Yesterday was a busy day. Having two kids taking college classes means twice as many people want me to look over their papers. ;) Still, Christian's Comp teacher is fantastic - I love the way she is teaching writing (shock) and he is tolerating the class pretty decently, lol. Morning: Barton x 3 Introduce Rebecca to SAXON Preschool songs with littles Morning Basket-ish Afternoon: Pick up Christian from class Biology exam for me Clean up house Later: Cleaning job @ 6:00 until ? And any spare time needs to be spent cleaning and organizing the basement because, thanks to some wonderful folks, my DH, and my FIL, we will have huge, beautiful, glorious WINDOWS in the basement by the weekend!!!!!!! God is so good and I'm so stinking happy about this!

I am SO sympathetic. I worked up my courage three weeks ago and did the seasonal "switch" (summer to fall) all in one day. If I don't do it in one day then we spend weeks with open clothing tubs strewn everywhere! I was proud.... Until the next two weeks were 90ish degrees. Sigh. Clothing is the bane of my existence. And we won't even discuss socks.

I know exactly what you're talking about and I love it. It's absolutely beautiful. I really like the more faded/white tinged looking wood tiles. My only caveat is that if you live somewhere cold, having heated tile would be a HUGE selling point for me as a buyer... However, that might be cost prohibitive for your return on investment.

So, I *THINK* I found the less expensive version (Houghton Mifflin with Dana Mosely) the other day for Intermediate Algebra. I also found this for an intro/intermediate combo: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Houghton-Mifflin-Mathematics-Instructional-DVD-Series-Intermediate-Algebra-/131594605549?hash=item1ea3a653ed These ARE what I'm looking for aren't they? They are hosted by Dana Mosely. What I'm wondering now is: Has anyone used a pre-algebra version? Thoughts? What did you think of the program overall?

After I send a dozen kids there they really should pay me some kind of wage for marketing.... Or send six, get one free? ;)

Well, I don't know if it counts but this was the 30ish question answer type. ;) I honestly believe there are universities out there that give strong preferential treatment and the U of I is one of them and part of it is because of a unique point system for merit aid that will be going away.... It's class rank. You get a certain amount of points for your rank and they allow homeschoolers to be one of one, or so I was told, which gives us a unique bump in financial aid. This system is going away, sadly. ;) Now, that said, specifics - for IN STATE tuition we were expected to pay $5k, Ana work for $2,500, and get almost $6k in loans. How did it play out? Full ride. There are simply those colleges (not a dozen, but a few on the edge) that are on your border that you will need to pay the $30 application fee and see what comes back for financial aid offers and then call the financial aid office and see how flexible that offer is. I wish NPCs were accurate, but widely, they don't seem to be, perhaps I'm the special peach.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/03/top-twenty-five-schools-international-relations/ https://slavic.osu.edu/undergraduate-russian-major There are

I'm glad she said no. I'm glad you gave her permission. I'm sorry that you're sad. I understand. (((((((Hugs))))) It was absolutely the best decision and it's still okay that it's hard and bittersweet. Next year, right?!

I want to point out here that NPC are not always accurate. For fun, I went ahead and filled out the NPC for the university she currently attends. Our income is too high according to the calculator (even with 13 in the household - I can't believe they are serious) and so they show that we would be paying almost the entire amount of tuition and for the rest of the cost Ana could work and get loans. How'd that play out in real life? Scholarships - full tuition met and paid. So while we may be in a unique situation (?) I have no idea into the insight of the FA office, at the end of the day the calculator is completely off of real life. Is she merit aid worthy and competitive?

Grinnell is a fantastic college, but do know it is more "rural" than the U of Iowa. And most certainly snow - though I will tell you it depends what she hates about winter... Is it the cold or the driving? Driving in the midwest is easy - we have salt and snowplows. :P :D

I just invited over my cousin. Oh, and her ex who deserted her and the kids ten years ago. Why can't I ever remember her new husband name? Ugh. Seriously. I think that counts for both feet down my throat.

University of Iowa is out.... ;) But, you know, we have coffee shops, Iowa City is voted a best place to live, and we have Russian. ;) Have you checked out Oregon? They have a large Russian population and it would give her the opportunity to work with native speakers, although PNW Russian has varied from "real" Russian from what I was told from a family whose parents migrated from Russia.

Oooh! Me! I'll do something today! :party: Just not sure what............ Hm. 1. Barton x 3 2. WWS with DD 3. Laundry on the line 4. Pick up DS from class. 5. Sort Latin flashcards 6. Balance checkbook. Ew. 7. Plan dinner of some sort..........

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORAY! CONGRATULATIONS! :grouphug: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: (Oh, and we started telling folks who refused to fake joy by email. We figured they didn't deserve to be told in real life. After a couple times like that they got the picture. The last baby was much more fun to tell folks as they are beginning to get how to behave. It took a lot of practice, just keep having babies, lol.)

Those are the two I listen to on a regular basis - by Quiddity then I assume you are listening to the rest of Circe?

I can't advise you on the piano. If it is was in my budget every kiddo I had would be in piano until teens. ;) BUT, I can tell you perfectionism is not necessarily bad. Perfectionism is the result of a kid who puts high demands on himself, falls short, and is frustrated with himself. However, if I were to change this around it would be this: I have a kid who aims high, strives hard, often falls short of his personal goals, and gets frustrated with himself. That doesn't sound nearly as bad as "perfectionism," instead it actually sounds like a kid with great character, doesn't it? I'd plan to have a pep talk before things: "You work so hard and I really admire it. But you know, you always want to hit it out of the ballpark at your first at bat. It doesn't work like that. Today you're going to do (insert Lesson 42 of Saxon, a piano piece, whatever) and you're going to make mistakes and feel frustrated, and I want you to tell yourself that it's okay and you'll keep working until you get it." And then I'd let him soak in his tears and not address it. And I'd give that same talk each day. (Probably until he's 20.) My oldest two have perfectionistic tendencies. Frankly they are awesome, awesome kids. Life is easier for my third who is a bit more laid back and chill, that's true. But I admire ALL of their characteristics - her ability to push herself even though that's not her personality and their ability to force themselves back from the edge of utter frustration when they can't do something just right. And that ability to step back from the edge did NOT come when they were eight..... It was repeated try, fail, and try again, then the slow path to success. But their work ethic was trained through this and honestly, their character is better for it!

Oh. My. Goodness! LOL.

"But if you mean 'classical' in a broader sense, as a concept or description of principles, then CM seems to fit." I would agree with this. The problem comes when we say, "Okay, TWTM is what we are using to DEFINE Classical therefore CM is not that." The truth is more like a Venn diagram. Think of classical as a big circle, and then two circles within it (or many) with slight overlaps in practices but all circles fit within the methodology. CM is a bit like Christianity. ;) You can't discern the real belief system is by looking at the followers - they put their own twist on things and often they get it wrong or they're just plain human and imperfect. Best to go to the sourcebook, then do the best you can pulling straight from the primary source. You know, SWB wrote on this long ago. She made a most excellent work of it, so enjoy! http://www.welltrainedmind.com/charlotte-mason-education/

Thank you! I was able to find a cool Dover coloring book too! :)

Maybe I'll hold off for a bit.... I picked 5th grade because that's her reading / understanding level. She's actually only eight. ;) Thank you though for the warning AND the suggestion!!

YES! I admit I didn't do #2. However, I have a certain young man who is bright and capable and I like him very much. We took him in for testing for dyslexia and the gal doing the testing said during the consult, "And, of course, he is severely dysgraphic." Hmmmm? Then she proceeded to show me how hard he wrote in order to maintain control over his hand to form letters (at 14, btw.) I knew writing was incredibly hard for him, but when he put forth enough effort he could do it well enough, though he did say his hand hurt. (Mama hangs head.) Yes, typing. Yes, Writing with Skill. Oh my goodness - it was the first writing program he TRULY enjoyed. Plus, because it's written AT the student, he didn't feel like he was being "remediated." He was older than the recommended level but enjoyed the excerpts. He tested high on his COMPASS exam this year for community college and is taking Comp I (age 16) and while I can tell you that I doubt he'll ever LOVE writing, if this kid can be fairly successful in functional writing then I should think almost any child can!

If you are naming them any of the three with uniqueness in mind you are going to be disappointed. All three are on an upswing - and a big one at that. Our littlest one is Catherine Margaret (with Margaret being after my grandmother) but I cannot tell you how many times I've heard of it being used lately. Beatrice is also very much up and coming while Alice has been up and coming for a bit. I love Beatrice but I love Trixie not so much but probably because I know of a puppy with that name and you know how it is with word association. Beatrice and Margaret are my two favorites and I voted for Margaret because I'm biased! ;)

Everything aside (as my best friend has had six c-sections so far and she scares the jeepers out of me everytime but the OB says her uterus looks beautiful) just basing this on age - if 38 is too old you'd be broken, the factory wouldn't work, and the eggs would be useless. ;) Just my .02, speaking as a 38 year old woman not on birth control. ;)

It's going to be nuts.... and chaotic and crazy and hectic. And you're going to be so glad and love them like the dickens. It will be JUST FINE! Plan on doing read aloud stuff and a lot of it. That is SO good for kids. It helps their writing later on. You'll be so glad to give them this foundation.

It's really odd to me that adult children might not be motivated to work if they are taking on expenses. Wouldn't that be a character flaw? We really would view it as such.... the unwillingness to take responsibility for one's expenses and to work to do so. I'd find it alarming if this wthat their attitude of entitlement. I don't mean to offend Antoine and I'm wondering if a lot of parents really are seeseeing this attitude attitudin your youth? We're just trying to figure out what a reasonable introduction is into balancing earnings, expenses, a budget, and getting them practice at this budgeting and balance between free will spending is. For example, they had to purchase a car in their bbudget. They both worked all summer to do so. They choose to pay cash and not have a car payment. But we had to talk about how it would be necessary to start putting aside money for fix and replace costs out of earnings. They are paying part of their insurance because we want them to feel how their good grades and driving impacts their insurance. So I guess I'm wondering what else people have their kids pay our not pay and how it adds to intentionally raising thoughtful adults who plan and intentionally act rather than spend time, money, etc. I think I didn't think through the original post clearly enough. :D