When our twins were about a month old, we were followed around a Walmart by a woman who insisted that our two babies were not twins. I'm not sure why it was so important to her to be right, but she kept it up for about twenty minutes. I'm generally polite to just about everyone, but I finally lost it with her.

So far, we've only used a school name for discount cards and to get my son a printed shirt so it hasn't mattered that ds named our school after one of our dogs: Luna Academy. This discussion has made me reconsider. :) I think we'll make a discreet change to Streetname High School. Our corner of the subdivision uses classic authors as street names (e.g. Keats, Shelley, Poe), so I think it will work.

I wouldn't let the homeschool regs in NY intimidate you, as they're really not that bad. I freaked out when I first read them before we moved here, but in actual practice it's been a very easy and simple to homeschool in NY. However, I'm still a west coast girl at heart so I'd pick SF just because. :)

With respect, different regions in Canada *also* feel distinctly different. I've travelled coast to coast several times, and have lived in British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Ontario. Each one has a distinct feel and culture; life in PEI is very different in feel than life in BC even though both are coastal, for example. I've also lived in different regions of the US after marrying an American: Southern California, South Carolina, New England, Midwest, and now New York. Both countries have a similar level of regional diversity, in my experience. I'd agree that Canadians don't really talk about being proud of living in a particular region. The only place I've encountered that was in Quebec, and it had a lot to do with preserving Francophone culture and language.

Glad to see your faith has helped you be a kinder, gentler person. And yes, that's sarcasm.

Bear in mind that my kids are older than yours are, but I try not to put too many restrictions or rules onto their summer reading. My goals with summer reading are to encourage my sons to read more, to expose them to good literature, and (for two of my kids) to supplement what they do in public school. We read together as a family every day in summer, and I try to make it a treat. Everyone gets settled with a beverage of choice, snuggles in with our dogs and reads together for about an hour. It's been a big hit here. Sometimes I make cookies, or we have a theme week. I want them to read for the joy of reading, helped along with subtle bribery when needed. If I put conditions on to what my kids could read, it would cease being fun for them and I'd expect some resistance. In your case, I think I would offer incentives for picking harder books/nonfiction, etc. instead of making it required. Your kids may do better with firmer limits than mine though - mine tend to rebel against authority a bit. No idea where they got that from. :D

My ds is going to start French this year for 9th grade, and I decided to go with Bien Dit! Level 1. The publisher has just recently changed how they sell to homeschoolers, and now you can buy directly from a list of retailers instead of having to contact one of their homeschool reps (they got rid of the homeschool reps at the end of May, which saddens me because mine was wonderful). I don't have the list handy, but I remember CBD and Rainbow being a couple of their vendors. I don't know if they still offer this package, but I bought a "Homeschool Bundle" which consists of a hardcover student book, online teacher book, and a one-year subscription to the book's website online. The site has audio/video for each chapter, detailed lesson plans, an interactive student workbook and reader, printable worksheets, and tons of other resources. The interface is a bit clunky so expect to spend some time exploring what is out there. I paid $75 for the package, but I think it's a bit more expensive now that the reps don't have 20% off codes to hand out. I'll supplement with French in Action videos, Duolingo, and some review books I got from Amazon. I took years of French in school, but it's definitely rusty. My mom is a native speaker, so I'm hoping to set up weekly Skype sessions with her/

Oldest ds is going to a leadership camp with Air Force JROTC, then starting to prep for the SAT in fall and continuing to work on his fitness goals. One twin has a four-week summer program that's mandatory for the P-Tech academy he's starting at in September, and the second twin will work on a study skills course while his brother is off at school. He's also taking a programming class that runs through July and will likely choose to start another programming class right afterwards. Each kid is expected to read throughout the summer, from a list of books we work together to choose. We also do a lot of fun, non-academic stuff through the summer - cooking, water fights, movie marathons, computer gaming as a family, etc.

On Sunday I paid $1.39/dozen at Aldi in the Hudson Valley, New York. That's a bit lower than they were a couple of weeks ago.

How can you tell she's already gone? She posted a flounce of near-epic proportions, then returned to post in the thread less than a day later. If what you meant by the quote is, "she's not listening," then I agree.

Yes, Lone Pine is considered a high school credit.

Wow, that sure was a huge wall o' text for someone who claims we'd "be hard pressed to find a person who cares less about people agreeing with her." The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Have you missed that there are board members who are trans themselves, or who have children/siblings/spouses who are? You are comparing their experiences to a "break with reality" and likening being trans to being a paranoid schizophrenic. You're not being rude to Caitlyn Jenner, a public figure; you're being rude to other members of this public board.

Certainly. And others have the right to post their opinion of her manners, or lack thereof.

What a horrid thing to say, especially when a trans member of this board posted only a couple of posts above yours. Not much else I can say without getting myself banned, so I'll leave it at that.

I use ebooks extensively in our homeschool, but felt bombarded by how many darn emails I got about this sale. Several companies sent too.many.messages all by themselves, without seeming to consider that all their friends/affiliates/blogging buddies were also sending too.many.messages. On several days I had more than a dozen emails about this sale!. I did peruse the sale briefly, but there wasn't much that was useful to me that I didn't already own. A few things would have been nice-to-haves, but I was annoyed enough by the email offensive over the last couple of weeks that I decided not to order at all. I was happy to realize that the stupid sale was over and I might have peace in my email inbox, when lo and behold - "We're extending this super duper special never equalled sale for just ONE more day, just in case you missed it!" Good grief.

My ds says he spends about an hour a day most weekdays. It's definitely a time commitment. However, I agree with the poster who said that this kind of rigorous class reaped benefits in other areas. My ds struggled with the workload and the difficulty of the quizzes early in the year (to the point of wanting to quit and being very upset), but now he handles the workload and deadlines easily. The self-discipline he's learned from Latin has also been applied to his other subjects.

We also went the Getting Started With Latin (7th) > Lone Pine Latin 100 (8th) route this year, and it's been a great fit for my son. It was a bit rough getting used to the workload early on, but he persevered and did very well in the class and on the National Latin Exam. I really can't say enough good things about Lone Pine.

I think you'd be surprised about how many people have heard about ATI. On another busy forum I frequent, that has nothing to do with either homeschooling or religion, people are also talking about the Duggar trainwreck and ATI is a big part of the conversation. Some are hearing about it for the first time as a result of this story, but others clearly already knew about Gothard and about ATI.

Just wanted to thank you for offering that Intro class - my son took it recently, and enjoyed it. He's always been interested in programming, but wasn't certain if he'd enjoy it or be good at it. Your class gave him a chance to dip his toes in, and now he's interested in pursuing more programming. I know there are lots of self-directed resources out there, but this student does better with more structure and definite deadlines so an intro class was a great fit for him.

Following, as I've been thinking about this too. My DS is a rising 9th grader and a very slow reader. His comprehension and retention is very good, but it takes him a long time to read. Up until now, we still do a lot of his history readings as read-alouds or with audiobooks. He read Uncle Tom's Cabin independently this year, and I think it took him about three weeks.

I think you know your child best, and if she has strong study skills then Latin 100 may be fine for her. My ds did Latin 100 this year at Lone Pine, but he turned 14 halfway through the school year. LP has been a wonderful experience for him, and he'll be continuing on to 200 next year. However, the early part of the year was a real struggle. DS had never needed to study much before to do well (which is part of why I picked a rigorous program for him). He was frustrated and ready to quit just before the first quiz, but I worked with him on improving his study skills and Latin became a favorite class. I've been very impressed with Lone Pine, both with the instructor and with the rigor of the program. However, I know my ds would *not* have been ready for Latin 100 at age 12. I checked with C and he says that he usually spends an hour a day each weekday on Latin, split between homework and studying. I think it also helped that he already had a very solid grasp of English grammar/vocabulary before he began Latin 100; he had completed Magic Lens 1/ Word Within the Word 1 by then. The current plan is for C to stay at Lone Pine, and do AP Latin in 11th.

Reported

Nope. I hate my name, always have and always will. To make it worse, my mother spelled it differently than 90% of the other people that share it so I've always had to spell it out for people. My middle name is also horrid. I've told my children that if they hate their names, I won't be offended and will support a name change if desired.

But it has been accepted openly in other cultures. A few examples include the Lakota and Cheyenne tribes in North America, the fa'afafines in Samoa, and the hijra in India.