I used to attend a church who had some adherents to ATI/Pearls. I fell mildly into the thinking for several years. I never attended a conference nor read the big red book. I did however take Growing Kids God's Way seriously and I read some Pearl books. I came out of that thinking when I noticed that wives seemed to admire other women's husbands who were leaders in these movements more than their own husbands. Ironically, it was reading Debbie Pearl's book and gaining a greater level of respect and admiration for my own husband that helped me out of that thinking and ultimately out of that whole crowd. My husband never bought into the ATI thing nor the Pearls but we both got into GKGW. Some ideas on positively influencing the situation drawing off of what I remember it felt like to be in that thinking: One on one time with your sister in law & becoming her sincere bosom friend (it's a lonely existence - relationships within ATI/Pearl are competitive and comparitave - the desire for real relationship is huge - the loneliness immense). When you spend time together be nonjudgmental in general toward her and just in general. She might be attracted to you and your ideas/influence if she sees a truly nonjudgmental person in contrast to the judgmental influences in her group. (For me a few nonjudgmental people helped me to open my eyes. It was so refreshing to me.) Use questions rather than statements and sincere questions: "Have you ever wondered if any of your kids would fall away?"..."How would you handle that?" This would give you a peek into how deep/committed they are - are they willing to forsake all reason and stick to Gothard or do they have maneuverability? This also might help her to start questioning in her inner dialogue. Show some interest in their ways. There is a tendency to take on disciples in those circles and you can use this as an opportunity to encourage questioning and critical thinking to kick in. (I believe the deeper you are in these things the more automatic thinking and less critical thinking takes place.) You could read a book of theirs - take your time - pose thought provoking questions as you read..."If God is love how can this suggestion in this book be godly?" Point out things in the book you agree with. Ask questions about flawed logic. If it seems natural you could tell a story about something you read on No Longer Quivering. But it could push her away - you'll have to make sure she's ready to hear it. The things that influenced me out of that thinking were: reading stories from disgruntled quivering family members, noticing the way the wives admired other women's husbands, noticing the hype associated with seminars, conferences and programs but not noticing any real healthy benefit to them, thinking about lots of things Jesus said and how he acted toward people and noticing that they seemed off compared to Jesus represented in the Gospels, and reading this blog (can't remember the name) where the author talked about the Gnostic and Platonic thinking engrained in modern evangelical Christianity. Hope this or something else helps. Lord have mercy on us all.

I hope she's nice, :D

Hello, yes it's just me. I'm so boring.

((Hugs)) I just signed on to the General Board and saw this. I haven't been very active on here, so I don't know what happened. Nevertheless, have a blessed break, and say "hello" to us Orthodox folks when you have time. May Our Great Physician grant you restoration to health and vigor that you may give thanks back to Him.

Every situation is different - you have to do what seems/feels right for your particular parents and child. When in doubt err on the side of your child by simply leaving. We have a particular family member who we have frequent problems with and it can be so touchy to navigate. Unfortunately we can't /don't spend much time with this person because of it. We don't do unsupervised visits and we keep visits short. I like the idea someone gave about including activities with your visits to minimize temptation to tease/harass. Or if you can think of what would minimize temptation (think back on your childhood) choose that type of visit. I think you are on the right track with your game plan. Also, don't neglect your own need for healing. If you need space from your parents for yourself, take it, and don't feel guilty.

I like the look of the Derek Owens Physical Science and the Hewitt Conceptual Physics. Thanks.

I was thinking she could do the lab sciences in CC - she will prob do Running Start. Next two years - homeschool highschool - prepare for college level work - then Running Start.

Aerospace might be a step or two up from where DD wants to end up. She's thinking professional pilot or military pilot. I'm lining up consultation with the military liaison to get a better idea of what's expected. Also we are leaning towards Running Start which is an AA degree along with the HS degree upon graduation.

I did look into Derek Owens - but I am hesitant to justify $500-$700 for one high school subject. A fair price for what I'm looking for - DVD lectures - a textbook - and a lesson plan I would price out at $150-$250 (max.) I'm not willing to pay for more than that. I can come up with a text book for about $40 and I can find lectures online or buy a Great Course set of DVDs for about $30 and line them up myself. I would like to avoid this work and pay a little more, but I can't justify $60-$80 per month for 9 months for one course. I would also like more choices for coursework. I like the idea of meteorology for 9th grade and physics for 10th grade for a good foundation getting into aviation.

These are close to what I'm looking for. I'd really love to just buy a DVD with all the lectures on it and an accompanying Textbook from a good/solid publisher (not Apologia or DIVE or anything that is going to dogmatically insist on a young earth - modern evangelical Christian point of view, ideally with a lesson plan/teacher's manual. Is that so tough? Haha!

We are entering into high school next year - I'm a newbie at this high school thing, but we've been homeschooling from the start. My predicament is science. I have been searching online for a science curriculum - high school level - that includes lectures (preferably via video) and good solid text books. I Googled Prentice Hall Science Lectures, along with several other key word searches, and I couldn't find anything that includes what I'm looking for. Ideally, I'd like something similar to what is experienced in high school or college, but done at home. Lessons that would go something like this: read a chapter, listen to a lecture, write a summary - then write a paper at the end of the unit. Hands on things are OK, but we usually don't get to them. My daughter is interested in aviation, so meteorology, earth science, astronomy, and physics are the science courses we would like her to study to get ready for this field. I've seen the Great Courses, which I might take advantage of, but they are not tied to any textbook, so this would make lesson planning quite involved, which I'm not excited about. I'd like something with the lessons already laid out, writing assignments, lectures, all tied to a text book.

I finally lost all the baby weight after 4 kids. I have blood sugar issues (used to be hypoglycemic, but after 4 kids went to pre-diabetic) and a low thyroid (kept in check with medication.) Over a period of 2-3 years I went from eliminating all refined sugar, to eliminating all refined flour, potatoes and rice, now I'm down to no grains at all or starchy foods. This final step got the last 10 pounds off. If I was to do it all over again I would have gone hard core off everything that has sugar, starch, or grains and got it over with much more quickly. However, I didn't know until now that it was the grains/starches that was keeping my tummy pudgy and my digestion was messed up from it too (whoda thunk?) So, if I was to do it all over again I'd just go hard core GAPS Intro (take a month on this - or more) and then start adding in some natural sugars, like fruit and transition into the SCD lifestyle - avoiding sugars and starches 99% of the time. http://gapsdiet.com/INTRODUCTION_DIET.html http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

I think the GAPS lady (author) discusses dairy allergies and food allergies in general in her book and gives you alternate routes. Bone broth soups to start with probiotics taken with warm mineral water. Then start adding in foods in the order she has on her website (intro diet). If the patient is allergic to any of those, then skip that one (i.e. don't add it in) - move on to the next one. If the patient's digestion acts up due to anything added in, go back a step. This might mean bone broth soups, probiotics, and ginger tea for a long long time until the intestines are ready for other foods.

Sounds like an awesome plan which you could test out in the summer months.

I quickly lost the last of the weight I've been working to loose with the GAPS introduction diet. I have not had to exercise, and the weight is just falling off. The cravings to eat other foods rises up time and time again, but the weight loss is so worth it to keep it up. Days 1-3 or longer if you wish - homemade chicken soup & ginger tea & probiotics taken with warm water. Here's how you make the soup & the tea: You take a whole chicken and boil it in water for 2-3 hours, take the meat off, add it back to the broth, add carrots, celery and onion and you eat this soup for 3 days or longer (I did 3 days). Take ginger root, a piece off of it and coarsely chop it. Boil the ginger in water for 5-10 minutes. Add honey and drink. That is stage one and is excellent for eliminating sugar cravings and getting your stomach settled. The rest of the stages are mentioned here: http://gapsdiet.com/INTRODUCTION_DIET.html After a few weeks on this diet I transitioned to the SCD: http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/. It's important to start with the GAPS Introduction (just homemade chicken soup & ginger tea) because that really cleans out the sugar cravings and gets your stomach settled.

This was my first Lent as an Orthodox Christian and we are now through it and on the other end. Yesterday was Palm Sunday and today is the first day of Holy Week for us. Sunday will be Pascha! I'm just bursting with joy and love for Christ my God! We sang this song in church yesterday. It is the most beautiful chant I have ever heard. I felt like I was in heaven as this song washed over me and built up the anticipation of the celebration of our Risen Christ this Sunday. Eek! I'm busting! I just had to share.

I love scripted materials. They help me to get started with some new idea/concept, especially. I think of them as an instruction manual, like you would read if you were putting together a piece of furniture. If I have time, I'll read it through and then implement it to my particular child's abilities, so that we are not just reviewing, but pushing a little bit forward. If I don't have time to read ahead, I will just read it through and have my child listen, then we do it together. I use RightStart this way. If it's not a scripted material, I like to use materials where the teacher (DVD or CD-ROM) does the talking/lecturing and then we can discuss or do the materials after listening to the lecture. I don't feel comfortable being the one to lecture "from scratch" unless it's an area of my expertise. For example, I own a print shop. I could lecture from scratch all about printing, graphic design, office organization, bookkeeping, etc. etc. Other than that, I don't feel expert enough to give a lecture on math, science, history, English, foreign language, etc. I need the script or the lecturer to do that part for me, at least the first time through. Once I get comfortable, I've been known to drop the script and wing it. This homeschooling thing is not very natural for me though, at least the teaching part. It's very natural to me to plan and organize and manage the kids, etc. But with teaching lessons I really need all the help I can get. Ideally, I'd like to become an expert at each subject and teach them from my heart, but in reality I'm so far from that. In my case, the script helps.

Thank you! I am about halfway through all the videos. They are very helpful. When I tried WWTR it was around 2001 - no videos but I was fortunate to watch a trained teacher teach the phonograms. I learned a bunch from that, which is probably why I'm comfortable with the phonograms. When I tried SWR that was around 2004/5 and I bought a DVD and watched it over and over, but I never became comfortable with the program. It felt disjointed and like the lessons took soooo long on dictation day or when making a journal page. I didn't see any spelling improvement with my daughter and I got discouraged. Looking back I realize we needed to persevere. I probably would have become comfortable once the retention kicked in. Discouragement got the best of me. So, I'm trying again with my two middles and my youngest. I think LOE will work for us. Today I decided to buy Foundations for my youngest. The step by step just really makes sense to how my brain works.

So far I like the layout much better. One TM: Lesson 1, Lesson 2, etc. That is how my brain works. For a huge subject like English a clear TM is so nice. Maybe after I complete the lessons I'll have the tools myself to be more self sufficient.

Also, I sold my SWR last fall.

I decided to buy section A of LOE to try it out. We will see what happens. Maybe the layout of the LOE book will help me.

I sold it a while ago. :/ I am noticing that I succeed with the programs that are scripted or geared toward the student for self teaching because I or we can actually "do" them. Once I can do something for a while and it becomes smooth, I don't need the script anymore, but that script is vital for me at first. I am not there yet where I can read a philosophy and translate that to actual lessons where I know what to say and what to do. I have so many philosophies floating around in my brain that they get all kerbobbled. I can get confused mid lesson thinking (day-dreaming) about a particular philosophy that is usually not the one I'm trying to teach. I find that script so helpful. By the time my students are graduated I'll probably have this homeschooling thing down.

Even though I had heard of it before, that was my response too!

My all time favorite curriculum is Teaching the Classics. This is a K-12 program, so you can start with Kindergarten. I would get the DVD course and watch it this summer or a few weeks before starting to let it sink in. I have also appreciated the helps from the Reading Roadmaps PDF download. I love this program and can't recommend it highly enough!

I'm considering Logic of English after unsuccessful attempts to complete SWR or WWTR. I did successfully understand and teach the phonograms to my 3 oldest children, but we didn't get much further than that. I did some spelling dictation with my oldest daughter, but she and I both found it frustrating that there were so many steps and fingers and markings, etc. etc. All that is fine, but I was never sure that I was doing it right and we didn't get far enough to see those steps become natural to either one of us. So, now that my youngest is ready to learn the phonograms and my 2 middle children didn't get much spelling instruction, but just the phonograms, I want to try again and I'm thinking Logic of English will be more successful. I'm intrigued by the scriptedness of it. Otherwise, I don't feel confident in the material to use the WISE Guide or the WWTR manual. Thoughts? Also, I'm wondering since I still have the SWR phonogram flash cards, do I really need to buy the $18.00 (yikes - expensive) set of Logic of English cards? I was going to buy the e-book, PDF A and the student workbook PDF A, which amounts to only $25.00 to try it out. Thoughts on that? I own a print shop, so I don't mind the printing cost; it's cheap for us. But, I'm hesitant to buy the whole book for $75.00 (yikes!) if I am not going to understand how to implement it. I'm a very hands on type person, so I need to "do it" rather than just read about it to know if I can learn it and succeed at it. Thoughts again? Thanks to anyone who can help, offer advice, encouragement, support, etc. :D