I used goat's milk, a little watered down, for most of my toddlers. One of my kid's couldn't even digest that, so I used Emfamil's Sensitive formula. It's milk free and easier on the tummy.

I've been looking in to Joanne Calderwood's self-teaching method to get my children working more independently, so that we have more time for read alouds, etc... Her children all seem to have done well academically, but some of the curriculum she uses is less rigorous than curriculum most classical educators choose. Does anyone teach classically using her ideas? I'd love to get ideas. Thanks! Brandie

I know Doug Wilson personally. He was my pastor for over 10 years. He is a kind and gracious individual; and apparently a very misunderstood one. Wilson is very much against the slavery that took place in the U.S. He simply disagrees with the method we used to get rid of it. He would have preferred that we followed in England's footsteps. The civil war took a lot of power away from individual states and gave it to the Federal Government. This is what he disagrees with. In England the church was able to get rid of slavery in a peaceful fashion. He is simply a presbyterian politically. He is not a racist. He does believe the Bible allows for certain types of slavery. In the Bible, if you as a country attack another country and lose, the other country was allowed to make you into a slave nation. The reason for this is simple, you think twice about attacking another nation. It helped to keep peace. Of course, nobody in Africa ever attacked the U.S., therefore we were not allowed to have them as slaves. Wilson does believe that men are the head of their home. He also believes that men should lay down their life for their wife just as Christ lay his life down for His wife the Church. He does not look down on women in any way. He simply believes we preach the gospels in our every day life, even in our marriage. Honestly, I have never been in a church where the ladies where honored as much as they are in Wilson's church. When Christopher Hitchens (athiest ), had dinner with the Wilsons, that was the one thing he couldn't get over - how well the ladies were treated. Wilson is not against homeschooling. His assistant pastor is a homeschooler. Many of his elders are homeschoolers. For quite awhile his daughter homeschooled her children, as did his brother. I can see where this misunderstanding comes from, though. Wilson has a beef with people who say that homeschooling is the *only* Godly way to teach one's children. He then goes on and on defending christian schools. He doesn't really state his position clearly and if I only read his book I'd think he was against homeschooling too. What he is really against is individualism. We should be teaching our children within community. Co-ops would be included in that. One note. One wonderful aspect of classical education is that facts are important. We carefully gather all the facts from primary sources in context and then logically think them through before speaking. I'm not really seeing that on this thread. Thanks for reading, Brandie

Doug Wilson was my pastor for 10 years. He is a very thoughtful, kind man. I have watched so many broken marriages and family relationships healed through his counceling. He does have a lot of controversy surrounding him, but I've never found any of it to be true. He is not "pro-slavery" in the way we had slavery in the U.S. In fact he is very much against it - and has said so many times. He simply believes we should have followed England's example in getting rid of it. Sadly, people have translated this as "pro-slavery". I personally love his books. He has a very high regard for God and for the story God is playing out in this world. His love and excitement for what God is doing is contagious. If you have any specific questions I'd be happy to answer. Or you can ask him yourself at http://www.canonwired.com/ His blog is http://www.dougwils.com/ Don't mean to sound like a fan club. I just hate it when Christians gossip about other Christians without having the facts. Pastor Wilson has had a lot of that. Brandie

I was engaged at 18 and married the month I turned 20. We'll be celebrating our 15th anniversary this June. : ) I think success in marriage has a lot more to do with maturity level than chronological age.