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tricia

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  • Biography
    homeschool mom on nine girls and three boys
  • Location
    wi
  • Interests
    my family and nature walks
  • Occupation
    homeschool mom
  1. Does anyone have any good ideas on some really good science curriculum or living books or even, heaven forbid, a boring text book with which my 17 can peruse in order to prepare for the ACT? We have already done all of the Master Books and we have apologia books as well. Still, the practice ACT tests are throwing her off. We would really appreciate any and all suggestions as she is getting frustrated in the area of science. Thanks, momto12
  2. Take it day by day. I have homeschooled/homeschooling all 12 of my kids. What i found most helpful was having a basic dry schedule each day to shoot for. It looks like this... wake chores breakfast (sometimes these two are switched around) lessons which look like this... devotionals, latin, french, literature, math, and daily subject which may be geography, nature study, or history. Or all if it's a good day. In between hitting the above schooling I am back and forth with "stuff" that goes with lots of kids. Mostly trying to pool dinner together one piece at a time while assigning a child a task or two in the kitchen with me. Basically, if I can pull a meal together then I can usually say my day went well. We try each day, I do try really hard to make it a priority to have 'tea time' while I read aloud. Even if the laundry, dinner, etc have to wait I really try to make that happen. But it does help that out of my 12 kiddos nine were girls so getting household chores done wasn't too much of a fight as they seemed not to mind it too much. Our laundry room has double washer/dryer sets and right now my 16 year old twins have charge of that room. Which by the way the laundry room is also home to everyones clothes. It is KEY to ensure that everyone old enough has some daily job to do. Otherwise things can go south in a hurry. So as older kids grow out of a job it eventually gets passed down to the next. Meal planning at the very least should be thought of the night before if possible. During my preggo nursing years I would have older children cook up lots of hamburger and chicken and freeze for future meals and that was huge. We also have a daughter assigned to be our bread maker/baker for meals each day. Another job that needs filling if you don't buy the store bought stuff such as bread, waffles, etc. Most of this information is on my blog as to some helps in running a large family. Planning is key and making sure the home gets a good decluttering at least twice a year. Hope this helps!
  3. Oh I love yoga. I'm not skinny either. I do all the yogas. Power, hatha, vinyassa flow. In the beginning, about 3 years ago I began yoga doing Jillian Michaels. Her yoga meltdown. At the time, yes, I hated it. For all the reasons you mentioned. So I would only do it like twice that whole year. Then, about 2 and a half years ago I gave it another go and now I do it everyday. I workout everyday, either doing a Jilllian workout or such. But always end with a hatha yoga stretch. I go through phases where all I do is yoga for my workout. Right now I am on another yoga binge. I've decided that I'll stick with it now and not do the other workouts much anymore. I feel like since I am kind of heavy, (like 20 lbs overweight) I am going to stick with it. I really need to take a more gentler approach for my body. The other workouts are getting to me and making me feel older than I am. Sore all the time. My suggestions would be to give it another go. Element yoga has some great videos. I have found in my 3 year experience with yoga that it something that has to grow on you. Suddenly one day you will wake up and think, "wow, I love doing this." Really! It has truly changed so much about me. Inside and out. And an aside. My husband loves the changes too. lol Good luck with your choice. I hope you can find joy in it.
  4. I guess I'll chime in. I've been homeschooling my 12 kids from the get go. My last 10 did NOT use textbooks compared to the first 2. I am still schooling my youngest kids. All of my grads have gone to college and done very well. My main curriculum in a nutshell for all my kids basically looks like this: Reading Writing Arithmetic Write an essay a day once they were in high school They did latin and french but the majority of their education cam from reading whole, living books. We used a combination of TJ Education, Ambleside Online, and Old Fashioned Education .com and memoria press latin Hope this helps,
  5. Hello everyone. I have begun this week to homeschool my 12 year old niece. It's been great so far (haha, only two days) and my girls are loving having their cousin. Actually, she is my older sister's granddaughter which would make her my grand niece but no matter. I am still schooling my 6 youngest children of 12 and my five youngest are all girls so that's why it works. Ages are 16, 16, 13, 12, 11, and 8. Here's the thing. I've homeschooled everyone of my kids through high school so I do have experience except for this. Deschooling. I've never had to do that. All my kids are doing Sonlight so I'm introducing her to it now. Do you all agree that that's a good idea? My concern is that she's never been a reader. But I'm guessing it's mainly because she probably hasn't been exposed to many great books. But she is still young and that's a good thing. So anyone ever had experience with children coming from public to homeschool? After kind of accessing her for a few days I have placed her with Introduction to American History in Sonlight, which by the way as you all know is for quite young children but what I am seeing is even with that she is struggling with comprehension and with some of the reading. Kind of sad! But moving forward. In math I am having her do saxon 54 beginning on chapter 6 as she tested out of the first five. Grammar is basically the Spectrum grade 6 and science is Evan Moore but for only grade 3 which she finds as a bit challenging. So I ask about deschooling because I'm not sure how MUCH to add to her day. I hesitate right now with spelling and a lot of writing. Ideas????? Thanks everyone!
  6. I have the main book for the curriculum about the animals but not sure if I want to get the readers to go along. Anyone use their science and love it?
  7. I love homemade frosting. Store bought works in a pinch but butter frosting made from scratch is 100%.
  8. Thanks everyone for your replies. I do do a lot of yoga actually. I wear a polar HRM but I am wanting something for 24 hours. Today I did Jillian Michaels meltdown and burned 230 calories. I wonder if I could wear both and just the HRM during my workouts.
  9. If anyone has ever used these which would you prefer? And if you have, did you have success with them? Thanks, Tricia
  10. Thanks everyone! Your replies are a big help! I normally use only the dough cycle too but would love to be able to just leave it to the end but my family really do not like the crust!
  11. I'm looking to get a new bread machine. All the ones I've had experience with though always turns out with a not so great crust. You know, kind of tough and icky! Anyone know of a machine that can turn out a better crust? Thanks
  12. Of all 12 of my kids I went past my due date. Fortunately I had awesome midwives with nearly all of them. With my 10th child I had a midwife in hospital and obviously working under doctors who normally pulled the strings. As usual I went over. About my 3rd day over I started getting phone calls from my midwife. Finally at a week over she informed me she was talking to me under direct orders of the doc. Too bad was still my response. I didn't go through it. I've birthed at home as well and by the time baby 10 came along I wasn't easily intimidated. And that is usually what it is. I refused and she was born healthy. I'm not suggesting you ignore the advice but I really feel that if your baby and you are handling the pregnancy well then I don't see why you should do their bidding. Obviously, if things are not going well and baby is stressed then I'm sure you would proceed with what was best. Best of wishes for you and baby.
  13. I've read a few books on unschooling over the last 25 years of homeschooling. I say 25 because I have 12 kids and I am still schooling 6 of them. While we are quite relaxed I wouldn't go so far as say we unschool. Which, to some degree I see nothing wrong with it. It just doesn't fit well with our family. But my in laws are different. My husband is the oldest of 11 kids and they pretty much had nada for rules. Nearly all the time they did and ate whatever they wanted. Or didn't do whatever they didn't want to do. That said, and fast forwarding to now when they are all grown up I will say this: Oldest-my husband-mechanical electrician and father of 12 Son-Works high in public affairs in his business-7 great kids daughter-married a doctor-5 great kids son-computer technician with 4 awesome kids son-dentist who owns his practice-6 awesome kids son-dentist and great father of 2 son-grocery store manager father of 3 daughter-married a dentist who also owns his own practice-almost 7 kids daughter-married a lawyer mother of 5 son-doctor and father of 1 son-doctor and father of 2 I say this only because at some point these kids knew how and when to be responsible folks and raise great kids despite what the world would say regarding their "free" upbringing. Personally I think that even in the absence of academics, rules, and all that somewhere family relationships just seem to win out in the end! Just some thoughts!
  14. I'm in the same boat as you are. Of our 12 kids we are still taking care of 8. The oldest at home is my daughter who is 26 and the youngest at home is 7. I did fine when my oldest daughter and son married several years ago but last year when our 21 and 23 year old daughters got married I struggled really, really bad. Still do in fact. I loved having them home and I miss them terribly. I really don't know what I'll do once I get down to the last few. :glare: I guess I'll just drive around the country and stay a few weeks with each of them. I'm assuming they all won't always be in the same state considering my four married kids are in three different states. It really is a sad day. :grouphug:
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