked a lot as a kid... with belts, switches, open hands. I definitely believe I have been negatively affected by it. I struggle with deep depression, I'm aggressive, I have trouble controlling my anger.... All the bad side effects those studies say can happen. We try to use gentle and positive parenting with our kids.

These kinds of posts are all kinds of triggering for me. We are devout Christians and most of the other Christians we know are very punitive. I've heard GKGW and Raising Godly Tomatoes recommended at times but in my honest opinion, most Christian parenting books are so punitive and controlling that I've given up reading them. "Shepherding a Child's Heart" is recommended so much but it's just as bad. Use a "rod," spank infants and toddlers repeatedly until they obey, instant obedience, if a child is upset after you have a discipline session, spank them until they are sweet. I just don't believe it's God's heart at all for us to have that kind of punitive, adversarial relationship with our children. A good friends of mine has 7 children and she and her husband carry around a leather Rod to use on their kids whenever they disobey, talk back, etc, which just when they are around us is a lot. I just can't imagine doing that. I fell into the trap with my first when she was little of harsh spanking and instant obedience and I'm still trying to heal our relationship. Go figure she's the difficult one now that has a hard time handling her emotions. But when you know better, you do better, right?

2nd Grade MFW Adventures R&S Spelling R&S Math 2 Artistic Pursuits 1,2 Sing Song Spanish VP Self Paced Bible (Gen to Joshua) Kindergarten AAR 1 and maybe 2 HWOT R&S Math 1 Tagging along with big sister for everything else

23 when I had my first.

With a baby and crazy 3 year old in the house, right now our read aloud times are in the afternoon during nap time and at bedtime. I aim for an hour each. We listen to audio books in the car.

I would recommend Our 24 Family Ways. I flipped through it at a store the other day and it looks very simple but great.

We've been married almost 10 years and have only been on vacation to the beach about 3 times. We have 4 kids ages 7 and under, it's just not fun to travel much right now. Plus it's so expensive!

Yes, I get it. My last baby is turning 1 year old in a couple weeks. He's right at the edge of cruising and walking, it's so precious and sweet, and he still smells so good. I'm trying to soak it up all I can because I know this sweet little chubby baby is going to all but disappear soon. It does make me really sad. But then I'm glad we're in an age when it's easy to take pictures and videos effortlessly!